Immediately, Joe dropped the whip and ran around the frame. 'Are you all right, Kate? Did I hurt you?'
His concern pulsed through me like living fire, but I couldn't answer. I could only moan with longing. A Trappist monk wouldn't have mistaken the sound for distress, but Joe crawled on to the platform and hugged me.
'I'm sorry, Kate. I'm sorry. Please, please don't hate me.'
'Kiss me,' I said, slurring like a drunkard.
With a cry, he captured my mouth. We kissed desperately, as if the world were ending, as if we'd never make love again. My body ached for him to fill it. I wanted to ram myself over him as brutally as I could, and at the same time, I wanted to soothe every salty tear - to be kind, to be sweet, to wrench his heart with the pain of falling in love.
To devastate us both.
'Enough,' Sean said, a cold, cutting order.
Joe ignored him. If anything, he clung tighter. The whip sang down, striking Joe's back. Everything stopped at once - our kiss, Lou and Amy's masturbation. Even the fire seemed to hush. Joe stared at his friend as though he'd lost his mind, but Sean stood firm.
'Back,’ he said, pointing with the doubled whip. 'Now.'
Joe moved back, slowly, but he moved.
Sean replaced him before me, his belt at eye level. He unfastened the buckle, then pulled it from the loops so fast the leather hissed. For a heart-stopping moment, he swung the belt from side to side, then tossed it to Lou. The whip followed. Such arrogance, I thought. But it was merited. He didn't need those tools to master me, only the one between his ears.
Knowing it would tease me, he dragged his hands up the bulge of his balls and dick. A wet spot at the midpoint of his zip proved how ready he was. I licked my lips.
At my telling gesture, Sean whipped open his trousers and released his swollen cock. It sprang out hard and full, bouncing once before rebounding towards his belly. His foreskin clung to the base of his glans, as though the head was too swollen to allow full retreat. My sex contracted, wanting to test just how swollen he was.
'Eat me.' He pushed his rod in my face. 'Nice and slow.'
At that moment, getting someone else off was not my first priority, but a woman like me is always game to take a taste, especially when the cock du jour is such a fine, vigorous specimen.
My hair fell forward as I circled his glans with my tongue. Sean's knees locked.
'Easy,' he said. I hadn't licked him hard but he was primed to blow.
I licked again, even more softly, directly across the eye of his cock. His thighs flexed and released. The prospect of a good long suck had weakened his guard. If I played my cards right, that guard might fall altogether. 'Make it last?' I asked.
'Oh, yeah,' he growled. 'Make it last.'
I leant closer to get at him. The chains rattled. Sean shuddered once at the sound, and again as I licked my way slowly up his under-ridge. I knew he'd lose it if I sucked him, so that's all I did: licked him up and down and all around. I kept my tongue soft and wet - a comfort lick.
Sean liked it so much he clasped his hands on either side of my head. His guidance was firm but gentle. Perhaps he feared a tighter grip would lead me to intensify my efforts, which would bring him off sooner than he wished.
Perhaps, too, he did feel some affection towards me.
As I lapped him with all the delicacy I could muster, his thumbs traced the arc of my brows, smoothing them along the bone. Soon his fingers explored me as well, curving over my cheekbones and nose and jaw, as though he loved the structure of my face.
Could I really plot revenge against a man who touched me so tenderly?
That's when it hit me. Tenderness and domination were not inimical. They fed off each other and strengthened each other. If Sean had succumbed to doubt, the way Joe had, he would have robbed me of a rare pleasure. His carefully restrained violence opened a side of my nature I'd never suspected.
If I cared for Sean, could I do any less?
No, I thought. No.
Confidence fountained up through my sex and belly. My brain hummed with clarifying energy. I could do this. I was chained but he was putty in my hands. His hips rolled forward. I gave him the increase in pressure he craved, but slowed until he sighed with every lick and his ribs swelled with all the air he could draw. The skin of his prick tautened, strained to its limit. He was fast reaching the point where he'd think he'd die if he didn't come, where he had to, fucking had to have it.
I ventured on to the crown again, teasing the rim of his crinkled foreskin, giving it the tiniest nibble with the edge of my teeth. His pelvis jerked; he groaned. I backed off and closed my mouth. He took himself in hand and pushed the head towards my suddenly inhospitable lips.
'Suck it,’ he said in a voice like sandpaper. 'Open your mouth and suck it.'
I opened my mouth all right - just wide enough to say 'Uncle'.
Sean gripped my jaw. 'Don't fucking "Uncle" me now Suck it!'
Teeth clenched tight, I shook my head.