Eland and Jeanne (Tales of the Shareem) (9 page)

The front of her mind told Jeanne that she hadn’t felt so warm and complete since … well, ever.

I had sex.

And I want to do it again.

To the sound of her lover’s snores, Jeanne grew languid and relaxed. She smiled as she slid into sleep.

***

She woke to the sting of leather on her backside.

Jeanne gasped in shock. “What ...?”

She tried to turn over, but Eland brought the strap down,
smack,
across her buttocks again. And again. Three more times, then his big hands flowed over her skin, soothing where he’d struck.

Jeanne turned her head on the pillow, looking up at him. Eland’s eyes filled with blue, which she now understood meant he was aroused.

“What was that for?” she demanded.

Eland kept on rubbing her bottom. “I see you don’t know how to behave.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Oh, Jeanne, my love.” Eland bent to her. “I’m going to have to train you from the bottom up. Literally.” He spanked her once with the strap. “I’ll be nice and answer your question—this time. I wasn’t supposed to be inside you. I wanted to wait until you were completely mine. But you were so beautiful, so responsive, that I couldn’t stop myself.”

Jeanne hadn’t wanted him to stop himself. She’d been far gone in bliss, had welcomed him pressing inside her, opening her, and making her whole.

Eland was dangerous—in more ways than one—Jeanne understood that. But looking at the sparkle in his eyes made her want to laugh, and woke her spiritedness.

“Right,” she said. “So it’s
my
fault?”

Eland smelled clean and of soap, and his hair was damp—he must have showered while she slept. “Woman, you have a mouth on you.”

“Yes. We all do.”

A grin spread over his face. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

“Enjoy what?” He was so beyond her experience Jeanne had no idea what to expect.

“This.” Eland rose from her and went to the table near the door. Boxes that hadn’t been there before were now spread across it. “Rees knows where to find things—so does Judith. I had them fit me out.”

Fit him out with what?
He couldn’t mean clothes. He’d strung a loincloth across his hips—no more tunic—but wore nothing else. The piece of cloth barely covered him, not that Jeanne minded.

Eland returned with things in his hands Jeanne couldn’t identify. She opened her mouth to ask him to explain what they were, and he slid a thin piece of cloth between her lips, fastening it behind her head.

“That’s to keep you from talking back.” Eland straightened up, his eyes sparkling. “Doesn’t mean I’ll mind that
some
of the time.”

Jeanne glared up at him. What did he think he was doing? The gag didn’t prevent her from making sounds.

“Wha.. doo.. oo fink …?” Jeanne gave up.

“What do I think am I doing? Being level three, baby. It’s what I’m made for.”

He’d said as much last night. Had it been last night? Judith had no windows in this room, and Jeanne hadn’t seen a clock for a while. She needed to go to work ...

No, she needed to stay here and see what Eland would do.

Eland withdrew a sturdy pair of cuffs and had them locked around Jeanne’s wrists before she could register what they were.

Her wrists felt strange with the bands around them. The cuffs were connected by a utilitarian chain about a foot and a half long. It wasn’t heavy, but metal didn’t have to be heavy to be strong.

Jeanne’s first instinct was to panic—this was nothing like the playful way he’d wrapped the tunic around her wrists. This was restraint, and Jeanne had never been restrained.

She started to squirm, but Eland laid a gentle hand on her head. “Easy now, love. I’ll be with you all the way.”

His touch, his words, his voice flowed around her and eased her. Jeanne found herself relaxing back down.

“That’s my girl.” Eland’s hands steadied her, then he positioned her in the center of the bed, full-length. He fitted a leather cuff around her ankles and strapped each to the posts of the footboard.

The position spread her legs, and by his slow smile, Eland liked what he saw. He reached down and stroked her opening.

“Pink and bare, the way I like it,” he said softly.

Jeanne smothered a groan. All this man had to do was touch her and she was ready to come.

He studied her for a time, looking thoughtful. “One more thing.”

Jeanne couldn’t ask what through the gag, but he didn’t leave her to wonder long. Eland lifted her wrists by the chain between her cuffs and hooked the chain around the headboard.

“There,” he said. “Now you won’t run away from me.”

Jeanne hadn’t intended to. She wanted nothing more right now than to lie on this bed, her wrists and ankles bound, and wait to see what Eland would do next.

He unfastened and tugged off his loincloth, and Jeanne feasted her eyes on the cock that fell, huge and erect, when he lifted the fabric away. He didn’t strip with any self-consciousness, only as though he needed to get rid of the cloth that annoyed him.

“You’re beautiful,” he told her. Eland’s voice, which had been dry and rough when he’d stumbled into her apartment begging for water, was now velvet, firm, controlled. “But you need a little more ornamentation, I think.”

Eland went to the boxes again and returned with another fine chain, this one with small clips on either end.

“It’s not very pretty,” he said, sounding apologetic. “You deserve true gold, for this to be studded with jewels.”

Jeanne still didn’t know what
this
was, until Eland gently placed each clip around her nipples.

The clamps tugged her with something not exactly pain. The chain was cool where it fell between her breasts.

Eland rubbed the tip of each nipple with his broad fingers. “If I could give you what I wanted, you’d be wearing a collar caked with diamonds, a leash of silk, cuffs of beaten silver. I’d take care of you so well you’d never have to work again.” He brushed the palms of her hands where they were bound above her, tracing the work-worn lines of them. “These would grow soft and pampered.”

He wanted to treat Jeanne like a highborn woman, he meant. And yet, a slave at the same time. The contradiction intrigued her.

“But for now …” Eland said. “We can pretend.” He straightened up. “Shit. I sound like a level two.”

“Who sounds like a level two?” A male voice said.

The door had hissed open and Rees walked in, his feet making no noise on the floor’s matting. Rees was dressed in a sleeveless tunic that reached his knees and carried robes over his arm. He’d either been out, or he was leaving.

Jeanne’s entire body went hot as Rees stepped to the foot of the bed and took in Jeanne lying there. Yes, she’d walked out bare in front of Judith and Rees, but she’d been upright, cocky, in control.

Now she lay sprawled on the bed, bound to it hand and foot, a gag in her mouth, her nipples adorned with the clamps. She was so obviously ready for sex and nothing else.

Rees’s eyes began to grow bluer. Jeanne couldn’t see his cock behind the fabric of his tunic, but she knew he was hardening.

She felt a strange lassitude come over her, and also a tingling excitement. Perhaps he and Eland would pleasure her at the same time. Why did she like that thought?

“Want a third?” Rees asked.

Eland gazed down at Jeanne with possessiveness in his eyes. “Not now. She’s barely ready for me. She sure as hell isn’t ready for you.”

“Mmm.” Rees nodded, as though what Eland said made sense. “Let me know.”

Judith’s voice joined them as she did. “
Now
what are you up to in here? Oh …” She trailed off as she saw Jeanne on the bed, as much interest in her eyes as in Rees’s. “Wow.” She looked at Eland, gaze dropping to his ready cock, and said, “Wow,” again. “Mind if I watch?”

Eland shook his head. “I don’t think she’s ready for that either.”

No, Jeanne was not ready for either Rees or Judith to look at her as they were doing. Her heart pounded like crazy, a hot dampness on her thighs.

The others must have noticed her getting wet, because they shifted their gazes to her spread legs, all three of them. That’s why Eland wanted her shaved, Jeanne realized. Nothing was hidden.

“One day we’ll feast,” Eland said, without looking away from Jeanne. “But right now, she needs me.”

Judith shrugged. “That’s all right. I have Rees.” She dragged her gaze from Jeanne and turned it to Rees. “Who looks like he’s leaving. Why are you leaving?”

“Many things to do,” Rees said. He and Eland exchanged a glance, and Eland gave him the slightest nod.

“Oh,” Judith said in disappointment. “Leave a girl unfulfilled, why don’t you?”

Rees touched Judith’s cheek. “I saw Rio downstairs. Black hair, full of himself. You can’t miss him. He’s always horny. Tell him I sent you.”

“Rio, eh?” Judith perked up. “Yeah, I’ve met him. Sure, I’ll go see if I can find him.”

She hurried out. Rees, after another approving glance at Jeanne, followed, and the door closed.

“Good,” Eland said. “Time to begin.”

***

He’d never be able to get through this, Eland thought. He’d never be able to keep it impersonal, just a Shareem and his client, as he’d been trained.

Jeanne was beautiful spread before him, the slender chains adorning her. She’d gotten hot when Rees and Judith had offered to stay, her nipples tightening and her pussy growing wet. Lovely.

Eland climbed onto the bed, carefully not jostling her, knelt between her legs, put his mouth to her opening, and began to drink down her sweet cream.

Jeanne’s body shifted. She moaned, the sounds muffled by the gag.

Eland didn’t explain to her, but she’d learn it on her own—that the restraints would enhance everything he did. She wouldn’t be able to roll away from the feeling of his hands, his mouth, or his cock. She’d stay in place while Eland brought her to her highest pleasure, eased her down, and brought her back again.

But slowly. He’d taken her too fast last time. This time, Eland would savor her.

He drank until she was coming apart, rocking to him so hard she was lifting on her ankles and wrists. Eland went on licking, nipping, thrusting his tongue inside her.

She was sweet, sweet. He could drink her forever. Stay with her always.

The DNAmo programmers must have messed up, because Eland wasn’t supposed to hunger for a specific woman—at all. He should become aroused at the right time, pleasure the lady, and then pack up and go away when
she
was finished.

Eland’s
pleasure, and his emotional needs, didn’t come into it.

Yep. They’d totally screwed up.

Eland wanted to do everything with Jeanne. Now. Today. Fall asleep with her. Wake up and do some more. Stay with her as long as possible, become her permanent lover. A forbidden thing, but the knowledge that he could never have Jeanne as a normal man came to a woman made his hunger all the sharper.

He’d have to enjoy what he could. Eland drank Jeanne down, but he backed off well before he was satisfied. Too much at once could rub her raw and take away her enjoyment.

So Eland did other things. He used his tongue on her nipples, making them plenty hard. He licked every inch of her body, from her face to her toes, which curled as he nibbled on them, and she laughed around the gag.

Beautiful laughter, warming his heart.

Next, oils. Eland slicked his palms with them and drew his hands down her breasts, her abdomen, thighs. The oils were scented with some off-world spice Eland didn’t recognize, but he liked it. Jeanne hummed her pleasure.

The scent of oils enhanced the scent of Jeanne, making Eland’s cock harder still. He kept up the pleasure, so he wouldn’t give in to the temptation to simply fall on her drive himself into her, as he had earlier.

Once Jeanne was relaxed under his massaging, he drew out a small wand and carefully inserted it into her pussy. A control made it vibrate, and Jeanne sucked in a breath, her eyes going wide.

“It likes you,” Eland said, placing his hand on her lower abdomen.

“I ’ike ik,” Jeanne said through the gag.

Eland chuckled. “You want to get spanked, don’t you?” He touched the cloth in her mouth. “That’s there to keep you quiet.”

“Mmm.” Jeanne’s eyes closed, her body responding to the vibrator inside her.

She was moving in pleasure, fingers curling, her hips rocking a little. Eland rubbed his oiled thumb over her clit, first slowly, then faster.

It didn’t take long before Jeanne was at her peak, squealing her joy from behind the gag.

When she came, Eland’s control finally deserted him. He was burning, his body roasting. He had to release before he collapsed. The rules went that, if the lady decided she wasn’t ready for him all the way, Eland had to use his hand to relieve himself.