Chapter Eight #5
“That’s why those who do brew and sell potions can command the highest price for a single vial.” He gave his a little shake. “Two thousand gold obols for this, my pet. The most expensive gift I’ve ever bought for anyone—ever. And I bought it for you.”
“Me?” I edged away, worry leaking into my voice. “What are you talking about? What is that?”
“First”—his eyes hardened—“why don’t you tell me what that is?”
I knew without asking that he was speaking about the cut on my wrist. Santino fed from there and then sliced my skin, disguising two puncture marks to look like one cut.
“What, that?” My tone was even—calm. “It’s nothing. Just a scratch. I got it when your friend Raven was manhandling me and shoving me into walls.”
“Interesting,” he replied. “But for a cut so deep, it’s healing rather fast.”
I let nothing show on my face. Vampire saliva had healing properties. It’s why I didn’t bleed out and die the many times Radu popped open my major arteries. Radu said he couldn’t be sure if Ronin knew enough about vampires to know that.
I had a feeling he did.
“It’s not deep,” I quickly retorted. “Like I said, it was just a scratch.”
“So then this doesn’t hurt?” Ronin pressed down viciously on the wound.
“Ahh!”
Moving fast, he tipped the vial into my open mouth.
I coughed and hacked, swallowing down the surprisingly sweet-tasting potion. “What— What is that? What did you just give me?”
“You know, pet,” Ronin said, drifting out of my line of sight. I craned my neck to follow him to the armchair. “You’re the worst liar I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m not lying, Ron—” I broke off, groaning. “Hey, seriously, what was in that vial? I’m starting... to feel...”
“To feel what exactly?”
Hot.
Heat was pooling in my belly and spreading through my extremities like ice cream melting on cobblestones.
Everything was hot, but the silk clinging to my back, legs, and neck was cold. I felt every filament and sticky gum that bound the threads together. I felt the hands that wove the dress strips tied around my wrists and ankles.
My nipples stood to attention, waving their horny flag high and proud for all to see, and they were still less shameless than the wetness collecting between my legs.
“What...” I panted, “...did you do to me?”
“I gave you the best and most potent aphrodisiac House Asmodeus brews. You’re welcome.”
“Why—” I shifted and a jolt went through me, striking directly at my core. I could’ve wept, I’d never been more turned on than I was right then. “Why would you give me this!”
“Because I’ve got a wager to win.” He couldn’t have been more smug than if he caught the canary too. “You’ve clearly laid out how much I’ve got to lose. Forgive me for hedging my bet.”
“Screw you,” I spat. I wasn’t into being tied up— I wasn’t! But for some reason, I was getting worked up picturing how I looked trussed up and ready to be served as the main sexual delicacy. What kind of psycho potion is this?! How am I getting aroused by imagining myself aroused!
“Let me out of this right now,” I ordered, breathing hard. “And I don’t know if demons pray to gods, but you’d better start! Because if the next thing in your hands isn’t an antidote, I’m kicking your ass!”
Ronin laughed heartily. “Any pain you inflict on me will be returned to you hundredfold. Didn’t this morning teach you that?”
I gritted my teeth, fuming at my lack of a comeback. I did remember that morning, and I never wanted to feel that pain again.
“But lucky for you it won’t come to that because my hands are the antidote.” A light teasing finger tickled my ankle, and I came.
That was it. One touch and—
“Ahhh! Ah!” Shudders wracked and crashed through my body, exploding that pooled heat like a match tossed in gasoline. But instead of calming my desire, the fires grew and spread to every corner of my body—daring someone to put them out.
“The only way to soothe this beast is to feed it.” Ronin’s voice reached me through the fog. “Oh, and that was just a freebie. The clock starts now.”
“Starts now, my ass!” I was still jerking and twitching from that freebie. “Don’t you dare touch me, Belphe, you asshole! I can’t believe you drugged me and called it a gift!”
He clicked his tongue. “You’re so defiant for a pet.
Even more so for a bond who lives at my mercy.
You presume to mar the face of sloth, blackmail me, and set in motion a coup that will upend the balance of hell, but you dare to speak as though I’ve betrayed you?
” A hard, brutal kiss ravaged my lips and ate my moans.
I came again.
“Now shut up and take your punishment,” he growled, “while I claim my win.”
“Please,” I begged as he climbed on top of me. “This is too much, Ronin. This isn’t normal. How do you even know that drug is safe for mortals? What if—”
“Shhh...” Ronin reached down and stroked my cheek. “I’m going to fuck the shit out of you now.”
I gawped at him, straight stunned. What kind of overconfidence did a man need to have to deliver a line like that with no shame or irony?
Ronin started stripping, slowly peeling each layer off his body, and revealing inch by inch of his hard, muscled flesh.
That was all he was doing, and I was already prickling like a million butterflies were fluttering beneath my skin—readying to take flight the minute he ignited another screaming orgasm.
“Listen,” I tried, forcing a laugh. I tried not to make it obvious I was yanking harder on my wrist and ankle binds.
“I know you’re not pleased about the embarrassing pictures thing.
Or that you’re ending your day with five fiancées you didn’t propose to, but I think you need to calm down and talk—”
Ronin tore his pants clean off his body.
Responses didn’t get clearer than that. “Calm” and “rational discussion” were a few other words that weren’t in his vocabulary right then.
Ronin slammed his hands down on either side of my head, penning me in even more effectively than my restraints. He plastered against me, molding my heated body to his.
I blushed as he stuck his face against my neck and breathed me in deep, exhaling a long, soft moaning breath as if he just inhaled the ambrosia of the gods.
“Ronin, stop, p-please,” I gasped, knocking my knees together. I held my orgasm down by sheer force of will. “I don’t want to—to do it like this. Not while drugged.”
“You didn’t care about doing this while under the vampire’s drug.”
My reply clogged in my throat. How could he possibly know the accusations I hurled at Santino when the two of us were alone in his bedroom?
“So what’s the difference, pet?” He tugged sharply on my hair, snapping my chin up and ripping free a cry.
Or was it a moan? “Why are there different rules for him and different rules for me? Why can he drug you and suck your blood and pussy dry? Why can the leech offer you up to his vampire brethren, and then dangle his protection as a shield to the danger he created, but when I do the same you look at me like I’m”—his ruby orbs swallowed me—“a demon.”
“I... That’s...”
“I’m getting quite tired of your hypocrisy, Charlotte. I’m starting to think the real prejudiced bigot with a preference for one species over the other is you.”
I choked, indignation welling up in me hot and fast. “That is not true! And it’s not the s-same!
” My voice cracked, breath hitching at the seeking, stroking hand climbing my thigh.
“I reject you because you’re an asshole!
An asshole who dragged my sister into all of this!
While Radu is—well, he is—” I was quickly losing steam.
“Okay, he’s an asshole too, but that’s not the p-point. ”
Damn that hand! I shivered under Ronin’s ministrations. Why is it still going higher even while I’m chewing him out?
“Radu is not the point,” I plowed on. “I don’t have to be fair about this. I’m not hiring people to work in a factory. This is my body and I decide who—”
“No, it’s not.” Three simple, murmured words shut me down better than a shout. “It’s my body. Didn’t you know?” His smirk chilled me to the core. “My name’s on it.”
My chest heaved, pushing against him. How could anyone be like this? How could they be so awful, so ridiculous, so pigheaded, and so sexy? Why was it that, even now, all I wanted was for my own runaway mouth to shut the hell up... so he’d keep going?
His lips crashed on mine, answering the thought that never got a chance to leave my lips.
But a heated moan sure did. I couldn’t help it. His fingers had ended their travels, and found their destination between my legs.
Human-on-demon glaring eyes burned each other even as our mouths danced a different tune.
“Agh,” I cried, eyes rolling as two fingers pushed past my folds, burying deep to the knuckles.
That orgasm I was holding back was howling at the gate, shrieking and rattling the iron bars like a wild animal. She wanted loose. She wanted freedom to wreck me as she would.
My cry choked on a groan, caught in my throat as he closed over my nipple.
His tongue teased and tortured the little nub to a hardened pebble, standing it to attention, then punishing its wantonness.
Sharp canines scraped the delicate flesh—shooting equal parts pain and pleasure straight to my lower belly, and loosening the chains on the gate.
I snapped up, balancing on clasped hands and the heels of my feet as the next orgasm shredded me to bits.
Smirking like a jackass, Ronin winked at me as he said, “And that’s three.”
I flopped back down—limp and weak like an overcooked noodle, legs clamping on him. “Ronin... please...”
It was too much. My mind was melting. My body was on fire. No one could handle this kind of sensory overload without it resulting in a lobotomy.
“Stop,” I cried. “I can’t take it. It’s too much... give me the antidote.”
“I told you...” Ronin pushed his fingers in deeper still, then spread them wide. “Your antidote is right here.”
“Ah!” My pulse raced as he found my clit.