The Heartwood Box: A Fairy Tale (50 page)

He nudged her legs and she complied, widening them so far apart it was difficult to balance
.
She bent over and clutched the bedspread to steady herself
.
A few tears dribbled down when she realized how utterly exposed she was
.
Derek gripped her hips to make sure she was stable and then brushed his hands over her buttocks and thighs, up her back and around to her stomach
.
She let out a scream as she felt him pull open the cheeks of her buttocks and use his thumb to gently knead the little hole that Donal had played with.

“Stay still, Genevieve,” he warned in the same calm tone
.
She couldn’t help letting out a groan at the sensation, invasive though it was
.
Derek murmured, “You’re very sensitive here.” 

Thank Titania
he stopped, and his fingers moved to her folds
.
To her shock, he knelt behind her and blatantly pulled them apart and blew on them, his face inches away
.
She flinched and tried to pull away and felt another stinging slap on her rear end
.
“You will stay like this until I tell you to move.”

She froze, reminding herself that she’d given her promise
.
He
placed a single gentle kiss on her sex before standing
again
.
To her surprise, he
placed his left hand on her lower stomach with his fingers spread
widely
.
Then he began exploring her sex with his right hand
.
He ran his fingers through her folds, swirling, rubbing, pressing at different points
.
After he’d touched everywhere, he began to massage her bud, moving it a dozen different ways, each more arousing than the last
.
Finally, he thrust his fingers inside of her
.
Again he touched everywhere, exploring every last bit of that most intimate part of her body
.

She was so desperate by now, his movements felt like torture though she was sure it wasn’t his
main
purpose
.
Unlike Donal, Derek didn’t tease
.
He was doing exactly what he’d said—testing her responses
.
And she just knew he was keeping track of every tremor of hers no matter how small
.
It was deeply unnerving
.
From the first time they’d met, she’d felt cornered by Derek, as if he were a hunter and she his prey
.
She felt it again now
.
He was stalking her, methodically uncovering every weakness of her body, which he would then ruthle
ssly exploit to dominate her.

By this point,
her sex was soaked, and the self-control needed to submit passively to this “inspection” was making her crazed
.
Finally, he pulled out
.
“That was very good
.
S
tand up again.”  When she obeyed, he said
from behind her, “E
very night we are together, you will perform these same acts—undress, stand by the end of the bed and wait for me, kneel so I can put on your cuffs, and then stand for inspection
.
Do you understand?”

She was staggered by the audacity of his demand and by her body’s shameless response
.
She nodded before she could stop herself
.
“I expect a verbal answer to my questions, Genevieve.” 

“Yes, I understand,” she said weakly.

“Good
.
Turn around and face me.”

She obeyed but instinctively raised her arms to cover her breasts
.
Derek yanked them down
.
“Never cover your breasts in front of me, Genevieve!  Do it again and I will give you a real spanking.” 

Genevieve groaned just imagining it
.
She lowered her arms, clenching her teeth with the effort to keep them in place
.
She could practically feel that demon of hers waking from its five-day slumber and raising its head to sniff the wind curiously
.
She’d learned in the cave that the demonic part of herself reveled in punishment no matter how severe, and if she wasn’t careful, it would rise up and seize control.

But badly as she craved that, she needed something else from Derek as well
.
That state of intoxication came at a high price
.
When she was under his control, she felt utterly out of her mind
.
Those feelings shut out everything else, leaving no room for simple affection
.
She’d been trying all day to find some middle ground with him, some way of spending time with him without letting him drive her into a frenzy
.

She met Derek’s eye—he knew she was thinking about his punishing her, and he was strongly aroused by it
.
“Not today, please Derek,” she pleaded
.
His gaze hardened at her speaking without permission
.
He was moving to spank her
.
Before the demon took over and matters spiraled out of her control, she whimpered, “Parole.”

Derek dropped his hands, his face suddenly hard and cold
.
“I’ll leave,” he rasped
.

“NO!” she practically sobbed
.
The very idea that she’d hurt him threatened to make her start bawling like a hysterical child. “I want you so badly I’m going to go mad
.
Please, I just need…
.
” She cringed at how desperate she sounded
.

“I know you want me to punish you,” he said angrily.

“I need to touch you,” she shouted back, wondering to hear herself repeat the words she’d said to Damian in this very room
.
Somehow it gave her courage
.
Damian had always insisted she speak up about what she desired
.
This matter with Derek went beyond desire: she needed something from him, and it was worth fighting for
.
“I submitted to you, and we both know I will again, Derek, but I can’t always live like that—in that state of intoxication
.
I need affection from you
.
I need to be able to
be
with you
.
I need you to hold me!”

To her astonishment, some recognition passed over his features
.
He nodded slowly and said, “You need it.”

He scooped her up and carried her to the bed, clasping her tightly to him
.
She clung to him then, trying to squelch the tears of relief
.
She’d not realized how des
perately she
needed to feel close to this man she loved so very much, but who made things so difficult
.

She reached to touch his face, again wondering at how extraordinary but right it felt
.
She threaded her fingers through his hair, pulling it away from his face to fully show his eyes
.
For once there was no anger or aggression in them, none of that intense need to master her
.
She saw desire, but it was quiet, almost gentle
.

She moved closer so she could kiss him
.
To her surprise he didn’t plunder her mouth as Damian usually did, but brushed his lips coaxingly, invitingly over hers
.
She’d always thought his full lips sensuous, soft, like an odd
dolce
passage in an otherwise
brusco
composition
.

She parted her lips enough to invite him in
.
When his tongue touched hers, she felt a strong jolt, as much emotional as physical
.
Genevieve knew herself well enough to know that the demon he’d unleashed from her in that cave hadn’t been exorcised
.
Shockingly, she no longer wanted it to be
.
But if they were to live together, she needed this tenderness, this connection to him
.

She ran her hands over his arms and shoulders, digging her fingers into the carved muscles, finally able to revel in that tremendous strength of his
.
She broke the kiss, so she could rub her lips over his chest, licking his nipples, nuzzling her cheek and ear against him like a kitten.

She moved closer, bringing her body fully against his
.
He clasped her shoulders, but made no move to push things further
.
Though he
was being
so gentle with her, she could tell he was painfully aroused
.
He was letting her set their pace, she realized with shock
.
Derek!
 

“You go on top, love,” he murmured
.
“You control it.”

“Are you sure?”  He nodded
.
“Why?” she couldn’t help asking.

He looked thoughtful
.
“I’m a Black
.
I swore to put your needs first
.
You need this.”  He stopped her before she could protest
.
“We need this.” 

“Thank you.”  It seemed a little foolish to her, but she felt a rush of gratitude towards him
.
Neither of his brothers had done this for her
.
She had no quarrel with them, but she needed it with Derek, and for all his stubbornness he knew it
.
She pulled at him to move towards the middle of the bed and lie back so she could climb on top of him, loving the feel of her breasts against his chest
.

Suddenly, she was desperate for him to be inside of her
.
She reached down and untied the string to his pants and pulled them down
.
She froze at the sight of his straining cock
.

This was no shadowed cave, but her bedroom with the late afternoon sun streaming in
.
She swallowed and gripped it, but he clasped her hand and shook his head
.
“Don’t, angel.”

“What?”

“Genevieve, I’m about to die
.
If you do that…
.
” 

She nodded and then straddled him
.
She gnawed her lip, wondering then what she was supposed to do
.
“I’ve never done this before,” she confessed
.

Derek smiled almost in wonder
.
“You’ve really never been on top?”

“No.”

That seemed to excite him
.
“Well then, I see we will have a riding lesson today,” he said with an almost
roguish
smile
.
“Come, angel, slide up a little… that’s right.”  He reached down to position himself
.
“Help me,” he said
.
She moved until his cock was right at the opening of her sex.

“What do I do now?”
she asked, giggling
.

“You ride,” he said
.
He gripped her hips and pushed her down his length
.
Genevieve let out a loud scream—she’d never taken anyone so deeply before.

“Are you
all right
, angel?”

“Yes,”
she gasped
.
“That just feels…
.
It’s so deep.” 

She wanted him to thrust into her, which was when she realized what he’d meant
.
She must move—she must ride him
.
He lay still while she pushed herself up and down his length, wondering that it could feel so different like this
.

He’d closed his eyes tightly
.
She recognized that look
.
He was trying to keep control
.
She leaned down and rubbed her forehead against his, slowing her movements
.
“Derek, open your eyes,” she whispered
.

Miraculously, he obeyed
.

“I love you,” she said
.
“I just wanted you
to know that.”

His face contorted with pain, and he squeezed his eyes shut
.
It was like watching herself in a mirror
.
She knew exactly what he was feeling at that moment.