by Alex Lidell
Lera started forward obediently, her body tense. With her gaze free to wander the dungeon, the lass’s arousal waned, a shot of fear turning her scent. Her eyes had taken on that hunted look again, darting from wall to hanging chains to shelved whips as if something might be hiding there. As if the damn implements would leap from the holds and let themselves loose on her flesh.
Tye’s gaze narrowed, a strange twinge of worry growing in his chest. Lera’s fear seemed to go deeper than the large cell, beyond a cadet’s normal anxiety over being punished. And they were being punished—punished, not tortured.
Yes. Something was wrong. Walking into this cell had woken demons in Lera that were now clawing their way out.
Well, not on Tye’s watch. He might be in the dark as to what exactly was making terror lurch in those beautiful brown eyes, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be the one to make it go away.
Unable to stop himself, Tye gripped Lera’s waist and, ignoring the indignant squeak, hoisted her up onto the table in the dungeon’s center. Another step, and he positioned himself between her thighs, their eyes for once level with each other. As he trapped Lera’s gaze with his own, preventing it from scanning the dungeon, Tye could see the pulse in her neck start to slow, the hunted fear in her eyes wane. Good. A few moments later, the lass’s fear-tight muscles softened enough to let her breathe easier.
“There we go,” Tye said softly. The notion that—despite the manhandling— the lass still trusted him, was so gratifying that it nearly made Tye purr. He ran his thumb over Lera’s high cheekbone, watching her eyes flutter, his whole body longing to wipe the vestiges of her fear away. “It’s just a room, Lera. It’s people who hurt you, not anything in here. If someone wished you harm, they’d hardly need all these toys for it.” A corner of his mouth tugged up and, because he was an arse, Tye added, “I could prove it to you if you want.”
Lera snorted softly, a touch of humor in her eyes—which was a miracle as far as Tye was concerned. “You sound very certain of yourself.”
“I am.” Oddly enough, Tye wasn’t lying. He was certain. Knew exactly how he’d go about turning their cell from a chamber of horrors into one of pleasure, guiding the nervous tension in Lera’s body to mindless release. As if he’d done such things before, many times with many women.
Which, of course, was utter nonsense. After all, Tye had been with Tiga for most of his romantic life. Hadn’t he? His mind itched, as if memories were trying to hatch through a hard shell. A familiar feeling. Small and feisty as Lera was, she made Tye feel as though he wore blinders, only able to see the world fully when she was close.
A spot on Tye’s chest burned suddenly, and he rubbed at it, shaking his head. No, of course, he was just speculating as to what one could do in such a chamber—envisioning the pleasures a man might offer a woman given the tools at hand. It was nothing more than imagination mixed with a healthy dose of desire and cockiness.
“What are you thinking?” Lera asked, making Tye realize he’d gone quiet.
“Some very explicit thoughts that involve your screaming in ecstasy,” he muttered before catching himself.
The heady scent of Lera’s arousal once more spiked the air, reminding Tye of exactly how she tasted. Everywhere. Tye’s whole body heated, and he simultaneously longed to splay the lass out on the table before him and to gather her against his soul.
Lera swallowed, a delicious pink blush rising into her pale cheeks. “That… Us. It would be a very poor idea.”
“Agreed,” said Tye firmly, clearing his throat. The memory of their last coupling had driven him mad for weeks. They couldn’t do it again. Shouldn’t.
But anything was better than having Lera spiral down into terror again.
He looked around the dungeon cell, his mind racing against the tension starting to rise into the lass’s shoulders. That odd sense of expertise teased him again, an uncanny set of ideas of the many, many things he could do here. Maybe there was a way to offer her pleasure without losing himself. Not coupling exactly, but… “Do you want me to distract you, lass?”
Leralynn frowned at him suspiciously. “What do you mean, precisely?”
Tye grinned and cupped the back of her head with his wide palm. Leaning close to her ear, Tye nipped the bottom lobe. “Precisely, that I am a very good distraction.” He grinned, breathing her in. “Also, the one nice thing you should know about the chamber here is that no one can hear us—so feel free to scream my name as loud as you wish.”
This time when Lera opened her mouth—probably to call him a colorful type of bastard—Tye captured her soft lips with his own. She stiffened for a moment, then yielded with a nearly inaudible sigh that sent currents of need shooting into Tye’s cock so fiercely that he groaned.
Resisting the urge to take Lera right on the table’s edge, Tye slid his hands under the dark pink shoulder straps of her dress. Pulling the satin down over her breast, he considered the chest wrap for a moment before lifting her with one arm to slip the dress all the way off with an efficiency that made the lass’s brows rise. Apparently, Tye was also exceedingly good at undressing women.
6
Lera
I shouldn’t do this. Shouldn’t let Tye do this. The thoughts repeating in my mind lose potency with every stroke of Tye’s hands along my skin. His emerald eyes study me with a predatory intensity that makes my sex clench, my thighs slick. Somehow, the male has gotten my dress, undershorts, and chest wrap all off within the space of a few heartbeats.
With a low growl, I slip off the table and plant my hands on Tye’s hard chest, fully intending to push him away and put a long, cold cell between us. Then he cups my rib cage in his large palms and flicks his thumbs over my nipples, taking my mouth so suddenly and deeply that I can’t help but moan against him. His large body blocks out the damp cell, his pine-and-citrus scent pushing away Coal’s phantom memories, River’s furious gaze, Zake’s descending whip.
I reach for his flies, suddenly desperate for more distraction, intending to make him as naked as I am. Whatever this is, however ill-advised, it’s working. The anticipation of feeling Tye’s muscles beneath my hands makes my fingers tingle, but it’s the bulge in his trousers I plan to enjoy first. To savor the hardness pulsing there.
Before I can so much as undo a button, Tye catches my wrists in a viselike hold, the wicked sparkle in his gaze sending a shiver along my spine.
“What—” I start to ask, but he is already moving on.
Transferring both my wrists into his one wide hand, Tye binds them together in front of me with my own chest wrap. He drinks in my whole body with his gaze, brushing his palms lightly over my arms. Across my abdomen. Through the coarse auburn curls between my legs.
I release a long breath, my eyes shuddering closed, each touch of Tye’s callused fingers waking my body more to his presence. Heat plays along my skin, warding away the dampness of the dungeon’s stale air. Emerald gaze capturing mine, Tye drops his hand lower still and—
I gasp, rising onto my toes as he plunges two fingers into me. A tiny pang of indignant shock followed by warm pleasure ripple through me at the intrusion, my breath quickening. But before I can get accustomed to the sensation, Tye pulls the hand free and grins at the sparkling wetness coating his skin. The smile splitting his perfect face, deepening the lines around his mouth, makes it disorientingly beautiful. I feel dazed, unable to move.
“I think we are on the right track,” he says, sucking his fingers clean.
I’m still blinking at Tye’s antics when he cups my bottom, pushing me a few steps forward. With swift, sure motions, he lifts my arms and loops the loose ends of the wrap binding my wrists to the chained manacles hanging from the ceiling.
“Tye?” I yank, trying to bring my arms down. The restraint sways but yields nothing to my effort. I yank again, harder. My heart stutters, my blood swishing anxiety through my veins. Anxiety and excitement. “What—”
“Look at me, lass.” Tye’s low, self-assur
ed tone demands my gaze as firmly as the knots he sets. The moment I lift my eyes to his all-consuming green ones, heat fills my skin. Despite my mind’s protests, a trickle of moisture slides from my sex and snakes down the inside of my thigh. Stars.
Feet wide apart, Tye steps in front of me, his bare chest and torso a shadowy field of muscle, lightly damp with sweat. His mouth curves appreciatively as his callused hands roam my skin once more, massaging my aching breasts and stroking my hips. “Almost perfect,” he whispers into my ear before settling his foot between my legs and pushing them wide apart.
Cold air brushes my hot sex, my fluttering attempts to close myself meeting Tye’s braced knees. Running two fingers skillfully between my slippery folds, Tye traces the hood hiding my quickly swelling apex.
“You can’t escape my touch, lilac lass,” Tye whispers into my ear, the words—which should rightfully make me cringe—sending a zing of excitement all the way to my sex. The mix of unyielding restraint and Tye’s utter focus on me is intoxicating, my emotions spinning between anxiety and safety. Desire and frustration. “You can do nothing but feel. And enjoy.” Tye teases the hood again, running the tip of one finger oh so casually across my bud.
I moan, my toes curling in my boots. More. I need more.
Tye pulls away.
My teeth grind together so hard, they squeak.
A small tug at the corner of the bastard’s mouth says he marked my reaction. Was planning it all along. With fingers slicked in my own wetness, Tye circles my nipples. One, then the other, until the sensitive skin tightens into peaks and my breasts feel so full, they ache.
“You have gorgeous breasts, Lera.” Eyes on mine, he puts his mouth on one thick nipple and sucks.
I gasp, the pull on my breasts joining the low throbbing in my sex. I try to cover myself, to close my legs to do something—anything—to ease the growing pressure. But I can’t. This is wrong, a voice inside me tries hollering again. You’re naked in a dungeon chamber, restrained and…and stars, if all that doesn’t somehow drive each sensation higher.
Tye’s hand drops to my sex again, stroking my folds in a maddening harmony to the insistent suckles above. Forward and back, forward and back, until my hips thrust toward him greedily, my toes so tightly curled inside my laced boots that my legs shake.
Without warning, Tye slides a finger into my channel just as his teeth close slightly over my tender nipple. The tiny sting of pain morphs into a scalding pleasure that washes through me like a storm.
“Stars.” I whimper. More. I need more. I need him. My arm jerks toward the pulsing bulge in Tye’s pants, the restraints catching me ruthlessly. My channel clenches around Tye’s finger with greedy desperation.
Releasing my nipple, Tye soothes it with little laps of his tongue that starts to drop lower and lower along my flesh until he is on one knee, hands gripping the insides of my wet thighs.
I half expect guards to burst in at any moment with how loud I’m being. Then I remember that this chamber is soundproof, which only heightens my feral arousal. Tye blows on my hot tissue, his strong hands keeping me utterly open to him. Leaning closer, he swirls his tongue around my nub, which pulses so fiercely, I can barely stand. I grab the chains for support, small whimpers escaping as the world narrows.
Lap. Lap. Lap. Tye’s tongue teases my engorged apex, my whole sex feeling too tight to bear. Lap. Lap. Lap.
I pant, reaching for the approaching abyss. My heart pounds, sweat trickling down my temples. Tye caresses the whole length of my hood, then takes my bud into his hot mouth and sucks.
I barely bite back a scream, every muscle in my body tight. Pleasure so intense, it hurts, rushes through me. Hitting me again and again. I gasp, my legs buckling as release thunders through me.
Wrapping his arms around me, Tye holds me tight through the exquisite spasms. When he seems confident I will not collapse, he lets me take up my weight, a satisfied smile on his face. “Did you enjoy your distraction, lass?”
“No.” I pant. Growl.
He cocks a brow, looking genuinely bemused. “Your body says otherwise.”
I swallow, unable to think. “You. I want you.”
Tye stiffens, something unreadable flashing through his eyes, and starts to step away. “That wasn’t the—”
I don’t care. Leaning back into my binds, I hook one leg around Tye’s hard waist, yanking him closer.
Tye’s eyes widen as our hips collide. Wrapping my other leg around the male’s waist, I hook my ankles together, my hips grinding against his hardness. Leaning my neck back, I savor the heady energy pulsing through me and indulge my one utterly unfair advantage—I nip the so, so sensitive ear tip that Tye doesn’t know he has.
Tye hisses, gripping my hips for balance, his fingers digging in so hard that I yelp.
“Leralynn—” His voice is guttural, a mix of purr and growl that echoes the tiger he shifts into in Lunos.
“You started this, kitty cat.” I grind into him again.
The male’s emerald eyes darken, the swirling lust blowing away uncertainty with a storm’s force. His hips move against mine as if of their own accord, a groan escaping his throat as his fingers dig into my backside. Drag me closer.
My heart quickens, my dilating eyes losing focus of everything but the pulsing body between my thighs.
Strong hands lifting me easily, Tye moves me against his length, his body taking over.
I nod, baring my teeth, nodding for him to hurry up.
In another heartbeat, Tye pushes my legs down with a predatory growl and yanks at his flies. His cock springs out of its binds so forcefully that the shaft smacks my flesh, our mingled breaths echoing harshly against the stone walls.
He pulls away, out of reach of my legs, and drinks me in like a master musician contemplating his next note. Letting the pulsing pause stretch the tension. The hot glaze in Tye’s green eyes would almost make me nervous if I weren’t trembling with need.
He runs one finger from the hollow of my throat down between my breasts to the top of my mound, eliciting a tiny noise in the back of my throat. Then, with no warning, he takes my mouth, teasing my lips open with his tongue before thrusting in with a surge of desperation that echoes my own. Makes the magic inside me flare against its restraints as fiercely as my body does.
Hooking his hands under my thighs as if I weigh nothing, Tye presses his hardness against my dripping sex and shifts his hips, running his bare velvety length up through my folds and down. Up and down, the wet sounds joining our heavy breathing. I moan against his mouth. Bite his lower lip. His cock slides against my bud with increasing pressure, making me tremble.
“Stop teasing me,” I gasp. And know instantly that it was a mistake.
With a jolt, Tye disappears behind me, leaving me cold and gasping, struggling to find my footing again on the rough stone. In the next moment, his hot hands trace my ribs, my waist, my hips. With one hand pressing into the small of my back, bending me forward slightly so my bottom juts out, he swirls his other down my thighs. Across my swollen, pulsating bud.
I moan, bucking my hips and pulling against my binds, demanding—begging—that he fill the emptiness inside me. Even with that, when the head of his cock presses against my wetness again, the sheer width of it makes my heart stutter with anticipation. I inhale, readying my muscles for the invasion…but instead of moving inside me, Tye stays at my opening, pulsing, then spirals the tip of his finger around my still-sensitive bud. The tightening circles send waves of throbbing need through me.
I shudder. Then shudder again as Tye’s slickened finger circles my other opening.
Oh stars. Everything inside me clenches. Even after so many couplings, with Tye and River both liking to claim my backside as readily as my channel, the thought of it still makes my face flame. Every time. No amount of knowing I’ll enjoy it soon enough stops the doomed attempt to escape the inevitable.
It’s no exception now, and I squirm like a wildcat despite the thick wetness
coating my sex and thighs. Wetness that Tye doesn’t fail to mark as he tightens the pressure on my backside, his low growl vibrating through me. “You’re in a dangerous position to bait a hunt, lass.” His voice is rough, on the knife’s edge of desperate. With no warning, he surges forward, burying himself to the hilt inside my channel. I scream. And instantly, I push back against him, urging him to start moving. Tye returns with a resounding slap that shocks my nerves awake. Another slap stings my other cheek, hovering at the very edge of pain. Making everything more potent. Aching. Needy.
Hands gripping my hips, Tye pumps once, twice, again, our wet skin meeting loudly in the stone chamber. I wrap my hands around the binds to take his force.
The cock disappears from my sex, and Tye’s finger slides into my tight back hole again, twisting in and out. In and out. Bringing me to a cliff’s edge and backing off.
“Bastard,” I growl between clenched teeth.
This time when Tye’s hand comes down on my backside, it lights up a blaze.
I yelp, but even as I do, my voice morphs to a moan of pleasure as Tye buries his cock in me again, bringing me to my toes. His cock and fingers plunge into me together now, filling everything. My sex. My backside. My whole utter world. And when he increases the pace, alternating the rhythm of the two, there is no holding back the tsunami of sensation.
I scream again, every fiber in my body tightening at once. The agonizing waves of pleasure ripple from my sex, raking across my back and legs until even my teeth feel the unyielding pulsing. Oh stars.
I collapse against my binds for the second time, my bones liquid.
Tye pulls me upright against his hard chest, squeezing my breasts with his wide callused palms, and I pant, resting my head against his shoulder. He bites my exposed neck lightly. Tweaks my nipples. Runs one hand down to my mound.
