Jaded Touch (Vesper) (6 page)

Mine. I shook my head. Now
that
was a dangerous thought. If Jack were a Vesper, and I took him into my body… he’d be mine in more ways than one.

Or would he? I was bitten by a Gent. My soul was as susceptible to ownership as his would be, if I bit him. And I’d been owned my whole life. I didn’t know if I wanted to own somebody, wanted to dominate them.

Jack had spoken of slaves choosing their masters.
“In my world, they do.
” Had he meant dominance? Like, the intimate dominance human beings often engaged in with each other? I’d seen it in movies a couple of times and it looked... well, I imagined myself as the human woman with the collar, and a faceless man, sculpted and tanned, with the whip. I swallowed at the thought, my attention drawn to sensations low in my core. Sensations Jack woke up in my body last night.

But I wasn’t a human woman, and no matter how delicious it looked in the movies, such a relationship between Jack and I was impossible.

“Jack,” I breathed. “You have no idea how much I want… things I shouldn’t want, right now.”

He tilted his head to peer at me through narrow eyes, his jade flashing again with fire. “Me.”

I swallowed. “Yes. You.”

Jack blinked, and then his eyes lit with humor. “For dinner, of course.”

I glared at him. I was trying to say something important, and he disarmed so effortlessly with his humor. “No, not for dinner.”

“Really?” Playful Jack was back after a quick appearance from serious Jack. He straightened and took a step forward, and I couldn’t help but notice the way his movements tensed up my insides in that perfect, terrible way. “For breakfast, then?”

I folded my arms across my chest. Playful Jack, meet playful Three. “Not a chance. A snack, maybe, but you’re not quite enough man to satisfy my hunger.”

Jack’s breath caught and he grabbed my wrist, yanking me closer to him. I sucked in a breath, and he pressed my palm to his groin, to that ridge… Oh. My. Yes.

I hesitated, my eyes wide with shock, as Jack held my hand there.
What do I do?!

Just pretend you’re a human woman. One from the movies.
I swallowed my fear and wrapped my fingers around that ridge through his pants, and squeezed. Jack’s grip on my wrist tightened, a hot shackle holding me captive in a prison I wanted more than I wanted daylight. I moved my hand, and it was Jack’s turn to lose his breath.

His other hand slid up my free arm and came to rest with his palm on the side of my neck, and his grip was just right in both places. Hard enough that I knew how he wanted me. Not hard enough to hurt, because a human couldn’t hurt a Vesper. I squeezed again, and Jack hissed. “Gentle!”

I let go and Jack groaned. “No, just… gentle. Don’t
stop.
”

I wrapped my arms around myself and stepped back. “This is why we can’t do this.”

Jack shook his head. “Why?”

I glanced pointedly at his groin, where I’d almost crushed his man-parts by accident. Breaking them would be a sin even I couldn’t stomach, and as I’d learned last night, I could stomach a hefty sin. I might hurt him way too badly, and that was unfair. If I wanted something from him, it wasn’t like he had a choice. If he had no choice, it was wrong. “I hurt you.”

Jack searched my eyes. “I know, I was there. So? Forgive me for being slow, I don’t have a lot of blood in my brain right now.”

The mention of blood punched my hunger into high-gear, and reinforced my decision. “I have too much power over you. We can’t do this because it’s wrong, because you don’t really have the choices you think you have. I can hurt you too badly, Jack. I can kill you, control you, anything I want.”

Jack stared at me with shock, and his tone was so disbelieving he must have thought I was joking. “You can control me?”

I nodded. “Yes. Another thing I shouldn’t say, like I shouldn’t let you kiss me. If you taste my poison, mixed with my blood, you’ll say and do and think anything I want you to.” Oh, the things I could make him do. I pressed that thought back.

A glare of challenge and excitement brightened Jack’s eyes. “You think you can control me.”

His excitement lit a peculiar fear in my insides, synonymous with the heat I felt when he touched me. A delicious fear. I took another step back. “Yes, I do control you. I can make you do anything I want.”

“So it would be like a brick-dragger fucking the Pharaoh.”

I laughed at the Biblical reference. “Kind of, yeah. And clever, by the way.”

“But what if the Pharaoh wanted the brick-dragger to carry the whip? Kind of a power game, if you will.”

What? Actual whips, or were we still speaking in metaphors? “Wait. I’m confused. Am I still Pharaoh?”

“Not if you want me to be Pharaoh.” Jack took both my wrists between his hands, long fingers curled around slender steel, and raised them above my head. He walked forward, and I walked back, until I crashed into the wall and a picture fell to the floor, the shatter of glass the only sound in the air. The sound of the fracture echoed in my ears, as a human man, touching me with possession, shattered my certainty, splintered my path. Jack pinned me there with my wrists above my head, and though I knew I could toss him off me easily, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Jack captured my mouth with his and slid his tongue over my lips again and again, and before I knew it I wasn’t even holding myself up anymore: Jack’s arm secured around my waist and my wrists locked in the grip of one hot, human hand. I moaned into his kiss, and my caution disappeared. Everything I thought I knew surged around me as Jack’s mouth upheaved my control, threw it over his shoulder, and carried it off into the pyramids. I opened my mouth to take his tongue inside, and he pulled back.

“None of that now,” he said, and I whimpered. Stupid poison, killing my buzz.

But Jack revived my buzz when he let go of my wrists and slipped his hand between my legs, his fingers sliding along electrified flesh, and I let out a hiss that would have frightened most mortal men, but drove Jack onward as he stroked me.

And then he let go of me and planted his hands on his hips, smirking.

“Hey!” I whined in protest. My thighs throbbed and the cool air on my wrist amplified the vacancy I felt as he stepped away.

“Hey, what?” Jack’s superior, smug, stupid grin was so inviting I wanted to pounce on him and tackle him to the floor.

“
Hey!
” I didn’t have anything better to say. Why would he torment me this way? I wanted more, I wanted… Oh, my God, I wanted him to have control. I wanted him to do what he wanted with me, and I wanted to obey the command in his voice that insulted my nature as a Vesper.

“Do you still think this is wrong, and I’m under the influence of your control?”

I clamped my knees together and sank down to them on the floor. My whole foundation, everything I knew about myself - that I was a cold, heartless immortal with no desires but to serve, and that I had control of any human and liked it that way – shattered.

As my certainty faltered, Jack’s heat, embrace, bold speech, and daring tongue wrapped around my life and pulled me into the darkness with him, and to my shock, I was thrilled to go into the unknown.

And then he sat down in front of me and gathered me into his arms, and I shook my head, panting, blown away by my shift in focus. I wanted him to be Pharaoh, to tell me what to do, to force me to fight my collected, solitary nature. His heat folded around me as I climbed into his lap, and he chuckled into my hair.

“If I control you instead, since I can’t hurt you, is this really wrong?”

I stammered. “It’s still forbidden.”

“By ancient old fucks who sit upon their thrones and don’t really know what goes on with their minions anyway.”

I blinked and gazed up at Jack, and his jade eyes were warm with adoration, passion, and certainty. Locked in his sights, I felt safe. “You think we might be able to do this and keep it secret.”

“I’m telling you we’re going to do this and keep it secret. There’s no ‘might’ involved.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“You do.”

I knew I should argue, but I couldn’t find the words and I didn’t want to look for them. I did want to do this with Jack. More than anything. I swallowed. “Jack… I need to go. I have to get back, if we’re going to keep this little encounter secret.”

Jack froze. “You’re saying yes. You’ll come see me again.” It was a question, though he didn’t ask it that way for reasons I didn’t understand.

I nodded and kissed the hollow at the base of his throat, delighting in the scratch of his rough chin on my forehead. “Yes.”

Jack laughed with true mirth and wrapped me up in his arms. “I have to give you something before you go, so I’m sure you remember me.”

Give me something? “We don’t keep many possessions…”

He shushed me and spun me onto the floor on my back, climbing over me. He kissed me again. “You won’t forget it, I promise.”

And within seconds, my pants were gone and Jack’s mouth was all I felt, his heat trailing along my skin in a part of my body - a part of my soul - that needed him beyond reason. He brought me back to the cliff with his lips and his tongue, and I wanted him to throw me right off the edge, but he just kept pushing me forward and pulling me back. It wasn’t until I screamed his name and slammed my palms against the floor, breaking the hardwood, that he let me fall. His tongue urged the swell of my orgasm with delicious, wet friction, his licks possessive. And when I hit the bottom it was in the welcoming heat of his arms. He kissed me as I quivered, whimpering his name.

There was no way I could forget him now. He made sure of it. He kissed me goodbye and I left in a daze, sprinting into the night toward the sound of a train.

Jack wanted to control me. And how I wanted him to! My thoughts, usually spinning with concerns, were comforted by his control. Our future together, whatever that meant, was in his hands, not mine.

My burdens felt lighter, and I laughed aloud in the night, stunned that something so wrong could be so right for me.

Secrets

A thump on the top of the train pulled me from concentration and I slipped the little pouch with all my beads and leather cords beneath the pillow of the lounge car. I sat upright and listened. Who else was out, at this time? The Original Child’s transfer was tomorrow, so there was little time to waste.

I peered out at the open side door of the car that made my lounge bay – every train in our company had a car like this one, with sliding side doors and a couple of cots bolted to the floor for us to rest upon during the blistering daytime. Feet slid down from the roof of the train and in swung a man in solid leather clothing, his movements seamless as he dropped into the car. He stood and tilted his head at me, and the way he moved – his motions just a touch quicker than was normal for Vespers – gave his identity away.

“What are you doing out?” I asked him. Sychar knew better than to sneak out this close to transfer duty! But after all this time, my best friend still chanced it to come socialize on the trains he was supposed to avoid.

Sychar unzipped the black, leather hood of his daywear from his collar and slipped it off over his head.

“I could ask you the same,” he said with a smirk, and I laughed. Sychar was easily the most rebellious of the Gents, as I was of the Maids. It was a natural, though forbidden, friendship we indulged: meeting upon trains for some social time when we weren’t supposed to be out at all.

I pulled my beading pouch out from under the pillow – no need to hide it from Sychar – and got back to work. My sisters would make fun of me for keeping a hobby, but Sychar was just that kind of guy: non-judgemental, kind, and understanding.

He tossed himself into the neighboring cot and stretched out, his hands clasped behind his head. I shook my head and forced myself to stop admiring the intricacy of his black veins along his temples and brow. Something had been awakened in me thanks to Jack, and I had to keep pressing down the feelings that surged whenever I thought of him. Sychar’s presence wasn’t helping to keep the desire at bay. Though he was just a friend, he was one hell of an attractive friend.

“Actually, when we heard about the train accident, Levitiqas blew a gasket about his Child’s safety on the transfer,” Sychar said. “He sent Festus and me to accompany you Maids on the journey tomorrow. But I’m at least twelve hours ahead of him.” He grinned, proud as ever with his superior speed.

It was true: he was fast enough to cross the country on foot in a day’s time, if he needed to. Trains only slowed him down, contrary to how ordinary Vespers like I needed them to increase our speed of travel. So if Sychar was on this train, it was because he wanted to see me regardless of the penalty for his tardiness, and my heart swelled with appreciation.

“I was on the train when it went off,” I said. “Had to wrench myself out from beneath the heavy thing. If I hadn’t been trapped, I might have gotten to the train men sooner.”

Sychar sighed. “Yeah, we thought it was you. Dispatch wasn’t sure who called. Are all the guys dead?”

I shook my head. “No. Jack’s alive.”

“He’s the young one, right? Been with us about six months?”

I nodded. “He was hurt, so I got him home. Gash in his arm and a head injury. I probably should have taken him to the hospital, but I was worried he might be out of it and spill something.”
I’m worried he’ll tell somebody that I kissed him.
And more. So much more. I wanted him to control me, and it seemed so contrary in the presence of another Vesper that I frowned. I wondered if the female praying mantis ever let the male think he would be the one to survive mating, only to dash his hopes and tear off his head at the last sorry second. Or in my case, swallow him whole.

“Was he breathing?”

“Of course he was breathing.” All over me.

Sychar hummed and glanced at me, an eyebrow lifted. “Then he’s probably fine. Humans are more resilient than they give themselves credit for. Have the train staff send someone to check on him. Maybe they’ll send a girl.”