Free A Hard Bargain by Ashe Barker

what I’m saying to you, and you control yourself. You won’t come again until I give you permission to. Is that clear, girl?”
    I sag against my restraints and he immediately jerks me back to the here and now by tugging hard on both weights. “Pay attention. And answer me. Now.”
    Startled, unnerved by his sudden change in mood, I shrink away from him.
    “Don’t cower.” He doesn’t take kindly to my response. “You know better than that. Remember, you’re in control here. You can always click if you want me to stop. Now, answer my question—do you understand your instructions? You are not to come again without my permission. Is. That. Clear?”
    I concentrate on breathing deeply, evenly, as I nod my response. Yes, matters are perfectly clear to me. I’m suspended, naked, from a St. Andrew’s Cross, my nipples brutally clamped. I’ve just been treated to the best orgasm ever which has suddenly transformed into some sort of crime I don’t understand, but if I do it again I’ll be punished. He has something else planned for me, something more, I don’t know what that is, but it appears that if I have the temerity to like it too much and come again, he’ll punish me for that. I’m scared, confused, constantly off balance and apprehensive about what comes next.
    And Nicholas Hardisty knows all of this. He’s inside my head. Again. This, no doubt, is what he meant by a mind-fuck.
    His voice is low as he murmurs into my ear, “Welcome to submission, little Freya. Is it all you hoped for?”

Chapter Four
    Bewildered, I shake my head. Is that the right answer? I have no idea what to do, how to respond. Thankfully, Nicholas Hardisty lets it go at that, kindly not pressing me. In fairness, the most I could possibly communicate to him is my all-stop signal, and neither of us wants that. Yet.
    He steps away. Or I think he does. I can’t hear him breathing close by me, and my hearing is very acute. Most of the time. I wait, conscious that he’s left me here, on display, totally helpless. And until he comes back there’s absolutely nothing I can do to change anything. The sense of freedom, of liberation, is extreme. Heady. Exhilarating. This is the buzz of submission for me, the handing over control, letting someone else hold the responsibility while I fly. And somehow, if he chooses to, I know Nicholas Hardisty can make me soar.
    “You look happy, little sub. Something amusing you?” His low, sexy voice is in my ear, murmuring.
    He’s close by, and I never heard him approaching. I gasp as he nudges the weights suspended from my nipples, causing a tingle of pleasure/pain to crackle through me, from my tortured breasts to my groin, a sizzling triangle of perfect agony. I’m groaning inside, though he hears nothing.
    “Are you liking this, little sub? Do you want more or shall we move on to the next phase?” Despite my lack of sounds he knows. He sees something which gives him the clues he needs.
    I’m wondering how to tell him I want to move on when, with no warning or preamble, he slides two long fingers swiftly into me, filling my pussy with his brisk, skilled presence. A third quickly joins the first two, and I’m delightfully stretched, clinging around him, the friction as he twists his hand to caress my inner walls gloriously satisfying.
    “Squeeze me, once if you want to stay with this a bit longer, and twice if you want to try out what’s coming next.”
    I change my mind, and squeeze once. He chuckles, treats me to a swift finger fuck, just two or three plunges before pulling his fingers out. “Greedy little sub, I told you not to even think about coming again until I give you permission. And you are thinking about it, aren’t you?”
    Lost, confused, I shake my head quickly, the gesture more one of bewilderment than denial.
    “Was that a ‘no’? Are you denying it, little sub? Because here tells a different story.” His fingers slide back into me, their entry easy, slick with my