Descended (The Red Blindfold Book 2) (23 page)

What a cruel game to
play.

“Where is he?” I
say, looking around. He’s here somewhere. He has to be.

The other man is
approaching now. He’s dark-eyed with a wolf-like smile and muscular
neck. I’m still handcuffed. There’s nowhere I can go. Sweeping me
into his arms, he carries me to the table, hardly seeming to notice
my kicking legs.

“She’s a hellion,”
he says. “Perfect for our purposes.”

“What are you talking
about?” I say. “What purposes? Where’s Marc?”

He sets me down on the
table and uncuffs my hands. “Lie back,” he says, pushing my
shoulders until my arms give way beneath me.

The bald man lifts my
high-heeled feet and straps them into stirrups. Hard as I try, I
can’t bring my knees together. I’m completely spread open, with
no choice but to withstand his voracious gaze.

As soon as they clamp
down the wrist restraints I’m immobilized, positioned so either of
them can take me. Maybe that’s what Marc wants. To see me
humiliated and shamed for the behavior I now regret so much.

I turn my head and spot
a mirror about eight feet away. Immediately I’m sure it’s not a
mirror, but a window, and Marc is standing on the other side
watching. Everything is reflected in sharp relief – the candles,
the drapes, me with parted legs flanked by two strange men.

The bald one steps
around to the bottom of the table and places his hands on my ankles.
“How beautiful you are,” he says.

“Don’t touch me,”
I say, jerking against the restraints.

“Why not? A moment
ago you were going to kiss me.”

“The hell I was.”

“If you’re as
faithful as you say, why were you given to us?”

My voice catches in my
throat. “To teach me a lesson. To test my resolve.”

Sweat beads on my upper
lip as I imagine what instrument of torture they might use on me. A
ball gag. A suffocating leather slave hood. Nipple clamps. Whatever
it is, I won’t make a sound no matter how much it hurts or
humiliates me.

I squirm, knowing it’s
useless. “Be still,” says the other man. “It’ll go easier for
you if you don’t fight.”

“What are you going
to do?”

“You’d like to
know, wouldn’t you?”

Pride won’t let me
beg. I stare at him, my silence the only power I have left.

He leans close to my
ear. “Don’t you understand?
We
won’t do anything to you. Only your master will.”

He turns and walks out
of the room. The bald man follows without a backward glance.

The door is closed for
only a minute before it opens again and Marc appears. Even now, he’s
so beautiful that whenever I see him, it’s the first time all over
again.

“Pet,” he says, his
voice full of emotion.

“Get me out of these
restraints,” I say. “Now.”

He walks over to the
table and frees first my ankles and then my wrists. Sitting up, I
yank my feet out of the stirrups. “What am I doing here? What the
hell was all that?”

“It was a test of
fidelity, Sophie.”

“Yeah, I got that,”
I say. “And I hate you for it.”

“I know.”

I toss my bangs out of
my face. “You
know?
”

He’s maddeningly
calm. Arms folded, he watches me slide ungracefully off the table in
my stockings and high heels. “Try to understand,” he says. “I
had to see how you’d react, even if you were angry and under stress
and there were other men who could take that away.”

I glare at him through
narrowed eyes. “So you let strangers strip me and tie me down to
see my reaction? Are you crazy?”

“Crazy for you, yes,”
he says. “And that means I’ll go to extremes to make sure you’re
mine.”

“There wasn’t a
better way to figure that out?”

He shrugs. “Can you
think of one?”

Though I open my mouth
to speak, my mind is blank. He stares at me expectantly. “I…I
came back to Paris, didn’t I?”

He takes a step toward
me. “That’s the best you’ve got?”

“It’s one example,”
I say, backing against the nearest wall.

“One example. Right.”

He pulls off his jacket
and drops it to the carpet. A hot shiver races through my belly,
stiffening my nipples.
Damnit.
I may hate him but my body has been craving him for far too long.

“Don’t get near
me,” I say.

Smiling, he unbuttons
his shirt. “You’re flushed, Sophie.”

“Of course I am. I’m
fucking furious.”

He stops in front of me
and unbuttons his shirt. The placket falls open, revealing his
chiseled chest and the hard V of muscle just below his stomach. I
gasp as he pushes his hand between my legs.

“You’re furious and
soaking wet at the same time,” he says, eyes gleaming. “And by
the way, everyone else has left. There’s nobody to stop what I’m
about to do to you.”

Though I’m
overpowered and barely clothed, I try to shove him away. “If you
think you’re going to touch me after what just happened, you’re
dead wrong.”

Grabbing my arms, he
holds me against him. “Listen to me. I saw everything. I know those
people from the M Society, and they were doing as I instructed.”

“You baited me.”

“Yes, just as you’ve
baited me. If I didn’t love you I wouldn’t have done it.”

Dumbfounded, I stare at
him. He didn’t just say that, not here, not now. “What?” I
whisper.

Instead of answering,
he kisses me. Though he holds me in a vice grip, the kiss is soft
enough to shatter my heart. He strokes his tongue against mine, again
and again until I’m whimpering against his lips.

“I love you,” he
whispers. “You know that.”

I turn my face away.
“No, I don’t. Not after tonight.”

“Tonight’s not
over.”

“It is for me.” I
wrench myself away from him. He catches me at the door and spins me
around.

“Look, Sophie. I
thought you might submit to the first man who came near you. That’s
the one thing I couldn’t have forgiven. It would have destroyed
us.”

“But you’ve
destroyed us anyway,” I say, struggling against his powerful arms.

“No, I made you prove
that you belong to me. Seeing you refuse those men – nothing
excites me more than loyalty. Absolute possession of the woman I
want.” He unzips his pants and presses my hand to his huge,
thickly-veined cock. “Feel that? That’s what you’ve done by
proving you’re mine.”

Reflexively, my fingers
squeeze his hard flesh. “That’s right, touch it,” he says in a
low voice. “Feel how much I want you.”

His words ricochet
through my head –
I love you
.
I want you.
You
belong to me.
“I don’t believe it,” I say as he
pulls up my leg and locks my knee to his side.

“What don’t you
believe?”

I tremble at the
scorching spark of skin on skin, his heart against mine. His huge
shaft throbs on my inner thigh. “That you love me,” I say, my
voice breaking.

“That’s okay,” he
says. “You will soon enough.”

My mind screams to keep
fighting but I’m too weak for him, too deprived. It doesn’t
matter what happened tonight, or how long it takes to forgive him. I
need his touch like my next breath.

With total mastery of
his movements, he penetrates me no more than an inch. I suck in a
sharp breath. He winces with pleasure, his eyes glittering like a
predator with his prey.

“I thought of this
every minute we were apart,” he says. “I was obsessed with
fucking you.”

I clutch at his bare
chest with my nails. I’m swollen and tight, so excited my pussy
pulses with every heartbeat.

“You wanted it, too,
didn’t you?” he asks.

“Yes,” I admit.

“Did it make you wet
to imagine my big cock inside you?”

“So wet, Marc.”

“Did you touch
yourself and think about me?”

“All the time,” I
say. “Too much.”

He thrusts with sinful
force and I catch my lower lip between my teeth. I hold my breath for
one deep drive, another, then cry out with heart-stopping pleasure.

“
God
,
Marc.” Nothing will ever feel as good as having him inside me.

“You’re so
beautiful,” he says. “So beautiful it hurts to look at you.”

Taking one of my wrists
and then the other, he pins them against the wall. Restrained and
penetrated by the man I worship – this is what I’ve been craving
for months. For my entire life.

“Tell me you love
me,” he says, his face close to mine.

I shut my eyes. “I
can’t.”

“Look at me,” he
says. “Say it.”

“Not tonight.
Please.”

“Tonight,” he
commands. “Right now.”

I open my eyes. Emotion
swells up inside me in a throat-clenching rush. “I love you.”

“Again.”

“I love you.” A
single tear trickles down my cheek.

Though he frowns, he
doesn’t let go of my wrists. “Why the tears?”

I shake my head. “The
way I feel for you…words aren’t enough.”

“I know,” he says.
“They never will be, for either of us.”

His mouth closes hard
over mine and he fucks me with a rhythm so ferocious it erases every
thought. Never slowing his hips, he sucks my tongue, his warm breath
sweet against my lips.

“It feels so good,”
I say as he trails kisses across my throat.

“Good enough to make
you come?” he asks.

“Yes. Please make me
come.”

He closes his eyes and
groans. “The way you say that...you turn me on so much. More than
ever.” Releasing one of my arms, he slips a hand between my legs. I
writhe, almost faint with desire. If he moves his fingers a little
higher, I’ll lose all control. If I have any left.

“What do you want?”
he asks.

“Touch me.”

He brushes his lips
over my ear, sending a sharp quiver down my spine. “You want me to
touch you?”

My breath is coming so
fast I can hardly speak. “Please, just – I’m so close.”

“Where?” He
flickers over my clitoris for just an instant. “Here?”

“There,” I moan.
“Yes, Marc.”

“Like this?” he
asks.

I clutch his wrist,
closing my eyes against the tears that threaten to spill over. “Like
that,” I say, sliding my hips back and forth. “Oh, God. Just like
that.”

With a hard shudder,
every orgasm I never had powers through me at once. Flashes of light
appear in my vision and I grind my fingernails into the back of
Marc’s hand. It’s too much, the kind of pleasure I could die
from. Ecstasy ripples up through my belly, spreading like a slow fire
through my limbs.

“Marc,” I breathe.
“Please…yes.” With every tremor, the pain of this night and our
time apart releases, leaving me trembling to my bones.

“I’m here,” he
whispers. “Right here.” He thrusts harder, deeper, instantly
prolonging my orgasm. “Do you like that?”

I moan in response, so
overwhelmed I can’t speak. How could I explain what he does to me?
Being with him is complete surrender, a love like I’ve never known.

“Look at me,” he
says. “I want to see you when I come.” He holds my face in his
hand as I move against him, his eyes shining darkly. “I haven’t
come once since you left,” he says. “Not even when I was
fantasizing about you, which I did constantly.”

“Why not?” I
whisper.

“I wouldn’t let
myself. It wouldn’t have compared to one second of this.”

“What if I’d never
come back?”

“I knew we’d be
together again. We had to be. I can’t live without you.”

He kisses my chin and
lips and then lowers his mouth to my breasts. “You’re delicious,”
he says. “Your entire body is pure beauty.”

My nipples harden
against his tongue. I’m aware of nothing but him, his heat, and the
sensation of being possessed. I can feel his orgasm building quickly,
his erection growing almost too large to bear.

He raises his head.
“Look at me,” he says, his breath coming fast. “Stay with me.”

“Always,” I say.

His eyelids flutter but
his gaze is on me when he comes, his lips parted and his fingers
pushing roughly through my hair. “Sweet Pet,” he says. “You’re
fucking incredible.”

The force of our bond
brings back the tears, and this time I let them fall. They spill onto
his chest and trickle over his golden skin. “I’m sorry,” I say.

He shakes his head,
murmuring, “I love you. I love you so much.”

All I can do is cling
to him. He holds me, whispering soothing words. Gradually, my tears
slow down and stop. For the first time in months – years, maybe –
I feel serene, loved, completely at peace.

“I’ve always been
yours,” I say against his neck. “I hope you know that now.”

“I do.” He threads
his fingers through my hair, stroking my head. After another minute
of his consoling touch, he gently pulls away. “Come. It’s time to
go.”

“Where?”

“Home,” he says,
taking my hand.

“Home?”

He smiles. “Yes. And
take a good look around because we won’t be coming here again.”

Later that night, I
lean in the master bathroom doorway watching Marc.

Stunningly tall and
bare-skinned, he stands with his back to me spreading a clean sheet
over the bed. It’s been four months and nine days since we were
last together this way. In that time, I’ve had a glimpse of what he
felt all those years, the lust that tore at him, its outlet denied
again and again.

There’s nothing in
our way now, no shame, no secret history, no enraged ex-boyfriend.
It’s just the two of us, with no barriers between us.

He turns and sees me.
“Hi, lovely,” he says. “Come here.”

I walk toward him
wearing only a towel. My hair is dripping and my fingertips wrinkled
from the bath we took when we got back to the apartment.