“That was my intention.” He lined up another one. “Don’t move a fucking muscle.” He threw, landing the hit in the middle of her right cheek.
She moaned again. “Yes!” she hissed.
Kaden nodded. “Good. Now loosen up a bit. You’re too tense. You’re going to hurt yourself throwing like that.”
Seth took a moment to roll his neck and shoulders and another deep breath. “Okay, you ready?”
“Yes!”
He threw, then another one immediately after, both hitting their intended target.
“Okay, honey, please. I’m a wreck. Can I stop now?”
“Two more. Please?”
Kaden stood and motioned for the whip. Seth stepped out of the way and swapped him the whip for the video camera Kaden had been filming the practice with. “You’ll get more than that,” Seth said.
Kaden took over. “Where are we, love?”
She immediately slipped deep into subspace. Seth had suspected she was close but not that close. “Green, Master.”
“Set of thirty, love.”
“Thirty, Master.”
“Count.”
Seth filmed them, in awe of Kaden’s skill. Would he ever be that good, that sure of himself? Kaden told Seth he’d started with the bullwhips fifteen years earlier, after Leah had seen a demonstration and nearly came in her pants at the thought of Kaden using one on her.
Kaden also assured him that, despite his calm, outward demeanor, he’d been just as terrified of using one on her bare flesh as Seth now was.
Leah was in heaven. After the set, Kaden handed the whip back to Seth and walked over to her. She curled in his arms as he softly whispered to her.
Seth almost shut off the video, then decided maybe he should film it. She might want video of them together like that. How he felt filming it should be immaterial.
After a few minutes, Kaden kissed her forehead and she got to her feet. Seth stopped filming. She walked over to him and kissed him, long and deep. “Thank you, Sir. That was wonderful.”
“Hey, Kade did the worst of it.”
“But I knew you could do it.”
“Yeah. Just don’t ask me to do long sets yet.”
“Okay.” She headed to the house. The pink and red welts crisscrossing her ass were clearly visible.
Kaden stopped beside Seth. “She’s something else.”
“How did you not lose your fucking mind while learning all this shit?”
Kaden shrugged. “I had a woman who loved and needed me. I was going to do everything in my power to give her whatever she needed to make her happy. She didn’t want me to buy her things. We’d be living in a crappy apartment in Tampa still if it wasn’t for me insisting on moving someplace nicer. You know she drove that goddamned piece-of-crap junker car for years. A friend of mine sabotaged it for me one night so it caught fire. She had to let me buy her a new one.”
Seth remembered Kaden e-mailing him about it while he was still in Iraq. “No shit? I thought that was an accident.”
“So does she. Let’s keep that our secret, okay?”
Seth smirked. “Yeah.”
They started walking to the house. “Seth, I know this is all a mind fuck. She’s not a complicated person. She wants to feel safe, to trust, to feel secure. She gets that from me, and now from you, too. If she has that, she’s happy. The rest she doesn’t care about.”
“The pain.”
He shrugged. “That’s a coping mechanism. It’s a necessity. Some women need shoes. She needs whips.”
“I couldn’t have learned as much as I have without you. I never could have…after.” He stopped and turned to Kade. “I understand. If you’d left me a fucking note or something, I never could have done this.”
Kaden sadly smiled. “I know. Neither could she. I told you, I knew I had to make this happen. I had to show you. It was the only way. You can’t begin to explain shit like this and have it make any sense whatsoever.” He clapped Seth on the shoulder. “Now quit harshing my mellow, dude.”
Seth laughed but they continued to the house. “That’s my line.”
Two days later, Seth was outside alone with Leah, practicing in the backyard. He was about to take his third throw when a wasp dive-bombed him. Without thinking, he stepped to the side as he threw in an attempt to avoid the bug.
Leah yelped, a sound he’d never heard her make before. The pained sound sent Seth’s heart through his feet.
He dropped the whip and ran over to her. “Oh my God! Babe, are you okay?”
“Yeah, what happened?” She’d rolled over, sitting up, and had her hand clamped to her inner thigh.
“A goddamned wasp almost nailed me. Let me look.” Seth’s heart raced, and he was terrified he’d wounded her.
“I’m okay. It’s okay.”
“No, let me look!” He finally pried her hand away and saw the blood. “Oh…shit! Oh, honey, damn it! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
She clamped her hand over it again. “Seth, it’s okay.”
“You’re fucking bleeding! It’s not okay! Goddamn it, I’m so sorry!”
Kaden apparently heard the commotion and raced down from the house. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
Leah proudly smiled and showed him. “My first mark from Sir.”
Kaden examined it and laughed. “Very good, love.”
“This isn’t funny!” Seth screamed, trying to get a better look at her leg. Leah kept pushing his hands away.
Kaden shook his head. “I guarantee you it hurts you worse than it hurts her.”
“This isn’t funny!” Seth screamed again. “Goddamn it, Leah. Move your fucking hand.” He finally got a good look at it, relieved to see it was only a minor cut. “It’s not fucking funny! If I’d hit your artery or something—”
She grabbed his chin. “Stop.” Her voice dropped, firmer than he ever remembered hearing it. “I’m okay, Seth. Sir, I’m fine.” She pulled him in and kissed him. “Master put far worse and deeper ones on me while He was learning. Trust me, this is nothing. I consider this a badge of honor to finally wear Your mark.” She kissed him again, then let him help her to her feet. “I’ll go wash it off and put some ointment on it. It’ll be fine. It’s all right.”
Seth watched her walk to the house, his entire body trembling from nerves. He shook his head and looked at Kaden. “I can’t do this, man. I can’t fucking do this! I can’t hurt her like that! Goddamned wasp came out of fucking nowhere—”
“Stop.” Kaden’s firm tone startled Seth. “It was an accident. I meant it when I said it’ll hurt you a lot worse than it hurts her. The pain’s already fading for her. You’ll be stinging every time you see the scar.” His face darkened. “Trust me on that.”
Seth swallowed hard. “I can’t stand hurting her like that, man.”
“I know. It sucks. The first time I cut her with a whip I nearly bawled like a baby. You saw how she reacted. She did the same thing to me. She’s strong when she needs to be, when she can be, in the ways she can be strong. Don’t ever forget that.” He looked at Seth. “There are times, like this, when you have to trust her. Remember, pain is nothing to her when she’s in subspace.”
“She was in fucking pain that day she sliced her arm open. I thought she would go into shock on me.”
“That was different. She wasn’t in subspace when it happened. She wasn’t trying to hurt herself. When she’s in subspace, you could probably pull out every one of her goddamned fingernails and she’d beg for more. There’s a huge difference. If you hadn’t wigged out on her, she’d be begging for more right now, I guarantee you.”
Seth eventually sighed. “I probably harshed her mellow by freaking out, didn’t I?”