by Caris Roane
He shook his head, a frown forming on his brow.
Putting her hands on his shoulders, she said, “What you’re doing here, Reyes, no one else would dream of doing, of infiltrating the Starlin Group in order to destroy it. That doesn’t even make sense by any kind of logic, except that sometime in the next twenty-four hours a young Russian woman, torn from her life, will be dead, just like hundreds of thousands of others who have perished, maybe even millions. And all I have to do to help you try to stop it is let you tie me down and make love to me in front of the head of Starlin, the man you’ve been trying to get to for decades. From that perspective, Reyes, it seems like a small sacrifice.”
He grimaced. “You don’t really know what this would be like.”
“Actually, I take issue with that.” She drew in a deep breath, wanting her next words to carry weight, a sense of her resolve. “If we did this right, it would be just you and me. I think we could block out our audience and engage in what I’ve been wanting to do with you from the beginning.”
His eyes widened. “You’re actually serious.”
“On every count.”
He turned away from her, forcing her hands to fall away. “Shit. You almost tempt me, but you still don’t understand.”
“Then make me understand.” Again she moved close to him.
He whirled on her. “I don’t want Engles to see you like that.”
She shrugged. “He’s already seen most of me. I did bend over your lap earlier in order to distract him with an eyeful of my ass.”
At that Reyes’s lips curved, but he quickly closed his eyes and suppressed his sudden amusement. “You’re missing the point. I don’t want him to see you aroused, to watch you experiencing pleasure. That’s for me.”
Her heart missed a beat or two. She loved this unexpected admission that he saw her as belonging to him, that he cared about her.
“There’s just one thing I want first,” she said.
“And what’s that?” She felt his sadness like a stone he carried around in his heart. She wanted to smash that stone.
She slid her arms around his waist and held him but kept her gaze pinned to his. “I want you to make love to me first, before we do anything else or make any more decisions about how to move forward. No matter what happens, I want our first time together to be just you and me.”
He stared at her as though stunned. “You want to make love with me?”
“More than anything.”
He frowned as he slid a hand through her damp hair, easing his fingers through. “You amaze me. I hardly know what to say. I suppose more than anything I’d expected you to be freaking out; instead it was me.”
She felt nervous suddenly. She had to tell him about the vision. “There’s something else, Reyes.”
“What is it? Because my blood-chain is telling me you’re really upset when you weren’t before, not even about performing a sex show in front of Engles. What the hell is it? What are you holding back?”
She felt Reyes’s answering panic as though on some level he must have known. “I want a drink first.”
She released him and moved past him to the closet. He followed the moment the chains tugged on her neck. She grabbed a dark-green silk robe and wrapped herself up, then led him to the sitting room.
Grabbing two tumblers from the silver tray, she poured out his Bowmore, two fingers for each of them.
Turning back to him, she handed him a glass, then sipped her own. The whiskey burned and might not have been the best thing to put on top of the wine, but this seemed necessary.
She met and held his gaze but didn’t know how to tell him what she knew.
His nostrils flared. “It’s the vision, isn’t it? The one you had back in Engles’s library. You said it involved him.”
“It did. Oh, God.”
###
Reyes had a premonition that what he was about to hear would change things for him forever. Quietly he asked, “So, what did you see?”
She closed her eyes and drank deeply from her tumbler but came up sputtering. She dabbed at her lips with her fingers, then set the glass on the nearby end table.
Taking a deep breath, she began, “Do you remember how you told me you felt odd about Engles’s home, that you knew you’d never been there, but felt like you had, sort of a powerful déjà vu?”
He nodded slowly. He didn’t like where this was headed.
“Well, if what I saw was real, and I have no reason to doubt it, then I think Engles had taken us both into the older part of that cavern because you’d been in that space before and, by my estimation, many times.”
His gaze moved slowly around different objects in his sitting room, the sofa and matching brown leather club chairs, the painting of his Venezuelan home, the carafe that held his Bowmore, a stack of books on the table between the chairs. He never stopped studying, reading, learning. When Sweet Dove hadn’t been chaining him up he’d kept filling his mind.
Sweet Dove, always Sweet Dove.
“She was there, wasn’t she? My captor.”
“Yes.”
He held Angelica’s gaze. “Tell me everything. Tell me exactly what you saw.”
Angelica straightened her shoulders, then recounted the vision, dwelling especially on the unusual waterfall as the definitive marker.
Sweet Dove and Engles. They’d known each other all those years ago. Engles had apparently owned Sweet Dove at one time or had found a woman with his proclivities and had trained her.
Reyes sank down in the closest chair. He felt ill all over again. He still couldn’t pull the memory forward, but he believed that what Angelica had seen was real. It explained so much, and it also confirmed that somehow Sweet Dove was involved with Starlin. She’d been there early in the process, having checked Angelica out when she’d first been captured. So there was definitely a connection.
And Engles had taught Sweet Dove her trade on Reyes’s body.
There would be a reckoning one day.
Reyes could see that his membership in Starlin and now an offer to meet Scorpion weren’t an accident and maybe had even been planned for a long time, but to what end? Was it possible that Engles, as perverted as he was, had a sexual interest in Reyes, in bringing him into his own perverted circle of followers? Engles wouldn’t be the first man to proposition Reyes.
What Reyes didn’t know was Sweet Dove’s role. Was she also a Starlin member? He thought it unlikely, since he’d never heard even a whisper about her in all these decades.
In the end, Reyes thought it likely that Engles and Sweet Dove were playing some game. He just didn’t know what it was.
Angelica drew close, then sank to her knees beside him. “I’m so sorry, Reyes. I know this has to be yet another blow. But what I don’t understand is why you don’t have a memory of what I saw in the vision.”
His chest felt tight as he met her gaze. “Sweet Dove is an Ancestral with great power. She could have erased any memory she wanted. Engles could have as well.”
Angelica appeared to turn all this over in her mind. Finally, she asked, “Do you think it’s possible you might actually know who Scorpion is? That you might have met him before?”
Reyes grimaced. “You mean that I might have fucked him at one of Sweet Dove’s parties?” He needed Angelica to keep focused on the truth of who he was and the sick nature of his past.
She shrugged but didn’t seem either surprised or particularly disgusted by the question. “At this point, given the level of cruelty and debauchery of this group of people, I think it’s more than likely you did.”
He shook his head, narrowing his gaze. “And this doesn’t bother you?”
“In what way?”
She was actually serious, and the chain at his neck confirmed it. But he needed to know more. “You’re not disgusted by the fact that you essentially saw me being tortured by my captor and that Engles probably got off on watching my pain and my orgasm?”
“I’m not disgusted by you
,” she stated flatly. “They committed crimes against you, whether you felt pleasure or not. They had power over you, something Sweet Dove had gained because she’s an Ancestral who enslaved you when you were young. You were at their mercy and they were merciless, yet you survived.
“What’s more, I’m beginning to think that you might have an unsuspected advantage over both of them. I’m now convinced each is so lost in their enjoyment of their lifestyle that neither can imagine for even a second that you haven’t truly become a sadistic, self-absorbed slaver. Engles might taunt you by saying he has his doubts, but he’s manipulating you, trying to get you to become as vile as he is. Reyes, he doesn’t suspect you, not really. And in that way, we can continue to deceive him and therefore Scorpion.”
Reyes stared at her hard, searching her eyes for the truth as well as the chains. He concluded that she truly believed what she said. But what astonished him the most was that she saw no real connection between the young man who had been chained in Engles’s library and who Reyes was today.
He almost believed in himself because of it.
“Then you want to move forward? You’re actually willing to have sex in front of Engles and Scorpion, despite the fact they’ll both probably abuse their slaves while we’re engaged.”
He felt Angelica’s resolve as she responded, “What I’m saying is that I believe it doesn’t matter. If you’re the only one touching me and making love to me I’m not going to give these bastards the satisfaction of thinking I’m distressed because they’re watching me. These men are nothing. They’re dirt beneath my shoes and will never be anything more. The only thing I care about at this point is crushing this organization once and for all.”
The zealous light in her eye, her willingness to continue, as well as her belief in him, moved him.
He set his glass down, drew her to her feet, then took her in his arms. “You’re actually willing to go through with this.”
“Yes, I am. I want to see Engles punished for these terrible crimes, and if we can find Sweet Dove and destroy her as well, then all the better. Although I would like to see her in particular burned at the stake with a really slow fire. But there’s one thing I need from you.”
“What’s that?”
“Like I said earlier, I want you to make love to me. I want you to pretend that we shared a few drinks at the Ocean Club and that we’re on a date and that you’ve brought me here, back to your place.”
His eyes fluttered and his groin heated up.
For a moment he was back in the foyer of the club and he felt as he had then, that she was giving him something that couldn’t last, a hope, a desire for his life to be more than it was.
He had made the best of a truly horrible beginning. But he’d been a sex slave, and for the rest of his life his mind would be twisted and his heart scarred in just that way. He couldn’t change his past.
But as he stared into her eyes and felt her desire for him, the scent of her sex perfuming the air, he shunted aside what would always be a deep blight on his soul. Instead, he kissed her, slanting his lips over hers.
Her hand traveled up and over his neck, caressing him. She ran her finger along his jaw, through his scruff. She moaned against his lips. I’ve wanted this for so long, she sent.
I’ve craved you.
She drew back. “You have?”
He groaned and dragged her against him, kissing her once more. You have no idea.
He slid his tongue between her parted lips, moving in and out as his hands pulled apart her robe. She lowered her arms and the robe slipped from her shoulders.
She tugged on his towel and the next moment nothing stood between them. Her hand found his cock. She drifted her fingers slowly up and down, letting him feel her nails as well.
He whispered, “You wanted me in your apartment.”
She smiled. “In my bed. I used to have this fantasy that you’d break down my door.”
“I like your fantasy a lot.”
“What was yours, Reyes?”
He nuzzled her neck, kissing the lobe of her ear. Her hair was damp as he spoke softly against her cheek. “When I’d be in the shower, all soaped up and stroking what was very hard, I’d imagine my tongue deep inside you.” He flicked in and out of her ear several times until she moaned and shivered. “I want to do that to you now, down low, taste you again, savor what’s been tempting me for months. You don’t know how much I enjoyed making you come while in that riverside mansion. So how does that sound? How about I feast on you?”
###
Angelica drew back and stared into clear blue eyes now dark with passion. She took his hand, turned, then led him toward the bed. Once there, she pulled the comforter back and stretched out, throwing her arms above her head. Slowly, she parted her legs.
Her gaze fell to his cock, now upright. He was big, which caused her hips to curl, especially since he thumbed the ridge at the tip. His gaze was fixed between her thighs, so she spread her knees even wider. She wanted him to see all of her, nothing hidden, everything exposed, just as it had been at the underground river.
He drew close, then knelt beside the bed. Sliding his hands beneath her thighs, he pulled her toward him, then kissed just above her landing strip. She glanced down at his thick, short hair and slid her fingers through. She couldn’t believe she was here, with Reyes kissing her over and over. She could just make out the tattoo of the hawk on his back. She arched as his tongue made an appearance and dipped between, sliding along her folds, flicking at times, teasing her.
She moaned. “So, this was your fantasy?”
“Yes, only I’d do this for hours, bringing you repeatedly until you were worn down to nothing but soft bones.”
She moaned.
She’d wanted him for so long, and now he was here. She strained toward him as he kissed and licked her low. He’d done this earlier while she’d been on her stomach, giving her beautiful relief. But this felt like so much more, especially since this time she could watch.
He looked up at her as his tongue moved over her flesh.
She met his gaze, stroking his hair, then dragging a finger down his cheek to feel his tongue. He licked her finger, then her flesh, moving between the two, then drew her fingers into his mouth and suckled.
Her hips rocked in a steady rhythm, longing for more of him. Reyes, come here.
He looked up at her, relinquishing her finger. She motioned for him with both hands to climb up her body. “Let me feel the weight of you.”
At that he smiled. But he didn’t exactly crawl. Instead, he surprised her by doing his vampire thing and levitating in a prone position. She didn’t know what he meant to do until he floated above her. Using his hands, he slid them beneath her waist. In a single motion, he moved her up the bed so that her legs no longer dangled over the edge.
“Very clever.”
He then lowered himself slowly. She spread her legs wide so that his knees landed between them as he stretched out on top of her. “How’s that?”
“Like heaven. This was another fantasy, feeling you like this, seeing you above me.” She smiled. “I was so into you.”
“You’re blushing.”
She nodded, her head sliding against the sheet. “I suppose I am. It’s just so strange to be admitting these things to you. And now here you are.”
He nodded. “You’re beautiful. Have I told you that?”
She looked into his eyes, savoring the moment, everything about him, the gorgeous color of his eyes, his sexy scruff, the varied tattoos on his left shoulder. She ran her finger over them. “Do these have meaning?”
“They’re all elements from my Venezuelan home, the foliage, flowers, vines.”
“Is that where you were born?”
He nodded. “Where we had our home before my father disappeared. Because of financial hardship my mother lost the dwelling, but I bought it back once I started making my fortune.”
She caressed his face, his massive shoulders, then drifted her
hand low to feel the solid curves of his chest. He closed his eyes and groaned softly as she teased his nipples. “Do that levitating thing again. I want my tongue right here.” She rubbed a hand over his chest.
He obliged her and floated, lowering himself just enough so that her tongue could swirl over his pecs. She took turns with both, working the thick pads with her hands and sucking on his nipples. He moaned. “That feels amazing.”
He started to float back down, but she stopped him with her hands. He looked at her, questioning.
“How difficult is this for you to sustain,” she asked, “this kind of levitation?”
“Fairly easy, why?” He looked the nicest bit confused.
“Because if you move back, then go just a little bit farther, I could put my mouth on something else. Just take it slow so I can enjoy your body the entire distance.”
He groaned, then glided slowly. She kissed him all down his rib cage. Guiding him with her hands on his waist, she let him know when and how to move so that she could kiss and lick different parts of his body. She mapped his abs, which he kept tense for her, another neat trick with gravity pulling the opposite direction. But the man was strong.
Lower she went, licking his navel until his hips flexed. Because his cock was fully erect, she didn’t have far to go. She took the tip of him in her mouth and moaned at the velvety feel. She used her hands at the same time and explored all that he was, the entire length of his stalk, ending in his balls.
She suckled gently.
His entire body shuddered and suddenly he caught her hands with his, pushing them away, then drew his cock out of her mouth. “Too much,” he whispered hoarsely.
She understood, smiling as he returned to land once more between her thighs. What surprised her the most was how much affection she felt for him, though she’d only been with him such a short time. But maybe sharing a disastrous situation could do that for any two people.
