Strictly Business: Hooded Pleasures, Book 1 (11 page)

“You miss it,” she said.

It wasn’t a question.

He took another swig, enjoying the caffeinated rush. “I do. Every time when you take it off. It’s like dunking my head in ice water.” Alex reached up and rubbed his neck. “Are there subs who really wear it all the time?”

Kate shrugged, and he felt her tense up, her muscles clench at the question. “Some do, some don’t. It depends on the relationship.”

“I’m sorry.” The words slipped out before he could pull back.

She frowned. “Sorry for what?”

“For bringing up bad memories.”

He saw the flash in her eyes, the softness and pain showing through before the shutters fell.

Someone hurt you.

He ground his teeth together, the wave of anger surging through the exhaustion.

“Thank you.” She pulled him close and tugged the afghan over his shoulders. “Don’t forget anything you learned today. I will be testing you in the future.”

Kate stepped out of the shower and rubbed her hair dry with a towel. It’d been a good Sunday, a great Sunday appointment with Alex.

At least until the very end, when she’d thought about Carl.

The bastard had put her off every time they’d talked about collaring him at the club, announcing their dedication to each other in public. It was fine for them to live together and play together—but not make the commitment in front of everyone else.

In retrospect, it’d been like when she was a teenager and her mother warned her about living with a man who wasn’t willing to marry her.

Why would he buy the cow when he was getting the milk for free?

Her mother would be mortified to hear that the old saying also applied to D/s relationships.

She didn’t know he’d been going to the club on his own, letting himself be wooed away. He’d lied to her face and said he was working late, and she’d bought it. She hadn’t believed or wanted to believe he was capable of such duplicity.

She had been a fool.

Kate shifted her thoughts back to Alex with a loud grunt, forcing her mind to the present.

Damned trap.

She didn’t want to think about how many times she’d fallen through the floor to die a horrible death on the spikes below before figuring out the numerical algorithm to scoot on by.

Technically the question had been over the line, too personal for their professional relationship, but she had to ask after seeing the cover art framed and hanging on the wall. The image had nagged at her ever since she’d seen it on the first visit and the opportunity arose for her to ask about it.

She smiled as she remembered his response.

It was at the end of the session anyway and she needed something to finish up the lesson. He hadn’t made enough mistakes during the exercises anyway so—

She knew she was justifying asking about his personal life.

But it was Alex.

And Alex was—

Kate gave her head one last shake and hung up the damp towel.

She had to stop thinking about him when she was off the clock. It was fine to devote time to planning scenes, working out the details on how to fulfill his needs. That she owed to all her clients to deliver the best experience.

But Alex was different.

Her mind persisted in wandering back to him and him alone.

She’d considered interrogating him about his other projects, games she loved and played. Find out what was behind certain images, what storylines he had input in and what they’d discarded on the way to the final released game.

But it wasn’t what she was seeing him for. That would create an emotional connection, and that wasn’t allowed.

It was against the rules.

Kate tugged on her robe and went out to the living room to work on another sketch.

And to try not to think about Alex Hanson and his dastardly traps.

He’d fallen into a lovely routine of working hard Saturday night, pushing his mental limits to complete a project or goal. His productivity had increased tenfold, his ability to code and create working like a charm.

The reward was his weekly appointment with Kate.

Every week he earned it.

He still made mistakes, silly stupid mistakes he’d find later on and smack himself in the forehead about, but there were less of them than before.

Alex knew his life hadn’t really changed. He tried to eat healthy, tried to keep from overdosing on coffee and knew he loved candy bars way too much.

He’d found a part of himself he didn’t know he was missing.

His world was finally coming all together.

Every once in a while, Alex would pick up a book or visit a website, weighing them against his knowledge. Before, he’d only been able to watch as a voyeur, but now that he had real-time experience, it was different.

He understood now why during his interview Kate had expressed concerns about what he expected.

Some of the books were truthful, honest depictions of what she did with him.

To him.

Some…not so much.

But he couldn’t necessarily blame them. It was like capturing lightning in a jar, describing an elephant when you were blindfolded and had no idea what you were touching.

It wasn’t like the books or the movies.

It wasn’t like anything he’d expected.

It was more than the sexual experience; it was way beyond that.

But—

It wasn’t perfect.

There was something missing, something in his mind failing to make the final connection, push him that little bit further over the edge into perfect subspace.

He knew what it was called—the mental state when everything was perfect, the ecstasy of lines of codes falling into place, a mindless flow where it all came together and hitting the buttons was instinctive without any planning on his part.

It was so close, and with each visit seemed that bit closer. But there was something stopping him from reaching the final pinnacle. Alex was reminded of the theory about reaching the speed of light, the impossibility of getting there because every time you got close, the actual point would move farther away.

He wanted to hit the speed of light.

He just didn’t know what he needed to do to get there.

Kate smiled.

Eighth time was the charm.

They’d returned to his bedroom for another session, keeping to her mental system of rotating settings. The living room for the lovely leather couch, the hook set on the kitchen door for a proper flogging, the bedroom—

Ah, the bedroom.

Kate knew he’d had more than his share of erotic dreams here, compounded by the memory of her disciplining him on this very mattress, these very sheets.

And it was time to add to them.

She looked down on Alex.

Spread-eagled on his bed, facedown, collared and hooded. The sensory deprivation would allow his imagination to run free.

“Today, we’re going to play with your senses.” She drew the feather down his spine and saw his muscles twitch as he tried to process the feeling.

Kate leaned in, imagining the confused look under the hood. “You’re used to the hard math of numbers, of a computer screen grinding out images. Let me show you what else is out there. What other pleasures you can experience from the simplest objects if you slow down and pay attention.”

His mouth opened as if he were about to say something, but he stayed silent.

Kate smiled and reached for the rabbit-fur mitten.

His world was on fire.

She hadn’t slapped him or spanked him, flogged him or beaten his ass.

She’d stroked his arm with something so soft, so delicate that it confused his senses, the gentle touches driving him to immediate arousal. It continued as she moved across his shoulders and down, down his back. The feeling, the sensation brushing between his thighs, had given him goose bumps.

The object had disappeared to be replaced with a familiar touch—the deer-hide flogger trailing over his skin. He couldn’t help flexing away from the tails, his muscle memory calling up the pleasure and pain they delivered.

The smell of sandalwood filled the air.

Incense?

Next, a cool object pressed against his thighs. It began to vibrate, and he shuddered, the oscillations shooting through his balls and straight to his cock.

She has a vibrator.

Here.

Now.

Alex whimpered as it crept up between his ass cheeks and then moved to dance from one side of his ribs to the other.

Time expanded and stretched, snapped back like a broken elastic band as she moved on to other items, some of which he could identify and many which he couldn’t.

“Open your mouth.”

He did so, unable to refuse.

Something brushed his lips, pushed its way inside.

Alex automatically closed his mouth and sucked on the creamy treat.

Chocolate.

The sugar rush hit his system just as something jabbed him in the back of his right leg, starting at the ankle and working its way up over his ass, over his spine.

It felt like a thousand tiny needles rolling on and through his skin, leaving their marks behind.

A Wartenberg pinwheel?

His mind called up an image of the tiny wheel lined with sharp edges being drawn over skin.

The chocolate dissolved in his mouth as the wheel stopped.

He couldn’t see her, barely heard her thanks to the thick leather over his ears. All he could do was lie there and let her have her way with him. Do whatever she wanted.

Alex moaned as something tickled the bottom of his left foot.

Oh no.

He wriggled his foot, trying to shake her off.

The tickling shifted into pain as he strained at the cuffs, trying to pull away from her.

Suddenly, it stopped.

He went limp on the mattress, relief surging through his body.

Something cold dripped on the base of his spine, and Alex brought his head up sharply, the collar jangling as he reacted.

The cool sensation moved across his shoulders.

Ice cube?

The chill crept down his back, ending at his ass crack. He reflexively tightened up as the cool liquid slipped down and over his balls.

If he died right here and now, he’d be a happy, happy man.

His mental clock was all screwed up. He’d been here for minutes, hours, days. He couldn’t hear Kate’s clock chime, had no way of knowing when this beautiful torture would end.

Or if it ever would.

Kate glanced at her phone. It was almost time to bring him down, bring him out of his dreamlike state.

But not before she gave him something to remember this by.

She climbed on the bed and straddled him.

The answering moan made her smile.

Kate ran her hands along his shoulders, the damp skin warm under her touch. The muscles twitched as she dragged her fingers down his spine with her nails leaving crimson valleys in their wake, the oversensitized skin rising at her application.

Not enough to bleed but enough to mark him. Every time he looked in the mirror at his back for the next few hours, he’d see the welts and know who put them there.

Mine.

The soft chime went off.

Kate slid off the bed, mentally throwing up the walls. She focused on undoing the leather straps holding Alex’s hands and feet, letting her emotional high wane.

She knelt by the side of the bed and turned his head to face her as she carefully undid the ties keeping the hood secure, making sure not to get them tangled in his hair.

The gentle tug brought it off and left her eye to eye with him.

A sweaty, exhausted Alex stared at her, wide blue saucers filled with contentment and softness.

Kate smiled and kissed the tip of his nose.

“Good boy,” she whispered, the emotional storm whipping her almost to tears. “When you’re up to it, we’ll go downstairs and cuddle.”

She had been tempted to do it here, but the bedroom was too much of a minefield, too much of a temptation to take things further.

Alex slid off the bed and wobbled for a second, unsteady on his legs. He grabbed one of the bedposts to balance himself.

“Whoa.” Alex paused for a second before dropping to his knees with a grunt. His hands shot out and grabbed Kate’s legs. A short tug pulled her close, fully into his embrace.

She didn’t resist. Her pulse pounded in her ears as Alex nuzzled against her thighs, eyes closed.

He wrapped his right hand around the back of her left knee, caressing the soft flesh through the dark stockings. She’d worn fishnets today, with the black leather shoes she knew he loved.

“Thank you,” Alex whispered. “My Mistress. My beautiful Kate. My Katherine.”

Oh God.

Kate bit down on the inside of her mouth to keep from gasping at his touch. The heat burned through the sheer fabric, searing her skin.

Carl never said it like that.

Her mind conjured up images of an ancient Greek praying to his goddess, the soft whispers sent up to Olympus in adoration. On his knees worshiping Athena or maybe Diana.

She laid her hand on his head and stroked the fine black hair.

He pressed his lips to the dark nylons, the moistness soaking through to her skin. Shockwaves rippled out from his kiss, and she was lost, her senses overwhelmed.

A sigh escaped as she closed her eyes and sank deep into her own space, her own acceptance of his adoration.

They paused there for a second, a minute, an hour.

Her phone shouted from the nearby table. The angry chime vibrated through the room.

The emergency alarm.

Oh God.

“I’m sorry.” Kate untangled her fingers from Alex’s hair. She took a shaky step forward, feeling his hands fall away from her legs. Another few steps, and she was at the phone, silencing the alarm. She tapped the speed dial button with trembling fingers.

“Kate—speak to me. You okay?” Tracy’s voice shot out of the tiny speaker.

“I’m fine.” She looked back at Alex, who hadn’t moved. Still on his knees with his head bowed, his hands on his thighs, waiting for further instruction.