, wiping it against her belly so the smell of her orgasm would be more apparent.
He could tell the moment she shifted from a place of pleasure to awareness. She relaxed her hold on his hair, lifting her hands away from his scalp so her palms were only a light pressure on his head, still following his command but lightening the touch.
James eased her into a sitting positing, then helped her stand.
With her back to him, he took a moment to let his feelings show on his face. He could cheerfully horsewhip Cat—and every other Dom who’d ever used her.
True submission—stripping away a sub’s walls to find the core of him or her—was the hardest thing a Dom had to do. It took time, planning and skill, because it went against most emotional and physical protective reflexes people, especially women, had developed by the time they were adults. Usually what happened was a submissive managed to keep some of those walls in place, resulting in a sort of half-submission that was usually fine, especially among casual partners. The trouble came when neither Doms, nor the submissive themselves, could tell that they weren’t experiencing full emotional truth about what they wanted and needed.
That’s what he’d helped Master Xavier and Mae overcome—Xavier had managed to bring out Mae’s real submissive. She’d been begging Xavier for the kind of domination no one would have imagined she would want, but Xavier had his own demons to wrestle with and hadn’t realized how deep Mae’s need went. James had seen what neither of them could after watching the two of them together in a scene in the library. A scene Beth had been a part of, in so far as she’d been a prop.
In Beth it seemed there was the opposite problem—the perfect, obedient submissive who followed every rule, obeyed every command, and yet no one had touched the real core of her.
James doubted Mae would have submitted at that level to anyone but Xavier—chemistry between the Dom and sub played a huge role in how intense a scene or relationship could become. But it was much more common that good chemistry allowed for more intense play, rather than the apparent lack of chemistry in Beth’s past relationships resulting in unfulfilling experiences for her.
There were people who found the greatest pleasure in kinks that dismissed their sexual needs while still making them sexual objects. Some “slaves” were used in that way, as were men who enjoyed long-term chastity or cuckolding. James was a firm believer in live and let live, though he had no interest in those styles of kink, nor it seemed did Beth, despite the way she’d been submitting.
Every knight in shining armor instinct he had was on alert after only a few minutes with her, which only made him angrier, because that was the last thing he wanted. Reminding himself once again that she didn’t need to be rescued—she needed to be made to come until she couldn’t remember the word “rules”—let alone what they might be. James promised himself that he wouldn’t get emotionally involved beyond investing the time it would take to figure out how to make her let him in.
He was gathering pieces of the Beth puzzle, and though he still couldn’t see how they fit together, he intended to figure it out before he let her go Sunday night. He intended to make her submit, truly submit.
Maybe for the first time.
A bubble of amusement at that thought helped him put aside his anger.
Beth’s shoulders hunched slightly when he laughed. James squeezed her legs between his knees, reassuring her with physical contact. When she remained stiff he traced the line of her spine down to the crevice of her ass, spreading the cheeks with his fingers just enough to make her think about the possibility that he would f*ck
her there.
“Do you know why I’m amused, Beth?”
“No, Master James.”
“It’s because I just realized that I need to treat you like a virgin.”
“Uh… I’m not a virgin.” The tone of her voice suggested she didn’t think he was particularly bright.
If there was one thing he didn’t have to worry about with this sub, it was having her attempt to top from the bottom. That required manipulation, even if it was done subconsciously. Beth either didn’t like to lie or didn’t know how to. It was refreshing.
“I know you’re not really a virgin, but you’re a virgin to the type of submission I’m going to demand.”
“I don’t understand.”
James rose, pressing his front against her back. She was half a head shorter than him and lean, but the kind of lean that came from muscles, not diet. He normally preferred curvier girls, but there was something deeply appealing about Beth’s body.