by BJ Bentley
“Ow!” she exclaimed while shaking her hand. “Your face is like marble,” she grumbled. “That was for leaving me tied up,” she huffed.
My first instinct was to deliver a spanking that would result in her not being able to sit for a fucking week. But I had a different kind of punishment in mind. So, following my original plan, I scooped her up in my arms and marched toward the bathroom. I settled her in the tub first and then climbed in behind her. Pulling her back to my chest, I wrapped my arms around her and lazily stroked my fingers along the sides of her luscious tits.
“What are we doing?” she asked softly.
“We’re having a soak,” I replied tersely. “Do you think you can relax and enjoy it?” My words dripping with sarcasm.
“I punched you,” she said as she tried to lean forward.
“Yes, you did.” I tightened my hold on her.
“You’re not mad?” she asked with obvious trepidation.
“Oh, my sweet sparrow. I’m furious. In fact, I should tan your hide. I expect you to show me your gratitude for not having done so.”
“I take it you have a suggestion as to how I should do that?” she huffed.
“Mm. I do, though it’s more of a expectation than a suggestion,” I said with my best evil grin, despite the fact that our positions meant she couldn’t see my face. “You’re going to offer yourself up to me. Every. Single. Inch.”
Chapter 9
Bertie
“On your knees. Chest to the bed.” The order sent a thrill through me. After our bath, Aleksander took his time drying us both off and kissed me sweetly on the forehead. Between his dominant sexual tendencies and this softer, sweeter side of him, my head was spinning a little. Still, I couldn’t deny that every look, every touch, had me panting like a bitch in heat. So, despite my inherent need for control over my own body, I found myself moving to obey his seductive command. “Spread your knees as far as you can.” Once I complied, he situated himself under me so that his face was in perfect alignment with my pussy. Grabbing my hips, he pulled me down to his mouth and tasted me. His groan of approval sent a shock wave up my spine to my breasts where it pebbled my nipples. He continued to work me, expertly alternating between flattening his tongue and flicking me with the tip. “That’s it, sparrow, ride my face,” he rasped, and I realized that my hips were rocking of their own accord. My blood was pumping, the pressure building inside, and my hips rocked more furiously. My arms wrapped around a pillow, I bit down preparing for the scream that was about to tear itself from my throat, when it all stopped. He stopped. His mouth was no longer on me. In fact, he was no longer on the bed.
“What the hell are you doing?” I demanded. “Where’s my orgasm?”
Aleksander tilted his head to the side as if trying to understand the question, and I watched him rummage around in the nightstand drawer until he found what he was looking for. “Well, my sweet sparrow, I thought that was rather obvious. I’m withholding it,” he said matter-of-factly. “Get back into position,” he growled when I began to sit up. “I’m not done with you.”
Despite my anger and extreme sexual frustration, the tone of his voice had me immediately complying. I don’t know how he did that. I was not normally a woman who liked taking orders in bed. I was usually the one giving them. But with Aleksander, I was continuously at his mercy. “I’m not a submissive, you know,” I said quietly, but firmly. My head on the pillow but turned to the side so I could see him.
He frowned and said, “I never said you were. In fact, I’m not really one for labels at all, except, of course, for one exception.”
“Which is?” I asked with impatience when he didn’t elaborate.
“Mine.”
I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see the intensity that had entered his expression with that one loaded word. I sensed him moving behind me, and my hips jerked at the sudden jolt of cold liquid against my ass. My breath hissed. Both his hands were on me then, his fingers deftly spreading the oil or lube, whichever it was, down my crack and over my back entrance. I pushed back against him wantonly. I knew what he was going to do, and I wanted it. Some might consider it taboo or forbidden, but I was no virgin, and I knew exactly what kind of pleasure could come from what we were about to do. He took his time massaging my cheeks, loosening the muscles, so I was relaxed for him. His thumb circled my anus with a touch that somehow bridged gentle and firm. Lust burned in my veins, and my own juices flooded between my legs to mix with the lubricant that dripped on my thighs. I felt something breach my hole. A finger or a thumb, maybe. He wasn’t rough, but he was insistent. He worked me, stretched me until he could slide his entire thumb in. Then his thumb was gone, and I felt something much larger forcing its way inside me.
“You have no idea how magnificent you feel, Bertie,” he groaned as he pushed himself in an inch at a time until I felt his balls hit my pussy. “I own this, sparrow, do you understand me?” He sounded out of breath, like he was trying to restrain himself. “Answer me,” he demanded with a slap to my cheek.
“Y-yes,” I breathed. I started to squirm because I needed him to move. Needed him to take what I was giving him. I moved a hand toward my pussy, intent on helping myself get to where I needed to be, when he bent over me and gripped my hair in his fist.
“You don’t even think about touching that pussy without my permission,” he growled as he gave my hair a tug. I didn’t think he realized that instead of deterring me, the hair-pulling only served to turn me on. “Do I need to tie your hands, Roberta?”
“No! No, please,” I whimpered, moving my hand back to grip the pillow in front of me. I continued to push back against him, desperate for some sort of relief. “Please, Aleksander…”
“Please what, sparrow?” He rotated his hips so he ground into me.
I whimpered again. “Please, fuck me!” I cried out in frustration. It was too intense. I needed a release. I needed to come. My thighs were shaking uncontrollably, my muscles tense. Aleksander lightly flicked a finger over my clit and I bit back a wail.
“You’re so close, aren’t you, Bertie?” he breathed.
“God, yes!”
“Not yet, sparrow,” he said as he withdrew from me only to stroke back in. His measured thrusts soon became more forceful and erratic.
“Please, Aleksander! Please, let me come this time!” I cried.
He continued owning me, and just when I thought he was going to forsake me once more in search of his own pleasure, he snaked an arm down and applied pressure directly to my clit. That one touch was all it took for the floodgates to open. I screamed his name as I broke and barely heard Aleksander bark out his own release as he pushed his pelvis into me hard enough to take us both down flat to the mattress.
I couldn’t hear anything outside of my blood rushing in my ears and my own ragged breathing. I felt Aleksander pull out and roll his weight off of me. The intensity of what just happened scared me. I rolled to my side, facing away from him, and wrapped my arms around myself. With my defenses shattered, I tried to choke back a sob, but the second Aleksander laid his hand on my shoulder in comfort it burst free.
He enveloped me in his arms and cooed in my ear. “Shh, sparrow, you’re all right.” As the tears flowed and my shoulders shook, Aleksander soothed me.
“Sorry,” I hiccuped once I’d caught my breath. “That was just, you know, intense?”
Giving me a squeeze, he murmured his agreement and rolled off the bed to tug his pants back on. Suddenly feeling bereft without him, I asked, “What are you doing?”
His smile was tight when he looked at me. “I gotta take this back down to the kitchen,” he said as he picked up the plate from dinner and practically scurried out of the room.
Great, now shit’s gonna be awkward. I got up, redressed, and made my way across the hall to my own room. I took a quick shower before sliding between the sheets and promptly passing out.
Aleksander
After scraping the remnants of our dinner int
o the garbage and placing the plate in the sink, I stood with my hands on the kitchen counter and hung my head. Bertie was right. That had been intense. Her crying afterward didn’t really surprise me. I was accustomed to intense sexual experiences evoking an emotional response in the women I played with. Aftercare was part of the gig. What bothered me was my response to the experience. I’d fucked countless women over the years, but I’d never felt connected to any of them. Something about Bertie was different. On top of that, her tears gutted me, and it was that visceral reaction that terrified me.
When I first saw Bertie, it was her physical beauty that drew me in, and then it was her smart mouth and attitude that wrapped me around her finger. But now, it was her sweetness, that soft underneath that tough exterior that was completely ensnaring me. I needed to figure a way out before I got in too deep, because there was no way in hell I could allow her to have the upper hand.
I made my way back upstairs to discover that Bertie wasn’t where I left her. I peeked into her room to find her curled up under the covers with her hands under her face in prayer position. She looked like perfection. Relaxed. Innocent. It made me want to defile her. I debated for several moments whether I should crawl into bed with her, but decided I needed to maintain the distance I had recently determined was necessary. Sleeping together would only foster intimacy, and that was the opposite of my current goal. Shutting the door quietly, I crept across the hall and into my own bed where I promptly passed out.
Chapter 10
Bertie
I couldn’t remember the last time I slept so well or so long. Stretching, I glanced at the clock and gasped at how late it was. It was nearly time for lunch, and nobody had bothered to wake me for breakfast. My stomach chose that exact moment to rumble, as if to say, “Feed me, Seymour!” I got up and threw on whatever clothes were in reach and clean. Barefoot, I padded down to the kitchen hoping that Elaina had made pie. As I got closer to the kitchen, I began to hear hushed voices. Entering the kitchen I was surprised to see Charlotte Holm chatting with Elaina.
“Oh, you’re finally awake! You must be starving,” Elaina clucked as she moved toward the fridge. “Is leftover roast, okay?” she asked as she pulled it out of the fridge and began rummaging around for a plate and utensils without even waiting for me to answer. Not that it mattered. I’d eat just about anything that woman set in front of me.
I turned to Charlotte. “Hi,” I said lamely.
“Hi,” she smiled in return. “Do you always sleep in this late?”
“No,” I smirked. “Rough night.”
“Ahh. Well, I am here to break you out of jail,” Charlotte said with a grin. She looked positively giddy about the prospect.
“Is that so?”
“Yep!” she chirped. “I happen to have the magic ticket,” she said, leaning forward and whispering conspiratorially.
“Magic ticket?”
Charlotte winked. “American Express.”
An hour later, Charlotte and I were in a boutique on the strip. Charlotte had apparently gotten the okay from Aleksander to take me out of the penthouse so long as we went with an armed escort and stayed in the part of town where Starlight, Jensen’s resort and casino, was located. Charlotte was used to doing nearly everything under those conditions anyway, so she already had an armed guard. My buddy, Bert, got the extreme honor of following me around this afternoon.
“Oh. My. Gawd!” Charlotte exclaimed. “Bertie, you totally have to try this on!” She was holding up a one-shouldered, plum-colored cocktail dress. The dress had beading on the shoulder strap and up the opposite side.
Charlotte’s enthusiasm was contagious, so I figured what the hell? Grabbing the dress from her hands, I headed toward the dressing room. Five minutes later, I was strutting around like a runway model. Giggling, I said, “Okay, we’ve had our fun. I’m going to go take this off.” When I came back out, Charlotte was shoving a pair of shoes at me.
“You have to get these, too. They’ll be killer with that dress.”
“Oh, I’m not… I can’t…,” I stammered. I didn’t have any money on me, and even if I did, there’s no way I’d be able to afford anything in this boutique. I was generally smart with the money I stole, making it stretch as far as I could. I didn’t splurge on things like fancy dresses and killer shoes.
“Here,” came Bert’s gruff voice.
Looking over at him, I realized he was holding something out to me. I gazed at him in confusion and he rolled his eyes. I held my hand out for whatever it was he was trying to hand me.
“Mr. Magnus left that in case there was something you wanted,” he said.
I looked down to find an AmEx Centurion in my hand. Holy shit. Did that fool really trust me with this? I looked at Charlotte with an evil grin. “What else do you think I should try on?”
Charlotte gave me an evil grin of her own.
We spent the entire afternoon buying dresses and shoes and accessories. Generally, everything we wanted but didn’t need. We had dinner at the restaurant at Starlight, which was phenomenal. It was during dinner that I felt the hair rise on the back of my neck. It wasn’t the first time it happened that day, but I had been trying to convince myself that I was just being paranoid. This time felt different. This time felt… dangerous. Somebody was watching me. I tried to casually glance around the restaurant, but there were so many people everywhere, I couldn’t get a lock on anyone.
“Bertie?”
Charlotte’s voice startled me. “Hmm? Sorry.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, of course. Why?”
“Because I called your name three times before you answered me. Are you sure you’re alright?” she asked again as she, too, began glancing around the restaurant.
“You sense it, too, don’t you?” I asked softly.
Her eyes met mine across the table. “Yeah. And I always trust my gut, so that means it’s time to go,” she said as she casually stood from the table, and I followed suit. “Don’t draw attention, just follow me,” she said with a smile, as if nothing was wrong.
Once we were in the security office, Charlotte had one of the men pull up the camera feed for the restaurant. Peering over her shoulder, I said, “I don’t even know what I’m looking for.”
“Me neither, but I’ll know it when I see it. I hope,” she muttered. “Which one of you ratted me out?” Charlotte demanded of the room when her husband strolled in a moment later.
“Pixie,” Jensen said with a smirk. “Do you really think you go anywhere I don’t know about?”
“Hmm. You’re so cute when you’re overbearing,” Charlotte said with sarcasm as she placed a kiss on his cheek. Jensen only grunted in response and then demanded to know what brought us to the security center.
After we explained the situation to Jensen, he consulted with his men for a few moments. Determining that there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot that any of us could about a situation where there was no identifiable threat, I said my goodbyes to Charlotte and Jensen, so Bert and I can head back to the penthouse. As we made our way back through the lobby, my paranoia had me scanning the crowd for any possible threat. Just as we stepped out into the cool evening air the ground shook and the screaming started.
Chapter 11
Aleksander
I spent the entire day unsuccessfully differentiating between my ass and my elbow. Even Maddy told me to get my shit together. I was liable to run all my businesses into the ground if I didn’t figure out a way to stop obsessing over Bertie. I had hoped, like so many women before, that once I’d had her, the novelty would wear off, and I’d be ready to move on to the next one. The surprising truth was, I wanted her even more now. I was still obsessed. Probably even more so.
I had spent weeks in Barcelona, taking over Alonso Reyes’s arms operation. It took time and money to find men who’d be loyal to me, to establish the necessary contacts, to get it all up and running. Now, I was in danger of having the whole thing tank, because I was too busy t
hinking with my dick to formulate an effective way of keeping the Barcelona police out of my operation.
Rogers had sent me a preliminary report on Denning, which indicated he was a shady motherfucker, which I already knew, but didn’t provide any useful details. I was fed up and frustrated.
“Madeline!” I yelled. I didn’t yell. That wasn’t like me. Yelling was an emotional response, and I was always too in control to react to anything emotionally. Madeline took her time responding to my beckoning. When she finally appeared, it was with a scowl. “Reschedule my afternoon meetings. I have to get out of here.” I grabbed the gym bag I kept stashed in my office, figuring a run would help me get my head on straight.
The employee gym was empty since most people were still on the clock. I hopped on one of the treadmills in the back, turned my iPod to some earsplitting heavy metal, and set a punishing pace for myself on the treadmill. I ran until I felt like my legs might give out, and the amount of sweat pouring off me could drown a grown man. By the time I showered and changed once again, I didn’t feel much better except that I was too exhausted to give a shit. I was seriously considering a visit to Bound. Fucking my frustration out with Giselle was usually my go-to solution, but the idea of sex with someone who wasn’t Bertie made my stomach turn a little, and that pissed me off. I should be able to fuck anyone. It’s not like this was a committed relationship. With, God forbid, feelings. Just because Jensen fell into that trap with Charlotte, didn’t mean I was going to.
Making up my mind, I got in my car with renewed determination. Normally, imagining all the things that Giselle would let me do to her lit a fire inside me. Now, my daydreams seemed lackluster. Uninspired. Resolved to follow through, despite my misgivings, I pointed my car toward Bound. I pulled into the parking lot and cut the engine. When my phone rang, I realized I had been white-knuckling the steering wheel, trying to convince myself to go inside. I cursed that woman’s hold on me.
