by Ana Calin
“You need to let this go, Silas,” he says calmly.
“Stay where you are, Maverick, or things will get ugly.”
“Like I said, I’m not here to fight you, but I’m ready to do it, if that’s what it takes to stop disaster.”
Silas laughs like a madman. I flinch, barely recognizing him. God, what have I done?
“The disaster has already started,” he says. “And there’s no turning back now, no matter how we try to deceive ourselves.”
Maverick’s focus on Silas narrows as if he were dealing with a kamikaze ready to destroy himself, and take down the world in the process.
“Think about it, Silas,” he insists, eyes fixed on Silas as the moonlight reflects off his long golden hair, his broad swimmer shoulders tight, his fists balled and his knuckles protruding white.
The tension is so thick between them I could cut it with a knife. They face each other like fighters in a ring, ready to attack, but waiting for the bell.
Silas lets out a frustrated cry as he fights himself. For a moment there I think that reason has finally won, and that he’ll implode into stardust, forcing himself to take distance and let this go. But what he does is bare his teeth, and say,
“I would go away if I didn’t know what you’re up to, warlock. As soon as I’m out of the picture you’ll throw her over your shoulder and take her away.”
“Silas, you are not yourself,” I try, but Maverick snaps at me.
“You have done enough,” he snarls. His intense dark stare is filled with repressed rage. “You produced a concoction to drive him insane with lust, even though you knew he was fighting his yearning for you. Now you’re trying to help, but you’re making things worse. Just back off, and let me deal with this.”
I walk to him, letting all of my own anger show in my face.
“With all due respect, Professor Jones. I’m not a child for you, or Silas, or even the Lord Protector to spoon-feed me information. I’m a supernatural now, even if only a novice. I put up with a hell of a lot to get where I am, and unless you start taking me seriously, yes, I will put my own desires first. I pleaded, I begged Silas to tell me why he rejected me. He never gave me a straight answer.”
“That smart mouth of yours,” Maverick grunts, taking a step toward me as if to put me in my place. But before he can touch me Silas flashes in front of him, and punches him full in the face.
I hear a cracking sound, but I only realize it was Maverick’s jaw splitting when he faces us again, and sets it right with his hand.
“What the hell?” I breathe.
Silas lunges at Maverick again, but this time, without the element of surprise, Maverick swerves, moving smoothly out of Silas’ way. My demigod protector throws punch after punch, the air hissing from the speed and force of his blows, but he misses Maverick by mere inches.
I back up to the well as the men throw punches at each other, missing every time. Maverick’s hammer-like fists land against trees, chipping the bark off of them. I stare in disbelief at his strength, but when Silas flexes his arms and the first fireball leaves his hand, rolling through the air at Maverick, I panic.
They’re going to kill each other!
“Stop,” I cry, pushing myself off the well edge and running to them, but I knock right into Maverick’s chest. With one arm wrapped around me, he makes a swift half-turn, holding his big bronze hand up in the air, a spell leaving his mouth. Silas’ fireball smashes against a shimmering wall of air that acts like unbreakable stealth shield.
Maverick moves his hand again, and stardust forms in the air. I feel it pervading my flesh, disassembling the cells of my body, which reform as I drop on a cold stone floor.
Rough hands pick me up, pushing me against a wet wall, and snapping metal around my wrists.
“Maverick?” I manage. “What the heck?”
He covers my mouth with his hand, and something slips between my lips. I struggle, but my mind clouds in an instant. I try to fight it, but my body won’t respond. I’m growing soft, my body like jelly in Maverick’s hands as he fastens cuffs around my wrists and ankles.
He steps back to look at me. There’s dark intensity in his face.
I pull at the chains, but I don’t have much strength. “What is this?”
“I’m imprisoning you, Red Queen.” He spreads out his arms and turns around, presenting the dreary surroundings to me. “This is the dungeon underneath the Lord Protector’s mansion, on the Flipside. It’s a ghostly version of the mansion you know, only abandoned ruins. Only bodiless entities cross this place, but they never linger, because they know it belongs to the Grim Reaper. And no one wants to mess with the Grim Reaper.”
“You bastard. You’re leaving me here to die?”
He regards me with lava in his dark eyes. “No, I won’t leave you to die, Red Queen. I’ll feed you and clothe you, and even let you out of these chains on occasion, but—” He comes so close to me that my hard nipples that push through my silk shirt make contact with his torso, wrapped in leather and metal. He touches my face with his big calloused hand, tracing it down as if caressing something he loves and hates at the same time. “You will never, ever have your freedom again.”
He brushes my lower lip with his rough thumb, his lips parting as his eyes drop to my mouth. He seems hypnotized by the sight of me. Despite feeling soft and dizzy from the pill he used to calm me down, my core reacts to his touch and his dark stare.
“You truly are a creature of Hell,” he says with that sexy gravel in his voice. “I’ll be honest with you, Lucia. Ever since the night you rode my face, I’ve been craving to have you like this, restrained, at my disposal. Even if all I can do is watch.”
“Really? Is that all you can do?” Heck, why did I just say that?
“Silas refused to tell you the truth.” His voice drops as he lowers his head until I feel his breath on my face. “Because he was afraid of what the truth would do to you. I’m more concerned about what it will do the rest of us. To your three protectors. To me.”
Despite his words, he bends down as if he can’t fight his own instinct, and presses his hard lips on mine, his stubble grazing the skin around my mouth.
“So here’s the truth, Lucia,” he says between kisses that melt my insides. “No man can ever take away your virginity. Because, if that ever happens.” His powerful arms go around me, the leather pushing into my skin through my silk shirt. “You will turn your first lover into a servant of Hell, and all those that follow, too—because more men will follow, Lucifer will sure as hell see to that. You will make of them servants of Hell, zombies without free will that do the Hell master’s bidding. And you he’ll be using as his tool, a mistress of sex and slavery, but a slave herself.”
I stare at him in disbelief as he tells me that, my gaze locked on his dark eyes.
“And that’s not all,” he continues, stroking my face with his thumb as if he were inspecting artwork. “Have you ever heard about the whore of Babylon?”
I’d answer, but I’m stoned from that pill he gave me. I’m not even sure all this is real.
“I suppose you have. Well, prophecy says, the Red Queen will give birth to her.” He presses me to his bulky body. My eyelids flutter as I feel the hard leather coating his bulky physique. “We tried to prevent the prophecy from happening, the Lord Protector, Silas and I. But you’re harder to control than either of them expected. To be honest, I don’t think they can deal with you. Take only what you did today—you contaminated the well with a potion of lust. We’ll have to seal that well now, probably indefinitely, and we’ll have to make up a good excuse. So you see, you’re bad for the world, Red Queen, and the only solution is to keep you away from it. To imprison you.”
I may be high, but there’s no mistaking that twinkle in his eyes.
“You say you’re doing this for the world’s sake,” I manage. “But you’re doing it for yourself. You’ve always thought the worst of me, so be honest.”
“You’re right,” h
e admits, his voice low, gravelly, making me wet down there. I prefer to think it’s because of the pill. “I’m far too old to lie to myself, Lucia. This will keep the world safe, but it will also make you entirely mine.”
“You want that?”
“It surprises you?”
“You still ask?” It’s hard to speak, but I find a way to move my tongue, even if I talk much slower than usual. “You tried to expose me as a slut to Silas, and the only reason you wanted me after that was because I didn’t prefer you over him. You’re used to women wanting you, the bad boy warlock, so you just can’t stand the idea that I rejected you.”
“And how do you know I’m used to women wanting me?”
“I’ve been in your class for weeks now, I see how those girls look at you. Pandora doesn’t even bother trying to hide it.”
I catch the hint of a grin under the light shade of his stubble. “You’ve been paying attention, huh?”
“No, I...”Does this pill contain some chemical of truth or something? God, help me keep my true feelings for him to myself. Especially my desire to use him in a very dirty way, like I would never use Silas. That’s the punishment I want to give him.
“No need to explain, Lucia,” he rumbles in my ear, his big hands sliding over my breasts. I should kick and struggle, but my nipples harden under his touch, and I even push my chest a little forward.
“I know you want me, even if you hate it,” he says, his thumb brushing lightly over my hard nipple. I can barely hold back a hiss. “So you paid attention. That means I might as well admit to this—there is one more thing about the Red Queen prophecy, Lucia. Remember the vision you had in the crystal globe at my hut? The three symbols that flew out of your mouth? They’re old Sumerian symbols for Death, War and Magic. And they mean that you are meant to bring three great men to their knees—the Lord Protector, Silas, and me.”
“What?” I forget to breathe.
“Yes, Lucia. Your maker didn’t ‘design’ you to be with only one man. That’s why you feel attracted to all three of us. That’s why, no matter how hard you try, you cannot stop thinking about me in secret at night.”
I should be denying this, at least to save face, but I can’t. I can’t resist him when he kisses me again, his lips hard and wet behind the stubble. I writhe in his arms, craving more of his touch, unable to fight the dark desire pooling in my core. It might be from the pill, but I want to feel it, I want to experience his touch.
He pops the buttons on my jeans, and rips them off of me quicker than I can blink. He’s back on his feet in an instant, looking down at me as I hang spread-eagled from the chains, only the black silk shirt covering my nakedness. My nipples protrude shamelessly through the fabric. I wish I could squirm on my feet to control my horniness, but with my legs apart, I can’t.
Shame sends fire to my cheeks—I’m heavily creamed, I can already feel it leaking to my inner thighs. Hunger darkens Maverick’s eyes even more.
“This is hot as hell,” he says thickly, standing close to me. He breathes in as my scent reaches him. “You, the virgin Red Queen, at my disposal, your legs chained apart. It would be so easy for me to take you.” His fingers slide over my chest, between my breasts, and rips the first button. He’s going to leave me completely naked. Now would be a good time to panic, and yet I don’t.
Am I truly ready to lose my virginity to Maverick? I was ready to do anything to have Silas only minutes ago, and now I’m overflowing for the warlock. What the hell is wrong with me?
“Are you going to do it?” I whisper. “Are you going to make me yours, and fulfill the prophecy?”
“Of course not.” His finger pushes down against my next button, undoing more of my shirt. “That would bring us a whole lot closer to the end of the world. But I will make you feel like no man ever has before.”
I’m only a few buttons away from standing fully naked in front of him. I wasn’t wearing a bra when I met Silas because I intended for my hard nipples to pierce the fabric so it would turn him on, and my panties have gone along with the jeans. But now that means that I’ll be fully exposed to the dark warlock who seduced me in his hut. And by the way his dark eyes slide down my almost naked frame, it’s going to get even dirtier than on that day.
He goes down to his knees, and my heart surges despite the pill. My head is spinning.
The dark warlock Maverick Jones, the bulky bad boy in leather-and-metal, stares up at me with provocation in his eyes. He’s daring me not to enjoy it as his rough hands graze my thighs, making them quiver. I lean my head back and close my eyes, taking in the sensation. Whatever chemical runs through my veins from the pill, it’s making me not give a damn about anything, not even about my life—or at least I hope it’s the pill. All I care about is the feeling, the sensation. I’m ecstatic to have this dark warlock that I’ve craved so much on his knees in front of me, reveling in the sensation on my skin as his fingers slide through the cream between my folds.
I lose a moan as he sinks a thick, calloused finger through my light bush, parting my folds not all gently. I flinch, but it’s him, and I can feel his wild desire for me, which turns the slight discomfort into pleasure.
“You know what I’d love to do, Red Queen?” he says gruffly. “To push my finger inside of you, and rip straight through your seal.” He pushes his thick finger just a little deeper, and my walls part. My thighs flex and quiver, but I have no control over my body, my legs being spread apart, my ankles in chains. I cannot bring them together and squirm, block his access, or force him to adjust his touch.
I’m at his mercy. He pushes in and out, slowly, taking delight in it. He breathes hard as he does it, and when I grow accustomed to the pressure, I push myself into his touch. My first moan bounces against the walls as I take in the sensation.
Maverick groans, fingering me faster. I can feel it’s not because my walls are now ready for more girth, but because he’s starting to lose control. He dives deeper into my soaked pussy, deep enough that I can feel him push against my seal. This would be so easy for him, he could take me so easily.
It hits me with a bang that this is the first time I’ve ever felt a man inside of me. It’s only foreplay, and yet it’s the closest anyone has ever come to possessing my body. And, like the first time, it’s dirty, so dirty that we connect on a deep, dark level. Very different from my connection to Silas, that feels right, perfect, with a Mr. Right kind of vibe.
“Oh, Lucia, you hellish temptress,” Maverick groans. I can feel the air shift as he touches those hard lips to my folds. His stubble prickles the sensitive skin through my light bush. I squeal, flexing and pulling on my chains, but there’s no control in that.
“Scream all you want, temptress,” he says gruffly, his breath tingling my swollen clit. “There’s no one here to hear you.”
It feels forbidden and dangerous, being here with him, hanging in chains like a slave, covered only in my open silk shirt, and having my captor on his knees. He grabs my buttocks, his rough fingers digging in my flesh as he pushes his tongue inside of me. I grip the chains around my wrist.
“Jesus, Maverick!”
He fucks me with his tongue, lapping up my juices like a starving man. I ride his face as my orgasm builds up, my arms hurting from how hard I grip the chains above my wrists, my buttocks quivering as the warlock fucks me with his tongue. I groan in protest when he pulls away, but then jump when he licks me between my folds. He sucks on my clit and pushes his thick finger into my ass, causing my orgasm to explode violently.
My body trembles as shockwaves go through me. This feels filthy, and yet so right. I spill it all on his face, his stubble raking me as he licks harder and harder. He hasn’t been gentle at all, he’s been demanding and rough, and he made me cum so hard I’m falling apart.
My knees give out, putting my entire weight in Maverick’s hands that now move from my buttocks to my hips. He takes distance slowly, removing his hands and letting me hang from the chains. I manage to lift my head
, my red locks hanging by the sides of my face.
There’s one hell of a paradox in my heart I feel like a used wanton, even though I’m still a virgin. Maverick regards me with his eyes like burning coal. His stubble is slick with my juice. He looks like a sex demon who’s just had his way with me, but then he grabs his cock through his pants, and I understand—he took distance because he can barely control himself.
I should let him go, before we both lose our heads to lust, and yet my mouth speaks other words.
“Can I at least see it?” I lick my swollen lips. “”Please. Just once.” My heart beats like crazy in my chest. This is insane. I’m in love with Silas, I’m officially his woman, and I was ready to give myself to him completely only an hour ago. Now here I am, drowning in my dark desires, asking another man to show me his dick.
“You wanna see my cock, Red Queen?”
I bite my lip. He grabs it harder through his leather pants, the veins swelling in his powerful fist.
“You want this, say it.”
“Show it to me,” I breathe.
He pushes his jaw forward, his grin crooked, his stare smoldering. He opens his fly, and my heart beats faster with every new button he pops. He reaches in and pulls out a big, hard, veined beast of a cock that makes me gasp.
“You gotta be shitting me,” escapes my mouth.
“Imagine what this would feel like in that tight little pussy of yours,” he teases, the sexy gravel in his voice rolling down my skin.
“Stroke it for me,” I whisper.
Water drips in the background, and my breath turns to steam as I talk. The dungeon is chilly, but I’m on fire, hot everywhere.
“Are you sure?” Maverick says, his fist moving up and down his beast of a cock. My clit pulses, yearning for him to be inside of me. I nod.
But this torture. My body aches for him, and I can’t even touch myself. He comes close so that I get a good view, his legs apart, the many buckles of his belt hanging loose from his pants. They clink together as he jerks off, eyeing me up and down as I hang like a sex slave from the chains. He breathes hard, his strong legs flexing under the leather pants. Something glints on the tip of his beastly cock. Pre-cum.
