Bargain With the Enemy (8 page)

‘Forgive me.' His hands went to the back of her head, fumbling with the cloth. ‘I would never hurt you, Stephanie.'

‘No, it's okay. I want this, really.'

The minutes ticked by while Ivo hesitated, his palms cupping the back of her head. Finally he said, ‘I am teaching you who is in control. You could at least pretend to be submissive.'

The way he'd forced himself to sound aggrieved at her eagerness made her laugh. She'd heard the lingering hint of concern behind his words. ‘I don't admit defeat easily.'

Warm lips lingered on her forehead for a moment and Ivo muttered, ‘I am glad. Shall we?'

Stephanie nodded.

She heard him draw in a sharp breath.

His thumb pressed against her lips. Pure heat tingled through her body to pool between her legs. Her pulse sky-rocketed and anticipation caused her stomach muscles to quiver.

He moved away then administered another sharp slap to her bottom.

She gasped but obediently remained quiet.

Unable to see, her other senses were heightened. Whenever he leaned close, his earthy, musk-scent filled her nostrils. Faint sounds made her wonder what he did and although her curiosity tugged at her to remove the blindfold she refrained.

He moved about the room. She heard the rustle of clothing. Was he undressing? Did he now stand in all his naked glory in front of her? Her mouth dried and she swayed.

His fingers lifted strands of her hair, before allowing them to fall against her neck. Then he unsnapped the fastenings of her shirt, one at a time. His breathing was deep and measured, his pace unhurried until she thought she'd scream from the fraught tension tightening her nerve ends.

He slipped the shirt off her shoulders, slowly eased the sleeves down her arms, before tugging it off her hands. The shirt dropped to the floor with a soft plop.

Seconds ticked by.

What if he doesn't like what he sees?

John had been mainly oblivious to how she'd looked, always buried in his work. For the first time in years, no guilt stabbed her and she realised she'd finally accepted the life she'd lived with another man was gone.

And now I'm with another. A man who makes me feel more alive than I've ever felt before. A man who I bloody well hope likes the real me. I've never been on the model-thin
side; that was Janeen. My boobs are too big and those damn protein cubes go straight to my hips and thighs.

But thanks to the constant training in the guerrilla camp, she was fit and more muscle than fat.

Oh how she wished she could see his face. Her nails dug into her palms to stop herself from pushing up the blindfold. Her one and only bra had disintegrated months ago and after Ivo had fondled her breasts through her clothes, she'd stopped wearing her tank top beneath her flight shirt.

Hoping he'd repeat that tantalising experience.

Her nipples puckered. Her breasts seemed to swell even heavier at the memory of his big hands cradling her flesh.

He made a deep growling noise that pricked the fine hairs covering her arms into stiff little brushes.

Lust throbbed low in her belly. Her knees trembled.

Then it was as if his control had splintered, for he tugged ruthlessly at her belt and pants, pushing the material down over her legs. She heard his sharp intake of breath.

Yep, Ice Man, I also ditched my panties too.

His fingers delved into the slit of her cunny.

Beneath the blindfold, Steph's eyes half-closed and she hummed, loving the feel of his fingers slipping between her legs then back out again to rub roughly over her mons. Back and forth. Her breathing hitched.

A soft curse left his lips as he returned to pull her flight trousers lower and encountered her boots.

Stephanie chuckled.

Hard hands scooped beneath her bottom and around her back. Remembering Mia, Steph bit down on her squeal of surprise. Air oomphed from her lungs when he dumped her on her back on the bunk. She bounced once on the hard mattress.

He flung first one boot and then the other off her feet. They hit the floor with loud thumps as he tugged off her flight pants, flinging them aside.

She felt the give in the mattress as his body joined hers on the bunk. His hand wrapped around the base of her throat in a possessive manner while he cupped her right breast with his other, his thumb pressing down on her peaked nipple. His breathing was fast and laboured, hot as it puffed against her face, then his mouth came down hard and demanding on hers.

Eagerly she opened for him, wrapping her tongue around his, his lips fusing into her skin in a kiss that held little technique; it was all predatory demand, a total domination of her soul and blistered a path of pure fire through her body.

Blood thrummed through her brain. Feverishly, she rolled towards him, her hands reaching out to close greedily over his big shoulders. Desperate to have all his heavy weight pressing down into her, to feel his roughened skin against her flesh, she roved her hands down his back and pulled at his buttocks. She pressed closer, whimpering deep in her throat.

Ivo dragged his mouth from hers. He shifted higher. She felt his broad chest graze over her sensitive nipples and she sensed he was leaning over her. His hands grasped her left wrist and pulled her arm above her head and then the other.

‘What are you doing?' she whispered.

‘Teaching you who is in control,' was the purred response.

‘Well then, if you insist.'

A narrow cloth was wrapped around her wrists as he bound them together. He shifted again. Stephanie tugged at her hands and found she was unable to move them. He must have tied her to some kind of bar or bolt on the wall.

The feeling of being utterly helpless sent tingles dancing over her flesh.

‘Stephanie?'

‘I'm fine. Continue, oh master.'

He laughed then murmured close to her ear, ‘Do not speak again or I will punish you.' His mouth came down on her left breast, sucking her nipple deep into his hot, moist mouth. The sensation had her arching her back, eager to give him anything he desired. His fingers plucked at her other nipple while an explosive force built deep inside her.

Her legs moved restlessly on the bunk.

His mouth left her breasts and he pushed her legs apart and paused. She shivered as her heated skin cooled. The sound of his quickened breathing and her heavy heartbeats filled her ears. Words of pleading trembled on her lips.

Then she felt his hot breath panting over her belly and the long brush of his rough tongue as he swept it over her mound and flicked it between her swollen labia.

Pressure built.

Her nails bit into her palms.

She arched her back again.
I can't wait any longer.

As if he heard her fevered need, he rolled on top of her, crushing her to the mattress, his mouth claiming hers in a long breathless kiss that claimed her soul for all time. The rounded knob of his cock pressed at her entrance. Stephanie widened her legs and using her buttock muscles, raised her fanny invitingly.

He pushed inside.

His cock felt thick and long as he plunged into her tight passage.

He withdrew, only to drive in deeper again and again, increasing each pulsing thrust into a tempo of frenzied fucking that sent her world shattering into an explosive orgasm of coloured lights and darkness. Her muscles clenched over and over as waves of pleasure thrummed through her veins as he continued to pound into her. He buried his face in the side of her neck until his body stiffened. With a guttural groan, he spilled his seed in a hot gush of fluid.

Feeling limp and replete, Stephanie lay beneath the weight of his big body. She tugged again at her hands, longing to run her fingers over him.

‘Let me go.'

‘I have not finished.' Ivo stirred and his weight left her. Deftly he untied her wrists then flipped her over onto her belly. Gently he gripped her hips raising her until her backside was in the air.

‘What?' she mumbled.

‘Shush.' Another whack, this time on her bare flesh.

Her fanny moistened anew, even as she felt the residue of his cooling sticky seed trickling down her inner thighs.

Ivo moved.

She felt his breath first, puffing over the heated flesh of her vulva. Next his fingers plucked at her tender folds and almost sent her screaming into the mattress. Then his cock was at the entrance to her vagina. One massive thrust and he had rammed it to the hilt inside her.

Still tingling from the aftermath of the most wondrous experience of her life, Stephanie gulped air, squeezing her eyes shut as, once again, ripples of pleasure fired her body into instant lust.

Ivo bent over her and one of his hands slipped round her waist to reach up and palm her aching breast. He began to thrust in an exquisitely slow torment, his cock sliding in and out, his large balls slapping against the tender skin of her cunny.

‘Admit I am your master,' he ground out.

‘Well, I will admit you are the master of sex,' Stephanie panted, pushing backwards to meet each of his thrusts and wondering if she should demand he go faster. ‘But if this is your idea of punishment, I'll never admit you're my master. This type of punishment I could take all day.'

He chuckled and plucked at her swinging nipples. ‘This is merely one aspect of the punishment I have in mind for you.'

‘Really? Well, all I can say is give me more.'

‘What's going on?' asked Stephanie looking over at Ivo who'd shoved his plate of protein cubes to one side when a message pinged. She readjusted the teat in Mia's mouth and smiled down into her intent little face.

What a night!
From under her lashes she peeped at Ivo, noting the relaxed expression on his face and the softened curve of his lips.
I did that, I brought this impressive, self-contained man almost to his knees. Me.
Feeling more than a little awed as images of the hours before flashed across her mind, her smile changed to a smirk.

He'd certainly brought me to my knees!

I wonder…
Admiringly, she eyed his bare chest, her pulse quickening at the sight of his broad shoulders, thick chest and the hard ridges of his abdomen as he sprawled in the chair beside her making no attempt to retrieve his personal comms.

Somehow during the long hours of the night, the dynamics of their tenuous relationship had changed.

Into what exactly, she wasn't sure except she knew she felt more than lust for this warrior.

He'd been both a demanding and a surprisingly tender lover, one who'd been considerate of her own needs as well as his own. During their almost frantic love-making he'd pressed kisses as soft as butterfly wings onto the side of her face. Then there was the way he'd wrapped his arms around her all night long.

She'd forgotten how wonderful it felt to wake up enveloped in a sensation of safety and warmth. And she'd certainly been anchored against him with his arm holding her in place. She smiled a little as she recalled how when she'd shifted or rolled over, he'd immediately moved, shuffling closer as if determined even in sleep to keep that contact.

Could his actions mean he cared?

Hope surged inside and did battle with the memory of how heartbroken she'd been when her husband had died.

And how she'd never wanted to feel that way again.

Another ping and he rose to his feet.

Her voice husky, she said, ‘Stay for another hour or so.'
Let me pretend a little longer we're the family death denied me.

She shivered, her cheeks heating, as his dark gaze lingered where her sleeping tunic had slipped off one shoulder.

He reached out one long arm. His hand curled around her neck, nudging her chin higher as he bent over her. A long shuddering sigh issued from her throat when his mouth claimed hers in a kiss that ignited her body into a quivering mass of hungry need.
I can't believe how much I want him.

Again.

Beneath his touch, she trembled, biting down hard on the words frothing near her lips.
Don't beg
.

When he drew away, she drew comfort from his harsh, rapid breathing and the sharp, edgy cast of his features.
At least I'm not the only one feeling this raging lust.

He gently tucked strands of her hair behind her ear.
Maybe we're drawn together because we were both living such sterile, empty lives.

‘Later.' Then he straightened and picked up his personal compu.

Her heart sank as all expression on his face blanked. It was like watching a shutter come down over a window. Ice Man was back.

‘We have visitors. Another ship has hailed us and a contingent requests permission to board.'

‘Oh? Who?' Her gaze snapped from him down to the feeding baby and back up to Ivo's. The heat faded from her body at the grim line of his mouth. It didn't look like he was too happy at the intrusion.

‘No one you need to meet.'

She gasped, the cold rebuff slicing painfully into her heart. His next words were like nails hammering into a coffin.

‘Remain in my quarters. Do not take the youngling from this room.' Without another glance in her direction, he marched across the room to finish dressing. Thirty seconds later, he stalked from the room, leaving Stephanie glaring at the now empty doorway.

So much for her daydream of happy families.

He's completely impossible!

If he thinks a bit of hanky panky gives him the right to issue orders to me, he can think again. Arrogant sod
.
Submission in the bedroom DOES NOT spill over elsewhere.

Still fuming, she concentrated on Mia. Once the baby had been fed, bathed and changed, she took a quick wash in the cleansing tube. Fresh and fired with a fierce determination not to kow-tow to any of Ice Man's hoity-toity demands, she checked her reflection one last time. There wasn't a great deal she could do about her clothes. With only two flight outfits and one sleeping tunic there was limited scope for wowing any visitors let alone one annoying Darkon warrior.
But I'm clean and with my hair down and mascara and lippy this is as good as I'm going to get for some time.