The Ties that Bind Pt. 02

I didn't write Ben and Shay's story with a sequel in mind, but--well, Shay insisted. It's a holiday weekend, I had a little time off, so I gave in.

I walked up to the elevator and punched the button hard enough to make my finger sting. I was in a foul mood, angry and keyed-up. I could make some excuse for the clients--hurt people hurt people, after all, and sexual hurts can produce some particularly toxic behaviors--but not for my colleague. Our practice was going to be running one psychiatrist short until we could replace the bastard, but I would gladly deal with that to get rid of him. What he'd pulled--

Stop thinking about it, MacMillan, I told myself, using my last name the way Mom did when she was coming down hard. (Well, she more often said "Benjamin Bruce MacMillan," but I wasn't going to do that.) You'll only work yourself into a complete fury, and Shay doesn't deserve that.

As always, the thought of my beautiful girlfriend eased my soul--though it would take a lot of easing before I was fit company. Our six-month anniversary--should that be "demianniversary"?--whatever--it's coming up in a few weeks, I reminded myself, trying to divert my mind. I should do something special for her.

The elevator door opened and I pushed through to our front door. I managed not to fling it open, then stopped dead. Before me was a hand-lettered sign reading, I'm waiting for you in bed. Come get your surprise.

The gears jammed in my brain--but only in my big head; my little one was more than capable of responding appropriately. I shut the door behind me and kicked off my shoes, then turned right into the hallway, taking my shirt off and flinging it into the laundry room on the way past. This time, of course, the bedroom door wasn't shut, and I walked unhindered into an erotic vision.

There were some other differences this time as well. For one thing, Shay's arms were bound straight above her head, bound to each other with the cord looped around one of the posts in the big mission-style headboard. For another, she wasn't naked, she was wearing filmy, flimsy-looking red lingerie that I hoped she didn't expect to survive the next hour. Also, the blindfold wasn't black, but a matching red.

And, most important of all: this time, she was mine. A fact which she underscored when she said in a low, sultry voice, "We have some unfinished business, lover."

"Do we now?" I parried, playing for time as I unbuckled my pants.

"Ohhhhh, yes," Shay purred. "You did the right thing that night, but I've been dreaming about this ever since. Even that night when I slept in your arms."

"There wasn't much time for sleeping," I observed, shedding my pants and socks.

"There was enough... I need this, baby," she responded hungrily. "I need this to go the right way--with you. You've made love to me, you've fucked my brains out--tonight I need you to ravish me. Take me. Own me."

I held my soul hard as I stripped off my boxers. "You need to be sure about this, love," I warned her. "I'm no dom, but I'm carrying a lot of anger from work today. I might get... I might go--overboard... a little."

"Give it to me, lover," Shay urged me, the lust thick in her voice. "I'm a real woman, I can take it. I know you're not angry at me, but you need to let out the emotion. Feed it to your passion and fucking take me. I can be what you need. I'm here for you, baby--all of you."

"Financial analyst my ass," I muttered as I walked to the bed. "You're a therapist's girlfriend, alright."

Shay laughed with delight. "You're rubbing off on me, stud. Must be from all the rubbing you've done in me."

"And you're rubbing off on me," I growled. "Open those pretty little cocksucking lips before I have to force them open."

"Oooh," she cooed happily, "you're finally--" Her voice died with a gurgle as I shoved my dick down her throat.

"Yep," I rasped, grabbing her head and fucking her face. Her eyes watered and she sounded like a drain trying to unplug itself, but the way she was using her tongue as I pistoned her mouth made it clear she was into this. The distinctive scent of her arousal reached my nostrils, firing my lust even higher. "Fuck, baby, I'm not going to last long. Oh, Shay!" I pressed deep and exploded down her throat. It had actually been a couple days since we'd had sex (unusual for us), so I had a fair bit stored up. I could feel her swallowing it all.

I started to pull out, but Shay closed her mouth tight around my shrinking cock and sucked hard. I stopped and let her, feeling her lips caressing my shaft and her tongue playing over my glans. To my surprise, I only shrank to half-staff before starting to grow again under her ministrations, and soon I was back to full length.

I did pull out, then. "That was crazy fucking hot," she breathed. "Thank you, baby."

"Thank me?" I asked in amazement. "Thank you."

"Mmmm, I loved it too," she purred. "Now kiss me."

I didn't think the person tied up was supposed to be giving the orders, but I wasn't going to quibble with that one. I swung myself around and seized her breasts as I lowered my lips to hers. The kiss was tender, but my hands weren't--I groped and squeezed her ripe melons, then pinched and rolled their turgid pink tips. Shay wriggled beneath me and moaned into my mouth. I kissed her jawline and neck, setting her moans free. I murmured in her ear, "Have you ever thought of getting your nipples pierced?"

"No," she breathed. "Would you like that?"

"I think having a couple barbells to play with could be sexy," I told her.

"I'll have to look into that, then... maybe for the next time..." She fell silent for a moment, then urged, "Take it off, baby. Let me feel you skin to skin."

I sat back on my heels, seized her top in both hands, and ripped it in half with one jerk of my shoulders, setting those glorious tits bouncing free. Shay gasped and her hips bucked. "Fuck," she said breathlessly. "I just came a little..."

"You liked that?" I asked rhetorically. "In that case--" I shifted position and ripped her panties open. She gasped even louder, and I could see her pussy gushing. I thrust two fingers inside, fucking her hard, and bent forward to devour her lush boobs. I left nips all over their slopes before sucking first one peak and then the other deep into my mouth. I feasted on her quivering buds and manhandled her sex, not stopping when she came the first time. The second time, I shifted down, continuing to finger her as well as I could, and sucked hard on her pearl. She climaxed again, and then when I scraped her clit with my teeth--something I'd learned she loved--she came apart in my face.

I looked up to see her head thrown back and her mouth open, so I flipped myself around. As my mouth came down on her flooded snatch again, I thrust my cock deep into her mouth again. She swallowed it effortlessly and kept on swallowing--I could feel her working it with her throat as I pumped her face. I licked and sucked her clit and pushed two fingers back into her box to rub her G-spot; it wasn't long before another orgasm set her nectar frothing around my hand.

I pulled out at that point, inspiring a moan of disappointment. "I want to save the rest of my cum for your tight little pink hole," I told her.

"It's all yours," Shay purred. "I'm at your fucking mercy... --Wait, what are you doing?"

"Just rearranging you," I informed her. Once I had the cords from her ankles untied from the foot of the bed, I pushed her legs up and retied them to the ends of the headboard, leaving her bent double with her sex wide open and unprotected, pointing at the ceiling. I wadded up the tatters of her panties and tossed them aside.

"Fuck..." she moaned. "I feel so exposed... this is so fucking hot... Give me that beautiful dick, lover--fuck me silly..."

Before I did that, I reached around her hips and under her legs to play with her nipples, then bent forward and lapped at her flowing quim with a broad tongue. She gasped and cried out my name, cumming again when I flickered my tongue over her clit. Then I assumed front-leaning rest position above her, pushing my cock into her defenseless hole, and did my best to fuck her into the mattress. There was no gentleness--I jackhammered her body as hard and fast and furiously as I physically could, with no thought for anything but slamming my cock into her again and again and again. The bed creaked, her fat titties bounced and jiggled in every direction, and she moaned and mewled and cried out my name until I bent my head to claim her lips. Shay kissed me back feverishly as I railed her pussy; she broke the kiss when another powerful orgasm set her head rolling from side to side.

I pulled out and took the cuffs off her ankles. "Are you done?" Shay asked, sounding a little dazed. "I didn't think you'd cum yet..."

"I haven't, and no, I'm not done," I assured her. "I'm just turning you over."

"Mmmm," she purred as I flipped her onto her stomach, taking the chance to send another consignment of torn black fabric after the first one. I pulled up on her ass a little to give myself the right approach angle and guided my cock back into her welcoming pussy. I reached under her to grab her tits, lay down on top of her, and thrust home. It wasn't the best position for deep penetration, but I was able to go plenty deep enough, and I loved the feeling of having Shay completely wrapped up. Apparently she did too, whispering, "Ooooh, I like this... I belong to you... I'm all yours, love... completely, totally yours..."

I kneaded her tits and kissed the back of her neck, and I fucked her with long, slow, steady strokes. I felt spent down to peace, if that makes any sense, filled with love and gratitude for this amazing woman who had made me her own, and given herself to me in return. I tried to tell her how grateful I was and how much I loved her, how much she meant to me. Finally, Shay murmured, "Show me, baby. I'm close--fill me with your cum, fill me with your love--let me cum with you."

I gently bit the back of her neck, thrust home once more, and let go; I cried out, "All yours," as I emptied my balls into her womb. It felt like a catharsis; somehow, it also felt like a promise. With a low, breathless moan, she came with me, her tight little pussy pulsing and thundering around my rod.

Once our mutual climax began to fade, I pushed myself up to let Shay breathe properly. I pulled out of her well-fucked hole and straddled her to undo her remaining bonds. Once she was free, she rolled over and pulled me down to give me a long, steamy kiss. "My love," she murmured, sounding deeply satisfied.

"All yours," I agreed. "And you are mine."

"All yours," she echoed. "Always and forever."

"Always and forever."

We kissed for a while, then I rolled off onto my back. Shay rolled up against me and laid her head on my shoulder, draping one arm across my chest with her hand on my other shoulder. I stroked her hair and gently kissed the top of her head.

"Thank you, love," I said. "I know it was your fantasy, but it was really lucky for me that you picked tonight... I really needed this."

"I know," she responded, the smile clear in her voice.

I was surprised, but felt too tired and languid to move. "What do you mean?" I asked after a moment.

"I've been cultivating your office admin," Shay confessed matter-of-factly. "Don't worry, I'm not compromising confidentiality--I know that in my line of work, too, and I would never do anything to hurt you. But she knows you better than you realize, and she loves you like the little brother she always wanted (her words, by the way). Before you even left work, she'd sent me a text telling me the sort of day you'd had and the mood you were in. I'd been planning to do this, I just hadn't decided when; Alicia's text told me today was the day. So I called Laney--"

"Ahh, Laney again," I said, grinning. We'd double-dated a number of times with Laney and her husband Paul, and I liked them both immensely. Laney's another redhead, but five-foot-nothing and ninety pounds soaking wet; she's a firecracker, though, with six feet worth of personality and a wicked sense of humor. Paul's well over six foot and built like a marble slab--I'd bet he could lift Laney sitting on one hand--with a deep, rumbling voice and a sly wit. Laney's on Shay's team at their firm, while Paul is, of all the counter-stereotyped things, a pediatrician. They're planning on kids of their own soon; Shay and I are already laying plans to help her out when that happens, because she looks likely to be broad as a barn door and round as the moon. She'll have the best pre-natal care, though.

"Yes," Shay smiled. "She was tickled pink to do it, too. She never liked Ted, but she thinks you're wonderful. She's told me over and over I'm almost as lucky as she is."

I chuckled at that. "I have to agree. Paul's an amazing man. Getting to know him--and Laney, to be sure--has been a big fringe benefit of dating you."

Shay wriggled against me enjoyably. "He's an amazing man for Laney," she purred. "You are every bit as amazing a man for me."

"I'm glad you think so, love," I said, nuzzling her hair. "That's a high compliment."

My phone rang. It was the guitar interlude from Old Dominion's "No Such Thing as a Broken Heart," so I knew it was my folks. (No, I'm not a big country fan, but the first time I heard the song it made me think of them, so.) Shay recognized it immediately as well and gave me a nudge. I grabbed the phone with my free hand. "Hey, I'm here."

"And so formal, as always," my dad responded dryly.

"Be nice, Mal," Mom scolded.

"I am nice," he informed her, deadpan as usual.

"I'm going to put you on speakerphone," I told them, "so you both need to behave."

"Oh, is Shay there with you?" Mom asked happily.

"Ree, you do realize they live together, right?" Dad asked. Shay buried her face in my shoulder in an effort to hide her giggles.

"Of course I do, Malcolm Ross," Mom answered indignantly, "but they're busy people. I wasn't even assuming Ben had made it home yet."

"No, Mom, I've been home for a while," I assured her. "Actually, I came home pretty quickly today--it was a really bad day at work. We haven't eaten yet because Shay's been letting me unload." At that double entendre, she curled herself into some really strange position to get her face as far from the phone as she could manage while she laughed herself silly. "Breathe, love," I murmured in her ear.

"Oh, good," Mom said in tones of deep satisfaction. "She's so good for you, Ben."

"Yeah, Mom, she is."

"And yet we've never met her!"

"As you said, Mom, we're busy people," I defended myself. "We have time for each other, but we haven't really had time to travel. We started dating in January--until we get to the holiday season, there's not really any obvious time for us to get away, and that won't be for a while yet."

"I know, Benny, I know." I winced. I'd never liked being called Benny, but I'd never quite managed to break my mother of the habit. "That's why we're coming out to see you for a few days!"

"Oh!" I was taken by surprise. "When?"

"Next month some time," my dad interjected. "Still nailing down the details, but wanted to give you some advance warning. I figured you'd probably want to do something special to celebrate six months together, so we're planning to wait until after that, at any rate."

"I appreciate that," I said quietly.

"Knew you would," Dad told me, and I knew he was grinning.

"Would you like to stay with us?" Shay asked. "We have a spare bedroom with its own bathroom, and the way the apartment's laid out, there's a decent amount of privacy."

"Huh," Dad responded, clearly surprised.

"We hadn't been planning to--we figured we'd get a hotel..." Mom chimed in.

"It really wouldn't be a problem," Shay told them earnestly. "We're not using the bedroom for anything, and we rarely even use that bathroom; I'm not sure there are even sheets on the bed." (In truth, she knew full well there weren't; the last sheets on that bed had been the ones on which we fucked that first night.) "It would be good to have as much time as possible to get to know you while you're here."

"Well, if you mean that..." Mom wavered.

"We don't want you to feel like you have to put us up, or like we're an imposition," Dad rumbled, "but if you want us to stay with you, we'd love to."

"Yes, we do," Shay said firmly, and so it was decided.

After I hung up, she asked idly, "So what's your ringtone for me? I've never thought to ask, and it's not like I'm around when I call you."

I grinned at her. "The chorus of 'Coming Home' by Sheppard."

Shay laughed with delight. "Not 'Symphony'?"

"Almost," I conceded. "But--well, partly, as much as I like 'Symphony,' I like 'Coming Home' even better." She nodded at that. "More, though, love, the best part of my day--even on the best days at work--is coming home to you. That's how I think about you: I'm coming home."

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she caressed my skin with her lips. Her voice was a little husky when she responded, "That might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me." She paused a beat, then continued, "I love you, Ben."

"I love you too, Shay."

The next day at work, my mind kept drifting back to Shay tying herself to my bed. She tried to do that for Ted because she knew she was losing him--it was something she could try to spark his interest, not something she wanted to do for its own sake. She did it for me because she wanted to do it. She wanted to give herself over to me completely. And she deliberately chose to do it on a day when she knew I might be selfish and thoughtless, just to give me the best possible way to deal with all that negative emotion.

I would die for this woman, and I think she just laid down her life for me. I think it's time to take the next step in our relationship.

Finding Shay's ring size was a bit of a poser initially, as she only wore one ring--on the ring finger, at least, but she never took it off. I finally decided to ask her parents. I'm old-fashioned enough that I wanted to ask them for their consent anyway--not that I would have taken "no" for an answer, if it came to it. We hadn't visited them yet either, but as with Shay and my folks, we'd talked on the phone a few times. They were still surprised to get a call from just me, though. They were a little wary until I asked her mom if she knew Shay's ring size. That question produced a moment of complete silence followed by the sound of her mother weeping.

"Ma'am, is everything okay?" I asked, concerned. I repeated the question a couple times before she got herself under control and said firmly, "Shirley. Or Mom. Not ma'am--not if you're joining the family." And that was that. Her dad sounded (and was, I'm sure) completely sincere and truly happy when he said, "We will be thrilled to have you as our son-in-law," but it wouldn't have mattered if he'd said the opposite: his wife had already made the decision.

It turned out she didn't know Shay's ring size, but she did have a ring that Shay had forgotten the last time she was home for a visit; she told me she'd head right out to the jeweler and tell me what size it was. Once I had the size, I paid a visit to my own jeweler--a classmate and friend from BSU, as it happened, who has an artistic eye I've always admired. I found a ring set, one of those sets that fit together, with a Marquise cut diamond solitaire--a beautifully colorless stone--on the engagement ring and the wedding band set with emeralds for her beautiful green eyes.

I took Shay out to dinner for our demianniversary (or whatever you want to call it) at one of the best restaurants in the city, an Argentine steakhouse that we had visited twice before; the steaks were superb, the wine was amazing, and the company by far excelled both. The restaurant was on the riverwalk, so we followed the river for a while hand in hand. It was a perfect moonlit summer night, with just enough of a breeze to feel fresh. We kissed, and then I dropped to my knees and held out the ring. "Shayna Lauren Reeves, heart of my heart, love of my life," I asked, "will you marry me?"