Kyle’s Bargain (11 page)

“By the way, this is just fun, not punishment, so feel free
to stop me if it’s not fun,” he told her.

She nodded but didn’t say anything, which he took as
encouragement. He smacked her bottom again, a little harder this time. The
white imprint of his hand filled rapidly with a darker color. He hoped it would
stay there for a while. The thought of her wearing a mark he’d put on her, a
sign of his possession, his care for her—his need for her—brought him an almost
shocking satisfaction. After a few more spanks she began to moan and wriggle. A
sheen of moisture glittered in the area between her legs.

Her reaction roused his own desire. Heat gathered in his
groin and his cock swelled. Need thundered through his veins and pounded in his
gut.

After giving her a few more swats, he stopped to rub the
rough, hot skin and let his fingers slide down lower, seeking the tops of her
thighs. A few brushes of his hand over that sweet, soft flesh had her panting
and parting her legs to give him access to where she wanted more touches.

A low groan signaled her pleasure when he moved up into the
cleft and stroked a finger over her pussy. She sobbed and moaned as he
continued to caress her there, going gradually deeper. The awkward position
made his arm ache so he rolled to the side, dragging her with him until they
lay together facing each other on the bed. The way she reacted to him and the
things he did made him feel like a bigger man, a more complete one.

He kissed her long and hard, as though he could hold on to
her forever, permanently branding his ownership on her that way. Shifting a
bit, he nipped at her lips then kissed his way down her throat and across her
chest to her breasts. Her gasps and panting breaths urged him on when he drew a
nipple into his mouth and sucked on it. She squirmed as he attended to each in
turn.

His swollen cock threatened to explode if he didn’t get
inside her right then. Meg seemed ready enough, eager in fact, when he nudged
her legs apart and got between them. Sinking into her hot, sweet depths felt
like coming home, a promise and a pleasure beyond anything he’d ever
experienced.

Moments later everything else got drowned out in the driving
need that had him ramming into her, hard and deep, and then pulling out all the
way. He couldn’t hold back for long. Instinct, need, desire, devotion—all came
together in a drive to go deeper and faster and take them both to the finish
line. Meg’s hot depths clenched around him in spasms that drew deep groans from
her, testimony to how close she was to the edge.

The heat and pressure rose, turned him into a molten mass of
need that hovered at the edge of explosion. He pulled back one last time and
his seed released as he drove down into her again, deep, deep, so deep he all
but drowned in her depths.

Meg went over at the same time he did and her spasms mingled
with his to heighten the sheer, raw pleasure of it. Her fiery response expanded
and enlarged him. It made him feel like a hero in his ability to evoke so much
passion from her.

When the spasms had begun to wane and his brain could again
process the idea of “move” and “uncomfortable”, he withdrew and rolled onto his
side then dragged her against him and wrapped his arms around her.

Her head rested against his chest, the top tucked under his
chin. He couldn’t see her face that way and maybe that was a good thing. It
took a few minutes to come down from the “king of the world” feeling of having
driven them both to mind-shattering orgasm. Once it did, though, they had to talk.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to see her expression when he made his confessions.

The peace after an orgasm was the most perfect rapture Meg
had ever experienced. Heaven could hardly be better than this, her body sated
and tucked against Kyle’s warmth and strength, her spirit at rest for the
moment in his company.

Until she felt tension creeping back into him, a stiffening
that surprised and concerned her. Mercifully he didn’t give her long to worry.

“There are some things we need to talk about. Or mostly,
that I need to tell you,” he said.

When she shifted to look up at him, he tightened his arm
around her shoulders. “No, please stay. It’s easier for me this way.”

“So I’m not going to like this.” Her words seemed to echo
against his chest and thunder in the beating of his heart beneath her ear.

“I don’t know. Maybe not. Might change how you see me. Might
totally disgust you. God, I don’t know.”

“You’re calling off our deal?”

“No. No way. Not unless you want to after you hear…” He
moved his shoulders in a sort-of shrug.

“So go ahead with it,” she urged. “You’ve told me you’re not
a murderer and you haven’t tortured anyone or stolen anything. I’m having a
hard time imagining what could be so bad.”

“Not bad in that way.” He drew a deep breath that made her
head rise with the expansion of his chest and let it out on a long exhale. “I’m
not sure where to start. There are things you need to know if we’re going to
continue.”

“Continue what? Our agreement? Or something else?” When he
hesitated, she added, “Never mind. We’ll deal with that later.”

After a pause almost long enough to be uncomfortable, he
said, “You know I was married and that Rita, my wife, died.” He either felt or
saw her brief nod. “What you may not know is that I met her at a club. A BDSM
club.”

It took her a moment to absorb why he seemed to think that
might be shocking. “A club for BDSM? What do you do in one of those?”

“You’ve never been to one?”

“I told you I don’t get out much. I don’t know that I’d go
to one even if I did. I’m not sure, but it sounds like one of those places
where people run around with whips and leashes and stuff.”

“And stuff.” He chuckled but there was a deep irony in the
sound. “Actually some of that does go on. But it’s a bit more sophisticated
than that. And you’re always free to ignore what doesn’t interest you and
concentrate on what does.”

“That’s what you do? But what interests you?”

“You should already know. Your bottom has felt it a couple
of times tonight.”

“Oh.” Her face grew warm. Yeah, she should’ve figured that
out. Then another thought hit. “You’ve done this with other women?”

“I’ve been married. And even before that, yes. And I’ve
played some since, though really only with one person. And that’s another thing
I have to tell you about.”

“There’s someone else.”

“In a sense, yes.” He must have felt her stiffen because he
quickly said, “It’s not what you think. This may shock you, but…the only other
woman I’ve been with since Rita is my best friend’s fiancée.”

A flash of jealousy shot through Meg, unexpected and
unwelcome. “He stole her away from you?”

“No.” Kyle drew a breath and let it out. “He shares her with
me. Or rather they both allow me to be part of their relationship sometimes.”

Shock did hit her this time and held her rigid for a moment.
Of all the things she might have imagined, that would have been way down on the
list. She pulled back a little until she could see his face. “You do…a
threesome?”

His features pulled into a frown that combined doubt and
worry. “Sometimes.” He did that horizontal shrug thing again. “It’s
complicated. Rita kind of…messed me up. Rick knew about that. By sheer accident
I ran into them at the club the night he and Lindy first connected. It was also
my first time there since Rita. Rick was nervous about Mastering Lindy and she
was nervous about what might happen. I think they both felt better having a
third party there…as kind of a check. And Rick knew how hard it would be for me
to move back into the social whirl at the club after Rita. In truth, I wasn’t
even sure I wanted to be there, but part of me knew it was time to start
getting out again even if I wasn’t ready for another relationship. So it helped
all three of us and we found we were compatible. I like Lindy a lot and she
likes me, but she loves Rick and he returns it. I’ve counted myself very
fortunate they’ve been willing to include me in their lives and their play
sometimes.”

Meg considered that, trying to sort out how she felt about
it. She should be grateful they’d helped Kyle past some kind of trauma, but she
still had twinges of jealousy. “What happened with your wife? How did she ‘mess
you up’?”

He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he
focused his gaze on the ceiling, though he didn’t look at anything particular.
“I told you we met at a BDSM club. I went there to play every now and again and
indulge my kinky sexual Mastery side. She’d come for the same thing, only she
was a sub. She was beautiful and I was immediately attracted. Plus we fit
sexually.” He paused and sighed. “I thought that was enough.”

“It wasn’t.”

“I was blind at first and couldn’t figure out why my family
didn’t like her and several of my friends were strongly against my marrying
her. Even Rick didn’t care for her. That should have been all the warning I
needed, but I was young and…infatuated.” His chest lifted as he heaved in a
breath. “I guess maybe I did have some doubts too because I hedged for a while
when she started making suggestions about marriage.”

A long pause followed. “You know, in a BDSM relationship,
the sub has just as much control as the Master, at least if they follow the
‘safe, sane and consensual’ mantra. A sub can stop any scene at any time if she
doesn’t like what’s going on. I say ‘she’ but there are plenty of men who are
submissives as well. Real submission can only be given voluntarily. We play
that the Master is in complete control, and it’s true to a degree, but a good
Master understands what the sub needs and tries to give it to them. To make it
good for everyone, both Master and sub have to work at it, make concessions and
compromise. Kind of like a good marriage. I was naïve when I got involved with
Rita. I thought I was getting a woman who was strong and independent but
willing to partner with me in surrendering herself. She managed to convince me
that’s what she was. It took a long time for me to see what others saw—a
manipulative, probably codependent person who played at submission but used it
mostly to get her own way. She was good at getting what she wanted and she
wanted me.”

His fingers laced into her hair and smoothed along some of
the strands as though that could calm his agitation. “I can’t believe how blind
and stupid I was. Everyone else but me could see what she was and what she was
doing.” He shook his head.

“They weren’t in love with her.”

“I was in lust with her. Maybe even just had a teenage crush
on her, though I was in my twenties. I think she could tell when I was starting
to get disenchanted, though, and she played her trump card. She got pregnant.
Or said she was. I have no idea if it was true.”

“What happened?”

“She said she had a miscarriage two weeks after we got
married.”

“You don’t believe it.”

“Looking back now…no. At the time I did. It took a couple
more years of marriage with her to really open my eyes to how weak and selfish
and manipulative she was. Whatever she wanted, she wanted now, and it didn’t
matter whether it was feasible or not. This house was an extravagance we
couldn’t afford at the time we bought it. The clothes and jewelry… Anyway, I
was getting ready to tell her I wanted out when she got sick. At first I
thought it was just another manipulation, but then I went with her to her
doctor. She had ovarian cancer, already in a fairly late stage. They tried
several things to treat it, most of them unpleasant. She went into remission
once, but it only lasted about three months. When it came back, she went
quickly.”

“That was a rough time for you.”

He drew a slow, deep breath. “Yeah. Oddly enough our
relationship improved in those last months. She stopped playing games and we
connected more. She was stronger in some ways than I’d ever seen her before and
I admired her for it. No, it wasn’t easy. But it helped that I was there for
her all the way to the end and we had some good times. It left me some good
memories of her and our time together.”

“But wary of relationships.”

He jerked his head in a brief nod. “I want to marry again
someday. I want to have a family. But…”

“What?”

“I still want to have that special kind of relationship
also. Not the plain vanilla marriage most people have. In some ways the
frustration with Rita just made me more aware of how much I want it.”

“What kind do you want?”

“I want to be the Master in the relationship,” he admitted.
“And I want it to mean something. Not just in play but in real life.”

Meg had to think about what that might mean, especially for
her. “You want a full-time slave? Someone who leaps to obey your every command,
to serve you night and day?”

“No. But I want someone who will respect me as her Master.
Will respect my authority. Will agree to be disciplined by me.”

She started laughing softly. “Like we’re doing right now?”
she asked.

“Pretty much. But this is on a small, limited scale. For a
short time. Could you live with it all the time, forever?”

He had her there. “I don’t know. I don’t think I could do it
all the time, every day. Maybe if it were limited to certain circumstances.
I’ve been running my own life for quite a while now. And I’ve had the
responsibility for my sister for a while too, so I’m pretty much used to being in
control. I admit there’s a certain appeal to giving up all responsibility and
relying totally on someone else. But I don’t think I could do it completely.
Maybe for some things, though. Would that be enough for you?”

“I don’t know. I think it might. Compromise, right?
Honestly, Rita played at it when it suited her and led me around by the balls
most of the time, according to my father.” He sighed and went silent for a few
moments.

She indulged a few minutes of anger toward his father before
she let it go and thought about it. “He knows about me? About us? And that I
convinced you to change the plans?”

“He knows.”

“And he thinks I’m leading you around by the balls.”

“It came up.”

“Damn, that pisses me off.”

He gave a harsh laugh. “Me too.”

“Is he financing the development?”

“No. But the main banker is one of his best friends.”

Meg sighed. “I see.”

“Yeah. Families can get so complicated. But that’s only part
of it. The other part is… We haven’t known each other long, but I already know
you’re someone special. That’s why you needed to know these things about me. To
understand all of who I am. I’d like you to meet Lindy and Rick, if you’re
willing.”

“I’d love to meet your friends. But I’m not sure how I feel
about you ‘playing’ with another woman while we’re…dating.”

“I’m not. I mean, I haven’t since I met you. And I won’t.
But I’d like to take you to the club too.”

He sounded a lot more hesitant on that last sentence. Meg
wasn’t sure of her answer, either. The whole idea of the club sounded a bit
strange and sort of sleazy. “I don’t know. I don’t mind doing the discipline
and Mastery thing with you. I think I need it and want it in some ways. But to
do things like that in public? I don’t know.”

“You don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with,”
he said. “And much of what happens in the club goes on in the private rooms.
That’s where Rick and Lindy and I play. She’s not into public displays either,
although some people do find it exciting. But we’ll go just to observe and look
around and maybe talk to some of my friends who go regularly. If you decide you
don’t ever want to go back, that’s fine too.”

“Is it? It sounds like this place is important to you.”

“The place isn’t important. Some of the people are, but I
can see them in other settings. I can compromise on this.”

Meg considered that for a moment before she asked, “What is
it that you won’t compromise on?”

He paused, maybe surprised by the question. “My integrity
first and foremost. And my work—the standards I demand from myself and others.”

She rubbed a hand over his chest, enjoying the warmth and
feel of his skin, the light rasp of hair on her palm. “Actually I meant more on
a personal level. Maybe even the sexual level.”

He chucked. “Oops. Wrong soap box. Sexual level, probably
not too much. Yes, I need it. Sex, that is. And, yes, I need some degree of
Mastery over my partner. Don’t know why, exactly. Seems to be built in. Beyond
that, being with the right woman is more important than the what and the where
and what she looks like. I’ve been down the other road.”

“You think the Mastery might be because you’re trying to
prove something to yourself? Or to your father?”

He sighed. “Pop psychology? Maybe you’re right. Who knows?
But it goes back a long way into my past.”

Meg sighed. Whatever lay at the heart of his need for
Mastery, it wasn’t likely to change. And she didn’t really want it to. That
part of him excited her, spoke to something deep inside herself that wanted
someone to take charge every now and again and to give her the erotic
punishments that enhanced the sex. The Mastery part of it concerned her,
though. Even though he was willing to compromise on it, he might still want
more than she could give.

He might have been reading her thoughts. “What is it
you
won’t compromise on?” he asked.

She thought about it a moment. “Like you, it’s doing what I
believe is right. Sexually, though, I’m not sure. I’m afraid I don’t have
enough experience yet to say.” She drew a deep breath. “But I think doing
anything in public is probably on the list.”