Chapter 28 #2
I shook my head. “Remind me never to vex you.”
She snuggled against me.
“I’m serious.” I hesitated and then continued. “You make a dangerous enemy.”
She peered up at me. “You helped with the details.”
“Still, you’re executing it so well and yet you have the face of an angel.”
Our lips met and I kissed her leisurely. A man passed by and gave us a wary stare. He thought he’d caught two men at it. I burst into laughter.
We turned our attention back to the Santa Maria, escorted by the Pinta and the Nina, as all three vessels set sail.
Hundreds of spectators had gathered to watch the caravels launch.
Columbus waved from the bridge. He cut a fine figure with his striking white beard and his traditional admiral’s coat.
His intelligent blue eyes scanned the harbor, and I wondered how a man of the sea could appear so light in complexion.
His aquiline features provided an air of sophistication that reflected his Italian heritage.
A crew of ninety or so navigated through the harbor. Under the moonlit sky, the fleet reeled out its sails to full mast. Columbus wasn’t the only well-dressed man who offered a wave to the crowd. Felipe also bid the spectators goodbye from the bridge of the Nina.
Sunaria handed me the parchment on which Felipe had written his letter to the king. I smiled and tucked it into my coat pocket.
Sunaria pressed her ear up against the door of the inn.
“What do you hear?” I asked.
“Nothing.” She worked the lock until it gave.
Stale beer mixed with sweat permeated the air. Candles that had burned down to the wick had left waxy stains. During the day, this place would be lively, but now it served as a dreary hiding place for us.
I investigated the long oak bar. “We’re not staying, are we?”
“I owe you.”
“An apology?” I asked.
“A punishment.” Sunaria shoved me back against the wooden panel and flipped me up and onto the bar.
I caught my breath as I stared up at the beer mugs lined above my head. Sunaria leaped onto the bar and straddled me. She grabbed my wrists, pressing my hands down on either side of my head.
I smiled up at her.
“No more talking.” She held my wrists with one hand and pressed a long finger against my lips. “Punishments come in many forms.”
I felt sure my heart would pound its way out of my chest. I opened my mouth to reply but knew better. The sensation of her fingers gently tapping my groin caused me to swallow hard. I tugged my wrist out of her grip and reached for her.
The sting of her slap across my face caused me to flinch.
I placed my hand back beside the other, returning to a captive pose.
Her calm expression never wavered. I tried to remember if at any time my behavior had been out of line, but as I felt my hardness increase with her firm strokes, I sensed that this might be another way that Sunaria chose to exert her power over me.
With a rip, my shirt came open. The cold firmed my nipples and her tongue did the rest, circling and suckling. The bite came without warning and then another slap, only this time to my groin. She reached inside my pants and eased me out, her fingers firmly caressing my shaft.
My jaw tensed as I envisioned where she might take this punishment.
Fear affected my hardness but instinctively she rectified this by shuffling back, leaning in, and with the tip of her tongue teasing the underside of my already moistened head.
After pausing for a few seconds, she again flicked me with her tongue.
And then a moment of stillness, causing cruel anticipation and then that familiar sensation bedazzled me, sending me closer to the edge each time.
Such unbearable pleasure caused my hips to pump the air.
With my groan came another slap and the shock snatched my breath.
She engulfed me in her mouth, her warm, soft lips moving with a sensuous pressure until I had no choice but to bite down on my lip in order to stay quiet, hoping not to fail her.
I reached for her again.
Sunaria’s stern stare caused me to cross one wrist over the other again, silently swearing not to move until permitted.
I wanted to ask if I’d insulted her, but as the pleasure increased and my reward for submitting spiraled, I doubted my own judgment.
I counted the bronze cups on the ceiling, trying to prevent myself from ending this evening earlier than she or I desired.
Sunaria paused.
She slid off me and stood close, arms folded, a disapproving gaze.
The silence made me squirm and as the minutes ticked past with her staring at me and my erection ever reaching skyward, I wondered how much more I could take. The erotic pulses that surged from my chest to my groin lulled me.
But her gaze unsettled me.
Sunaria hunted those weaker than herself and she took her prey swiftly. As I lay vulnerable, exposed, I wondered if I too would be numbered amongst her victims and for some warped reason that idea made me harder.
I grinned, taking a chance, but I had nothing to lose. My dignity was already compromised.
“Close your eyes.” Her voice was quiet, reassuring even, but her stern presence revealed a fierce determination.
My smirk was my answer that her request was out of the question, and I turned my head away.
“I’ll not ask you again.” She spoke slowly, emphasizing her authority.
I believed her, but closing my eyes was risky, even if it would placate her.
I resumed my count of the bronze cups, but before I’d reached the number three, I felt the metal chain wrapping around my wrists, binding them together.
I cursed the man who’d left it hanging around making it easy for someone like Sunaria to come along and misuse it.
She’d wrapped it several times with dizzying speed.
As I struggled with the impossible, I felt her working at my feet.
Apparently, she found another chain to bind me there as well. I resisted the tautness of being bound.
Sunaria’s hand pressed against my mouth. “Say one more word and I’ll gag you.”
Remaining still now seemed like the next best option, until I had time at least to think.
I may very well need to talk my way out of this.
Surprisingly, the only part of me that seemed not to understand this threat was between my legs and, interestingly, it continued to find pleasure in all of this.
And as Sunaria settled back on top of me, sitting astride, I had no choice but to relent. When I entered her, I let out a cry, cursing my inability to obey, scared that my outburst might cease this mind-blowing pleasure.
Too late, she froze.
Taking small breaths, I cursed myself for such weakness. But as she resumed, taking me all the way in, rising and falling, I felt gratitude that she’d forgiven my indiscretion. She unbuttoned her shirt and revealed her full breasts. She tweaked and rubbed her dark, perfect buds, and they responded.
I dug my nails into the palm of my other hand. It helped, along with how the metal chafed my wrists.
This was the very image that I’d seen the day she’d turned me. When I’d followed that pathway, the choice that led to what I was now, she’d taken me this way, eased my transformation and I’d welcomed it, as I welcomed her now.
Seeing her like this, as she ignored me, used me, it heightened my desire. She reached between her legs, her fingers shiny from stroking herself into a luscious, sensuous trance.
All I desired for her in this moment was her utter enjoyment, and when Sunaria’s eyes met mine, I knew that my lesson had been realized.
Despite being bound, I drew on my stomach muscles, shifting my weight, slamming against her, hearing her gasps turn into screams as my thrusts met hers.
I wanted nothing more than to take her to the edge and beyond, blinding her, surrendering her to time and place.
Her mouth went slack as she let out a long groan, her body tightening, her breasts quivering as I pumped her, knowing that I’d taken her to the edge. Despite these chains, she’d elicited her sensual excitement from me.
Quickened with the thought that my obsession with her would find its way back to me, my own explosion caught my breath, and my hips pumped higher as I chased after my blissful release.
With a deep sigh, I realized that she’d again placed me in bondage, erotically confined me with her domineering presence. And as the last ripples made their way through my body, I felt beholden to her.