Page 54

I pushed myself up in irritation, striding over to the window, taking a breath as I looked out, both helping to calm me.

“I’m the one who should be apologizing,” I said after a while.

“That wasn’t fair of me—I shouldn’t have said it.

” No matter how true it was. “It’s just …

the last couple of weeks … I just feel so angry . All the damn time.”

“You don’t show it,” she said. “You always seem so composed.”

I gave a dry laugh. “If it could talk, the ruins of my office might disagree.”

“One moment of giving in to your emotions hardly counts. Not with what you’ve had going on.”

I shook my head, not wanting to have this conversation. “It’s my problem. Let’s talk about something else.”

“No, Master. It’s our problem. Yours, mine, and Iyoni’s. That’s what a bond means, remember?” She was silent for a beat, letting her message land. Then she spoke again. “It’s late. Why don’t you come to bed?”

“Yeah,” I muttered. “You’re right, sleep might help. But I’m going to take a shower first.”

“Of course.”

I turned to head to the en suite, and she was kneeling on the bed as I’d left her, watching me, the kimono half-open like she knew and hadn’t bothered to cover herself. She was so beautiful, her body perfect, and her shoulders pulled back as she saw me looking.

“I’ll be waiting when you’re done,” she said as I walked past.

I took a long shower, trying to wash some of the day away.

As they always did when I was alone, my thoughts turned to brooding.

I felt no less trapped than I had since this whole damn mess started, and on top of that, there was the knowledge that time was slipping away, Friday’s deadline drawing closer.

Maybe Moreau’s bomb wasn’t aimed at me, but it sure felt personal.

If I’d given him what he wanted and already undermined SPAR, would he still be targeting civilians?

Unbidden, images of mangled and dying victims amid ruin and destruction filled my mind, and I shuddered. Moreau didn’t care; a man like him saw a death toll only as a tool to achieve his aim.

The man had no morality. To me, that was the very definition of evil.

Yet Iyoni had seen no need to judge him.

I wasn’t in the mood to contemplate the philosophical implications of that.

Philosophy worked great in the classroom and lecture hall; it didn’t serve much purpose when the balance of lives were at stake in the real world.

Kara on one end of the scale. Innocents on the other. And me, the fulcrum, trying to see a way through that kept them both safe.

And the simple truth was … I couldn’t. I was racing toward a point in the future where that would mean making decisions I didn’t like, and doing things I didn’t want to do.

The lights were off and Kara was lying under the duvet by the time I’d toweled dry and stepped back into the room. Her kimono was on the floor. I padded quietly around the end of the bed, trying not to disturb her, and slipped under the duvet on my side.

She turned immediately, not asleep at all, and I thought she was going to snuggle into my side. Instead, she pressed one hand into my chest and rose up beside me, the duvet falling away, light from the window highlighting her bare curves. “I’m going to take care of you tonight.”

“You take care of me all the time.”

“Not like this I don’t.” She smiled in the gloom. “Sit up for me, please, Master. I want you leaning against the headboard.”

I did as she asked, shuffling up the bed until my back was pressed against the pillows.

As soon as I was where she wanted me, she inched closer, then lifted one knee and swung it over my lap, bracing herself with hands on my shoulders.

Her full breasts were level with my face, her warm smooth skin pressed against mine, and she was wet and slick where she straddled me.

“Enjoy me,” Kara whispered, sliding one hand into my hair and pulling my mouth to her breast. “I’m yours, my love, my Master.”

I took her nipple into my mouth and played my tongue across it, sliding my hands down her back as she arched with a small gasp, pressing herself more into me. Her hands tightened in my hair. “Yes,” she hissed. “Just like that.”

I found the firm globes of her ass with my palms, pulling her harder against me, and she began to rock her hips, rubbing her sex against my rapidly-hardening cock.

“Don’t neglect this one,” Kara said, guiding my head across to her other breast. I gave a quiet chuckle before latching onto that one in turn, sucking her nipple deep into my mouth.

Her breath came sudden and sharp, her body trembling against me, and she clutched my head to her and whimpered her pleasure.

“I’m going to ride you until you fill me with your cum,” she breathed, slipping a hand between our bodies to grasp my hardness. She rose on her knees, positioning me at her entrance, then slid slowly down.

We both gasped as I pressed into her slick warmth, and she took a moment to rise up again, adjusting to me.

“You stretch me so deliciously,” she murmured, and chewed her lip as she forced her hips down inch by inch.

At last, her ass touched my thighs, and she paused to catch her breath, enveloping my head in her slender arms and leaning down for a kiss.

I slid one hand up to the back of her neck, grasping firmly, letting her know she was held, and she whimpered into my mouth as our tongues danced together. “You know just how to turn me on, don’t you?” she said breathlessly.

“Spank you, hold you tight, tease you and be mean to you?” I said, smiling.

She shuddered against me. “Yes, yes, yes, and fuck yes.”

“My kinky little demon.”

“My sexy little Master.”

I stilled, letting the silence linger. “‘Little’?” I gave her ass a slap for that.

She squirmed against me. “I was just … it was a … Oh, damn it, it’s not my fault I can’t think when you’re inside me!”

I chuckled, and she gasped at the sensation.

“I’m going to make you pay for that,” she murmured, and began to slowly move her hips against me.

“For what?”

“Laughing,” she said, sighing softly as she rolled her hips. “It’s mean to laugh when you’re …” She gave a small, breathy whimper. “… inside me.”

“Is this my punishment?” I asked, sliding one hand between us to palm her breast.

“Yes.” She ground herself against me, her words coming around her moans. “Going to … tease you … until you can’t … resist.”

“Such torment,” I murmured, taking advantage of her languorous movements to find her other nipple with my mouth.

We were in no rush. Her hips rocked gently, just enough to give us both the friction we needed to enjoy each other, my cock fully embedded inside her the whole time.

“Fuck,” she whispered against me after a while, “I could come like this.”

“Not without my permission,” I said, stroking my hands over her body to cup her ass, and pull her harder against me.

She gasped at the rougher treatment. “Are you going to make me beg?”

“Hmm.” I feigned thoughtfulness, pushing up with my hips while I pulled her down onto me. She gave delightfully high-pitched gasps each time I did. “Yes. I will.”

She shuddered against me, breasts rubbing against my collar bone as she bowed her head to kiss me again. “Please may I come, Master,” she murmured between kisses. “I’m so fucking ready to come.”

“No … Not yet.”

She whimpered, hips rolling against mine and her hands tightening painfully in my hair. “Please, Master,” she whined, “I can’t hold on.”

“You said you were going to tease me until I couldn’t resist.” I slid a hand between us and found her clit with my fingertips.

She gasped, back arching. “Oh … you sadist …” The words were almost unintelligible, her jaw clenched hard as she squirmed, trying to avoid my touch. “I can’t … hold off …”

“Come for me then, little demon of mine.”

I played my fingers over her, and she cried out as she gave in to her release, her pussy clenching so tight around me that her greater strength could’ve hurt if I wasn’t so much stronger than I had been.

Her chest heaved as she took ragged breaths, her pert breasts jiggling enticingly.

I pulled her against me, one arm around her back, and took one nipple between my teeth.

She cried out again, clinging with both arms to my head, and her body shook with the force of her pleasure.

It was some moments before she came down from her high, and I was still hard inside her.

“You feel so good, Master,” she murmured, then began to ride me faster. “I want to feel you come inside me.”

I grasped her narrow waist with both hands, using my greater strength to help her motions, and it was like she weighed nothing. I really was that much stronger.

Our breathing grew heavy as we moved together, and her ass slapped into my thighs with each downstroke. She had her hands on my shoulders to steady herself, her eyes closed, lips slightly parted, and I stared at her.

“You’re so fucking gorgeous.”

A smile curled the corners of her mouth, then she chewed her lip and her eyelids fluttered. “I’m going to come again.”

“Just from being called gorgeous?” I teased, then focused on my own pleasure as I pulled her harder onto me.

Her cries took on that higher sound I loved hearing her make, letting me know how close she was, and a moment later, she began to beg again. “Please, Master … please …”

I was close myself, but held off as long as I could, just to be a bastard.

“Please …” she begged again, practically whimpering, and it was enough to drive me over the edge.

“Come for me,” I gasped, pulling her down as I thrust up with my hips and unloaded inside her. She cried out, wrapping her arms around my head, clutching me to her as she twitched and trembled against me.

It was some time until our breathing steadied, our bodies locked together and a thin sheen of perspiration covering every inch of our skin.

“God, I love your cock,” she murmured in my ear, and I chuckled in response. “Oh no … don’t do that,” she said quickly. “Too sensitive.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle again, and she batted at my chest in mock irritation. I grinned up at her, slid my hands down to her ass, and cupped her cheeks as I kissed her. “That was some good sex,” I said, as I felt the sticky residue of our lovemaking with my fingertips. “I think we made a mess.”

She eased off me carefully, and as I slipped free of her, a gush of our combined fluids ran out over my groin.

“We definitely made a mess,” she said, kneeling between my legs.

She leaned forward, holding her hair out of the way with one hand.

“Such a good thing you have a slave to take care of that, Master.”

I closed my eyes and leaned back against the headboard while Kara cleaned me with her tongue.