by Kitty Wilder
The corner of his mouth tugged up ever so slightly. “My favorite time was eating you out in the classroom.”
She felt her arousal growing like a hot thunderstorm rolling through her body whose lightning strikes all landed in her pussy.
The silver of the handcuffs rattled as he curled his index finger around a coil of her hair, his gaze dropping to glaze over her exposed body. “Do you recall what naughty thing you wrote on my whiteboard that night, sweetheart?”
She sighed in want and knew she had lost this delicate pas de deux of wills. He knew she was trying to tempt him but he was too adept at playing her own body against her. “I’m your little slut,” she conceded softly with a bite of her lip as she fought the urge to tear him out of his suit and tie.
His finger dropped the piece of hair he had been toying with and glided down the slope of her jaw and under her chin to tilt it back up to him. “Are you still my little slut, princess?”
God yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!
So much for punishing him.
“Always,” she whispered.
His devilish smirk turned into a full grin. “You did not agree to whatever terms he gave you.”
She shook her head. “I’ve been trying to get out of this place since the moment I woke up in it.”
He planted a soft kiss on her forehead. “Good girl.”
She felt her knees go weak, still addicted to his praise and hungry to do anything she had to in order to receive more of it.
“I saw you in the courtyard earlier. The way you moaned... I just assumed you had chosen to stay.”
She shook her head again. “I think he wants to turn me into a vampire. He wants me to be his queen.”
His brow raised. “And you said no?”
“Why would I want to be a queen when it’s so much more fun being a princess?” She shot him a coquettish smile. “Would you like to know a secret?”
He nodded, amused.
“I saw you too.” She untucked his tie from behind his vest and ran her fingers down the length of it. “So, that’s where those moans came from.”
He grunted, watching her fingers play down his chest. “Do you like having me watch?”
“Do you like watching?” she teased coyly.
“I do,” he sighed.
“Maybe we should hang out here a little longer then. Lerexus can’t keep his hands off me.”
“And why should he be able to?” He touched her with his own, running them over her collarbones and down the soft skin between her breasts, watching the waves of goosebumps trail behind his touch.
She dropped the tip of his tie. “He’s talked a lot about you. Both he and Doris.”
“What is it they have to say about me?” he quirked an eyebrow and let his wandering hands fall away.
“Doris said you’re a predator and seek out weak women to control.”
“And you saw this for the lie it is when you realized you are nothing close to weak.”
She looked up at him wide eyed.
His brow dropped sadly. “Oh, darling, no.” He clasped her hands in his bound ones. “Doris is a loathsome woman, power hungry and full of envy. She doesn’t know the first thing about true submission. I did not choose you because you were weak and easy to control. I was captivated by your mind and soul, seduced by your need, and hopelessly ensnared by your willing surrender to me. It takes a strength that wretched woman will never know to put that kind of trust and obedience in someone.”
He thinks I’m strong?
John says I’m strong.
You are strong.
She felt a heavy burden lifted from her chest as she slowly began to remember who she was, the confidence she had lost since being trapped behind these walls.
“And Lerexus? What poison did he spew?” He released her and sat down on the edge of the bed with a weariness she did not know an immortal vampire could have.
“He told me you lied about your past.”
He was silent a moment. Lucy saw the glowing embers in the fireplace go cold and could see every corner of the room lit dimly in gray light filtering in through the heavy drapes as the sun rose beyond. “There are aspects I was not entirely forthcoming about, this is true.”
“Forthcoming?” she snorted. “You told me you had been mourning your wife’s death and were attacked by some vampire in an alley that turned you by accident.”
He raked his hands through his gray streaked hair. “I see he’s been very chatty with you.”
“Also that this is like a thing for you. You like young, naive girls, but it never works out.”
He cursed angrily under his breath.
“John, I know everything. So, just tell me the truth. Stop lying.”
He looked back up at her. “I swear I had no malicious ulterior motives. I-I have regrets. Three hundred years is plenty of time to do a lot of stupid things. It’s true it was not my wife who had died. She lost her life giving birth to our daughter Ingaret. I told you she was taken by the plague, which is true, but she was a young woman when it happened. I did not handle it well.” He shook his head. “That is such an understatement. It tore me to pieces, to love and raise a child all the way to the cusp of adulthood, only to lose her, is a wound that will never heal for me.”
“Why would you lie about that?” she asked sadly. “Why keep that from me?”
“Because of what it led to. My grief pushed me to obsessive lengths at any attempt to get her back. Healers, witches, alchemists, dark surgeons, I sought out any rumor that could bring her back, even those of the undead, of vampires. It is also true I sought out Lerexus. He was a fearsome vampire lord, powerful, with many rumors surrounding him. I tracked him down and begged him to aid me, offering anything and everything just to get my little girl back.” He rubbed his forehead, unable to meet her gaze any longer. “He saw potential in me, an intelligence he found desirable. He told me he would bring her back if I became his apprentice. He led me on for many years, feeding me lies about finding the right components for a ritual that did not exist. By the time I figured out he was stringing me along, my daughter was long rotted in the ground and I was doomed to this monstrous form, forever at his beck and call. I paint Lerexus the villain, but the truth is that I’m in a hell of my own making. I couldn’t just accept the finality of death and have waited out the rest of my mortal days in a hollow daze until also claimed by it. I’m ashamed, Lucy,” he admitted softly.
She felt her heart grow heavy for him, doomed to bear the consequences of his mistakes for centuries. She nodded as things became clearer. “You’re not a predator, John,” she said softly. “I see that now. You’re just a caregiver with a broken heart, trying to fill the void like everyone else in the world.” She closed the distance between them and took his face in her hands and stroked his stubbly cheeks with her thumbs. “Raging against death is the most human thing to do. You shouldn’t be punished like this for it.” She added after a moment with a weak smile, “And if you like, I can call you Daddy.”
He did not laugh, something genuine stirring behind his eyes. “As much as I’d enjoy that, it’s not just that,” he whispered sadly. “I’ve done horrible things even as a vampire. Whatever else he told you about me is probably true. I’ve taken many lives, hurt people. As much as I hated Lerexus for tricking me, the others in his coven did not deserve to die. They too were simply lost souls. I resorted to needless violence in exchange for freedom – but even that didn’t work out. By siding with the Venatores, I stepped willingly into a new collar, and have been held tight by their leash ever since. I am not blameless, you see.”
She sat down on his knee and pulled him into an embrace, burying her nose in his neck with her arms tight about him. “Who is?” she whispered rhetorically.
He held her tightly in kind, cradling her to him in his bound arms and nuzzling into her hair. “Whatever relationships I had previously, if they can even be called that, did not last, it’s true. Sometimes a relationship just doesn’t work out, some
times I got cold feet, sometimes they did. Most of the time all I could hope for was a brief fling before they realized I had nothing to offer. The very few poor girls that wanted more, that I caved in for and shared my horrible secret with, quickly realized falling truly in love with a vampire is no picnic. I have no future to offer you. I cannot give you a family. I cannot grow old with you. We can’t even have fucking brunch on a lazy Sunday morning. All I have is blood and night, darkness and regret. So you see, I’ve always known one night you would fly away from me, leaving me with only dreams and memories.”
“You still think that? Even after all this?” she asked in disbelief.
His hold on her did not loosen despite his grim prediction. “We will escape, sweetheart. It is a certainty. Perhaps you will spend a few more nights with me, maybe out of the obligation of gratitude, or for sentiment’s sake, or maybe just out of your own reluctance to let it end, but it is inevitable, as surely as death for you. There is an expiration on this, as wonderful as it may be.”
“What is it I just have to get back to?” she let out a breathy, sardonic chuckle. “Those desires aren’t mine. I don’t need you to give me anything you don’t already have to give.”
He was silent and she could feel the tension in his body.
“Did it ever occur to you,” she continued more gently, “that I’m not looking for a white picket fence at the end of this tale? Or bouncing vampire babies.”
He laughed, relaxing again as he held her close.
“I’ll love you until my gray hairs and wrinkles chase you off. I’ll play your sexy games night after night until you’re absolutely bored of me and ditch me for a fresh face. Most importantly, brunch is so overrated. I’ll take pancakes at midnight with you over Sunday brunch any time.”
His chuckle tickled through her hair and she pulled back just enough to look back up at him to find his warm smile beaming down on her.
“You’re everything I’ve ever wanted,” she added, grazing her fingers down the straight line of his nose and over his soft thin lips. “Wherever you go, I’m going too.”
Though there was still a clear trepidation in the stormy ocean of his gray eyes, he seemed content enough to let the grim subject go. With a kiss to her forehead, he rose and gingerly set her on the bed and brought the downy blankets up over her naked body with a quick puff across the candelabrum on the nightstand. With the candlelight extinguished, the room fell into the dim light of the obstructed dawn rising higher and higher beyond the tightly closed window.
“Are you going to stay?” she asked softly.
He loosened his tie and popped the top button of his shirt, then rested back on the pillows beside her above all the blankets. “Where else do I have to be?”
She smiled wide and rolled over to curl up on his chest. “It’s like a sleepover,” she squeaked giddily, the first time she had felt real happiness bubbling inside her within these halls.
He laughed. “Yes, sweetheart.”
They both fell silent for a moment as Lucy listened to the eerie calm that fell over the castle during the day. “Daddy?” she tested the new nickname and watched him smile.
“Yes, princess?”
“Do we have enough time to play with those handcuffs?”
He chuckled and looked down at her in surprise.
“Did you think you were the only one excited by having someone bound and at your mercy?” she grinned flirtatiously.
“I shouldn’t be surprised,” he smiled, “but I think we ought to rest. I’ll definitely make a note of it though.”
She snuggled in once more and felt her eyes begin to droop closed as a calm washed over her she hadn’t felt since she had spent the day in his coffin beside him. For just one moment since she was kidnapped and imprisoned in this damned castle, everything felt like it was going to be okay.
Chapter 28
Lucy stirred awake. Across the room she could see a sliver of the orange sunset from beneath the heavy drapes. She felt John’s body wrapped around hers as they had migrated into spooning beneath the mound of covers through the daylight hours. She was safely tucked in between his still bound wrists, which were looking more irritated and raw the longer he was trapped in the silver handcuffs, and his leg draped over her thigh, pulling her tightly against him as he still slept in whatever dark trance vampires entered into during the day. She wiggled further into the secure embrace and smiled when she felt his body respond to her even in his supernatural deep sleep. She bit her lip and continued her wiggling until she could feel his erection full and rock hard, pressing against her ass through his slacks. She slowed into a rhythm and ground more deliberately back against him until she could feel her own arousal heating her and stirring her need to be filled by him.
Lucy tilted her head to the side to see if he was awake yet, but was surprised to find his eyes still gently closed in his quiet repose, his body motionless and silent against hers. She looked forward and reached her arm back between them, twisting and straining to reach his zipper. She pulled his stiff cock out and pressed herself against it with a loud sigh, wiggling him back and forth between her bare cheeks until his tip slowly glided over her slick opening. She suppressed a moan as it caught and then pushed him inside her and curled her toes as he filled her to the brim with his girth.
She checked behind her again, but found him still deep in sleep.
Carefully, she extracted herself from his arms and rolled him onto his back, positively sure all the commotion was sure to wake him, but completed her task with him unaware. She stared at him in his vulnerable state, resting in a position with his bound hands draped over his chest that made him look like a modern-day Dracula.
A much sexier Dracula.
Her eyes wandered over him, following his loosened tie, down the buttons of his vest to his shiny belt buckle where his pants had been hurriedly unzipped and pried open to let his cock rise up proudly into the air from its confines. Still naked from the night before, Lucy gingerly climbed on top of him and sank herself slowly down onto each fantastic inch of him until her slick lips grazed the fabric of his slacks. She steadied herself on his chest and moved slowly, savoring the quiet moment of his peaceful face and the electricity he sent coursing through her even while unconscious. Her rhythm quickened a little and she slid a finger down to massage her swollen clit.
A loud moan escaped her and she stopped, positive it was going to wake him, but he continued to lay still beneath her. She was shocked by this point and almost began again, but she saw the shallow rise and fall of his chest and could hear quick breaths escaping him. She recalled his passing comment once about how it was a reflexive response and chuckled low. “You’re totally awake, aren’t you?”
His eyes opened with a playful gleam and a tug at the corner of his mouth.
She shook her head with a smile. “The whole time?”
He nodded.
She shook her head again. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“It was cute watching you try to sneak.”
“Here I thought I was so clever, the cat burglar of cock.”
He chuckled and arched up inside of her, pushing out a breathy moan from her as he pressed against her sensitive cervix. “I’d say you were successful. Consider my cock burgled. Please, continue. Don’t let me stop you from taking advantage of me.”
She braced herself more steadily against his chest and gyrated her hips against him with a triumphant grin. “Does that make you my toy?”
“For now.”
She leaned back and popped open the clasp of his belt and tugged his slacks wide open so she could sink down against the soft gathering of curls above his cock. “And since I have you trapped like this, you’ll do whatever I say?”
His brow lowered. “Within reason,” he warned.
Her fingers quickly worked their way up his torso undoing all the buttons of his vest and crisp dress shirt beneath so she could bring them skin-to-skin. “Wrists up, Daddy,” she teased playfully, and to
her surprise, he obeyed, lifting his shackled wrists above his head and opening himself up to her will.
She cursed softly in excitement and all but drooled over the sight of his hard body exposed and welcoming her. Reverently, as if touching something priceless or holy, she grazed her fingers down the muscles of his chest and abdomen, then reached behind her to his open thighs and arched her body backwards with her weight falling against his legs to buck herself eagerly against him.
He moaned without reserve, watching her breasts shudder with each bounce and the way her hips rolled down with each landing. They lingered long on the sight of where their bodies met, watching her take him roughly inside herself with each plunge as she panted and grew louder with her pleased moans.
Lucy dug her nails into the sensitive skin of his thighs and threw her head back in ecstasy, but at the last moment barely found the will to stave off the hurried orgasm. When would she have him in such a helpless position, open to her like this again? She stopped and steadied her breathing. He watched her curiously as she leaned forward and propped herself against his forearms above his head and began again much slower. Her long hair fell forward over her shoulders and curtained them intimately inside their dark waves. She bit her lip as she felt the tension in her body redoubling, aching to break out. More exciting than his body vulnerable and open beneath her or the delicious moans he let out when she ground him all the way into her was the all-consuming fire in his eyes as he watched her.
Wherever life takes me, let it be forever under those eyes.
She huffed suddenly in disappointment.
“What’s wrong, dear?”
She paused her grinding. “This would be the part where you take it all back and overpower me. I wish we could take those stupid cuffs off.”
“Me too,” he sighed.
“I want your big hands on me,” she said softer. “Where would you touch me?”
He arched his hips up to hers as he answered, “I’d pull your hair and kiss down your neck.”
She closed her eyes and joined his thrusts with her own. “And then?”