Chapter Fifteen - Rhea
Will you join me at the pleasure hall tonight?
The thought came to me in the middle of dining with Kiya and the other servants in the hall. My spoon clattered in my bowl, and Kiya raised a suspicious eyebrow in my direction.
Is that a request? Don’t you understand what the word “slave” means?
I smiled at Kiya and took another bite of my stew, trying to block out the dark desire drifting over my thoughts. Dante had been wrapped in war councils for a week now, and suddenly, he chose to intrude my mind?
If you refuse to learn its meaning, why should I?
My smile depended, though thoughts of our last visit to the pleasure house had my stomach turning. But I needed time with Dante to win control over him. The pleasure house was as good a place as any to do just that.
Of course. Kiya’s already laid out your attire in your quarters.
I shot a look at Kiya, who gave me a knowing smile as if she too could hear the conversation in my mind.
I’ll come to gather you in an hour.
The metal wall between our minds slid shut, and I did my best not to rush through the rest of my meal. I told myself that the nervous excitement I felt was only in response to this opportunity to get the weapon under my control, but a voice deep inside of me whispered that it was something more than that.
Kiya accompanied me to my quarters and helped me dress. When I turned to see myself in the looking glass, my breath caught in my throat. This gown was even more spectacular than the last. It was like a shadow, wrapping around my body and leaving long stretches of my skin exposed to the night air.
I swayed from left to right and marveled at the light of the stars stitched into the fabric, pin pricks of bright light shining and dancing with each move I made.
“It’s perfect,” Kiya said, her eyes shining with some emotion I couldn’t quite place.
A knock came at the door, and my heart leapt into my throat. Kiya smirked and kissed me on the cheek before leaving us.
Dante walked into the room as I stood by the looking glass, watching his shadows approach a moment before he did. They swirled around my legs and mingled with the fabric of my dress.
“Shall we?” he asked in that delicious rumble that shook my core.
I smiled, taking the hand he held out to me. “Let’s.”
The pleasure hall was just as I remembered it, vast, stunning, and invitingly treacherous. Dante held my hand lightly as we stepped again on the reflective black glass of the entrance hall. People were sweeping about the floor, males and their human women escorts locked in all manner of embrace as they found their own particular pleasures for the night.
Dante led me again to the smoke-filled room hidden behind a silver curtain, but before we entered, he pulled me to the side of the entrance.
“Would you like to remember tonight?” he asked low in my ear, making me incline to meet the soft caress of his breath.
“What do you mean?”
He held a small bottle in front of me, a swirling deep red liquid contained inside. “If you drink this, it will keep the smoke from fully robbing you of your mind.”
“And why didn’t you offer it before?”
Dante’s violet eyes were urgent, full of a need that made my face heat. “You were a slave before.”
“What am I now?” His body was close to mine, but this whispered conversation had me needing him closer. I did my best to clear my head, but the scent of him mixed with the thick haze of smoke billowing below the curtain was making it difficult.
“Something else.”
“How descriptive,” I complained. “Do you drink it?”
Dante’s hand came to rest on my waist, pulling me closer until our bodies brushed against each other. My breath stopped as his hand softly trailed up and down my side. “Tonight, I will. I want to remember the way you look when your body moves in that dress.”
All I could do was nod as our eyes remained locked together. Without looking away, he opened the bottle and brought it to my lips. I tilted my head backwards and swallowed as his watching eyes turned to molten metal.
Then I was swept beyond the curtain and into the thick smoke of a room I remembered all too well. Bodies again were tangled together, and faces were thrown back in ecstasy. The drums thundered a rhythm that I felt in the soles of my shoes and up through my body.
Dante took us again to a mostly secluded corner, where he sat, a half-smile on his expectant face. My mind was hazy, but I could still feel that I was myself. My decisions were my own, and though it brought me some relief, it also made what I was about to do that much more nerve-racking. Now that I had full control of my body and mind, I was responsible for what I did with them.
I began to dance, turning away from him as his hands found my waist. Males watched, but they were less threatening than they had been before. Behind the hunger in their eyes was fear.
Good.
This time, I wasn’t dancing for them, and I could feel it. Dante hadn’t brought me here to use me in a display of power. He’d brought me here to watch me dance.
A thought came to me, a way to further bring him under the blanket of desire, a way to bring myself another step closer to holding the power I needed over him.
I turned, feeling his hands drag along the silken fabric of my gown as I did. His violet eyes held questions beneath the thick desire in them. I kept my eyes on his as I leaned forward, moving with the beat of the music as I placed my hands on his shoulders.
His eyes darkened, and his grip on my waist tightened, but still I held his gaze.
Then, I drew a hand down to the skirts of my dress, drawing them up past the dark mark on my upper thigh. Dante’s eyes flickered to the skin of my thigh, then back to my face. Carefully, I kneeled over him and settled myself on his lap.
His eyelids fluttered, and his grip found its way from my sides to the curves of my ass. I held his eyes even as I leaned in, slowly, each inch an excruciating mile, until our lips finally met.
You're sure? His voice caressed my mind, just as his lips softly caressed mine.
Yes , I answered, arching my hips against him as a hot wave of need rushed over me. I’ve been sure for a long time now.
Sure of what? I opened for him, and his tongue roved inside of my mouth, circling and claiming each corner as his own.
Sure that I want you, like this and more. I drew my hand from his shoulder to hold the side of his face as he kissed me deeply, his hands moving across my ass and up my back as if memorizing me.
All at once, I was being lifted. Our lips still pressed together, Dante strode with me past the other lovers in the room as easily as if he were holding nothing more than an armful of flowers. There was no room in my mind to think about what the others saw as we passed them. There was only the burning need to have more of him, to kiss him deeper.
Dante growled as I bit my teeth into his lower lip. Be careful, little shrike.
I don’t feel much like being careful tonight.
Dante pushed past the curtain and brought me down a hallway. I couldn’t quite follow where we were going, and I didn’t care. There was nothing I cared about besides the feeling of his tongue on mine and his hands gripping my ass.
My back was pressed roughly against the wall, and I yelped, only for Dante to kiss the sound away like he’d swallow all of me if he could. With my body held between his and the walls, his hand was free to rove across my thigh, tenderly touching the black band that encircled my leg.
You’re mine , he purred in my mind, and in that moment, they were the truest words ever spoken. I would let him have any bit of me, let him do anything to me that he wanted.
Yours , I said. Even in my mind, my voice was a pathetic whimper as his hand crept under my skirt, higher and higher. All yours.
Others were walking past, giggling and falling over each other, but neither of us had a care to give them. Dante’s lips kissed down my neck, then his teeth dragged across the sensitive skin there. My head fell backwards against the wall as I moaned.
Dante… I called desperately, hardly knowing if I were speaking aloud or in the space between our minds. His teeth bit down as his name was uttered, drawing out another moan from my lips. His fingers had drifted still higher on the inside of my thigh, and I felt them stop as they touched the wetness that dripped from me.
So ready, so desperate , he growled. I could feel his own desperation pressing against me, hard and long against my thigh. But it was his fingers I wanted inside of me. I’d never wanted anything more, not like this.
It was like I was burning from the inside out, and nothing could cool me but getting him closer, tighter around me.
Finally, his fingers found their mark, slowly and tenderly tracing my entrance. My hips bucked against him in rhythm with the pulse of his hand, and a chuckle broke from him. He was teasing, never giving me quite as much as I wanted.
I opened my eyes to find him smirking, watching me come undone beneath the touch of his hand. I leaned forward, crushing our mouths together once again as he thrust his finger inside of me. I let out another small sound past his lips before he swallowed it up.
I’d imagined him inside me like this so many nights now, and so many days, for that matter. Anytime I’d caught sight of him tightly holding his reigns or writing at his desk, I would always find myself lost in the thought of what those hands would feel like as they strummed me.
He slipped another finger inside of me, and my head fell heavily against his shoulder. I panted as he crooked those fingers, drawing them along the front wall of my body as he pulsed them deeper and deeper.
Dante!
A jolt ran through my body as his thumb closed over the sensitive bundle of nerves at the crux of my sex. He drew circles around it as the pressure in my core built to an unbearable heat.
He continued the sweet motion as my body tightened around him. In the very last moment, he pressed me harder against the wall and brought his now freed hand to my throat.
Look at me , he said, and I fluttered my eyelids open. His eyes were piercing mine as he watched my face. I stared into them as I screamed, a sudden release sweeping over me.
He smiled like a viper as he held my face at the level of his, then he kissed me roughly as the waves of pressure continued to wash over my body.
My body slumped heavily against his, and he gently set me on the ground, though my legs were shaking. My arms wrapped loosely around his neck as he leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.
I placed a hand on his heaving chest. The orgasm had done little to relieve the burning need inside of me. I needed him, so much more of him.
“Undo me again,” I purred, leaning against him and letting my hands rove over his body towards the band of his pants.
He took hold of my wrist and brought my hand to his mouth, kissing it. “Greedy, lustful little creature,” he growled. Then he was pulling me back down the hallway into the private room I’d awoken in weeks ago.
The air was heavy with smoke. The scent of it made my head dance but didn’t muddle my thoughts. I knew exactly what I wanted. Dante led me to a cushion, where I sat. Then he stepped back from me, appraising me as if I were for sale.
In the absence of his body against mine, I was suddenly desperate to touch him once more, but when I tried to go to him, he only smirked and stepped away.
“Please, Dante,” I whimpered, too caught up in the heady lust to care if I sounded desperate.
“Please?” He sat back on another cushion, his blazing eyes the only indication he was just as hot as I. “Is that really how you beg?”
I smiled, knowing that I could be just as tempting as he was. I kept my eyes on his as I crawled towards him across the slick glass floor, stopping between his spread legs and sitting back on my knees.
“Please, let me have you,” I said softly. “Any bit of you you’ll give me.”
Dante motioned for me to come closer. But as I moved to climb into his lap, he put a hand on my shoulder, gently but surely pushing me back to my knees. He leaned back and unbuckled the belt that was holding his pants, then undid each of the buttons on his pants with excruciating patience.
My mouth began to water as, at last, his cock burst free from the fabric that had contained it. Dante motioned again for me to come closer, and I did, reaching out to tenderly touch the length of him. I felt him shiver under my touch before I leaned forward and swirled my tongue around the head of his cock.
He fell back in the cushions with a deep groan. The sound invigorated me, and I slid my mouth over as much of him as I could fit inside of me.
You’re as amazing as I imagined you , he said, bringing a hand to touch my lips and the side of my face, feeling where it bulged with the pressure of his hardness. I couldn’t form any response. I only knew that I wanted him deeper inside of me.
Very well , he purred in my mind as his hand tangled in my hair, pushing me relentlessly downwards until my eyes watered. Then he let me up for a moment to suck in a breath before thrusting my head down once again.
Such a good girl. The praise had me bobbing my head faster, deeper, until I could taste the sweet release of precum on my tongue.
Suddenly, his hands were around my legs, pulling the lower half of my body up onto the cushions. Curious, I picked my head up from his lap. But he immediately pressed me down.
Keep that beautiful mouth on my cock. The words had my core melting, and I wrapped my lips again around him. I was more than happy to obey. Nothing felt better than finally being allowed to give him the pleasure I’d wanted to give him for months.
Or so I thought.
He lifted my legs and pulled them towards him, forcing me to rest my torso upside down against his. When his tongue traced its way up my inner thigh, I knew there was something that could feel better. And he was about to give it to me.
But as he reached the split of my legs, he jumped to the other leg. I let out a frustrated breath and wiggled my hips, hoping to guide his tongue to the place I wanted it. His hand pressed roughly against the small of my back, holding me in place.
My mouth continued to work him as I felt his cock pulsing between my lips. Finally, his mouth found my sex, and I moaned, the sound so deep and loud it vibrated against his cock.
Gods be damned , he swore in my mind, his tongue busy drawing circles over my clit.
I felt pressure building in my core, but suddenly, his hips bucked up against my mouth, pinning his cock to the back of my throat. He groaned as he came in long, pulsing waves down the back of my throat. Hungrily, I swallowed every bit of him.
Even as he finished, his tongue carried on. Then, in a sudden motion, he had me flipped over onto my back, his mouth still on me. Dante lifted one of my legs up onto his shoulder as he devoured me, bringing me to another world-shattering orgasm.
And yet he continued as if he could never be satiated with me. By the time he was well and truly satisfied with setting my body on fire, I was near to passing out as the third orgasm rushed over me.
He fell to the cushions beside me, his chest heaving up and down. I curled myself into a ball beneath his arm and felt him softly stroking my hair as sleep claimed me.