The Dollhouse by Stacia Stone Page A

back and I whimpered at the loss, until his teeth closed none too gently on my lower lip. I pitched forward and moaned into his mouth, hearing an answering growl.
    I didn’t realize that his hand had moved lower on my body until I felt two thick fingers push inside of me. His thumb teased over my clitoris, mimicking the movements of his lips. His tongue plunged in and out of my mouth just as his fingers moved inside of me.
    His voice rumbled against my mouth. “Come for me, Dalea.”
    I had no choice but to obey his command. Even so, the climax hit me unexpectedly, like a lightning strike that raced over me until I was a shaking, quivering mess. I rocked against the cross, caught between his hand and the unmoving wood, as uncontrollable tremors wracked my body.
    I floated outside of myself, weightless and unfettered, as the world disappeared around me.

7
    I came to myself wrapped in a blanket and curled up in Julian’s lap as he lounged on a small sofa. The side of my face pressed against his chest, rising and falling with each breath that he took. The room had cleared and we were alone. I had no conception of how much time had passed.
    His hands smoothed over me, rubbing in circles that were both soothing and stimulating. When he spoke, his voice rumbled against my cheek.
    “Welcome back.”
    I hesitated to speak, unwilling to break the spell of our time together, but I couldn’t stop myself. “I’ve never felt anything like that before.”
    “I’m sure that’s true.”
    “Do you know what it was?”
    “Did you feel sort of disconnected from your body, almost like a high?” I nodded and his dark chuckle reverberated through me, making me shiver. “It’s called subspace, when a submissive gets so much adrenaline pumped in their brain its like being high. It can happen when feelings of pain or pleasure become particularly overwhelming.”
    I didn’t know how to respond to that. Overwhelmed didn’t even begin to cover the depth of what I had experienced. I had felt completely out of my body and mind. He could have done anything to me and I would have let him.
    “I understand, I think.”
    “You’ve taken to this better than I ever could have imagined.” His voice was grave and I got the immediate impression that he was not prone to handing out compliments. “I’m very pleased with you.”
    I basked in the warmth of his regard, like a lizard stretched out and sunning itself on a rock. A languid stillness settled over me as I relaxed against him. It felt as if, for the first time, I had found a place that I actually belonged.
    All of my problems — Luis’s legal trouble, Momma’s cancer and all of the various slights that life had thrown my way — no longer existed when I was in his arms.
    I distantly realized that I hadn’t called him sir since he took me down from the dais. He hadn’t yet chastised or corrected me and I relished the informal familiarity, speaking to him as if we were friends — or lovers. I wondered if he also hesitated to break the spell that we were under.
    The hand that wasn’t holding me against him moved to the front of my unresisting body to stroke down my thigh. Separated as we were by the thick blanket, the gesture was more comforting than it was seductive.
    Long-tapered fingers rested against me and I inspected them curiously. A glint that reflected against the dark fabric of the blanket caught my eye. Had I noticed it before and chosen to ignore it? Or had he, in his haste to drag me out and tie me to the cross, forgotten to remove it like he normally would?
    Regardless, the silver band that wrapped around his left ring finger was impossible to miss now, where it pressed against my belly.
    He wore a wedding ring.

    * * *
    T he Procurer regarded me steadily across the shiny expanse of his desk, in a position the exact replica of the one that had started this all.
    “You understand that a decision like this, once done, cannot be undone?”
    “He’s married.” My voice