Part eight is finally here; sorry it’s taken a while!

A quick recap, in case you’ve forgotten where we are in the story …

Nick has managed to nudge Grace into going for dinner with him so that they can talk about the botched D/s encounter we read about in part one. Will he succeed in convincing her to open up to him about what went wrong? And will she be brave enough – and trust Nick enough – to try again?

Missed a previous instalment? Here they are:

- Part one
- Part two
- Part three
- Part four
- Parts five and six
- Part seven

THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS – PART EIGHT

 

Nick couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Grace as she sat opposite him. She looked beautiful in the flowery green dress she’d changed into and was quietly fidgeting in her seat taking nervous sips of her water. Every now and then, she’d worry a strand of hair from her ponytail and cast sideways glances at him. Her agitation radiated off her in waves and he could tell she just wanted to get the looming conversation out of the way. Other than touching Grace’s face earlier that morning, Nick had purposely avoided all physical contact with her, not wanting to make her any more jumpy than she already was but her obvious agitation prompted him to reach out and gently grasp her right hand, which had left her hair and was now fiddling with the butter knife on her side plate.

Grace immediately stilled at the contact and looked up at him.

‘Relax, Grace.’ He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. ‘Have you decided what you’re going to order?’

Grace jerked her eyes down to the open menu in front of her.

‘Uh, I’ll just have the lamb.’

‘You don’t want a starter?’

‘No, I don’t.’ She took a breath and he could see she was getting ready to say something.

He waited.

‘What I want is to get this over with, so if you wouldn’t mind, let’s have the conversation we need to have. Then we can eat and get out of here.’ She pulled her hand out of his, crossed her arms over her chest, and stared at him. ‘You go first.’

Nick smiled. ‘Bossy much?’

Grace snorted. ‘You have the monopoly on bossy. And I’m not kidding. You dragged me here, so speak.’

Nick leaned back slightly and forced himself to appear relaxed. ‘Okay.’

‘Okay?’ Grace seemed surprised by his capitulation and her posture softened slightly.

‘Yes. You’re right. Fair’s fair.’ Nick reached for his glass of water and took a sip before returning it to the table.

Grace looked at him expectantly.

‘First off, I’m beyond sorry for last night. I know I said it earlier but I screwed up big time and I can’t apologise enough. I should never have asked Tristan to help me with you and I won’t ever do that again.’

He glanced down briefly and ran a hand through his hair before continuing. ‘Grace, do you remember when we first talked about what we wanted from each other and I told you I don’t generally like to play with subs who are inexperienced?

She nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘Did you wonder why?’

Grace shrugged. ‘It didn’t really occur to me to ask. I just assumed you had a preference for women who were more … worldly.’

‘In a way, yes, but I think Jack may have given you a bit of a clue as to the reason for that preference when he visited you the other night.’ He looked at Grace questioningly.

‘He told me about his sister,’ she said slowly, ‘and how you helped her when she got into, er, difficulties with a partner?’

Nick nodded and mentally weighed up how much information to divulge, aware that what he said involved Tess as much as himself. After studying Grace for a moment he came to a decision.

‘Tess was messed up pretty badly by the guy she’d hooked up with. He wasn’t so much a Dominant as an asshole who just liked to lord it over women. To hurt them. And Tess wasn’t experienced enough to recognise that he wasn’t a sadist, just a nasty piece of work.’ He didn’t try to hide the disgust in his voice. ‘It didn’t help that she found she didn’t enjoy playing in front of others. It tended to make her freeze up. We hung out a fair bit when she first joined Dusk but after she met Reece, they practically disappeared from view. There was no one to pull him up, no one to monitor them – and no one to tell Tess that the way he was treating her wasn’t right.’

‘But you realised something was off?’

‘Yeah, I did. Even though she virtually stopped attending the social nights at the club, we’d still meet for a drink every now and talk about how things were going.’ He couldn’t stop himself from smiling a little. ‘Neither of us had friends we could confide in and it was good to be able to speak openly to each other and not be judged for our sexual tastes.’

‘But why didn’t you say something to her? Warn her?’

‘About Reece?’

‘Yes.’

‘Because I was new, just like her, and I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing. My gut told me the guy was all wrong but I wasn’t sure of myself at that point and he’d been around longer than I had.’

Nick took another sip of water and once again debated with himself how candid he should be.

‘The other thing is that Tess is a masochist – she likes pain if it’s administered in the right way – and I’m not a sadist. I love dominating women and enjoy inflicting a light to moderate amount if I think it’s going to get them off, but I’m not comfortable with the harsher end. I just didn’t feel that I could give her advice on something I wasn’t in tune with.’

‘That make sense but … I still don’t get how this ties in with last night.’

‘After I found Tess in the state I did, it put me off topping anyone for a long time.’ He shook his head. ‘I didn’t go to a club or play with anyone for nearly two years.’

He saw the surprise on her face.

‘Why not?’

‘I was scared of hurting someone the way Reece hurt Tess.’

‘But if you’re not a … a sadist,’ Grace seemed to struggle with the word, ‘that hardly seems likely.’

‘Grace, look at what happened last night. Damage isn’t just the domain of physical pain – you can just as easily hurt someone psychologically. With someone who’s new and trying to please, learn what gets them off, it makes reading them that much more difficult. Especially if you’re discovering those same things for yourself. It’s about dominating women – not damaging them.’

Grace’s cheeks turned red and she toyed with her hair again before asking ‘So how did you ‘get back on the horse’, so to speak?’

‘Jack.’

‘Jack!?’ It was clearly the last thing she expected him to say. ‘I thought he wasn’t into … ?’

Nick looked at her wide eyes and felt himself start to grin. ‘He’s not. But he could tell I missed it and he started giving me hell about being such a puss-,’ Nick caught himself. He had absolutely nothing against using raw words when he was playing, but when he wasn’t he tried to keep his mouth in check. ‘About being afraid of going after something I clearly wanted.’

‘How on earth would he know have known?’

‘Trust me, when you’re single for two years and reject every nice girl your best mate introduces you to, they start to get a clue that something’s up. And Jack isn’t exactly slow.’

Grace actually grinned at that. ‘No. No one could accuse Jack of lacking in the brains department.’

Lord, Nick thought. She really was lovely when she smiled. He was just about to tell her so when their waiter arrived to take their orders. They both ordered the lamb – rare.

‘Would you like some wine?’

‘I … okay. I guess I might as well since I’m not driving.’

Nick silently cheered. The fact that Grace had relaxed enough to order a drink was a small but significant victory.

He sat quietly while she quickly perused the wine list before settling on a French rosé. The waiter complemented Grace on her choice and it didn’t escape Nick’s notice that his eyes lingered on her far longer than was necessary before turning to him.

His displeasure at the man’s obviously salacious critique of Grace must have been broadcast in his expression, because the waiter took a subtle but hasty step away from her before asking in a placating tone, ‘And for you, sir?’

‘I’ll have a Peroni.’ He paused, allowing his annoyance to show. ‘Thank you’.

‘Of course. Your drinks will be with you shortly.’

Nick’s gaze followed him as he moved quickly away.

‘Do you enjoy intimidating everyone?’

‘What?’ The unexpected question bought his attention firmly back to Grace.

‘Intimidation. I’ve got to assume it’s something you have a thing for outside of the bedroom because you just scared that man half to death.’

‘He was being inappropriate.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘He was staring. At you.’

‘So what?’

‘You’re not an object.’

Grace flushed. ‘You didn’t mind Tristan and Caelan looking at me.’

‘That wasn’t the same.’

‘How?’

‘You’d agreed to it. And their motives were different.’

‘Keeping an eye on us?’

‘Exactly.’

‘How can you be jealous of a waiter for looking at me and not of …’ Grace looked around to make sure no one could overhear her, ‘two men seeing me practically naked?’

‘The context. At my house, we were playing. It was within the limits we’d set. Here? We’re talking. And that waiter was being disrespectful.’

Grace grabbed her water glass and took a deep swallow. Tristan couldn’t stop himself from watching her throat undulate gently as the liquid made its way down to her stomach. He was suddenly seized by an image of her on her knees before him, swallowing around his cock in much the same way. His hands fisted in her hair, Grace’s bound behind her back …

Get a grip, Nick.  With an effort, he shook off the mental image and attempted to settle himself. It was difficult. Within the space of a few seconds, his fantasy had given him the full-blown erection that had been threatening since Grace had walked into Fletcher and Associates that morning. His penis pressed painfully against the front of his trousers and he dropped one of his hands beneath the table to surreptitiously adjust himself. He focussed on the salt and pepper shakers standing solemnly on the starched white tablecloth and tried to think of anything but Grace and her soft, white neck. When he finally looked up, he found her staring at him.

Her hazel irises widened and then skittered downwards. Clearly he hadn’t been successful in scrubbing the nature of his thoughts from his expression. He would need to work on that.

Neither of them spoke and it was the waiter who finally broke the heavy silence, returning with Grace’s glass of wine and a bottle of beer for Nick.

‘So,’ said Grace tentatively. ‘You were telling me about Jack getting you … back into things?’

Nick nodded as he poured his beer into the glass the waiter had left for him.

‘Yeah.’ He titled the glass to the side to stop the head getting out of hand. ‘One weekend he just said ‘enough’s enough’ and practically dragged me down to the same club I once coerced him into going to.’

‘The one you took him to after telling him about Tess?’

Nick nodded. ‘He told you about that?’

‘Yes.’ Grace smiled. ‘From what he said, it made quite the impression.’

Nick laughed. ‘That’s one way of putting it. That first time? I thought his eyes were going to fall out of his head.’

Grace actually giggled. ‘I can imagine.’

‘It’s the only time I’ve seen that man cack himself. But the second time around? Cool as anything. Sat at the bar, had a beer. Wouldn’t let me leave until I’d spoken to some people.’

‘So I take it the sink or swim approach worked?’

‘Yeah. I met Tristan that night. He was at about the same stage I was before the whole Tess thing happened. We got talking. Started playing with some subs together.’ Another sip of Peroni. ‘Knowing that someone else was progressing and learning alongside me gave me my confidence back – although I’ve been extremely picky about who I’ve played with. Until you, I’ve had a rule that all the women I top be more experienced than me.’

Grace’s body language stiffened slightly.

‘What’s the matter, Grace?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You’ve tensed up.’

‘Nothing.’

‘Grace.’ He kept his tone gentle but firm. ‘I can tell I’ve said something that bothers you. You need to let me know what it is.’

Her hands were playing with the butter knife again. She didn’t speak, but he waited her out, refusing to fill the silence.

Finally she spoke, although she stared over his shoulder as she did so, refusing to make eye contact. ‘I … I don’t like hearing about the other women you’ve played with. It makes me …’

‘Jealous?’

She nodded. ‘I know it’s ridiculous considering we hardly know one another but it’s hard to hear about them.’

Nick’s heart leapt as he turned over in his head what Grace had unwittingly revealed. As far as he was concerned, her discomfort was a good sign; she was invested enough in what had happened between them – what was happening between them – to feel put out by his past. He reached out and took both her hands in his.

‘Grace, I told you the other week and I’ll tell you again now. I like you and I won’t play with anyone else if we’re together. I know that’s a hard limit for you. Can you trust me on that?’

She looked at him, her eyes searching his before finally nodding her head. ‘Yes. I can.’

He smiled. ‘Good.’