His, Carolyn Faulkner [books to read to be successful .TXT] 📗

He was right, she did. And his tone - which, as usual was barely above a whisper - just made her feel like a recalcitrant three year old, which she detested. "Don't you?" Three more swats fell, in the exact same spot.

"Yes!" she screamed, tugging at the bonds that held her fast for the correction he had decided she needed.

The next implement that he picked up was something that Raina dreaded - it was a rubber strap that looked innocuous enough. It wasn't the biggest or most imposing looking in his arsenal. But it was rather long and black, and once she'd felt it, she knew she never wanted to feel it again. It was as if each stroke was a jolt of electricity along her skin, and well into the meat of her. The pain was unbelievable, and he almost never used it on her.

This time, though, he took his time in showing her exactly what it was that he was using next, making sure she got an eyeful of it before he walked back to stand behind her.

She wanted to shout "no" more strongly than she'd ever wanted to do anything in her life, but she knew that that would only make the situation much, much worse.

And then the strap fell.

When she awoke it was much later, and she was still wearing both of her collars - the more decorative one she always wore and the leather one she wore at home - as well as her wrist and ankle cuffs. Raina was on her stomach in their bed. It was, unfortunately, a familiar position. As soon as she stirred, he lifted himself up on his elbow, stretched out as he was beside her. He moved her hair off her back and began to rub it. "Are you okay?"

She was certainly more okay now than she had been. He had only actually swatted her about twenty times, but with his strength and deadly accuracy, it was enough to make her scream so much and so loudly that she was now completely hoarse. When she answered him that she was fine, it only came out as a loud croak.

"I told you when we first came together that I'd stretch your limits, and you know that I'd never consciously put you in any kind of danger. This was a very good test of your submission, however, because you really didn't expect it." They'd discussed, before she gave herself completely into his care, that neither one of them had any interests in sharing or swinging or swapping and whether or not that type of thing would be within his prevue, and they'd agreed that it would not be.

He rolled away from her for a second, then rolled quickly back. "I know this is a strange time to ask this - "

Anytime was a strange time for him to ask about anything. He didn't ask, he ordered, whether it was in conjunction with her, or his assistant or his chauffer. He was an equal opportunity commander - that was what made him such a natural dominant.

"Y-you want to ask me something?" she said, barely above a whisper, as she tried only somewhat successfully to turn towards him without relighting the fires in her butt. But now she was exceedingly curious at this strange turn of events.

"Yes," he answered, moving his hand to her cheek where he brushed back the hair then claimed it gently. "We've been together for long enough now -"

Raina's eyes widened to an almost unhealthy point. Was he breaking up with her?

" - and I want it to be a permanent arrangement." He held up a huge, open black velvet box, containing the largest diamond solitaire she'd ever seen. "Marry me."

There was the absolute very last thing she ever expected to hear from him. He'd been extremely allergic to marriage, although he was considered quite a catch. He'd never been married, and as far as she could tell up to this point, didn't have any interest in ever being married. It had never entered their conversation - she certainly hadn't broached the subject. She wouldn't have.

The silence extended for an uncomfortably long time, until Raina felt that she had to say something, anything. "This - " she tried again and cleared her throat, not that it helped. "This is a surprise."

"I know."

She could see that tic in his jaw that meant he was tense, but she didn't feel as if she could do much to alleviate it. All Raina could do was stare at that ring. It looked big enough to be a paperweight!

Her Master wasn't going to wait forever for a response. He took the ring out of the box and put it on her left ring finger, retracting the choice he'd just given her. "As of right now, we're engaged. I'm going to give you a year - " he looked her in the eye and revised, " - six months to get used to the idea, but in six months I'm going to give you an order to marry me and you're going to obey it."

Raina's eyebrow rose. That certainly had to go down in the books as one of the strangest proposals on record. But she didn't take the ring off. Instead, like most women, she moved her hand around, taking in how it sparkled on her finger.

Her master sighed slightly in relief that she hadn't completely refused him. Raina may be his submissive, and a darned good one at that, but he couldn't always judge how she would react to things. That was probably one of the things he liked best about her, despite the annoyance factor that was sometimes inherent.

When they'd first moved in together, he'd laid down some basic rules for her - setting curfews for any time that she wasn't with him, and of course, health and safety requirements, like taking her allergy and asthma medicines and not working past six p.m. She could get up any time she liked in