Ruby couldn’t deny it any longer. The feelings she harbored for Yvonne, they went far beyond what she should feel for a client. She was losing herself in Yvonne, and it scared her. Ruby didn’t want to feel the things she felt for Yvonne. Not when everything between them was so complicated. Not when Ruby had been here before, with someone so like Yvonne, and had gotten hurt, badly.
But Yvonne was nothing like him. Yvonne wouldn’t hurt her.
Could it be different this time?
Chapter 20
Yvonne raked her eyes along Ruby’s body. Ruby was stretched out across the playroom bed, clothed, for now, in a loose, casual dress. Her wrists were handcuffed to the headboard above her, and she was lying on her stomach, her head turned to the side, looking up at Yvonne expectantly.
Yvonne flicked the flogger she was holding against her palm, to Ruby’s obvious delight. After returning from Yvonne’s stressful family dinner, they’d both felt the need to blow off some steam.
And what better way to do that than this?
“What should I do with you?” Yvonne drew the flogger up the back of Ruby’s thigh, letting its many tails trail over the other woman’s skin. “Now that I have you bound and at my mercy, I’m overwhelmed by all the possibilities.” She let the tails of the flogger slip between Ruby’s thighs. “Should I keep you on the edge, denying you release until you beg me to allow you to come? Or should I make you come over and over and over until you beg me to stop?”
Ruby said nothing, but a red flush crept up her cheeks.
“I’m in the mood for a little delayed gratification.” Yvonne dragged the back of Ruby’s skirt up her thighs. “On your end, that is. This is going to be immensely satisfying for me.”
Ruby buried her face in the pillow before her. Yvonne gave Ruby’s ass a testing flick with the flogger, eliciting a shudder from Ruby. Yvonne relished Ruby’s reactions. She wanted to spend the entire night getting lost with Ruby, forgetting about the rest of the world and all her problems.
But it was hard for her to forget about her problems when her biggest problem was Ruby herself.
Ruby. Her submissive. Her ‘wife’. But she was so much more than that to Yvonne. And it was becoming impossible for Yvonne to ignore that fact.
Ruby peered back at her. Presumably, she thought the delay was because Yvonne wanted to torment her, as usual. Did she have any idea of the battle going on in Yvonne’s mind? Did she realize how much she was tormenting Yvonne?
Did Ruby feel the same way Yvonne did?
Yvonne pushed the thought aside. “No peeking.”
Ruby bit her lip. “I just…”
“Well? What is it?”
“Nothing.” She buried her face in the pillow again.
“Oh? Don’t tell me you’ve gotten shy all of a sudden.” Yvonne drew the flogger along Ruby’s ass cheek before giving it another flick. “Don’t pretend you don’t want this.”
As Yvonne raised the flogger again, the air in the room iced over. She paused. A moment ago, Ruby had been squirming on the bed with anticipation. Now, her body was stiff, and she was breathing hard. A chill washed over Yvonne.
Something was very wrong.
She dropped the flogger and put her hand on Ruby’s shoulder. “Ruby?”
Ruby’s voice was so quiet Yvonne could barely hear her. “Get these off me.”
The cuffs. “All right. Stay calm.”
Yvonne grabbed the key to the handcuffs from the top drawer of the nightstand and unlocked the cuffs around Ruby’s wrists. Ruby sat up, pulling her hands in close to her and curling her legs up to her chin.
“Ruby, are you okay?”
Ruby looked up at her, her eyes vacant and quivering. “I thought…”
“You thought what?” Yvonne kept her outward demeanor as calm as possible for Ruby’s sake. “Ruby, what is it?”
“I thought you weren’t going to let me go.”
Yvonne flinched. “Why would you think that? Ruby, I would never, ever, ever do anything like that.”
“I know.” Ruby shook her head repeatedly, as though she were trying to shake free a thought. “I know. It was stupid, I know you’re not him, I just…”
“Him?” Yvonne put a hand on Ruby’s arm. “Ruby, what’s going on?”
Ruby pulled away, her eyes downcast. “It’s nothing.”
“Ruby, talk to me. Who do you mean?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Yvonne stifled a curse. Ruby was shutting down on her. That was the worst thing that could happen right now, given that Ruby had been in such a vulnerable state moments ago. She’d be feeling raw and emotional. If Yvonne didn’t do something soon, things would get much worse. But it was impossible for her to do anything when she didn’t know what was going on.
Yvonne changed tack. “You don’t have to tell me what’s going on. Just tell me what you need from me right now.”
“I just want to be alone,” Ruby said.
Yvonne shook her head. “Ruby, you need to understand, you can’t be alone right now. You’re not yourself. You’re having some kind of reaction to what we were doing. Ending a scene like this, so abruptly, it means you’re going to crash. You need aftercare. You need me.” She looked into Ruby’s eyes, pleading with her. “Let me help you.”
“I’m sorry,” Ruby said, her voice shaking. “I just, I can’t.”
Without another word, Ruby got up from the bed and fled the room.
A flood of dread consumed Yvonne. She wanted to go after Ruby, but Ruby had made herself clear. She sat down on the edge of the bed. She felt so helpless.
Not a minute later, she heard the front door slam shut.
Ruby was gone.
Ruby wandered through the park absently. She’d been walking aimlessly for who knew how long now. She didn’t know what she was doing or where she was going. It wasn’t like she had anywhere to
