I was pretty sure Jay dropped our class altogether after that. Heather continued to show up, alone. I tried to smile at her if I ever caught her eye. I honestly hoped that whether they were still together or not, she wouldn't have to go through the same bullshit I had.
"I left the teaching course on my own," Kahlan had told me. "That's why I had that meeting with my professor. I figured since I felt like things were getting more . . . serious, despite what you said you wanted, that I should admit it to someone up front. So my professor arranged for me to do the course next year. He said it wasn't the first time this kind of thing has happened."
I was relieved, in every possible way. Jay was no longer bothering me, and Kahlan and I were no longer sneaking around campus. We met for coffee between classes, and Sarah finally met him without being a drunken mess. She almost screamed when she walked by Starbucks and happened to see us sitting together.
"Oh my goooddd, you two are so cute," she said, giving me a suffocating hug around my chest. "Hold on, hold on, let me take a picture."
She stood back and snapped a photo of us with her phone, smiling over our cups of coffee, Kahlan holding my hand across the table as I furiously blushed. It was the same photo we used later that semester to make our relationship official on Facebook.
"To whom do you belong?"
"You, sir."
Dark cotton cloth blinded me. Leather straps hugged my limbs and spread me. I was lying on my back on his bed, naked and blind. Ready and willing.
I felt the bed creak, and his breath on my face. Slim leather sensations trailed down my chest, between my breasts and over my navel. "To whom," he insisted, "Do you belong?"
I gulped as excited shudders flooded over me. My bindings were a promise of what was to come: I needed to be held down. Controlled. Perfectly captivated. A little smile curled my mouth, both nervous and excited. "I belong to Kahlan Travis, sir."
The words were as sweet as sugar on my tongue. I absolutely relished saying it, and I knew how much he loved hearing it too. Now that there was no denying it, he took every opportunity both to remind me, and to confirm with me: to whom did I belong?
The leather flogger stroked between my legs, threatening my most sensitive places with its deceivingly gentle tease. I exhaled deeply to steady the energy that was building within me, adrenaline telling me to brace for pain even as my nether regions tried to prepare for pleasure. The flogger caressed my inner thighs, making me jump and twitch as tender nerves were awoken. Down it continued to go, exploring my flesh, leaving me in wonder as to where it would strike.
"You look beautiful, Liz," Kahlan's dark, gentle voice surrounded me, my guiding light in the dark. I could imagine him standing there beside the bed, blonde hair tousled, shirtless, his jeans unbuttoned, the flogger in one firm, commanding hand. The image made me bite my lip, and I almost told him he looked beautiful too.
"I love to see you like this," he said, his voice moving as he walked around the bed. I squirmed, testing my shackles just to feel the tightness with which they held me. "Helpless, needy, desperate for a touch. Entirely at my mercy."
The flogger bit across my breasts, more sting and impact than true pain. I gasped nevertheless, cut off mid breath by another solid strike. The urge to cover myself was strong, and my arms strained uselessly. Struggling in vain made me hot, even wetter than before.
"Where shall I flog you, Liz?" Kahlan said curiously. "Here on your tender little nipples?" The flogger barely brushed over them. "Or on this needy pussy?" Again, the flogger taunted its potential victim. I whined at the prospect of a choice. My rational brain said to choose the former. My cruel, masochistic inner self wanted to choose the latter.
"Well?" he coaxed, when several seconds had passed without an answer from me. "Tell me what you want, baby. Or I'll choose for you."
"Pussy!" I said quickly, almost immediately regretting my choice so much that I whined some more and squirmed on the bed.
Kahlan laughed. "Is that meant to be a full and complete answer, or are you insulting me? Tell me what you want."
"I want you to flog my pussy, please, sir," I said, choking out the words and almost squealing as I did. The fight-or-flight was strong and I was thankful for being tied down. Although there were times now that I enjoyed struggling against him without ties, playing at denial but ever eager to give in, when he would use only the strength of his body to control me. There was a special intimacy in that, one I had come to crave just as much as the careful, methodical control he exercised with straps and chains.
"What a good girl you are," he said. "You're really trying to earn your reward today aren't you?" He paused, and in the silence I softly whimpered, wondering when the flogger would strike again. I jumped when he spoke instead. "Mmm, we are a little more limited on time then I thought. Your final starts in only an hour."
"Please don't stop!" I said. He put my studies before anything else, and had ended a session far too many times because he discovered I had not studied, or had a test coming up. There was nothing more frustrating than trying to study after being denied my release.
"I guess that just means I'll have to be harder on you baby," he said, amusement in his voice. "Hopefully a little soreness will remind you what will happen if you fail your final. You studied didn't you?"
"Yeesss," I whined, growing frustrated with the change of topic. I heard a hiss, and the flogger landed between my legs, stinging every tender bit of me. I squealed, my legs tensing as Kahlan clicked his tongue in disapproval.
"Don't take that tone with me. You've really earned it now."
Kahlan's floggings were merciless, shifting between slow and fast, with long pauses that made me squirm and shake with anticipation. The flogger hit my inner thighs with an unbearably growing sting, and every strike across my clit pushed me closer to being manically turned on. Before long I was gasping with every strike, my whimpers increasing in volume until he had me shrieking.
Suddenly he climbed on the bed between my legs. His breath was on my stinging thighs as I trembled and quieted my whimpering. His lips trailed kisses along my legs, his teeth occasionally nipping at my punished flesh. My gasps were now filled with breathless pleasure, desperate desire filling me. I tried to arch my back and raise myself towards him, practically demanding that he put his mouth on me.
He chuckled as he lay on his chest. His eyes were on me, taking in my readiness, my desperation: I could tell even with the blindfold on. Suddenly his finger stroked between my lower lips, slick with wetness, pressing barely within my entrance.
"You'll have to be leaving in only 10 minutes, baby girl," he said, his finger continuing to stroke over me. "I don't think that's enough time to let you cum."
"Yes it is!" I insisted, trying to strain myself closer to him. He gave me a swat with his open palm on my burning thigh, making me stop my struggling.
"Oh no, no, no, it isn't," he whispered. "Especially not for demanding girls like you. But since you look so delicious . . ."
His mouth enveloped me. I strained back, moaning as his tongue made circles around my clit, sucking and stroking. He devoured me like a starving man, and before long my volume was increasing, every muscle tense as the pleasure drove me wild. I was on the verge of orgasm, right there, so close-
His mouth left me. His breath gasped against me, hot and stimulating. I cried out for more, as demanding as ever. I knew he was smiling at me. He got up to crouch over me, kissing and sucking at my neck, his chin wet from eating me.
"Liz," he whispered, just in my ear. "To whom do you belong?"
"I belong to you, Kahlan, sir," I said desperately, every bit of me aching for releasing. "Please don't stop, Kahlan. Please."
"If I stop now, you'll have something to look forward to after class," he said, and I almost snarled my frustration. He grasped my chin, commanding my attention. "I may not be your professor any more, but there's still plenty I can teach you. Today's lesson is patience."
He released my wrists from their bounds, and I knew the game was over. I could not be disappointed, only frustrated and stimulated beyond belief as he slipped the blindfold off my eyes. With my hands free, I grasped his neck to pull him into a deep kiss, the kind of kiss that promised more to come – the second he would allow it. He was smiling at me, with that tight, controlled smile he wore when he was trying to maintain his stern, dominant domineer.
"Be a good girl for me," he said softly. "And come back tonight."
"You don't have to tell me twice," I said, with a cheeky smile. I was dazed as I got up from the bed to get ready for class, rushing to wash my face and brush my hair. In the mirror, I caught sight of the freshly formed marks on my neck, red and purple, broken blood vessels as a testament to our passion.
I was his. Heart and body, all his.
And he . . . he was mine.
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