Alex closed her eyes.
“Open your eyes,” Daniel ordered. “Look at me.”
She obeyed, staring into his eyes, which in the half-light of dusk looked silvery gray. He slipped the blade beneath the spaghetti strap of her sundress and yanked it forward, easily ripping the strap. He did the same on the other side. The dress was still held up by her breasts. He pulled the top hem of it taut and drew the blade down toward her legs.
Alex gasped as the cotton ripped and the dress fell from her. She was wearing matching dark pink thong panties and push-up bra, her breasts pressed alluringly together beneath the lace. “Liam told you something old,” Daniel commented.
“It’s all I have with me,” she whispered.
“Too bad then,” Daniel said. He slipped the point of the knife into her cleavage. Alex felt faint. With a jerk, he ripped forward, slicing the satin and lace so the bra hung in two pieces by its straps. Alex’s heart raced. Her eyes fluttered shut and she could barely catch her breath. Daniel quickly cut the straps and pulled the now-destroyed bra from her body, tossing the pieces to the ground.
“Open your eyes,” he ordered again.
Alex forced herself to obey. She squealed and jerked as the blade trailed down her belly. Instantly, Daniel pulled the knife away. “Stay still. The blade is sharp.”
She stilled and watched in helpless fascination as the knife made its way down to her panties. Daniel slipped his hand into the waistband and pulled at it. The fabric seemed to melt against the sharp blade. In a moment she stood completely naked except for the rope that bound her.
“The welts from her last whipping barely show,” Liam said from behind her.
“We’ll warm her up with the crop,” Daniel answered. Retrieving the red riding crop from the table, he walked behind her and began to smack her ass and thighs without preamble. Alex’s pounding heart began to slow. She saw with relief he’d left the knife on the table. She settled back into the rhythm of the cropping, enjoying the stinging warmth that began building in her flesh. Though she preferred a heavy flogger, a nice cropping could heat her blood as well.
All at once, the steady slap of the crop was replaced with the cutting slice of the whip. Alex screamed and jerked hard against her restraints. “Ow!” she yelled. Daniel laughed softly behind her. The whip struck again, the tips curling around her narrow hips to catch her belly. She jerked and grunted, tears springing to her eyes. The next fiery strokes landed across her back. She screamed again. There was nothing sensual about this whipping. It was a punishment, pure and simple.
Suddenly Liam was in front of her, his body pressed against hers as Daniel continued to wield the whip behind her. With each blow, she jerked hard against Liam. She was dimly aware of his erection pressing against her belly but too preoccupied with her pain to put much focus on it.
Soon her back and ass were striped with fiery lines of stinging pain. She whimpered, the sound punctuated by screams each time a new set of welts was raised.
“No, no, no, no,” she began to chant. “No, no, no! I can’t do it. Stop. Stop, I can’t take it anymore. Please.”
Daniel did stop, but only for a moment. Liam was pressed against her in front. Daniel sandwiched her tortured body from behind as he whispered in her ear, “You can take it, sweetheart. I know you can. This is a punishment, but it doesn’t have to be. Let go. Flow with it. You’re almost there. It’s up to you, Alex. Let go and fly or stay rooted here, wallowing in your resistance.”
As he spoke, he gently stroked her sides with his fingers. She felt herself easing just a little. She knew what he was talking about, at least in theory. She knew some people were able to achieve a kind of transcendent sensual state when being whipped, but she’d never met anyone firsthand who’d experienced it. She secretly doubted she had whatever it took to get there. She’d come to believe over the past few days she lacked whatever submissive gene was required to achieve the kind of grace Daniel loved to talk about.
Daniel stepped back and in another moment the biting kiss of the whip’s three tails ignited her flesh. Because her skin was already so tender, the whip hurt that much more. Despite her intention to be brave, Alex again found herself whimpering. She was on the verge of crying out, of begging for him to stop, when a most curious thing began to happen.
The whip continued to whistle and strike but somehow its sting had lost its fire. She still felt each stroke, but instead of making her groan, it only seemed to light embers of desire deep inside her. She stopped whimpering. Her head felt heavy. At first, she tried to hold it up, but soon gave in to the sensations that seemed to be falling over her like a cloak.