by DJ Michaels
Shaking her head at her stupidity, she rolled to her knees and started stroking over Dev’s big body. He was safe. He’d never do anything to hurt her, and there was no need for the weird, anxious sensation that curled in her belly. This was Dev, she repeated to herself. Dev was safe.
Just to prove how ridiculous her fears were, she leaned forward and placed a trail of kisses over his chest. His big, warm, wide, smooth chest, which was nothing like Willersby Lockmehdyhn’s flabby, pale, paunchy excuse for a man’s body. Tansy blinked and shook her head. That bastard had no place in this bed and she refused to think about him.
She focused on Dev. She kept her mouth on him as she trailed lower. He tasted good, a warm mix of man, leather and dragon. And something uniquely Dev. He was strong and sweet. He was safe.
Her knees were by his hips, and she angled her body so her head hovered directly over his cock. It looked huge, and nothing like--
No. She refused even to think of him.
Keeping her attention firmly on Dev’s cock, on her willingness and her need to take him into her mouth, Tansy gripped the base with a determined fist. Her hair fell in a curtain either side of her face, so she knew he wouldn’t be able to see the change in her expression. It didn’t matter, though—she could do this.
Dev must have sensed her hesitation. His rough palm grazed her cheek and he cupped the back of her head, tilting her face so he could look into her eyes. “You don’t have to, Tansy. Nobody will make you do anything you don’t want to do. It’s your choice. Everything we do will always be your choice.”
Your choice, whore. The voice-echo wasn’t Dev’s. It was Willersby’s, and it bounced around in her head, getting louder and louder. I won’t make you do anything. Everything you do will be your choice. Every perversion, every degradation, you will choose of your own free will.
No, no, no, no, no, noooo…
Tansy scrambled off the bed, trying to run from the disgusting voice in her head. She found a corner, backed herself into it and slapped her hands over her ears. But she could still hear him.
Your choice, whore. On your hands and knees or go back to the roof… On the table and spread your legs or go back to the roof… Show my friends how good you are at sucking cock. No? Perhaps you would prefer the roof.
Not the roof. Please, please, please not the roof. I can’t. Not again. Not the roof.
The bottom just fell out of Dev’s world. One moment his woman was kissing a trail of temptation down his body and the next she was sobbing in the corner. He rolled off the bed and onto his feet, but after that he had no idea what he was supposed to do.
“Rye.” The call to his denmate was instinct.
Rye came rushing to his side as they both turned to stare at Tansy. “What happened?”
“I don’t know.” Dev ran an unsteady hand through his hair. “She was fine. She was going to suck me off, and I checked in with her to make sure she was all right. Then she flipped out.”
Dev felt the reassuring weight of Rye’s arm over his shoulder. “You didn’t do anything wrong.” Rye pulled him in for a tight hug. “It looks like she’s having a flashback, which means this is all on him. We were careful with her. She knows she’s safe with us.”
Dev looked at his woman, curled up in a terrified ball. “I don’t know what to do for her. I’m too scared to touch her until she comes out of the memory.”
“Perhaps we need—”
What have you done? Fellescend’s furious bellow collapsed both Enforcers to their knees. What have you done to my pet?
Dev rolled up, lurching unsteadily to his feet. We haven’t done anything to her. We’re trying to help her.
You’re doing a terrible job. She’s in a bad place and she hurts. You need to fix it now.
Dev gritted his teeth. I can assure you, if it was that easy we would already have done it.
Zenbaylan wasn’t one for histrionics, and her voice came through the link cool and calm. You need to talk to her. She trusts you both. Wait until she is sensible before you touch her, but touch her you must. She’ll think you don’t want her if you stay away.
Dev had spent the best part of twenty years being partnered with dragons and he still found their advice hit and miss. Sometimes they were on target and sometimes they were so wide of the mark it was scary. This situation with Tansy was already fucked up—they couldn’t afford any more mistakes. Unfortunately they were flying blind.
Rye stepped forward, but Dev placed a restraining hand on his shoulder. “Don’t move yet.” He nodded to Tansy, head bent and silent. “If she snaps back, I don’t want the first thing she sees to be two Enforcers towering over her.”
“All right. Do we get closer or move back?”
Closer. I already told you that, Zenbaylan snapped.
Rye lifted an eyebrow. “Either Tansy’s in worse shape than we think, or the dragons’ claim on her has skewed their emotions. First Fellescend just about blew our brains out. Now my calm, cool Zenbaylan is serving her orders with a side dish of angry.”
Dev shrugged. “The dragon reaction is a problem for another day. Right now Tansy needs us more than they do.”
Rye dropped to his hands and knees. “So let’s be there for her.”
And with no further discussion than that, they crawled over to Tansy’s corner and placed themselves on either side of her, backs to the wall.
They waited in silence for a long time. Dev used the quiet to go over what had happened, to try to work out how or when he’d triggered Tansy’s memory. When that proved to be entirely unhelpful, Dev cast his mind forward, searching for a way to aid her recovery. Nobody expected the rescued women to simply leave their experiences behind, but there had to be a way to help them work through whatever demons they were fighting.
He was brought back to the present when Tansy lifted her head off her knees. Her face was pale, her eyes dull and hollow, but he could see she was back with them. He also saw that she hadn’t been crying.
“No tears, honey?”
She shook her head. “I don’t have any left.”
Fuck, the flat tone of her voice was almost as devastating as her words. Trying to hide his shock, he nodded, as if running out of tears were perfectly normal. “Is there anything you need from us?”
“Like what?” she asked, suspicion coloring her tone.
The lack of trust in that question and the ground they’d obviously lost made him want to rend and tear at something. Forcing his fingers to unclench, he tried for a nonchalant tone. “Like whatever you need. We can leave or stay, we can hold you if you’d find comfort in that, or we can just sit.”
Closing her eyes tight, she allowed her head to roll back, and she didn’t even wince when it thumped hard and loud on the marble paneling.
“I know you want to help me,” she whispered. “But don’t make me choose. Giving me a choice was how this all went to hell in the first place.”
Rye straightened himself up, and Dev didn’t like the wild look in his denmate’s eyes. “All right, no choices.” Reaching out to cup Tansy’s chin, Rye stared her down. “I am going to do what I want, and the only way for you to stop me is to say ‘no’ in a loud, clear voice. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
The startled look on Tansy’s face gave Dev pause, but Rye had no such inhibitions. He scooped her up, settled her on his lap and tucked her head under his chin. Holding her close, Rye spread his legs and nodded to the space he’d made. “Get your ass over here, Dev—she needs to feel safe.”
Bereft of a better idea, Dev shuffled closer, sliding his legs underneath Rye’s and pulling his denmate close until they were almost crotch to crotch, with Tansy evenly balanced between them. Rye wrapped his arms around Dev’s shoulders, squeezing until they had their woman firmly trapped between them.
Rye kissed the top of her head but his voice was all business. “I’m not giving you a choice, Tansy. This is where you’ll be staying for a while, safe and tight between my brother and me. There is only one
word that will get you out of this. Are you going to use it?”
Tansy deliberately pressed her lips together and shook her head. Rye gave her another kiss. “Good girl.” He softened his tone. “You’re safe with us. We’ll take care of you, so you can just relax now.”
Tansy shuddered once and then she let out a sigh as her whole body softened. Dev and Rye kept themselves plastered to her and she seemed perfectly content to be squashed between them. Dev looked at his denmate, at a complete loss about what was going on.
Dev had always been smarter than average. He liked to learn, and the books and scrolls in the library were some of his favorite friends. He was usually way ahead of anyone else with plans, ideas and solutions, but this situation with Tansy left him utterly bewildered.
And to make matters worse, it seemed his funny, outgoing, impetuous denmate was so far ahead of the problem that Tansy was practically purring in his lap. For the first time in his adult life, Dev felt redundant, and the sensation of uselessness hollowed him out and scraped him raw. Lowering his head to the crook of Tansy’s neck, he nuzzled close and squeezed his eyes shut against the burning ache in his chest.
Chapter Six
Rye couldn’t sleep. He was doing his best not to toss and turn, because he didn’t want to disturb Dev, but his brain was working too hard for his body to rest. Tansy was spending the night with Fellescend and Zenbaylan, so her room was empty, but it would have been an invasion of privacy to crawl into her bed without asking.
And the thought of her having a say circled him back to her problems with choice. He knew it had something to do with that bastard Lockmehdyhn, but Rye couldn’t work out how having a choice was Tansy’s issue. Surely being kidnapped and raped was all about not having a choice.
He rubbed his head, trying to ease the ache. Then he felt Dev roll closer in the dark. “I know you’re awake—I can hear you thinking from here.”
Rye snorted. “What you’re hearing, my friend, is me driving myself insane.”
“I’m worried about her too.” Dev rolled to the edge of the bed and placed a crystal into a bowl of moss that sat on the bedside table. As soon as the two items connected, they gave off a soft glow that bathed the bed in a mellow light. Dev rolled back, wriggling closer until his chest pressed against Rye’s arm. “How did you know what to do today? How to calm her?”
Rye stared at the ceiling and wondered how best to answer that question. “Do you remember when I used to go to Gloriahna’s?”
“How could I forget?” Dev mooched in and tried to hog the pillow. “That bower house was all I heard about for over a year. You couldn’t tell anyone else because it was off-limits for Enforcers, so you talked my ear bloody about the girls and the decor and the close calls on the back stairs.”
A smile swept over Rye’s face. That had been a great period in his life. Newly bonded to Zenbaylan, establishing a partnership with Dev, finding a place for himself in the den. Battle practice, war games, drinking games, loud parties and total freedom. They’d been wild times.
“I also remember,” Dev continued, “how you bent over backward to ingratiate yourself with the proprietress. And I recall some questionable favors you delivered just so you and your cock could get a discount.”
Rye snickered, rolling his head so he could look at his denmate. “Those girls were expensive. I was young, strong and horny, and I didn’t make enough money to satisfy all my needs. Especially in a place so upmarket only councilors and landholders could afford the rates.”
“What’s this got to do with Tansy?” Dev asked.
“I met a man who worked at Gloriahna’s.” Rye edged over a bit, giving up half his pillow. “One night I was heading down the back stairs when I had to make an unplanned detour. I ended up in an unfamiliar section of the house, and as I crept along a hallway, I heard the sound of a whip and a woman crying out.”
Dev immediately understood a situation that Rye’s younger self had failed to grasp. Dev’s eyes twinkled. “Oh no. You didn’t.”
Rye chuckled. “I did. In my defense, I have to say that despite the amount of women I’d managed to fuck, I was shockingly naive when it came to sex on the fringe. I heard a woman crying out in pain, and being a newly stamped, eager Enforcer, I rushed to her rescue.”
Dev smothered a laugh and his whole body shook. “Bet you got an education in a hurry.”
“Yep. I burst in on a naked woman chained to the ceiling and a man half my size whipping the skin off her back.”
“What happened?”
Rye could almost feel himself back there, heart pounding, blood roaring through his veins, so full of righteous indignation. “The Master turned to me and told me to wait. He said she wanted to be whipped, needed it. He told me that if I could hold myself back I would see her come harder than any woman I’d known.”
“So of course you waited.”
Yes, he had. Rye was a pleasure-seeker at heart, and he loved making a woman come. If there was a way to make them come harder, longer or more often, he wanted to know about it.
“He whipped her until she orgasmed. It was the strangest thing. She was screaming and crying, then she eased out of that and into a state of bliss. She hung from the chains, arching out to meet each stroke, and when he finally dropped the whip he shoved his fingers inside her and it was like he flipped a switch. And he was right. I had never seen a woman orgasm like it.”
Dev heaved a sigh, stirring Rye’s hair. “That’s a great story, my brother, but I’m still not seeing the Tansy connection.”
“Oh yeah. Sorry.” Rye had been so caught up in the memory he’d gone way off track. “When he let the girl out of the chains, he wrapped her in a blanket and sat with her in his lap. Then he invited me to sit down to talk. I don’t know what he saw in me at that first meeting. As I got to know him, I realized he was a very private man who guarded his clients like a she-dragon guards her chicks.”
“What did you talk about?”
“That first night we talked about the girl and those like her. Men and women who need pain to find sexual release. As our friendship developed we talked about other sexual needs, the unconventional and obscure, the mundane and the weird.”
“Were you attracted to any of it?”
Rye shrugged. “I dabbled here and there. Experimented a bit. I even helped the Master out on a couple of occasions.”
“By whipping women?” Rye heard the shock in Dev’s voice, despite the fact he’d barely spoken above a whisper.
“No, I didn’t whip them. I fucked them. The Master liked to keep some distance to maintain his authority, but sometimes a woman needed to feel a man inside her.”
“And you were happy to volunteer.” There was no censure in Dev’s voice, but Rye didn’t want him to think it had only been about fucking.
“Yes, but not entirely for the reasons you might think. The only time I was brought in was when there was healing to be done. I’m good with women and they like me. Despite my size, most of them don’t find me intimidating. The Master would coach me very carefully, telling me exactly what the woman needed. It was about connection more than sex.”
Rye had enjoyed that time for a lot of reasons, and he’d found a deep satisfaction in helping a woman get back to the person she wanted to be. That need to serve and protect was still a large part of him, but that energy was now channeled into his duties as an Enforcer.
Dev edged closer, stealing even more pillow. “Why did you stop?”
Rye shrugged. “You and I were sent off for our year-long rotation in the Topaz den, and during our absence Gloriahna’s changed hands. By then our relationship was rock-solid and I’d become so entwined with Zenbaylan I couldn’t remember a time when there wasn’t a dragon in my head. My friendship with the Master seemed a long way away from who I’d become. I guess I just let it drift.”
Dev reached out and laid his hand on Rye’s abdomen, and Rye automatically covered it with his own. He and Dev were comfortable with each other, but in
the weeks they’d shared a bed they’d never touched on purpose. Not like this. But after the experience with Tansy today it seemed natural to touch. To maintain the physical connection that had begun when she’d been pressed between them. And after her flashback, they both needed comfort right now.
“Do you think you learned enough with the Master to help Tansy?” Dev asked.
“Maybe.” Rye linked their fingers together. “Perhaps we could find out if the Master is still around. He has more expertise and experience than you and I can even contemplate.”
Dev tucked his chin against Rye’s shoulder. “Absolutely not. I’m not letting him take a whip to our woman. I don’t care how expert he is.”
Rye didn’t know exactly what Tansy needed, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t that. “Don’t worry, Dev, I won’t let anyone lay a hand on our mate.”
“All right. Let’s forget about the Master and get some sleep.”
And despite the day’s events, it wasn’t long before Rye relaxed enough to comply with his denmate’s demand.
Chapter Seven
Tansy wandered into the lounge room the next morning, not at all sure how she was supposed to look either of her Enforcers in the eyes. She was embarrassed by her meltdown the day before, and she felt bad for them because she knew they’d somehow blame themselves. She was trying really hard not to have a pity party about the whole fucking mess.
They were waiting for her at the dining table, food laid out but the warming covers still on.
“Morning,” she said.
“Morning.” Rye walked straight over, wrapped her up in his huge arms and crushed her to his chest. “Did you sleep well?”
He nuzzled her ear, his warm breath ghosting over her skin and waking up every erogenous zone she had. She lifted her head to answer him, but the heat in those strange lavender eyes froze the words on her tongue. He was so gorgeous, and having his big, strong body pressed so close to hers was playing hell with her brain function.
Then he lowered his head, aligning their lips with such purpose that she had no recourse but to lift her mouth to meet his. Pressing them together, he eased his tongue out to slide along the seam of her lips, tasting her without demanding entry, holding her body tight and hard while he played soft and gentle with her mouth.