Pinch Me

Chapter Thirty-Three

Wednesday morning, she awoke to a message from her stalker in her email. She sat, numb, while Bill called Det. Thomas and reported it.

Sorry I didn’t get to play with you before I was interrupted. We could have had a lot of fun together.

Don’t worry, we still will. I’m very, very patient.

She buried herself in the old journals she had with her, going through everything in an attempt to escape the hell her life had become.

Thursday, Bill had to get back to his schedule. Laura flew with him a few times over the next several days on shorter delivery runs when he had passenger space. She wasn’t keen on flying, but she took her camera and snapped some breathtaking aerial shots.

Bill even coaxed her into taking the controls for short periods of time in calm conditions. While she enjoyed the feel of flying, she thought it wasn’t something she would do on her own.

Montana was different. Rugged landscapes, towering mountains, a literal polar opposite from everything she knew in Florida. It would have been a good kind of different under better circumstances.

A week later, she was pining for home and Rob. Unfortunately he couldn’t leave yet. The wife of one of the guys at the station had a baby and needed to take a couple of weeks off. He’d filled in for Rob while Laura was in the hospital, so Rob felt obliged to do the same.

Heartbroken, Laura agreed. They talked, at least briefly, every evening his time. Between those all too short conversations they e-mailed and texted.

There were no more emails from MedicineMan.

Bill owned two gentle horses he rarely had time to ride. Laura made a point of going out with them for a couple of hours each day. Determined to renew her journaling habit, she decided to go old-school and purchased a new notebook and package of pens during a shopping trip into town.

She rode out to a beautiful overlook every day and wrote whatever came to mind. Much of her childhood and adolescence was again intact. There were still gaping holes in the past several years—including some of her time with Rob the past several months.

Perhaps it was fear of losing what she’d regained, perhaps it was several months of writing skills lying dormant, she didn’t know. Within a week she had filled the first journal and started a second. Soon she wrote not just during her rides, but anytime she thought of something.

Obsessing over the missing journals wasn’t healthy for her, and she wasn’t too oblivious to realize it. She decided to go back to some of her old journals and take notes from story ideas she jotted down in the past. As a result she came up with a story idea she wanted to expand upon.

Over the next several days she generated close to twenty thousand words and felt there might even be a good novel in it. If nothing else, it kept her mind off her loneliness.

One evening Bill noticed her going through an old journal and then writing something in a new one.

“Putting the puzzle back together?”

She nodded. “Something like that.”

“You always have been big on that, almost religious. Every day. Never stopped. Did you find the missing ones yet?”

“No.”

“You looked all over your office?”

She nodded. “Through my computers, everywhere.”

“You’ll find them. Or you’ll get enough memories back that you’ll remember where you put them.”

She wasn’t so sure. “I hope so.”

Rob called her later that evening.

“I miss you, Sir.”

“I know. I miss you, too, baby girl.”

“I want to come home.”

His voice changed to Dom tone. “We’ve had this conversation. It’s not safe.”

“How do we know he’s not just laying low until I return? What if you leave and he follows you out here? I’m tired of putting my life on hold like this.”

“Let’s give it two more weeks. If nothing else happens, I’ll come out and get you and we’ll drive home together. All right?”

“Two more weeks? No, Sir, I don’t want to—”

“Laura.” The firm sadness in his voice silenced her as much as his Dom tone. “I don’t like this any more than you do. He almost took you from me once. I’m not letting him have a second chance.”

She couldn’t respond.

“Are you there?” he asked.

“Yes, Sir,” she whispered.

“This is for your own good.”

“Yes, Sir.” They said their good-byes and she returned to the living room, dejected.

“What’s wrong?” Bill asked.

She couldn’t look at him. “He said at least two more weeks.”

“Hey, sis, if it’s what needs to happen, then that’s it. No argument.”

She picked up her latest journal and pen and started writing to escape her misery at missing Rob and everyone else. Rob had ordered her not to tell Shayla or the others where she was, or to email them for fear of that somehow giving away her location. She was allowed to text message with them only, but the cell reception was spotty, meaning most of the time she couldn’t even do that.

When she went to send Rob her evening email, she found he’d surprised her with pictures of Doogie and him on the shop dock. She smiled, missing them all the more, wanting her life back.

This isn’t how my life should go, away from home and hiding from some faceless psycho.

She cried herself to sleep.

The next morning, Laura forced herself to go riding. The horses loved her for it, but her mind didn’t make the journey with her. She was once again too focused obsessing over the missing journals.

Despite Bill and Rob both telling her to try to relax about it, it was all she could think about.

Nightmares once again plagued her dream, the shadow bursting through the front door. She couldn’t help but think it had to be key to solving the mystery.

On Sunday, Bill announced he had a surprise for her.

They drove out to the airfield where a friend of Bill’s gave aerial tours of Yellowstone. It was breathtaking and took her mind off her problems. Later, they went on a drive and he showed her a lake not far from the house where bald eagles nested. She watched them hunt, swooping down and plucking fish out of the water with surgical precision. By the end of the day she felt tired but happy.

Rob got the short version on the phone. Later, she curled up with her laptop and sent him an email detailing her day’s adventures. She hit send and shut the computer down, ready for bed. Rob would answer by morning. Sleep eluded her, and a half hour later she decided to go back and read over some of her old articles again in hopes that maybe it would trigger something.

Anything.

Two hours later, it hadn’t. Dejected, she set the computer on the nightstand and tried to sleep.

Nothing looked clearer the next morning, either. Bill noticed her foul mood at breakfast.

“What’s up?”

She told him.

“You’ll figure it out eventually, sis. They have to be somewhere. You didn’t just stop or lose them.”

“Well, where the hell are they?”

“You’ll find them,” he insisted.

There was only one week left in her agreed Montana tenure when the note arrived in her email one morning. After opening Gmail she scanned the inbox and felt her stomach tighten.

MedicineMan.

Det. Thomas was at his desk and put her on hold while he got in touch with Hutchins. The tech logged in and accessed the newest threat.

Thomas returned to the phone. “What does it say?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t read it yet. I’m almost afraid to.”

“Go ahead. I’ve got Hutchins working on it on his end.”

Hesitating, she finally forced herself to click on the message.

Her voice trembled as she read it to Thomas.

“Where have you been? I’m really missing you. Can’t wait for you to come home. I have big plans.”

“This guy is obviously stalking everywhere he knows you usually are.”

“Have you been keeping an eye on Rob?”

“This guy’s after you, not him.”

“He would probably go through Rob to get to me.”

“I won’t lie and tell you no. He’s proven how vicious he is.”

“Did you ever find anything out about the boat?”

“The skiff was stolen from a snowbird couple’s house on the other end of the key. The guy must have used gloves, because there were no fingerprints that didn’t belong there.”

“When can I come home?”

“I can’t legally keep you from returning. Unfortunately, I don’t have the manpower to guard you indefinitely.”

“I realize that. I’m not asking for an armed guard. I need to live my life, what I can of it. I can’t spend the rest of my life hiding in Montana. I have a business, a home, and family. I want my life back.” Her hand reached up to her throat. In her pocket, as Rob had ordered, she kept her leather play collar.

“I want my friends back. They’re my adopted family. This guy took my past. I’m not letting him take my future, too.”

Rob called an hour later. Thomas had updated him and Rob was adamant. “Honey, you can’t come home.”

“Either you come out here and get me next week, or I’ll fly home and rent a car in Tampa. I’m not staying here.”

“Stop.” Dom tone.

She would have nothing to do with it. She walked into the bedroom and closed the door behind her and dropped her voice. “Sir, I don’t care if you give me two hundred with a goddamned cane. I’m sick of hiding and not being able to live my life!”

“It’s not safe.”

“What happens when he finally figures out where I am and he comes looking for me here? The police are a good fifteen minutes away at the very least. If the weather’s good and they’re not off on another call. At least at home I can bet on someone responding in a few minutes. And I can carry a gun there.”

“And you could be dead by then, so what difference would it make?”

“At least I would be home. Goddammit, you’re not hiding me up here forever.” She did something she didn’t think she’d ever done since accepting his collar. “Sir, I’m sorry, but if you’re not up here in seven days, I’m flying out of Bozeman and coming home. Do you understand me?”

She hoped she hadn’t pushed too far. He was quiet for a moment. “I’ll talk to the captain about getting off. I’ll come get you. You’re not coming home alone, understand? I waited for you. The least you can do is wait for me. All right?”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, Sir. Just hurry, please?”

Rob called her the next day. “I’ll leave on Thursday. I figure if I drive straight through, it’ll probably take me four days.”

Thursday was only four days away, meaning he should be there by the following Monday. Hopefully.

“Yes.”

Cabin fever of a sort had set in. She missed her life, her business, her home, her dog, and her fiancé. She wanted it back, what she had of it. A risk she was willing to take.

While she was gone, Rob had installed motion-detection floodlights outside the house and rented a Bush Hog to clear out the tall grass and underbrush just beyond the fence to increase visibility. And in a move Laura called overkill, he had an electric fence installed.

“I considered burying a few land mines, but I thought Det. Thomas might not like that idea.”

She laughed, missing his sense of humor more than ever.

Laura spent the next day riding and journaling. She would miss Bill and the serenity she found in Montana but she was ready to go home and face whatever happened. In her forced exile, her fear had turned into anger.

There was no way MedicineMan would ruin her life. She wouldn’t let it happen.

Rob left on time, calling her every day with his progress. On Monday, right on schedule, he pulled into Bill’s driveway and Laura nearly tackled him before he climbed out of the Explorer.

She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, crying with relief and joy. “I’m so glad to see you, Sir!”

He picked her up and held her, Laura breathing in his scent and absorbing every single moment.

When Doogie nosed the back of Rob’s neck, he turned. “Someone else missed you, too.”

Doogie’s entire body wagged with joy as she hugged him. He’d grown in her absence, at least ten pounds heavier than when she last saw him.

When Bill’s dogs realized the visitor had brought a new playmate, they came over and said hi. She let the Lab jump out and go play.

“Will they be okay?” Rob asked.

“Oh, yeah. All I’ll have to do is ring the dinner bell and he’ll come running with them.”

She led him inside and showed him around. Doogie forgot his new friends in his eagerness to follow his mom. She helped Rob unload his bags and Doogie’s gear and when Bill returned they went out to eat in Gardiner. Despite Laura’s desire to start for home immediately, she agreed to Rob’s request let him rest for a couple of days.

“You know, it’s not easy putting up with seventy-five pounds of wiggly Lab for several thousand miles.”

She laughed and hugged him. “I guess I can wait that long. With you here, I’m sure I can think of something to fill the time.”

They went to bed early, except they remembered to lock Doogie out of the bedroom.

Rob wasted no time. He began yanking his clothes off before the bedroom door even swung shut behind him.

“Naked,” he ordered in full Dom tone. “Now.”

She took mere seconds to strip.

He extended his hand and snapped his fingers. “Collar.”

She grabbed it and fought the urge to sob with relief when he pointed at the floor by his feet. She held her hair out of the way while he buckled the collar around her neck.

Hooking a finger through the D-ring on the front, he tugged, urging her to her feet. After backing her to the edge of the bed, he put a hand in the middle of her chest and gently pushed.

She fell to the bed with a bounce, giggling.

He smiled. “You laugh now. You just wait.” He rolled a condom onto his cock and straddled her on the bed, grabbing her wrists and pinning them over her head with one hand while he lined up his cock at the entrance of her pussy with the other.

“Hard and fast, baby,” he hoarsely said. “Because I can’t fucking stand not to be inside you.”

He wasn’t kidding. She let out a soft cry as he thrust hard and deep, her swollen clit rubbing against his body with each stroke.

Burying his face in the crook of her neck, he said, “Come for me, baby. Come now.”

Then he bit down on her shoulder. Hard.

She cried out, her orgasm popping like an overloaded circuit. She thought he made a little growling sound, but then another orgasm washed through her as he kept biting her, the pain serving to amp up her release.

“One more,” he gasped, slamming his hips into her.

Laura wasn’t sure she could handle another one. Maybe it was the forced separation, but it felt like every nerve ending in her body sizzled. With his cock driving hard and deep inside her with each thrust, her body responded. As her cunt clamped down on his cock he let out a grunt of his own she knew meant he was coming, too.

He fell still, his lips now kissing at the spot on her shoulder she suspected would be nice and purple the next morning.

If she was lucky.

“Love you, baby girl.” He released her wrists and she wrapped her arms around him.

“Love you, too, Sir. I missed you.”

It sounded like he sighed. “I missed you, too, baby. You have no idea how much I missed you.”

Rob dragged himself out of bed to clean up and returned a minute later. Exhausted, he fell asleep curled around her. She lay awake for a while, listening to him breathe, remembering what she could of life before the attack.

He woke her early the next morning by burying his face between her legs and quickly erasing all vestiges of sleep from her system. After making her come, he pinned her wrists over her head and fucked her, hard and fast and with a smile on his face that she would have gladly killed anyone for interrupting.

Later, after Rob drifted back to sleep, Laura pulled on some clothes and went outside to feed the horses.

She would miss them. They were a comfort and a path to healing through the quiet rides. After filling their feed buckets she sat and softly talked to them. Maurie, the piebald gelding, nickered to her and nuzzled her foot with his nose. She stroked his fur, laying her face against his neck and smelling his sweet scent.

When a noise startled her she whirled around. Rob stood in the barn doorway, silhouetted by the morning sun.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“That’s okay.”

He knelt next to her and reached out. The gelding cautiously sniffed his hand, blowing a few times before nuzzling him and then reburying his head in the bucket.

“He’s a big Lab, that’s all,” Rob laughed.

“Horses are the ultimate Labs. They’ll eat themselves sick.”

“We could always buy the lot next door, fence it in, and build a pole barn. Our area’s zoned for horses.”

She scratched Peter, a buckskin gelding, behind the ears. “I’ll think about it.” Then she had another thought. “After we get this other stuff behind us.” The horrifying thought of going out one morning and finding a dead, mutilated horse nauseated her.

And with MedicineMan still on the loose, that was a possibility she didn’t doubt. There’s no way she’d ever let Doogie out of her sight outside at the house, much less leave him outside in the yard alone.

They walked back inside, hand and hand. They talked about showering but drifted into bed first. After an hour they rose once more and finally made it into the bath. Rob finished first and made a fresh pot of coffee for Laura. When she emerged, wrapped in Rob’s robe, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

“I had an idea,” he said.

“Let’s hear it.”

“I know you said you still wanted to follow our original wedding plans, but how about we fudge a little and go ahead and get married here, before we leave?” He pulled a box out of his pocket and opened it for her.

It was their wedding bands.

She looked at him. “In Montana?”

“Well, unless we’re in outer Mongolia, yeah, Montana.” His face turned somber. “Look, I almost lost you once. And who knows what’s going to happen when we get home. I know I said I wanted to collar you and marry you in front of our friends. But I love you, and I’m bound and determined I’m going to marry you no matter what. I can’t think of a more beautiful place to honeymoon than here. Hell, we were going to honeymoon here anyway.”

He dropped to one knee and held her hand. “Please marry me. I can’t beg or grovel any more than that.” He smiled. “Besides, I put up with Doogie all the way up here. You damn well owe me, baby girl.”

She playfully shoved him. “When?”

“When do you want to do it? How long will it take us to get a license?”

“I don’t know.” She managed to get in touch with Bill at the airfield before he left for a trip and he told her who to contact. By the time he returned home that evening, they had a marriage license.

A friend of his was a notary public. Bill called a couple of his friends, people Laura had come to know during her stay. The next day they drove into Yellowstone. Three hours later, on the boardwalk overlooking the terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs, Laura officially became Laura Carlton.

One of Bill’s friends videotaped the ceremony for them while a second photographed it. They all went out to dinner after, and they returned to Bill’s tired and happy. Bill went home with his girlfriend, leaving Rob and Laura alone.

“Go bring me your collar, baby girl,” he quietly ordered.

She nearly tripped over her feet in her run for the bedroom, earning her a gentle laugh as he watched her. She brought it to him, presenting it.

He took it and pointed at the floor.

This felt beyond right, beyond perfect. Kneeling at her Master’s feet, the world at large nowhere in sight. Just Him.

He buckled it around her throat before gathering her hair in his right hand and tipping her head back so he could look into her eyes.

“Who do you belong to?”

“You, Sir.”

He smiled, breaking her heart with its perfection. She knew she could never deny him anything he asked, ever, if it meant earning that smile from him.

Not a hint of the sadness, the pain, that he’d worn so heavily in the early weeks after the attack.

“That’s right. You do. My sweet, beautiful baby girl. All mine.”

Without releasing his hold on her hair, he urged her to her feet. He gripped the back of her neck firmly with his other hand and lowered his lips just above hers.

“You belong to me. I’ll die before I let anyone hurt you. You know that, right?”

She nodded, transfixed by his sweet gaze. “Yes, Sir.”

He teased her, making as if to kiss her but not letting her close the gap, earning her another of those smiles. “Tell me what you want.”

This was something else that felt right. She wasn’t sure what to say, but the words magically appeared in her brain. “I want you to own me completely, Sir. I want to be your slave. I want you to own my heart and my body.”

He never looked away, his gaze holding hers. “For the rest of our lives.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“That means taking punishment if you disobey me.”

Her breath came faster. “Yes, Sir.”

He completed the kiss, setting off explosions inside her. He kissed her hard, crushing, fucking her mouth with his tongue as she did her best not to let her knees turn to jelly. She had to wrap her arms around him for support.

He took and tasted, giving her no choice, holding her there and stealing her breath with the ferocity.

Just as suddenly, he used his grip on her to pull her away from him with a playful smile. She gasped, reeling, and he used her discombobulation to spin her around and deliver a bare-handed swat that stung even through the seat of her jeans.

“Go start a fire, baby girl. I have plans for you tonight.”

She raced to do it.

Laura kindled a fire while Rob opened a chilled bottle of champagne he’d bought the day before. They curled up in front of the fireplace and linked arms.

He gazed into her eyes as she felt the first true, deep peace she had since the nightmare began. “I love you, Laur,” he said. “You are my life.”

She leaned over to kiss him, nearly spilling her glass. This set them both giggling and they barely managed to take a sip before having to untangle themselves and put the glasses down.

“Tell me the truth, Sir. Was I always this klutzy?”

He smiled. “Yes, but it was one of the things I loved about you.” He brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes. She hadn’t had the color touched up. It had grown out a little and she was back to wearing it like she used to. “Someone so beautiful and talented and yet as human as the rest of us.” He stroked her cheek. “You used to always joke you wear your food well.”

“There’s still a lot I don’t remember, you know.”

He nodded. “I know.”

“Are you okay with that?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.” He hooked a finger through the ring in the front of her collar and pulled her close. “Tonight you don’t think about that. Tonight, you completely belong to me, and I’m going to make up for lost time.” He kissed her before pulling her into his arms.

She settled against him and watched the flames dance in the hearth. “I want it all back, Sir,” she whispered. “I want all my memories back. I want to know everything.” She paused. “I want those goddamn journals!”

“Stop. That’s an order. Do not think about it. Not tonight. Regardless of whether or not your old memories come back, we’re going to make new ones, right?”

She nodded.

“Okay, then. Let’s make some right now.” He kissed her, slowly, refusing to be rushed. She folded against him, opening herself to him completely, her body pressed against his. She’d missed this, being with him, contact with him. Especially when they’d just begun rekindling this part of their relationship.

When she pulled him down on top of her, he stopped her.

“What?”

“Hold on a minute.” He got up and disappeared into the bedroom, reappearing with blankets and pillows, as well as a duffel bag.

“What’s that?” she asked.

He grinned. “You’ll find out, baby girl.”

A thrill ran through her. He obviously had something up his sleeve. She had a strong suspicion what that something was.

Once they spread the blankets and pillows out on the floor, he held his arms out to her and drew her close. “That’s better.”

He took his time. It was sweet, slow torture as he traced her neckline with tiny kisses and carefully unbuttoned her shirt. As he kissed her bared skin she pushed away all thoughts that these last few days could be the beginning of the end if the stalker had his way.

She moaned softly while he slowly, carefully, explored every inch of her flesh. When she tried to work on his waistband he gently pushed her hands away. With a sigh she lay back and closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his body against hers.

He made her feel beautiful, in a way she’d thought she might never feel after seeing her reflection in the mirror at the hospital. She’d come away, physically, with just a tiny scar on her forehead.

Emotional and mental scars, however, weren’t something she wanted to ponder. Not tonight.

Feather-soft, his fingers traced patterns on her skin, making her shiver with anticipation. He nibbled on the top of her shoulder, at the junction with her neck, nipping her just enough to make her squeal with pleasure and pain.

“Such a sweet sound,” he whispered against her flesh before he did it again. And again.

Her clit pulsed, throbbing. He knew her body better than she did, it sometimes felt like.

Then he reached for the bag, hooking the strap with his finger and dragging it close. He unzipped it and held up her leather wrist and ankle cuffs. Slowly, after grazing his teeth across her flesh at every point, he buckled each cuff around her.

“Now that’s the way I wish I could keep you dressed all the time,” he said. He grabbed her wrists and pulled them up and over her head, pinning her down. His stiff cock pressed through his jeans, hitting her perfectly against her clit. “Wearing nothing but my cuffs, my collar, and my wedding ring.”

She nodded, barely able to breathe with the anticipation coursing through her body.

He reached into the bag again. He withdrew a coil of royal blue rope and held it up. “Tonight, we do things my way.”

Laura caught her lower lip under her teeth. She felt close to coming just from the raging passion in his face. She nodded.

“Good girl.” Using her wrists, he pulled her up into a sitting position. “Arms up.”

She immediately complied as he set to work, weaving a chest harness around her torso. He took his time, the rope sliding over her flesh as he trapped her breasts, making them stand out.

Pausing, he leaned in and sucked her left nipple between his lips.

She let out a moan and started to put her arms down to hold him but he let go. “I said arms up.”

Dom tone. Her arms shot skyward again.

“Good girl.” He sucked her right nipple into his mouth. An accompanying bolt of liquid need coursed straight to her aching clit.

He continued fashioning the chest harness, then added her arms to it, binding them snugly to her sides and leaving her unable to move them.

Rob stood and admired his handiwork. “Good.” He pushed her down onto her back. Leaning over, he pulled something else from the bag. She recognized it as an adjustable spreader bar. He clipped it to her ankle cuffs and then pushed her legs up and back, using the rope to secure it to the chest harness and leaving her open and vulnerable.

“Someone got mouthy with me on the phone, didn’t they?”

Unable to trust her voice, she nodded.

He tsked at her and reached over to pull something else from the bag.

A short rattan cane.

He held it up for her inspection before reaching down, tormenting her nipples with the tip. “What do bad girls get when they disobey or get mouthy?”

“The cane, Sir.” The whispered response had appeared from the depths of her brain without conscious thought on her part.

He touched her clit with the tip. “Yes, they do.” He reached up and held it close to her mouth. “Kiss it. Show it love. It’s for your own good.”

Eagerly, as if his cock, she wrapped her lips around the thin rod, flicking her tongue over it, sucking on it.

He smiled. “Such a good girl. Now ask me for it.”

“I need punishment, Sir. I disobeyed you.”

“Tell me details. What did you do?”

She felt the prickle of tears in her eyes. “I talked back to you on the phone, Sir.”

He knelt next to her and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him. This wasn’t Rob the playful paramedic that most everyone else saw.

This was her Master, and this man was all business.

A ferocity had taken over his expression. “Do you understand why you are being punished?”

She nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

“Tell me.”

“I…because I talked back.”

He shook his head. “No.”

Confusion filled her. She struggled for the words even as his grip tightened on her chin, almost painfully, and he leaned in closer.

“You were going to disobey me,” he quietly said. “When I’d given you a direct order that related to keeping you safe. What is the first and most important rule I have for you?”

This, too, came unbidden to her lips. “That I obey you, Sir,” she whispered.

He slowly nodded. “What is the first rule I told you applies to me?”

Now she felt the tears rolling out the corners of her eyes, her vision blurring. “That you will always take care of me and put me first, Sir.”

He nodded, his expression softening. “Very good, baby girl,” he whispered, leaning in to kiss her. “You remembered.”

She did, but that small achievement paled in comparison to her personal shame.

She’d disobeyed him.

She knew viscerally that never in their relationship since she’d become his submissive had she ever so blatantly challenged and disobeyed him.

As if reading her mind, he asked, “What is our rule regarding talking?”

Another answer from the abyss. “If I don’t agree with you, I calmly ask to take a time-out to talk, and we will.”

“Did you?”

She almost couldn’t bear to say it. “No, Sir.”

He nodded. “That was very disappointing to me, that you did that. Do you feel you’ve earned punishment?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Say it.”

Her breath hitched, now from crying instead of passion. “I disobeyed you by talking back to you, and by not asking to talk about it.”

“Do you understand why I have to punish you for that?”

It didn’t help her feel any better about it. “I was going to disobey you and put myself at risk.”

His grip on her chin eased. He leaned in and kissed her. “Yes. Exactly. How many do you think you’ve earned?”

They never had a set number before. She rarely earned anything more than a hard, bare-handed swat across her ass, or, a couple of times, five with his belt.

He rarely punished her with a cane, although the threat of it as punishment went a long way toward keeping her focused. She hated the cane, which was why he liked to include it in their play sometimes. She’d take it for him in play, because he wanted her to.

But punishment was different.

She’d disappointed him.

That was something she couldn’t bear.

“Fifty, Sir.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “Fifty?”

She nodded, unable to speak it.

He leaned in and pressed a long, lingering kiss to her forehead. “Ten,” he said. “Ten hard ones. These are going to hurt, and they’re going to leave marks.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“I’ll give you time between each stroke to process it, but you will take all ten without a safeword. This is punishment. Do you agree?”

She nodded.

“Say it.”

“No safeword, Sir. I’ll take them.” She knew damn well if she sat up and said stop, game over, he would. And he wouldn’t hold it against her.

She also knew she’d never be able to live with herself if she did that. She wanted this, wanted to be his.

That meant she took her earned lumps.

And she knew she’d earned them. That he was going to go easier on her than she would have gone on herself made her feel worse, not better.

He reached into the bag and pulled out a rubber ball gag. “Do you want this?”

“Yes, Sir.” It would be easier to take the strokes, having something to bite down on.

He put down the cane. “Before we do, I want you to say it all, exactly why I’m doing this, and ask me for it.”

She’d rather take extra cane strokes, but she spoke, her voice trembling. “I earned punishment for talking back to you on the phone. I was going to disobey you and put myself in danger, meaning I would have made you violate your rule to keep me safe. I need to be punished to remind me who is in charge…”

She froze as a flood of memories about another night when they’d had a similar conversation flowed back into her brain. They felt foreign, but right, as they slipped into place.

He frowned. “Laur?” Their most basic safeword was to use each others’ first names when deep in a scene.

She shook her head to quiet him. “I…” She swallowed hard, not wanting to stop to process it and interrupt things. “I get mouthy. I get pushy. I lose my temper and Sir has to remind me when I get like that, because…”

Another sob as her talks with Bill and Steve and others about her infamous temper came to mind.

And about how much happier they all noted she seemed to be once Rob came into her life. “Because I need Sir’s strength to keep me taken in hand and keep me grounded. I’m happiest when Sir’s in charge. And I don’t want Sir to let me slide and let me get out of punishment.”

He put down the gag and reached over as if to untie the spreader bar, but she shifted, moving her bent legs away from him and putting the knot out of reach. “I need punishment,” she rapidly said, “because I want you to be in charge of me. I need someone stronger than me. Please, Sir. Please give me my punishment.”

He froze. “Laura, do we need to stop and talk about this?”

She shook her head. “No, not now. Please, not now, Sir.”

He hesitated, considering.

She knew if he decided to stop, that was it, they’d stop.

She didn’t want him to stop. “Please, Sir,” she begged. “Please.”

He sat up again, considering. “Legs back,” he ordered.

She shifted toward him again.

Like a flash, his hand shot out and snagged the ring on her collar. He pulled her head up, leaning in eye-to-eye. “Don’t you ever pull away from me like that again. Do you understand me?”

She wanted to laugh with relief. “Yes, Sir. I’m sorry, Sir.”

He nodded. “Good girl.” He leaned in and kissed her forehead before releasing her collar. “That’s an extra stroke for that.”

She eagerly nodded. “Yes, Sir.” Relief flooded her. He wouldn’t stop. It also explained why he hadn’t shed his clothes yet. Unless it was something that happened when he’d already got naked, he never undressed before he got her punishment out of the way.

“Sir?” she whispered before he fitted the ball gag into her mouth.

“Yes?”

“I miss my maintenance spankings.” Every morning they spent together, before, even if he was running late, she got at least a quick, bare-handed spanking over his lap, usually once he was already dressed.

Somehow, that made it even hotter for her, to be naked across his thighs, feeling the fabric of his cargo pants rubbing against her flesh while he firmly pinned her down by the neck with his left hand and smacked her ass with his right.

Even if it meant waking her up and rolling her over to deliver several stinging swats to her ass, she got them.

She’d needed them.

She’d wanted them.

If they had the day to spend together, or he wasn’t running late, he took his time and sometimes even used a paddle or other implement to make it sting even more. On his days off, he’d give her spankings so good she was still feeling them that evening, and usually spent her day wet because she’d wiggle in her office chair just to feel the burn in her ass.

His stern expression dissolved as he burst into laughter. “Is that what you just remembered, sweetheart? Maintenance spankings?”

She nodded.

He leaned in and kissed her forehead. “Then starting tomorrow morning, you’ll get your maintenance spankings again. It’ll be my pleasure.”

He fit the ball gag into her mouth and waited until she had it positioned where she wanted it to buckle it behind her head.

Then he shifted positions, sitting next to her, his back to her and his left arm pressed into the backs of her knees. He picked up the cane with his right and looked at her. “Ready?”

She nodded.

She felt him slowly rub the cane up and down the backsides of her thighs, the crease where they joined her ass cheeks, and down her ass. Up and down, building the tension.

Then he paused it in that damn crease and she took a deep breath.

Zwwip. The snap as it struck her there, all the way across, tore a scream from her as she bit down on the gag with her jaw tightly clenched.

He looked back at her, once again calm and stern, all playfulness gone. “One,” he said.

She nodded, tears of pain coursing down her cheeks.

He hadn’t been kidding when he’d said they would hurt.

She couldn’t have loved him any more or harder in that moment if she’d tried. He wouldn’t let her get away with disobeying him. He was in charge.

He owned her.

He waited until she settled down for a moment, once again stroking the cane up and down her flesh. Where he’d stop and take the second stroke, only he knew.

Zwwip. Right across the center of her ass cheeks, every bit as hard as the first. As she struggled to process it through her scream of pain, she delighted in the fact the welts from that stroke would still hurt in a couple of days.

If she was lucky.

“That’s two.” He drew it out, all eleven strokes hard and biting and leaving her a screaming, sobbing mess by the time he finished and put down the cane.

“There’s my good girl,” he cooed, his fingers softly stroking and soothing her flesh.

Then they came to a stop over her clit. In a flash, her sobs turned to moans as he slipped two fingers inside her pussy as deeply as he could.

“You are a very, very wet girl,” he said. “You have really missed your spankings, haven’t you?”

She forced her eyes open and nodded.

The grin on his face only made her clit throb harder. “Such a good girl.”

He reached into the bag and pulled something else out. She couldn’t see exactly what, but then she heard a soft click and a hum.

Rob left her no time to process that. He filled her pussy again with his fingers and pressed the vibrator against her clit with his other hand.

The scream around the ball gag this time was far louder, and not from pain.

Her back arched even as her body betrayed her, humping against his hand and the vibrator as much as she could immobilized.

“Such a good girl,” he cooed again. “You took your punishment so well, you earned a reward.”

She threw her head back and moaned, the orgasm expanding, overwhelming. Yes, punishment was always followed by a reward, even when the maintenance spankings weren’t on a daily basis if he didn’t have time.

Her Master wasn’t an idiot. He’d learned well from Seth and Tony and the others, meting overwhelming pleasure with overwhelming pain and rewiring her body to crave every bit of it.

She had no idea how long he kept her coming. All she knew was she gave thanks it was a battery operated vibrator and not the more intense—and electrically powered—Hitachi.

Eventually, he let out a chuckle and switched the vibrator off. Panting, she tried to catch her breath, eyes closed.

Even through the last echoes of pleasure she felt the stinging, burning stripes of the cane marks across her flesh.

And, despite the gaping holes in her memory, she finally felt complete.

Rob had to force himself to give her all eleven strokes. Seeing her obvious distress before he started was the only thing that made him hold on to his reserve and follow through.

His memories of their hours of conversation, hundreds of hours, maybe, with her curled in his lap and talking. About her asking him, before, to never let her talk her way out of punishment, especially if he thought she’d earned it.

Her begging him to never let her get away with anything or push him around.

The memory of Steve confiding in him just a month after Rob collared her that he didn’t know what Rob had done to Laura, but to never stop doing it. That she seemed relaxed and peaceful for the first time in her life.

How his initial reluctance to take the firm control she told him she craved had eventually morphed into his need to keep her in hand, as much for his own sake as for hers.

In a career where he controlled very little, where he witnessed so many bad things on a daily basis, where chaos and even violence caused others pain and suffering that he frequently felt helpless to stop, this was the blissful center of his universe. Keeping her happy and loved. Controlling what happened and ensuring that peace and calm ruled their household.

She strictly ruled the rest of her world, her business. Lives literally depended on that exacting level of control she had, inspiring and training students who could die if they didn’t do what she told them, how she told them, and when she told them.

She needed the release from the stress. She needed him to be someone she could always count on to retain that control, even if she pushed the boundaries and tried to test him.

They really were two halves of a kinky little whole.

After removing the ball gag, he held the vibrator up to her lips. Without coaxing she opened, licking and sucking it clean and earning herself another laugh.

“That’s my good girl.”

He released her legs from the spreader bar and untied the rope harness, freeing her. Then he finally shed his own clothes and lay down next to her, kissing her neck, nibbling on her ear.

“I want you, Sir,” she gasped. “Please.” She sat up and swung a leg over him but he stopped her.

“Wait.” He reached behind him, trying to get to his pants.

She pulled his hand back. “No.”

Their eyes locked. “Laur, we need—”

She silenced him with a finger on his lips and shook her head. Her eyes smoldered in the firelight. “Please, Sir. No.”

There was a determined set to her jaw he knew all too well. He let her pull his hand back and place it on her hip. His other followed suit and she leaned forward and kissed him long and tenderly. Sitting up, she smiled and teased him with her hips, gliding the length of his engorged cock back and forth through her wet folds.

She still remembered how to do that.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked.

“Don’t you?”

He smiled. “Mrs. Carlton, you know what you’re doing to me, don’t you?”

She nodded, closing her eyes and enjoying it. “Having fun, aren’t you?” she asked.

He laughed. “Oh yes.”

“Okay then.”

He tried one more time just to make sure. “I know we discussed this…before. Are you sure this is what you want?”

She nodded.

He grabbed her hips and lifted her, then settled her down onto the full length of his cock. He had to hold her still for a moment, not wanting to explode just yet. Her slick cunt tightly gripped his cock, a perfect fit.

Everything about them seemed to fit perfectly together.

Once he knew he had himself under control, he let her take the lead. In a few minutes, when he knew he couldn’t take it anymore, he began thrusting up into her, rocking together, easily finding a rhythm.

She still knew how make him moan. He gently stroked her clit with his thumb, bringing her almost to the edge. When he knew she was ready he thrust up hard, met her strokes, their eyes locked.

He waited until her eyes dropped closed, letting out a soft cry at the same time her pussy clenched around his cock. That’s when he finally let go and moaned, exploding inside her and filling her with his cum. When it was over she collapsed on top of him and he wrapped his arms around her, drawing a blanket up over them.

The fire crackled beside them, defining their entire world. No fear, no worries, no hurts, only them entwined and the comforting house and the fire to warm them. Just when he thought she was asleep she kissed the side of his neck.

“I love you, Sir.”

He hugged her. “I love you, too, baby girl.”

She paused. “You did want kids, right?”

He laughed. “Now’s a pretty bad time to ask, doncha think?”

He rolled them over and stared down at her, loving her, wishing he could freeze the night and capture the moment forever. “You do remember you said I could name a boy Iggy, right?”

She laughed, reaching up to tickle him. He pinned her arms as he kissed her, feeling himself stiffen inside her once again.

She glanced down. “Looks like you’ve got something that needs taken care of, Sir.”

“Then why don’t we?”

It was nearly midnight when they drifted to sleep in front of the dying fire.

Laura woke in the middle of the night. The fire was almost out and the house had chilled. She wiggled free of Rob’s arms and turned the thermostat up. The dogs were all asleep in the kitchen and nothing seemed amiss.

Then why am I so jumpy?

She retrieved Rob’s robe from the bedroom and made the rounds of the house, making sure all the doors and windows were locked. At the front door she flipped on the outside flood lights, carefully looking around before turning them off again.

Something had woken her.

She went around to the back door and turned on the light. A shadowy shape huddled on the ground out at the farthest reaches of the light. She couldn’t tell what it was. Looking around, she unlatched the door and stepped out onto the porch, taking a few steps out.

It was Peter. The buckskin was lying down. That didn’t make sense, because she’d latched the stall doors before they went out to dinner.

She called to the horse, not getting a response. Her breath frosted in front of her and that’s when she realized the gelding wasn’t breathing.

Forgetting caution, she rushed forward, her bare feet hitting something damp. When she looked down she saw the ground was covered in blood. Fighting her nausea she approached the horse and saw his head lay at a grotesque, unnatural angle to his neck.

Because its throat was cut, the head nearly completely severed from its neck.

She opened her mouth to scream and felt hands grab her shoulders, shaking her.

That’s when she sat up and realized she was still on the floor in front of the fire and Rob was trying to break the nightmare’s spell. Outside glowed the soft twilight of a Montana summer dawn.

Relief washed over her and she collapsed, sobbing in his arms. He finally got her to tell him about the dream and he made a point of checking on the horses. They were fine, the dogs were fine, everything was fine.

They moved into the bedroom and she tried to go back to sleep. Just when she didn’t think sleep would be possible she woke up to Rob kissing the back of her neck and whispering breakfast was ready. The nightmare faded into memory and she made the decision to forget it and enjoy the day.

But before she could eat breakfast, he rolled her onto her stomach and examined her ass, stroking her with one hand while pinning her down at the neck with the other.

She instantly felt wet.

He laughed. “Okay, baby girl. You wanted maintenance spankings to resume, didn’t you?”

“Yes, Sir,” she mumbled into the mattress.

He gave her five fast, only slightly stingy swats, across her ass. “You’ve got some nice welts, baby girl. I’m going to take it easy on you until those heal up. But I promised you maintenance spankings.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

He rolled her over and kissed her. “Breakfast.” He grinned and left the room before she could protest that now she wanted a hard fucking instead of eggs and bacon.

After a quick stop by the bathroom, and running her hand over her flesh in the mirror and smiling over the now-purple welts marking her flesh, she headed to the kitchen to join him.

Rob wanted to go riding after breakfast. So after he kept her horny while making her give him a blow job in the shower, they set out over the hills on the horses, taking a lunch with them.

Riding proved an added sweet torture, her ass reminding her with every step of the cane strokes.

But happiness and peace filled her. She was his. Utterly, completely.

And he’d more than proved it the night before.

Rob caught her up on events at the shop in person better than he could through email or over the phone. They talked about their past, she asked him about things she remembered. Several times she looked over and stared at the gold band on his left ring finger, and the wedding band now surrounding her engagement ring and felt a warm thrill run through her.

He wasn’t only her Master. Finally, he was her husband.

They had to file the marriage certificate Monday morning, but except for that they were legal. Instead of a ceremony like they originally planned at home, they would show the video and throw a reception party. She played with the rings on her hand, getting used to the pleasantly different feel.

One of the many memories still missing was the day they’d picked them out.

They lunched at her overlook and even watched a bald eagle swoop down and pluck a salmon out of the stream below.

“Wow, that’s awesome.” Rob said.

Laura nodded. “I love this place. I think this is the only thing that’s helped me keep my sanity this entire time.”

He put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry about sending you off, baby girl. It was for your own good.”

She nodded. “I know, Sir. I don’t like it, but I understand. I just can’t wait to get home.”

“I think I can.” He leaned over and nuzzled her neck, sending shivers through her.

They would have gone further except Maurie walked over and stuck his nose in their faces, sniffing them.

“Thanks, Maurie,” Laura laughed, gently pushing the gelding away.

Rob groaned, falling back on the ground. “First Doogie, now him. What is it with animals insisting on interrupting my love life?”