AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tim rubbed her arms and wrists and said to the folks on the floor, “If you have any specific questions about shibari and kinbaku, I can try to answer them for you. Remember, there are levels to everything you do. You don’t need to be a master to try it with your partner, but I would strongly suggest that in the beginning, you work with a buddy who’s forgiving of the occasional chafing or knot you can’t get out.”
“Are you offering private tutoring, Tim?” Stella asked.
“I’ll give you the same answer I always do,” he said.
“Which is what?” Valerie asked through clenched teeth.
He didn’t respond, so she stepped off the stage and tried to make a beeline for the front door, and found herself immediately flanked by Carine and Leah who started chatting a mile a minute at her, and before she could process any damn thing they’d said, Tim scooped Valerie up by the waist, folded her over his shoulder, and carried her through the crowd.
She gave his back an ineffectual scratch. “Put me down, you big oaf. The demonstration’s over.”
He didn’t set her down until he’d carried her off the porch and around to the back of the house. Even then, he grabbed her wrist and kept her moving.
“Let go of me.” She tugged her arm.
“Fine.” He did, but then got behind her and kept her moving along just by proximity. If she stopped walking, he’d bump her, and given he had quite a few pounds on her, a bump would have probably sent her tumbling to the ground andhard.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Not far. Just follow the path.”
Sighing, she walked faster to put some distance between them but realized there wasn’t all that far to go.
There was a little creek near the edge of the woods and it had a dock.
“Sit,” he said.
“I know you heard what I said. I said the demonstration is over. I don’t want to play with you.”
“You act like that, and yet the moment I lean in close”—which he did—“you’re suddenly sweet as pie.”
She sat, crossed her arms, and huffed. She wasnotgoing to sweet for him. The ropes were off, and no one was watching.
It didn’t matter that she wanted to be sweet. She wanted to hear that sound of satisfaction he made when he was having his way with her—when he was the one making the decisions.
“Why are you fighting this?” He knelt beside her, and even with the dim light from the dock she could see the furrowing of his brow and the tight set of his jaw.
“What, letting you be the dom?”
“You and I both know that’s just one component of my personality, which I suppress when I need to function in public. I turn it off unless I need to use it in the same way you don’t let just anyone give you instructions. Isn’t that right?”
She didn’t give him the satisfaction of an answer.
“We have a rare situation where we like each other outside of all the games. You do like me, don’t you pretty girl?”
“Don’t ask me that.”
“Because you’d have to say yes? Well, I’m not dancing on eggshells anymore. I’m going to ask you questions with the specific intent of hearing you tell me yes. I’ve been so concerned that you were going to flee, but I should have known you were going to do that anyway.”
“And I still plan to.”
“I understand that. And understanding that means I just have to adjust the way I treat you.”
“What does that mean? Do you skip right ahead to the end of the honeymoon period that turns you into that shitty dom who wants to put a collar on me? You want free rein to terrorize me in my private life?”
Having the woods at her back, she couldn’t be sure if there was some wild hungry beast behind her or if that growling sound was coming from Tim.
“I’m sorry you’ve had bad experiences,” he said. “I’m sorry you wanted to quit the scene and that you stumbled back into it this way. And I’m sorry our association up to this point has been so convoluted. At work every day, I’m used to asking for what I want in clear terms, and I haven’t done that with you because I was afraid that you’d push me aside before you got the chance to know me.”
