Steel Dominance (16 page)

This was a man coming to do what he wished to her body. She parted her lips, squeezed her thighs together. Unblinking, she watched his feet. Such measured steps. Dankyo—her demon, her nemesis of love.

He continued. “If someone watched, they would see what I do. A beautiful woman waiting for me to administer pleasure”—he squatted beside her, then trailed the back of his hand across her cheek to her nape, then partway down her spine—“and pain.

“I’m going to bind you now, with these.” He went over and picked a belt from the pile by his feet. They must be what had jingled. “Because I like seeing you tied up and helpless. I plan to buy equipment, cuffs to hold you better, from the markets here. And Henry has some curious ideas also.”

What?
“Henry?” she blurted.

“Yes.” He smiled in an evil way. “The man is a perverted genius. It’s his special hobby.”

The belt smacked down on her ass, leaving a long lick of pain that connected like lightning to her clit. She squeaked.

“
That
was for talking.”

The whine from her throat only made him chuckle.

Mouth open, as she waited and hoped for more, a thought surfaced.
That should make me cross. Shouldn’t it?
She frowned.
Why do I like this? Humiliation. Pain. Being controlled
. She shut down her thoughts.
Feel. Let everything go. Just
be.

He bent down low, wrapped the belt around her wrists where they stretched above her head, and cinched the belt tight. Then another, below her elbows. As he worked, tying her, he talked softly. “These aren’t perfect. But, if you get loose, I will be unhappy.” He stared, brushed a lick of hair from before her eyes. “Very unhappy. So don’t. And this, I will gag you with.” He produced her torn panties, showed her them with brows raised. “I want this, but if it disturbs you, say.” He kissed her cheek.

A gag? She eyed it. But, he wants this. Somehow that alone tipped the balance. A flicker of arousal at this strange requirement of Dankyo’s fed into her, spinning off another thread of pleasure.
Yes. Oh yes. If you want. I want
. Now, she could see the circle of need. When it pleased Him, it pleased her. So simple. So right.

When she said nothing, he tied it around her face, lifting her hair out of the way, making sure the cloth pushed between her lips. “Can you speak? Say
no
for me.”

Her tongue flicked the gag as she spoke. The word came out gargled but recognizable. He nodded. “Good.” Then he heaved to his feet and picked another belt. “And now, let’s see what this can do.”

As he walked behind her, he let the belt snake across her back. The cold leather sensitized her skin, whispering as it moved, grazing her buttocks, licking her cleft, then her thighs, before he lifted it away.

With little taps that hit like the pattering of heavy rain, he began. The flick and swat of the belt went on and on, mesmerizing her, and sometimes bumping her slit. At that she’d lift her butt and gasp. Each hit became a little harder, a little louder. A buzz seemed to arise in the skin of her ass. And it spread, invading her sexual parts, pulling her desire upward, outward.

Dankyo’s hand touched her, curving across and around each side of her ass, dipping into her aching slit, then out again. “Nice. I must do this in daylight. The blue light doesn’t do your skin or the marks, justice.” The words sifted through the haze, and she smiled, curiously glad he liked what he’d done to her skin. “Sofia, time to go harder.”

When he stepped away, she heard him draw a deep breath.

The first hit made her gasp. All she could do was bite the mat and hold on with her teeth. Each whack jarred into her, deep, burning, soaring through her. Another and another. Without thinking, she sagged until her breasts touched the mat. The feathery movements and bumps of the material against her nipples made them harden into tight peaks. The bindings meant her head must hang down between her arms. Air rasped through the moist gag. The pain thrummed deeper, sending a burn of pleasure through her groin. She squirmed and squeaked through the cloth, whimpering with every blow.

He stopped.

Panting, feeling her clit straining with inner pressure as if it were a button begging to be tortured, she swayed her ass and prayed for more.

When he knelt behind her, she shuddered. Her eyes were already closed, and the drift of his fingertips over the skin of her ass wrote new lines of ownership that she knew would never be erased.

He turned her over, and she hissed as the mat made contact with her tender ass. Limp as a wrung-out rag, she let him use another belt to tie her arms behind her head to a pole. Resisting seemed futile and not at all what she wanted. What he’d done to her had fogged her mind. He spread her thighs, held them open with his arms and body and lowered his lips to her mound. When he sucked the swollen button inside his mouth, she keened.

“Ahh!” She was catapulted into a state that must surely be one lick, one suck, one
something
away from heaven. Her thighs quivered, straining to press in, and he held them open with his hands.

“Mmmm!” Desperate, she writhed, her muscles striving to clamp onto him but getting nowhere.

And he stilled, with her clit in his mouth and trapped in limbo between his teeth and the subtle tap tap of his soft tongue. Her pleasure lessened, but she whimpered. So close. Blood thumped in her temples. The height of ecstasy waited, waited. She whimpered again, said, “Please,” through the gag, and didn’t know if the choked, half-swallowed word, made sense.

Groin thrust upward, toes scrunched, she was held at that excruciating instant.

Then he hummed onto her clit and sucked again. The slide of a wet warm tongue…

Devastation. Everything tumbled screaming through her body. The fire in her skin, the feel of his tongue, lips, and teeth on her most intimate part undid her. Her lower body thrust in lust-driven undulations, seeking and finding that ultimate release.

Slowly, gasping, mind blank, she lowered her butt to the mat. Her juices wet her from clit to ass. Beneath her was sodden and cool. His mouth lifted away. And she opened her eyes. Still bound, still gagged, chest heaving, she could only watch as he climbed to his knees and rolled on a condom.

Then he poised himself with the tip of his cock targeted at her entrance. The circle of muscle there felt the nudge. Their eyes met, locked.

THIS WAS IT. Dankyo could taste her on his tongue. There she lay beneath him, his cock prodding her, her legs spread wide—his for the taking, tied up, and ever so willing. Nothing was better than this. He hissed through his clamped jaw as he fed the head of his cock into her pussy. This moment needed savoring.

He looked, cataloging her beauty.

Even tinted in blue, she was lust incarnate. The circles of her areolae on top of those plump breasts. The fast movement of her chest as she panted. Her open mouth, lips parted around the gag, as she struggled for air. Her arms stretched above, bound by him. The way she’d squirmed under the belt. The images flickered through his mind.

And, God damn best of all, the exquisite feel of her juices slicking him down and her walls squeezing in…it all sent his heart rate soaring. He pushed his thick cock another half inch into her depths.

Liquid heat surrounded him.

Now.

“Sofia. Don’t move, darling, I’m going to make love to you so hard.”

She gasped, and tipped her lower body, up, just a fraction.
Want
, pure and simple.

Then he let slip his control and plunged in, sliding to the end in one long thrust, and out and in again.

Each thrust bounced her body and drew a moan from her. He braced one arm at her side and leaned over to center his open hand over her throat. Her eyes snapped open, and she stared. Awareness. He skewered her gaze with his, held her rigid, let her know what he did to her.

Making love was so animalistic. Wet. Hot.
And I’m just another animal now. Nothing you can do but lie there and take what I give.

The pleasure mounted, as he shunted in and out, rocking her body. Sofia’s little noises drove him higher as much as the grip of her cunt on his cock. He shifted, propped his arms either side of her, and unleashed himself. Furious and fast. Harder, rougher, thumping into her. The smell of their sex thickened the air. She tried to writhe, yet presented herself ever higher.

Take
. His cock swelled, and the heavy coiling lust peaked inside him. Again he thrust and hit home inside her. He grunted, tensed. For a while, the universe paused, then roared past as he came. His seed exploded out of him, pushing into her, every muscle in him squeezing down.

Sweat beaded on his chest and dripped from his chin onto her belly. He flattened his hand on her there, pressing down.
I claim you, woman
. Then he rested his hand on her throat again and held her there.
I claim you.

If I say that out loud what will she do?
He almost did. But no. Another time. He’d risk her refusal another time.

Once Sofia was able to stand, he got her to dress in some of the training clothes. Then he picked her up to carry her to their room, despite her feeble protests. When she turned her head into his chest and inhaled, the happy glow that invaded him took him by surprise.

The stairs creaked underfoot.

He’d just smacked her ass until it was tender and hot and made love so violently he’d exhausted her, and now he wanted to…what? He looked down at her serene yet dog-tired expression.
Take care of her, that’s what.

The depth of that feeling bothered him.
This no longer seems just a temporary affair.

That thought hovered in his mind while he arranged for a hot bath and a meal for them both and got her to drink and snack on some fruit.
What am I going to do?

The steaming water of the white oval bath beckoned. Soap smell clashed with the ripe scent of sweat and lovemaking. The room’s clearer voltaic lights shone on her butt when he stripped the clothes off Sofia.

“Now that is nice.” He ran his fingers lightly over the redness.

“
Eep
!” She jumped, but he held her hip so he could look.

“Your whole bottom is red.” The stripe marks had merged. No bruises, though. None he could see.

“Well.” She smirked at him, then ran her hand gingerly over her ass. “That’s your fault, Sir.”

“It is indeed. In.” He indicated the tub. While she gingerly tested the water with her ass, then slid slowly in he leaned past the shampoo bottles to wind out the two windows. Heavy, green-tinged bullet-proof glass and riveted steel frame—a leftover from when the siege was real. Stars pinpricked the night sky. Below, past the compound’s lower wall, gleamed the dark water of the Bosporus and the lights of boats out night fishing, or ferrying folks from one bank to the other, or maybe other, less legal activities.

“The window?” She frowned. “Can’t people see in?”

“No. Not once we’re in the tub. Besides, if anyone sees your naked body, what does it matter?” He stepped into the tub and pulled Sofia between his legs. Water sloshed and spilled over the edge.

“Ohh. Warm. So tired.” She sighed and fitted herself against him. When he cupped her breasts, she only tilted her neck and wiggled her butt into his crotch. “Ow. That’s stinging…but in a nice way.”

“Good.” He kissed her ear.

“So crazy that I like this feeling.”

A knock at the door signaled the arrival of their dinner. To Sofia’s consternation he allowed the servant to bring the food into the bathroom. She submerged to neck level in the water as the food was set on a timber chair next to the bath. The man left, quietly shutting the door.

“Looks good.” He sniffed the aroma. “Ahh.
Yuvarelakia
. Lamb-and-herb meatballs and bread.” As he’d ordered, the cook had put all the food in one deep plate. Two goblets brimmed with deep red wine. A small second plate of honeyed pastries would be dessert.

“I can’t believe you let him see me naked!”

“Others have seen worse. Besides, I covered you with my hands, and then”—he tweaked her ear—“you sank, and the bubbles did the rest.”

When she went to grumble, he reached under the water and pinched her butt.

“Ouch!” The water sloshed again as she tried to shift away. “Not fair!”

“Who said I was?” While she digested that thought, he grabbed the plate and a fork. “Here.” He swirled a meatball in the red sauce and held it near her mouth so she could bite it. “How did it go today with the Clockwork Warrior?”

“Good.” She swallowed and went on, “He’s magnificent in real life. I can see the break lines, I’m sure! That was part of my thesis. On his waist area…”

He let her ramble on as he fed her more. The details didn’t concern him, only that she was happy and the mission to pry the secret loose seemed likely to succeed.

“And if all goes well, you plan to take up this job with the government?”

She craned her neck around, twisted the fork from his fingers, then turned her whole body. “Yes. I will. I’ll feed
you
now. Open.” Her green eyes looked up at him above that kissable mouth.

For a second he thought of retrieving the fork, but she seemed so determined and so cute. He gave in. “Why?”

“Why what?” She tore off bread and offered it to him.

“Why that? What does your family think of such a job?”

Sofia ducked her head, sucked in her bottom lip. “Who cares?” She flicked that glass-green gaze at him, then took a deep breath. “Okay. Yes, I care. I want to impress my father. That’s my big secret. Well not as big as…” She cleared her throat. “I hate him and yet I love him at the same time. He’s always thought me the stupid one. Not smart stupid but life-lesson stupid.” Her brow furrowed. “I was supposed to marry whoever he chose. And he disowned me.”

“You’re a strong woman, making your own way. Maybe someday, he’ll see that.”

“
Pfft
.”

His Sofia had worries. Nothing too complex, though.
What would her father think of me?
Not that he cared either.
If I ever decide to…