by Jesse Joren
He withdrew his arm, and now the board was accentuating the hard vibrations inside of me.
A sudden, almost-hot stream down my body made me gasp. I looked down to see thick black drips already hardening between my breasts, running down over my midriff.
Hex's voice was back in my ear, warm and shivery.
"I've wanted to do this to you for so long. To see black wax on that white skin."
He brought his hands in front of me, letting me see the black candle he was holding. I flinched as he tilted it again, but he was solid behind me, leaving me with nowhere to go.
The wax drizzled over my nipples, a sensation that was very hot but not scorching. It hardened into tight black caps that seemed to pull them erect, throbbing and encased.
"That's my girl. You look beautiful. Exactly as a slave should."
More wax dripped down my body, onto my thighs. Splashes hit the wood beam I was straddling, running down in dark drips.
Hex walked to the chair, pulling out the remote as he sat down. He made sure I was watching as he pressed it again, making the plug swell larger and move faster.
Without my hands to support my weight, I needed to conserve the energy in my legs. That wasn't easy with the rhythm and sensation of the plug inside of me. I gripped the ropes above me, unable to stop the sway and grind of my body against the pony.
Hex very deliberately unlaced the white shirt until it fell open, exposing his broad golden chest in all its glory. His fingers plucked at the ties of his pants, making me aware of the hard bulge I saw below the leather.
"Later, you're going to ride me," he said. "But first let's see how long you can go on your pony."
Chapter Forty-Two
Time lost all meaning as my legs and arms slowly tired, my body settling harder and longer on the thin wooden ridge. The wax cooled very quickly, but it left behind a maddening itch that I had to simply endure.
Each time I was sure I couldn't go longer, Hex would adjust the plug inside of me. The surge of excitement would return, forcing me to grind against the wood even as the discomfort grew.
Throughout my ride, his silvery eyes never left me, watching as I did my strange slow dance while trapped against the wood. His intense watchful gaze seared me far more than hot wax ever could.
After what might have been minutes or hours, Hex stood up and came back to me. His hands found the heat at the back of my neck, brushing against my skin.
"It's your first time," he said tenderly. "I think you might have had enough, even if you don't know it yet."
He released my arms, rubbing the red marks around my wrists. His hands closed around my waist, lifting me off the wooden beam.
My legs trembled, and I gripped the pony for support. Sweat and wax covered my whole body now, and the plug pulsed and throbbed inside of me. In spite of the panties, the heat of my arousal poured down my inner thighs, and my hair was coming out of the braid, hot and damp against my neck.
He returned to the chair and sat again, watching me. In the silence, I had no idea what to do next.
What would a slave do?
"I…I want to please you," I said with a shyness that wasn't feigned.
"Then do so."
"Just tell me what you want and –"
"A good slave can figure that out for herself." Laughter bubbled in his voice.
With slow steps I came to him, standing straight in spite of my tingling legs. I reached for the ties between his legs, but he pushed my hand aside.
"You can do better than that," he said, leaning back.
There had been scorching heat in his eyes as he watched me squirming on the pony. Maybe I should give him something else worth watching.
My legs trembled dangerously as I put one on the arm of his chair, opening myself wide. The clean scent of my arousal rose up around us. All at once I was fully in my role, the slave whose only job was to please.
I let my fingers slid under the panties, rubbing myself with a slow, sensual rhythm that was almost my undoing. Ever since I had stripped in front of Madame Colette, I had been in a state of arousal that now was at a fevered pitch.
The same strained control burned in Hex's eyes. He wasn't as cool as he was pretending to be.
I brought my fingers to my lips, tasting my scent with a delicate touch to my tongue. He seized my hand and brought it to his mouth, licking in a warm rhythm that made my exhausted legs threaten to let me fall.
Maybe that's not a bad idea.
Reaching under us, I plucked at the laces of his pants, and this time he made no move to stop me. Under my hands I felt the hard, throbbing length of him spring free.
"Did I mention that I'm on birth control shots?" I asked with a deliberately sly smile. "Surprise."
"Dr. Pam Carter, right?" His look managed to out-smug me. "I was wondering if you were going to mention it."
"Consider it mentioned," I said, pulling my panties to one side and sliding forward to straddle him.
His arms went around me, and the motion of our bodies was all it took for his length to slide into me. My weight settled onto him, driving him deep into the soreness between my thighs.
Somewhere behind me, Hex pressed the remote again, this time much higher. The pressure of the plug's vibration against his hardness inside of me made me gasp.
He leaned back, putting his hands on the arms of the chair. "I paid a lot of money for you, Lilith. Show me why."
His words were casual, and he was very still. The expression on his face told a different story. With a deep, unerring instinct I knew that it was costing him a lot of effort to be so nonchalant.
The writhing on the pony was still fresh in my mind and in the memory of my body. I began to move against Hex's body, slow and sensual movement with my hips and thighs that made his breath catch.
The waves of pleasure inside of me began to mount. The smooth feeling of him was like that morning after the storm at the tiny cabin deep in the woods. Raw, one hundred percent Hex with nothing between us.
I put my hands on the back of the chair, one on each side of his shoulders. The better position gave me more freedom, my legs gripping him as I rode in a slow sensual rhythm to unheard music inside of my head.
His iron control was slipping. The feel of his arms sliding around my body again made me smile as I increased my pace.
"I know something that will wipe that little smirk off your face," he said. "You aren't the only one with rhythm."
He pressed me down hard and began to buck, each short and sharp movement threatening to throw me off the chair. His arms held me against him, the hard lines of his chest flaking the black wax onto us both.
"It's been a long night," he said, his grip almost hard enough to hurt. "I know Madame didn't give you a release, but I will. Let go, Eva. Right here, right now. I want to feel it."
The plug's vibration suddenly went to high, making me quiver against him. The long, building excitement peaked inside of me, the sudden hot rush down my thighs drenching Hex in my heat.
His voice was breathless as he held himself back. "We'll go to the bed to finish the—"
I pressed him down, forcing him as deeply as he could go.
"No. You paid for me to satisfy you, and that's what I'm going to do. Right…now…Hex…"
For an instant he tried to lift me up, then a shudder racked his entire body. His arms were like steel bands holding me to him, not letting me go as he groaned and finished inside of me.
It seemed to take a long time for our labored breathing to slow to something like normal. I was sprawled across his lap in the chair, my head resting against his shoulder. His fingers traced the cooling skin of my back, soft and rhythmic.
"I think we're a mess, but I don't regret a minute of it." My lips traced his skin, tasting him.
"Maybe I should have Yvonne come back and give you a good scrubbing while I watch," he mused.
"Is that what you want? You did pay a lot for me."
He glanced at the clawfoot tub, then
back at me.
"I think I have enough energy left to do that myself," he said.
Chapter Forty-Three
When I was dressing the next morning, I heard a snicker. I turned to find Hex grinning at me as he lounged in the padded chair.
"What?" I asked.
"You're moving very carefully this morning, Evangeline. Did something happen last night?"
Between my legs was sore and tender from the time on the wooden pony. Not to mention the hours of post-pony attention from Hex. There were no windows in our dungeon room, but I was pretty sure he kept me up all night again.
"You know how it is," I said airily. "Paraded around naked. Sold at an auction. Abused by a pitiless dominant. The usual."
"You poor girl. That sounds horrible."
A discreet knock came at the door. Hex answered and accepted a tray from a silent man who vanished almost at once.
"For a secret little club, they sure do have a lot of people working here," I remarked.
"It's not that little." Hex set the tray on the table and began to uncover plates. "This is the size of a huge hotel set underground. There were a lot of tunnels here from World War Two. Madame Colette seems to have found another use for them."
A delicious scent of hot coffee and pastries filled the room. Hex broke off a bite of croissant and spread it with something before feeding it to me. The sweet taste of honey melted on my tongue.
"You took a chance on the side bet last night," I said, pouring coffee for us out of a silver pot. "When those glasses first came out, I had no idea what to do."
"I knew you'd get it, and I didn't figure there were many people in the audience who knew Grimm's Fairy Tales well enough to mess up my plan" he said. "It was just lucky they had a honey liqueur. Kind of disgusting, but it did the job."
"Speaking of disgusting, what was the deal with that other buyer? One of the girls last night said it's bad etiquette to bid against a real buyer."
"She's right. He was being an ass and enjoying it. I might have a little surprise for him once he gets home. It would be easy enough to find out who he is."
I pulled his face down to mine for a long, lingering kiss. "Let it go. This has been perfect, and he's not worth it."
Hex smiled into my eyes. "Good choice from your book, Eva, but it might be hard to top. What comes next?"
"Ask me again when I'm not walking like a duck," I said.
--
After breakfast we left our room and traveled the maze of hallways until I was completely lost again. Eventually I recognized the doors leading back into the large room where we'd arrived the night before.
There was less of a crowd this morning, more subdued than the buzzing energy of the night before. The servers were in tasteful morning uniforms of pale gray, circulating with trays of water, juices, and what looked like mimosas.
A soft touch on my arm made me turn. Megan was standing beside me, tall and glowingly beautiful in a coral maxi dress that complimented her creamy skin and loose blonde hair.
"I heard the big bad buyer came to call," she grinned. "See, I knew you were trouble."
She held out a dainty hand to Hex. "I'm Megan, but whatever your name is, that's your business."
The tall, rangy guy next to her shook hands with Hex, then with me. I glanced at his feet, smiling to see Lone Star black boots.
"Hell, I haven't got any secrets," he said. "I'm Luke. Good for you, putting that asshole in his place last night."
"My job was easy. You're the one who's gotta put those babies through college," Hex said in a pretty credible Texas drawl that made Luke laugh.
"Someone had a long night," Megan said, looking amused.
Filly had entered the room with a tall, good-looking man whose dark eyes followed her every movement. She was wearing a fitted white shirt and tight jeans that emphasized every spectacular curve.
She saw us and pulled her companion toward us. Her green eyes were shadowed, but she was grinning.
"I thought I heard some American accents last night," she said. "I'm Katie. Quite a place, isn't it?"
The tall man put his arms around her, pulling her back against him to bite at her neck. She giggled and pretended to struggle.
"Ramses, stop. This isn't an auction," she scolded, fooling no one.
"Thankfully, it is not because I need rest," he said. His melodious voice was tinged with an accent that I couldn't quite place.
"You know it was worth it," she said, "but I don't need a fancy place like this. We have barns back in Montana that have plenty of this same stuff that we can use for free."
"That is good," he said, dark eyes twinkling, "because you were so expensive that now I am a poor man with no money left."
None of us looking at the quiet gleam of his designer clothes believed that for an instant.
"My daddy can give you a job breaking horses," she said with a roguish glance. "You seem to have what it takes."
Megan drew a sharp breath as she looked across the room.
"Yeah," Katie agreed. "I saw that too."
An exotic, golden-skinned man had appeared in the hall, carelessly walking ahead of two very beautiful, well-dressed girls who had been in last night's auction. The girls were smiling, but their stiff steps seemed wrong for the quick grace of their bodies.
In spite of the lack of natural light, both of them were wearing stylish sunglasses. The taller girl turned her head, and the bright candlelight fell on a bruise that the glasses didn't quite conceal.
All of us were watching them as they moved toward the elevator. In a moment the doors had closed, taking them back upstairs.
"That is a man who should not be allowed near women," Ramses said, keeping his arms around Katie as he watched through narrowed eyes.
"Too bad we're not in Texas," Luke agreed. "We have ways of dealing with guys like him."
"He's banned from ever coming back here, at least," Megan said.
"How do you know that?" he grinned. "You've barely been out of my sight since you came off the stage last night."
"I was talking with the girl who brought our breakfast while you were in the shower," she explained. "The guy's name is Majid Salaari, and his family is big into textiles and banking in Pakistan. Those girls are sisters, and their family owes him a lot of money."
All of us were staring at her now. She shrugged prettily.
"It never hurts to talk to people," she said.
Ramses gave a low chuckle. "So much for discretion. Our secrets are being devoured along with breakfast pastries."
"I have a feeling the rest of us don't have to worry," Katie said. "When he pissed all over the club rules last night, his privacy became much less of a priority to management."
Yvonne's voice whispered through my head. One baits Madame at their own risk.
We were all at the elevators now. Megan hugged me and slipped a folded paper into my hand.
"Call me if you ever get to Austin," she said. "It might be hard with the babies, but we'll find you a quiet room at our place."
"Don't count on it," Luke advised, laughing and pulling her into the elevator.
With a final wave, they were on their way up.
"I'd offer the same," Katie said apologetically, "but we're going to be traveling for a while. I'm not sure where home will be."
"I'm thinking Spain," Ramses said, giving her a sideways look. "They have a wonderful type of horse there called the Barb. Incredible endurance, but a fiery temperament that takes a firm hand to command respect."
"What a coincidence," Katie said. "So do I."
--
"It seems like we just got here," I told Hex as we were waiting for the Bugatti to be brought to the front of the house. "Megan said it would go fast, and she was right."
"I may have to hire your new friend," Hex said. "She seems unusually good at social engineering."
"Isn't she nice? Last night when we were waiting for the auction, she was telling me that –"
Hex's demeanor
suddenly shifted from casual to watchful. He was looking past my shoulder, and when I turned, I saw the man Megan had called Majid and his two girls. They were just stepping into a sleek black sedan that had arrived at the front of the house.
The girls climbed into the backseat, then he followed. Just as he was settling into the seat, one of the girls said something to him. I gasped as his lightning-fast blow found her cheek, and she shrank deeper into the backseat.
He was closing the door when he saw me, then Hex. He gave a mocking wave and blew me a kiss before slamming the door. In a moment the car was speeding down the dusty road that led up to the house.
I turned to Hex. "You know how you said this morning that you might have a surprise for him after we got home?"
"Yes?"
"I was wrong about not doing anything." I said. "Make him hurt."
He nodded as the valet roared up in the sleek little blue car.
"I'll make some calls on the way back to Paris," he said.
Chapter Forty-Four
"Are you sure you're ready to go back to reality?" Hex asked.
It was late Sunday evening, and we were circling to land in Atlanta. The lights were twinkling and warm, like a personal welcome-home sign.
"No, but I have bills to pay, so it's back to work."
"You don't have to," he said. "You can do anything you want. Money isn't a problem, but I think you know that."
"I didn't think you bought this weekend with coupons," I teased. "It was a gift I'll never forget, and I love you for it. Even if working my job pays peanuts, they're my peanuts. It's important to me."
"Speaking of important things," Hex said, "something has come up. I'll drop you at your place, then I'll be out of town for a couple of days. Marco and I will head back out tonight."
A chill crept over me. Now that I knew more about what he did, I realized exactly what a trip out of town might mean. Maybe it showed in my face because Hex took my hand.
"This isn't a dangerous job, just complicated," he said. "I need to handle it personally."
