by Ivy Barrett
Bryce leaned forward and pressed her breasts against Iram’s chest. “I’m game. Or was it an idle threat?” She wiggled her hips just a little, unable to move more with Iram still lodged inside her.
“Is what an idle threat?” Iram asked. “What did he say to you?”
“He wants to fuck my ass. You can just lie there and relax.”
Iram groaned and his semi-soft cock twitched inside her.
Slate carefully parted her sore ass cheeks and eased something slender and warm into her tight opening.
Iram propped himself up on his elbows, trying to see what Slade was doing. “Are you really going to…”
“Fuck her ass?” Slade bent down and playfully nipped one rosy cheek. Bryce tried to wiggle away, but his arm quickly banded her hips. “This is why I had you fuck her with your fingers. I wanted to make sure neither of us hurt her.”
She kissed Iram’s chin and pushed him back down. “He knows what he’s doing, and I’ve done this before.”
“You have?” The combination of disbelief and fascination in his voice made Bryce smile.
“Would you like to watch what he’s doing?” The sudden surge in his excitement sent shivers all through Bryce.
“Then move to her side,” Slade directed. “As soon as I get in, you can finger her pussy and play with her clit.”
Iram carefully withdrew then scooted out from under her, obviously eager for this new adventure. Bryce glanced over her shoulder. Slade concentrated on his task. She tried to pick up visual input as she had with Iram, but Slade’s mind was partially shielded.
You want to watch too? He opened a telepathic link, and his perspective filled her mind along with the painful pressure assailing his cock. He held her reddened bottom apart, carefully preparing her. Squeezing the tube as he pulled it out, he left a trail of wet warmth in his wake. Leaning on her forearms, Bryce moved her knees farther apart, lowering her hips.
“If I hurt you, tell me and I’ll stop.”
His insistence moved her more than he could imagine. No one put her pleasure above their own. She’d given herself to Iram because he needed her. She offered her body to Slade because she wanted him.
“Ready?”
Again his caring sent tingling heat coursing through her body. “Yes, oh yes.”
He circled her with the tip of his cock, coating himself with the lube. She closed her eyes, and the images he sent her focused with vivid clarity. He pressed against her puckered opening. Her body parted, slowly swallowing his flared tip. He paused.
“Now, Iram. Very gently help her along.”
A faint caress danced across her clit, Iram’s fingers barely touching her. Slade demonstrated patience and tenderness with every movement, every word. He pushed in, sliding, spreading her inner muscles wide.
“Open your mind, Bryce. I need to know I’m not hurting you.”
She relaxed, accepted the penetration from his body and his mind. He drove strong and steady until his entire length filled her ass. Sharing her excitement, her trust, her surrender, she lifted her arms from the bed and crossed them behind her back, wanting her submission to be complete.
His strong, warm hands clasped her wrists and held on tight. He pulled back with infinite care, then surged in fast and hard. Iram accented each outstroke with his fingers lightly plucking her clit. She arched her back, raising her ass, pushing out against Slade’s invasion. Her skin was still over-sensitized from her lashing and fresh prickles erupted each time his hips slapped against hers. His shield gradually lowered as he moved faster. Emotional intensity flared, curling around her, licking at her skin like tongues of flame.
“Enough.” Slade motioned Iram away.
Bryce understood. Slade wanted no distraction from the possessive slide of his cock in her tight body. He sent his thoughts and emotions deeper with each firm thrust. She opened her receptors wide, ravenous for his uninhibited passion. Only with her was he free to release his emotional restraints. It thrilled her to know she was unique.
“Come for me, sweetheart. I’m not going to last much longer.”
Clenching her muscles at the apex of each stroke, she intensified the tingling sensations. Reaching for his mind, she poured affection across the telepathic link. His strokes sped, his hands tightening on her arms.
I love you too. The words were so faint she might have imagined them, but tenderness inundated her being, stealing the last of her uncertainty and overflowing her heart. Pleasure coiled thorough her, intensifying with amazing speed, then released in a burst of sensation.
She cried out, her body pulsing around his. He thrust to the hilt, shuddering against her and within, filling her with his seed. Her nipples grazed the bed with each panting breath. He still held her arms behind her back.
“Will it ever be like that for me?”
Iram’s wistful tone drew her from her tingling lethargy. Slade released her arms, and she groaned as he separated their bodies.
“When you find your mate, it will be wonderful.”
Mate. Had Slade just called her his mate? She took a deep breath and turned around. “How do you feel?” she asked Iram.
“My new neuro-pathways have stabilized.” A calm assurance reinforced his claim.
She looked at Slade. I thought he didn’t know what he is?
“That’s why it’s called intuitive programming,” Slade told her. “It evolves and progresses whenever new stimuli are introduced.”
“Did you create me for Matthias?”
“Matthias is your creator, and you’ll soon be inseparable.”
Chapter Eleven
“When will you complete the transfer?” Bryce followed Slade down the main corridor, wearing his lab coat.
“Day after tomorrow.”
As soon as they left Iram’s room, Slade’s shields returned with a vengeance. Had it all been an act, a performance for the benefit of Iram? She rushed to keep up with his longer stride, worrying her bottom lip. She hesitated when he turned down an unfamiliar hallway.
“Come on.” He sounded impatient and something else… Something she couldn’t identify.
“Where are we going?”
“To my quarters. We need a shower and we need to talk. I don’t see why we can’t do both together.”
She’d happily agree if he hadn’t locked her out of his mind. “Are you angry about Iram?”
“Why would I be angry about Iram?”
He took her hand, and she fell into step beside him. If he wasn’t angry about Iram, then why had he raised his shield? “What did Petra want?”
Scanning open the door, he motioned her inside his private quarters. Had their arrival postponed his answer or was he avoiding the question? She stepped through the doorway and light illuminated the spacious room. A sitting area lay to her right, a neatly made bed to her left and a desk directly ahead.
“The facilities are through that door.” He pointed to the doorway on the other side of his bed.
“I thought we were going to talk while we showered.”
“I need to check on Matthias. Go ahead and get started.” He crossed to the desk and activated the terminal inset in the desktop.
Bryce entered the adjacent room, tension building in her belly. He hadn’t been angry before he talked with Petra. What had the proprietress told him? Bryce shrugged out of the lab coat and moved toward the shower stall. The door slid open and she stepped inside the enclosure.
“Mist minimum.” The warm moisture saturated her hair and coated her skin. She slicked her hair back from her face and turned toward the door as Slade entered the room. “How is he?”
“Stable. The computer will notify me if there is any change in his condition.” He tugged his shirt off over his head and stripped away his pants before joining her in the shower. “Let’s forgo all the denials and explanations. Petra found out who you are.”
“Meaning?”
He laughed. “We know Akim is camped out in the VIP lot atop Prime Landing.”
> Stunned, Bryce stared at him. A hundred questions raced through her mind. Two mattered, but she only asked one. “What are you going to do with me?” Why did you say you love me?
He sighed, moving closer to one of the four showerheads and farther away from her. “That depends on a lot of things. First and foremost, why are you here?”
Why had he chosen such an intimate setting for this confrontation? Was he trying to make her feel vulnerable or put her at ease? She turned to face one of the showerheads, and his presence slipped into her mind. He’d never invaded her privacy before. The interrogation had officially begun. She didn’t resist. Let him test the truth of her words.
“The friend I told you about, the one who needs reconstructive surgery, is Akim.”
Slade’s chuckle made her turn around. “Does he honestly believe it only takes one person to perform that sort of procedure?”
“There are skilled surgeons in the Renarrian Empire. Akim expected to take the famed Toymaker back with him—”
“And then what? I presume no one knows about his injury, or it would have been repaired.”
“Correct.”
“So Matthias performs the reconstruction, and then what does Akim do with Matthias?”
Bryce crossed her arms over her breasts. “I would have helped Matthias escape if it came to that.”
“How?” His gaze shone like copper coins, reflective and impenetrable. “I know you despise Akim. Why haven’t you escaped before now?”
She tugged on the thrall collar. “This isn’t just a mark of ownership. If I get too far away from my ‘Master’, it will blow my head off. You’re acting like I had a choice in all this. My only choice was to live or die!”
He stared at the collar, his gaze narrowed and conflicted.
“Akim promised no harm would come to Matthias. He assured me—”
“What did Akim promise you?” He stepped toward her. She stepped back. He put his hands on the shower stall, caging her with his arms.
“He promised to let me go.”
“And you believed him?”
She licked her lips. “Not really. I was hoping to convince the Toymaker to help me escape. Then I met Matthias and realized it was hopeless. I was going to tell you, but Akim will kill anyone… He can’t be without me for any extended period of time.” Heat radiated off his naked body, accenting the cool surface at her back. His gaze bore into hers, demanding answers, searching for lies. “He’s tormented by emotions he has no way to release.”
“So you became his whipping girl?”
“It’s more complicated than the things he does to me. I’m able to absorb and disperse his emotions. Without me, he’d have gone insane.”
He shook his head, his gaze softening. “From what you told me about your employer’s son, Akim’s mind shattered a long time ago. Do you absorb his emotions willingly, or does he rape your mind as he tortures your body?”
Tenderness squeezed her heart. Slade wasn’t angry with her—he was angry for her. Time stood still as she gazed into his eyes.
“Life was bearable with Fahbit.” She dragged her gaze from his. “It wasn’t a life I would have chosen, but I adapted. Akim made me long for death.”
“His or your own?”
She smiled. “More often his.”
He shifted his stance. His chest brushed against her nipples, the faintest hint of contact. “Increase heat.” He pulled her into his arms as the moisture warmed. “What was the original plan?”
“I had a tranquilizer mist in my travel bag, but you incinerated it. Day after tomorrow, Akim is supposed to pick me up in the employees’ shuttle lot, with or without the Toymaker.”
He eased her away and lifted her chin, waiting until their gazes met. “What were you going to do?”
“I wasn’t going to endanger you or Matthias because of me. I was going to ride the service lift up with Dixie—and run away.”
“Until you hit the end of that damn thing’s tether and…” He lapsed into silence, his gaze fixed beyond her. “Can you postpone your meeting with Akim?”
“For a few days, maybe. Why?”
“If the transfer is successful, we’ll let Akim meet the Toymaker.”
“You make that sound menacing.”
His eyebrow arched and he smiled. “A massive cock isn’t Iram’s only weapon.”
“Just his most daunting.”
“Are you sore?”
She nodded, too embarrassed to speak the words.
“Mist off.” He left her in the stall while he snatched two towels out of a compartment inset in one wall. Handing one to her, he haphazardly dried himself with the other.
“It’s warm.” Bryce snuggled into the welcome heat as Slade pulled open another compartment. She stepped out of the enclosure and finger-combed her hair, waiting for him to find what he was looking for. He took out a small round jar and closed the compartment. “What is that?”
“I’ll show you.” He led her into the outer room and paused beside the bed. “Have a seat.” With the towel wrapped around her body, Bryce sat on the edge of the bed. He pushed the material high onto her thighs. “This will ease the sting. By morning, you’ll be good as new.”
“What is it?” she persisted.
He flipped back the lid and angled the jar so she could see the light blue contents. “It’s an organic mixture of plant extracts and—”
“Opium is a plant extract. So is zenton.”
“This is harmless. Look.” He scooped out a dollop and touched it to his tongue. “It doesn’t even taste bad. Now lie back and let me heal you. I’m a doctor. That’s what I do.”
She laughed. “We’re going to play doctor?”
“I’ll let you know in a minute.” Kneeling beside the bed, he set the jar on the floor and parted her thighs. “Raise your heels to the bed and relax. I’m not going to hurt you.”
She drew up her legs, resting her heels on the edge of the mattress. His hands glided down her inner thighs, sending tingles skittering up her spine. If it didn’t taste bad, maybe he’d apply it with his tongue. She grinned at the wicked thought.
He gently parted her folds and sighed. “Round two is definitely postponed.” His emotion-thickened voice caressed her.
“Isn’t it technically round three?”
Coating his fingers with ointment, he pushed them into her core and raised his gaze to hers. “You need pain. We both know that, but I will never harm you.” As if to prove his point he coated fingers from his other hand with the ointment and gently massaged it around and into her other opening.
Tears blurred her vision and made her throat burn. No one else cared if she hurt or bothered to ease her sting.
If you slip through my grasp before I am made whole, I will dedicate my life to finding you. Akim’s hateful words echoed through her mind, mocking her moment of peace.
* * * * *
Slade emerged from sleep to find Bryce draped across him like a blanket. One of her legs nestled between his thighs, her pelvis was flush with his hip and her soft breasts pressed against his chest. Her head was tucked beneath his chin and her warm breath teased his skin.
He could get used to this.
Supporting her head in the crook of his elbow, he rolled her to her back. He studied her delicate features. She appeared young and innocent, lost in peaceful sleep. Guilt and anger twisted through his chest. Everyone she’d ever known had used her. He’d been no better, but never again. Regardless of the outcome of the transfer, he would ensure she was freed.
He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. She murmured and turned her face away. Smiling, he caught her earlobe between his teeth and nipped her playfully. He touched the golden choker, and his heartbeat accelerated. She lived life with death a hairsbreadth away.
She turned over, presenting him with a delightful view of her rounded backside. The redness had faded which only made him want to spank her. The computer would alert him if there was a problem with Matthias.
Heat erupted low in his belly, washing over him in tingling waves. He needed to touch her, establish a connection that was theirs alone. His breath hitched and his cock hardened, anxious for the tight grip of her pussy. Had the ointment done its job? He could use it as a lubricant if she hadn’t fully recovered. There was no way he’d ever cause her pain. He cupped her breast and pressed his mouth against the side of her neck above the choker.
“Mmm, this is a nice way to wake up,” she whispered sleepily.
“You won’t get an argument from me.”
She turned her head and kissed him, stroking her tongue against his. He wrapped his arm around her hips, anchoring her in the curve of his body. Her restless movements tantalized him, but Slade was determined to go slowly, to arouse her by degrees.
“Let me turn over. I want to touch you.”
“This morning is for you.” He brushed her hair away from the nape of her neck. “Be utterly selfish for a while. I want you to.”
A distinct tremor passed through her body then she relaxed against him. He nuzzled the back of her neck and caressed her breasts. Her nipples hardened beneath his fingertips and her breathing accelerated. Warm and smooth, her skin intrigued him. He slipped his arm beneath her neck, aligning his shoulder so he could continue teasing her nipples while he moved his other hand lower.
She reached back and threaded her fingers through his hair. He smiled. She couldn’t resist touching him. It was simply her nature. Easing into her mind, he fought back a groan. Desire and gratitude assailed his senses. His need to please her had her teetering on the brink of orgasm. He gritted his teeth as a violent surge of anger stabbed through his being. Her life would change. He would see that she was appreciated and cherished, respected and adored.
Carefully opening his mind to her, he revealed the depth of his attraction, let her feel his fascination, his awe. She gasped. Her fingers tightened in his hair, and she ground her bottom against his erection.
You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met, and it has nothing to do with your appearance. Adversity has made you strong, not bitter. I’m amazed by your compassion. He touched her reverently, brushing his fingers along her side, stroking her hip and thigh.