"No," she begged, pleading, hysterical.
Erik stood, interrupting them. My Erik. A hush came over the room as we all waited to see what he would do. He spoke softly, "Yes. I think I'll take her now. Let me untie her."
"Certainly," Malachi stated. "Untie her, girls." He turned to the slave. "Erik is much kinder than I with the ladies, but he's a discerning soldier on all levels, so I will let him have his way with you, for now. He has earned it."
They untied her, and she literally fell into Erik's massive arms. He picked her up, and she shuddered and trembled. "Thank you, thank you. Please no more. Please... She could barely speak, and he brought her over to a couch to sit on his lap.
As if nothing had happened, the festivities continued, a new slave being whipped and teased, soldiers playing with their slaves, some tender, some brutal, and I sat, biting my lip, trying to hold down the relentless shiver of my entire body as I watched Erik with the other woman. I just wanted to run from the room. I just wanted to cry. I just wanted to scream and punch someone. I didn't know what to feel, how to behave, and Erik sat across the room from me, comforting and touching someone else.
He got up suddenly, leaving the frightened, fragile slave alone momentarily and came over to me. "I prefer to take you back to my compound, Imogen," he said. "I cannot concentrate on you right now." He spoke to me in a mixture of sadness, empathy, and kindness. I just never knew with him. Like a rising tide, anger overtook me.
"Why?" I said without any control left of my emotions. "You want to have your way with her? You think she's a virgin too?" I continued as if possessed. "You like that, right?" I hissed.
I willed myself to stop talking, to shut up, and yet I continued as if it were an out-of-body experience, where I couldn't control the person speaking but only watch. I knew I sounded jealous and foolish and absurd. I was a slave for god's sake! I meant nothing to him, and here I was acting like some jealous fool, whose lover was about to be unfaithful.
"Imogen, enough. Lower your voice or pay the consequence when I get you back alone. Do you want Stephen to take you home tonight instead? Is that what you're hoping happens?" he said and grit his teeth. "If you keep acting out like this…" And then I saw his face change, as if pleading with me. "I don't want that to happen to you…but my attention cannot be with you tonight. If you choose to stay, that's your decision. But it is not wise."
“Fine,” I spat at him.
I couldn't handle this. This situation, this life. This couldn't really be happening. I couldn't really be feeling anything but hatred towards this brute! And yet, I was. I was so jealous, so unnerved, and somewhere, somehow, all the stimulation from the evening’s events had aroused me. I was wet and wanting. I wanted him. Deep down, I knew it. And deep down, I did not want him consoling or touching another woman. But what other choice was there? For her torture to just continue? God! What kind of monster was I becoming? How could I feel anything but disgust over this situation? How could I not hate him entirely? How could I not care more for her?
And then my emotions simply flooded me, an anguish so strong, it swept me up and carried me away. My head swirled with fear and longing and sadness. I stood up. "Please," I begged. I willed him to stay with me. "Please don't do this. I don't think my heart can handle this," my eyes welled and my lower lip trembled, as I held back a flood of tears.
"What?" he swung around. "Your heart, Imogen?"
I was humiliated. I don't know what possessed me to say such an absurd thing, and yet it was too late. "I don't know what I meant to say, I just…"
He exhaled. "That's what I thought. You are maddening. I don't know what I've gotten myself into with you," he stormed back over to the waiting woman on the couch.
I watched like I would an accident. I shouldn't watch and yet I did. He stroked her hair, her naked body, and she burrowed into him. He stared at me the entire time. I couldn't read his emotions, and I abruptly looked away, a flood of tears streaming down my face without any hope of them stopping. I felt like I had been punched in the stomach.
He picked her up, said something to Stephen with her in his arms, and left the room. I shook. What would happen to me if he didn't come back, if he left me alone to fend for myself? What if I was to stay here for the rest of my enslavement instead of with him? Oh god, I shook and cried, curling myself in a ball.
When I looked up, Stephen glared down at me. "Alone, my pretty? No precious Erik to protect you? He's off with another slave? Did you think you'd be the only one, silly girl?"
I dared not speak without Erik nearby, and I thought I might throw up. I stared at his sadistic, cruel eyes, marked with humor and ill intent. His scar seemed to have grown in size, grotesque, frightening.
"Come on," he grabbed my hand. "I will feed you. I will not do anything to you tonight. Erik duly warned me before he left. But let this be a warning to you. You can only be protected for so long."
I went with him out of fear and truth be told, hunger. The smell of soups and bread clouded my judgment. I was starving. All at once, he took a rope from behind his back, and I tried to flee.
"Uh-uh-uh. Not so fast."
And before I could do anything, he had tied my arms behind my back and sat me back down. "Mmmm. Mmmm," he stared at my breasts. "So large and firm. Someday, someday soon, I will torture these until you scream."
I whimpered, but didn’t dare speak, deep fear gripping every part of my body. Why would Erik leave me like this? Undefended? He was not the man I thought he was! And who was he? I didn't know him one tiny iota. He couldn't care less about my fate. Stephen was right. He left me alone and unguarded while he was doing the unthinkable with another woman. Wait. Let me rephrase. Another slave.
"So shy. So scared. I can see why Erik wants to protect you. You act like a virgin. Act. There's no such thing of your kind, is there?" Lust and hatred mixed in his eyes, and he began to stroke the undersides of my breasts. His hands were rough and calloused, and I wanted to spit in his face. His thumbs found my nipples as he pushed them in forcefully, painfully. I didn't react. I didn't dare say a word. I tried to show nothing, as Erik had tried to teach me in that short night.
"Stephen!" Erik stormed across the room, and before anything else could happen, he punched Stephen square in the jaw, forcing him to tumble backwards.
"Oh fuck you, Erik! I was just teasing her. Jesus Christ. She's a fucking slave. Stop acting like she's your goddam sweetheart or something. She's a fuck-toy, Erik! And you just left her here to go play with a different one!"
Erik raised his arm to punch him again, when Malachi came flying over. "What the fuck is going on here?"
Stephen wiped the blood from his face. "Ask Erik. Ask his slave."
Malachi looked at Erik for an answer.
"I don't want to be in the same fucking room with this prick again. I want him demoted. I will not serve this division for another minute with him present," Erik said with authority.
"Okay. Okay. I don't know what happened here, but clearly this is some kind of pissing contest. Over what? This slave here?" He stared at me with full-on hatred. "Are you kidding me? No slave is going to cause a rift between my men, no matter what she may look like. She need not live past tonight."
Erik did not relent. "This has nothing to do with my slave, Malachi," Erik lied evenly. "I can't trust him. If there is no trust between fellow soldiers, there is no chance in winning this war fully. He has stepped out of line, out of rank, and has disobeyed my orders. I will not tolerate it."
"We will discuss this in the morning. We will have to postpone your honorary award until tomorrow, until you can both cool down. Where is my slave? Go take your frustration out on her. Keep her for the night and the next few if you wish. We will all see how we feel in the morning. Both of you. Go back to your compounds. Leave this slave here with me."
But Erik picked me up without another word and carried me out, roughly, angrily, and I saw a hair-raising smile spread across Stephen's lips.
He th
rew me down onto my feet when we arrived back at his compound. I was still bound by Stephen's doing. I, again, was shaking. Overwhelmed, confused, scared, lonely, you name it, I felt it.
I broke the silence. "Please untie me," I asked quietly.
He stepped towards me as if angry. I shrunk.
"Look at me," he ordered. I could feel heat emanating off of his body.
I didn't dare disobey him.
He grabbed my face roughly between his hands and assaulted my lips, passionately, hard and soft at once.
I couldn't breathe. He took my breath away. I longed to wrap my arms around him but I was secured, my breasts rubbing against the coarseness of his shirt.
He took a step back, ran his fingers through his hair exasperated, and just stared at me. He burned me through with the lustful searing of his smoldering eyes.
"Look at you," he whispered. "How could I have trusted Stephen to leave you alone there?" he scolded himself. "He promised. I should have never trusted him," he paused, anguish across his face. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, painfully.
I welled up, unable to find any words. I wanted him. I needed him. I didn't understand why. He had just been with another woman, and I craved him. Somehow, he had claimed me.
"Don't cry," he said, pleadingly, taking me in his arms and then releasing me to look at me again. He drew his fingers across my collarbone and then lower, around my breasts, gently, slowly with the tips of his fingers, as if in a trance, as if he couldn't stop himself, and continued to trace the contours of my belly, going lower further.
I moaned loudly with need.
"Sssh," he said. "Not a sound or I will not be able to resist you."
"I don't want you to resist me,” I said in desperation.
His fingers made their way to my opening at long last, and he drew his fingertips through my wetness. "I want you too," he said, continuing to touch my most sensitive spot over and over. I moaned into him, pressing against him. He kissed me, and it was almost painful.
"Please, Erik," I begged, losing my breath into him, sucking his breath into me, dripping my juices of arousal against his fingers, completely lost and out of control, squirming and throbbing against his body. The blood pounded in my ears.
I thought I might faint when he abruptly stopped and forced my face to look up into his wild, untamed eyes, as he exhaled shakily. "Not tonight. Now is not the time. Go to my bed. I will be right in."
"What? Why?" I said it with too much hurt in my voice and teetered back, dizzily, trying to get my breathing and equilibrium back. I had lost all pride giving myself to him like that. What a fool I was. “No,” I said with venom, and I pushed him away with my body as hard as was physically possible. There was no way I was going to his room. I didn’t care the consequences
"Erik, is that you?" A timid voice echoed in the darkness coming from the room in which I had slept.
I froze and whipped around to face Erik. "Who is…?”
"You know who it is," he said frankly. "Now go. To my bed. You will sleep with me tonight."
"You…you…bastard. I am not going anywhere near you, not tonight, not…”
"Imogen, stop it right now!” He grabbed my arm. “To my bed. Now. You are so infuriating." He was forceful but kept his voice low. “If you continue to disobey me, you will be punished.”
My heart was pounding. I could scarcely remember to breathe, but stood my ground.
"Imogen. I will not ask again. Go to my bed. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated any longer. I have completely had it with your petulant stubbornness.”
He didn't even let me respond, as he went into the room where she lay. I heard him speaking to her, softly. "It's okay. You will stay here tonight. No worries tonight." I tried not to look into the room and lost the battle. I watched him stroke her hair, and I rushed towards his bedroom, flung my tied-up body on the bed, and then, the god-damned tears poured out.
But the time he finally got around to coming back to his bedroom, I had managed to calm myself down.
"Untie me!" I ordered.
"No," he said coolly. "Not another word out of that mouth tonight, Imogen." He wiped my eyes with his thumbs and reached for the covers to pull over me. "Come on. No more tears."
And just like that, the tears flowed down my face and into the sheets. Again.
"Oh, Jesus, Imogen. You are an emotional wreck. And it's my fault." He took me in his arms.
"Why don't you just go in the other bedroom and sleep with your new lover. I'm sure she would like that!" I managed to say, trying to push his warm, strong body away from me.
"Is that what you really want, Imogen? Would you rather sleep alone tonight?"
Again, I couldn't tell if he was being sincere or facetious.
"Was she good? Did she satisfy you? Is she much more experienced than I was?" I quipped. "Did you take away her virginity too?" And I choked on my words, breathing becoming harder and harder. I felt as if I might pass out.
"Imogen. Stop. Don't torture yourself like this. Let me hold you."
"You just love to be everyone's knight in shining armor, don't you? Erik, the Savior. Well. Good for you. I don't need it! I don't want it."
"Do I need to gag you tonight as well, Imogen? Or are you going to stop this?"
He couldn't be serious! I was furious and tied up and yes, god damn it, mildly aroused, and emotionally unstable in every way. "So, answer me, then, and then I'll shut up! How was she? Did you enjoy her?"
"I'm not doing this, Imogen," and he stood up. "You are my slave, who is earning punishment. You have no right to talk to me this way. I will not tolerate it."
That stung. That stung hard. And yet, I knew it was true. I was a slave. Nothing more. And it shut me up. I felt like I had been broken in two.
Several long minutes passed, and then I heard him undressing. I lost all will to argue or fight. He slid back into bed behind me and tightened his arms around me, and I tried not to exhale with the comfort it brought me. I hadn’t slept with him before, and it was excruciating to be next to him, arms still secured, vulnerable, humiliated, helpless. I felt his erection against my naked body and felt my heart race as moisture pooled between my legs. I wanted him so badly and hated him and myself for it. How could I?
He kissed my neck and inhaled the back of my hair, as I willed myself not to squirm, not to moan, and to, instead, breathe more steadily.
"Good girl. Breathe," he soothed.
I began to melt into him, I just couldn't help it, but damn him if I'd let him know that.
"Sssh," he whispered in my ear, sending goosebumps up and down my body. "Go to sleep, Imogen," he said gently and sleepily. "Tomorrow I will decide what to do with you...I am too tired right now…but something needs to be done about your behavior. It is too dangerous. I have claimed you as mine. But you have tempted too many others tonight.”
“Please untie me,” I asked with sincerity
“No.”
He rolled over, and the minute he did, I wanted his body touching mine again. I was pathetic. I heard the rhythm of his breathing and heartbeat. I stared into the night with a longing and emptiness that I thought might kill me. And in that moment, I truly thought being dead might be a better fate.
OTHER WORKS by R.B. O’BRIEN
The Natalie’s Edge series, Temptation, Fall, and Redemption, follows the BDSM romance of young entrepreneur Natalie Smith as she discovers her submissive sexuality at the hands of the controlling and dominant Michael Black. Redemption, the third in the series, was a nominee for the Golden Flogger Award for Best BDSM Romance.
EXTASY BOOKS http://bit.ly/1ZgNrNR
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ABSZDHU/ref=series_rw_dp_sw
Barnes&Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/temptation-rb-obrien/1121331599?ean=2940046607970 Kobo:https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/temptation-82
Smashwords:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/523939
The THORNE series is a dark suspense romance that follow
s the story of William Thorne through his eyes. Both books in the series have been nominated for the 2016 Indie Book Award. Expect its final installment sometime in fall/winter of 2016.
THORNE can be found on AMAZON and is available to borrow for FREE on KINDLE UNLIMITED. Amazon: http://amzn.to/2c2zmmM
IMOGEN was first published in a series of four shorts installments. The boxed set compiles those chapters, making up the first boxed set in the series. A second boxed set will be available in 2017. Each individual installment of IMOGEN has also been nominated for the Indie Book Award of 2016.
Discover more about R.B. O’Brien, her writing, her poetry, and her blog by visiting her website here: http://rbobrien.weebly.com/
AUTHOR BIO
“To write is to descend, excavate, to go underground.”—Anais Nin.
I am uniquely me: I’m closer to acceptance. I am shy, overly emotional, sentimental, passionate, and insecure. I worry my legs aren’t long enough but love my smile. I am a writer, a dancer, a poet, a thinker, a lover, a philosopher, a friend, a sister, a daughter, an animal lover, and a health nut. I care about the environment. I overanalyze and second-guess everything. Fear often guides my decisions. I forgive too easily and fall prey to romantic notions—All. THE. TIME. I would rather feel and suffer than go through life with broad, safe, or grey-painted strokes. I live for vibrancy. I find beauty in the darkest of things. And my heart beats too fast
BONUS MATERIAL
“You will eat in the kitchen downstairs, and I will show you the amenities of the grounds, including the use of the swimming pools and spa. Besides your office, you have internet access here, telephone, television. But there are rules regarding the use of these things, all outlined in the paperwork. And you will find that you will not have all that much free time. Any questions?”
THE IMOGEN SERIES BOXED SET PART I: (Books 1-4) Page 8
