by Kate Baxter
Sasha wanted to call him out on it. To point out that it wasn’t fair for her to be completely naked while he was fully clothed. But she knew that any protestations would fall on deaf ears. He wanted her to believe he was in charge. Sasha could play along. For now.
She bucked her chin up and met his gaze with a defiant stare. “Aren’t we supposed to establish some sort of safe word before we get started?”
“Safe word?” Ewan smirked. “Oh love, there isn’t a word in existence that will keep you safe from me.”
He wanted to scare her, but all his posturing managed to do was excite her even more. Everything about him raised the stakes. Took Sasha out of her comfort zone. She’d play this game as long as he wanted to. Anything to keep feeling this way.
Ewan stroked a finger from Sasha’s belly button upward, between her breasts, to the hollow of her throat. She let out a quiet moan as she squirmed against the restraints. “You didn’t answer my question.” His gaze darkened once again as he leaned in close. “How many males have had the pleasure of your body tonight?”
She allowed for a slow seductive smile. “What if I told you I’ve been here every night for a week and have lost count of how many males I’ve allowed between my legs?”
Ewan didn’t take his eyes from hers. He reached between her legs and gently dragged his finger through her slick folds, settling at the knot of nerves at her core. Sasha’s back arched as a sharp stab of pleasure shot through her. Her lids fluttered as her hips pressed upward toward his touch.
“I would say that you’re lying to me,” Ewan said darkly. “Because your wet, swollen flesh tells me the last time you were satisfied, it was me to do it.”
Arrogant bastard. He was right, though. Try as she might, she couldn’t bring herself to even think of anyone else, let alone allow another male to touch her. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of honesty, however, whether he knew the truth or not. He’d turned her away. Treated her bite as though it repulsed him. He didn’t deserve her honesty, her compliance, or anything else.
Sasha didn’t look away. Instead, she kept her gaze locked with his.
“The only reason that shifter is still breathing is because you willed it so.”
Ewan placed his palm on her lower abdomen and slid his hand up her torso and over the swell of one breast. Sasha’s breath caught as he gently plucked at one pearled nipple. Another jolt of electric pleasure shot through her and Sasha swallowed down a whimper. Gods, he knew exactly how to touch her. How to tease her. As though he were completely wired in to what she wanted and needed. Was it the tether that made it so? Or something else altogether?
“I made a concession for you tonight, Sasha, and it’s the last time I ever will. If I find you in the company of another male with his hands on you in that way ever again, I’ll kill him before he can take his next breath.”
Her gut knotted with indignant anger at his possessive show. He had no right to make any claim on her after outright rejecting her. His palm wandered to her other breast and he cupped the flesh there before plucking at that nipple as well. Her anger dissolved under the intense sensation and Sasha pulled at her restraints as her back bowed off the bed.
“You don’t own me, berserker.” Sasha’s words held little conviction as she strained toward his touch.
Ewan chuckled. The sound carried so much masculine confidence that it made Sasha grit her teeth in frustration. He’d barely touched her and she was already reduced to a panting, squirming mass of nerves.
“Oh no?” His fingers hovered over her. Not quite touching. The barest whisper of contact. Sasha arched toward him and he pulled back. “Your body tells a different story.”
Her own body betrayed her. All Sasha had wanted was to get him out of her head once and for all. But now, he’d managed to work his way so far under her skin she knew it would take nothing short of a stake through her heart to get him out of her system.
So much for taking charge. Sasha was lost. To him.
CHAPTER
12
Ewan didn’t know how much more of this he could take. He’d wanted to teach Sasha a lesson, show her exactly who was in control. But the sight of her on the bed, limbs outstretched and secured, her gorgeous body bare and presented like an offering, pussy glistening and on display, pushed him dangerously close to his breaking point. As did the way she tried so hard to provoke him. He liked a female with fight and Sasha had it in spades.
“Tell me you want me to touch you.”
So far, she’d yet to submit to him. It shouldn’t have mattered, but he wanted it from her. Wanted her at his fingertips ready and willing to do or say anything for the reward of his touch. She had a strong will and he admired that defiance. Made the challenge of breaking her that much more appealing. Wild creatures like Sasha rarely came to heel. If she did so for him, it would be a heady thing indeed.
“If you’re looking for someone to beg, go find some other female. I’m sure there are plenty of them here who would gladly mewl for your favors.”
He’d never gain her submission by barking out commands. No, Ewan would get what he wanted through silence and touch. And likewise, he didn’t need her to beg him with words. Her body pled with him equally well.
Ewan was a seasoned warrior. He knew wars were won one battle at a time. He needed to strategize and focus on the immediate situation. He couldn’t tame the wild vampire in one night and he didn’t plan to. But if he played his cards right, she’d be eating out of his hand in no time at all.
Just like Gregor wanted.
Weakness wasn’t tolerated in his world. The weak were picked off one by one. Sasha was a casualty of war, a sacrifice that had to be made for the greater good. Ewan’s good. Drew’s good. And according to Gregor, their entire clan’s good. Using her for Gregor’s gain was the only way to protect his own secret. Right now, all Ewan wanted to feel was Sasha’s bare skin against his.
He stripped his T-shirt and discarded it to the floor. Music filtered in through the walls as did the moans and cries of pleasure from throughout the club, creating a soundtrack of sex that only served to whet Ewan’s appetite and intensify his lust. Sasha’s eyes tracked his every movement, the dark irises rimmed with brilliant silver. Her chest rose and fell with her quickened breath and she shifted on the mattress, causing her pert breasts to bounce with the motion.
Ewan bent over her. He put his mouth to the flat plane of her stomach, just above her belly button. He kissed her there just before he delivered a gentle bite that elicited a low moan from Sasha’s lips. She squirmed again, arching her back to press her stomach to his mouth. It was as good as any pleading words and it drove him mad with want.
He let his mouth wander. Wet, open-mouthed kisses that ventured over her hip, her belly, her torso. Between her breasts and over the swell of one as he worked his way to the center and the stiff nipple that he drew into his mouth and sucked. Sasha gasped. She pressed into the contact and let out a desperate whimper as Ewan used his teeth to tease the pearled tip to an even stiffer peak. She pulled against her bonds. Her hips bucked. She twisted from one side to the other but the cuffs held her secure. The scent of her arousal intensified and still she didn’t speak a single word.
He moved to her other breast and paid it the same lavish attention before venturing along her collarbone and then to her throat. Sasha turned her head away to elongate her neck and Ewan let his teeth scrape along the skin there. She shuddered. Curious, he bit her again, harder. Her body went rigid and she let out another low moan.
Apparently vampires liked to be bitten as much as they enjoyed being the one doing the biting. The thought gave Ewan a rush that caused his cock to throb hot and hard. It shouldn’t have turned him on. His jets should have been cooled in an instant. Rather than pull away, he bit her again, almost hard enough to break the skin. Sasha cried out and pulled against her bonds.
“Oh gods.” The words were nothing more than a desperate whimper. “Oh gods, Ewan, that feels good.”
Finally, a verbal response. His chest swelled with masculine pride that he’d managed to elicit a reaction from her. It made him want to spend hours at her throat. Biting, licking, sucking. Whatever it took to continue to coax those words and sounds from her lips. She nearly made him forget they were hardly alone in this building and that soon, their privacy might be compromised, locked door or not.
Ewan straightened and quickly shucked his boots, jeans, and underwear. He’d be damned if he didn’t have her and he didn’t want to wait another second. His gaze wandered to her bound wrists and then her ankles. He could release her, revel in the sensation of her touch, but he was determined to teach Sasha a lesson. He was in control. And that she’d gone this long without breaking free on her own told him that she was more than willing to follow his instruction.
Sasha’s gaze raked the length of his body and settled between his thighs. His cock was so damned hard it almost pained him and Ewan took his erection in his fist and stroked its length once, squeezing the base to relieve some of the pressure. Sasha watched, rapt, and took her bottom lip between her teeth. Her dainty fangs pierced her bottom lip and her tongue flicked out at the blood that welled from the punctures.
Gods. It should have repulsed him, but Ewan found the act so damned erotic that it caused his heart to hammer against his rib cage. Silver swallowed the dark brown of her irises and she bit down on her lip once again and licked the blood away.
She needed it. Blood. How long had it been since she’d fed?
Ewan climbed onto the bed. Sasha went still as her hungry gaze followed his every movement. A lick of heat traveled the length of his body at her undivided attention. Her hips rolled up toward him as her back pressed into the mattress. Ewan’s gaze dropped between her legs at the soft, glistening flesh there. So ready for him. He reached out and circled the pad of his thumb over the swollen knot of nerves of her clit. Sasha responded with a desperate whimper that caused his stomach muscles to tighten as the sound vibrated over every inch of him. Gods, he wanted her. And he wasn’t going to wait another second to have her.
Sasha’s head rolled back on the pillow. Ewan braced one arm beside her as he took his erection in the other hand and guided it to her opening. He sucked in a breath as the sensitive head met her slick heat and Sasha’s back arched. “Look at me,” he commanded through clenched teeth. She might have refused to tell him she wanted him, but he’d be damned if he let her be completely detached.
Her eyes met his. The wild heat in her gaze nearly stole his breath and he drove home in a powerful thrust. Her inner walls clenched around him, satin smooth and tight. He pulled out and thrust once more in order to feel the delicious intensity of sensation again.
She felt so damned good.
It didn’t matter if a single word was spoken between them. Sasha’s gaze was locked with his. Her panting breaths caressed his face and throat. The tight points of her nipples grazed his chest as she arched her back. Her body trembled with every touch and despite her considerable preternatural strength, she didn’t attempt to break her bonds, instead opting to submit to him. They didn’t need words. Her body spoke volumes.
Ewan kept one arm braced beside her to shoulder the bulk of his weight as he continued to move with achingly slow strokes. Fucking Sasha was an indulgence. Something to be savored. Ewan had never considered sex as anything but perfunctory. A need to be sated like eating or drinking. He got an itch and went out in search of someone to scratch it, end of story. Besides, it wasn’t like many females were tripping over themselves for a night with a berserker. The warlords were famed for their strength, speed, strategic minds, and fighting prowess but little else. They were the most feared creatures in the supernatural world.
Sasha wanted him. He knew it by her scent, her eyes, the beat of her heart and dripping wet pussy. He wondered that she might crave him to the point that she desired not only his body, but his blood. Part of the mate bond she so emphatically believed in? Ewan couldn’t deny it made him feel damned good. He let his face drop to the silky strands of her dark hair as he breathed in deep. Following through on Gregor’s orders to gain Sasha’s confidence in order to betray her might be harder than he’d thought.
* * *
Sasha wasn’t embarrassed to admit she’d fucked her way across L.A. over the course of the past several months. Encounters meant to fill the void of her missing soul and temper her heartache over losing someone she’d never truly had. She’d had some great nights. Wild nights. Hours of what she’d thought was pleasure. But none of them compared to even a few minutes with Ewan.
She’d wanted to submit to him. Wanted to follow his every command and beg for every little touch. Wanted to do any damn thing he wanted for even the smallest favor. But she couldn’t let herself give in completely to him. She couldn’t give him even an ounce of ownership over her. He already owned her soul. She couldn’t lose any other part of herself to him.
Too late, Sasha. You’re already half gone.
He fucked her in such a languid way it was downright lewd. As though he were unconcerned with anything other than drawing out their mutual pleasure for as long as possible. He enjoyed her body and asked nothing in return. Hell, she’d been bound for the entirety of their encounter. She couldn’t touch him, caress him, put her mouth on him …
Maybe that was the point? Her bite had disgusted him. Had he tied her to the bed to keep her fangs at a safe distance? The thought sent a momentary pang of sorrow straight through her chest and she fought to push the sensation away. Feeding wasn’t simply necessary to a vampire’s existence, it was something that fortified and strengthened the tether as well. Her muscles tensed as her own damned bothersome thoughts pulled her out of the moment. Away from Ewan and the way he made her feel …
“Sasha. Look at me.”
His tone was gentle yet commanding. She met his golden brown gaze and her heart stuttered in her chest. Whatever assumptions she’d made melted under the heat of his stare. Her own fears and insecurities evaporated as he brought her back into the moment. What he thought or felt didn’t matter. All she needed was for him to keep looking at her as though she was the only thing on the planet worthy of his attention. As long as he kept making her feel as though her pleasure was his one and only concern.
Sasha’s hips rolled up to meet his. The heady musk of his arousal intoxicated her. The delicious scent of his blood as it pumped through his veins ignited her thirst. Her secondary fangs throbbed and she swallowed against the dryness in her throat. His blood was the sweetest thing she’d ever tasted and since the night she’d taken his vein, she couldn’t bear to drink from another. Lucas had offered his wrist to her tonight. He’d sensed her mounting thirst and, nice guy that he was, had offered it up to her with a kind smile and zero romantic inclinations. She’d considered it for half a second before turning him down. She’d wanted Ewan’s blood. No one else’s would do. And he was so repulsed by the act that it appeared Sasha would have to force herself to take another vein or starve to death.
She couldn’t let herself overthink it. In fact, it would be better if she didn’t think about anything at all, ever again. Sasha needed to live in the moment and leave her worries by the wayside. Otherwise, what did any of this mean? If she didn’t stick to the path she’d set herself on, she was committing the ultimate betrayal. Tether or not, this was about liberating herself. Ewan was a means to an end and she needed to remind herself of that. He’d tethered her, but he didn’t own her. Sasha belonged to herself.
Ewan gave a slow thrust as he ground his hips against hers. Sasha lost herself to pleasure. To sensation. To the glide of his rigid shaft against her inner walls and the friction against her clit that sent tiny pulses of sensation dancing through her body. Her back arched as she let out a slow, indulgent moan. Ewan kept his measured pace, building the tension until Sasha wasn’t sure how much more she could take before she broke apart into myriad pieces. She reached up and wrapped her hands around the nylon cords that secur
ed the leather cuffs to the bed as though they were the only things grounding her to the earth.
Sasha’s body wound tight and she resisted the urge to close her eyes and simply feel. Ewan drove her out of her mind with want. She refused to beg, to ask him for any favor, but she needed to come and he was in complete control of her body. He could choose to be generous, or he could simply get himself off and leave her tied to this damned bed.
Sasha didn’t doubt for a second that Ewan could be vindictive if he wanted to be.
He thrust home, harder this time, and she answered with a sharp gasp that ended on a groan. A few more strokes just like that and she’d be good to go. At least one of her hungers would be sated …
“Do you want me to finish you off, Sasha?” Ewan’s darkly murmured words caused her stomach to clench. Damn him. He obviously wasn’t through playing with her. He slowed his pace and switched to shallow strokes that did nothing more than tease her. “All you have to do is ask.”
His right hand settled at her breast. Almost absently, he caressed her nipple. He touched her as though he’d known her body for centuries and spent every single night learning its secrets. He used her desire against her. He wielded pleasure like a weapon. Sasha should have known better than to go up against a warlord. She had to face the fact that she might have to concede this battle. It was either that or launch a counterattack.
Maybe if she gave him something he wanted … he’d give her something in return.
“I want it.” Sasha could be subversive and strategic as well. She’d get what she wanted from him by coaxing it willingly from him. “Please, Ewan. I need to come.”
Rather than give her what she wanted, Ewan stopped entirely. A sardonic grin curved his wicked mouth as he brought his head up to look down at her. “If you’re going to put on a show, I think you can do much better than that performance.”