Chapter thirteen
Piper looked at herself in the mirror and adjusted her plain white suit. So, this was what being married felt like, she told herself. Not really very much different to normal, but for some reason she could feel an underlying fear that she couldn't explain. When the bedroom door opened behind her she swung around, and the fear sharpened as her new husband walked into the room, his face cold. She didn't understand why he would look that way, she didn't think she had done anything wrong today. "Mark?" she said, confused.
"I see you at least managed to obey my order and get your ass in the bedroom," he sneered at her and her mouth fell open. What order? She couldn't remember him giving her any order, not that she would have obeyed him anyway, but still. "But why are you still dressed?"
"What? I'm...er...you didn't say anything..." she began, feeling a bit odd.
"Don't fucking backchat me girl, get your clothes off or you'll pay!" he snapped, making her jump and stare at him like he'd gone mad.
"I don't understand...what's wrong?" she asked, feeling that unnamed fear crawl up her throat.
"Wrong? For fuck's sake, you don't learn do you? Well, that ain't a problem, I'm quite willing to continue your lessons, if that's the way you want it," he snarled and strode towards her, making her try and back up at the look of fury on his face.
She didn't know what she had expected, but his big hand coming up and slapping her across the face was certainly not it, and she crumpled to the floor under the force of the blow. She didn't stay there long and she screamed as he pulled her upright by her hair, holding her in front of him as he slapped her again and again. "Stop!" she screamed, trying uselessly to pull away from him. Her protest only served to make him shake her and then he started ripping her suit from her, finally picking her up and throwing her on the bed where she lay dazed and shocked to her core, unable to move as he followed her down.
"You think you can defy my orders? I'll show you what being married to me means!" he growled, his face a mask of fury. Out of nowhere he held up a long strip of wide leather, something she'd never seen before and certainly couldn't put a name to, and then he rolled her onto her stomach, bringing the leather down across her soft buttocks as hard as he could. The pain was so intense that she couldn't make a sound at all, and he just kept right on swinging, again and again until she could actually feel blood trickling off her skin. Finally her throat loosened up enough and she gave an ear piercing scream and...
...sat up in a tangle of covers, sweat pouring off her face as she fought her way out of the nightmare. She found she was sobbing hysterically and she tried desperately to calm herself down, wincing and shifting around as her tender backside rubbed on the mattress. Sometime after his 'punishment' she must have fallen asleep, and the overload of emotions must have sent her that awful dream. She almost jumped out of her skin when the door was flung open and Mark stood there, switching the light on in the now dark room and staring at her with apparent concern. He strode towards her and frowned when she shrank back away from him, scrabbling her way across the bed when he sat down.
"Piper, what's wrong?" he asked, his voice carefully soft and slow as he took in her panic. She shook her head and remained silent, scrubbing at her eyes with a balled up fist that made him smile, the gesture being so childlike. "Tell me what the matter is," he urged her, holding himself still so as not to startle her in any way. She was very jumpy.
"I...I...just...had a nightmare," she explained shakily, still unable to shake off the incredible terror she had felt at the hands of his dream image.
He nodded, obviously having thought that was what it had been. "Want to talk about it?"
She shook her head violently and shuddered, pulling her knees up to her chest as she darted big eyes up to his face.
Mark frowned again, his eyes narrowing. "Was it about me by any chance?" he asked, sighing when her eyes got even bigger but she remained silent. "Obviously it was. Tell me what happened." When she shook her head again he pressed his lips together and reached out, grabbing hold of her gently but insistently and pulled her towards him. Despite her slight struggle he soon had her settled on his lap and he tilted her chin up with one finger so he could see her face. "You might as well tell me, I ain't leaving you alone until you do. What did I do in this dream that's got you so frightened?"
Piper was slowly starting to fight her way out of the gripping fear and she began to feel embarrassed. "N-nothing, really," she whispered.
"Don't give me that. If I did nothing you wouldn't be scared of me. Come on, tell me," he said, stroking her cheek gently with his fingertips.
"You....you beat me up and you wouldn't stop and then you....you...got this strip of leather and started hitting me with it and..." she broke off and chewed her lip at his look of amazement.
"Where did I use this strip of leather?" he asked her, amused despite himself.
"On my...my...you...er..."
"Ah, I see where this nightmare came from. Did I spank you with it, by any chance?" he asked her, raising one eyebrow. He chuckled softly when she nodded. "Well, you'll be relieved to know that I don't have any need of 'tools' to aid me. If I ever have to spank that pretty little ass again, I'll only use my hand. As for beating you, that's something I would never do. I hope you know that?"
Instead of the agreement he half expected, Piper frowned. "I don't know you at all, and...you don't know me..." she said, her eyes reflecting that realisation as she thought about marrying him.
"You will. And you already know some things about me. You know I don't tolerate rudeness, or defiance, and you now know how I deal with it." He smiled at her. "You know I like my own way, and I usually get it. And you know I can be gentle when I need to be." His head cocked to one side as he studied her flushed face, looking into her whisky coloured eyes framed with tear spiked lashes. "And I know you are stubborn, mule-headed, feisty as hell...unbelievably sexy and incredibly responsive. And now I know you're sensitive too. Now, does that sound like we don't know anything about each other?"
She shook her head, becoming mesmerised by the deep resonant voice that seemed to flow over her like melted chocolate. She sighed and relaxed against him even more, forgetting what he had done to her earlier on, and forgetting the dream too as she let his voice lull her. For just a moment it actually felt like she was sitting with the man she loved, the man who would be her husband, and the man who cherished her above all others. The fact that she was virtually being blackmailed into this whole thing slipped her mind for the moment because she just needed some comfort, tired of fighting and of being strong. She wasn't strong, not really, and it was nice to let someone take over. A thought occurred to her and she looked up at him, caught by his piercing green eyes and unable to speak for a second.
"What's wrong baby?"
"Can I ask you a question?" she said, her voice husky. When he nodded she bit her lip and frowned, wondering how to word something she knew very little about, but was getting a suspicion about. "Are you...are you one of those people...a...a Dom?" she said in a tiny voice, her cheeks flaming.
"A Dom?" he asked, raising one eyebrow and looking amused. "Hmm, how to answer," he murmured, raising one hand to brush a strand of black hair away from her smooth skin. "I'm the type of person who will always play the dominant role in a relationship, if that's what you mean. Is that what you wanted to know?"
"S-sort of," she muttered, chewing her lip again.
"Or did you want to know if I'll be tying you up and whipping you on a regular basis?" he continued, the corners of his mouth tilting up with mirth.
"You wouldn't...would you?" she asked, her eyes enormous as she tried to gauge how serious he was being.
"Not unless you'd like me to," he replied, flashing her a grin that made her stomach turn over. "I'm not a Dom, not in that way, and I wouldn't expect you to be a sub...or at least, not that kind of sub. However, I will expect you to do as you're told." Piper felt her temper start up and she opened her mouth to speak, only to find his big finger covering her lips. He shook his head. "And you know what happens if you don't, so I wouldn't argue right now if I was you. I would imagine you're a little sore right now, hmm?" He dropped his hand and moved it around to her tender backside, rubbing gently at her and watching the way she shifted about uncomfortably.
"I'm not going to let you spank me again," she said with a touch more spirit.
"You're not going to be able to stop me," he corrected her, looking incredibly arrogant. His confidence made her fume because she knew it wasn't misplaced, she really couldn't stop him.
"I'll leave," she said quietly.
"And that would be an enormous mistake on your part, as you well know. Hmm," he murmured, shaking his head and smiling in genuine amusement. "I can see there are going to be fireworks between us, honey, before you learn how to behave around me."
Piper's mouth fell open at the sheer audacity of that statement and Mark took advantage, swooping in to capture her lips and ease her into a scorching kiss that made her eyes flutter closed and her head swim. The thought that in three days time she would now legally be his made him smile as he deepened the kiss. If only she had any idea of the amount of strings he had had to pull to get it all arranged, but he had a feeling he was going to enjoy married life somehow. Tomorrow her sister would be flying in from England and her father had agreed to meet her. He didn't question what made him want to surprise her in such a nice way, or why he couldn't wait to see a happy smile on her face. He pushed all other thoughts away and abandoned himself to the feelings she evoked.
***Okie dokie, another one done. Ah, but did it upload...or are you now reading this after another stupid big blank screen? Who can tell, but let me assure you this IS the follow on from Chapter 12a! Hope it was okay.***