Page 64 of Kiss of Seduction (Court of Chains #1)

Natalya eased back in the chair as she turned on the vibrator. She started on a slow setting, smiling when Evie stiffened against the sensation. She was breathing heavily, from nervousness and anticipation. As Natalya increased the power of the vibrator, it was from pleasure too.

She really was gorgeous tied up like this. Her breasts naked, chest heaving. Perspiration made her skin look shiny. The red ropes clashed wonderfully against her freckled skin and her black stockings. She wore red lipstick, almost the same shade as the gag ball in her mouth.

Saliva ran over her lips as she breathed. First her breathing was just heavy. Then noise joined her quick breaths. Soft moans, muffled by the gag ball. Quivering groans and wet gasps.

Evie tried to lean forward, but the ropes kept her upright. She tried to wriggle, but her legs being locked in a kneeling position meant she wasn’t getting anywhere. All the while, her moans were getting louder. More drawn out. More desperate sounding.

Natalya increased the intensity, and Evie started shaking. Her skin was flushed. Her lips were wet from drooling. If she wasn’t still wearing underwear, Natalya suspected she would be dripping all over the sheets.

As her moans turned rapid and high, Natalya dialed up the pressure further. It made Evie cry out, the sound partially stolen by the gag ball in her mouth. Her muscles spasmed, and she let out a long moan as she came.

One .

Natalya smiled and wound down the intensity. It hadn’t even been five minutes. Evie was sensitive, and Natalya’s presence and small touches made her even more so. She really had needed this badly. But it wasn’t just sexual frustration that had gotten her off that briskly.

Being in Evie’s current position required trust. An extreme amount too.

She was helpless. Bound and blind. Unable to speak or call out for help.

Unable to use her safe words. Complete submission.

It turned her on more than Natalya had ever seen her, and she trusted Natalya not to ruin her when in that state.

She wouldn’t. Not much anyway.

Two .

Though she chose not to detect Evie’s emotions in the way she could, where she felt them in her own body as easily as Evie felt them in hers, it didn’t mean her keenness for reading body language went away.

If needed, Natalya would stop this. But it wasn’t needed. Evie was pressing against her restraints from frustration, not from panic. Her sharp moans were from intense pleasure, not pain. Though she was nervous, it wasn’t consuming her. It wasn’t driving her to want to stop this.

In fact, she wanted more. She was writhing to get more.

Three .

Natalya could have made it worse. She could have put noise-canceling headphones on her too, taking away her hearing as well as her sight. Before doing so, Natalya could have whispered that she was leaving her there, by herself, to squirm and come apart on her own.

Though Natalya would have remained in the room, regardless of what she said, it didn’t matter. In this state of submission, Evie would have believed she was leaving, even if logic might have told her otherwise. And then she would have panicked.

Evie couldn’t be left alone like that. There were many things she could handle, but the worst thing Natalya could do to her was abandon her.

To leave her alone when she was hurting or after they’d been together.

It tore at her worse than any physical pain could do. She needed to know Natalya was there.

“Had enough yet, darling?”

Hearing Natalya’s voice after several minutes of silence made Evie’s hips twitch. She groaned loudly against the gag ball, shivering and spasming.

“It doesn’t look like it to me.” Natalya toyed with the controls on the remote, making the vibrations pulse. It made Evie shiver and tremble. Made her groan loudly.

Four .

There was no signature click after that one. Evie had missed the count. Natalya smiled, only just holding back a chuckle. Poor, poor Evie.

Natalya repeated the pulsating feeling except at a higher intensity. Kept dialing slowly, back and forth, until Evie was gasping against the gag, moaning so loudly it would have drowned out the conversations of the Second Circle had this happened on one of the stages.

Five .

Oh, it would be magnificent to have her on the stage. To have an audience watch as she came apart. To lace her desire with the embarrassment and excitement of exhibitionism. There were so many ways Natalya could heighten Evie’s pleasure. Untold ways to make sex more than its basic, boring tenets.

Though Evie had plenty to deal with just from this alone. And only half an hour had passed. It probably felt like no time at all to her. Or perhaps this was a grueling, torturous hour she prayed would end any second. Most likely, it was a mix of the two.

Natalya could have let her know how much time remained. As Evie tried desperately to buck her hips away from the butterfly, Natalya decided not to.

Six .

“Have you learned your lesson?” Natalya asked, lowering the intensity of the vibrator to almost nothing.

Evie nodded furiously. Saliva fell from her mouth to stain the sheets. Drops of sweat were running down between her breasts. She was trembling with every breath.

“You’ll be polite in the future?” Natalya smiled as she said it. She didn’t care that Evie couldn’t see. She was having too delightful a time with this.

Evie nodded again, the motion stopping when Natalya increased the intensity. Evie yelled out against the gag ball, heaving and shaking. The ropes dug into her skin as she strained against them.

“I think you’re not quite there yet. A little while longer should do it. A few more. Just to make sure the lesson really sticks.”

Evie whined, and the sound made Natalya sigh. There were many things about Evie she delighted in. Her kindness, her courage, her attentiveness. Right then, deep in a dungeon of danger and desire, Natalya’s favorite thing about her was how she whimpered.

Seven .

Her own composure was being tested. Only decades of practiced self-control kept her from getting herself off as she watched this.

But she wouldn’t give Evie the satisfaction of hearing that.

Not while she was still being punished. Not while she was teetering the edge between pleasure and pain caused by overstimulation.

She had needed this. She’d asked for it so many times in the past three weeks.

Even knelt on the floor at one point, communicating that she’d let Natalya do whatever she wanted to her.

It was an act usually reserved for the Silvers.

And Evie had been desperate enough that she’d submitted so completely to her.

But Natalya hadn’t been able to get over what she was feeling.

Her guilt from the last time had gnawed at her, and the fear of rejection hung over her like a dark cloud.

It had taken Evie coming to the Second Circle, confident and beautiful and practically forcing her hand, for Natalya to get over the blockages her mind had put in place.

Natalya smirked. She really didn’t like being forced. But Evie almost made it feel fun.

Eight .

Time was running out. The hour was nearly at an end, and Evie looked like she would fall over had the ropes not kept her in place. She was shaking and breathing hard against the gag ball. She had no wherewithal anymore. Yet, her body was asking for more. She was still brimming with desire.

She had taken so many steps for Natalya. She’d moved past so many dangers, into the dark and the unknown. She’d faced her personal demons and then not cowered from the fiendish presence Natalya presented. She’d just come closer.

Her trust was stunning. Her submission gorgeous. All of her perfection.

Especially her weak, little whimpers quivering out of her gagged mouth.

Nine .

Natalya turned off the butterfly. It was the first time it was completely off since the hour began. It made Evie sag against her bonds. Relieved and thankful it was over.

Unfortunately for her, the relief wouldn’t last.

Natalya moved to stand in front of her. Didn’t touch her, yet. She’d been in sensory deprivation long enough that any touch would startle her, and that wasn’t Natalya’s intention right then.

“Can you hear me, darling?”

Heaving in deep breaths, Evie nodded slowly.

Natalya leaned in close. She let Evie realize she was there, let her realize another body was close to hers, before pulling off the blindfold.

Glassy green eyes looked up at Natalya, pleading and relieved. Her body was shaking from the effort of it all. And Natalya hadn’t even touched her yet.

She wouldn’t like what was coming.

Keeping eye contact, Natalya reached behind Evie and took the click counter out of her hand, inspecting it.

“Only six?” Natalya shook her head regretfully. “Unfortunate, darling. That’s not the number I got.”

She grabbed Evie’s chin. It was slick and glistening from spit.

“That means I need to make you scream.”

Evie barely comprehended what Natalya was saying. She was too out of it, too overwhelmed. Too relieved that she’d finally gotten through the punishment.

And then realization hit that she’d messed up the count.

She knew she’d missed some. She knew, but she had no idea how many.

She’d almost dared click the counter additional times out of desperation, just to get closer to what the number might be, but had thought better of it.

Something awful would probably happen if the number on the counter exceeded what Natalya had observed.

“You’re off by three.” Natalya eased down on the bed in front of her, a knee on either side of her thighs. Almost sitting on Evie’s lap. Still holding onto her chin. Still smiling horribly.

What was she going to do? Terrible things, obviously, but what exactly? Evie was too exhausted to make earnest guesses. She just knew she wouldn’t like it.