Out of the Darkness (Untwisted #2) (10 page)

Chapter Fifteen – Stella

Flashing a brief glance at Nathan before averting my eyes it had been impossible to read the expression on his face. I was fairly sure that he liked my outfit and was turned on like me, but as he stared at the collar on my neck the silence between us stretched on long enough for me to start to worry that I might have done something wrong by wearing it. I’d researched collars carefully, and knew it to be the show of an ultimate commitment in a dominant relationship, although technically I might have gone about it the wrong way by just turning up with it on. Or perhaps he was staring at it because commitment like that wasn’t what Nathan wanted from me? Perhaps he just wanted a few weeks of fun. The more I thought about it the more I decided that I’d probably  made a huge mistake wearing it. Bugger, I’d only been here 30 seconds and I’d stuffed up already.

Just as I was about to look up and check Nathan’s reaction he slipped his fingers under the soft material of the collar and gently tugged. His action took me by surprise and unbalanced me in my high heels so that I ended up staggering forwards into his arms clumsily colliding with his chest.

‘Damn right you’re mine,’ he muttered hoarsely as he hauled me roughly against him and kissed me purposefully, well and truly claiming my mouth with almost bruising ferocity. Then, just as quickly as it had started, Nathan withdrew his lips from mine and stood back leaving me feeling wobbly and cold. ‘This, however …’ he stated in an icy tone, running his fingers across my collar again, ‘… is rather presumptuous of you, Stella.’

Forcing a swallow down my dry throat I flashed a glance at Nathan. His eyes were still fixed on my collar and a deep frown was marring his forehead. That wasn’t a good sign, and to top it off, there was even a muscle jumping along his tightly clenched jaw. Shit, he might not be screaming or shouting, but there was no way to miss the fact that he was clearly angry and I felt my skin tingle with trepidation.

‘Come with me, Stella.’ As Nathan turned and moved away he still had one finger tucked under my collar, so despite his apparent request I really had little choice but to comply as he led me speedily through the lounge towards the kitchen.

Stopping by the central unit in the kitchen Nathan finally removed his finger from my neck. ‘Wait here.’ He instructed crisply, in the same cold tone of voice that I was quickly coming to dread.

Nathan seemed so angry with me that I hardly dared to move a muscle whilst I waited for him to return – even my breathing was shallow and minimal. When he finally reappeared he stood before me, legs spread and arms crossed over his broad chest in a posture that screamed of authority and almost made me want to curl up into a ball to avoid whatever was about to come my way.

‘This,’ he ground out as he tapped at my collar again, ‘is a problem.’ Crossing his arms again he shifted slightly on the spot before continuing. ‘I know you’re new to this, Stella, but for you to tell me that it shows you are mine indicates that you must have done some research on it, am I right?’

‘Yes.’ My voice was the tiniest it had ever been.

‘Then surely you must have seen that it is the dominant partner who chooses if and when to give a collar?’

I was totally out of my depth here. I knew nothing about this world and yet I’d naively thought this would be a good idea.
Stupid, stupid, stupid girl
. Realising that Nathan was still silently waiting for my response I licked my parched lips and nodded, ‘I did see that, but  … I  …  I wanted to please you, and I thought giving myself to you might do that …’ I sounded like the clueless idiot I was, so I gave up on my stuttered excuse and just shut my mouth.

‘So you merely assumed I would want a more permanent and substantial relationship with you?’ he enquired in that horribly distant tone again. Closing my eyes I winced, I had royally fucked this up, and really there was nothing I could say to improve the situation so I just stayed quiet.

After what seemed like an age of silence Nathan spoke again in a softer tone, ‘Your reasons and sentiment please me greatly, Stella. I cannot, however, allow you to wear this.’

‘I would never even consider collaring someone until I knew if we were compatible or not. However, the idea of you wearing my collar is rather alluring, so I am willing to compromise slightly in this. I will replace your collar with a simple one of my own; consider it a training collar if you like. This in turn shall be replaced at a later date with a more decorative and permanent one if I see fit.’

Reaching to the side of me Nathan opened a drawer and rummaged through the contents. Frowning, I wondered what on earth he could want, but then my frown quickly turned to an expression of shock when he withdrew a pair of scissors and held them up. ‘Hold very still.’ He commanded, before leaning in and pressing the cool metal of the blade to the quivering skin of my neck. One simple snip later and the ruined strip of beautiful velvet fluttered uselessly to the ground by my feet.

His unnecessarily harsh actions caused my eyebrows to practically rise out of my forehead. How dare he? ‘I …’ But my sentence was cut off by Nathan as he leaned in next to my ear. ‘Collaring yourself is a serious misconduct, Stella, with many doms your punishment would have been very severe. Seeing as you are new to this I chose to make my point in a different way by cutting it off. If you would rather my punishment was more standard I’m sure I could arrange that for you.’ He paused for a fraction of a second to let his words sink in. ‘Did you still have something to say?’ he then enquired mildly. His mere mention of the word ‘punishment’ had me snapping my teeth shut and rapidly shaking my head.

‘Good girl.’ Then reaching into his pocket Nathan withdrew a simple strip of dark leather and held it up in front of me. ‘Your replacement.’ He commented as he leaned in to place it around my neck.

This time I really couldn’t hold back my thoughts, ‘But it’s nowhere near as pretty as …’ But the challenging expression on Nathan’s face as he tilted my chin back and glared at me stopped me in my tracks. I really needed to install a mouth filter and shut the hell up.

‘Nowhere near as pretty as the one you bought?’ he demanded, ‘We’ve barely spent any time together intimately, Stella, how do I know if you deserve to wear a pretty collar?’ Licking my lips nervously I decided his question was probably rhetorical, so stayed quiet. ‘Like I said before, if things between us develop pleasingly then I
may
consider giving you something different. Until then you wear this whenever you are with me.’

Fastening the collar behind my neck Nathan stood back and assessed it with a small smile that was somehow both arrogant and appealing all at once. ‘Have I been clear, or do you need me to explain my actions further?’

As I stood before Nathan’s looming figure I felt very much like a chastised school girl, but I had at least learnt my lesson without getting any sort of actual punishment so I shook my head. ‘No, I understand.’ I really should have known better when I’d researched it all, so biting my lip I also decided to add an apology, ‘I’m sorry Sir, I hope I haven’t spoilt our first proper night together.’

Cupping my face Nathan tilted it upwards and graced me with a second of actual eye contact. ‘Not at all. Now that little issue has been dealt with, we can get tonight back on track.’ he muttered as his hands slipped to my waist, gripped my hips and practically swooped down to kiss me.  His lips were hot and hard against mine and it was all I could do to cling to Nathan when his tongue demanded entry to my mouth at the same time as he scooped me up and carried me towards the bedroom that was my space within his apartment.

Depositing me onto a wooden upright chair Nathan gripped my chin and forcefully tilted my mouth up for another scorching kiss. ‘My intention tonight had been to get you naked as quickly as possible, Stella, but seeing as you have taken such great effort over your outfit I think we will leave you dressed for a while longer so I can fully appreciate it. I will however ask you to remove your underwear.’

Oh
. Blushing as bright as a flame, I raised my wide eyes to Nathan and licked my lips nervously again. If I kept on like this they’d be so chapped I’d need an entire tub of lip balm to repair them. His eyes were glittering as he briefly met my gaze, before lifting an eyebrow curiously. ‘I take it from your expression that you’re not wearing any underwear tonight, are you, Stella?’ Swallowing loudly I was about to nod my answer, but Nathan beat me to it by leaning down and casually flicking the hem of my skirt up. I felt a brush of air on my heated skin and watched as Nathan sucked in a breath through flared nostrils. His suspicions must have been confirmed by a flash of my nude, pink pussy. This was the very valid reason that I hadn’t wanted to arrive by public transport tonight.

‘My, my, you are a naughty little submissive, aren’t you?’ he chided almost playfully, but no, this was No-Nonsense-Collar-Cutting-Nathan speaking, so surely in my highly aroused state I must just have misread his light-hearted comment.

Nathan walked behind me and my ears pricked as I heard him open one of the wooden drawers that stood in the corner of the room. The top four drawers held the clothes I left here for the weekends, but not the bottom drawer. When I had looked in the bottom drawer on my very first weekend, I’d seen such a wide range of sex toys that I had blushed furiously and immediately slammed the drawer shut. Like a true coward I’d deliberately avoided looking ever since, but now as Nathan dug around in the drawer I was wishing that I had inspected the contents with a little more care to prepare myself for what was to come.

By this point, my heart was hammering so hard in my chest that I felt sure Nathan must be able to hear it. Nervous anticipation was making me start to get a bit clammy behind my neck and after Nathan’s quick inspection between my legs, I suspected I was getting pretty damp down there too. After noises of rummaging that sent my imagination running wild, I finally heard a hum of approval from Nathan followed by the soft click of the drawer closing again. He’d chosen.

‘Arms behind your back,’ Nathan ordered in a low tone next to my ear, sending goosebumps rising on my skin. Since being with Nathan I’d discovered just what an erogenous zone my ear was, just one hot, whispered breath on that area was enough to have me quivering at his feet. Mind you, I pretty much did that anyway just from the sight of him.

An involuntary shiver ran through my body, from fear or anticipation I wasn’t sure, but my weeks of training ensured that I responded to his orders without hesitation, dropping my arms to the side of the chair and holding them back behind myself.

The touch of Nathan’s skin caressing the pulse point on my wrist made me gasp, but a frisson of panic ran up my spine as I felt a cold bracelet close around one wrist and then quickly around the other with a loud clicking noise. Drawing in a shocked breath, I closed my eyes as recognition hit me.
Handcuffs
.

Nathan had cuffed my hands behind my back. When I tried to move my arms, I realised that as well as cuffing my wrists together he had looped the chain of the cuffs through the wooden rails on the back of the chair effectively stopping me from standing up. Pervy
and
cunning, what a combination.

Calming my raging heartbeat was near impossible, it was literally galloping against my ribs, but I tried to repeatedly remind myself that Nathan wouldn’t harm me, if I’d learnt anything in our weeks of training it was that I could trust him, no matter how scary he might seem, or how daunting the situation might be at the moment, Nathan had proved to me that he was trustworthy.
I hoped.

Nathan chose that moment to lazily stroll around in front of me with a wicked gleam in his eye and two silk scarves hanging loosely from one hand. My mind was too overwhelmed to concentrate on anything other than their colour, blood red. Without a word, he bent in front of me and tied my ankles to either leg of the chair spreading my feet, knees, and thighs wide apart, but restraining me from moving my limbs fully.

Standing back, Nathan ran a hand across his jaw and an appraising gaze across my seated form before a frown spread across his handsome brows. God, what had I done wrong now? But before I could try to work out what was wrong Nathan stepped forwards and after placing a short, hard kiss on my lips he gripped my hips and with slight difficulty lifted me, pushed my skirt several inches up my thighs and then shifted me forwards on the seat so I was sat right on the edge.

Moving back again Nathan reassessed me and grinned broadly, a look so stunning that it made me forget my nerves as a lusty breath caught in my throat. ‘Now there’s a perfect view,’ Nathan murmured salaciously. I was well aware that now my legs were spread Nathan would be able to see right up my bunched skirt to the apex of my thighs, an area of my body now beyond my control, which seemed to be getting hotter and wetter by the second.

Letting out a low growl of approval Nathan stalked forwards again and ran a finger gently from my left temple across my cheek, over my jaw and down my neck to where it lingered on my collarbone leaving a hot trail of needy skin in its wake.

Chuckling at my groan of pleasure Nathan brushed my bottom lip with his thumb before lowering his head for a kiss. I had expected a forceful barrage like Nathan’s previous two kisses, but to my surprise, he brushed his lips across mine so lightly that at first I thought I had imagined it. Repeating the gesture Nathan buried a hand in my hair and gently tilted my head up to deepen his kiss by pushing his tongue between my parted lips to leisurely explore my mouth.

If I hadn’t been tied to the chair, it was quite possible that I would have fallen right off it from the dizzying sensations spreading through my body from his heady kisses. With his free hand Nathan skilfully flicked the top of my corset down to reveal my breasts, my nipples already erect from arousal and apparently too tempting for Nathan to resist as his lips suddenly shifted from my mouth to trail across my skin until he finally sucked one nipple into his mouth and laved the hard bud with his tongue, causing me to cry out needily and buck in my chair.