“Ella? Ella, look at me.”
The command thrilled her, sent a distinct shiver through her. She didn’t understand but she couldn’t resist. She raised her head.
He was right, of course, his tale before had aroused her. Him, this man Torgeir, when he’d come close enough to bite but just waited there, watching her, he’d turned her on. When she’d gone into the bedroom, she’d checked herself, though certain of what she’d find. The crotch of her panties had been wet through. So much so that she’d been compelled to change them when she dressed in the little shorts and soft top she wore to bed.
She’d hoped and not hoped, both at once, that he’d take the other bedroom. After all, they couldn’t touch.
Yet she’d just asked him to kiss her.
“Ella. Why? Why a kiss? I can spoon them into your mouth, Princess.”
Princess? The pet name messed with her mind.
*Because.*
Injecting the nanogeers was not going to happen. Eating them? That image had made a kiss leap to her mind and knowing what was in the note, everything had clicked.
She was angry, at herself, at the unknown person who’d harmed her, but mostly at the person in the note who’d fallen in love then let it slip away. She wanted that back and was willing to hurt, if in the end she could be herself again.
“Why. Answer me. I need a reason.”
Her fingers flew, typing so fast her thoughts seemed to stream to them. *Fate has been kicking my ass. A kiss is the perfect delivery method. It fills the niches, dots the T’s, it will complete me. I need to trick fate into making everything right again.*
She could see he didn’t understand and already he was shaking his head.
*I’m an Earth girl. Trust me. It will work. Tie me up. Kiss me.*
She didn’t know that it would work, not really. Maybe it was just the kiss she wanted? Maybe.
Torgeir was kind, he was kinky, and she could see he wouldn’t hurt her without permission.
Now he had it.
He straightened. His hands had been behind his back but he brought them forward and held them at his sides, relaxed but potentially capable of anything. The tautness in his face made her wonder if he was angry.
She counted his breaths and reached eleven before he answered her.
“I need a please.”
*What?*
“Please. I need that from you.”
*Please?*
“Thank you. If I am to do this, I need you to be honest. Are you still attracted to me, because if you’re not, I won’t do this.”
*But this might make me feel about you as I used to.*
“Yes. But I wouldn’t kiss you, I’d use a spoon.”
She almost laughed. *You want to know how I feel? I’m nervous, but I’m also attracted to you.* After a second she added, *A spoon sounds perverted.*
That brought out a smile, a small one but it was there, and she figured he’d only been thinking before and that he was nervous too. Which made sense if he loved her. Strange to think this man felt that way. Strange, yet exhilarating.
This had to work. Even if she never spoke again, she wanted to love. There must have been a reason for her to love him as deeply as it seemed she had.
*Please. Do this.*
“Very well. I have conditions. Arousal can change how the body feels pain.”
She nodded, even more nervous now. Where was this going?
“Before I kiss you, I will use the rope on you.” He picked up the rope from the bed and stray loops slid from his hand. “I’ll tie you so you can’t move away, as you suggested. Put one hand out, Ella.”
So smoothly said but she knew the significance. She’d asked him and now he was doing this. It would remove her ability to run. She had suggested it but...
“Is this what you want?”
It was, she decided. Even if it scared her. She held out her hand, watching as he formed a loop then slid it over her wrist without touching her.
“I’m going to bind you...” And he kept working with the rope as he spoke, tying her wrists together. “Not just to keep you still for the kiss. I’m going to arouse you.”
At that he paused, watching for her response, but all she did was clench her jaw and swallow. This was getting far too interesting.
“I’m going to do that because it may lessen the pain. Lie down on your back.”
She lay back, feeling vulnerable, and she tested out the virtual keyboard, to see if it would work like this. *So much science.*
“Yes.” Then he walked around the bed, rope in hand and tied the rope to something below the level of the mattress. It stretched her arms taut and above her head, though she could wriggle and make it loose, or she could until he tossed the rope under the bed, drew it out on the side where her legs dangled, and started to tie her ankles down, first one...
*What are you doing?*
He tied down the other ankle so her legs were in a V.
Arousal had arrived long ago, from the moment he walked in the room, but this made it worse.
Her anxiety cranked up another level. Spread out like this, so he could look at her when and how he wanted to? It turned her on fiercely. Where the seam of her shorts pressed between her legs, her clit throbbed, though might was also be because her clit had swelled and been pressing back.
He couldn’t touch her. This might be the ultimate in frustration.
“When you told me to tie you up, you gave me control. That note.” He sat on the bed, making it dip and he pointed. “When you wrote that, you knew this was a fetish of mine. Something I wanted to do to you.” He climbed up the bed then leaned forward, over her, but careful. “I’m not going to ask if you want this. I’m just going to do it.”
But he searched her face keenly and she’d had a chance to object.
“I need to see if clothes will stop your reaction. I think they will.”
Was that wishful thinking? His hand hovered above her clit, of all places.
She tugged on the ropes, all of them and they barely gave. As he lowered his hand she tried to sink into the bed.
*Start somewhere less essential?*
He didn’t seem to see the words and she switched to audio.
“No.” Though his fingers were an inch above the apex of her mons she would swear she could feel some hot electric energy reaching down to her. His fingers went lower, then lower again, and she whimpered.
“Shhh.”
The first touch made her jump. Her eyes sprang open and she watched as he drew little circles on her, directly over what felt like a bump in her shorts where her clit had popped up.
It hadn’t hurt, it hadn’t, and pleasure was radiating from that mildest of touches.
“This, is promising.” There was triumph in his tone.
She should remind him of his aim. Though it embarrassed her, she typed it. *I’m aroused. Now you can –*
“Quiet. You think I won’t keep going when I have you tied down? Besides. I like these shorts. They’re soft enough for me to feel all of you.”
She sucked in her lip. The man was so arrogant.
His fingers circled some more, around the periphery of her clit, then they smoothed down between her legs where her shorts had gathered. When he’d drawn her ankles down with the rope, the shorts had been shoved into her slit, the seam splitting her folds. There’d been nothing she could do.
“I thought not touching you was terrible but it seems there are possibilities. I’m going to make you come, once, then I’ll kiss you.”
She gasped then whimpered again as he somehow managed to delve deep enough with his fingers to part her lower lips. *Careful!*
“I am. I recall promising to insert things into you, long ago. I never did.” She lifted her head and glared. “After the kiss, I will do it. I think you’ll need distraction then anyway.”
From what the nanogeers might do?
“You’re wet so don’t bother c
omplaining. No more typing. Feel.”
His fingers resumed their devilish work, probing at her, daring to force her panties into her slit until she ached for something to truly enter her. Something big. Like his cock. She bit back a groan. He pressed and circled her clit, until the imagined bump was definitely there and hard. Appalled, she realized she’d humped at his hand and she stopped, squeezing and flexing her thigh muscles and her toes, breathing through the pleasure.
How casual he was, taking his time, as if this, giving her orgasms, was his main aim.
*The kiss?*
“Shh.” He bit her hip through the shorts and she yelped and let her fingers fall silent. “Better.”
He looked up at her, contemplative, though his fingers were stroking her pussy and doing such dirty and delicious things. After another, deeper probe into her wet panties, she gave in. She huffed out a breath, flopped her head back, and arched. Her moans grew louder and she strained at the ropes in all directions.
Understanding stole in. If he’d let her go, if she didn’t feel such a victim of his devious designs, this wouldn’t be as exciting. There was something unique about being tied down so a man could do with her whatever he wanted to.
With his hand still playing with her, with her eyes half shut as she attempted to process what he did, he moved up her, biting her belly then the undersides of her breasts through the cloth. He reached her nipple. The heat and dampness, as his mouth closed on her over the shirt, then sucked firmly, shocked her.
She arched higher, mouth opening wide.
Nothing mattered. Nothing. Within seconds she was coming.
“Oh!” Her pussy clenched in and she tensed spasmodically, trying to bring her arms and legs in but caught in the rope.
Heart hammering, she relaxed her butt onto the bed, trying to regain her composure despite the slippery pressure of his fingers over her slit. Her panties would need changing again.
Torgeir sat up and took the vial from his pocket.
“I’m going to kiss you now. This has to be the craziest, most over-planned, and dangerous kiss in history. Before I forget. There’s a spot on your ankle you should get examined.”
She blinked, her chest still heaving. That. She remembered worrying about her ankle but not why.
He leaned over her, propped on his hands and pushing down the sheet. One hand was anchored above her head so that she sank into a small hollow.
It was odd having him free, looking down at her, while she was stretched out by ropes like some sexual exhibition.
Torgeir seemed fascinated. His gaze roamed over her face then followed the line of her arms up to her wrists.
“The red looks good wrapped around you.” His words drawled out, slow as sunlight heating skin. “I’ve wanted to do this since I first saw you. I just wish the reason for this was different. You’re like a little animal I’ve caught in my trap. Don’t move, Ella, apart from your pretty mouth.” His smile was enigmatic, his tone ironic.
When he extracted the vial’s contents using a micro syringe, then leaned his head back with the syringe tip above his closed lips, she realized there might be danger here for him too. These were her nanogeers, not his. He pressed on the plunger and she found she was holding her breath. He poised over her again and lowered his head. A thick silvery liquid had spread over the seam of his mouth.
“This is going to work, my princess, but I won’t be, can’t be, gentle. Open. Open wider.”
Warily, she opened and he took advantage of her willingness. He lunged, engulfing her mouth with his and sinking his tongue between her lips while his hand wedged her mouth open at the corner. She’d have bitten off his tongue otherwise.
His touch was fire, ripping at nerves, scorching her, storming her skin with heat.
The pain: instantaneous. But he held her in place, a man of stone.
Her screams were muffled. Her desperate efforts to tear loose thwarted.
Whose idea had this been? She thrashed and found her limbs still pinned, even more so when he shifted to straddle her chest and sit on her. Her wrists and ankles burned from the rope.
But he didn’t stop.
He’d forced his lips between hers so they met her teeth. He kissed her until she tasted blood, until her lips were numb from pain overload, and her chin abraded by his stubble. He lifted away, releasing her. Her head spun. She’d forgotten to breathe for far too long.
Panting wildly, she stared at him, dazed, in fading agony, and aroused beyond her comprehension. Her nipples had shrunk down hard.
This was life and death, almost, and all her body wanted was for him to fuck her. Her mind knew better. If he fucked her, she’d be screaming, and not in a good way.
Had that been a kiss or a battle?
“Just being thorough.” He wiped his mouth with the edge of a tissue and put it aside. “I had to make sure they had the best chance to transfer to you.”
She didn’t quite believe him. If he was her prince, had she found the beast?
She paused in the middle of her internal debate.
Something odd was happening inside, stirring. The nanogeers, was it them?
Things were trickling through her, pouring, burrowing, making her fingers cold and hot, sending electricity into places that didn’t seem to be a part of her. She twitched and found her eyes had closed. Her heartbeats wound down, becoming softer, slower.
“Ella. Ella?”
The man shook her but it was too late, she was floating away like bubbles, into the sleep of a cybernetic sheep. She smiled at that.
On pause. Being updated. There should really be a sign saying Under Construction she thought, before everything...
Stopped.
Chapter 25
He checked her regularly throughout the night: the pulse at her neck, her breathing and color. Ella didn’t respond, not even to his touch. This was a coma, or something similar. His message to the boys, who seemed the most likely to understand or know who to contact, had gained him a reply of wait, at first. They must have asked the doctor who’d treated her after she’d been poisoned, as the second reply had told him what to watch for.
At dawn, he sat up on his elbow, a little weary, and somewhat worried. If this did anything terrible to her, he’d be lost.
Like some scene from a story, thin rays of sunlight were cast across the bed, from the fretwork of holes in the wall that served as a window. She stirred. Her eyelids raised, revealing her eyes. They focused on him and he swore his heart broke into song.
“What?”
He drew in air. “You can talk?” He reached for her cheek only to stop himself.
“Yes,” she said, croakily, which prompted her to clear her throat, but she smiled too. “I can. I can talk again. The nanogeers worked.”
She remembered what he’d done. Now for the hard question. “Do you know me?”
“I know you, more... You’re there but fuzzy, like it was long ago. Torgeir.” Her smile spread, hesitantly. “Like an uncle I met when a child but haven’t seen for ages.”
“An uncle?”
His expression must have been sad.
“An uncle who kisses way too hard. I tasted blood. I expected a more fairytale kiss with bluebirds and crap.” She winked.
“Hmmm.” She might have been teasing him, but he thought not. “An uncle?”
“I was meaning how my memory is hazy. It’s just an analogy. You’re not really. You’re a hot uncle. Is that better?” She turned over onto her side, her black hair spilling over the pillow, and discovered the rope around her wrist. “Why is this still here?”
“I thought it best to have a way to grab you fast if something happened. Like a seizure.”
Her mouth formed an O.
“And I confess, I didn’t want to take it all off you.” So pretty. So decadent. A simple double twist around her wrist, with a non-slip knot, and yet it said so much.
“The rope?”
“Yes.�
��
Her small swallow reawakened his craving for her.
“I’d like to try touching you again. Skin on skin.” He moved closer, making her shift, until he was looking down at her with his hand and forearm on her pillow. Her hair tangled with his fingers. “I never did get to see if the markings on your nipples have become less red. Your lips are definitely redder than when we first met. Do you know what that means?” He barely waited. “It means you’re still mine.”
She gave no protests, said nothing to challenge his statement. Telling. Her pupils were large and dark. Without warning her, he sneaked his finger closer until his nail rested on the side of her neck. Nothing happened, except a hitch in her breath. Satisfaction built until he consciously relaxed and let it roar in. Mine again, soon.
“My finger is on your neck, Ella.”
“Oh.” She squirmed as if the intensity of his gaze affected her.
“And you didn’t deny my ownership.”
Matter-of-factly, he took the neckline edge of her shirt and pulled it down low until her nipple showed. He grunted, pleased at the color, and at her lack of screaming. Then he bared the other one – also red. His cock decided this was good news too and strained at his pants.
“I see I can touch you again.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Though I didn’t say you could.”
Yet she stayed where she was, as if waiting for him. Of course, he had her wrist roped, but trying to leave was an option, even if he wouldn’t have let her. The bondmating insistence that she was his was rising in him, bubbling up. Tearing off her clothes would’ve happened by now if he wasn’t holding himself back.
He didn’t bother replying and, instead, drew up a loop of the rope and laid it loosely across her neck. The red of the rope against her vulnerable neck fractured thought.
“What are you doing?” she asked roughly.
“Do you know how sexy it is when you say it like that?”
“Like what?”
“Husky. Coarse. Low and grumbly. Like you want to have sex. Like you’re reminding me of what we have and what we are.” Her bruised lips parted. Her breasts rose and fell insistently.
Cyberella: Preyfinders Universe Page 17
