Foiled

Foiled

He showed up when I couldn't sleep, Like he always used to, like he never stopped.

Grace...? You awake?"

I peeped through an eyelid. All six foot, six and half inches of Tyler blocked the meager light of the lamp on the desk as he loomed over my bed. I Glanced at the clock. Three A.M.

"You know I am, Tyler. What are you doing here? And At three A.M.?" I sat up against the headboard and eyed him warily, squinting as if I had been trying to sleep, even though we both knew I hadn't.

"I heard you had moved in with our friend and former Mistress." He gestured to the one wall of the room not covered in photos or artwork, only yards of simple black cloth. I almost smiled at the memories of the two of us there in what was now my bedroom but caught myself.

"You knew about that months ago."

"Would you believe I couldn't sleep?" Tyler sat on the bed, barely shifting the soft mattress. He'd lost weight, was probably under 150 pounds again. And, God help me, he looked good enough to eat. Stop it, grace...

"So you drove three and a half hours to go to sleep? You can lie to yourself, but don't expect me to believe your bullshit."

He glanced from his lap, diamond blue eyes shining with that look that only insanity or insomnia could give you.

"Would you believe I never slept better than I did in this room, beside you?"

And my heart broke all over again.

"No, or you never would have run off like you did. But if you want to try and sleep here, you're welcome to." at least one of might get some sleep.

I scooted over on the bed as he pulled off his shoes and slid in beside me, rolling onto his side to look me in the face.

"Sweet dreams, Graceful..."

I murmured a reply, cursing myself as he pulled me against his chest, tucking my head under his chin. Of their own accord, my legs twined themselves with his and my hand reached up to twirl his shoulder length mahogany curls. Kinetic memory is a bitch.

I drifted to sleep, lulled by his radiating warmth and steady breathing, cursing every deity that might be watching.

Soft lips on my fingertips.

Click of handcuffs.

A hand on my hip.

I raised my arms to stretch away the dream of a memory only to realize they were already above my head.

My eyes flew open. No, I wasn't chained to the wall that had been the implement of my broken heart.

Just the bed.

Tyler straddled my hips, long body stretched above me, chest inches from my lips as he held my uncuffed left arm above my head near the remaining unused cuff.

"I was hoping you wouldn't wake up until you were cuffed. You've ruined my surprise." He shook the curls from his eyes and cuffed my freehand to the headboard.

Sitting back on his heels, the silk of his boxers sliding like water against my lower thigh, he studied my face.

"This image haunts my dreams, sleeping and waking."the shine was back in his eyes as he soberly explained."It's worse than any "torture" our Mistress inflicted or had us inflict on each other. You've been the instrument of my torture, Gracious." He leaned forward, putting an elbow on either side of my chest and rested his chin in his hands above my breasts.

"You stand, or rather, lay, " he smirked," accused of inciting a mental riot. How do you plead?"

All I could do was glare. He was toying with my emotions and baiting my lusts, as usual. In the "I hurt you, you hurt me" game, he was a champion.

Knowledge of my defiance sparkled in his eyes. His lip twitched, trying not to smile.

"Pleading the fifth I see. Somehow I knew you would. Very Well , Grace. Then I'll be your judge, jury, jailor," here he eyed the cuffs," and parole officer. And if you do what you're supposed to, you may get off early for good behavior." He chuckled at his own bad pun.

"Well that sucks, because you and I both know I don't follow rules well and have serious issues with false authority figures." I pulled myself to sitting against the headboard and tested the cuffs to no avail. They were mine, police issue Smith and Wesson double locks.

After letting me do my futile test of my own handcuffs, he slid further down the bed, off my body, grabbed my ankles and pulled me back down onto my back. He crawled back up my body, dropping his weight on me and raised only his shoulders, neck and head up in a mock pushup to stare back at me.

"I'm counting on it."

He kissed me like he would devour me, consume me, from my throat to my soul. I felt his long slender hand -pianist's fingers, I used to tell him. Artists' hands- Run up the back of my neck and into my hair. Sliding his kiss down to the hollow of my throat, he pulled back on my hair, throwing my head back right before he bit a gasp from my throat right beneath my chin.

Until that moment, I had remained passive, not reacting, a guitar string wound to the point of breaking.

And I broke.

Every muscle that had been tensed for his onslaught went loose. And he knew.

Hands still holding my head back, he lifted his head from my throat. I could just see his lips twitch, hiding a smile.

"And that's what I miss most of all. When you give up the fight." His eyes sparkled with lust and ownership and something I couldn't define.

My defiance rose again, ready to get me into more "trouble."

"I haven't given up the fight, Tyler. I've simply chosen to enjoy it." I hoped my own eyes held only rebellion and not the turmoil I was really feeling.

"Touche, Gracious. But as always, you really aren't in any position to fight. Not that it ever stopped you before. Now rollover." He stood.

I glanced at my wrists and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't look at me like that, turn over."

I rattled the cuffs at him, the chains clinking merrily against my antique iron headboard.

"Oh don't pretend those are the cause of your insubordination. You and I both know there's enough give in those chains from cuff to headboard on each set for you to turn over because the chains will twist. You just don't want to."

I shrugged noncommitaly in his general direction. I was not giving in to him, my body, or my heart. The former would rip both the latter to shreds. My body could take it. Hell, my body would love it. But my heart isn't as into the pain as every square inch of my body is.

"Roll over, Grace."

I raised another eyebrow. Just to irritate him.

"Turn over, Grace. I'll make it worth your time, I promise."

I cocked my head to the side and looked at him. Not in open defiance, but like I misunderstood. If he wanted to play "seduce and destroy" then I'd best start my offensive.

I leaned more heavily into the pillows and stretched from my fingertips to my toes. It was my bed after all. Might as well get comfy. I saw him watch the muscles in my thigh stretch and contract at the lace hem of my shorts. It always pays to have nice PJ's. Even if nice is code for "slutty."

Something alien flickered through his eyes as they burned a line I could almost feel down my carefully posed nonchalant leg.

"Grace. Turn. Over. Now."His voice shook, deep and warm and angry.

Well, a good defense is always the best offence.

I struggled to turn over before his control broke, but apparently I wasn't fast enough. He grabbed me at wrist and ankle, not so much turning me as tossing me over onto my stomach, chains clinking together, narrowly avoiding my fingers being wrapped in them.

I felt more than saw him move away from the bed. He returned a moment later, but it felt like a year.

"Get it over with, Tyler."

"Oh no, Graceful. I'm going to take my sweet ass time." the bed shifted under his weight. "And speaking of sweet asses..."

I felt a hand feather up my thigh and onto my ass cheek, pulling the high slit satin shorts with it. I tried to turn enough to see what he intended, but he grabbed a handful of hair and made me face the headboard.

"Now Grace, you won't let me blindfold you, you never would. This is as close as it gets, so stay facing that way." He didn't add a threat. It would have been superfluous because it hung in the air and shimmered in his voice. He let his hand remain in my hair, tight, just above the nape of my neck like a comforting sting. His left hand left my ass and was replaced by something cooler than the radiant heat of his fingers, trailing circles where he'd left off. I could feel the rough leather of the crop softly abrading my skin. I suppressed the shudder that wanted to run through my body. The key is breathing. Focus on it. Oxygen flow helps with involuntary muscle control. That's what the text books say. I say it's bullshit.

"Watching you fight your natural reactions is amusing. You're heart's racing, no matter how you try to calm it. Meditation won't help you, Grace. I can feel your pulse, taste it in the back of my throat. I know you, Grace. That racing heart is not from fear." Tyler lightly tapped the crop across by upper thighs. And then I realized what was really going on. This was his way of us having a serious conversation. At four am, I just couldn't deal with his inability to communicate like a sane person.

"You obviosly have somehting to say, a point to make, so why don't you just tell me and then I can go back to sleep?"

Apparently I took the wrong approach. I was rewarded with a sharp smack to the ass from the crop and I almost gasped.long fingers smoothed the sore flesh immediately after and I suppressed a whimper.

"What is it you're so fond of saying? You're number one rule? 'If you have to ask, the answer is no'? I think thats it. Well, honey, you aren't allowed to ask questions, and no, I'm not going to get to the point. I want you to understand it fully with out the verbal expression. But first, I'm going to ruin you for anyone else. We always played by your rules, Gracious. You're limits. Now we're playing by mine." there was a moments pause, then I felt the sting of material cutting into flesh and heard the ripped skin sound of my satin shorts being literally torn from my body. The feel of it brought a groan from my throat. I know what i must have looked like, face first into a pillow, hands cuffed above my head, black and silver pinstriped camisole riding up my torso from squirming. the only thing left protecting my ass were my black silk mesh boycut briefs.

"Goddess on a cracker, Tyler. you know you're going to replace those. these pajamas are not cheap."

I recieved another swift pop to the ass for my outburst, followed by smooth fingers tracing the growing welt.

"Grace. I don't care about your goddamned pajamas. Were you expecting company, sweetheart? because you sure were decked out in your nicest pjs and panties." I heard metal scrape against metal. "Pity. I guess these things will have to be replaced as well. probably pricey, too. Silk this finely woven usualy is. I should have known it would be translucent mesh. you always did like the tease of being covered unless in the right light. oh well."

I felt the point of a blade scrape against my left ass cheek for less than a split second, barely touching the skin before i heard it whisper through the silk, first across to seperate the crotch of the panties from rest, and then upward, as it severed the strip covering my ass. I shivered as the blade tip slid painlessly up at my lower back.

"Ah, i remember now. you always did like the blades. knives and bloodplay are your thing." He chuckled to himself. "Razor blades and hard drives."

A thousand differant witty remarks flew through my head. but he wanted obedience. or at least obedience wiht enough cheek to earn whatever he wanted to dish out. So i'd comply. At least for a little while, I could hold my tongue. I said nothing. I was protesting everything he did, but part of me reveled in it. Even my Mistress couldn't elicit the responses from my body that he could. It's why She usually put him in charge of me, while She entertained herself with another pet. But i had never shown him the respect of the word "sir." That probably stung.

Tyler pulled the shredded underwear out from beneath my body.

"Ah. i'd forgotten. The reason this was so much fun. Try and hide your love of my attentions all you want, the dampness of your panties always gave you away. There were times when i could feel it through your bluejeans when we were getting warmed up. I don't know why I ever left whith the bounty that was laid at my feet in the form of you."

So holding my tongue was out of the question.

"You cared too much. you scared yourself, Tyler. and you ran far and fast from that emotion."

the crop popped again, this time on my mid back, in quick succession. three times it hit. but it was still restrained. Regardless, I squirmed, rose to meet the leather.

"I didn't care to much, grace." i felt the point of the blade used to remove my undergarments trace up my thigh. He was moved to lay beside me now and turned my face toward his on the pillow. "I didn't think you cared at all, Gracious."

"Bullshit" I said through clenched teeth and the sigh trying to escape my throat where his right hand rested, fingers turning small circles against my jugular vein as the blade traced lightly, never breaking -barely touhing- skin. "You knew i cared. you played me for a fool, Ty. I trusted you with my life and my heart."

the blade made its way over my ass and slowly up my lower back, each inch feeling like it took an hour.

"You never trusted me as far as you could throw me, grace. Yes, i'll admit to that fault being mine, but when i left, you returned to the friend position, of your own free will."

the blade slowly cut through my camisole shearing away the silver and black material to show the swirls of color tattooed across the top half of my back. these the point traced idly without so much as a scratch. I closed my eyes against the soft caress.

"I stepped back because..." -gasp- "you didn't say goodbye."

the blade stilled.

I opened my eyes to see the blue ones in front of my face register shock. the knife left my skin as i watched enotion flit through his eyes. lust faded to knowledge. knowledge to regret. regret to that again unplaceable look. and from there the cold glint of justification. while these changes took place, the hand holding the knife was moving.

I'd forgoten that his lanky form was fast. the minute understanding reached his manic eyes, i felt silk between my teeth. he tied it roughly behind my head, under my long dark hair. which he grabbed, pulling my alarmed face up, his mouth milimeters from my ear, he growled low in his thoat, sending a wave of tingles from my chest to tighten things low in my body. i'd always loved that growl.

He snagged my un encumbered lower lip in his mouth, sucking on it and then biting it before traceing his way back to my ear lobe, he lips teasing along the top of my ear as he voice rumbled from his chest to my eardrums to my heart to my groin.

"I didn't say goodbye because i was afraid if i did i'd never be able to leave."

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to be continued.