The Path to Her

Chapter Nine

I accepted the gag—what else could I do?—and tried to acclimate to the weight and feel of it forcing my words into my mouth. I could only make inhuman little sounds, and hang from the harness, waiting for Dahlia's direction.

A stretch of black silk passed over my eyes, then was tied around my head. "Can you see?" Dahlia asked, and when I shook my head no, she tied the silk tightly. "Good girl."

I heard her heels click away from me, and the sound of a drawer opening. Which bureau was it? There was more than one, and I hadn't explored them all yet.

"Sensation," said Dahlia, and her voice was smooth, almost a croon. "Sensation is a gift. Take it all away, and what are you left with? Something shapeless, waiting to be formed. Art, before it hits the canvas. Idea, before execution."

I breathed deeply, shivering. I could hear her heels clicking back to me.

"I have taken away all of your faculties," Dahlia crooned. "Your speech is mine. Your sight is mine. Your ability to move and defend yourself is mine. You are shapeless, waiting to be formed."

I felt something soft and leathery stroke up and down my back. Oh. Oh, a leather flogger. The dance of the leather began softly. Dahlia stroked me with it, brushing its long, silky strands along my naked back and bottom. She worked her way around to my stomach and breasts, and I shuddered in pleasure.

Dahlia pinched my nipples, one after the other, making them hard little points. "That's a good girl. Every way you respond is sublime. Don't forget, though, that while you're strung up and hobbled, you must still fight through your own pleasure to please your mistress first. Her happiness always comes before yours."

The flogger danced over my breasts, my belly, my thighs, and traveled back to behind, along my back and rear again. Then, she pulled back.

"You must ready yourself for anything, Rowan," said Dahlia. "Be ready for your mistress to enjoy herself at your expense, for it is what you are here for. It is your sole purpose in this world." All of a sudden, I felt the kiss of the leather flogger along my shoulder blades, harsher now, stinging delightfully.

"Pain," Dahlia continued, "can be...quite a delicious thing."

The flogger hit my back, one, two, then my rear, one, two. It came back again in repeated smacks, and every time it came slapping on my skin, I moaned with pleasure. It did feel good. I felt alive. My senses were heightened.

"Pain will wake you. Pain will deliver you into the arms of your mistress." Dahlia's repeated motions hit me four more times, before she sent the flogger's many straps striking across my rear sharply one last time.

I felt something new creep up my spine. Ahh, I knew the shape of this. Dahlia had a riding crop in her hands.

"Never try to guess your mistress's next move," Dahlia said, and she walked around to face me, her heels clicking smartly on the stone floor. She trailed the crop around my back to my belly, where she traced lazy circles. "Your mistress may want to make you hurt just because she likes the way you moan. You cannot know what your goddess is thinking, so don't even try to move beyond what you know right now. And all you know right now, Rowan, is me."

I nodded, making a soft sound of assent.

Dalia struck my thigh smartly with the crop, and I shuddered, groaning. She struck my thighs until I knew there were welts but I loved every second of it. "This pain was chosen specifically by your mistress," Dahlia explained. "This pain is a gift, and may you receive it with delight."