“Such a sweet sound,” he whispered against her flesh before he did it again. And again.

Her clit pulsed, throbbing. He knew her body better than she did, it sometimes felt like.

Then he reached for the bag, hooking the strap with his finger and dragging it close. He unzipped it and held up her leather wrist and ankle cuffs. Slowly, after grazing his teeth across her flesh at every point, he buckled each cuff around her.

“Now that’s the way I wish I could keep you dressed all the time,” he said. He grabbed her wrists and pulled them up and over her head, pinning her down. His stiff cock pressed through his jeans, hitting her perfectly against her clit. “Wearing nothing but my cuffs, my collar, and my wedding ring.”

She nodded, barely able to breathe with the anticipation coursing through her body.

He reached into the bag again. He withdrew a coil of royal blue rope and held it up. “Tonight, we do things my way.”

Laura caught her lower lip under her teeth. She felt close to coming just from the raging passion in his face. She nodded.

“Good girl.” Using her wrists, he pulled her up into a sitting position. “Arms up.”

She immediately complied as he set to work, weaving a chest harness around her torso. He took his time, the rope sliding over her flesh as he trapped her breasts, making them stand out.

Pausing, he leaned in and sucked her left nipple between his lips.

She let out a moan and started to put her arms down to hold him but he let go. “I said arms up.”

Dom tone. Her arms shot skyward again.

“Good girl.” He sucked her right nipple into his mouth. An accompanying bolt of liquid need coursed straight to her aching clit.

He continued fashioning the chest harness, then added her arms to it, binding them snugly to her sides and leaving her unable to move them.

Rob stood and admired his handiwork. “Good.” He pushed her down onto her back. Leaning over, he pulled something else from the bag. She recognized it as an adjustable spreader bar. He clipped it to her ankle cuffs and then pushed her legs up and back, using the rope to secure it to the chest harness and leaving her open and vulnerable.

“Someone got mouthy with me on the phone, didn’t they?”

Unable to trust her voice, she nodded.

He tsked at her and reached over to pull something else from the bag.

A short rattan cane.

He held it up for her inspection before reaching down, tormenting her nipples with the tip. “What do bad girls get when they disobey or get mouthy?”

“The cane, Sir.” The whispered response had appeared from the depths of her brain without conscious thought on her part.

He touched her clit with the tip. “Yes, they do.” He reached up and held it close to her mouth. “Kiss it. Show it love. It’s for your own good.”

Eagerly, as if his cock, she wrapped her lips around the thin rod, flicking her tongue over it, sucking on it.

He smiled. “Such a good girl. Now ask me for it.”

“I need punishment, Sir. I disobeyed you.”

“Tell me details. What did you do?”

She felt the prickle of tears in her eyes. “I talked back to you on the phone, Sir.”

He knelt next to her and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him. This wasn’t Rob the playful paramedic that most everyone else saw.

This was her Master, and this man was all business.

A ferocity had taken over his expression. “Do you understand why you are being punished?”

She nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

“Tell me.”

“I…because I talked back.”

He shook his head. “No.”

Confusion filled her. She struggled for the words even as his grip tightened on her chin, almost painfully, and he leaned in closer.

“You were going to disobey me,” he quietly said. “When I’d given you a direct order that related to keeping you safe. What is the first and most important rule I have for you?”

This, too, came unbidden to her lips. “That I obey you, Sir,” she whispered.

He slowly nodded. “What is the first rule I told you applies to me?”

Now she felt the tears rolling out the corners of her eyes, her vision blurring. “That you will always take care of me and put me first, Sir.”

He nodded, his expression softening. “Very good, baby girl,” he whispered, leaning in to kiss her. “You remembered.”

She did, but that small achievement paled in comparison to her personal shame.

She’d disobeyed him.

She knew viscerally that never in their relationship since she’d become his submissive had she ever so blatantly challenged and disobeyed him.

As if reading her mind, he asked, “What is our rule regarding talking?”

Another answer from the abyss. “If I don’t agree with you, I calmly ask to take a time-out to talk, and we will.”

“Did you?”

She almost couldn’t bear to say it. “No, Sir.”

He nodded. “That was very disappointing to me, that you did that. Do you feel you’ve earned punishment?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Say it.”

Her breath hitched, now from crying instead of passion. “I disobeyed you by talking back to you, and by not asking to talk about it.”

“Do you understand why I have to punish you for that?”

It didn’t help her feel any better about it. “I was going to disobey you and put myself at risk.”

His grip on her chin eased. He leaned in and kissed her. “Yes. Exactly. How many do you think you’ve earned?”

They never had a set number before. She rarely earned anything more than a hard, bare-handed swat across her ass, or, a couple of times, five with his belt.

He rarely punished her with a cane, although the threat of it as punishment went a long way toward keeping her focused. She hated the cane, which was why he liked to include it in their play sometimes. She’d take it for him in play, because he wanted her to.

But punishment was different.

She’d disappointed him.

That was something she couldn’t bear.

“Fifty, Sir.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “Fifty?”

She nodded, unable to speak it.

He leaned in and pressed a long, lingering kiss to her forehead. “Ten,” he said. “Ten hard ones. These are going to hurt, and they’re going to leave marks.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“I’ll give you time between each stroke to process it, but you will take all ten without a safeword. This is punishment. Do you agree?”

She nodded.

“Say it.”

“No safeword, Sir. I’ll take them.” She knew damn well if she sat up and said stop, game over, he would. And he wouldn’t hold it against her.

She also knew she’d never be able to live with herself if she did that. She wanted this, wanted to be his.

That meant she took her earned lumps.

And she knew she’d earned them. That he was going to go easier on her than she would have gone on herself made her feel worse, not better.

He reached into the bag and pulled out a rubber ball gag. “Do you want this?”

“Yes, Sir.” It would be easier to take the strokes, having something to bite down on.

He put down the cane. “Before we do, I want you to say it all, exactly why I’m doing this, and ask me for it.”

She’d rather take extra cane strokes, but she spoke, her voice trembling. “I earned punishment for talking back to you on the phone. I was going to disobey you and put myself in danger, meaning I would have made you violate your rule to keep me safe. I need to be punished to remind me who is in charge…”

She froze as a flood of memories about another night when they’d had a similar conversation flowed back into her brain. They felt foreign, but right, as they slipped into place.

He frowned. “Laur?” Their most basic safeword was to use each others’ first names when deep in a scene.

She shook her head to quiet him. “I…” She swallowed hard, not wanting to stop to process it and interrupt things. “I get mouthy. I get pushy. I lose my temper and Sir has to remind me when I get like that, because…”

Another sob as her talks with Bill and Steve and others about her infamous temper came to mind.

And about how much happier they all noted she seemed to be once Rob came into her life. “Because I need Sir’s strength to keep me taken in hand and keep me grounded. I’m happiest when Sir’s in charge. And I don’t want Sir to let me slide and let me get out of punishment.”

He put down the gag and reached over as if to untie the spreader bar, but she shifted, moving her bent legs away from him and putting the knot out of reach. “I need punishment,” she rapidly said, “because I want you to be in charge of me. I need someone stronger than me. Please, Sir. Please give me my punishment.”

He froze. “Laura, do we need to stop and talk about this?”

She shook her head. “No, not now. Please, not now, Sir.”

He hesitated, considering.

She knew if he decided to stop, that was it, they’d stop.

She didn’t want him to stop. “Please, Sir,” she begged. “Please.”

He sat up again, considering. “Legs back,” he ordered.

She shifted toward him again.

Like a flash, his hand shot out and snagged the ring on her collar. He pulled her head up, leaning in eye-to-eye. “Don’t you ever pull away from me like that again. Do you understand me?”

She wanted to laugh with relief. “Yes, Sir. I’m sorry, Sir.”

He nodded. “Good girl.” He leaned in and kissed her forehead before releasing her collar. “That’s an extra stroke for that.”

She eagerly nodded. “Yes, Sir.” Relief flooded her. He wouldn’t stop. It also explained why he hadn’t shed his clothes yet. Unless it was something that happened when he’d already got naked, he never undressed before he got her punishment out of the way.