Hold Me Close by Eliza Gayle

caressed her and slowly moved over the area his belt had landed on changed the sensations inside her. The heat of pain morphed into a burgeoning pleasure that made her stomach quiver with possibility. With no more thought, she slid back into place on the pillows and silently urged him to continue.
    “Okay then, Bonnie. But I expect to hear your safeword if you need it.”
    She moaned in answer and she breathed deeply in anticipation. Her body was now warming from head to toe.
    Wham.
    The strike of the belt slammed into her flesh. She arched her back and gasped with fire licking at her nerve endings. Fuck .  
    “This is what happens to little girls who try to top from the bottom, and to subs who break protocol and run away before a Dom knows whether she is okay or not.” His hands were all over her again and she could only writhe with the heated pleasure coursing through her. “How do you think I felt when I came out of the bathroom with my only thought of holding you close? Taking care of you? You deprived me of that right.”
    Sometime while he talked, she must have slipped back into position because he caught her off guard with the third and fourth strike.
    “Owww,” she cried.
    As if on cue, he touched her. “You aren’t the only one who needs that time after a scene. I was shocked by how much it hurt to find you gone. I couldn't give you the comfort I knew you needed.” His voice broke on the last word.
    She wanted to speak, but he gave her no time. The fifth, sixth and seventh strikes came in quick forceful succession. Yes, they stung like hell, but the pain was fading quicker and the moisture between her legs gathering quickly. Her mind buzzed with an overload of thoughts as she tried to concentrate on stringing words together.  
    “I didn’t think about that,” she said. It was a difficult admission to make. Submissives normally put others feelings ahead of their own and she didn’t. What did that make her then? “I was—” She couldn’t tell him she was afraid of her feelings for him. Nothing he’d ever done or said gave her any indication he wanted to expand their relationship. Even today, this had been engineered by someone else.  
    “You were what?” he asked.
    “I got scared.” She blurted the words before she could stop them.  
    He smoothed his hand across her aching butt, fanning the flames of a different kind of heat. “It’s okay to be scared. We’ve talked before about how emotions can come on strong during a scene. What’s not okay is running away without telling me you’re okay.”
    Tears sprang to her eyes. Why did he want to teach her this lesson? If she shared with him how she truly felt, he’d be forced to try and let her down easy. Bonnie buried her face in the silky sheet underneath her and tried not to imagine that conversation. It was bad enough knowing her feelings were one sided, having to hear it would kill her.
    “I’m sorry, Sir. I won’t do it again.”
    He shifted behind her and the next thing she knew his lips were pressing to the likely swollen flesh of her bottom. Soft, silky kisses with a little touch of tongue that soothed and excited her. “You are forgiven, my Bonnie sub. Always forgiven,” he whispered.
    Her heart soared at his words. This was the logic of BDSM that worked so well for her. If she made a mistake, her Dom would correct her. They’d talk about it and then it would be finished. No hard feelings were left to fester and come back later to haunt them both. Open communication, while not always easy, was the cornerstone of why it worked.
    Except she hadn’t told him all of it yet. He didn’t understand how key their first time had been for her. She had to tell him everything.  
    He peppered more kisses across her sensitive flesh and her immediate need to confess fled. She writhed underneath him and prayed he’d touch a lot more than the one spot.  
    “You’ve got three more to go. Can you handle them?”  
    Bonnie nodded her head.