Chapter 9

9

Malone

What am I going to do about Aurora?

Half my instincts want to continue to put her in her place, to prove that she doesn’t have the same pull on me that she seems to on every other Dominant she comes across. The rest of me wants to stop fucking around and take what’s mine for the next two weeks.

The rest of the call is as uneventful as I expect it to be. Marshall has things well in hand, he just needs a little confidence to fully step into his new position while working with a team he’s unfamiliar with. He’s got all the necessary skills and experience, but he’s still a bit green. He’ll figure it out.

I hang up and set my phone aside. That was the last obligation of the day. I purposefully lightened my schedule during this time because I didn’t want to be distracted—not from work, not from play. There are still things that can’t be shifted around, so that’s what I’ll spend my mornings doing. Aurora is a nocturnal creature like all the other Underworld residents, so it works well.

I dig my hand into her hair again, enjoying the way the indigo tresses feel against my palm, and pull her off me. “That’s enough.”

“But—” She catches herself quickly, losing some of the bliss that’s filtered into her expression over the last twenty minutes. If I let her, she’ll retreat from me again. It’s the smart thing to do, to allow that distance, but I find myself reluctant to let it happen. “Come here.” I guide her up even as I lean down.

I shouldn’t do it. It’s a mistake, and I already know it’s a mistake, but I can’t seem to help myself. I kiss Aurora. Her lips part in shock, and I use the opportunity to trace her bottom lip with my tongue. She has some of the most perfect lips I’ve ever seen, shaped as if a sculptor molded the ideal mouth. Something I’ve tried and failed not to notice over the years.

Aurora’s hands land on my thighs, and then she’s kissing me back. Here, she’s just as fierce as I know she can be, subtly fighting me for control. For dominance. A heady feeling rises in me, a flicker of something I’ve worked hard to keep locked down. This woman makes me want to fight and stab and scream. To annihilate everything in my immediate vicinity until she has no choice but to admit that she’s mine.

That’s enough.

It takes every ounce of my fraying control to break the kiss. Even then, I only gain an inch between our lips; our panting breath mingling in that tiny space a reminder of how easy it would be to just keep kissing her. To throw out any plan of scening or dominance and submission and simply sink into this woman until the hours tick away and we lose all track of time and ourselves.

It can’t happen. Losing control, any kind of control, is unacceptable. That’s what happened to my sister and now look at the situation back home. Two nieces and our brother in danger. The trust of our people wavering. An old enemy threatening everything our family has spent generations working toward. Aurora is hardly the Paine brothers, but there are thousands of people in my territory who depend on my keeping the status quo. Allowing myself to become wrapped up in her might not endanger everything I’ve worked so hard for, but I don’t know that for sure.

Because I can’t guarantee it to be true, I create more space between us. It’s not quite the boon I need it to be. Not when Aurora is clutching my thighs as if she’s fighting the pull of me as much as I’m fighting the pull of her. Her eyes are a little too wide, and her lips are parted with each harsh breath that escapes.

I don’t make a conscious decision to reach down and begin unbuttoning her nightshirt. My body simply takes over. With each button, a larger slice of her light-brown skin is revealed. The curves of her breasts, the smooth skin of her stomach, and finally her pussy. I sit back and study her. A stalling technique to keep myself from falling on her like a starving creature. It barely works.

“Why did you say yes, Aurora?”

She blinks those big brown eyes at me. “What?”

“You dislike me intensely. You have for years. Why say yes to this assignation?” I don’t know if I care. She agreed and that paved the way to the outcome I desire. But the way she hesitates now has curiosity flaring in response. “Answer the question.”

She meets my gaze for a long moment before pointedly dropping her gaze. “I was angry for a long time after that scene with you when I first started. I want you to want me, and then I will walk away and leave you wanting something you can no longer have.”

Shock and something like admiration course through me. “Do you think your pussy is so amazing that I’ll never get over fucking you?”

She flashes a look at me, and there’s no evidence of the innocent woman she’s played for nearly a decade. No, it’s all fire and fury and no small amount of lust. “I am more than my pussy, Malone. There’s a reason every single Dominant in the Underworld favors me; the same reason you’ve avoided me for nearly a decade.”

The statement is an arrow of truth I have no defense against, spearing through my carefully placed defenses. She’s not wrong. No matter what I’ve told myself—or pointedly not told myself—I’ve never treated another submissive the way I’ve treated Aurora. Still, I lean forward until our faces are almost within kissing distance. “Do you think to make me fall in love with you?”

“You wouldn’t be the first.”

That surprises a laugh out of me. “No, I suppose I wouldn’t be.” I sit back. “But it will never happen, so put whatever petty revenge schemes you’re considering out of your head. This is two weeks of simple lust. Nothing more.”

“Yes, Mistress,” she answers sweetly.

Why the hell am I irritated by how easily she agrees with me? I push the nightshirt off her shoulders and snap my fingers. “Up.”

Aurora rises gracefully to stand naked before me. The woman really is a work of art, all long lines and soft curves and the pretty bars piercing her brown nipples. I palm her breasts and coast my thumbs over the jewelry, enjoying the way she inhales sharply. “How long have you had these?”

“A few months.”

I know that, of course. I clocked her the second she got them done, flaunting the new additions with a carefully crafted underbust corset and sheer bra. “Have you changed out the jewelry?”

“No… Not yet.”

“Mmm.” I lean forward to suck first one nipple and then the other. She shouldn’t taste so damn sweet everywhere I put my mouth, but nothing about Aurora follows the rules. No matter what she pretends.

She starts to reach for me, but I grab her wrists and guide them to the small of her back without stopping what I’m doing. I use one hand to press them there and skate my other down her stomach to cup her pussy. She jerks but widens her stance to allow me better access. I expect her to be turned on, but something about finding her soaked, about knowing that she got this ramped up because she was eating me out, frays my control even more.

I need—

Damn it, what am I doing?

I jerk back, barely managing to recover and catch her shoulders when she sways. “The playroom. Now.” Confining our scenes to that room is the only way to go. Honestly, I should have simply taken out an exclusive contract with her in the Underworld and gone there every night instead of bringing her into my home. That’s the smart, logical thing to do.

But a deep, wild part of me wants her here, available to me at all times. Surrounded by my things. Possessed by me completely.

I pull my pants back on and follow her into the playroom. Distance. I just need a bit of distance. “You’ve pleased me.”

Aurora stops in the middle of the room and bows her head, the very picture of an obedient submissive. In her way, she’s frantically trying to put more distance between us, too. Again, that irrational irritation rises.

I stalk to the far corner of the room and snap my fingers. I don’t need to look to know Aurora follows. I motion at the sex machine. It’s a custom piece that was built by a friend of a friend, a leather bench-like creation designed to be knelt on. Once the submissive is fastened in place, the portion holding the knees and shins stays immobile while the center part rocks. It’s meant to create a delicious grinding motion with the dildo, and the curved section at the front rubs against the clit with every stroke. “Climb on.”

Aurora hesitates. “Is this a reward or a punishment?”

I could leave her in suspense, but I’m not kind enough to do that. “A little of both.” I grab a bottle of lube and spread it over the dildo. “Now, Aurora.”

She moves slowly, perching one knee in place. I fist the dildo and hold her hip with my other hand, guiding it into her. Her hiss of surprise brings me more joy that I have right to. She wiggles a little as I move around the machine, fastening her legs in place with padded leather buckles. I double-check the restraints. “Too tight?”

“No, Mistress.” Her voice has already gone a little breathy.

I take her hips and guide her to rock a bit. “And this?”

“It feels perfect.”

I catch her chin. “Tell me your safe word, Aurora.”

“Thorn.” She licks her lips.

“Good girl.” I force myself to release her. “You may come as many times as you like.”

Her eyes go wide. She’s experienced enough to know this really is both a punishment and a reward. How many times will she orgasm before it’s too much? Will I stop the machine before she reaches that point? I can see the anticipation and trepidation curling through her, and she looks down at the device.

“One last thing.” I retrieve a pair of cuffs and fasten her hands behind her and then clip the cuffs to the hook at the back of the seat. It’s not a tight enough connection to bend her uncomfortably, but it will keep her completely at the machine’s mercy.

I move to the overstuffed chair a few feet away and sink into it. A click of the remote, and the machine begins to rock slowly. Aurora makes a muffled sound of surprise, her gaze flying to me. I smile and pick up the book I left on the side table this morning for solely this purpose. It’s one I’ve reread many times, its spine cracked and bent, and I open it and begin to read.

Or at least I try.

The first time Aurora comes, her breath hissing out, her curse choked, I lose all concentration. She’s just as beautiful like this as she is in every other instance, and I can’t help but watch from the corner of my eye. I slow the machine to give her a second to recover and then change the mode to a different pattern, winding her up again.

A reward and a punishment. As many orgasms as she can take, but she’s deprived of my touch, my attention. A special kind of torture for a little brat like Aurora.

By the fourth time she comes, her skin has a sheen of sweat, and there are tear tracks down her pretty face. “Mistress, please.”

I make a show of putting my book aside and focusing on her. “Please, what?” She clamps her mouth shut as if she didn’t mean to let those words loose. I raise my brows. “If there’s nothing else…” I click the remote, increasing the tempo.

“Oh, gods.” Aurora’s breath sobs out. “Please don’t make me come like this again.”

There it is.

I have to concentrate to rise slowly, to not rush to her side and do exactly what I’ve been fantasizing about for far too long. She broke first. It’s important to not give over any power in response.

I sift my fingers through her hair and give it a tug. “What do you need? Speak plainly.”

She doesn’t want to. I can see it written across her face. But the seat keeps rocking against her clit, grinding that cock inside her, and she shudders. “Touch me. I need…” She gulps. “I need you. Please, Malone.”

My name on her lips in that agonized tone of voice completely unravels me. I turn the machine off and unstrap her in quick movements. I unfasten the cuffs from the seat but leave them on her wrists. Her legs won’t work properly after being in the position for so long, so I lift her and carry her to the chair I just occupied. “Your arms.”

“They’re fine. I can stay cuffed like this for a long time.”

I should check for myself, but I’m too focused on what comes next. I set her on the chair and sink to my knees between her spread thighs. Her pussy is drenched and swollen from the machine, from coming so many times. I lick my lips. “Next time you come, you do it while screaming my name.”