Down the Garden Path

"I want to know all about you" her lover had said, when giving her his most recent writing assignment. She was thrilled at his interest in her thoughts and fantasies, and, in spite of the work that she would have to put in to meet his deadline, five days from today, she could hardly have been happier.

In addition to the pleasure of complying with his wishes, she was glad to be reconnecting to parts of herself which she had sealed away some years ago after a bad relationship. Sex with the man she now thought of as only "the psycho ex" had been hot, often, and kinky, but everything else had been as bad as the sex was good. By the end of the relationship, she did not want to even think of some of her previous kinky fantasies.

But, for all the down sides to the passage of time, it had one wonderful aspect. It did heal wounds. Sometimes the scars were still visible on close inspection, but memories of the injuries which caused them had long since faded. "After all," she thought, "I own my imagination, and no one can take it from me. They can't steal my joy."

Her life was very different now than it had been during her earlier S & M experimentations. She had learned a great deal in the past two years, and knew she had barely begun her journey into the shadow sensuality of power exchange. John embraced a part of her psyche that had always been there, but very rarely acknowledged, much less understood, by others. That he would ask her for her thoughts and dreams filled her with joy, as did the work of preparing them for his reading pleasure.

* * * * *

I.

"Go upstairs. Strip, and wait for me", her lover said only moments after she entered his home. As much as she enjoyed their sexual relationship, she was rather taken aback that he would be so abrupt with her. She had not seen him for the past two weeks and had expected a more gradual build-up to physical intimacy. She enjoyed the time they spent talking and sitting together, reconnecting before a scene. However, she would never consider disobeying him. She climbed the stairs without attempting any further conversation.

His room was dark, but she could see well enough from the indirect light of the hall fixture to be able to remove her outer clothing and hang it on the robe hook inside his door. She had worn a red bra and thong that he was particularly fond of, so she had hoped he would see her disrobe, but he obviously had other plans tonight. She sighed, smiled, and unhooked her bra. The straps came down her arms, and she removed it, freeing her full breasts. The thong followed, and she put both of them on the lid of the black trunk he used for his toy collection. "At least he will see them", she thought, with a grin.

Other than to "wait", he had given her no instructions, and she wondered what her next move should be. Being naked always made her feel self-conscious, even when she was alone. Somehow she had never gotten over her uneasiness with nudity, even though she had done scenes in next to no clothing at play parties for the past year. This was not the same, though. In private, with her lover, she would be the center of attention from the person whose opinion she most cared about. It was a daunting prospect.

She listened for his footsteps, and looked through the open bedroom door to see if he was on his way to her. She hated having to be so close to him without being able to see or touch him, and patience was not her strong point.

"Kitten, turn away from the door, and close your eyes" he called up the stairwell to her. She was relieved. The waiting would become a torment in a matter of minutes if he ignored her entirely. She turned to face the far corner of the room, eyes closed, and clasped her hands together behind her back. The vibration of his approaching steps through the sub floor and carpet made her shift from sexual desire to lust. She was wet, ready for him, for anything he wanted from her. Her ego began the slide into spiritual submission to another.

He was in the room, now, close behind her. "Very pleasing, dear", he said in a calm, even voice. Her body felt the electrical tingle that branched out in all directions from its source, her wet and ready pussy. A shiver of need raced over the surface of her skin a moment before he reached around her from behind and stroked her breasts with the flat palms of his hands. Her nipples were erect immediately, and he gave both of them a light tug between his thumb and forefinger. "I have plans for you tonight, slutkitten." he continued. "I am going to take everything I want from you."

Hearing his words triggered a lightening bolt of raw need from within the center of her body. "Yes, thank you, Sir," she replied. His hands left her breasts, and he grasped her wrists. He returned them to the front of her body, then into the position he preferred, behind her neck.

"You may open your eyes. Now, walk to the bed, and sit on the edge", he instructed. She felt awkward, walking with her arms bent and above her shoulders, but she did as she was told. "Good, move forward, so you are on the edge", he said. She scooted as far toward the edge as felt safe to her, and put her feet flat on the floor for balance. "Yes, that is right, dear. Open your legs for me now." She complied. "A little more", he went on. "You won't fall off the bed. I will make sure of that." Again, she did his bidding, and he smiled. "There, stay like that until I tell you to move."

He was still completely dressed and that made her feel even more exposed and submissive to him. He stood directly in front of her for a moment, then turned away and opened the black leather bag which had been removed from the trunk at some earlier time. She expected, and hoped, that he was getting the leather wrist cuffs for her to wear. For whatever reason, she found those to be among her favorite things, both to wear and to see others wearing. Wrists ready to be bound, encircled by wide strips of dark leather with bright metallic buckles and d-rings, were practically a fetish to her. Before he turned around to face her again, he said "We are going to do some new things tonight, kitten, things I know you have thought about before. You know you are always allowed to use your safe word and that I will always respect it, but try to remember that I will never harm you in any way and go with the sensations and the thoughts they give you. Will you do that for me?"

"Of course, Sir, I trust you and always try to do whatever you want", she replied.

"Yes, I know you do, kitten." he said, turning to face her again. In his hands, she saw not the wrist cuffs she had hoped for, but a roll of duct tape. For a split second, she felt true fear, as she flashed on the many nonconsensual uses she had seen the tape put to in television police dramas and murder mysteries. She did not make a sound, but he saw the flash of fear and looked at her quizzically.

"You will be alright with trying this, dear?", he asked. " I promise not to do anything you can't handle. Just relax, and we will begin." She was embarrassed to have let her moment of doubt show, and could not meet his eye when she whispered that she was fine with whatever he might wish to do.

He stroked her face with his free hand, then knelt on the floor in front of her, getting an intimate view of her exposed pussy. "Very nice, and very wet, kitten. That is good." he said, as he laid the roll of tape on the bed and ran both his hands up the insides of her legs, from knee to upper thigh. His fingertips moved over her smooth and hairless skin, toward the full outer lips. He pulled them apart, exposing her inner lips to his view. She felt her physical tension building, and silently willed him to go on, to touch her more intimately.

He ran an index finger up the deep pink folds of exquisitely sensitive flesh. At the top, just shy of the clitoris, he stopped. She wanted to beg him to keep going, but reminded herself that he was in charge, and remained silent.

"Yes, this is how I like your pussy, open, ready to take me in", he said, opening the lips again, pulling them farther apart than before. "This is how you will stay for me", he continued, releasing her to reach for the roll of silver tape. Her eyes grew wide, realizing what he intended to do, but she did not protest.

He tore off a piece of tape, about six inches long and stuck the corner to the wrought iron headboard of the bed. He tore off a matching piece, laid the roll back on the bed, and appeared to be thinking for a few seconds. "I will have better access for this with you on your back, dear. Lie on the bed, with your feet toward the headboard." She repositioned herself as instructed and waited for further direction.

"Bend your knees and open your legs" he said. Her legs fell open in the position she had used during masturbation throughout her adolescent years. "Good. This will work well" he said, scrutinizing her intimate accessibility.

His left hand re-opened the outer lips, and his right hand positioned the strips of tape in such as way as to holdher open. She had thought that his plan might not work outside the fantasy realm, particularly given how wet she always got with him. However, the adhesive worked well, and she was soon held open by only the tape. The air felt cool on her warm and wet pussy and she could feel the labial skin stretch with the slightest movement.

"Perfect, kitten, you look exactly the way I wanted you to." he said to her, smiling, pleased with his handiwork between her legs. "This will be very nice for me to play with tonight, when I am not busy with other things."

He licked his right forefinger, took it in his mouth, and drew it out slowly. The wet fingertip skated around the flooded entrance to her vagina. Her hips tilted upwards, trying to pull him in, but he denied her that pleasure. He knew that the pleasures she earned were the ones they both valued most. She needed the challenges he could provide, and she was only too happy to serve his every sexual need in order to have the opportunity to experience them.

"Now, to secure the rest of you the way I want you…" he began, rising from the bed to retrieve both sets of bondage cuffs from his bag. He put them on her ankles first, and she began to daydream of times past while he buckled the straps tight enough to make them snug, but not uncomfortable.

"Put your hands above your head", he told her. He then attached the smaller black leather cuffs around her wrists. As he buckled them, she thought of the intensity she had found with her Dominant lover, and smiled, both at the memories, and the anticipation of ones they would be creating today.

* * * * *

II.

If she had stopped in the middle of a scene with John, slammed on the breaks with a safe word, she would never have gone as far into the altered state of masochistic bliss. She could turn herself into the hero, the one who could backup her words. In her mind, she became one with her Top, his co-conspirator in a highly charged dramatic performance. Somehow, by the end, she longed for physical proof of their cathartic voyage in the shadows of their psyches.

The first time he caned her, he pronounced her a purple tabby kitten, and she began to conceive of wanting to be owned. There was sharp, sudden pain on the way there, but she had never felt more like a scene was "right".

That night, a few minutes after he guided her to rest in his arms at the foot of the St. Andrew's cross, she thought the scene was over. He continued.. She rose willingly, still floating on a psycho-sexual high, held the smooth painted arms of the apparatus. The pain was there, but it was not important to her. Her focus was on giving herself to Talon, letting him make full use of her for their mutual gratification.

When the cane had finally stopped falling on her red and bruised ass, he gave the command for her to come, and the power of both the orgasm and dopamine released into her system during play took her down. He lowered her body to the floor, placed a cushion under her head, then reclined with her. She curled into him like a wild animal seeking its mother. There was nothing else in her world at that moment. She was at peace.

* * * * *

III.

He was tying a long, white rope around the bars at the foot of the bed when her thoughts returned to the present time and place. He gave the free end a test jerk, appeared satisfied, and threaded the rope through the D-ring on her left wrist cuff. He took the rope back to the foot piece of the bed, and tied it there. He repeated the process with another length of rope and her right wrist. He took a step back, and looked admiringly at his bondage work in progress. "Very nice, slut," he whispered, then produced two more pieces of rope, which she surmised would be used to secure her ankles.

The headboard had larger bars that the footboard, and she expected him to use them to immobilize her legs in a way similar to what he had just done with her arms. This time, he tied each length of rope through the D-rings first. With one hand under her calf and one holding the loose ends of the thick nylon cord, he lifted her left leg and looped the rope through the bars at the end of the bed near where her arms had been secured only minutes earlier. He followed with her right leg, and she found herself completely exposed before him, bound with her legs apart and her open pussy higher than her head.

She pulled at the ropes, not to escape, but to test her range of motion in such an unusual position. It was severely limited. She waited for her lover's next move.