The Circle

by Stella Berkley

  Devin, pinning me under his heated stare, extended his arm toward his sovereign. Somehow I knew what would happen, as if our minds had become entangled. Devin winced as Malachi passed the blade across his wrist, then came around and cut the other one. Ruby ribbons streamed from the wounds. Instead of it disgusting me as it should have, my excitement grew.

  Someone behind me grabbed my forearms and extended them up over my head. My life flowed in a warm, sticky path down my skin. Weakness overtook me. My eyelids drooped. Devin, his chest heaving under his deep breathing, raised his arms and intertwined his fingers with mine. The one behind me wrapped leather bands, binding our wrists together. A glance up revealed the ropes we’d been hung from, attached to metal loops on our bindings.

  The humming from the crowd rose up again, mixed with chanted words I didn’t understand. The sound danced through my mind, valium for the soul.

  Our hearts beat in unison. His tongue swept my lips before plunging inside. Years’ worth of his loneliness filled me. His longing and his desire to pleasure and protect me tore down every wall I hid behind and allowed him to rush in. Our drunken laughter swirled together into a perfect harmony inside my head.

  Tingles began in my toes and fingers, rushing toward my center like the warning trembles of an earthquake. Compressed between my legs, pleasure exploded outward along with my cries.

  Devin bucked against me, grunts and moans rising and falling from his throat. “Katharine! My Katharine!” His hot seed spilled onto my stomach.

  Flashes of light lit up my eyes. The chanting rose in volume and beat against my chest as if I stood inside a base drum while someone pounded against it in a steady rhythm. My soul became weightless, detached from the dark cellar it had always dwelled in.

  I lifted into nothingness. A white void empty of sound. A shadow passed over my vision, stealing my breath away. Devin’s spirit enveloped me in a dark blink, and I disappeared into his unyielding embrace.

  Chapter Six

  Warm water cascaded over my head. Convinced of my imminent drowning, my arms flailed out. A squeal escaped me between sputtered breaths. A hand gripped my wrist. As if a button had been pushed, calm lowered me back down to the place where only bliss existed.

  Devin. He is mine, and I am his.

  Darkness consumed me once more.

  * * * * *

  “Katharine, can you hear me?” Devin’s honey-toned voice drew my consciousness back to the surface. A caress met my forehead, along my temple, coaxing my lips to curve in a smile.

  I opened eyes to the white ceiling of my bedroom. Devin’s presence sent a shiver along my spine and heat into my nether regions. A glance left revealed him sitting on the edge of the bed. He leaned with one arm propped on the other side of my body.

  “Don’t try to speak.” His fingers pressed against my lips as they parted to unload the deluge of questions. “You’ve lost a lot of blood, and you’re weak. You’re safe at home, and soon we’ll talk.” The bed shifted as he sat up. A pop, and a fruity scent invaded my nostrils. He pulled me up and cradled me to his chest and held out a bottle containing dark blue liquid and a straw poking out the top. “Drink this. It will replenish some of the energy we expended during the ceremony.”

  With the side of my head resting against the swell of his shoulder, I could have slept forever in peace and comfort. My eyes drifted shut, but he shook me until they popped open again.

  “You must drink.” His left hand moved the beverage so the straw brushed my lips.

  Desperate to sleep, I took the straw and sucked. Sweet liquid exploded in my mouth, cold, like glacial waters, and fruity, but nothing I could identify in my half coherent state.

  “Good.” The drink disappeared, and he lowered me back to my pillow. “Sleep now, my love. No matter what you feel when you wake, I forbid you to pleasure yourself. The first step in your enlightenment is self-control. I will find you soon. Blink if you understand me.”

  I didn’t understand any of it, but the abyss called to me. To ensure he’d let me fall into it, I blinked one last time before slumber took me into its bosom.

  * * * * *

  Music blasted through my skull. I bolted out of bed. Tangled in my duvet, I crashed to the floor, my forearm taking the brunt of the blow. “Ow.” A groan eased up my sore throat to my parched mouth, and a lick of my tongue discovered cracked lips. Brightness flared across my eyes. Pain twinkled through my brain and sped down my spine. I threw an arm across my face to mute the sunlight and rolled onto my side. Dizziness launched me for a ride on a spinning top.

  The pressure on my bladder threatened to burst it. How much had I drank last night?

  Pushed up to my knees, I squinted at the clock under the shade of my fingers. Seven o’clock. Why had my alarm gone off on Saturday? When my palm patted the snarled disaster of hair on my head, I rose to stand on wobbling legs. Whatever party I’d come from the night before must have been a good one. Too bad I couldn’t remember any of it.

  I jammed a hand down on the alarm to end its shouting.

  With some effort and a few choice curses, I used the walls as a support on my way to the bathroom. After relieving my bladder, I climbed into the shower and stood under the hot spray with closed eyes. When the world stopped twirling, I rubbed the sleepiness from my eyes and reached for the shampoo. My focus cleared for the first time since I’d woken up, and I noticed a black smudge along my forearm. A few blinks removed the remaining haze from my sight. No, not smudges. From two black dots on the underside of both wrists, what appeared to be braided vines spiraled out and lay in a wavy pattern up my arms, over my shoulders, across my breasts and converged at my crotch.

  My breath caught. “What the fuck?” Did I get a tattoo? I brushed fingertips across the two points on my right wrist. Sensations travelled the length of the marks, growing stronger as they reached my lower belly. A gasp burst from my lips, my sudden arousal throbbing between my legs. My clit twitched for attention.

  “Devin.” The name from my lips conjured clips of memory. His smoldering kiss. Strong arms clamping me against his hard body. The fresh-as-night scent that lingered in my nostrils. He’d…bitten me. Twice. “Oh, shit!”

  I snatched the soap from the holder and scrubbed my arms. My frantic washing didn’t fade the black even a bit. It only served to stoke the fire in my abdomen to molten proportions. While air rushed in and out of my lungs, suds-covered fingers descended toward my folds, tracing along Devin’s markings.

  “Ah, ah, ah, Katharine. Be a good girl, now, and behave yourself.” His voice whispered through my mind, injecting ecstasy into every cell.

  My pulse stumbled before it sped to a gallop. “Devin?”

  His snicker vibrated through my body. “I’ll be watching. Begin a new novel. Allow your desire to infect the words.”

  I rose above the initial startled jolt and considered the idea. “Yes.” The word hissed out in a rush.

  Images and sensations permeated my mind, waking my muse like never before. Seeing the woman from the night before, the ecstasy arranged on her face, and the immortal feeding on her clit, filled me with lust until my imagination swam with molten images. Scenes played out in my mind as I exited the shower and wrapped my hair in a towel. I slid my arms into my satin robe, shivering at the contact with my tattoos, and ambled into the living room.

  After turning on my laptop, I shuffled, still weak, to the fridge. Upon opening the silver door, I found a black envelope taped to a bottle containing blue liquid. It said: To my Katharine with a K. My eyes darted left and right.

  “He was here last night. That wasn’t a dream.” A hysterical laugh burst from my lips. I covered it with my hand. “And now I’m talking to myself. You’re losing it, Katharine.”

  With a shake of my head, I snatched the envelope and the bottle from the fridge, before sitting down at my desk. Trembling fingers tore the shiny paper open: Drink this and your energy will return. I’ve left you food. Be sure to eat all of it. Trust me, my love.
Yours for eternity, Devin.

  I rubbed my palms against my forehead, wondering if I was dreaming. Despite the queasy ball of fear in my stomach, warmth wrapped around my heart. Nobody had ever cared about me that way before. Mother had never bothered to bring me so much as soup when I was sick as a child.

  I brought the letter to my face and inhaled his scent from it. My lips twitched into a smile. Even if I’d been dreaming, I no longer wanted to wake up.

  With the scenes for a new story raging in my head, I pushed my doubts and questions aside, popped the cap on the drink, and gulped down a quarter of the bottle. The same sweet, explosive flavors I remembered from the night before quenched my thirst and flooded me with energy.

  Floating on an erotic buzz, I emptied my thoughts until I reached a state of readiness where my instincts took over. My fingers hammered out Chapter 1 on the keyboard.

  * * * * *

  Beeping invaded my Zen state. A few blinks and a roll of my shoulders completed the transition from my story back to reality.

  My cell chirped at me again from where it sat on the kitchen counter.

  I jumped out of the chair, still full of energy zinging around my muscles from the drink, and snatched up the phone. Three missed calls and two texts. All from Mother. I groaned and lowered myself onto one of the bar stools at the breakfast counter as I speed dialed her.

  “Katharine?” Mother’s high-pitched tone portrayed her fury. “Where are you?”

  I sighed. “At home, Mother. Where else would I be?”

  “Here, where you were scheduled to be. We’re waiting for you.”

  My brows pushed together, and I made a slow ascent back to my feet. “You never schedule meetings on a Saturday.” Even as I said it, the puzzle pieces fit together and showed me a picture I didn’t want to see. My alarm clock had gone off, and it was only set for weekdays. I swallowed the cotton from my throat.

  Silence for a few moments. “Are you on something, Katharine?”

  “No!” I paced, palm to forehead. “I-I just lost track of the time, that’s all. I’m getting dressed now.”

  “You do that. Don’t be late again, or you’ll be removed from our author lineup. I made you, Katharine. Don’t forget it.”

  By the time my brain caught up with what she’d said, she’d hung up. Gritting my teeth, I whipped my phone at the wall. It smacked against the drywall and clattered to the tile. “You might have made me, Mother, but you don’t own me, not anymore.”

  As my anger subsided, my chest tightened again. I snatched up the remote, flicked the TV on, and tuned to the Morning Show to confirm my suspicion. When I caught sight of the date, I slumped down in a chair. “How did I lose two days?”

  “Don’t be frightened, my Katharine”. Devin’s whispers inside my ear drew a moan from me and renewed my ache for him. “Recovery from the first stage of bonding takes its toll on the human body. You slept and healed.”

  My shoulders relaxed, and I closed my eyes to savor his presence. Warm fuzzy sensations raced over my skin. “What do the marks on my arms mean?”

  “They identify you as my human companion. I have matching ones on my body that mark me as yours.” For whatever reason, that he was mine sent a zing of joy through me.

  “What am I supposed to tell everyone about them?”

  “Only you and immortals will be able to see them.”

  I rubbed hands along my thighs, slipping my robe aside to expose my pulsing need to the cool air. “Why am I so horny? Is it because of the bond?”

  His snicker vibrated along my bones, heightening my pleasure. “Yes, and because of your exposure to the Circle.”

  “How else will the bond affect me?”

  “Patience, my love.”

  I sighed at the warmth that surrounded his thoughts. “Please, Devin.” I touched fingertips to my lips, remembering his upon them. “I need you.”

  “Soon.” More snickers came before he left me.

  * * * * *

  The cab dropped me off at Mother’s building a half hour later. When I’d opened my drawers and closet to find all my clothes had been replaced, fury had been my response, but as I gathered ogles from the businessmen walking past, a new sort of power filled me.

  I stood on the sidewalk in a way-too-short denim skirt and a tight-fitting low-cut v-neck T-shirt with a black leather jacket over top. The stilettos made me stand straighter than I normally did, and the silk g-string slid between my lower lips—not something I was used to with the cotton panties I normally wore.

  Before ascending the steps, I met the bright blue eyes of a blond man. His step faltered. The briefcase slipped out of his hand and popped open upon impact with the cement. A cell phone bounced out, and papers escaped in a flutter.

  I’d never realized the control my body and stare could have over a man. My body hummed.

  With a grin plastered across my face and a new swing in my hips, I ascended the steps into the brick building and strode past the receptionist until I made it to the boardroom. After straightening my skirt, smoothing my shirt over my breasts, I opened the door.

  Charles and Ash both looked up, their eyes growing large as I sauntered to my regular chair and flopped down in it.

  Mother looked over my snug T-shirt, at my girls popping the front of it out. “What are you wearing?”

  I shrugged, the grin never leaving my face. “Something new. Do you like it?”

  Ash nodded, his mouth agape. Charles, red-faced, averted his eyes, but not before I caught the desire in them.

  When I started to take off my jacket, Ash jumped from his chair and helped peel it from my arms. He draped it over the back of my chair.

  I turned my face up to him. “Thank you, Ash.”

  As if his speech processor had failed, he offered another nod before sitting down again.

  Mother leaned forward and squinted her eyes at me. “What’s gotten into you? You are taking drugs, aren’t you?”

  Laughter pealed out of me. “Oh, please, Mother. Can we get on with this? I have more writing to do today.”

  With her face set in a firm scowl, she prattled on about schedules, advertising, release dates, and cover art. Although I kept looking at her, my thoughts went back to Devin and the woman in chains. Would he ever string me up that way and take total control of me? It had never crossed my mind that being tied up and at someone’s mercy would appeal to me, but the steady pulse emanating from my liquid center made me believe I wanted it. Before I wrote more of my new story, I needed to experience it for myself.

  The hunger for release chewed at me. I shifted in my seat, dampness making it past my g-string to my thighs. One hand tugged at the neckline of my shirt, and the other gripped the leather armrest so they wouldn’t dive under my skirt.

  Something warm touched my arm.

  A small yip escaped me as I whirled my chair to find Ash withdrawing his hand from me.

  “Are you feeling okay, Katharine?” Ash tilted his head and looked me up and down. “You’re all flushed.”

  I bolted up, my pulse thrumming. “I-I just need a minute.” My heels whispered across the carpet as I walked from the room. I dashed along the hall toward the bathroom.

  A shadow crossed my vision a moment before something yanked me into the dark photocopy room.

  I opened my mouth to scream. A hand clamped over my mouth and cut it off.

  Chapter Seven

  I attempted to twist my body out of the vice of strong arms before Devin’s scent and his snicker reached me.

  The ice in my veins turned molten as I stopped fighting.

  “I’m going to remove my hand now, Katharine. Not a sound.” His palm fell away. Enough light seeped in under the door for me to make out his amused face.

  My mouth opened so I could launch jagged words at him, but he covered it again.

  “Relinquish control to me, my love. If you wish to learn, then you must trust me.” His lips replaced his hand on my mouth, soft, but insistent. His kiss grew urgent an
d rough, crushing against my lips. Our tongues danced with one another, swirling, plunging, reaching forward before drawing back. My anger evaporated as his aura engulfed me, drowning me in his sweet liquor. With him, I owned no doubt, no insecurities, no yearning outside what he could provide. He was everything I needed—and wanted.

  Devin brought my wrist to his mouth and gave it the same treatment as he had my lips. Lost in the sudden jolt of pleasure crossing my breasts and moving farther south, my body convinced me his tongue lapped at my clit instead of the place where he’d bitten me. A tense, hot nerve connected the two spots on my body, humming under his touch. I shuddered, savoring the sensations as they drifted up and down my core in waves. A sigh snuck past my efforts to hold in the sounds trying to escape.

  When my knees buckled, he stopped his oral assault and gripped me by the waist, pressing me against the growing bulge in the front of his dress pants.

  “I’ve never seen markings run so deep, or affect anyone as profoundly.” He nuzzled my throat, his moan vibrating along my shoulder. “I knew you were meant for me, Katharine. I’ve always known.”

  I nodded, unable to find my voice to express my frustration. Every instinct wanted to scream at him to fuck me, but he was my Dom, and if I wanted him to please me, I had to play along. “Please,” I whispered. “I’ll beg if that’s what you want.”

  “Begging will win you nothing in this game, but listen closely and I’ll tell you the rules. I know you’ve been thinking about what happened to Caroline.” He paused at my gasp. “I’m going to bind you now. This lesson is still about self-control. If you make the faintest sound, I’ll stop pleasuring you.”

  In a lightning-quick move, he’d wound what felt like leather straps around my wrists and jerked me upwards. When his hands returned to his sides, mine remained over my head. A quick tug confirmed what the twist in my stomach suspected. He’d hung me from something in the ceiling.