by Zoey Marcel
“Will you pursue the lifestyle or practice it only in the bedroom?”
She wondered which answer would please him more but figured the truth was probably best. “I don’t know. I’ve learned so much from you. I really enjoy what we do together. I would like to pursue that.”
“So will you look for another Dom then?”
Her heart fell. He thought she meant she wanted to pursue BDSM once she left. And while Claire did want to continue her discoveries of BDSM, she wanted to share it with him. “I’m not sure. I really want to continue learning about all of this, but it wouldn’t feel right to get another Dom.”
“I’m sure you would adjust once he put his hands on you,” Joaquin responded heartlessly.
Her eyes squeezed shut, barely concealing the threatening tears.
He stood and walked over to the St. Andrew’s cross. “Well, as long as I have you, I may as well introduce you to flogging, so you’re not completely terrified during the demonstration in a few weeks.”
Claire discreetly wiped her eyes and stood for him. “How do you want me?”
The question made her feel like a hooker. She wanted more from him, but he didn’t want it. This was a business deal. She would allow him to train her as his slave only until the show in a few weeks and in return she got to keep her job until then and he would provide her a place to live afterward. The agreement wasn’t unlike prostitution and it saddened her deeply.
In the beginning it had seemed like the perfect situation for her. She got to keep her job, get introduced to BDSM and enjoy no-strings-attached sex for several weeks before being provided a place to live when it was over.
Now Claire wanted there to be strings. She wanted them wrapped so tightly around her that she couldn’t leave even if she wanted to. Alas, she had destroyed any chance of this sadist ever loving her when she broke his trust in her.
“Remove your skirt, but leave the heels and stockings on,” Joaquin instructed her.
Claire shed her skirt and timidly approached the St. Andrew’s cross. The smooth wood formed a perfect X that was sure to keep a person’s limbs spread wide open and completely vulnerable to the one who bound them to it. What a truly beautiful, epic piece of torture.
Just his cold hands on her wrists and ankles as he secured her to it sent a surge of need and tender caring through her. The wood pressed against her sore breasts, but she could stand the pain, knowing that her Dom was touching her.
“I’ll start off gentle so you can get used to it,” he promised.
“Thank you, but you don’t have to hold back with me.”
Joaquin tugged on one of her braids, forcing her head back slightly. “Remember my title, slave. It pleases me to warm you up first, since I will be striking your back and legs as well as your already-prepped ass. Believe me, I will strike you much harder by the time we’re through.”
Claire shivered at his chilly breath against her skin, mourning his absence when he let go of her braid and stepped back. She felt a tinge of dread and excitement when she saw him grab the flogger. The handle was a gorgeous ivory and the leather tails looked intimidating, though somehow inviting at the same time.
The first several touches from the flogger were simply taps and eventually light swats as he primed her butt, back and thighs for the coming abuse.
“I’m going to leave marks on you, slave. You must be punished for defying me,” he told her, sounding way too damned happy about it.
Good lord, he hadn’t punished her yet? She thought the spanking with the ruler was her penalty, but apparently that was an appetizer before the main course. God help her.
“You forgot who your Master is. Perhaps this will remind you.”
Claire jolted against the wood when he delivered a punishing blow to her back. Her skin heated from the aggressive force.
“Is it coming back to you now?” Joaquin taunted.
He really was a bastard, but she loved him. His sarcasm drew a smile from her lips. “Is what coming back to me?”
She laughed inside at her stubbornness, knowing full well she asked for that second harder strike on her back. The sudden, slashing impact made her flinch and grunt helplessly.
“Clearly I’ve been too soft with you. I think you need a visible reminder of my power over you.” He trailed his fingertips over her back, sending shivers of awareness through her body. His susurrant timbre made her crazy for him. “I’m going to leave marks on you, Claire. Marks of shame and ownership. You won’t be able look at your body without being reminded of my power over you.”
A scream ripped from her throat when the leather tails lashed ruthlessly at her sore backside. Her body quivered against the cross and her binds, but she couldn’t move. He had her right where he wanted her.
“You think my orders are mere suggestions to be disregarded whenever you please?”
“No, Master.” Her desperate outcry of suffering filled the room when he sent the straps hurtling against the backs of her thighs.
“By sleeping with Nex when I gave you specific instructions that I was in charge of when and where you have sex, you proved to me that somehow you’ve got the crazy idea in your head that you are in control of that and your body is your Master.” His teeth grazed her earlobe and he tickled her thighs with his barely there touches. “But deep down we both know that’s not true, don’t we?”
Her head went back and she moaned. “Yes.”
A feeble mew of pain strangled on its way from her when Joaquin gave her battered butt cheek a squeeze in warning. “Remember my title, slave? The one you said you wouldn’t forget.”
“Yes, Master. I’m sorry.”
“Who is the Master of your body?”
Claire gasped when his finger pierced into her channel and thrust into her slowly.
“Tell me, Claire, though your drenched pussy seems to have already answered for you.”
“You are.”
“I’m what?”
“The Master of my body.” She whined when his finger deserted her slit. “Oh, no! Come back.”
She choked on a whimper when he flogged her for protesting. The pain became unbearable at times and her entire backside felt inflamed from the abuse, throbbing terribly even when the flogger retreated. She purred with rapture whenever he stopped disciplining her and caressed her flesh lovingly and nuzzled her. He alternated between hot, vicious flogging that she knew was leaving marks on her and gentle, comforting touches all over her body. He fondled the places he inflicted with suffering as well as the places that were merely affected because of his close proximity to her.
“Oh, Master, it’s too much. I can’t take any more pain or pleasure,” Claire pleaded. “Please fuck me.”
Joaquin kissed her neck tenderly and nuzzled her cheek. “I know it hurts, but I also know you’re a masochist. Maybe not the kind that gets off on any pain, but when administered in a sexual context you revel in it, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she sobbed. “It hurts so badly, but it feels so good. I want it to stop, because I can’t take it, but it hurts so good I need it.”
“You have lovely welts, stripes and bruises on you. I can’t tell you how much pleasure it brings me to hurt you like this. To touch you and bring you pleasure,” he whispered, cupping her bare pussy.
She mewled, trying to push into his palm even more, though she couldn’t move. Gooseflesh formed on her mound from his icy touch.
“I’m going to flog you some more.”
“Oh no! I can’t take it. Oh god, what are you doing?” She panted as he stroked her smooth labia, awakening every nerve there.
“You can and you will take everything I give you. You want me to punish you for being a bad little whore, don’t you?” He brushed her clit before pulling his hand away, seeming to enjoy her sounds of ecstasy.
“Yes, Master.” His sadistic smile scared her, but the unmistakable fire in his eyes enthralled her.
“Beg me to discipline you.”
“Please punish
me, Master.”
Joaquin moved behind her again and with a flick of his wrist the angry leather bit at her thighs and she screamed. “That’s asking. Begging is when you need it more than your next breath and are willing to do anything to get it.”
Claire groaned in torment, body teeming with unthinkable aches and mounting bliss. “Make me beg you, Master. Don’t leave me with any choice.”
The deep grunt rumbling in his chest sounded dreadfully predatory, but the sound electrified her.
“I will make you beg, slave,” he vowed darkly, “and then you will know how much power I have over you.”
His threatening promise made her hornier and it came to pass in a violent series of flogs, which were inevitably supplanted with tenders caresses. The pain became so intense and unbearable that it gradually lessened and left her feeling hot and cold at the same time. She began to crave the brutality as it washed over her, all consuming and constant. The feeling was unreal and she couldn’t remember pain ever pushing her this far before. Joaquin pushed her over the threshold of pain into an otherworldly realm where the agony remained every bit as ruthless, but she started to crave it like a drug.
Claire had never done drugs, so she didn’t know what it felt like to be high, but in this powerful moment she knew. Her body was enveloped in the vicious, sweet possession. Driven past the point of no return into the place where pain and pleasure merged into one sexual being. The out-of-body experience had her whimpering his name or his title. She didn’t know. She was only half aware that she begged him to beat her and touch her.
“I love you,” she whispered, supposing she’d only thought it. The flogging stopped, but the firestorm of possession raged on as she writhed against her restraints.
Her sound when Joaquin feathered his fingers over her waxed labia was somewhere between a wild gasp and a piercing scream as she came for him. He never even touched her clit, merely her heated, sensitive mons, but it sent her over.
On the way down her sense of awareness and reasoning returned, and Claire realized that she had wept during all of this. She’d been so drugged with passion she hadn’t even noticed. What else had she said or done when she lost control to him in subspace?
Joaquin pressed his groin against her and breathed into her scalp. “Claire, my beautiful, fucking amazing Claire. Thank you for that.”
“Thank you. Please fuck me.”
He groaned, the bulge in his pants increasing in size. “I think you’ve had enough excitement for one night. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
“You don’t have to protect me. Just fuck me. I trust you.”
The air grew cold and still. “I’m glad you trust me as your Master. But I am first and foremost a vampire. Never forget that.”
Claire nearly fell over when he unshackled her, and she would have hit the floor if he hadn’t caught her. He sank to his knees and brought her down with him to the floor. “Make me bleed. I want to feed you. I want you to drink my blood while you fuck me.”
She felt deliriously high and her head rolled back against him, enjoying the chilled marble wall of his chest.
“You don’t know what you’re asking.” His tone was a thin line and she could feel he was tense. “Dakarai made you a bubble bath. Lay back and let me get these heels and stockings off for you.”
Joaquin guided her head gently to the floor and moved to sit between her legs as he took off her heels. His eyes were black and heated as he pinned them on her and held each foot against him while rolling off her stockings.
Claire slowly reached down and parted her folds, exposing her creamy slit to his hungry gaze. His eyes were lightening to dark purple when they rested on her opened cleft. He kissed a cool, soothing trail up her inner thigh before burying his head between her legs. He kissed her privates and licked her delicately as though savoring the taste of her.
Claire moaned at his forbidden kisses on her sex. She was still out of it from the flogging, but she wanted to give him what he wanted most. She would let him into her body and spill her blood for him. She let her fingernail morph into the claw that was part of her demon counterpart and pricked the skin on her mons. Her claw turned back into a fingernail and a drop of blood pooled to the surface.
Joaquin’s nostrils flared and he lifted his head to see her offering to him. His eyes lightened to the color of plums and he growled like a beast low in his throat as he tasted her blood with his tongue. His pupils dilated and his eyes flashed to burgundy. He looked like a madman as he sucked the blood up. The prick healed almost immediately, but the vamp was undaunted. His fangs dropped and he let out a savage snarl as he sank them into her mons and drank from her.
Claire screamed at the hellish pain of being punctured by big-ass, sharp teeth. She squirmed to alleviate it, but he held her thighs still while he drank the blood from her. “Joaquin…”
Her voice trailed off and he clapped a hand over her mouth to silence her plea. Normally having her mouth covered during sex aroused her, but right now it frightened her. Was he silencing her so no one would hear her scream?
The door opened and Dakarai came in. “Her bath—Shit! Joaquin, stop!”
Dakarai grabbed him, attempting to pry him off her. Joaquin unlatched from her body and snarled at his partner for interfering. His bloodred eyes chilled her to the bone. In that moment he looked and acted truly demonic.
“Snap out of it!” Dakarai shook him.
Joaquin eased up and squeezed his eyes shut as he panted, fists clenched. “Thank you. Clean her up and put some salve on her marks.”
“I will, just go,” Dakarai urged him.
Joaquin glared down at Claire before hurrying out of the room. “Don’t ever do that again.”
Claire felt a stab of guilt. He may have terrified the crap out of her, but she had been the one to provoke him with her blood.
Dakarai helped her to her feet. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, body trembling with fear and adrenaline.
“What happened?”
“It was my fault. I wanted him to taste my blood because I knew he wanted it. He warned me it was dangerous, but I didn’t listen. I cut myself and he lost control.”
Dakarai’s dark eyes widened as he handed her a cloth to press to her mound. “You foolish woman, you could have been killed. What were you thinking?”
“I guess I wasn’t.”
“That is apparent.” He pulled her into a snug embrace. “I’m glad you’re all right. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”
She hugged him back, moved by his words. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be so much trouble.”
“It’s all right. It makes life interesting, but don’t ever tempt him with your blood again. It’s a constant battle for him anyway without you flaunting it at him.”
“I won’t. I’m sorry.” Her chest ached inside. “He won’t forgive me for this, will he?”
Dakarai evaded her question. “Come, let’s get you washed and rub some cream on those marks.”
Chapter Nine:
Exorcism
Joaquin sat alone on the balcony. The moon cast its ghostly light on the courtyard, illuminating the otherwise rampant darkness. The sweet, addicting taste of Claire’s blood lingered in his mouth. He’d never tasted anything like it. Each person’s blood had a fairly different flavor, but there was something unreal about hers. Even now it called to him like a tempting whisper, promising the high of a lifetime. Indeed, drinking from her body had been the greatest intoxication he’d ever known. It stirred something primal inside of him. This human shell he dwelt in seemed to vanish, leaving only the monster within.
He felt absolutely wretched for losing control over her blood like that and had to wonder if Dakarai hadn’t walked in when he did and intervened, would Joaquin have been able to stop? He liked to think so, but deep down he feared his need for Claire’s blood could somehow overshadow his need for her to live. He couldn’t let that happen to her. He would kill anyone who tried to hurt her
, but if he was the one to take her life, he couldn’t live with himself.
The fruity, clean scent of bubble bath floated in the air before he ever even saw Claire step out onto the balcony with him. She looked cuddly and adorable in her aquamarine robe and her Halloween toe socks.
“I wanted to apologize for earlier. I was just trying to be nice. I didn’t think it would cause a problem.”
Joaquin said nothing. He watched her face twist in pain when she attempted to sit but failed to do so comfortably. She turned the chair around and straddled it backward with her arms resting against the back of it, likely to alleviate the pressure of sitting on her butt and thighs.
Normally the knowledge that his slave bore his marks of ownership and couldn’t sit comfortably brought him a sadistic satisfaction, but right now all he could think about was the warm, red blood flowing through her veins. He could smell it, remember the unmatched taste of it as it pulsed enticingly just below her skin. One bite and heaven would pour into his mouth, hot and decadent. The flavor and life force contained within it blew his mind away.
Claire studied him anxiously for a moment before turning her head slightly to look at the moon. Her graceful neck was exposed to him. He had her alone. She was strong, but with her partial humanity, he was stronger. He could easily overpower her and silence her screams.
Just one bite.
Joaquin shoved the gnawing temptation aside. He didn’t want to feel this way. It had been difficult enough being around her all the time, but now that he knew what she tasted like, how warm her blood felt leaving her body, the drug-like high to be felt from drinking it, the urge to throw her down and drain her completely was almost unbearable.
Claire finally looked over at him again. “Thank you for earlier. That was amazing. I never knew pain could feel so incredible.”
Joaquin managed a weak smile. “I wanted to be the first to bring you to subspace. I’ve gotten subs there before, but I’ve never had one orgasm from it without clitoral stimulation. It’s rare that someone can get off on pain alone. I always wanted to see that and know that I had been the cause of it. Thank you for that.”
