Chapter 21
“The devil’s voice is sweet to hear.”
—Stephen King
Bella
Was there such a thing as making a deal with the devil? Or was it more about being tempted by Creed’s good looks and his suave mentality, a touch that burned and lingered long after? There wasn’t time for a great debate on the subject, and I’d already let my guard down. The one protecting my common sense. The one protecting my body.
And fearfully, the one protecting my heart.
My devil’s voice wasn’t sweet as my favorite author had suggested, it was seductive in its deep baritone. I couldn’t believe I’d done a strip tease—and in front of an unblinded window. Not that anyone could see from another building unless they had binoculars, but that wasn’t the point. My behavior was completely different.
Yes, the night had been magical, the dance phenomenal and I’d found myself getting closer to him. That had been so highly out of character for me that I was questioning more than just my sanity.
I’d almost convinced myself he’d dropped ecstasy into my drink until the strip tease. Now, as he flexed his hand open, crawling his fingers down from my forehead to my neck, I could barely control my breathing. The taste of his sweet cum lingered, my mouth watering to have him finish erupting into the back of my throat.
But it was obvious he had other things in mind.
I was tingling all over, but it was entirely different than it had been inside the elevator the first time. I was excited, so much so that it felt as if icy fingers were attempting to close off my air supply. He continued traveling his fingers down my chest, making low and throaty sounds the moment he rolled a finger around my already pert nipple.
Both were already sensitive, likely from remaining hard as diamonds all night long, scraping against the stunning matching lace bra he’d insisted I wear. And this necklace. Holy shit, the necklace was incredible, the weight something I’d grown to adore.
Did that make me sick or just na?ve? Maybe both.
As he pinched my nipple, the rush of adrenaline and need erupting together was far too combustible. My pussy was wet, slicking the insides of both thighs. It was crazy the way I was feeling, the anticipation of seeing him completely naked taking me back to the night in the rain.
Whether or not the dream had been a reality honestly didn’t matter. This was so much better.
He seemed to sense my growing impatience, chuckling as he placed both hands beside me, now leaning down far too slowly. As he blew from one hardened bud to the other, I resisted wrapping one arm around his neck. “My perfect dancer craves my touch.”
“Never.”
“My,” he said, biting down on one until I cried out. When he lifted his head by a single inch, all I could do was pant. “You’re a terrible liar.”
I closed my eyes as he rolled his lips to my other breast, licking underneath it before pulling the tender bud into his mouth, sucking until I moaned.
He didn’t take much time, his growing hunger very obvious. As he eased back, he whispered something in Italian as if I knew the language. I didn’t. I’d simply had the phrase on the back of the picture translated via my computer. It had seemed important that I know what my father had said to my mom. I hadn’t seen the photograph in a long time, something she guarded as her most precious object.
More so than her daughter.
Creed raked his fingers down my stomach, taking his time to encircle my belly button before he pulled away completely.
The hotel suite was the perfect end to what had been the most fabulous night of my life. The fact he’d surprised me with the most awesome tickets to the ABT’s performance of my favorite classic ballet had floored me. For two hours, I’d become immersed in the beautiful world, imagining myself as the lead. It was probably a pipe dream, especially now that this man had claimed me as belonging to him, but I hadn’t let the ugly reality cloud the joy in the gifts he’d provided.
The moon and stars figured prominently in the windows, the bedroom sharing the same window design as the massive living room downstairs. There was just the right amount of brightness to highlight his broad shoulders and massive forearms as he removed his tailored tuxedo shirt. I eased up on my elbows, allowing myself to enjoy the view, and it had nothing to do with the city or its massive buildings.
However, when he twisted so the moonlight illuminated the length of his back, I gasped audibly, slapping my hand across my mouth afterwards.
The scars on his back were terrible and I didn’t need to be told what they were from. I was horrified for him, angry with whoever had done that to him.
He heard my exclamation and as he tossed the shirt onto a chair, he turned to face me before pulling off his shoes and socks. “Don’t worry, perfect dancer. The scars are permanent but there is no longer any pain.”
“A whip?”
Why was I asking the question? Was I a sick person to want to know?
“Yes, from my father’s hands, although my younger brother and I didn’t receive the brunt of our father’s anger.”
“Why was he so angry? Why did he do that to his own children?”
“Because he didn’t know any better, his father treating him the same way, requiring him to be perfect like he wanted us to be. Anything less wasn’t tolerable.”
“Your father sounds like a horrible man.”
He slipped his trousers down his carved hips, momentarily shoving aside the reprehensible thoughts. As horrible as I’d believed my mother had been, she never would have done something like that.
“Perhaps, Bella, but he was our father, a man we tried to please. At least until we were grown men. We learned to please him so as to not evoke his rage. Control was vital in our sacred little world.”
“Is that why you were attracted to me? The need to control something of your own? To mold me like your father did with you?”
My question seemed to catch him off guard. “If you’re asking if I plan on beating you as my father did to us, the answer is no. I’m a brutal man, Bella. I will never deny that. My business makes it vital that I have control of everyone and every situation. I’ve crushed companies. I’ve killed my enemies to keep them from killing me. My brothers have as well, but in the world that I grew up in, the legacy that was handed down to me, that’s all I learned. However, women are precious creatures to be adored and savored.”
As he removed his pants, I wasn’t certain whether to admire the man for surviving such horrors as a child or to feel even more repulsed by his easy admittance of killing people.
But for a few beautiful seconds, my breath was taken by the sight of his masculine body. The man in a tuxedo was incredible but seeing his entire physique highlighted by the moon took my breath away.
He inched closer, staring down at me as if I was going to try to run. “You are already perfect in every way, sweet Bella. I’m not planning on molding you into anything. I simply want to set you free and in doing so, keeping the man you’re terrified of locked away.”
There was such a haunted message in what he was saying, the sound as well as the rise and fall of his chest telling me how much emotional pain he was still in. As I knew well, it wasn’t the physical punishment received but the emotional strain, the longing to be accepted that proved to be the most damning.
Because I knew we were kindred in several ways, as he crawled onto the bed, forcing me into the middle, I reached for him with open arms.
The desire we shared was different, more pronounced in a special way. Or maybe I was reading into the moment. We’d both let our guards down, almost acting as if we’d been on a date instead of a captor and captive, locked together in a game where losing meant death. But right now, none of that mattered. I was here because he’d required me to be.
I hadn’t tried to escape because I didn’t want to.
Ugly or not, unbelievable or not, that was the simple truth.
As he crawled between my legs, I pressed my palms against his chest, still marveling at the feel of his twelve-pack. He peered down at me, a smirk crossing his face. “You know you can’t keep me away.”
“I never said I was trying,” I cooed in return. Even my hatred toward him was no longer sharp-edged. It was crazy to feel the way I was but as he shifted his hips back and forth, my heart was pumping so hard I was certain I’d have a stroke.
He remained on his hands, using his upper body strength to finally push down against my arms. The limited light in the room couldn’t hide the longing in his eyes or the devilish twinkle. He slowly lifted one of my arms over my head then the other, using his knee to widen my legs as well.
“Do you know what I plan on doing to you?” he asked, his voice to the point I could barely recognize it.
“Tell me.”
“Are you certain you want to know?” When he wrapped both my wrists with his long fingers on one hand, I immediately struggled, fighting him playfully.
“Yes.”
“First I’m going to fuck that tight pussy of yours until you scream out my name.” He hesitated, sliding the tip of his pinky down the bridge of my nose, encircling my lips before finishing. “After that I’m going to take my time filling your dark hole with my seed. After that, I’m going to plug you with a toy and you’ll be required to wear it until I tell you otherwise.”
I wasn’t expecting that, my nervous laugh my only admittance.
“And that’s just the beginning,” he continued. He shifted again between my legs and lowered his head, barely brushing his lips across mine. I was pulled into the same sweet vacuum as before, moaning into the kiss as he slipped his hand down my stomach.
When I felt the tip of his cock being pressed against my pussy lips, I issued a loud whimper that he captured with his mouth. The man masterful, he thrust his cock into my tight channel at the same time he plunged his tongue into my mouth.
I immediately arched my back, throwing my legs around his hips. As my muscles tried to expand, the feel of his throbbing shaft electrified my senses. I was crazed with hunger, my mind spinning with the promise he’d made about how he was going to fuck me. It was funny how enticing the words were, a forbidden temptation I should resist. But how could I?
He already knew my body so well, grinding his hips until he was fully seated inside, pulling out only to do it all over again.
I wiggled underneath him, trying to dominate his tongue but it was no use. The man had full control over my body, which was exactly what he wanted. As he started pumping in scheduled rhythm, intense vibrations coursed through me. I was caught in a wave of pleasure so incredible that I couldn’t breathe. Or maybe it was because of the crazed kiss and the way he was deep throating me with his tongue.
He was so dominating, yet on this night, he was rough yet gentle at the same time. I squeezed my knees against him, struggling to meet every brutal thrust, still trying to free my hands for no other reason than to be able to touch him.
To stroke the scars on his back.
There was such a dominating look on his face, an unbridled need to fuck and fill me that I was breathless, every inch of my body tingling. As he continued pumping deep inside, filling my core with explosive heat, I matched every thrust.
His hold on my wrists was strong, pushing my arms into the bed just as he was doing to my body. The moment of pure ecstasy was right around the corner, every growl he made pushing me into the sweetest abyss.
“Come for me, perfect dancer. Come. Call out my name in rapture.”
He was dominating in all things but there was a level of power in his voice I couldn’t describe, as if he was desperate for affirmation, needing me to enjoy his powerful hold over me. I tossed my head back and forth, my lower legs tingling even more. As the climax began to rush into me like white lightning, he pumped harder. Faster. As if his life and mine depended on my rush of nirvana.
And the man filling me with his seed.
I couldn’t hold back, the incredible vibrations electrifying every part of me. And in the next few seconds as the rush of emotions and adrenaline swept through me, I let off a strangled scream.
“Creed!”
I could feel a sense of peace washing through him, a moment where our bodies and hearts were as one. I could no longer think of him as just a savage animal, this side almost like a lost little boy. One in need of love and understanding.
While I couldn’t condone or forgive him for his horrible deeds, I did comprehend his needs and wants because they were similar to mine. He continued pumping, studying me intently as a single orgasm continued pulsing through me, keeping me on a delicious edge of light and dark.
“Yes. Yes. Yes.”
Suddenly, there was a grin on his face and he let go of my hands, allowing me to roll my fingers over his shoulders. As I rubbed the tips across the mottled scars, he slowed his actions, never blinking as he watched my reaction. I was mortified for him, angry that his father had been such a terrible man, and hopeful that he wasn’t too far gone into the demons that had nearly consumed him.
But why?
Why should I care about a man who’d taken me hostage?
Simple.
Because I did.
Because we were cut from the same cloth to some degree.
Because he knew me better than I knew myself.
And because I craved him.
All of him.
As I started to come down from the beautiful plateau, he picked up the intensity, the force now used driving the headboard into the wall.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
I clung to his arms, digging my fingers in, watching him as he went through the same emotions I had only seconds before.
And in the beautiful seconds where it seemed all time stood still, I could sense the moment when he was ready to let go. I squeezed my muscles, instantly rewarded with a deep roar as he filled me with his seed.
We were both panting, our hearts thudding together. There was such power in the silence, such desire that we were still. He remained hovering over me, dropping his head to press his soft lips against my forehead and nose, both cheeks and my lips, barely darting out his tongue to taste mine.
When he finally collapsed over me, we couldn’t speak, both trying to learn how to breathe again. He pressed the full weight of his body on mine and I gently caressed his back, finding myself tracing the scars over and over again. If he was bothered by what I was doing, I would never know from his even breathing and the way he rubbed his thumb back and forth across my chest.
Aimlessly.
Happily.
Without feeling the need to remind me I belonged to him.
The simple hold, the feeling of being together was strange yet so satisfying.
As he rolled onto his side, he wrapped his leg around my hips, the subtle move telling me in no uncertain terms I was going nowhere.
Not that I wanted to.
I had no idea how long we did nothing but hold each other, staring into the shadowed light as if the peace was exactly what we both needed. Yet his cock continued to throb, becoming hard as a rock in no time. There was no doubt the man wasn’t finished with me yet.
I was proven right maybe five minutes later when his batteries recharged completely and he rose off the bed, immediately grabbing both wrists and as if I weighed nothing, pulling me off the bed completely and into his arms.
Laughing, I wasn’t certain when I’d felt this ecstatic or peaceful, which might have been the strangest thing of all.
Creed spun me around in a circle, finally dropping me in front of the massive window. His reflection was entirely different, the softness turning into total domination. As he took one of my arms then the other, planting them over my head, my palms against the glass, his crooked smile returned. One of knowing.
“Stay right there, my sweet dancer or I will spank that bottom red. I might do that anyway because you are one very bad girl. Aren’t you?”
“Yes. And I always will be.”
His laugh was intense, leaving a deep rumble sitting in my stomach. He moved slowly, turning on one of the lights by the bed, angling it so it perfectly captured my naked figure in the window.
“Now, maybe everyone can see our sinful acts, the filth that we will create together. Binoculars. Telescopes. There are ways to see every single thing we do together. Imagine.”
And I did.
He was teasing me.
Or was he?
Did he know something I didn’t know?
More important, why was it that I was excited at the thought of being seen, not only fucking like animals but with a man like Creed?