Insatiable: A Dark Romance

by Loki Renard

  Don’t you dare fucking find this hot, I lecture myself.

  “This is fucked up. Even for you.”

  I break the silence that had fallen between us after I realized he wasn’t going to respond. I’m surprised when he looks right at me and replies.

  “We’re in danger. Even if you don’t understand, or believe, we are. And I’m going to protect you, even if you don’t know you need protecting.”

  It’s a relief just to hear his voice again. Then he picks up a knife, and some of that relief drains away.

  “I’m going to take that tape off,” he says. “You’re a smart girl, so you know that if you go running off, you’re in a place where you likely won’t make it out. There are mountain lions, coyotes, and bears out here. Don’t leave the fire without me.”

  “Asshole,” I growl as he frees me.

  “I know you don’t believe me,” he says, still so damn calm. “And I know you are going to hate me after this. I just want to make sure that there is an after this. We’re going to wait three days. If that call doesn’t bring the military down on our heads, I’ll take you back to the car and this time you better make sure you leave.”

  “Don’t worry,” I bite out. “I’ll get as far away from you as I can. This is fucked up. You’re fucking…” I don’t even know what to say, and in spite of my anger, I don’t actually want to be swearing at him like this. There’s just something about him, the way he looks at me, something that lets me see to the core of him. He believes this. With everything he has.

  “Daniel, please.” I change tack. “We have to go back together. They’re not looking for you. Just because someone at your work made some noise about a patent doesn’t mean there are tanks scouring the countryside for you. If the military had the patent, they’d be using it on their own people.”

  “They have the patent for the previous version. Which doesn’t work. Mine does.”

  * * *

  Daniel

  I can’t give into the frustration at knowing she doesn’t believe me. She doesn’t know enough about Regenermax to understand, though really it should be obvious. A treatment that can regenerate damaged nerve, bone, and muscle is essentially a panacea for all humankind. It has applications across the spectrum of illnesses, and of course the military are going to be interested in it. More than interested. This is a weapon in its own right. A battalion of soldiers on Regenermax would be far stronger, go far harder, be able to sustain many more injuries than even the most elite soldiers today. They would be nearly unstoppable. In a world where most warfare is conducted at a distance, it’s not as useful as it once was, but they’ll have dozens of applications for it.

  It was a mistake to bring Briarlee on this. She’s never been dedicated to anything. She’s never sacrificed anything. Her comfortable, sheltered world has left her incapable of understanding that very bad things really do happen. Even the crash we were in together left her mostly unscathed. She has sailed through life, never really feeling the possibility of true failure or real pain.

  The truth is, I am the worst thing to ever happen to her. Maybe I should have left her behind, but now that I’ve taken her, she has to stay, at least for a while. Some consequences can’t be avoided. Even for Briarlee.

  She sits there, pouting and pretty as I prepare food. It doesn’t occur to her to offer to do any of the work. She’s a passenger in this now, not an ally, not a companion, not even a lover. A woman who has scorned me over and over again in every form and who now, in my hour of need, has decided I am a madman.

  My next dose is due soon. I’m almost reluctant to take it, because I know what will happen when I do. The lust fog will rise and I won’t be able to contain my desire for her. The Regenermax doesn’t put me into a fugue state anymore, but it sure as heck messes with my consciousness.

  After thinking about it for a few minutes, I realize there’s only one thing to do. I pick up the dose and a handful of rope, sit with my back against a small but sturdy tree, and begin wrapping the rope around my body.

  “What are you doing?”

  She gives me a skeptical look as I wrap the rope around myself.

  “I thought I was the one you were keeping captive.”

  “I don’t want to fuck you in the mood I’m in,” I say. I don’t know how she’ll take those words, but it’s not for lack of desire for her. It’s out of concern for how badly I might ravage and punish her if I lose myself. She was a very, very bad girl. She had her reasons, but I know those reasons will matter a lot less after the next dose. “I’m pretty sure you don’t want me to fuck you either. So I’ll take this dose and you can let me out after a few hours, when the lust passes.”

  “I could just leave you here in the woods,” she points out. She could, but I know she won’t, and I say as much as I form a knot and then slide it around so it’s at the back of the tree.

  “You won’t. You’d never find your way out of here without me, and you wouldn’t leave me tied up at the mercy of the wild things.”

  She narrows her eyes. “It would serve you right if I did. You’ve kidnapped me.”

  “You’re too sweet for vengeance,” I say. “Now go back and tighten that knot.”

  * * *

  Briarlee

  Tie him up? Sure. Why not. He’s turned into a fucking asshole, and being tied up is probably the best thing for him.

  The fact that he trusts me to do this isn’t heartwarming anymore. It just pisses me off. He doesn’t respect me. My thoughts, my feelings, my opinions, they don’t matter to him. He thinks of me like an ambulatory fuck doll, a robot he can carry around and give orders to.

  I walk around the tree, make sure the ropes are tight and yank the knot into a secure position. He’s not getting out of there any time soon.

  “Okay,” I say. “Done.”

  “Good,” he grunts, before chucking the rest of that poisonous brew down his face.

  He closes his eyes and rests his head back against the tree. Can I still admit to myself that he’s a very handsome man? I can’t really avoid the truth. He was always good looking, but this treatment is enhancing all his natural features, making him hyper-masculine, beefing him up. I can see the ropes straining even tighter as his musculature swells.

  I’m too angry at him to admit that I find this hot, but I do. I can’t help it. My body reacts to his like a moth does to a flame.

  When he opens his eyes, he looks at me directly. There’s hunger in his gaze. Something raw, and powerful, and so fucking primal. Almost like I’m looking back through thousands of years of evolution, to a creature who wants only to dominate and fuck and ravage me.

  “Briar,” he growls. “Come here.”

  I stay right where I am. This is the Regenermax talking. He didn’t tie himself to a tree for no reason.

  “Briarlee…” His voice is a low rumble of pure command. “I want you.”

  “Well, you can’t have me,” I tell him. “You tied yourself up, remember? You didn’t want me either.”

  “I always want you. I hunger for you. You’re the one thing in this world I will always protect.” His voice is pure gravel and lust.

  “You’re not protecting me. You kidnapped me. I was trying to get help. You stopped me.”

  He gives a deep sigh. “Naive little girl. They are coming for me, Briar.”

  “There’s no evidence for that.”

  “Come here.”

  He commands me again, and I know why. The front of his pants is tented with a brutal erection. I know how that would feel inside me. I know what he will do to me if he gets loose. It was written all over his face when he had me tie that knot. When he has control of himself, even he knows that what he becomes under the influence of the drug is something that needs to be contained.

  I stay where I am, saying nothing.

  “I can smell you,” he grunts a moment or two later. “You’re aroused.”

  “I am not,” I lie, defying his animal senses.

  “You are. Und
o these ropes and let me have you. Let me show you what you are, Briarlee. Let me make you remember why you came with me in the first place.”

  “You said you didn’t want me seconds before you took that drug.”

  “I wanted you,” he growls. “I was being pathetically weak and civilized. That doesn’t work with you. I should have fucked you senseless and whipped your ass red when I found you with that phone. I should have made you scream my name until you forgot your own.”

  I sit there, knowing he can’t reach me, feeling his frustration building. He did this to himself, but now I have control. It’s an interesting feeling, seeing him so vulnerable, and so fierce at the same time. Like having a lion leashed in front of me. He is seething with sex. If I were to cut the rope holding him, he would be on me in an instant.

  “Is this the real you? Or is this the drug talking?” It’s what I’ve been wondering since he revealed the truth. This dominant, fiercely sexual man—is he a figment of a drug? Does he disappear as soon as it wears off? Or is the drug like a window to the soul of the real Daniel? The Daniel who has been in there all along, pretending to be mild-mannered and gentle all the while harboring rough dreams of claiming me in every way he can.

  “Untie me and find out,” he smirks handsomely.

  “I’m not untying you,” I tell him. “I might not ever untie you.”

  “Oh?” He cocks his head to the side. It’s not the reaction I expected. I anticipated rage and fury. Truth be told, I’m disappointed. This felt like my chance to get back at him, but he doesn’t seem to care when I tell him I’m thinking about leaving him tied to that tree forever.

  “Yeah,” I say. It doesn’t sound as bold as I want it to.

  He lets out a short chuckle. “We had an agreement, Briarlee.”

  “No, you told me what to do. Maybe I’m sick of you telling me what to do. Maybe it’s time you did what I say.”

  “You think so?”

  “Yes,” I say, getting bolder. Yeah. I’m going to see this through. He’s going to see things my way. I walk up to him and crouch down in front of him, so close our noses are almost touching. I look deep into his eyes, see the beast within the man. “You’re mine. You’re going to do as I say. You’re going to stay tied to that tree until you promise.”

  A muscle in his cheek twitches. “Until I promise what?”

  “Until you promise to take me back home and then do as I say. No more dominating me. No more Mr. Boss Man. I’m in charge now, Danny.”

  His eyes flash with irritation. He always hated being called Danny, even when we were kids.

  “You won’t be in charge after these ropes come off.”

  “Then they’re not coming off,” I say, giving him a sweet peck on the nose.

  I stand up, feeling very smug and satisfied, and I go to the rations. There’s some chocolate in there, I’m sure of it. What better to eat while Daniel gets used to the idea that the tables have been turned.

  “You’re going to untie me,” he says casually. “Because you’re a good girl. And good girls keep their end of the bargain.”

  “Eh, I don’t think I care about being a good girl anymore,” I shrug.

  “Good girls also don’t have their asses switched and fucked.”

  “Who are you going to switch my ass with? There’s no one else out here.”

  He gives me a dark look, no trace of amusement on his brilliantly handsome features. “I mean I’m going to cut a nice long branch from one of these trees and use it on you until you cry.”

  “Oh,” I say, taking a bite of chocolate. “Well, you can go fuck yourself then. I hope you’re comfortable. Hope you don’t have to pee.”

  “Come over here and untie me,” he growls. “Now.”

  “Ehhhhh, no, I don’t think so.”

  It feels so incredibly good to take my power back this way. It makes me feel excited, and giddy, and only a little nervous. Daniel’s expression has become stormy. His eyes are locked on me with an intensity that makes my stomach do little flips. This is so worth it.

  “I’m going to count down from five. If you haven’t untied me by then, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”

  “You can count down from five, or you can count up to five hundred,” I say, stuffing the last delicious part of the chocolate bar into my mouth. So damn good. I’d usually worry about having another one out of concern for my waistline, but now I don’t think I care. I’m filled with reckless energy and I’ve abandoned all consideration of consequences. Right now, right here, nothing can touch me. Not the calories in this candy, not the angry man tied to a tree.

  “Five…”

  I let out a giggle as he begins.

  “Four…”

  “Forty-two,” I sass.

  “Three…”

  “Six hundred and ninety-two point nine recurring…” None of these numbers mean anything, so why be so linear about it?

  “Two… Briarlee, if you don’t start moving, you’re going to regret it…”

  I smirk and peel another bar.

  “One.”

  I snap a block off and smirk at him as the countdown ends. “Oh, well,” I say. “Maybe give it another try. Maybe start from ten this time. That might work.”

  He lets out one of his near feral growls, the sound rolling right through me as I chew my chocolate. This is so funny. And so perfect.

  He shifts in his bindings, shuffling maybe an inch or so.

  “You shouldn’t have tied them so tight if you wanted to be able to get out of them,” I snort. “You weren’t really thinking right, were you, Danny? You should really be more careful, you silly boy…”

  Daniel flexes. The muscles in his shoulders, chest, biceps, and back all bulge at the same time. The rope holding him snaps like a piece of cotton before my stunned eyes.

  “Oh, shit.”

  He’s standing up. I have about 0.002 seconds before he grabs me.

  I drop the candy and I run.

  I make it 0.004 seconds before his huge hands grab me around my waist and pluck me, screaming, up off the ground.

  “Okay, Daniel, that wasn’t fair! This isn’t fair!”

  He doesn’t say a word. He sweeps me around and holds me under one of his armpits, his left arm wrapped around my waist to press me up against the powerful side of his torso. His right hand goes to tear a small branch from a tree. Just like he said he would. Oh, fuck. Oh, god. I’m stammering, begging, lying. I’m telling him that it was just a joke, that of course I was going to untie him. That he knows that, surely he has to know that.

  Daniel doesn’t listen to a word out of my mouth. He sits down, traps my thighs between his legs and pushes me over his left thigh so that my ass is on display over his leg. This is bad. There are bits of leaf and twig falling around me as he strips the branch bare, and then follows up by doing the same to my rear.

  “Daniel!” I scream his name as the first lash lands against naked skin. He hasn’t said a word, and he doesn’t have to.

  Over and over again, the branch whips across my ass, biting into my skin, leaving little patches of intense heat and lines of fire. I am being punished deliberately, painfully, and completely as I deserve to be.

  It doesn’t take long for my tears to start to fall. I’ve never had much in the way of pain tolerance, and that hasn’t changed. It feels as though the switch has landed dozens of times, though maybe it’s closer to ten. I can’t count with that searing sting igniting every nerve in my body.

  “Daniel! Stop!”

  He stops. I know well enough it’s not because I told him to. It’s because he must be seeing what I am feeling. Any more of the switch and my bottom is going to become seriously marked and perhaps even bloody. And he won’t do that to me, even though I was just telling him I planned to leave him tied to a tree.

  This is mercy. Not the kind of mercy I would expect outside this forest, but still mercy. All things are relative, and when you’re gasping for breath in between cuts of a wickedly supple
switch, you’ll beg for respite—and worship anyone who gives it.

  “You’re a brat,” he growls, his hand on the back of my head. He’s not gripping my hair, he’s palming my skull. I can feel his strength like a promise, my own physical vulnerabilities more pronounced than ever.

  “I’m not!”

  “Yes, you are. Sitting there, raiding the candy stores like a naughty little girl. You didn’t even try to get away. You didn’t even really look for anything to bargain with. You just sat there and smirked and taunted and riled me until I came for you, because you wanted your pussy fucked. Isn’t that right? You think this drug has made me mad, but you’re the one who has become addicted to what it does. You need this cock.”

  I don’t know anymore. Daniel turns my world upside down. He makes it hard to even start thinking about what I was doing. I thought I was telling him to get fucked, but maybe he’s right. Maybe I was just trying to get fucked myself.

  “What did you think was going to happen when I got free?”

  “I don’t know,” I sniff. “I was going to figure that out later.”

  “That’s your problem, Briar. You’re so smart, but you don’t think, and you don’t plan. You dismiss what you’re told if you don’t want it to be true, and you don’t realize what the consequences of ignoring things are.”

  Now he sounds like my father—or, like my father would sound if he didn’t just sigh and ask me how much money I need this month. Held over his lap, my ass burning like hell, I feel like the naughty girl he says I am.

  “We’re in danger. I put that rope on to try to protect you from the worst of my lust, but you decided to take advantage of it, so now I’m going to take your ass, just like I promised I would.”

  “Daniel,” I whimper. “We don’t have lube.”

  “Yes, we do,” he says. “Your cunt is soaking. You’re making enough to start a small lubrication factory.”

  He proves it by pushing two fingers into my slit then bringing them out to show me. I see the clear fluid of my desire clinging to his digits right before he pushes them into my mouth, makes me taste myself. Gives me a reminder of what I really am, at my core. There are words to describe women like me. Words that Daniel, even in his most lusty state, would never use. I use them though, in the chamber of my mind, imagining how I must look trapped over his thighs, my ass bright red and crisscrossed with lines from the switch. I’m a dirty little slut for him. I’m everything every girl is told she should never be, and everything she craves to let herself degenerate into.