Steel Dominance (29 page)

Sofia shivered and barely stopped herself from squirming. With her hands bound above her and the marks of Dankyo’s beating still throbbing on her skin, she felt like a sacrifice.

Tansu paused before her, legs shoulder-width apart, eyes bright, and her gaze cruised downward, lingering pointedly on Sofia’s bound breasts, then on her mons.

The tiny smile on Tansu’s face was triumphant.

Am I simply an object?

“She is beautiful. May I, sir?” Tansu’s gaze flicked over Sofia’s shoulder.

“You may do whatever you wish to Sofia.”

The rope that carved between her labia loosened and fell away. She could stand flatfooted again. But his words resonated.

In her heart, she knew Dankyo would not allow harm to be done, but still…
I am an object, in this moment
. The thoughts thudded into her.
I’m a possession, a thing, here for them to play with
. Her pulse accelerated.

“Thank you.” As reverent as a sculptor approaching a work of art, Tansu raised a hand and stroked down Sofia’s cheek. Her words were quiet. “I’ve wanted this for so long.”

Sofia stopped breathing.
I’m caught, wrapped up, and delivered
. But what stunned her most was how much Tansu’s lips enticed her.

Yet as Tansu came in for a kiss, she ducked away.

“Stay.” Dankyo gripped a handful of her hair, and she felt it wound tight by his fist. “Be still. I have given you to Tansu to play with.” Sofia quivered. Tension ached through her. Then he kissed her neck.

This time the triumph was blatant, stamped on Tansu’s face, on her moves, on the way she fitted herself softly yet astutely into Sofia’s body. It crumbled down to one thing—dominance. Breast to breast, her body pressed against Sofia’s; then her lips came in and
took
. She engulfed Sofia’s mouth, and her tongue thrust between her lips.

With Dankyo holding her in place, Sofia could enjoy without guilt. Guilt…something called to her there. The truth was, she wanted this, and she succumbed and answered Tansu’s kiss with her own tongue and lips.

“That’s it,” Tansu whispered, with her hands on Sofia’s buttocks. “Kiss me.”

Crocodile
. The word was in her mind. But the prospect of being toyed with by both Dankyo and Tansu almost unhinged her. She’d reached some impossible level of arousal and might disintegrate at any moment.

The little soft duel of their tongues, and Tansu’s breath mingling with hers; these things occupied Sofia for a bare second. Everything else whirled in—Dankyo’s hard muscles behind her, Tansu’s softer form in front; they boxed her in, ran their hands over her engorged breasts, her pussy, her legs, and up into her cleft.

The rising tide of a climax absorbed her. She shuddered, and fresh moisture leaked from her slit. She twisted her toes into the floor, arched forward her pelvis.
A little more, a little more.

“More,” she choked out the word, half aware Tansu had stopped kissing her.

There was laughter. Not Dankyo’s—it was soft and feminine.

“Shh.” Like some luscious siren from a myth come to taunt her, Tansu moved down her body, leaving a path of cooling kisses on her neck. When Tansu reached her breasts, Sofia tried to shuffle back, but Dankyo was there, his cock prodding at her anus, his hands spreading the cheeks of her ass.

The rope cage had left her breasts so full, and so sensitive. Each touch was like a blissful fire.

Small hands cradled them. A gentle heat engulfed one nipple.
Tansu’s mouth
. She looked down to see her sucking, then felt the tongue sweep across her aching nipple. Dankyo’s phallus penetrated—a thick delicious invasion, stretching her just that extra fraction, enough to make it hurt. She panted, accommodating the burn. Yet she wanted more. The sucking and licking, the capture of her breasts, the slow thrust up into her nether hole—as swift as lightning, she lifted into the onslaught of an orgasm, and was trapped there, shaking, gasping, crying out her pleasure.

Exhausted, she clutched the rope above. She would not collapse, would not give Tansu that satisfaction. Something made her want to deny that last surrender. Mouth open and with her chest still heaving, she waited, trembling, trying to recover her composure. The woman smiled back—a placid and utterly confident smile.

Damn her. She thinks I’m hers
. She wants to conquer me. As logic returned, she saw that and resisted.
I’m Dankyo’s, not yours.

Tansu folded her knees and slithered downward, her mouth bestowing baby kisses on Sofia’s belly. Each one made her shiver. Kneeling, Tansu cupped Sofia’s sex.

“You’re so pretty, Sofia.” As light as a brush on canvas, Tansu traced her fingernail around Sofia’s clit, circling, circling.

Mesmerizing—a woman’s mouth near her most private place. Sofia stared into those light brown eyes. Specks of light reflected like gold.

Tansu laid her cheek on Sofia’s thigh. “I’m going to make you come again, while your man makes love to you. I may never have you again, but I want you mine for a little while. Please?” As she spoke, Dankyo slid all the way in. His balls touched the back of Sofia’s thighs. He bit her neck, and she hauled in a breath.

Please?
The asking changed everything.

Her anus clamped onto Dankyo’s shaft, the little muscles in her entrance stretched to their limits. Panting, pushed forward by his thrust, she blinked at Tansu. A second thrust forced a squeak from her. Strands of hair draped across her eyes. She nodded, then choked out, “Yes.”

Another tender kiss was pressed onto her inner thigh, while Tansu kept her fingernail going around and around. “Thank you. Now, I’m going to eat you all up.”

Her simple words tumbled through Sofia, rolling up her defenses.

Tansu poked out her tongue and dabbed a tiny lick right on the top of Sofia’s clit. Electricity. Sheer ecstatic electricity.

Sure her eyes were wide as a sea, Sofia whimpered. Dankyo thrust in and out, slowly, gentle in a way. He halted, ground himself deep, then said something guttural she couldn’t understand.

Tansu held up her hand with her three fingers coned together, then worked them a half inch into Sofia’s vulva. Her entrance tightened, released. “This time, your screams are mine. Do you want me to fuck you, Sofia?”

What would it be like with Tansu inside her too?

“Answer her.” Dankyo shoved even higher, almost lifting her feet off the ground. Then he stilled, held her there. She curled her fingers on the rope and wanted to wriggle on him, wanted him to
move.

Oh God, yes. Yes, I do.

“Sofia? Do you want me to fuck you?” Such a pretty delicate woman, yet Tansu’s words had power.

Reluctantly, she said, as faintly as she could, “Yes.”

“Say it properly, Sofia. What do you want?” That tongue, that diabolical tongue, dabbed out again and swirled on the very top of her clit. Those gold-and-brown eyes. Hand held at her pussy. Dominance. Pleasure. Submission.

She trembled, groaned at the spreading bliss.

“Yes! Fuck me. Fuck me, please. Please, please, fuck me.”

“Good girl.” Dankyo slid his hands around to cup her breasts and put his thumbs atop her nipples.

They both thrust into her at once. The rhythm reverberated. They pounded up into her. Pumping, surging, rocking her flesh.

She heard her grunting animal noises and could do nothing to hold them in. “Mmm. Uhh. Mmm.”

Every moment forced her higher. They filled her with cock and fingers—a seesaw of sweaty, sticky lovemaking. With ropes and flesh and their will, they held her in thrall.

Like a minivolcano placed right over the top of her most sensitive part, Tansu’s mouth swallowed up her clit.

So hot. A woman’s mouth on her. Tongue on her.
Oh, that tongue
. Dankyo inside her ass. Her mind shuttled through all the dirty, glorious, sexual things they did.

The licking, the multiple thrusts, the way they both took her as if it was their right, it flung her higher. Her nipples and breasts, her very skin hungered, and crammed to bursting.

I’m taken, filled. My body is theirs.

A last flat-tongued lick swept over her clitoris. Ecstasy blasted through her. She screamed and hung in limbo, her torso undulating, her muscles and mind claimed by the primitive instincts of sex. Neck and back arched, Sofia gasped, and rapture washed her away. Blackness tumbled in.

The room was lost, floating somewhere in space beyond her limbs. She sagged, limp, unable to do more than breathe.

Sofia was dimly aware of the ropes being untied and of someone placing her on the bed. People touched her, moved her, soothed her with words. She made her eyelids open and saw Tansu looking down at her.

“Thank you,” Tansu whispered.

She smiled, then wafted away into the floating place again. Someone cuddled up behind her. Another, softer, person snuggled in front. She sighed and fell into the warmth of sleep.
Loved. It was the best…

* * * *

Dankyo woke when the bed moved. Tansu was getting out of bed.

He raised his head, careful not to jar Sofia who was nestled into the gap between his arm and chest. “Tansu.” He waved her over.

“Sir?” She hesitated, her clothes in hand, then came to his side of the bed. “Yes?”

“Are you okay?” Around her eyes was dark, but apart from that he could see no signs of stress. Yet while they’d made love to Sofia, her passions had come to the fore.

“Yes, sir. Thank you.” Then she bent and took his hand and kissed it. “Thank you. I’m very grateful.”

“You’re welcome.”

A gorgeous woman, the sway of her naked ass as she walked to the door would entice any man. He hoped she saw the truth here—that this would never happen again. That was logic, though. Emotions were harder to control.

The deep black of her hair and olive tone of her skin meant she was likely a slave born somewhere near Byzantium. Pity surfaced. He dismissed it.
Nothing to be done. I can’t rescue slaves from the emperor-bey.

Damn, though. Damn.

He ran through everything in his mind, especially that little interview he’d done the day before to see whether joining him and Sofia was to her taste. The lack of body clues from Tansu seemed a little strange. Her desire for Sofia was genuine, yet she had the schooled reactions of someone trained not to show her feelings.
The result of years in the harem? Perhaps.

Whatever her reasons, seeing her tangled with his little Sofia and eliciting pleasure from her, licking between her thighs, that was a memory to treasure.

He turned to his beautiful lady and smiled, then lay back down and gently pulled her close.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Her little good-bye to Dankyo was still on her mind when she arrived at the Clock Warrior. When her escort had come to their room, Dankyo had opened the door and stood ramrod straight, trying to be all stiff and correct. She paused there, before stepping over the threshold. The look in his eyes—she couldn’t read him, until his hand smoothed down her back, and an eyebrow twitched.

He’s worried.

Well, there was something
she
could do for him. She went up on her toes, put her palm to his cheek, and kissed him. “I’ll be back soon.” She rested her head on his chest and slid her hand down to hug him. The officials could wait. “Mmm. You smell so good.”

“You too, my lady.”

And they’d hugged for a moment, breathing together.

At the memory, she couldn’t stop the small upward curve of her lips and ducked her head a moment. Then she looked about.

The parade of people accompanying the emperor-bey was daunting. Thirty people at least, including Xiang, and Tansu, and all arrayed in a semicircle before the entrance to the Clockwork Warrior’s sanctum. The sun gleamed down through the high glass ceiling, and the birds above cast flitting winged shadows across the grass. Even the janissary who’d commanded her to have slave training was here, dressed in some finery that gleamed with rich gold and purple embroidery, and with his beard perfectly pruned.

What a horrible man. She’d thought him not privy to the emperor-bey’s secret, thought he’d been unaware of her true place in all of this. But he must have known then that she was no slave. Head of the Household Garden, someone had called him? Arrogant bastard. Byzantium seemed full of those. She stifled a yawn and looked about, spotted Tansu kneeling to the left of the official droning on about how this was an auspicious occasion.

Some secret. Half the emperor-bey’s court must know
. And here she’d thought this would be a low-key affair.

When she had awoken that afternoon, Tansu had already gone. And she hadn’t seen her again until the woman arrived at their room to escort her here. The five palace guards accompanying Tansu had made conversing about anything personal an impossibility. So she’d merely sent her a concerned glance and left it at that.

Somehow, she needed to say farewell after the ceremony. Since Dankyo had arranged for them to leave as soon as the emperor-bey allowed them to, the chance of talking properly to Tansu seemed slim.

But the woman deserved something. It was clear to both her and Dankyo that she held some deep affection for Sofia. Leaving without saying good-bye would be awful.

“Miss Sofia White.”

Oops
. The expectant look on the face of the official calling her, and the irritated one upon the emperor-bey’s made her wonder if she’d missed the first call.

The door to the glasshouse sat open, and four guards waited within. Just as she’d requested. And everyone was watching her.

She heaved in a deep breath. “Time to begin.” What a pity Dankyo had not been allowed in. How much she’d come to lean on him in such a short time.
But, I like it that way
. And she couldn’t help smiling to herself as she was ushered through the door. This was her big day, and she was thinking of returning to him, her wonderful lover, as much as she was of the clockwork puzzle.