Chapter 20
Ian couldn’t remember a time when he had awakened as refreshed as he felt this morning. The scene last night with Callie had been sensational. They had literally fucked her unconscious, and the primal part of him wanted to beat his chest à la Tarzan with pride at that fact. After they’d cleaned up and then carefully tended to Callie, he’d curled against her and slept like a baby. He’d only awakened midmorning because she’d been trying to slip from his arms to use the restroom.
He’d been locked away in his office for several hours catching up on e-mails and returning phone calls he’d missed while tending to his sweet sub last night. He was quickly realizing how much his entire life had centered on work these past few years. Hell, when a few hours off yielded this much of a backlog he’d obviously narrowed his life down to the point that he had little outside of his work. His friends and staff had been telling him as much for a while now, but it hadn’t been until this morning that their words of caution had truly struck home.
As he had watched Callie leave his bed this morning gloriously naked, her hair tousled into a mass of riotous blonde curls giving her a well-earnedjust fuckedappearance, something inside his soul had recognized just how right it felt. He knew in that instant that letting her go wasn’t ever going to be an option, but could he give up his chosen lifestyle if she didn’t get through tonight’s “test”? He could only hope he didn’t have to find out.
* * * *
Ian had arranged for Callie to spend the day with Dee Tate, he knew the two women had seemed to hit it off when they’d met at the club last weekend. He also knew that because of Dee’s commitment to her submissive lifestyle, she would be a great source of information and would openly answer any of Callie’s questions. Mike and Dee would be working at Club Isola tonight so they wouldn’t be attending the party. He’d originally planned on pulling them off their duties as he had the others, but had later decided he didn’t want to risk Callie feeling embarrassed in front of her new friend by what she was going to experience tonight. For experienced subs it was usually a shared point of bonding, but he wasn’t sure Callie would understand that at this point, so he’d decided there wouldn’t be any other submissives present.
An hour later he heard her enter the back sliding doors, and he smiled when she knocked softly on the frame of his open office door. “Come in, pet. Come here and tell me about your afternoon adventures.” She didn’t hesitate to walk to him as he held his hand out to her. She smelled like flowers and sunshine as he pulled her onto his lap.
“Dee and I had such fun. She showed me where you are thinking of building a resort, and we talked about all the possibilities for gardens and amenities. She’s an interior decorator, did you know that? Oh…of course you did. Anyway, she has wonderful tastes, and her ideas for your project are top notch. You really should consider hiring her when the time comes.” Her words had bubbled out of her with a childlike enthusiasm that made him laugh. “Oh…I’m sorry, that was pretty pushy of me, wasn’t it? I didn’t mean it disrespectfully. It’s just that she is so talented, and I kind of got caught up in the whole thing.”
His heart wretched at her soft words of apology.Fuck, didn’t anybody every give this poor girl any encouragement at all?“Oh,Carlin, I wasn’t laughing at you in a bad way. I was just happy that you had a good time and that you are interested in the project because I’d like to talk with you about that next week.” Leaning down, he kissed her on the end of her nose. “Let’s get through this evening and then work on what’s next, how’s that sound? This is a good opportunity for you to understand the joys of not needing to worry about anything but pleasing your Master, because what would please me right now is for you to keep that enthusiasm alive and well because I plan to tap it soon enough.”
Moving her so that she was standing next to him, he gave her what he knew was a devilish look. “But right now, you, my lovely pet, are wearing entirely too many clothes. Your master likes to look at you and wants unrestricted access, remember?” Her reaction was instant and textbook perfect—eyes dilated, pulse and respiration rates increased. “Strip, pet.” As she quickly shed her clothing, he stood in front of her, taking each article after she’d folded it and laying it on the corner of his desk.
“Perfect. I see you got a bit of sun today. We’ll have to work on evening out those tan lines in a few days. Kneel, pet.” As she lowered herself gracefully in front of him, he stepped closer and stood with his feet braced shoulder width apart with his hands resting on his hips. “Your Master is in need of some relief, pet. Pleasure me. Suck me hard and fast, and I want you to drink every drop down. You have five minutes to break my control, if you fail I’ll clamp your clit so that you can’t come and then fuck you until I can’t hold out any longer.” He loved how her eyes widened at the challenge, and if he was honest, he figured her devil-blessed mouth would bring him to completion in no time at all. He looked at his watch and then at her. “What are you waiting for? Best get busy, pet.”
It was difficult to suppress his smile as she scrambled to get his jeans unfastened and lowered, but it was impossible to hold back the groan of relief when his raging hard-on was finally freed from its tight confines. Since he hadn’t forbidden her from using her hands, he didn’t point out that he hadn’t given her permission to use them while pleasuring him either. This wasn’t a “set up to fail” situation, it was more about getting her into the right state of mind for tonight’s activities.
She used the tip of her hot tongue to delve into his slit, scooping out the pre-cum that had gathered there. Licking up and back down his length and then swallowing him down her throat had been a small glimpse of heaven, but when she moaned around him, he knew he wasn’t going to last. He began thrusting in her cajoling mouth, she had coaxed his control right out from under him, and now his only thought was to chase the pleasure that he knew awaited him as he watched her taking every one of his thick inches. His hands wrapped around her lovely face, and his fingers tangled in her hair, and when she looked up at him, her eyes full of pleasure, he threw his head back and shouted his completion. “Oh fuck, Callie! Your mouth is going to be the death of me, my love.” As he tried to slow his breathing, he used his thumb to catch a small drop of his semen at the corner of her mouth. Spreading it over her lower lip, his breath caught in his chest when her pink tongue darted out as if it were trying to retrieve a treasure before it was snatched away. “You are so very beautiful. And you have pleased me very much.”
He pulled his pants up and fastened them, glancing up at the smirking cowboy leaning his shoulder against the door frame grinning like a loon. He helped her stand, but kept her facing him while he spoke. “I’m going to remind you that you are stunning and I love seeing every sweet inch of you. And if it pleases me for others to see you, remember it would be an insult to me for you to feel self-conscious. Do you understand, pet?”
God, he loved watching arousal flash through her eyes as he crashed through a new barrier. “Y–yes, Master, I understand. You don’t want me to feel embarrassed by the man standing in the doorway behind me, is that right?” To her credit, her lips might have twitched, but she managed to contain the smile, the little imp. Gage’s snort of laughter let Ian know he’d heard her soft words.
“Minx, get your clothes and head on upstairs. Take a nice long bath and then put on what has been laid out for you—nothing more and nothing less. You don’t need to be back down here for a while, so take your time. Leave your hair down, I want to be able to wrap my hands in it when it pleases me to do so.” Swatting lightly on the ass, he turned her to face Gage. “Callie, I’d like you to meet Gage Hughes. Gage will be attending tonight’s get-together so you’ll be getting to know him much better. Like I mentioned last night, each of our guests tonight has a very specific specialty, can you guess what Gage’s is,Carlin?”
He watched as her face tinged a sweet pink that reminded him of cotton candy before she looked back at him. “No, Master, I’m sorry, I have no idea. But I know he is a former member of the military, probably special forces and very recently, too. I also know he hails from the south, likely Texas, and that he has spent a lot of time on the back of a horse.”
Holy fuck! What was that about? How the hell did she know all that from looking at the man for thirty seconds?Ian was completely stunned, and from the look on Gage’s face, he was equally as surprised. “Well, I’m impressed Callie, very impressed. Would you please share with us exactly how you know these things? Which are dead-on, I might add.”
She smiled and flicked her gaze to Gage before returning it to him. “Well, I’m pretty good with body language, Sir. And well, I’m a bit of an empath. I’m not as good as Mitch Grayson, but I’m not completely without skills either. But to be fair, the horse part was easy, see the stirrup marks on the sides of his boots? And the heels are scuffed from the spurs he uses.” Her eyes were absolutely dancing with joy. She was clearly enjoying the fact that she’d blindsided him by knowing about Mitch Grayson. Hell, he couldn’t wait to talk to Mitch himself. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “And by the way, Sir. Thank you for your concern…having me talk with Mr. Grayson was very sweet and helpful as well.”
He pulled her into his embrace and buried his face against her soft tresses. “Woman, you are going to pay for this, you know that, right?” He knew she would hear the laughter in his voice and know he wasn’t really angry. “Now, upstairs with you, impertinent sub.”
She smiled and picked up her clothes before making her way to the door. Gage stepped aside and nodded to her. “Nice to meet you, Callie, damned impressive. You would have been a valuable member of our team.” He let his eyes sweep slowly down and then back up in a warm visual caress. “I’m looking forward to tonight’s party even more now.” He was rewarded by a sweet smile and blush before she simply nodded and scooted by him.
After they were sure she was safely out of hearing range, he looked over at Ian and laughed out loud. “Holy fucking hell, I didn’t think I’d ever live long enough to see you speechless, boss man. That is one impressive woman you have there. You might want to tone things down a bit this evening. Damn, I’d hate to see you screw this up. Then again, maybe I’d be able to pick up the pieces of her broken heart. Yeah, let’s leave everything just the way it’s been set up.”
Ian shook his head and laughed. “Fuck you, Hughes. And for the record, I can’t remember the last time I was so completely caught off guard. She is amazing, and I don’t have any intention of losing her. And I think that with her newly revealed skills, I may need to tone things down a bit because I’m fairly certain she would pick up on my concerns. And the last thing I want to do is risk losing her.”