“But I want to suggest another approach. Try staying still, and then releasing that energy all at once when you need to. Don’t spend that energy as you get it, but save it up and spend it all at once. When you do, it will be more intense. And if you need to move, visualize that you’re moving not to release the sensations but to capture them, as if some of the pain is just to the left of you and one good move of the hip will get it and keep it contained. Try it, and I think you’ll get more out of your scenes.” He turned back to Sophia. “Do you think you can stay still, Sophia?”
“I can try.”
“Okay, let’s do this. And this time, rather than letting it go when you’re ready, if you can, hold on to it until I say to let it go.”
He flogged her in silence. She turned away and couldn’t see his face, but it felt different. The fact that he wasn’t lecturing made her feel like he was focusing his energy on her.
Or maybe he’s just whacking me harder.
But it all felt more spiritual than she’d expected.
And it felt something else too. There was a pleasant tension in her core. And moisture between her thighs.
I am so turned on. Pain doesn’t turn me on. I’m not a masochist. What’s going on?
She visualized not only holding the pain but pushing it around her body. Into her breasts. Into her belly. All the way to her pussy.
“Now, Sophia.” He accentuated the word with a hard thud against her back that almost knocked the wind out of her. She grabbed the post hard and shook it. She moaned. The release that flowed through her body was almost like an orgasm, although it left a tension behind that still needed to be satisfied.
Oh, I’d love to be made to come right now.
But still, it felt good.
Colby leaned over to her and touched her shoulder, just above where it stung most. This time, he muted the microphone. “You have fantastic energy. Did you know that?”
She shook her head, not sure what to say. What did he know about energy? Yet he had taught her something. She imagined it flowing back and forth between them.
He caressed her, running his hand all over her back. Her back was so warm, and his touch was cool. She closed her eyes and relaxed into it, feeling softer inside. And when his hand moved, it felt so soothing. It did nothing to ease the ache in her hard nipples, and she found herself wishing he would put his arm around her and play with her breasts.
She had imagined herself as a cat before, and a wolf. Reached deep inside her to peel away the effects of civilization and find the animal inside. But now she felt like water, flowing, even as she was hyperaware of the details of her own human body.
And he had gotten her there. Even though he left her erogenous zones alone, his touch felt too intimate for the public space. She craved more. She was floating.
Maybe I’m not water. Maybe I’m air. Or water vapor.
“Just a moment,” he said.
He backed away, and she wondered if he was going to strike her again. Instead, he started talking with that smooth voice of his. He could have done commercials or recorded books. He was saying something about technique that sounded cold to her and lifeless and empty of passion. But his touch had been anything but cold.
He returned to whisper in her ear. “Is that okay?”
She hadn’t heard a word he’d said. Had no idea of what she’d be agreeing to. She hesitated.
“You’ve been zoning out, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
He ran the tip of a riding crop along her shoulder. “I’d like to see how you go with this. May I?”
No, said her fear. But what came from her mouth was, “Yes.” She wanted to know how it would feel. She was sure she would hate it. She loved the feeling he’d given her, but she hated that he’d done it by flogging her. If he hurt her enough, she’d be able to push him away without a worry. Be able to mark the whole thing down as a bad experience and never go back again.
It would be so easy to hate him. What kind of man wanted to whip women anyway? And yet Colby sounded like such a perfectly reasonable, even compassionate human being.
“May I take your skirt off?” The microphone was back on, she noted.
She shrugged. “Sure.”
Her skirt was held on by elastic at the top. He caressed her sides and then slipped his hands under the band. He pushed down. His touch on her hips was electric. She wanted those hands on her ass. Or on her pussy.
What am I thinking? He is so not my type.
Chapter Two
Colby Brock knew what he liked in women. He wanted curves. He wanted lust. He wanted an ability to handle and eroticize pain. And he wanted to keep them at a reasonable distance.
Dylan had tried to steer him to a slender redhead, and he wanted someone who had a bit more padding. When the man he presumed was Sophia’s boyfriend put her hand up, he figured she’d be perfect. She was already in the kind of relationship where she could be volunteered for things like this, for one thing, so he didn’t have to worry about emotional attraction. He shouldn’t, anyway, when he was just doing a demo, but it had happened before. And Sophia was the perfect shape—both for his own personal enjoyment and for taking what he had to give. She had a nice big ass that would cushion the blows, and her back was broad.
He’d been careful not to show his surprise on finding out she was a complete novice. He’d have a talking-to with the boyfriend who thought it was smart to stick her hand up. But he was enjoying working with her. She was alive, vibrant, and fresh. It had been a long time since he’d played with a newbie. Due to his reputation in the BDSM scene, there generally wasn’t a lack of experienced subs who wanted to play with him. He preferred them because they were less likely to try to get involved with him; they wanted a hot scene and nothing more.
In any case, he’d return Sophia to her boyfriend, give the man a few tips on how to play and how not to treat a sub, and hopefully they’d be off to a better life together.
In the meantime, he was going to enjoy the feel of her skin.
His hands lingered on her legs a moment longer than was strictly necessary to remove the skirt, and he smiled at discovering she wasn’t wearing any panties. He let the skirt drop to the ground and stooped to pick it up as she kicked it back.
He wasn’t going to start her ass on the crop. Maybe with a very experienced masochist, but not with Sophia. He hadn’t been lying about her energy, and she’d taken everything he’d been dishing out remarkably well, but still. He picked up the flogger again and swished it against her backside. “We’ll start you off gentle,” he said.
“Gee, thanks.”
He suppressed a chuckle at her response. No
Thank you, Sir
from her.
Despite his direction, she wasn’t perfectly still. She swayed from side to side as if hearing her own private music, and he took the rhythm of that and incorporated it into his flogging. He’d beaten so many asses he could do it by rote, so his gaze drifted over her body briefly. God, she was distracting. For a moment, he’d been caught up in what they were doing as if it was their own private scene, but he had teaching to do. That was what Dylan and Alex had flown him out for, and he wasn’t going to disappoint. He started talking about warm-ups and rhythms, and how to build intensity, keeping an eye out to make sure Sophia was doing okay.
When her ass was nicely pink, he picked up the crop. “This could leave a mark, depending on your skin. Do you have any problems with that? Or should I ask your top?”
“He’s not my top,” replied Sophia. “Just met him a few weeks ago. No, I don’t have any problems with that as long as they don’t show when I get in the pool with my kids. Do what you need to do.”
“Do what you need to do.”
Not exactly
beat me harder, Sir
, but it would do. He started to wonder why Sophia was here at all. She wasn’t a masochist. She wasn’t a submissive as far as he could tell. A bit of a hedonist, and a free spirit, although perhaps he was reading too much into the lack of panties. But not a BDSM player, or she’d have either experienced floggings or decided it wasn’t for her. So why had she come to Bondage Ranch?
And if he’s not her top, then maybe I can play with her more after this is done.
Colby brushed the thought from his mind. He sometimes played with a sub repeatedly. Sometimes he even signed a contract with a woman to make her his slave for a month, but that was back in LA. Not since his wife had left him and used his involvement in kink to justify taking the kids and cutting off all visitation rights had he let anyone get too close. And he was always quite clear. When the month was over, that was it.
Here on the East Coast, he should be careful not to play with anyone twice, because he definitely wasn’t taking any girl back home with him, even if she had an ass as cute as Sophia’s, and even if he found her sass a challenge that he wanted to conquer.
He tapped the crop against her backside while addressing the audience. “Let the person you’re topping feel what you’re going to be mean to them with before the going gets fun. I mean nasty. Well, both.”
Sophia tensed briefly, and then let out a breath.
Good girl.
He resolved to focus on the demo. He tapped harder and then finally flicked the crop at her bottom with force. She shrieked in surprise.
“They’ll come in threes from here on, Sophia. Take the first two, and then let your energy out on the third if you need to.”
She nodded. “That fucking hurts.”
“Do you need me to stop and get someone else?” He knew it was manipulative, but at the same time, for the demo to work, it was good to have someone for him to whack. He’d detected a stubbornness in her, though, and he was willing to bet she wasn’t going to surrender her place. He hoped she wasn’t.
When she didn’t say anything, he resumed his lecture. “Letting the bottom know what to expect, or better, part of what to expect, helps them take more.” He delivered three even strokes to Sophia’s backside. “Making sure they
can’t
anticipate everything keeps it interesting, for bottom and top alike.”
He started playing with the rhythm, watching her breathe and try to absorb it all. For a minute, he let himself get lost in the dance. When she relaxed, he varied the rhythm. When she tensed, he didn’t stop, but he made sure she knew what to expect.
Her motions led him to push the scene further than he intended. He’d put lines on her butt that would take a while to fade. He’d gotten lucky with Sophia. He felt he could train a new sub as well as anyone, but Sophia was taking to it far better than he’d expected.
And she’s not even really submitting. She’s just bottoming, taking in the sensations. She’s either a natural masochist, or something is clicking between us.
He decided it had to be the former. He leaned over to her and turned the mic off for a moment. “You’re very good at this,” he said. Didn’t matter where one was on the spectrum of dominant to submissive, praise was always welcome.
“Mmm,” she said. Her eyes didn’t open. Maybe she was in sub-space. Maybe she was just shutting out the pain. He wanted to explore it, but he had a demonstration to do.
No, I don’t just want to explore. I want to drag her to the couch and fuck her silly. What the hell am I thinking?
He turned the microphone back on. It would stop him from saying anything to try to seduce her. “So when you vary, you have to read your sub. If she’s having trouble taking the strokes, keep it rhythmic. If she’s in danger of getting bored, mix it up. Be predictable as you increase intensity and then less predictable once you’ve established it. Keep watching. Keep seeing what your sub can take. And find out if it’s turning her on.”
The thought of putting his hand between her legs to check flashed through his mind. But he couldn’t. They hadn’t negotiated anything like that. Maybe if the maples outside hadn’t made his allergies flare up, he could have smelled her arousal, but as it was, that sense was almost lost to him. From her breathing, he knew she was okay. He knew she wasn’t right on the edge of orgasm, either. But in between “okay” and “orgasmic” was a lot of territory.
“Finally,” he said, “cooldown is important.” He swapped out the crop for a flogger. “Sometimes you can end a scene suddenly and transition to something else. Like sex. But most of the time, you need to make sure that the bottom comes down gradually, and that means reducing the intensity slowly. Not as slowly as during the build-up, but still slow. And remember that the flogger on a well-marked ass may feel more intense than it did during the build-up too. If this was a real scene, I’d be taking longer for both, so I appreciate Sophia putting up with all this.”
He talked on for a while, flicking the flogger to stroke Sophia’s back. Finally, he asked her, “Do you have someone you can go to for some aftercare?”
She hesitated.
Fuck. I want to gather her in my arms and cuddle her.
She looked around. Her eyes lit on the guy who had stuck her hand up, and she nodded. “Yeah. I think he owes me,” she said, loudly enough for most people to hear.
Yeah, I think you may be right.
The man he’d thought was her boyfriend nodded and put out his arms as if to say he was ready. Colby had been thinking he might have just been a jerk, but maybe he had some good qualities. For a brief second, their gazes met, and the other man didn’t flinch away. A Dom, unless Colby missed his guess. Did the man know how Sophia would take the flogging? Colby gave him one last glance, as if to say that he’d be watching.
“Go ahead, then,” Colby said to Sophia. “And thank you very much for being my demo bottom.” He turned back to the crowd. “Everyone give Sophia a big cheer for being willing to share her flogging cherry with us!”
The crowd clapped. Sophia moved to get her clothes back on. Generally he found that after a scene the bottoms did better if they stayed naked and got as much skin-to-skin contact as possible, but he said nothing. Maybe she didn’t want to be naked with her friend. Colby pushed down the notion that he was so jealous of the other Dom that
he
needed a layer of fabric between them and went back to talking about play.
Fifteen more minutes of talk, and then some question and answer.