He shrugged. “Do you remember when you first came to me in the cave, before you bound me with the chain? I felt something even then, a drive toward you that I still can’t explain.” He felt a deep tenderness emanating from her, almost throbbing in soft waves.
“Me, too. Almost from the first.”
He kissed her again, only this time he let the kiss linger.
When he drew back, she took a deep breath and swore she trembled. “Keep eating,” she commanded. “You’re going to need your strength.”
Because of the chains, he sensed the deep sexual nature of her intention toward him, which caused him to list in his seat. But he obeyed her and focused all his attention on downing his food.
When at last he settled his fork and knife on his plate and she’d eaten the last of her meal, she turned to him and slid her hand along his thigh. “I’ve had something prepared for you, Adrien, and I hope you’ll like it. Also, I can feel that you need my blood and I’m ready to give it up for you again.”
Since she followed up this bold statement by kissing him, his need for her spiked. He slid off his stool and she came with him, a flow of movement that felt just right as she landed in his arms. He kissed her again, this time piercing her mouth with his tongue, which made her whimper and her hips press against his.
He swiveled his hips just enough to let her feel that he was ready for her, which drew her hand gliding down his back and pressing his buttocks as she arched her hips into him. He needed to take her to bed and was about to suggest the bedroom when she pulled back, her hazel eyes glittering with passion.
She lifted her chin just a little. A dare? “I asked Eve if we could use her Rome apartment for a couple of hours and she said yes. I want to take you there. Will you come with me?” Her scent enveloped him.
Adrien’s heart rate climbed. He’d never been to Eve’s apartment though she’d invited him hundreds of times over the past two centuries, from the time she’d bought and refurbished it.
She’d even described in detail some of the specialty equipment she’d installed in one of the rooms.
He swallowed hard. “You don’t want to just stay here?”
“I have something specific in mind, Adrien. Will you let me have my way right now? It will mean you’ll have to trust me.”
“What’s going on?”
He felt both reluctant and ready. Maybe it was the eagerness in her face or the glitter in her eyes, or that right now she had a hand on each of his butt cheeks and was caressing him, but like any man in his right mind, he said, “Let’s go.”
Since they were already in Italy, the flight took about eight seconds.
When they arrived, dozens of candles had been lit and not a single electric bulb burned.
He released her and turned in a circle. Lily had already moved away from him, following what turned out to be a path of small votives on the floor. His heart began to pound.
Eve was all about dominance.
So what had Lily arranged?
And why here?
Lily walked down a long hall, where more candles showed the way. At the end of the hall was a set of double doors, slightly ajar. When she slipped inside, he would have followed, but she stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Give me a sec. There’s something I need to do first.”
He nodded, mouth dry.
When the door closed, he put his head on the smooth carved wood. His heart was now banging around in his chest. If it beat any faster, it would come loose from its moorings.
He’d never been harder.
He scratched softly on the door and whispered, “Lily. What are you doing to me?”
He didn’t expect an answer, but one came, straight into his head. Do you trust me?
Yes. Sweat beaded on his brow. And strangely, that was the truth. He trusted this woman, this human.
You have a choice, Adrien. If you come in, you must do as I say, do you understand? If you choose not to come in, we’ll go back to Rumy’s guest apartment and you can fuck my brains out, but here, you are mine to command. Do you understand?
Yes.
Now choose.
He wanted to ask what she was wearing, but he suspected Eve had left her something special to put on.
He waited, trying to think, trying to order his thoughts. He already sensed what it was she wanted to do.
May I see you first before I decide, because if you’ve gone down a certain path, I’m not sure I can take it.
I’ll let you see my hand.
The door opened slightly and her hand appeared. The wrist was wrapped in silver-studded leather. Hanging from each stud were several thin chains, each of which draped to encompass her fingers. If she used her hand on him, he would feel the chains.
She would hurt him, yet not hurt him.
He could feel his heart pulsing behind his eyes.
Adrien, do you trust me?
After two deep breaths, he sent, I’m yours.
Good.
He pushed the door open then stilled.
She stood across the room, next to Eve’s table, an ancient wooden thing polished to a gleam through the years.
She was a vision in leather and wore a feathered headdress that was also a half mask. He could see the glitter of her eyes. Her lips were dark red, bloodred.
She wore a costume of black leather straps that covered only strips of her skin around her breasts and down her thighs, then broadened to encompass her knees and ended in loops of leather beneath her feet. She wore stilettos that put her just shy of his height. Her breasts and her bare peach were on display.
If he’d been hard before, now he was in pain. She’d taken sex into the realm of dark fantasy and it worked for him.
Oh, God, how it worked for him. And he knew it wasn’t just about Lily and her costume or sex, but about his life and what had been done to him when he was young.
She turned her back to him and planted a hand on a long table, then bent over just enough so that he could see the bareness of her bottom. She was fully exposed and swollen.
When she turned back, she moved to the end of the thick wood table.
She put her palm flat on the table, the chains making a soft clinking sound. “Take your clothes off and get up here. On your back.”
When his vision cleared of all his lust, he saw that heavy chains and manacles dangled off the sides of the table; two more chains lay taut across the top and bottom. In addition, he sensed the preternatural quality of the chains, that something very vampire would bind him in place, like the manacles Daniel used in the Himalayan prison.
He’d already made his choice. He wanted this. Hell, he’d been wanting it far longer than he could admit even now. But his heart pounded in his chest.
He stripped off his clothes then climbed up on the table and laid himself flat. He stared up at the mirror-covered ceiling and saw himself lying there, naked, and very erect. He kept looking at himself, his tight eyes, the vein thumping in his throat, his cock straight up and ready for something that scared the shit out of him.
Lily worked quietly and went from one ankle to the other, setting the heavy manacles with pins only she could remove. His legs were now spread far apart.
When she got to his wrists, he realized the air was thick with her feminine scent. He finally looked at her and saw that her nipples were peaked and that sweat lay in a sheen over her skin. Her bare labia were swollen with need. Whatever he felt, her desire matched his.
I can feel your need, Adrien. You’ve worked me up as well.
I want to suck your breasts and then eat you. Blatant words.
All in due course. Right now, you’re mine to do with as I please.