Blood Rising

by Amber Anthony

  Matt groaned. “I appreciate the thought, babe, but I’m not quite done with you yet.” He backed away down the bed, and unfastened her ankles. He picked up a tube of lubricant from a shelf behind her. Cat’s eyes went wide.

  “I…uh…don’t think I need lubrication anywhere, do I?” Matt held up a clear plastic ring with something attached to it. “What’s that?”

  He chuckled wickedly. “You’ll see. You mentioned you were open to vibrators.”

  “And?”

  Matt slid back down her torso without answering. “Let’s take these off.”

  He removed the nipple clamps one by one. Cat’s eyes widened and she squealed.

  “That’s the sting of blood rushing back in.” He immediately caressed, licked and sucked what he knew was now exquisitely sensitive flesh. She squirmed beneath him.

  “I’ll make good use of this vibrator,” he murmured, coating the inside of the plastic silicone ring with lube and then rolling it down his dick until it nestled in the riot of curls at his base.

  “That’s a vibrator?”

  “Let me know what you think.” He winked, and then deftly spread her pussy, notched himself and worked his way forward. She was ready. God, was she ready—deliciously hot and plush!

  “Matt!” She shuddered beneath him. “I’ve been waiting to feel you inside me for hours. You’re so hard and thick! You make me want to come just sliding inside me.”

  “You don’t have my permission to come yet,” he gritted, on the brink of losing control along with her.

  “Yeah, well…Please?”

  Matt choked out a laugh. Finally seated fully inside her, he flicked the ‘on’ switch, and then nudged her clit with the vibrator attached to his throbbing cock. Cat keened at the intensity. She shook, every muscle in her body tensing, and he shook right along with her.

  “Easy now,” he murmured as he pulled back almost to the tip.

  “Stop…” Cat wailed with frustration.

  Matt stroked forward again and held for a few precious seconds, letting the vibe stimulate her once more. Then back. Then forward. Then back. Cat bucked wildly beneath him. Begged. Cried. He gritted his teeth.

  “The vibe stimulates me too. The tight ring helps keep me from coming. I could do this all night.” Sweat poured off him. He couldn’t really do it all night, he knew.

  “Oh, dear God, no!” Cat implored. “Please, Matt! I need to come! Please!” Her pleas rose to agitation.

  “You need to come?”

  “Yes! Please, Matt!” She was drenched in a mist of sweat everywhere.

  Yeah, he needed to come too, Matt thought desperately. He drove deep inside her, held that wildly vibrating little toy in exactly the right spot and devoured her gasping mouth with his own.

  “Oh, God!”

  Her cunt clamped on to him in wild, strong spasms. The muscles of his abdomen went hard against her, his balls drew up tight just before he erupted inside her.

  Their breaths came in hard pants as Matt collapsed against her. Cat was boneless, her body offered no resistance to his added weight. With his last vestige of energy, he rolled to his side, and then whipped off the little silicone ring, flipping the vibe off as he went. He tossed it to the end of the bed before he gathered Cat, shuddering, into his arms.

  “Easy, baby,” he soothed, running a calming hand down her spine. “You’re okay.”

  Cat mewled and curled into him, her free hand clutching at his muscular biceps. She trembled as aftershocks quaked through her. Post-orgasmic exhaustion crawled over him, and he waited for it to hit her full force, too.

  “Oh, Matt,” she murmured, finally beginning to meld into him. “That was good, but…”

  He heard the tears clench in her throat. “Too much?” he whispered.

  She nodded. “I wouldn’t want to do it every day. The buildup is torture.”

  “So, no toys?” he teased with feigned disappointment.

  “I obviously don’t need anything more than you.” She stroked his cheek and then down his chest, her small hand coming to rest gently on his abdomen.

  “Yeah, me too, baby. All I need is you.” He stroked her back. “I love you, Cat,” he murmured quietly. She was already asleep.

  * * * *

  Matt glanced at his watch. It was two in the morning and he stood in unbuttoned jeans, feet and chest bare, hair tousled, talking with Rick on his cell. “In ten, yeah,” he confirmed, looking up as he spotted Cat emerging from her shower. She was gloriously nude with a towel wrapped around her thick hair as a make-shift shower cap. He swallowed, his blood accelerating in a race to make his dick unbearably hard again. “Could be a little longer.” He clicked off the phone without a goodbye.

  Cat’s smile hinted at a smirk as she held his gaze in the mirrored screen sitting beside the plush leather armchair. In the reflection, she unclipped the towel and shook her golden mass of hair free, letting it flow sensuously down her shoulders to curl teasingly against her slowly hardening nipples.

  Matt eased up behind her as she reached to pull on jeans. He guessed she’d abandoned her panties, because they’d been shredded during her last attempt to dress. Her brow arched at him as he ran a wide palm down the gentle swell of her belly, his lower lip between his teeth, his eyes hot as they watched each other in the mirror.

  “I could fuck you right here,” he murmured against the back of her neck, eying her reaction, feeling her shiver. “Bend you over in front of this mirror and let you watch me fuck you from behind. You should see how your cunt clings on to my cock, reluctant to let me leave.” He moved his hand to her still swollen nipple and pinched. Her eyes brightened, fixed on the fingers toying gently with her clit.

  “I wouldn’t say no.”

  “Yeah, but.” Matt shrugged casually, teasing her for teasing him. “Then, we’d keep Rick waiting, and you know how he hates that.”

  “He needs to learn to deal with disappointment.”

  Matt arched a wry brow. “Rick Hiatt accept disappointment?” He snorted. “Not likely, baby. So, get dressed.” He gave her bottom an encouraging swat. “I told him we’d be there in ten. We can always resume our…activities…in the playroom at the beach.”

  Cat gasped. “There’s a playroom there? I never saw that.”

  “You obviously never opened the closets in the guestroom.”

  Chapter 14

  Refreshed and dressed, Cat was nevertheless oddly nervous as she stood with Matt outside Rick’s dungeon door. From inside, she heard a soft whoosh, a snap, a muffled cry.

  “Hmm.” Matt frowned. “Sounds as if he’s already started with his sub. Well, guess they’ll have to adjust.” He shrugged and slid his pass card through the reader. The lock clicked open, and he drew Cat inside.

  At the other end of the room, Rick stood in front of a nude woman restrained to a large wooden X, her back to them, breasts pressed into the polished wood.

  Cat gasped. “What in the world?”

  “Rick’s working with Holly, a sub in training.” Matt’s lips grazed Cat’s ear in a whisper. “He’s restraining her on a St. Andrew’s cross.”

  “Restraining her so he can do what?”

  Matt shrugged. “All kinds of things from simple necking and petting to—”

  The swish and vicious snap of a bullwhip whistled through the air, followed by a shriek from the woman on the cross. Cat stiffened, squeezing Matt’s hand painfully.

  “Quiet, sub,” Rick snapped, ignoring them. “Take your punishment with a little grace. Maybe if you do, you’ll be rewarded.”

  Cat’s jaw dropped and she stared from the restrained woman to Matt. “Aren’t you going to help her?”

  Matt’s patient smiled infuriated her. “I would if I thought he were actually hurting her, or if I thought she didn’t want it. Cat, it’s an exercise in trust.”

  The whip whistled through the air again, and just at the point when she was ready to constrain Rick’s hand herself, Matt grabbed her arm in a firm grip.


  “Look closely at her body,” he instructed sternly. “Is the skin broken? Is she bleeding?”

  Cat squinted across the room. “No, but…”

  “Bullwhips don’t have to hurt, Cat.” Matt continued in that same stern, patient voice. “They can hurt and draw blood, of course, but I’ve seen Rick practice with a raw egg and never crack a shell. Believe me when I tell you, he won’t hurt her unless they both agree it’s what she wants, and even then, it won’t hurt much. He’s helping her learn to trust and overcome her fears, and yeah, maybe fulfilling her need for some minor pain.” His brow rose. “It depends on the sub.”

  “And she’s just gonna stand there and let him whip her?”

  “It’s BDSM. That’s part of the play, or can be. Everyone has their peccadilloes.”

  “That’s…that’s crazy.”

  “I wouldn’t be so quick to judge, didn’t you say you found being restrained a turn-on?”

  “Well, I know, but…”

  “Everyone has different limits. This,” he nodded toward the woman on the cross and Rick with his whip, “would be a hard limit for you. Trust me, there’s a key for every lock, and Rick is very skilled with that whip. He has a list as long as your arm of women who want to submit to it.”

  “And he seemed like such a nice guy.”

  Rick coiled the whip in his hand. “I am a nice guy.” He gave her a dazzling smile, then turned to the sub who hiccupped back her cries. “I’m leaving you here to pull yourself together and find your center.” He caressed her whelp-dotted buttocks with a gentle palm. “Don’t embarrass yourself.”

  “You could hear us?” Cat demanded as Rick strolled up to them.

  “Vamp hearing.” He gave her that knock-out smile again. “Much more acute than human.”

  “Oh.” Cat couldn’t take her gaze off the coiled whip he casually fingered as they spoke.

  “Let’s go somewhere a little quieter,” he suggested amiably. “Meet me in the observation room.”

  Matt nodded and led Cat out the door, and then into an adjoining room. It faced Rick’s dungeon with what, she now recognized, was a two-way mirror. Rick stopped by the restrained sub, offered her some ice water through a straw and comforted her with a tender stroke down her hair.

  He walked through the door leading from the observation room into the dungeon. “So, what’s the verdict? I’m on a timetable here.”

  “The verdict, is we’ll stay together for now, but if at any time I feel Cat’s in danger from me, I’ll send her away, and she’ll go.”

  “Wait!” Cat held up a warning hand. “I never agreed to that last part.”

  “Oh, God’s nightgown!” Rick exploded in a low, threatening voice. “Go back to the beach. Enjoy each other for however much time you have—maybe a lifetime, maybe a month. I’m tired of hearing the two of you bicker!” Matt’s face tightened. Cat glared, about to rebel.

  “Listen, I have a modest lead on a medical research facility in Colombia. Our chemists think this place is doing research on Humanité. They’ve been trying to grow buchu. I need you to come to a party with me next month to check out the owner, Elliot Maynard.”

  “Is he a vamp?” Matt asked. “Why do we have to wait?”

  “No, he’s not a vamp, and he’s out of the country right now. I don’t think he realizes what experiments his people are doing. That would be Veronique’s style—slip it in under the radar. Maynard’s company does all kinds of medical research. The Colombian government isn’t as squeamish about human trials as we are in the States.” He smiled at Cat’s hopeful look.

  “Then you know we’ll be there, brother,” Matt confirmed. “I’ll drop by tomorrow for the details. It’s late. We’re going to Cat’s place to collect some of her things, and then back out to the beach.”

  “Good for you. I have to get crackin. I have a sub who wants to dial up the pain.”

  Cat gaped. “She wants you to whip her more?”

  “Yeah.” Rick’s smile was cheerful. “I haven’t even drawn blood, yet.” He winked. “Wanna stick around and watch?”

  “I…no.”

  “Rick.” Matt shook his head at the cocky vampire. “You’re scaring her. Stop that.”

  “Don’t worry, love,” Rick cajoled, sweetly kissing Cat’s cheek. “I won’t permanently harm a hair on her head. I promise.” He walked jauntily out the door and into the dungeon.

  “He’s going to draw blood, but not harm a hair on her head?” Cat’s bewildered stare accused Matt. “How is that possible?”

  Matt sighed. “Why don’t you watch?”

  “You mean, he can really do that?”

  Matt nodded and gestured to the mirror. Cat watched with horrified fascination as Rick approached Holly. With a flip of a switch, Matt activated the sound.

  “How about a little more water?” Rick suggested, placing the straw at Holly’s lips, and Cat could now see the woman was maybe thirty, softly pretty, but very pale. He unfastened Holly’s restraints and caught her as she sagged from the cross.

  “You’re telling me a woman who collapses like that isn’t hurt?”

  “Well, is she really hurt, or does she just enjoy being cuddled?”

  “What?”

  “Look, I’m not saying people can’t be hurt during these games. I’m telling you Rick would never hurt a woman more than she could bear, or more than she wanted. Remember, every sub has a safe word. They say it and all action stops. So…is she really hurt, or does she enjoy his attention?”

  Cat was unconvinced, but watched with a new understanding. Rick rubbed Holly’s ankles and wrists as he snuggled her on his lap, kissing each limb sweetly as he went. He murmured to her, words they couldn’t hear, and she nodded. Their resulting kiss was deep and earnest, and somehow filled Cat with both longing and the uncomfortable feeling they were intruding on a private moment. Holly nodded, and Rick stood her on her feet while he turned a lever behind the cross and the X drew together into a solid post.

  Rick turned to his sub. “You’re sure you want to do this without restraints?” he asked. “You’ll have to hold yourself up.”

  Holly nodded. “I want to try, sir, if you’ll be there for me afterward.”

  “All right.” Rick led her to the post and then wrapped her arms around it. “It’s important that you not move. You get scared and suddenly change position, I’m liable to hurt you unintentionally.”

  “Unintentionally?” Cat whispered dryly. “Yeah, we wouldn’t want him to hurt her unintentionally!”

  Matt grunted. “Just watch.”

  Rick walked back a good six feet and then dispatched his silk shirt to the floor behind him. Bare chested, he unfurled the bullwhip before he cracked it at his side, his muscles dancing in command of the length of leather. A tremor ran through Cat. She could only imagine what the woman clinging to the post felt. His arm now loose, he let the whip fly with a whoosh and crack that placed a long welt from shoulder to thigh across Holly’s back. First one side, and then the other, and then again four more times in rapid succession. Each time Holly’s cries got a little louder, and on the sixth stroke, blood coursed from the wounds as Holly sagged against the post. Rick threw the whip to the floor and then raced forward to catch her.

  “Not hurting her?” Cat accused in outrage. “You think this isn’t hurting her? Are you all insane? I’m calling the police!” She unzipped her purse, intent on finding her cell, when Matt restrained her in a painless, but unbreakable grip. He kept her back to his front, facing the mirror.

  “Watch.”

  As she looked up, Cat saw Rick’s eyes turn, his fangs drop long and razor sharp. Gracefully, he caught Holly in an embrace and lowered her gently onto her belly. He straddled the backs of her thighs, his body tense with anticipation as he bent over her weeping back. Cat gasped at what he did next. With loving focus, he lathed the welling droplets of blood from her slowly oozing welts. Healing strokes of his tongue stemmed the crimson flow and quieted her mewling cries.

 
; Cat expected the worst as the vampire consumed more and more of the whipped woman’s blood. Rick savored every drop. Did he taste her pain? Was it delicious to him?

  As she watched Rick’s ravenous consumption of his sub’s life force, Cat wondered if he’d be able to stop. Holly was so pale already. Am I about to witness a murder? As horrified as she was by the thought, she couldn’t deny there was something sensual in the way he worshipped Holly’s body.

  While Rick licked and kissed the sub, he drew his fingertips gently over her quivering body, comforting and stimulating her all at once. Holly bucked and moaned beneath him. The flow of blood stopped, leaving the whip’s cleavage of her savaged flesh obvious under the harsh lights. Still, his lips and tongue paid homage to what he and his sub shared, rather than succumbing to the need to rip and drain. As he licked, he stretched the length of his muscled body over Holly’s, holding himself centimeters above her as if separated by some imaginary force field. He whispered words into her ear, too low for Cat to catch.

  Cat stood transfixed, watching Rick’s lips move, watching Holly’s back arch into him. Holly pinched her nipples eagerly as she absorbed the meaning of his words. He drew her with him onto their knees. Seeing her passionate swoon, he raised his knee for her to lean against, balancing her as she fought for focus.

  Cat’s shock intensified as Rick drove his wicked-looking fangs deep into his own wrist and held his bleeding arm over Holly’s open mouth. The sub drank from him eagerly, her eyes going wide with the kick, and then dreamy with the high. Before Cat’s unbelieving eyes, the marks from the whip diminished and finally vanished altogether. She turned questioning eyes to Matt.

  “It’s the vampire blood, even a small amount has the ability to heal human wounds.”

  “Oh.” It was more a gasp than a whisper.