“What gives you the right to do any of that?”
He shrugged. “Who will stop me, Yasmeen?”
“Your humanity? Do you have a conscience that wakes when you’re raping someone of their right to a private life? Do morals come into it when you administer a drug and continue to administer it so your victim remains unconscious as you take her from her home, her life, her friends, just so you can have an animated cock sleeve? Is guilt present at all when you discount another human being’s right to make her own decisions regarding where she falls into little bitty pieces and bawls her eyes out for an hour because she doesn’t know how to handle feeling so irrelevant?” He’d proven his claim. Her self-worth had taken a damaging hit.
“No, no, and no. You and I see this situation in completely different ways.” He shook his head, appearing frustrated as he straightened to his full height. “Allow me to feed you, and while I enjoy the task, I will attempt to make all of this easier for you to accept.”
A helpless anger reared up. “Accept? Go screw yourself, Lucian. Unless you plan on holding me down and force feeding me, I will not accept one fucking morsel from your hand.”
His face darkened so quickly she couldn’t even compare it to a storm rolling in. Not unless it was in time-lapse. “You will throw my efforts to appease you back in my face?”
Her chin went up. “I’ll happily throw a bowl of soup and a plate of spaghetti there, too, if you have them handy.”
He grabbed her wrist and yanked her to her feet. She tried to pull away as he dragged her from the room but he was too strong.
“Let me go! What are you doing?”
Her world spun when, in the blink of an eye, he turned and tossed her over his broad shoulder like she was nothing more than a mindless sack of potatoes.
“What the hell are you doing? Put me down!” She slapped at his firm ass then screeched when he did the same to hers only harder and three times in quick succession. Layered on that morning’s spanking, she felt every inch of his palm.
“You rebel against my authority more than you bow to it. I will punish you for the outright insolence you’ve displayed since our arrival, for your childish refusal to eat, and for daring to strike me.” He swatted her stinging ass again.
“You’re striking me!” she raged in disbelief, her fists gripping the back of his shirt and yanking on it because she couldn’t do much else.
“This ass belongs to me now, and if I want to strike it before I fuck it, I will do so, and my pet will do nothing more than present it in the air for her owner, mouth shut, and with a welcoming, accommodating expression on her exquisite face.”
“Whaaat?” she screeched.
She was panting like a dog; he was barely breathing heavy as they reached the top of the stairs and went left down the hall. Her head felt as if it were about to explode when he eventually slammed into a bedroom that was nothing like the one they’d been using. This one, from what she could see in her position, was dark. The furnishings were black, the accents a deep red that made one think of blood.
She pushed on Lucian’s lower back and started struggling like a crazy woman when they passed what looked to be a sex swing hanging from the ceiling.
“Lucian! Where are we? Oh, God.” Her heart felt as if it was being run by a motor, her blood zinging through her veins. “What are you doing?”
She was tossed backward, and she screamed in fear before landing on a soft bed covered by black silky sheets. The bastard moved like lightening, and as she kicked and tried to flip over so she could crawl away, he too-efficiently locked her wrists into single metal cuffs that had a soft leather lining and a glinting ring dangling from them. He shoved off her, but not before grabbing her shirt and using the hold to yank her to her feet. In the next blink, he was attaching the rings on her cuffs to a chain anchored to the ceiling.
“Fuck you!” she screamed as he pulled on something near the bed to stretch her arms up and out. He didn’t stop until she was almost on her toes. “Fuck you for doing this to me, you deranged bastard! Your brother would be ashamed of you! Markus would—”
His hand slapped over her mouth and he jerked her head back onto his shoulder. “Shut up,” he growled in a tone so menacing she shuddered hard enough to rattle the chains she was now hanging from. When she felt him breach the waist of her pants, she did her best impression of a flopping fish, doing everything she could to stop him from discovering what his manhandling was doing to her. Tears flooded her eyes when two of his fingers parted her labia so his middle finger could enter her drenched pussy. Drenched. She was so ready to take him it was the most humiliating moment of her life.
“That means nothing,” she tried to say behind his hand.
“Oh, but, Yasmeen. It means everything.” The darkness of his whisper had a moan flowing up her throat. She cut that bitch off so fast it caused her pain. “A fierce little animal, fighting like hell against something her body is all but begging for. Does Lucian’s pet need to be taken down a notch? Has that been the problem all along? Do you need to release this tension for us to be able to reason with you?”
Us? She slammed her ass back, trying to dislodge his thrusting fingers. He was going to make her come. Any second. Ignore it, pretend it wasn’t there, fight it, hate it…she could try with everything in her. But in the end, she couldn’t deny his dark urges struck solid against every one of her fucked-up cords.
She wailed when he swiftly pulled free of her clenching muscles. He was chuckling as he went down behind her, and she felt her ankles receive the same treatment as her wrists. She was trapped. Completely at his mercy, spread-eagled, her feet barely touching the floor. Her pussy was dripping, her body vibrating with a desperate need to be claimed by a man who would fuck her up and walk away without a second thought.
The sound of fabric tearing filled the room as he ripped her clothes from her body. He didn’t use shears or a knife. He used his strength and madness. When she was completely naked but for the riding boots, he gripped her ass and dragged his tongue through her wetness. Yes! The frenzy that caused inside her was debilitating. He was still behind her, but because she was spread so wide, his shoulders easily fit under the bridge she made.
“Come for me.”
She had just enough time to note he’d said me before his thumb impaled her, his tongue slathering attention from front to back, and, of course, the skilled bastard pushed that protective covering off her throbbing clit. One stroke over the electrified bundle of nerves and she was wailing through a climax that sucked all lucidity from her mind. She wanted his cock. She needed him inside her. This madman who treated her like an animal. She wanted him so badly she’d have given up anything at that moment; her job, her freedom, every goal she’d ever struggled to reach.
The fear she felt then was deeply personal, because he was proving her insatiable need for him wouldn’t be ignored. It wouldn’t be controlled. He touched her, and she was his. He could do this to her over and over again, and she’d let him. She might kick up a fuss, but in the end, she’d beg for it. And she’d come apart at the seams every goddamn time.
Her body was still celebrating his conquering of it when he got to his feet, stopping all stimulation at once. It was jarring and disorienting. “Lucian…?”
“That was number one,” he whispered before the sound of his footsteps faded as he walked away. After a quiet beep, the door opened and closed, and all that was left in the room was the sound of her breaths and the whir of a fan blowing hot air down from two vents above her. She instantly started to sweat.
FOURTEEN
Lucian moved through the hallways of his castle, licking his pet’s taste from his lips. He could feel his fingers drying and hated it. He wanted her wetness coating them. He wanted to wear her. To consume her. To bathe in the evidence of her pleasure.
On reaching the kitchen, he ignored the two full-time cooks he’d replaced Costel and Radu with—a mother and daughter team—and went straight over to pull open one si
de of the refrigeration unit. Strawberries, cheese, grapes. He scooped them up and turned to drop them on the counter.
A platter came sliding over. “I hope you plan on cutting the cheese for her,” Sorin drawled as he produced a wooden board and knife. He took up the block and began carving off chunks himself.
“Have you heard anything from New York?”
“No.”
Lucian’s gut spasmed with a crushing disappointment as he crossed over to the table next to the walk-in pantry and broke off a hunk of fresh bread that he brought back and added to the make-shift lunch. Sorin was returning from the sink, the strawberries and grapes washed and in small bowls.
“I will be down the hall. If I hear her cry for help, I will interrupt, Lucian.”
“Fine.” He took his tray and headed out with Sorin following him up the back stairs because they were closer.
“Excuse me? Would you repeat that?”
“I will not hurt her. But if it makes you feel better to listen to me pleasure her, I will not stop you.”
His arm was taken, and he was pulled to a stop halfway to his destination. His body was screaming with anticipation. There was no way Sorin could miss the massive hard-on at his hips that he could in no way kill. It was for his pet and only she could satisfy it.
He looked into the dark eyes of this man who knew him better than any other walking the earth.
“I am beginning to fear for you, Lucian.”
“Not necessary.” He pulled free and continued walking.
“Do one thing for me; see her, and not what you’re trying to turn her into. Look into her eyes as you take her, and see what’s looking back at you.”
He gave the expected nod and kept going, leaving Sorin two doors down from the one he shouldered his way through. His knees almost failed him. That body. Long limbs stretched out, wrists and ankles anchored to the ceiling and floor, helpless, curves on display, bronze skin gleaming. He crossed the room and almost moaned when he saw the rivulets of perspiration trickling down the center of her back. He placed the tray on the edge of the bed and moved her hair aside so he could latch onto her hot skin and suck a dark spot to life right at the top of her spine.
“Please, get me out of these chains, Lucian.”
His lips came off with a small pop. “No.” He went to the tray and took up a strawberry. Going around to her front, he devoured the sight of her raised breasts and tight stomach. Her pussy, Jesus Christ, that pussy. Bringing the berry to her mouth, he rasped, “Eat for me.”
She raised her eyes and looked at him with a naked aggression that excited him more than anything had in longer than he could remember. Her lips formed her response beautifully. “Fuck. Off.”
His cock pounded. “You are begging for it, Yasmeen.” He sent the small red fruit down and pushed it through her pussy lips. She gasped and jerked, her face showing her shock at the move. Her breath punched out of her lungs as he ate his favorite fruit, sounding like a dog devouring a bone. “Your pussy is sweet like candy.”
“To curb the bitterness of your evil.”
“That makes you drip with arousal.”
“Because there’s something wrong with my head.”
“Mine, too.”
They stared at each other as the heat blew above them.
“Please take me down.”
“I already did, pet. Now you will take me down.”
“Release me, Lucian.”
“I cannot.”
“Yes, you can! You just don’t want to.”
“No. I literally cannot do what you ask. Believe me when I tell you, what I feel at the thought of you walking out my door is not something you want to be unleashed on the world. I know I have upset you, but you must take this seriously, for I am placing the responsibility for my actions on your shoulders. If you discount my warning, it will be you who suffers over the mass casualties that will result in you stealing away my distraction. That is just one more incentive for you to give in and fall in line.”
“You can’t do that!” She lurched, and he was sure if her legs weren’t tethered he’d have taken a hard one to the balls. “Your insanity has nothing to do with me!”
“I know this.” Now soaked with perspiration, he pulled his shirt over his head. He dropped it behind him. Yasmeen had moisture dripping off her delicate jawline. He captured her face between his palms and rubbed their wet cheeks together before taking her lips in a kiss meant to reassure her that he wasn’t going to seriously harm her.
She bit him. Hard.
He hissed and pulled away, licking at the inside of his bottom lip where the coppery tang of blood met his tongue. He let it pool then bent and lapped at her nipple, leaving behind a streak of bright red. “You have made me bleed, Yasmeen,” he said quietly.
When she didn’t so much as look but continued to rebel by holding his eyes, Lucian cupped the back of her head and brought it down. She gasped when she saw her bloodied nipple.
He gripped her damp hair and pulled until she was once more looking into his face. As his body went up in flames, he landed a kiss on one corner of her mouth and then the other. He made sure to let her hear the apology in his voice when he said, “I am going to punish you now, pet. Prepare yourself.”
“How? What are you going to do to me? Lucian!”
He left her for a brief moment to go to the cabinet on the other side of the room. On his way back, he picked another strawberry from the bowl. When he was in front of her once more, he bit into the berry, and as he chewed the fleshy fruit, he brought what remained to her breast.
“I would like you to eat.” He coated one nipple and then the other as she watched his face, her chest rising and falling too quickly for someone who was standing stationary.
“I would like you to answer my fucking question.”
He bent and sucked the darker peak into his mouth and tasted sweetness and copper. Berries and blood. He moved to the other and got nothing but sweetness. Needing something else, he licked up the valley between her breasts and filled his tongue with the salty moisture dripping down her skin. The moan that escaped him was no more than a rasp of vocal cords. The next sound to come was the crack of skin on skin. He immediately cupped the ass cheek he’d just swatted.
“Ladies should not curse. Try to curb the impulse.”
Her lips peeled back from her teeth. The chains rattled as she growled through her clenched jaw. He’d angered his pet worse than ever. It seemed he wouldn’t be fucking his playful sex kitten today. She was currently too feral to be considered such a thing.
Going around to her back, forcing himself not to touch yet, he deftly put a satiny blindfold over her eyes.
“No!” Her tone changed in an instant, and she stiffened as if she were expecting a blow to land. “Take it off. I don’t like the dark. Get it off!”
Hearing a true note of fear in her voice, he didn’t even think about it before he was clamping onto her with a snug hold that had his forearm separating her breasts and his hand latching onto her neck and jaw. He tucked something into his waistband so he could free his hand which he used to deliver a calming stroke to her smooth flank. He’d worked her up, and now he was soothing her, offering comfort to bring her back down.
“You will not feel fear when I lure you into the darkness, Yasmeen. This is my domain, and you are my guest.” He kissed her bicep. “Nothing will get to you if you allow me to protect you as I know I can.” His arm constricted, melding her back to his front as that skipped and began repeating in his mind. Only he wasn’t saying it to her. He’d shouted it at Markus.
“I appreciate your intentions, Lucian! But this need you have to protect me is interfering in my life! I cannot live under this suffocating dome you’ve placed around me!”
He shook his head before burying his face in the dark hair tickling his chin. “Allow me to do for you what I know I am capable of.” His whisper was a demand layered with a guttural plea. “The moment you refuse, the moment you tie my hands, you w
ill be a target, and the monsters that live around us will get to you.”
They would get to her the way they got to Markus. The way they got to his father and his sister. His mind twisted with malevolence, reacting to the thought of one day adding Yasmeen to the growing pile of corpses.
“Lucian?” Her chains rattled. “Are you still here? Can you hear me?”
He was gripping her tightly, all but surrounding her with his body. Why would she ask if he was still here? Even his demons, who were more than ready to begin, frowned at that.
“Can you hear me, Lucian?” Her voice had softened, becoming coaxing as if she were trying to draw him out.
He was fairly certain he would always hear her. In every woman he met from this moment on, he would hear this one’s voice.
The way he sometimes heard Markus in his mind? Was that all he would one day have of his pet? A memory? He shook his head harder. “Yes. I hear you,” he said, silently vowing never to let that happen.
“What do you hear?”
“The fear in your voice.”
The steel went out of her limbs. “Thank God,” she whispered.
His brows came down low. “You have no reason to feel fear, draga. I will have you making friends with the darkness in no time. You will return to the light sated and looking forward to our next journey. You have my word.”
He felt something pass through her slender frame and looked down to watch her nipples curl into tight little buttons.
“You can do what you want to me. Anything you want. Just don’t leave me alone in the dark, okay? That’s all I ask. Other than that…” He felt her swallow under his palm. “You have my permission to do whatever you must to make yourself…better.”
He purred like a lion and took a moment to savor the freedom her consent had just given him.
♦ ♦ ♦
Yasmeen waited.
And waited.
Soon the tension was back in her muscles as she waited even longer for the shoe to drop. Once her head started buzzing from the stress of it, and she felt ready enough to take him on, she bumped her ass back against what she could feel was her madman’s semi-hard cock. She felt confident enough to poke the bear only because he’d proven he hadn’t gone bye-bye in his head and left her here with his invisible friends.
Grievous (Wanted Men Book 5) Page 15
