Chapter 40

CHAPTER 40

BENEDICT

I gaze down at my wife, noting the ease of her submission. Through the bond, I feel her genuine need to have me hurt her, to give her the absolution she needs and craves. Though the full bond is not complete, I hope she can feel my emotions as well as I watch her kneeling before me.

My balls ache as they draw up painfully tight. Right now, the only thing I can think of is burying myself within her. I want to lose myself in the pleasure of her cries and gasps.

"How you vex me, minx," I growl, but this time, there's no animosity there. "Rise and go to the bed."

She lifts herself off the floor in one graceful sweep of limbs and saunters over to the bed at the far corner of the room. The sheets, though clean, will be inadequate for what I plan to do. Perhaps if she shows an affinity for my knives, I'll procure some oilcloth to serve as a barrier.

Clearing my mind, I turn from her and stride over to a small cabinet. Though I don't typically play down here in this way, I find it better to keep my knives stored with the other implements and not where they can be seen. The questions alone can be quite obscene.

I gather my tools, examining each blade of my lancets and scarificator. My body quivers as my knife joins the set. Never in my life did I dare hope to use these on my wife. Yet, even through the bond, I feel no fear.

Her excitement is contagious. Turning, I note the lust in her eyes as she smiles at me and spreads her thighs. Soon, her virginal blood will join the rest. My knot pulses as I take my treasures back to her side.

She looks at them, her excitement waning just a touch. "You mean to bleed me?"

"Not like you think. I am not a physician and will never claim to be so." With a quick flick of my fingers, I remove the necklace and lay it to the side. "Be a good little wanton for me, and someday I'll show you the pleasurable agony this necklace provides."

I ease her back down so she's lying flat and turn to caresses my tools. "You have your demons, and I have mine. Yours are eased when I provide pain and pleasure. Mine are eased when I see blood welling to the surface."

She nibbles on her lower lip as indecision wars within her. God, but it makes me even harder seeing that hint of fear as she willingly submits to the unknown.

"And you'll stop if it gets too much?"

I lay my hand against her heart. "I'm intertwined with you now. I'll know when you're at your capacity."

Again, she bites down on her lip and turns her head to the side. I don't worry about her hiding away from me anymore, not when I can feel all the emotions fluttering through her like wings.

"I hear that too. Yes, me claiming you will allow us both to feel things far more keenly than we do now. But you do not want me to bite you. Not like this. The agony would be unbearable."

The minx has the audacity to purr and writhe beneath me. Her arousal perfumes the air as she rolls her hips. God, but she's intoxicating.

Her lips slide into a seductive smirk. "I know you can make it hurt so very good."

"That I can, my minx. That I can. Shall I restrain you? Or can you be a good little omega for me and take the pain I bestow upon you?"

"For you, I can be as good as you make me."

I grin down at her, my heart soaring for the first time since she trapped me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think my life would turn out like this. The women I played with in The Rose and Thorne merely tolerated my depraved desires because of the coin it gave them.

Augusta wants me, craves me even. Sliding my hand down to cup her cheek, my cock pulses as she burrows into my touch. Through the bond, there's nothing but trust and hunger. It's humbling to feel her true desires for me.

Bringing the lancet up, I show her my tool before sliding it over her skin, keeping my cuts shallow. Her gasp as the fire burns through the system flutters against me, making me painfully aroused. With painstaking precision, I decorate my inspiration, sending rivulets of blood over her pale skin and onto the sheets underneath.

"Such a good little muse," I murmur, praising her as I deliver such elegant pain. "You're taking it so well for me. How beautiful you look with my marks marring your skin. Every day I'll look at them and worship them. Once they heal, I will do it all over again."

Keeping my cuts where only I can see them, I alternate between swirls and lines, scratching the skin in some places but going deeper in others. With each swipe of my blade, her arousal becomes more intense. Grabbing my knife, I bring the blade lower, teasing her lower lips with the dull edge.

Sexual haze fogs her mind as I reach out through the bond, making sure she can handle what I'm doing. She cannot tell one sensation from the other. To her, it's all the same. So when I drag the metal over her clit, she screams out, terror and pleasure coalescing into one overwhelming mass of need.

"Fear not, minx. Your clit remains intact. I will never harm such a delightful little pearl."

Ginger, spice, and copper pepper the air, muddling my brain until savage need pours through me. Bypassing her pussy, I pick up the lancet and continue to drag the blade down, teasing her, tormenting her, and turning her into a writhing bundle of need. Blood coats her skin like lubricant, drawing a feral madness into my being.

It's not a rut, but damn near close. I need to have her, to possess her. Tossing the lancet and other blades to the side, I strip bare for her, taking my time as I ease out of my breeches. Her hunger is palpable on the air, fueling my own until I cannot tell where hers ends and mine begins. It's as it should have been from the beginning.

With rough movements, I spread her legs open. I slide across her, coating my body with her blood. Bending low, I lap at her nipple, groaning as I taste her life force on my tongue. Her desperate moans flood my brain even as her pleasure hums through the bond.

With a wicked grin, I bite into the sensitive flesh, causing her to jerk against me and clutch my shoulders. "That's it, my little pain slut," I growl against her tender skin. "Let me feel you. All of you."

I switch to her other nipple and suck it deep into my mouth and release it with an audible pop, earning a mewling cry from Augusta's lips. I have to have her. I can no longer hold back.

My cock jerks as I notch the tip in her entrance. There will be no slow deflowering for my little omega. She craves the pain my body gives her.

Her sharp cry echoes through the room as I impale her with one long stroke. Through the bond, I sense her hesitation as her body accommodates my girth. Sinking down onto my elbows, I purr as I glide in and out, my movements eased by her slick.

With each thrust, she relaxes around me, allowing me to fuck her even harder. Rising again, I stare down at the juncture of her thighs where my cock pistons in and out. Pale pink and stripes of red coat the shaft, sending a roar of satisfaction vibrating through my body.

Augusta clenches around me, moaning as the pleasure sweeps her up. My thrusts are savage and raw, hard and demanding. Just the way she likes it. Just the way she craves me. On instinct, she turns her head to the side, offering me neck and shoulder.

As much as my brain tells me to stop, my primal instincts tell me to claim her, mark her, make her mine in every sense of the word. Reaching between us, I stroke her clit, making sure she has more than enough pleasure to make up for the agony I'm about to impart.

Blood and slick coat my fingertips, making my movements slippery. Her clit is swollen with need as I play with it, rubbing it back and forth in time with my relentless strokes. Frantic moans spill from her lips as she bucks up under me, desperation lining every inch of her body.

I won't deny her. Not now. Not when every pore screams for release. "That's it, love," I growl. "Come for me. Break beneath me. Show me who owns this body."

She shatters around me as her orgasm ripples over her. Through the bond, I feel her release as a pale version of my own. It drives me forward, making me all the more eager to spill my seed inside her willing body.

Grabbing her hair, I wrench her neck to the side and hold it in place. It's not a need to dominate and conquer that has me so rough. I do not wish to harm her any more than I have to during this process. In truth, as agonizing as it will be for her, it's so much better this way.

Without a rut clouding my mind and judgment, I can stay more attuned to her and what she needs. I'll also be able to tend to her better after we're done. Again, I stroke her clit, distracting her with my touch and purr as I lap at her neck.

My cock swells inside the warm heat of her pussy as my knot expands. I don't stop. I can't stop. Each thrust becomes erratic as I force myself past the tight ring of her entrance. Once I'm fully seated, I sink my teeth into her delicate skin.

It gives way as her screams ring about my ears. I don't stop purring. I don't stop touching her. My knot locks deep inside, spilling my hot cum into her body. Again, her body explodes into a flurry of movement as her release races through us, tempering the pain.

The thin threads wind even tighter around us, locking us together as a maelstrom of emotions sweep through. Threads turn into the cables. Cables turn into anchors. Though I never wanted to be free from her before, I certainly can't now.

We're a part of each other, deeply enmeshed, never to be separated until death parts us. As it should be.

Easing my teeth from her, I gaze down into her eyes. She looks up at me, adoringly. For the first time, she seems replete, satiated. No more will I deny her my touch or my love. It seems she thrives on it.

"I'm quite a mess," she murmurs, lifting her bloodstained hands.

A roar of laughter barks from my lips, jostling my knot deep inside her. "That you are. Both of us, actually."

I ease over onto my back so she can lie against my chest without being smothered. We lie there connected as my knot continues to hold us together. A soft hum, an omega hum, drifts around us as she draws lazy circles onto my chest with her fingers.

"Will it always be like this?"

"Well, you will have to recover some time."

"No. That's not what I mean. Us. This. The closeness, the intimacy."

Closing my eyes, I pour what love I can into the bond, making it hum as beautifully as hers. "Yes. Always. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to communicate as well. But now that I've claimed you, this can do the talking for us."

"Does this mean I can have my cards back?"

I crack an eye open and frown down at her. "You'll have to guide me along your thought process for that one."

"Well, now that you know where I am and what I'm doing, you can monitor my activities. That means I should get my cards back."

"Nice try minx, but your days of fleecing men of their coin are now over."

"Even if it's your friends?"

I lie there for a moment, my brain doing its best to stay coherent in the wave of postcoital bliss. "They can certainly stand to lose some. How much did you win from the girls, by the way?"

"More than enough to pay for your part of the marriage bet."

"You know about that?"

Groaning, I run my hands over her hair. It's sticky and matted from her blood and our ferocious love making. Once my knot recedes, I'll need to bathe and tend to her. But for now, I feel at peace with my mate in my arms.

"The girls were very illuminating."

"Speaking of… Did you ever find out who the drawing is of?"

Augusta rises, wincing as my knot stretches her a bit more. "You know about that?"

With a smile, I tap her chest over her heart. "I'll always know."

"I guess it's too late to take it back?"

"Most certainly my incorrigible minx. There will never be any secrets between us anymore. And that's just how I prefer it."

"I do too… but this is one secret I cannot reveal because I do not know. It was never said to me whose phallus it is."

"Only that it's far larger than mine," I growl, teasing her.

Through the bond, she knows I'm not upset, and so she swats at my chest, nearly hitting her claiming mark. "I fear it was the perspective and my overthinking that led me to believe the size was far bigger. Trust me, you're certainly massive enough."

"And don't you forget it."

"As if you'll ever let me."

"Never, my love. I am yours now and forever just as you are mine. Until the stars fade from the sky. Until the Thames dries up, refusing to water the land of England. Until the sun darkens and refuses to cast its gaze upon the earth. Until death parts us."

"Until death parts us," she whispers, giving me the sweetest smile I have ever known.