Collar and Bone

A side story based on Split-Self

When he asked the first time, Clare thought he was kidding.

Then when her laughter filled the room with giant bold red "HA HA HA"s in capital letters she noticed the blush spreading across his cheeks.

"Oh my God... you mean?"

"Forget it," Lily said sharply before storming off to his room. The door swung behind him but never got all the way to the frame. From the hallway Clare could see him sulking.

She didn't know what to do. She stared at the loop of leather in her hand, the reflective steel hardware embedded like cardinal points. It was sturdy stuff but soft to the touch.

It wasn't everyday that one of your boyfriends told you he wanted you to make him wear a collar and tell him what to do.

Clare didn't even know what that meant. Did he want her to beat him or would simple meanness suffice?

Lily had always been a strange one. She had felt the buzz he got from the self-destructive overtones of their relationship. She had seen manifestations of this before: fantasies about blood feeding, occasional submissiveness. She knew the desire was there so why did it come as such a surprise?

She looked back down at the collar.

Lily had a thicker skin than she usually gave him credit for. He put up with her and her emasculating nicknames for him; the way her own insecurities would be redirected and used as weapons against him. He could take a lot of abuse and shrug it off.

But when his feeling were hurt he curled up under his dark cloud and shunned all human contact as spitefully as possible.

She pressed a kiss behind his ear and didn't worry when he grumbled and swatted her away.

"I'm sorry," Clare said. "It must have been very hard to ask and it was wrong to laugh."

He rolled deeper into the pillows on his bed and curled his shoulders as if to shield his ears from her soothing words.

She let her fingers do the persuading, running touches down his neck, scrapping the skin on occasion to assure him she was not babying him.

Lily shivered.

The bed whined as she shifted her weight. Her lips just touching the ridge of his ear she whispered, "I can make you mine. If you still want me too that is."

The hardware on the collar jingled when she brought the strap to his throat.

For a moment Lily looked like he was going to be stubborn about it and push her away. If his embarrassment had snuffed out his desires she could find herself landing on the floor with little sympathy, but he hesitated.

"You had to know I'd be surprised at first," Clare said, now petting his hair. "I just got scared because I'd want this to be perfect for you and I don't really know what you like." She sucked lightly on his jaw, stealing a look at his face as she came up again. "I've never done this before."

"I know." Lily was testy, but his resolve was weakening. She started fastening the strap around his neck, purring and moving up against him instead of begging and pleading for forgiveness. Her tongue lapped into the crevasses of his ear. Soon he was squirming back against her, bruised ego push aside by long lingering fantasies.

Under his shirt his skin was feverish with lust. She laced her fingers in between his and used all her weight to push his hands down onto the mattress.

Even over his groans she could hear the sound of keys in the front door lock. Lily froze up and Clare understood exactly why: Jake was home.

And being held down while wearing a dog collar wasn't exactly the best way to clue him into their little role play.

Clare pressed her finger against Lily's lips. "Let me take care of this. Stay here until I call you."

Jake was depositing his keys in a ceramic dish on the entry way table when Clare slipped out of the bedroom. She was quiet enough for the hug that melted up against his back to startle him.

He looked over his shoulder with a questioning expression and said simply, "Hello."

Clare's giggle was rough and masculine, more like a giddy growl. "Hi," she purred back. "We're playing a game."

"A game?"

"Yeah ... you want to play?"

"Does this game involve condoms?"

Clare giggled again. "Oh yeah. Oh yeah, it does."

"What kind of game is it?"

His curiosity was an excellent sign. Clare slid back towards Lily's bedroom with her hands mischievously hidden behind her back. She grinned.

"You have to promise not to be judgmental because this is Lily's fantasy and he already had his feeling hurt once when he told me."

Jake raised an eyebrow and followed her a half step forward.

"O...K....."

Then Clare straightened up and called out in a surprisingly authoritarian voice "Lily get out here."

The bedroom door opened slowly. A tuft of black hair appeared, Lily's face and uncertain glances obscured behind it. Jake lips parted as if he might say something when he saw the collar, but he held his tongue.

"Come on, hurry up. Don't make us wait."

The corners of Lily's mouth turned up and pulled a smile across his face. Now a little more confident he scurried into the room. "Yes Ma'am."

Her hand came down hard on his shoulder and forced him to his knees. The dramatics with which Lily would drop himself on her command clearly surprised Clare. She made a face like a giant clumsy "WHOOPS!" at the sound of it.

The nice thing about having Lily on his knees in front of her is that he couldn't see the way she bit her lip and mouthed 'What now?' to Jake.

"So is he our slave then?" Jake asked. The skepticism in his expression had been replaced by amusement. "Or our pet?"

"Oh God definitely our pet ... unless he's going clean the bathroom."

Jake reach down and ruffled Lily's messy black hair. "It is dirty," he remarked off hand.

A giggle slipped out before Clare cleared her throat, shook out the mental images of Lily in shiny black harnesses and nipple claps scrubbing the bathtub, and reemerged as the serious dom she was supposed to be. She smacked Jake's affectionate touches away and grabbed a fist full of hair to pull back.

"So, what should we do with him then?"

It was really hard not to laugh at her own performance. The forced Cruella Deville accent and the cold, mean expression. Too ridiculous. Altogether alien from the girl who preferred to curl up in bed and be hand fed marshmallows.

Still it was what Lily wanted. She could see his approval in his eyes. He could barely contain his excitement.

And she would be lying if she didn't find it at least a little bit arousing herself.

Jake's reaction, on the other hand, was difficult to read. He bent down to untie his shoes and seemed to be more inclined to play the audience for this little show. "I think he's overdressed for a pet," he said.

"That's a good point. Lily take off your shirt."

The simple cotton blend item came up over his head without any comment beyond an obedient "Yes Ma'am."

"He shouldn't call you that," Jake added. "Ma'am is for teachers and police women."

"True."

"He should call you Mistress."

Clare made a face. "Ick no, Master."

"But then what's he going to call me?"

"He can call you Master too, right Lily?"

With a sly half smile that he almost didn't shove away in time Lily said "Yes Master."

"Those pants look uncomfortable," Jake mentioned. "With the kneeling and all."

"True, they are entirely too tight. Take them off Lily."

"Yes Master."

There was something deeply satisfying about watching a man strip in front of her and look up adoringly while he awaited further instructions.

She hooked her finger through one of the metal loops attached to his collar and pulled him towards her. He leaned in without any resistance and nuzzled her thigh encouragingly.

"Such a good little puppy," Clare said. "Doesn't Jake look stressed out?"

He didn't and he seemed to be offended by the notion, but he said nothing as Lily nodded and waited for the plan to form in Clare's head.

"I think he needs something to help him relax. Go help him relax pet."

Lily hesitated only because he didn't seem sure whether 'relax' had some other meaning besides handing him a beer, rubbing his shoulders and turning on the TV for him. He broke character long enough to look up and make eye contact with Clare, a questioning pout sitting on his lips.

"You know..." she nodded her head in the appropriate direction.

"...Oh .... OH! Yes! Yes Master. Yes!"

Lily slid across the floor until he was directly in front of still standing Jake. He wiped the huge devilish smile off his face and nuzzled Jake's crotch. Getting right in there so that the warmth of every exhale penetrated the fabric.

Clare really did love the way Jake's expression lit up with a mix of surprise and desire. It was like he was forcing himself to inch into an ice cold swimming pool. The sensation alarming but left tingles and a strange feeling of being much more alive than before.

Lily didn't ask for permission when he pulled the zipper down. He fondled Jake's hardening cock a little too confidently. Fist tight around the flesh and teasing his partner with movement at first friction searing fast and then torturously slow. This was a game and he was breaking his own rules. Clare reached down and jerked him back by the collar.

"Hey," she snapped. "That's no way to treat your owners."

Lily didn't bother to hide the tiny bit of disappointment he felt. He made pathetic eyes at Clare and whispered, "Please Master, can I?"

"Not like that." Then after a moment to think about it and ignore the frustrated glare that made Jake's opinion on this perfectly clear she said, "Open your mouth."

But she didn't allow him to move forward. She held his collar tightly around his neck so he would stay perfectly still, mouth open, waiting...

"Oh God..." Jake breathed. "You two are going to kill me."

Clare laughed and the O-curves of Lily's mouth wobbled out of shape as he struggled to keep himself from smiling.

Jake didn't waste any time getting himself mostly out of his pants and pushing his dick into Lily's warm, waiting mouth. Lily tried to nod forward, tried to work the magic that he had been fine tuning in exactly this way, but Clare pulled him back again. And again, letting the leather of the collar choke him for a second. He had to understand, his job was not to pleasure but to receive.

And once he caught on to that he seemed to really get into it. He found new ways to subvert the authority he himself had asked for. He whimpered and gagged as if Jake was too big for him and felt Jake's pace slow to timid rocks. His tongue wiggling in his mouth, flicking over the dome as it moved in and out, made Jake hissed and groan and lose all sense of control in mindless jerks of his hips.

Lily could control the pace of his thrusts like that.

Clare loosened up her hold on the collar to make sure Lily didn't choke. Already Jake's hand was rooted so deeply into his hair individual locks were tangled around his knuckles. He thrust hard into Lily's face before and stolen glance down at the kneeling man's expression. He would always look away immediately-- he's eyes closing tightly and a hissed curse on his lips. Clare was sure Lily was looking up at him with eyes that played obedient whore so well.

Lily hummed and moaned. Whimpered around the hardened flesh in his mouth and opened wider whenever Jake dared come closer.

All Jake's inhibitions were gone. He pushed Lily's face as far down into his crotch as it would go and just thrust so deep Clare thought he must have made him swallow his whole dick. The only sound Lily made were gasps. Jake's member was dipping wet with saliva and throbbing hard enough that the veins felt like claws. With a groan and a deflated whine he came.

Lily looked terribly pleased with himself.

Split-Self is an erotic novel put out by Loose Id.