Girl In Pieces (17 page)

“Too late,” Oliver growled. “I’ve decided not to give her back.”

I smirked as I stepped out of Oliver’s private study and down the short flight of stairs into his playroom.

“As if I’d let you keep her.”

“If you didn’t want someone else to play with your pet, you shouldn’t let her off her leash.” Oliver
tsk
ed and smoothed his hand from her hair down her body. At her hip he dragged a handful of her skirt into his fist and pulled it up her gorgeous thigh until I could see the peak of black lace and pale, round flesh. “Uncollared. Unmarked. You’re just begging for someone to steal her.”

Kat moaned, fingertips digging into the wall beneath the hand Oliver secured her with. Her whole body shook as he stroked her thigh.

Wordlessly, she gave in to his
pushpull
, breaking her down bit by bit, stripping back the mouthy, sarcastic girl who’d walked into the party, to find the giving, wanting submissive beneath the act. Oliver was good at rending people to their base atoms, deconstructing their flaws and rebuilding them stronger, better, more beautiful. You had to respect a Dom with that much power.

Fortunately, I did respect him or I’d have broken the fingers he touched her with. If he hadn’t called me after his conversation with Kelli, this would have gone very differently. I’d had no idea stories of my tying Kat up during the Halloween party had made their way through the community. They whispered about her natural ability to take rope and my unquestioning obsession with her. Thank God for gossip, because if Oliver hadn’t been such a good friend with such gossipy connections, he would have taken Kat without question. Who wouldn’t?

I took the last step into the room. The playroom was round, sparsely furnished with a bed across from the balcony, pulled away from the walls to allow complete access to every side. There was a chair and ottoman in the corner, and several cabinets each with their own purpose and lock. A variety of rugs splashed the wood floor, different textures for different sensation play. Bunny soft pelts to pebbly, course mats.

For someone who didn’t know better, it looked like a seldom used guest room, that is, until you noticed the wrist cuffs nestled on white sheets where a pillow should have been. The downy white pillows instead piled on an armless chair beside the bed within reach of a belt rack. A bowl of feathers had nothing to do with decoration. Coils of cloth in a padded box were not on the bedside table on accident.

When one needed to gag ones sub, one did not have time to go searching for something that would do the job.

“She knows who she belongs to.”

“Do you?” Oliver murmured against her hair. He roughed up her skirt again, spread his fingers wide across her pale thigh and gripped as much as he could hold. “Do you know who you belong to, little sub?”

When she keened, the sweetest, neediest little moan, I thought I’d die. A part of me loved seeing her possessed by another Dom, held for ransom until she begged for me to rescue her. A part of me felt vicious, inconsolable jealousy. Oliver and I had shared subs before in play, but this was different.

Though no less hot. More, maybe, knowing how much Kat loved performing for an audience.

More importantly, it made me very sure I was done with boundaries and restraint. If I had doubts before, seeing her held by Oliver destroyed them all.

She belonged to me. Always had. Always would.

“Josh,” she begged. She moaned. “I belong to Josh.”

God, I loved when she begged my name.

But then Oliver smacked the thickest part of her thigh with the flat of his hand, more noisy than painful, but the sting of it vibrated the air between us and left a red spot spreading across that gorgeous plane of flesh. Kat muffled a shocked cry and cringed remorsefully into his arms. He didn’t pet her or console her. Instead he pressed in closer so she had no room to move.

“Master,” he corrected. “He is your Master and you will show him the respect he deserves.”

“Master Josh,” she repeated, which immediately made my dick throb. I crossed my arms and watched the other Dom become my enforcer, loving how gorgeous her apology sounded between each breathy pant. “I’m sorry, Sir. I’m sorry.”

“Fine.” Oliver groaned in defeat, stealing a small nuzzle against her hair, before pulling her away from the wall and giving her hips a little nudge towards me. “Lucky bastard. Go on, little sub. Show him how much you missed him.”

As soon as he gave her permission, Kat twisted in his hands to look at me, to make sure it really was me. She bit her lip to contain her joy, cheeks pinking with pleasure. Her eyes said,
You came for me.
It was hard not to break character and return that smile. Wordlessly we’d all agreed to play our roles, negotiating the terms of the scene with our eyes and bodies. I wanted to kiss that mouth and pet her and sooth her and promise never to leave her alone again.

Instead I pointed at the floor beside me.

“Here. Now.”

She dashed from Oliver’s arms and fell to her hands and knees at my feet, gracelessly and undisciplined like a kitten just discovering its paws for the first time. Her hair fell around her shoulders, the pink ombre strands catching the moonlight.

Her knees were spread a little too far apart. Her fingers too. The eagerness of her obedience and the flawed execution was fucking adorable. I wanted to drag her head back by her hair and kiss the shit out of her.

Despite that, I couldn’t forget why she’d come to this party, to replace me
again
. She hadn’t trusted me and she’d put herself in the path of another Dom she could know nothing about. One dangerous decision had been more than enough.

My displeasure didn’t diminish with my affection. If anything, her ardent love made me want to punish her more severely for letting Oliver come anywhere near her. 

“Did you think,” I threatened delicately, sliding one hand into her hair and curling my fingers into a fist. “That I wouldn’t find out you were giving away your obedience,
your body
, when it belongs to me? Did you think I’d allow that?”

Kat squeezed her eyes shut, her eagerness degrading with guilt and genuine regret.

“Answer me.”

“I didn’t think you wanted me.” She sighed. “Sir.”

“Apparently,” Oliver drawled. “She doesn’t realize everyone has heard about her performance at the Halloween party. How everyone is talking about Josh’s beautiful ropeslut.” He circled us, stalking in and out of her view with each word. “As if I wouldn’t call you immediately when she was offered to me, like something that can be bartered and traded to the highest bidder. As if I’d ever take on another Dom’s little girl.”

Her body wilted into my side, her hair still caught between my fingers, but very gently she touched her temple to my thigh and rested there. Shit.
Oh, shit
, watching her like that was too much of a turn on. She was perfect, so fucking perfect, how had I not selfishly taken her before now? She nuzzled me, my pet, so sorry for what she’d done. I wanted her to feel how much it hurt when Oliver called me, but I didn’t want her to go into a dark place that would ruin this night. We’d both made mistakes.

This night was no longer about mistakes.

It was about finally claiming what was mine and proving to her how much I loved her. How much I wanted her. How I’d do anything to keep her.

“She’ll learn.” I softened my grip on her hair and gently slid my fingertips along her scalp. I caressed my hand down the smooth curve of her neck and with deliberate, constant pressure, I forced her head down to the floor. I crouched until I held her forehead to the fluffy soft rug she knelt on, her dress riding up to expose the backs of her thighs, Oliver’s hand print, and the most perfect little gusset of black lace I’d ever seen.

“You need to collar her.”

“I will.”

“Before you lose her again.” 

I growled. Oliver’s short temper, I knew, had nothing to do with me, but I gave him a warning look anyway.

“That will never happen again.” Kat shivered as I stroked her hair from her face and ran a hand down the length of her spine. She whimpered, muffled against the floor. “You’ll never run away again, will you Katrina?”

“Never,” she panted. “I promise.”

I glanced up at my friend and realized he wasn’t looking at Kat anymore and didn’t notice her mistake. He stared off through the French doors, brows drawn down and consumed by some dark thoughts that were his and his alone. I knew he was battling his own demons, the loss of a girl I only knew from brief stories he confessed when he was drunk or too exhausted to stop himself. A girl he wasn’t supposed to know, a girl he wasn’t supposed to have. A girl he’d indulged in just once.

And now paid the price every day for the rest of his life. A wanting that would never be sated.

I didn’t envy him his loss. It was the one reason I trusted him with my Kat and why he deserved someone to take his heart out on. He would never hurt her or touch her without my say so. He longed for someone else. Kat was never in any danger of catching his attention. Not really.

If Kat didn’t mind him here, I certainly didn’t.

She sighed happily when I drew her hair up and tucked it behind one ear. She turned her head just enough to look up at me.

“Do you want him to leave, Kat?”

She bit her lip and very gently shook her head. I smiled so she’d know I didn’t mind.

“Good. Oliver, get her up.”

I stood and my friend snapped out of his dark thoughts to reanimate as the Master of his playroom. He leaned down and caught her by her upper arm and pulled her to her feet. She stumbled into him and he steadied her. Gentle and unaffectionate at the same time.

“This dress?” Oliver asked as he pulled at it, eager to get her out of it as I was to have her out of it. “I hate it, don’t you?”

“Get it off her now.”

My usually mouthy girl stayed mute, eyes wide with stars, listening and taking it all in without comment or complaint. I liked her silence, as much as I liked her voice. It made what we did to her feel more permanent. I stepped back and watched as Oliver unhooked the back of the dress and yanked it in two, sharp pulls down her arms until it broke loose from the thickest part of her body and tumbled around her feet.

I groaned, unable to contain my reaction to seeing her bare, pale belly contrasted against black lace panties and black satin bra. The panties, their cut across the swollen rise of her ass gave her backside a heart shape, stretched wide over her full figure and just begging to be touched and marked.

I also wanted to rip them off her, shred them with my bare hands, and destroy them utterly. How this girl could make me feel so madly in love and young and delirious one minute, then violent and aggressive and ravenous the next was mind blowing.

Kat blushed, grinned, and nibbled her bottom lip. So this was the kind of submissive she was, bashful and sweet, eager and quiet. I couldn’t wait to see how she’d be tied up, how she’d react to pain and dominance. I remembered her on her knees at the party, cords of rope digging into her soft body. She’d slid almost effortlessly into her first taste of subspace, just enough to lose words and thoughts and time.

This girl.

“Bring her here.” I moved to the head of the bed where wrist cuffs attached to a bar beneath the frame waited, black leather stark against white cotton sheets.

Oliver brought my girl to heel at the end of the bed, urged her onto her hands and knees, and led her like a pet crawling up to where I waited. She bowed her head, hips swaying as she slid one knee under her, then the other, deliberately feline and teasing. Collared and leashed she’d become an unstoppable force against us, possessing us entirely even on her knees.

“Beautiful.” Oliver exhaled, sinking his hand into her hair and pulling her head back so she was forced to look at me.

“Mine,” I murmured as I brushed thin strands of pink from her eyes.

I couldn’t look away from her perfect upturned mouth, pink lips slightly parted and wide, lovely eyes. I knew her, knew her intimately and agelessly. Had known her since I was just a kid and through all of it I’d always had this one, stabbing thought –
mine
. Mine before I knew what that meant, how far I wanted it to go.

“Yes, Sir,” she said softly. She licked her lips, sucked the bottom one between her teeth, stealing my heart. I leaned down and tenderly kissed her open mouth. Her lips were wet, soft, the faintest scent of strawberry lip gloss mingling with the vanilla of her hair. She closed her eyes and purred breathlessly against my kiss. We could have stayed just like this, barely kissing, and I would have been content.

But my cock throbbed impatiently, wanting more, louder, harder. Tender would wait.

I took one hand in mine, threaded it through the cuff and pulled the buckle tight. Her glittery baby pink nails looked deliciously innocent gripping the chain that held her down. With the second wrist she sighed when I slid the cuff over her hand and secured it to her wrist. Her eyes glazed over, head lolled to the plush bed and nuzzled her cheek into it between her restrained hands. These cuffs forced her body to bend forward, only inches of give not enough to sit up. Their purpose was clear – they’d keep her face down on her knees, ass in the air, arms pulled taught towards the head of the bed. Everything open to me.