CHAPTER 13

Ain't It Warming You, the World Going Up in Flames?

I pull the trigger again, firing my last bullet from the magazine, and I don't even make it close to the target's chest. I keep hitting the arm, or more often, hitting nothing at all.

Two days we've been at this, yet I can't seem to get any better.

"This gun is defective!" I exclaim, unloading the mag and then angrily setting both items down on the rack.

Henry gives me a sympathetic smile. "It's not defective. It just takes a lot of practice, and you'll get there eventually."

I huff, planting myself down on one of the sparring mats. "I have been a star student since I was in elementary school. Never got below a B! I can ace a test on Macbeth but I can't shoot a paper person in the head!"

" Macbeth and killing people are hardly the same thing."

I give him a sardonic chuckle. "You clearly haven't read Macbeth ."

"I think you're doing a very good job," Henry says, staring down at me with his arms crossed. "Better than most recruits in the Army. None of them have your level of determination and strive to improve."

I glare up at him. "So what you're saying is ‘you get an A for effort'?"

He pauses, then chuckles to himself. "I guess I am. Would it make you feel better if I gave you a gold star?"

"Don't patronize me!" I pout like I really am a student who just failed a test.

"Okay, how about something far more fun? Another game, like we did the other day."

I stare up at him through squinted eyes. "Go on…"

"For doing such a good job," Henry begins, the timbre of his voice lowering to a sultry rumble, "I will play out one scenario or fantasy that you've had about me, about us."

I sputter, not having expected this conversation to head down such a naughty path. "I don't know what you mean."

He gives me a knowing stare. "You're telling me that with all your pornographic fanfictions that you never pretended it was you and me, not the characters written on the page?"

Cheeks now flaming, I bashfully look down at the mat I still sit upon. "I don't think you should open up Pandora's box like that. I have years of fantasies backlogged in my head, most of them involving some kind of roleplaying, and I highly doubt that's your thing."

"Doesn't matter. This is your gold star, and I will play out anything you want me to."

Such power is dangerous for me to have, and already my mind is flipping through different fantasies like pages of a dirty novel. It's hard to pick just one, especially one that Henry might actually enjoy doing. This may be my prize but I want him to have some fun too.

After some moments of contemplation, I push myself off the floor and stand toe to toe with him, keeping my eyes locked with his as I divulge one of my longest-standing fantasies.

"You discover that I betrayed you," I tell him. "You tie me to a chair and begin interrogating me for information. You're angry, there's fire in your eyes, and you get increasingly agitated that I won't talk. So, as a last-ditch effort to break me, you lick my pussy until I'm on the brink of coming, but then you deny me my release over and over again."

I watch gleefully as Henry's pupils widen, hunger filling his features. "You want me to torture you with my tongue?"

I nod. "And I really want you to get into it. There's something about seeing you all fired up and aggressive that makes me really horny."

"That's not normal, you know that, right?"

I shrug, slowly linking my fingers with his. "I just find it appealing in the bedroom, you going all ‘cold-hearted-killer' on me. But outside the bedroom, I like you being a grumpy teddy bear."

If looks could kill, the one Henry is giving me right now would have ended me right then and there. "I'm not a teddy bear."

"Says the guy who wants me to spoon him every night."

Henry's cheeks redden at that. "So what exactly is the context of this fake betrayal?"

"Maybe you find out I stole all of your money, or maybe I became an informant for the FBI, who are trying to take you down."

Henry nods, taking this perspective role very seriously. "How do you want to begin?"

I brush past him, heading towards the exit of the gym. "I'm going to be in the office, doing some important work for a new mission of yours. Wait five minutes and then come in to confront me about what I did."

I put a little sway into my hips as I leave Henry behind, hoping to be a bit of a tease. Once I'm out of sight, I sprint to my room and change out of my workout clothes and into a pink dress with daisies, forgoing my panties to make me more accessible.

I casually walk into the office and sit in the chair behind the big computer monitor, mindlessly scrolling through camera feeds and clicking random keys on the keyboard, my whole body humming with excitement.

After a few minutes of pretending to be productive, I notice Henry standing in the doorway from his backlit reflection in the screen. He's leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed, staring me down intently.

I turn around in my chair, giving him an innocent smile. "Why are you lurking over there?"

He doesn't say anything, just continues to stare. His expression is cold, his posture hard, but his eyes are molten with heat, his pupils wide and transfixing. It's like I'm staring into the void.

He slowly approaches me, locking his arms behind his back. "Did you think I wouldn't find out?"

I fake confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I pay you handsomely, I give you the best insurance, I treat you like my equal—why would you betray me?"

I drop the innocent act and shrug, trying to seem regretful. "I was given an offer I just couldn't pass up. I was cornered by a fed and he said the only way to avoid jail was to help take you down."

Henry, as if by magic, brings his hands forward, clutching on to handcuffs. He grabs my arm and yanks me up, forcing me to turn my back to him. He places my arms behind me and cuffs them, whispering into my ear as he tightens them, "I've imagined you bound many times, but I'm afraid this won't be enjoyable."

My heart flutters and I have to fight off a grin as he pulls me out of the office and drags me into the kitchen. I'm forced into a chair, with my arms around the back, facing Henry as he inspects kitchen knives from the knife block.

"What did you tell them?" he asks calmly.

I give him a defiant look. "You can go ahead and torture me, but it won't work. I deal with stabs and cuts from sharp objects every day. Those knives don't scare me."

He sets down the knife he was inspecting, turning his gaze back on me. "I can always find far more painful methods of getting you to talk."

I make a raspberry sound with my mouth. "You don't scare me either, Henry."

He quickly closes the distance between us, slamming his hands on the arms of the chair and dragging it towards the middle of the kitchen. He looms over me, his face right in front of mine. "It isn't smart for you to antagonize me."

God his lips are so close . "But antagonizing you is so much fun."

Without taking his eyes off me, he wraps his fingers around my neck. He doesn't squeeze, merely rests them against my skin. "I could kill you without moving an inch. Just tighten my grip, apply pressure."

He emphasizes his point by gently squeezing, with his thumb brushing the hollow of my throat.

"I have killed dozens, maybe even hundreds of people," he whispers, his fingers tracing the lines and grooves of my collarbone. "I know how to make someone's death painless or agonizing, fast or slow. It's an art I've perfected. You knew this, yet you betrayed me anyways. Why?"

One step away from panting, I force myself to stay in character. "If you're going to torture me, just get on with it. What will it be? Your hands? Knives?"

Henry's mouth curves in a devilish grin as he kneels down in front of my chair. "I have a far more effective way of torturing you, B."

He pulls on my thighs until I'm slightly slouched in my seat, then he peels up my dress, giving a satisfied hum. "Do you always work at the office with no panties on?"

I try to act nonchalant, keep playing the game, but it's nearly impossible with Henry gently brushing the skin of my thigh, with his hungry gaze placed solely on my pussy, which aches more with every passing second.

This truly is torture.

"Maybe I like feeling breezy down there."

He chuckles, pulling my thighs farther apart and placing my calves over the armrests of the chair I'm cuffed to. He's made me immobile, unable to stop him from whatever he chooses to do. It's like he said: he could kill me without breaking a sweat, but the hands that are permanently stained with blood are touching me with a delicacy that has me quaking. There's something intoxicating about being the one person on the planet that such a dangerous man cherishes.

"Already wet for me," he croons. "Did that pissant ever go down on you?"

He means the guy I dated. I shake my head. "No. I've never been eaten out before."

He gives a disapproving growl, then, without warning, he leans down and kisses my labia, starting at the bottom and making his way to the top, only using his tongue once he reaches my clit. I let out a hearty moan, and in answer, H sucks my clit into his mouth and grazes his teeth over the hood, clutching on to my thighs with both of his hands.

Looking down to see just the top of his head and his scarred, rough hands holding me down while he eats me out? It's the hottest thing I've ever seen.

He starts alternating between lavishing my clit with his tongue and sucking it into his mouth, and within only a couple minutes, I'm already reeling towards an orgasm. When I use my vibrator, it usually takes at least fifteen to twenty minutes, but Henry has managed to get me there three times as fast.

But just when I feel myself cresting, Henry stops.

I let out a whine, and Henry bites my thigh to silence me.

"You don't get to come until you yield," he tells me.

"Yield?"

He nods, blowing air on my wet pussy, making me squirm. "You betrayed me. If you want to keep your life, you will yield to me by apologizing."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry for betraying you!" I blurt, not even caring about the game anymore, just wanting to come.

He clucks his tongue in disapproval. "You're such a rotten liar."

He licks my pussy again, avoiding my clit and instead focusing on my opening. He teases it a little, then I feel two fingers push inside me, curving upwards to hit right on my G-spot. I let out a whimper as he fucks me with his finger, using his tongue to circle around my clit without ever touching it directly.

"I'm sorry I betrayed you, Henry, it will never happen again!" I shout, wishing I could bury my hands into his hair and close my legs around his head.

"You lost the right to call me by my first name," he replies against my pussy, the vibration of his voice adding to the acute torture.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Cai."

"Not that either."

God, he's such an asshole. "I'm sorry, sir."

He chuckles darkly, like a villain about to set his evil plan in motion. "That's more like it. You need to learn how to respect your employer. It's clear given your bossy attitude and your betrayal that you have none. I'm the boss, not you."

"You're right," I sob, trying to buck my hips against his fingers and mouth. "I'll do better from now on, sir."

"You're damn right you will." He kisses my clit while his eyes flick up to mine. "Who is in charge?"

"You are, sir," I reply.

"Who makes the rules?"

"You do, sir."

"Who owns you?" he asks, biting down on my clit hard. "Who owns this pussy?"

"You do, sir. No one else but you, I swear."

"That's a good girl," he croons. "Now come for me. Drown me."

He sucks my clit into his mouth, and I'm a goner. With a cry of his name, I come around his fingers, giving him exactly what he asked for. He lets out a satisfied hum as he continues to flick my clit, wringing every ounce of pleasure from my body that he can. When I've finally stopped, he places a soft, tender kiss on my mound.

His brown eyes are wild with lust, and the hard-on he's sporting in his sweats looks painful. He catches me staring at him as he gets off the ground, and his mouth, still wet from my pussy, curves into a grin. "There's one more thing I require, one more method of repentance."

I know where this is going and I am vibrating with excitement. "Can you please unhook the cuffs? Please?"

Henry gives a shallow nod, unlocking the handcuffs and letting me free from my imprisonment. I sit up, my dress falling back down to my sticky thighs, and watch as Henry undoes the strings of his pants, fishing out his hard cock. From what I felt when I gave him a hand job, I knew he was super girthy, but his length is pretty normal, no more than six inches.

Which is good for later because there's no way I'm putting a horse cock inside me.

"If it's too much, tap on my thigh," he says, waiting for me to give verbal confirmation before guiding his cock to my lips.

I immediately latch on and suck, wrapping my hands around the base and jerking my wrists in small but assertive tugs. Henry curses, gripping on to my hair tightly, my curls filling his hands.

I may not have a ton of sexual experience, but I know my way around a blow job. Shitty men I went on dates with would guilt me or bargain with me for them, and of course they wouldn't reciprocate. They wouldn't want to have sex either, and it made me feel like I wasn't beautiful enough to take the next step with. I think every plus-size woman can relate to that—the feeling of inadequacy, of failure.

But Henry has never made me feel like that.

He is gripping on to my head like it will keep him from being swept away. His eyes are shut, his head tilted back in bliss as I continue my ministrations. He's murmuring my name, giving me soft praises that make me feel like Aphrodite. Not to mention that five minutes ago he worshipped my body like my grandma worshipped Jesus in a church.

I've never felt so sexy in my life.

"B, I'm about to come," he warns, rocking his hips subtly into my mouth, using my head as an anchor. "Pull back now if that's what you want."

In answer, I suck harder, making Henry chuckle in a sultry, toe-curling tone.

"If you insist."

After a few more thrusts, he spills down my throat, and the way he moans my name—I've never felt more powerful.

I pull back, licking my lips. "Have I earned your forgiveness?"

He nods, panting as he tucks his cock back into his sweats. "Fuck yes."

I giggle as Henry helps me on to my feet, then he plants a long, sensual kiss on my lips, and I swear I glow from within.

"Thanks for playing with me," I whisper.

He holds my chin between his thumb and knuckle, rubbing my back with his other hand. "I look forward to the next time you betray me."

I laugh, enjoying this teasing side of H. I'm about to retort with my own teasing comment, but my insulin pump chooses that moment to make itself known.

BEEBEEBEEP BEEBEEBEEP

I know without having to check that my pump is out of insulin.

Perfect timing, as always.

"Take care of your pump." Henry kisses me again, though this time briefly. "Meet me back in the gym when you're done."

I give a reluctant sigh. "While you're waiting for me, can you come up with the solution for my broken pancreas and shitty immune system?"

He nods in all seriousness, but there is a glimmer of humor in his eyes. "I'll get right on that."