Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Taking Liberties

"Fletcher, we can do that, if you want."

"So…you don't do it for fun anymore?"

"Well…not just for fun. I don't meet strangers for the express purpose of getting kinky with them, if that's what you mean."

I focused on breathing and on my hard, standing cock that wanted nothing but to be controlled and managed.

"Can we?"

"Yes," he said, turning my head toward him and making his grip on my neck more confining—enough that it took effort to get another breath.

We gazed at each other, and my heart pounded, roaring between my ears.

"Okay," I said.

Aiden closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath as he relaxed his hold on my throat. I almost cried. That was what I'd needed—a firm hand to hold me still, a will to guide me toward my own desires. I missed that so much.

"We're supposed to talk about limits and all that sort of thing."

"I know," I said. "But I don't care about that right now. I just want to…to try it."

I looked at the Berkley Horse.

"Okay. I'll be careful to get your consent for everything I do."

"God, yes," I hissed, aflame with desire.

All I wanted was right here in front of me. I just needed Aiden to make me take it.

"All right, then," he said, removing his velvet jacket and rolling up his sleeves. He loosened his tie. I was transfixed by his hands and forearms as he came near to me.

"I'm going to undress you. I want you naked, but you're going to let me do it."

"Yes…Sir?"

"That's right. That word sounds so good in your mouth."

Aiden stepped close and took the edges of my jacket in his hands, pushing it back and off of my shoulders as I tried to keep breathing.

I was incredibly attracted to Aiden. We'd become progressively intimate over the past few weeks. We'd started fucking. But this…this was something else.

This Aiden was someone else…a someone I was reacting to as if being near him for the first time. So far, I'd met the self-effacing supply teacher, the easygoing band member and the charming man-about-town.

This was something else. There were so many layers to him. As he peeled the clothes off of my pliant form, I saw past those other things and to the heart of him.

He took my jacket and draped it over the closed pillory, as if we were in Aiden's home and not a kink room in the back of a club. He came back and took hold of the bottom of my sweater, meeting my gaze.

"You need a safeword."

"Do I?"

"Yes."

"Fine. I'll use…" A safeword came unbidden to me—the one I'd used before—but I pushed it away as soon as it came. I was going to choose a new one. My gaze flitted about the room and latched onto the vintage lamp by the bed. "Lamp," I said, my voice husky. I was literally being tortured by Aiden's nearness, the promise of this room and the things in it—and the way it had changed Aiden into someone who seemed to know and see the real me.

"Arms up," he said.

I lifted my arms over my head, the movement causing my pants to tug at my erection, which made me moan.

"Oh, honey," Aiden murmured, "I know."

He drew the sweater over my head and off my arms, then did the same with my white T-shirt, piling all my clothes on the pillory.

"Glad it has other uses," I joked with a half-hearted smile. I was too caught up and aroused to smile fully. I could barely keep my composure.

I wanted to kneel. The urge was so strong I had to fight it with everything I had, at least until he commanded it. And probably I should wait until I was naked.

I didn't know if I could.

When I was bare above the waist, Aiden drew his fingers along my shoulder and down my arm, taking my hand.

"You want this."

"Yes."

"All right. For God's sake, use the word ‘lamp' if you want me to stop at any point…for any reason."

"Mmm."

"Fletcher? Promise me?"

"Yes, Sir. I promise."

"Good. I'm going to take your pants off now."

I nodded, going tingly all over as Aiden's fingers went to my belt. The buckle rattled as he undid it and drew it through the loops, then tossed it onto the floor with a clang.

"Sorry."

"Don't be sorry," I said. "This is… This is…everything."

"Good."

He worked my fly open and yanked my trousers and boxer briefs down to my thighs in one quick motion. My cock bobbed free and eager in the air, moist with longing at the circumcised tip. I cursed.

Aiden grinned. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing, Sir. I just… I'm so horny."

"I can see that…easily."

He pulled my pants down the rest of the way, and I stepped out of them. Then he took my socks off one by one, which might have seemed silly if I wasn't already deep into subspace—a place I hadn't been for a long time and which welcomed me with open arms.

"Are you okay with this, Fletcher?"

As an answer and because I couldn't resist it anymore, I sank to my knees on the rug before him, bowing my head and placing my hands on my thighs.

Aiden took a deep breath.

"Okay. I take it you're fine with it." he asked, cupping my chin in his hand and tilting my face up.

And suddenly I was in a different room, in a different time, with a different man.

Daniel's hand was rough with callouses from his work in the garden as he cradled my chin and gazed down at me.

"You are so fucking beautiful. I can't even stand it," he said.

My heart pulsed with love for this man…and submission.

I didn't say anything. I wasn't allowed to speak unless I need to safeword. I closed my eyes.

When I opened them, a different face stared down at me.

I gasped at the concerned look in Aiden's dark brown eyes, so different from Daniel's blue ones.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I blinked rapidly and swallowed. "Yes. Only, it's been a long time."

Understanding dawned in Aiden's eyes, and he took his hand away, then nodded.

"You look good on your knees."

I smiled.

"That's what…" I cleared my throat. "That's what Daniel always said."

Aiden regarded me with such affection. "Probably because it's true."

"Probably."

"Tell me if anything I'm doing is upsetting you—or use your safeword. Either is fine. All right?"

"All right. Is it…?" I wanted to ask something, but I wasn't sure what his answer would be. "Would it be…acceptable…if I started to cry…at some point, Sir? Because I can't promise I won't."

Aiden frowned but then smiled. "Fletcher, you can react however you need to. You're safe with me. I promise."

I sighed, and it felt like years of tension leaving my body.

"Thank you," I whispered.

My arousal had not flagged at all through this, and I was reassured that I wanted Aiden, that I wanted this, and that I could think of Daniel—remember Daniel—and that was all right. It wasn't his ghost, but it was a part of him that would always be with me…and that was a good thing.

"All right. Come with me," Aiden said, beckoning me to stand and follow.

The gesture was something different. Daniel would have simply told me to follow. But Aiden used a familiar motion to show me what he wanted. I needed to stop comparing them, but it was difficult not to, when Aiden was only the second man to have taken me in hand like this.

He walked me over to the Berkley Horse.

"Stand there. Keep still."

I felt Aiden's hand drift down from my shoulder blade, over my back and the curve of my ass.

"Fuck, you are so perfect."

He gave me a swat—hardly anything, really—but the way he delivered it, with casual intention, then moved on, made me shiver. It sent me to a place that was familiar and welcome. I was drifting on endorphins and need already, and hardly required anything else.

Oh, but I wanted to be strapped to the Berkley Horse.

"Here we are," Aiden said, and in a moment he'd wrapped leather cuffs around my ankles and wrists. Soon I was strung up on the historical piece of equipment with my genitals and chest and face accessible from one side, and the entirety of my back available from the other, for whatever he desired. The polished surface of the wood was cold on my bare skin but it would warm up soon.

I tested the strength of the cuffs while I stared at the floor through the face hole and tried to remember how to breathe.

"Okay?" Aiden asked, stroking my ass again. I loved that he couldn't keep his hands off me, especially how focused he was on my ass.

"Yes, Sir."

"Good," he said, then brought his hand down on my ass three times, hard, in succession. The sound rang out in the large room.

I moaned, and Aiden laughed. Then he roughly parted my ass cheeks and swiped a finger over my clenching hole as I stuttered a gasp.

"Now I have you right where I want you."

"Yes, Sir."

My voice sounded strange, as if I were miles underwater. I saw myself strapped to this bizarre contraption for Aiden's pleasure and felt like I was home.

He swatted me with his palm for several moments, until I squirmed and yelped.

Then he laughed. "I've barely started."

He came around in front of me.

"Having fun, slut?" he asked with an absolutely joyful smile, right before he wrapped my cock in his hand and gave it a few strokes.

"Oh, fuck…fuck!" I cursed, feeling overwhelmed in the best of ways. I was teetering on the edge, and we'd only just begun.

"Answer me."

Aiden swiped his fingers over the leaking tip of my cock and spread the fluid around as he teased me, jerking me and tickling the underside and my taint and balls. I panted and groaned and struggled.

God, it felt good to be managed! All the stress of being a single father with a deceased partner disappeared, and all I could think about was how Aiden was making me feel.

"Yes! Yes, please don't stop."

"Why would I stop?" Aidan asked. "I'm having fun, too," he said, going behind me again and delving between my cheeks with wet fingers. "Oooh, yes, so soft and pretty here. Whoever could have known that I'd be fingering you in the Bordello at Maverick Molly's on our first visit?"

As he spoke, he rubbed at my hole and teased it open, sinking a finger in deep as I choked on air.

"Oh, yeah. What an ass."

He pumped me with his finger, then added another as I struggled, as my cock dripped and my submissive heart pounded in triumph.

"Yes," I whispered.

He withdrew his fingers and slapped my ass, hard. "All right, now. Let's get serious."

Then he was right in front of me. But he didn't grab my dick. He looked at me instead.

"Want the paddle or the whip? This might be the only time I ever give you a choice, so choose wisely."

My brain swirled with memories and desires, and it took some concentration to form the word.

"Leather paddle. Please. Please, Aiden."

"Hmm. How did you know that was my favorite?" he said, pinching my chin and smiling as if I'd just told him my preferred kind of cookie. "Hold still. Let me see what we have to work with."

Aiden disappeared again, and I closed my eyes, listening to his soft muttering as he searched for his tool.

"This'll do. You want to see it?"

"Yes, Sir."

When he held up the narrow brown leather and showed me how flexible it was and even brought it down with a swack against his palm, I almost cried.

"Yes. Yes."

"All right. Count for me, because that way I'll know you want it. Count if you accept what I'm dishing out. Safeword if you want me to stop. Okay?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Such a good slut," he crooned, and it was everything. My breathing was loud, and my heart pounded in my ears as he moved behind me.

"These are just practice. Don't count yet," he said, using it very lightly to give me a sense of its shape and potential impact. He didn't realize how desperate I was. Perhaps my eager whimpers gave it away.

"All right," he said. "We start now."

He landed a powerful strike against my bottom that made fire bloom and liquid surge from my dick.

"One!" I said, in a helpless voice that expressed everything I loved about this.

"Damn," Aiden said, before landing another.

"Two! Oh fuck, yes, yes, yes." I whimpered, thrilled to be used and abused when I'd gone without it for so long.

"Three. Four. Five," I counted as Aiden warmed my ass with skill and precision.

"Five more. Safeword if it's too much."

"It's not. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine! Ten!"

I came on ten, with a yell as my body spasmed in its restraints, and all my pent-up need spilled onto the floor as I babbled incoherently. When I finally started coming down, I became aware of Aiden's hands on me, soothing me and stroking me, his lips on my shoulder and his surprised curses.

"Oh, fuck yes," Aiden murmured. "That was…fuck. I didn't expect you to get off like that."

Really? He was surprised that I'd come hands free from a good round with a leather paddle? If he thought that was amazing, I had a lot to show him. I was a trigger release kind of guy, and impact play was one of those triggers. But I had more…lots more.

Some Doms didn't like a sub being so reactive, but others saw it as a challenge and a minor fault that would take lots of delicious sessions to correct. I had a feeling that Aiden was one of the latter ones, like Daniel had been.

Daniel had taught me control. Daniel had taken great pains to teach me to save my release for the moment he permitted it. But it had been a long time since I'd been in any kind of kinky situation, and it looked like Aiden would have to start from square one.

I didn't think he minded.

He unbuckled me from the contraption and made me kneel again. He still had his clothes on, except for the jacket. His sleeves were rolled up, tie loosened, and he looked like a professor who had gotten pissed off at a student, which totally worked for me—especially when he folded his arms over his chest and gazed at me with a stern expression.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Aiden asked, bemused.

"I…" It was still hard to talk. "I like the way you look, Sir."

"Yeah? The clothes or…?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Partly. But also, you look stern and…professorial."

Aiden smiled. "Well, now. That's a hell of a promotion."

I smiled, remembering his job.

"Well, you look the part."

"Thank you." He stroked my head as I floated in a heady, relaxed state. "But I'm going to work on that hair-trigger reflex of yours."

I nodded, because I knew that working on my sexual control was everything I needed right now—to take my mind off of my grief, to return to something that made me feel safe, and to find another person who could manage me when I needed it.

It was early days, and I didn't know yet if Aiden could be that person. But even if it didn't last, I knew in my heart and soul and through my whole body that Aiden could give me what I desperately needed right now.

He seemed to be thinking about what to do with me. I didn't say anything, because in this room, Aiden was my Dom, and he needed to figure things out. I was sure that soon we would sit down and have a discussion about what had gone on here, about the needs that I had, about the things I wanted to do and about the things that Aiden wanted out of this. But right now, he was in charge and navigating this entire experience. So far, he was exceeding my expectations.

"I want you to suck my cock, Fletcher. Will you do that?" he asked, his hands going to the buckle of his belt.

I sighed. "Yes, Sir. Of course, Sir. Whatever you want, Sir," I said, flashing my gaze to his.

His eyes widened and he smiled, and the unspoken understanding that passed between us made me feel more at peace and actually seen, than I had for a very long time. I felt like a balloon that had been aimlessly floating about, and now Aiden had taken hold of my string and was keeping me from disappearing into oblivion.

The clang of metal and the rub of leather on denim echoed in the large room as Aiden undid his belt then his fly, digging his cock out of his drawers as my mouth filled with saliva. I could smell him. I could smell my earlier release that hadn't been dealt with. Daniel had sometimes made me clean up my own mess, but I didn't think Aiden would do that—at least, not yet.

We'd talked about the level of risk we were comfortable with in our physical relationship and were awaiting test results so we could bareback without worry, but we'd decided that swallowing was worth the negligible risk.

"Come here," Aiden said, beckoning me with a curl of his long fingers. He liked that gesture and so did I, maybe because Daniel hadn't done that. Daniel's commands had been short and terse, and if I hadn't obeyed them right away, he would have been displeased. And I hadn't minded. I had loved how demanding and rough he'd been. But Aiden had a softer way about him. It was possible that I was getting the Dom-lite experience, since we were so new to playing the game together, but I liked his kindness and patience in this sphere. I needed that as much as I needed a firm hand. Maybe, once we got to know each other better, he would be sterner and rougher with me. But right now, I felt like a skittish colt and his manner was perfect.

I shuffled closer to him and again laid my head against his thigh, to let him know that I was happy, and he was doing everything I wanted.

He stroked my hair then wrapped some around his fingers and guided my face to his cock.

"Suck, Fletcher. Do a good job. Make me come."

I opened my mouth and took him in, gazing up with an adoration I felt deep inside. He hadn't known how desperately I'd needed this. I hadn't known, either.

He dropped his chin and puffed air out of his mouth as I got to work with all of my substantial skills.

"Oh, yeah. Oh, hell."

Aiden's cock was obviously different, too. Uncircumcised and bigger than Daniel's had been, I had to stretch my mouth to accommodate him. A strange image came to mind, of Daniel standing behind me in the Bordello, and watching, making sure that I pleased my new Dom the way I'd pleased him.

The thought thrilled me. We'd never shared our sexual or personal lives with another person, but I felt him here, in this room, with Aiden and me, and it was astonishingly comforting. I sucked and licked and deep-throated Aiden as he poured words of appreciation and praise upon me.

Finally, I could tell he was getting close. His hold on my hair tightened, and he held me still as he pumped my throat once, twice then came with a sigh and a curse as I held my breath and swallowed.

"Oh fuck, fuck, fuck…" he groaned, his gaze on me even more adoring and approving. "Oh, my fucking God."

He made soft sounds as he rode his climax, and I kept swallowing and sucking until he pulled carefully out and took a step back, tucking himself away.

"Here," he said, offering me his hand.

I ignored it and pushed myself into a standing position, using my thighs. My bones protested but I managed it. I was older now, with knees that sometimes complained, but I was far from being unable to comport myself well.

"Fletcher, you should accept help if it's offered," Aiden said.

"Yes, Sir," I said. But I was jubilant, and nothing could take away this triumphant feeling of renewal that tugged at my heart and filled me with warmth and light.