Free Dark Secret Love by Alison Tyler Page B

he was taking so much time with me. I’d only known him a short period, but I’d thought I had nailed him. A man who got what he wanted and moved on. Had he simply not finished with me? Or did he see something in me that held his interest longer than usual?
    I know my eyes were pleading when I stared at him. I wanted to please him, but my whole body was shaking.
    “We’ll get there,” he said, nodding, more to himself than to me. “Don’t worry, Sam. We’ll get there.”
    Now the tears came faster. I was letting him down. Visions of what he’d promised me paraded through my mind: Nate displaying me. Cropping me in front of an audience. Hurting me. And while I wanted every single image that he’d described, I was so worried that I’d let him down, fail him in some way, embarrass him. That fear immobilized me.
    “You make me want to move fast,” he said, nowbringing me up so that my legs were over his lap, cradled in the safe embrace of his strong arms. “You make me want to do everything at once.” Again I felt as if he were speaking more to himself than to me, as if explaining the situation out loud might help him to process exactly what was going on. “But that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook tonight.”
    Had I started to relax? Had I let the whiskey work through me, the fire of it calming me?
    “Garrett’s out until four, at least. Lois’s over at her boyfriend’s. It’s you and me, and I promised you I’d take care of you tonight. I don’t ever go back on my promises, Samantha. Do you understand that?”
    I hadn’t spoken in so long that my voice was hoarse. “Yes, Nate.”
    “Tonight I’m ‘Daddy.’ Can you do that?”
    Had I thought he was letting me off easy? I closed my eyes as a fresh wave of fear spread through me. “Yes, Daddy.”
    “All right, girl. Go get your nightgown on and meet me back here.”
    I dressed quickly. Taking off my work clothes. Slipping into a silky short blue-and-white-checked pajama set. I didn’t stop to look at my reflection, didn’t pause to guess what Nate had in mind. I hurried back to the living room, and then stood at the side of the sofa, waiting for my next instruction.
    “Come here, Samantha,” he said, and there was no trace of a smile on his face or in his eyes. He’d turned the television off and lit the tall ivory candles that stood on the mantle. There were enough of the towering tapers to create more light than the TV had, but the room was still dim and cavelike.
    “Over my lap.”
    I didn’t look at his face again, simply crawled into position, knowing somehow that no matter what he’d said, he was disappointed I’d let him down tonight. This was why he was punishing me. Or soon would be.
    Nate’s fingers caught the waistband of my pajama shorts and black cotton panties and pulled both down my thighs. I thought he was going to start spanking me. My body was tensed for the first blow. But he didn’t.
    “Now, angel, I want you to tell me one of your fantasies. Can you do that?”
    “Yes.” I hesitated. “Yes, Daddy.”
    “Your favorite fantasy. One that you’ve never told anyone before, because you’re embarrassed by it.”
    “Yes, Daddy,” I whispered again, squeezing my eyes shut tight as I tried to think what to say. In my silence, Nate ran his hand over my naked rear, and then right when I was about to start speaking, he tripped his fingertips down the crack of my ass, softly touching my asshole.
    “Now.”
    Oh, Jesus. He was going to be doing things to me while I spoke. I got that now. I did my best to tell him. It wasn’t difficult for me to think of something to say. Confessing fantasies was what I did every night on Lois’s old typewriter. “I’m in a school,” I said, “like a private school.”
    “Mmm-hmmm,” Nate murmured, and now he had my cheeks spread apart, and I could feel him simply looking down at me, inspecting me. I wanted to hide, to burrow into the cushions of the sofa, but I held myself as