Page 21 of Salt in the Wound
He lifted my hands and soon my fingers encountered the silk of the blindfold. Loops of it—not knots.
He’d tied the blindfold in a bow. I could pull it off with a mere tug.
He must have felt my hands relax a little at the discovery and he lowered them.
“Your hands are free. The blindfold is not tight. Your safe word is right here between us the moment you need it. Breathe.”
He was right. He was right.
I was okay.
Slowly, I found my breath again, one inhale after the other, until my body caught up with my mind. We didn’t need to panic.
“I’d like you to get to your knees.”
I didn’t move at first, abruptly aware of the windows all around us, of how I must be on display in the glass-walled loft. The whole penthouse had felt so private a moment ago, but now being asked to do this, it had transformed in my mind to a stage, a shadow box.
“No one will be able to see up here without a drone.” Mark’s voice sounded a little farther away now, as if he’d taken two steps back. “And there’s no sightline into this space from any of the other buildings nearby.”
Once again, he’d accurately read my mind. It set me on edge.
“That was why I bought it,” he added.
“So that you could use this place for kink?”
“Among other reasons,” he replied. “Kneel, Isolde.”
I decided to trust him about the privacy. If anyone would be concerned with sightlines, it would undoubtedly be a former spy. And anyway, I knew I’d have to kneel for him at some point. That was very central in my research; it was a surrender of power, a show of obedience and trust.
In my case,onlya show.
I dropped lightly to my knees, years of martial arts making the movement easy.
“Good,” I heard Mark say. “Now I want you to crawl toward my voice. I’m sitting on the bench near the middle of the room; I’m sure you saw it as you walked up.”
I had seen it. But…
“Crawl?” It was a good thing we weren’t doing this for real, because I would have made a terrible submissive.
“Yes, crawl,” Mark said. There was amusement in his voice again. “This is something you may have to do when we are at the club, so I promise this isn’t gratuitous humiliation.”
“Why?”
“Why?”
“I mean why do you like making someone crawl?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Mark didn’t sound angry. If anything, he sounded baffled.
“It’s just—” All the kinky stuff had seemed so clear in the reading he’d sent over. But now that we werehere… “How is it sexy?”
He answered immediately. “In your case, I think your tits will hang nicely and the ends of all those pretty, blond tresses will drag on the floor. That proud little chin that you tip up at me whenever you think you’re being stoic will be facing the floor. Those strong, slender fingers will be splayed as you crawl, and your ass will be up for me to enjoy.”
I couldn’t find the words to respond.
“And I want you to do it, so that you can tell me whatyouthink the appeal is,” he added. “It will be your job to act the part, after all, and actors have to find their motivation, or so I hear.”
Motivation. Right.
