by Raven Dark
Beads of sweat moistened my forehead, but my nipples also puckered in response.
Hawk touched the dull side of his blade to my skin, just above my breast. He angled the tip so that I felt the point sting the skin, then he traced the faintest of lines down around my nipple. The sting went right between my legs, stroking just as hotly as his fingers had a moment ago.
I drew in a shaking breath, everything in me screaming to pull away. Hawk traced another circle around my nipple, and the nipple turned painfully hard, excitement coursing through me along with a bite of fear.
Hawk slowly peeled a piece of binacca and slipped it into his mouth. I watched his jaw work. He peeled another slice and traced around the nipple, following the line he’d just made with the knife. Even without having broken the skin, the juice from the binacca set the welt on fire.
I let out whimper, chest heaving.
“You’re moving.”
I froze, pushing through the pain.
The next line he drew made me look down, seeing the faint pink line the blade left along my stomach, pointed toward my sex. I winced. He drew another line, running the other way. I hissed between my teeth and squirmed.
He froze, deadly still. “I told you not to move.”
“Sorry, Ma—” Jerking the knife away, his other hand reached between my legs and gave my sex a single stinging slap. I cried out, the sensation so intense I almost rolled away.
He drew his hand away and bent, the tip of his tongue licking from my stomach, up between my breasts in one long line. Lapping up the juice. He sucked on one nipple, tugging on it until I nearly bucked under him.
Pulling up a little, the sharp side of his blade angled so that it just scraped the skin, cut a slow, long path over the right side of my ribs. The sharp sting and the distracting tickle it left in its wake, had me huffing, stomach clenching, muscles flexing in effort to remain still.
He drew another line along my left side. I hissed loudly, and he did it again, along my belly. I jolted as he hit a particularly sensitive spot.
He slapped my sex once, hard. I gave a shaky, desperate moan.
“Don’t. Move.” His eyes were hard on mine.
I bit my tongue. It took everything I had not to beg him to stop.
He drew three more stinging lines on my skin, along my stomach, and then around each of my breasts. I almost sobbed, body shaking.
“Look at this perfect skin. All marked up from my hand.”
I didn’t dare speak, just closed my eyes, taking in ragged breaths, head spinning.
“Had enough yet, slave?” His voice was a low rasp.
“Yes, Master.”
As soon as I spoke, I knew I said the wrong thing.
He drew on me some more, two long, slow lines that made me whine and shake. His eyes followed the lines as if they’d become the whole of his world. “Had enough?” I barely heard him.
My eyes leaked. “I…I want what you give me, Master.” My voice broke.
He sheathed the blade. Then he moved so that he knelt between my legs and seized my knees, pushing them up. Next instant, his head dove between my legs.
His tongue was everywhere at once. The sticky juice from the binacca and the wetness of his tongue, the scrape of his whiskers on my folds and thighs, all the sensation was too much. I cried out, nails biting into my palms, but I didn’t move.
Hawk lifted his head. The raw need in his eyes made the yellow in them look like gold flame. He watched my chest heave, my tears drip from the corners of my eyes. Then his fingers delved between my legs. He stroked once, a delicious, wet glide, then slid his fingers slowly inside. “You want me to fuck you, Kitten?”
A shaky, needy breath left me. When I didn’t speak, his fingers slid in and out, the sensations making it impossible to think.
“Answer me, slave. You want me to fuck you?”
Yes. Please, yes. “I want what you give me, Master.” I hated those words.
His strokes quickened, his palm hitting my clit every time, taking me higher. I panted, body shaking, but my hips didn’t move.
“Good girl. You’re learning.”
Now his strokes were fast and hard. I whimpered, arms trembling with the effort to keep my hands above me, crying with the effort not to fuck his touch until I came.
He crawled up my body, fingers still inside me, and his mouth teased with the possibility of a kiss, just out of reach.
“Good. Such a good slave. You’re going to be a real nice fuck.”
My climax rolled toward me, almost within reach. He slowed, sliding his fingers almost all the way out of me. I let out a broken sob.
His fingers withdrew. I opened my mouth, almost begging him, but nothing came out.
“Maybe tomorrow, I’ll make you come.”
What!
“To—tomorrow?”
Hawk took my hand and pulled me to my feet. My knees threatened to fold under me. He wouldn’t.
“Yes.”
I heaved breaths, longing to say anything and everything I could if it would make him take me. His dark brow rose, daring me to break his rule and ask for more than he wished to give.
“You want something, don’t you?”
Maker, kill me now. Suddenly I understood. I understood that he, this master, was different. He wouldn’t just take me like a beast and own me. He’d play me like an instrument, driving me so mad with need I’d do anything for him.
I let my eyes close, my emotions, my desire, burning a brand on my heart. “No, Master,” I said in a small voice.
“Don’t lie to me, Kitten. I know you want me.”
Well, how did I answer him, then! Suddenly, through the haze of my need, the answer came. “I want what…what you give me, Master.” Those words would be the death of me.
“Perfect.” He kissed my forehead, a single paltry press of his lips to my skin. The rumble from his throat made my skin hum. “Now. I want you crawl into my bed and sleep without another word.”
I rested my head against his chest, words bursting to fall from my lips. Words I barely knew. With nothing left to do but obey him, I turned and walked, weak-kneed and dazed, toward his room.
“One more thing, Kitten.” His hand snagged my arm. I stopped but couldn’t bring myself to look at him. He turned me so that I had no choice but to stare into his predatory eyes. “I want you to know. You won’t come until I allow it, but I won’t hold myself back. I’m going to be out here jacking off with your panties in my fist when I come into them.”
I stared, my throat working hard. I nearly came right there. “You’re not coming with me, Master?”
“No. You’re safer away from me while I sleep.”
The statement sent my thoughts spinning, and I tried to make sense of it. I opened my mouth to ask, but the hardness in his eyes and the way his lips flattened to a thin line warmed me against it.
I dropped my shoulders and waited helplessly for him to dismiss me.
Hawk’s eyes gleamed with amusement. He slipped his hand around my jaw, touched his mouth to mine, the briefest caress. “Sweet dreams, Kitten.”
He turned away, leaving me with nothing left to do but wobble off to his bed for a sleepless, agonizing night alone.
Chapter 12
Under My Skin
Though I couldn’t have imagined how, I must have dropped off to sleep, because a strange noise woke me in the darkness of Hawk’s bedroom.
His bedroom was like the rest of his house, just as sparse, with only the bare necessities, catering to the belief among the Yantu that material things and attachments were a path to corruption. A bed made from a simple mat with a roll at one end for a pillow lay across his floor, with a few thin blankets, but the mat was surprisingly comfortable, just thick enough to keep the uneven rock floor from poking into my back. I’d laid myself across the bed mat, but my difficulty in sleeping had nothing to do with the bed and everything to do with the need pulsing in my core, making my clit ache.
That man had left me ready to beg him
and take whatever punishment I had coming for it, and he’d given me nothing to sooth this lust burning in me. I felt petty and selfish and greedy. Twice, I’d almost stroked myself to release, but he’d said I wouldn’t come without permission, and I wouldn’t.
More than once, I’d lay there on his bed, listening to see if he did in fact get himself off, as promised. I didn’t hear anything that suggested it, no panting, no movement on those mats in the living room, no grunt of release. I pictured Hawk fisting his cock, my panties wrapped around it while he forced himself not to come and dragged out his own climax. The thought that he’d do that, saving it for me, made me wetter and I flipped onto my back, driven mad.
It had to have been hours later before sleep had finally taken me.
Distant moaning pulled me back to the waking world, and it took me a moment to realize what I was hearing.
Hawk, and he wasn’t moaning in pleasure.
I jumped up from the bed and ran to the other room.
“Master—”
Halfway to those mats he used as his bed, I stopped, and the blood left my face. Hawk tossed and turned. He was punching and kicking at the air, his face twisted in what looked like agony and fear.
“Please don’t. I didn’t mean to do it. Don’t…” He thrashed and screamed.
Terror for him slid through me. “Master.” I ran to him and shook his shoulders. He twisted, and his head shook from side to side.
For one horrible moment I saw it. My mind careened back to the story Dice had told. While hearing Dice talk, I’d tried to imagine those four men I knew as my Masters as the boys he’d once known years ago. Now, here, at least in Hawk, I saw him, one frightened boy fighting something that terrified him.
“Hawk.” I shook him. “Wake up. Please, wake up.”
“Get off me! Get off—”
I’d taken his face in my hands, and he jolted, eyes snapping open.
“I said get. Off. Me.” His voice was a snarl, and then his hand grabbed my throat and squeezed.
I choked and clawed at his grip. The little boy was gone, and in his place a warrior, a huge warrior, who was choking the life out of me.
“Master, please, don’t…”
His face changed, the angry look slipping away to a look of alarm. He seemed to see me for the first time.
“Kitten. What happened? Are you all right?”
His grip had loosened, but only now did he blink and pull it away. He stared at his own hand as though realizing where it had been. He stood up sharply, pulling me with him.
I coughed and massaged my throat. “I’m fine, Master. I’m more worried about you.”
“Let me look at you.” He tipped my head back and looked at my throat, his fingers inspecting the skin. “There’s only a little bruising. Shit, are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Master.” I rubbed at my throat. The skin didn’t hurt. “Are you?”
“Don’t worry about me. Kitten, listen to me. If you see me like that again, don’t come near me. I could have killed you. If it had taken me a second longer to realize who you were, I would have.”
“Who did you think I was? What was happening to you?”
“That’s a long story. One I will not tell you.” He turned on his heel, his back to me. “Go back to bed, kitten. Where you are safe.”
He shut me out, and right now, that hurt just as much as it would have if he’d ordered me out of his cave all together.
“Safe. Master, why do you keep saying that? Please, let me help you.” I put my hand on his arm and walked around him until I stood in front of him. “Please let—”
He’d tensed when I’d faced him, and I looked at my grip on his arm, then up at his face, where his eyes were predatory and full of warning. I looked at my hand again and jerked it back.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to—” I cut off, my brows climbing. Where my hand had been, I saw a round scar about the size of a zone credit above the crook of his elbow. There was another one further down on his forearm. I looked at his other arm and saw three of the same marks.
Burns, all the same size. The size of a credit…or the end of a cigar.
“Merciful Maker…” I looked up at his face, horror for him stabbing at me. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pried.”
Hawk hauled me against him. His mouth slammed down on mine, and in the next instant, he’d trapped me against him in his arms.
For a few seconds, I panicked. Then I felt the urgency, the need in his hold, in his kiss, and I melted into him. I whimpered against his mouth. He lifted his head.
“Master? What are you doing?”
“Letting you help me.”
I blinked at him, dazed.
“This is as close as I can let you get right now. It’s all I can give you.” His hands cupped my backside hard and he lifted me onto his hips. His lips raked over mine, forcing mine open, his tongue swept in, greedy.
There was nothing disciplined or controlled about his kiss, or the way he held me against him. He kissed as if my lips were a salve on his pain. I slid my hands up his chest, not knowing whether to push him away or pull him closer.
Hawk knelt on the mat and laid me across the leather, spreading me before him.
I closed my eyes and let him take over. Let him spread my legs and lick his way along my stomach, up to my breasts. Let him lick between them, then up along the hollow of my throat. He sucked on each of my nipples, teeth grazing, mouth sucking until they turned painful. My back arched on its own for him.
“The first time I took you I wanted to take my time. Have you writhing and begging for me. But I can’t do that now. I need you too much.”
Hawk leaned over me, unbuttoning his pants and slipping them down to his hips. I watched his cock bounce free, huge and thick, sheathed in smooth tanned skin with a dusky-colored head. The tip was already glistening. My sex clenched, the ache there intense, while my heart sped up.
Positioning himself between my legs, one of his hands slid around my throat, immediately squeezing just enough that my throat constricted.
Panic rode me, and I tried to pull at his hands until I realized his hold didn’t cut off my air. It only added enough pressure to warn me what he could do if he chose.
Hawk plunged into me, a single, scorching thrust. I bucked, my breathing hard, making his grip feel tighter.
Hawk’s heavy, muscular frame pinned me to the mat. The floor was hard and uneven under the leather, with nowhere to go having this big warrior above me.
The next instant, he was slamming in and out of me in swift, savage thrusts.
Wave after wave of pleasure shot through me, and my hips bucked, rising to meet his frenzied movements as if they had a will of their own. He growled in pleasure and his mouth ravaged mine.
I moaned into his kiss and once more tried to pry his hand free, but he captured both wrists in his free hand and pinned them above my head.
His mouth moved to my ear. “Next time, you’ll be tied and forced to lie still so that all you can do is take me while I pound you.”
The threat made me slicker, made me writhe harder into him. His mouth raked mine again. His hand loosened and then added pressure on my throat, keeping his hold unpredictable. The combination of him eating my mouth and fucking me hard while his big hand threatened to choke me sent my pulse pounding. I coughed a little and he fucked me faster. I bucked frantically. My climax tore me apart. I screamed again and again.
Hawk sped up, then pulled out. The next instant, he’d moved up so that he knelt at my head and jacked off in my mouth with a curse. “Fuck, Kitten, take it all.”
I hated the taste of come, but somehow, my masters made me want it. I tried to turn my face away, but he seized my jaw and made me swallow all of him.
“Lick it clean.”
Lick it clean, never leave a mess.
I licked every drop of his release off his cock.
Hawk flopped onto the mattress with a satisfied sound and pulled me so I was laying on top of
him. Part of me wanted to pull away, but my body relaxed against him, too tired to do anything more. Some tiny piece of me felt safe and warm in his heat and strength.
“Tired, Kitten?” Hawk’s lips brushed my forehead.
“Yes, Master.”
“Good, get used to it. I will lay you out just like that countless times before those two get back.”
I let my eyes close. Less than three days I’d been here, and I’d had sex with three men. What kind of woman was I turning into? Did I like this woman I was becoming? Or did I hate her?
My thoughts a tangle of confusion, I rested my head on Hawk’s chest, listening to his heartbeat. My fingers involuntarily traced the scars on his arm.
What had happened to him? He was damaged, as much inside as out; for all his discipline and self control I could feel that. He tensed, and his throat worked.
I wanted to ask, wanted him to open up to me, but the last thing I wanted to do was feel anything for him, so instead, I let it go and let sleep slowly start to wrap itself around me. My body felt sore and thoroughly used, and I hated knowing I didn’t despise the feeling.
I started to drift off, the rhythm of my own breathing changing with the slow approach of slumber.
Hawk nuzzled my ear and his hand cupped my hip, his warm body pressing into me.
“Good night, my sweet girl.”
A part of me melted at his words. He probably thought I was asleep, or he wouldn’t have said such a thing.
But I pretended to be asleep and remained silent, reminding myself of something I could never forget as long as I was in the Grotto.
Under no circumstances could I ever let myself feel for these men I called my masters.
Hours later, morning pulled me from sleep far too soon. When I opened my eyes, faint sunlight peeked in from the entrance to Hawk’s cave. I groaned and snuggled into the warmth of his body still wrapped around me.
Hardness rubbed against my backside and I smiled into my arm. I was lying on my side with Hawk behind me, his cock half hard and rubbing against my butt cheek.
“I haven’t taken your ass yet, Kitten. Do that again, and I will.”