New Year’s Eve

Galway, Ireland

Four Years Ago…

Con purred in her ear—God she loved that sound. Kate shivered as he walked in front of her and threw opened the over-sized French Doors to the brutal elements of winter in Ireland. The sea was angry tonight, Kate could hear it crashing against the rocks below and smell its distinctive tang. The rain outside slashed down, sending its icy spray to embrace her as she stood naked and bound to the St. Andrew’s Cross.

Goosebumps rose along her exposed flesh, matching her pebbled nipples. Only her pussy was warm… wet… ripe… and ready for him. The tendrils of desire he’d been tending all evening were now surging through her bloodstream—a wildfire out of control. She shuddered, a kind of precursor to her orgasm and he hadn’t even touched her yet.

“I like the flogger you bought me for Christmas, but I’m not entirely convinced it was my pleasure you bought it for.”

Con was inordinately fond of sending her Fire and Ice roses—white roses with a vivid red on the inside. She’d had a flogger made specifically to fit his tall, muscular physique. Instead of smooth falls ending in knots, she’d had the falls designed with extra pieces of supple leather in the shape of leaves. The knots were encased in elaborately crafted, white leather roses with blood red centers. It had been extravagant, but Kate was cognizant of the fact that they would not be together the following year.

He ran the intricately engraved sterling silver handle down her spine, pressing lightly. He started at the nape of her neck and trailed down to the small of her back and then between the cleft of her buttocks, pressing lightly against her dark rosette.

I might have expected that. Con was in a feral, primal mood and generally he wanted her ultimate submission when he was feeling that way.

“Kind of like the elaborate corset you bought me?” she retorted.

His hand connecting with her ass made a distinctive crack and had more than a bit of sting to it.

“Careful brat. After your behavior earlier this evening, I’d think you’d be looking to soothe my savage beast, not tempt it.” He caressed her backside, making her shiver. “But then, you are always far too tempting.”

Reaching around her from the side, he pinched her stiffened nipple. The bastard had been seducing her all the way home in the car. He’d put her over his knee, ostensibly for misbehaving and spanked her until her bottom had been heated and, according to him, a lovely shade of pink. He’d kept her there while he’d shoved two fingers inside her pussy and stroked her to just this side of orgasm.

Leaving the car, he’d gone all caveman on her and tossed her over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing and had entered the home they shared, striding down the hall to their large and elaborate room. It was dominated by three things—the enormous, four-poster bed, the custom-built St. Andrew’s Cross to which she was bound, and the man himself.

Conchobar O’Neill, named for the great mythic warrior and king, was the Irish mob boss known as the Devil of Galway. He was a law unto himself, and she always thought of him as tall, dark and lethal. He saw himself as a benign gentleman smuggler as did most people, until they crossed him. It was then they saw the savage beast that resided within.

Had she not been bound, she would have been wriggling and stomping her feet—anything to alleviate the raging desire that swirled all around her. The sensation that surged through her system rivaled the storm outside—raw, primitive and undeniable. Her arousal had all her nerve endings on alert and firing.

“Con, please,” she hated it when he made her beg, but she also knew if that’s what he wanted, he wouldn’t be denied.

“What’s the matter, brat? Rethinking playing with me with your foot all evening?”

She tried hard not to laugh but failed. They’d been at a formal dinner and been seated across from each other. She hadn’t wanted to go so when he forced her, she’d extracted her revenge by slipping her foot out of her shoe and resting it between his legs, using her toes and heel to keep him hard and needy.

Kate thought when he’d dragged her into the cloak room, closing the door in the attendant’s face, braced her against the wall, rucked up her dress and rammed his cock deep inside her that might be the end of it. He’d taken her hard and fast, pounding into her like a man possessed. She’d climaxed almost immediately, biting her lip to keep from screaming as she did. When he’d finished, he’d led her straight to their car, pulling her in behind him and positioning her over his knee.

“You’ve already punished me for that…”

He nuzzled her neck and whispered in her ear, “My use and discipline of you is just getting started.”

Con trailed his large hand down her spine. She’d barely had time to notice he was no longer touching her when it came down in a stinging slap on her already tender backside. He hadn’t given her a number of swats, nothing that allowed her to anticipate. He just kept spanking her with a firm rhythm which felt very much like he would never stop.

Given that he’d already spanked her in the car, that she was tied naked to the cross where anyone walking by could see her and was exposed to the brutal elements of the winter weather, her entire being was on high alert—all her synapses firing, as heat crawled along her flesh, both where he struck and not.

“What part of that behavior did you think was acceptable?” he growled.

He was pissed, more so than she thought he’d be.

“I didn’t want to go,” she complained.

“I was well aware of that, but it was a business function and I needed you at my side, not playing footsie with me under the table. Christ do you have any idea how uncomfortable I am?”

“You’re not tied naked to a piece of BDSM equipment in front of a howling gale with your ass on fire, so I think you’re doing better than me.”

“Do you now? Let’s find out.”

Con slipped one of his hands between the cross and her mons, cupping it and reaching under to play with her clit.

“Con, no…” she wailed.

He stepped in closer to her. “Yes,” he snarled as he shoved two fingers up her pussy from the back, driving her up on her toes as she screamed her orgasm into the storm that raged just beyond the open doors. The hand from the front of her body came up and pinched both nipples, forcing another climax from her body as he knees buckled. She only remained upright because he had her lashed to the cross.

As he tugged on her nipples, he removed his other hand from between her legs and spanked her ass—one—two—three more times, causing her to writhe against the cold metal to which she was bound.

“Do you understand the level of my displeasure with you?” he growled.

“Yes, Sir. Con, please?”

He backed away to the lingerie chest he kept next to the door of the walk-in closet. Only he didn’t keep sexy strips of silk and lace. No, this was where he kept all but the hanging toys—floggers, restraints, single-tails and the like.

Please not the third drawer down. Please not the third drawer down. Shit! It was the third drawer down. The drawer where he kept the anal plugs.

“Let’s see,” he said almost to himself. “Yes, I think the purple one will do nicely. Flatten your back.”

“Con…”

Another stinging slap to her ass. “Perhaps next time you decide to play the cock tease with me you’ll think about it and make a better decision.” He rifled through the top drawer which held the different lubes he liked to use. “Hmm, we seem to be out of ginger. Pity that. Peppermint will have to suffice.”

He slathered lube over the plug. The Devil of Galway pressed the tip against her asshole, the peppermint lube adding a slightly stinging sensation. Working in a slow circle, pressing in with each rotation, relaxing the tight ring of muscle. As it began to give way, he inserted the tip.

“Relax, M’fhíorghrá. You know you deserve this. You were a complete brat, and you earned your punishment.”

She found it curious that as he pressed the plug inside her, she could feel desire sparking all up and down her backbone as pressure and pleasure built alongside the feelings of humility and fullness. He fucked her dark entrance with the plug, each time pushing it in a bit further. Finally, he had the damn thing all the way in, seated deep in her ass, and he left it there.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him step back, pick up his gift, softly shaking out the falls, landing them gently on her shoulders, before dragging them down her back and buttocks. Again and again, she tensed waiting for the first real strike, but her Master was in the mood to torture her. Her body was wickedly aroused to the point she would welcome a little bite of pain just to take the edge off. The evidence of her arousal was now dripping down the inside of her thigh.

Con began to wield the flogger in an even, rhythmic movement, increasing the strength behind the blows as he sought to drive her mad. Granted it wasn’t a long drive, but he made it seem interminable.

While having her ankles, waist and wrists restrained to the St. Andrew’s Cross was not something she particularly enjoyed, she did love the fact that there was a slim possibility someone could see her predicament in the moonlight and that this was something he’d only ever done with her. Once he’d taken her as his woman, he’d insisted they scour all the antique stores looking for the perfect four-poster bed, had an elaborate restraint system installed and then constructed the cross to her specifications. The place where the two pieces joined was higher than normal and shaped so that it fit neatly in her cleavage. That way when he used it, and her on it, her breasts were perfectly placed and available for his enjoyment.

She loved what strapping her down and using the flogger did for him—it relaxed him in a way nothing else could. When they’d finished a session, his massive body would be completely relaxed and unwound, with the notable exception of his enormous cock. The only thing that could take care of his raging libido was to fuck her long and hard, bringing her to multiple orgasms.

As he struck her major muscle groups, the erotic connection between them sprang to life. Kate moaned and surrendered to the pleasured pain as his cadenced flogging allowed her to relax and embrace both her arousal and her submission to this man. The ends of the flogger fell as he allowed the falls to wrap around her before sliding away.

The air around her that had once felt brutal and electrified, shimmered into a oneness with all things around her. She experienced everything while floating among the stars. Con stepped into her, resonating with a deep purring sound that only further enhanced her feelings of peace and being in a place where only the two of them existed and nothing could harm either of them.

Con changed up the way he landed the falls. He was a master flogger, he could send her into subspace and just as easily snatch her away to let her ride the crest of pleasure or pain, depending on his mood and whim. Her body trembled and she struggled in the restraints.

“Give over to me, M’fhíorghrá. You will come for me before I cut you down,” he rumbled.

He liked to use soft leather ties to restrain her and then use an ancient dagger to cut them away. There was something in the predatory way he restrained and freed her that called to something dark and coiled inside her. She moaned quietly, her whole body shivering as a light sheen of lust and sweat began to trickle over it. Her arousal and need to give over to him were spiraling out of control and she knew he would have what he wanted… he always did.

Kate felt the muscles that were not in direct contact with his flogger begin to stiffen in anticipation of the orgasm that she knew was threatening to crash down on her, sweeping away any resistance she had to the warrior who had seduced her and who called to her in a way no other man ever had. Con continued to land the soft, silky blows of the flogger across her body, pushing her closer and closer to the edge until suddenly her whole body arched as she climaxed once more, calling his name as the storm and the pleasure swirled around her like a maelstrom. She sagged against the cross, allowing the restraints to hold her in place.

“And that, M’fhíorghrá, will teach you to play the cock tease with me.”

He laid the flogger down and ran his finger lightly down her spine, traveling between her buttocks and pressing against the puckered entrance to her dark passage.

“The falls of my new toy won’t be the only rosette you surrender to me this night…”