"Whimpering already?" Eric quirked a menacing eyebrow. "We haven't even begun, Stray."

Andie swallowed the next whimper that desperately wanted to bubble up her throat. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her uncertainty so soon into their session, but her bravery was wavering. Even more so when Eric rounded her body, disappearing behind her so that she couldn't see him.

Without him to hold her attention, her gaze stretched beyond their station, out where the Green Parlour held a variety of people, all of which who were looking her way.

Suddenly, she was highly aware of her semi-naked state, and the vulnerability of her position. The patrons drank it in, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it. Her uncertainty pressed down on her until she felt even weaker than before; her armor chipped by the amount of eyes on her.

Or perhaps... Perhaps they were on her dominant. The man who stood behind her, towering over her slight frame, doing God knows what.

Anxiety coursed through it. Andie closed her eyes, her fists clenching around the rope that strung her wrists up. Her teeth dug into her bottom lip, and her chest heaved.

No, please don't panic, she pleaded of herself.

And then his voice was in her ear. "Too much?"

Andie held her breath. She didn't trust her voice. If she answered, he would hear her apprehension, and it would confirm that she didn't belong here; that she had lied her way into a place that would gobble her up before she could escape.

"Hmm?" Eric pressed, his voice like silk as he brushed her hair aside to speak low in her ear.

A hand lifted to her elbow, strung high above her head. Knuckled skimmed down her arm to her ribs, brushing the side of her breast on its way down to her hips. It stopped where her dress hung at her waist. Then it flattened across her belly and smoothed up...up...up between her breasts, up the length of her throat before gripping her jaw and roughly forcing her head aside, baring her neck.

"Admit that you're not supposed to be here," he growled against her neck, his teeth scraping against the skin beneath her ear.

Gasping, she allowed one word to escape. "No."

Releasing her jaw, he stepped back, leaving her feeling cold without him. She watched him return to her view as he stepped around to collect something from the cabinet above the entry table. She tried to see what he was seeing, but the cabinet doors were wide, and they concealed whatever lay inside, no matter how badly she craned her neck.

Andie's ropes groaned against the pressure she applied, and Eric turned his head just enough to catch her wrestling with the tight knots that offered her no slack.

When he froze, so did Andie. Once she stilled, the ropes pulled her back into place. She tried to look nonchalant about the whole thing, but Eric wasn't so easily fooled. Still—he returned to whatever he was doing inside the cabinet.

"Do you enjoy looking at me, Stray?"

Andie blinked.

Yes.

No.

Conceited, much?

"Um..."

Eric turned, presenting a wide silk ribbon, long and black. "Would you prefer total darkness?"

Blindfold, Andie's inner voice whispered. Would she prefer total darkness? If she were blindfolded than perhaps Eric would appear less intimidating. If she were blindfolded than she wouldn't have to look upon the audience that feasted on the scene between—

"Very well," Eric interrupted her thoughts, returning the blindfold to the cabinet.

"W-wait!" Andie cried.

"No, you took too long to answer," he asserted, leaving her gaping like a fool. "I wasn't actually giving you a choice in the matter anyway."

"Then why even ask me?" Andie growled, sounding as fierce as an irate bumblebee.

Eric turned. The cabinet closed behind him, and in his hand...

She had no idea what it was.

It was black and it was long and it looked like it could hurt her.

"I'm testing your experience," he answered her question as he approached with the weapon in hand. "Every self-respecting submissive knows to answer without hesitation," he continued, swinging his implement through the air a few times, conjuring a low whistle from the horrid-looking thing.

Directly in front of her, he lifted the implement and brushed the soft leather end down between the valley of her breasts. "But you're not an experienced submissive, are you?"

Andie's breath hitched despite herself. "I didn't go to some academy for submissives, if that's what you're asking."

Eric didn't reply. He made no notice of her reply. Instead, his eyes remained at the tip of the implement, watching it as he moved it down the flat of her stomach. Its journey continued low, beyond the skirt of her dress, until it reached her bare thighs. Then it stopped.

Andie was torn between watching the implement and watching Eric. Both terrified her.

At first, he wasn't looking at her, which helped. She could flit her anxious gaze all over the place. But then, his eyes connected with her and the emotion she found there was so intense that she couldn't look away. Even as the implement resumed its journey. Only this time... it went up.

Instinctively, she pressed her thighs together.

Eric shook his head. "Open them."

She couldn't. It was too invasive. With all these poeple... With him—Eric—she couldn't do it.

Nervously, she started to shake her head when Eric took one threatening step towards her. His free hand gripped her chin. He wasn't gentle about it.

"Spread...your...legs."

Andie's lips parted as if she wanted to gasp, but no air filled her lungs.

Locked to his gaze, and frozen under his command, she obeyed, uncrossing her ankles and parting her thighs.

Instead of rewarding her obedience, Eric's grip tightened on her chin and he dipped his head so low to hers that his breath fanned against her lips. "Do not make me repeat myself again."

Mouth opened, face slack with shock, Andie barely mustered a nervous nod of her head. It was enough to satisfy the beast in front of her, who released her chin and stepped back.

Resuming the task at hand, he guided the tip of the implement underneath the skirt of her dress. Hidden from her view, she relied solely on the touch of soft leather, seeing it in her mind as it tickled the inside of her thigh.

Up...up...up...

Andie's eyes fluttered shut. Her head tilted back. Her breath escaped in breathless huffs.

Up...up...u—

"You look like you're enjoying yourself a little too much." Eric's voice shocked her eyes open and snapped her head up. He withdrew the implement, and gently laid the length of it in his free palm. "Do you know what this is? Never mind, don't answer that, I know you don't." He returned the implement to her skin, this time back to her belly where he trailed it lightly across her skin while he walked behind her. "It's called a crop," he told her. "The very tip of it is made with leather; a material that can feel quite nice in the right setting..." he explained as he demonstrated how softly the leather could glide over her skin.

The implement trailed from her stomach, to her hip, to the small of her back, where it teased up and down the hollow of her spine. "But, upon impact..." he continued, trailing off long enough to lift the crop from her skin so he could drop it with a force that startled Andie. "It can be used to deal with naughty little liars who have no sense."

No sense!

Despite the mild sting where he had cropped the soft skin of her back, Andie gasped in indignation at Eric's insult.

"I am not a liar!"

With slow, languid steps, Eric returned to her front. "I didn't say you were a liar. I said that you were a naughty little liar. If you're going to deny an accusation, say it correctly. Go on."

Andie narrowed her eyes. She pressed her lips together. A slow and dangerously seductive smile tugged at Eric's lips.

"As I recall..." he continued without blinking. "I owe you a punishment. Don't I, Stray?"

Andie's glare became mutinous, albeit a little pouty.

"Answer me..." Eric sang, warning her of his thinning patience.

Reluctantly, Andie replied: "Yes, sir."

"Yes, sir—what?"

"Yes sir...you...owe me a punishment."

"That's right," he praised mockingly. "And what would be an appropriate punishment for a naughty little liar who doesn't do as she's told? Something severe no less? Perhaps," he lifted the crop and teased her breasts with the soft tip. "I touch you until you're going mad with desire, and then leave you wanting?"

The crop lifted from one breast to the other. The cool leather caressed one pink nipple, drawing a shuddering gasp from Andie's lips, before it trailed down her stomach, passed the skirt of her dress.

"Or..." he continued, stroking the crop up the length of her inner thigh. "I could discipline you..." The crop tapped three times against her panties. "...here."

Andie lurched, a shock of lightning striking through her belly.

"Or..." He withdrew the crop from beneath the skirt of her dress, and moved behind her once again. Unable to see him, Andie's heart raced with a nervousness that was entirely foreign to her. "Perhaps something more old fashioned," she heard him say as the back of her dress was lifted.

One hot strike from the crop landed across the creamy swell of her bottom, eliciting a cry of surprise.

"Shall I pick?" he asked as the weapon in hand tapped against the back of her thigh. "Or shall you?"

Breathless, wanting, confused, and terrified, Andie licked her lips and opted for something else. "Is there an option D?"

"Is there an option D..." Eric chuckled, rounding her body and returning to the cabinet above the entry table. He shook his head as he chuckled, but Andie couldn't tell if he was amused or displeased. Their audience chuckled as well, earning a glare from Andie who couldn't intimidate an ant in the position she was in.

"I'll humor you, Little Stray. Tell me," Eric returned the crop to the cabinet, his arms reaching high for something new. "How are your arms feeling?"

Andie tugged on her restraints, testing her arms' reaction to the prolonged position. The muscles in her shoulders ached in response. The blood had drained from her hands, and they were starting to throb with the pins and needles sensation.

"Not great," she replied sourly.

"Oh, poor thing," he mocked from behind the cabinet door, and Andie felt a little bruised at his scorning tone. Pouting quietly to herself, she turned her head from the crowd of people who tittered anxiously for Eric's next move.

When the cabinet shut, Andie expected to see some big murderous weapon in Eric's hand. Instead, the thing he held was so small, she had to narrow her eyes through the dim lighting in an attempt to see it.

She couldn't make out what it was until Eric stepped forward, holding his hand out, palm up, so show her what he brought back.

Andie's eyes warily trailed up from Eric's hand. "Clothespins...?"

He nodded. "Do you know where they go?"

Andie had a pretty good idea.

"No..." she breathed, her nerves at last catching up with her. "I-I don't think...I'd rather you didn't..."

Eric cocked his head to the side. "Giving up so soon, my Little Stray?"

Andie's face flooded with warmth. No, she didn't want to give up. But could she do this? No. She most absolutely could not allow Eric to put those things on her nipples.

"I've just never... It's kind of intimate... I, uh..."

His eyebrows raised ever-so-slightly. "Where do you think these go?"

"O-on my..." Andie lowered her voice. "B-breasts..."

Eric chuckled, startling her. "No, no, no..." He shook his head, amused with her, and all Andie could do was blink stupidly at him.