by Bella Klaus
Valentine continued staring at me without making a move toward our room.
My breath quickened. “Last night when Kresnik wasn’t in the limo, and you said she and a few others were performing a ritual. And I don’t know if it failed or not, but when I went to the infirmary—”
“For what?” His eyes narrowed.
“I wanted to check my blood count.”
Valentine snorted. “That quell I gave you will maintain your blood levels.”
“I forgot.”
“Your punishments are mounting.” He continued up the stairs.
At this point, I should have felt relieved that he wasn’t taking me to Kresnik, but I clenched my teeth at the arrogance of his last comment. “Why does everything with you have to be a punishment? You weren’t like this when you were alive.”
“If I had trained you properly from the start, I wouldn’t have to contend with this level of defiance,” he growled.
My shoulders stiffened, and I clenched my hands into fists. Valentine had never complained that I had disobeyed him while he was alive, and neither had his soul.
Sure, he’d hinted annoyance or alarm when he thought I was about to do something reckless, but he’d been decent enough to present the information and ask me to make the right choice. Preternatural Valentine was a tyrant, and now that he was under the control of Kresnik, his overbearingness had become worse.
At the top of the stairs, he sped down the hallway and into our room, where he deposited me on the rug.
I scrambled to my feet and backed away, only to hit my ass on the footboard of the four-poster bed. Pale light streamed into the windows on our left, and fire crackled within the hearth on my right.
“Strip,” he said.
I glanced from side to side, looking for a familiar little face to emerge from beneath the furniture. When the cat didn’t show himself, I folded my arms across my chest. “Where’s Macavity?”
“He asked to leave.”
“What?” I frowned.
“He wanted to hunt.” Valentine advanced toward me, his gaze lingering on my neck. “Now take off your clothes.”
“I’m not getting naked for you.”
His eyes darkened, and his lips curled into a wicked smile. “Innamorata,” he said in a voice of smoke. “Are you challenging me?”
A shiver skittered down my spine.
“Maybe I am.” I stepped forward and prodded him in the chest. “Maybe deep down, you also love to hunt.”
A growl reverberated in the back of his throat, and he bared his teeth, seeming distracted from punishing me. At least for now.
“I was right.” I slid my hands up his chest, which vibrated with a rumbling purr.
It looked like I might be able to escape this encounter sober enough to return to Aurora for her to finish what she’d been saying about helping me. If she knew Kresnik’s secrets, I might never need to help Hades.
My hands slid down his hard abs and settled on his belt. “The big, bad vampire likes a challenge.” One of my hands slid down to the erection straining against his pants. “And when I say big—”
Valentine’s lips crashed on mine in a demanding kiss that had me pinned against one of the posts. I flung an arm around his neck and melted against his larger, harder body. Valentine hadn’t even given me the chance to finish my dirty talk. If I could get him to realize he preferred me alert, I might even get the chance to sneak out for a few minutes to find out the information I needed to regain my powers and defeat Kresnik.
He slid his arms beneath my reaper cloak and peeled the garment off my shoulders. “You’re wearing too many clothes.”
“So are you.” I unfastened the buckle of his belt with trembling hands and unzipped his fly.
The hottest, hardest, and heaviest erection sprang from the fabric, indicating that he’d had plenty of blood. I wrapped my hands around the pulsing length and licked my lips, making Valentine hiss through his teeth.
A whimper resounded in the back of my throat, and I slid my fingers around his shaft. Last night had been the hottest experience of my entire life. Taking Valentine in my mouth for the first time had been exhilarating. Getting to ride him hard on a dining chair before being devoured in front of an audience of strangers had resulted in an explosive climax. I couldn’t even feel mortified because it had been so unbelievably hot.
“You want more of what I gave you last night?” I stepped back and smirked. “You can teach me how to make it last longer.”
Valentine cupped the side of my face, holding it steady as he studied my features. “Are you trying to distract me from your punishment?”
I widened my eyes and made my lips part with an expression I hoped was shock. It made sense that he would notice. Valentine had a millennia of experience on me and had probably dealt with every form of manipulation. I wasn’t even particularly good at dirty talk. What made me think I could distract him?
“Of course not,” I squeaked.
His nostrils flared. “That’s a lie.”
The length between my fingers thickened and pulsed, as though catching me out in a falsehood was turning him on. I released his erection and pulled my face out of his grip. “Hasn’t anyone told you it’s rude to sniff other people?”
Valentine’s eyes flared. “Strip.”
Clenching my teeth, I edged around the footboard, trying to break eye contact. “We need to have a conversation about your unreasonable expectations. I can’t stay here all day, and I’ve got to eat.”
“When the new vampires rise, I will send one of them up with a tray of food.”
A breath caught in the back of my throat, and I stumbled toward the bed. “Did the people waiting outside the infirmary also get injected? When will they rise?”
He stepped toward me, baring his teeth in a growl. “Being lenient with you has been a mistake.”
Now it was my turn to flare my nostrils. “What’s wrong with you? One minute you’re normal, and the next you act like I’m your property.”
His gaze darted toward the exit, and his right ear twitched. It was such a subtle movement that I almost thought I’d imagined it. Was someone listening at the door? Valentine’s sensitive ears could pick up heartbeats I couldn’t hear. That might explain his erratic behavior.
I leaned into him and whispered, “Is anything the matter?”
“Our Lord questioned your loyalty,” he said in a monotone.
“Me?” I placed a hand on my chest and pulled my brows together. “Most of the time I’m half-conscious on thrall.”
“That is what I told him, yet he believes you are a dangerous element and need to be kept confined.”
My gaze darted to the door at the end of the room that concealed the windowless closet and bars on the exit. Valentine wouldn’t keep me in that pen… would he? All the moisture evaporated in my throat as the threat rolled around and around in my mind.
How long would it take me to starve to death if I stayed in that room? Kresnik might take my presence there as an opportunity to send Valentine on a far-off mission so I’d be forced to stay there and rot.
I couldn’t let that happen.
“Valentine.” I met his gaze. “Is there anything I can do to avoid entering that place?”
He stared down at me with a penetrating gaze that made my insides shrivel. Palpitations squeezed my heart, bringing on a full-blown attack of panic. My entire future depended on being able to convince him that I was loyal to Kresnik.
Valentine’s magic slipped into my consciousness, filling my head with smoke.
I blanked my mind, trying to look like I wasn’t trying to calculate ways to get myself out of a predicament. I forced every thought out of my head in case he decided to delve through my mind and search for answers.
As he continued to stare down at me, I ran through images of me standing behind the bars as fire spread across the room, Aurora and Martika rushing into the room, pleading for me to get out from behind those bars and help Kresnik. I added
another image of Jonathan holding me to the bars with his black flames as his hands roved my naked body.
Valentine’s brows drew together, and the pressure on my mind eased.
“You will take your punishment and perform a blood oath,” he said.
My stomach dropped, and I stumbled forward, catching myself on Valentine’s arm. “When you say blood oath, are you talking about—”
“The oath a slave makes to her master,” he replied.
I squeezed my eyes shut, shuddering as my heart and stomach shriveled toward my spine. Every instinct in my body screamed at me to take the punishment, the imprisonment, the thrall. To do or say or agree to anything except for an oath that would give Valentine complete control over my mind and body.
“Open your eyes,” he said.
My throat thickened. What kind of sick game was he playing? The quickest way to control me was through eye contact. Valentine could have slipped beneath my consciousness and compelled me to follow his commands. It was almost as though he wanted me to become addicted to thrall.
“And if I refuse?” I asked in a small voice.
“Then Our Lord will require that I keep you behind those bars.”
Where I’d have no chance of escape. I swallowed hard. If I took the oath, I would be free to return to Aurora, free to speak to Coral, and free to make a deal with Hades as long as I didn’t agree to something stupid like accepting Kresnik as my lord and master. My gaze flicked up to Valentine’s face.
Curiosity glimmered in his eyes, which were now the color of a mature red wine. Outside, the sun disappeared behind dark clouds, casting the room and one side of his face in gloom. The firelight illuminated the other side, warming the undertones of his bronze skin.
He looked just as alive as he had been when he’d visited my room in the villa with a mug of hot chocolate. His chest even rose and fell with a semblance of breath. I placed a hand over his heart, yearning to feel something vibrate beneath my palm, but he stopped breathing.
“What do you want me to agree to in this oath?” I asked.
“That you will submit to my will,” he replied.
My gaze dropped to his full lips and back up to his darkening eyes. Valentine drifted toward me, filling my nostrils with the scent of sandalwood and musk. If this oath would get him to stop dosing me with thrall and keeping me confined to his quarters then it was what I had to do to free us from this cult.
“Alright,” I said.
He smoothed back a lock of hair but instead of tucking it behind my ear as usual, he held it between his fingertips and sniffed it the way one would scent a rose. My throat convulsed. What was he picking up in my scent? Deception? None of that mattered because the oath was about to change everything.
“Strip.” He stepped back, presumably to get a better view.
I pressed my lips into a tight line. This hadn’t been part of the agreement, but did it matter? In a moment, Valentine could command me to do whatever he wanted. With the oath, my body would obey a command to take off my clothes in the middle of the refectory and let Valentine take me in front of Kresnik. I pulled off my sweater to reveal I wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
Valentine’s gaze dropped to my nipples, but I didn’t linger on his eyes. I grabbed the bedpost for support, toed off my boots, and kicked them under the bed. After that, I pulled down my jeans and stepped out of the puddle of denim.
Warm air swirled around my naked body, and my arms twitched with the urge to wrap my arms around my breasts and place a hand over my pubes. I raised my chin, rested my hands on my hips, and focussed on the bigger goal of freeing Valentine from Kresnik.
“What’s next?” I asked.
Valentine stepped forward, the heat of his body warming my bare skin. Even without touching him, I felt the rumble of his chest against mine. He stared down at me with blazing eyes and drank me in with a deep breath.
“Kneel on the bed, facing the window,” he said in the voice he used to command a servant.
My mouth fell open, and I gaped at the fully-clothed vampire. “Since when do slaves have to bend over to take an oath?”
“Get into position,” he growled.
Excitement pulsed through my core, and my nipples tingled in anticipation of his touch. I rolled my eyes and huffed. “Can we discuss the contents of the blood oath?”
He stepped back, depriving me of his warmth, and swept his arm to the bed. “Once you’re on the bed.”
I climbed atop the mattress and positioned myself on my hands and knees. “Now can we talk?”
“Spread your legs.”
I parted them to shoulder-width. “Done.”
“Wider,” he rasped.
My heartbeat kicked up several notches, and heat rose to my cheeks. I swallowed several times in quick succession. Valentine and I had only ever had sex face to face, although Beatrice told me that this position could be more intense. He probably wanted to enter me from behind after the spanking… or whatever he decided would be my punishment.
The longer I kept him waiting, the more stringent he’d probably make that oath. I spread my legs, laying myself bare to Valentine, and dipped my head behind a curtain of hair.
Valentine didn’t move forward. His smoky magic curled around my skin, seeming to touch me everywhere. It twisted around my nipples, slid over my exposed sex and lingered over my throbbing clit.
“How long are you going to just stand there, toying with my body?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“Until you behave yourself and stop fidgeting,” he replied, amusement lacing his voice.
“What—” I clamped my mouth shut. Valentine probably counted complaints as an example of poor behavior.
Tensing my muscles to stop this imagined fidgeting, I panted hard and tried to keep my skin from overheating. What the hell was this vampire doing to me? I was twenty-four, his fiancée, and soon to be his queen yet he’d somehow gotten me wet and excited just by issuing a few commands.
Silence stretched between us, punctuated by the rapid thud of my pulse. Was he just going to stand there and stare at me until inspiration struck? I bit down on my lip, trying to keep myself from moaning out loud, while the muscles of my core pulsed in anticipation.
In anticipation of what, I didn’t know. A tremor ran down my entire skeleton, and I licked my dry lips. The last time Valentine had punished me, it had been fast and dirty. Now, he was drawing out my trepidation.
I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for him to approach, waiting for a stinging slap on my ass cheeks, accompanied by the most intense pleasure.
“No matter what you say, how you cry or curse or complain, your body needs this.”
“You’re wrong,” I murmured under my breath.
His fingertips ghosted over the skin of my inner thigh. “See how you tremble beneath my touch. You need my discipline, you crave my protection.”
Bugger this. I turned around, flashing my eyes at the arrogant vampire. “If I’m turned on, it’s because I remember the gentleman who—”
The first slap landed hard enough to arch my back, curl my toes, and flood my core with moisture. I clenched my teeth, reeling from the sting.
Valentine’s warm hand caressed my ass cheek, with the pad of his thumb skimming over the outer edge of my sex. My insides quivered for more, proving the asshole’s point.
“Count them,” he said in a deep voice that may as well have been infused with magic.
“One,” I whispered.
Valentine ran his thick fingers over my slit and paused to circle my hungry opening. “You love being spanked.”
“I love you,” I said, clenching my teeth through the rush of pain and pleasure.
“Do not lie to your master.” He delivered that with an even harder slap on my other ass cheek.
“What happened to me being your queen?”
His chuckle was darker than espresso, more decadent than ninety-nine percent cocoa chocolate, and deadlier than sin. “You’ve always belonged to
me, and you’ll take whatever position I give you in Our Lord’s new order.”
“Valentine,” I said from between clenched teeth. “Could you not talk about my father when we’re about to have sex?”
He responded with another slap. “You’re not counting.”
“Ten.”
Another slap resounded across my backside, making me suck in a sharp breath. Valentine slipped his thumb into my core, making me clench and pulse around the thick digit.
“How many?” He rubbed the pad of his finger over my pulsing bundle of nerves.
He may as well have plugged me into a socket because lightning bolts of ecstasy spread out from my nub, some of them reaching my tight nipples. The muscles of my sex quivered, desperate for more.
I shook my head. Since when did I enjoy being bossed about by a blood-sucking brute? Valentine’s thumb glided over my slick opening, making me moan. “How do you expect me to concentrate while you’re toying with my clit?”
“Discipline doesn’t work on you, Innamorata.” His fingers sped up, making me tighten around his thumb.
“Whoever said it did? I’m not your bloody pet.” I lowered my head onto the soft mattress, panting hard through clenched teeth.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered a promise I’d made to play along with everyone, but it crumbled into the ether. Who would stay calm under this level of provocation? Valentine’s thumb grazed a spot inside me that made white stars explode behind my eyelids.
My core muscles convulsed around him, wanting more, needing it. At that moment, with my skin feeling as though it would self-combust if Valentine didn’t get on top of me and give me what I needed, I would have agreed to almost anything.
Valentine slipped his thumb out of me and mounted the bed, making the mattress dip. He positioned his larger body atop mine, his hot shaft brushing against my inner thighs.
“I’m doing this to keep you safe,” he murmured from behind me, sounding like he meant every word.
I shook my head. “You’re dominating me because you enjoy it.”
His chuckle reverberated across my back. “Everything about you is a marvel, including your continued defiance. All of that will end when you make that oath.”