Mastered By Love (22 page)

Three months
later:

She awoke
with her hands tied. When she lifted one to push
the hair from her eyes, the other came with it. A band of red
leather encircled each wrist, a thick steel ring connecting them.
Tariza gave a start, tugging at the leather.

Dario’s long fingers
brushed slowly over first one band, then the other. He moved on to
her arm, gliding up her naked skin to her shoulder, then down to
her breast.

“
Good morning,” he murmured
huskily.

“
I’m not sure it
is.”

A soft laugh escaped him.
“It will be.”

His big hand, warm and
rough, cupped her breast, molding her, his thumb rubbing
insistently across her nipple. This wasn’t so bad. She arched her
back and moaned.

“
You like this.”

“
Mmmm.”

He nuzzled the back of her neck. His
teeth lightly scored her skin as his hand continued to play with
her breast, as he pinched and released her nipple. She pushed her
ass back against his body. His thick erection prodded her
eagerly.

“
I can’t touch you,” she
said in a plaintive tone.

“
I know.”

“
Don’t sound so pleased
with yourself.”

He laughed again. “This way
I can do whatever I want with you and you can’t fight
back.”

Did she ever fight with
him? No. But she didn’t argue as he turned her on her back and bent
his head to suckle her. She spread her legs, and he settled between
them with a sigh.

She didn’t argue when he
slipped down to taste her pussy, either. The hot, liquid delight of
his tongue on her was nothing to complain about.

Then he flipped her onto
her belly and she pushed up on her elbows. “Hey.”

“
That’s right. I want you
on your knees.”

“
No.” Tariza tried to roll
to the side. “Not like that.”

“
Yes.”

“
No, Dario. I don’t like
it.” Sex from behind scared her.

“
Who’s the master here? And
you loved it the last time.” He shoved her thighs apart and buried
his tongue in her again.

Tariza moaned.

He paused in his
attentions. “You know I’d never hurt you.”

“
It’s too ...”

“
Male dominant?”

She flushed, hiding her
face in the covers. “Yes.”

“
Tariza.” He bent over her,
his body encasing hers. “I’m your master. I want to fuck you from
behind and I’m going to do just that.”

His fingers found her vagina, teasing,
dipping inside, plunging. She gasped into the covers. Her fingers
curled and dug in, fighting against the monstrous
pleasure.

The ecstasy was too much
for her. She couldn’t fight it, could only scream and moan as he
worked his fingers inside her body. His lips traced a random
pattern on her back, soft and warm.

There was some reason she
shouldn’t enjoy this, but she didn’t care anymore what it was.
“Please,” she moaned.

He kissed the back of her
thigh. “Please, what, little slave?”

“
Please fuck me,
Master.”

He entered her slowly, ever so slowly,
his heavy cock burrowing its way into her sheath, the gradual
stretching exquisite even in this humiliating position.

His breath came out in a
long, low moan. “Yes. Oh, Tariza, yes.”

She lifted her hips to him, pushing
back against his penetration with a whimper of pleasure.

Dario groaned. He stroked
the side of her body from hip to rib cage, cupping a breast with a
tenderness that made her throat hurt. “So beautiful.”

“
Please –” she
whispered.

He pinched and rolled her
nipple, drawing a sharp little cry from her. She wanted him so
much, needed him, ached for him, and he wasn’t giving her what she
needed. He wasn’t giving her the raw fucking she wanted. Why wasn’t
he pounding her yet?

Dario withdrew and then sank back into
her in just the same leisurely fashion as the first stroke, another
low moan issuing from his throat.

“
Please, Master Dario,
please.” Tariza shoved her hips back against him.

He gave a low laugh. “We’ll
get there, sweet.”

She attempted to fuck him by planting
her elbows firmly in the bed and bucking her pelvis against his. He
gave another laugh as he gripped her more tightly, holding her
still for his domination.

“
Not yet.” His voice was
hoarse.

“
Now. Please.”

Dario gave her another
long, slow glide of a stroke. “Like this.”

She moaned. Her fingers dug into the
bedding. He filled her so perfectly, hitting every sensitive spot
in her cunt, including one so far inside her it seemed to reside
beneath her heart.

“
Tell me how it feels.” He
gave her another. “When I do this.”

“
Deep,” she
whimpered.

He did it again.

“
Oh, Goddess, so deep. So
good!”

“
So good,” he moaned,
rocking his hips. “So hot and tight ... on my cock ...
perfect.”

His words set off an answering tremor
within her, glorious spasms that made her eyes roll back and her
voice cry out. Her hips undulated against him, shamelessly begging
for more.

He surged into her, sending a bright
shock of pleasure through her cunt and into her womb. Tariza cried
out. He did it again. Her fingers dug hard into the bed
covers.

Dario groaned as he settled in to a
steady rhythm of thrust and retreat.

She tilted her head back,
moaning, “yes, yes,” and forced herself back on him, impaling
herself on each stroke.

His grip tightened on her hips. She
loved it, loved the force of his pounding, loved the hoarse, rough
sound of his breath as he fucked her, fucked her as if fucking her
were the only thing in life worth doing.

Ecstasy bloomed in her like a great
starburst, expanding outward to encompass all of her body. All she
could do was scream and wail under the beautiful onslaught of his
sex.

He made a strange kind of growling
moan and jerked against her and flooded her with hot come. Tariza
lifted her hips to receive it, to take everything he poured into
her.

They collapsed face down on
the bed. Dario kept his weight off her by propping himself on his
elbows, his hands pressed against the mattress on either side of
her head. She couldn’t see his face, couldn’t kiss him although she
wanted to devour him. She turned her head and pressed her lips
fervently to the big, rough hands that had loved her so fiercely,
so tenderly.

“
Sweet girl,” he murmured,
nuzzling her cheek. “Sweet, darling girl. You please me so greatly.
I don’t have words.”

Then the tears began.
Tariza ducked her head so he wouldn’t see, but he was too quick for
her. He brushed the hair back from her face and rubbed his
fingertips through the hot, betraying moisture on her
cheeks.

“
Don’t cry.” He kissed her.
“Please don’t cry.”

That only made her cry
more, of course. She didn’t want to. It was upsetting him and that
was the last thing she wanted to do. She kissed his hands as she
cried, trying to tell him without words how she felt about him
because she couldn’t say it out loud.

Dario pulled out of her, rolled to his
side, drew her against his warm, hard body. He ran his fingers
through her hair, crooning to her, and she let him. She wrapped her
arms tightly around his waist and held on, loving him, loving him
and unable to say the words.

“
Sweetheart, what is it?
Did I hurt you?” His voice rumbled in her ear.

“
N-no. Of course
not.”

“
Then what?”

“
I don’t know. I’m
s-sorry.”

“
Don’t be sorry,
love.”

He said such wonderful
things sometimes. She wished he would say them all again, over and
over again, just so she could listen to the sound of his deep,
beloved voice saying those words. Love. Sweet. Darling. The words
she couldn’t say.

***

Dario lay
with his eyes half-closed, his body limp and
glowing in the aftermath of morning sex. Tariza snuggled against
his side and he put his arm around her, holding her close. This was
what he’d wanted, ever since he’d first seen her. Not merely her
subjection, but her arms around him, her naked body pressed to
his.

They’d grown close over the
last three months, closer than he’d ever imagined possible. He no
longer required her to address him as Master unless they were in
company, and she freely met his gaze when they talked between
themselves. In public, she was the docile and obedient slave, but
in private she was simply Tariza, and he liked it that
way.

They could talk about
almost anything. They shared music, often playing together. Tariza
was a first-rate musician. They’d even composed a couple of songs
together. She was more than a lover; she was a friend. He’d never
had a lover who was also a friend.

Her lips made a trail of kisses across
his chest. He ran his fingers through her hair. If they could hide
out here and avoid the rest of the court, that would be his idea of
a perfect day. Unfortunately, judging by the sounds in the corridor
and outside, the Bellerenic ambassador had arrived and there would
be no more hiding.

“
We have to get ready to
appear in public,” he said lazily.

“
Why?”

Dario chuckled. “You always
ask why.”

“
Wouldn’t you?”

“
Yes. That’s why I put up
with it.”

“
Is something special
happening?”

“
The new ambassador from
Belleren is arriving for a visit. In fact, I think he may be here
already.”

She lifted her head. “A
Demon Kin.”

“
Yes.” He frowned at her.
How prejudiced was she? After all, the Demon Kin had few women left
in their society, and they’d never been a matriarchy. “Does that
bother you?”

“
No. I find them
intriguing. Besides, what does it matter? I’m just a
slave.”

“
You’ll never be just a
slave to me.”

The quizzical look she gave
him made him blush. And he hated to blush. He covered his confusion
and embarrassment by sitting abruptly and flinging the covers back.
They didn’t have the time for pillow talk anyway.

He led Tariza into the bathroom for
another shower.

“
What’s his name?” she
said.

“
You ask too many questions
for a slave.” He opened the shower door and turned on the
water.

“
I’m sorry,” she said in a
subdued voice.

Damn.
He hadn’t meant to take out his discomfort on her.

“
Sam Envy,” he
said.

“
What?”

He turned back to her. “His
name is Sam Envy.”

Her brows rose. “Sam Envy?
That’s a name?”

“
Yes. The Demon Kin often
have names like that. It’s part of their supposed demonic heritage,
I guess.”

“
Hmm. Well, I suppose it’s
not as bizarre as Gluttony Black.” She smiled to
herself.

What was that all about?

With a shake of his head,
he returned to the shower and adjusted the temperature. “Get
in.”

Tariza gave him a sidelong
glance from under her lashes. “Yes, Your Highness.”

She walked past him into
the enclosure, hips swaying enticingly. The vixen was teasing him.
That was new, a side of her he hadn’t seen before. He followed her
into the shower, smiling at her change of mood.

***

King Grasos
received the ambassador in the Saturnian throne
room, a place Tariza hadn’t been allowed until today. It was a
cavernous chamber with thick, dark beams on the ceiling and
elaborately painted naturalistic designs on the plaster. It looked
archaic even by Argelian standards.

Dario led her to a spot
just below the throne and bade her kneel at his feet. She threw
down the pillow he’d given her, then sank to the floor. Keeping her
head down, she studied the room and its inhabitants in furtive,
sidelong glances.

On the other side of the
throne was Dario’s older brother, Mateo. Lola knelt beside him. She
wore a snug but long-sleeved gown similar to Tariza’s. Lola gave
her a simmering glare from beneath her lashes. Tariza met the look
blandly before directing her attention somewhere else. She wasn’t
going to play Lola’s pathetic “who’s the most loved slave”
game.

The roar of conversation
died when guards at the doors announced Grasos’s arrival. Tariza
kept her eyes trained on her knees as the king walked slowly toward
his throne. She didn’t want to look at him. If she looked at him
she wouldn’t be able to lock away the memories of his treatment of
her.