by Cherry Sloe
"Make your choice, little snow cat," he ordered, moving within arm's reach. "Our time is short and my staff is long."
"After I finish with you, Bladen Tor, the only words you'll say to me will be 'mercy,'" she said, swinging one arm out from behind her back.
Too late, Bladen saw the silvery rod with its five deadly filaments. A sinja whip, hereditary weapon of the Dragon Throne--and in the hands of an angry master.
The weapon made its singsong music as the whip strands whistled through the air toward him. Bladen tried to leap back, but it was too late. Three of the lethal fibers snaked around his upper body, pinning his arms to his sides, the other two wound round his neck, clamping off his air supply. Valiantly, he tried to tense his arm and neck muscles to buy himself an extra finger-width of room, but her aim was true.
Kira jerked hard on the sinja whip's handle, dragging him down to his knees.
Bladen struggled, feeling his heart pound and his eyes bulge as the air left his body. "Wait...Kira..." he managed to gasp, but a whirling blackness closed in upon him and he collapsed to the floor. The last thing Bladen saw was a satisfied, predatory smile on Kira's lovely lips as she knelt down beside his body, hunting dagger in hand.
Chapter 3
* * *
Bladen lay naked on the soft rug, his skin burnished bronze in the firelight's glow. Kira crouched at his side and stared at his glorious display of perfection with growing hunger. This was the first time she'd ever had the opportunity to see her former lover completely unclothed, and she meant to take full advantage of the situation while it lasted.
The flickering light threw playful shadows across the angles and planes of his body, drawing her gaze to the two perfect male nipples that graced the swell of his chest. Unbidden, her hand drifted to brush the tip of one flat oval. To her surprise, the tip tightened and contracted. Bladen shifted and a shudder ran through his muscular frame.
She quickly checked his bindings. Hands and legs were still bound tight. Last loop around the throat, loose... for the moment. The detached cords from her sinja whip had been put to further practical use. His feet were bound to two hearth rings while his hands were tied to the base of the fur-covered couch. The position was vulnerable, revealing all, and she couldn't help but wonder what touching his body would feel like after five, long years.
Curiosity aroused, Kira placed a tentative hand on his ankle, feeling the steady pulse beneath the flesh and bone, the warmth of the fire in the heat of his skin. Emboldened, she slid her fingertips higher, drifting along Bladen's muscular calf with its wiry male hair and on up to the bend of his knee. The soft tendons were bent slightly, and she traced their outline up and around the curve of his bent leg.
A slight ridge in the skin of his leg drew her close scrutiny, and she saw it was a jagged scar, not long healed. Without thinking, she caressed it, feeling its path. There would be many others, she realized.
Her journey continued over the muscled power of his thighs and on to the curve of hip that cradled his half-aroused manhood. That perfect slope of skin beckoned, and Kira leaned closer to place her lips against his groin. She inhaled, smelling his musky scent. Her tongue darted out, flickering along the smooth slant of muscle. He tasted of spice and salt, a uniquely male flavor that made her quiver. She felt dampness spread between her thighs.
A movement drew her focus to his cock and she realized with a shock that he was now fully aroused. Swaying slightly, his turgid rod pulsed with blood and heat. It was smooth and swollen, jutting up from the thick nest of dark brown curls, rampant along the curve of his belly.
Kira shot a quick look at Bladen's face. His eyes were closed, his breathing still deep and steady. She bit her lip, pushed an errant lock of silver hair away from her face and decided. Nestling in between his open legs she bent, allowed the silken tip of his cock to brush the curve of her cheek. It throbbed against her skin and Bladen's hips twitched.
Encouraged, Kira placed her lips against the soft head and took him into her mouth. The head was wide and rounded, pleasingly heavy. She ran her tongue gently around the tip, then found the curve between the edge and the shaft and explored that as well.
Bladen made a noise somewhere between a moan and a shout. "Gods," he moaned. "Kira, you must release me." His voice was hoarse, squeezed tight.
Kira looked up the long line of his torso and met his fevered amber gaze. Deliberately, she sucked harder at his shaft, allowing her tongue to flicker just beneath the head. With her free hand, she caressed and cupped his testicles, feeling their hard softness, the shifting of his balls like liquid stones between her fingers.
His buttocks clenched and lifted off the floor. He writhed beneath her gentle touch. Bladen's arms reached for her, the whipcord muscles emphasized by the light sheen of sweat that had broken out upon his body. He was brought up short by the unbreakable strength of the sinja cords. He twisted and thrashed to no avail.
Kira ran her tongue down his sleek length then took one of his testicles into her mouth with delicate precision.
A strangled cry burst from his mouth.
She licked gently and used one finger to stroke the fine line of skin that separated his fragile sacks from his anus.
Again, his spine bowed upward.
Her mouth moved back to suck rhythmically on his rock-hard cock. Her fingers encircled his testicles and caressed the swollen root of his desire.
He resisted... for a moment. Then, with another shuddering cry, she felt him ripple and spill his seed in a long moment of release.
Kira sat up slowly and looked into Bladen's languorous eyes. She swallowed.
"Now we can talk," she said.
Chapter 4
* * *
"Talk, hell," he shouted. "You raped me!"
"Raped or seduced?" she countered swiftly. "Remember, Bladen, I asked you that same question five years ago."
"That was different," he replied sullenly.
She snorted and wiped her mouth delicately on the sliced remains of his shirt. "Different because you were a man seducing an innocent, young woman or different because I was only Kira, childhood friend and not Kira, Royal Protector?"
Bladen glared and said nothing.
"Why did you leave afterwards, Bladen?" Kira asked quietly.
She rose, crossed to a black oak table against the wall, and unstopped the bottle of wine that waited. After breathing in the bouquet and finding it met with her approval, she swallowed directly out of the bottle. Ignoring the two waiting goblets, she took the fruity liquor back to the warmth of the fireplace and sat on the floor, leaning against Bladen's bare hip.
He made an annoyed sound at her boldness.
"Tell me," she urged softly and offered him a drink from the bottle.
He grunted, shook his head, and muttered something that sounded like a particularly vile curse.
Kira propped the bottle against his leg and stood. With a quick movement, she unlaced her leather hunting trousers, pulled them down around her calves and kicked them off into a corner of the room. Clad only in her silken thong, she swung one long leg over Bladen's waist and nestled her whisper-clad bottom firmly against his groin. With a smile of pure devilment, Kira took another sip from the bottle and wiggled her buttocks against his rapidly stiffening staff.
"Tell me," she advised again.
"When did you become so fond of torture?" Bladen demanded roughly, yanking desperately on his bonds.
"I've had five years to think about what I'd like to do to you if I had you at my mercy, Bladen. Don't you think that gives a girl the opportunity to become creative?" Her laugh was deliberately low and seductive.
He stilled, eyes hooded and appraising.
"Tell me, Bladen," she whispered.
"Release me, Kira," he bargained. "And I'll tell you why I left and why I returned after all these years."
She paused. Rubbing against him felt so good, so sensuous. He was at her mercy...for a while, at least. She glanced at the window, trying to
judge the time. Perhaps another hour to go before the "interview" was over. More than enough time to get the information she wanted from him...and give herself some pleasure at the same time. She carefully placed the wine bottle on the floor out of harm's way.
"I'm no fool, Bladen," she murmured, reaching to untie the clasp that held her hair in its long silken braid. "As soon as you're free, you'll try to punish me. Probably by turning me over your knee and paddling my backside, like you used to do when we were children running around this drafty, old heap of rocks." The tie came free and she shook her head, spilling the heavy weight of her hair around them like a living satin curtain.
Bladen looked like a man who had run out of options. He turned his head to the side and closed his eyes, no doubt refusing to see her triumphant above him.
Inwardly cursing and blessing him for his stubbornness, Kira allowed the fragrant strands of her hair to drift over his angular cheeks, down across his sensuous mouth and onto his heaving chest. His stomach muscles clenched beneath her thighs, and she smiled with delight and predatory anticipation.
Her soft, grey, woolen tunic came up and over her head with ease, and soon it and her thong joined the trousers on the floor. Luxuriating in her nakedness, Kira stretched for the ceiling beams, a spine-twisting, back-arching stretch. Sheer bliss.
A rough gasp from Bladen brought her attention back.
He was staring at her breasts and stomach, captivated. "I remember the heir's tattoo on your shoulder, but when did they give you the protector's mark?" he demanded intensely.
Kira glanced down at her stomach and the intricately inked markings that glittered along her belly and thighs. Instinctively, she tilted her head, encouraging her thick hair to slide down, concealing her abdomen.
"No, don't," he urged. "Let me see. Please." His golden-bronze eyes met hers without wavering.
Kira tensed, her legs quivering against Bladen's warm sides. She pulled back her hair and allowed him to study the tattooing that was the proprietary mark of the Royal Protectors of the Dragon Throne.
A sleek silver-and-bronze dragon coiled up her body, its intricate scaling and detail a testament to almost one full year of pain at the hands of her kingdom's greatest tattoo artisan. The tip of the dragon's tail began at her right thigh, winding its way around her pelvis and over the slight curve of her stomach. The dragon's body twisted up her torso, its serpentine head with erect spinal crest nestling on her right breast.
"When?" he asked.
"They started it about a year ago, as soon as my sister's body was recovered from the avalanche site. They had to begin once it was certain I was the new protector." Kira kept her face still. As she had been told time and again during the agony of the tattooing, protectors didn't show pain.
"I'm sorry you had to suffer."
Kira nodded.
They both looked at each other for a long, silent minute. It was a moment of understanding.
Bladen gave her his lopsided grin. "Don't you think you better get fucking, Protector Kira? We've only got about an hour left, you know."
Kira laughed. Saw his lecherous grin and laughed again.
Rolling off his body, she unfastened his neck, ankles and arms from the sinja cord. Faint red marks were the only signs of his captivity, and they'd soon fade.
Bladen sat up rubbing his wrists.
Kira had a suspicious thought. "Those marks aren't very deep, Bladen," she said slowly. "I don't think you were really struggling at all. In fact, I think you rather enjoyed being molested by your protector." Her voice rose with false indignation.
Quick as a mountain cat, he scooped her onto the fur-piled couch and gathered her willing body into his arms.
"You are correct, my protector," he murmured, and covered her mouth with his own before she could say another word.
* * * *
They sank into the luxurious pelts and Bladen reveled in his freedom. It had been pure hell waiting for her to gather the courage to ride him, but when she'd sucked his aching cock with that hot, wet tongue of hers...
He growled softly, remembering, and bent his attention to her swollen, parted lips.
He drank her kisses like rare wine, savoring each one, making it linger. When she made little, humming sounds of pleasure, he showed her the heady sensation of his tongue dancing against hers.
Bladen caressed the soft globes of her breasts, rubbing his calloused thumbs over the rosy, peaked nipples. He felt them contract and jut forward in a silent plea for more, even as his own had just minutes before. Bending, he suckled and laved one sweet peak until she was gasping and arching beneath him. He moved to the other, licking, sucking, then biting gently at the long, soft nipple.
Kira bucked upwards, mouth open in a silent cry of pleasure. Her hands buried themselves into his thick, wavy hair and clasped him tightly against her bosom.
"More, Bladen, please more," she begged, white-blonde hair swirling over his back and shoulders like a sensuous cloak.
He was only too ready to oblige her pleas. Gently, he half-reclined her against the back of the couch and then straddled her waist. His penis was swollen, engorged, the smooth tip a dark reddish-purple against the lighter flesh of the shaft. He guided her hands so she grasped him firmly.
"Rub me between your tits, Kira," he rasped. "I want to feel those beautiful breasts against my cock."
She eagerly guided him to the sweat-slicked cleft between her pale, soft bosoms.
He leaned forward against her, feeling the heat of her hands, directing his eager thrusts, and the perfect smoothness of her breasts, stroking him from beneath with their warm embrace. The curls of his short hairs rubbed against her torso, tugging gently and bringing added erotic sensation. Again and again he thrust through that perfect valley, short grunts of pleasure issuing unbidden from his mouth.
Kira tilted her chin and when his next thrust came, her parted lips were waiting to caress the end of his shaft. Her hands slid up and down with heated friction as her teasing lips and tongue pulled and plucked the head of his cock.
Bladen realized his control was coming to an end. Kira's enthusiasm would milk his seed from him at any moment. Sliding down her taut belly, he eased her flat onto her back with a terse, "Hold fast."
Blue eyes dilated wide with pleasure and anticipation. She relaxed into the soft furs.
Bladen spread his protector's legs wide, running strong hands along her sleek sides, over the glittering arc of the dragon tattoo. He slid his hand between their bodies and touched her most intimate place. One long finger began to stroke her sensitive flesh, feeling the slick dampness that pearled over the soft pink folds.
She gasped. Tossed her head against the furs.
He slid one finger inside of her then began to stroke her slowly.
"Oh, Bladen," Kira moaned. Her buttocks clenched.
The spicy scent of their lovemaking added a heady perfume to the air. He breathed deeply, intoxicated by the fragrance.
"So wet, so tight," he said hoarsely. Another finger joined the first, stretching her wide and bringing another spasm of moisture from deep within her body.
"I need your cock inside me, Bladen," she gasped. "Now."
It was time. He gave one last stroke with his fingers and pulled out, moving above her. Paused. Looked at the wild beauty beneath him and felt his heart ache in time with his rod.
Bladen brought his shaft to her soft, wet curls then thrust forward, embedding himself to the hilt in her warmth. She was so tight, so hot. He withdrew, pulling his turgid cock out to the very entrance to her pink folds and sank back inside, feeling the rippling of her body as it moved to meet and clench around him. Again and again they thrust against one another, moving in the most intimate of dances.
Kira quickened beneath him, moaning, calling his name as she dug fingers into the broad muscles of his back. Her hips thrashed beneath him, whipping his desire into a frenzy. He felt her shudder and prayed he could hold back his own orgasm until she found her own.
/> A low cry sounded from her lips--a sweet sound of release and ecstasy. Gladly, he gave himself over to the hot rush of heat and the pull of her hot, slick folds. He was coming, and with an almost painful rush, he felt himself spill into her, the burning arc of his climax fierce and satisfying.
Whispering her name, he thrust once more, then collapsed atop her body, spent.
They lay for a moment, chests heaving, trying to gulp air back into oxygen-starved lungs. The crackle of the fire and the gentle hiss of snow against glass proved an apt accompaniment to their lassitude. Fire and ice. Male and female. Consort and protector.
Finally, he rolled onto his left side and cupped her against his chest, her buttocks nestled into his groin. His right hand caressed the length of the extraordinary work of art that decorated the perfection of her body. He stroked one gentle hand from the tip of the dragon's tail up to its burning golden eyes.
"I left because your sister asked me to," he said, and felt Kira tense against him. He waited, and when she made no reply, he continued.
"She knew we had become intimate, and felt that I was too inexperienced, too untried to be your lover. He sighed and continued stroking her sweat-dewed skin, willing her to understand. "Her edict stated I had to leave for a period of at least three years--"
"You've been gone for five!" Her voice held worlds of anguish but she remained in his arms. "How can I believe you? You said you loved me then, but you left without a word, without even a note of explanation."
Bladen winced and shook his head. "I thought you knew...that your sister had told you of her plans. That's why I was so angry when I returned today. I was sure I had disappointed you in some way and you no longer shared my affections and had asked your sister to send me away." He grew still, voice pained. "When I saw the anger...the betrayal in your face once you recognized me, I realized how wrong I had been."
"Five years lost to us," Kira mourned. "What a waste."
