Read Safeword: Matte for Free Online Page B

familiar with this one, too. That's more the look I was hoping to see. Six more strokes.”
    There were more screams and moans going on in the dungeon now, and she didn't feel as self-conscious about screaming now as she had in the beginning. She screamed on all six strokes, each one a traumatic line of fire and suffering, pinpointed and dreadful and absolutely perfect. He waited until the final stroke was applied before he rubbed her down. When he was finished he put the cane back into the pipe and reached into his bag, pulling out a mean looking tawse. Wait, wasn't that redundant? Were there any nice looking tawses? No, probably not.
    Ethan walked to her and dropped to his knees gracefully, sitting back on his feet and placing the tawse across his thighs, the tan of the tawse contrasting on the black of his shorts.
    “You've taken more than I thought you’d be able to, and without knowing how quickly you heal I'm not comfortable giving you ten of the kind of strokes with this I think you can handle. I'm going to give all strokes from your left side. Four strokes, each one harder than the one before unless you give me a signal. When I'm done I have some arnica cream I want to rub in before I let you up, okay?”
    She nodded and he rubbed her cheek. “No tears. Someday perhaps we'll talk about what it might take to make you cry. But not today.”
    The first stroke wasn't so bad, the second was worse, the third had her screaming again, and the fourth almost made her wet herself. He must have put the cream in his pocket, because he was rubbing her down, smoothing the cool cream into her ass before she'd even stopped screaming. She wanted more. More pain, more fire, more heat. She knew he could get her farther into subspace than anyone had ever managed, but that wasn't what today was supposed to have been about. Today was about them learning about each other, seeing if there was something there to build on. Was she what he wanted? God, she hoped so.
    He put her clothes and shoes and all of his things into his bag except for his shirt. When he let her up he put his shirt on her – without buttoning it – and walked her to the sofa, sitting the bag at his feet and pulling her into his lap. Sam was taller than most women, at five foot eight and a half inches tall she wore a size seven or nine depending on the cut, which she thought was a perfect size for her, but she'd never had anyone make her feel small before. When Ethan held her in his lap, she felt like a small child. It was comforting. No one who saw her in a courtroom would believe it if they saw her now, but this was what she needed. No, she needed both. Each part of her was important – the lawyer and the woman, the hard ass and the submissive.
    Sam wasn’t sure how long they sat; she was comfortable in his arms and had no concept of time. It wasn’t a deep subspace, but she was definitely floating. She was pulled back into the present moment by the vibrations of Ethan's chest rumbling beneath her face, the warmth of his skin, those hard as steel muscles just beneath. “I think it's time I took you back upstairs and gave you your voice back. Your clothes are in the top of my bag, let me help you into them.”
    She wanted to tell him she could dress herself, but she thought he meant she didn't get her voice back until they went upstairs, and she wasn't up for challenging his dominance right now. He'd earned her submission, shown her he could dominate her without fighting her for it – though she knew that still needed to happen. He held her pants for her to step into, and she passively allowed him to pull them up and fasten them onto her. He took his shirt off of her and put it on without buttoning it yet, then pulled her shirt on over her head.
    “Put your shoes on while I button up and then we'll head upstairs.”
    She did as he said, fastening the straps and standing, surprised to see he'd buttoned up and tucked in by the time she was done.
    When they went