“Didn’t I tell you that as long as we’re doing this your body belongs to me?” Shane rose in one fluid movement and stood over her.
“Yes, Master. I-I’m sorry,” Valentine whispered.
“Don’t be—this time.” He gave her a nod of approval. “I like you like this.”
“Do you really?” Feeling suddenly daring, she stepped up to him and pressed the length of her body against his. The hard planes of his chest felt warm and smooth against her bare breasts and the growing lump in his leather pants pressed against her shaved pussy in just the right place.
He stayed still as a rock, only moving at the last instant when she tried to kiss him. “Did I tell you to kiss me?”
Valentine sighed in frustration and stepped away. “No, Sir.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“I thought…I just wanted…”
“Get to the bedroom and lie facedown across the end of the bed with your feet on the floor. I think it’s time for a punishment.”
“Yes, Master.” Valentine felt a flare of excitement spark all her nerve endings at once. God, another whipping. What would he use on her this time? Would it be the riding crop? His belt? She was a little alarmed to find that she was almost anticipating the pain—or maybe not the pain so much as the pleasure that was sure to come afterward. She wasn’t sure anymore—she just knew that she loved the feeling of being the complete and utter center of Shane’s attention, no matter what he had in mind for her.
She walked as quickly as her high heels would allow, aware of Shane following close behind her, his big body like a line of fire along her spine. God, he was driving her crazy already. How was she going to get through this? But the uncertainty was part of the pleasure and when she reached his bedroom she went directly to the high, old- fashioned four-poster and positioned herself as he had ordered.
Shane’s bed was the kind that you almost needed a footstool to get in and out of so she didn’t have to bend over very much to drape herself across the end of it with her feet planted securely on the floor. She kept her head turned and from the corner of her eye she could see him retrieving something from the closet. When he turned around, she saw it was a flogger—the same one she’d first seen him using at the club. It had the look of a clean and well-cared-for instrument just like his gun, the few times he’d seen it. Shane believed in taking care of his tools to keep them in optimum working order.
Valentine remembered how she’d watched him wield the flogger that first time and imagined that he was using it on her. She’d wondered at the time exactly how it would feel—well, now she was about to find out.
Shane walked toward the bed, the long black leather strands of the flogger making a whispering sound against his leather pants legs as he moved. Valentine braced herself for the first blow, expecting to feel the sting of the flogger across her back or ass.
But instead of whipping her, Shane let the long strands trail lightly over her bare skin. He drew a line down her spine and then traced her shoulder blades and hips. The thin leather strips were barely touching her, teasing her exposed flesh unbearably and yet he went on and on, apparently in no hurry to end the strange torture.
Valentine’s skin broke out in goose bumps and she began to shiver as the flogger continued its never-ending journey across her body. At last she couldn’t stand it anymore. “I thought you were going to whip me.”
“Do you want me to whip you?” The leather strands stroked endlessly over her body. Now he was trailing them over her ass and between her thighs, making her crazy as he tickled her bare and extremely sensitive pussy with featherlight touches.
“I don’t know—maybe,” she said desperately. “Anything but this—you’re driving me crazy.”
“That’s the idea, sweetheart. You need to learn to submit when I touch you—to accept whatever sensations I give you whether they’re pleasurable or painful.”
“I don’t know which this is.” Valentine shivered again as the flogger whispered over her skin. “I only know I can’t stand much more of it.”
“So you’d rather I do this?” The flogger whistled through the air abruptly, licking around to land on her vulnerable buttocks.
Valentine hissed and winced at the stinging pain. It hurt but it felt good too—felt like a punishment she deserved. It felt like love.
Shane did it again. “Do you like that?”
“I-I don’t know. Maybe.” Valentine moaned and bit her bottom lip, trying to endure.
“What do you like about it?” He sounded genuinely interested. “The pain itself? Or the fact that someone else is in control of your body?”
“Not just someone—you.” Valentine twisted her head around to look at him. “I like giving you control, Shane.”
He looked genuinely surprised and then the expression was gone and he frowned. “I’m asking because I need to know your boundaries. I need to know what turns you on more—pain or domination.”
“Why…why do you need to know that?” Valentine gasped as another blow from the flogger fell on her stinging buttocks.
“So I can set the right scene. How can I dominate you properly without knowing exactly what turns you on and makes you tick?” He gave her one last lick with the flogger and then strode to the foot of the bed and put one large, warm hand on her trembling ass. “It’s all right, Valentine. You took that whipping very well. I’m proud of you—you’re a very good girl.”
His words of praise sent a warm rush of pleasure through her and she longed to stand up and hug him. How many times had she come to him in times of stress or grief and found herself enveloped in one of his wonderful, warm bear hugs? Shane’s arms were like steel bands and when he wrapped them around her she felt like there was no safer place in the world. But I can’t do that now, she reminded herself, staying where she was. Not while we’re in the middle of a lesson. So she held still until Shane told her to climb up onto the bed and lie on her back.
