“Look at me. Keep your eyes on me. I want to see you like this. Suck hard. That’s it, baby. Harder. Swallow me down.”
He felt heavy and delicious on her tongue. He took up her mouth. He was big, a monster, but she wanted him. She wanted to do exactly what he asked of her. Everything he asked, but she wasn’t certain she could. She concentrated on his cock, using her tongue, her mouth, listening to his instructions as he thrust into her. She knew he was gentle for her. Sevastyan wasn’t a gentle lover. He never would be and that was more than half his appeal for her. But this could be a scary situation and he took more care than usual although he thrust deep, his cock pulsing, a dark, erotic, powerful seduction that sent her own body into a frenzy of need.
She found herself sucking even harder just as he demanded, tilting her head back farther to give him a better angle. His cock swelled even more, jerked, felt so hot it was a burning brand as ropes of his seed jetted down her throat. He held himself there, one hand to the back of her head.
“That’s it, baby. All of it.” He eased back enough for her to breathe. “Clean me up. All of me. Every drop. Every inch of me.”
She wasn’t certain he was breathing hard. He looked as aloof as ever. Why was that hot to her? Why was her body so responsive to that? She took her time, her tongue finding every last sticky spot on him. He stepped away from her, casually retied his trousers and retrieved her water bottle. He held it to her mouth so she could drink and then he checked her arms.
“Is your circulation all right?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He unwrapped the rope that covered her nipples.
Flambé wasn’t happy about that, but she didn’t protest. She kept her lashes down, desperate to keep from squirming on the knots. Three of them were in her body now, or at least they felt like it. Sevastyan began to pull her back into a suspended position. He stopped when her breasts were jutting toward him. He leaned forward and took her left one into the heat of his mouth and her entire body jolted. Flames ran up her spine. He sucked hard on her nipple, elongating it as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small case.
“You’ll look particularly lovely in these rubies with this decorative tie.” He leaned close and began to attach something that bit into her nipple. “This is a rubber-tipped alligator clamp. Ruby, of course, and weighted with rubies. You’ll want to be still so they don’t swing while you talk and I take your photograph.”
He screwed the clamp tighter, watching her face the entire time. When she took a deep breath and her gaze jumped to his, his finger slid to her slick entrance and pressed deep. “You like this, don’t you, baby?”
She swallowed and nodded. She did. It was scary, but she felt like she floating close to euphoria. She couldn’t say why, only that she was so very close.
He switched his attention to the other breast and mimicked the same action. When he was satisfied, he lifted her a few more inches into the air. Once again, he tested her pulse and checked to make certain her skin was warm.
To her consternation, he lifted the knot at her clit idly and began to rub back and forth with his finger and then the knot, alternating between them. “What happened at Mitya’s house, Flambé?” His thumb hooked in the rope and played for a moment, sending streaks of fire darting to her sex and bottom simultaneously while his fingers and the knot burned over her inflamed clit until she wanted to scream.
She jerked and the rubies dangling from the nipple clamps danced as though possessed, sending flames roaring through her veins straight to her sheath.
“I heard some men talking about me. About a conversation you had with your cousin.” She could barely find her voice. Her mind was in chaos. It was difficult to think straight but she was so desperate to have him she thought she might go insane.
Sevastyan stepped back. “Open your eyes, baby, and look at me. You’re flying too high to talk and we’re not stopping until we have this conversation.”
His voice was commanding. There was no disobeying it and she needed the sound of it as an anchor. Flambé forced air into her lungs and opened her eyes, holding her body very still. He was about a foot away from her, maybe less, sucking on one finger, his camera cradled in his hands. He looked so unaffected by everything, so sexy she wanted to hold out even longer but she knew she couldn’t.
“Who did you hear talking?”
“I don’t know. They were in the next room, but the door was open. I was waiting for you. Ania had gone upstairs to get her things. She said to go ahead and wait in the sitting room and I took a wrong turn. I heard voices and was going to ask where I went wrong, but I heard my name so I just stopped and listened.”
Her voice was ragged. Lungs labored. She tried not to hear the sob in her voice. The betrayal. But it was there and if she could hear it, so could he. His expression didn’t change.
“Keep going, malen’koye plamya. I need to know everything that was said.”
She hated this. Hated to tell him. She already felt so vulnerable. Not because she was wrapped naked in the ropes—the ropes comforted her. She had no idea why they did. There was every possibility that Sevastyan knew being in the ropes comforted her. She felt vulnerable because she already wanted to be his. She felt too much for him. Too many weeks had gone by while she fantasized about him and now that she’d been with him, she wanted to belong to him. This wasn’t all about sex. The things that were said had crushed her.
“They said you told Mitya that you needed a submissive, any submissive would do and you just had to find a female on her first life cycle.”
She kept her gaze fixed on his face, but it was impossible to tell from his expressionless mask what he was thinking. Flamme had chosen Shturm because he could protect them. The little female leopard was on her first life cycle and had been so afraid of Franco Matherson that she was desperate to find a male leopard who would stop him. Flambé had fantasized about Sevastyan for months. When the two had come together, Flamme had risen, taking charge, choosing her mate because it made sense to her.
“They said Mitya pointed out that you’d found exactly what you were looking for in me, a woman you could do anything you wanted to because I was so hot for sex with you I’d do anything for you. I was just the right kind of woman because all I wanted was to be fucked any way you wanted to fuck me. I was a toy for you and I’d let you manipulate me, and they’re right, aren’t they? Aren’t they, Sevastyan?”
She struggled not to cry. She wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction. She was tougher than that. They were so right about her. She was hanging in his ropes, desperate for him to fuck her. Nearly begging him to. Humiliating herself by telling him what those men had said—what they all thought of her in his cousin’s home.
“I want to know every single thing they said, Flambé, and then I’ll address it point by point. I can see overhearing this conversation really hurt you and I wish that you had come to me immediately, although I can understand why you didn’t. Please continue.”
She was grateful that he didn’t portray any emotion. His expression didn’t change. His voice didn’t change and that gave her the courage to keep going.
“They said you don’t give a damn about women. About anyone other than your cousins and maybe their wives, but they doubted that. In your families, most of the women are killed after they provide their husbands with sons.”
His expression remained the same, that mask was in place. He didn’t flinch or look as if anyone was saying anything that was crazy.
“They said that you killed the men watching us at your house. You went out and hunted them down and you killed them, just like you had to have killed the ones following us when we were on our way to see Brent Shriver.”
“That’s it? That’s everything?”
“Only that you told Mitya it was difficult to find a true submissive, especially one your leopard didn’t want to rip to shreds, and I was
a true submissive and Shturm was enamoured with Flamme.”
He nodded. “First, Mitya and I did have a discussion some time ago, before I ever met you, that I couldn’t hope to find a woman who would suit my particular needs. My cousin is considered rather dark and very sexually demanding. I am much darker and more demanding. Both of us know this and he was worried about me. It was unfortunate that we had the discussion within the hearing of men we trusted.”
He reached for the bottle of water again and held it to her lips. “Drink. Do you need to come out of the ropes? Or do you want to continue with the discussion in them?”
She wanted to stay bound. She felt safer. Comforted. “I’m good.”
“He knows Shturm is a killer and that it was dangerous for me to go to the club, but it was my only outlet. I was careful, but that solution wasn’t going to last forever. As for manipulating you, I suppose I can and will sexually, just like tonight, but you could have said no at any point. Those men are selling you short. When it comes to our sexual relationship, we both, fortunately, enjoy the same thing. Outside of that, we are going to have to work things out. Manipulation is not going to work on you in our day-to-day life.”
Flambé knew that much was true. He couldn’t manipulate her outside of the bedroom.
“As for doing whatever I want with someone like you, you love the ropes the way I do, so yes, I can do whatever I want and I don’t have to worry that you’ll find the things I want or need repulsive. You made that very clear to me, although whoever was gossiping has no idea what they were talking about because they were making shit up. As for being my toy, you aren’t anyone’s toy. You’re my woman and we’re partners sexually. You have the right to say what you want or don’t want and I’ll respect that.”
He stepped close to her and cupped her face gently in his hands. “Do I give a damn about most women? No. I love my cousins’ wives. I am already falling for you and know that it isn’t going to take much to just keep going in all the way. Do I think that’s a good thing? No. I don’t. Like I said, I’m much darker than Mitya, and I’ve got things inside me that sometimes escape. They aren’t always good. You’re capable of unleashing those things.”
He stepped away from her again and went back to wherever it was he put the water and camera. He moved around her, taking several closeups of the ruby clamps. “Your life with me isn’t going to be easy, Flambé, and I’m not going to pretend it will be, although I will always try to give you everything you want when I can. I’ll care for you with everything in me. You’ll have that. So that bullshit about not caring for you is just that—bullshit. I know you and your leopard can hear the truth.”
She could. The relief was so tremendous she wanted to cry. At the same time, she had been around so many male shifters who were so good at deceiving their mates that a part of her, that hurt part, filed the things those men said away in her head.
“I told you about the lair we came from. The women were murdered after they gave birth to sons. My own mother was murdered. Most times, the sons were expected to participate. I refused. Mitya refused. Gorya, Fyodor and Timur refused. We were forced to leave and all of us have a price on our heads. Again, I shared this with you. Maybe not the details because I don’t want you to have nightmares, but we got out.”
He suddenly looked directly at her again. “As for hunting the men Matherson had on my property, men he was using to try to kidnap you, damn straight I hunted them and I killed them. I sent him a message loud and clear that he wasn’t going to hurt you in any way. He went after you again and I sent him the same message. Mitya added an exclamation point by joining me. I don’t think he got exactly who he was messing with at first.”
He took several more photographs, put down the camera and then lowered her until her breasts were level with his mouth. “You have to be getting tired.” Very quickly he unscrewed the clamp on her right breast and as it dropped into his hand and the blood rushed painfully back, his mouth covered her nipple with soothing heat. He did the same to the left. All the while he tugged and played the rope like the artist he was so that it sang along her nerve endings, bringing them to vivid life.
“Sevastyan.” His name came out a plea. Almost a sob.
He quickly shoved the knots aside as he lowered his trousers and, digging his hands into her hips, slammed his cock into her inflamed, slick sheath. The aggressive thrust drove her bottom against the cross so that the thick knot tangled deep in the bundle of sensitive nerve endings. She cried out as flames seemed to lick at her body from the inside out.
He moved in her over and over, relentlessly, feeding the fire until it engulfed her, rushing over her so strongly there wasn’t one cell in her body that didn’t feel compromised, that didn’t feel the contractions in some powerful way.
He continued surging into her harder and deeper, rocking her body, when the solid boards behind her refused to allow any give to them. The position he had her tied had her wide open to him, completely allowing him to drive into her, angling his body to keep his cock positioned perfectly to cause the most friction over her inflamed clit, over her most sensitive spot where her sheath clamped so tightly down on him and grasped and milked at him greedily. Then she felt him erupting like pure fire, coating the walls of her sheath with molten seed, rope after rope triggering more violent shocks until she was hanging in the ropes, unable to keep her head up. Unable to think or breathe properly.
Sevastyan’s arms went around her and he lowered her right into his lap as he took her to the floor, loosening the ropes to allow her legs to straighten, rubbing the bloodflow back into them as he did. He quickly unknotted the chain of large knots from the diamond that looped from her front to her back, freeing that thong, and then the binding on her arms. He spent a great deal of time massaging her arms while she sat on his lap.
“I’ve got you, baby,” he murmured softly. “Just rest. You’re not hurt anywhere, are you? No place the rope was too tight?” He ran his hand expertly under the remaining halter to check that the bindings weren’t digging into her skin.
She shook her head and nuzzled her face into his chest. She was exhausted. She was in excellent physical condition and even though it seemed as if she had been in the ropes a long time, she actually hadn’t been. He had even lowered her to give her a break. She knew what he had been doing.
“Good. Even if you’re loving what we’re doing, Flambé, you have to tell me if something isn’t right. We’ll correct it and go on. We can’t take a chance on you getting hurt.” He slipped more rope off her body.
Strangely, the more the rope came off, the more she felt naked and vulnerable without it. She burrowed deeper into him. “I really like being in the ropes.”
“That’s a good thing since I like tying you. You look beautiful in rope. Some people don’t get it, and that’s all right. It’s not their thing. I needed an outlet for the artist in me as well as that darker side of me. It was also something that helped me stay at a distance and protected the women from my leopard.” He brushed a kiss against her neck as he continued to massage her arms and shoulders gently.
She opened her eyes enough to look up at him. “That was so incredibly erotic. A million times better than what I saw you do in that room.”
He rubbed his face against hers. “It wouldn’t be safe to take you into one of those rooms. There are cameras everywhere. I made certain before I came in here that Cain didn’t have any hidden ones. I also made it clear what would happen to him if he ever photographed you. He knows better than to cross me.”
She frowned. “I don’t understand. Photograph me? What does that mean?”
He scraped his teeth on her bare shoulder and a fission of desire slid down her spine. “You think you’re alone when you come here to plant, Flambé. Cain has tried to set you up more than once. He left you alone in his office to watch the screens so you could see what went on in the rooms. He asked if you wanted him to
show you the various apparatuses to see how they worked. He’s a leopard, a dominant. He recognizes a submissive. He compromises clients to protect his other clients. He never uses footage unless he has to, but he’s ruthless enough.”
She blinked up at him, trying to understand. She hadn’t done anything with Cain. She’d gone to his office that one time, but he hadn’t been there.
“Had you gotten yourself off while you were here watching and he caught you on camera, he would have held that over your head,” he said bluntly.
Shifters weren’t particularly shy about sex and she might not have been as a rule, but she had a very prosperous business and she needed it to help others survive. She wasn’t about to throw their lives away because she was so anxious to have sex she wasn’t thinking, which was why she was very worried about the emergence of her female leopard.
“I should have thought of that. Not that I was getting myself off in the club.”
“Good, although the idea does have its merits.”
She laughed softly. “I should have known you’d say that.”
“Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me the truth tonight, Flambé. We both know you didn’t have to. I was afraid you’d tell me to go to hell, and I wasn’t certain how else to get you to feel safe enough to tell me.”
“I wanted to tell you, I was just so hurt and I was afraid it was true. In a sense, because part of it was true, it was easy to believe the rest. You’re so extraordinary, and I feel so ordinary that it’s easy enough to believe.”
“Flambé.” There was warning in his voice.
“You would never have looked at me if I wasn’t a submissive and my leopard didn’t appeal to Shturm.”
His laughter made her toes want to curl. “You would never have looked at me if I wasn’t a dominant, a rigger, and Shturm didn’t appeal to your little female.”
Leopard's Rage Page 17