Chapter 21
CHAPTER 21
ASPEN
B efore I could react, a hand pressed against my chest and shoved me back. My elbows thudded to the table, sending a throb vibrating up my shoulders. “What th?—”
The discomfort vanished under the wash of cold air against my chest. In the time it took me to fall back, he’d unfastened the few buttons on my sweater and shoved it aside. My nipples pebbled painfully tight, and the irritation burned away, only leaving room for anticipation to build all over again.
“Mmm,” he hummed his pleasure.
I should have been ashamed of how quickly I melted under such simple praise.
I should have pushed back harder against him, reminding myself what he really thought of me—a spoiled princess.
I should have stopped before any of this started to begin with.
I should have done a lot of things.
But when he dropped his head to my chest and sunk his teeth against the bottom curve of my breast, I did nothing but drop my head back with a cry.
He soothed the abuse with his tongue, dragging it up and over until he reached my nipple, where he repeated his assault. My cry shifted to a moan when his tongue curled around the tip before sucking. I bit my lip in an attempt to hold back the sounds—or at least minimize them.
I want to hear you scream.
His message from earlier flashed in my mind, and I bit my lip harder, unsure if I was capable of screaming anymore—unsure if I was ready to.
When his other hand palmed my other breast and twisted and pinched the tip, thoughts of what sounds I made faded, and my hips thrust, searching for anything to create friction where I needed it most.
I dug my bruised elbows into the table and pushed, but found nothing but air. He’d curled too high over me. Enough to torture my nipples, but too far for me to make contact.
I jerked my attention down when a painful pinch, twist, and tug rode the line of too much. But then my eyes locked on his, peering from where he sucked on my other breast.
“Oh, fuck,” I whispered. His gaze soothed the sharp sting enough to send it sliding down my belly to my core. I clenched my fist against the smooth table and shifted my weight to rest on one elbow, trying to reach between my legs.
Before I got far, he released my flesh with a pop and snatched my wrist. “Nice try.” He rested my palm back on the table with a taunting look before it shifted to something dark and commanding. He pinned both hands under his and locked his eyes on mine. “These do not move. Understood.”
Breath shuddered in and out, my body trembling with need and an enticing edge of fear. “Yes, Sir.”
He nodded before releasing his hold and standing upright. Again, his hands rested on my knees and slid down my thighs—slower this time—taking all of me in. My muscles strained the closer he got to my center. Heat bled into my cheeks when I imagined what he saw—what he would feel when he dragged his finger through my folds.
The way he ravaged my chest left my pussy dripping, sliding between my ass. There was no hiding how much I liked what he did to me.
Before he reached the middle, he spread his palms and gripped where my legs met my hips and used his thumbs along my folds to pull me open.
I squeezed my eyes shut and squirmed. Although it was useless because he pinned me in place and continued to stare, saying nothing. He’d seen my pussy before, but never like this. Never completely open, under a chandelier, with nowhere to hide. No shadows from my skirts or partly closed thighs.
I laid completely splayed open for him to study.
He pushed and pulled along the lips of my pussy, sending jolts of pleasurable shame directly to my clit. Each move caused my opening to clench around nothing. And he saw. He saw the way my drenched core practically begged to be fucked.
The seconds of his inspection dragged on forever until I almost screamed.
“You have a stunning cunt.” He finally released one side and dragged a finger from beneath my ass to my clit. The direct contact shocked my system after waiting for more, ripping an unintended shout from my chest.
He hummed, and a smile tipped his lips. “It’s not enough, but it’s a start.”
“Lucian,” I breathed, unsure what I hoped to gain from saying his name.
He glanced up my bared body, showing the devil in his eyes before dropping his head to my knee and delivering a sharp bite.
I kept my shout to a grunt, which earned me a soft laugh and another bite—lower. Harder.
“Tell me, princess,” he said between nips and licks down my thighs. “Has anyone feasted on this sweet little pussy of yours?”
My legs trembled more the closer he got, and I didn’t trust myself to answer, so I shook my head.
“No?” he asked with a cocked brow. “No one has ever shoved their tongue up your tight, needy hole?”
God, his words killed me. I pinched my eyes shut, the sight of his lips against my skin too much, and shook my head.
“No one has held you open and sucked on your swollen clit until you came again and again and again?”
“No,” I cried. “No one.”
“Such a shame.” Another bite, followed by a swirling stroke of his tongue just to the edge of my groin. “Then again, lucky me. Looks like your cream is all fucking mine.”
The words sent puffs of air against my wet core, and I waited for his lips, tongue, and teeth to follow.
I held my breath.
Kept my eyes closed.
I tried to sense when he was closing in.
My head swam, counting the seconds, still feeling the puffs of air against where I wanted him.
I counted them.
One.
Two.
Thr—
“Argh.”
I jerked with a cry and snapped my eyes open in time to watch him deliver another pinch to my thigh. Followed by another bite. Then a stroke of his tongue.
He worked his way up my other thigh faster, then he worked down. Once he reached my knee, he sat back and revealed a toy I hadn’t seen him grab at first.
“I bought this just for you. One end, a normal crop. The other just for between those pretty thighs.”
I swallowed and took in the black leather. One end I’d recognized, looking like a riding crop my horseback riding instructor used. The other end was a wide paddle that had the middle cut out, leaving two thinner panels around open space.
“Oh…”
He smiled at my breathless response and stood. “Remember your words. Green. Yellow. Red. If I ask how you’re feeling, I expect a color. Nothing else.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“And remember your hands. If you move them, I will bind them to the table too.”
I clenched my fists and nodded.
“Good girl. Now count.”
He moved without a hint of warning. The soft crack echoed around the room before the sting registered against my inner thigh.
“One,” I managed to squeeze out once I swallowed the cry clawing from my throat.
He waited, watching me collect myself before striking again. Closer this time.
“Two.”
Smack. Smack. Smack.
Strikes landed on my other thigh, starting near my knee and working higher with each one.
I gasped, barely eking out the next counts. “Three, four, five.”
Smack . Back to the other thigh.
“Six.”
Smack. Smack.
I counted. He paused.
Side to side, he moved, repeating the process until the humming warmth of pleasure lulled me into a hazy, blissful calm I craved.
Three more strikes. Two to my thigh. One where I least expected it.
I choked on a scream.
The leather paddle smacked against my folds—softer than the crop against my thigh, but so much more intense.
“That’s more like it,” Lucian praised, the words a dark rumble from somewhere deep inside him. “Like I said, princess. I want to hear you scream.”
Smack.
“Oh, god,” I cried. “Thirteen.”
“Give me a color.”
The order barely penetrated the stinging bite of pain radiating from the center of my body. I swallowed my first reaction to tell him to fuck off, but then the leather rested gently against my folds and stroked up and down, spreading jolts of fire to my clit. My hips thrust, and I shoved aside my initial response, looked to him and gave my trust.
“Green,” I breathed. “Green, Sir.”
He hummed—satisfied and turned the tool around. Using the thinner side to brush up and down my pussy, collecting more and more moisture with each stroke past the pulsing nerves nestled on top.
Just as quick, he turned it around and landed another strike.
I whimpered and counted.
He hit my thighs again before moving back to my folds. He alternated sides of the tool, switching between stroking and striking, soothing and exciting, pausing and speeding through one hit after another.
I didn’t even know what number we were on despite that I kept counting. My mind sank into the sensations consuming my body, floating along clouds rumbling with electricity that shocked me back to reality when I floated too far.
One shock threatened to rip me off the cloud completely. Lucian landed the soft end of the flogger directly against my clit. I clenched my jaw, locking the scream in my chest.
“Color?” he asked.
“Green, Sir,” I moaned. “Green, green, green.” I said the word like a plea because that one hit landed like a deluxe vibrator against every nerve I had. My opening clenched tight, on the verge of coming.
My head rolled on my shoulders, side to side, with sweat dripping down my temples. My arms barely held me as if all my energy went toward reaching the peak between my legs.
He swirled the leather again before landing another impact.
Another scream—this one climbing up my throat.
“Come on, princess. Let me have it. Let go,” he encouraged.
Another hit and another and another.
My jaw dropped and my legs pulled against their restraints.
“Let go, Aspen.”
Lucian’s soft command stroked along my sensitive skin, coaxing me more than anything else. Then he roughly shoved two fingers into my drenched opening and curled just as he brought the flogger down one more time.
And I exploded.
My eyes snapped shut and the cloud that carried me higher and higher tossed me into a free-falling abyss.
Sounds ceased to exist. Everything went black.
Nothing else mattered except the throbbing pulse of pleasure that washed over me and pulled me back in, as if an explosion that continued to expand and collapse over and over again.
The back and forth softened to gentle ripples, allowing my senses to return slowly. Lucian’s fingers still moved deep inside me. Each curl pulled another cry from my throat. Light filtered back when I cracked my eyes to find him watching me with a devilish and proud smile.
Even if I hadn’t heard it, between his stare, and my raw throat, I knew he’d gotten what he wanted. He made me scream.
But he wasn’t done yet.
“I want another one,” he growled.
“I can’t,” I whimpered. I wouldn’t survive. My body lay ravaged against the table. My lungs struggled to pull in enough air. How was I supposed to do it all over again?
“You will,” he promised.
I watched in wonder as he lowered his head to where his hand worked inside me. He held my gaze until his breath brushed my soaked folds. And with one last devious smirk, he latched his lips against my clit and hummed, flicking his tongue back and forth across the sensitive bud.
“Oh, god. Lucian. I can’t. Please.” The words tumbled mindlessly from my mouth. They slipped free, uncontrolled.
They became more uninhibited the longer he went on. They turned from pleas for him to stop because it was too much to pleas for more.
He worked me back to the top of the abyss all over again. I shamelessly thrust my hips against his lips, fucking his hand with my limited mobility.
The pulses reignited—small flutters that I knew would grow.
And I wanted it.
No doubt, no shame, no past, no nothing.
I’d never felt anything so powerful and out of control.
I needed it.
Just a little more.
“More. Please. Yes.”
Then it stopped.
Lucian’s lips pulled away, and his fingers slipped from me.
“Wha…What are you…?”
“Before we finish,” he started, looking as put together as when we started—minus my cum shining on his chin and hand. “Let’s solve this marriage proposal.”
At the same time as my core clenched in need, my lungs squeezed in dread. I should have known better. I knew this would happen eventually. However, I never imagined it would come with me on the edge of my sanity and strapped to a table, begging for more.
I hadn’t pictured it happening when I feared I’d agree to murder the pope if it meant he’d keep going.
He had me where he needed me. Open. Pliant.
“I’ve waited patiently.” His fingers teased, stroking across my sensitive flesh, idly playing at my opening. “I asked you to marry me days ago and let you push it aside. But I’m done with waiting, Aspen.”
He pushed a single finger inside, and I gasped.
I slammed my eyes closed, too stimulated to focus on anything, except cresting over into the pleasurable bliss.
He’d given me a taste of a drug, making me addicted ? —
“It’s a win-win for both of us, princess. I satisfy my obligations, and you get to keep the majority of your company.”
—Only to take it away and dangle it just out of my reach.
“All you have to do it say yes or no.”
All I had to do was give him all of me for one more taste.
I clenched my jaw and attempted to cling to sanity and make a rational decision. All the while, my hips pushed against his slow fingers, striving to drive them deeper.
“I could have asked you…or anyone.” The words hit like a bucket of ice-water. “You just happened to be the first woman to present an opportunity. But do not confuse me taking a chance for desperation. Do not think that you can continue to drag this out any longer. Hell, I could walk away, leaving you tied here, and go ask Emily to marry me.” He laughed softly. “I’m sure she wouldn’t hesitate.”
It grated down my spine. The way he said her name in the same sentence as marry. I wanted to scream against the continued pressure just out of reach between my legs.
“Fuck,” I hissed.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said lightly. “I’ll count to five. You can say yes or no, but if you don’t give me an answer before I finish, we stop. If you say no, then I’ll go find Emily. I just need a bride, Aspen—any woman will do.”
“H-how can you say that?” I asked breathlessly. How could he offer to marry another woman when his hand was still buried inside me, when he had my flavor coating his tongue?
“One.”
Fuck. I couldn’t think like this.
Oh, god. Ohgodohgodohgod.
Think, Aspen. Think.
“Two.”
I thought of her lying in this same spot instead of me and lost my breath.
He gently pressed his finger against my clit. “Three.”
I thought about never walking into his office again to find relief from my own mind with each stinging slap of his hand against my ass.
I thought about all the pleasure when I submitted to him.
“Four.” He cocked a brow and dragged it out.
The pressure increased.
I thought about his firm grip around my neck while he told me to breathe, creating a wave of calm from head to toe.
I thought about his lips finally crashing on mine after he made me come.
“Last chance, Aspen,” he taunted.
I thought about another name on the building I’d called my other home since I was a kid.
Each thought piled on top of my already weak body and swallowed me whole, leaving me with no other option that made sense.
I couldn’t think anymore.
I didn’t care.
Nothing mattered.
Quinn Music Group .
Breathing.
Finding release.
“Fi—”
Before he could finish, I shouted my answer, desperate for the release he held me on the edge of. Nothing else mattered beyond that. Not even the truth of how my answer changed our lives forever—for better or worse.