I never want it to end but Aiden pulls me away long before I’m finished.
“Enough.” He is panting, his large frame shaking with some emotion. Lust? Desire? “Dessert is over now,” he tells me, tucking himself away before I can protest and helping me to my feet. “It’s time for bed.”
My legs are all pins and needles from kneeling so long and I wobble as I stand. Aiden scoops me up at once, cradling me in his arms like a small child.
“I can walk,” I protest as he carries me effortlessly through the house as though I weigh no more than a feather.
“I don’t want you to.” He smiles at me. “I want to carry you to the bedroom and tuck you in myself.”
I don’t complain anymore after that. I simply lay my head on his broad shoulder and wonder if every dinner with my Master is going to be like this.
Chapter Fourteen
Once in the bedroom, he bustles about, getting me ready for bed. After removing my collar, handcuffs and nipple clamps—and pausing a moment to suck my sore, tingling nipples as he does—he puts me in the shower stall. There he washes me himself, with long, loving strokes using a big, puffy sponge. He doesn’t seem to mind when the spray gets him slightly wet.
I wish he would touch me more intimately, that he would discard the sponge and soap me with his bare hands. But he seems intent on teasing me, touching me just enough without actually giving me any satisfaction. It’s maddening but I sense it’s all a part of the game we’re playing.
A game I’m beginning to like much too much.
Aiden washes and conditions my hair, then gets me out of the shower and dries me thoroughly with a large fluffy white towel. He dries my hair with another and throws both towels in the hamper before pronouncing me ready for bed. He’s just about to tuck me in naked, between the crisp cotton sheets, when I protest.
“But Aiden…Master, I’m not really tired yet. And it’s only…” I glance at the grandfather clock standing against the far wall. “Eight o’clock.”
He frowns. “Don’t humans need at least ten to twelve hours of sleep at night to be at their best?”
“Sure, if I were only three years old,” I say, feeling slightly exasperated. “I’m twice eleven. I normally don’t go to bed much before midnight. Six or seven hours of sleep is all I need.”
He raises an eyebrow at me skeptically, as though I’m a naughty child trying to dodge bedtime. “Are you sure about that?”
“Of course I’m sure.” This time I can’t keep the exasperation out of my voice. “You were human once—don’t you remember?”
He shakes his head. “Emma, it’s been well over a century since I was human or had anything to do with humans. And when I was turned, a great many of my mortal memories faded—that is always the way with my kind.”
“Well, take it from me,” I say. “I don’t need to be put to bed early like a child. I’m wide awake. I’d just be miserable lying here in the dark with nothing to do.” I look at him shyly. “Unless…unless you were, um, planning to come to bed with me?” My heart beats fast and I’m not sure how I want him to answer.
Aiden smiles. “My curious little virgin. I would love to join you in bed and spend hours exploring your body. But not tonight—you’re not ready yet.”
I want to ask when I will be ready but I decide not to push it. “What are you going to be doing until bedtime?” I ask, wondering where he sleeps for the night and for how long.
“I have some work to catch up on. I was going to do it in the study.”
“Well…can I join you?” I ask awkwardly. I sit up and snag another fluffy white towel from the stack to wrap around me. “If you’re busy I promise not to interrupt. I can be very quiet—just give me a book to read.”
He looks thoughtful. “I must confess that I usually don’t enjoy anyone’s company but my own. But you are growing on me at an alarming rate.” He nods. “Yes, you may join me in the study.”
“Thank you…Master,” I say, smiling. It’s becoming disturbingly easy to remember to call him that. I try not to think about it.
He smiles back. “We should change clothes first. I’m nearly as wet as you are from your shower.” He eyes the towel I wrapped around myself. “And you are very overdressed.”
I bite my lip. Crap. I was just getting used to being covered again. “Couldn’t I keep it on?” I ask softly. “I’m still wet and it’s chilly in here.”
“It’s not that chilly—” Aiden begins but I cut him off.
“Not for a vampire, maybe. But for a human…” I wrap my arms around myself and shiver theatrically.
He gives me a skeptical look and then sighs. “All right, I’ll find you something.”
He rummages in the wardrobe, changing out of his business suit and into a pair of faded, comfortable-looking jeans and a white T-shirt that shows off the width of his broad chest nicely. For me, he produces what looks to be a long satin smoking jacket in deep emerald green.
“It’s mine,” he explains, removing my towel and draping it over my shoulders. “From a time when such things were fashionable. It’s not the style anymore, of course.”
“Of course,” I echo, smiling. “Unless you’re Hugh Hefner.”
He laughs. “Yes, well. I kept it because it’s comfortable. You may wear it as long as you leave it open.” He strokes my cheek and then his hand trails lower to cup my breast and casually thumb my nipple. “Any time I look at you, I want to be able to see your luscious body. You must never hide it from me, Emma.”
My breath catches in my throat as his touch starts an all-too-familiar fire under my skin. “Yes Master,” I whisper, almost without thought.
“Very good. You’re being so obedient all of a sudden.” He looks extremely pleased. Then he lifts me gently and walks out the door toward the study.
“Why are you carrying me again?” I ask, mystified. “I really am capable of walking, you know.”
“I’m carrying you because I can. Because I like it.” He gives me a warm, lingering kiss on the mouth before setting me on my feet, just inside the study door. “Because you’re mine, Emma,” he says softly and then goes to sit behind the huge desk in the big black leather chair. “Now I must work. Find a book to amuse yourself and don’t bother me.”
The abrupt change takes me aback somewhat but when I study him under my lashes, I can see that there’s nothing malicious about it. He simply switches modes with supernatural speed, from pleasure to work—it’s like a light switch with him. He can turn it off and on whenever he needs to. Very practical and utterly vampiric.
I can’t help envying him his amazing concentration and control—my skin is still warm and tingling where he touched me and I can still taste his kiss on my lips. It’s useless to think of anything else but his hands on me—still, I do try. I scan the shelves again for something to read but once again I find nothing.
Finally I settle for the copy of Farrow’s Handbook of Spells,which I was perusing earlier. I handle it carefully but to my relief, there are no shocks from the worn leather cover this time. There’s a choice of two other seats in the study—one is a comfortable-looking brown leather loveseat drawn up before the fireplace that dominates one end of the room. It’s all made up with a stack of logs just ready to be lit but of course there’s no fire. In Florida’s nearly year-round heat, I bet Aiden doesn’t get to use the fireplace much.
The other seat is a wooden, straight-backed chair sitting across from Aiden’s desk. After a moment of internal debate, I take the copy of Farrow’s and settle onto the hard wooden chair across from him.
If Aiden notices my deliberate choice to be closer to him, he doesn’t let on. His eyes remain fixed on the screen of his laptop and his fingers keep flying over the keyboard with vampiric speed, making them look like nothing more than white blurs.
Sighing to myself, I open Farrow’s and read over the familiar spells. This handbook is one of the first that any young witch is given to study. By the time she’s twelve or thirteen and h
as started menstruating, she ought to be able to manage the simplest ones by herself. Call the Candle Flame to Life,is the title of one spell. How well I remember struggling with that one! My cousins could light candles from across the room even before they hit puberty. With me…well, let’s just say I never even got the wick to smolder. Not so much as a wisp of smoke though I tried for hours upon hours.
There is a pair of ornate silver candlesticks on Aiden’s desk with long creamy-white candles that have never been lit. Out of habit, I concentrate on one of the tapering wicks and call for a flame. I know the secret name of fire—I have known it from the age of eight. It was one of the things my mother was teaching me just before our house burned down. I think it now, letting it echo in my head. I close my eyes and imagine a flickering yellow flame growing just for me, coming when I call like an obedient pet.
The image is so strong and vivid I’m half convinced that I’ve finally done it. That I’ve finally called the flame. But when I open my eyes, the wicks are still as cold and untouched as ever without even a wisp of smoke or a hint of ash to show for my efforts.
What did you expect? You’re a dud. But I’m still disappointed. Every bit as much as I was as a child when I tried and tried and failed and failed over and over until I burst into exhausted tears and finally accepted my magicless status.
I’m just beginning to feel really depressed when the soft strains of acoustic guitar reach my ears. Hmm, that music is familiar…then I realize that Aiden is watching the video again. What was it called? Something about the gentle dominant, wasn’t it? I must admit that when I saw it earlier, I was a little too distracted by the vid itself to bother memorizing the name.
Looking up, I see that he is utterly engrossed, his piercing eyes fixed intently on the laptop screen. Is he getting anything out of this? He doesn’t appear to be aroused but then, what do I know? Maybe he’s seething with lust inside—I know I am. All day long I’ve been teased in various ways and I still haven’t been allowed to come. I can feel my pussy tingling at the memory of the movie and suddenly I want to see it again.
Moving quietly so as not to disturb his concentration, I put down the copy of Farrow’s and walk around the desk to stand beside him and watch.
The Dom is going down on his submissive again, licking and sucking her little pussy while she moans softly and writhes against the bonds that hold her to the bed. I feel my pussy begin to get hot and creamy at the sight. Then I remember Aiden kneeling in front of me and giving my pussy that long, loving, thorough kiss. Goddess, that was so hot. My knees feel weak just thinking about it.
“Are you enjoying the movie?” Aiden’s deep voice cuts into my thoughts and brings me back to myself. I look up to see that he’s watching me instead of the screen. Feeling embarrassed, I press my thighs together, wishing I was allowed to shut the green robe I’m wearing and cover my nakedness.
“Are you?” I counter, trying to be bold. “Why are you watching it? You don’t look very, uh, affected by it.”
One corner of his sensual mouth quirks up in a smile. “Actually, I’m watching less for pleasure than for information.”
“Information?” I frown. “I thought you said you’d done this kind of, uh, domination thing before?”
He nods. “I have but it’s been many years. The information I’m seeking is regarding human frailty. I’m reminding myself, you see, of how very delicate and breakable you are.”
“Breakable?” I don’t like the sound of that.
Aiden nods. “A vampire my age is immensely strong—many hundreds of times stronger than a human man. I could crush your limbs if I hugged you too hard or smash your skull with a flick of my wrist in a moment of inattention. I must be always on my guard to be careful, gentle…tender.” He gives me a little smile. “I daresay you think the punishments I’ve given you so far have been harsh but I assure you, darling, each stroke of the belt or hand I’ve dished out is no more than a love tap to a vampire.”
I put a hand to my throat. “Would it really be that easy for you to…to kill me?”
“Of course it would—just as it would be easy for a human parent to kill a helpless baby. But that doesn’t often happen, now does it?”
“No, I guess not.” I’m still not very comforted.
Aiden sighs. “I see I’ve upset you, which was not my intention at all. I simply want you to know that I’m always on my guard around you. That I will never be less than fully controlled, never less than completely careful of your life and well-being.”
“Why do you care so much?” I ask. “If you really hurt me, I mean?”
“Because you’re rapidly becoming a part of me,” he says softly. “Every hour our bond grows. I would as soon chop off my own hand as injure you, darling—even by accident. Which is why I try so hard to be careful.”
I have to admit he’s done an excellent job so far. True, he’s inflicted pain on me when he punished me but it was always in a careful, deliberate way. I never felt, during either of the spankings he’s given me, that he was in any way out of control.
“Stop worrying and come sit with me,” Aiden says, breaking my train of thought. He pats his lap. “Come, we’ll watch together.”
Feeling a little shy, I come to settle on his knee. At first I just perch there but with a little prompting from Aiden, I relax so that my back is to his broad chest. I take a deep breath, inhaling his warm cedar and spice scent, filling my lungs with him as I absorb the heat of his big body.
“Mmm,” Aiden murmurs in my ear. “Now isn’t this nice?”
I have to admit it is—although a little uncomfortable. My position on his lap makes my bare breasts thrust out and puts my pussy on display in a most disconcerting way. I tell myself to pretend I’m at a nudist camp, to just ignore my nakedness and concentrate on the movie. But since the Dom currently has his submissive up on her hands and knees and is ramming into her from behind, paying more attention to the movie doesn’t help.
And then Aiden starts to touch me.
“Look at that,” he murmurs, bringing one arm around me and casually cupping my breast. “He’s punishing her pussy with his cock.”
“Is he?” I whisper, not sure what else to say as he pinches and twists my nipple in a way that sends both pain and pleasure shooting through my body. “Is…can that be a punishment?”
“Fucking, you mean?” He’s pinching my other nipple too, now. Teasing it, causing my body to react whether I want it to or not. “It can, yes. I prefer to use it for pleasure but sometimes, when a submissive has crossed the line, she needs a harsher punishment. Then it becomes necessary to fuck her roughly, to remind her who her Master is.”
I’m disturbed by this idea. “You mean…rape her?”
“No, of course not,” Aiden replies at once. “I promise you, Emma, I may at some time in the future take you forcefully but I will never take you by force. There is a difference between rape and a punishment fuck.”
“There is?” It’s hard to talk when he’s stroking my breasts and teasing my nipples but I make myself speak anyway.
“Of course.” He nods at the laptop screen. “This submissive knows that she’s crossed the line and earned a severe punishment. Watch…” He stops touching me for a moment to rewind the movie to a certain point. “See?” he says, nodding at the screen. “He doesn’t force her to get to her hands and knees—she gets willingly into the position and offers herself to him.”
I watch quietly and sure enough, the blonde submissive gets on the bed and spreads her legs wide for her Master with no sign of reluctance. Still, I’m bothered by the scene. “But…” I clear my throat. “But she knows he’s going to…going to fuck her hard and she still…still opens herself to him?”
“That is the essence of submission, darling,” Aiden murmurs in a low, purring growl. “Taking your punishment willingly and without hesitation.”
“I don’t know if I could do that,” I whisper. “If-if I’ll ever be able to do that.”
“You will,” Aiden assures me. “In time, darling. And when you do—when you offer yourself to me without any reservation, even knowing that what I’m going to do to you will hurt—when you rejoice in the pain as well as the pleasure—then and only then will your education in submission be complete.”
I’m not sure if I want to be that “educated” but I don’t say so out loud. It’s becoming too hard to talk with Aiden touching me, stroking and teasing my naked body until I feel as if I want to moan with unreleased tension.
“Do you think she enjoys offering her body to her Master like that?” Aiden asks in a low voice. As he speaks, his hand slides down to cup my naked pussy. “Spreading her legs and inviting him to fill her tight little cunt with his big hard cock even though she knows he’s going to fuck her hard? To give her a punishment fuck?” He spreads me open as he talks, stroking lightly over my swollen folds, which are already creamy and wet for him.
“Master,” I gasp as he circles my clit with one careful fingertip. “Oh Goddess, please…”
“It’s been a long day for you, Emma,” he murmurs in my ear. “I’ve teased you and punished you and made you wear the harness. But I don’t think you’ve been allowed to come, have you?”
“You know I haven’t,” I whisper back, my voice ragged. I’m so close now—if he would just give me a little bit more…
“And you’d like to come, wouldn’t you?” he prompts me, still slowly stroking my inner cunt.
“Yes, Goddess, yes,” I gasp. “I need to—you know I do.”
“Well then, go ahead, darling.” Abruptly, he withdraws his hand, leaving me gasping and panting and only a hair away from the edge.
I groan in frustration. “What are you talking about?”
“About making yourself come, of course. Here, I’ll show you what I mean.” Lifting me gently but firmly, he turns me around until I’m straddling him, my legs spread wide around his narrow hips and my breasts nearly in his face. “Now, Emma,” he says, his eyes gleaming. “Go ahead, make yourself come.”
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