by Bree Rivers
“Bullshit. Kane told me. What you were like when you were little. The fairy outfit and how you—”
“I asked him if he was Prince Charming. He told me he was a monster waiting to eat little fairy princesses up. Kane was ten years old, I was six, but it didn’t matter. When he leaned down making roaring noises—”
“You bonked him in the head with your glittery silver wand.”
“Like I said, Davis. I was six years old. I’m not anymore.”
“You’re still that little girl, Violet. You’re still mine.”
“No. I’m not. That girl believed in dreams coming true. That girl believed in happily ever after. This woman ... this woman believes in nothing.” She took a few steps away from him, longing for the illusion of isolation she’d relied on here to keep her mind safe. “Go away, Davis. This woman isn’t one you want in your life.”
His dark chocolate eyes burned with an emotion she couldn’t identify. No matter how far she tried to meld into the trees, she could still feel him staring.
Chapter 5 - Before
Davis stepped into the sub’s dressing room, scowling. He knew he told everyone they were to keep to where the cameras could see them, so they stayed safe. So why was there a beautiful woman standing in front of the full-length mirror, preening in an outfit he’d barely call clothes? Her bright purple hair was set off by the black corset, lace stockings, high heels, and black feathered mask. “Personally I prefer to see a woman in nothing but skin, and yours is much too magnificent to hide by even those scraps of fabric.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” The girl whirled around, a bright pink blush filling her cheeks and cleavage. “I didn’t think anyone would mind. The light is so much better here, and I wondered how it would show.”
“No complaints here. But we’re keeping everyone in security cam view. There've been some problems, and I want to make sure we all stay safe.”
“I didn’t think that meant me.”
“You’re not one of the subs?”
“No. I’m Violet. The costumer.”
That was a pity. His job was suddenly looking pretty sweet. “Roman and Bear never gave you the budget for a mannequin?”
She flinched as if he’d struck her. “Apologies. I’ll go change.”
When she tried to run past him, Davis caught her arm. He was shocked to see tears shining in her eyes. “Hold on there, precious.”
“Look, if it bothers you I’m wearing this so much—”
“Why would it bother me if a beautiful woman is barely dressed?” Her eyes grew huge, and she searched his face for a few minutes before lowering them again. “Now, you said you came in here to see how this lovely little get-up would show. I assume you mean for a sub?” Her brief nod made him chuckle. “Good. Well, let’s see how it goes. Put it through its paces. Kneel. Now.”
Violet froze, quivering from head to toe, as an inner war took place. Davis waited. This was her choice. She couldn’t have worked for the guys this long and not know that. He even made sure to shift away from the door so she could run out if that was what she wanted. He would never force a woman into anything, much less his bed. Davis shuttered his face as he prepared for her to flee.
Instead, she gracefully glided to her knees. Her legs were apart as she rested on her heels, her hands palm up on her thighs, eyes cast to the floor.
“Precious, I should have called you, perfection.”
She peeked up at him, and he showed his pleasure at her submission with a warm smile. Davis traced her lips with his finger, she parted her mouth, and he rested his thumb between her teeth. “Normally I’d want to enjoy your mouth first. While telling you all the sweet things I could do to your pussy.” Violet bit down slightly on his thumb. When his breath audibly hissed, she gave a choked-off giggle. “Tell me first why you were going to run out of the room.”
“I thought you were trying to tell me I looked ridiculous in this outfit.”
“You are beautiful in this outfit.”
“I thought you said I was perfection.”
He chuckled. “Sassy mouth, huh? I do love a sassy, mouthy girl.” In response, she sucked on his thumb hard. Davis pulled it from her rosy lips with an audible pop. “Okay Precious, let me see what you’ve got. Hand.” She held up her arm, and he used it to guide her back to her feet and then brought her back to the mirror. Standing behind her he placed his hands on her stomach and rubbed back and forth. The woman in his arms flinched. “Am I causing you pain?”
She shook her head.
“Audibly,” his tone was stern, but she had to understand. If she didn’t speak, he couldn’t be sure. “Is this causing you pain?”
“No.” She swallowed hard. “I’m not really into working out.”
“I don’t mind you soft, Precious. Do you mind that I’m hard?”
To punctuate this question, he pressed his hardened cock into her ass. His hand on her stomach kept her still, so she had no choice but to feel it. Violet’s head fell back against his chest. “No. I like you hard. I like it a lot.”
“Good answer, Precious. Good answers get a reward.”
Davis slipped his hand past the elastic of her thong to cup her pussy in the warmth of his palm. She was already wet, which earned her another reward, an open-mouthed kiss on the side of her neck. His fingertips gently parted her folds so he could rotate the pad of his thumb against her clit. His hand on her stomach kept her tightly pressed against his front, so his other hand could continue to explore below.
His two fingers had barely slid into her channel before she shook hard, her mouth fell open, and her knees collapsed. Davis swept her up into his arms and moved them both to the couch. Sitting next to her hip, he smoothed a hand down the side of her face as he waited for her brain to start to function again.
“What was that?” her voice sounded different to her and she scowled.
Her sleepy, befuddled state earned her another warm, rolling chuckle he’d perfected over the years to transform women into liquid puddles. Davis knew different things could turn women on, and his voice was one of his favorites. Tucking a lock of her purple hair behind her ear, he smiled as her eyes fluttered open. Everything about this woman screamed delicate. He wanted to wrap her up in cotton and put her on a shelf somewhere. “That was you having an orgasm.”
A loud knocking on the door made her jump to her feet. Davis kept his hands on her hips to steady her. “Davis,” David’s voice on the other side of the door was loud enough to hear with ease. “We need you.”
“Sorry, Precious. The guys need some help with security because of Daisy.”
“Is she ok?”
“You’re asking me if another woman is alright after I just finished playing in your panties?”
She grimaced. “I hate that word.”
“Good to know.” Davis chuckled. “Still, you need to go home. I don't want anyone walking around here without supervision.”
"Oh, I ... am I being fired?"
"No, Precious. You're going home with full pay."
“Fine.” Violet drew on a silk robe that was embroidered with peacocks.
Davis cupped her crestfallen face in the palms of his hands. “You and I are going to finish this soon. But until then, I want you to remember this.” Before she could ask what, his mouth was on hers. Davis ran his tongue over the seam of her lips until she parted them, he swept in to taste, dueling with hers until they were almost braided as one. When she gave a long yearning moan, he stepped back. Their panting breaths were loud enough to cover even the pounding on the door. “We’re coming back to this. And as soon as possible.”
“Got it.” She smiled at him, and he felt something near his heart suddenly lurch in response. Funny. He hadn’t thought he had a heart anymore.
He nipped at her lower lip after her eager response. “Now you go home and be safe. I want you in one piece when we’re ready to come back to this. It’s the only way it would be fun to watch you shatter into little pieces again. Understand me?”
“You won’t forget ... will you?”
His eyebrow rose with surprise. “You doubting me already?”
“No.” she stepped closer to him and leaned against his frame. “No. It’s just that ... once upon a time ...”
“There was a guy.” Davis chuckled when Violet’s eyes flew to his with surprise. “I give mankind more credit than that. There’s no way a woman as beautiful as you were unnoticed before. Now, once upon a time, there was a guy ...”
“He left.” Her eyes swam with tears. “He didn’t come back.”
Davis wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her up his aching frame so he could look directly into her eyes. “That’s not me. I don’t leave. I don’t forget. You and I are just getting started with this, my Precious. And we will be exploring to see how far and how much we can take. Believe it.”
“I’ll try.”
He took her mouth in another bruising, encompassing kiss to punctuate his point. When they were both shaking with need, he deposited her back on her feet. “We’re trying to make sure Daisy will be safe. Someone’s hunting her, and we’re all hands on deck until the bastard’s caught. I’m sending you away so you’ll be okay, too. So please, go home. You and I are going to come back to his.”
Her smile was enough to make him swear his promise again before he took the time for another kiss.
Chapter 6 – After
“So ... what part of us broaching the subject to her together gently escaped your memory?” Davis yelled as he entered the house. “I’m just curious, man. Because if we need to get Shane here to check you aren’t suffering from dementia we should probably make that call now before I fucking kill you.”
“Telling her was the right thing.”
“Who made you the fucking boss?”
“You know who I am, D. You’ve always known.”
Davis sprawled in the chair by the fire and leaned his elbows on his knees as his hands ran over his face. “She’s so fragile. I keep thinking about what she was like, how much fire underneath the surface ... fuck. We should dig the bastards that did this to her and kill them again.”
“If I thought that would give them more pain I’d agree with you.”
“What are we going to do, Kane?”
“She’s back in her house. She’s reading a book the last I looked.”
“Why’d you stop?” When Kane gave him a quizzical look, Davis shrugged. “Usually I can’t drag you away from the monitors, and that’s when you know you’ve got me to watch her. I’m surprised you’re in here.”
Kane shook his head. “I keep getting lost in my memories.”
“That summer?”
“Fuck yeah,” Kane rubbed his eyes. “Best summer of my life.”
“You still haven’t answered my question, Kane. Why spring it on her the way you did? Why not wait for me.”
“That summer ...” Kane turned to the fireplace and stared at the flames.
“What about the summer?”
“I just ...” Kane shook his head, a harsh laugh twisting his lips. “She burst into my life that summer. I never took the time to talk her though. I never checked she fully understood what she was getting into. I was so new to the life, I didn’t understand how vital it was to make sure she was happy with it.”
“You said she was a natural sub. I may have had little chance to explore her, but I saw no evidence to argue with that.”
Kane stared hard at him. “Do you really think Vanity isn’t worth making sure that she’s okay with what happens? That demanding she gives up all dominion over her body and soul was fair to a girl who lived in the cocoon of the manor and now here, after everything that happened to her? I couldn’t think of her ... us ... taking one more step and not giving her all the chances she needed to understand.”
“Here is my problem, buddy ...” Davis twisted the last word as he stared at her hard. “I don’t think you did it for Violet, that’s her name, by the way, Violet. We should probably get it tattooed on your wrist, so you remember it. I don’t think you did it for Violet, I think you did it for you.”
“Davis, you have been my best friend for years, you know me better than anyone else in the world.”
“And?”
“Of course I did it for me,” Kane stood up. “I will not make the same mistakes I made that summer with her. My soul will not take any more sins held against me, Davis, I will be destroyed if I do.”
“I may not know everything you do about this life,” Davis said. “But I fucking know that is the last thing you should be worried about.”
“And yet ... it’s all I’ve got.”
Chapter 7 – Before
The car’s roaring engine was the only sound they heard. Kane’s hand was still in her lap, and he noticed with satisfaction, she’d made no move to close her legs. Kane kept brushing his fingertips over her pulsing clit to keep her on edge. He wanted her aching with need. Hot, panting. Ready for everything he was planning on doing to her. And he most definitely meant everything.
Vanity. She was always his. The first day she and her father arrived on the estate to take over the groundkeeper position, his ten-year-old mind couldn’t believe when she jumped out of her dad’s truck dressed in some flouncy pink dress that skimmed the ground. His eyes traveled from her brown curls held back by the plastic tiara, over the skirt sticking straight out covered with paste jewels, to the silver star-topped wand. He knew she was special as soon as she smashed the thing over his head.
He’d been obsessed with her ever since. Fortunately though, his father infiltrated every area of his life, the great Senator Long had never managed to look into Kane’s soul where he kept his affection for Vanity hidden.
Of course, it wasn’t until he saw her sitting next to Carter with the spaghetti straps of her dress revealing all that creamy skin that obsession had turned into desire.
Speaking of which ... “What happened to the other dress?”
Vanity chuckled. “It’s hard for me to believe the great Prince Kane noticed my wardrobe change.”
“I notice everything about you, sweeting.”
The look he gave her must have made how seriously he took that statement because she swallowed three times before she could ask her next question. “The one with the buttons?”
“Yes.” He squeezed her thigh, enjoying the hitch in her voice.
“I changed. I figured it was too subtle for Carter. This one was much more blatant and would make my plans clear to him.”
His hand clenched on the steering wheel. The streets were empty, due to either the hour or the small Virginia rural community where they lived. Either way, there was no fucking way he was letting this stand another minute. Guiding the car off the main road, he hoped the trees would mask them should someone drive by.
“Are we stopping? Why are we stopping?” Her eyes became liquid with shame. “Oh, if you just want to do it in the fields, you might—”
Kane didn’t care about the downcast look on her face and her evaporating smile. He couldn’t even think past the fact she donned this dress for an ass like Carter. Another man. His jealousy gripped him hard, burning away all softness and consideration. His father had always made it clear, Kane owned nothing. He was okay with it, as long as he had Vanity, and her wearing a dress she chose for another man was making him instantly crazed. She needed to understand here, and now there would never again be another man. He made a fist in her hair to keep her where he needed her. His mouth covered hers in a kiss so searing it was designed to bruise her. Mark her. He wanted any man who came near her to know she was fucking taken. When she started to lose her breath she fought him. Her hands beat at his chest, her body tried to push against him.
It didn’t matter. He leaned across the bucket seat harder. He needed to feel her melt against him. Her tongue dueled with his, though her body fought the threat to her air—her mouth understood. She was his. This was his claiming.
His hands moved down her face, pausing on her neck
, cradling her pulse. Her mouth was bruised, her lips were swollen from being smashed against his teeth. Her eyes were wide and glazed, drugged from the passion she was drowning in, as she should be. He pulled back, allowing her to draw in a breath, but make sure it came from him still. The taste of him was in the air invading her lungs. Kane wanted to lock her up somewhere and make her dependent on him for everything from the food she ate to the air she breathed. He wanted her to know one thing: pleasure, the pleasure only he could give her and nothing else.
The slightest noise, a break, almost a strangled sob, made him stop and evaluate her. Control. He had to maintain control.
Realizing he was going too fast with her, he released her wildly beating pulse and gathered the front of her dress in his fists. “Sorry, love.” One small wrench and the fabric ripped apart in his hands.
“Kane!” She tried to cross her legs, and shield her breasts at the same time with her hands. He wrenched the piece of fabric from her body insulted it would even protect her from the cold leather seat. His eyes almost crossed at how her breasts pressed against the lace of her bra, her nipples pushing against the fabric so far he could almost hear the threads ripping. “I made that dress, you idiot.”
“Good. I’ll buy whatever satin or silk you need to make ten others. But no fucking way are you wearing a dress you put on for another guy in front of me. Got it?”
“Fine.” She eyed him, the wheels in her mind going so fast he could hear it. “Just for the record, I didn’t make my lingerie, I bought it, it was expensive, and I put it on for you.”
He chuckled as he redirected the car back onto the road to get them home. “I’ll rip those off when we’re at the house.”
“Let me just take them off. I said they were expensive.”
“Anything you need, sweeting, I’ll buy for you.”
Vanity shifted on her seat, rubbing her hands over her arms. He wondered what silenced her. The fact that he offered her a blank check, something he’d never done before, or the powerful desire in his voice. Kane put his hand on her leg again and felt the small bumps covering her. Without taking his eyes from the road, he snagged the throw in the back seat and handed it to her. Vanity used the blanket to cover her front and lap, sighing in resignation when he moved it out of his way to put his fingers back into her lace thong. Her pussy was soaking wet, burning hot, and it was making his mouth water. He pressed against her throbbing bundle of nerves, seeking to give her a small release so he could have the intense pleasure of building her back up again. It barely took a few flicks of his thumb, circular pressing of his finger to send her over the edge. As the orgasm rocked her, she made the sweetest gasps.