Savage Chains: Scarred

by Caris Roane

  He stroked her head and set his mind on nothing but the woman on her knees in front of him. He recalled the kiss she’d given him in the foyer of the Ocean Club, the way she’d looked in her red silk dress, the hopeful expression in her eyes.

  She was so damn beautiful and he wanted her. He let his desire for her take over. Aloud, he said, “Suck me harder now, slave.”

  She responded, moving faster as well.

  “You’ve obeyed me, slave. That’s all that matters.”

  Angelica, your mouth is like fire. He thrust his hips now and she moved even faster. His balls tightened. I’m coming.

  I can feel it.

  She stayed with him, with his movements, holding her head and the suction of her mouth just right as he pumped all that he had straight into her mouth. The orgasm had him shouting at the cavern ceiling, eyes closed, refusing to acknowledge anyone else around him.

  As he settled in his seat, Angelica drew back, swallowing and wiping her lips. But she wisely kept her eyes downcast. He saw tears on her cheeks as she tucked him back inside and carefully zipped up his pants.

  He’d had enough, and he was sure she’d just reached her breaking point.

  Ignoring the sudden burst of applause all around him, and not caring what repercussions might follow, he caught her up in his arms.

  In a loud voice, he said, “I need you in my game room. Now.”

  More applause.

  Shifting to altered flight, he flew through the cavern walls, taking it slow for her sake as he sped in the direction of his home. He dropped down into his master suite once more.

  He laid her on the bed, but she turned to her side, swiping at her face, to look up at him.

  The crowd’s approval still worked like a sickness in his gut, twisting him up. His guilt rose, heavy guilt over his past, over all the things he’d done through the decades. And now an innocent like Angelica had performed in public, sucking him off.

  The erotic show had messed with his mind, making him long for things that couldn’t exist, like breaking free and having power over what had controlled him for so long.

  After the first months of his freedom, he’d thought that if he could track down Sweet Dove and kill her, then he’d be free.

  But Sweet Dove wasn’t to be found. He quickly learned that very few people even knew of her. Even the men who’d visited her, who had also used his body, had disappeared from the vampire world.

  He now believed that Sweet Dove had killed them, or ordered the killings, though doing the job by her own hand would have suited her equally as well. Since then, nothing he’d done to try to locate her had worked. She’d slipped into some well-disguised cavern system and disappeared.

  Maybe she was dead. Or maybe finding Scorpion would help lead Reyes to her. After all, Sweet Dove had been with Angelica. She’d known all about her. It was highly possible that Sweet Dove knew Scorpion.

  Angelica shivered.

  “Are you cold?”

  She nodded.

  He moved to the fireplace and lit a well-constructed stack of newspaper, kindling, and logs. When the fire burned hot, Angelica shifted to sit on the side of the tall bed. She stared up at him, the comforter loose about her waist as firelight played over her perfect cleavage and the red sequins covering her nipples.

  “Angelica, I’m so sorry for what happened just now, but I’m beyond grateful, too, because you saved the situation. I got lost for a few minutes, and you brought me back. Is there anything I can do for you?”

  She released a weary sigh. “I know this is going to sound odd, but I’d really like a shower.”

  He nodded. “Actually, that makes perfect sense.” He’d been there a thousand times.

  She pushed the comforter back and headed to the bathroom.

  #

  Angelica let the water flow over her head for a long time. She soaped up repeatedly, trying to scrub some of the experience off her skin and out of her pores.

  Her job was over, the part she’d agreed to, and sometime the next morning Reyes would take her home. He’d even said he’d do all that he could to keep her safe from Starlin in the future.

  She should have felt relieved, and maybe she was. But a large part of her was still stuck at that horrible party where at least a hundred slaves had milled around dull-eyed and on leashes like hers. Except their obedience and submission were real, unlike hers. She only had to feign her captivity. She shuddered, trying hard not to think about what the rest of the night would be like for the other women.

  Despite this brutal reality, she was proud of what she’d achieved tonight. She’d saved Reyes’s reputation and protected his cover. He could go forward with his plans and fulfill his mission, and in the process save tens of thousands of future slaves.

  Then why didn’t she feel more satisfied?

  #

  Reyes leaned his forearm over the tall mantel, drawing deep breaths. He could recall everything now, how he’d watched the show and fallen into a strange trance as images of Sweet Dove’s torture had overtaken his mind.

  Engles had stood nearby watching him like a hawk, waiting for a sign of weakness, hoping to tear him apart.

  Dream-like, he could even see the moment Angelica had made the decision to go down on him, pretending that she obeyed his orders.

  Horror rolled through him in waves at what might have happened had she not jumped in and played her slave role as brilliantly as she had. But it wasn’t the possibility of failing at his mission that distressed him; it was the simple fact that Engles happily would have appropriated Angelica as his slave once he was assured that Reyes wasn’t up to the task.

  He couldn’t be certain exactly what had happened to him, why he’d checked out for those few minutes. He supposed Eve’s show had been too real for him. Or maybe the overall stress of the evening had finally gotten to him.

  He squeezed his eyes shut and for the present worked at letting it all go. Angelica had saved the situation and now he had her home, safe and sound.

  In the morning he’d take her back to Newport Beach, to her apartment, back to helping her mother and working all the long hours at her accounting job. Maybe it wasn’t a great life, but it sure as hell wasn’t the dangerous and potentially fatal one he’d brought her into.

  He ignored certain other thoughts that had stolen into his mind as well, ones that involved keeping her with him for the next few weeks.

  He had no right to ask anything more of her.

  Even so, he moved to the wall unit to the left of the fireplace, laden with a host of books on shelves. A set of drawers made up the lower portion of the unit.

  Opening the top drawer, he pulled out a red leather case and popped the lid. On a bed of scarlet velvet lay a pair of identical dark-metal chains. He touched each in succession and felt the powerful vibrations they carried. When created, the chains had been infused with his blood and carried his DNA, which meant that he could bind Angelica to him if he wanted to. He could keep her close to him with a range that rarely extended beyond ten feet.

  The chains would prove he’d brought her under his complete control. But they would do more than that. He’d have a sense of her at all times, and she’d know exactly what he was feeling moment to moment.

  Everything about their current relationship would be heightened, including his desire for her, his longing for her blood, his need to bury himself inside her.

  He knew she desired him, so in turn, what she felt for him would be enhanced exponentially as well.

  The thought of taking Angelica to bed as a willing partner while bound in blood-chains caused him to groan.

  “You okay?”

  He closed the lid, then the drawer.

  Pivoting in her direction, he met her gaze. She wore a robe, tied up tight at her narrow waist. Her hair was slicked back, wet from the shower, which made her eyes look huge, enhancing her vulnerable humanness.

  He really couldn’t ask this of her.

  He couldn’t.

  I
nstead he answered her question. “I’m fine. Tired, maybe.”

  “Will I be sleeping here tonight?” She dipped her chin toward the bed. With a towel she rubbed the ends of her hair.

  He nodded. “I can sleep in the guest room.”

  Her gaze roved the bed. “I think that would be best.” But she frowned.

  “What is it?”

  “Nothing.” At that, she smiled as she met his gaze once more. “I could use some sleep. Maybe a decade’s worth.”

  He realized then that whatever she could do in terms of helping him reach his Starlin destruction goal, there was another reason he didn’t want her to go. She eased something inside him he couldn’t define.

  And he wanted her to stay with him, at least for a little while longer. “I need you.”

  “What?” She tilted her head.

  “I need you.” There, he said it again, flat out. “I want you with me for the next few weeks. The Starlin Group is hosting a festival, like your New Orleans Mardi Gras, with parades and parties in many of the local sex clubs. It culminates in a masked ball.”

  “I don’t understand. What are you saying?”

  He dove in. “I want you to stick this out with me, to share a blood-chain bond—which will help keep you safe. I think with you by my side, I’ll be able to finish my mission. In fact I’m sure of it. Angelica, I want you to stay, to continue to pose as my slave, to be with me.”

  #

  Angelica drew close to Reyes, trying to understand his meaning. She frowned so hard that the muscles of her face hurt as she stared once more into clear blue eyes. He was pleading with her, something she hadn’t expected from him.

  And he wanted her to stay.

  But how could she remain in this world? She’d already been through so much. That last episode, when he’d mentally checked out, had almost put her square into the hands of a madman.

  “I can’t. You know I can’t. I have to go home. I have my mother to think of, and my future. If I stay, there’s a good chance I won’t make it out alive.”

  He drew her into his arms and kissed her, then nuzzled his neck. “Angelica,” he murmured against her throat. “You made everything possible and I want you with me. I need you with me. Please stay.” He kissed her again.

  She sensed how desperately he wanted her with him.

  She pulled away from him, rubbing her forehead with the palm of her hand. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this.”

  He turned back to the drawer he’d closed and pulled out a red case. Opening it, he let her look at a pair of chains.

  “These are blood-chains, aren’t they?”

  “Yes, they are. We would each wear a chain and once bound, you’d be able to siphon my power, sense where I am at all times, and to some degree what I’m feeling and thinking. And I would experience the same with you. It would make working together much easier on every level. And if I bound you, I’d gain credibility with Engles.”

  Even without touching them, she sensed their power.

  “I want you with me more than anything in the world, more than I’ve wanted anything in my life. And I know you’ve felt it, too—it’s what brought you back to the Ocean Club and why you didn’t leave my world when you had the chance. We belong together, Angelica. Please stay by my side. Help me bring Starlin down.”

  Her heart lurched as she met his gaze once more. She was so drawn to him. She hated that he’d once been a slave himself, that throughout the first part of his life, he’d endured decades of torture. And now all he wanted was to make a difference, to end the horrors of sex slavery.

  She thought back to the Russian slave, whimpering in pain as her new owner sank his fangs into her neck and drank from her with the intention of hurting her. Reyes had taken her blood, but it hadn’t hurt at all. Instead she’d never known such exquisite pleasure.

  And there was the other, sensual side of the equation: She wouldn’t just be partners with him, she knew he’d become her lover, the thing she’d wanted more than anything else over the past several months.

  But he’d spoken of her staying with him for weeks? She couldn’t be away from her mother for that long. And despite Reyes’s assurances, what if she died? Who would care for her parent then?

  Did she really want to enter such a completely intimate relationship with a vampire? Even if she survived, would she like the person she’d become by the time it was all over?

  She couldn’t do this. She felt in her bones that to choose a blood-chain bond with Reyes would alter her life forever, that she’d never be able to go back to her human world.

  “I can’t, Reyes. I wish I could, but I can’t. I’m not strong enough for this. Trust me.”

  “You have more strength than you know.”

  She shook her head. She’d made up her mind.

  Then as if from a great distance, she heard his spirit calling to her.

  Stay.

  She didn’t know how she knew, but this wasn’t telepathy, not like before. It was a plaintive cry straight from his heart. And for that reason alone, she wanted to say yes, but how could she?

  Stay, Angelica. Please stay…

  To be continued…

  Get even more sexy romance with Caris Roane’s full-length Men in Chains series from St. Martin’s Paperbacks!

  Available

  July 2014

  SAVAGE CHAINS

  Surrender to your darkest desires.

  Don’t Miss Any of the Installments in This Sexy Serial from St. Martin’s Press!

  Savage Chains #1:

  Captured

  Savage Chains #2:

  Scarred

  Available early June 2014

  Savage Chains #3:

  Shattered

  Available late June 2014

  Caris Roane is the author of the Guardians of Ascension series and the Men in Chains series, both featuring powerful vampires and the women who love them. Caris lives in the Phoenix area of the Sonoran Desert, really doesn’t like scorpions, and in her spare time tries to stay off Facebook. You can find Caris at www.carisroane.com.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  “Captured: Savage Chains: Part 1” copyright © 2014 by Caris Roane.

  All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.stmartins.com

  Cover art © Golden Czermak

  eISBN 978-1-4668-3292-3

  First eBook Edition: May 2014