Tabula Rasa(59)

“Come here.”

I swallowed around the hard lump in my throat but went to him. When I reached him, he finally took a moment to appreciate the lingerie. He drank me in slowly, his eyes roving over every inch of me as if trying to mentally capture the image forever in his mind. His hands followed his gaze, skimming over me.

“I like this. We have to buy you more beautiful things that you can barely wear in my presence. And once we have these things, I expect you to only put normal clothes on to leave the house. Is that clear?”

My breath got stuck in my throat for a moment. “Y-yes, Sir.”

“Good.”

His hands traveled under the sheer black lace. He ripped the panties off. “No panties,” he said. “I don’t care if it comes with it. No panties. I don’t want anything ever in my way.”

When his hand moved between my legs without any obstruction, I started to grind against it, unable to help myself. He pulled away.

“No, not yet. Down on your knees.”

There was a second black shag rug underneath this desk. I knelt on the thick carpet and waited for further instruction. None came. Instead, he took the black leather collar off the desk and secured it around my throat. The chain that was attached made a sharp clanking sound against the desk as it was dragged along.

Shannon undid his pants and freed his cock. He didn’t have to say anything else. I took him into my mouth and sucked like my life depended on it. I dragged it out as long as I could, teasing and pulling away whenever he seemed close to the edge. I licked and stroked and caressed him until I’d worked him into a state I’d not yet seen him in. His fingers tangled in my hair as he groaned and came with a shudder. But I didn’t let up until he was finished and pushed me away.

His breathing came very heavy for several minutes. I felt flushed and pleased with myself as I stared up at him from the floor.

“Your punishment is going to be worse, now,” he said.

“What? Why?”

“Because you thought that talented little mouth could lighten your sentence. Well, you are quite talented, but that sort of manipulation doesn’t work on me.”

“I wasn’t trying...” We both knew I was lying.

“Of course you were.”

Shannon put the cuffs on my wrists and ankles, then he stood and pulled me up with him by the chain.

“Bend over the desk and spread your legs wide.”

When I did, he moved the chain out of the way, and he took my arms and spread them out to either corner of the desk. He attached the cuffs to discreet metal rings that were attached to the corners. I hadn’t noticed them before, though I was sure they must have been there the other night when I’d used the computer.

Off my confused expression, he said, “I put them in the day after the party.”

I was stupidly happy that he hadn’t done this with another woman in here.

He similarly attached my ankles by the cuffs to the rings at the bottom corners of the desk. Then he moved behind me and shoved the lingerie up over my hips. I thought he was going to f*ck me like this, but instead, he went to the side table and withdrew the candles one by one from the bag. There were six in all. He brought them back to the desk and put three on either side of me in the large empty space of the desk that my body wasn’t occupying. He lit them.

“Elodie, you know how much I dislike messes. You knew I wouldn’t approve of candles burning all over my house. Or you drinking red wine—or any wine—in my bathroom.”

I was about to protest, but yeah, I knew. And I’d done it anyway. But sometimes a girl needed a glass of wine in the bubble bath and candles.

“I just needed comforting things. And you weren’t here.”

An odd expression moved over his face, and for a moment, I thought I’d somehow moved him to compassion, but in the next second, it was gone, replaced with the kind of devilish glee I imagined he got on his face moments before he completed a job.

“Be that as it may... candles drip.”

“Not the fat ones.” If they were taper candles, I’d see his point, but he was being over-the-top about this issue.

I shrieked when his hand came down hard across my ass without warning.

“Don’t talk back,” he said.

“Yes, Sir.”

I let out a hiss and gripped the side of the desk as hot wax landed on my flesh right where his hand had been a moment before. I glanced over to find Shannon holding one of the candles with an almost maniacal look on his face.

“Like I said, candles drip.”

I wasn’t nearly stupid enough to ask why he wasn’t worried about the mess he would no doubt make by intentionally causing the candles to drip. I just kept my mouth shut about that one.

“All of these candles drip,” he said, as if this were some novel discovery the world should know about.

He shoved the lingerie farther up my back, giving him a nice expanse of flesh to work with. I felt another sharp sting as what seemed to me like molten lava dripped down my back. I squeezed my eyes shut, whimpered, and tried to breath through it.

“Please, Sir, it hurts.”

“I know it hurts. Punishments are meant to hurt. That’s why we call them punishments.” He poured the remaining wax out of that candle onto my skin to the sound of my shrieking protest. Then he blew that candle out and set it on the desk. “Only five more to go. You can take it.”