by Alexa Black
“I will cut you,” Teran said, “if you ask me to.”
Cailyn hissed. She’d known before coming here that she would have to accept some things she might not want. She would endure them without protest. That was what giving herself over meant. She wouldn’t have come if she couldn’t acquiesce to them.
She opened her mouth to speak. Teran wanted this, and she was here to give Teran what she wanted.
The words refused to come. Cailyn shook her head. “I can’t do it, my lady. Not that.”
The claw retracted. Cailyn’s skin felt its absence. She wished Teran would touch her with those now-smooth fingers, but they hovered just above her. She sighed.
“You want something,” Teran said.
There was no pause. Two fingers sank inside her. She gasped. Teran chuckled and her thumb thrilled against Cailyn’s clitoris.
Cailyn shifted to allow better access. Maybe I could ask now, she thought. Jolts of pleasure ran through her body as she moved to Teran’s insistent rhythm.
Teran leaned over and kissed her. Her mouth opened like her body. That was familiar enough. But with Teran her mouth turned to water.
Teran’s fingers drove into her. Even with the claws retracted, they held steel, ready to extend. Cailyn marveled at herself as Teran’s rhythm slowed.
“My lady,” Cailyn panted. “What—?”
The fingers inside Cailyn slid free. Cailyn gasped at their loss. What had she done wrong? Was this about not asking to be cut?
“Close your eyes.” Teran stepped away. “Touch yourself if you wish, but don’t come.”
All right. Nobles had asked her to put on a show for them before.
Cailyn slid her hand down, making a show of caressing her own flesh. Part of her wanted to turn and look. Part of her felt glad to lose herself, to focus on nothing but the way her fingers moved as they slipped over her slick flesh.
She heard a drawer slide open and froze. When she heard the snapping sound of a glove, she sighed with relief and let her fingers dance again. A jolt of pleasure raced through her as she moved them still faster.
She heard Teran’s footfalls behind her. Hands reached down to touch her chest. They slid down her stomach and over her pelvis and paused just above her sex.
Cailyn guessed the touch was a command. She bowed her head and moved her hand away, offering access to Teran’s hands.
Fingers filled her again, just like before. They pushed in and out of her in the same powerful welcome as before. One finger thrilled over her clitoris.
Teran’s other hand, gloved and slick with oil, sought her smaller orifice.
Glove or no, Cailyn tensed. She thought of Teran probing her there, will alone keeping the steel at bay.
Teran laughed. Her fingers moved on Cailyn’s clitoris until her body relented.
It trusts you more than I do, Cailyn thought. Teran slipped a finger in.
Cailyn could ask for pain now. Here in this haze of sex it wouldn’t be so bad. And Teran would provide.
But to use her claws, Teran would have to pull her fingers out again. She’d have to stop all of this.
Cailyn could only shake her head as her exasperated sigh became a climax. Twin orifices yawned open as Teran pulled free. She heard the snap as Teran peeled off the glove and tossed it aside.
“What is it you really want?” Cailyn asked.
“You.” Teran kissed her.
Cailyn licked her lips. “What will you do now, since you’re not going to hurt me?”
Silence. Cailyn listened to her own breath.
Steel wound itself in her hair. A sharp yank pulled her head back so hard she yelped. Metal ran along her neck.
“I never said I wouldn’t hurt you.” The claw tickled her neck. “I said I wouldn’t cut you.”
Cailyn swallowed. She shivered as her throat moved, Teran’s steel still pressed against it. She blinked up at the ceiling, afraid to move her head with Teran’s steel-tipped hand still wound in her curls.
Teran pinched her nipple. She reeled.
Teran rummaged through the drawer in the nightstand. She drew some small clips out. Cailyn frowned. Her nipple still ached. What more did Teran want?
Teran held one of the clips up for Cailyn to look at. Then she fit it over her nipple. Cailyn breathed hard as it tightened over her flesh.
“Have you seen these before? They have a clever little feature.” She tapped the side lightly with her finger. The clip emitted an electronic beep and tightened, remorseless. Cailyn bit her lip.
Teran laughed and held up another. Cailyn guessed Teran would put it on her other nipple. But instead Teran’s hand moved down between her legs. She shook her head in disbelief as Teran’s other hand pulled gently on one of her inner lips.
“You realize I’m not like the others you’ve seen,” Cailyn said.
“Yes, I do,” Teran said. She paused to run her fingers along Cailyn’s skin. Then Cailyn knew nothing but the agony of the pressure on her pinched skin. She threw her head back and howled.
She’d thought, before any of this started, that giving her stop word would be easy enough. Now she struggled for any words at all.
“Too much,” she finally said, the words and a gasp coming out together.
The pressure eased. Relief flooded her before she realized she hadn’t heard the electronic sound. She swam back into her body. Pale gray eyes stared at her. It took her a moment to recognize them, or the objects lying, suddenly innocent, in Teran’s palm.
She breathed into the paleness of the room. Would Teran be angry? Disappointment seethed in her gut. Then again, if Lady Nivrai wanted to play this game, so be it. She’d risked and lost. It was unfair to demand so much.
To Cailyn’s surprise, tender arms wrapped around her body. Teran’s mouth sought hers again. Cailyn surrendered to it gratefully, drinking in what Teran gave her. A thrill ran through her opening mouth.
And through her nipple, caught and sore between the metal clamped around it.
The tips of Teran’s claws ghosted down her back, not piercing the skin. The nerves under them sang. Cailyn wrapped her arms around Teran and held on.
Go ahead. Cut me now, Cailyn thought. Even the pain of the vise around her nipple, Teran’s touch could transform. It burned, a tiny flare of desire, as the steel traced need along her back.
“It will go,” Teran said.
“Please, no.” Cailyn wanted only this. To melt under Teran’s kiss, arch into the lines of the newsteel along her back.
Her voice sounded strange to her own ears, thick with passion. She shuddered, sure it amused and aroused Teran to hear her plead.
Perhaps if she pleaded again and again, it would excite Teran enough to let this go? She felt an unexpected jolt of pleasure, imagining herself prostrate before the infamous Lady Helldemon and begging for mercy.
Teran nibbled at her neck. One of her hands slid along her body, its claws retracted, and down again to her sex.
“Cailyn Derys.”
“Yes?”
“Are you not here to serve my pleasure?”
“Yes,” Cailyn gasped as two of Teran’s fingers slid inside her.
She swallowed, trying to collect herself. “But it’s not only my pain that pleases you, my lady.”
“True.”
“Then why?”
The words sounded as foolish as she felt, fighting not to dissolve into Teran’s touch. She held on to them. Here for Teran’s pleasure? Yes. Here for whatever kind of use any noble wanted, no matter what?
No. Not even for Teran Nivrai.
“Why indeed?” Teran’s other hand danced over the clamp on Cailyn’s nipple until Cailyn made a small noise.
Teran moved her fingers a few times and then pulled them free. Cailyn turned on her with a frustrated frown.
“I think you’re asking the wrong questions,” Teran said, moving back with slow, easy steps. “I think the real question is: If you truly hate it, why are you here? It takes more than this to scare y
ou away.”
Was she afraid? She winced. She was scared of the pain. Yes. And somewhere hidden under the desire she still felt annoyed.
She didn’t know much about the other courtesans, the ones the nobles hired for dominance games. She did know they had their limits, and Guild law said those limits had to be respected. Even Helldemon Nivrai might not break Guild law. After all, she had stopped, moments ago.
“What if it doesn’t take more than this to scare me away, my lady?” Cailyn forced herself to ask.
“The door,” Teran answered, “is that way.”
“You’d send me away? After all this?”
“I wouldn’t send you anywhere. The choice is yours and always has been. I would rather waste money than time.”
She expected to see Teran pull away. Instead, Teran leaned over her and kissed her, hard.
The hunger in that kiss shocked Cailyn. Did the anticipation excite her so much?
Cailyn kissed her back, unsure if she wanted to lose herself in the kiss or if she hoped to distract Teran.
Fingers probed at her labia before the kiss even ended. She winced to feel them there but didn’t want to pull away. She stared at the ceiling, trying not to think of how it would feel.
The pain came again. She heard a strange sound and realized she’d made it. Teran’s finger circled her clitoris. Pleasure curled through Cailyn’s flesh, and she willed herself to focus on it. Even that couldn’t soothe the crushing pain.
She looked into Teran’s eyes and willed herself to focus on them. Teran bent down to clip another clamp to her skin. She clenched her fists as the wave of pain came.
Teran’s fingers danced along what flesh was left.
She heard Teran’s voice telling her to breathe, so she did. When she relaxed, one of Teran’s fingers peeked inside her for a moment and then retreated. Cailyn felt herself move after it.
She looked up again. Teran’s strange eyes glowed, lit by pleasure. The sight sent a thrill through her, something she finally recognized as desire.
She moved to Teran’s touch—her lady’s touch, as she was meant to. Reason returned. She imagined Teran laughing, light and amused, as jolts zinged through her body and her fists pounded at air again. Then she realized the laughter was real.
The room slid into focus. Teran smiled down at her and she smiled back, too exhausted to do much else. Faint waves of pleasure moved through her, and on their heels came pain that made her cringe and bite her lip.
Hands moved on her body, gentle, almost sweet.
Was this how helldemons apologized?
Teran reached for the clip on Cailyn’s nipple and opened it. Cailyn sighed in a moment of blessed relief.
It didn’t last long. A new rush of pain came as the circulation returned.
Teran closed her mouth with another kiss. Her fingers pressed the clip on Cailyn’s nipple. Cailyn tensed as it opened. Teran chuckled when she winced.
Again, Teran traced her hands along Cailyn’s skin. Cailyn’s body, tired of being hurt, ached for the gentle contact.
Just give me this, she thought but didn’t say.
Fingers slid into Cailyn’s mouth. Cailyn sucked at them. The retracted claws tasted metallic, a sharp promise.
The things Teran did were new to her. But she knew how to give pleasure like this. It relieved her to be on such familiar ground.
The fingers left her mouth and sprouted claws again. Steel ran lightly along Cailyn’s lip. Cailyn breathed and opened her mouth. Even with the claws out, it seemed, she missed the contact.
Teran pushed a curl out of Cailyn’s face. What did she look like now, sweaty and disheveled from sex and pain alike? She blushed.
“Those should come off,” Teran said. Thankfully, there was no gloating in her voice.
“Then do it,” Cailyn said with the same seriousness.
“You’re not afraid, are you, little one?”
“I am. A little.”
Teran’s eyes glittered as she reached to pull the clamps off. “Good.”
She removed them in rapid succession, allowing Cailyn a brief moment to get used to the pain of the first before overwhelming her with the second. Cailyn winced, cried out, and cursed.
She bit her lip. Perhaps she didn’t advertise on the dark channels, but Teran was paying like she did. Learning how to speak with poise and grace came early in a courtesan’s lessons.
Teran only laughed. “Nervous, little one? I told you before that punishment holds no interest for me.”
She kissed Cailyn’s stomach. “In fact, I would say you did quite well for one who is not accustomed to this.”
Cailyn flushed with pride. She knew the feeling, a familiar contentment at having done well. With it came a familiar desire, a need to give more, to touch, to offer her all that her art had trained her for.
“What do you want now, little one?” Teran asked. She raised her head, twined a lock of Cailyn’s hair around one of her claws.
Cailyn shivered. I will if you ask me to. Was that what she wanted? To hear Cailyn ask? After all this, begging to be cut didn’t seem so frightening. Those points of steel had promised it already.
“I want to touch you, my lady,” Cailyn said. If I can’t give what you want, at least let me offer what I know.”
Teran’s lip curled. Cailyn frowned, sure she’d disappointed her, but the twitching mouth settled into a smile.
“Very well.” Teran lowered herself onto the bed.
Chapter Five
Cailyn whispered a short prayer to the courtesans’ goddess. She ran her hands down Teran’s skin. Was touch like this too mild for a woman with claws?
She closed her eyes and breathed in. She remembered Teran’s hand around her wrist the last time they had met, forbidding her to touch.
She parted Teran’s slick flesh with care and reverence. She moved her fingers with slow care, seeking out the rhythm in Teran’s breath.
Teran’s eyes narrowed. Her mouth opened and low sounds came out. Cailyn took it as encouragement and slid her fingers down.
She looked up at Teran, her fingers poised at Teran’s entrance. Teran looked back for a moment and nodded once.
Cailyn slid one finger in, slow and careful.
She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting. Eagerness? Resistance? She found flesh, soft and heated, like anyone else’s. She moved her fingers without thought, her thumb at Teran’s clitoris. Teran’s hips moved. Cailyn timed her movements to meet them.
With others it might have been different, all speed and intensity. Cailyn kept her movements slow. From the stream of sound that came from Teran and the glitter of her still-lidded eyes, she seemed lost in pleasure. But that choice was not Cailyn’s to make, despite the hum spreading through her own body at Teran’s reaction.
So Cailyn waited, taking her cues from the moving body in front of her. Teran moved faster, all at once. Cailyn sped up as Teran cried out and her body locked around Cailyn’s fingers.
She remembered that last time, the choked sound. This sound was steady, and the flesh around her fingers pulsed in possession rather than fear.
What had changed in six months? She pulled her fingers free and stared at them like she could read Teran’s secrets in the glisten of her wetness. She looked up and Teran quirked an eyebrow at her.
Cailyn lay back on the bed. Teran laughed and told her to get back up.
Teran walked over to the wall and pressed the hidden panel. The wall slid aside to reveal the small flagellary. She walked over to one of the benches and gestured for Cailyn to bend over it.
“My lady?” Cailyn asked again. She would have welcomed even the smallest reprieve, a chance to kneel, listen, know when to let Teran’s desire build again. But no.
Teran laughed and gestured again. She moved to the wall to take something down from it. A whip? A paddle? Cailyn didn’t look. She climbed, resigned, onto the bench. Locks sealed quicksilver metal over Cailyn’s wrists and ankles.
Steel knotted in he
r hair, harsh and unforgiving. “Little one. Are you so tired after one?”
“No, my lady.” Cailyn fought not to sigh.
“Then why should I be?” A claw ran along her chin, sharp and warm.
Cailyn shivered. Why had she ever thought slow lovemaking might calm someone like Teran Nivrai? She laughed at herself.
Claws danced along the skin of her buttocks. Heat rose in her body, mingled with her fear. She let out a slow breath.
Leather draped across her skin. She recognized the braided flogger from last time. Its burn had seared her back. She shivered hard enough that Teran walked over to fist her hand in Cailyn’s hair.
“Perhaps I won’t cut you tonight,” Teran whispered, sharp in her ear. “That much is up to you. But you will bleed.”
The hand in her hair withdrew. She felt the weight of her curls like a loss as she heard the whip whistle overhead. Her nipple and labia ached, suddenly demanding her notice.
The tails of the flogger tore fiery lines into her flesh. She clutched at the bench with her hands.
Teran stopped for a moment. Cailyn breathed, gulping in air. The first time, the fire in her flesh had fed her desire, even as she wailed and fought back curses.
She didn’t like this, not now. She did not crave it. She endured it. But under it all lingered the wish that Teran would touch her, take her, claim her. Didn’t that come to the same thing in the end?
Yes. Yes. She swallowed, seeking out the rhythm in the blows Teran’s windmilling arm rained down on her skin. Part of her burned to be touched. Could it kindle to this?
She envisioned the courtesans’ goddess, her eyes closed, her head ringed by flowing hair. She focused on the image, slowed her breathing.
Was she bleeding? She might be. If Teran wanted it, she would be soon.
She imagined Teran’s smile. She thought of the rich hum in Teran’s voice when desire overtook her.
A new image rose to her mind, unbidden: her blood, bright red on steel. Her hips rocked back to meet the whip.
Teran laughed behind her. Pain lanced through her again. Her body moved with the rhythm, the warmth in her body spreading to Teran’s will.
