Epilogue (The Dark Duet #3)

“More, Caleb. Please?” she whined. She treated me to the sight of her wiggling her bottom.

I spanked her once.

“Don’t try to entice me. I’m not near finished with you. You wanted a whipping and I’m determined to give you one.”

There was a sulky whimper preceding her murmured, “Yes, Caleb.” She huffed and rearranged herself in her restraints.

“Always with the saucy mouth, Kitten. Whether you’re using it to spout invective comments or simply petulant sounds, you’re always pushing me toward this—toward punishing you. I always wondered—before—if you craved me like this. Did you?” I lifted the crop and let it land on her ass again. Livvie lurched in her bonds, her lips pressed tightly together so that not even her surprise could break free.

“Answer me, Kitten.” I whipped her again and once more for good measure.

“No! No, Caleb.” There was the slightest stirring of real fear in her voice.

“No? Why now? What’s changed?” I whipped her again, mindful to keep the kiss of the crop across her flanks.

“I don’t know,” she cried. Her body was tight as a drawn bow. She was fighting me and I didn’t know why. I thought perhaps she was only fighting herself.

“Do you remember the first time I whipped you?” I asked. I knew for certain she did. This entire scenario had been constructed based upon that particular memory. The least I could do was assist her in cataloging it properly.

“Yes, Caleb,” she said more quickly.

“I remember too. It all could have gone differently.” I reached around to the front of her body and cupped one of her br**sts. I rolled her nipple between my fingers as I spoke. “I would have shown you mercy, of a sort. I knew you were scared. You’d been shocked to learn I was your abductor and not the hero you’d imagined.” I tugged on her nipple. It was a hard little stone between my fingers. “You wouldn’t let me be kind. I would have fed you while you rested your head in my lap. I would have given you as many answers as I could to ease your plight. You could have gone to bed without the marks from my belt. But you fought me. You couldn’t win, and you still fought me.”

“I hated you!” she said. The words caught in her throat. She shut her eyes and tears raced down her cheeks. “I didn’t want your f**king mercy.” The words were difficult to hear, but I knew them to be true and I deserved them.

I leaned forward and collected a salty tear from her cheek.

“Don’t be sad, Kitten. You were right to hate me.”

“I don’t hate you anymore, Caleb. Please believe me. I don’t hate you.” More tears spilled down her cheek.

I stroked her hair. I kissed her salty cheek.

“I know, Pet. We’ve come a long way from there. Yet, here we are. You’re still asking me to punish you. Why?” I struck her several times. With each loud slap her resolve crumbled a little more. I pushed her. I pushed myself. I wanted her to understand there had only ever been one reason to return to this.

Livvie was sobbing.

“I… I like it.”

“Yes,” I said. I placed my hand between her legs and stroked her wet folds. “You do. So why are you still fighting me?”

“I don’t mean to!” Her chest shook with the force of her crying.

“I think you do. I think you believe I want you to—but I don’t, Kitten. You don’t have to provoke me. You’re no longer my captive.” I touched her clit. My fingertip glided easily through her slick folds. I whipped her across her other thigh with the crop.

Livvie screamed but settled quickly.

“I’m sorry, Caleb. Please forgive me.”

Begging… I’m always a sucker for the begging when it suits my own desires.

“You’re forgiven. Don’t do it again.”

She took several deep breaths.

“Yes, Caleb.” She moaned loudly when I bit her shoulder. “God! The things you do to me…” Her breath shuddered from her chest. “No one else makes me feel this way. You hurt me so much—before. But you always made it better. You’re the only one who makes it better. I don’t want it to stop.”

“Better than whom, Pet?” I dropped the crop and palmed her ass as I continued making circles on her clit. Livvie had found a taste for pain, but I knew the best way to get her to talk was to bring her as close to the edge of orgasm as possible.

“Everyone,” she whispered. Her eyes were closed, but I could see the tears still leaking from her eyes. Her hips were moving again, finding a rhythm to match my touches. “You take care of me. No one’s taken care of me like you.”

A weight pressed on my chest.

“I’d take care of you without this.”

“I want this. I didn’t want it before. You didn’t care about me. I was a thing to you. I know that’s not true anymore. I trust you, Caleb. I trust you to see me like this. I trust you to take care of me.” Livvie’s thighs began to shake.

“No, Pet. You’re not allowed to come yet.”

“Please, Caleb,” she whimpered.

I stifled a laugh.

“So manipulative.” I spanked her with my bare hand. Hard. It didn’t seem to affect her. She was on another plane.

“I learned from the best,” she said. I watched her smile and then attempt to hide it.

“Couldn’t make it five minutes, could you? And now I’m afraid I can’t let you come.”

“Caleb, no. Please! I’m sorry.” She opened her eyes when I pulled my hands away. Her expression was one of astonishment. I smiled.

“I warned you.”

“What are you going to do?” Her tone suggested she was frightened. Her eyes said otherwise. She’d asked me that same question dozens, perhaps hundreds, of times. I always had the same answer.

“Whatever I want.”

I’d been working on something rather special and I couldn’t wait to try it out. I’d never been much of a carpenter or inventor, per se, but idle hands and an agile mind had led me to explore more hobbies. I found that I liked working with my hands, and I especially liked when my new hobbies coincided with my favorite pastime.

Livvie was silent as I undid the straps on her ankles. She was always most quiet when she was nervous. She sagged in my arms, limp as a wet noodle once I unstrapped her wrists.

“Caleb?” she whispered.

I hoisted her over my shoulder and slapped her ass.

“No questions, Pet. You’ll like it. I promise. Or at the very least, I will.”

I grabbed a pillow from the sofa before I walked the few steps necessary to reach my constructed apparatus. It hadn’t taken much to put together. The downstairs was mostly unfinished and it was easy to find the choice support beams.

I tossed the pillow on the floor and set Livvie down on it. I heard her wince as her heated backside made contact, but I also knew she’d be just fine.

She appeared beautifully at odds with the unfinished basement, a diamond in the rubble.

“Lean back on your hands and put your legs out in front of you.”

She stared at me for a moment as if she were unsure about whether or not to bait me with more of her insolent backtalk. Then, seeming to come to her senses, she did as I asked.

“Yes, Caleb,” she added.

“Very good, Kitten. I’m proud of you.” I winked at her and smiled. We were supposed to be having fun. I didn’t want either of us to forget that fact.

“Thank you, Caleb.” She managed a smile for me.

She was very curious about my every move as I gathered up the harness I needed, along with a spreader bar and some nylon rope. The hardware store was a very convenient place to shop for sex toys.

It took a few minutes, but I finally had what I wanted. Straps placed at Livvie’s waist, thighs, and ankles would help lessen the amount of gravitational strain. The spreader bar would keep her ankles apart, evenly distribute her weight, and give her some semblance of balance. Finally, the nylon rope—anchored to the spreader bar and pulled through a series of load-bearing pulleys secured in the ceiling— would make it easy to lift her slowly off the ground.

“How do you feel?” I asked. Livvie lay on her back with her knees bent. She was pulling on her lip with her fingers.

“Nervous. Are you sure this is safe?”

“Do you trust me to keep you safe?” I palmed one of her br**sts and traced her satin-clad nipple with my thumb. She sighed.

“Always.”

“Then stop asking silly questions.” I leaned down and kissed her. I was beyond aroused. I felt like a starving man sitting down to a feast. I wanted to touch every part of Livvie all at once. I also knew the wait would make the reward all the sweeter.

I let myself kiss her slowly. I let the tip of my tongue coax her lips open. I scraped it along the edge of her upper teeth before I felt the first slow slide of her tongue meeting mine.

Livvie’s hand cupped the back of my head and pulled me closer. She was just as eager, but less inclined to savor than I was. Our teeth clicked against one another as she attempted to let the kiss consume us.

I pinched her nipple between my forefinger and thumb. I was treated to a keening whimper, a blatant request for more. I tugged Livvie’s nipple, delivering sensation and rewarding myself with more of her whimpers.