Free Weekend by Jane Eaton Hamilton Page B

likethis; I don’t need you.” But still, they ran their fingers across Ajax’s lips.
    Ajax licked her lips, tried to capture Logan, but Logan pressed her back, a firm hand on her shoulder. “Don’t you move.”
    â€œOr what?”
    â€œMake your clit wet. Make it stand up. Rub it for me, honey.” Logan pinched Ajax’s left nipple.
    Ajax gasped.
    Logan said, “Do what you’re told when you’re told to do it. Do it now, Ajax.”
    But Ajax couldn’t.
    â€œI’m not pleased,” said Logan. They produced alligator clips, slid the rubber tips over Ajax’s nipples, fastened them—it hurt significantly. The chain dangled cold between Ajax’s breasts. Logan took it like it was reins and drew Ajax to the couch, placed Ajax in front of her. “Spread your legs. Tell me what you want me to do to you.”
    â€œI don’t know, I don’t know.” Ajax didn’t know. Anything.
    Logan yanked the nipple chain.
    Ajax spread her legs. Heard moisture crackle between her thighs.
    â€œYou do know what you want. Now I need to know. Have you been bad?” Logan huffed hot air between her legs. “You’ve been bad, Ajax, haven’t you?” Logan reached a tongue tip to Ajax’s clit. Just that, the barely rotating tip of their tongue. Kept it there while Ajax gasped.
    With a toss of wind chimes, rain boiled into the lake. Logan would, no doubt—no doubt—soon strip her raw. If only more lovers realized the devastating power of softness. It would make what was coming both worse, and so much better.
    â€œSay it,” said Logan, releasing Ajax.
    So Ajax said it, but quietly, hushed from stubbornness. “I’ve been bad.” Crotch zap in response.
    Logan raised a hand. “You don’t sound convinced.”
    Ajax shook her head—not No, I’m not convinced , but No , I refuse to succumb. Make me. “I’ve been bad, Logan. I don’t mean to be bad, but I am, I’m bad.” The reluctance with which she gave in. The reluctance with which she abandoned equality.
    â€œAnd what happens to bad girls, do you know? Here at my cottage?”
    Was the cottage the same as every location they fucked? Because if it was, she knew what her role was, what her next line of dialogue might be.
    When she didn’t say anything, Logan tugged the nipple clamps harder, bent, and ran their tongue over the protruding bleached, bloodless brown tips of Ajax’s nipples. “Bad girls have to be punished, don’t they?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œYou do know.” Logan stared hard with their etiolated eyes. The floor-length red curtains jeté’d into the room.
    Ajax thought, Play along, play along, play along. Games belong in the bedroom . But it was dastardly hard to give in.“Okay,” said Ajax, resistance in her tone of voice. “Yes. Bad girls need to be punished.”
    â€œAnd who’s been bad?”
    That cunt smell. Sharp, demanding. Smell of the lake. Maybe a star-smell, too, elemental. “I have been.”
    â€œAjax, we either do this, or we don’t do this. All in. Game on.”
    Ajax said it more resolutely. “I’ve been naughty.”
    Logan grabbed her by the hips. “What have you wanted me to do to you?”
    â€œSpank me.” Ajax took a huge breath. “And sodomize me.”
    Logan raised their eyebrows. “What did I spank you with?”
    â€œOh god.”
    Logan ran their hand up the sides of Ajax’s body, smacked the side of her right breast. The sound of the slap.
    â€œYour hand.”
    â€œWere you bent over a table?” They pointed. “That table?”
    Ajax turned to look at the dining room table. Where they’d eaten just hours earlier. Fantasy , she thought. “Over your knee.”
    Logan’s hands trickled up Ajax’s back, whispers of touch.
    â€œDid I spank you with anything