“Relax for me,” Nora ordered as she made a circuit around his body, dragging her fingernails lightly over his stomach, sides and the small of his back. “Go as limp as you can.”

He closed his eyes, and she saw him sagging in the bonds.

“This is as limp as I’m going to get,” he said and Nora paused in front of him, looking meaningfully at his erection. Only looking. Not touching. That would come later.

“Excellent.” Even going limp, Thorny had barely moved. The spreader bar, rope, hooks and cuffs held him firmly and safely in place. Nora touched his face and let their eyes meet.

“The name Thorny suits you. Like a hawthorn bush you’re a little dangerous to be around, but you are very lovely to look at.”

“Thank you, Mistress.”

“Are you blushing?” she asked, smiling at him. “Did I make a whore blush?”

“You did. Can’t wait to make a domme beg.”

“Wait your turn,” she teased. “You’re all mine now. You must spend a lot of time taking care of your clients. It’s good you’re taking some time to let someone else take care of you.”

“Is that what you’re doing? Taking care of me?”

He pushed his hips forward, but she didn’t scold him for it.

“I want to take very good care of you,” she said, slipping a blindfold over his eyes. The mirror in front of him was for her, so she could watch his face and his reactions. She wanted him utterly lost in sensation, seeing nothing, feeling everything. “You’re in my hands now, in my bedroom. This is the safest room in the world right now. Nothing and no one will harm you here. Your body will be honored. Your desires will be honored. Your trust in me will be honored. Do you believe me?”

“Yes, Mistress.” He whispered the words. Good. The spell was already taking effect. She ran her thumbs over the arch of his cheekbones, over his lips. She outlined his ears and caressed his collarbone with her fingertips.

“I’m going to enjoy flogging you very much,” she said, running her hands up and down his sides, over and around his rib cage. “I love flogging beautiful men. Worse ways to spend a hot August afternoon, right?”

“I can’t think of a better way, Mistress.”

She took her suede flogger off the bed and combed her fingers through the velvety tails.

“You’re with Mistress Nora now. Nothing bad ever happens when you’re with Mistress Nora. Only good things. Wonderful things. Things like this.” She brushed the tips of the flogger tails over the tops of his bare feet and toes. Thorny smiled. With a light back-and-forth motion, Nora brushed the flogger across his shins. She worked her way up his legs, gently caressing him with the flogger, letting the tails lap and lick at his skin. Holding the flogger high over him, she ran the tips of the tails over the full length of his penis.

As she swept the flogger over his erection, Thorny’s hips undulated in rhythm with it, a sight she found terribly erotic. She looked forward to when it was his turn showing off his special skill set. But now all she wanted was to give him the flogging of his dreams. Nothing else mattered.

When Thorny’s breathing grew heavier, Nora moved to his backside, not wanting him to come until after the beating. She whisked the flogger over the back of his legs now and between them, licking at his inner thighs and testicles. She did nothing that hurt, nothing that caused pain. She wanted only to wake up his body, put his nerves on notice.

“Best ass I’ve seen in a long time,” Nora said, gently slapping the ass in question with her flogger.

“Thank you, Mistress.” Thorny gave her a little wiggle.

Nora stepped back and used a wide swing now on Thorny’s back and arms. She was careful to keep the pressure as light as possible. Nothing would jar him out of the safe space in his mind faster than a hard hit when he wasn’t prepared for it. No...this moment was all about pleasure...teasing...tickling...caressing...the soft stroke of suede on bare skin. Thorny was a vocal submissive. His sighs and gasps of pleasure filled the room. When she’d touched every part of his body with the flogger, even running the tips of the tails over his face, she stopped and tossed it on the bed. She came back to Thorny and put her hands on his hips, rubbing them to bring more blood into his pelvic region.

“On a scale of one to ten in the realm of impact play,” she said, “that was about a one. A whip can get you to a ten. I’ll take you to about a six or a seven and bring you back down again. We’ll go there together. You won’t be alone.” She spoke in a low voice and kissed the back of his neck between sentences.

When she returned to Thorny, she had the second-lightest flogger in her hand. She tickled his back with the tails and she saw a shiver pass over his body.

“You like that? It’s the deerskin. I’m going to start easy, at a two, but I’ll move up to a three quickly. Thighs, ass, middle and upper back and shoulders. No kidneys, no head, no neck. You will enjoy this, Thorny...almost as much as I will.”

Once again she started slow, lightly brushing, lightly sweeping the flogger over the back of his body. She caught the tips of the tails and released them in her first real strike. It wasn’t a hard hit but hard enough that Thorny stood up straight at the impact. She struck again across his back, spacing out the hits so he could brace himself for the next one. Soon his skin started to turn pink, then red.

“What color?” she asked. “Green means keep going. Yellow means we take a break. Red means we stop.”

“Green.”

“My favorite color.”

With the elk flogger she concentrated her efforts on Thorny’s back, hitting the same spot over and over and over again, raising the level of pain from a four to a five to a six and back down to a four again. Up again to a six and back down to a four. She teased him with a minute of easy light flogging and brought him to attention with a series of sharp hard raps that had him gasping with each hit. With the bull-hide flogger she gave him the roughest treatment yet. She aimed high then low, high then low, striking the back of his thighs and the center of his shoulders in quick succession. The sound the flogger made was a heavy thudding sound, not sharp but thick and powerful. Thorny’s back gleamed a bright fire-engine red. She did love the color red.

She loved the red, she loved the scene, she loved all of it. When she had a flogger in her hand she felt like herself, like her real self. There were days she wanted to quit working for Kingsley. The more clients she took on, the more money he made, and she would rather top for pleasure than for money most days...but even if she did quit being a professional someday, she would always be a dominant. How could she give this up? She couldn’t. She couldn’t stop being a dominant any more than she could quit being a writer, quit being Nora.

After a long series of rapid-fire strikes to Thorny’s middle back, Nora stopped and dropped the flogger on the floor. She let him take a moment to catch his breath. When she put her bare hands flat on his back he inhaled sharply. In the mirror she watched him, watched his skin ripple as she caressed him, watched his lips part as she pushed her fingers into his fresh welts.

“Lovely welts,” she said, pleased with her work. “Here and here and a big one right here. Does it hurt when I touch them?”

“A little. Don’t stop.”

“No chance of that.” She picked up her elk-hide flogger again and gave his back another once-over followed by one hell of a twice-over. Then she started pulling back, bringing the pain level down. She switched from the elk to the bull-hide and then down to the velvety deer-hide. Instead of finishing with the suede, she brought out her very special little flogger.

“This flogger will hurt but in a fun way,” she said, making a few practice throws that didn’t connect with Thorny’s body. “I haven’t used it on anyone yet, but you seemed to be the perfect person for a trial run.”