EXCERPT

Once the front door was closed behind us, Gabriel slipped straight into Dominant mode. “My bedroom now,” he growled. “Take off everything except your jewelry. I want to see you standing in front of the mirror admiring yourself. I want you proud and haughty, Queen Boudicca, so I can humble you.”

In Gabriel’s room, the lights were off, the only illumination coming from the candles flickering on the fireplace. In one corner was a full-length, free-standing mirror and I stood before it naked except for my torque, my headband, my wristbands and my armlet, feeling more excited than I could ever remember.

I didn’t turn as he came in the room. He threw something down on the bed, but I didn’t look.

He came up behind me minus his shirt, but still wearing his breeches and riding boots. He stood behind me, his body not quite touching mine.

“So, Queen Boudicca,” he said, “here you are, naked and vulnerable, totally in my power. Are you ready to kneel to me and acknowledge me as your Master?”

I met his eyes in the mirror and stared back at him defiantly. “Never,” I said through gritted teeth.

Gabriel’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction. “So proud,” he said, bringing his hands to my breasts and squeezing my nipples painfully. “I shall take great pleasure in taming you, my lady.” He trailed one hand down my body and pulled my thighs apart and spread my lips, two fingers delving deep inside me. “You’re very wet, Boudicca,” he said in my ear. “Anyone would think you liked being conquered and subdued by your Master.”

“You’re not my Master,” I said, “and it’s Queen Boudicca to you.”

Gabriel laughed in delight. “Have you finished admiring yourself, Queen Boudicca? By the time I’ve finished with you, you’ll be too ashamed to look at yourself.”

He gathered up my hair then held it in his clenched fist at the nape of my neck and marched me across to the bed where wrist and ankle cuffs, bondage tape, a riding crop, a butt plug, lubricant and a flogger with short leather tails were laid out in a fearsome display.

“Are you still feeling so defiant, my lady?” he murmured, his voice like silk.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the implements lying on the bed and my knees trembled at the thought of what he intended to do to me.

“If at any moment you need me to stop,” he said, “you only need to say one word. Just call me Master and it will all stop.”

“You’ll wait a long time,” I said, playing my role with relish, despite my nerves.

“Oh, I think you’ll find I can be a very patient man,” he said. He kissed the back of my neck and shoulders, and the tenderness of his actions, in the light of what he intended to do to me, made me shiver. Gabriel certainly knew his craft. “You have one more chance, my lady,” he said. “Submit to me now or you’ll be flogged.”

I said nothing.

“Very well,” he said, picking up the wrist cuffs from the bed. He fastened them securely around my wrists, removing the decorative wristbands I’d been wearing. Then he passed long strips of tape through the rings in the cuffs and tied them to the bedposts and secured my ankles in the same way so I was held immobile, arms and legs outstretched, between the two posts.

For a split second, I felt a tiny frisson of fear as I realized I was totally helpless. But this was Gabriel. This was my Master and I would always be safe with him.

He picked up the clamps and attached them to my nipples, making me suck in my breath as they pinched the delicate flesh. Then he moved back to the bed and picked up the flogger.

I watched, hypnotized at the sight of him stripped to the waist, the warm glow of candlelight playing across his bare skin as he caressed the tails almost lovingly.

His eyes met mine and he smiled. “I will bring you to heel, my warrior woman, and you will kneel before me.”

Taking up position behind me, he let the tails of the flogger trail down my back then he began to whip me lightly on my back, shoulders, buttocks and the backs of my legs, the tails leaving a warm, tingling feeling everywhere they touched.

He flogged me gently for a good ten minutes, not saying a word. The only other sound apart from the slap of leather against flesh was my breathing, shallow and uneven. Then my skin began to feel hot and sensitive and I let out a whimper.

“Feeling submissive yet, my queen?” Gabriel whispered, his breath hot in my ear.

“No,” I whispered back. This was a lie. I was feeling submissive, but this role-play was so erotic I wasn’t ready to give in just yet.

He flogged me harder, concentrating on my buttocks, and the tails began to sting where they touched and I let out a cry in spite of myself.

“Just say the word and it will all be over,” murmured my torturer seductively.

I shook my head fiercely.

Gabriel kept whipping until some sixth sense must have told him I was near capitulation, and he stopped. He stroked my smarting flesh with cool fingers. “Well, my lady, you took your flogging like a true queen, but let’s see if I can shame you into submission.”

He arranged two pillows one on top of the other on the bed then untied my wrists and ankles. “Face down over those pillows,” he said in a tone that left no room for argument.

I lay flat with the pillows under my belly, wincing as my breasts were crushed against the mattress and the tiny clamps on my nipples seemed to bite cruelly. As I lay there, trembling with anticipation, my pussy throbbed deliciously and I knew I was dripping wet for my Master.

Book Tour Schedule

About Sue Horsford

Giveaway