"How do you know that?" Chris asked, his voice low. She wanted to answer it, but she wasn't sure if she could. Geoff did, though.
"It's something a Dom just gets sometimes, especially if he knows the sub well enough. Sam and I . . . well, we haven't done anything actively before this weekend, but we've picked up things from each other, the same way you and I have, the way the two of you have. It's harder for you, Chris, because being a Dom isn't your natural thing, but most of us have some topping desires. She brings those out in you. You're just wondering if they're right or wrong feelings."
Sam bit her lip as Chris's hand passed over her labia again, so deliberately she wondered if Geoff had guided his hand. "Does that feel right? Does her body language, those soft whimpers, the feverish look in her eye, tell you that you're right? You follow leads she gives you. Most times they don't involve words. You're a master at picking up subtle cues, Chris. Better than me."
She was sure that captured Chris's attention, because while she knew Geoff respected and admired Chris, he often played the arrogant know-it-all to tease his friend. But now he was being honest, keeping it all real and grounded, helping all of them.
"Look at the things your eyes and heart tell you about how she's feeling right now, what she's wanting. Talk to her, touch her. What I said to her goes for you. If it doesn't feel right, then you step back, and I'll do it for her, no shame. But I think you should try it."
"I don't want to hit her with anything."
Geoff paused. "How about your hand? You have large, powerful hands, Chris. See how her thighs trembled just now, and she lifted up some, thinking about you spanking her?" Geoff rubbed his own hand across both her buttocks, earning an aroused note from her working throat. "Talk to her, Chris."
He stepped back, and she waited. She could sense Chris thinking, struggling. Then her Master gave her the go-ahead to speak.
"Tell him, Sam. Tell him what's in your heart."
"Chris," she said, a raw plea. "I need you."
Geoff was right, about the difference between how she'd felt earlier and this. Giving them a simple, honest request from her soul, versus trying to push them into doing something, felt so much better. The results were far better, too.
Chris came to her side and dropped to his heels so they were eye to eye. If she'd seen only misery in his gaze, she would have exhorted Geoff to let him out of it, to step away from this, but she saw a different kind of conflict.
"You're such a gentle soul," she said softly. Her voice was breaking from nerves, but that was okay. "Yet you're fierce, protective. A fighter. I've also seen you get pissed, not in a mean way, when I've teased you too much or played pranks on you when you're tired and grumpy." A little smile crossed her face. "This is for every time you've wanted to paddle my butt, and I know you have, because when I've seen it in your eyes, it's made me hot all over."
His face tightened. The emotions passing through his gaze suggested he might be as swamped by them right now as she was by her own feelings. She had to look away and speak to the wall. "I'm telling you it's okay, something I want. But I can't talk about it much. I need you to understand without words, so that it's not my idea, if that makes sense. I need it to be something you want to do as much as I need you to do it. That's what Geoff is trying to say."
Chris skimmed a thumb over her bottom lip, drawing her eyes back to him. He tested the strap over her neck and ran his fingers beneath it, seeing how much pressure it was exerting. His care added a poignant element to his attention upon her. She teased his thumb with her tongue, and a muscle flexed in his strong jaw.
"Geoff was right," she said. "I wanted you both to take me over and use me however you wanted, not caring about the consequences. Not thinking about how you would both feel if you rushed this or hurt me in the wrong way, trying to do what I was demanding rather than what I really need." Those unshed tears Geoff had mentioned were scalding her throat. "It was a betrayal of what I value most about all of us . . ."
Geoff put his hand on her hip, the pressure of his fingers stopping her. "No. You don't get to be that harsh on yourself, Samantha Beth. You're just dealing with a lot of crazy feelings. You'd cut off a leg before you betrayed either of us. We know that."
She accepted that gentle reproof for the gift it was. Chris's brown eyes were reading everything she said and didn't say. She wouldn't be surprised if he knew the exact count of the tears on the brink of that dam of need she was barely containing.
"It's hard to understand, to explain all this, but you already understand so many things without words, Chris. This is one of those things. The more you think about it, the harder it is to justify or understand. So you've just got to decide if it feels right inside you. And whatever you want to do . . . Geoff is right. It's all okay."
She was running out of words, her heart pumping faster, the restraint making thought processes more difficult. "Chris . . ." But she stopped there. Everything she wanted was in how she said his name.
She let out a thready sigh as his lips touched the corner of her mouth and held there. "You do look incredibly hot like this," Chris murmured against her mouth. "You're right. I can't explain the why of it. Makes me uncomfortable. But not too uncomfortable."
She moistened her lips and he kissed them again, playing with her tongue with his own. Sliding his hands along her stretched arms, he reached her bound wrists. He caressed them, sending tendrils of sensation questing up her arms and into her breasts before he came back to her nape. When he broke the kiss, he studied her a long moment. Then he rose.
As he moved behind her, Geoff stepped back. Not being able to see either of them made her pulse accelerate. She wondered what thoughts were passing between them, what they were planning.
She jumped as Chris touched her, but settled as he began to rub her ass, making wide, firm circles, so wide the heel of his hand teased her labia. She lifted her hips up, begging for more, but he kept making those circles, taking his time, indulging himself. He'd figured out having her tied up like this allowed him to play with her as much as he wanted. And of course the flip side of her trying to tease them past their self-imposed restraint was that she was now riding a knife edge of sexual frustration. Yet she sensed Geoff's ultimate intent was to take care of that in a way she wouldn't soon forget. She didn't mean that in a good way. After all, sexual frustration could be a form of torture, too.
Whap! Chris struck his first blow. He came from below, hitting the meatiest part of her buttock. Was Geoff using hand signals to show him the best way to do it, or had they discussed it while building the bench? Either idea worked her up more.
Chris being Chris, he wasn't going to need much instruction. He stuck with that side for a couple more strikes, as she strangled on a moan and strained on her toes, lifting her ass even higher. His muttered expletive told her he didn't disapprove of her reaction. When he struck the other buttock, she cried out at the new burst of sensation. That seemed to i
ntrigue him. He took advantage of the breadth of his palm and hit both at once.
"Oh God . . ." She couldn't stop making sounds of pleasure and need. He swept a palm up her back, tightened his fingers in her hair, pulling, and her pussy spasmed when he combined that firm hold with another set of blows.
Back and forth, then across both. She was dancing on her toes, and he started hitting harder, making the sting last longer. Punishment, as Geoff had said. She hadn't realized a hand spanking could become this painful, but if Geoff was guiding him, he obviously knew how to take it in that direction. Her reaction was only encouraging Chris to make it rougher. She held back a few curses of her own, yet she couldn't stop straining for more.
By the time Chris finally stopped, she was gasping and biting back a plea for mercy. It felt bad and good, so she didn't really want him to stop, even though she was flinching at every blow.