by Measha Stone
“Kasia, you forgot one.” I narrow my eyes slightly. “We’ll wait until you finish.”
Father Peter looks at her with horror in his eyes. Does he think so poorly of me he thinks I’ll strike her down in the damn chapel?
“I said everything I want to say,” she raises her chin in absolute defiance. Poor girl thinks she’s safer here, that I won’t force her.
“Father Peter, if you would remind her of which vow she missed so she can repeat it.” I keep my eyes locked on hers. There’s a battle of wills here, and she didn’t bring the right ammunition.
“Certainly,” he says and goes over the vows once more. “You missed obey, my dear. If you’ll just repeat them, we can move forward.” There’s desperation in his voice.
She’s silent for a long stretch. The only sound in the chapel is the creak of the pew when Margaret moves her legs.
“Please,” Father Peter says quietly. “Kasia, do you promise to cherish, honor, and obey your husband until death parts you?”
“I do.” She squeezes my hand and averts her eyes. I could be a complete dick and make her say the words. I’m comforted by the fact that she’ll be repeating an entirely different set of vows once I have her naked in my bed tonight.
Father Peter speeds through the rest of the ceremony like he’s just been injected with speed. Every time she tries to tug out of my grip, I hold her tighter. Finally, it’s over and he’s announced us husband and wife.
He glances at her with a pitiful smile before looking to me. “You may kiss your bride,” he says.
I step closer to her, capture her chin in my hand and push her head back until my mouth hovers over hers. The warmth of her breath hits me.
“Till death do us part, wife,” I whisper to her, then seal our vows with a hard kiss.
Chapter Thirteen
Kasia
Dominik is silent on the drive back to his house. Margaret took the second car with two of Dominik’s soldiers, leaving me alone with him and our driver. His brother left after the ceremony, giving me his congratulations and a feigned welcome to the family.
We make it through the gates of his estate within twenty minutes after leaving the chapel. The ceremony had been so short, the attendance barely notable. Not exactly what little girls imagine for their wedding days, but this isn’t a real marriage. This is a sham.
I look out my window and drag in a shaky breath. I can’t think this way. It brings a tightness to my chest when I consider how loveless, how empty my life is going to be. How it’s been.
Lost in my own pity party, I don’t feel the car park.
“Kasia, we’re home,” Dominik says, reaching his hand back into the car for me. I stare at it, the thickness of his fingers, the large palm. This is a man who can hurt me. He’s capable of such horror. And now he’s my own personal nightmare.
I place my hand in his and scoot out of the back of the black SUV. He doesn’t let go when I’m on my own feet. Instead, he holds me tightly and we make our way up the stairs to the house.
Margaret’s already inside. The kitchen light is on and I hear pots being moved around.
“Dominik.” I pull him to a stop once we’re inside. “I’m not hungry. Can you tell Margaret not to bother with dinner?” It’s late, already after eight o’clock. I’d rather just take a hot shower and sink into bed. Pretend this evening didn’t happen.
He stares at me with narrowed eyes for a brief moment, then gives me a small nod. “I’ll speak to her. You go upstairs. I’ll be right behind you.”
Feeling somewhat emboldened by his granting my first request, I move forward with another.
“About that,” I drop his hand. “I...we don’t need to do...anything.”
His lips kick up in a playful grin. I’m glad my discomfort is so amusing to him.
“But we do, Kasia.” He steps closer, taking away the space I created between us. He runs his hand up my arm, snakes it behind my neck and fists my hair. I gasp, unable to get away from him. He’s pulling my hair at the roots.
“Dominik.”
“You remember this afternoon? When you felt so good in my lap? Don’t you want more of that?” he asks, brushing his lips along my jaw. A warm shiver runs over my skin.
“I remember how you used my body against me. I remember how you played me for an idiot just to get me to agree to something, to make me pliable.” I’m angry at myself for falling for it. A man like him...it’s expected behavior. I should have been smarter.
He pulls back a little, lining up his blue eyes with mine. “Is that what has you so upset? Is that why you wore funeral colors to our wedding?” He twists his hand in my hair, but the pain works against me.
I don’t answer him. Anything I say will be twisted against me.
Tiny wrinkles form around his eyes as he smiles down at me. “That’s exactly it.” He licks my lips. “If mind-bending orgasms piss you off, let’s see how angry I can make you.” He lets go of my hair and steps back, gesturing toward the steps. “Go upstairs, Kasia.”
I want to pummel my fists into his chest. Kick my feet into his shins, but it would do no good. The man’s a giant in comparison to me. The only damage that would be done would be to me.
“Kasia,” he snaps my name and my eyes jump to his eyes. “Go on,” he softens his tone.
I glance down the hall where Margaret is working in the kitchen. There is no hope for me. I said the words, and now I have to live up to them.
As I pass him, he touches my arm. It’s a light flitter of a connection. He doesn’t grab me or make any more demands, just touches me as I pass.
I climb the stairs, wondering how many nights in my life I’ll be sent to his bed with such a heavy heart.
* * *
The bedroom door clicks as it closes behind Dominik. I stare out his bedroom window at the rose garden below. The solar powered lights that are spiked into the ground throughout are lit and I can make out the lush bushes with their deep red blooms.
I’m startled when Dominik puts his hands on my shoulder. For such a large man, he can move without making a sound.
“You like the gardens,” he says, like he’s just figured that out. Maybe he has. The past week hasn’t exactly been used to get to know each other. We’ve avoided each other or been at odds with one another. I still know next to nothing about him.
“My grandmother had a large rose garden in her yard. It was the only flower she grew. They remind me of her,” I say quietly. My father’s mother had braved the risks of starting over with a new life in America. I admired her strength. “She was a strong woman,” I say absently.
He squeezes my shoulder. “You’re stronger than you think.”
“It doesn’t really matter now, does it?” I turn around in his arms and stare up at him. I’ve already changed out of the dress and thrown it in the garbage. I never want to see the damn thing again.
“A weak woman is no fun, Kasia. I don’t like doormats.”
I roll my eyes. Isn’t that what he’s made me? I have no choices, no options but to lie still and take what he gives me.
“Were these your grandmother’s too?” he asks, touching the pearl drop earrings.
“No. My mom’s. She lent them to me the day before—” I stop, not wanting to revisit one traumatic moment before living through another.
“Do you have nothing else of hers?” he asks and he sounds genuine in his curiosity.
“No.” There’s no need to hide things from him. Well, aside from the one thing I will never tell him — or my father until I’ve found out everything I need.
“Your father never gave anything to you because he blames you. If he knew these were hers, he’d take them, too,” he says, and I can hear the contempt he carries for my dad.
“He would,” I confirm. The ironic thing, the tragic thing about these earrings, is he gave them to my mother as a birthday present. He doesn’t remember. But I do. She loved them.
He runs the back of his knuckles across my cheek.
“Let’s not talk about your parents right now.”
“Probably a good idea,” I fight back a smile.
Dominik touches his fingers to the thin strap of my nightgown. “Even though the color was all wrong, the dress you wore tonight was beautiful on you.” He gently tugs the straps over my shoulders. Goosebumps pepper my flesh as his featherlike touch trails down my arms, bringing my nightgown with it.
His touch isn’t new. My arousal to him isn’t new, but this burning sensation inside me shakes me still. What happened last night, what took place this afternoon hasn’t prepared me for this moment.
He nudges my chin up and for a brief moment I find comfort in his stare. There’s a hunger lurking there, a need that matches mine.
“So beautiful,” he whispers and brushes his full lips across mine. It’s a tease. I reach for him when he sweeps across a second time and he presses himself against me. One hand cradles my head while the other pushes the white nightgown down until it’s a pool of satin at my feet.
I bring my hands up, pressing them against his chest. I can feel him, all of him. His cock is hard against my body. The black slacks of his suit do nothing to hide it from me. He steps back a little, enough to sweep his gaze over my naked form.
He’s seen my pussy before, he touched my breasts this afternoon, but this is the first time he’s seen me completely nude. His gaze unsettles me, and I lift my arms to cover myself.
“No, Kasia.” He brushes my arms away. “Never cover yourself. Stand there for me,” he says and tugs at the tie around his neck. I’m helpless to move while he slowly tugs the black tie from his shirt.
He stalks around me, tossing his jacket to the armchair near the dresser. My skin heats beneath his attention. Fabric shuffles from behind me and when he makes his way back in my line of sight, his dress shirt is missing. Easily, he kicks out of his shoes and yanks off his socks, tossing them aside. Now he’s standing in front of me, standing only in his black slacks and a white t-shirt.
I try to avert my gaze, but I can’t stop looking at him. At the strength displayed in his muscles. The dark inked tattoos on his chest peeking out of his t-shirt. Something written in Polish curves around his left bicep.
He pulls his t-shirt over his head and drops it in the same puddle as my nightgown. The black tie dangles over one shoulder.
I lick my lips. How long must I stand like this, being observed, calculated. A sense of unease creeps over me and I bend my arm, wanting to cover just a bit of myself from him. To shield myself from his prowess.
His lips spread into an approving grin. I’ve played right into his hands. Slowly, he pulls the tie from his shoulder, his eyes never leaving mine. With each step he takes toward me, I retreat until I’m backed against the bed.
“Let me help you, Kasia.” He gently grabs my wrists and pulls them in front of me. Winding the soft fabric around my wrists, he binds them together, while leaving enough for a leash of sorts.
“Dominik,” I say, but I have no idea what should come next.
He brushes my hair over my shoulders and pulls me against him. And there he is again, all strength and power.
As though he can sense my indecision, he wraps his hand around the back of my neck and pulls me into his kiss. There’s nothing gentle here, just raw ownership. When he pulls back, there’s a satisfaction in his eyes. He’s conquering me with his touch.
“Don’t stiffen up on me yet, Kasia.” He cups my breast, flicking my nipple with his thumb. My nerves vibrate with his touch. Too easily I fall into him when he touches me like this.
He releases my breast and trails his hand down my torso, until he’s cupping my sex. I swallow back the moan that threatens to escape.
“My wife is wet for me,” he whispers into my ear. He’s trimmed his beard, but it still tickles my face as he rubs his chin over my cheek. “I can practically smell your arousal.”
I turn away from him. My face is too hot, I must be blushing from head to toe.
He chuckles.
One finger slides through my wet pussy lips and thrusts up into my passage. I lean into him.
“So ready for me.” He kisses my cheek. “On the bed,” he says and slowly pulls his finger from me.
With my hands tied, I can only sit on the mattress and scoot back onto the bed. Probably not the sexiest thing he’s ever seen, but he lets it go without comment. My gaze flies to his hands that are working his belt open and then undoing the button on his trousers. He shoves his pants, along with his boxers, down and my throat clenches.
While keeping his eyes laser focused on me, he wraps one hand around his long, thick shaft.
“Lay back, Kasia,” he says, climbing onto the bed, one knee between my legs. He helps me to my back then pulls the small lead of the tie up until my arms are stretched over my head. I watch his expression, the way he licks his lips, the way his jaw tightens as he winds the lead around one of the poles of his headboard.
I think he’s made the headboard specially for this purpose, because in no time I’m tied to his bed.
He kneels between my open legs and looks down at me. I have no recourse now, I’m completely at his mercy.
“Remind me of your vows, Kasia,” he says, covering my body with his own. The tip of his cock rests just at my entrance. He leans to the side, capturing my clit between two of his fingers.
“What?” I blink. This new pleasure he’s giving me makes me lose track of the conversation.
“Your vows, Kasia. Say them for me again.” He lines up his gaze with mine. “All of them.”
I know what he wants. He wants my promise to obey him. I managed to get away without saying the exact wording at the chapel. The priest had taken pity on me, or he simply didn’t want to see how angry Dominik could get.
“I...”
“I want to hear you say the words, go on, Kasia. Let me make you feel good, but first, you have to give me the words.” He pinches my clit, sending an electric fire through to my core. Fuck, it hurts in the best way.
He’s not going to let me up until I do this. He’ll keep me on the brink; he’ll find new ways to punish me until I give over.
There’s no one else here. I can give him this. It’s just us.
“I’ll obey you, Dominik,” I whisper. A surge of arousal sweeps through me with my vow. How many hidden buttons are there in my libido?
He grins, then kisses me. A soft kiss that leads quickly into the fierceness I’ve come to depend on from him. There’s a gentleness to him, beneath the power, but it doesn’t override the animal in him that draws out the animal in myself.
With a shift of his weight, he moves his hand and his cock is pressed against my entrance again. He slides the head of his dick through my folds, there’s enough wetness to coat him.
As he slides forward, I tense, squeezing my eyes closed.
“Relax, Kasia. Don’t make it harder...fuck...don’t...” His lips clench together. “You have to relax. You’re so tight. I don’t want to hurt you.”
He pushes forward more, and I hiss at the stretch. I’m going to rip. He’s so much bigger than any toy I’ve ever used to take the edge off.
“Shhh.” He cups the side of my face and forces my gaze to lock with his. “Just look at me, Kasia. Look at me, and you’ll be fine,” he promises, but when he moves again the pain is back.
“Please,” I whine, but it’s not for him to stop. No, I want more. I want it all and I want it now. My clit throbs with desire to be touched.
He swoops down and kisses me, biting down on my lower lip while he thrusts in one quick movement all the way into me. I cry out into his mouth from the instant fullness, the burning.
“Give it a second,” he says, but I don’t listen. I plant my feet on the bed and arch my back until I can move my hips against him.
“Fuck. You’re too tight, Kasia.” He holds my hips down with one hand and reaches between us with the other. “I want you to come so hard you scream down the house.” He moves within me now, slowly at
first, but then he thrusts harder and faster.
“Dominik!” I pull on the restraints. I want to touch him, to hold him, to dig my nails into his flesh.
He must sense my need, because he quickly unties me from the bed, and pulls the tie from my wrists. All the while he’s plowing into me again and again. I grab hold of his shoulders and move along with him.
“Don’t,” he tries to hold my hips down, but I’m too fevered. The pain has dulled, and I want more of it, more of him.
“Hard, Kasia. Come hard.” His voice is strained, raw with his order.
“Dominik!” I scream his name as I’m blindsided by the tsunami of pleasure that crashes over my body. Too fast, too hard. I scream his name again and again as the waves rip through my body.
Only as I come back down, when my breath is labored and my heart is nearly outside my chest, does he successfully pin me down and fuck me harder than I thought possible this first time. Nothing I thought I knew about this was right. I expected gentleness. Tenderness. I expected candles and flowers.
“Fuck!” he bellows and plows into me one more time and stills. His cock throbs inside me as he comes, hot sticky cum pours into my passage.
His breath is shallow when he opens his eyes and looks down at me. For a moment I think he doesn’t register who I am, but quickly the confusion passes and his jaw clenches.
Easing out of me, he sits on the edge of the bed. The lighting is low, but I can make out the trail of blood on his cock. I bled.
I’m too old for that aren’t I? How could that be?
Without a sound, he shoves off the bed and disappears into the bathroom. I ease my legs closed and quickly snatch up my nightgown, throwing it over my head before he comes back. The dull ache between my thighs increases with my movements. When he returns, he’s wearing a pair of boxers and carrying a towel.
I let him gently push me back onto the bed and wipes between my legs. Another streak of blood dots the cloth. It’s not much, but it’s there.
He frowns.
“We should have gone slower,” he says and brings the towel, along with his dirty suit from the floor to the closet.