Elusive Hero

  He flexed his aching hand and used the other one, spanking her marked buttocks, stopping to work the dildo in and out of her until she was making those whimpers again. 'Going to be my dick in there before this is all over. I'm going to fuck your mouth, your cunt and your ass, my lady. Then you're going to wash my cock with your manicured hands so I can do it all over again."

  "Please..."

  "That's it. Ask me for what you need. I'm in charge of all of it, aren't I?"

  "Yes..." It was a desperate whisper, charged with painful arousal. It made his heart hurt to hear it. But he had to keep pushing. That hiss and the attempt to lock up his hand had told him that, as well as his gut. Time for a different tactic. Pleasure could overcome her where pain couldn't.

  Setting the paddle aside, he went back to work on her with his mouth. Kisses down the sensitive nape, the shoulders, moving the braid aside to work his way down her spine. He started humming in the back of his throat, giving her further sensation, letting the thick rope of hair tumble back in place as he straightened to ease the dildo from her ass. Using a flavored wipe to clean away the chemical lube, he massaged her blissfully tight opening before kneeling behind her and replacing the wipe with his mouth, teasing those sensitive rim nerves. He held her buttocks with hard hands while she bucked and cried out.

  At length, he left that to kiss his way down each leg, to her feet, her toes. She went really still then, her lips pressed together. She became less still as he worked his way up her front. He bypassed her cunt, went around it, teased her navel. Nuzzling the crease beneath her breasts, he made moist circles around the still swollen nipples before descending again. When he put his mouth over her clit, warming her there with swirling flicks of his tongue, short nips, she shuddered like an earth tremor.

  "Please..." she whispered again.

  "Please what?" He kept his mouth on her, let his tongue ease into her pussy, play. She tasted sweet as divinely ordained sin, the best of both worlds. An animal cry came from her. His rigid cock had gone numb, the circulation cut off under the hold of the jeans. He was going to have to fuck her or jack off soon, or he wouldn't be able to concentrate beyond his own lust.

  "Please..."

  "Say it, my lady. There's only you and me."

  A tear slid down her cheek, and he lasered in on it. She swallowed noisily and he rose, went to the wall behind her. He retrieved a belt, made sure she heard the clink of the buckle. Wrapping the strap under her arms, he cinched it over her sternum so her breasts tilted up higher, the nipples getting stiffer. He bent, licked one then the other, keeping his knuckles wrapped in the short fall of the belt, pulling her roughly toward him, as much as her bonds would allow. She was his. His.

  He loosened it, moved behind her, doubled it over and gave it a sharp snap. Didn't touch her with it at all, but the noise made her jump. Her breath hitched, that near sob again. He opened his jeans, got them out of the way and applied more of that lube to his cock, pressing himself up behind her so she'd feel what he was doing.

  "I can't..."

  "Tough. I say you can." He parted her buttocks, guided himself to that tight hole. "Push against me again, only this time you're taking me, not some fake dick. You're taking me." As he began to ease slowly into her, he felt her breaking apart. He put his mouth to her ear. "Your Master, my lady."

  He'd given her a push, and she was so close to the edge of the cliff he could almost see her start to flounder. Perversely he wanted to grab her, hold on, keep her from the fear of that flight, even as he knew he was the one who had to ruthlessly shove her over. He didn't usually have trouble detaching, staying cruel enough to deliver what the sub needed. But that was because he always let them go when it was all over. They went back to their lives, leaving him with pleasant memories. He didn't want pleasant memories of her. He wanted her.

  "You know why I'm fucking your ass first? Because in your world, this only happens when someone's topping you. Proving they're the biggest, baddest thing in the room. In charge. In control. What do you want, Kaela? Tell me."

  Her head fell back on his shoulder, and he felt the war inside her as if he could see her being torn in two. "What do you want?" she gasped.

  It was what she'd asked when they were walking through the stable hand fantasy, and he cupped her face, stroked the pounding pulse in her throat. "Is that more important to you than your own desires?"

  A pause, and then she gave him the one word he wanted to hear. "Yes."

  He gave her the time to understand the significance, hear it as clearly as he did. "So what is it you want, Kaela?"

  "To give you pleasure."

  "How do you do that?"

  "Any way you demand."

  "But how do you do that, my lady?" He let his lips cruise along her jaw, whispered the next words. "Look inside. What do you want? What words are there, just waiting to be spoken? You've thought them when you've touched yourself, imagined your Master."

  She was strangling on emotions, her body like a taut rope. He ran his hand up and down her throat, as if stroking a cat. Her head tipped back on his shoulder again.

  "Say it," he murmured, and he felt the ache move into her throat, the way she swallowed under his hand. "How do you give me pleasure, Kaela?"

  "By serving you."

  "Bingo."

  He tamped down the surge of satisfaction. It wasn't the time. She needed his full focus, because those three words snapped the rope, bringing back the panic. He'd closed her into a narrow space surrounded by his demands, his words, challenging her reality in every way, and facing that was more unsettling than mere manacles.

  Settling into her, he put his hand fully around her throat, squeezed it tight enough she felt the constriction. Fingered that collar he knew did all sorts of delicious things to her mind. "You're mine, my lady. In these bonds, I could pick up a stake, end your life. But you aren't afraid of that, are you?"

  When she shook her head, he tightened his grip more. "Why?"

  "Because...you won't hurt me. Not that way. You make me feel...cared for." She started to shudder. "Like Jared did."

  Because she was so lost in her head, he wasn't going to pull her out of it by asking who Jared was. Plus, whoever Jared was, he was past tense.

  "All right. Hold on, because I'm taking you on a ride, and I'm not letting you off until I'm good and ready. Give me pleasure, my lady. Serve me with your body, your heart and soul. Don't you hold a damn thing back. When it's just you and me, you don't have to hold anything back."

  She caught that sob in her throat again, the one that made him want to take off her bonds, cradle her in his arms and hold her until the last sunset for all eternity. But that wasn't what she needed. He began to work his hips against her, stroking in and out, making all those sensitive nerve endings in her ass thrum down to her pussy. He didn't touch her clit at all, just let her build to that crescendo. She struggled, her ass working against him in a way that had him gritting his teeth for control. Cupping her breasts, he teased and pinched the nipples, rubbed and pulled on them, using those generous curves for leverage as he started to thrust even harder. Smacking his pelvis against her ass with each thrust, his testicles hitting her cunt, had her squirming even more. He knew her ass was sore from his punishment, and he wanted to keep it that way as long as he could. Though her vampire healing would give him an excuse to start all over, wouldn't it?

  He pulled out when she was shuddering erratically, her body jerking.

  "No..." The word slipped from her, a single protest, and he bared his teeth in a grin, stepping in front of her to tip her chin up, stare into her eyes with his best I-will-so-kick-your-ass look. "What did you say to me?"

  The woman who could break him into little pieces and tear out the throats of other vampires did a double take before that look. Then those beautiful eyes swept down before his hard stare. An unthinking act of submission, no hesitation at all this time, just pure sub instinct. It told him just how deep inside herself she was. He'd successfully pushed
her beyond the reality of who she was, even past the fantasy of who she wanted to be, into the real Kaela, at her core. Her whisper proved it. "I wanted you to stay inside me."

  "I am inside you, Kaela." He gave her temple a light tap. "But you meant my dick in your ass, didn't you?"

  "Yes. No. Just...inside me. All the way inside me." She was fighting for her words, having trouble organizing her thoughts, but he knew what she meant as naturally as he knew what it was to breathe. For women, the physical connected to the emotional, down to the spiritual, to the lowest levels. But there was more he wanted, and he was willing to deprive himself to get to it. He wanted to knock her so far into subspace, he'd be the only one who could reel her back in.

  Going to the sink in the corner, he filled a bowl with water and picked up soap, a wet cloth. Rolling a small table in front of her, he set the bowl on it and began to wash his cock thoroughly, rubbing it, stroking himself, thinking about whether or not he'd give himself a climax this way first, with her golden eyes trained on the movement of his hands, her lips parted, her expression obviously one of hunger.

  "You said...I could do it." She almost whimpered it.

  "You will. When I'm done fucking you all the ways I want."

  Pushing the basin and table aside, he brought two waist-high T-frames from the corner. Using the track system on the floor, he locked them down a few feet in front of her, spacing them out where he wanted them. He didn't need to measure. Experience and a glance at those long, slender legs told him approximately where they needed to be placed. With the same efficiency, he moved in front of the T-frames, bent and unsnapped the chains holding her ankle cuffs. Sliding an arm under her thighs, he lifted her, reattached each ankle to a frame so she was suspended by arms and legs in a hammock pose. He added the necessary straps to support her head, neck and shoulders. And her hips, so her knees were higher than her head, her ass canted up. She might be vampire, such that she could hang from her wrists and ankles without permanent damage, but he didn't want her distracted by that kind of discomfort.

  As he stood between her raised, spread legs, her pussy and ass were gorgeously vulnerable, all his for the taking. They were glistening with her juices, her clit flushed and full, the lube giving the rosebud opening to her ass a slick little sheen. He indulged a nice visual of pumping his cock over her, painting her flesh with his seed as she hung there, helpless. The image was more than enough to send him over the edge, but he clamped down on it.

  Retrieving the butterfly stimulator, he put it back on her. As he took his cock in hand to stroke, he reached out and turned it onto its highest setting. "Changed my mind, baby. Want to watch my sub come hard, with not a damn thing you can do to stop it."

  Her eyes widened, lips parting. Her gaze flicked to him, a delicious panic, and she started to buck at the sensation, pulling at the bonds.

  Her mouth worked in breathless protest, but there was no room for anything but reaction now. He seized the thick rope of her braid, kept his fist tight on it so she had to stare into his impassive face as the climax took her, as her body shook, as a scream broke from her lips. Removing his hand from his cock, he put it on the butterfly, working it against her swollen lips as she writhed and screamed some more. It wasn't enough for him, so he slid two fingers below it, into her spasming tissues, letting her tight pussy clench him.

  "Nooo...no..." The words were torn from that coil of need inside her. She wanted this, she didn't want this. She was afraid, she would tear his heart from his chest, she couldn't...she didn't...

  "Doesn't matter if you're afraid, and yes, you can. You will, my lady. Do it."

  He saw it break free. That coil of emotions exploded over her, overwhelming her, scaring her to the bone even as the climax was taking her over.

  She yanked against the bonds, snarled, her fangs elongating, her eyes showing crimson lights. He hung onto her hair grimly, moving with her so he didn't tear out a handful, but he stayed mindful of the teeth because she was thrashing, and clearly looked as if she'd bite a good chunk out of him if she could.

  "Easy, my lady...easy."

  There was no reasoning with her. The energies around her were a wash of red and gold, colors too bright to do anything other than obliterate quieter emotions in the wave of passion and violence, need and loss of control, and all the emotions that came with that.

  Crack!

  He jerked his head back, just as the link in the broken chain missed his face by the width of a hair.

  SS

  She caught his hand, slammed it against the frame, held onto it. Vaguely she was aware of his grunt of pain, but she realized he once again hadn't tried to retreat. He'd increased his banded grip around her waist, which meant he'd bent forward. Letting go of his hand, she snaked her arm around his shoulders, yanking him down to her. As she sank her fangs into his throat, he let her go. But not to fight her. As she swallowed his blood, he reached between them to rip away the stimulator. Then he angled himself and thrust into her, hard enough to make her shudder with a mix of pleasure and discomfort. He wrapped that iron hold around her waist again and pushed deeper, taking from her as she took from him.

  His blood was salt and earth, metal and fire. Thinking of everything he'd said about the second mark, every denial she'd made to prevent her from even thinking about it, she embraced the former and ignored the latter. She made another leap of faith.

  Against the roar of decades of discipline and good sense, she released the serum of the first mark. The geographical locator. If he was within a couple thousand miles of her, she would know exactly where he was.

  And then, since he had roused her ire, she released the second mark behind it.

  His body stiffened, because releasing them together was a burn like actual fire, coursing through the veins, licking at the internal organs. It was a warning of what a vampire could truly do to a human if she put her mind to it. If she third marked him, she'd own his soul, could crush it with her mind. It was the ultimate gift a human could give to a vampire, the ultimate surrender of will and choice.

  She'd never wanted that from a human. But she'd envied Fran not only the willingness to offer that, but the ability. Garron was fighting through the pain, a light sheen of sweat on his skin, and she wanted to touch those straining muscles, all of them. She stroked and gripped the hard biceps, pectorals, his broad shoulders, all while keeping her mouth locked on his throat. She wanted to drink forever, take his essence into her as if she could hold that part of him that had been able, miraculously, to dominate her for a few precious moments. She'd use it as an elixir to get her through the interminable days and nights that would stretch before her when she left Eden.

  His free hand flexed on her buttock, a twitching spasm that helped her recall herself. She retracted her fangs, jerked her head back, knowing her eyes were wild, blood on her lips. She thought Oh, God, what did I do, then she saw his face.

  Want to play rough, do you? His eyes were as filled with violent passion as hers were, but the thin look of his mouth, the obsidian glitter of his eyes, the way his silky brows drew down, told her she'd crossed a delicious line, opening up a side of him that might terrify a lesser woman. It only made her crave his aggression. Then she realized she was hearing his voice in her head, at the same second he registered she had.

  He reached up, jerked on the clip that had shortened the intact chain holding her other wrist. The increased length gave him enough slack to put her on the floor, him holding her with one arm. Her legs, still cuffed and chained to the T-frames, were now straightened such that her ass was a few inches off the ground. Altering his grip so he cupped it in both hands, he plunged back into her with ruthless intent, the position allowing an even more demanding penetration.

  Look at me, Kaela. You look into my fucking eyes.

  She saw plenty of things there. Anger, but it was controlled, passionate. He knew she needed his fury. She felt it in his mind. He went up onto his knees, hiking her legs up around him, her hips even farther up
in the air, and started hammering into her, fucking her, taking everything he wanted. It broke open a powerful need inside her, but when she reared up, he planted a hand in the middle of her chest and shoved her back to the floor.

  "You stay where I put you, my lady. You're in enough trouble."

  Her cunt clamped down on him in reaction to that, but she obeyed. Even though the vicious need and violence were rolling through her, she craved his dominance, no matter that she could turn the tables in a heartbeat. She kept making this a struggle of might over right, which told her just how much she'd embraced the truth of the vampire world over seventeen decades, but it had been necessary, ensuring no one would make her do anything she didn't want to do.

  But that wasn't what she wanted here...was it? He'd said it wasn't about physical strength. It was about will, and his will to control and hers to surrender were running neck and neck.

  She was mixed up, volatile, not in control again. Fear stabbed her like a needle. She could hurt him badly, because he would no more consider retreat in a fight than she would. She'd seize control only if she took it from his cold, dead fingers.

  You closed your mind, my lady. Open it up. You won't hide from me.

  It was like opening a gate on an impulse, a frightening whim that could have terrible repercussions. She hadn't trusted anyone like that, not since Jared.

  But she did it for Garron.

  She opened up, trembling at his anger, at his force, at what he was making her do, at what she was allowing herself to do.

  Trust. She couldn't trust. Not because she was a vampire, though there was that. But because she knew what it was to lose trust, to not be able to trust anyone in the whole wide world. She'd seen the ugly side of the soul and couldn't ever forget it, because once seeing that side, she'd known it was possible to find it inside any one, given the proper trigger.