The Fallen (A Sons of Wrath Prequel) (15 page)

His body grew heavy against her before he pulled himself away. Feather light kisses trailed down her shoulder as he rounded the horse, and his beautiful cock hung only inches from her mouth as he unfastened her binds.

She’d have done the unthinkable and reached out for him, taken him in her mouth and made him come again, but her arms had the strength of jelly. Her whole body ached the way it might if she’d been slammed by a Mack truck that backed up and hit her again.

They hadn’t even fucked yet.

Running water had Karinna frowning inside her pleasure haven.

Palms slipped beneath her, and he tipped her body back into his arms, carrying her like a child to the bathtub. Warmth engulfed her like a soothing blanket. A hand stroked down her face, and she turned in time to catch his muscled ass as he walked away. Seconds later, he returned. Heat smothered her face as he dragged a washcloth down her forehead and cheek, beneath her chin, capturing the sweat he’d created there. He lathered the soap and gently scrubbed her arms, chest and between her thighs. For the first time, Karinna realized how rough he’d been as the sting stole her breath.

“Sit up,” he commanded, and when she did, she caught a flicker of remorse in his eyes as he washed her back before laying her back against the tub.

“This must be the Sadismen royal treatment.”

“You’d have been fucked and left for another.”

That reality sunk in. Another compartment inside her head opened, and she tossed the thought inside like an emotional recycle bin.
Lolita
. “I could’ve gone another round.” Her cool words didn’t match the gratitude beaming inside of her, though.

Fingers dug into her chin, and her gaze flicked up to see eyes blazing with fury. “Do not taunt me, Pet, or you will get a true taste of the Sadismen treatment.”

Her heart pounded. An intense desire to kiss him had her feet sliding against the bath while she pushed upward to reach him.

Hands trembling, he crushed her lips with a violent kiss, his tongue darting inside her mouth, brushing against hers, and suddenly she felt claimed. He bit her lip, sucked the saliva there, before pressing his mouth to hers again. His lips disconnected and his stubbled face grazed her cheek. “I would kill any motherfucker who touched you that way.”

His words took her by surprise. The possession in them seemed out of place for the way they’d been tangoing back and forth with hatred.

His quick glance upward, the aversion of his gaze, let her know he’d confessed something he shouldn’t have.

She’d convinced herself Xander was a monster. A murderer. Her body, the fucking traitor, screamed in rebellion, wanted him to climb inside the tub with her, take her in his arms and prove her mind wrong.

No.
How many compartments could a girl create inside her head?

Focus.

Instead, he rose from the edge of the tub, leaving a cold space between them. Muscles stretched along his massive thighs as he strode from the room.

Regret burned inside of her when he returned wearing the black briefs he’d donned, and carrying a shirt.

He reached out a hand and lifted her out of the heat of the tub, into the waiting towel.  Gentle pats dried her skin and, crouching to the floor, he paused a moment, his gaze locked somewhere in the neighborhood of her exposed sex. He licked his lips and, in spite of the months men had devoured Karinna that way, a creeping vulnerability climbed her spine.

She wanted to give him pleasure in return.

A gift for his kindness.

He blinked hard and continued drying her off like his most prized possession. She’d known men who worshipped objects that way—cars,
Star Wars
action figures—oddly enough, the detachment helped her break from any thought that he might feel more for her than a toy for his amusement.

One gentle stroke of her calf, and he slipped his palm beneath her heel, lifting her thigh to his mouth and kissing it.

She frowned down at him.

What are you doing? Stop.

She bristled at his gentle touch until she caught a glimpse of her skin in the adjacent mirror. Completely healed. Like the leather hadn’t licked it at all. All the welts—gone.

How the hell?
She’d been whipped before. Stripes from Cat O’ Nine floggers didn’t heal with warm baths. No matter how much Epsom salt she dumped in it.

He set her foot back to the floor and rose up, towering over her, and his pierced nipples in front of her face left her tongue twitching at the thought of hooking one in her mouth.

Focus
.

Those silver rings could very well be what her sister stared at as men ravaged her.

Ravaged. Tortured. Left for dead.

Karinna squeezed her eyes shut. Much as she wanted to fall back into the darkness, to accuse everyone and trust no one, one nagging thought flared in the back of her mind—one she wanted to cut out of her skull with a sharp blade and toss aside.

A sixth sense, perhaps, that she’d had since childhood.

Over and over, it jostled inside her head: the idea of him hurting Lita just didn’t fit. What she’d seen of her sister—the bruises and burns in her flesh—didn’t match the reverence she’d been shown just moments before. In fact, it seemed out of character for Xander to leave any woman in that state—a frustrating conclusion she couldn’t explain.

Without doubt, he had a dark and twisted side to him. And who the hell knew where the guy’s limits ended?

The night Lolita arrived on her doorstep, she looked as though she’d been starved, tortured and beaten for days. The smell of her had gagged Karinna as she washed her in the shower. She hadn’t been cared for.

Karinna knew the sting of Xander’s whip, but also the gentle stroke of his hand.

He urged her arms into the air and pulled the soft button-down shirt, one of his, over her body. Too long and large, just like the last one. The fresh, clean scent matched those that’d, before, clung to his body. A glide of his fingers across her breast as he fastened the shirt, had her breath seizing. No bra or panties. Only his shirt.

Lifting her chin, she met his gaze. Something had begun to change between them.

His hand jerked outward, and she flinched when he grabbed the nape of her neck, rubbing that spot again before pulling her into his big body.

Resist
.

A natural instinct kicked in, and she threw her arms forward, palms against his chest.

Jesus. Solid muscle. Like slamming against cement.

A silent battle of wills ensued, until her face collided with his skin. He hiked her thigh up on his hip and slanted his lips over hers, kissing her all fierce and full of fire. Venom. The force of his body pushed her toward the bathroom floor. She lost her footing, suspended in his grasp, and he laid her against the cold tiles.

“I have to fuck you. I have to know.” A blast of heat hit her neck when he exhaled. “It’s killing me. The temptation.”

“What’s …” Heat spread across her skin.  Tingles, like butterfly wings, rapped at her thighs and clenched her pussy.  Warm swells of lust seized her muscles, beating in the same tempo as the visuals of him fucking her, tightening her breaths to no more than pants.
Take me
. 

Squeezing a fistful of her hair, his eyes clamped shut and his body trembled. “God, I fucking want you, Karinna. Right here. On the floor.” Pulling back on her hair, he stretched her neck, parting her lips, and his teeth grazed her jaw. “I’ve waited too long for you. Every day, you bring me closer to losing my mind.”

He released her and rose to a stand, running his hands through his hair and down his face, before pacing like a caged animal.

An angry growl bounced off the tiles and she slapped her hands to her ears.

Xander slammed his fist into the wall.

A ping of fear zapped her body. Chunks of tile crumbled to the floor.

Without explanation or so much as a glance, he lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed.

***

“Why do you stay?”

Xander’s sleepy voice had Karinna examining his face as the two of them lay sprawled in the bed. A strong jaw with a dark shadow of stubble and the prominent slope of his Greek nose gave a very masculine balance to his exceptionally long lashes, thick luscious lips, and the perfect symmetry of his face. Like a sculpture.

“I’m curious about you.”

“What are you so fucking curious about?”

“Why are you called the Reaper?”

He smirked. “Isn’t it obvious,
Pet
?”

She lifted her hand and hesitated, then traced the edge of his face with her finger. “What is it that you want with
me
?”

“Want …. I want … to touch you.” The liquor still slurred his words. “Gentle, without the pain. Can’t, though.”

“Why? Why do you need to hurt?”

“Gentle doesn’t work for me.”

“So you’ve—” her words faltered. “You’ve never made love to a woman before?”

“No.” Not that it surprised her, but damn, the thrill his answer roused. “Gotta know love … to make it.”

“Huh.” She sniffed. “I’ve never been in love, either.” Thoughts drifted to conversations she’d had with Lita, who’d been far more preoccupied with Karinna’s love life than she should’ve been.  The same sorry excuse she’d always given her sister came to mind. “I’m holding out for that crazy ass love. Only comes once. The kind French poets write about, and shit.”

“French?”

“Xander. What happens …. The girls. What happens to them?” New subject.  Love didn’t belong in her thoughts—not when opportunity dangled in front of her.

His head lolled to face her. “Say my name again.”

“Xander.”

A deep masculine moan in his chest clenched her thighs. “Again.”

“Tell me what happens.”

He
humphed
and curled his lip. “Everything. Big money. Power hungry fucks.”

“You don’t like them?”

“They’ll all die. Eventually.”

“Your boss?”

“I don’t have a boss.”

“What is he to you, then?”

The jerk of his body with each question told her he kept nodding off. “Amusement.”

“What is it that you do? For them?”

“Kill shit, mostly.”

“Do you want to kill me?”

Another long pause. “No.”

Man, whatever he drank had the same effect as truth serum. “Have you … ever had the desire to kill a female?”

“Too many fucking words, Pet. Slow down.”

She hesitated.
What the hell? Will he even remember any of this?
“Does the name Lita Roy ring a bell?”

“Yep.”

Karinna’s stomach lurched. “How so?”

His answer came as a sharp inhale and a mass of solid body pressing into her shoulder.

Out cold.

Karinna gave a light slap to his cheek. “Hey.”

His head rolled against the pillow then rested back at her shoulder. Even as he lay against her, she felt small and delicate beside him. Stretched out, her feet came to just below his knees. Bulges and ridges of muscles slipped beneath her bare foot as she glided her leg against his. An arm draped over her chest, nearly robbing her of breath. Completely relaxed, his strength still stood at attention. Tense. Like a beast who’d suddenly fallen, tamed and tranquilized yet somehow alert enough to keep you from approaching, just in case.

Eyes focused on his lips, she leaned forward and paused at the warm pulses of breath against her cheek.

Do it.

God, she wanted to. Those lips tasted like sin.

Saliva pooled in her mouth, puckered her tongue at the thought. So tempting.

Karinna raised a brow. She could steal the very breath out of him. Kill him right there where he lay.

Smother him if she wanted.

Instead, she rested her head on his chest, against the beat of his heart.

***

Movement broke through what must’ve been the deepest, dreamless sleep Karinna’d had in months and she jolted awake. The sound of heavy breaths behind her drew closer to her ear. A warm hand snaked across her belly and one powerful yank jerked her back against a solid body.

Xander must’ve been dreaming, judging by the quiet whispers between kisses at her shoulder and back. She could barely make them out, straining to listen, as his hardness pressed into her backside.

“I would … for you. All for you.” His soft murmur tickled her ear. “Can’t let you see.”

What?
Her mind had only seconds to contemplate his words before his hips ground into her.

“I want to … I’ll fall. Don’t stop.” Faster, he pumped, cock slamming, gliding along the crack of her ass. His hand squeezed her belly and his panting quickened, until she felt the warmth hit her back and his breath shudder.

He lay still again.

Somewhere in his dreams, she’d just gotten fucked.

CHAPTER 14

Xander stared down at his black boots hanging over the edge of the Fisher building, some four hundred feet in the air. First rays of daylight that’d just begun to peek through the clouds hadn’t yet reached the streets below, still shadowed by the tall buildings.

He’d left Karinna lying in bed, unbound. She could’ve left, if she’d wanted to, in the night, could’ve probably killed him in his sleep as drunk as he’d gotten, yet, she didn’t. He tipped back the fifth of whiskey in his hand, chugging a long swig.

“Under the circumstances, I didn’t think you’d meet with me.” The voice arrived from behind.

Xander turned in time to catch a flash of Sloane’s boots, before her body plopped on the edge of the building beside him.

She snatched the fifth from his grip and, after taking a sip, handed it back and swiped her hand across her lips. ”Bit early for liquor.”

“Hair of the dog.”

Sloane smiled, her gaze downcast. “Where is she?”

“Who?”

“No games, Xander. I knew, after Shannon went missing, it’d only be a matter of time before the new girl disappeared, too. She’s a spitting image of her
sister
.”

“Just spit it out, will ya?”

“I think you’re playing with something dangerous. Something that could ruin you. All of us.”

Xander smirked and shook his head. “If you think the female is what ruined me, you need a few more years in the field, sweetheart.” He took another swill. “Couldn’t have anything to do with all the fuckin’ shit I’ve seen and done for the last century, now, could it?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Sloane tipped her head. “Then, let her go. If they take her, so be it. Mortal lives are not our concern.”

“She has something that belongs to me. Something that could expose me.” He glanced up at her. “Us.”

Brows knit, Sloane shook her head. “Why didn’t you accept the promotion, Xander? Taking down these bastards isn’t going to bring Celine back.”

“This is no longer about Celine.”

“It’s about her.” A twinge of what sounded like jealousy lanced her words.

“Friday. Masquerade Ball. City’s most notorious Fallen will be there for an auction. I suspect Ian’s going to treat them to a fuck and feast.”

That little factoid lit her eyes. Even Jealous Sloane couldn’t resist the magnitude of what that’d mean for the Sentinels. “At Hard Limits?”

“No. The abandoned food bank on the dock. Midnight.”

“Got it.” She drew her knees to her chest, her leathers squeaking against the leather trench coat she wore. “This is it. Your big bust. One you’ve been waiting for.” Arms wrapped around her knees, she smiled and knocked shoulders with him. “No other angel on the force has taken down a ring this big.”

“Yeah.”

“Listen …” Her breath fell against his neck as she leaned in. “I’d love to celebrate afterward.”

Xander turned his head to the side, found her lips only inches from his, eyelids heavy. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He rose to a stand. “Thanks.”

Her jaw shifted, head still cocked to the side. “In the meantime, promise me you won’t do anything you’ll regret.”

“I promise I’m a guy who regrets nothing.” With wings outstretched, Xander leapt up into the air.

***

The soft caress along her leg broke Karinna from a light sleep. Xander’s body pressed into hers, the warmth stealing away her shivers. He kissed her shoulder and rolled her onto her back, clicking her hands into the cuffs anchored to his bedpost.

Exhaustion kept her from putting up a fight.

Xander paused, straddling her body. “No resistance?”

He pushed off the bed and strode across the room, disappearing into the shadows. A sharp slicing sound cut through the silence, followed by a quiet snap.

Karinna tipped her head.
What the hell is he doing?

Carrying an object she couldn’t discern through the darkness, he returned beside the bed and setting whatever it was down somewhere out of view.

The blindfold appeared first. Karinna blew out an exasperated breath as he tied it around her eyes. Man definitely had a hard-on for not letting her see a damn thing.

Fingers fumbled along the front of her shirt as he unbuttoned it, peeling away her coverings, before his fingers drifted along her curves. Karinna writhed as his fingertip grazed her exposed nipple.

The taste of leather filled her mouth as he secured the bit between her teeth. A spreader bar parted her legs, which he strapped to her ankles, and a tug with no give told her he’d anchored the bar to the post of the footboard.

For what seemed like minutes, she lay in silence. Waiting.

“I don’t want you to speak a word of protest. If you want me to stop, you’ll have to come up with something more creative than begging.”

Oh, shit.

He never failed to leave her guessing, and with each passing day, Karinna had become addicted to the sensation. Her body craved it. Desired his words. His attentions.

The first tickle swept over her bare foot. A feather? She flinched and let out a muffled giggle. The soft plumes drifted over her inner arch and swirled in circles up to her curling toes. Karinna wriggled against the binds as the feather danced along her calves, up, up to her thighs. A burst of laughter forced her to bite into the leather and recoil when it flicked across her hips and reached her ribs. Still, he continued to torment, up inside her shirt to her underarms, where she broke into hysterical laughter, thrashing her body to break contact with the relentless tickle.

Ruthless, seemingly unaffected by the tears of laughter leaking from beneath her blindfold, Xander kept to his assault.

The soft flutters frolicked at her nipples, and she let out a groan, stomach tight, panties drenching with her arousal. Like a livewire, her body reveled in the thrill, came alive with each sweep and tickle against her flesh. She moaned as the quills danced across her panties, and when fingers tugged the fabric aside, Karinna slammed her head back into the pillow, arching her back the second those silky tufts whispered against her delicate flesh.

Frissons of ecstasy radiated from her core. She rolled her head against the pillow, moaning in pure delight, when Xander spread her open and teased her clit. The ache intensified. Agony mounted in her tense muscles and the raw vulnerability of her flesh. Her body, wired and electrified, hypersensitive, could’ve probably climaxed with one long lick up her cleft.

The tickling disappeared and Karinna felt the urge to sob with her overwhelming need for release.

“Please—” Her teeth sank into the bit, hips grinding against the bed.

“You want more?”

She shook her head. “Please.” Her muffled protest carried little effect.

“I’m sorry, Pet. I warned you to come up with something more creative.”

A sharp slice licked her belly, and Karinna cried out, ass clenched with the arch of her back. The burn lingered and, coupled to the arousal already blanketing her skin, held a confusing sensation of pain and pleasure.

Another swipe, like the sharp edge of a blade, slashed across her nipples, and she screamed.

“Show me.” His level voice carried a delicious command that only exacerbated the excitement ravishing her thoughts.

Show him?
How could she? Her limbs had been tied down. Mouth gagged. Eyes blindfolded.

Every nerve ending flared with a need for more. More of his words. More of his torment. More of
him
.

Hadn’t she just been sliced by him? What the hell was wrong with her?

“I will carve my fantasies into your flesh and rape all five of your senses, if you don’t show me. Now.”

She clutched the chains binding her hands as an odd sense of panic washed over her that he might very well leave her in a state of need.

Another slash blazed across her thighs.

“Ah!” Karinna curled her fingers around the chain.

With heaving breaths, she forced herself to think of something else. Hide. Fall into a compartment inside her head and stay there.

Show him.
Lita’s voice stroked her skull.

Show him what?
Frustration. Pure sexual torment had her stomach flexing, thighs shivering.

Get him to stop. Show him
.

Against the binds, she let out a pained moan.

A burn streaked across her thighs and Karinna cried out.

I don’t know what he wants. Tell me what he wants?

The answer popped in her head like a marquee. To break you.

Never
. She ground her teeth against the bit.

Give in to him.

I can’t.

Then, let me.

Her body undulated with the words. Moans turned to sighs. Darkness clouded her mind, and like a moon flower, opening to the night sky, her muscles ‘laxed with surrender. She tongued the bit and lifted her knees as much as she could against the tension, offering herself to him.

Against every warning bell, every instinct, she fell into submission.

“Do you want more?” Xander’s voice carried a strangled tone.

She nodded. Genuinely.

Wetness slid along her cleft and Karinna planked, drool escaping her gaping mouth as he licked and sucked while feathering her nipples.

Like a jolt of lightning zapping through her veins, the orgasm exploded in her core and spread out to her limbs. She spasmed on a scream, and gnawed the leather until, at last, the tiny contractions faded into long easy breaths. Tingles of heat danced across her muscles and another satisfied sigh escaped her.

She’d given in to him. As if caught up in a trance, Karinna practically offered up her sense of control on a silver platter.

Tears flooded her eyes. 
He’s breaking you
, she chided herself.
Making you weak
.

***

“You will ruin me, angel,” Xander released her from the binds. “But I can’t stop myself.” Lifting her blindfold kicked him back a step. Did he make her cry?

Her gaze dropped to her perfectly intact body, brows knitted, and she slowly inclined her chin. “I … I need more. Will you give it to me?”

“What do you need?”

“Pain. Give me the pain.”

Pain
. Same shit that scared every other female he’d taken as a slave, and she wanted more of it. “You want to be fucked mercilessly? Is that what you
need
? To have vile things done to your body?”

She rose to the edge of the bed, and her gaze lifted to the cuffs hanging from the ceiling. “Do it. Tie me up.”

Xander ground his teeth. “Why do you push me? I show you kindness, and you insist on pushing me.”

“I need the pain,” she spat back.

Xander wanted to resist her. He really did. Like a pussy-whipped sub to his dick, he clicked her wrists and collar into the binds and re-strapped the spreader bar between her ankles. No blindfold, but he cleave-gagged her with her own panties.

Flames of rage heated his blood, burned his muscles, and, goddamn, just seeing her strung up from the ceiling made him want to explode. Half with the need to inflict the kind of pain on her that would make her wake up, but the other half just wanted to fuck her into a coma.

“How’s that? Is that what you want?”

She tipped her head back as a glisten of drool leaked from the corner of her mouth, soaking into the cotton gag. Xander smoothed his hands over her curves, down her ass, and, without warning, gave a hard slap. And another.

“Perhaps it’s in darkness, that things will come to light.”

***

Karinna hung from the chains, doing her best to catch her breath through the gag. She clung to a vision of Lolita.
That’s why you’re here. Not for his pleasure
.

The image faded as his big palm came down across her ass, snapping her out of her thoughts.

Yes!

A growl rumbled in his chest. “You make me want to fuck you so dirty,” he whispered. “I try to be gentle, and you taunt me.”

Taunt him
, Lolita called out.
Make him hurt you. Pleasure in pain.

Karinna let out a muffled moan.

“Too bad. Here’s where you’ll hang.”

No!
Her body screamed, as he stormed from the room, flipping off the lights on his way out.

The binds bit into her skin. Too tight.

His icy, callousness had pierced her, and it shouldn’t have. The sense of
yearning
beating inside of her shouldn’t have played any role in their exchange just then, but it did. Unfortunately, she had no idea
what
exactly she yearned for, His whip? The pain? Or his gentle hands?

Either would’ve been better than hanging from chains, alone, in the dark.

Humiliation flooded her insides—the way she’d begged him to fuck her. Like some pathetic, desperate little girl.

Her tiptoes slid across the floor as she attempted to relieve the pressure in her hands, and at her throat, where he’d attached her collar to the hook. The burn radiated from her wrists down into her arms and created an ache in her joints.

Tears sprung in her eyes.

Don’t you dare cry.

She grit her teeth against the gag and concentrated on staying still. Tipping her head back, she let out a soft cry. The compression tingled her fingers and turned them numb.

Would he leave her that way all night? Her stomach lurched at the thought, and something dark rose up from her gut, leaving a wake of ice-cold terror
. Oh, God.

A panic attack? She breathed through her nose, throat dry, lungs burning for oxygen. Tunnel vision set in, the edges of the room making a slow fade into complete blackness.

Cold. Numbness. Stones. Hunger.

Karinna shook away the visuals passing through her mind.
Focus. Focus here.
Cool, calculated, she’d never been one to fall into distress, but in spite of her efforts to bat the images out of her mind, they stuck.

A dark cellar. Incessant drips of water. Aching arms. Pain.

Cold tentacles of fear climbed her spine and spurred nausea in her stomach. She shook her head.
No. No.
In a tantrum, she wriggled her body and screamed through the gag in her mouth. Her breaths hastened with her hysterics.