The Maestro's Apprentice (18 page)

He pulled out his erection and offered it to her. It tasted of her own tart juices. “That’s it,” he said, when she moved the ring of her lips down the shaft. He was a good size—big enough to stretch her pussy, but not so big he had trouble fitting it in. He put his fingers in her hair and looked down at her with a smile. She liked his face. She tried really hard to take him deep into her throat without gagging much.

“I could teach you how to do that really well,” he said. “But for now I think I just want to have that tight little ass of yours.”

Autumn’s eyes widened.

“I know Claudio enough to know he fucked you in the ass,” Malcolm said. “So don’t look so surprised. Turn around.”

She got up on the mattress on all fours, looking around at him as he reached into his jacket pocket for a small bottle of lube, for which she felt extremely grateful. “Always prepared,” he said, and lathered up a couple of fingers.

Her heart hammered against her chest as he pressed a finger against her tight opening.

“Relax,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

With his other hand, he slipped a couple of fingers into her pussy, working them in and out as he pressed at her anus. The sensations confused her. It was impossible to enjoy pleasure in one opening while guarding another, so she began to relax. His fingers rubbing the lube around her anus began to feel good. She began to want them inside her.

He seemed to sense that, and slipped a finger in.

Even through all of her excitement, it felt too big, as though it was stretching her too much. It hurt, but he obviously wasn’t going to stop.

“It’s okay, baby. Just relax. Shh-shh…”

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She gasped when he slipped two fingers inside, massaging her anus, getting it to loosen up. The pleasure-pain was so intense, she began to tremble all over. When she felt the head of his erection press against her, she felt faint. She had never liked this with Claudio, and it had always hurt. It had always been something she’d endured because he didn’t give her any choice.

Apparently, she thought, all men except for Adam were the same on that score.

She cried out when he slipped in the head, but he held her hips firmly and nudged at her, not forcing it in, but pushing just a little. “Relax,” he said. “Let me in, baby. Let me in. It’s okay.”

Autumn began to cry. Partly from the pain, partly from desire, and partly because she hadn’t expected anyone here to speak to her kindly. But there was another reason too.

She felt homesick. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to go back with Claudio to the estate or continue with Adam, but she did know that her place was not with any of these men here tonight.

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Chapter Seventeen

When Malcolm was finished with her, he warned her not to say a word about what they had talked about before he’d fucked her. He resumed his stoic expression.

Then he turned off the music and gathered his stereo.

Autumn couldn’t help but try to hide her nudity as best she could, even though every single man in the room had seen her naked and getting fucked, and most of them had fucked her.

Malcolm sought out Francois immediately and went to him while Manny grabbed her from behind and growled in her ear, nudging his newly erect cock between her thighs.

She watched Francois helplessly because she didn’t want to look at Malcolm, didn’t want them to see that she now put her hope in him. She wanted to pretend he was just another horny vampire who had had his way with her tonight.

“I need to speak with you,” Malcolm said to Francois. “It doesn’t have to be in private. I’m in the market for another girl, and this one’s – whew! She’s tight in every hole. I’ll give you five hundred for her.”

Autumn snapped her gaze up at him as though this was news to her. She let all the horror of one man offering another man money for her show on her face.

“Five hundred?” Francois said.

Malcolm nodded.

“She’s worth at least a thousand.”

Malcolm looked back at her, blew air out of his lips and said, “No, she isn’t. But I like her. So I’ll give you seven hundred. Final offer.”

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“Are you getting this, Josh?”

“Yes sir,” Josh said.

“All right. I’ll sell her to you for seven hundred. I don’t want to know where you’re taking her though, or what you’re going to do with her.”

“Oh, that last part’s easy,” Malcolm said. “I’m gonna fuck her some more. And if she doesn’t behave, I’m gonna beat her ass.”

He reached into his jacket for his wallet, and pulled out several fifties.

“Did you come here tonight to do this?” Francois asked.

“Like I said, I’m in the market. You find some awesome feeders in the most unlikely places. Besides, buying and selling slaves is kind of a fetish of mine.” He put his wallet away and looked back. “Get dressed, sunshine. We’ve got to go.”

“Hey!” Manny said. “You ain’t taking her nowhere.”

“I just bought her. She’s mine. Now get your fucking hands off her before I feed them to you, and let her get dressed.”

Autumn scrambled away from him at the first opportunity and got dressed quickly, letting herself shoot all of the worried glances as Malcolm that she wanted to. She really didn’t know whether he would decide to keep her once he got her out of here, and she believed him when he said he’d beat her ass if she didn’t do what he told her. She dressed with shaking hands, partly for that reason and partly because she was afraid the others would smell a rat.

They didn’t, though, and it wasn’t long before he had her outside and was showing her how to sit on his motorcycle and putting a helmet on her head. She turned and looked 162

at Francois standing on the porch watching her go, and hoped that it was possible for a vampire to rot in hell.

* * * *

Malcolm found a department store and took her in to buy her a couple pairs of jeans and T-shirts and a pair of sneakers. She tried them on quietly, feeling that the last few days had just been kind of…off, admitting to herself that she hoped this vampire wasn’t going to try to keep her, and that she had made a few mistakes in striking out on her own.

She didn’t really know what they were, though.

Breaking up with Maria?

No
, she thought. As much as she hated to hurt her, she had always considered Maria more of a best friend than a lover, and should never have let the relationship become anything more.

Leaving Claudio’s estate?

She didn’t think that was it, either. Autumn had spent her whole life imprisoned in one gilded cage or another. Claudio provided a wonderful home for his feeders, she thought, but it didn’t provide for much exploration of the world, and she had needed that.

Sleeping around?

That didn’t seem to be it, either. She had been with several men up until meeting Francois, almost on her own terms, and that had never happened before. It had always been like this.

“Maybe there’s a reason for that,” she murmured to herself while Malcolm moved around their hotel room, putting away his jacket and bag.

“What’s that?” he asked.

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She looked up at him. “I don’t want you to keep me.”

“Why not? Do you want to be with Claudio?”

She shook her head. “No. He was always much too scary. I think he’s going to let me stay with Adam.”

“Adam. The one who stole you.”

“He didn’t steal me. I went with him willingly.”

“Autumn, let me make one thing perfectly clear. I—and most other vampires—don’t think feeders have that kind of right. I’m sorry, and I know it’s very un-PC, but if you were mine, and you ran away like that, I’d whip you so hard you wouldn’t sit down for a week. I’m not exaggerating. This Adam—he stole you. You’re property, and I wouldn’t let myself forget that.”

Autumn nodded. “Yes, sir.” She couldn’t help but say it.

“Now my job is to take you back to Claudio. If he decides he doesn’t want you, I may consider taking you myself, if he’s willing to let me have you.”

In that moment, faced with losing Adam, she realized he was what she wanted more than anything. “But I want to be with Adam.”

“Do you think he wants to be with you now? They filled me in on what happened—

the relationship with – what’s her name?”

“Maria.”

“Right, Maria. The endless fucking. You’ve been running wild. I’ve noticed that when a feeder acts like that, she doesn’t want her freedom. She wants to be reined in.

Maybe Claudio was too much for you. I know he can be pretty harsh. Maybe I can too, 164

but I’m not quite as old-school as he is. I have beat my share of asses, though, and I think that’s what you need.”

At some point, without realizing it, Autumn had sat on the edge of the bed, head down. His words rang true. “What does it mean?”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “This mess will sort itself out. I think you’ll still be with a vampire, but we’ll just have to see which one. Crap! I forgot to call.” He reached into his jacket and grabbed his cell.

Autumn nodded, humiliated by her lack of self-knowledge, when she had been priding herself on knowing everything. She listened half-heartedly to this end of his conversation. “Hey…yeah, I have her. She’s all right. A little used and abused…I’ll tell you about it when I see you…day or two. Hey, do you mind if I have a little fun with her while I have her?”

Owned. She would always be owned.

Autumn waited for tears to prick her eyes, or for her heart to start racing, but it never happened. Instead, a warm feeling began to spread through her stomach and over her body. No matter who she wound up with, she felt as though she was going home. And she realized Malcolm was her savior, and she would do her best to please him while she was in his care.

He hung up and looked at her. “Well,” he said. “Looks like you’re mine for the next twenty-four hours or so. You hungry?”

She had been too scared and worried about what kind of person she was to think about her stomach over the past day or so, but the mention of food made her stomach growl. Malcolm laughed. “Guess that means yes. Pizza good?”

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After telling him what she liked, he told her to go relax in the tub for a while, and he would wait for it. She sat in the hot water gratefully, feeling at last that she didn’t have to worry, that everything would indeed work itself out in the best possible way.

Autumn hadn’t realized she was dozing until she found herself opening her eyes and looking groggily up at Malcolm, leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed, smiling at her. “Dinner’s here. But you’re going to have to play a little game for it.”

She barely had time to wonder what he was talking about before he sauntered back into the bedroom. She zoned out for a moment, before his words played through her brain again.

Game? What game?

Then she was out of the tub like a shot, drying her hair like mad and toweling off just enough so she wouldn’t drip on the floor. She found him sitting in the chair with the lamp on the floor and the open pizza box next to him on the table. He held a slice in one hand and his erection in the other. Across the room, she froze and stared at him open-mouthed.

He grinned, letting his fangs show. “I never said you wouldn’t have to work for your dinner.”

In that moment, Autumn wasn’t entirely sure she didn’t want to belong to this man.

With butterflies in her stomach, she crossed the room and settled between his legs, taking him in her hand and running her tongue up the underside of his erection, watching him shudder. He shook his head. “Nice.”

She inhaled the warm, meaty smell of him, dabbing the tip of her tongue on the tip of his cock, collecting the slick, salty juice there. He groaned deep in his throat. His grip on the pizza went slack. Grinning to herself, Autumn reached for it, but he caught her arm.

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“Naughty, naughty girl,” he said, standing up, towering over her with her arm in his hand, looking down at her. For a moment, she was worried she had done something that would get her punished.

He touched her lips with the oily tip of the pizza, until she nibbled off a piece. It was cheese. “That good?” he asked. “I forgot to ask if you had allergies or anything, so I just got this.”

She nodded. He kept a tight grip on her arm and watched her intensely as he fed her.

“Is this turning you on like it’s turning me on?” he asked, bobbing his erection.

“Yes,” she said, then continued chewing.

“I’m going to fuck you,” he said.

She swallowed. “I know.”

He offered her another bite of pizza. She took a big one that time, looking into his eyes as she chewed.

“Keep your hand tight on my dick,” he said.

She squeezed him obediently, watching his reaction. He opened his mouth and groaned loudly, throwing his head back. When he looked at her again, there was an intensity she hadn’t seen before. He put the slice of pizza back in the box, rubbed his hands on his jeans, sat in the chair and told Autumn to take off his boots.

A pleasant chill went up her spine at the sound of the order. “Move for a sec,” he said when they were off. She scooted out of the way, watching as he took off his jacket, and then his shirt, exposing a slim, wiry frame with very little body hair.

He was beautiful.

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He watched her with an amused smirk as he pulled off his jeans, then pulled her onto the bed and lay his nude body on top of hers. “Tonight, you’re mine,” he said. “No matter what anyone else’s plans are.”

And with that, he kissed her forcefully enough to make her respond. His hand roamed her body, squeezing her breast, playing its fingertips over her stomach and down to her hip. He squeezed her thigh and rear, absently running his thumb over the pulse in her groin, pressing into it, pushing at her with his hips when he found it.

Finally, he came up for air and looked down as he took his erection in his hand. She couldn’t help but look up at him, and she knew this was a man who could own her very easily. With a couple of quick pumps of his hips, he was inside her, propping on his elbows and looking down at her curiously.

“You may want to get away from Claudio, but you still like a man who takes charge.