She glanced at me in surprise as she sat down. “I’d forgotten that about you.” I must have looked puzzled because she continued. “That you are so courteous.”
I resumed my own seat. “I always take care of my prisoners.”
Silently, I cursed my own clumsiness as her face changed. “Thank you for reminding me of my captive status.” Her voice was expressionless.
Paolo had organized breakfast and it was served now by two of the cabin boys. Christie’s eyes widened as an array of cereal, pastries, fruit, cold meats and cheeses were placed on a table beside ours. When juice and coffee had been served and we were finally alone, she ventured a look in my direction. I must have been staring a little too hard because she blushed.
“Where are we?”
“We left Atlantic City a few hours ago.” I watched her face as I spoke. “We dropped your fellow—” What was the best way to describe them? “—working girls off there.”
She had been about to bite into a slice of melon, but she placed it back on her plate and sat up a little straighter. “Why? We signed up to be hostesses for your cruise even if you didn’t, you know...”
“Fuck you?”
“Yes. Even if you didn’t choose us.” She looked me directly in the eye. “Even if you didn’t decide you wanted to fuck us.”
Just hearing her say it made me want to add action to the word. I could see it affecting her the same way. The rosy tint in her cheeks deepened and she briefly caught her lip between her teeth. The sound of her tiny, indrawn breath hit me hard. Made me hard.
“They are no longer needed.”
I leaned closer, sliding one of the straps of her dress down from her shoulder. Her skin had a sheen to it. Like the shimmer of pearls. As I trailed my lips along her collarbone, she murmured my name. Half-longing, half-grudging.
“So you abandoned them?”
“No. I gave them an all-expenses-paid holiday in Atlantic City and their airfare home.”
I sank my teeth into the silken flesh of her shoulder and she whimpered, tangling her hands in my hair.
“But not me?”
“Not you. You will fulfill the terms of your contract and be my hostess.”
I raised my head in time to catch a flash of something in her eyes. What was it? Relief? Fear? Dread? All of those things at once?
“What if I don’t want that? What if I wanted the Atlantic City option?”
I tugged down her dress to expose her breasts and her whole body quivered. My finger traveled from her jaw to her collarbone. Beneath my touch, her skin was like velvet, soft, smooth and responsive to my touch. Rounded, pert and perfectly shaped, her naked breasts appeared milky smooth against the tanned flesh of my hand.
“You are not going anywhere, Christie. Face it, we both know exactly what you want, no matter how hard you try to hide it.”
“What do I want?” There was a suspicion of a gasp in the words. I raised my head and saw the challenge in her eyes.
“You want your Uncle Theo’s cock inside you.”
That kink would never go away. It inflamed and tortured us both. As I bent my head to flick my tongue over one hard nipple, everything disappeared except the yearning in the blue-green depths of her eyes.
“I shouldn’t want that. It’s wrong.” She ran her tongue over her lips. If the eyes are the gateway to the soul, the lips are the portal to the body. Christie’s lush pink mouth promised endless pleasure. “But I do. Maybe I should be punished for it?”
Chapter Thirteen
Christie
I was naked with my hands cuffed behind me as I knelt facedown with my ass in the air...and I had asked for this.
I couldn’t see Theo, but I knew he was still fully dressed in his usual dark pants and white shirt. I also knew he had an erection like a tent-pole as he undressed me and positioned me on the bed.
“Safe word?”
“Uncle?” I tried for a lighthearted tone.
“No.” He trailed a finger between my buttocks, pausing to press against my asshole. I jerked wildly at the intrusive, delicious touch. “Let’s not confuse things. You’ll call me ‘Uncle Theo’ anyway. Your safe word must be something unambiguous.”
“Tainted.”
I felt the beat of his pause. “Very well. If you say ‘stop,’ ‘no’ or utter any other protest, I will continue. But as soon as you use your safe word, as soon as you say ‘tainted,’ I will stop what I am doing. Is that clear?”
“Yes.” His hand was still on my ass and I wriggled slightly, wanting to feel that intimate touch again. “Should I call you ‘Master’?”
“You know what to call me.” His voice was rough as he moved closer. “Say it.”
I swallowed hard. Suddenly I was scared. Scared of how much I wanted to feel that paddle while I said those delicious, forbidden words.
“Uncle Theo.”
I stared at the paddle. The wood was smooth, the handle carved with an intricate Celtic design. Shouldn’t the fact he possessed a handmade fetish tool have me running for the door? Clearly punishment was one of Theo’s kinks. Fuck me like I’m in trouble. The thought came from nowhere, stealing my breath and making me even wetter.
As if he knew what I was thinking, his hand tightened painfully on the sensitive flesh of my ass cheek. When he placed the blindfold over my eyes, my other senses took over. I could hear his steady breathing, smell his cologne and the underlying scents of soap, toothpaste and clean, masculine flesh. I was aware of the space my body occupied. Of my position. It was so exposed, so potentially humiliating. Yet I found it exciting. I could sense what the sight of my body was doing to Theo, and, even though I was the one bound and helpless, I was exulting in my power over him.
Almost as if he read my mind, he moved into position behind me. “The enjoyment that comes from a spanking is not derived simply from the blow itself. Nor is the power felt only by one person. Part of the pleasure is derived from the tingling sensation that deliciously passes through your body in anticipation of a blow.”
He placed one hand flat on my ass as he spoke, at the same time circling my clit with his thumb. I gave an appreciative murmur.
“An intense connection between you and the other person reverberates up and down your spine when the first contact is made.”
He brought his hand lightly down on my ass. Too lightly. I felt nothing. This was it? He was going to treat me like I was made of glass? I wanted more than this. Disappointment felt like iced water in my veins.
“It pulses in and out and up and down, until your whole body is on fire.”
The second slap was harder. Still not hard enough to hurt, but at least I could feel it this time. Maybe the water in my veins was lukewarm now.
“The power is equal. The person delivering the blow has a similar experience. They are the conduit, the spark that lights the flame.”
A cry of surprise escaped me when, without warning, his hand came down hard in a stinging slap. Disappointment vanished, becoming instant, squirming delight. From then on, each blow increased in severity as his other hand held my outer lips apart so his thumb could continue to stroke me. The burning pain of the continuing slaps in contrast to the pleasure of his leisurely caresses made my head spin. There was a fire in my buttocks and a matching burning in my cunt. Despite the pain, my thighs quivered and my stomach muscles tightened in preparation for orgasm.
“Are you ready for the paddle?”
Was I? The idea made me tremble with fear and renewed excitement. That water in my veins just reached boiling point. It was as though my mind had become unhinged. There was no thought, only sensation. The burning skin of my backside matched the pulsating lust that squeezed my inner walls together hard and tight.
“Yes...” I managed to force the word out. The next ones came easily. �
�Uncle Theo.”
Although I couldn’t see him, it seemed like that name on my lips propelled him into action.
“Your punishment will be ten blows. Count each one.” His voice was stern. I wanted stern. It made me wetter.
The first hit wasn’t too bad. Different to his hand. Harsher. Colder. It had less give than his warm flesh.
“One.” I breathed through it.
Theo had withdrawn his touch from my clit and, although that stimulation was missing, the sensations continued. How could pain make me horny as hell?
The next blow was harder, making me draw in a sharp breath.
“Two.”
I braced myself. Sure enough, the third smack rang out loudly. I cried out as it stung my bare ass cheeks and brought tears to my eyes.
“Please...”
“You know what to say.” Strict. Distant.
“Three.” I clenched my jaw. Like fuck was I going to use a safe word. “Uncle Theo.”
He increased the force of the next blow. Pain and desire continued to build within me as each new smack rang out, echoing off the walls of the cabin. The only sounds were wood on flesh, followed by my feeble gasps as I counted the blows.
The cuffs chafed my wrists as I squirmed, and I pressed my face hard into the sheets, seeking release in a different sensation.
When he reached the seventh blow, Theo stopped and I felt him place the paddle on the bed next to me. His touch was featherlight as he ran his fingers from my clit to my back passage, back and forth, anointing me with my own juices.
“You’re doing well.” He leaned over, pressing his lips to my ear. “Three more strokes and then I’m going to give you what you want. What do you want, Christie?”
His touch and his words made me shiver with pleasure.
“Your cock.” I bowed my head, the action lifting my ass higher. “Give it to me, Uncle Theo.”
“But first...”
I needed him inside me so much, the pain of the final blows was a welcome blur. I felt and heard the movement as he reared back. Those last three hits of the paddle sent me wild. I screamed with a combination of pleasure and agony, not knowing where one sensation started and the other ended.
By the time the tenth blow came, I was pleading with him. “Ten. Fuck me now. Fuck me like I’m in trouble.”
My pleas weren’t necessary. I heard the sound of Theo’s zipper and felt his latex-sheathed length against my thigh as he moved closer.
He gripped my hips hard, rubbing the head of his cock between my burning ass cheeks. I jerked insistently against him, and his hard shaft slid into my slippery wetness. Immediately, he began to thrust wildly. It was like having raw steel pumped into my body, fast and furious. I was helpless to do anything. In my trussed-up position, I couldn’t even push back against his unrelenting rhythm. All I could do was cry out for more.
He drove quickly into me, slamming in as deep as he could. His rhythm was the hot, dirty pounding of punishment fucking. The head of his cock hit high and hard and his hips slapped against my ass, hurting my abused flesh. Sliding smoothly out, he powered back in again. Over and over. Making sure I felt every bulge, ridge and vein in his erection as he hit my sensitive nerve endings. And—oh, God—it was perfect. Pain and pleasure combining to create searing rapture.
He pinned me in place beneath him. In an effort to regain control, I squeezed my buttocks together, making it tighter for him as he shoved inch after rock-hard inch in and out of me. At the same time, I concentrated on keeping my thigh muscles clenched to hold myself in position. My whole world became heat, moisture and residual pain. I felt everything give way as my body broke apart under the sweet, unrelenting torture.
I arched beneath him one final time, riding the waves of my orgasm, my whole body vibrating with electricity as his cock pumped his own release deep inside me.
Theo’s hands were gentle as he eased out of me and tipped me onto my side. Removing the blindfold and handcuffs, he massaged my wrists where the metal had chafed. His hand slid down to touch my ass and I flinched.
Theo pressed his lips to my forehead. “Good girl.” I was sore, fuck-tousled, weak and shaken by the roller coaster of my emotions. How was it possible for those two little words to make me feel horny all over again?
“I’ll run you a bath now and I have an herbal remedy that will help with the bruises.” He raised himself on one elbow, concern shadowing the dark depths of his eyes. “Was I too rough?”
I bit my lip. There was no hiding place from the truth. Not anymore. “I liked it.”
He groaned. “It may be best if you don’t say that again until you are fully healed and ready for another round.”
Chapter Fourteen
Christie
“Why did you leave?” I turned in Theo’s arms, tangling my legs between his. His eyes were closed, but I knew he wasn’t sleeping. “Even if you didn’t want me, why did you walk out of our lives the way you did. Why did you have to sever the ties you had with my father, wreck your friendship and start a feud?”
We were nearing the coast of Florida and the first part of the cruise was almost over. The last few days had been a fantasy, and we were sailing into reality. A reality in which moments like this didn’t exist. Or maybe in his arms I had found the real world and everything else was fiction. It sure as hell felt like it. All I knew for sure was I had given up the pretense that I didn’t want him. And with that honesty had come a closeness that scared me more than ever.
Theo was silent for so long I thought he wasn’t going to answer at all. Then he abruptly sat up, his back to the padded headboard and the sheet tucked around his hips. I lay on my stomach, leaning on my elbows and propping my chin on my hands. The angle gave a false impression of the harsh planes of his face. Because his expression couldn’t really be as haunted as it appeared.
“He never told you?”
A horrible feeling swept over me. Was this the reveal-all moment? The one in which I discovered I had been blaming the wrong villain for the last ten years?
Of course it fucking was.
“I went to see Oliver that night. Straight after you left me.”
I closed my eyes. “You didn’t tell him what happened between us?”
I had an image of my father, bible in one hand, gun in the other, driving Theo out of the house.
“I didn’t go into detail.” His lips curved into a smile and I could tell he was seeing the same mental image. “But I told him I loved you.”
Tears, sharp and bright as shards of glass, stung the back of my eyelids. “You told him that?” You felt that? It was a momentous piece of information. Shouldn’t I have been told as well?
It had been unbelievably brave of Theo to say those words to my father. He was a tyrant and a bully. A man of God with the devil’s own temper. He used his beliefs to impose his will on everyone around him. His family got the worst of his oppressive regime.
“What did he do?” My throat was so tight I could barely squeeze the words out.
“Called me a goddamn pervert and threw me out of his house. Told me if I ever tried to see you again, he’d kill us both. Plenty more stuff along those lines.” I got the feeling there was an untold story in that sentence. Even though the memory must have been painful, Theo’s tone remained neutral. “I tried to explain that it was forever. Although you were young, I wanted to marry you, that I’d take care of you...but you know what he was like.”
I closed my eyes. “You said you wanted to marry me?”
“I didn’t just say it, Christie. I meant it.”
I moved up the bed until I was sitting next to him and leaned my head against his shoulder. It wasn’t worth discussing what had happened all those years ago. This piece of the puzzle was important. It eased my wounded pride...a little. But it wasn’t the whole
picture.
You walked away. If you really loved me, you’d have fought for me. My father had been the dragon, but Theo hadn’t been much of a white knight.
Time. Wasn’t it meant to be a great healer? I didn’t feel healed. I didn’t feel anything much.
“That’s why you ruined him.” It was a statement, not a question. Ten long years of my father’s business decline had culminated in his downfall. He had always blamed Theo. Now I knew why.
Theo’s fingertips had been making lazy circles around my shoulder, but they paused in midair. “Pardon?”
“You destroyed him because of the way he treated you.”
I tilted my head up so I could gaze at him. What I saw surprised me. He didn’t look guilty. Or proud of his achievements. He appeared genuinely stunned.
“I wasn’t responsible for what happened to Oliver. Any of it. I walked out of his house that night and had nothing to do with him from then on.” I had no reason to believe him. But his next words ensured that I did. “I didn’t hurt him, Christie, no matter how much I wanted to, for one simple reason. Hurting him would have meant hurting you.”
My heart clenched like a boxer’s fist. All those years of anguish and bitterness had been for nothing. Every time I’d thought of Theo—and, my God, all those times I’d thought of him—it had been a physical pain. Sometimes the same dull ache in my chest I’d felt months after my mother had died, sometimes the sharp twist of a knife in my gut. Thankfully, the ferocity had faded over time. I couldn’t have withstood that degree of intensity. Knowing that I had been through it for nothing—hearing Theo talk about how much he had cared for me—brought a new hurt in its wake. Theo had made me feel so many mixed emotions, but regret was the most painful of them all.
“But he insisted it was you who ruined him. Every time something happened, every business deal that went wrong...when he was framed for fraud. All of it. He said he could trace it back to you.”
Seduction Squad: Tainted Page 6
