King of Diamonds (10 page)

Alexi’s spouse however, Darronn the King of Spades, was apparently rather overwhelmed with their three cubs, but as proud as a father could be. Annie could sense Karn’s own pride in his nieces and nephews, but he was holding back, not fully letting his emotions show.

Annie couldn’t wait to see her cousins and their children, but Karn wouldn’t give her specifics. Every time she tried to press him for more information, he would give her the “look” that meant she was headed toward another spanking.

Although she hadn’t minded the spanking he’d given her. It still surprised her how erotic the whole experience had been.

The afternoon wore on, and Karn insisted on teaching her more of how to satisfy him. A part of her didn’t mind letting him control her. She thought again of what Awai had said, that the submissive had the true control. But rather than revel in that power, Annie felt it was more of a responsibility…to pleasure the one who relied on you to please him.

Late in the afternoon, after Karn took her gently in the grass, and after she’d come for at least the tenth time that day, she started shivering from the cold. The sky darkened, clouds swirled above them, and the air smelled of rain. He covered her with the blanket, scooped her up in his arms, and carried her toward the mansion. She was limp with exhaustion, and didn’t mind at all being carried.

When Karn took her through the mansion, Annie squeezed her eyes tight and buried her face against his powerful scarred chest as he strode into the building. He was entirely naked and beneath the blanket she was, too. She was mortified that everyone in the castle must know what they had been doing. Karn seemed entirely unconcerned with being seen in his birthday suit, but Annie’s whole body flamed with heat and she was sure her face was as bright red as the collar around her neck.

Once they reached her chambers, he took her into the bathing room. Hot water had already been drawn and steam rose from the surface. He tossed aside the blanket, helped her into the pool, and bathed her so carefully that it seemed at odds with his gruff exterior. Inside Karn was caring and gentle, but instinctively she knew that was something he didn’t want known to anyone.

Neither of them spoke while he bathed her. It was just so comfortable being with him.

Besides, what did one say to a man who’d just tied you up, put a collar of ownership on you, spanked you, took your virginity, ate lunch naked with you, and gave you the most amazing orgasms of your life?

After her bath, and after Karn toweled her off, he led her to the bedroom and to the clothing chest. He magically opened it, but this time drew out a nightdress in a pale pink. Again it was made of a sheer material. Annie wanted to protest, yet a part of her enjoyed showing off her body since Karn appeared to enjoy it so much. He didn’t seem to care that she was a full-figured gal, and he sure liked how big her breasts were.

She wanted to know what it would feel like to be held in his arms all night, and to wake up with him wrapped around her. “Are you going to stay the night with me?” she asked softly.

“No.” Karn caught her chin and held her gaze. “I will see to all your needs, kitten. But it goes no further than my being your Sire, and you learning the art of pleasure.”

He slid his fingers down her neck as he released her and then turned away. She watched him leave the room and just stared at the doors after they quietly shut behind him.

A low rumbling noise drew Annie’s attention as Abra curled around her ankles. She scooped up the cat and buried her face in the soft calico hair. Tears burned at the back of Annie’s eyes as the weight of what he did and didn’t say settled inside her.

Karn would see to her physical needs, and he would make sure she was trained in fulfilling his sexual hunger.

But he had no intention of opening his heart and letting her inside. He had no intention of loving her, or being a husband to her beyond giving her a title and his cock.

Chapter Seven

The following morning, Annie woke to the soft patter of rainfall against her windowpane and Abra snuggled up to her neck. Memories of Karn, the garden, their passion washed over her, and her entire body felt warm at the thought. She was deliciously sore, her thighs and pussy having the ache of a good sexual workout.

Another thing she’d read about and now finally got to experience for herself.

Annie smiled, but it dissolved into a frown as she remembered Karn’s parting words from last night,
“I will see to all your needs, kitten. But it goes no further than my being your Sire, and you learning the art of pleasure.”

Her thoughts turned toward his earlier statement that she was to be his Queen. How could the man simply kidnap her and force her to marry him? Yet even stranger was how easily she had gone along with everything he demanded of her. Something about him made her want to please him, to be with him. But she hardly knew the man…although she certainly knew him well in many ways after yesterday.

With a sigh, she carefully turned on her side and stroked Abra as she looked at the window and watched raindrops make trails down the glass. When she was young, she used to imagine that rain was the sky’s tears when its heart had been broken.

While she watched the raindrops roll down the pane, she thought about her childhood. Every time her mother or others had stepped on her heart in her life, she had cried. She never knew her father, and her mother acted as if she hated Annie and resented her very existence.

Annie’s grandmother had been a kind and good-hearted woman, and was the only person in Annie’s life who showed her any kind of love. But Grandma Travis had passed away close to Annie’s tenth birthday, and then she had no one.

It wasn’t until she moved away from home to attend San Francisco State University on scholarship, that Annie found true friends and loyal family in her cousins, Alice and Alexi, and in Awai. They had embraced Annie as one of them and had taken her under their collective wings.

She stroked Abra under her chin absentmindedly as she thought about her cousins. Alice and Alexi had been taken away from Annie, and she’d left Awai behind.

Annie moved her hand to her collar and sighed.
And here I am with a man who refuses to love. Talk about irony.

Sparkles glittered in front of Annie, jarring her from her thoughts. Beya materialized, holding a tray piled high with dishes. Abra scampered off the bed and darted beneath it.

“Breakfast, Mistress,” the little woman said as she bustled to a table in the corner of the bedroom. She placed the tray on the table and began arranging items in front of each of the chairs. “Sire Karn will join you shortly.”

“Thanks, Beya.” Annie slipped out of bed, and then crawled right back under the covers when she realized what she was wearing—the sheer pink nightgown. Her cheeks heated, but the housekeeper didn’t seem to notice.

“Come along.” As she spoke, Beya carried a crystal dish to the place beside the door where Abra’s food and water was kept. “Do not keep Sire waiting.”

Annie clutched one of the bedcovers to her chest. “I need to change.”

“Rubbish.” The housekeeper set the bowl on the floor and rose up to give Annie her no-nonsense look. “You are dressed appropriately for Diamond Hall. You will see,” she said and faded into so many sparkles again.

Annie tossed aside the covers and climbed out of bed. Abra peeked out from under the bed and then walked to the crystal bowl of food with her head held high as if she was Queen of Annie’s New Realm.

With a shake of her head, Annie smiled. But when the handle on the door that led to Karn’s room jiggled, she darted right back into bed.

Karn entered her chambers and shut the door behind him. His massive presence filled the room, making even the furniture small in comparison to his large frame. Annie’s whole body reacted immediately, her pussy growing damp and her nipples tightening.

He frowned. “I expected you to be waiting for me at the breakfast table, kitten.”

Holding her cover tight to her chest, she said, “I didn’t get a chance to change.”

“I instructed you to never hide yourself from me.” His frown turned into a scowl as he strode to the bed and ripped the blanket right out of her hands.

She covered her breasts by folding her arms across her chest, but Karn grabbed her wrists and pulled them away. ““You have earned another punishment,” he said with a look so dark that she was surprised into being speechless. He held out his palm and a red strap appeared on it.

In a movement so quick she didn’t have time to catch her breath, he turned her on her belly so that she was laying half on and half off the bed. A matter of a second or two, and he had tied her wrists behind her back with the strap.

Annie’s face was in the bedcovers and she turned her head sideways so that she could breathe. “Wait. What are you—” she started, then gasped as he moved between her legs and spread her thighs wide. “Karn—”

“Sire,” he commanded as he pushed her nightgown up to her waist, exposing her bare ass. “Do you understand why you are being punished, kitten?”

Annie tried to be mad at him, but having him between her legs was making her so hot. She couldn’t help but remember the erotic punishment he had dealt her yesterday. “You’re punishing me for hiding myself…Sire.”

Karn caressed her naked flesh and then she felt his lips and his tongue on her skin and she couldn’t help a moan. She yelped in surprise as he bit her ass, hard enough that it would probably leave a temporary mark. Yet it surprised her though the bite hurt a little, it had been pleasurable, too.

He rubbed his stubbled cheek over her bare skin and kissed her crack. Annie moaned, her pussy flooding with need. When Annie moaned, he murmured, “Remember, kitten, it is about my pleasure, not yours.”

“Yes, Sire,” she whispered, hoping his punishment would be as delicious today as it was yesterday.

But instead of spanking her, he picked her up and set her on her feet, then led her to the table. Her hair was wild around her shoulders from sleeping on it, and she felt small and vulnerable next to him.

After he seated her with her hands still behind her back, Karn took the chair beside her, and moved it close. “I am going to feed you your breakfast. Do not climax without my permission.”

“Is breakfast that good?” Annie asked, but then he was sliding a piece of fruit into her mouth at the same time he moved his fingers between her thighs and stroked her clit. She jumped from the initial contact and then moaned around the fruit. It was the same color of red as a pomegranate and had the consistency of cantaloupe, but tasted like a cross between a mango and an apple.

He bit into a tart then put it to her lips. Annie took a bite just as he thrust two fingers into her core, and she rolled her eyes back from the exquisite pleasure. The strawberry cream cheese taste melted in her mouth as he moved his fingers in and out of her pussy. She pulled against her bonds, wanting to touch him, to hold onto something as he continued his sexual torture.

Throughout their breakfast he drove her crazy, taking her to the brink of orgasm and then pulling back.

When they had eaten the last of the meal, Karn bent and licked her nipple through the thin material of her nightgown. He continued to plunge his fingers in and out of her pussy.

“Karn, I mean Sire.” Annie could barely speak, she was so close. “May I come, please?”

“No.” He moved his mouth to her other nipple and kept thrusting into her with his fingers. “You must resist.”

“I—I can’t.”

He only moved his fingers in and out of her faster. “You will not orgasm, or I shall have to punish you.”

Annie leaned her head back, her breasts thrust forward and he suckled her nipple harder. “Stop, please,” she begged, even though she wanted him to continue and wanted to come so bad she could just scream.

“This pleases me,” he murmured as he moved his mouth back to her other nipple. “And you are here to see to my pleasure.”

Her thighs began to tremble and a fine sheen of sweat broke out upon her skin. She worked to hold back the impending explosion, though she wasn’t completely sure why—except that it would make Karn happy.

Maybe if she made him happy enough…

And then he stopped.

Annie groaned as he pulled his fingers out. Just one touch more and she would have come for sure.

“That was your first punishment,” he said as he stood. “Your second will come later.”

“You’re not going to let me come?” Annie muttered, her clit so sensitive that she squeezed her thighs together to try and calm the sensations. “What else am I being punished for?”

“You were not waiting at the table when I came into the room.” He stood and pulled back her chair, then helped her stand. “I will deal your consequences to you later.”

Annie’s gaze snapped up to meet Karn’s. “What are you going to do to me, Karn?”

He waved his hand and the tie fell from her wrists. “Do not forget your place, kitten.” Then he took her by the elbow and guided her to her trunk. “Always refer to me as Sire, or I may take you to the dungeon.”

She swallowed, hard, as he opened the trunk with a flick of his fingers. “You would lock me in the dungeon, Sire?”

“Perhaps.” He shrugged as if indifferent to the fact that he was suggesting he would lock her up in a cell. “If you earn such treatment.”

Annie was quiet as he withdrew a pair of doeskin boots from the trunk that certainly weren’t there when she’d looked before. He also took out a leather dress and a cloak. “Does it bother you to walk in the rain?” he asked as he handed her the leather dress.

She shook her head as she clutched the dress to her chest. “I used to do that all the time at home.”

“Good.” He frowned at the way she was covering her breasts with the dress. “Put this clothing on.”

Annie did as he bade, not wanting to add another punishment to her tally. His dark eyes looked hungry as he watched her slip out of the nightgown and into the dress. When she got it on, she was sure she was going to die of embarrassment, because there were two holes right where her breasts were. Her full breasts poked out like twin torpedoes, not to mention the dress was so short it barely covered her mound.