It takes me a full minute to get her under control, pinning her hands behind her back and turning her in my arms to face me as I force her back onto the bed. She’s breathing hard, eyes wild as she stares up at the beast she’s just awoken.
“You have a fire in you, don’t you?” I straddle her body and pinch her face in my fingers. “But you should know you’re only making my cock harder when you fight.”
She stills, her baby blue eyes drifting down my body. When they land on the weapon stabbing painfully against the zipper of my trousers, she sucks in a breath.
“That’s right.” I lean into her and hover above her lips. “I’m going to fuck you.”
Her chest heaves as she shakes her head, a pitiful denial. But that fear, that hatred emanating from her is like an aphrodisiac stronger than any other. I don’t know what it is about this woman who triggers this depravity in me, but she should know better than to provoke it.
Her claw marks burn into my arms as blood drips from the side of my temple. When it splashes onto her, she wiggles in my grasp, and for a split second, regret lingers in her eyes.
“Too soft.” I drag my bloody fingers over her lips. “Don’t you know you should never feel sorry for me?”
She whimpers as I lower my mouth to hers, just enough to inhale her breath. And then I cave, drawing her lip between my teeth and tugging until I taste her blood mingled with mine.
She hisses, and I lick her wound, metallic and biting against my tongue. My cock rests against her hip, deadly, and wanting. I want to squeeze that rigid flesh into her body, claiming every orifice. I want to fuck her and fill her with come until she understands exactly who owns her. But right now, I don’t have time for all the things I want to do to her. And we still have a deal to make.
Reaching into the nightstand, I find the length of rope I stashed there in my preparations. When she sees it, it reignites the fire in her, and it’s cute how she struggles against me. A valiant effort for someone so small, but she couldn’t overtake me even on my worst day.
Within seconds, I have her wrists secured in a column tie, and I take a moment to admire her delicate flesh, wrapped up like a gift for me. But the abrasive rope isn’t the only thing that captures my attention. The scars peeking out from beneath her sleeves give me pause. Has she been hiding them from me? And more importantly, how did she get them?
I want to reach out and touch them. I want to ask her what they are, but that conversation will have to wait for another day.
“Word of warning.” I fondle the delicate skin on her wrists. “If you try to resist now, you can expect an unpleasant rope burn.”
She flinches at the mention of the word burn, and I take note of it. I like to know the weaknesses of everyone around me, and I can already tell this is hers. But when I remove the knife from my pocket and tease the hem of her shirt, she forgets my warning and thrashes against the restraints, only to cringe a moment later.
“Told you.” I dip the blade beneath her shirt, bunch the material up in my hands, and with a solid yank, it splits in half. “The quicker you learn, the easier this will be.”
“Why are you doing this?” she demands. “What did I do to make you hate me?”
“You want to know what you did, Ella?” I remove the scraps of her shirt, cutting at any pieces that don’t give way freely. “You came to the ball, and you got in my line, and you sat beside me. That is what you did.”
“You are an asshole!” she shrieks. “Everything they say is true.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” I drag the blade of my knife over her beating pulse. “Until then, you can keep your mouth shut.”
Her lip quivers, and she tries to hide it, but she can’t hide the tears ready to leak from her eyes at any second. The depraved part of me wants to taste those tears. I want to soak them into my tongue, absorb them with my body, and remember what it’s like to feel such human emotions.
“You tricked me,” she accuses. “You lied to me about the sanctuary.”
“I didn’t lie to you.” I turn my attention to her jeans, unbuttoning them and dragging them down over her hips while she bucks beneath me. “I meant what I said about the sanctuary. I can help, but you have to do something for me.”
“What?” She stills, and I use the opportunity to yank her jeans over her ankles and toss them aside.
“I should think that would be obvious now,” I say.
“You want me to have… sex with you?” she croaks.
“No.” The blade of my knife moves to her panties, swiftly cutting the band in two. “I want to fuck you.”
She shakes her head automatically as if the thought is so abominable, she can’t even consider it. It only makes me more eager to turn her into my little slut, begging on her knees for my cock.
“You’re… insane.” She blinks. “You can’t really mean this.”
“Oh, I do.” I tear the scraps of her panties away, and she squeezes her thighs together, horrified by the fact that she’s almost naked. But there’s still one last piece left, and when I bring the blade to her bra, her tears finally break free.
She’s a shivering mess of nerves when I lean back to examine my new toy. Just as I suspected, she’s soft and feminine and so perfect, it almost hurts to look at her. She’s a goddess of fire, a force of nature who hasn’t yet been awoken to her power. Her only defect is the soft heart beating beneath her ribs. It makes her weak. It makes her the perfect snack for men like me. I just can’t believe I’d be the first to exploit her this way.
My fingers dip to the fine patch of hair between her thighs. “Has anyone ever touched you here?”
Her pulse skitters, and she presses her legs together as only a virgin would, but it still feels too good to be true. I can’t believe it until I hear the words from her lips. And even then, I still won’t believe it until I split her wide open, bathing my cock in the blood of her innocence. There’s no way somebody else hasn’t already done it. One look at her, and I would be a fool to believe she could be that pure.
“I’d rather not say.” She lifts her chin, steeling herself.
“Fine.” I reach down and tug her nipple between my fingers. “That’s just fine, little fire-breather. I have other ways of finding out.”
The clock on the mantel confirms I’m running out of time, and the last thing I need is my mother showing up here. So, for now, I have to put my toy away. Lock her in a gilded cage until I can come back and admire her again.
“It’s almost time for me to leave you, min gudinne. But first, we need to make sure we don’t have another incident like this morning.”
Her eyes widen, and she struggles against me as I hoist her naked body up over my shoulders. She’s so slight it takes very little effort, and I wonder about her ability to take all the darkness I have to give as I carry her to the St. Andrew’s Cross on the other side of the suite. I wonder if Ella has even had time to notice the contraption or the wall of tools designed for pleasure and pain.
“What are you doing?” she shrieks as I set her down in front of the apparatus and force her legs apart to secure her ankles.
“You misbehaved this morning,” I inform her. “And now you have a punishment coming your way.”