Secrets Shared (13 page)

“I know. They’ve gone to St Andrews so Jeff can play golf, and Kath can spend all day in the spa.” Why was he telling her stuff she already knew? The break had been planned for ages, and both Jeff and Kath had been looking forward to it. Just because Jess had been introduced to Diomhair and David hadn’t changed that.

“I think we need to see if you can get into the castle via your passage.”

That did wake her up. “Yuk, that sounds like a particularly awful euphemism.” Jess rolled over and sat up against the pillows. She winced as her tender bum rubbed on the sheets. David noticed and his concerned look became focused wholly on her.

“Still sore? Let me get arnica.”

“Nope, it’s an honorable sore.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Pet.”

“Truly, Sir.” Jess was amazed how easily the salutation slipped out. “I want to feel the sting. It makes me happy I pleased you, and accepting I’m now getting to be who I really am. Oh, we both know there’s a lot I’m not ready for, and maybe I never will be, but, well”—she grinned—“the tender bum is fine. If it ever isn’t, I’ll tell you, I promise.”

David held her chin in both hands and kissed her. His touch gave her a tingle, which ran from her nipples to her clit. Without realizing what she was doing, Jess arched her back so her nipples stuck out. He moved one hand to pinch each nipple in turn, hard enough to send a frisson of pleasure-pain through her. Her clit throbbed, and she moaned into his kiss. Slowly, David broke the contact.

“Brat, there’s no time for that now. Later I’ll show you just what we can do with these. First please, love, the passage. I don’t want to ring Jeff. He and Kath need this break. But I’m convinced someone is getting in here and trying to access the records. They’ve not managed it, our security is tight. I haven’t told Jeff yet, because I wanted to check things out first. The outer doors are secure, and the alarm’s not broken, so it was only when you mentioned the passage I began to wonder.”

Jess nodded. “Well, to be to be honest, Jeff and I swore never to mention the passage to anyone. Look.” She showed him the scar on her wrist. “Jeff has one as well. I know when the castle burned down Dad said it wasn’t worth sorting the passage out. He didn’t sort any of it out to be honest. Just made it safe, and then upped sticks. I think it upset him too much to look at it. And if you’ve not mentioned this intruder stuff to Jeff, he’d not have any reason to say about it. How long has it been going on?”

“Only a couple of days. I did all the security checks, and was going to talk to Jeff when they get back if need be. If we decide whether the passage is involved, then I can present him with all the facts.”

“Right.” She kicked the duvet off completely and swung her legs out of bed. As she stood up, Jess wobbled and David took her arm to hold her steady.

“Careful. You’ve been through a lot in a short time, you know. You’ll be stiff and maybe a bit light headed.”

“Okay, right, I’m fine now.” She twisted to look at her bum in the mirror. The skin was still red. It gave her a strange feeling of completeness. One she’d analyze when she had time. “Got to say, Sir, you redden an arse well.”

He swatted her bum with one hand and she jumped. It stung. She yelped.

“To continue, when we were kids Jeff never knew how to get into it. I had to help him every time. Has he never mentioned it?”

David shook his head.

“Ah, then at the risk of annoying you, I’m glad he kept his oath. Although I do wonder what you’d’ve done if it did suddenly open and someone popped out.”

David chuckled. “Hit them with my flogger? Who knows? Which room?”

“Your lounge. Er, I appear to still be naked.”

He smiled his wicked, slow and oh so sexy smile. “So you do.”

Jess debated whether to roll her eyes or stamp her feet. A glint in his eyes warned her to do neither. She bit back a sigh, slid to her knees and dipped her head instead. “Please, Sir, may I have my clothes and shoes? It’ll be dark, dusty and spidery I reckon.”

He stroked the top of her head. “Of course, pet. And thank you.”

“Eh?” What was he thanking her for? “Oh.” Jess realized what she’d done without thinking about it. “Yes, Sir. Well I did say I’d sub in the bedroom.”

“You are a brat.” It was obvious from his tone he was happy with her attitude. “Your clothes are in the wardrobe. I’ll make coffee.”

Jess stood up as he walked out and rubbed her bum. She’d sat down on her heels harder than she’d meant to and it had hurt. That was something to remember.
Careful when
flogged.

Her jeans and top were folded on a shelf, and her underwear was next to them. They’d been washed and she gave up a mental note of thanks. No way could she put on dirty knickers, and she had no intention of going commando under her skinnies. The nylon thread used to create the seams chafed. After the briefest shower on record—even if she’d need one after they’d inspected the passage, she wanted one then—she dressed and made her way to the kitchen.

David turned to greet her with a cup of coffee in each hand. He handed one over to her and lifted up a toolbox.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks, I need this.” Jess took the cup and inhaled deeply. The aroma of full-bodied roast hit her and she sighed before she took a sip. “Perfect. Let’s go then.” She led the way into David’s lounge.

“Okay let’s see if we can get this entrance open. You do it.” She stood to one side of the fireplace. “Run your fingers under the mantle. From left to right. You see that carved rosette thingy?”

David nodded. “Yeah, and…?”

“Well, just after it there’s a bulge. When you run your hand over it you should feel a wee nick in the stone.”

He did as she told him. “I’ve got it. What next?”

“Behind it is a loose stone. If it still works you move it to the right.” She took another sip of coffee and waited. It seemed ages before David grunted. “Done. It was bloody hard, though.”

“Well, if no one’s used it since I was a kid no wonder. Okay, now we go to Hattie.”

“Hattie? Oh, the portrait. What does she do? Swivel her eyes?”

Jess laughed. “Nope, she opens the passage. If you go to the left hand side of her frame and push it, then look to the left again you’ll see the panel open. Hopefully. Why it was designed like that I’ve no idea. But if you don’t do it in the correct order nothing works.”

“This isn’t a proper frame, is it?” David asked as he pushed on it.

“Nope, part of the paneling. Yay, look—it works.”

To David’s left a narrow opening appeared in the wood panels. Jess put her cup down and walked across to it.

“There used to be electricity, but that was before the fire. Have you got a torch?”

“I’m ahead of you.” David opened the toolbox and took out a long extension lead, with a mesh covered light bulb attached. He plugged it into a nearby switch and the bright light illuminated the aperture. “Do you want to go first? Or shall I do the spider patrol?”

“Oh, you go ahead. I’m happy for you to eat the cobwebs.”

He ducked inside the passage. “Er, Jess?” His voice was hollow and echoed back to her. “You might want to come in now.”

Jess squashed the jitters of nerves that slid across her skin and made her chilly. She followed him, and stopped dead. The passage and stairs that led downwards were spotless. No dust, no cobwebs and no spiders.

“I think that answers my question then.”

Also available from Totally Bound Publishing:

Boundaries: To Love and Submit

Katy Swann

Excerpt

Chapter One

Rachel moaned indulgently as the man slid easily into her deliciously wet pussy. He was big, so very big, and as he filled her with his long, thick shaft, she wondered briefly if she could take the full length of him as he pushed himself farther into her. Just when she thought she would burst, though, he pulled slowly out and a slight hint of a smile appeared in his eyes as they commanded her to surrender to him completely. Desperate to feel him inside her again, she tried to pull him back, begging him with her eyes to take her. Just as she raised her hips urgently toward him, he plunged deeply back into her, filling her completely and making her cry out with pleasure.

“Good girl,” he growled, “let me hear you scream.”

“Yes, Sir,” she cried, knowing he would be expecting her to respond and, as she did so, he rewarded her with a harder, deeper thrust. She wanted to touch him so badly, to run her fingers along his perfect, muscular body and, in a desperate attempt to get closer to him, she tugged at the cuffs that bound her wrists to the rail at the head of the bed. She soon forgot about them, though, as she felt a sharp slap on the side of her thigh and the desperate need in her intensified as her body responded with a delicious shudder.

“Again?” His voice was rich and deep, and behind the hard line of his lips lurked a smile that promised more delights to come.

“Yes please, Sir,” she whispered, her voice now hoarse with emotion and lust.

“Pardon? I didn’t hear you.” Another slap and her body quivered uncontrollably in response to the hot sting his hand left on her buttock.

“Yes, yes, yes…” she cried.
But then, devastating reality began to force its way into her consciousness as she slowly woke from her dream. “
Yes
… Oh, shit!”

She sat up in her bed, painfully alone and very aroused. Shit, it had felt so real, his voice, his body, everything. She rubbed her wrists, fully expecting the marks from the cuffs to be visible but, of course, there were no marks, no cuffs and no gorgeous man demanding her compliance.

Rachel sighed, resigned once more to gratification thanks to her trusted and reliable Rabbit. As she reached under her bed, she tried to conjure up the image of the strong lover who had just been ravishing her in her dream. This was the fifth time she had had this dream, always with the same man, and yet she could never recall his face once she woke. No matter how hard she tried, he remained an elusive fantasy only willing to appear in her sleep.

She moved her hand down under her duvet and quickly checked that she was nice and wet for her battery operated lover. Yep, she was definitely ready and she quickly slipped the cold, hard device into her wetness then flicked the switch. Nothing happened. She pulled it out again and fumbled with the various settings, but still it remained stubbornly silent and still.

Shit, shit and double shit, the fucking batteries were dead. This was not a good start to the day, she thought, as she reached down to finish with her fingers.

Half an hour later, she stomped into the kitchen, now showered and dressed, and grunted a half-hearted greeting at her flatmate, Mandy.

“What’s the matter with you?” asked her friend with a smirk. “From what I heard, you should be grinning like a Cheshire Cat.”

Rachel stared at Mandy in shock. “What?”

“Sweetie, the walls are very thin in this flat, in case you didn’t know. Either you’ve got a secret lover hidden away in that room of yours, or you’ve been playing with your bunny again.” Mandy winked at her and handed her a cup of fresh coffee.

Rachel sighed. “I had that dream again, you know, the one where this gorgeous man straps me to the bed and has his wicked way with me? Well, it’s getting more intense.” She took a sip of her coffee and felt a shiver run through her body as she remembered the feel of the cuffs holding her arms above her head. It had felt so incredibly sexy, and yet she wasn’t normally into kinky stuff like that, so it didn’t make sense that she’d be having such erotic dreams about it. The trouble was, now that the idea was so firmly planted in her head, she couldn’t stop thinking about it and the more she thought about it, the more the idea of being tethered to a bed and at the complete mercy of a strong, dominant man excited her.

Mandy stuck some bread in the toaster and came to sit next to Rachel at the small kitchen table. “What you need, my friend, is a man. One who’s into the same kinky sex as you.”

“I’m not into kinky sex. Just because I’ve had a few weird dreams about being tied up doesn’t turn me into a bloody Dominatrix.”

“Of course not,” Mandy looked at Rachel as if she was stupid. “A Dominatrix is the one who does the tying up. You like to be tied up, which makes you the submissive.”

Rachel nearly choked on her coffee. “I am
not
a submissive. I’ve never been tied up in my life for God’s sake!”

“Except in your dreams.” Mandy got up to retrieve the hot toast as it popped up. “All I’m saying is, you’ve obviously got this hot fantasy and there’s no smoke without fire and all that shit. Toast?”

Rachel took a slice of the slightly blackened toast and stared at it absently. “Yeah, but the way I’m going I’ll never meet anyone and, even if I did, they’d probably run a mile if I hinted that I might want to experiment with a bit of bondage.”

Mandy chuckled. “I wouldn’t count on it. Most single, straight men would jump at the chance of tying up a gorgeous woman and fucking her senseless.”

Rachel laughed at her friend’s rather crude but probably accurate statement. “Well, I don’t know any single, straight men, except for Mike Jones at work.” Mike was the Facilities Manager who had been harboring a crush on her for months. He was very sweet, but middle-aged, overweight and had a serious BO problem.

Mandy’s eyebrows shot up. “You have got to be joking! Okay, babe, we’ve got to get you sorted before you end up shagging the likes of Mike Jones.”

“Yes, but how? There’s no way I’m going to some seedy club to pick up a complete stranger.” Taking a bite of the toast, Rachel shrugged. “Even if I was that desperate I wouldn’t want the risk of picking up some nutter.”

Mandy studied her for a second and sighed. “You know, you could join an Internet dating site. I’d bet there are a few that cater for people into BDSM and stuff.”

“No way, I’m definitely not that desperate, and anyway, I don’t really know if I am into all that stuff. I don’t want to lead some scary dominant man on, only to find that it’s not what I want after all.”