“A shame. Will you grant us a demonstration at least?” the baron purrs.
It’s his way of getting back at Bael for making him come close to soiling himself.
“I’m nobody’s entertainment,” I growl.
“In one of the private rooms, perhaps.” Bael lifts my hand to his mouth, kissing the back of my knuckles and eyeing the baron over the top of them. It’s a way to tell me to calm. We expected this, but still…
I won’t perform in front of all these people.
“Look at the defiance in her eyes. What a beauty. This one will require some breaking,” the baron’s lip curls in a snarl. “Perhaps I will send for the cat o’ nine.”
Bael puts a hand to his chest, looking sleepy eyed again. “But you forget. This one is mine. Mine to break. Mine to tame. Mine to fuck. I make the decisions when it comes to her training.”
“You have a soft touch.”
“I’m not interested in breaking her will. I want that fierce spirit addicted to my cock, so she will beg me for another taste of it. Not fear me. The best leash is the invisible one.”
“This way then,” the baron muses. “I have the perfect room for you.”
He leads us to an alcove off the main room. We duck through a small tunnel, and find ourselves in a cave. Water trickles down one wall, and pretty little vines climb around it.
The walls are a clear crystal blue.
One cannot see fully through them, but I can make out the shadows on the other side as people walk past. They’ll see our silhouettes. Our bodies writhing. Just as we can see them.
The room itself is set out similarly to the room at the inn. Padded bench, X-shaped cross, a table with several instruments on it, and numerous manacles bound to the walls and roof.
“Thank you,” Bael says, interposing himself between us. “I shall take it from here.”
The baron licks his lips, trying to snatch a glance at me, but then he merely nods and disappears back into the darkness, where I have no doubt he’ll be one of the shadows on the other side of that wall.
Bael circles the room, examining everything. He looks toward me, one brow arching.
I nod. I’m okay. I couldn’t do this out there, but this feels intimate enough.
“Everything that is done to you here is by your whim,” Bael tells me. “You’re in control. You tell me how far this goes. You tell me how much you can take. If I push you too far, then you use your safe word. Understood?”
I nod.
He caresses my face, thumb stroking firmly over my lips. “I need a yes, Zyla.”
“Yes. Understood.” I suck his thumb into my mouth, stroking the underside of it with my tongue to show him I am with him all the way.
Bael hisses through his teeth, his eyes turning dark. “You’re such a brat.” Capturing my jaw in his hand, he leans down and kisses me. “Maybe I will enjoy this more than I thought.”
Our mouths collide, his tongue a hot lash against mine. In this he’s the conqueror, and I submit to his touch with an ever-growing ease. At every moment he meets me as an equal, and it’s this that brings down my walls, shattering each barrier one by one.
He loves my defiance. I can feel it in the way he consumes me, eating at my mouth as if he wants to drink me down. Step by step he pushes me back, until my bottom rests against the padded bench, and I have to splay a hand back to stop myself from toppling.
“Bael,” I gasp, head tilting back to reveal my throat to him as his lips graze over my pulse. “Gods, I love the taste of your mouth.”
“You have no idea how much,” he says wolfishly, shoving a thigh between mine. Grabbing my wrists, he splays me back, his hips forcing mine wide. “Look at you.” Hooded eyes devour me. “So pretty and gold. Spread your thighs. Spread them wide.”
I obey, my heated flesh slick and aroused. I’m so wet, I could take him right now.
But he merely kisses under my chin, working his way down, his large hands sliding my sleeve off my shoulder. The lace hooks on the edge of my nipple and he captures my breast in his palm, weighing it, before he plucks something from the tray beside him.
It’s a clamp, shaped somewhat like a butterfly.
