Adam & Eden Read online

  Eden came back to the room with the feel of Jacob’s hand between her thighs, his fingers pressing her to climax … a long mellow jolt and sensation afterward … softly swooping here and there.

  “I’m so good to you, darling Eden. You treat me like shit trying to fend me off. You suppose you’re going to tell your attorney about this little caper? About how easily you give in to me? You going to try and change your name again? Try to hide, maybe? If I didn’t think you were so scrumptious for my own needs, I’d find you pathetic.”

  He was undoing her from the bar overhead, but he left her hands manacled together at the wrists. Removing the gag, he pushed her to the floor and pressed her head against the wood with the heel of his boot.

  “You look good like that, whore, don’t you?”

  She didn’t reply.

  “Don’t you?” he pressed harder, angrily.

  “Yes, sir,” she answered.

  “And you’re mine, isn’t that so?”

  “Forever and always, sir,” she replied without thinking.

  “I will always own you,” he swore.

  She did not reply.

  “I WILL ALWAYS OWN YOU!” He let the crop rip against her upturned bruised butt, the narrow end landing in her ass crack.

  “Ah, nooooo!”

  “Say it bitch!”

  “You’ll always own me, sir,” she spit out loud and clear.

  “That’s better. Now suck my dick.”

  He helped her to her knees, and pulled her toward a chair where he sat back and she remained between his open thighs. Her hands couldn’t play with him easily, but her lips could and they covered the erect stalk. With his hand at the back of her head, he pressed her down on the organ and fucked her mouth. It made her gag, but he made her relax. Opening wide for him, her lips and tongue worked hard bringing him off. Pulling her head back, he shot on her face, on lips and hair and down her chin. The smile on his lips was reminiscent of times before when he was ecstatically jubilant mastering her.

  “You fire Adam Cady tomorrow,” he said looking down at her. “Tell him it was a mistake. Don’t tell him you belong to me, just tell him you patched things up. That you love me and that you always will. You understand that?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And you’ll do it.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. Now go to bed.”

  “What about the collar and cuffs?” she asked.

  “Wear them to bed. Be glad I don’t chain you to the headboard all night.” He threw her a key to the cuffs. “In case I’m not back to let you go,” he chortled.

  Jacob picked her up as he rose from the chair and gave her a mean swat on the behind as she padded off toward the bedroom.

  “You won’t spend the night?” she asked him peeking out.

  “No, I won’t spend the night. You don’t deserve me.” He was about to leave. “But you will. You’ll be moving into the brownstone with me for a little corrective training. So I can get you back to being the gentle submissive who’s never heard the word rebellion.”

  “I want to stay here, Jacob,” she pleaded with him.

  “But you won’t. I think I already have someone that will sublease the place. He stared around at her beloved walls. “You did a nice job fixing it up. Too bad you couldn’t behave yourself. Still, some of these things should bring a decent price.”

  “You’re going to sell it all?”

  “Yes. Like I did before. You’re not going to need it for a long time. And I can’t be bothered with your ballast.”

  ***

  The next morning, Eden was in Adam’s office by ten.

  “I thought I said I’d call you,” Adam remarked as he watched her walk through his door.

  “I can’t wait. I have to see you now,” she replied.

  “And why’s that?”

  She was shaking—not made-up or contrived this time. She was afraid, perhaps he saw that in her eyes. Considering what was in her heart she wouldn’t be surprised.

  “I have to do something now,” she said.

  “Do what? Jacob threatening you? Sit down.” Disturbed by her disquiet, he remained close to her, not behind his desk, but leaning against the edge of it in front of her looking down quite kindly.

  “He’s, he’s ….” She couldn’t find any words, and the thoughts streaming into her mind were filled with panic. Adam wouldn’t like hysteria, she’d decided. But how to tell him. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Perhaps you could be more explicit,” he wondered aloud.

  He was kind not to press, she thought. Remaining motionless for some seconds, she finally closed her eyes and began unbuttoning her chin-high dress—black too, like all her other clothes. As each pearl button became loose another tear formed in her eye. She stopped just below her breasts and opened the linen wide to show the naked skin that had been well-marked. A half dozen red spots remained from her beating the night before. “There are more on my behind,” she said. “And on my back and thighs.” She pulled one sleeve from her shoulder so he could see a few marks on her back.

  “That’s enough, Eden,” he said.

  She pulled the dress back over her shoulder and began to redo the buttons as slowly as she’d undone them. Adam stared down at her silently. She was surprised that he wasn’t horrified. She’d experienced him angry and expected as much now. Instead, there was a comforting calm, his eyes curiously tender.

  “So, Jacob beat you,” he finally spoke after a long speechless moment.

  “Yes.” He was so serene and gentle that he seemed capable of accepting anything she said to him.

  “And did you want him to, Eden?” he asked.

  . “Want it?”

  “Yes, as in being beaten arouses you?”

  “You think that?” she wondered.

  He cocked his head and let one eye fix on her. “Have I guessed wrong?”

  She shook her head and looked away embarrassed.

  “Eden, look at me,” he demanded, his attitude taking an unyielding turn.

  It was never hard for her to obey a request or command. His she loved for its steely determination and kindness. Yet when she opened her eyes, her body began to tremble. What did he think of her?

  “Am I wrong?” he repeated his question.

  “No,” she whispered.

  “Then you didn’t fight him?”

  “Only in my heart.”

  He moved away from her toward the window and looked out on the street. She watched him nervously, wanting to say so much more, or take back the confession she’d just made. Would he understand at all?

  “I want to see the other contract with Jacob, the one you’re really afraid of,” he said. “The one that has you slaving for Jacob Coltrain. I might be able to handle these legal ones. They’re poorly written. But it’s that other one, the non-legal one, I want to see.”

  “You think there’s another contract?”

  He’d returned to his desk and sat down. “Don’t try to deceive me again, Eden.” His voice maintained an authoritarian tone. “You know what I mean. I want to see your contract with him. What you promised him, personally … it is on paper, isn’t it?”

  She gave the man a halting, “yes.”

  “Then bring it to me now.”

  “You want to see it now?”

  “I shouldn’t have to repeat myself.”

  “But I’m afraid of going back to my apartment,” she replied. “Jacob …”

  “Is he there?”

  “Not when I left this morning. But he walked out last night telling me he’s going to sell my stuff and move me in with him.”

  “And what did you tell him?”

  “I couldn’t object,” she said.

  “Well then, I’ll take you home myself.”

  ***

  Adam used his reading glasses to inspect the three-page document. Typed on an old manual typewriter with O’s that looked like black moons and broken E’s, the contract looked much older t
han the relationship between Eden and Jacob could ever be. It was tattered—she said she’d read it daily when it was new. One end was dog-eared like she’d rolled it up and unrolled it a hundred times, and there was a coffee stain across the top of page two.

  “Five years old,” he remarked, seeing the date.

  Eden watched him reading, ready to wince any moment. She was wondering how she’d ever explain this to a man with ordinary sexual tastes. It would make no sense. Hell, it never really made sense to her.

  “You meant what you said here about absolute control?” Adam asked. With his glasses perched on the tip of his nose, he looked quite professorial as he peered over the top to look at her.

  “I did, then.”

  “This doesn’t allow for then and now. It’s about forever with this man,” he observed quite rightly.

  “I know.”

  “Then why are you breaking the contract?”

  He was almost accusatory like Jacob would be.

  “Because I feel empty inside,” she blurted out.

  “Is that how it’s always been?”

  “No. It began in an S M club. He was fascinating and very controlling. I wanted to do everything he said. He made my career, gave me the push I needed and the structure I needed to be productive. He’s controlled everything and I wanted that. But for two years now I’ve had this ache. He says it will pass and refuses to discuss it because a woman in my position doesn’t have a right to. That’s why I couldn’t tell him anything last night. But I know what he’s going to do. He feels this impasse between us as much as I do and he will do what he says. I can always trust that.”

  “So, what all this is about is reclaiming your rights to yourself?”

  “I guess it is.” She refused to be shy now, now that he knew everything. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to be making any judgments about her life. That gave her more confidence still.

  “And he’ll be here soon?”

  “He could come any minute or not for days. But he’ll expect me to be here and to leave with him.”

  Adam sat pensively gazing at the contract, then looked up. “So, if I find some safe place for you to stay for a while, does that mean you’re going to be serious about this? That the first time you run into Jacob again, you’re not going to go back to him? That you’re really done with the man?”

  “Yes, yes, yes, I am. I won’t go back to him, I promise.”

  He looked at her so sternly she was about to dissolve into the chair that cradled her small body. Big pink flowers in the fabric seemed to wind their way around her hunched shoulders.

  “I’m taking you to the apartment of a friend. She’s in Europe for the summer and gave me the key so I could look out for things. She said my sister could use it if she was in town, I’m sure she won’t mind.”

  “I could afford a hotel,” she said.

  “If you knew how to get your money. He does control that, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes, but I have some Jacob doesn’t know about. I guess I’ve been planning this for some time.”

  He gave her a raised-eyebrow hawk-like stare.

  “He could find you in a hotel,” Adam finally explained. “If you fear him that much, then you’re better off out of his sight.”

  She was quiet for some time wondering why Adam Cady would take this interest in her, even though it was exactly what she wanted him to do, even what she expected. She couldn’t detect any ulterior motive.

  “Perhaps I should take my keyboard,” she suggested.

  “Sadie has a piano. Get what you need and get it quickly.”

  “You’ll wait?”

  “If you’re so afraid of this man, don’t you think it would be a good idea for you to get out now, as stay here?”

  She nodded chagrined and left him to get her things.

  chapter four

  There was music in the air, in her mind and all around her. From some adjacent apartment she heard an operatic aria she didn’t recognize. A soprano with incredible rage lifted notes on airy pedestals like offerings to gods. It was enough to meditate on as she relaxed in Sadie Holt’s living room. Unlike her chintz and flowers, Sadie was much more minimalist in her style. With cream and tan-colored fabrics and flashes of crimson in the throw pillows and the arrangement of silk flowers on the glass coffee table, she felt strangely clean in these surroundings. Clean of Jacob without his moods and clamorous melodies stinging even the breezes that blew through the windows. Was she free of him? It was hard to say. She respected Adam Cady’s probing examination of her motives, considering what extreme things she’d promised to Jacob in the contract he’d read—that she’d so easily signed when she was at the time in love. She remembered their first night well ….

  She was at the club dressed in leather. The costume cost a fortune, leather garter belt, lace-trimmed silk stockings, four-inch patent heels, and of course the leather dress—soft black suede, handmade for her, so every angle conformed to her figure and moved the way she moved. There were zippers in the dress right over her breasts. In the club they were unzipped, her nipples prominent and hard when Jacob first spotted her. His scruffy appearance didn’t faze her. A quality in him shined through the smoke and gloom of the club’s dark rooms. He emanated authority and control. She’d seen him several times work a slave with a whip and liked his technique. But she appreciated the fact that he was very choosy with what women he played with. He didn’t play often, sat back a lot and observed. Yet when he struck, he struck like lightning and consumed. A submissive didn’t have a prayer in his hands. He refused to listen to “safe” words. Either a woman gave herself or she didn’t; there was no middle ground and no negotiation. Perhaps that was why so few women would submit to him. Most liked to control their sadomasochistic moments by instituting rules.

  The night Jacob finally spotted her flirting with one of her favorite doms, he seemed to know from the start that she’d bend to suit his plans. He came across so civil at first, a charmer’s charmer. He came up to her and pinched a nipple so she practically shrieked.

  “Hush, Eden Rose,” were his first words—words he’d repeat a thousand times.

  She swallowed her cry as the two fingers torturing that slip of skin made her start to cry.

  “You do very well,” was his first compliment. “But we’ll see how well you’re doing by the time I’m finished with you tonight.”

  “Did I agree to this?” were her first words to him. Even saying that seemed an act of rebellion against a man that would soon own her life, perhaps the last and only act of rebellion that she’d ever try with him—until now.

  He slapped her face and she felt much better being put in her place. Taking her into the back room, he did the unexpected, taking her over his lap and spanking her briskly with his hand until it hurt like hell. It must have hurt him too because he seemed to go on for ten minutes. When he was finished he set her on her feet.

  “The rules are, you obey and serve me, got that?”

  “Sure.”

  “You must really want to be punished,” he said noting her casual reply.

  “Yes, sir,” she corrected herself.

  “That’s better.”

  She followed him around the club that night for about a half hour, got him a drink, and rubbed his feet for a while. Then he zipped the nipple zippers up tight and took her to an all-night diner where they talked. The only thing he required of her was that she raise her dress so she was sitting on her bare ass. She parted her thighs without being asked and he was pleased. Crunched into a corner of the diner there was no one to see her ass on the seat and know that when she was wiggling, it was her hot cunt getting off on the cool plastic.

  “You’ve been to the club a lot. You get what you need?” he asked.

  “Sometimes. I used to like it just because it feels so wicked.”

  “And you like feeling wicked?”

  “I love feeling, the more intense the better,” she told him.

  “What you need is a permanent
relationship with it,” he said.

  “I haven’t found the right man.”

  “You will.”

  “You think you’re the one?” she was impertinent enough to ask.

  “I think you’re out of line even asking,” he said. “But I am going to turn your flesh to jelly before this night is over.”

  “Then why’d we leave the club?” she wondered.

  “Because you’re going to submit in your own bed,” he answered plainly.

  “I never do these things at home,” she said shocked, shaking her head “no” quite defiantly.

  “You have a four poster bed?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, of course,” he smiled knowingly. “You obviously want to be tied. I’ll tie you there on your belly and leave you until I’ve gone over your rooms with a fine tooth comb and know everything I can about you. Then I’ll begin with my flogger and whip. I might start with deerskin, but you’ll be wanting more soon. I like things in asses, so expect that, my fist if I want it there.”

  She cringed and he smirked happily because he could see how scared and excited she was.

  “I’ll raise your ass before I screw it and mark it heavy, then leave a good wad inside.” There was this pregnant pause as he let her dwell on those thoughts for a few minutes. She’d sipped her coke and pinched a few bites of stale bun from the cooling hamburger as if those might settle her stomach. All the while she kept looking into his eyes wondering why they held her so fascinated, since he was not a classy or even a handsome man. Obviously there was something within him that drew her into him, that made her desire and burn and her cunt to pulse. Imagining what he said he’d do, her whole body did a pleasant shimmy. And then there was that knife-blade spasm in her belly. She’d had one like it the first time she’d had nerve enough to go to an S M club alone, but hadn’t felt that thrilled since. This really wasn’t play time he was talking about, she sensed that, as well as sensing that she was ready for this move. It’s what she’d always wanted, what drove most of her behavior, what consumed her thoughts in the wee hours of the night. Submission. Surrender. They were tantamount to coming alive and she was nearly in tears.