Authors: Lily Harlem,Natalie Dae
He raised his eyebrows. ‘You did?’
‘Well, yes. I didn’t think you’d mind.’
‘No, of course I do not mind.’
‘I’ll tell my editor the same thing as well. So Grant’s men will know it’s a waste of time chasing you for money you’ve already paid back.’
Liuz took his other hand from beneath his head and cupped my neck. ‘Ah, Hannah, you are a girl after my own heart.’
‘I know.’ I decided to risk pushing it. ‘That’s why you’ll never say the stop word.’
He smiled. Sighed. ‘Never say never,
Aniolku.
We do not know what the future will bring.’
I smiled back, hoping my upset didn’t show, hoping I looked blasé and in control. I realised I could never show this man how much he meant to me – not the real, deep-seated emotions that raged through me even when we were apart. It would be dangerous, like the adage goes, to put all my eggs in one basket.
‘We don’t,’ I said brightly, settling beside him again, knowing that despite how bone-achingly tired I was, sleep would take a long while to come.
But we are together right now, tonight.
I slept fitfully, my dreams disjointed and macabre for the first few hours, then after I’d got up to use the toilet and returned to bed, they became vivid, bright and floaty, like sleeping amongst rainbows; smiling faces, butterflies and humming birds. The fitfulness died away and a sensation of peace and contentment soaked through my bones. It was weird, as though my worrisome brain was balancing out evil with fluffy prettiness.
So when I awoke again to the sound of the rubbish truck outside, creaking and grinding the wheelie bins to their upended positions, I felt a little stronger, and definitely better. In fact, I felt able to be the pillar for both of us; my mind was clear and my body sturdy. It was simple, as long as were together, here, safe in my flat away from Grant’s men, and sticking to our story, everything would be well. We just had to lay low, be resilient and we would be fine.
I shifted on the pillow and looked at Liuz. From what I could tell he’d slept soundly, barely moving all night. He was still on his back, the duvet settled just beneath his small, permanently erect nipples. He’d raised his left arm above his head, bent it at the elbow at a right angle. I noticed a small, almost black freckle nestled amongst his wisps of feathery armpit hair. His head was turned towards me, his stubble denser than I’d ever seen it. His mouth was slightly parted, his long lashes resting on his smooth cheeks. I took the opportunity to really study his face and, uninhibited, I scrutinised every detail. I would like to paint him in this relaxed state. Capture the slight bump in his nose, the identical creases beneath each lower eyelid, where the skin was a little more chocolaty-coloured. The Cupid’s bow on his top lip that appeared deeper now, more kissable, almost angelic in its plumpness.
I loved him so much it hurt. Actually physically hurt. I’d often dreamed of falling in love, of finding ‘The One’. Girls, women talked about it as though it was a wonderful thing, but for me it was agony. No one had ever taken the time to warn me of the torture and brutality of loving someone with all your heart. Of how the moment you loved someone you became vulnerable, a target for destruction. For what happened when they left you, even if just for one day? I imagined myself in the corner of the room, naked, weeping, never moving again, unable to function, unable to breathe. If Liuz left me I would surely die.
I had to keep him here.
Glancing around my room, I spotted my collection of scarves hanging on the back of the door. I slipped from the covers and stood, the cool morning air enveloping my body like an itchy blanket, and walked silently over and grabbed two identical shocking pink scarves. The material was chilled and I fisted it, one end in each hand, and gave a tug. Nice and strong. Good, my man had fine muscles.
With feline stealth, I climbed back onto the bed, grateful for my slight weight and the quiet snores that told me Liuz was in a deep sleep. Carefully, gently, I wound one scarf around the wrist tossed over his head. Then, holding my breath, secured a knot to the wooden slats on my headboard. His wrist slid upwards easily; his deep breaths didn’t change.
Good, that was one arm secure.
The other one was trickier – it was on top of the duvet, resting across his abdomen, the olive tones of his flesh shocking against the creamy broderie anglaise. I slid off the bed again, tiptoed around the end and then, with lightness in my fingertips, slowly, so slowly, raised that arm above his head too.
He didn’t stir. Just let me lift it up there. I stopped, once when his breaths paused, but then they resumed, deeper, and steadier than ever.
When the task was complete, I looked down at my captive. My Liuz. Bound to my bed, sleeping like a baby. I would take care of him, make him happy, give him everything he wanted.
I had a sudden urge to kiss him awake, press my now cool skin to his hot flesh. We hadn’t had sex last night, but perhaps a morning session would suit us both. Start the day off on the right foot. A new beginning for us now there was no more Beefcake, and no more worrying about emails arriving and games with words. Now we were together we should celebrate with a fuck.
But I didn’t kiss him awake or suck his cock to life and ride it. Instead, I went for another shower. Enjoyed the hot water soaking into my skin and hair, and the scent of vanilla and raspberry swirling around me. It would do Liuz good to sleep after yesterday’s ordeal, and I congratulated myself on harnessing my urges. At least I could linger in the shower now I knew he couldn’t go anywhere.
When I went back into the bedroom, a towel secured over my breasts and my hair turbaned into another, he was awake. His eyes were lazy, upper lids heavy, and one side of his mouth curled upwards.
‘Morning,’ I said, bracing for a complaint about his bound arms.
‘Morning, how did you sleep?’
‘Not bad, considering.’ I stepped over to the dressing table, reached for my body cream – cocoa butter – and squeezed a blob onto my palm. ‘And you?’
‘I got up about six and made tea.’
‘You did?’ I was surprised. I really hadn’t heard a thing. I was sure he’d slept soundly next to me all night. ‘I didn’t hear you.’ I rubbed the cream over my arms, paying extra attention to my elbows.
‘No, you were asleep.’
We stared at one another for a moment, as if silently acknowledging the momentous occasion of having spent our first night together, like a real couple, but of course, that’s how we were now. Fate had bound us together for all of time. History could not be rewritten even if it could be falsely documented.
‘So,’ he said. ‘You got another little fantasy you want to tell me about?’ He waggled his fingers and flexed his shoulders; the headboard rattled against the wall. ‘You never mentioned you wanted to be the dominant one.’ He settled his gaze on me and licked his lips. Amusement sparked within the depths of his eyes, as though I’d surprised him.
I swallowed tightly, minty toothpaste flavour spreading down my throat. Mmm, much as I’d tied him up to keep him here, perhaps we could have a little fun with me in charge for a change.
‘I thought maybe I could repay you some of the pleasure you’ve given me, Liuz,’ I suggested, making the most of the situation.
‘What, sort of like when you are in my home you are my slut, and when I am in yours I am your man-whore.’ A muscle flexed in the side of his cheek and his biceps balled as he pulled his arms down, making the scarves taut. ‘It is a new one on me, but you have never failed to surprise me.’
‘And here was me thinking I was predictable.’
He gave a grunting noise. ‘Predictable has never appealed to me, and you, Hannah, are anything but predictable.’
So I appealed to him. Good.
‘What do you mean I’m not predictable?’ I dropped the towel to the floor and proceeded to rub more cocoa butter cream onto my chest and belly, making sure I was very thorough and careful not to miss even a square millimetre of flesh.
He bit on his bottom lip and shifted beneath the duvet, his gaze glued to my labouring hands working my naked skin. ‘Each time,’ he said, ‘I thought I had pushed you too far, asked too much, you just kept on giving. When I was sure you would say no, tell me to fuck off, you carried on pursuing your slutty fantasies like a woman possessed, as though you were fanatical about experiencing every sexual deviance you could with me.’
‘Sexual deviance.’ I played with the two words in my mouth – they had a musicality to them that belied the foulness of what they represented.
He twitched his hips. The duvet slipped down to his belly and rested on the luscious line of tapering hair that led to his cock – a cock, I now noticed, that was rising to attention, poling the duvet with its impressive length.
‘So you fancy being my man-whore then?’ I asked, slipping a finger between my sex lips and giving my clit a little rub. I could already feel moisture building in my pussy. The thought of Liuz’s cock in me was like flicking a switch in my sympathetic nervous system. I had no control over my body’s response, it just happened.
‘I should not fucking feel like doing anything with all the shit that is going down at the moment, but Jesus, Hannah, you get me so damn hard I feel like my dick might burst.’
‘Oh, so are you sure you want to play?’ I asked, grabbing the cocoa butter and walking over to the bed. ‘You might not like being on the receiving end.’
He drew his mouth to a tight line and stared at me, unblinking.
I raised my brows.
‘Fuck yes. I can handle it.’
Gripping the duvet, I flicked it to the end of the bed, exposing his body to the stark morning light with one swift movement.
He sucked in a breath, making a wet hissing sound that seemed extra loud in the quiet.
I kneeled on the bed next to him, my attention fixed on the large, blood-filled shaft in front of me. The head was swollen to a deep purple and the slit already held a bead of clear moisture.
A shiver of excitement snaked up my spine. Where to start? I wanted to give Liuz such great pleasure, but equally I didn’t want to give it to him easily. Pleasure had to be earned when you were a slut or a whore or a possession of someone else’s.
Feeling like I was moving in a trance, in slow motion, I flooded my palm with the cool cocoa butter then wrapped my hand around his shaft.
‘Ah, fuck, that is cold,’ Liuz shouted. He bucked his hips, and his upper torso jerked against his restraints. His belly contracted and his knees bent.
‘Shh,’ I soothed, setting up a rubbing motion that quickly began to warm the cream to body temperature. ‘Just relax, let me make you feel good.’
His squeezed his eyes shut and turned his face into his upper arm, his nose denting the skin and a lock of hair falling over his eye.
I increased the pressure and with slow, deft strokes made sure no part of his cock, or balls, or the crease of his crack was uncovered, un-adored. The cream became opaque, and the dense colour of his shaft shone as my hands moved up and down, around, slipping into the deep ridge below his glans and over and through his slit.
‘Oh, fuck, Hannah. I have never been one for stamina in the morning, and you are about to fucking finish me off.’
His cheeks had risen in colour to a strawberry red, his bottom lip milky white where his top teeth were biting into it. He looked beautiful in his agonising battle with pleasure, and I knew I would paint him like this as soon as I got the chance. He would look magnificent on my wall in this frantic state.
I upped the speed, both hands assiduous in their task. My arms ached, but I didn’t care – this was not about me, this was about Liuz.
His groans got louder, more abandoned.
My heart thumped and sweat pricked between my cleavage.
He was getting close, so close now.
My body was buzzing too.
‘Ah, oh, God, Hannah,’ he gasped, peeling back his lips to reveal his teeth in a strained grimace.
His cock became dense, more solid, and his balls packed up into his pelvis. I stared at his cock-head jigging with the rapid movements of my hands. The whole glans was swollen like a ripe plum, and the slit deep and pliant within my movements.
Another drip of pre-cum, white against the redness, leaked out. He bowed his back off the bed, his head pressed into the pillow, and lurched his hips upwards for more of my touch.
‘Ah, yes, I am coming, Hannah – yes, yes –
tak
,
tak
.’
I released him, held my hands up high, fingers spread, and stared down at his abandoned cock.
‘Oh, Jesus, oh, God, no, no, fuck it, argh!’ He wailed as though in agony, his body writhing, twisting this way and that. The headboard was bouncing wildly off the wall with the full force of his furious tugging. ‘What the hell are you doing?’ he shouted, his cock, shiny and engorged, bobbing uncontrollably in the air.
Power seeped through me like slow-running lava, heating a trail of controlling emotions, new emotions. Watching Liuz squirming and needy, desperate for me, showed me a new, darker side to myself that I hadn’t known existed.
And just when I thought I could surprise myself no more.
‘Fuck, you think that is funny, do you?’ Liuz snarled. ‘Jesus, if only you knew.’
‘Ah, baby,’ I said, edging backwards when he wriggled nearer to me. ‘You really wanted to come then, didn’t you?’
‘You know I fucking did. Christ, you cannot do that to a guy, Hannah.’
‘I can, and I did.’
He was breathing fast through gritted teeth, a speck of saliva in the corner of his mouth.
‘Shh,’ I said quietly and tipped forward to kiss him. ‘It will be worth the wait, I promise.’
His eyes flashed with fury and were dark with desire. For a moment he looked as though he was going to snap his head away. But he didn’t, he let me kiss him, slowly and seductively, while his breathing settled.
Suddenly he yanked his arms again, with gusto, jerking both of us.
‘Liuz,’ I said, glancing at the delicate scarves. ‘You’re being a bad boy. I am going to have to tie you tighter.’
‘Jesus, Hannah,’ he said, crumpling up his nose. ‘Just get on and ride me, will you?’