Dangerous Ties

by Devyn Quinn

  His mouth pressed against the rosette of her asshole, and she reared back against his lips. “Yes. Please. Fuck me with your mouth, Master.”

  He was no longer her master, never had been, and she knew it. It was just a game she played now. A dark, delicious game that throbbed his solid cock as he moved his mouth to the rear of her cunt and slipped his tongue inside.

  He milked her pussy, pumped into it with long strokes—first gentle, then forceful. Gentle again when Leia whimpered and her limbs trembled as if she might come. With the push of his tongue into her silky passage and the press of his lips around her clit, he took her to the edge, again and again. Never quite letting her fall over it.

  Pulling her hips forward when he would have again slowed the pace, Leia panted, “I need to come. I need to!”

  He didn’t need to come. Like sleeping and eating, it wasn’t an essential of his existence. But he wanted to come. Wanted to push into her and lose himself completely.

  Sebastian didn’t do that yet. He refused to end their time together so quickly. Instead, he brought his mouth back to her crack, his lips to her anus. Palming her shaved mound, he slipped two fingers into her pussy in time with the push of his tongue into her asshole.

  Gasping, she contracted her sphincter muscles. “Ahhh…”

  Relaxing those muscles, she moaned again, a lulling tremor of sound he felt as a needful twinge in his groin. His pulse clapped like thunder between his ears as he eased his tongue farther into her tight passage. Feasting on the tender, moist tissue, he used his fingers to devour her cunt, stroking the slick inner walls, pumping up in time with each thrust of his tongue, finally allowing her to fall over that edge and bathe his fingers with the gift of her cum.

  Her hips propelled with the force of her climax, her ass thrusting back to work his tongue faster inside her body. His own orgasm clawed at his gut and spine, tightening the skin around his dick and snugging his balls. He held on to his need, held on and let her ride out her climax. Then he let her take the lead, let her have control over him in a way he’d never allowed a woman, in his mortal life or his middle one, to do.

  Juices trickling down her inner thighs and the heady scent of her arousal thick in the air, Leia came up on her knees. Playfulness glinted in her eyes as she smacked his hip. “Get on your back, slave.”

  Unable to stop his smile—not so much over her actions but how far she’d come in such a short time—Sebastian went. He lay on the mat, and opened his arms and legs to her, the same way she’d done for him. She didn’t pace herself as he had, but jumped onto his lap and impaled her pussy with his cock.

  She inhaled on a sharp breath, eyelids flickering partway closed, and her stunning breasts jiggling like the best kind of aphrodisiac.

  He filled his hands with the plush mounds. Drawing the erect, rosy nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, he applied pressure and twisted until she squeaked, taking her right back as his captive. “Now, who’s the slave?”

  You, Master. Always you.

  Maybe. Maybe not. For now, he went with it. Grabbing her around the waist, he brought her onto her back on the mat and pushed his cock deep inside her once more. He lifted her ankles to his shoulders and slid deeper still, to the recesses of her sex where she was molten and liquid. Where he could feel each beat of her heart deep down within.

  Where he would gladly stay nestled forever.

  Neither circumstance nor Leia allowed it. Squeezing her muscles tight around his cock, she arched her hips. He took hold of her ass cheeks and met her halfway, pumping downward with her upward thrust. They fell into a rash, wild unison. Bodies slamming together, skin sliding against sweat-slicked skin. Mouths stealing for air as primal instinct took over.

  The thrash of her hips stilled suddenly. Ripe color flooded her cheeks. Pinching her eyes shut, she cried out, “Now. Now!”

  Her pussy clamped down, squeezing his cock as she restarted into a feral bucking. Cream flooded out, surrounding his shaft, drenching it. He gave in to his spent control, flooding her body in return, coming into her with a violent surging of his hips and a blistering inward curse.

  Sebastian let her sex continue to contract around his with the aftershocks of her orgasm. He let himself stay right there and hold on to her, pretend she could still be his.

  A half-minute’s worth of forbidden fantasies filled his mind before she opened her eyes to smile sleepily up at him. “I never knew the ground could be so comfortable.”

  The fantasies burst, and the cause of his curse—a damning bleak reality he could no longer ignore—took hold.

  Sliding her ankles off his shoulders, he set her feet on the mat and scooted backward, away from her centerfold curves. Away from her emotions churning hot through her body and mind. Away from the only woman he’d ever truly given a damn about.

  Rolling to his feet, he stood and headed for the chest against the wall. He’d asked Aubrie to stock a fresh set of clothes for the day he chose to release Leia. He pulled out the white shorts and pale pink T-shirt now, wishing the skin-shifter wasn’t always so eager to do his bidding and resolute about doing it right.

  Without meeting Leia’s eyes, he tossed the clothing at her. “Put these on.”

  “Why? Is something wrong?”

  Concern weighted her voice, and he had to tune that out too. Had to not even attempt to read her thoughts. “Yes.”

  “Another animal?”

  “No animal. You, Leia. It’s time for you to go.”

  “What?”

  Against Sebastian’s will, his head snapped up with the force of the word. Denial lifted into her eyes. He steeled himself against that denial, steeled his voice so she couldn’t mistake this for another game. “You’re going home. Back to your city with its high-rise buildings with white marble floors that echo the clack of your eight-hundred-dollar heels.”

  Denial turned to staunch objection. Glowering, she stood to cross her arms. “I won’t go.”

  So strong now. At least this time when he sent her away, he would know she took both her lost memories and her lost courage with her.

  “You have no choice,” he snapped back.

  Leia didn’t move, just continued to stand and glare at him. Out of options, out of time, he strode to the mat and jerked the clothes up. He shoved them at her. “Get dressed!”

  Her nostrils flared, but otherwise she didn’t flinch. “I don’t want to go back to my damned heels, and I don’t want to wear these clothes.”

  Son of a bitch. Why did she have to make this harder than it already was? Grunting, he dropped the clothes to the ground and grabbed hold of her around the middle. Hoisting her over his shoulder, he strode to the dirt wall that served as a doorway to the outside world. “Then you’ll leave naked.”

  Her breath feathering hot and tauntingly against his neck, she pounded at his back. “Don’t do this, Sebastian! I belong here. With you.”

  “The choice isn’t yours to make.”

  The pounding ceased. For a moment, her attempts at swaying him did as well. Then she continued in a quiet voice. “The heels were a metaphor. They represented my severance from Ken. From the way he…” Pausing, she drew an audible breath. “From the way he abused me. From my finding the strength to walk away.”

  Shit, he knew what that admission had cost her. Knew she’d never voiced the words aloud. He knew it didn’t make a damned bit of difference. Holding her tight against him, so her body would move through the dirt as easily as his own, he took her through the wall and deposited her on the other side. Daybreak was nearly upon them, soft fingers of pale pink and orange light spearing the horizon. He loved this time of morning. He knew she used to love it as well.

  Now, only blind fury filled her.

  Sebastian took a step backward, one foot and leg easing through the flint and the dirt beyond that. “Good-bye, Leia. Don’t let your mind convince you the last days were just a dream.” He moved the rest of the way into the wall then, away from the loathing in her eyes. Bu
t not away from the sound of her voice.

  Her fists pounded against the flint. “Goddamn you! Let me in, you chickenshit.”

  He kept moving, kept going until he was back in the holding area. Always before, this place had felt like a second home to him, natural and hushed, a place to think, to escape. A place where he’d indulged in countless fuck sessions with Aubrie and the other skin-shifters—both those meant to stay his feral urges while he waited for an animal’s spirit to leave him and those sessions meant solely for pleasure.

  A place that felt empty now, lifeless and dank.

  He didn’t need to sleep. But he went to the mat and lay down anyway. Waited with his eyes closed and his mind devoid of further thought as the minutes turned to hours so that he could be certain Leia was gone.

  “Master?”

  Leia? No, the feminine voice wasn’t even close to hers. “What is it, Aubrie?” Sebastian asked without opening his eyes.

  “It’s time.”

  “Time for what?”

  “To move on.”

  Eyes speeding open, he shot to a sitting position. “Christ, you can’t be serious. Now? Today of all the fucking days?”

  Aubrie cast her attention to the ground and nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry, Master. I only deliver His bidding.”

  The irony was, a week ago, he would have been thrilled to have her deliver the news. Now that Leia had returned to his life, he could barely stomach the thought. So long as he remained here on Earth, there was at least a chance they could meet again. “How soon?”

  “By nightfall.” Her gaze lifted from the ground, trolling slowly up his body, lingering hot on his exposed cock. A carnal smile curved her vibrant red lips. “Shall I gather the skin-shifters to give you a proper farewell?”

  A week ago, the offer of a final orgy with those who had become like family to him would have been well received too. Now he couldn’t even work up the energy to get aroused. “Thank you, but I need to see that things are left as cared for as possible.”

  “Another will take your place.”

  Rising, Sebastian started for the dirt wall that doubled as a doorway. “And they’ll hate the duty as much as I did when I first came here.”

  “Yes. But in time that will change.”

  It would, too, he knew. Someone would come along to change that next man’s jaded viewpoint on being dumped into a middle life, just as Leia had done for him. Would that other man ultimately fail the person who helped him see truth? Would he be standing here after a decade, realizing his middle life was ending on just as shitty of a note as his mortal life had?

  Despite her exhaustion, Leia didn’t sleep. As was true last night, she couldn’t sleep for missing Sebastian. The difference this morning was she had a bed beneath her naked body—a mattress that felt like pure ecstasy at her back. And the difference this morning was that Sebastian wouldn’t be returning to her.

  She’d held out hope when she found his home. She’d never seen it before, and yet, one step inside the sedate log structure and she knew it was his place. She could sense him. Sense his presence and hold out hope that, eventually, he would return.

  But hours had passed since she’d come inside and helped herself to a modest snack. Another hour since she’d lain down in his bed and inhaled his scent lifting off the sheets. She couldn’t sleep, and he wasn’t coming back. She might as well just go. Accept what had to be.

  He was a freaking dead man, after all. No, not dead, just not alive. Just not able to give her a chance at the future she craved beyond logic.

  “Leia?”

  Leia’s thoughts came to a standstill with the deliciously familiar deep voice. Almost afraid to look for fear it was her mind playing tricks—phantom voices this time—she glanced toward the bedroom door. Her heart raced at the sight of the wickedly sexy undead man standing there.

  Oh, God. It wasn’t her mind playing tricks.

  Sebastian’s gaze narrowed. “What are you doing here?”

  He didn’t look happy to see her. Well, screw him. She was here and she wasn’t leaving, even if it meant locking them both inside this bedroom and throwing away the key. Maybe they had no chance in the long run, but they could have a damned fine time in the short run.

  Sliding to the edge of the bed, she eyed him past lowered lashes. Courage that she’d forgotten she possessed drove her to her feet, had her sashaying across to him, thrusting her breasts out while her lips curved naughtily. “I told you I’d be here.” She planted her palms on his chest, thrilling in the play of hard muscle beneath her fingertips. “I said tomorrow we could use your bed, remember?”

  Sebastian’s breath drew in. Desire lightened his eyes, taking away his hard look and making her think once more that she’d known him well before this.

  He lifted her hands from his chest to move to the end of the bed and sit down. “How long have you been here?”

  Leia frowned at the question. At the realization of how peculiar he was acting. She thought he wasn’t happy to see her, but now it seemed something else was at work in his mind.

  Forgetting the seduction game for now, she offered, “Almost five hours. I wandered around for quite a while, trying to find my car. I couldn’t find it, and somehow I ended up right back where I started. At least, I thought it was where I started. I’ve never seen your house before.”

  “It wasn’t visible to the human eye. Just as I wasn’t unless I chose to be so.”

  Wasn’t? “What’s changed?”

  “I don’t quite—” Stopping short, he stood and went to the dresser near the door. He lifted a pocketknife out of the top of the dresser and flipped open the blade. Leia gasped when he dragged the edge of the blade across his palm. Blood oozed past the freshly cut skin, pooling quickly in his palm and dripping onto the rug beneath his feet.

  Sebastian looked up at her dazedly, then back at his hand. “I’ve moved on.”

  Dread coiled in her belly. She wanted to be with him, but at the cost of death? “But if you have—if this is Heaven—then I’m dead too?”

  “This isn’t heaven.” Opening the top dresser drawer, he pulled out a pair of socks and wrapped one around his cut hand. Fisting his hand, he looked up at her. She’d seen him smile a handful of times these last days, but never had she seen him look this truly content. “It just seems that way when I come home to find you draped naked over my bed.”

  “I don’t understand, Sebastian.”

  “I don’t really either. Aubrie always said I was in my middle life, and that when my fate was determined I would move on. I assumed she meant to Heaven or Hell. But it appears she meant on with my life. My mortal life.”

  Leia’s breath caught. “You’re alive?”

  “My hand’s stinging like a bitch, and I feel like I haven’t slept in a decade.” He laughed in that blithe way only a man who’d just returned to life after a decade of being undead could do. “I’m alive.”

  She wanted to laugh too. Wanted to hold his wondrously naked body close and show him exactly how ecstatic she was about his mortality. She couldn’t without knowing more. “Do you still want me to go?”

  Sobriety entered Sebastian’s eyes. “I never wanted you to go in the first place. I thought there was no other option. Fucking a guy in his middle life might not be so bad, but I can guess it would really suck ass when you woke up one morning to find that guy permanently gone from Earth.”

  When he put it like that, it was hard not to smile. Only those missing answers kept her mouth firm, her heart beating too hard. “It would if I cared enough to miss you.”

  A tortured-sounding sigh left his mouth. He came closer. Close enough he could pull her against him and hold her captive once more if he chose to do so. “I failed you three years ago, Leia. I turned my back on you when you needed my protection most. But I didn’t desert you entirely. When I came back and saw what Ken had done to you, I helped you find the strength to leave.”

  “You came into my mind and gave me courage.” Yes, it m
ade perfect sense. Why she felt so sure she knew him. Why after months of taking Ken’s shit, she’d suddenly been able to find the strength to accept that love shouldn’t come at the cost of unending pain and decided to leave him.

  “No,” Sebastian refuted her observation, “I can’t give you what you don’t already have. I can only make you see how strong that courage is.” A small smile tugged at his lips. “I can’t even do that anymore. I’m just a mortal now. I hunger. I bleed. I love.”

  “We have met before.”

  “Not technically. I’ve known you for years.” The small smile turned to a full-fledged grin. “In some ways, I know you better than you know yourself. But you’ve never met me.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” Leia tapped an index finger against the side of her forehead. “You’ve been up here. You were for years, and then when I left, you weren’t there any longer. I missed living my fantasies, knowing the woman I truly am, but I missed you just as much.” She glanced around the room, then back at him. “Unless there’s someone else, I’d like to stay here with you. Get to know you even better. See how well you handle this whole master/slave game when you can’t just chant a few words and make a vine come out your ass.”

  Humor flashed in his eyes, but he didn’t laugh. Rather, the grin fell from his mouth. “Who else do you think there would be? Aubrie? We had our fun, sure, but that’s all it was, just fun. A way to pass the years.”

  “I meant the person who opened your eyes. The one who made you realize what a joke your first mortal life was. Was it a woman?” At the time he’d spoken of that person, Leia had been overaroused by way of a crotch vine—not exactly in the mindset to even consider what they might mean to him. Now it hit her with belly-twisting clarity that the person was probably female, and that he probably cared for her deeply.

  Understanding dawned in Sebastian’s eyes. He took a step back, looking out the bedroom window before looking back at her and nodding. “It was a woman. And you’re right, I should give her and me a chance, because I love her.”

  The breath wheezed past Leia’s lips. The force of his admission stung more than any of the licks of his vine whip had. For his sake, for what he’d done for her, she nodded her encouragement. “Then you need to track her down and see if she’s available and feels the same for you.”