This time feels different. Normally, I fight you tooth and nail for every bit of ground gained and given. Now, though, I lay still, saving my fight for when the pain begins in earnest.
And it's easier than I would have expected. The look you give me when you get me right where you want me, it has always been fuel to the fire, a guaranteed method of getting me to struggle, to protest in some way, but now it has me pinned. Now, with my wrists and ankles tied, my body on display, I lie still, and for some reason, I'm not desperate to escape this. In fact, when you take my face roughly in your hand and turn my head to the side, when you get into my space and breathe low on my neck, I don't even squirm. I shiver, but it's with desire for more. It's the most pliant you've ever seen me.
My eyes are just beginning to drift shut in something akin to bliss when you lean down to whisper cruelty in my ear. "I lied, Errant. The prince has no interest in you."
My stomach drops and my eyes fly open, and a sound escapes through my clenched teeth. It's something between a growl and a moan, something between rage and lust, and my face flares hot with embarrassment. "You fucking bastard," I grit out against your firm hold on my jaw, repeating it when you grind your codpiece against my dick, though admittedly it comes out breathier the second time.
You back off a little, though you stay seated where you are, pressing into me, and I keep my face turned away even after you've let go of it. "Say the word," you tell me, "and I'll let you go. This will all be over." I stay there, seething, until you trace the fingertip of one gauntlet down my throat, oddly gentle for you. "Is that what you want?"
I squeeze my eyes shut again, because I should say yes. The prince was the whole reason I agreed to this in the first place, and you've been so considerate as to give me an out.
"What happens if I say yes?" I manage to rasp, my throat dry.
I feel you watching my face, though I don't look back up at you. "I untie you, you get dressed, and we walk away."
I swallow hard, feeling my throat bob under your fingertip.
"Errant. Is that what you want?"
Damn it all. I shake my head, still glaring off into the shadows.
"No?" You give me a second to reconsider, and when I don't offer anything further, you hook your fingertip under my chin, directing my glower back up to you. "Then tell me what you want."
I actually manage to bark a laugh, rolling my eyes at the unfairness of it all. This is quite a brilliant little dilemma you've gotten me into, Sir Thorn. Get me to agree to submit to you with an empty promise, then take away the reward and make me admit that I want it anyway. It's downright cruel, and I should have expected it from the start.
"I… can't." I shake my head, chuckling ruefully. "I can't fucking say it."
You blink down at me, your expression never changing, continuing to regard me with a steadiness that almost manages to calm my racing heart. "Then I'll say it," you murmur, "and you can tell me if I'm right." The hand holding the belt drags it up over the soft skin of my thigh, and my eyes track the movement warily. "Do you want me to do what I said I would do to you?"
It takes me a few seconds, but I manage to hold your gaze as I nod slowly. "Yes."
"You want me to hit you?"
"Want me to help your little cock swell?"
I shudder. "Yes, damn it."
You idly wrap the belt around your knuckles, and a slow smirk overtakes your face. "Just can't admit it, can you? Even spread out for me like this, you can't let on how much you want it?"
I take a slow breath. In for a penny.
Your eyes flare. "Very good." You lean over me again, and I try to shrink back into the mattress to no avail, my eyes straining to follow your movements. "Tell you what?" you murmur, retrieving something I can't see from under the pillow. "How about I make it a little easier on you?"
I watch as you sit back up, your codpiece shifting against me with the movement and I would react if I weren't so confused by what you're holding: a swath of black silk, softer by far than the belt, or the cords you've used to secure my limbs.
"I had thought to stuff this in your mouth," you tell me, almost conversationally, "to give you the mercy of a gag. But I think I have a better way of using this."
You trail the silk up my body, from my hips to my clavicle, and I shiver at the sensation, so soft and pleasurable, so sharply contrasted from the pain I have to look forward to. Your free hand cups my face, thumb stroking over my cheek, just below my eye.
I give you a questioning look, but it quickly fades into wide-eyed shock when you drag the black silk over my vision, securing it with a knot behind my head.
And I have to bite my lip suddenly to stifle the moan that comes with the understanding. You're going to hit me, hard, in my most sensitive place, and I won't see it coming. You promised that you would do more than just hit, cooling me down from time to time with your mouth on my swollen cock, and I won't see it coming, assuming you weren't lying about that as well. Every touch, every strike, will be a shock, will be magnified. I'll have no way of knowing if the next contact will be pain or pleasure, and my only outlet will be my mouth. I'll have no choice but to cry out, to whine and curse and moan.
I feel the rough leather of the belt on my cock again, just dragging over it, dreadfully slowly, and maybe I'm imagining it, but it already feels so much more electric than before.
"I wonder", you purr, your voice unexpectedly close to my ear again, making me shudder, "just how many hits you can take before you're begging for me."
And I know I'll regret it, but I snarl at you. "I have no intention of begging."
A dark chuckle. "We'll see."
The belt withdraws, and I tense, waiting for the moment it returns, no longer slow, no longer gentle.
And I try to convince myself that this was ever about the prince.