Possessing Bella

Authors Note: Due to the timing of the completion of this series, this chapter has not, as yet, been through the careful hands of my wonderful proof-reader and friend AisieLynn. I will endeavour to replace it as she has time to work on it for me. I hope you will forgive my eagerness to bring you the conclusion to this long running series and bear with the few bumps in the writing. ~ellie.

Possessing Bella Ch.25

Bella woke to find herself pulled closely into Stephen's arms and his worried expression hovering over her in the dark. She no longer felt the need to apologise or explain, and she smiled stroking his cheek and accepting the soft kiss of relief he offered her. The nightmares had become more frequent as Mel's memorial approached, and she was grateful to have the warmth and love of the man beside her. She snuggled into his chest relaxing as he stroked her back. She was beyond happy; she couldn't believe how good her life with Stephen had become.

The agreement they had entered into had been surprising to Bella at first. While Stephen demanded the respect and power due to him in a dominant-submissive relationship, he was also relaxed within the confines of their relationship. As if the constant concern that she would choose to keep another's collar had disappeared and allowed him to show her a side of him that was usually reserved for those he was intimate with. She realised she had only briefly caught glimpses of the softer side of him in the past as he watched over her training and helped her navigate the pitfalls and dangers of living within this lifestyle as a single woman.

Each day he was there when she woke and he left for work as early as she did, travelling down to the cove for the mornings and returning to work from the office in her apartment or his office in the club in the afternoons. While he lectured her about burning the candle at both ends, he seemed to understand her drive where her career was concerned and gave her a lot of independence about how late she needed to work except on Fridays. The weekends belonged to the Lord of the Cove. They drove down on Friday evening and came back on Sunday evenings, in which time they slept very little and played very hard between hosting their friends. She smiled at the constant stream of people who visited the Cove on a Sunday.

With Rob's return to the club full-time since Mel's death, much of what had been Stephen's role had been handed over to him as the owner. Mel had trusted Stephen completely during the time that Rob had been reclusive and when he had returned it had been difficult to define new boundaries between them. As Stephen took on the role of Bella's watcher Rob assumed even more, of the general managers role enjoying the challenge of updating and renewing certain aspects of the club.

With Stephen's help, Theo was now training another manager to lighten his load further, and he had negotiated his withdrawal from working weekends at the club with the proviso that he would be available for the large events and holidays throughout the year. Stephen remained a major presence from Sunday to Thursday, but he made his own hours, usually while Bella was either still at work or asleep. Bella herself worked with Rob and the club managers two nights a week finding that she enjoyed the hostess role in the restaurant where she could meet and greet everyone and socialise with her friends.

The Abbey at the Cove had rapidly become a much bigger part of their lives than the club had been, at least for Bella. She enjoyed the expanding group of friends who came often on Sundays for lunch and to inspect the renovation as it progressed. Arek was a constant presence as he worked on the landscaping of the huge grounds. He and Stephen bickered and teased each other like brothers and she wondered at the often about their friendship and the slight tension that ebbed and flowed between them. They were competitive with each other to the point of being aggressive at times and Bella often wondered why they would choose to spend so much time together.

She and Stephen had become a couple in the true sense of the word and Bella was amazed at how easily they were able to slide in and out of each area of their lives. She belonged to him heart and soul now and after the memorial when she had said her last goodbye and thanked Mel and his friends for all they had done for her she would beg his collar. She had been planning git in her head for the last few weeks and wanted the moment to be perfect.

She smiled acknowledging how different she felt about begging for Stephen's collar now compared to when she had begged for Mel's. She had been excited by the new world Mel offered her and also terrified of it and him. She had lived in a constant state of confused bliss then and while she admitted that she had loved him, it paled in comparison to the relationship she had with Stephen now.

"I can hear you thinking again," Stephen chuckled and smacked her ass lightly. "It will be time to get up soon anyway so talk to me about what is going on in that busy little brain of yours."

Bella turned her head to look at the clock and sighed softly. She leant up on one arm and ran her other hand over his chest. Would it make a difference if she told him that she wanted his collar, the real tangible one, now rather than after the memorial she wondered chewing her lip as she looked at him? He knew how she felt about him now. Their relationship had evolved and deepened rapidly into so much more than she expected. She knew she wasn't just a possession to him or a toy to be played with, why shouldn't she tell him that she was ready to commit to a future with him now rather than in a few days when she could be accused of being emotional and acting on that alone.

"Talk to me," Stephen said propping himself up on several pillows to half sit and pull her into his arms again. "The dream was bad?" he asked. He had been dreading the memorial and its effect on her. He dreaded losing her again to the dark pain that had crippled her for long.

"I was thinking about Mel again," she began quietly. This wasn't the perfect time or place she had planned in her mind but she tried to find the right words to say what she needed to in the best way to help him to understand that she was ready to beg his collar and that it wasn't a reaction to the dream or the memorial preparations. "I'd known him most of my life, he was familiar and I trusted him because of that. He gave me a choice to beg for his collar but he admitted to me while we were in Italy that he wouldn't have accepted it if I had said no. He pushed me to accept it. I'm not sure I realised it at the time but I can look back and see now that I was thrilled and excited by what he had shown the naïve girl I was then but I was also terrified and that's why I ran from him so often." Bella sat up looking directly at Stephen, wanting him to understand how differently she felt now.

"I mean I loved him, I truly did. He told me how much he needed me, wanted me, how special I was," her voice died off. "I think I needed that from him, to know that he loved me and wanted me so much. I'd never felt that sort of obsessive desire before though and as much as I was excited by it, he also terrified me." She said guiltily. "In the end, my excitement and curiosity about the lifestyle, a place where I could fit in and be myself are what made me beg his collar. I wanted to learn it all and experience everything he offered me."

Stephen frowned but said nothing. He had known little of Bella before he had become her watcher down at the beach house during her recovery. The little he did know had come entirely from Mel himself. He listened as she continued to speak enjoying her honesty about what she was feeling about the upcoming memorial.

"He seemed to know what I needed and wanted instinctively and it was very overwhelming. I found myself doing things I would never have done without his pushing me to it. That first week before I took his collar was a type of introduction to this lifestyle. A week, that was it and I had to choose between Mel, the lifestyle my career everything I had at that time or return home to my parents having failed to make it in the city," she said softly. "It was a strange time and I was so confused about everything except that I wanted to know more, do more and understand more and I loved him or thought I did."

"Your reaction after his death tells of how much you loved him," Stephen said becoming angry with Mel, what he did to her was against everything they preached to the new Masters at the club. Still he had known her for most of her life and perhaps there was more to what he did than she realised, it was a difficult time for her he acknowledged.

"Yes, she admitted I did love him. I am not sure I understood then what real love was, though. Love shouldn't make you feel scared or forced to perform. Love even between a dominant and submissive should still be caring and safe and honest and even tender," she looked up at him. "I'm not saying this at all the way I planned in my head." She chewed her lip disappointed that she had made of mess of it.

"Sometimes talking is the best way to work through things. With Mel's memorial only days away it's understandable that all of these feelings are coming to the surface. You loved him deeply it's okay to be confused and uncertain right now," he stroked her hair.

"That's just it. I've never been more certain or clear-headed about anything," she turned to look at him taking in his handsome face. "I love you. I love our life here, and at the Cove. I love that we both have demanding careers and manage to make it work. I love that you listen to me when I waffle on about the silly things that run through my mind. I love that I never knew that love could feel this way until you showed me," she took a breath enjoying his startled expression. "I would love to wear your collar if you would still offer it to me." She finished lamely.

Stephen stared at her for a long moment, and she chewed her lip nervously. He wasn't sure he had heard her properly and he was too stunned to risk asking her to repeat it in case he had heard her incorrectly.

"I know I should have said that kneeling at your feet and begging fervently for you to accept me but once I started talking," she shrugged and shook her head. "I had planned to wait until after the memorial," she said quietly.

"I love you too," he said pulling her to him and kissing her softly. "Stay exactly where you are he commanded nestling her head on his shoulder and picking up his phone.

"Nothing's wrong," Stephen smiled into the phone. "Why would I worry about the time when I know you don't sleep," he chuckled as Kurt slowly calmed down. "I need Bella to have the day off, it's important. I'll fill you in at the club tonight," He paused listening as Kurt brought up her schedule on his tablet and agreed to the day off while frowning at Bella as she gasped in shock. "Great tell Rhys I'll owe him one for covering for her, thanks." He hung up the phone and grinned down at Bella. "You and I are playing hooky today, get up and get dressed we have a lot to do."

"The sun isn't even up," she nuzzled into his neck confused by his sudden need to get up and move when he hadn't answered her.

"Not a good way to start after begging my collar, lucky I didn't just agree if this is the sort of behaviour I can expect." He smacked her ass but couldn't hide the grin on his face. "Now up and shower and wear that dress your mother gave you when you got your car. We're going to take it for a drive."

Bella got up and went to shower considering what had just happened. Had she messed it up so badly he was about to be punished? Maybe h just wanted to take her to the Cove and have her beg him properly. Several thoughts ran through her head but he kept urging her to hurry and she quickly got ready to leave.

An hour later after a hurried breakfast, they were on the road with Stephen in the passenger's seat content to let Bella drive while he made a few calls. Bella loved her Sunbeam and was always disappointed that she didn't get to drive it more often. At such an early hour of the morning, the traffic was light and she made the trip in record time.

"Did you wear your lead boots this morning?" Stephen laughed as he got out of the car and put his arm around her waist pulling her close.

"It not exciting unless you play a little with the speed limit," she blushed. "I just love driving that car."

"You love a lot of things I have noticed, I am glad that I am one of them," he kissed her lightly and then hurried her through the abbey to his tower thankfully not meeting anyone along the way. Now that Anissa and Thomas had moved into the farmhouse and the workers were now housed in that part of the estate he and Bella had the living areas of his home to themselves mostly. The rooms closer to the main house would be used by staff in the future, when the guest rooms were finished and available to people wishing to stay but, for now, they lay empty.

"I had always imagined that if you begged for my collar that you wold ask me here, in the great hall or the garden, maybe even on the rooftop at sunset," Stephen said as they descended the stairs to the dungeon. "You took me by surprise this morning, and that is not an easy thing to accomplish," he chuckled lightly unable to stop smiling despite himself. "It never occurred to me that you would present yourself with sleep-tussled hair and wrinkled sheets covering your beautiful body while offering it to me."

"I'm sorry," Bella blushed and allowed him to help her remove the dress. "I wasn't thinking about that part of it at all."

"I realise that you had not planned it that way or at that time but it gives me the opportunity to bring you here, to my domain and have you beg me properly," he said. He turned and went to sit in the large wooden throne-like chair that dominated one corner of the room. Bella watched as he removed the arm from one side and withdrew several boxes, one long and thin and she smiled realising why he had not answered her back at the apartment and felt silly expecting him to just produce a collar on the spur of the moment in her bedroom. Sitting in the large chair, he looked bigger and more imposing than ever and she walked slowly to stand before him and sink into a kneeling position.

"This is what you asked for so eloquently earlier," he opened the case and held it before her. Small gold ingots barely an inch in length, were held together by small rings at each corner to form the chain of the collar. On the central ingot standing out in platinum relief were the crossed swords of his crest behind a stylised heart shape sculpted to perfection. Each of the other slim ingots were finely engraved with similar images but included floral decorations as well. It was beautiful and Bella looked up considering the man who offered it to her. A man she had come to love as she had no other.

Bella, having made the decision sometime before that she would beg his collar, even if she hadn't planned to do it quite as soon as this. In preparation, she had sought out the quote she had used the first time when she begged Mel's collar. Diane had given it to her then and she liked it even more now. She had changed a few bits to make it fit her new love and she willed herself to start speaking as she gazed from the collar up to Stephen's face. He had stopped smiling and seemed to be considering her seriously as she took long moments to gather her scattered thoughts.

"Loving someone as I do you is not just about what is going on in my heart but my mind as well. I can see clearly how our life is now and how it will be in the future. I accept and want that and everything that comes with it. I will be true to you, whatever the pain, because not loving you would be a pain much greater," she paused and swallowed nervously as she voiced her choice to be his.

"I choose a man who compels my strength and makes enormous demands on me. I choose one who does not doubt my courage or my toughness or, believe me, naive or innocent. I choose a man who has the courage to treat me like a woman." Her voice started to break in her anxiousness to speak with her heart as well as her head. "I accept and understand who you are and what you ask of me and I offer you the gift of my submission and trust you to cherish it and hold it close to your heart. May I please wear your collar My Lord to show all others that I belong to and with you always."

"I am not such a fool as to wait for a second longer," Stephens smile appeared again and he took the collar from its box and secured it about her throat. "Mine," he growled deeply and pulled her up by the collar kissing her fiercely. Here was the perfect place and with the sight and sound of her in his dungeon, begging his collar he gave rise to his dark need to dominate her right there and then. He pushed her back from him catching her by the collar alone, trusting in the maker for its strength. "That is not the only jewellery you will wear for me today," he dragged her behind him to a bench on the far wall and opened a drawer taking out a glittering gold chain.

"You chose this, you begged for this life because you are a pain whore, a fuck toy and you want to serve my sadistic needs," he said darkly pushing her back onto the bench to lie at his waist height looking up at him. Hold onto the legs of the bench with both hands and do not let go," he instructed as he pinched her nipples hard, twisting them painfully to hear her whimper and yelp. "You knew what serving me would entail, and still you embraced it and begged for it," he continued to speak as he clamped both of her nipples with the gold chain.

"Yes, My Lord," she whimpered feeling her eyes well with tears already as she felt his hand force her legs wider and after a moment of fondling the cold metal of the clamp surround her clit. She cried out and blinked the first tears to her cheeks, and he yanked on the chain to test the firmness of the clamps.

"Fuck," he groaned and pulled her from the bench to kneel at his feet. Freeing his cock he tangled his fingers in her hair and brought her face to it giving her no time to play or worship it as he normally did he pushed it into her mouth eager for the release that had been building since they had woken up that morning. He stared down at her turned on all the more by the tears and drool that fell from her face as she gurgled trying to keep up with his thrusts into her mouth. He went deep and held her head tight to his pelvis until she bucked with the need for air and pulled her off his cock reefing her head back to look down into her face as she gulped in large breaths. The sight of her messy and tear streaked undid him and he fisted his cock unloading jets of cum onto her face to mix with the tears and drool.

Using one hand still tangled in her hair, he pulled her to her feet and released the clamp on her clit making her howl for him as he quickly shoved two fingers into her slippery wet cunt. She shook in her need as he pumped his fingers roughly in and out of her.

"Beg me," he growled, "beg to cum on my hand."

"Oh god," she sobbed breathlessly, "Please let me cum, I'm a whore, a slut a fuck toy anything you want, please My Lord, I need to cum," she begged her body shaking with her need.

"Come then pain whore," he rammed his fingers into her hard and held tight to her hair as she arched and jerked in an erotic dance on his hand. When she had almost stopped shaking so hard, he grinned and pulled his hand from her wiping it over her belly and under her breasts roughly knocking the clamps still holding to the soft pink buds tightly.

Looking into her wet messy face, his still erect cock harden impossibly, and he dragged her through the crowded dungeon to the stocks and placed her head and arms securely into the padded holes then kicked her feet apart. His belt whistled through the loops of his jeans and immediately cracked against her ass. Kicking off his jeans and freeing his cock entirely he used the belt twice more while lubing his cock.