“So then, why let me go?” Her tear streaked face turned up to his, the blue of her eyes glistening with her tears yet unshed. “If you release me, I have no where to run. I heard Xander when he said that your father’s reach was all over the world. You’d die and he’d come after me just to enslave me again. I’d be right back in the same position as I am now, except I wouldn’t have you to help me through it. I’d belong to one of those monsters …”
“I AM one of those monsters!”
Pushing up on her knees, she brushed her lips softly against his, the difference in their body temperatures a startling feeling. “You may be one of those monsters, but there’s something else inside you, a kindness that you didn’t have to show me. I don’t believe you are exactly the same as those men.”
Aaron stared down in wonderment of the woman in his arms. Amazed that she would choose to endure torture, the possibility of rape, and that she would walk naked through a building full of ruthless thieves and murderers, just to see justice done to the man who’d abducted her. Such strength for such a small woman, such courage for a woman who once preferred to hide. “Maddy … ”
“Please, Master.” Her beautiful blues sparkled as she looked up into his. “Let me help you bring down the man who torments us both.” Not waiting for a reply she rose again, taking his mouth with hers. Her tongue invaded his mouth, shyly teasing the edges of his tongue, until he lost himself to her kiss. Deepening the kiss, Aaron pulled her up into his lap until she straddled his legs with hers. Heat blooming within him, he allowed himself to become absorbed in the moment, not caring if it was wrong to allow her to stay, not caring whether he could endure watching her undergo torment at the hands of The Estate. Not only would she risk herself to exact vengeance for what his father had done to her, but in revenge of what his father had done to him. Her need for vengeance was something he could understand. Begrudgingly he pulled away from her kiss, his hand traveling down the cold skin of her back.
“Yes, Mouse. Yes, you can stay.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Two weeks had passed since that night in the woods, two weeks where Aaron and Xander worked fervently to build up the alliance against Aaron’s father; two weeks since Aaron had allowed himself to touch his captive. Maddy remained the diligent slave to her Master when they’d traveled the halls, but she was allowed more freedom when safely hidden away by the walls of Aaron’s quarters. Not quite treated as an equal, she was allowed to roam the apartment, was given clothes to wear when she was outside of the public eye. Aaron asked that she sleep in the spare bedroom where she’d spent her first night here, her heart breaking at his rejection of her in his bed. Keeping busy with work, Aaron avoided Maddy as much as possible, while Xander kept her company most days and nights. Xander had been surprised when Maddy had returned with Aaron that night, couldn’t believe that she was willing to exist within a nightmare in order to ensure the death of the man who dragged her into it. Her presence was welcomed by Aaron’s best friend; but was also a burden because Xander had to stay with her and couldn’t escort Aaron to the meetings between the alliance members, or to the executions on behalf of The Estate. Often Aaron would return home, his shirt stained with blood, the darkness in him still attempting to keep tight control of his mind.
On one such day, Maddy sat with Xander at the table. Discussing nothing of importance, they laughed easily with each other, Xander still prone to calling her ‘Cricket’ rather than using her real name. While Xander made jokes regarding the size of the cello in comparison to Maddy, the front door creaked open as Aaron snuck inside. As usual, he silently looked her over, as if ensuring she was well, before walking away without a word, disappearing into the corridor that led to his room. Her heart fell when he avoided her, her eyes tracking his path before returning to the startling blue of Xander’s eyes.
“He hates me.” The hurt of rejection stained her words, easily discernible to the man sitting across from her at the table. “He’s barely spoken to me since I chose to stay. I feel like he doesn’t want me here.”
Xander sighed heavily, slid his hands across the wood of the table to touch hers. “He doesn’t want you here … but not for the reasons you think. He’s worried about you, Cricket, he doesn’t know what his father will plan next.” Pausing momentarily, concerned etched its way across Xander’s expression. “You are his weakness and I don’t think he knows how to deal with that fact.”
Pulling her hands free from Xander’s, Maddy leaned back in her chair, looked down to spin the cello string she still had wrapped around her wrist. Silence loomed over them as they sat for a while longer.
Standing up, Xander looked down at her and winked while tucking his chair back under the table. “I’m going to talk with him. He had a meeting today with some of the members of the alliance; I need to know if there are any tasks I should complete as a result.”
Nodding her understanding, Maddy stood as well, and walked alongside Xander as they approached the corridor. “I think I’ll go into the music room for a while, see if I can ease the pain in my heart by playing.” When they reached the room, Maddy turned to enter, closing the door behind her as Xander continued down the hall.
Picking up her bow, she spent a few minutes applying a healthy sheen of rosin to the hair before picking up the cello and making sure it was in tune. Sliding her fingers along the strings, she allowed the harmonics to take her back in time, when life had been about nothing more than music, when the world was only a scary place that existed on the outside of the small house she called her home. Wondering what happened to that home, she started playing a song that her uncle had taught her when she was a child, a soulful lullaby from some other country for which she couldn’t remember the name.
Pulling her bow across the largest string, the deep bass of the notes vibrated throughout the room. Sorrow spilled from the sounds of those notes, her emotions transformed into sound so beautiful, and she couldn’t keep from shedding a tear as she played. A string of higher pitched notes slowly leading down to one low, soulful tone, the vibrato tightening her out-of-practice wrist. Slow and steady the notes changed, a touch of sunlight covered in the black clouds of a building storm. She knew happier songs, small tunes that would make most people smile in delight, but those were not the songs she chose this day, her heart needing an audible expression of her melancholy, a release from the built up tension in her muscles, bones and spirit. After going through three or four songs, her shoulders dropped with sadness, her head not finding the usual escape provided within her music. Placing the cello down on its side, Maddy sat quietly for a moment, stared at the couch where Aaron had sat just a few weeks before, remembered watching his seductive stride to her from across the room, the way his body and mouth felt when touching her skin.
Finally standing up from her chair, she moved to sit on the piano bench to look over the music, surprise alighting her face when she saw that it was by a composer she didn’t recognize. Reading over the music she discovered that it would be a sad piece, but powerful in its intensity; fitting for the environment in which Aaron had been raised. She reached up to the music, ran her hand along the notes of the bass clef in the piece, imagined the song if played by piano and cello together. Looking back down to the keys she ran her fingers over the surface a few times, finally daring to press down on a key. The tone of the piano was exquisite, the acoustics in the room helping it echo throughout the space. She played another key and then another, before running her fingers along them, not unlike a child who didn’t know how to play.
“Isn’t that the wrong instrument, Madeleine?”
Spinning so quickly, she nearly fell off the bench, Maddy’s eyes met the emerald green of Aaron’s. A light in his eyes glimmered, the corners of his mouth twitching as he attempted to hold back a smile. Maddy looked at him, struck dumb by his beauty, the air about him speaking of danger and passion all at the same time. He was entrancing; an enigma of sorts, but one where the mystery within him revealed itself
when you were least expecting it, when you swore that only darkness truly resided in the body of the man who enjoyed killing. Aaron laughed quietly, his shoulders shaking slightly with the sound. Maddy just kept staring, not understanding how he could go from being barely able to look at her to a man able to laugh at the effect he had on her.
“Are you going to answer me?” His head angled to the side, he continued to make light of her shock in that moment.
Finally finding herself, Maddy shook her head before saying, “I’m sorry, Master, I … I thought it would be okay if I … I shouldn’t have touched it.” Why she reverted back to her behavior as his slave, she wasn’t sure. It made it easier for her to communicate with him, sheltered her from having to make decisions that went against her shy nature.
Shock at her response flickered across his face quickly before being replaced by the expression of a man who wanted nothing more than to dominate. His voice lowered sinfully deep, the light that once glimmered in his eye turning into the beginning of a slow heat. “You know what this means, don’t you slave?”
Her body shuddered at that word, moisture building between her thighs, she couldn’t believe how easily she responded to him, how much she wanted him. “No.”
“No, what?”
“No, Master.” The corner of her lip peeked up, this exchange placing her back in familiar territory, a place where she knew how to associate with him, how to communicate with him. Although she wasn’t sure why, but by acting as his property, by surrendering herself fully to him, it made her feel safe, the weight of the world lifted off her shoulders, allowed him to make the decisions she was too afraid to make.
“You’ve touched something of mine … so, now, I get to touch something of yours.” Moving from the doorway so that he could close the door and ensure their privacy, he slowly stalked her. Keeping his eyes trained on hers, he let the pressure build between them so that he could watch her body tremble as he approached. Even while she was clothed, he could imagine the curves of her body, her supple and weighted breasts, the way her mahogany hair contrasted sharply against the pure white of her skin.
Just as he approached her, his hands tightened into fists as he held himself back from touching her right then and there. Standing over her so that she had to crane her neck to look up at him, he smiled, enjoyed the way her lips were slightly parted from anticipation, the way her skin flushed from his scrutiny of her face and body. Stepping quickly aside, he surprised her as he moved to sit in her chair.
“Come here, slave. Stand in front of me.”
Maddy pushed herself up on shaking legs, used her hand to grip the side of the piano so that she could steady herself. Her heart raced making her lightheaded, her chest heaving as the rate of her breathing increased. Hesitantly, she stepped toward him, moving so slowly, until stopping a short distance from where he sat. Her eyes searched his, her body awakening, nerves coming alive with trepidation and want.
Aaron’s eyes slowly looked over her body. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, forced herself to remain still for his perusal. She’d enjoyed this feeling, knowing that she was his to play with, knowing that while he took his fill of her body, he gave her such extremely rewarding pleasure in return.
“I want you on your knees.” Broken up with hoarseness caused by his need, his voice rubbed itself along her senses, made her quiver in anticipation of his touch.
Maddy immediately lowered herself to the floor, the sting of the hard surface against her knees a sweet feeling when mixed with the eagerness for what was to come. Aaron reached down to gather the bottom hem of her shirt in his hands; a slight grin on his face as he pulled it up to remove it from her body. Maddy obediently lifted her arms, would allow him any liberties with her body that he wanted to take. She was so new to this, so completely out of her league that she preferred submission, luxuriated in the trust she granted him by allowing him to own her completely.
Once he pulled the material from her body, he placed it on the floor beside them. His lips parted slightly as his eyes devoured her breasts. Reaching out slowly, he took the weight of them into his hands, pinched the tips between his fingers enticing them into tight buds. Maddy’s head rolled back with the feeling, her body readying itself for whatever it was he wanted to do.
Releasing her, Aaron pulled his hands back to his sides, continued to admire the stunning woman who, at this moment, was choosing to give herself to him. A strange difference, her choice to give herself to him rather than taking what he wanted; it was enough to floor him as it stoked the flames of the inferno even higher than they’d ever been.
“Unbuckle my pants, Mouse, stroke me with your hand.”
Maddy hesitantly reached for the buckle of his belt, the warmth of him against her hands a heady sensation. Loosening the leather from it’s metal clasp, she brought her hands closer to his body, could feel the tightening in his pants from his excitement. Satisfaction blooming within her at the realization that she affected him just as he affected her, a smile threatened her lips as she quickly unbuttoned his pants. Pulling down the zipper, she found that he wore nothing underneath, her ability to pull him free made easy and quick. Gripping her hand around the width of him, she stroked along the satin feel of his skin, the muscle underneath engorged to such fullness, it felt so unforgivingly solid within her hand. Her breaths now coming in short pants, she jumped suddenly when his finger came under her chin to pull her gaze to his. He grinned seductively, the chiseled quality to his face softened by the expression; however, his eyes gave away the lust that burned within him.
“Kiss me, Madeleine.” Barely a whisper, his command pleased her, let her know that this exchange was going to end in exquisite passion.
Aaron had intended for Maddy to push up, to bring the fullness and warmth of her lips to his, but when she wrapped those lips around the head of his cock, started suckling the tip allowing her tongue to dart out to stroke along the shaft, he melted into his seat. The realization that she needed more specific instruction at times, that she was so new to this that she wouldn’t always understand what he’d intended, didn’t escape him; but he was so undone, so completely overpowered by the feel of her mouth wrapped around him that he let the misunderstanding go, favoring the moist heat of her mouth where she’d placed it. He groaned, leaning back in the chair, he allowed her to explore him with her tongue, to please him in such a selfless way that it was endearing. She didn’t have her head in his lap in an effort to get something from him, she did it out of the pure desire to please him. So different from all the other women he’d been with; his angel, a woman who had unknowingly taken him captive in return.
Wanting to extend this encounter, Aaron reached out to stroke his hand down the soft silk of her hair as he ordered, “Stop, Madeleine. Lean forward, press your breasts into my lap, hold the sides of the chair with your hands and use your arms to press your breasts tightly together.”
Confusion flashed across her face, but she obeyed Aaron’s command, not questioning what he intended to do to her. When he moved her up so that he could insert himself between her breasts, Maddy looked up at him, a shy expression crossing her face as she waited for him to instruct her what to do.
“Push yourself up and down, slave; please your Master.” Fur across her skin, the deep baritone to his voice seeping into her pores heating her blood to a point of boiling heat.
Maddy did as he said, was shocked by how the feel of his hard length, slickened with the moisture of her mouth, made her feel, turned her on to such a painful point of need, she had to fight from reaching down to touch herself to find relief. She bounced on her knees in front of him, purred at the satisfied moans that escaped his throat. She watched his lips part, fought back the desire to climb up and take that mouth with hers. Not having to fight long, Aaron suddenly looked into her eyes, locking her in a stare so hot, her skin flushed as a fine sheen of sweat broke out along her skin.
“Stop … pull off my pants and then climb up and straddle my lap,
Madeleine.”
She did as instructed, pulled the pants free of his legs, left them lying on the floor as she climbed up before straddling his legs with hers. His hands gripped the flesh of her hips as he pulled her forward, pressing himself against her sensitized flesh, against that point that he’d found would make her writhe and moan. When she was in place, he released her hips to slowly run his hands up the sides of her body, teasing her breasts as he passed them, finally gripping his fingers into the thickness of her hair. He pulled her head forward, forcing her body even more tightly against his cock so that small bursts of electricity shot through her nerves from the pressure against her. His mouth moved over hers slowly, his tongue darting out to lick along her bottom lip seeking entry. When she opened her mouth, his tongue invaded hers as a growl resonated from his chest. Pulling away suddenly, he pressed his mouth to her ear as he whispered, “I can taste myself on you.”
Her body trembled as his hand slid out from her hair to reach around behind her, finding the point of entry to her body. While her sensitized nub was pressed firmly against him, he ran his fingers along the crease of her slickened skin, propelled her body to rub along the length of him as he teased the opening to her core. “I want to bury myself inside you, Madeleine … I want to finally make you mine.”
Another violent quake as she listened to words that made her heart sing while he pushed her toward a release she’d craved for the two weeks he’d refused to touch her. He wanted her, wanted to own her, to never let her go. “Then take me.” She would give herself to him, needed to give him whatever he wanted, trusted that, in this moment, he would take care of her, would slowly ease her out of her inexperience. Even more she wanted him, could feel her muscles grip along his finger, wanting … needing more than his hand could give.
Resting his head against hers, Aaron fought against lifting her body so that he could spear himself into her. His conscience warred with his desires, the reason he’d avoided her since they’d returned from the woods that night. She was not his to take, a captive. To take her would be to cross that line he’d firmly set when she’d first arrived.