A whimper grew in her throat as his fingertips danced over her swell of her shoulder to trace the length of her collarbone. She wanted to feel his palm cracking down on the swell of her breast, or better yet her a.s.s. "It's not the same."

He looked puzzled. 'What do you mean?"

She nodded toward his lightly caressing fingers, frustrated as they continued to barely press against her. h.e.l.l, even a pinch would be nice right now. "It's too light - not hard enough - rough enough, Sir. I miss the Dom who flogged my a.s.s over the kitchen table because I ran."

He tugged her up against him, and popped her on her a.s.s. Her p.u.s.s.y moistened and she closed her eyes in relief as the pain and pleasure mingled. Finally.

Then of course the stubborn a.s.s had to go and ruin it.

"He's not gone. But the rough stuff will have to wait until you're not carrying our child." He gently removed the clamps. "Like these..." He held up the silver clover-leafs. "They could damage your nipples the same delicate flesh that our son or daughter will take nourishment from." He tucked the clamps into his pocket. "Just be patient. After you have junior here, we'll play." He pressed a kiss to her forehead and turned away walking toward his desk. "Now go put some clothing on. I have something special planned for today."

She pulled back, frustrated at his refusal. Deciding to go for broke, she placed her hands on her hips and scowled after him. "No."

Deacon drew a deep breath at her refusal. He'd know this was coming. She'd been pushing hard for the past few weeks, wanting more than the gentle caresses and kisses he'd been giving her. h.e.l.l, he'd even sensed her growing restlessness, but had been helpless to find any alternatives to give her the cure for it. He had made a solemn promise to himself. No more kink until after the baby was born. But that didn't mean he didn't have other ways of dealing with his bratty submissive. He forced displeasure into his voice as he spoke.

"That wasn't a request, Bethany."

"So punish me." She shrugged her shoulders. "Because I'm not going any d.a.m.ned where with you, unless it's to the nearest spanking bench or club."

He growled as he tossed the clamps inside the top drawer of his desk. "It's not happening. I won't endanger our child for your kink."

She flinched. "My kink, Sir? Last time I checked you were a f.u.c.king Dom. One who used to love tying me up and punishing me before f.u.c.king me so hard I'd have bruises. One who couldn't seem to get enough of our play but now can't bring himself to do more than half-heartedly slap my a.s.s." She crossed her arms over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, hiding her pink nipples from his gaze.

He wanted to order her to drop them to not hide his nipples from him, but resisted the urge afraid that if he let even the smallest piece of his dominant side out, he'd have her strapped to the pillory in his spare bedroom, and begging for mercy as he flogged said lush a.s.s. Mercy for both of them that he wouldn't grant, despite any fervent pleas.

"Is it because of the changes our child has made?"

He flinched under the weight of her accusation. "Nice opinion you have me. Like I'm shallow enough to only find you attractive when you're not pregnant, when in reality all that is keeping me from giving you what you want is my fear that doing so will hurt you or our child."

She glanced down at the floor. "s.h.i.t. I never meant to infer that you were shallow, or belittle your concerns. Some guys just don't find a pregnant woman s.e.xually attractive." She rubbed her hands on her thighs. "I know you don't have that problem it's just I'm way beyond frustrated. I feel like a volcano ready to explode at the slightest chance."

She looked so miserable standing in front of him, her lush nude body hunched in on itself. "Oh, sweetheart." He returned to her side and tugged her into his arms. "I know this rough on you." He brushed a kiss over the crown of her head. "We barely had time to scratch the surface then you got pregnant."

She nuzzled closer, resting her head against his chest. "Yeah. Potent b.a.s.t.a.r.d that you are."

He sighed and wrapped his arms around her waist loving the swell of their child where it pressed against him. "We only have three or four months left. We'll make it. In fact, I'll even give you a boon during our first scene." He slowly stroked her back.

"What kind of boon?"

He chuckled. "I'll let you pick out the scenario for the first time we play."

"Play?"

While she didn't stiffen in his arms, there was a sudden stillness to her as if she were holding her breath or waiting for the other shoe to drop. "You're not gonna be ready for a full-on scene at first. I've read that new mothers are often tired and need to build their stamina back up." He tipped her face up to his, then kissed the tip of her nose. "I promise I'll take it easy on you until you're back at full strength but don't think that's gonna keep me from paying you back for every stunt you've pulled in the past three weeks." He gave her bottom a light tap. "Now, why don't you go get some clothes on, so we're not late meeting Zeke. You know how cranky he is when people mess up his schedule."

"And he expected me to just quietly get dressed so he could take me over to okay the designs that Zeke had come up with for the nursery. Can you believe it?" Bethany slammed her palm down on the bar. Next to her, Chet made a sound of sympathy as he watched the ongoing karaoke taking place on the far side of the bar. Thursday Night's Slamming Karaoke Parties had been a hit since Bethany had introduced them to the bar crowd nearly three years ago. It was one trend that Deacon absolutely abhorred. But he didn't complain too loudly when he tallied up the sales receipts at the end of the night. Instead he camped out in his office with headphones on, did paperwork or played G.o.d of War on his computer.

"Oh the horror of it." Chet pressed the back of his hand against his forehead in a mock Scarlet O'Hara gesture. "How dare he spend a fortune on furniture for the baby, when its mother's in dire need of a hard f.u.c.k!"

She grabbed for the wet rag off the bar. "Don't make me use this, smart a.s.s."

Chet dropped his hand. "Whoa, killer."

She sighed and dropped it back on to the bar. "It's not just the fact he's refusing to scene with me that's driving me nuts. It' the fact that he's actually courting me - or something d.a.m.n similar. I woke up yesterday morning to find a rose on the pillow next me." She rested her chin on her hand. "Can you believe that s.h.i.t? I'm a sure deal. I don't want or need freakin' flowers. " She tugged on her choker. "I wear his collar for f.u.c.k's sake."

"Of course you do." Chet grabbed his beer. "But I totally understand his reasoning. He loves you and doesn't want you to get hurt because you want some too rough, kinky s.e.x."

"Then tell me something. How would you like it if the tables reversed? That your Mistress refused to let you serve her when you asked, just because you were recovering from a cold."

Chet growled. "It'd p.i.s.s me off, because if I asked, I would've known what I could handle or not handle."

She nodded. "Exactly. He's got it stuck in his head that we can both settle for make do with vanilla s.e.x until after the baby is born and then only play a bit - until the baby is old enough to sleep through the night. I'll kill him, if he waits that long to top me." She shifted in her seat. "It's just not fair he got me addicted to his brand of domination - then pulled it away for a bulls.h.i.t reason."

"Why do you think it's a bulls.h.i.t reason? Harder impact play isn't safe once you get into your third trimester, Bethany."

"I know that." She squeezed the bridge of her nose. "Why do you think I'm so anxious to store up some memories? I only have four to six weeks left of real play time, which is why I talked to his uncle. He's gonna help me." She patted his arm. "As are you."

Chet groaned. "Aw, h.e.l.l. Please tell me it's not something that's going to end up with me on the wrong end of Deacon's fist." She shrugged. "I don't know he's on a short fuse these days, since he hasn't been releasing all those dark domination needs on me."

He sputtered. "You couldn't leave me out of it."

"Nope. He's got to think that you're involved in it."

"Why would you do that to me? I'm your friend."

"I know you are. If you weren't, I'd have kicked your a.s.s already. Instead consider this payback for you f.u.c.king up my s.e.x life by trying to teach my Dom how to romance me."

"s.h.i.t." He gave her a hopeful look. "I don't suppose there's some way you'll let it go?"

"Not a chance in h.e.l.l. You turned my Bada.s.s Dom into a b.u.mbling romantic. Because of you, he thinks there are things he must do to prove to me that he'll be a great husband and father." She leaned in and grabbed the front of his shirt. "Something he never should've had to do. Faults and all, he was f.u.c.king perfect for me before you started filling his head with sappy notions of love, and all sorts of crazy romantic ideas about how a man acts with the woman he loves. So guess what you're gonna pay by taking him out fishing Sunday afternoon."

"But I don't even like fishing!" Chet protested.

"You do now." Bethany leaned closer to him. "But chin up maybe the only thing he'll do is dump your a.s.s in the water."

"You're a cruel woman Bethany Adams." Then he downed his beer in three long swallows.

Chapter Twenty.

"Dude, it's not going to bite you." Deacon shook his head, as Chet held the squirming earthworm between his thumb and forefinger while trying to bait his hook. A look of distaste was apparent from the pursed lips to the deeply furrowed brow. "Why the h.e.l.l did you ask me to go fishing, if you can't even handle baiting your own hook?"

Deacon's exasperated voice carried easily over the open water, because instead of sitting at home enjoying some quality time with Bethany, he'd let her talk him into taking Chet to his favorite fishing hole. He saw a spanking in her future He should've been enjoying a few relaxing hours fishing. But was he? No, he was dealing with an idiot who not only didn't have the slightest clue how to be quiet, worse he had no real desire to catch anything.

"Cause Bethany wants us to be friends." Chet tried once more to wrap the night crawler around the shaft of the hook, only to drop it for the third time.

"Here..." Frustrated, he took the hook from Chet. "Let me see that." With a few economical twists he had the hook bated. "Now just toss it into the water, and try not to hit me in the face this time."

Chet rolled his eyes. "Christ, it only happened once."

Deacon arched a brow at him. "Says the man who didn't have to wipe worm guts off his forehead."

"Whatever." Chet gave a haphazard toss - thankfully not hitting Deacon in the face this time, but somehow managing to tangle his line up on a floating log about thirty feet behind them. Closing his eyes briefly Deacon prayed for patience. But gave up when Chet jerked hard, snagging the line even more and in the process elbowing Deacon in the stomach after nearly tipping over the boat.

"That's it. We're done." He shoved Chet back in his seat, swiftly cut the nylon line then tossed his spare pole into the opening between them. "It's time to pack up this farce of a fishing trip. I'm going home to Bethany and telling her we had a grand time that we're now the best of friends." He glared at Chet. "And you, boy, are going to back me up, 'cause so help me G.o.d if she finds out what a disaster this was, and plans some other c.o.c.kamamie scheme for us to play nice, I'm gonna kick your a.s.s up between your shoulder blades."

"But..." Chet glanced at his watch. "..we can't. It hasn't been long enough yet. I promised Bethany I'd..."

Deacon jerked his own pole from the water. Seconds later it joined Chet's. "I don't care at this moment what you promised her. You're not cut out for fishing, and I refuse to waste my one day off this week playing fishing guide to a man who can't stand to get his hands dirty." He turned in his seat and started the engine. "Hang on. We'll be back to the dock in no time."

Chet started to protest, but Deacon gunned the outboard motor the surge of speed and burst of noise drowning out whatever the man had been about to say. Good, maybe that will keep the b.a.s.t.a.r.d quiet for a while.

He was just pulling into the dock when his cell phone vibrated at his hip. He jerked it free of its holster as Chet clumsily tied the boat up to the dock. A quick glance at the screen told him it was his uncle.

"Hey, LeRoy. Gimme a second." He squeezed the phone between his shoulder and ear when Chet climbed onto the dock and took off toward Deacon's SUV. "Hey a.s.shole, I'm not carrying all this s.h.i.t back to the truck by myself."

Chet shook his head and put even more distance between them. "I'll come back for it later, when I know I'm not in any danger of being thrown in the lake."

What the h.e.l.l is up with that d.a.m.ned city boy? If I was gonna dunk his a.s.s, it'd have been after the 'worm guts in the face' thing.

His uncle's voice in his ear drew his attention back to the phone. "Sorry about that. I just spent the most miserable two hours of my life fishing with Chet to make Bethany happy so what can I do for you since my fishing trip has been ruined..." he raised his voice so Chet could hear him. "...by a dumb city boy who can't even bait a f.u.c.kin' hook!"

"I need you to come by the club. There's something we need to talk to you about."

Deacon squeezed the bridge of his nose. "Can't it wait until I come by tomorrow. I'd really like to salvage what's left of this day, by spending some time with Bethany."

His uncle sighed. "That's what I need to talk to you about. Did you - or did you not -give your submissive permission to scene with another dominant?"

Fire burned in his veins at the idea of another man touching his submissive. "h.e.l.l no!"

LeRoy's drawn out sigh was louder this time. "Then you better get your a.s.s over here. She's in the midst of scene negotiations, and has a.s.sured Mistress Annie that she has your permission to set the boundaries of her next scene."

Bethany's heart leapt when Mistress Jasmin led her toward the Symbian machine. When LeRoy had suggested the older Domme help her get her needs and ideas through to Deacon, she'd been leery. She'd never been with a woman, but when the older man had revealed that it had been Jasmin who'd trained Deacon, Bethany realized the woman would be perfect. Of course it didn't hurt that s.e.xy silver haired Domme was also a practicing OB-GYN with the same medical group as her own obstetrician.

Perhaps once Sir sees his former Mistress playing with me, he'll get that giving me what we both need - won't hurt me or our baby .

"Are you ready for this, Bethany?" Mistress Jasmin tapped her flogger against her thigh. "You realize, even with your Master's boon in allowing you to set the scene, you will probably earn a rather severe punishment for allowing another dominant to touch you without his express permission."

She met Jasmin's eyes. "There is that possibility, Mistress. But if this works like I'm hoping, the reward will be well worth any punishment Sir decides upon."

"Good. Then a.s.sume the position we discussed. I want my former sub to be entranced by your submission."

"Yes, Mistress." She turned and approached the Sybian machine and the medium sized phallus attached to it. While not near as large as Deacon, the toy would stretch her p.u.s.s.y. She climbed the small platform and threw her leg over the rounded base. As agreed upon, she didn't mount the attachment instead nestling the thick length between her folds but not in her. Penetration wouldn't occur until Deacon arrived.

Along with the flogging I agreed to as payment for her services.

Her nipples tightened and she rubbed her palms over her thighs. She barely noticed when Mistress Jasmin approached.

"I'll have to say your form is excellent, Bethany." Jasmin circled her, taking in every angle, before nodding to Master Timothy and LeRoy. "My student has done well with your training."

"Thank you, Mistress." She whispered the honorific, but watched as each man grabbed a side of the specially designed stocks and moved them into position. Once attached to the base of the Sybian, the vertical design of the st.u.r.dy oak would keep her torso drawn taunt and limit her range of motion. Her breathing grew raspy as Mistress Jasmin approached.

"What level are you at, Bethany? Are you ready to play?"

"Green, Mistress." She met the older woman's gaze. "Nothing would please me more than to submit to you."

Jasmin gave a nod. "So be it. Lift your head for me."

"Yes, Mistress." Obeying, Bethany couldn't help but shiver in antic.i.p.ation, as Jasmin with the help of the other two Doms positioned her neck and hands within the confines of the stocks. Once in place, LeRoy secured them with a quick release latch. He met her gaze. "He's on his way." He gave her a wink. "And boy is he p.i.s.sed! I hope you know what you're doing."

"Yes, Master LeRoy. I'm going to remind him that if he won't give me what we both need, I'm not above forcing the issue."

"Remember that, when he whips your a.s.s for topping from the bottom." LeRoy backed away.

"Anything pinching, Bethany?" Jasmin checked the tightness of each restraint.

"No, Mistress."

"Good." There was a loud sound as a door slammed against something. Then the furious cadence of rushing footsteps echoed down the aisle.

Bethany's heart tripped then began to pound. Deacon was here.

The brush of Jasmin's soft lips against her cheek surprised her. "A kiss for luck, sweetie." Then the older woman stood her bearing regal as she allowed her inner Domme to come out in play. "Shall we begin?"

"Like h.e.l.l!" Deacon stormed into the area - then froze at the sight of Jasmin. "What the f.u.c.k Jasmin?"

Even bound the way she was, Bethany could hear the confusion in his tone. Poor Sir had come in expecting to rip a strip off whatever dominant had dared to even think about a scene with his submissive, but instead found her with his former Mistress and teacher.

"It's good to see you again, Deacon." Jasmin continued to block Deacon from Bethany. "I wish I could say it was under better circ.u.mstances."

"What the f.u.c.k are you talking about?" Bethany watched as he raked a hand through his dark hair. "And why do you have my submissive bound?"

Jasmin actually whacked him with the business end of her flogger. "That will be enough! If you were doing your duties as her Dom, she wouldn't have had to call me. It seems like you've forgotten the most important lesson when it comes to a D/s relationship."

"And what's that?"

Bethany couldn't see Jasmin's face but she was sure the expression on it wasn't nice.