Maya Banks - Sweet Persuasion

He straightened and looked at Micah. “Since you’re the only one here tonight without a slave, I’d appreciate it if you would assist in the discipline of mine.”

“What?” Serena spit out.

He turned and pinned her with his stare. “Care to make it three, Serena mine?”

Her lips clamped shut, but he could see her itching to say it, to blurt it out, to end it here and now. And so he waited. Expecting it.

To his surprise, her shoulders lost some of their rigidity. She closed her eyes and lowered her head.

“Serena?” Micah asked.

She slowly raised her head to look at him.

“Are you okay with this?” Micah asked gently. “All of this, I mean?”

Damon didn’t take exception to the question or to Micah infringing on his relationship with Serena. Micah loved women. Period. He was protective of them, flirted endlessly with them, but at the end of the day, he’d take on just about anyone who was taking advantage of a woman. And right now, it was a question that Damon very much wanted the answer to himself.

“I hurt Damon,” she said in a clear voice. “I was thoughtless when he’s been nothing but considerate. And then when confronted by my actions, in my anger I tried to embarrass him. I accept his punishment.”

“Even not knowing what it is?” Micah persisted.

“He won’t hurt me,” she said. The utter conviction in her voice carried across the room, and there were several nods of approval from his friends.

Micah glanced back up at Damon, evidently satisfied that Serena was acting of her own volition and didn’t need saving. Damon’s lips twitched with amusement.

“Would you have fought me if she’d said she was here against her will?” he asked Micah.

“Damn straight,” Micah said with a chuckle. “If only so I could be the hero and carry her off into the sunset.”

Damon turned formally to Serena and stared at her without emotion or inflection. “You’ve earned two punishments. One I will administer now in the presence of the people you’ve tried to offend. The other, which is for your lack of consideration for me, will be administered in private.”

She faced him calmly and nodded her acceptance, but he could see her body trembling and the whiteness of her knuckles as she curled her fingers into tight fists.

“Follow me,” he ordered as he started for the center of the room.

He motioned for Robbie to press the button that would drop the restraints from the ceiling. Serena’s eyes widened when she saw the two individually suspended cuffs slowly descend.

When they were low enough, he took Serena’s wrists and secured each, checking to make sure they didn’t bite too harshly into her skin. Then he nodded at Robbie, who raised the cuffs until her arms were stretched over her head.

From one of the cabinets near the television, Damon took out a spreader bar with ankle cuffs. He secured her legs on either side, spreading her so that her heels left the floor. She was now completely vulnerable and helpless.

He couldn’t help the surge of arousal even as the reason for her punishment weighed heavily on him. It would do no good to linger too long on his darker thoughts when such an enjoyable experience awaited him.

Serena was beautiful in bondage. Her absolute submission, her acceptance of his authority over her humbled him and made him hope again. Even as he cursed her for inspiring that hope.

Gathering her long, unbound hair in his hands, he carefully placed the strands over her shoulder so they were away from her back. Then he walked around to face her, his hands at his belt buckle.

“Your punishment is one lash for every one of my guests you disrespected. That makes a dozen. For each of those people I get one for me in turn. That makes twenty-four total. I won’t go lightly. You will give me pleasure and receive none in return. Is there anything you wish to say before we start?”

No.

Serena knew it was the word Damon expected to hear. Did he want her to say it? Did he want to push her until she had no choice but to give up and call it quits?

No, there was something else in his eyes. He tried hard to hide it, but she could see it, a glimmer of . . . hope? He didn’t want her to quit, but neither would he force this on her.

She locked gazes with him, hoping her eyes said more than words ever could. She shook her head wordlessly and braced herself for the pain and embarrassment of what lay ahead. It was hers. It belonged to her and she would own it with grace and humility.

He undid his belt and pulled it from his pants. In plain view, he carefully doubled it over and handed it to Micah, who once again looked questioningly at Serena.

She briefly closed her eyes but then reopened them and nodded at Micah so he would know that she accepted this. Micah took the belt from Damon and circled behind her.

“You will look at me and only me,” Damon said.

Her arms already ached from the strain, and her toes were numb from the awkwardness of being stretched so that her weight rested on the balls of her feet.

Again she nodded, just hoping he would get on with it. But she should have known better. Damon was nothing if not patient and exacting.

The first lash startled her. Her entire body jerked, and she cried out as pain burst over her back.

Strong fingers dug into her chin and forced it from her chest where it had fallen.

Her gaze found Damon, his stare hard and penetrating. “At me, Serena mine. Look at me. At all times.”

She raised her chin from his grasp and steeled herself for the next blow. It came like fire. This time across her ass.

When she made no sound and kept her stare locked with Damon’s, she saw approval spark in his eyes. It was obvious the last thing he wanted was for her to dissolve into a blubbering mass of hysterical female.

The next lash came quicker, across her shoulders where the skin bunched from her arms being stretched above her head. She closed her eyes and blew out her breath in a long whoosh.

Damon’s fingers yanked at her chin, and she opened her eyes to see reprimand in his.

“Add another lash for her disobedience,” Damon said to Micah.

She sucked in her breath and stared at him with hurt in her eyes.

“At me, Serena. Look at me. Every time you disobey me, I’ll add another lash.”

The next blow fell in the middle of her back, and she sank her teeth into her bottom lip, but she kept her eyes open and directed on Damon.

Micah spaced the lashes equally over her back and buttocks, careful not to put two in a row in the same spot. By the time he got to eleven, her entire back pulsed and ached with red hot intensity.

At twelve, Damon called a halt. Hope surged within her. Maybe she’d pleased him enough that he’d pardon her from the remaining thirteen he’d promised.

“The rest I want on her ass and only her ass,” Damon said. “I want it red. Beautiful, like her. Alternate cheeks, but don’t spare any effort.”

Her body went rigid, and she sucked in her breath, her protest surging to her lips.

“It will only hurt worse if you tense,” Damon said gently. “Relax, and it won’t hurt as bad.”

She took a long breath and forced her muscles into submission. Just as she wilted against her bonds, the first lash, stronger than before, streaked across her ass.

They came fast and furious, no break in between. Micah set a relentless pace, one destined to try the limits of her endurance. Locked into Damon’s loving gaze, his strength bleeding into her, bolstering her, the pain diminished. What was given in punishment became intensely pleasurable, and yet she knew it was not meant to be.

The room became hazy around her as she slipped beyond the immediacy of her bonds, of the welts rising on her ass. A soft sigh escaped her, and she stopped mentally counting the loud smacks as they fell.

Damon was all she could see. His hand cupped around her chin, supporting her even in punishment. His gaze was hard but proud and she reveled in that pride.

Do this for me.

It was as if she heard the words aloud. As though he asked her to understand, to take it because he demanded it, because she wanted to please him.

And she did.

Sorrow bled through the pleasure. Regret that she’d disappointed him.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered as the final lash descended.

Damon cupped her face in his hands and gently kissed away the tears that she hadn’t realized she’d shed.

“Serena mine.”

He said her name like a benediction, and his warm approval was all she felt in that moment. The pain diminished. Tension lessened in her arms, and the souls of her feet met the floor again.

Micah’s hands touched the tops of her shoulders and pressed firmly down. At first she didn’t understand what he wanted. She was still hazy, her back hypersensitive. Light shudders worked over her body at the slightest touch. Her skin was alive, crawling, edgy with unfulfilled need.

Damon was more patient this time as he waited for her.

“Down on your knees,” Micah murmured close to her ear.

Her knees buckled instantaneously, and Micah caught her underneath her arms to keep her knees from hitting the floor.

In front of her, Damon loosened his pants, unzipping them with deliberate precision. Micah’s hand tangled in her hair, forcing her head up just as Damon reached into his pants and pulled out his cock.

Damon stepped forward, his erection fisted in his hand. With Micah’s hands at the base of her neck forcing her head back, Damon put his palm on her forehead and guided his cock past her lips.

Unlike at the auction, where he had to reprimand her for taking control, this time she was exhausted and let him use her mouth as he wanted.

Micah supported her neck while Damon thrust repeatedly to the back of her throat. Damon’s words echoed in her mind.

You will give me pleasure and receive none in return.

But he was wrong. Her pleasure was tied to his.

She opened herself to him fully, her gaze seeking his. Damon’s eyes glittered above her as Micah angled her back even farther so Damon was all but straddling her face.

He sank into her mouth until her lips met the crisp hairs at the base of his cock. For a long moment he remained there, still, his sac pressed firmly to her chin.

She struggled but Micah’s hands tightened in her hair and Damon pressed harder. Her gaze flew up again, seeking his and she immediately calmed.

He withdrew, sliding his engorged cock over her tongue until the crown rested on her bottom lip. He reached down and cupped her chin as his cock was poised for reentry.

“The longer you resist, the longer I’ll make this last,” Damon said. “You’re mine, Serena. Your body is mine. Your mouth is mine. I own you. I’m fucking your mouth because it belongs to me. I’ll use it for as long as it pleases me before I come, and you’ll swallow everything I give to you.”

In response, she merely opened her mouth wider to show him her submission. Immediately, he shoved forward, forcing himself to her very depths.

She controlled the urge to fight, to gag and to reject the cock so deep in her throat. It took everything she had, but she focused on Damon’s eyes, locked on to the warmth and approval she found there, and she blocked everything else out.

As soon as she relented, he quit prolonging his orgasm and sped up his pace until he fucked her mouth as he would her pussy. Her cheeks hollowed and the sucking sounds filled the room as he smacked in and out of her mouth.

Precum spilled and coated her tongue as he swelled larger. Two men held her head. She was powerless and immobile. On her knees, her legs spread and bound, a cock possessing her mouth with relentless force. It was almost as though she were having an out-of-body experience, for as with the whipping, she slipped from the boundaries laid by her body and floated free, high on pleasure she didn’t understand but embraced with her entire being.

Damon’s face blurred but she felt him. His hands, his strength, his cock and finally the very essence of him. Male, primitive.

She drank greedily, determined that she would reject no part of his offering. In his hands, she found a comfort she’d never imagined. A security and safe haven that she would never know outside of his arms. She knew it, accepted it as an irrefutable truth.

“Serena.”