Page 32 of At Her Service (Club Velvet #2)

CHAPTER 32

A bby stepped through the front door of Valerie’s house. She’d lived in a dozen different places throughout her life. The homes she’d grown up in. Apartments she’d shared with roommates. The houses of families she’d nannied for. None of them had ever felt like home.

But this? This felt like home.

Valerie took her hand, drawing her toward the stairs. Were they going up to Valerie’s bedroom so she could collar her and claim her on her bed after marking Abby as her own?

But instead of going up the stairs, Valerie led her past them to the study and punched a code into the keypad next to the door, unlocking it. Then she drew Abby inside, all the way to the bookcase at the back of the room.

“Why don’t you do the honors?” she said. “You remember which book it is, don’t you?”

Abby nodded. Then, pulse racing, she reached for the vintage copy of Wuthering Heights and pulled.

The bookcase slid to the side, revealing the room beyond. Just like the first time, it was filled with all kinds of kinky toys and gear.

Just like the first time, it took Abby’s breath away.

Valerie drew her into the room. “When I had the plans for this house made, this was one of the first rooms I designed. I wanted somewhere that was mine and mine alone, a place I could come to simply be .”

She looked around the room, her eyes growing wistful.

“I once told you that I don’t bring anyone in here who hasn’t earned it. That wasn’t a lie. But it wasn’t the whole truth either.” She returned her gaze to Abby, eyes glimmering under the soft lights. “The truth is, I’ve never brought anyone back here. I always hoped that one day I’d find someone to share my haven with, but it never happened. Not until you.”

Abby’s chest fluttered. “I’m honored that you’d bring me here. Honored that you chose me.” She got down on her knees. “And I swear to you, I’ll always be yours. I’ll serve you. I’ll belong to you. Now, and forever.”

She bowed her head and rested her hands on her thighs. This was her place. Not only here, in this house. But here, on her knees, at Valerie’s feet.

And there was nowhere she’d rather be.

Valerie placed a hand on Abby’s shoulder, her fingers soft on her skin. “It’s time.”

Valerie disappeared from view before returning to stand in front of her. Abby kept her head bowed, peering up from under her eyelashes. Valerie was holding the black velvet box in her hand, the box containing the collar.

At last, the moment Abby had never dared to dream of had come.

“You’ve sworn yourself to me,” Valerie said. “To serve me, to belong to me, and no one else. And now, I swear myself to you. From this moment on, you are under my care, my protection. I will do everything in my power to keep you safe, to make you happy. I will look after you. I will be there for you. Now and forever.”

Valerie circled behind her, sweeping Abby’s hair to the side. “With this collar, I bind you to me. Let it symbolize my ownership of you, my devotion to you, and your devotion to me. Let it represent the love we share in all its beautiful forms.”

With deft fingers, Valerie slid the collar around Abby’s neck and buckled it closed before circling back around her.

“Rise,” she commanded.

Abby rose to her feet. Valerie drew a hand up the front of Abby’s throat, tilting her head up to examine the collar.

“A collar worthy of the woman I call my own.” Her eyes met Abby’s, her voice a velvet whisper. “The woman who holds my heart.”

She pressed her lips to Abby’s, a passionate, possessive kiss that sent desire rippling through her. Abby wrapped her arms around Valerie’s neck, her lips parting Valerie’s as she deepened the kiss, pushing back against her urgently. Valerie slid her hands down Abby’s body, grasping, groping, caressing, her touch as hungry as her kiss.

A murmur rose from Abby’s chest. Valerie drew her lips down Abby’s neck, kissing and sucking and biting as she reached for the hem of her dress. Not a second later, she had it over Abby’s head and on the floor, along with her own dress. Abby’s bra soon followed, then her panties, leaving her in nothing but the red leather collar around her neck.

She drew Valerie into her again, need smoldering inside her. Their lips still locked, Valerie pushed her backward, pinning her to the wall behind her.

Abby gasped, her legs threatening to collapse from underneath her. Valerie purred into her lips, slipping her thigh between Abby’s legs. Abby ground her hips against her, heat sparking in her core.

“Do you remember the day I caught you snooping in here?” Valerie slid her hand down the inside of Abby’s arm, pushing it against the wall. “The entire time, all I could think about was how much I wanted to do this .”

She seized Abby’s wrist, dragging it up the wall beside her. Abby trembled. But before she could say a word, she felt Valerie wrap something around her wrist.

Huh? She looked up, just in time to see Valerie fastening the cuff shut. It was made of the same red leather as her collar. But unlike the collar, it had a gold chain trailing from it.

And the other end of the chain was attached to the wall.

Abby turned her head to the other side, looking up. Sure enough, there was another cuff chained to the wall, waiting for her other wrist. She looked down. There were two longer, thicker cuffs at ankle height on either side of her. Had they been there all along?

Her heart thumped. And when she looked at her Mistress again, Valerie’s lips were curled up in a smile.

“When I had your collar made, I had these cuffs made, too.” She took Abby’s free hand and drew it up to the other cuff, buckling it around her wrist. “I’ve always loved a matching set.”

Ordering Abby to spread her feet wide, Valerie fastened the cuffs around her ankles. All four were spaced far enough apart that her arms and legs weren’t strained, but she could barely move them. And she definitely couldn’t close her legs.

“Since the day I caught you in here, every time I came into my study, I was distracted by thoughts of this. Of having you here in this hidden room, strung up for my pleasure, subject to my every whim. And this?” Valerie trailed her fingers up the side of Abby’s thigh, all the way to her breast. “This is so much sweeter than I imagined.”

A whimper spilled from Abby’s lips. But that didn’t stop Valerie. She knew that Abby’s whimpers meant yes . She knew that Abby’s gasps meant don’t stop, that her pleas meant more . She knew what Abby craved.

Valerie drew her hand up to Abby’s collar, tracing her fingertips over the trio of rubies embedded in it. “They say redheads shouldn’t wear red. But we’ve already broken all the rules. What’s one more?” She slipped a finger into the ring at the front, pulling firmly. “You look delectable with my collar around your neck.”

Abby quivered. Valerie gave the collar another tug. Then, she stepped to the side and opened up a nearby cabinet.

Abby bit back a groan. She needed Valerie, now . But cuffed to the wall, she was powerless to do anything but pull and squirm in her restraints as she awaited her Mistress’s mercy.

But Valerie didn’t make her wait long. Shutting the cabinet, she returned to stand before Abby, a red leather blindfold in her hand.

“The final piece of the set,” she said. “Close your eyes.”

Abby shut her eyes. Valerie slipped the blindfold over her head. She heard the click of Valerie’s heels on the marble floors as she retreated.

Then, she heard nothing at all.

Her pulse surged, anxiety and adrenaline rushing through her. She took a deep breath, letting the thrill overtake her. Embracing it. Surrendering to it. As the silence stretched out, her mind calmed, her worldly concerns crumbling to dust, leaving only the exquisite ache of desire.

Valerie’s hand touched her cheek. “Are you still with me, my pet?”

Abby nodded. She hadn’t heard Valerie return. What had she been doing?

She pressed her body to Abby’s, skin against skin, bare breasts against hers. Valerie was naked now. And there was something hard pressing against Abby’s stomach.

She bit her lip. She didn’t need her sight to know what that was.

“Tonight calls for something different.” Valerie drew the strap-on down to where Abby’s thighs met and slipped it between them, her warm breath whispering along Abby’s cheek. “I slipped a little something special into my harness. Something that goes inside me, too.”

Abby let out a soft breath. That meant Valerie would feel everything she felt. The idea alone sent heat pulsing between her thighs.

Valerie slid the tip back and forth, skating it over Abby’s folds, teasing her entrance. “What better way to claim you as my own than to make you come apart with me inside you and my name on your lips?”

A shiver trickled through her, the throbbing between her legs deepening. “God, yes. Please ? — ”

But she didn’t get to say another word before Valerie buried herself inside her, filling her completely. Abby gasped, her body stiffening, then loosening, pleasure swelling inside her. And as Valerie began to thrust, that pleasure rolled through her from head to toe.

“Oh, god. Oh, god!”

She squeezed her eyes shut under the blindfold. She was hurtling quickly to the edge, her body obeying the command in Valerie’s voice, in her lips as they kissed her neck, in her powerful thrusts and unbridled moans. Yield to me. Yield to me. Yield to me.

“Valerie…” Abby’s head tipped back against the wall. “Oh, Valerie.”

“That’s right, my pet.” Valerie hooked a finger into the ring at the front of Abby’s collar, pulling hard as she growled into her ear. “You’re mine .”

She slammed her other hand into the wall beside Abby’s head, bracing herself as she moved inside her, faster, harder, deeper, reaching depths of Abby’s being that had never been touched before. Abby quivered and moaned, pleasure rising within her.

“Oh!” She writhed against the wall desperately. “Can I come for you?”

“No, my pet. Come with me.”

Valerie thrust into her harder, her chest heaving with heavy breaths. Abby bit down on the inside of her cheek, holding back the tidal wave inside her until Valerie began to tremble. Only then did Abby give in, letting her pleasure build and build until it reached a crescendo.

And then, the climax, an eruption that rose from deep in her core and spread through her whole body. She shuddered and shook, waves of ecstasy ripping through her, unrelenting. At the same time, Valerie quaked against her, hips arching, breasts hitching against Abby’s, as she cried out in release.

But the only sound that fell from Abby’s lips was her Mistress’s name. Valerie. Valerie. Valerie. A cry. A prayer. A plea.

And as she tumbled into the sweet oblivion of surrender, she knew that Valerie would always be there to answer that prayer.