Chapter 27

*“The desire of the man is for the woman; the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.” - Madame de Staël*

**| MARCO |**

“I was beginning to assume that you have turned vanilla,” Gage chuckled before checking out Aurora. Clearly, he remembered her because you don’t really forget a pretty face as hers who busted your nose.

I recalled how pissed and confused he was, sitting in my office, holding a pack of ice to his bleeding nose while I went through the CCTV footage. For my part, I didn’t know what to feel – to be mad at her or worried because I could have lost her entirely.

But she was here now, by my side, and it made all the difference in the world.

“Me and vanilla?” I snorted. “Hell fucking no.”

Laughing, he dragged a barstool closer and perched on it, while I helped Aurora onto another one and stood by her. The bartender offered us the usual that Gage happily took in, unable to refuse a glass of whiskey while I waived off mine.

“You are doing any scenes today?” Gage asked conversationally as I kissed Aurora’s cheek and felt her curves in my hands. She was all appealingly feminine and sweetly submissive.

“No, but I have plans for the private room.”

“Ah! That explains.” He nodded, amused, before shaking his head. “And I take it that this pretty one is exclusive as well?”

“You bet your Irish ass it is!”

In that precise moment, Anna appeared, looking all timid as her eyes bounced between two Doms. Gage was already hooked on her, and I wondered when he would actually grow a proper pair to approach her.

Anna was an introvert, certainly submissive, and it would take months for a proper Dom to break through her defenses. While I was confident that Gage could, he took his sweet time.

“What is it, Anna?” I asked.

“It’s Lily again,” she replied, flicking a look at Gage who groaned disgustedly, raking his fingers through his short pelt of hair.

“Christ! I hate dealing with brats, Marco. I know you have a three-strike rule for membership suspension, but then, you have to deal with her because I am at the end of my patience. And I am not touching a sub in anger.”

And before I could reply, Aurora pinched my arm. No way in hell my little spitfire would let me touch another girl, another sub, even meant for punishment. Assuredly, I dropped a kiss on her shoulder in response.

“I am afraid I am not an option right now, but I will see what I can do.” I turned to Anna, instructing, “Have Lily wait in the dungeon. Go.”

Gage’s eyes trailed after Anna until she disappeared and then turned to me. “Canes and straps won’t work on her. I have already tried them.”

“I wasn’t suggesting those either. Have someone set up the wooden pony in the center and sit her down on it—naked. And make sure that the plank’s edge is right between her legs and her wrists cuffed behind her. Forty minutes, and she will be as docile as a lamb,” I advised.

Beside me, Aurora gaped like a fish out of the water but remained silent. Despite her training, her ruthlessness, and all the things that I have taught her, the extent of BDSM still shocked her core. Or maybe the things I was capable of doing.

“In that case, I got to go.” Gage stood before emptying the glass down his throat. “Listen, I know that I don’t need to remind you of the rules, but at least, don’t let her disappear from your sight,” he advised seriously.

“I won’t.”

Aurora waited until Gage was out of the hearing range. “What does that mean?”

I looked around the club, pointing at the submissives in general. “Look at everyone one of them. Do you see any difference between them and you?”

Her eyes surveyed the area, and by the look on her face, I knew she caught the difference. Only I was curious to know as to what she felt about it, about having a collar around her neck with my name on it so I could tug her close while I fuck her silly.

Unconsciously, her hands reached to her neck, and the fingers grazed over the bare skin as if an imaginary collar and leash adorned her throat. And someday it might. With diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. And yet none of those stones would be as priceless as her.

“So,” she cleared her throat, “the choker around the neck is like a dress code?”

I smiled and brushed a thumb over her painted lips. “It’s a symbol of ownership and consensual exchange. I will tell you more about it later. Right now,” I stepped away, allowing her to rise from the seat. “I want this corset-top off you.”

A frown crowded her forehead. “I am not getting naked here.”

“I know. But you have a bra under it, so you will be just fine. Now, the top, please,” I demanded.

Her eyes flitted around, hoping nobody would witness the act. She was far over-dressed in a club like this, and I knew that she would be comfortable within a minute of stripping.

“Ten seconds,” I pushed. “After that, I am taking it off you, but not before bending you over and warming that ass. The choice is yours.”

Lips pursed, she reached back and easily unzipped, wrenching the garment away and revealing the ample cleavage that demanded to be nipped and fondled.

Painfully, I dragged my gaze up, and Aurora tilted her head challengingly. Every step of the way, this woman challenged me to earn her submission, even in the slightest form of defiance. I took her jaw in one hand, caging her with another until she shrank beneath the weight of my stare.

The lips slowly parted, almost invitingly, but instead of kissing her, I took them between my teeth and denied her the intimacy she craved. I wasn’t a benevolent lover. I was a bloody dominant with urges so deep, fantasies so forbidden that lust flowed through my veins like hot lava.

“You were begging me to bring you into my world, dying to know the fantasies I harbor. Do you think you can handle it? Being trussed up, tied and bound to my will and nowhere to go?”

Fight and flight warred in her brown eyes. But there was also a burning desire to taste the dark promises I made as I watched a small shiver pass through her.

“Where would I ever go without you?” And she belatedly added in a breathy whisper, “Master.”

I sucked in a heavy breath, amazed by the innumerable ways she could undo me.

“Come with me.” I grabbed her arm and hauled her away before I give in and fuck her senseless, right in the middle of the club.

**| AURORA |**

Being a gentleman, for the time being, Marco unlocked the door and held it open for me to enter first. As I did, I paused a few steps short to drink in the ambiance.

The interior resembled the sophistication of a luxury suite, seemingly a honeymoon one, with four-poster bed and all its lace drapes. Save aside for the St. Andrew’s Cross and a couple of leather upholstered benches with weird planks, the room has a romantic character.

“Nervous, sweetheart?” His breath fanned the sensitive earlobe as I slowly came back to myself and felt a hand over my breast.

Sensations stacked up like Jenga pieces, delicately balanced and carefully replaced. Any moment now…

“Ah!” I involuntarily shrieked as he grabbed a fistful of hair and titled my head back.

“Didn’t your Master teach you that it is rude not to answer?” He sounded stern but playful. Another hand found my nipple and rolled between his fingers, crowding my senses with the dualism of pain and pleasure.

It was like the bloody yin-yang of the sexual epicenter—one couldn’t exist without the other.

“My master was busy fucking me thrice a day to teach me anything else. Maybe you could do it now?”

He took me by the throat this time, hypnotizing me with the steely gray eyes and making promises with unsaid words.

“Don’t move,” he said in a voice cool and stoic that leaves no room to dissect. A voice that of a dominant, that could either make you heady in arousal or frantic with need.

Lowering himself on one knee, he unhooked the skirt and allowed it to flutter down to the floor and went for the bra next.

I was beginning to understand the symbolism of each one of his sexual acts. He could have asked me to strip like he did a moment ago, in front of other people, but he didn’t. Behind closed doors, the beast in him craved to take away the modesty to satiate his animal aggression to dominate me. To take, rather than demand, what was rightfully his.

“Remember the safeword?” he asked and began to unbutton his shirt.

“I do. But, do I really need one?” I asked.

“You do,” he said solemnly. “As much as I want you sore and aching in the right places, I could only do it knowing I haven’t crossed the line.”

The shirt was shrugged off, revealing the breadth of his torso and firm abdomen.

His masculine built was a sight to behold. The lining of his muscles was more rugged than sculpted, with dust of dark blond hair over his chest that trailed down to his stomach, and then lower. Despite the slacks, the bulge was evident.

My eyes lingered over his manhood, waiting. Instead, he led me to a tall bench of about four and a half feet, with the soft leather padding on top. Somehow, my common sense told me that it wasn’t meant for sitting.

And I was right.

“Bend over,” he instructed, placing a hand over my back as I folded over. Marco came around and cinched the straps, locking my hands in place. Instinctively, I tugged at them.

“Problem?” He couched in front, petting my head.

“What are you going to do?” I asked and immediately felt silly. The man had me naked, bound and bent. He possibly would read me rhymes.

“Whatever I want. And I do want to do everything to you, Aurora. Things that will make you scream and writhe,” his deep, cultured voice rasped like an erotic ballad. “Is that enough an explanation? Because that’s all you are getting.”

I nodded, knowing it was futile to argue.

He stroked my breasts lazily, before abandoning them to disappear behind me once again. The upside-down position offered a very limited view, so I didn’t see what was coming.

Only the sound. A belt dragged out of the loops, and before I knew it, the brought it down on my ass.

“Son of a bitch!” I screamed involuntarily as the pain seared across both the cheeks.

I had taken floggers, paddles, and canes, but his belt was a first.

The next one came down over the thighs. “If you can’t keep the legs spread, I’ll strap them too.”

I knew bloody well the man would. Toes curled and hands fisted, I spread them apart as he belted in rapid succession, concentrating mostly on the globes.

The first two made me curse like a sailor, I yelped for the next three, but after that, my body began to process the pain until the blows stopped.

“Are you okay?” I finally heard him over the roars of my ears.

“I guess...yes.”

His palms held my quivering thighs and bent down to pepper kisses over the throbbing skin. “You wear my marks beautifully,” he praised. “Let me take away the pain, bella.”

I could only moan in response, oblivious to his ministrations. Marco spat over my welted asscheeks and spread his saliva like a salve and then blew over them. The coolness brought momentary relief, and for the time being, I bask in it.

“I don’t want you in this position for too long, so let’s get it over with,” he finished his monologue, making my head spin with possibilities.

A hand pulled apart my left ass cheek and cool liquid dribbled over. I wasn’t prepared for the sharp, sudden, shocking invasion of his finger at the back entrance.

“No, Marco, please,” I begged and began to jerk away.

“Shh. I am just preparing you.”

“Yeah, well, I am not a damn chicken to marinate!” I hissed, trying to kick him with the free legs but he caught it fast.

“No, you are a fine piece of ass that I intend to ride it later.” He chuckled and gave a smarting smack over the welts, awakening the burn that instantly stilled me. “Don’t clench them because it will hurt.”

The finger began to circle and probe past the tight ring of muscle. “Uh...two holes are not enough to accommodate one dick? Ah, fuck!” A bundle of nerves came alive as he used slowest of movements to finger-fuck my ass.

“Breathe in and out, slowly, and you will be just fine,” Marco coached. “I’m going to use a small anal plug. We’ll talk about it afterward. If it’s truly a problem after you try it, I’ll respect your wishes.”

I believed his words of comfort. And maybe for this reason alone, that I began to look for pleasure in the odd sensations that swirled like a tornado, hitting right at the clitoris. The moment my body began to accept the intrusion, he retreated his finger and replaced it with a cold, hard piece of steel.

“Is it going to hurt?” I asked, craning my neck as much as possible.

“If you cooperate, relax, and push back when I say, it won’t hurt,” he promised. So I braced myself.

He twisted the slickened, nasty thing past the rectal muscles, and it gently stretched its way in. I felt full, oddly filled in the intimate place even I haven’t explored—for even though of it.

“There.” He patted my hips briefly, announcing the worst was over, before unlocking the straps and helping me stand.

With every small movement I made thereafter, every little twitch and wriggle, the awareness of the giant thing lodged up in my ass painted my face red in embarrassment. But somehow, the foreign sensations were oddly erotic. Like the first taste of wine. You wouldn’t exactly like it, but you would develop a palatable sense with time.

“How do you feel?” Marco asked.

I grimaced. “Like someone put a dumbbell in my ass?”

He laughed as he took both my hands in his, tugging me forward. “It is the smallest one in my collection, but because it is stainless steel, it is comparatively heavier than silicone. You should be grateful that I didn’t put a plug with a vibrator in it.”

God help him and his kinks! “Oh, thank you, Master, for being so bloody thoughtful.”

“Let me put your mouth to good use since you can’t seem to control it,” his voice was like dry ice, smoked in lust. “Kneel.”

And I did.

Marco came forward, shoving my thighs apart and bunched the hair at the nape for his control. “Take out my cock.”

I reached for his fly, helping free his hard cock, throbbing with the same need as mine between the legs. I gripped the thick, veiny shaft, stroking the tip with my thumb until the small bead of pre-cum glistened at the silken head, and licked it off—with a long and slow swipe of my tongue.

A barbarian grunt slipped out of him as I hooked my eyes with his. Whoever said sex was power, he was abso-fucking-lutely right.

“Goddamn it!” He yanked at my hair and shove into my mouth.

I watched his face, which was nothing but carnal with need. Beaded sweat crowned his forehead, heavy-lidded eyes fluttered open and close while his full lips gasped with every pull and push of his enormous cock in and out of my mouth.

While he completely owned the movements, my hands slid up his thighs and found his sack of balls to cup and squeeze.

“Ah, fuck!” He lashed out as the control began to ebb away from him, and his release teetered on a dangerous edge. I watched him, struggling with the need to come as well as fighting to delay to gratification.

“If you make me come in your mouth, Aurora, I will fuck your ass with a dildo all night long and not let you come,” he threatened with a voice like gravel and stone.

I immediately retracted my hands, locking them behind my back. With a final grunt, he completely pulled out of my mouth, leaving behind a trail of drool seeping down the corner of my mouth.

A satisfied smile adorned his lips as he wiped the tears off my face.

Stepping out of the fabric pooled around his legs, he doled out another one of his commands, “On the bed, bella.”

I did mindlessly, under a heady spell of dominance and submission because somehow it made my heart flutter and my pussy quiver with need.

“Give me your hands, love” he demanded, and when I offered, he shackled them to headboard stretching above my head.

Instinct made me pull, but in all our sexual encounters, I have come to realize that it was the vulnerability of sexual bondage that gave me the ultimate pleasure. Maybe this was the reason I let him take me to the dark places I didn’t know I possess.

Marco climbed between my legs, grabbing the back of my knees in a vice-like grip as he thrust into me all at once, up to the hilt, making me gasp and shriek in erotic pain.

“So wet and nice for me,” he noted, both in pride and arrogance.

“Please...” I moaned with my mind reeling in the intoxicating contrast of pain and pleasure.

Every time he would pull out slower but rammed into me with an animal force, jolting the plug seated deep into my ass and awaken the bundle of nerves. I was already stretched me so full that my legs were already shaking with the need to come.

“God, harder,” I begged with close eyes, trying to chase the orgasm.

But Marco was a master in every sense of the word. I knew he wouldn’t let me have a release until he deemed necessary.

“Open your eyes and watch me fuck you, Aurora.”

I forced to lift my eyelids, blinking rapidly to clear the smoky haze of sex and sin. As a reward, he fucked me a little faster, making me beg like a wanton woman.

“I love this, you know,” he gritted in between ruthless thrusts. “When you beg like this—beg for my cock anywhere I want to fuck you. When you beg for pain even knowing I can hurt you.”

“You wouldn’t hurt me, not truly,” I told him, not under the intoxicated lust but because it was a bone-deep knowledge lodged inside the marrow.

“But I want to,” he growled desperately, pressing his sweat-laden forehead against mine. “I want to be the only man to hurt you.”

“Then so be it.” Tipping my head up, I kissed his mouth to taste the sins.

He slowly pulled back, and I watched him grab a small dropper, all the while fucking me slow and rough, and drop something onto my clit with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

“What is that?” I croaked, straining my neck to catch a glimpse.

“Something special,” he answered, smearing the slick drops over my clit.

At first, I only concentrated on his touch, but a cool, tingling sensation began to spread over the area, evoking sensations of swelling blood.

“Ah! Fuck, fuck.” I thrashed against the binds, unable to come to terms with the building heat.

“That’s my girl,” Marco crooned in a voice like velvet. “You are going to come now, baby. You are going to come with your ass and cunt full, and your clit swollen and red. Isn’t it?”

Every muscle twitched with longing, sending euphoria waltzing through my veins. I gritted my teeth and let out a screeching war-cry as my orgasm came crashing down, and Marco reared up to swallow my loud cries.

It was one of the most intense orgasms I had, having stars explode in front of my eyes. The pounding slowed for the moment until I settled into sanity.

Minutes later, my gaze locked with his, peering right into his soul as his muscles began to tighten. Despite my bondage, I canted up my hips to meet his thrusts and felt the tremor pass through his body as he climaxed. Next, I felt the plug being taken out with a plop, leaving behind a void, and my hands freed.

“You, woman, would be the death of me one day,” Marco panted between shallow breaths as I recovered, rolling in to fit into his arms and pillowing his chest.

“I am already dead and in heaven,” I slurred, closing my eyes.

*“Io sono innamorato di te,*” he murmured, holding me tight.

***Translation: I am in love with you, Aurora.***

Marco always mumbled in Italian in heightened moments, and I was too exhausted to ask for a translation. So I nuzzled closer, humming, “Me, too.”

“Do you understand what I said?”

I shook my head feebly. “Nuh-uh.”

Marco chuckled and kissed the top of my head, lulling me with a surprisingly gentled tone. “Sleep now, sweetheart. I got you.”

I sank into the blissful moment, bracketed securely in the arms of the only man who mattered to me and listened to the words lingering in between his thumping heartbeats.