Much as she wanted to argue, Anna knew deep inside his words were true. She’d used the possibility of mind control to cover her own overwhelming desire to submit to this man, this demon, this creature who brought out every single one of her darkest desires. “I’ve got my safe word.”
“Excellent.” Dante stepped closer. “What is it?”
“Red.”
“Red.” He chuckled. “Do I want to know why you picked that?”
“Probably not.”
He led her back into the dungeon then tossed a black satin pillow onto the floor and pointed. As she knelt, Anna still couldn’t quite believe she was finally going to experience what she’d only dreamed about up until this point. The rational part of her said she shouldn’t want to learn more about his whips and cuffs and other instruments of exquisite torture. But the other part of her—the deeper, darker, craven part—wanted to sit at Dante’s feet, wanted him to take control of her body and her pleasure.
“Relax, ofryd. First I am going to bind your wrists.” He moved in behind her and gently traced his hand down her arm, taking extra time to caress each of her cuts and scars, then buckled a fur-lined leather cuff around her wrist before repeating the maneuver on the other side.
“Next, I will secure them.” Dante threaded a thin chain through a loop on each cuff, then attached said chain to a hook on a spreader bar on the floor.
At his mercy now, Anna shivered. “Is there any heat in this place?”
“Do not worry. You will feel hot soon enough.” A metal cranking noise sounded and Dante placed a hand on her shoulder again. “I will now raise the spreader bar above your head and bring you to a standing position.”
Nervous butterflies swirled in her stomach at the husky need in his voice.
Once she stood before him, Dante traced his finger up the center of Anna’s chest to her chin. “Ready?”
“For what?”
“For what you have sought your whole life?”
She swallowed hard. They’d only just met, and yet he knew her so well. “Will it hurt?”
“Of course.” He moved closer, allowing his warm chest to brush against her chilled skin. “In the very best way. Remember what I said. To experience extreme pleasure, one must first endure pain.”
“What if I can’t take it?”
“Then you say your safe word and it all stops.” Dante pulled a long black strip of fabric from a nearby shelf and held it before Anna. “One last thing.”
“What’s that?” She leaned back, startled.
“A blindfold. To heighten your pleasure.”
“Not seeing will heighten my pleasure?”
“Removing one sense increases the others.” He traced his fingers over the bruise on her cheek then kissed it gently. “Trust me, it is better. Especially the first time.”
“Why? I want to see you. Feel you.”
“Oh, you shall feel me, ofryd. And once we are done, I will remove it. For after.”
“After?”
Dante’s fingers grazed Anna from breast to thigh. “After.”
After.
A fresh wave of desire coiled deep in her stomach. “Okay.”
“Okay.” He secured the blindfold in place then stepped away. When Dante returned, something soft tickled the skin of Anna’s back. “We will start with a light flogger. Relax your body, breathe deeply and do not tense your muscles. This will be good, I promise.”
“And you’ll stop if I don’t like it?”
“Yes, of course. But…”
He’d been right. With her sight gone, all of her other senses seemed on high alert. His every caress, his scent, his voice—all of them seemed more real, more seductive. “But?”
“But what if you like it?”
Dante pushed Anna’s hair over her shoulder and ran his hand down the straight line of her spine, followed by what she assumed were the tails of the flogger. She sagged against her restraints, forcing her body to relax, just as he’d asked.
“Good girl. Ready?”
“Rea—”
The crack of the flogger sliced through the air and the first lash seared like a harsh bee sting. For a moment, Anna was incapable of words, of thought, of focusing on anything but the pain radiating from the center of her back.
He brought the flogger down a second time and she bit her lip to keep from crying out. Strike after strike until her body felt like nothing more than a throbbing mass of nerve endings. Still, she never said her safe word. Not once. Never even considered it. Because this was what she wanted, what she needed, what she’d been born to experience. There was something about the focus, something about the release of control, the flood of sensation that freed Anna inside, that made her feel like if she could endure this, she could endure anything.
At last Dante set the flogger aside and pressed his body tight to hers, the pressure of his hot skin against her flaming welts made her whimper. “So beautiful, my ofryd. So perfect.”
Sliding his fingers up her arms, he released her wrists from the restraints and she fell limp against him. Dante carried Anna out of the dungeon to his bed, then laid her against the crisp cotton sheets. She hissed at the cool contact on her abraded skin.
Dante undid her blindfold then hovered over her, his dark hair loose and wild around his face. He smiled and stroked her cheek. “Like that?”
Anna nodded, unable to speak, unable to put into words quite how she felt—aroused, appreciative, astounded.
Dante undid the front clasp on her bra, pulling it off her arms to leave her naked except for her panties. “Okay?”
“Yes.” She traced her fingers up his neck to his lips. She needed this. With Liz gone, she needed this connection with him tonight. Lacing her fingers through his soft dark curls, Anna pulled Dante’s lips down to hers. Heat and arousal throbbed between her legs even as the welts on her back throbbed with pain. “God, yes.”
He kissed her deeply, his tongue slipping inside her mouth as he slid his hand down her front, cupping the heat of her through her panties. Dante found her swollen clitoris with his fingers and stroked it through the silky material, making her press against him even harder. She couldn’t wait any longer and undid the button on his jeans, lowering the zip. “I need you. Please.”
“Please, what?” he asked against Anna’s neck, kissing his way toward her breasts.
“Please, Dante.” The words rose from deep within her, dirty and rough—just how she wanted him to take her. “Fuck me.”
“Fuck you?” He took one of her hard nipples into his mouth, biting lightly before swirling his tongue around it to soothe the ache. The pain made the pleasure better. So much better.
Slowly, he removed her panties then slipped a long finger into her wet heat, spreading her slickness. Soon a second, then a third finger, opened her wider, stretching her for him. “Such a filthy mouth for such a pristine little schoolteacher.”
She arched against him, wanting more. “I’m not that pristine.”
“Yes. I see that.” Dante kissed his way down her stomach to her soaking folds then licked her from top to bottom, tasting her. He moaned low and looked up at Anna through her spread thighs. “You liked the beating.”
She grinned. “I loved it.”
“Naughty little masochist.” He grinned back before lowering his head again. “My naughty, naughty girl.”
At the first brush of his lips against her swollen clit, Anna cried out. Then Dante sucked the sensitive flesh into his mouth and she nearly died from the intense pleasure.
“Please.”
“Please what, ofryd?”
“Please make me come.”
“As you command,” he murmured, adding a fourth finger inside her and pressing his fingertips upward into the soft indentation of nerves inside her slick walls. Anna cried out and her body tightened, the pressure that had built inside her since she’d first walked into Seven shattered into a million iridescent shards. She came hard and Dante nuzzled her body until she settled agai
nst him, then kissed his way back up to her lips.
“Please, fuck me now, Dante. Please.”
He wrapped Anna’s hands around the wrought iron bars of his headboard. “Hang on tight.”
Half out of her mind with lust, she barely kept still while he slicked on a condom then stretched out above her once more. He pushed her knees to her chest and entered her in one long stroke. Every question, every thought, every speck of anything other than him and what he made her feel left Anna’s mind. She bucked hard and cried out, her body fuller than anything she’d ever experienced before as she stretched to accommodate the sheer size of him.
Dante kissed her again, moving within her, pulling his cock out to the tip before slamming home once more. Over and over and over until they were both panting and near orgasm. He stroked her wet folds gently and she contracted hard around him for the second time, arching to keep him inside her even as she hurtled into another hard climax.
He snarled, his dark eyes consumed with bright red as his arousal overtook his control. Lost in their depths, Anna was fascinated by the flickering emotions there—power, need, lust, want, passion, pain, brutality, tenderness. All of them built and built as he drove harder, faster, deeper until he came so hard within her, she felt it all the way to her soul.
At last, Dante collapsed atop her, his warm breath rasping against her temple. Anna traced her fingers over the skin of his upper back, stopping at the feel of rough ridges beneath her fingertips. She lifted her head and squinted in the lamplight. “What are these scars from?”
“What?” he croaked, his voice spent.
“These scars.” She pressed a finger gently along the line of ridges stretching across both his shoulders and down the center of his spine. “What caused them?”
He moved to the side of her, clicking off the lights then wrapping his arm around her waist and spooning her, his front to her back. “Forget them. They are not important.”
“You said you wouldn’t lie to me.”
“I am not lying. Go to sleep.”
Sated and drowsy, Anna still couldn’t let the subject drop. “Do all demons have scars?”
He sighed. “Some do, some do not. Go to sleep.”
“Do they hurt?”
“Sometimes. They are highly sensitive, as they are connected to my scales.”
“And you have scales all over your body, beneath your skin?”
“Yes, but only those on my back are vulnerable.”
“Vulnerable?”
“To damage or attack.” He yawned and tucked her tighter against him. “Now go to sleep, ofryd.”
Attack? Vulnerable? After his earlier resurrection, Dante had seemed invincible. Now the thought that maybe he wasn’t bothered Anna more than she cared to admit. “Who can hurt you?”
“There are many ways to make a demon suffer. Some are more lethal than others. Now, please rest. We will talk more tomorrow.”
Warm and comfy, she closed her eyes, surrendering at last to her exhaustion.
She’d just started to drift off when loud pounding started on the door.
“Dante!”
Anna sat up fast, recognizing the gang leader’s gruff voice from earlier.
“Wake the fuck up and get your ass downstairs. We’ve got a massive problem and it’s got your name all over it.”
Chapter Five
“Stay here and don’t make a noise.” Dante climbed out of bed and tugged on his jeans before striding to the door. He turned back and gave Anna a warning look. “Understand?”
She stared at him, wide-eyed, clutching the sheet under her chin. She looked so damned alluring, all mussed and covered in welts—his welts—that he almost forgot about Basher and went straight back to bed, straight into her arms. Dangerous, those thoughts. No matter how enjoyable their tryst had been, it had to remain just that—a tryst. A short term entanglement.
Anything else was out of the question.
He ran a hand through his hair and yanked the door open a crack. “What?”
“Someone’s downstairs asking for you.” Basher stood against the wall, the tip of his cigarette glowing orange in the surrounding darkness. “You need to take care of it.”
“There is always someone asking for me,” Dante said, his gut knotted with tension. “What is her name?”
“It’s not a she.”
His chest tightened.
Only one person would be stupid enough, or strung out enough, to come here without Dante’s permission. Swifty. The guy was one of the few homeless in Salvation and when he was not pickpocketing the occasional tourists, he was cooking up meth with the few dollars he had managed to scrape together.
Still, the man had his uses, when he was sober. He supplied Dante with news about other half-breeds in the area, those seeking help or refuge or a gang enforcer to kick some infernal ass.
Dammit. Something must be seriously wrong for his best junkie tattletale to risk showing up at Seven uninvited. “Let me grab a shirt and some shoes.”
“No time.” Basher straightened and tossed his spent cigarette on the floor, smashing it beneath his black leather boot. “Follow me. Now.”
The imperious command made Dante’s hackles rise. He was not naturally inclined to take orders, but he did what was necessary to maintain his position as second-in-command. After one long glance back at Anna, he shut the door. To lock it would imply ownership over what was inside, so he left it unlocked, hoping Anna had enough sense to do as he had said.
“Teach her a lesson, eh?” Basher gave him a side glance as they descended the curved staircase toward the bar.
“Of course.” Dante clenched his jaw. “You know me.”
“Better than you know yourself.”
Dante did his best to hide his unease at the cryptic comment. Basher had not risen to power by chance. His authority was gained through a level of killer instincts, brutal force, and agony that made even a pain demon like Dante cringe. Psychopath that he was, Basher used pain to harm, to break, to maim and scar. Comparing what Dante needed to survive to what Basher did for kicks seemed downright blasphemous.
He trailed behind the gang’s leader through the crowded bar and over to a secluded table near the entrance. Two henchmen, Rev and Spud, guarded Swifty.
Spud was the size of a small building, all bulk and no brains, with no hair on his head and a beard that stretched clear down to his bulging belly. Rev still sported his beat up cowboy hat and the look of a hardened killer.
From the little information Dante had been able to gather about the mysterious newcomer, Rev had been a trained assassin for The Council. Then, due to circumstances which were still unclear, he had gone rogue. Dante had yet to discover the details of Rev’s break with the otherworld’s governing body. Only that the man was now on the run, constantly watching his back.
Like every other member of the Blood Ravagers.
Swifty cowered in between his two guards, shriveled and wasted and pathetic. He looked up as Basher and Dante approached, his eyes dazed and watery, his lips slack and trembling from detox. Fear radiated from him in waves. The last time they had seen each other, Dante had dropped Swifty off at the edge of Salvation, given him two hundred dollars and strict instructions—if he showed up around town again, Basher would have him killed. No exceptions.
Dante scowled down at the quivering man. “You were told never to return.”
“Yeah?” Swifty’s voice shook even as his eyes sparked with defiance. “Even if my visions say otherwise?”
“Visions?” Dante said. “What visions?”
“The ones I had after that last batch of crack.”
Basher yanked Swifty from the chair by the front of his stained jacket, and held him about two feet off the ground. “You have ten seconds before I snap your bones like a twig, asshole. Take your time. I haven’t gotten my fix for the night.”
Dante forced himself not to react. “Your hallucinations have no value here.”
“Look at him twitching
like a fish on a hook.” Basher leaned close to Swifty and sniffed him like a dog. “Man, I want to strangle him so bad I can taste it.”
A commotion swelled near the back of the bar and Dante pivoted fast to see a flash of short auburn hair. Anna locked eyes with him and his inner demon growled at the same time his human half froze with fear.
Mine.
Basher flung Swifty aside like a rag doll, his attention now focused on the woman poised at the bottom of the stairs. “Your new toy doesn’t obey you at all, Dante. You know the rules. She comes down here alone, she’s fair game.”
“No.” Dante should have regretted the word as soon as he uttered it. Basher would make him pay for his insubordination later, but keeping Anna safe was worth any punishment.
Without her, none of his plans would succeed.
Dante pushed through the crowd until he reached her side. A few welts were still visible above the crewneck of her black T-shirt. He wanted to grab her and shake some sense into her. He wanted to spank her good for disobeying his orders and putting herself in untold danger. Most of all, he wanted to drag her back upstairs and keep her in his bed forever.
That last urge stopped him short.
Half-breeds were not allowed to find life mates, per Council orders. Not allowed to take blood vows and forge permanent bonds that would carry their tainted lineage into the future. Dante had long ago accepted his lonely existence, dedicating himself to a life of solitude and pursuit of his vengeance, knowing that was the best he could hope for.
To dream of more now was ludicrous. Especially with a woman like Anna Frost. A woman who held the destiny of so many in her hands, yet denied the power she wielded with every molecule of her being.
He and Anna could share their bodies within the confines of Seven, but never their souls. And, yes, he had known a basic connection would be formed between them once he had fucked her, an invisible tether of emotion and senses. He had no control over the formation of the bond, it was a by-product of his half-breed nature, and would only continue to grow stronger the more time they spent together. Another reason he chose his partners carefully and rarely.
Blood Bound (Blood Ravengers Book 1) Page 5
