Chapter 4

She just kept staring at me; not frowning, not smiling, just staring. "What if there was something that didn't make me so amazing in your eyes," she finally said, "What if I had a secret that you ... ah, well you found perverse or at least not to your liking?" Her face suddenly took on a solemn, almost fearful look.

I guess I looked surprise; what the hell was she talking about? She didn't wait for the question, she continued.

"Dalton, I'm falling in love with you as well; but I do have a secret that I'm scared to share because I'm afraid it might end out relationship even before it starts; the thing is, I also know a relationship can't be built on lies."

I could see her starting to tear up; I took my thumb and wiped one away from the corner of her eye. I couldn't imagine this woman having such a terrible secret that it would alter the way I felt about her. I gave her a reassuring smile and kissed her gently. "Whatever this deep down secret is, honey," I said, "I'm sure I can handle it."

She looked scared; cautiously she spoke again. "Well, I'm kind of ... ah, I mean, in my business world I'm always the one in charge and sometimes..." she stopped and just looked at me for a few seconds, "Oh hell, I'm just going to say it and pray you don't think I'm some kind of pervert ... I like to be tied up ... in bed I mean; not all the time but sometimes I like to be tied up and dominated, helpless and unable to stop my lover from ravaging my body anyway he desires," she said abruptly, then stopped to see what my reaction was going to be.

It stunned me, of all things, all that build up; she was so scared, just like my fucking ex-wife ... only Tracy actually had the guts to tell me. I knew it was the wrong thing to do; she didn't know the details of what happened with Jean and me, very few did; but I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing.

Tracy looked horrified; she thought I was laughing at her. I quickly put my arms around her and assured her that wasn't the case, then I went on to tell her how Jean was tied up in the motel room when she was arrested and how she was too afraid to talk with me about her bondage fantasies and wound up with Irv instead. I told Tracy, not only didn't I consider her a pervert, but I admired her. I said I appreciated how hard it was for her to reveal that and how much it overwhelmed me to know she trusted me with her secret; if Jean had trusted me like that we'd still be married.

"I'll admit, I've never done anything like that, but if you don't mind putting up with a novice, I'd like to try it," I disclosed.

Finally ... once again she lit up my soul with her smile. God, how I hated the thought of waking up in an empty bed again after that morning, but she had things at home she had to do before opening the gallery the next day; I hadn't thought about it all weekend but I also had to get off to an early start. Birthday or not, when you work for yourself there are no paid holidays; if I didn't work I didn't make any money.

The first thing I did after returning from dropping Tracy off was fire-up my laptop and find some bondage sites. I never was into porno; I just didn't think of sex as a spectator sport, for me it was full contact or nothing, so it didn't really surprise me when I wasn't turned on by the pictures; in fact, what I wound up doing was criticizing the camera techniques; poor, straight-on, single strobe lighting, bad composition, overexposed, underexposed, lousy color saturation; damn, if there's so much money in this stuff how come they can't afford a real photographer?

I found literally hundreds of sites and started jumping around from one to the other; I found I learned more from reading stories about bondage than I did looking at the pictures. Some of it I considered way over the top and hoped Tracy wasn't interested in going to such extremes, but there was some stuff I thought could be a lot of fun, I even got hard reading about it; hmm, this might work out okay, I thought.

I wasn't to see Tracy again until the middle of the week so I studied and read about various bondage techniques each night when I got home. By the time Wednesday night rolled around I was pretty sure I knew enough to at least tantalize her taste to be tied up and dominated.

I had a little surprise for her when I got to her apartment; it was in my pocket. She met me at the door with a big kiss and an even bigger smile. God, she felt so good in my arms.

"Where are we going, honey; is this okay to wear?" she asked turning around so I could see how the pretty little sun dress flared. I told her on the phone we were going out to dinner but I didn't say where.

"Stand still," I told her in a commanding voice. She looked at me a little startled but did what I told her to do. "Don't move," I said walking behind her. I slowly unzipped her dress and pushed it off her shoulders, letting it fall to her feet.

"What are you..."

"Ah, no talking till I tell you it's okay," I said with a slap to her beautiful, panty clad butt. "Separate your legs" I demanded with another slap to her posterior.

"Oooh;" she realized what was happening and I could feel her starting to breathe a little heavily.

I leaned in close and whispered in her ear, "This is what you like, isn't it?"

"Oh yes," she moaned.

"Yes what?" I said sternly.

"Yes, Sir," she whimpered, catching on right away.

My thumbs found the sides of her panties and I slowly lowered them to her knees. I reached around and felt her slit; God, she was so wet already I couldn't believe it. "What's this?" I taunted, "Are you wet for your master?"

"Oh yes, master," she sighed, "I'm so wet for you, Sir."

"Well you're going to have to wait until we come back from dinner."

"Oooh no, please Master, can't we stay here, I'll make us something ... please," she pleaded.

"Are you arguing with me?" I corrected her.

"No, Sir."

"Good, do you know what this is?" I said pulling a piece of pre-tied rope from my pocket.

"Oh, God, A ... ah, crotch rope, Sir?"

"That's right," I said with a big grin, "And you're going to wear it until we come back here tonight."

She closed her eyes as if picturing herself at dinner, feeling the rope between her legs. "Excuse me, Sir; but didn't you say you knew nothing about this kind of thing?"

"Yeah, well I've been doing a little studying the last few nights," I replied with a sinister little smile.

I tied the rope around her waist, making a tiny knot at the small of her back, then strung it between her pussy lips; I measured where it would hit her clit and tied a knot right there so it would constantly tease her little nub; I finished bringing it through her legs and tied it off in front just below her bellybutton. "Okay, you may pull up your panties and put your dress back on now."

I watched as she closed her eyes; her breathing became more ragged and her knees started to give out; she'd had a mini orgasm before being able to pull her panties back up. She had to brace herself by putting her hand on my shoulder while she caught her breath. I swear, I don't think I'd ever seen anyone come so quickly...

Except maybe me if I couldn't control myself. This was a totally new experience for me. I couldn't even explain it, but I was so hard I was afraid I was going to cum in my trousers without even being touched. The tent in my pants didn't go unnoticed by my observant submissive; she had pulled her panties up but had not put her dress back on yet.

"Sir, may I please help you with this?" she asked lightly touching the outside of my zipper.

I almost came right then and there; I hadn't planned on doing anything until after the restaurant but I wasn't expecting to get this excited, I didn't think I'd make it to the car without staining my pants. She was on her knees almost before I relented by demanding a blowjob.

I couldn't remember coming so fast, so hard, and so much since I was a horny teenager. Now it was my knees that turned to rubber as Tracy submissively accepted every drop of sperm that I fired down her lovely throat.

I was a little wobbly as I stood trying to regain control of my breathing when Tracy, still on her knees in front of me and dressed only in her panties and bra, obediently used her tongue to clean the remnants of my euphoria from my deflating manhood. When she finished, my lovely sub hugged me around the waist and pressed the side of her head against my stomach, "Thank you, Dalton," she said quietly, "You have no idea what this means to me."

I had to sit down and take a brief rest while she put her dress back on and touched up her make-up.

We went out to a little Italian place I'd heard about. As he showed us to our table, the maitre' D held the chair for Tracy. I heard a small gasp as she lowered herself down and guessed that the knot in her crotch rope must have slipped over her clit as she sat; she looked over at me with a look of pure lust as I gave her a knowing little smile.

She was a little quiet as we ate and I was beginning to wondered if she was enjoying herself or not; just about the time I was going to ask she looked at me with a big smile, "I'm not sure I can wait till we get home," she said seductively, "I may just have to crawl under the table and give you another blow job right here before we leave." I guess that answered my question.

Well, she was able to control herself until we got back but as soon as we walked through the door she turned and attacked me, laying one of the most passionate kisses I've ever had on me. "I hope you're planning on spending the night because there's no way I'm letting you out of here tonight," she said with conviction.

I hadn't really thought about spending the night but what the hell. We experimented with a few more bondage games, then I made love to her; the sun was actually coming up before we drifted asleep in each other's arms. We only slept about three hours but it was a restful three hours and we were both bright and cheery the next morning.

That night was truly the start of, 'us, ' from then on we were a couple; we spent every available moment together. We did a lot role playing with D/s and bondage but we weren't always in the mood for it and most of the time simply made love.

Before we knew it summer was coming to an end. I was looking at my calendar and saw I had nothing scheduled for the first week in September; damn, I'd forgotten all about my plans for a vacation. When I mentioned it to Tracy her eyes lit up, "Let's go on vacation together."

I hadn't even considered it because I didn't think she'd want to close the gallery.

"I've been training Angie, she's more than capable of running the gallery for a week, what do you say?" she asked getting all excited.

"Where would we go?"

"Monterey."

Obviously I had seen pictures of the coast myself and the thought started my creative juices flowing. "If we went, would you mind if I brought one of my cameras and took some pictures while we were there?" I asked.

"Mind; are you kidding? Honey, that's the whole point; think of what someone with your talent could do with scenery like that."

The next day I booked our flight to Oakland and reserved a car.

A couple weeks later Tracy gave Angie a few final instructions and we were on our way. By the time we got there it was too late for anything more than dinner and a little play time before getting some sleep but the next day we were headed south on Pacific Coast Highway bright and early. It didn't take long before both of us were captivated with spectacular views of the California coastline.

As soon as I found a place to park I grabbed my camera and shoved an extra battery in my pocket before Tracy and I made our way down to the sea. I was like a kid in a candy store; every time I put the camera to my eye I was able to compose another breathtaking shot.

Tracy and I spent the entire day doing nothing but photographing the Monterey Peninsula. It wasn't until the sun went down and we lost all our light before we realized we hadn't even had lunch. We found a motel, checked in, showered, and were famished by the time we were seated in a restaurant. We were both still excited about all the photos we'd shot. The next day we packed a lunch before starting out again.

I talked Tracy into modeling in her bikini for some of the photos; when we found a quiet little out of the way cove with no one around, I had to promise the shots would be for my private collection only, before she agreed to lose the bikini.

When I first saw the magnificent coastline I didn't think anything could rival its splendor, but seeing my woman naked against the prehistoric wonders of nature was truly a spiritual experience; I offered proof of that by showing her how part of my anatomy pointed to the heavens, after which we laid a blanket over the sand and made love to the rhythm of the pounding surf.

On the fourth day I found an isolated spot that gave me an idea; later that night I told Tracy I had to run out to the store for something and asked her to stay in the motel room while I was gone. She questioned me but didn't argue. I knew where to go and was back in forty minutes with my purchase hidden in my camera bag for the next day.

Early the next morning we found another fantastic place from which to shoot another gorgeous sunrise; we continued finding and shooting one tremendous seascape after another until a little past noon. We found a quiet little spot not far from the secret destination I spotted the day before. We laid the blanket on the beach and had lunch. Tracy started to rub the bulge in my pants but I wasn't ready for anything too exciting yet, I had other plans.

"What's the matter, honey; aren't you in the mood?" Tracy asked when I didn't respond like I normally would.

"Oh I'm in the mood, babe; but I have a little surprise waiting for you around the corner," I told her going into my Dom voice.

"I should have known when you went out last night," she said with a chuckle in her voice. I raised one eyebrow and gave her my evil, Snidely Whiplash laugh.

After lunch we walked around some large boulders and into the box canyon I saw the day before. Growing from the rocky cliff was an old tree, its limbs twisted and contorted over time by ancient seafaring winds. I moved around shooting the majestic area from every angle; when I knew I had what I was looking for I retired my camera to its case and removed the long black piece of silk cloth.

"I'm sorry babe, but this is where night falls for your pretty eyes," I said as I wrapped the blindfold around her head and tied it in back. I again reached into the case, this time for the rope I had purchased. I walked my lovely submissive under the tree; she gasped with anticipation as I lashed her wrists securely, but not too tightly. I threw the rope over the main branch of the tree and pulled her arms up, extending them far enough over her head to stretch her body taut. I tied the other end to a lower branch. As I viewed my handy work I wondered if nature created this cove for just this purpose.

"She started to moan already as I let my fingers start to explore her insanely seductive flesh. "Shhhhh," I told her, teasing her with kisses under her chin, and down her neck.

"Oh God," she gasped breathlessly as I undid her top and let it fall to her feet. I had never seen her nipples stand out so far; it made them ridiculously easy to pinch. I let my hands wander as she writhed in delightful torment. "Oh, oh, oh Sir ... I, I..."

"No more talking slave," I commanded. I took her breasts in my hand, kneading them and massage them with my fingers; I sucked on her nipples alternating between the two. I slowly removed the bottom of her bikini and watched as she unsuccessfully tried getting away from my hand as it reddened her lovely ass with a series of blows. I felt the incredible heat generated by her pussy as I finger fucked her to two orgasms.

I was so hard myself I wasn't sure I could wait any longer before getting relief but I wasn't done yet; "Now, stay right here and be a good girl, I'll be right back." I saw a look of sheer terror in her face and I realized she thought I was going to leave her for a moment; "Don't worry, babe, I'm not going anywhere, you just won't feel my hands on you for a couple of minutes." I saw her smile until she heard the shutter of my camera; her face turned back to terror.

"Honey! I mean, Sir; you're not taking pictures of me like this; please no..."

"Hey, hey, hey," I said in a smooth voice, I walked back up to her and gently caressed her naked skin, "Do you trust me ... completely trust me?"

"Yes, of course," she said in a calmer voice.

"Then there shouldn't be an issue," I said taking control again.

"You're right, Sir," she said regaining her smile, "I'm sorry, Sir; I guess I just panicked for a second."

I gently pressed my lips to hers, "I love you, babe, I would never do anything to hurt you," I said. "No one but you or I will ever see these, I promise."

She was completely at ease as I went on to shoot the most erotic photos I'd ever taken or ever hope to take.

After releasing her I threw the blanket down and stripped off my clothes; it was over an hour later before we came up for air.

It was toward the end of our last day when I looked up from my viewfinder and saw Tracy standing on the beach, just staring in one direction; when I looked closer and saw the sadness in her face.

"Honey, what's the matter?" I was concerned, just minutes before we were laughing and joking, I had no idea what brought on her blues.

"I remember this spot," she said, "This very spot; I stood right here when I was just seven years old and watched my father paint those cliffs over there. He was so young, so strong and full of life back then," she said while trying to fight back tears.

"Where was he set up?" I asked.

"Right here," she indicated by stepping a few steps over, "He had his easel right here. I watched in amazement as he reconstructed God's miraculous creation in watercolors," She leaned her head on my shoulder and started to cry as I put my arm around her.

I continued to hold her for several minutes until Tracy was feeling better, then stood right where her father stood so many years before and recreated his painting, digitally.

There was something magical about that spot; I felt it as well. We sat on the beach embraced in each other's arms while watching the sun slip beneath the thunderous waves. Later that night there was no sex, no bondage, no love making; I held her in my arms as she cuddled into me; she needed the love and support of a strong man and I said a silent prayer to the man above thanking him for the opportunity to be that man.

The next day, regrettably, we were homeward bound. It was just a little before noon in Chicago by the time we were pulling out of O'Hare's parking garage. In my pocket were eight flash cards containing more than thirteen hundred photos, Tracy was even more excited than I was at the prospect of editing and selecting the cream of the crop. Because we had anticipated making some very large photographs of some of the shots, I set the camera for the finest quality image it offered; as a result we could not view the photos on my laptop; for these I needed the PC that I had specifically set up for this kind of work.

We grabbed a quick bite on the way home then almost ran to my office to view some of the shots. I pulled up an extra chair for Tracy and started downloading the first flashcard. Within a minute or so, thumbnails photos started popping up on my twenty-seven inch monitor.

"Oh my God," Tracy almost screamed in my ear, "Look at this stuff, honey; every one of them is incredible. Oh, how the hell are we supposed to pick one from the other here?" she questioned.

I had to admit, they were pretty damn good; of course it was nature's creation, but I did capture it in all its glory.

"I got it," yelled a deliriously happy Tracy as she kissed me on the cheek and threw her arms around my neck, "A one man show!"

"What, what kind of one man show?"

"YOU, silly; you're going to have a one man show at my gallery; oh God, honey; I'm going to showcase your talent, you'll be the most famous, sought-after photographer in Chicago. We'll pick the best hundred photos, if that's possible; anyway, you print them and I'll frame them. What do you say?"

Before I could even answer her she thought of something else.

"Oh, and we can have some hard cover books printed too; we'll put twenty shots in it and you can autograph them; oh, honey; we are going to have the best show this town ever saw. What do you think, babe?"

I watched the metamorphosis in total amazement as my warm, sensitive, sometimes submissive girlfriend made the conversion into the strong, confident business woman I saw when we first met. She grabbed her phone and was already about start the ball rolling when she suddenly stopped; I guess I must have looked a little dubious. I made my money as an industrial and commercial photographer, not shooting seascapes. I wondered if this could somehow have a negative impact on my business.

"I'm sorry, darling, sometimes I get carried away, I didn't really ask you if you'd even be interested in doing this, did I?

Tracy listened to my concerns and thought for a few minutes.

"Honey, just like you told me on the beach, I love you and would never do anything to hurt you in any way. If this is something you're not comfortable with then we'll forget the whole idea, but please think about it first. Personally, I think it would only enhance your business; in fact, if we did do this I think we should send personal invitations to all your clients so they can see that you're not only talented in one field, but that your talent as a photographer is endless; I believe your clients would respect your work even more than they do now." She ended her pitch by sitting on my lap, putting her arms around my neck and giving me a big sloppy kiss.

She was so confident, what could I say, "How big do you want the prints," I asked with a smile.

"That's my man," she responded, "What's the largest print you and make?"

She really got excited when I told her I could buy paper by the roll and make prints as large as forty-four inches wide.

Tracy went right to work; she set the date for October fifteenth, it was a Saturday and only five weeks away. Every night she and I would select more shots; I would make various size prints, then she would take them to work the next day and frame them. Of course working at my place well into the evening gave her an excuse to spend the night with me while all this was going on; that was something I was getting extremely used to.

In addition to everything else, Tracy took care of all the advertising, sending out personal invitations, and organizing the gallery; she was a busy woman.

When I agreed to the show I had my own little surprise in mind; all the preparations for it I made myself without Tracy's knowledge.

After closing the gallery the Friday before the show, once again, Tracy went into high gear. She enlisted the aid of her brother to help her, Angie, and myself with getting everything ready for the next morning. I asked Carl where Judy was; he told me she was home with the baby but they had a babysitter for Saturday so she'd be there for the first day of the show. We had two pizzas delivered and worked feverishly until everything was ready to go a little before midnight. Since she had been living with me since we returned from California, Tracy followed me home. We should have both been dead tired after all the work but the truth was we were still running on adrenaline. The next day was big day and we knew we needed sleep but we were just so worked up; we needed a way to relax.