Page 9 of Absolution (Favorite Malady Trilogy #3)

The vibrator stimulates my g-spot directly, and my entire body tenses as my orgasm builds like an oncoming tidal wave.

Then it stops, and I cry out at the denial.

Dane’s dark green eyes glint with a cold, cruel light as he considers me like I’m a particularly intriguing new toy.

“No orgasms for you just yet,” he chides. “You teased me in the park, remember? If you don’t have any self-control, I’ll have to control your impulses for you.”

“I’m sorry,” I babble. “I didn’t mean to. I just wanted you so badly. Please, Dane. Please. Master,” I correct myself when his expression darkens. “Mercy.”

He cocks his head at me. “And what sort of mercy do you want, little dove? Do you want me to release you? Or do you want to come?”

I squirm in my restraints, at a loss. My entire body throbs with the painful need to orgasm, but my pride is on the verge of shattering entirely if I remain in this predicament much longer.

His smirk is downright demonic: a prince of hell reveling in tormenting his damned captive. “That’s what I thought.”

He presses a button on the small remote again, and the egg vibrates gently inside me, enough to keep me on edge but not push me to completion.

“No…” I moan.

He doesn’t deign to reply this time. He doesn’t have to. My refusal means nothing, and I have no hope of denying him.

In the back of my mind, I know I could stop this with a single safe word, but I’m just as deeply lost in this dark game as he is.

He slips the remote into his pocket so that he can slowly free the knots that secure my wrists and ankles. As the tension releases, he tenderly rubs my arms and legs, chasing away the pins and needles that were beginning to prickle at my flesh. He’ll never damage his precious pet.

The thought doesn’t stir so much as a shadow of resentment. I crave this cruel caretaking. I want to be his: degraded and adored, defiled and cherished.

Once he’s satisfied that my blood flow to my fingers and toes hasn’t been restricted for too long, he picks up the loose length of rope that’s tied to the end of the hook.

The smooth metal rod shifts inside me ever so slightly as he tugs at the back of my collar and loops the rope beneath it.

I can’t do more than quiver and pant, my fingers clawing at the carpet.

Then he tugs on the rope, and my strangled shout echoes through the bedroom. The hook presses deeper into my ass, and my collar pulls tight against the front of my throat at the same time, restricting my airflow. The sense of utter helplessness is crushing, and something deep inside me yields.

I’m a being of pure, primal sensation. My master has taken control of my body, and my soul sings for him. This is exactly where I want to be: on his perverted leash, at his feet.

I’m his , and being utterly owned by him is the sweetest bliss I’ve ever known.

Nothing bad can touch me when I’m with my dark god. No one can hurt me.

No one but him.

And I will welcome any pain he deigns to inflict. Each touch is a cruel blessing, a carnal indulgence.

“There she is.” His smile is warm and indulgent, and his verdant eyes are fixed on me like I’m the only thing that matters in the world. He strokes my hair back from my sweat-dampened brow. “My sweet pet.”

He gives the rope leash a gentle tug, and another garbled sound babbles from my lips at the hit of ruthless pleasure.

“Are you ready to crawl for me?”

I turn my burning face into the carpet. “I can’t…” I wheeze. “It’s too much.”

I’m too shaky to get to my hands and knees. All I can do is sprawl on the floor beneath him and tremble.

He hums softly. “Still so defiant. No more protests or excuses, little dove.”

Yet another object for my subjugation appears in his deft hand.

The pink ball gag is fixed into a complex white harness that I can’t quite make sense of in my befuddled state.

My mind reels, and my thoughts are too scattered to put up any form of resistance.

The rubber gag presses against my lips, and it only takes the gentlest pressure of his fingers on my jaw to coax my mouth open.

“Good girl.”

I shudder as the praise draws a fresh wash of pleasure from my core that’s so much more visceral than physical sensation.

He makes quick work of buckling the straps into place. One secures at the back of my head, drawing the pink ball deep into my mouth. Another fastens beneath my chin to keep my teeth locked around the rubber, and more straps crisscross my face to extend over my brow.

There’s a small metal loop at the back of the harness.

He ties a thin length of black cord through it and applies steady pressure.

My head draws back inexorably, and the gag sinks deeper into my mouth.

He secures the loose end of the cord through the loop at the end of the metal hook that still penetrates my ass.

Tears slip down my cheeks, and all I can do is whimper around the gag. I never could’ve conceived of such a wicked predicament, and my brain struggles to process my complete, abject vulnerability.

He cups my jaw, guiding my chin to tip back a fraction farther.

“My proud pet,” he praises. “You wanted to hold your head high, didn’t you?”

I mumble around the gag, an unintelligible plea for the mercy I know he doesn’t possess.

He strokes my hair in a tender display of affection. “Time to crawl for me. You don’t have to make the choice. I’m in control now.”

He straightens from where he was crouched beside me. He looms over me, and I cower in his imposing shadow.

I can’t, I try to say, but it’s nothing more than a high whine.

He can’t possibly expect me to move when I’m completely overwhelmed by carnal sensation. He can’t?—

He pulls on the rope leash, an inexorable pressure that causes the hook to penetrate me more deeply. At the same time, the pressure of the rope looped through the back of my collar draws the leather tight around my throat, and I choke on my wordless mewl of protest.

My vision flashes white with a vicious strike of dark ecstasy, and when it clears, I’m somehow on my hands and knees.

He takes a ruthless step forward, and I’m dragged along in his wake. My movements are jerky as my trembling limbs fumble to keep up with his slow, steady pace out of the bedroom.

I want to hang my head in shame, but the cord securing my gag to the hook forces me to hold it high. My back arches at the warring pressures of the hook pressing deep and my collar tugging tight, putting my dripping pussy on lewd display as my hips sway. My master has me leashed, body and soul.

I’ve been so consumed by my predicament that I didn’t notice the crop that he holds like a casual extension of his hand. The supple leather tongue snaps against my ass, a quick, sharp bite that commands my attention.

“Keep your focus on me, pet,” he chides. “I know it’s difficult, but you want to please me, don’t you? I know,” he says in soothing reply to my pitiful whimper. “You’re my good girl now. We’re just getting started.”

He chuckles in response to my wide-eyed shock, and he snaps the crop against my other ass cheek.

“That’s it. Eyes on me.”

He becomes the center of my universe, and I’m only dimly aware of our surroundings as the world falls away. He’s all that exists: his powerful body looming over me, his elegant hand gripping the rope, his glinting emerald eyes.

My core contracts around the vibrating egg, riding the painful edge of the orgasm that he denies me. I sink into the sweet pain, allowing it to purify me until I don’t have any thoughts left in my mind. There’s only him . Nothing else matters. Nothing else exists.

I watch him intently as he pours himself a splash of his favorite whisky into a crystal glass. Then he opens the freezer and finds a large ice sphere. He considers it for a moment, then finally blesses me with his full attention.

“I don’t usually take ice in my whisky,” he remarks, utterly cool and casual. “I’ll have to melt this down a bit. You can help me, my sweet pet.”

I try to nod in eager agreement. I’ll do anything to please him. But the minute movement of my head is restricted by the twine tied to my gag, and my small sign of assent morphs into a full-body shudder.

His low laugh caresses my soul like dark velvet as he drops to his knees beside me.

“This will hurt, but you’ll take it for me. You do suffer so beautifully.”

I cry out at the first icy kiss of the sphere against my lips. He rubs it over them where they’re forced apart around the gag. I never knew my lips could be so sensitive, and the sensation of the ice is almost cold enough to sear them.

Hot tears spill down my cheeks, and he captures them on the sphere, further melting it for his drink.

“I can’t wait to taste your tears,” he rumbles, licking at the salty wetness on the ice.

An ecstatic wave shudders through me at the pleasure he finds in my subjugation. His happiness is all that matters to me. Even in his torment, he’s wringing bliss from every throbbing inch of my most intimate areas. I will do anything to please him in return.

His cock is a hard, thick rod straining against his jeans, but he makes no move to free it. He’s enjoying himself, taking his sadistic time with me.

The ice touches just beneath my chin, then rolls down the column of my throat. My skin sparks everywhere it caresses my heated flesh. My mind begins to float, all lingering thoughts melting away with the ice as he rubs the sphere along the underside of my breasts.

A high-pitched whine echoes off the tiles, and I don’t recognize that I’m making the animal sound.

Cold sears my nipple, and I scream into the gag. Hot, wet arousal soaks my inner thighs as my core contracts madly around the vibrator. It stimulates the hook in my ass, and my inner muscles undulate around the intrusion.

He keeps me on the edge of a vicious orgasm as he deftly rolls the sphere around my nipples, stimulating and torturing my breasts.