Tearing Down Walls (Love Under Construction Series Book 2) (56 page)

“Will do. I think he’d like that,” Laura told her and waved as she drove away.

“What the hell was that about?” Steve asked her as she walked down the private room hallway.

“A miracle. Magic. I don’t quite know what to call it, but it was unbelievable.”

“Hmmmm. I’ll have to ask Cabrizzi about that.” Laura noticed that Steve was looking around everywhere, probably for his chair. She didn’t say a word.

She made her way through the club, trying to figure out where Vic had gone. She checked the private rooms, the recovery room, and asked one of the guys to check the men’s locker room, but he was nowhere to be found. She didn’t know what to do until she heard something outside the back door, and she opened it and looked around.

Vic stood behind the building, leaning back against the wall, one foot on it. “Honey, you okay?” Laura asked as she walked up to him. She took a look at his face, and it was so sad that her heart shook. “Babe, what’s wrong?”

He took her face in his hands and looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time. “Laura, I’m so afraid.”

“Of what, baby?” She was afraid too because of the fear in his eyes.

“Afraid this won’t work. And you’ll be trapped in yourself forever. And that would kill me.” The pain in his voice took the breath from her lungs and, as she wrapped her arms around his neck, his arms encased her waist and pulled her tight to him.

“I’m not afraid. I want to try. You and me – we can do this. I have faith in you,” Laura whispered into his ear, and he trembled as he squeezed her tight.

Miranda watched Vic and that bitch walk from the club to a beautiful sports car and leave together.
Uh-huh,
she thought.
I won’t let him forget about me that easily.
She tapped the dial on the gadget in the seat beside her, but it did nothing.
I don’t know how this thing works, but I’ll figure it out. I don’t have a choice.

The next evening after they got home, Vic’s phone rang in the other room and she heard him say, “Hey honey!” She listened at the door. He said a few things she couldn’t understand, and she heard him say, “Good! I hated it, but I knew you needed it, and I’m glad it helped you.”
Evie,
Laura thought. “I will, and you stay in touch too, let me know how you’re doing.” There was a pause, followed by, “Yes, I’ll tell her. I was glad she could be there for you too. She’s a very special person. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, ever.”
Oh god, he’s talking about me!
, Laura wanted to shout.
I’ve got to move forward. I can’t let him down.

“R
eady?” Vic asked Laura outside the front door of Eden’s Gate mid-afternoon on Thursday.

“Ready.” She took his hand as they stood in the warm spring sunshine. “Vic, I’m not afraid.”

“I guess I’m afraid enough for both of us then.” There was a grimness on his usually placid face. “Steve said it was okay for us to stay until the club opens, but I hope it doesn’t take that long. I’ll be exhausted in the first ten minutes just from the stress.” He opened the door of the club for her and kissed her as soon as they stepped inside.

“Do I have to take off everything?” Laura asked Vic when they got down into the dungeon.

“I’ve learned that being exposed makes it easier to emote. We can try it without doing that, but . . .”

“No. If it will give me a better chance, I’ll do it,” Laura told him. “Help me, please?” Turning her back to him, she pulled off her shirt and pants, then pulled down her panties and stepped out of them. Vic reached down in one smooth swoop and picked them up, then reached up and unhooked her bra with the other hand. Laura found it embarrassing but also impressive, and she almost laughed; it was clear that he had plenty of experience with women’s lingerie.

Vic had sanitized the whipping bench when they came in, since the cleaning crew hadn’t been there after they left the night before, and Laura made her way over to it and climbed on, careful to keep her back to Vic. It was more comfortable than she’d guessed. “But do I have to have my hands and feet fastened? That kind of freaks me out,” she asked, looking at the cuffs.

He knew she’d told him that her attackers had held her arms and legs, and he didn’t quite know what to do. “I know why you’re asking, and I don’t want to. But honey, I’m afraid you’ll instinctively try to cover your bottom when I start the discipline and I’ll accidentally hit your hands. And this thing could break the small bones in them.”

Laura thought for a minute. “What if you just tied my hands together? I couldn’t get them behind me that way, but I could still move them. I wouldn’t feel so confined. Would that work?”

“Don’t know why it wouldn’t.” Vic smiled in relief; she was serious about doing it. Taking a set of leather cuffs from the wall, he threaded them together and put them on her wrists. “I don’t think we need to restrain your legs; they should be fine.” He couldn’t help but look at her ass; it was gorgeous, round and satiny. Lying on the bench exposed her pussy too, and he felt his cock harden – his first glimpse – and it set up a burn in his balls. It looked like she’d taken Nikki’s advice on shaving, because she was smooth and almost glossy. Before he could stop himself, he laughed and said, “Wow. I have the best view in town!” He expected her to react, but she surprised him – she giggled, and it made him laugh too. When his hand traveled over her skin, she shuddered and moaned, and his rigidness throbbed.

“Enough of that business, sir. Let’s get this show on the road,” Laura barked, laughing at the same time. “Sorry. I shouldn’t make jokes. This is serious. Do I need the safeword thing?” she asked.

“Yes. What do you want it to be?”

“Red. That’s easy enough, and it seems to be pretty popular too.”

“Okay.” He trailed his fingers down her back, and she could’ve sworn electrical current shot from his fingertips. “I’m not using that preparation that I made up on you. I don’t think you’ll need it. Here’s the plan: Twenty paddle strikes to warm you up, then I’ll start with the sjambok. Sure you’re ready, baby?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You do not have to do the ‘sir’ thing.”

“Okay, sir.” She giggled.

“Whatever,” he groaned, but he was trying hard not to laugh. He was relieved to hear her laughing and joking. He’d thought that day would never come. She’d made so much progress; maybe this would tip her over the edge. “Let’s get started, shall we? First twenty. Keep the count. I’ll be asking.”

“Why do you do that?” Laura had wondered that with Evie.

He walked around in front of her, then knelt down so he could look in her face. “To know when or if you slip into subspace. I want to know that you’re okay, and once that happens, you can’t tell me, so it’s my responsibility to know. It gives you something to focus on, helps me know where you are. Make sense?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh, shit. Fine,” he said, rolling his eyes. “You’ll be calling me a sick son of a bitch before we’re done, so I guess I’ll enjoy ‘sir’ while I can.” He stopped. “Sweetie, listen to me. Try to get out of your head. Just feel. Let it wash over you. Here we go.” Vic landed the paddle square on Laura’s left ass cheek, then struck the right one. Following the blows, he rubbed her skin in the circular motion she’d seen, and she felt the heat spread across her ass.

Vic set three more sets down, then said, “Give me the count.”

“Eight,” Laura replied. “Sir.”

“Good.” He put three more sets on her. “Give me the count, honey.”

“Fourteen, sir.”

“You’re doing very well.” He finished out the paddle strikes, then picked up his sjambok and looked at Laura’s backside. It had a beautiful rosy glow, and Vic was more than excited to see it so pink and pretty. “Doing okay?”

“Yeah. That wasn’t so bad.” She decided she kind of liked the warmth of it.

“I’m going to start with the sjambok. Keep the count, baby. I’ll be checking.” Vic took his place.

Laura heard the “pop” and felt the sting in the same instant.
God, that hurts!
, she thought. Before she had a chance to process it, he rained down two more, then two more after that. She was trying to count, but it was confusing because of the stinging, especially when he kept going. “The count, please.”

Laura fought to remember. “Um, sixteen, I think?”

“Good enough. Keep your wits about you and count. Ready?” She nodded. The sound of the tip hitting her skin cracked through the room, and Laura jumped as the pain settled in. Several strikes later, Vic said, “The count.”

“Twenty-eight. Sir.” Her skin was burning like fire, and she was trying hard to concentrate on the strikes.

“What’s your color, baby?”

“Uh . . . um, green?”

Laura wanted to ask him to wait just a minute to let her catch her breath, but she felt the snap of the implement against her skin and the burn increased.
I don’t know if I can take this
, she thought as he rained down several more strikes against her tender, virginal flesh.

Vic watched the welts swell on Laura’s skin. Every strike, every pop, cut into his heart like a saber. He wanted to grab her and hold her close, but they’d never get anywhere that way. After several more, he said, “The count?”

Laura was fighting to stay still. “Forty-two, sir,” she groaned.

“Your safeword?”

“Red, sir.”

“Do you need to use it?”

Laura shook her head. “No, sir.”
Oh, god, what the hell is wrong with me? This hurts like a son of a bitch. Why can’t I just break down and get this over with?

“Laura, let it go. Don’t think about it; feel it, baby. Let it go.” Vic cracked the end of the sjambok three more times, and he could feel a tear roll down his cheek. A tiny voice in his head shrieked,
I don’t know how much more of this I can take.
He watched Laura struggling to stay down and almost stopped.
This is killing me,
his heart screamed. He snapped her ass four more times with the sjambok, and Laura cried out. Vic’s hand started to shake, and he fought to keep control, knowing that he had to see it through, while it ate him from the inside out to hear her pain. “Give me the count, baby,” he said, trying to hide his trembling voice.

“Sixty-one, sir,” Laura replied, but there was a catch in her throat, and it didn’t escape Vic.
Oh, god, please let that mean she’s getting close,
his brain whispered.

As she struggled to breathe and stay still, Laura wanted to bellow. The pain was almost unbearable, just as intense as what those men had done to her, but different. It was so concentrated and so pure that she knew what the next strike would feel like, and she fell into it, the rhythm, the sound, the sting.

Then something unexpected happened. As she lay panting, she began to feel light. When the strikes began again, she felt something break open, and she remembered when she’d felt that sensation before – when she’d watched Vic, Tony, and Peyton try to bring her back in the middle of that cold street. But this time she felt warm and safe, and her mind calmed. Time slowed and the room seemed to grow still and silent.

When Vic asked for the count again, he sounded a thousand miles away, but Laura heard herself give the correct answer, followed by a quiet groan.

Starting again was almost too hard. Vic set five more licks down, and then he heard it when she answered him as he asked, “Your safeword?”

“Red,” Laura whispered, her voice quiet and even, but she groaned again. And there it was – she was breaking. He could feel it.

“Need it?” She shook her head. His usual requirement was a verbal answer in case he didn’t see a nod, but that was unnecessary. He was watching her like a hawk.

“Baby, feel it. Just feel it. Don’t think about it,” he reminded her, his voice soothing. It was only a matter of seconds, he was sure. And his heart soared even as it was knocking like a trip-hammer.

Laura thought about what had happened to her in that barracks thousands of miles from anyone who loved her and, as she waited for the next strike, the vision she had of those men in the light of that stark bulb faded more with every snap of the sjambok. She felt the pain turn into a vapor that swirled inside her and dissipated into the atmosphere. It all started to drift away and there was a sensation like an egg being cracked, a splitting open and emptying. It was replaced by a warm, secure feeling, like a sunbeam that lit up all the dark corners in her soul.