AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Of course. I just send it in as a donation from one of my trusts, since people won't accept money from a bunch of sexual deviants. " She noted that he sounded amused, not offended. "Maybe you'll come to the one this fall. You could always come as my slave. "
"Or you could come as mine," she retorted.
"I already am, Marguerite. " He lifted her hand to his lips again, flustering her with that old-fashioned gesture he did so well. Even the words should sound silly, contrived, but he had an ability to make real what another man could not. "Don't you understand, when all is said and done, it's the Master who's the captive?"
"No. " She drew her hand back. "I don't understand that. "
"Maybe you will by the end of the weekend. It would be an honor to know I've taught you something about being a Mistress that you didn't already know. "
"Who are you, Tyler? You keep pounding at my boundaries but I don't know anything about you. "
&
nbsp; "Hmm. " He sat on a long bench, drawing her down next to him. "Lately I'm an amateur gardener and a bit of a handyman. When I moved here, I paid to have this house restored. Money makes a lot of things easier, but I wasn't as involved hands-on as I really wanted to be. That's one of the reasons I eventually chose to ease back on the writing and film production, take more time to be part of those details. Something else money allows you to do. "
But she was sharp enough to catch a darkness in his eyes. That wasn't the only reason he'd taken the time off, she suspected. Not the most important one.
"Look over there. A heron, like the one in your picture. " Marguerite turned her head, watched the long-legged, graceful white bird step through the shallows, looking for dinner.
"He's like you. Perfect in his isolation. Everything goes in slow motion around you, Marguerite. You steal time when people look at you. " She'd intended to retort to the comment about isolation, but with the compliment the response died on her lips. Turning, he laid his head down in her lap, stretching out his long body along the length of the bench. One knee crooked up against the back, the other foot resting on the ground. When he looked up at her, the weight of his skull pressed into her thighs. His hair whispered against the fabric of her blouse, so tempting she had to curl her fingers into a tight ball to keep from touching it.
"I think you know everything about me, Marguerite. That's your special gift. From whatever plane you view the world, you see right straight to the heart. I don't believe in games, so I'll say I know that I attract you. I thank God for the gift and hope to keep earning it, because I know you attract me like the proverbial moth. "
"Then it's probably not very professional for me to use you as my mentor. " He chuckled. "Nice try. You contacted me, remember? And there's nothing that says the mentoring can't be done by people with personal relationships. This is The Zone, not a corporate work policy. "
"I think you've just come up with a charming way to avoid questions about yourself. "
"Maybe I'm afraid if you know the sordid details of my life, you'll like me less. "
"Than I do now? I hardly see how that's possible. " She sniffed.
"Petulance looks very sexy on you. Don't get me stirred up. " At his lazy grin, she shoved at his head and shoulder.
In a movement that was so fluid it did not seem hurried, he brought his hand up and captured both of her wrists. In the same smooth motion he reversed their positions, laying her head into his lap and putting her shoulders against his denim-covered thigh.
His arm settled with deceptive casualness over her waist, anchoring her in the vulnerable horizontal position.
"Tyler, stop this. We need to get started. " Where any intimacy that happened could be explained as part of her training. Not a spontaneous, accidental pleasure experienced in his company as she was feeling now, with butterflies feathering around in her lower belly.
He stretched his other arm along the back of the bench and cocked his head, looking down at her with those intense eyes that seemed to convey two messages.
There was the surface gentle teasing light, and the darker shades. A man's desire coming through, stirred by her presence and making no attempt to mask it.
"If you could ask me one question about myself, what would it be?" She didn't want to know more. She'd just been being defensive and he knew it. She sat silently, stubbornly. Watched his smile die away. But she studied the clouds over his shoulder and wouldn't watch the reaction grow in his eyes further.
"Look at me. Unless you're afraid to. "
Of course that was an easy ploy to recognize, but she stepped right into it. The expression in his eyes was not what she expected. Not frustrated or angry, not hurt or rejected. Deep, focused, centered on her face. She reflected he was already figuring out things she didn't want him to know with that intelligent mind of his.
"How far will you run, Marguerite, before you realize you're not running away from me? You're running to me. "
He put his hands beneath her legs and back and lifted her onto her feet as he rose before she could think of a response to that outrageous statement. "It's time to go up to the house. Sarah and Robert will be here periodically through the weekend. Out of respect for them, I typically hire off-hours Zone staff for cooking and assistance when I have larger D/s parties. But they've started helping me with smaller groups or when I'm alone with a sub, or when I need certain areas or settings prepared. When I anticipate needing them through a weekend they stay in one of my guesthouses. While I've no indication of their own sexual preferences they understand mine, so you need feel no concern around them this weekend. "
She struggled to reorient herself as he shifted gears on her, physically urging her toward the house and that very significant threshold with a firm hand on her lower back. They paused briefly only to retrieve their shoes and slip them back on.
"Do you remember all the items on the requirements list?" Commands, total submission, restraints, flogging and punishment, exhibitionism. . . submitting before another Dom. . . She nodded, a quick motion, her stomach constricting in a twist of nerves.
He took her to the front of the house, up the steps. As he opened the door, he looked down at her, unsmiling, his mouth a little stern now. She wished he could be one of the many men who was shorter than her when she wore heels, though of course she'd maximized the difference in their heights with her insolent desire to wear the gender-neutral deck shoes.
