Bertrice Small - Captivated

"I will never …"

He clamped his hand over her mouth. "I see. You still need to be taught who is beholden to whom. You'll note that I kindly didn't make a fuss over the fact that you didn't hold your breasts up for my inspection. Well, one must be patient with a sharp-toothed fawn. We have many days, Drue, many lessons to be learned. I didn't think I would have to work you so hard after paying out so much money for you. I thought your overwhelming gratitude would compel your utmost desire to please me. I will tell you, Drue: it will come. You will surrender everything to me. And when you do, you will beg for everything I can give you."

"Never!" she spat, pulling at her bonds. "Never, never, never ."

He looked down at her pitilessly. "Evie will untie you in an hour or so. I want you to get used to the feeling of your legs spread wide for me."

"I hate you."

"It doesn't matter, little fawn. All that matters is that you never hide your naked body from me."

He got out of the room not a moment too soon; his sex overpowered him, erupting in spume of frenzied lust for her so intense, he doubled over with it.

Soon, he thought, soon. The fawn was nibbling. Very, very soon, sooner than she thought, she would be ready to feed that dark desire that would drown and consume them both.

She lay limply on the bed, her legs aching from her struggle with the ties. She was in such turmoil, she could barely move. Didn't want to move. Wanted to just sink through the soft mattress into oblivion.

Court treating her like this!

What could he want from her, if not what every man wanted?

She moved fretfully against the restraints. It was hellish, this… thisgame of exposing her and humiliating her.

And yetyet… the look in his eyes when he finally got her naked… he wanted her; there had been burning, naked desire in his eyes. Even she, innocent as she was, could see that.

And that her nudity had aroused his sleeping giant to the point of explosiveness. It was huge, thick, and hard as iron, and it wanted to possess her, even if he did not.

She levered up on her elbows to look at herself, to try to see what he saw. A thick, wiry bush of dark hair between her legs, and whatever else was visible beyond that. Her smooth thighs. Her long legs. Her flat belly. Her high, rounded breasts with their ever-erect nipples.

Tentatively, she laid the fingers of her right hand on her bushy mound. The hair between her legs was like a wild woman's; sometimes she felt the wiry strands between her thighs as she walked.

And always she felt her taut nipples pressing tightly against whatever she wore, making her very aware of her body.

She lay back on the bed and cupped her breasts, thumbing one nipple. Her body twinged, impacted by her sprawled legs, her nudity, her touch.

His cruelty.

If she gave in to him, her life, her sex, would never be her own. And she would mourn Gerard forever.

Her only recourse was to seduce him and fight him. Forever. Or to the end. Whichever came first.

Evie came after a while, with a tray. "Master say you eat."

"I can't sit up."

"Master say make restraints prettier." She held up two strips of black satin. "Come. I untie your one leg, and you eat something."

She felt a moment of panic. Court meant it. The bastard meant it, and he was willing to go to these lengths to make her willing to spread her legs.

She could barely eat; she had no idea what it was Evie had on the tray. She watched as the servant untied her one leg, and then, as she nibbled, deftly surrounded her other ankle with the soft, slick satin bonds before she untied the ragged shirtsleeve.

"When you finish, mistress."

But Evie wasn't done. She picked up the shredded bedspread and stripped the bed of its sheets and pillowcases, and pulled down the curtains, while Drue choked down what she could of the food.

Dear God, the curtains, too

"Mistress cannot refuse the master," Evie said gently, removing the tray at Drue's signal. "Come. I tie your leg and you wait for the master to come."

"I have no choice, do I?" Drue muttered.

"Mistress is beautiful. Master will come to love her," Evie murmured, as she efficiently packed up the bedding and trundled all of it and the tray out of the room.

The door closed.

The ominous door.

Her nipples tightened in anticipation of what was to come. Fear compelled her, closing her throat, making her tremble.

She grasped the edges of the mattress and held on. There was no point to fighting the restraints, to fighting him.

He would do what he wanted, and every slave in the place, including her, would submit to his will.

She waited, feeling every inch of her bare skin against the mattress ticking.

And she waited, her splayed legs accustomed now to the breadth of the extension he had forced on them.

And she waited, trying not to think of Gerard, and the betrayal of his love that this submission to Court's will represented.

There was something about the waiting; there was a cruelty in it and a wisdom. He had wanted her to get used to the feeling of spreading her legs for him, and as she lay there, she became acutely aware of the seductive cleft between her legs that had so entranced him.

And she could feel her nipples, so erect and pointed, becoming tighter and harder.

She felt herself stretching her legs wider apart still, as if her body were arching toward another lover.

"I wish you would take me," she whispered in anguish, and Court's voice answered, "Oh, no, little fawn. I will not take you now. You still have hard lessons to learn and memories I will destroy."

Her body jolted, and she heaved up onto her elbows. He stood by the little upholstered chair, dressed in trousers and nothing else, watching her writhe and yearn for another man.

And he was so prime; his shoulders were wide, his bare chest deep and covered with rough springy hair all the way down to the waistband of his trousers.

And below that, his engorged manhood poked out as hard and thick as a tree trunk.

She licked her lips nervously as he sank into the little chair. "What are you doing?"

"I'm admiring the many naked charms of my wife," he said, his voice deceptively calm. "I hope the satin bands are more comfortable. There's something about black against a woman's naked skin… it's very arousing."

"Are you aroused, Court?"

"Unbelievably."

"Haven't you seen enough?" Daring of her, she thought, licking her lips. But he was like a predator playing with her, a wolf she could never tame. And didn't want to. So why she was taunting him, she had no ideaor did she?

"Not nearly, little fawn. Your naked body fascinates me. I want to luxuriate in it, I want to know every nuance of it…"

"And when will I see your naked body?" she asked, her voice deliberately coy. It didn't work.

"When I'm ready to show it to you."

"You're ready now, Court. Even I can see that."

"But how hard I am has nothing to do with preparing you for the moment you will be ready, my fawn. For now, just looking at you satisfies my lust for you."

"I don't believe that." She couldn't believe that, not with him sitting there and his sex jutting up to the ceiling through his clothing like a flagpole.

"It doesn't matter. I am the one who will decide when you are ready. My desire to rut in you can only be enhanced by the lessons I teach you."

"What are you going to do?" she whispered.

He got up from the chair and came to the bed and she could see the hard-boned length of him poking upward beneath the thin material of his trousers.

"I'm going to tie your wrists to the posts, my fawn, so that just as you are learning the lesson of spreading your legs for me, you will also learn that when I tell you to hold your breasts for me, you will remember to do it."