“Come for me, Little One,” Søren ordered, and her body obeyed before her mind even registered the command.
She climaxed hard, gasping aloud as Søren pushed a finger into her and pressed it against the contracting muscles. It trebled her pleasure as she felt herself spasming around him over and over again.
Søren stayed inside her as she came down from the high. They kissed again, and the kiss stoked the fire still smoldering inside her. Søren kneaded her clitoris again and she came a second time, nearly as hard as the first time. She collapsed onto the sheets, limp and spent.
“Stay here.” Søren slid off the bed and left the room for a minute. When he came back in, he locked the door behind him once more and sat on the edge of the bed. He ordered her to sit up with her back to him.
“How are you feeling?” he asked her as he started to wash the slight residue of semen off her back with a warm, wet cloth.
“I think my brain exploded.”
He paused to kiss her naked shoulder.
“You’ll have bruises tomorrow. On your thighs, on your back,” he said, retracing the path of the pain he’d given her with his fingertips. “They’ll start out pale and turn black soon after.”
“I can handle bruises. I won’t wear short skirts and backless dresses.”
“Kingsley recommends his masochists take zinc. It helps the bruises heal faster.”
“Is Kingsley like you?” She turned around and faced him, her knees pulled to her chest to cover her nakedness.
“A sadist, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“He enjoys pain play enormously, although he can and does have sex without it often. It’s safe to say Kingsley enjoys … everything.”
“My kind of guy.”
“There is something else you need to learn about Kingsley.”
“What?” She wrapped her arms around her legs, suddenly chilly.
“There is God, there is you and there is Kingsley. Those are my three nonnegotiables. You understand?”
She nodded solemnly, wondering why Kingsley meant so much to Søren, but decided not to ask. Kingsley had been his best friend in school and their friendship had survived the death of Kingsley’s sister. Søren called Kingsley a non-negotiable. She needed to know nothing more.
“I may have Kingsley instruct you about our world, the rules.”
“It is that complicated?”
“It is. This world of ours is structured, hierarchical and ritualistic.”
“Sounds like church.”
Søren smiled broadly.
“Perhaps that’s part of the appeal for me. It takes eroticism seriously, treats it as the sacred thing it is, that it should be.”
“This feels sacred to me. It didn’t feel like a sin. Was it?”
Søren turned her to face him. She should have felt embarrassed being naked with him like this, especially since he still had his trousers on, but instead she felt pride in her naked body, pleased she could finally display it for him. He took her breasts in his hands and held them while he kissed her.
“Did it feel like a sin?” Søren asked when he pulled back from the kiss and released her breasts.
“No. It felt like love,” she said.
“Your friend St. Teresa of Avila who had the erotic encounter with the angel might have agreed with you.”
“Really?”
“She said, ‘It is here that love is to be found—not hidden away in corners but in the midst of occasions of sin.’ Perhaps she was right.”
“I think she was,” Eleanor said. “I liked this, what we did. Loved it.”
“I won’t lie to you, Eleanor. It’s been several weeks since I’ve hurt anyone. When you’re starving nearly any food will do. When you’re sated it takes much more to tempt you.”
“Is that a fancy way of saying I got off easy tonight?”
“I’m saying I got off easy tonight.”
Eleanor laughed. God, this felt good, being intimate with him. Naked. Talking. Laughing. Perfect.
Søren dropped a kiss on her sore shoulder.
“Tonight I gave you bruises, Little One. Someday it will be welts. It will be cuts and burns. I would never do anything to you that you did not want to do. Unfortunately, you may not know you dislike a certain act until you’ve tried it.”
“Eventually you’re going to have to realize I’m not scared of you.”
“Eventually you’ll have to realize that you need to be for both our sakes. Say ‘yes, sir’ if you understand.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now put your clothes on before I change my mind.”
“Change your mind about what?” She slid off the bed and found her pajamas. It amazed her how comfortable she felt being naked around Søren. She didn’t even like taking her shirt off at the doctor’s office.