Annihilation Road (34 page)

“I love that you belong to me, Seychelle. I forgot to tell you about the house.” He wanted to distract her from what he was doing. It was very personal. She would find that anything personal belonged to him. He pushed her legs farther apart, positioning her knee high and to one side, exposing more of her pussy.

“The house?”

He had the feeling she knew what he was doing, but she went along with it anyway. “Yeah. The house. I own a house. It’s a damn cool house, at least I think you’ll love it.
It’s ours. Well, it’s mine right now, but we’ll get your name on it as soon as possible. Absinthe does all that.”

“Savage, don’t move so fast. We’re working into this,” she cautioned. “I just let you spank me, hard, as punishment. And I had an orgasm. Do you have any idea how confusing and humiliating that is?”

“Why would you find it humiliating?” He was genuinely curious. Women didn’t always make sense to him. “You gave me something I needed. If anyone should be humiliated because they need to spank their woman, that would be me.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I accepted who I was a long time ago.”

“But grown women don’t allow themselves to be spanked. And they don’t enjoy it.”

“Who makes that fuckin’ rule? You gave me a gift. Isn’t seeing to your partner’s needs part of being with someone? You didn’t particularly want to do it, but you did it anyway. For me. Because I needed it. We both made a commitment. You know what I need because I laid that shit out there for you. If you’re willing to give me what I need, I’m going to make certain you feel pleasure when you’re giving that to me.”

She blinked at him, her long lashes sweeping down and then back up. “I never thought of it that way.”

“You should. You’re the one giving me the gift. I’m the one taking. It’s our relationship; nobody else has the right to stick their nose in and judge us. Or at least judge you.” He was adamant about that. He didn’t want a single person passing judgment on her. She was a miracle, a woman of such courage that she chose to stay with him when he’d told her point-blank what he had to have in his life.

She smiled up at the ceiling, shaking her head. “You’re so strange, Savage. One minute you’re spanking me, the next you’re giving me an orgasm that rocks my world and then you’re kissing me senseless. Now you’re saying the nicest things possible. I’m not certain what to think.”

He stroked the razor very carefully over those beautiful little curls he hated to see go. His fingertips slipped inside her thigh, fondling that soft skin there. It was such an intimate thing to do—shave his woman’s cute little pussy.

“I’m still confused that I could feel so afraid, pained and have such an amazing, shocking and fantastic orgasm all at the same time.”

He straightened and waited until her eyes met his. He grinned at her, gesturing with the razor. “You’re going to have a lot of those, babe, so be prepared.” He loved that she was so honest with him. She’d need to be.

Her eyes searched his. “That was all you.”

“You’re not going to suffer for me and then not get anything back,” he said. “I told you that. I’m a bastard, and I can be a monster, but I will always, always take care of you. You’re the most important person in my life, and I’m going to make certain you never regret your decision to stick with me.”

“Savage, really? When I was hanging upside down over your lap, scared and feeling humiliated, I was totally regretting that decision.”

Again, she spoke the truth, and he could have kissed her all over again for it. She made him happy. He knew she would. Those moments might be brief and fleeting, but he experienced them. And the longer they were together, the more he believed she would stay, the more those moments would last.

“But you didn’t tell me to get out,” Savage said. “You didn’t go back on your word. You let me do what I needed to do.”

“I’m not going to get drunk again or go off with some strange man.” Her voice rang with humor, and those little golden musical notes slipped into the room and danced toward the ceiling.

“Good plan. Tell me five things you love doing.” He lovingly ran the razor over her bare skin, making certain to get
every last hair before once again wiping away the cream. Her skin was so pale it would show his every mark. Just looking at her bare lips and pretty sloping mound where his stripes would lay so perfectly had his cock back to a steel spike. It amazed him that she could do that. His reaction to her was astonishing.

“I’ll tell you five things I love doing if you match me every time.”

“That’s fair,” he agreed, rinsing the razor and drying her off.

“Singing. I
have
to sing. Sometimes there’s a buildup inside of me that won’t let up, and I know if I don’t go somewhere and sing, I’m going to explode. It sounds crazy, but if anyone can understand, it’s you.”

Savage liked that. He liked that they shared a bond, even if her needs were far healthier than his. He needed to see his marks all over his woman to get aroused, or the images in his mind, at least with this woman. He wasn’t certain that counted.

“Riding my motorcycle, especially with the brothers, fast down a highway like Highway 1. The wind in my face, blowing me clean. Your turn.” He carried the supplies back into the bathroom, leaving the door open as he washed his hands.

“I totally love gardening. I have a thing about plants. I like all flowers and potted plants, and the ones I can put in the ground to grow, I love. Someday I’m going to have the most wonderful gardens, and I’m going to design them myself. I’ve got so many ideas.”

She turned onto her side, propping up her head on her hand. “Your turn.”

“Old movies. B movies, or classics like
Creature from the Black Lagoon
. I like the modern-day B movies as well, although I’m pickier. You go.” He leaned his hip against the doorjamb, enjoying their silly game because she was. He could see it on her face. She liked the exchange between them.

“Baths. Deep tubs and bath oils. Really long, luxurious baths. I like them better than a hot tub. I can read in the bathtub or listen to music. Sometimes I just fall asleep. Baths are the best. All you now.”

She was going to like the tubs at the house he’d purchased. “What kinds of books do you read?” He knew the answer, but he had to ask.

“Romance,” she said without hesitation or embarrassment.

“Where you learned a little about bondage.”

She nodded. “A very little. It’s your turn.”

“My family. My club. Now you. This.”

“That may be cheating, but I like it.” She twisted her fingers in the covers, hesitating. “Isn’t that five?”

He immediately was on alert. “Baby, you know it isn’t. Tell me whatever you don’t want to say. If you do, I’ll tell you what I enjoy that I’d rather not say.”

“I’m certain yours is far more interesting. It’s just personal.” She shrugged. “I like to write songs. I have an entire journal filled with them. Just things I need to get out, you know. Nothing that’s going to move the world, but the words are mine, and sometimes I have to go back and just sing them to the empty sky so they’re out there. I can’t always say things I want to tell people, so I write my truth in songs.”

“I think that’s beautiful, Seychelle.”

She was so damn beautiful. Not just her body, but that soul of hers. He liked her. He liked everything about her, especially the fact that she was comfortable talking to him about anything. Part of that was the connection between them, but part of that was just her. She was honest. She just came out and said whatever was on her mind to him. They needed that between them, and that meant he had to give her the same.

“Your skin. I saw your skin and I knew what it would look like with my marks covering you. I couldn’t get that image out of my mind. I enjoy that, Seychelle. Thinking
about putting those marks of my possession on you. Thinking about each one of them and where I’d put it. How I’d do it. Wondering how many days I’d have to enjoy seeing them there, knowing you belong to me, and every fucking time I see them, or you see them, we both know it.” He straightened. “And then knowing, the moment they faded, I was going to be able to do it all over again.”

He kept his eyes on her face. Watching her. He was as honest with her as she was with him, and he wanted to see her reaction. Her gaze moved over him, dropping to the front of his jeans and the bulge he didn’t try to hide from her, and then climbed back to his face. A slow little enigmatic smile curved her lips briefly and she rubbed her bottom, but there was excitement in her eyes.

“I can see I’m going to have to get tougher.”

“I’m never going to apologize for who or what I am, Seychelle. I came to terms with it a long time ago. I don’t have to like it, but I’m no longer ashamed. I don’t want to be with a woman who’s ashamed of me either. Or embarrassed by what we do.” He knew her body was excited, but her mind was definitely very much not.

She sat up slowly, pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Putting her chin on top of her knees, she regarded him steadily. “I’m going to be embarrassed and maybe even humiliated until I can think the way you do. You have to give me that and the time I need to adjust to what you need in a relationship, Savage. You can’t push to have everything your way and expect me to think and feel the way you want me to.”

She was right, and he liked that she defended herself. He sat on the edge of the bed and circled the ankle that belonged to him. His thumb slid over the scars there, soothing him. “I don’t want you embarrassed because you choose to give yourself to me, Seychelle. I never want that for you. What you do for me is between us, but there are other women I’ve been with, other women who are aware of what
I demand. They talk. Our world can be rough, and the men and women in it can be deliberately cruel. I’m not talking about Torpedo Ink—they’re your club, they’ll have your back—but others will come to the bar and say things. You keep your head up. You’re mine.”

She reached out, shocking him, cupping the side of his face, her expression soft. “I gave you my word, my commitment, and I intend to keep it. I just need a little time to understand your needs. Letting you spank me was very difficult because that’s something I associate with a child’s punishment, although it didn’t feel like something you would do to a child.”

“How did it feel?”

“Erotic,” she admitted, her color rising. “Just the way I always fantasized it would be.”

The blush was sweet, moving up her body, turning her breasts a soft rose, going up her throat to her face. Her nipples drew his attention. He leaned down and pulled the left one into his mouth. She could have been made for him. A gift. Her body was as perfect for his needs as it could be, but it wasn’t even that that got to him anymore, it was her. Seychelle. Who she was.

“But you made it that way for me; you know you did. It hurt at times, and then you took that sting away and turned it into something erotic and sinful and beautiful. I needed to know you would do that for me, and you did.”

He brushed kisses over her nipples and then more back up her throat to her mouth. He spent time there, indulging himself, letting the taste of her transport him to a place where he just felt. Her. His body. She did that for him.

When he lifted his head, she was once more lying under him, and he needed to get his jeans off before his cock was permanently injured. He rolled over, yanked them down and tossed them aside. When he turned his head, she was looking at him, her eyes wide, her expression a little intimidated.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered, framing her face with his hands. “I’ve always got you. Just keep believing that. No matter what I ask. Or tell you to do. Remember I’ve got you. Some things are going to scare you, but just like that spanking, you’re going to end up experiencing more pleasure than you could possibly imagine.”

Her eyes searched his for a long time. Those beautiful vivid blue eyes that made him think of rare gems. Her lashes fluttered, swept down and then back up. She nodded. He kissed her because he had to. Her mouth was too tempting. She was his now, all of her. Her body. She’d given herself to him and promised she wouldn’t go back on her word. He saw into her enough to know she wouldn’t, no matter how hard things got. Or how difficult each step into his world was. He intended to make them as easy and as pleasurable as possible for her.

Kissing Seychelle was a new experience for him. She might be inexperienced, and he might have kissed hundreds, but with her, kissing became something different, something fresh and perfect. Smoldering heat slid into his veins, spreading like slow embers throughout his body. Blood pooled low and wicked. Flames raced up his thighs, engulfed his balls, consumed his cock, that steel pole that had never been so hard, or so needy.

She moaned softly, those musical notes of gold fanning the flames into a hot fire that rushed through his veins like a storm, mixing with emotion—something that had
never
happened before. The firestorm rushing through him, mingled with the unfamiliar feelings, added to the sensations roaring through him, heightening his pleasure and his passion for her.

He would never be the poet, the bring-her-flowers-and-candy man. He wasn’t even a gentle man. For her, he wanted to be. He’d started out that way with her, but it hadn’t lasted. His kisses had turned to devouring her. Commanding her. Taking her over. He loved her mouth. The fire
there. Her taste. The way she surrendered to him. The way she gave him everything he demanded. He was more the rip-her-clothes-off-anywhere-anytime kind of man. That was him showing her she was desired. Beautiful. Wanted. She hadn’t experienced that yet, but she would. He hoped she would always understand what he was telling her.

His teeth tugged at her lower lip and then bit down. That same spot. Right on his mark. He pulled her lip back gently with his teeth. He loved her mouth. Loved the shape of it. The look of it. The feel of it. “I could kiss you forever. There are so many things I want to teach you,” he whispered against the silk of her lower lip, right over the little mark his teeth had made.

“There are so many things I want to learn,” she whispered back. “I catch images from your mind and they’re so erotic, Savage.”