Chapter 12: Chapter 12

C H A P T E R - - - - T E N - - - - S E L E N A

Selena briefly considered turning and running out of the room, away from him, forever. But instead, her arms gave way, doing as she was told, exposing her chest to his penetrating gaze. Fuck, Selena thought as she saw his eyes roam over her body, his tongue poking out to lick his lips as he looked right at her cunt.

She felt all the blood rush to her head, but it didn’t feel bad. It was strange, feeling like she was about to pass out, but the fear from before slowly receded from her body, leaving her with an odd emptiness. But she wasn’t numb. Her whole body prickled with sensations she’d never felt before, but she was calm. Her thoughts had come to a standstill. Jesus, I don’t know if this has ever happened to me ever before.

“Come over to me,” Reidan commanded, and Selena’s legs moved forward of their own accord, carrying her across the room but stopping a few feet away from Reidan, the desk separating their two bodies. “Do you remember your safe word?”

Selena nodded.

“Answer me out loud,” Reidan said, leaning a little over the desk so that their faces were closer together.

“Yes, I do,” Selena said quickly, feeling a hot flush burn its way up her back and neck. It wasn’t uncomfortable though. There was something overwhelming, almost ticklish, about obeying him. But it didn’t feel bad. She wasn’t sure if it felt “good” exactly, but she wanted more of it. She wanted to roll around in that sensation, let it sink into her brain, play around in it until she decided how she really felt about it.

“Tell me the word you’ve chosen,” Reidan said.

Selena felt confused for a moment, seeing as how she’d already written it down on the contract, and Reidan must have detected her silent question, as he explained, “I want to make sure that you remember it. And I want to hear the way you say it. I want you to feel comfortable saying it to me.”

“Tangerine,” Selena replied, a little hesitant, feeling insecure and rubbing her upper arms to guard against the chill that suddenly overtook them. “That’s the word.”

“Good girl,” Reidan murmured, reaching his hand forward to gently grab the tip of Selena’s chin, holding her face in place and practically forcing her to look him in the eyes. “That’s a good girl.”

“Thank you,” Selena whispered back, barely audible. She couldn’t fight the shiver that overcame her body when Reidan’s fingers began to dance along the edge of her face, causing all the tiny little hair follicles around her ear and cheek to become erect as a result of the careful attention.

Reidan’s hand traveled farther north, eventually wrapping around the back of her head to tug her a little closer. “You can use the safe word at any time,” he whispered, his eyes staring hard and unblinkingly into hers until she finally nodded. “Promise me you’ll use it if you need to. Promise me.”

“I promise.” Selena’s eyes slid down to stare at Reidan’s open mouth. God, how she itched to kiss him, to press into him, to learn the curves and edges and lines of his body. She felt like she’d been hungry for him for years, when she’d only known him mere days. Still, her body needed this. Already, she felt the burdens of the day begin to lift off of her body, leaving her with an uncharacteristic lightness that she hadn’t felt in years.

“Good.” Reidan rubbed the back of her head, making her scalp tingle with a soothing sensation, like his fingers were taking all of her bad thoughts and flinging them away into the darkness. A second later he added, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to punish you anyway.” His grip on her head intensified, and he clutched some of her hair between his fingers.

Selena gasped a little, the desperate noise leaving her mouth before she had a chance to stop it. “Why?” she asked. “What did I do?”

“Like I said before,” Reidan said, leaning further over the desk until his forehead was pressed against hers, his eyes baring hard into her like he was searching for treasure. “You were late. I can’t set a bad example with you and let you get away with things.”

Selena gulped and nodded, feeling her spine begin to tingle almost painfully. He wasn’t kidding about the punishment thing, then. All of this was real. All of it was really happening. She wasn’t dreaming, either. She hadn’t fantasized about any of this. It was like Reidan had reached inside of her heart, grabbed her deepest darkest urges, and now was pulling them into reality. It was as terrifying as it was exhilarating to experience.

“Still, you were very good, remembering to take your clothes off.” Reidan scratched gently at her scalp, causing her eyes to slide shut just from sheer pleasure and comfort. “So, I’ll go soft on you, just this once.”

“Thank you, sir,” Selena murmured. She hadn’t even remembered that he’d commanded her to call him “sir.” She just wanted to call him that; wanted to know what it felt like letting that word slip through her lips without shame.

“Yeah, you’re a good girl,” Reidan said, letting his hand fall to the back of her neck, which he lightly squeezed for a few seconds before traveling down her back. His fingers traced over her spine, making her squirm a little under the ticklish feeling of his touch. “But you can be bad, too, can’t you? You’ve got it all.”

Selena wasn’t sure how to answer that, so she just looked up into his eyes, relieved to see how warm and happy he looked, how full of light he seemed. It was like there was some switch inside of his brain that only got flipped on when he was in the playroom. In the office, he was uncertain and insecure, even if he did a good job hiding it from everyone but Selena. But here, he looked light and free.

More than that, he looked powerful, totally comfortable in his body, totally secure that he was saying and doing the right thing. It was so fucking hot—seeing him in his element. Selena felt a rush of warmth pool in between her legs, right at the base of her cunt. What the hell? Selena wondered, swallowing again just to keep herself calm and to fight back the pounding of her heartbeat in her throat. He hasn’t even done anything to me yet. Why am I so turned on?

“You’re special.” Reidan smirked at her, his eyes gleaming with mischief like he knew exactly what she was feeling and thinking. “I knew it from the first moment I saw you. You’re so strong, but you’re willing to submit, aren’t you? That’s the only kind of power that’s real; the kind you’re willing to let go of. If you don’t trust that it’s going to come back to you later, how do you know it’s really yours?”

Selena had never really thought of it that way. She’d always assumed that strength was like armor. You either had it, or you didn’t, and when you weren’t wearing it, there was nothing to protect you from being hurt. But based on the way Reidan was describing it, the only way to ever really be strong was to allow yourself to be weak. She felt a little warm and hazy, like the new knowledge he’d imparted to her had overwhelmed all of her remaining senses.

“You’re very smart, sir,” Selena said honestly. She wasn’t trying to butter him up or get out of being punished or anything. She just legitimately wanted him to know that’s what she thought.

But still, Reidan scoffed a little and shook his head. “Not like you. You’ve got big brains. I’ve got big… other things,” he said with a grin.

Selena couldn’t help it. It was too ridiculous—hearing a man brag about his penis even while he already had a woman standing naked in front of him. She had to laugh at him, falling out of his grasp to clap her hand over her mouth to stop the noises from coming. “Sorry, sorry, you’re just really funny,” she said in between giggles. Luckily, Reidan didn’t look offended by her reaction, continuing to grin broadly at her as she tried to calm herself down.

He waited until she stopped laughing to speak again. “How would you like to be punished?” he asked, his grin falling off his face, replaced by a stern, serious look that sent more chills cascading down her spine.

“Um, I don’t really know,” Selena admitted. She’d kept herself from doing a ton of research on Dom/Sub relationships online, even though a part of her really wanted to. She was afraid of finding horror stories that would keep her from showing up tonight, and she really wanted to give this a chance, at least once, before dismissing it forever. “What are the choices?”

“Hmm, well, I could do a couple of things,” Reidan began, walking around the desk and gesturing to the silk ropes hanging down from one of the walls. “I could tie you up, keep you in one position for a really long time, until your legs ache and you beg me for release.”

Selena bit her own tongue inside of her mouth to keep from speaking, even though a part of her wanted to ask for that one without even hearing the other options. It sounded hot; being held in one place, tortured to the point of insanity while Reidan just watched her, the way he was doing now, casting glances at her naked body through the corner of his eye. He probably thought he was being sly, but Selena was quick enough to catch him in the act, even though she kept herself from smiling in satisfaction. It felt good—to be wanted, to feel the waves of hunger coming off of him like rays of heat radiating from the sun. It felt really fucking awesome, honestly.

Reidan kept walking, heading to the mat on the floor, which appeared soft, even though it was practically flat, barely lifted above the rest of the ground. “Or I could handcuff you, leave you here on the floor, blindfold you, and begin your punishment session, leaving you questioning what will happen next and when the punishment will come to an end. That could go on for hours, though, and I don’t know how much time we have since you were so rudely late tonight.”

Selena flushed a little at that, feeling embarrassed about her little anxiety attack earlier, but then she saw that Reidan was still smirking, smug satisfaction written all over his face. He wasn’t angry, not really. If anything, he looked happy to have a reason to “punish” her. And honestly, some part of her was relieved about it, too.

She had been a little worried, in the back of her mind, that they would have typical, boring, vanilla-style sex, all because Reidan was too scared to do the real Dominant stuff with her right away. She didn’t want to do things that way. She didn’t want to go slow. Why wait and hold off on the serious stuff later, especially when she wasn’t even certain she’d still be in town next week or next month? They only had a limited amount of time before Selena had to run away with her dad, even if Reidan didn’t know that yet.

“Or,” Reidan said, walking back to the desk where Selena was still standing, this time, getting right up in her personal bubble without build-up, his breath hitting her face warmly. “I could just do something simple. A timeless classic. Would you prefer that?”

“What is that?” Selena asked, her voice coming out squeaky and insecure. She inwardly berated herself for that, but Reidan just grinned wider, his face practically splitting in half with the force of his smile.

“A staple of the Dom/Sub dynamic. I’m sure you’ve done it before, probably with some asshole who didn’t know what he was doing. Spanking. Would you like that?”

Selena bit her lip, considering her options. Actually, she’d never been spanked before, at least not on purpose. Whenever a guy had gotten rough with her in bed, she hadn’t really liked it very much, mostly because none of her old boyfriends were very good at sex in general. But still, she had her doubts.

Would she really like being hit and slapped and hurt? It sounded a little painful, especially given the size of Reidan’s broad, wide hands. But just looking at his fingers, currently clutching the edge of the desk, made Selena reconsider. His fingers were so long and thick, so manly. She’d never been with a man with such sexy hands. He looked like he could lift her up, like he could fuck her against the wall without even breaking a sweat. Jesus fucking Christ, she said to herself, shaking her head as if to dislodge the naughty thoughts. We haven’t even done anything yet, and I’m already coming apart like a stupid little virgin.

“What’s wrong?” Reidan’s facial expression changed to reflect his concern. Selena silently berated herself again for being so bad at this. She wasn’t a very good Sub at all, really. She couldn’t even get through the first half of a single session without her Dom having to “break character” to check in with her.

“Nothing, nothing. It’s nothing,” Selena rushed to say, forcing a smile and nodding at Reidan to reassure him that she was fine.

“You look a little hesitant,” Reidan said, his brow furrowing as he inspected Selena’s face, making her flush under his attention. “Would you like something else? No spanking for now, maybe?”

“No, no, I don’t want you to change your plans,” Selena said quickly, feeling a rush of desperation to rescue the mood of the room. Things had turned very serious, very quickly, and that was the opposite of sexy as far as Selena was concerned. She didn’t want to ruin things before they even got started.

“My plan is that you have a good time, Selena,” Reidan murmured, reaching forward to grab her shoulders and pull her a little closer. “Whatever we do to get there doesn’t really concern me that much, as long as I’m the one holding the reins.”

Despite everything, Selena found herself smirking at that. “Reins, huh? So what, does that make me the horse?”

Reidan chuckled and licked his lips. “Well, you’re a lot of things, really,” he murmured, brushing some of Selena’s messy hair on the other side of her shoulder. “You want to be the horse?”

Selena chuckled and, without even hesitating, her arm snaked around to wrap itself around Reidan’s shoulders, tugging him closer. “I think I want to be the thing you ride, yeah,” she whispered, leaning in to kiss his lips…

And then the next second, he pulled away, leaving her surrounded only by cold air. “Mm… you’re a bad girl, aren’t you?” Reidan whispered, revealing his new position behind Selena, right before his hands landed on the top of her back, sliding in between her shoulder-blades.

Selena grunted, reaching forward to place her hands on the desk in front of her for balance and stability as Reidan’s hands rubbed up and down her back, his nails skimming over her skin until every last hair on her body was standing up at attention like an alert soldier. “I am if you want me to be, sir,” she whispered.

Reidan leaned forward and finally placed his lips on her skin, dragging his mouth up and down the side of her neck until she was squealing, her hands sliding a few inches forward on the desk as he pressed his weight into her back.

“Yeah, you’re my bad girl, aren’t you? All fucking mine,” Reidan hissed out into her neck, right before his teeth sunk into her skin. The pain consumed her mind; it was all she could focus on, like her entire world was wrapped up in Reidan’s mouth.

She fucking loved it.