The Unfortunates (Unfortunate #1) (8 page)

“Crawl to me.”

She snapped her head up and opened her mouth to protest.

“
One fucking word and I’ll lift up that pretty little dress and slap your ass so fucking hard you won’t be able to sit for a week.”

He’d like to think that he wouldn’t slap her—he’d never wanted to spank a woman before… then again, he’d never seen a woman so
flawless. She crawled toward him, and with every inch she moved, the more excited he got. Her auburn hair cascaded to the floor and circled her arms. Eventually, she sat at his feet and her eyes locked onto his. He watched her, trying to convince himself to commend her for coming that far and to let the girl go… but he couldn’t. Not when she was at his feet with her chest rising and falling as rapidly as it was. His stare was affecting her… he bet she wanted him to touch her.

“Closer,”
he demanded, keeping the arousal he so strongly felt from his voice.

She inc
hed closer until her body was pressed against his leg. She was warm, he could feel it radiating through the leg of his pants. Master Kade, (knowing better, but refusing to listen to the voice in his head) leaned forward and hooked a finger underneath her chin. She gasped at his touch and he almost let her go. Almost. He guided Nine to her feet, bringing her closer and closer until she was sitting on top of him. With his hands on her hips, Kade breathed heavily, ignoring the throb between his legs that told him he was harder than he’d ever been before and it was pressing right between Nine’s legs. He gripped her ass and rocked her against him, once. Deep in her throat, she made a sexy noise and her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. The sound penetrated Kade’s fabric, seeped through his skin, and ignited his blood. He fought a smile, not wanting to ruin the moment—she was unsure, but she was definitely enjoying every second of it.

Her face was barely an inch from his and he could feel her
excited, yet terrified breath on his face. Desire hot enough to rival the sun flared deep in his veins and he dropped his stare from her eyes to her mouth. She had a sexy, sparse upper lip, but a plump lower one—it was as if someone had sucked too hard on her bottom lip, taking the blood from the top. Her lips were moist, just waiting to be kissed. As he stared, Kade wondered if she’d ever been kissed before. There was no doubt in his mind that she had to have been a popular one in the Unfortunate camp… surely someone had taken advantage of her alluring mouth. If not, he was about to. Kade ran his hands up Nine’s soft body and around her waist.

She held his arms, her eyes burning as bright as his undoubtedly were.
He leaned in, and as their lips grazed, she whispered, “Please, don’t kiss me.”

Kade stopped in his tracks, pulling
his face back. He had no idea why he stopped—she was his, after all, and he could do whatever he wanted to her and no one could stop him… he didn’t. Her once relaxed body tensed and her bottom lip trembled.

“I’m not… I can’t… I don’t…”
She shook her head as an abrupt tear spilled over the rim of her left eye.

“I’
ve been very lenient, Nine.” He pulled her forward until their foreheads touched. “I haven’t taken from you, I haven’t ordered you around, and I haven’t beaten you. I’m starting to think you believe I can be walked over.”

“No, not at all—”

“Do you think your pretty face is going to soften my hand?”

She shook her head.

“You want to know why I haven’t hurt you? You want to know why I’ve left you alone for weeks?” He didn’t wait for her response. “I don’t plan on using you for myself.”

Her face crumpled and it irritated him. Where
was the girl that glared at him? The girl that would have spat in his face as the sentence left his lips? To say the vision of her broken on his lap didn’t arouse him was a lie. He wanted her under his thumb—to do exactly what she was born to do.

“
You
are going to save my house—boost me and my family name higher than my father ever has. I need you to be ready. I need you to be ready to kiss, suck, and fuck whoever I want you to, do you understand?”

Kade
’s chest was tight—from arousal or anger, he had no idea. He was both pissed and wound up to the point of combustion and he needed a release. He needed it now.

“Off
,” he ordered. She quickly slipped from him.

Nine took a slight step back and lowered her head. She wasn’t crying anymore. Her lips were parted, her eyebrows furrowed. Shock. She was in shock. Kade hated that he had to give someone as marvellous as Nine away to people who would only brutalize her perfect body, but it was the way of the new world. He had to push his mother’s advice to the side and do what society taught him to do—to rule.

“I’m going to teach you how to seduce a man. I’m going to teach you how to tease and please a man… and you’re going to use that knowledge to help me.”

His heart was racing and it rattled his ribcage as he fought hard to suppress his own excitement. Kade tugged at his belt and she took a defensive step back. Her eyes went round as fear spread across her face and froze he
r features.

“Get on your knees, Nine. This is lesson one.”

“You’re going to skip everything and go straight to
that
?” She spat ‘that’ like it was poison on her tongue.

He smiled.
Brave, but stupid.
“
Now
you want me to skip everything?
Now
you want me to seduce you, to kiss you and touch you?” He narrowed his eyes. “You didn’t want that a moment ago. Have you heard the term
don’t push your luck
?” He paused and she refused to look at him. “Drop to your knees.”

“And if I don’t?”
she uttered, pinching the tip of one of her index fingers, nervously. “What will happen?”

Perhaps she wasn’
t as smart as she looked
.

“Get
down and prepare yourself for lesson one or I’m going to call a handful of people into this room to watch you perform. They won’t take your disobedience as lightly as I have.”

Her violet eyes flicked anxiously around the room before her face fell.
Defeated, she lowered herself to her knees, kneeling right between his legs. The warm soft sides of her body rested against the covered insides of his legs. Master Kade watched her as he dragged his zipper down. He kept his movements slow and soothing. This was her first time doing anything so erotic and he wouldn’t make it any harder than it had to be, and if truth be told, he didn’t want to scare her. Kade didn’t want it to be like this, but he’d teased himself and she had to learn anyway. He couldn’t afford to waste any more time and he figured there was no harm in teaching her while he appeased his sexual appetite at the same time. He pushed the zipper down the last section of teeth and opened his slacks. Nine kept her eyes on his pants, waiting for him to expose himself to her, and as he slipped his fingers underneath the fabric, her lips parted and she expelled a breath of air. He released his hard cock from his pants. Pre-cum coated the top and it glistened in the dim light of the crackling fireplace a few feet away. Nine surveyed him, not once taking her eyes off his length. Her eyebrows smoothed out and arched. She waited a few seconds before shifting her position and inching closer. Kade tensed, unsure why she was suddenly so compliant. The girl who glared at him in front of everybody and dived into a bush just to avoid him was now moving towards him without hesitation. It put him on edge.

“I’ve never hit a woman, but I swear to
god if you bite me—”

“I won’t bite you
,” Nine said, cringing when she realised she’d cut him off. “I
want
to bite you,” she clarified, her brows drawing together. “But I won’t.”

Nine gritted her teeth as she moved her gorgeous mouth closer to his naked flesh. Master Kade’s cock pulsed in uneven rhythms, unable to match the tempo of his racing heart. He couldn’t remember the last time he was so tightly coiled. One touch of her moist lips and he was certain he was going to blow all over the place. The muscles in his legs tensed and his toes curled in his shoes as her bottom lip brushed against the head of his penis, collecting his pre
-cum. He groaned—a deep, husky groan from his throat—and Nine’s eyes flicked on to his. Her eyes, dark in this light, clouded over curiously and Kade didn’t dare look away. He wanted to look into her large eyes when she opened her mouth and took his whole head inside. Kade felt her hand touch his thigh before he saw it—and it inched closer to his cock the longer he looked at her. He could see it on her face… she was entranced by her own touch and the effect it had on him. Nine was absolutely mesmerised by the sight of Kade seeming so hopeless against her lips and he was showing her more than he wanted to, but she had no fucking idea how hard it was for him to leave her alone. She brushed her bottom lip over his head again and this time Kade managed to keep his shit together, the only giveaway to how good it felt were his teeth raking over his bottom lip.

“Open your mouth.” He moaned, flexing
gently against her lips.

Against his flesh, her warm mouth opened and as his cock brushed between her top and bottom lip… there was a knock at the door. Nine jolted b
ackwards, snapped out of her daze and clamped a hand over her mouth. Kade sighed in frustration, prying his finger from the arm rests of his chair. His fingers throbbed. He hadn’t realised he’d been squeezing so hard.

“Your father
would like you to come down to the party,” Portia announced through the wooden door.

Kade spoke as he pushed himself back into his pants. It was clear this wasn’t going to happen tonight. His father would keep sending Unfortunates up to get him and eventually
come looking for him himself. He didn’t want his father to see him with Nine and give the whole ‘I told you you’d like your own Unfortunate’ speech. Like Vince, his father loved to gloat.

“Tell my father…” Kade looked
at Nine, who refused to look back at him. She kept her sights on the varnished floor, cradling her knees to her chest. “That we’ll be right down.”

He raked his fingers through his hair, reached for his drink
, and tipped the rest of the contents down his throat.

“Come on, Unfortunate.” He sighed, pushing himself
off of the chair. “Let’s go to the party.”

∞

Nine followed closely behind him as they made their way out of the house. As she was about to step out onto the grass, Kade slammed his hand against the other side of the door frame, straightening his elbow out and blocking her from exiting the house. “You don’t go wandering, you keep your mouth shut, and you steer clear of Vince, got it?”

She eyed him curiously—the kind of look Unfortunates weren’t allowed to have.
If she was anyone else’s, she’d be backhanded across the mouth. Kade was beginning to wonder if she slept through all of her classes.

“Why don’t you like your brother?”
she asked.

Kade thought they killed curiosity in those Unfortunate camps. Then again,
it was clear Nine wasn’t like the others.

“If you don’t want what happened upstairs between us
to happen between you and Vince, I suggest you stay away from him. I’ll tell you now, if he
ever
gets his hands on you, he won’t be satisfied with you only brushing your lips against his cock.” Kade lowered his hand. “And for that bothersome curiosity of yours, imagine hardcore throat fucking.”

Nine’
s face turned white as she subconsciously raised a hand to her throat. Kade smirked. The more he scared her, the better. Vince wasn’t like Kade. Kade liked passion and sensual sex. Vince liked to fuck. End of story. He lowered his arm and stepped out into the yard. It was all done up in fancy lights and classy decorations—things Kade didn’t really care for. Pretending to enjoy the night wasn’t going to be his biggest struggle, however. His biggest struggle lay in the Unfortunate that strolled along behind him. All he could think about was her soft mouth. All he wanted to do was take her back upstairs and finish what they’d started. He wanted to see Nine curious and confused by him… he wanted to see her
want
to touch him. He exhaled.

The night was still young.

Chapter Six

Nine

I can still feel him on my lips
. I lick them whenever he’s not looking in fear that everyone can see him on me. I can’t believe I did that… and I can’t believe I liked it. I shouldn’t have. What’s wrong with me? I hate him and yet my hormones are completely drawn to him.
His thick fingers dig into the arm rests and his legs instinctively squeeze me. My heart threatens to beat a hole in my chest as I inch closer to his bare flesh. I can feel his eyes on me, burning holes in my face…

They told me this would happen… my teachers. They said we’ll be
drawn to our Fortunates. They taught us to want to please them, to make them happy… and that’s exactly what happened.
Deep down, underneath all of my nervousness and fear, I wanted to do it for him. My stomach churns. The realisation is sickening. Imagine
wanting
to put a stranger’s penis in your mouth. A stranger that owns you, threatens you, and wants to give your body to others… you can’t, because it’s not normal.

“Nine?”
I flinch as Kade’s voice pulls me back to reality.

I look to him. He’s standing next to me,
his eyes flaring like he caught me doing something I’m not supposed to. Others are watching me too—two of them I recognize as Henry and Kade’s father, Michael. I clear my throat and Kade’s eyes flare again. It makes my already sensitive stomach roll.

“Yes?”

He arches an eyebrow.

“Master Kade
,” I add quickly, and thankfully, no one other than Kade seemed to notice the lag in my response.

“
Daydreaming?”

M
y blood cools. I don’t know how many drinks he’s had, but he’s doing it on purpose. He knows exactly what I’m thinking about and he’s trying to make me as uncomfortable as he possibly can, knowing very well I can’t utter a single word about it.

“
I’m fixated on the party,” I say, staring back at him, refusing to play his game. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.”

Keeping his eyes locked on mine, he draws his glass to his mouth and takes a long, slow sip.
I look away, my cheeks growing hotter. To think I almost let him kiss me… I should have let him. Perhaps then the penis-mouth situation could have been avoided.

“
Of course you haven’t.” Henry chuckles, drawing my attention to his large, jiggling stomach. “You’re an Unfortunate.”

The way he says it, as if it’s the dirtiest thing
in the world, makes me clench my jaw and it takes all my strength to stop looking at him. I drop my stare to the grass. It feels damp against my feet.

“Y
ou’re
my
Unfortunate,” Kade says, forcing me to look up again. There’s a strange look in his eyes—comfort? No. He wouldn’t comfort me. He didn’t comfort me at the branding ceremony, why would he do it now? I search deeper, trying to pinpoint the emotion in his uncharacteristically soft eyes, but in a blink, it’s gone. “Not like the others in the camps. Not anymore.”

Henry and
Michael exchanged a glance between themselves before Michael spoke. “You sound just like your mother, Kaden.” Master Kade flinches at the reference to his full name. Kaden? I like Kaden. It’s much softer than Kade. “And just like I told her, you cannot lower yourself to their level. They’re different than us—a whole new species, almost.”

I survey Kade’s fingers. They tighten around his glass and his knuckles turn white,
draining of blood. “And if I were to cut her open?” he says casually, so casually it sends chills down my spine. “Would she not bleed the same blood?”

“Indeed she wou—”

“Would she not bleed the same amount of blood as you? Would her bones not match ours?”

“Sure
, they wou—”

Henry’s laugh cuts off Kade’s father and he offers him no apology. Kade frowns because of it. “You really do sound like your mother, only she knew when to stop.” He flicks his head in my direction. “Developing a soft spot for this one, are you?”

Kade shrugs. “I don’t care for Unfortunates—not in the slightest—but let’s not claim they’re a whole new species entirely just to make yourself feel better about degrading human life. If you’re going to be an asshole, you might as well be proud of it.”

I think i
t’s a total ass move of him to stand up for human rights. He doesn’t care and the serious intensity in his eyes that suggests otherwise is fake.

“Like me
,” a voice chimes in.

Vince.

I feel a hand creep along my shoulder before resting heavily. I want to shrug it off, to step away from it, but only Master Kade can tell me to move. To disrespect a Fortunate—any Fortunate—would mean god knows what. I keep my eyes on Kade, who glares at the fingers that curl around my shoulder.

“You’re wasting your time, Vincent
,” Henry announces. His white cane chair creaks as he shifts his large body. “Kade is keeping her for something special.”

I don’t have to look at Vince to hear him smile. “Is my big brother finally ready to lose his virginity?”

Henry and Michael snicker like children, but Kade seems unfazed by the insult to his manhood. “I might find that insulting, if it hadn’t come from a child,” Kade replied, seemingly bored.

“More reason
I
should have her. I’m closer to her age than you, old man.”

Immediately,
I feel worn out just listening to the banter—like a cloth between two wild dogs. Kade aggressively steps forward and I react without thought. I shrug out from underneath Vince’s arm and instinctively step closer to Master Kade. I freeze suddenly and I instantly realise what I’ve done… I panicked. I moved only to stop a fight from breaking out. I inch closer to Kade—as close as I can without getting in trouble for touching.
An Unfortunate must never touch a Fortunate without permission.
The knot of his black tie barely grazes the tip of my nose and my lungs burn as I hold my breath, trying to anticipate what’s going to happen next. I shouldn’t have moved. Shit. I shouldn’t have moved. Kade doesn’t scold me or hurt me—in fact—he doesn’t say anything, only presses the empty glass against my chest. Realising he’s giving me a way out of Vince’s punishment, I take it and step away from him. I put the glass on a passing tray. The Unfortunate carrying the tray stops and I exchange the empty glass for a full one. The Unfortunate male doesn’t look at my face, only at my chest. His beady, black eyes practically burn through my fabric, twisting my stomach. I’m the only Unfortunate dressed so provocatively… and I hate it. I angle my body away from him, giving the glass back to Kade. Lucky for the Unfortunate, Master Kade doesn’t see his prying eyes, and before long, he’s gone. 

Vince bares his teeth in an evil scowl
as I stand behind my Fortunate. “How dare you move?” he growls. “You’ll be punished for your defiance.”

“She didn’t defy you
—she was filling your brother’s drink,” Michael said, sighing. “And she’s his toy, not yours. Leave her alone, will you?”

Vinc
e’s dark, cold stare zeroes in on the both of us before he turns around and storms off without a word.

“Take it easy on your little brother. You know he’s a collector of pretty things.”

“Destroyer of pretty things,” Kade rebuts, raking his fingers through his short hair.

“Don’t judge your brother so harshly, Kaden. You’re no good, either.”

“Compared to him? I’m so good you should start referring to me as Angel.”

His
dad nods with a slightly proud smirk. “And he used to wonder why you never let him play with your leaf collection.”

Beside me, I feel Kade tense. Henry laughs and nods with large motions of his head.

“I remember the leaf collection. Kade was a good kid. Vince? Not so much—always hiding under tables to see up the women’s skirts. Always starting fights and crying wolf—that kid hasn’t changed a bit.”

These are the things they talk about? Hobbies and family? Some of us have never had the pleasure of either. They don’t appreciate anything they have and I would rather die than be a part of their world. I open my mouth
to scold them all. “Y—”

Kade
presses his new glass into my chest. The ice cold liquid pushes over the lip and soaks through my dress, making me shiver.

“Give this to Portia to clean and then go to bed.”

I frown. Give the glass to Portia to clean when there’s a tray going around collecting empty cups? Where’s the sense in that? I peer up at Master Kade and his eyes flare with warning. In that glance I see he’s protecting me from saying something stupid, which poses the question, why? Doesn’t he want to punish me? Doesn’t he want an excuse to get back into the exact same situation we were in earlier?

“Don’t send her to bed. I want to look at her a little more
,” Henry complains, drawing his wine glass to his lips and peering at me over the rim.

“Yes, Master Kade
,” I say. I take Kade’s half full glass and step away. When I turn around, I come face to face with another Fortunate. Thankfully, it’s not Vince this time.

“So this is Nine,” she sneers at me, subtly pouting her lips in an unfriendly way.
Unfriendly? Of course she is. Why’d I expect anything less from a Fortunate? Her blue eyes rake me up and down. When she’s not making eye contact, I take in her tight red gown. I’ve never seen a dress so striking. It hugs her subtle curves before falling off around her feet and pooling in a mess of fabric. “You’re not as pretty in person.”

“
Elizabeth,” Kade warns her. “The girl is going to bed.”

Her thin lips quirk at the corners and she flicks her bouncy blonde curls over one shoulder. “Run along, then.”

Forcing a polite smile, I duck my head and stroll away as quickly as I can. It’s obvious the claim she has on Kade and I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. If she sees me as a threat, she can eliminate me, it’s as simple as that. As far as I’m concerned, she can have Master Kade. If he gets her, perhaps he won’t ask things of me.

I stroll across the grass, keeping my head down. The ground is a little cool and damp tonight, making me mis
s my cloth shoes with the hole. The back door to the house is less than a hundred metres away. I’m less than a hundred metres away from taking this dress off and climbing into my own bed, unscathed.

I glance up from the ground
, and directly ahead, I see Vince leaning against the dark bricks of the mansion. He’s watching me. Even from this distance I can tell. My fingers clench involuntarily around the glass, but I keep moving forward.
Get it to the kitchen. Go to bed.
I nod my head. Right.

As I draw nearer, Vince’s stare becomes almost physical. I can feel his dark irises sticking to me like hot tar. It doesn’t send shivers down my spine… it sends painful spasms along the ridge of my back
. There’s nothing I can do but keep my head down and hope he doesn’t pull me up.

“Heading off?”
he shouts to me when I get within distance.

“I’m returning Master Kade’s glass
,” I tell him, angling my body to the left to enter in through the door.
Seven more steps and you’re inside.
I square my shoulders and take another two steps. Before I make the third, Vince shoots in front of me and I jump, dropping the glass. It falls to the ground with a heavy thud, spilling its contents all over my feet.

I bend at the knees, lowering myself to get the glass. As my fingers touch the cool mate
rial, I glance up at Vince, who’s beaming down at me with a look so dark and sadistic, it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on its ends.

“You know, I prefer you
even more from this angle.”

Master Kade’s voice echoes through my mind
,
“imagine hardcore throat fucking.”

I shoot to my feet, brushing hair out of my face. “If you’ll excuse me,” I say politely and swallowing hard. “I have specific instructions.”