The Last Good Knight: Parts 1-5

“Yes.”

“Then it deserves to be shown respect.”

“Lance, I like the way you kink.” She opened the door and stepped inside. She loathed artificial light so she lit her oil lamp. Lance set his shoes right inside the doorway. Everything he did endeared him more and more to her.

“So,” Nora said as she ushered Lance into the room, “welcome to Hell. Like it?”

He gazed around the room with unabashed appreciation. She did have nice digs, very French bordello style. Kingsley told her to decorate however she wanted. He probably regretted that once he saw the place. Bed—four-poster bed, of course—with a gold-and-red brocade bedspread, erotic artwork on the walls, a few oil lamps and candles, and condoms and handcuffs in every drawer.

“If this is Hell, I can’t wait to see Heaven.”

“Heaven’s in this room.” She snapped her fingers and waved her hand. Lance raised an eyebrow before entering the second room of her suite.

He let out an impressed whistle.

“My playroom. Isn’t it pretty? We have twenty different styles and lengths of rope.” She put her hand on her hip, doing her best Vanna White strut around the room. “Floggers of every style. Single-tails. I’m very good at whipping if you like whipping. St. Andrew’s Cross, of course. Medical bed. This little case here has the violet wand. And my cabinet...well, I’ll leave it to your imagination.”

The cabinet housed most of the sex toys, the vibrators and butt plugs and cock rings, that sort of thing. But inside one could also find her edge-play toys—razor blades and other cutting implements.

“This is amazing, Mistress. Not sure I can afford you.”

Nora came up to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

“I’m not planning on charging you. You wanna know why?”

“I’m that handsome, Mistress?”

She gave him a broad grin. Handsome, funny and a little cocky—she liked that combination.

“I’ve seen worse, but no client is so handsome he gets a freebie. No, the reason I’m not charging you is because I don’t fuck my clients. And I fully intend to fuck you tonight.”

“I fully intend to let you, if it pleases you, Mistress.”

“I think it pleases me. Now let’s talk. What would please you?”

She pulled away from him and took a seat on the big wooden bondage throne. It took nothing more than a nod to get Lance to kneel on the floor at her feet.

“Nothing pleases me more than pleasing a powerful woman,” he confessed. “I’d love to make you come over and over again.”

“Good boy. Anything else? Do you like pain?”

“Do you like giving it, Mistress?”

“Yes. Very much.”

“Then I like receiving it. Very much. You do have some beautiful whips.”

Nora stroked her bottom lip as she studied him. Time for the little dance she did with the male submissives. They were so desperate to please their Mistress that it took a full-blown interrogation to get them to admit to her what their own desires were. Some male submissives who hated pain would agree to take it if they thought the Mistress wanted to give it. But Lance had mentioned the whips and called them beautiful. Masochistic streak in him. Good. She might have to keep him.

Keep him? Where had that thought come from? She’d never collared a sub before, never kept one as her personal property. It was too much like having a boyfriend or, God forbid, a husband. But...she got a very good feeling from Lance. The man must have been six feet tall in shoes, solidly built and muscular. He looked like he could break her in half if he had a mind to, but she felt safe around him. Wouldn’t be any sort of torture to have this guy in her dungeon as often as possible.

“You like whips. See anything else you like?” she asked.

“Nice cross. Very nice.”

“The wrist cuffs on it are adjustable. I’ve had tiny little girls on there and men even taller than you. Anything else you like?”

“You have an amazing crop collection, looks like.” He nodded toward a wall where at least twenty different riding crops hung.

“I do. Go get one for me. Any crop you like. I’ll show you a trick.”

He rose and went to the wall of riding crops. Nora watched him as he scanned the options.

“Do you mind if I...?”

“Be my guest.”

He pulled a crop down and held it in one hand flat on his palm. Then with both hands he gripped either end and bent it. He hung it back on the wall and did the same thing to the next crop. Interesting. He was testing them for their give. The looser the crop, the less it hurt when struck with it. The tighter the crop, the less yield to it, the more it hurt. She had some crops that were a step up from a wet noodle and others that were barely a step down from a rattan cane, a toy that could split the skin and put a sub in the hospital if used incorrectly. Not that she would ever do that. Not unless someone prepaid for it.

“That black one with the white braiding has a steel spine under the leather,” she said. “Hurts like fuck. So does that solid red one. Both of them are vicious.”

“I like vicious.” He pulled down the solid red one and tried to bend it. It had almost no give to it.

He brought it back to the throne and sat again at Nora’s feet.

“My lady,” he said and handed her the crop.

“Lady? In here? No ladies allowed in my dungeon.”

She took the crop in her right hand.

“I would never argue with the Mistress,” Lance said, watching her twirl the crop like a baton over the right arm of the throne. It had taken her three solid months of practice before she mastered the twirl. “But I do see a lady in this room, the most beautiful lady I’ve seen in a long time. She’s strong, smart and completely comfortable with who and what she is. She also understands the men who want to serve at her feet.”

“I’m going to beat the shit out of you tonight and fuck you. And then probably fuck you again, and you call me a lady?”

“Yes, Mistress. Nothing unladylike about any of that. Not in my eyes.”

Nora caught her crop and let it slide down between her fingers until she caught it by the handle.

She leaned forward and put the end of the crop handle under Lance’s chin, forcing his mouth to meet her mouth. Their lips hovered only an inch apart.

“You know what, Lance? I think I like your eyes.”

Just to be sadistic, Nora stayed there for a few unnecessary seconds, letting Lance feel her breath against his lips before she moved forward, closed the gap between them and kissed him. The kiss started soft and careful but quickly turned passionate. She slipped her tongue into his mouth and bit his top lip. Even as the kiss deepened, grew hungrier, Lance stayed on his knees and kept his hands to himself. He wouldn’t touch her without permission. Someone had trained this man and trained him well.

With reluctance she pulled back from Lance. She’d almost forgotten how much she loved kissing a man. She had sex mostly with women lately, a nice break from the male clients she dealt with all day long. When was the last time she’d even kissed a man on the mouth? A month ago? Two? It would have been Kingsley, right? The last man she’d kissed? And he hadn’t had a session with her in weeks. Kissing Lance, she realized how much she missed the feel of soft stubble on her skin, missed the sense of power restrained. If she didn’t stop kissing him now, they’d end up making out all night instead of doing what she really wanted to do.

“Take your shirt off,” she ordered. Lance hesitated. “Shy?” she asked.