Michele Zurlo (10 page)

The murmurs grew. Hands went up all over the crowd. Sabrina wouldn’t mind trying it out, but she wasn’t too excited about the idea of doing it in front of a crowd. Seeing somebody else go through this first would be enough to satisfy her curiosity. Then if Jonas wanted to try it privately, they could discuss that possibility.

Deep red lipstick on Mistress Hera’s lips glistened in the firelight. Her gaze roamed the crowd and stopped on Jonas, who hadn’t raised his hand. She lifted a brow, and he stepped forward, pulling Sabrina along with him. Alarm bells went off inside her head. She recognized that she’d been set up. There would be no discussion. Jonas was in charge. Though they’d nixed the “obey” aspect from their marriage vows, she’d agreed to that condition for the duration of their vacation.

Calm followed the sudden panic, squelching the feeling before it had time to set up shop. As much as she didn’t want to do this for the first time in front of a crowd, she trusted Jonas to make the experience special. He always did.

Mistress Hera offered her hand to Jonas. “Master J. Thank you for volunteering. Can you tell me what kind of experience you have using a tripod?”

He gave her a weird look, as if he expected her to know the answer. Sabrina realized that this woman and Jonas were acquainted through some connection that had nothing to do with the island. She frowned at him, but he shook his head, so she didn’t voice her question.

“It’s been a few years. I remember the basics. You go ahead and talk us through them, and I’ll demonstrate using my sub.” Just like that, he established himself as dominant over the woman in charge of the entire resort.

From her wry smile, it looked like she’d already known what to expect with Jonas. Sabrina was confused. Normally Jonas didn’t have a need to establish himself as the most dominant person in the room. He enjoyed amiable relationships with a number of Doms and Dommes, where he seemed to employ a live-and-let-live approach.

He guided Sabrina to stand next to the tripod, outside of the three legs. One tug, and he pulled her dress completely away from her body. He handed it to a khaki-clad employee, who draped it over his arm.

Sabrina reminded herself that the fire didn’t allow enough light for people to see the details of her stretch marks. Still she was nervous. While she didn’t mind people watching her have sex, she’d never engaged in an instructional demonstration. Would she get an orgasm at the end? If he’d given her one five minutes ago, she probably wouldn’t be so wound up now.

“Masters and Mistresses, pay careful attention. You’ll need to purchase or create a harness. If you create one yourself, you want to use a static rope to avoid unexpected stretching when you hang up your sub.”

Mistress Hera’s voice carried through the crowd. Someone handed a neoprene harness to Jonas. He placed her arms in the loops and adjusted the fit of the straps so that they went around her breasts. She heard a series of snaps as he finished it off in back. Next he guided her into the leg straps and attached them to the thick belt. Again a series of snaps in back told her that he’d attached everything that needed to be linked.

Throughout it all, Mistress Hera described what he was doing. Several times she nudged his hands out of the way to highlight some aspect for the crowd. Sabrina found her body shifted and turned so that everyone could see every step. She felt like a fish in a bowl. This was not hot and sexy. She wished they were back on the bench.

Mistress Hera moved onto the next phase of her talk. She pointed out features of the tripod and how they matched up perfectly with the rings and snaps on the harness.

Jonas leaned close. He rested his fingertips on her waist. “You’re doing great, honey. I know this is going a little slowly, but this next part will more than make up for it.”

She wanted to ask one little question, but it wasn’t exactly a question. It was a rebuke in disguise, and she already knew the answer. Since she couldn’t find a suitable way to tell him that she would have preferred if he’d asked her if she wanted to participate in this demonstration, she just nodded and kept her mouth shut.

The way he held her—possessively, but so lightly—combined with the feel of the harness to reignite her blood. Now that her world had boiled down to just the two of them, she wanted him to take her, fuck her any way he wanted in front of everybody. The key to her desire lay with Jonas. With a look and a touch, he demanded her submission, and she gave it freely. The onlookers and the demonstration no longer mattered.

He moved her into position. First he secured the top part of the harness. Then he slid one arm under her belly and lifted her to secure the bottom section. Through it all, Mistress Hera talked about winches and cooperation as she addressed the concerns from couples whose tops didn’t have the strength to lift their subs.

“Once the submissive is fully bound, she or he is completely powerless.” Mistress Hera stepped closer to Sabrina’s head. She waved her hand close in an approximation of a caress on Sabrina’s face, but she was careful to avoid direct physical contact with another Dom’s submissive. “Master J will now complete the binding.”

Sabrina’s arms and legs dangled down toward the sand. If she stretched her toes, she could probably touch it. The harness didn’t dig into her ribs or thighs uncomfortably. She could get used to this, though she considered the inelegant position on the edge of humiliating.

Jonas tightened cuffs around her wrists and just above her elbows. Then he guided her arms back behind her back and folded them. She heard the
snick
of the snaps as they were fastened together. She could move her arms, but not far. Next he bent her leg at the knee and secured her ankle cuff. When all was said and done, her ankles were tied to the same O-ring holding her body aloft. It was an interesting position and one that provided no support for her head.

Jonas knelt in front of her and lifted her chin. Flames reflected in his eyes, both literal and figurative. The bonfire cast his tawny depths with an orange glow, bringing out the flecks of brown and gold. “What’s your safe word, honey?”

He’d never asked that question before. She’d never been in this position before. When they’d played in public, it had always been as equals. Well, not quite equal, but she’d felt free to refuse to do something he asked, and he usually asked or somehow made sure she consented.

“Onion.”

A hint of a smile crossed his lips. “Words cannot describe how beautiful you look right now. You’re naked and helpless and mine.”

She was always his, so that was nothing new. And he often had her naked and helpless. Beautiful? She’d have to see pictures to believe it. Jonas was nothing if not biased.

Mostly she felt exposed. She could feel the heat of the crowd’s stare penetrating her most intimate tissues. They swelled and wept, humiliated and wanton.

She choked back a cry. “Jonas, I’m not sure about this.”

He silenced her with a soft kiss, and then he pressed his forehead to hers. “I know, honey. I know. But I am sure, and you’re going to have to find strength and comfort in that.”

It seemed to Sabrina that she’d come to the point where she took the idea of trust for granted. She said she trusted him. She knew she trusted him, but what did that really mean? In the course of their daily lives, they had fallen into a routine where trust meant she knew he would take out the trash and cook dinner. She knew he would run to the store if she asked or change a diaper without a comment about whose turn it was. She knew he would tie her up, hold her down, flog her, and give her a series of orgasms that left her trembling.

But what about when it came to the unknown? They hadn’t tested this situation before. Suddenly she understood exactly what he’d been asking when he made that deal with her. He wanted to push the boundaries of their relationship, deepen their bond.

She offered her bravest smile. “I do. Thank you.”

The kiss he gave her this time ravaged her mouth and demanded much. The heat of the crowd, which had been an invasive thing, morphed to complement the fires Jonas set inside her soul and between her legs.

He stood up and stepped back a pace. She let her head drop into a more comfortable position, and relaxed her neck muscles as much as she could. From the corner of her eye, she saw Mistress Hera standing next to Jonas. Never had another person been involved in their scene. It was disconcerting, but she trusted Jonas to have it all under control. They must have planned this, but other than when she showered, she couldn’t think of many moments when she and Jonas had been separated since their arrival.

“This position is good for a lot of things. You can manipulate the harness to change the elevation of your submissive, make sure everything is accessible.”

Titters of knowing and suggestive laughter sounded in all directions. Movement at Mistress Hera’s side caught Sabrina’s attention. The woman extracted the very crop that Sabrina had been drooling over ten minutes before and handed it to Jonas.

Every part of Sabrina’s body seemed to grow instantly more sensitive, as if her nerve endings were reaching out and begging for the sting of that leather flap. Jonas ran it along her side and over her hip, teasing those nerves.

He took his time, and she understood that his attention was completely on her. Yes, he was aware of the crowd. Their energy fed him like almost nothing else. But he was attuned to her every action and reaction.

She tried to take a deep breath, but the quivering of her lungs made that a tremulous undertaking. He moved a little closer, angling the crop underneath to tease the sensitive skin of her stomach and breasts. He did this to her whole body. Mistress Hera’s voice became part of the drone of the crowd, and that all melted into the hiss and crackle of the fire and the swish of the waves as they lapped the beach.

Peace wrapped around her, cocooning her in its arms. The trembling of her body ceased as she sank toward oblivion. A sharp crack brought her back. Stinging shot through her nipple, so close to the edge of fire she enjoyed. The blow had been more sound than force.

More fell in rapid succession. He concentrated on her breasts, hitting the globes with a million taps before he let loose with one that brought tears to her eyes. She gasped aloud, a sound lost in the roar of the fire and waves.

He kept at it, showing no mercy even though her cries grew louder. Stray hits wandered lower, peppering her stomach and mons, occasionally even striking her clit. Those hits she both loved and dreaded. They hurt like hell, but they brought her the sweetest bliss if only she was patient.

Tied like this, she gave in to the urge to writhe and buck. She swayed a little, but his aim remained true. Heat and cold, pleasure and pain, desire and dread. Conflicting sensations stole her reason. She gave up trying to anticipate and rationalize, and surrendered to the inevitability of it all.

Just when she thought she’d reached the maximum of her endurance, everything stopped. She heard her soft whimpers as she struggled not to beg for more. Beyond that, she heard countless moans and pleas all around her as submissives responded to her heavenly torment.

A glance to the side revealed a man with his hand around his submissive’s hard cock. He squeezed, and the sub’s knees nearly buckled. To the other side, she spied a woman, her Master’s arms wrapped around her body as he held her to him and his fingers worked in and out of her pussy.

Sabrina lifted her head, but Mistress Hera’s curvy hips blocked her view. The woman spoke to the crowd, describing what Jonas was doing and delivering tips of caution. In all the years since Jonas had introduced her to impact play, Sabrina hadn’t known much about it. She loved that Jonas knew what he was doing, that he knew when to push her and when to stop, exactly as he’d done tonight.

She never once stopped to consider that he wasn’t operating on instinct alone. There were guidelines for safe play that Jonas followed, guidelines she knew nothing about. These were things she could probably find out with a rudimentary amount of research, but she didn’t want to. She liked the magic and the mystery, so she closed her ears to Mistress Hera’s lecture and concentrated on the sensations running riot over her skin.

She felt Jonas’s hands, cool and knowing, on the places he’d just tormented. He played with her tender breasts, stroked down her stomach, and lingered between her legs. Her pussy was slick with her juices. It throbbed with longing. He circled and rubbed her clit.

She wanted to climax so badly, but the more attention he paid to her pussy, the more acutely she felt the gaze of the crowd on her exposed tissues. Because he stood at her side and not behind her, she was completely open for public viewing. Every quiver, every drop of cream that dripped from her wanton core was there for everyone to witness. The woman who used to close her eyes and wish it was over now displayed her desire for her husband for a hundred eyes, and she did it because it was what he wanted.

More than naked, she felt stripped to the core, almost too exposed. The safe word hovered just behind her teeth and tongue. Only one thing stopped her from uttering it. She’d promised to trust him.

Some of Mistress Hera’s words penetrated the fog of desire and anxiety clouding Sabrina’s mind. “Flogging in this situation presents some unique challenges. You must make sure the lines of the harness are out of the way, and you must have very good aim. Mind you, this isn’t for everyone. When some of your falls hit the lines, it can cause them to fall in an unpredictable and uneven manner, which isn’t safe. We’re extremely fortunate to have the world-renowned Master J here to demonstrate. He’s retired from the public circuit, so this is a special treat. Please enjoy, but pay careful attention to his technique.”