The Heartwood Box: A Fairy Tale (23 page)

She wanted desperately to touch him again, but now she was afraid
.
Before, he’d kept her hands bound
—
perhaps he did it to make sure she wasn’t too forward
—
or worse, there was something he disliked in her touch
—
perhaps she wasn’t doing it right
.
The thought was horrible, but only confirmed assumptions that were always close to the surface for her.

But she had no chance to dwell on such depressing thoughts
.
Damian had been watching her and grabbed her chin firmly, forcing all of her attention back to what h
e was doing
.
His eyes narrowed
and suddenly he adjusted his arm, arching her back, which brought her breasts up to his mouth
.

Genevieve instinctively raised her hands to push against him, cover
her breasts
—
anything to protect herself
.
Damian instantly stopped moving and p
ulled out
.
He snarled fiercely
and grabbed both her wrists
.
Within seconds they were tied together and tethered to the
leg
of the
divan
.

“Damian no!” 

“I will tie your hands any time you try to stop me from giving you pleasure, Genevieve,” he said sharply
.

He pushed in again, but was barely moving
.
Once again, he arched her back until her left breast was at his lips
.
He licked slowly and then blew on it, causing her to try to squirm away
.

“Hold still,” he ordered
.
“In this room, these breasts are mine.” 

He gripped her even more tightly and took her whole breast in
his
mouth
.
She groaned, jerking frantically, pulling at the bonds
.

“Good girl
—
take the pleasure,” Damian said with her breast still in his mouth
.
“If I had more patience, I would make you come like this over and over again.” 

Genevieve cried out, not sure she could bear the intense sensations
.
Damian took pity on her and switched to the other breast, repeating his treatment
.
Finally he lifted up
.
“That’s all I can manage for now.” 

At last, he began to thrust again, slowly at first but building steadily
.
T
hank
Titania
, for now she was as desperate to come as he was
.
As the pleasure built, she lost all control
.
Bizarre sounds came out of her mouth, which would have mortified her if she’d not been frenzied with desire
.
She pulled again on her trapped hands
.

It made no sense, but she couldn’t lie to herself: this feeling of helplessness, of being so thoroughly at his mercy, brought intense spasms between her legs
.
The sight of her struggling made Damian’s eyes
shimmer with lust
, and his thrusts became more forceful
.
His whole chest was covered with sweat, and his face was twisted with concentration.

“There’s my g
irl,” he snarled
.
“Come for me
now, Genevieve.” 

His words worked like a spring,
propelling
her over the edge into ecstasy
.
He followed her over, slamming her almost too hard, until finally he let out a rough yell
.
“Genevieve, Gods, yes!” 

They lay there panting for some ti
me when he slipped out
and quickly undid the ties that held her hands
.
This time there were red marks from her crazed struggling
.
Damian looked at them carefully as he always did, rubbing them and then giving her a little kiss
.
“Wait here,” he said softly
.
He pulled up his loose pants, which he’d not fully removed and slipped through
a
door she assumed went to the dressing room
.

He returned with a cloth, a jar of salve
, and over his arm
a filmy, white
nightdress
.
To her mortification, he forced her to lie still while he gently cleaned between her legs
.
Afterwards, he helped her
sit up.

“Arms up,” he ordered
and slipped the dress over her head
.
It was litt
le more than a sleeveless shift
and didn’t even reach below the knee
.
“Do you like it
,
darling?” he asked, giving her one of his treacherously bland smiles.

Genevieve narrowed her eyes at him
.
It was beautiful, the skirt made from the finest silk
with
a placket of exquisite
—
and very expensive
—
lace over her breasts, gathered with a blue satin ribbon
.
It was
not
one of the pieces she and her mother had sewn for her trousseau
.
Her mother would faint if she knew Genev
ieve was wearing something so…
revealing
.

She couldn’t imagine anyone making, let alone purchasing, something so fine and expensive
that
could not be worn outside the bedroom
—
or in the bedroom
,
for that matter
.
Though she’d been unclothed since the bath, somehow the dress made her feel indecent
.
T
he lace showed as much as it hid her breasts, and the fine silk was so sheer, the dark hair between her legs was plainly visible
.

She was distracted by Damian’s carefully applying the salve to her wrists
.
He was shaking his head
.

“Is something wrong?” she asked
.

“No
—
there was a little chafing though,” he said
.
“I’ll be back in a moment.” 

He left the room, locking the door of course, and returned a few minutes later
.

“I have something for you
.
With these, there’s no chance of your pretty wrists getting marked.” 

Genevieve’s face went crimson
.
He was holding out a pair of cuffs
—
not the ones she’d slept in
.
These were made of
moss
-
green leather,
lightly sueded and
soft as well-washed flannel
and lined with padded
dark
blue silk
.
Each cuff had
two
small
gold rings, one on each side, and an
odd-
looking buckle
, also gold
.
She could tell that the workmanship was extraordinarily fine
.
She wondered that she couldn’t stop staring at them, but there was something
spellbinding
about their appearance
.
They were beautiful, though it mortified her that she thought so
.

Damian moved closer, looming over her seductively, and whispered in her ear, “
These
are yours, Genevieve
.
They are specially made for you, and whenever you are in this room, you will wear them.” 

“Damian,
please, no
…
” she
pleaded
.

“Yes, Genevieve,” he said, his eyes heavy-lidded with desire
.
“I have no doubt that just the sight of them will soon be enough to make you mad with desire
—
and me as well
.
Hold out your hands, darling,” he said soothingly
.

She couldn’t resist him, though she was sure she should
.
He took each hand and gently buckled on the cuffs, giving her a wicked smile when they were on
.

“No touching them, Genevieve,” he said firmly
.
“I decide when they come off.” 

Genevieve’s face flushed for what must have been the thousandth time
,
and her breathing stuttered
.
They’d just been intimate
—
how could she be thinking of
that
again
?
But her desire crashed just as quickly as she wondered again if he disliked her touch
.
To her annoyance, he was watching her carefully as usual
.

“What is troubling you, Genevieve?”  Why couldn’t she control her expressions!  “Whatever it is, darling, you won’t make me angry
—
I give you my word.”

“I want to touch you,” she whispered
.

Damian’s smile was surprised
.
“I’m glad you do,
love
.
I am your husband after all.” 

She took a deep breath of relief
—
he sounded completely sincere.

“You thought I wouldn’t want you to?”

Genevieve blushed again
—
this was so hard to talk about
.
“I thought perhaps you didn’t like it
—
you bound my hands…
.
”

He laughed and kissed her warmly
.
“You dear, insane girl!  That is emphatically
not
the reason
.
I’m afraid, darling, that there is almost nothing I find more arousing than the sight of my bride bound for my pleasure
—
and hers
.
However, I did it just now because you need to become accustomed to accepting my touch
—
your instinct is to fight me,
and I won’t allow it
.
If you knew what the sight of you in those cuffs did to me…
.
”
He shivered dramatically
.
“I’ll show you later
.
But for now, time for chores
.
It’s wonderful having privacy, but it means we have no servants for the next few days
.
Would you mind helping me change the bed-linens?” 

Genevieve almost laughed
.
She did not grow up in a house with servants who did such things
.
T
ogether they pulled the linens off the bed
.
Of course, Damian must hold out the part that was stained with her virgin blood with an arrogant smile
.

After the sheets were off, he suggested they air the bed
.
He opened the casements, letting in the fresh summer air
.
She followed and looked out the window
.

Their room looked out over a garden, a few acres large, with a gurgling fountain at the center, surrounded by white benches
.
Fanning out in a star pattern from the fountain were diamond-shaped beds with
hedge
borders that could barely contain the lush herbs and flowers growing within
.
The whole garden w
as enclosed by high brick walls
with
vicious-
looking spikes on top
.
B
ut the harshness was greatly softened by a plethora of flowering vines and
a
white
pergola overflowing
with bougainvillea
,
which ran the length of the far wall
.

The garden surprised her
,
probably because it seemed so classically pretty
.
It was feminine, she realized, in marked contrast to all the stone and dark colors of the house
—
at least the one room she’d seen
—
which seemed so relentlessly masculine
.
On that June morning, her wedding morning, she couldn’t imagine a more lovely, peaceful spot
.
She started when Damian wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head
and
down her neck.