Taken and Tamed

by Kallista Dane

  “So you and Katherine, you’re really the heroes here?”

  “Damn right.”

  “I can see how you’d feel that way about killing Zander. He works for the mob. But what about me? I’m a witness—and I’m obviously not going to live long enough to make it into any program. That makes me the innocent victim. How does killing me make you a hero?”

  “No matter how just the cause, every war has civilian casualties. Your death may save dozens of lives if we get rid of more vicious criminals who would otherwise be free.” As he spoke, Smith held the gun on her with one hand while digging through drawers and cabinets with the other.

  “You seem like a decent guy, a man who wants to do what is right.” The words nearly stuck in Cass’s throat but she’d played this role before. The sympathetic listener, no matter how twisted and psychotic a rationale she heard. “There had to be a trigger—something that led you to look at your life’s work differently.” She let the words hang, trusting that he’d be compelled to make her understand his point of view.

  By now they’d moved upstairs, Smith rifling through the clothes Nico had worn in Atlanta. With a smile, Smith fished a key out of the pocket of Nico’s suit jacket. Success seemed to take the edge off his hostility. He perched on the edge of one of the beds and began explaining, waving the gun around for emphasis as he did.

  “It was Kyle. Our son. A long time ago, while we were both in college, Katherine and I—well, we were in love. But we both had big plans for the future and when Katherine got pregnant, we made the choice to have her carry the baby and then give it up for adoption. Things changed between us afterwards. I think the grief over what she’d lost weighed so heavily on Katherine that it got in the way of any feelings she had for me. We split up and I didn’t see her for years. But I never really stopped loving her.”

  Cass stifled a cry, turning it into a sympathetic “Oooh.” Out of the corner of her eye, she’d caught a glimpse of a familiar figure making his way soundlessly up the stairs. Naked, bleeding, but back on his feet. Relieved, Cass let go of the knife she’d been sliding out of her pocket. She’d been steeling herself to use it on Smith, all the while terrified at the prospect of plunging it into another human being.

  From where he sat, Smith didn’t have the same vantage point she did. Cass shifted a little to block his view even more and kept him talking.

  “How long have the two of you been back together?”

  “We aren’t together. Not like we once were. Katherine sought me out a couple of years ago. She’d kept in touch with Kyle’s adoptive parents, staying on the sidelines. He thought she was just an old friend of the family.”

  Lost in his story, Smith choked back tears as he went on. “I think that’s what was the hardest for Katherine—the fact that her boy died never knowing she was his mother. A small-time criminal in the program, one of the witnesses Katherine had sworn to protect, was granted immunity in exchange for testifying against a bigger fish. After the trial, he walked away a free man. But once a scumbag, always a scumbag. He robbed a convenience store two months later, killed the clerk and a college kid who had the bad luck to be in the store at the time. Kyle. Katherine came to me, begging me to help her get justice for our dead son. I couldn’t refuse her.”

  Cass stayed frozen in place, hardly daring to breathe. She could feel Nico coming up behind her and she was terrified that Smith would snap out of his reverie too soon.

  “I’m so sorry for your loss. Katherine must have been grief-stricken. Losing a child not once but twice.”

  Smith shook his head. “Something broke inside her. We tracked that piece of shit down together, got to him before the cops did. They found his body, shot once in the chest and once in the head, just like our boy. After that, she’d come to me from time to time. Bring me case files. Criminals the program was protecting. Rapists, wife-beaters, even a guy involved with kiddy porn. There wasn’t enough evidence to bring that asshole to trial but he agreed to turn on his partners. They got locked up. A few months after his testimony, thanks to us, he just… disappeared.

  “Don’t you see? We’ve been doing good work. Important work. The kind of work our system was supposed to do before it got fucked up by all those bleeding hearts who value the lives of murderers and thieves more than the rights of honest law-abiding citizens.”

  Smith looked up in time to see Nico looming over him, covered in blood like an avenging zombie. That split second of shock was all the time Nico needed. He wrestled the gun from Smith’s grasp.

  The man crumbled. He buried his face in his hands, sobs wracking his body. Nico dug his cell phone out of the jumble of clothes on the bed and tossed it to Cass, before collapsing onto the bed.

  “Better call 911,” he managed to gasp. “Tell them to send a chopper. That narrow road up here is gonna get pretty crowded.”

  Chapter Nine

  Three weeks later

  Cass pulled up in front of the cabin and stared around in amazement. The yard had been mowed, the front porch swept bare of leaves and twigs. Windows sparkled.

  “What do you think?” Nico’s grin lit up his face.

  “Did you hire an army of little elves?”

  “Nah. Just got in touch with a local couple who get the place ready for Dave before he comes up. They start the generator, make sure the plumbing still works—that kind of thing. I offered to pick up the tab for cleaning it and doing some yardwork. It was the least I could do when Dave offered me the use of the place for as long as I want while I’m on leave of absence.”

  She hopped out of the car and grabbed an armload of grocery bags.

  “Let me get some of those.”

  “The doctor said not to lift anything heavy. Your left side sustained some pretty heavy damage.”

  “He’s trying to turn me into a pussy.” Nico grabbed two bags with his right hand and followed Cass up the steps of the porch.

  “Yeah, well, with the way you whined when I cleaned up a few scratches from those thorns last time we were here, I was beginning to think you already were one.”

  “I may have been laying it on a bit thick for sympathy. Didn’t coming to your rescue despite the fact that I was bleeding profusely from life-threatening wounds restore my tough-guy image?”

  She laughed and got up on tiptoe, fumbling for the key. Nico stepped behind her, dropped the groceries on the porch, and reached up, trapping her body against the door with his. She felt the unmistakable bulge pressing up against her ass from behind. Cass’s knees went weak.

  They’d spent almost all of their time together over the last few weeks, but none of it in bed. First at the hospital, where Cass refused to leave his room for the first few days. He’d been Medivac’d to Asheville and taken straight in to surgery. Only when she was certain he’d be all right would she consent to going back to FBI headquarters in Atlanta for several days of extensive interviews.

  By the time she walked back into his hospital room, a week after he’d been shot, he was his usual cocky self. Flirting outrageously with his sixty-three-year-old nurse, refusing to take his pain meds, hobbling up and down the halls for hours while dragging his IV bag as he pushed himself to get back in shape.

  “I’ve been shot before,” he replied grumpily, when she urged him to take it easy. “I know what my body needs better than these pill-pushing quacks.”

  “Sweetie, you’d better get him the hell out of here before we shoot him ourselves,” his nurse muttered to Cass.

  They spent another ten days at a nearby motel, so Nico could go back to the hospital daily for therapy. Despite his protests, Cass insisted on separate rooms. She’d seen the toll his injury took on him, caught the grimaces of pain he tried to hide, the trembling in his arms and legs when he pushed himself too hard. She knew that no matter what his cock wanted, the rest of his body needed time to recuperate.

  Besides, she welcomed the interlude. Without the distraction of mind-blowing sex, she could get to kno
w the real Nico. And the more time she spent with him, the more attracted to him she became. Every day after Nico’s therapy appointment, they talked for hours while they took long walks on a nature trail not far from the hospital. The local farmer’s market became a favorite stop every couple of days for fresh fruit and vegetables, cheese and bread for impromptu picnics.

  At night they roamed the streets of downtown Asheville, stopping to watch street performers do magic tricks or listen to a sidewalk steel drum band or just sit and soak up the atmosphere at an outdoor café. One night they followed a savage beat to a tiny park downtown, lured there by the Friday night drum circle. To her amazement, Cass found dozens of drummers, young and old, perched here and there on the stone steps leading down to a crowded pocket park, pounding out a rhythm that somehow kept changing smoothly as they played. It was as though the drums had a life of their own, and had taken control of the drummers, compelling them to play as one.

  People, young and old, danced in place, stomping and swaying to the beat vibrating up through the ground into their bodies. Next to her an aging hippie wearing a faded paisley skirt that grazed her Birkenstocks twirled in circles, waist-length gray hair flying around a face wreathed with a huge smile. Cass laughed, kicked off her high-heeled sandals, and joined in the dance, whirling faster and faster as the drumbeats built to yet another crescendo, then somehow seamlessly transitioned into a new rhythm.

  He loved so many of the same things she did—binge-watching shows on Netflix, getting lost in a novel till three a.m. But he challenged her to get up, get out, and try new things as well. Cass realized that with Nico as a boyfriend, she had her own personal trainer. His idea of fun always involved doing something that left her with sore muscles. But it was the good kind of sore, the kind that made her revel in her newfound strength and stamina. She finally relented and bought a pair of cross-trainers, since she couldn’t keep up with him in her usual heels.

  One afternoon they rented kayaks and paddled down a shallow river. Nico taught her to recognize the thrum of a wild turkey beating his wings against the ground, pointed out patches of blackberries just beginning to ripen in a sun-soaked clearing along the banks.

  “In a couple of weeks, the turkeys will descend on that patch and strip every last berry from the branches. When I was a kid, it was always a race to see if we could get to the berries before the turkeys did. If we got lucky, we’d fill old milk jugs to the brim with them.” His eyes grew dreamy. “Granny used to make the best jam.”

  “I’m guessing she served that on her famous biscuits.”

  “Damn right. I vowed that someday I’d find me a gal who could cook just like granny,” he replied in a drawl. He gave her a lecherous grin. “Guess I’ll have to settle for one who gets my dick hard every time I look at her.”

  She splashed him playfully and his eyes narrowed. “Be careful. You do realize I’m keeping track of every naughty thing you’ve done in the past couple of weeks. Right now you’ve earned yourself three good spankings. Are you sure you want to go for number four?”

  Her pussy clenched. She’d been so hot, so ready for days now. But fear held her back even more than her concerns about his health. He’d done as he promised, never making a move until she was ready to come to him and ask for that next spanking. Both of them enjoyed the game of seduction they played along the way. The teasing, the casual remarks when they were out in public that only they knew were brimming with innuendoes.

  By the time Cass headed back to Charlotte for a few days to take care of business, the sexual tension between them had built until it was nearly unbearable. This morning she’d picked him up in Asheville and they headed two hours up the road back to the cabin where they’d be spending the next month together while he got back into shape.

  She swallowed nervously as he reached around her and unlocked the door. He’d stayed true to his promise all this time, never pressuring her, giving her the time she needed. But they both knew that agreeing to come here with him meant she would agree to submit to him, accept him completely as her dom.

  Once inside, she bustled around, putting away the groceries, exclaiming over how the view of the mountains out the huge window had changed in a few short weeks. “It looks so different now that summer is almost here. The mountains closest to us are a sea of green!”

  Nico never said a word. He stood in the middle of the cabin and let her carry on. Cass heard herself babbling like an idiot, but she couldn’t seem to stop. Her knees were shaking. She glanced at him.

  He wore low-slung jeans and a black t-shirt that skimmed the sleek muscles in his chest. He’d gotten rid of the sling two weeks ago and both arms rested at his sides. All the sunshine and exercise had given his skin a bronze cast and he glowed with health. His dark hair had grown out a little over the last few weeks. It suited him. She resisted an impulse to go over and run her fingers through it, knowing he wouldn’t welcome a gentle touch at the moment. He stood there in full dom mode now. Huge. Silent. Radiating an aura of tightly controlled power.

  His eyes met hers, dark and smoldering with heat. Her voice died off.

  He let the silence build.

  “Um… I guess I’m ready. But you probably knew that already since I’m here and we’re alone and all…”

  “Cass.” His one word stopped her in her tracks.

  “Uh… what?”

  “Don’t you have something to ask me?”

  “Right now? I thought we’d have some lunch first, maybe go for another walk…”

  “I’m not hungry. And you don’t get to set our schedule. The moment you set foot inside that door, you gave up control. Now you have to acknowledge it. Not to me. To yourself.” His eyes raked over her. “Do it. Ask me.”

  “Will you… I mean, I’d like you to… Oh, God, this is so hard. You know what I’m trying to say. So just do it!”

  “That’s not how it works, Cass.” His tone was stern. “When I tell you to do something, I expect to be obeyed. Unless you want to start out being punished?”

  “No!”

  His eyes narrowed menacingly. “I don’t want to hear that word again while we’re here.”

  She felt it again. The shiver of arousal surging through her every time she heard that stern tone in his voice. He’s right, she told herself. This is what you wanted. Now you have to have the guts to admit it out loud.

  She took a deep breath. “Would you please give me a sexy, loving spanking?”

  He stared her down. “Sir.”

  She looked back at him in confusion. “What?”

  “You will address your dom as sir.”

  “But I thought if it was a loving…”

  He cut her off. “I told you once before. When it comes to sex, I’m always the dom. It’s my way, not yours.”

  She let out a sigh. “Would you please give me a spanking, sir?”

  He walked over to the couch and sat down. “Stand here in front of me. Take off your clothes. Slowly.”

  Spurred by the commanding tone in his voice, she stepped in front of the couch and began unbuttoning her shirt. She’d chosen her outfit with care this morning—a sleeveless bronze silk blouse tucked into her favorite butt-hugging jeans. Underneath she wore a low-cut black lace bra and matching bikini panties. And since he’d spoken so fondly of them, she had on the black fuck-me stiletto heels she’d worn the day they met.

  Cass tossed the shirt onto the floor and began unzipping her jeans. She took her time wiggling them down past her hips, relishing the way his eyes followed every movement of her hands. She slid off the black heels, one at a time, as she stepped out of her jeans, then put them back on to stand in front of him clad only in her underwear.

  “Take off your bra, but leave the panties on—and the shoes.” His eyes held the glint of arousal but his voice stayed hard.

  “Yes, sir.” Reaching back, she unhooked the bra, dropping it on top of her shirt. Her nipples stood out, dark reddish-brown peaks, already
aching to be touched and squeezed.

  “Come here and lie across my lap.”

  Those four steps seemed like the longest journey of her life. He never moved, never spoke, even when she fumbled awkwardly as she draped herself over his thighs.

  “Do you remember what I said would happen in a sexy, loving spanking?”

  “Yes, sir.” Her voice was muffled as she buried her head in the couch, nervous and embarrassed.

  “Tell me.”

  “You said you’d rub my bottom while you told me all the things you were going to do to me.” His hand began making light circles over her panty-covered cheeks. She shivered. “Then you said you’d start spanking me. It would sting at first, then I’d get hot—and your cock would get hard.”

  “That’s right.” His hand came down with a sharp whack. Cass squealed in surprise. He smacked her again with the flat of his palm. Hard enough to raise a fiery sting. He stopped and ran his hand across her quivering cheeks.

  “Is it?”

  She had a moment of confusion, not sure what he meant. Finally it hit home. She’d been so fixed on what was happening to her that she hadn’t even considered how this was affecting him. Tentatively, she rocked against his crotch. Sure enough, there was a distinct bulge in his tight jeans.

  “You should have known the answer to that already.” He delivered three more swats to her ass, harder this time, and she gasped in shock. “Lesson one. You concern yourself with your dom’s pleasure before your own. A good dom will see to it that you are pleasured as well. But it will happen in his time frame, not yours.”

  “Yes, sir,” she managed to murmur. He spanked her again and she felt the surge as his cock swelled beneath her. Her pussy clenched and she could feel it already damp with desire.

  “What else did I say would happen in a sexy spanking?”

  His hand stroked her ass again. More of a caress, really. She sighed, enjoying his touch. “You said when your cock got hard, you’d want to feel my arousal.”