Hello hello! I'm so sorry I forgot to upload my chapter last night. My week has been hectic. I hope you're all doing okay!

CW: This chapter involves bondage.

"Again," Dimitri commanded for the fifth time this evening. I sighed, becoming exhausted as I dove my knee into the abdomen of the heavy dummy in front of me. I had been repeating this move over and over again for the last twenty minutes.

"Am I doing something wrong?" I panted, punching the dummy's face in frustration.

"You're doing everything right," Dimitri stated.

"Then why am I still going at it?"

Dimitri shrugged. "Muscle memory. I'm making you do this so that you don't forget."

I rolled my eyes and brushed some hair away that had fallen out of my ponytail. It had been a week since we'd kissed, and since then he had become even more protective. It had influenced him to go extra hard on me in our training sessions. "I won't forget."

"Really? So, if someone were to just—" Dimitri lurched forward and shoved me against the wall, catching me completely off-guard. I let out a small squeal as he grabbed my wrists and pinned them beside my head, squishing me between his rock-hard body and the wall. His hands didn't budge despite my attempts to resist.

"Fuck!" I gasped, ceasing my movements. There was no way I could fight against him.

"See? What was your first reaction?" he asked. I parted my lips, but I was too distracted to answer as Dimitri's muscles pressed up against my torso. If it weren't for the padding of my sports bra, he would've noticed the hardening of my nipples underneath.

"Rose," he said.

"Yeah, yeah. I froze. I didn't expect you to do that."

"But that's exactly how it's going to be when someone wants to attack you. They sneak up on you when you least expect it."

"Yeah, and all that did was make me scream," I muttered, shaking my head.

Dimitri laughed and leaned down to whisper in my ear. "If I was making you scream, you'd know."

Suddenly, we seemed to have forgotten about our training session as a strong sexual tension started to hang in the room. A heavy silence fell between us as he loomed over me, gazing down with his dark brown eyes. I could feel his breath on my face and didn't realize I had leaned my face closer to his.

"Damn it," he whispered under his breath, pulling away from me.

"What?"

"I'm supposed to be teaching you," he said. I couldn't tell if he was talking to me or himself. "You're...very distracting."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said innocently, putting my hands behind me and popping my chest out.

"We should get back to work."

"Hey, you're the master of this place. You make the rules, I obey." I grinned when I saw how increasingly difficult it was for him to stay in control from my words and added, "If I feel like it."

Dimitri scoffed and motioned for me to walk back to the dummy. "Come here, you."

Although I was feeling playful, I still did as he said and waited for his instructions. "Repeat your movements from before. Remember the pointers I gave you and don't hold back."

I went through the motions again for the next few minutes until Dimitri finally ended the session. I used the showers in the change room and came out twenty minutes later. After getting dressed, I met Dimitri in the lobby who now had his winter coat on.

"Are we still going to your club?" I asked him. He took my hand and led me towards the door.

"Yes. I want you to explore the playroom. I might have you try some things."

There was a thick layer of snow on the ground and I hadn't brought boots with me today, but Dimitri slid his arms under my body and scooped me up effortlessly.

"Comrade!" I squealed, holding onto him as he carried me to his car. "You don't need to do that, you know."

"Oh, yes I do. I don't want you getting your feet cold."

Dimitri set me down and let me hop in, and I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket. He kept the car warm on the way to his club and rushed me inside when we arrived.

"Are you hungry? I can order something for you," he offered, cocking his head towards the bar.

"We can grab something on our way out," I suggested.

"Fair enough. Let's go down," he said, grabbing my hand again. He led me down the stairs and opened the door, nodding at the people in the front. A few people had a look of shock on their faces when they saw him holding my hand, and some of the women even looked jealous. I had visited enough times to recognize the regulars who acknowledged Dimitri and gave me kind smiles. With so many eyes on me, I almost felt like a celebrity.

"Why is everyone staring?" I whispered. Dimitri pulled me into the other hallway.

"Probably because I've never held someone's hand in here before," he said. At the end of the hall, Ivan emerged from the office.

"Aww. Look at you two, holding hands. How adorable," Ivan teased, punching Dimitri's shoulder. "See? I told you she'd go for you."

Dimitri rolled his eyes, but I could see a faint blush on his face too. I wondered what he said about me when they were alone. "Make sure you don't interrupt us this time," he warned.

"You're lucky. I'm giving demonstrations tonight."

"For what? More shibari?" Dimitri asked, unlocking the door.

"Nope. Flogging tutorials. The sub said she wanted her legs to be covered in marks by the time the demo was over."

"Sounds like you've got a heavy masochist on your hands," I noted.

"Oh, she is," Ivan said enthusiastically. Someone called his name, and he started to head back towards the public space. He winked at me and said, "Have fun, you guys."

Dimitri dragged me into the room and closed the door, keeping it locked this time to make sure we wouldn't be interrupted. "Take your shoes off. You can leave your jacket on the couch."

I took my shoes off at the door to keep the floor clean before tossing my jacket on top of Dimitri's on the tufted red couch. "What's shibari?"

"Japanese rope bondage. Remember what I showed you the first night you came here?"

"How could I forget?" I still remembered the way Dimitri's hands had weaved so carefully between the ropes. His work had impressed me.

"If you look at how professional Doms do it, it almost looks like artwork," he said.

"I liked the one you did. The...chest harness thing. Whatever it's called. I liked how it looked."

Dimitri skimmed his eyes over my body as if he was closely analyzing every detail. His gaze was particularly focussed on my chest, making me squirm. "You'd look really good in those ropes. I can already see it in my head."

"Do you want to tie me up?" I asked. Dimitri's eyes darkened slightly as he approached me, looking at me from head to toe again.

"As much as I want to, not yet." He walked over to the chest of drawers near the large bed, and naturally, I followed him. "I want you to explore these drawers here. See what you are and aren't okay with from what you see."

"Am I allowed to try anything?"

"Whatever you want, love," Dimitri said softly, sitting down on the bed. I had grown to love the affectionate nicknames he occasionally gave me.

I opened the top left drawer first. Inside was a series of blindfolds with a variety of different colours and textures. I picked up one of the softer ones, running my fingers across the fabric before grabbing another one that was shaped differently. This was made out of some kind of silky material. The rest were made out of leather, but those were slightly more hardcore.

"Have you ever been blindfolded before?" Dimitri asked.

"A few times, yes. I wouldn't mind trying it again."

I put everything back where it was and closed the drawer. I opened up the drawer on the right and blushed when I saw the bondage gags. I grabbed the one with a red silicone ball in the middle, straightening out the straps.

Dimitri eyed the ball gag and came up behind me. "Have you used that one?"

"I've been gagged with this one quite a lot. It makes my mouth sore after a while, but I'd be lying to myself if I said it didn't turn me on."

"I'll have to write that down in my mental list of things you're okay with."

I put the gag away and reached for another one. It was shaped almost the same way as the other one, except it had a large silver ring in the middle instead of a ball. I held it up in front of Dimitri with curiosity.

"It's a ring gag," he clarified. "It's meant to keep your mouth open. Some people like to use it for oral sex."

"Blowjobs, you mean?"

"Yes, Roza. That's exactly what I mean."

I looked down at his groin while being fully aware that he could see me. Dimitri was a big guy. His cock must have been huge. I wondered what it'd be like to have him in my mouth.

"Would you be comfortable with this?" he asked. I narrowed my eyes at the strange gag. Surely, this would look rather humiliating, right? Yet, for some reason, I found myself oddly turned on at the thought of him having full control of my mouth while he fucked it.

"This one will have to be a soft limit," I said, putting it back. I fished through a few more, some of which I had never even seen before. I went through a few more drawers, finding candles, nipple clamps, tape, spreader bars, handcuffs, restraints, paddles...they had a little bit of everything while the larger whips and crops hung on the walls. The bottom drawers were filled with aftercare supplies, but I had my eye on the red ropes.

"So, has anything scared you off yet?" Dimitri asked.

"I'm not running for the hills, am I?" I snickered. I grabbed the red ropes and handed them over to him. "So...about that chest harness thing."

Dimitri chuckled and unravelled the knot holding the ropes together. "Go face that mirror for me."

There was only one full-body mirror in here in the left-hand corner, so I walked over and stood in front just like he asked me to.

"It's called a pentagram rope harness—or a star harness. Usually, the sub would have their arms tied behind them like this." Dimitri grabbed my arms, folding them behind me to show me what he meant. "But I won't do that today. For now, we'll just focus on your chest. It'd be easier if you took your sweater off, but I can work with..."

Dimitri trailed off and paused with the ropes as he watched me curl my fingertips under my sweater. I took it off and without being asked and tossed it on the floor, exposing my torso to him. I wore a black push-up bra which accentuated my large, full breasts. Dimitri's gaze lingered on them with a lustful look in his eyes, and he was having a hard time looking away.

"See something you like?" I asked, biting my lip.

"Lots," he replied, putting his hands on my waist to turn me around. I faced the mirror again and leaned my back against his chest.

"Am I your mannequin now?" I joked. Dimitri wrapped his hand around my jaw and turned my head to the side, planting a warm kiss on my cheek.

"No. You're a beautiful woman," he said, kissing me again on my temple. "Not an object."

Dimitri's words almost made me cry, and it wasn't in a bad way. I had been treated like an object for almost a whole year, but Dimitri didn't see me that way.

"You okay? Are you nervous?" he asked, hugging me closer. He probably thought I was upset.

"Oh, I'm fine," I stammered. "I'm just not used to having someone who cares about me."

"Of course I care. I know you've had a rough past, but you're safe now."

The softness in Dimitri's voice put me at ease, and I snuggled happily into his arms. It amazed me how comfortable I felt with him in here. I didn't feel insecure or nervous despite having gone through a difficult past with BDSM.

"Alright. Arms up," he ordered, wrapping the ropes around me right below my breasts. I raised my arms and placed them on my head as I watched him through the mirror. I could feel him moving the ropes through a loop at the back before he dragged it over my right shoulder and slid it under the line of ropes around my rib cage. From there, he then repeated the process over my left shoulder, creating an upside-down triangle from my shoulders to my breast bone.

Dimitri gave the ropes an extra tug and asked, "Is that too tight?"

I moved my shoulders around and shook my head. "It's perfect. I like it to be a little tight."

"And why's that? Does it make you feel more submissive?"

"Well, yeah. The ropes almost feel like a really good hug."

While Dimitri continued his work, he said, "I've never really thought of it like that."

"I mean, that's not how I used to feel. I used to dread it. Now, I feel good. You tie like a pro. I can barely tie a knot."

Dimitri gave the ropes another tug. "It all comes with practice. I can always teach you as long as you're not tying me."

"Not a fan of being on the other side?"

I saw Dimitri tense in the reflection. His voice hardened and it looked like he was intentionally avoiding eye contact. "It's just not who I am. Not anymore, anyways."

"Anymore?" Had Dimitri been a submissive in the past? It was hard to imagine him in that position. I was so used to seeing him as the one in control.

"I wasn't always a Dom," he confessed. "When I got out of high school, I didn't know what I was doing. I was naive. Made some mistakes."

"And you were a sub, then?"

Dimitri took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes. Like you, I was in a relationship with someone for about a year. It was..." Dimitri slowed his movements and simply grazed a section of the ropes with his fingers as he said, "toxic."

I regarded Dimitri with sympathy even though he wasn't looking directly at me. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I didn't want to overwhelm you. You're already going through enough as it is."

When Dimitri finished up with the ropes, he drove the last knot home on my back. He was blocking my view from the mirror and tried to move behind me, but I stopped him. "Hey. If I have to be honest, so do you."

Dimitri sighed, moving my hair out of the way to look at his handy work. "It was a long time ago. It was nowhere near as bad as what you went through. I was just a stupid boy who thought an older woman would know better."

"Did she hurt you?" I asked softly, reaching up to cup Dimitri's cheeks in my hands. He closed his eyes and held my wrists before kissing my fingers.

"Not physically," he whispered.

"Abuse isn't always physical, comrade. I'm sorry you went through that." I wrapped my arms around Dimitri's waist and pulled him into a hug, pressing my cheek up against his chest. "I know what it's like. I'm here for you if you need to talk about it, okay?"

I could feel Dimitri's heart beat a little faster beneath my ear. While I couldn't read his mind, I could tell it was a sensitive topic for him. There was a level of vulnerability that he was reaching which was something I didn't detect in him very often.

"Thank you, love," he said, kissing my head. He held me in his arms and squeezed me extra hard before letting me go. He stepped behind me and I looked in the mirror to admire the bondage. Dimitri was right; it was, ultimately, BDSM as an art form. The ropes crossed over each other, and it wasn't too tight nor too loose. He knew exactly what he was doing.

"Dimitri, this is beautiful." I ran my fingers through a section of the ropes in the front, feeling it tug against my back in return. "Would it be terrible of me to wear these ropes when we leave? Like, until we get back to your place?"

Dimitri chuckled. "Are you asking me if you can steal them?"

"It's not stealing, it's borrowing. Without permission."

"I thought you were a good girl. Good girls don't steal."

Putting a finger up against his chest, I purred, "I guess that makes me a bad girl then."

I was playing with him now, and he knew it. I didn't want to stop. The look in Dimitri's eyes was too tempting. I thought about all the supplies I'd gone through in the drawers and suddenly started thinking of all the dirty things he could do to me with those.

"Oh really?" Dimitri grabbed my wrist and started walking me backwards. "You know what happens to bad girls?"

I didn't answer him and instead bit my lip as he continued to walk. My ass hit something hard which I soon recognized as the leather-padded table with the silver rings on the sides. Dimitri leaned over me and placed his hands on the table. "Bad girls get punished."

"How would you punish me?"

Dimitri swallowed, almost looking uncomfortable as he shifted his pants. This was turning him on. He brought his lips down my ear and whispered, "If you were mine, I would bend you over this table and spank you right here, right now."

"So why don't you?" I said, brushing my fingertips over his. Dimitri shut his eyes and bit his lip before he walked around and patted the leather with his hand.

"Come here."

That phrase wasn't supposed to be sexual, but everything about it turned me on at that moment. Maybe it was because of the way Dimitri was saying it. It wasn't a request; it was a command.

"Bend over," he added, making me blush even more than I already was. My heart was racing, but it wasn't in a way where I felt scared or anxious. No, I was excited.

"Fold your arms behind you. Yes, just like that. Good girl. Keep them there."

While I held my forearms behind me, Dimitri moved my hair to one side so that he could see my face. He grabbed it all in his hand and tugged back. "I'm only going to spank you six times. I want you to count them out. I know we haven't talked about safewords yet, but if you need me to stop, just tell me."

I nodded. "Thank you, Sir."

I realized this would be my first time feeling Dimitri's hands on different parts of my body. We'd kissed once and slept in the same bed a few times, but we hadn't done anything past that. I was optimistic and arched my back to pop my hips out a little more.

Dimitri rubbed his hand over my ass, caressing me with gentle circles. His hip was pressing into my side and I could feel a slight bulge beneath his pants. I smiled to myself and was pleased to know that he was just as aroused as I was.

Without warning, his hand came down across my right cheek, creating a loud smacking noise in the quiet room. My first reaction was to gasp, but it soon turned into a quiet moan.

Dimitri tugged on my hair again. "Count, Roza, or I'm starting over."

"One," I said. Dimitri hit me again, this time on my other cheek. He rubbed the spot to help alleviate the sting and I spoke again. "Two."

The third stung a little more, causing me to curl my toes. I could see why he was only going to spank me six times. His hits were hard; he wasn't going easy on me. I could feel the sting even through my leggings, and he was only using his hand. Damn this man was strong.

"Three," I murmured. A few seconds later, he landed the fourth hit. Every time he delivered a hard smack, he would slowly rub the spot to soothe me.

"Four."

He hit me a fifth time, this time keeping his palm there. "Five," I moaned as he squeezed my cheek in his hand. The heat between my legs became stronger with every hit, as did his erection pressing against my hip. He released my cheek, going back to his soothing caresses before lifting his hand and bringing it back down for the final blow.

"Six!" I shrieked. Just as I expected, the last hit hurt the most, but I could handle it.

"Good girl, Roza," Dimitri said, leaning down to kiss my cheek. He removed his hand from my hair and let me stand up. "Are you okay?"

"Mhm," I mumbled. I couldn't focus on my words, because all I could think about was Dimitri. The urge to kiss him was reigning on me again. Those soft, tender lips, the look in his eyes, and the way his body had inconspicuously leaned closer.

Before I knew it, Dimitri crashed those beautiful lips of his into mine. He pushed me down against the table and pinned my hands above my head, pushing my wrists down firmly while his other hand gripped my neck. I responded instantly and kissed him back with greed, sliding my tongue across his bottom lip. He granted me entrance, and I moaned softly into his mouth as our tongues collided. I could feel his arousal pressing into my stomach as he hovered on top of me and claimed my mouth.

When I thought about it, I realized there was something so powerful about what we had just done seconds before. The way Dimitri had held my hair to watch my reactions, the way he'd caressed my bottom to ease the sting, and the exposed position I had been in. I never thought I'd be able to do something like that again, but I'd allowed myself to be vulnerable with someone I trusted—someone who cared. And at that moment, as he kissed me with desperation and fiery, we truly felt like Dom and sub.

He shifted his position until his pelvis was right on top of mine, thrusting his erection forward. He rubbed himself against my clit, eliciting another moan from both of us. "Dimitri," I murmured, almost saying his name like a prayer. "Let's go home. I need you now."

Thank you for taking the time to read! The next chapter is quite steamy and a tiny bit kinky. What did you think of the rope-tying? I would love to hear your responses as there will be more of that in this story.

Q: Have you ever used ropes the way Rose and Dimitri did?