Chapter Seven
Caroline
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SLEEP WAS STRANGE AND fitful, the type of slumber that left me feeling exhausted rather than rested. Still, as pale light stirred me from my most recent vivid dream, I was grateful for the bed Hans had offered us and the man holding me.
“What time is it?” His voice was croaky as he stretched out beside me.
“I haven’t a clue, Sir.” Turning my head on the pillow, I watched his deep blue eyes flutter open. “Prisoners weren’t allowed watches.”
“Right.” His tone was dry, the way his lips twisted suggesting he didn’t appreciate my irony, but secretly, I was pleased I could offer the sardonic reply.
For too many months, I’d been silenced, either physically or through fear and coercion.
Too terrified to speak up, even when my aggressors were so obviously in the wrong.
Even in the unfamiliar confines of Anneke’s spare room, it was the first morning I’d woken up a liberated woman for a long time, and that was worthy of celebration.
“I’m finally out of there.” Rolling onto my back, I blinked past my looming tears. “I can’t believe it.”
It should have been an odd admission to make to the man who’d been in charge of running the concentration camp I’d been imprisoned in, but Harper and I were well beyond that awkwardness.
Somehow, he’d fallen in love with me, a middle-aged captive with no remarkable qualities save for my sense of injustice and my smart mouth, and perhaps, even more bizarrely, he’d mesmerized me, too.
At first, I’d wondered if his appeal was only the power he lorded over me, and the fact that he could save me from nights inside Gamma playing Commander Mitchell’s sick games, but as the hours we’d spent together bled into days, and then weeks, it became clear there was more going on.
More than only the lustful stares and scintillating submission.
More than even the mind-blowing sex and increasing intimacy.
When push had come to shove, Harper had recognized that he loved me, and he wasn’t prepared to let the vile man who called himself the president annihilate me.
“You’re a free woman.” His brows knitted as though he couldn’t believe it, either. “Congratulations, little girl.”
“Free is a relative term.” Reaching for his body, I pressed my palm against the heat of his muscular chest, glad that we’d elected to slip out of our clothes before we’d turned off the light and slipped between the sheets. “Now, I’m on the run with Britain’s most wanted man.”
He smirked as my fingers trailed through his dark chest hair. “You’ve swapped one kind of prison for another.”
“Maybe.” Stroking his firm abdominals, my thoughts flitted to carnality for the first time in hours. It was hardly appropriate under the circumstances, but the mischievous glint in his gaze assured me he knew what was on my mind. “But at least in this prison, I’m loved and respected.”
“And kept and commanded,” he clarified, catching my wrist. “What are you doing, little girl?”
“Just saying good morning, Sir.”
I wasn’t truly suggesting we roll in Anneke’s covers, but it had been too long since I’d felt the surge of playful energy soaring through me the way it did then.
Even when we’d fucked on the Carla, the sensual energy hadn’t been as easy, but there, in the room of dated flower wallpaper, I was able to be my authentic self around him at last, with no fear of retribution, save for the delicious sting of his palm.
“We don’t have time for that now,” he rebuked, though his grin told me he liked the way I was thinking. “We need to get up and find the bank.”
“And then what, Sir?” My fingertips searched lower, regardless, teasing over his soft skin. “When can I have you inside me again?”
It was probably the most brazen question I’d ever asked him. Even during those long hours in his unit at Fortorus, I’d never been so bold. But then, I hadn’t been at liberty to be anything there, had I? Whereas, in the hazy morning light of Anneke’s room, we were finally equals.
“You are so naughty,” he purred, yanking my hand free and pulling me closer against him until the thick root of his erection nudged at my leg.
Lifting my hips, I pushed against his shaft, lifting my thigh gently to encourage its pursuit while he pinned my free hand by my side. “More like needy, Sir. I miss you.”
“And you shall have me, little girl.” His deep, growling tone was like a solemn promise. “Once we have somewhere safe, I can turn you over my knee and color your pretty backside.”
Safe?
I breathed in the scent of him. Everywhere was safe compared to Britain and the things I’d endured at Fortorus.
I had no idea what his version of ‘safety’ would look like, but kissing his collarbone, I smiled at his suggestion.
I couldn’t wait to be at his mercy again, and only then, once I was begging for his cock, would I finally be satiated.
Harper made every moment of those intimacies count.
“Until then, you’re going to have to be my good girl.” His arm snaked around my back, one large palm stretching until it grabbed at my left ass cheek and squeezed. “You know I’ll be keeping a tally of your faux pas’, which can and will be used against you later in the court of Adam Harper.”
Sniggering against his skin, I lifted my chin to look at his face. “The court of Adam Harper?”
“Oh, yes.” He swatted my ass cheek lightly, the impact sending a delectable jolt straight to my clit. “I may no longer be the commander general, but as I told you, I’m still your commander general, little girl, and my word is law.”
A guttural groan escaped my throat at his sexy threat. After so long in custody, that shouldn’t have sounded as good as it did, but there was no denying the heat building between my legs. I wanted him, the way I always wanted him, and denying me only seemed to amplify my need.
“I’m not arguing, Sir.” Far from it.
If he’d slid his digits from my ass cheeks to my sex, he’d have discovered just how in favor of his plan I was. I didn’t doubt that he already knew, though. His dick, still straining at my skin, assured me so.
“I know there’s lots to resolve,” I murmured, “but I just want you to know how much I want you.”
“Thank you, little girl.” His grip on my hand relaxed, allowing my palm to slide around and stroke his hip. “I do appreciate that.”
“It just seems such a shame, Sir.” I motioned toward his throbbing cock. “You obviously have some need there, and I have been trained how to deal with situations like this.”
“Have you now?” His dark chuckle was knowing.
“Yes, Sir. My old captor used to like me to clean and worship his cock every morning before he left his quarters.”
I rolled my hips forward, hoping he’d take pity on me and just shove his dick inside me.
“He sounds like a smart man.” His palm slipped across the entirety of my backside before spanking me again with a little more vigor.
“Oh, he was, Sir,” I mewled, splaying my fingers on his skin. “If you like, I can show you some of what he used to enjoy.”
“We don’t have a shower we can use here, little girl.” His voice was huskier, and the fact that he hadn’t flatly rebuked me again was a promising sign that he, too, was succumbing to the desire.
“It’s okay, Sir.” My hand shifted to his hair. “I don’t mind being dirty with you.”
“Caroline, we shouldn’t.” He sounded almost pained as he made the appeal. “Not here. Not until we’re somewhere else, somewhere where we can—”
“Please.” I wasn’t above begging for what I wanted. He had taught me that much. “I just want to love you, Sir.”
The sigh that left his tempting lips was an act of concession, and all at once, his arms were gone as he whipped back the covers.
“Get on your knees, little girl.” His tone had taken on that old authoritative air, and I responded at once, sliding from the warmth of the bed and landing on my knees on the worn carpet below. “You’re right. You should pay homage to me every day. Even if we’re in less glamorous surroundings.”
Glancing up excitedly, I watched as he slipped to the edge of the bed, his feet on either side of my knees as he thrust his rock-hard erection my way.
“Clean me.” His hand reached for my hair with the instruction. “One of us deserves satisfaction before our visit to the bank.”
I whimpered at the inference that the person receiving that gratification wouldn’t be me, but I’d already guessed as much, and as his fingers tightened in my hair, I scrambled closer, my lips parting to accept him.
He delved deep into my throat, claiming me with the same unhurried control he’d always exerted at the unit and, gaze flitting north to his, I did my best to receive him.
“Hands,” he snapped. “Where should they be?”
Drawing my wrists to the small of my back, I couldn’t hold back the reflexive moan that fled my throat. I wanted him, wanted to be used that way, yet every fiber of me also needed that hard organ inside my sex, reminding me that I was a woman and urging me higher toward the stars.
“Is this what you wanted, little girl?” he snarled. “Is this what you need?”
I whimpered a reply around his encroaching cock, heady at the prospect of finally being useful to him again. Hours of traveling and potential terror had meant it’d been too long since I’d yielded properly.
“Fuck, Caroline.” He yanked my tresses harder, firing pain at my scalp, but I welcomed the sensation, each tug somehow connecting to my eager clit and making me even fucking hotter. “That feels so good.”
Yes! I hoped my eyes conveyed my feelings when his gaze locked with mine. This is what I need; to be yours, to be a vessel for your pleasure. Thank you, Sir.
It didn’t matter that I wasn’t going to orgasm. There was still pleasure in my service to him.
He cried out as the first spasms of his climax hit him, angling his cum over my waiting face and staking his claim all over again. In the haze of his hedonism, I’d never been happier.