Freedom's Fall (5 page)

Tansy was going out of her mind. Surrounded by so much
smooth masculine strength, every part of her body was being stroked and
squeezed by Dev and Rye’s capable hands. Every centimeter worshiped with their
hot, wet lips. When they pushed her onto her back and took a nipple each, she
would have peeled off the bed if they hadn’t been pinning her down. She felt
hands between her legs, Dev’s fingers fucking her slow and steady while Rye
circled her clit. God, they were perfect. They were everything she’d ever
wanted but hadn’t known how to dream. She clutched them to her breasts, fisting
their silky hair and pulling them even closer, arching into their mouths as her
hips flexed in time to Dev’s thrusts.

“Please, please.” They knew she was close. How could they
not know when they were on her and in her, when she pulsed under them like a
heartbeat? She knew Dev had the control to make her wait, but Rye was a
hedonist, and he’d want to give her an orgasm as much as she wanted to have
one.

“Please, Rye. Faster and harder.”

She’d hardly finished begging before he changed his rhythm,
rubbing across her clit in fast little strokes, just as hard as she’d
requested. The pleasure burned, searing her pussy and spreading into her womb,
blasting a trail up to her nipples where her men were still busy. The heat
washed over her body, from head to toes and back again, wave after wave
rebounding and building, drowning her in pleasure until she couldn’t breathe.
The heat burst into flame and her orgasm broke, scorching her body like a
bushfire, squeezing every muscle in an agony of pleasure. She shattered,
blowing outward and falling back to earth in a thousand shattered pieces.

When she finally came back to herself she was still panting,
her skin slick with sweat and her fingers tightly tangled in Rye and Dev’s
extraordinary hair. They were looking up at her, cheeks resting on her breasts,
hands cupping her sex.

Dev gave her a slow smile that would have melted her knees
if she’d had any bones left. “That’s two.”

She snorted. “That was the best orgasm I’ve ever had. It has
to be worth at least four regular ones.”

Rye turned his head far enough to give her a playful nip. “Tansy,
all the orgasms we give you will be like that. I guarantee it.”

God, how would a normal woman even survive that kind of
attention?

That thought pulled Tansy to halt. It was the first time she’d
thought of herself as normal for longer than she could remember. Maybe this
sexual healing gig had more merit than she’d hoped.

It took a bit of concentration, but she managed to unclench
her hands and slide her fingers from Dev and Rye’s hair. They moved back a
little to give her some space and she found she missed the weight of their
bodies, but it did give her an amazing view.

“Wow, you two really are gorgeous.” She looked at Dev. “Can
I play?”

That slow smile made another appearance as he rolled onto
his back. “Whatever you need, honey. I’m completely at your disposal.”

Before she could move, Rye leaned down and gave her a long
kiss. “I’m going to run a bath for us, but you go right ahead. Just watching
you kiss Dev turned me on—I can’t wait to see you play when you’re both naked.”

She smiled as Rye rolled off the bed, but her stomach gave
an uncomfortable flutter. She missed having the extra body next to her, and
being alone with Dev seemed more intimidating than being with both of them at
the same time. Which was ridiculous.

Shaking her head at her stupidity, she rolled to her knees
and started stroking over Dev’s big body. He was safe. He’d never do anything
to hurt her, and there was no need for the weird, anxious sensation that curled
in her belly. This was Dev, she repeated to herself. Dev was safe.

Just to prove how ridiculous her fears were, she leaned
forward and placed a trail of kisses over his chest. His big, warm, wide,
smooth chest, which was nothing like Willersby Lockmehdyhn’s flabby, pale,
paunchy excuse for a man’s body. Tansy blinked and shook her head. That bastard
had no place in this bed and she refused to think about him.

She focused on Dev. She kept her mouth on him as she trailed
lower. He tasted good, a warm mix of man, leather and dragon. And something
uniquely Dev. He was strong and sweet. He was safe.

Her knees were by his hips, and she angled her body so her
head hovered directly over his cock. It looked huge, and nothing like--

No. She refused even to think of him.

Keeping her attention firmly on Dev’s cock, on her
willingness and her need to take him into her mouth, Tansy gripped the base
with a determined fist. Her hair fell in a curtain either side of her face, so
she knew he wouldn’t be able to see the change in her expression. It didn’t
matter, though—she could do this.

Dev must have sensed her hesitation. His rough palm grazed
her cheek and he cupped the back of her head, tilting her face so he could look
into her eyes. “You don’t have to, Tansy. Nobody will make you do anything you
don’t want to do. It’s your choice. Everything we do will always be your
choice.”

Your choice, whore.
The voice-echo wasn’t Dev’s. It
was Willersby’s, and it bounced around in her head, getting louder and louder.
I
won’t make you do anything. Everything you do will be your choice. Every
perversion, every degradation, you will choose of your own free will.

No, no, no, no, no, noooo…

Tansy scrambled off the bed, trying to run from the
disgusting voice in her head. She found a corner, backed herself into it and
slapped her hands over her ears. But she could still hear him.

Your choice, whore. On your hands and knees or go back to
the roof… On the table and spread your legs or go back to the roof… Show my
friends how good you are at sucking cock. No? Perhaps you would prefer the
roof.

Not the roof. Please, please, please not the roof. I
can’t. Not again. Not the roof.

The bottom just fell out of Dev’s world. One moment his
woman was kissing a trail of temptation down his body and the next she was
sobbing in the corner. He rolled off the bed and onto his feet, but after that
he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

“Rye.” The call to his denmate was instinct.

Rye came rushing to his side as they both turned to stare at
Tansy. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” Dev ran an unsteady hand through his hair. “She
was fine. She was going to suck me off, and I checked in with her to make sure
she was all right. Then she flipped out.”

Dev felt the reassuring weight of Rye’s arm over his
shoulder. “You didn’t do anything wrong.” Rye pulled him in for a tight hug. “It
looks like she’s having a flashback, which means this is all on him. We were
careful with her. She knows she’s safe with us.”

Dev looked at his woman, curled up in a terrified ball. “I
don’t know what to do for her. I’m too scared to touch her until she comes out
of the memory.”

“Perhaps we need—”

What have you done?
Fellescend’s furious bellow
collapsed both Enforcers to their knees.
What have you done to my pet?

Dev rolled up, lurching unsteadily to his feet.
We haven’t
done anything to her. We’re trying to help her.

You’re doing a terrible job. She’s in a bad place and she
hurts. You need to fix it now.

Dev gritted his teeth.
I can assure you, if it was that
easy we would already have done it.

Zenbaylan wasn’t one for histrionics, and her voice came
through the link cool and calm.
You need to talk to her. She trusts you
both. Wait until she is sensible before you touch her, but touch her you must.
She’ll think you don’t want her if you stay away.

Dev had spent the best part of twenty years being partnered
with dragons and he still found their advice hit and miss. Sometimes they were
on target and sometimes they were so wide of the mark it was scary. This
situation with Tansy was already fucked up—they couldn’t afford any more
mistakes. Unfortunately they were flying blind.

Rye stepped forward, but Dev placed a restraining hand on
his shoulder. “Don’t move yet.” He nodded to Tansy, head bent and silent. “If
she snaps back, I don’t want the first thing she sees to be two Enforcers
towering over her.”

“All right. Do we get closer or move back?”

Closer. I already told you that,
Zenbaylan snapped.

Rye lifted an eyebrow. “Either Tansy’s in worse shape than
we think, or the dragons’ claim on her has skewed their emotions. First
Fellescend just about blew our brains out. Now my calm, cool Zenbaylan is
serving her orders with a side dish of angry.”

Dev shrugged. “The dragon reaction is a problem for another
day. Right now Tansy needs us more than they do.”

Rye dropped to his hands and knees. “So let’s be there for
her.”

And with no further discussion than that, they crawled over
to Tansy’s corner and placed themselves on either side of her, backs to the
wall.

They waited in silence for a long time. Dev used the quiet
to go over what had happened, to try to work out how or when he’d triggered Tansy’s
memory. When that proved to be entirely unhelpful, Dev cast his mind forward,
searching for a way to aid her recovery. Nobody expected the rescued women to
simply leave their experiences behind, but there had to be a way to help them
work through whatever demons they were fighting.

He was brought back to the present when Tansy lifted her
head off her knees. Her face was pale, her eyes dull and hollow, but he could
see she was back with them. He also saw that she hadn’t been crying.

“No tears, honey?”

She shook her head. “I don’t have any left.”

Fuck, the flat tone of her voice was almost as devastating
as her words. Trying to hide his shock, he nodded, as if running out of tears were
perfectly normal. “Is there anything you need from us?”

“Like what?” she asked, suspicion coloring her tone.

The lack of trust in that question and the ground they’d
obviously lost made him want to rend and tear at something. Forcing his fingers
to unclench, he tried for a nonchalant tone. “Like whatever you need. We can leave
or stay, we can hold you if you’d find comfort in that, or we can just sit.”

Closing her eyes tight, she allowed her head to roll back,
and she didn’t even wince when it thumped hard and loud on the marble paneling.

“I know you want to help me,” she whispered. “But don’t make
me choose. Giving me a choice was how this all went to hell in the first place.”

Rye straightened himself up, and Dev didn’t like the wild
look in his denmate’s eyes. “All right, no choices.” Reaching out to cup Tansy’s
chin, Rye stared her down. “I am going to do what I want, and the only way for
you to stop me is to say ‘no’ in a loud, clear voice. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

The startled look on Tansy’s face gave Dev pause, but Rye
had no such inhibitions. He scooped her up, settled her on his lap and tucked
her head under his chin. Holding her close, Rye spread his legs and nodded to
the space he’d made. “Get your ass over here, Dev—she needs to feel safe.”

Bereft of a better idea, Dev shuffled closer, sliding his
legs underneath Rye’s and pulling his denmate close until they were almost
crotch to crotch, with Tansy evenly balanced between them. Rye wrapped his arms
around Dev’s shoulders, squeezing until they had their woman firmly trapped
between them.

Rye kissed the top of her head but his voice was all
business. “I’m not giving you a choice, Tansy. This is where you’ll be staying
for a while, safe and tight between my brother and me. There is only one word
that will get you out of this. Are you going to use it?”

Tansy deliberately pressed her lips together and shook her
head. Rye gave her another kiss. “Good girl.” He softened his tone. “You’re
safe with us. We’ll take care of you, so you can just relax now.”

Tansy shuddered once and then she let out a sigh as her
whole body softened. Dev and Rye kept themselves plastered to her and she
seemed perfectly content to be squashed between them. Dev looked at his
denmate, at a complete loss about what was going on.

Dev had always been smarter than average. He liked to learn,
and the books and scrolls in the library were some of his favorite friends. He
was usually way ahead of anyone else with plans, ideas and solutions, but this
situation with Tansy left him utterly bewildered.

And to make matters worse, it seemed his funny, outgoing,
impetuous denmate was so far ahead of the problem that Tansy was practically
purring in his lap. For the first time in his adult life, Dev felt redundant,
and the sensation of uselessness hollowed him out and scraped him raw. Lowering
his head to the crook of Tansy’s neck, he nuzzled close and squeezed his eyes
shut against the burning ache in his chest.

Rye couldn’t sleep. He was doing his best not to toss and
turn, because he didn’t want to disturb Dev, but his brain was working too hard
for his body to rest. Tansy was spending the night with Fellescend and
Zenbaylan, so her room was empty, but it would have been an invasion of privacy
to crawl into her bed without asking.

And the thought of her having a say circled him back to her
problems with choice. He knew it had something to do with that bastard
Lockmehdyhn, but Rye couldn’t work out how having a choice was Tansy’s issue.
Surely being kidnapped and raped was all about
not
having a choice.

He rubbed his head, trying to ease the ache. Then he felt
Dev roll closer in the dark. “I know you’re awake—I can hear you thinking from
here.”

Rye snorted. “What you’re hearing, my friend, is me driving
myself insane.”

“I’m worried about her too.” Dev rolled to the edge of the
bed and placed a crystal into a bowl of moss that sat on the bedside table. As
soon as the two items connected, they gave off a soft glow that bathed the bed
in a mellow light. Dev rolled back, wriggling closer until his chest pressed
against Rye’s arm. “How did you know what to do today? How to calm her?”

Rye stared at the ceiling and wondered how best to answer
that question. “Do you remember when I used to go to Gloriahna’s?”

“How could I forget?” Dev mooched in and tried to hog the
pillow. “That bower house was all I heard about for over a year. You couldn’t
tell anyone else because it was off-limits for Enforcers, so you talked my ear
bloody about the girls and the decor and the close calls on the back stairs.”

A smile swept over Rye’s face. That had been a great period
in his life. Newly bonded to Zenbaylan, establishing a partnership with Dev,
finding a place for himself in the den. Battle practice, war games, drinking
games, loud parties and total freedom. They’d been wild times.

“I also remember,” Dev continued, “how you bent over
backward to ingratiate yourself with the proprietress. And I recall some
questionable favors you delivered just so you and your cock could get a
discount.”

Rye snickered, rolling his head so he could look at his
denmate. “Those girls were expensive. I was young, strong and horny, and I didn’t
make enough money to satisfy all my needs. Especially in a place so upmarket
only councilors and landholders could afford the rates.”

“What’s this got to do with Tansy?” Dev asked.

“I met a man who worked at Gloriahna’s.” Rye edged over a
bit, giving up half his pillow. “One night I was heading down the back stairs
when I had to make an unplanned detour. I ended up in an unfamiliar section of
the house, and as I crept along a hallway, I heard the sound of a whip and a
woman crying out.”

Dev immediately understood a situation that Rye’s younger
self had failed to grasp. Dev’s eyes twinkled. “Oh no. You didn’t.”

Rye chuckled. “I did. In my defense, I have to say that
despite the amount of women I’d managed to fuck, I was shockingly naive when it
came to sex on the fringe. I heard a woman crying out in pain, and being a
newly stamped, eager Enforcer, I rushed to her rescue.”

Dev smothered a laugh and his whole body shook. “Bet you got
an education in a hurry.”

“Yep. I burst in on a naked woman chained to the ceiling and
a man half my size whipping the skin off her back.”

“What happened?”

Rye could almost feel himself back there, heart pounding,
blood roaring through his veins, so full of righteous indignation. “The Master
turned to me and told me to wait. He said she wanted to be whipped, needed it.
He told me that if I could hold myself back I would see her come harder than
any woman I’d known.”

“So of course you waited.”

Yes, he had. Rye was a pleasure-seeker at heart, and he
loved making a woman come. If there was a way to make them come harder, longer
or more often, he wanted to know about it.

“He whipped her until she orgasmed. It was the strangest
thing. She was screaming and crying, then she eased out of that and into a
state of bliss. She hung from the chains, arching out to meet each stroke, and
when he finally dropped the whip he shoved his fingers inside her and it was
like he flipped a switch. And he was right. I had never seen a woman orgasm
like it.”

Dev heaved a sigh, stirring Rye’s hair. “That’s a great
story, my brother, but I’m still not seeing the Tansy connection.”

“Oh yeah. Sorry.” Rye had been so caught up in the memory he’d
gone way off track. “When he let the girl out of the chains, he wrapped her in
a blanket and sat with her in his lap. Then he invited me to sit down to talk.
I don’t know what he saw in me at that first meeting. As I got to know him, I
realized he was a very private man who guarded his clients like a she-dragon
guards her chicks.”

“What did you talk about?”

“That first night we talked about the girl and those like
her. Men and women who need pain to find sexual release. As our friendship
developed we talked about other sexual needs, the unconventional and obscure,
the mundane and the weird.”

“Were you attracted to any of it?”

Rye shrugged. “I dabbled here and there. Experimented a bit.
I even helped the Master out on a couple of occasions.”

“By whipping women?” Rye heard the shock in Dev’s voice,
despite the fact he’d barely spoken above a whisper.

“No, I didn’t whip them. I fucked them. The Master liked to
keep some distance to maintain his authority, but sometimes a woman needed to
feel a man inside her.”

“And you were happy to volunteer.” There was no censure in
Dev’s voice, but Rye didn’t want him to think it had only been about fucking.

“Yes, but not entirely for the reasons you might think. The
only time I was brought in was when there was healing to be done. I’m good with
women and they like me. Despite my size, most of them don’t find me
intimidating. The Master would coach me very carefully, telling me exactly what
the woman needed. It was about connection more than sex.”

Rye had enjoyed that time for a lot of reasons, and he’d
found a deep satisfaction in helping a woman get back to the person she wanted
to be. That need to serve and protect was still a large part of him, but that
energy was now channeled into his duties as an Enforcer.

Dev edged closer, stealing even more pillow. “Why did you
stop?”

Rye shrugged. “You and I were sent off for our year-long
rotation in the Topaz den, and during our absence Gloriahna’s changed hands. By
then our relationship was rock-solid and I’d become so entwined with Zenbaylan
I couldn’t remember a time when there wasn’t a dragon in my head. My friendship
with the Master seemed a long way away from who I’d become. I guess I just let
it drift.”

Dev reached out and laid his hand on Rye’s abdomen, and Rye
automatically covered it with his own. He and Dev were comfortable with each
other, but in the weeks they’d shared a bed they’d never touched on purpose.
Not like this. But after the experience with Tansy today it seemed natural to
touch. To maintain the physical connection that had begun when she’d been
pressed between them. And after her flashback, they both needed comfort right
now.

“Do you think you learned enough with the Master to help
Tansy?” Dev asked.

“Maybe.” Rye linked their fingers together. “Perhaps we
could find out if the Master is still around. He has more expertise and
experience than you and I can even contemplate.”

Dev tucked his chin against Rye’s shoulder. “Absolutely not.
I’m not letting him take a whip to our woman. I don’t care how expert he is.”

Rye didn’t know exactly what Tansy needed, but he was pretty
sure it wasn’t that. “Don’t worry, Dev, I won’t let anyone lay a hand on our
mate.”

“All right. Let’s forget about the Master and get some
sleep.”

And despite the day’s events, it wasn’t long before Rye
relaxed enough to comply with his denmate’s demand.