Take Me Slowly (Forever in Their Thrall Book 1)

by Lidiya Foxglove

  Despite all this, my erection was already tenting the blanket. I wished these witches would just leave already.

  “Alissa…let us ask again. You’re quite sure you want to do this?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I’ll do it.”

  Not that she looked like she expected to enjoy it. Baby steps, as they say.

  “Do you know what to do to make a man spill his seed?”

  Her skin turned pink, her eyes darting around before fixating on the ground with shame, as her hand slipped away from mine. “Yes. I do.”

  “All right…well…you need to come in this bottle.” Mimi was speaking to me but she handed Alissa a blue glass bottle with a fluted top, a small cork nestled under the flare of glass. The bottle itself looked like a sexual object, somehow, the cork reminding me of that little sweet nub that would have my Lisbeth sob with pleasure when I licked it and stroked it. Mimi pinched the small cork out before Alissa took it.

  “He can’t help you,” Wanda said. “You have to do it. If you can’t manage it, no shame in calling us, all right?”

  “All right…I can do it.”

  The witches left, and Alissa almost flinched a little when the door shut. Then she looked at me, blushing even more furiously. I’m not sure her skin had ever turned so red as this.

  This wasn’t the most romantic way for her to touch me for the first time, but I just wanted to feel her any way I could. And I didn’t want her to be frightened.

  Well…not frightened in the wrong way, at least.

  She stood awkwardly at my side, her hands crossed in front of her, pinky fingers twisting together. I reached for her hands and pulled them apart.

  “This won’t be like—him.” I could barely speak of it without losing my mind. “I want to feel your touch more than I want anything in the world. I love you. You are my wife, my only. The companion of all my days, even when you’re gone. You’re never far from my thoughts.” My need for this sweet, blushing creature was unbearable. “I must have you as my wife. My Alissa.”

  She drew just a little closer when I touched her, and this was as good as a yes, in her case. It was certainly progress.

  I pulled her on top of me. She crashed into my ribs. Not the best idea I’d ever had. But even as pain tore at me, I shoved it aside and kissed her. It had never been so difficult to be gentle. Her breath quickened, and I ran a hand down her back. The dress she wore wouldn’t allow me any access to her back or her lovely little breasts; a maddening row of buttons ran up her back and I wouldn’t tear up a dress like this. Now I thought I was stupid for putting her in it, but I also knew we hadn’t given her any underwear. I lifted the skirt and cupped my hand around her bare bottom, feeling the soft curves before I slipped a hand between the legs and felt her dripping with need.

  She was a little stiff as I touched her, but she didn’t fight me off anymore. A night with Silvus and two nights with Jie and Thom—well, that was certainly enough of a tease. My Tulip had never been one to ignore a finely made man.

  She would have to wait a little longer. She had volunteered to satisfy me and that was all she would get—for now.

  I took her hand and guided it to my cock. The blanket slid off. As soon as she touched it I nearly convulsed with hunger, and I held her hand there even when she tried to draw away.

  “It’s too late to turn back now,” I said. “You will give me what was promised. What I need.”

  “I will,” she whispered. “But it isn’t what I want…”

  “What do you want?”

  “I think I want…you to touch me…”

  I broke into a grin of satisfaction. “Now you’ve done it, Tulip. I have no doubt you want more than that. And I will give it to you.”

  “You’re injured.”

  “My cock isn’t broken. As long as I’ve got that, I’ll find a way to fuck you.”

  “I’m scared!”

  “You should be scared. Just think of this—I will have to go a little tiny bit easy on you tonight, due to my condition.”

  “Tonight?”

  “It’s my turn to have you in my bed.”

  I had reduced her to incoherence, but she was ready. Oh, yes. This was not the terror of the first night. She knew this was her fate, the place she belonged—her family.

  I gave her hand—and by extension, my cock—one more squeeze and showed her how to work the shaft. “It won’t take long,” I said. “I can promise you that. I’ve been waiting over a hundred years to feel this again.”

  Alissa looked delicate, but she actually had quite a bit of strength in her arms. The Order didn’t allow anyone to rest on their laurels. I could tell she wasn’t sure how rough she could be. Her hand worked me slowly.

  It was heaven to feel this much pleasure after my injuries. Yes, even now, the twitches and tensing of my muscles as a result of her touch were causing unexpected pains to spike through me, but my grunts and moans were more satisfied than anything and I could hardly help them. I slipped a hand around her waist, holding her close to me, just feeling her warmth and life through layers of clothing. She was going too slow, but I didn’t tell her yet. I didn’t want it to end too quickly.

  Even so, I soon felt close to spilling my seed.

  “Faster,” I said. “Faster now.”

  The small hand stroked me faster and faster until she was panting with exertion and I believe it was the panting that sent me over the edge.

  “The—the glass, Tulip, quickly—but don’t stop—“

  I sat up as she grabbed the bottle off the nearest table and I almost started to finish myself off.

  “No!” she said, swatting my hand. “The witches said you can’t help.”

  “Right…go slower now…hold that up…slower than that…but deep—I mean—oh, fuck.” Not being able to intervene with my own hands was maddening but I was not in control of this situation at all and soon I was coming hard into the bottle.

  “That’s it…,” I managed. “Put the cork in and then come here.”

  She put the bottle down and pressed the cork in. I felt a little dirty, looking at it, selling such a sordid piece of myself off to witches. As if it mattered.

  Now I grabbed her skirts in a handful and pulled her back to me, kissing her again, and this time I wasn’t chaste about it. I forced my tongue into her mouth as she made a peep of surprise. I pawed at her skirts, rubbing her vigorously between the legs, and she moaned a little, and then a little more as I lifted the skirts again and gave her clit a rough stroke. Then I put her down.

  “Help me to get my clothes on,” I said.

  I could see her eyes wrestling with conflicted feelings. She wanted to say something, to argue with me, to tell me she still hated me as much as ever, but I also knew what she liked. In the bedroom, Lisbeth liked to be bossed and handled roughly. It was the reason I knew she would warm to Silvus when I brought a second man into the relationship. I knew she could handle the two of us, and then two became three, four—and none were rougher to her than number four.

  Some part of her trusted me already. That was the key.

  She picked up the pile of clothes and helped me get them on over the bandages. My arm was refusing to move the way I wanted it to, and my ankle didn’t want to support me either. Curses.

  “Tell the witches to come back,” I said.

  “Yes.” She was glowing with an inner light. That was the face of a girl who was ready for me.

  Once I made it back to my bed…I would not spare her any longer.

  Chapter Forty

  Alissa

  The witches promised to get right to work on the spell. Mimi winked at me, to say she would find an answer for me too.

  I just hoped there was an answer.

  Seven lives…and this is my last one on this planet.

  Why did that make me feel so sad? Father Joshua never even spoke of reincarnation. He said we were all going to die and go to Etherium.

  Thom made me dinner tonight, a light stew with bacon, potat
oes, peppers and tomatoes. “Don’t want to weigh you down too much tonight,” he said with a wink. “Rayner told me he’s tired of waiting. About time, ‘cause I’m tired of waiting too. And I think you might just be in the same boat, darlin’, but I won’t make you admit it.”

  “I’m not. I don’t even know what I’m waiting for.” I was so embarrassed and more than a little scared.

  “You’re always shy,” Thom said. “Bertie was, for sure. He couldn’t quite shake off the shame of being the thrall of four men, even though he enjoyed every minute of it. But don’t worry. When you get to me, I’ll have you completely surrendered to me. My little captive will be too tangled up to run. And that’s when you can finally let go.”

  “Oh—no!” I cried. “Stop! You’re entirely wrong. I don’t care what Bertie wanted.”

  “I’m not wrong. I can smell your need growing stronger with every word out of my mouth.” Thom patted my head.

  I squirmed in my chair, hardly wanting to eat a bite of the food he’d made for me when he was such an arrogant—

  Bertie was certainly right to be ashamed, I thought. To be treated like this by four men is still embarrassing in the twenty-first century for a girl. For a nineteenth-century man to endure this must have been awful beyond words.

  But I was feeling so agitated at the same time. I wished they would at least let me wear underwear, because I could feel the nectar of my need dripping onto my skirts, and my nether lips rubbing together, and no matter how I shifted in my seat, I felt wet and swollen and hungry, and I was sure I didn’t want to feel this way. My body was just doing all of this without my permission, and these vampires were exploiting it. It was like my traitorous body had made some bargain with them and I didn’t even know about it.

  No one knew it more than Rayner. When I thought of how he kissed me before…his tongue in my mouth, and his hand— He hadn’t given me any warning.

  Then he went up to bed. To wait. And I was distracted out of my mind for thinking about him.

  “There is nothing better than watching you anticipate tonight,” Jie said, grinning at me. “All the protests coming out of your mouth while your body goes haywire. You know you’re in for it. You can stop pretending you care about your food. Just go to him.”

  I shoved a big spoonful of potato in my mouth. “I don’t want to.”

  “Yeah, yeah, okay. I can’t stand it anymore.” He stood up and took my bowl away while I was mid-spoonful. “You’re horny, Plum. You won’t really understand until you satisfy it. Just get going already.”

  Silvus just arched a brow at me when I—stupidly—looked at him for help. “It’s my turn tomorrow, pet,” he said.

  “You’re all demons,” I said.

  “Meeyew?” Calrose said with interest as I stood up. Apparently he thought I might feed him, but to be honest, it felt like even the cat was against me.

  I fled up the stairs. I felt trapped, but—oh, gods, they were right. Something was wrong with me. I was out of my mind with tension and I felt like the only thing that would ease that tension was…

  “Come to me, my love.” Rayner was standing in his bedroom door, wearing a dark red robe with a monogrammed pocket, and maybe nothing else.

  My steps led me toward him until we stood face to face. He put his hands on my shoulders. “I’m glad that you are less afraid to look into my eyes now,” he said. “I love to see them.”

  He reached to the back of my neck and began to unfasten the buttons.

  “See, clothes are not the same anymore,” he said. “For most of history, it took quite a long time to undress a lady. Buttons and hooks and pins…and every one just makes me want you more. At the same time…your long skirts keep you very modest…but very accessible. Whenever I want you.” His voice was so soft and low in my ear that it seemed as if the sound came from inside my very ear drums, as his fingers worked steadily down the back of my dress to my waist.

  “I haven’t even said a word,” I said.

  “Now you have. Is there anything else you want to say?”

  “It’s—going to hurt?” I asked. “What will you do to me?”

  “I’m going to be inside you. And it is going to hurt. But it won’t be like other pain. You will be thoroughly claimed by me. I’m going to make you mine. That sounds a little violent, doesn’t it? It is that. But it also sounds safe and protective, and when I’m deep in you, you’re mine and no one can hurt you. It is also that.”

  I bit my lip. “I think I understand. Sort of. But—be gentle.”

  “At first,” he agreed.

  He tugged the sleeves of the dress of my arms and let it slip to the ground. Now he scooped me up out of the little pile of fabric and placed me on his bed, unhooking the front of the corset and tossing it over the footboard. Now his hand could easily run along my hip and waist, up my rib cage, to caress my breasts and tease at my nipples through a soft layer of cotton.

  And here was my body, responding in ways I hardly expected, arching and spreading for him. My toes curled as he pushed up the skirts and exposed the thatch of curls between my legs.

  “Open for me,” he said, reaching between them.

  I obeyed him. I felt like I was enchanted, but I didn’t sense any tingle of compel magic. I was just…I was…what was I doing?

  His hand touched me with the confidence of belonging there, of knowing me and every bit of my skin. It was impossible to deny the familiarity. Or the intense sensation that swept through me at every tiny movement of my fingers against the sensitive folds. As he touched me there, he kissed me, soft but deep.

  I was starting to feel very warm and intense, his fingertips teasing at the channel between my legs as his tongue slipped into my pliable mouth.

  Is this what happens? Have I lost my virginity yet?

  But I had seen animals…

  And of course, nothing had hurt yet. I was starting to realize what would happen. I couldn’t believe how naive I had been, or that Father Joshua had been so close to marrying me and…

  No, I absolutely would not think of him now. I wouldn’t let him ruin this.

  Rayner unfastened the belt of his robe and threw it off, and now he was gloriously naked against me, his cock stiff and throbbing as it had been when I touched him. His body stole my breath away every time I saw it. Every sculpted muscle, and the various bandages wrapped tight around them only seemed to enhance the attraction. He had fought for me, hurt and bled for me.

  “You’re ready,” he whispered, and the head of his cock pressed into me.

  I wasn’t prepared, but there was no turning back. His cock demanded entry, pushing deeper and deeper, slowly but surely. His eyes were a little wild as he finally claimed what he wanted, and when I struggled, he seized my wrists and pushed them over my head. He smothered my cries with his mouth.

  My heart was slamming against my chest. He drew out a little bit, very slowly, before he pushed back in. A hair deeper, this time. Then—almost out again, and in— Each time, a little deeper than the last push.

  I was sobbing as the piercing ache ebbed and flowed with his motions, and then, with one last push, he was so deep inside me that I felt his balls resting on my skin.

  He smoothed my sweaty forehead. “You did well, my beloved thrall. I know at first, it’s easier to be bitten because of the venom, but trust me—you’ll prefer this.”

  “It aches…”

  His smile brought out his dimples, but that wicked gleam in his eyes never entirely left him. “I know. Women were not made to take their pleasure too easily. You should never have tasted that apple in the garden…” His lips brushed my cheek and then tickled my ear. He nibbled my ear lobe with the tiniest of bites as his hand moved back to my breast and plucked and teased at my nipple, which was so tight and peaked that I immediately moaned into the touch. Somehow or other, within moments I was forgetting all my suffering and craving more.

  He could read every small movement and sound I made, and seized upon this advantage, his coc
k throbbing and moving inside me again.

  “Nnghhh….,” he groaned and winced, squeezing my breast.

  “Oh…you’re in pain too…”

  “I told you you’d be spared because of it,” he said. “And believe me, you are. You might still be able to walk tomorrow…” He paused to catch his breath—well, or whatever the vampire equivalent was—his hand softening over the pale mound of my breast, and then—

  “But you’re mine,” he said. “You’re all mine.”

  He was rocking into me harder. Faster. Deeper. More and more…

  I cried out as my core burned so hot and I felt as if he was losing himself in me. I truly understood those words—claimed. Taken.

  “Rayner…!” I dug my fingernails into his back.

  His fangs nipped at my shoulder, just hard enough to draw out two tiny beads of blood—not that I would realize that until I looked in the mirror afterward. I felt the sting and the soothing properties of the vampire venom which took the edge off the pain and made me feel lazy and more content, even as my desire spiked higher and higher.

  “I’m sorry, beloved, I’m going to compel you without permission, just this once,” he said. “Come for me—right now.”

  I screamed like I had never screamed in my life, completely unprepared for what happened to me when he met my eyes and said those words. My whole body was swept with a maddening, delicious, torturous pulsing and quivering as I felt Rayner’s cock pumping seed into me, and my own body seemed to be generating plenty of its own slick liquid. I felt dirty and wanton, lost to the way he made me feel, this total assault on my senses stripping all control away from me.

  i thought I would die.