The actions—slow then fast, tender then brutal—ignited every nerve in her body. She couldn’t think. Her world was reduced to sensation interpretation as her body trembled beneath his. She wanted more. Needed him to give her everything in this moment, just as she wanted to give him everything in return, to submit to his will, his commands, his desires.
He stepped back, breaking all contact.
This time when she moaned it was in desperation. A gentle slap to her ass wiggled the butt plug, and she cried out.
“I’m going to drive you so high you lose your damn mind. Then you’re going to return my element. Agree.” The bite of the last word was like a hard lash to tender skin.
Eden whimpered. “Sir.”
“That’s not an answer.” Another swat, this one harder. “Try again.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Yes, sir, what?” A stronger smack.
Her sex flooded with arousal, the burn in her ass igniting, spreading, until she was shaking violently.
“Give me a color.” When she hesitated, pressing her forehead to the exotic wood of the cross, he threaded fingers through her hair and pulled her head back. “Name your color.”
“Green,” she gasped.
“You surprise me. That, in itself, is worth a reward.”
Something soft—a feather?—traced the underside of her arms, down her sides and across the stinging skin on her butt. “Sir.”
“Easy. Just experience the different sensations.”
Tender strokes followed by increasingly heavy swats reached a crescendo when he took a flat paddle to her with firm, swift upstrokes that made her tighten around the plug. The orgasm that had hovered at the fringes of her awareness slammed into her with merciless brutality. Her scream was dragged from the deepest part of her consciousness, echoing around the room as her body shook and her awareness fractured. On and on it went until she was sobbing, pleading wordlessly for what she didn’t know.
Seth was suddenly there, whispering in her ear, supporting her body as she sagged in the restraints. One buckle at a time, he released her. Then she was in his arms, freezing as she trembled violently. Soft words of encouragement to drink as he handed her a bottle of water and wrapped her in a blanket meant little, but his touch?
His touch meant everything.
Chapter Eight
Seth held the diminutive woman in his arms as he eased her onto the bondage table. She felt so slight, fragile even. The shakes had taken over as she began to emerge from subspace, leaving her in mild physical shock. The endorphin rush acted like a drug, and her body didn’t know what to do when the chemicals burned off. Nature did its thing, purging the system and resetting the brain. He hated seeing her struggle, but there was an undeniable rush of his own in knowing he’d taken her places she’d feared going. It was like being an explorer in a way, discovering territories neither knew had existed within her. They just happened to be psychological versus geographical.
“Right. I’m Lewis to her Clark.” He was officially a Freudian nightmare, reduced to assessing the scene like the shrink he
wasn’t
. Gods, the last thing he needed was to start thinking like this, digging into her psyche. He was a hot mess and he knew it. No way should he be tunneling through the elements that made her tick and trying to sort them out. That bespoke emotional investment and repeat performances. Neither could ever happen. Not for him. He simply hadn’t been programmed that way. The darkness in him was too much for one woman to bear.
Shifting in his arms, a particularly hard tremor rocked through her. A tear breeched the lower dam of her lashes. Even though he understood the how and why of it, the sight gutted him. The instinct was completely at odds with his personal standards. Aftercare was important, but it was also impersonal. This? This wasn’t impersonal. Still, he pulled her closer.
“Slow your breathing and ride it out.” The command, though soft, left no room for disobedience. He wasn’t sure whether or not to let her completely surface from subspace or keep her there a while longer. Slipping a hand under the blanket, he traced heated skin and brushed the flat of the butt plug.
“Green,” she whispered, voice husky.
He froze.
Green? Surely she didn’t mean…
Her face lifted to him. Eyelids at half-mast, she considered him with slow blinks, the trembling receding. “Green.”
Clearing his throat, he looked across the room. “I heard you, but I don’t take commands.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“Disappointed?” The sneer in his voice wasn’t intentional, but it was absolutely there.
“I think you actually could take commands. You’re just afraid to.” She tried to lift the bottle of water to her mouth but only managed to spill it.
Seth took the bottle and lifted it to her lips. “Small sips.” When she followed the directive, he considered her. “No one tops me, beautiful, so let the idea go.” He ran a hand through her hair and massaged her scalp, softening toward her when she hummed her approval. Her chin dipped to her chest, eyes drifting closed as he continued to pet her. When her breathing slowed and sleep stole over her, he slipped her to the table and tucked the blanket around her.
So lovely
, he thought, stroking her forehead. Without thinking, he leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers. Her response did him in. The tiny smile sent him lurching toward the bedroom.
Grabbing the phone as he flopped down on the bed, he dialed downstairs.
Griff answered on the first ring. “What’s the news?”
“Nothing good.” Seth drew a clammy hand down his face. “I didn’t get it back.”
“Shit.” The vehemence behind the single word radiated through the phone. “What now?”
“Unless I can get her to give it up willingly, I’m done.”
“Not happening.”
“Yeah, well, if you and our resident Nancy Drew haven’t come up with a way to make my element come home, there’s nothing else left.”
“I’m telling Dominic you called him Nancy Drew.”
Griff’s attempt to keep things light meant a lot. The last thing Seth wanted was for his friends to get all morose and emotional. If this were the end, he’d face it head-on.
“What do we need to do to get your element back?” The other man’s voice was so wrought with tension a musician could have plucked at it and achieved a harsh, out-of-tune chord.
“Not sure there’s much left to do, Griff. We more than recreated what occurred, and my element showed no interest in separating from her.”
“What does that make her, then?”
“No idea. But so long as she has my flame? She’s immortal.”
“And you’re not.”
“Nope. I’m not.” Seth leaned forward and propped his elbows on his knees, one hand dangling between his legs while the other clutched the phone. “I’m fading, my man.”
“You have to try again.” Griff’s stubble raked over the phone in a harsh rasp that did nothing to hide the catch in his voice. “Just…try again.”
“Every time I try will wear me down and carry me one step closer to final death. I think I’d rather just hang out and enjoy the time I have left.”
“You’re not giving up, damn it.”
“You should probably, uh, grab Dominic and head up. Don’t bring the women. Goodbyes are hard enough without tears.” His throat tightened. “I wish it was different. I wish…” He opened his mouth only to close it, because he didn’t have a clue. His head snapped up and his lips thinned. There was only one thing he knew for sure.
The witch stood in the doorway, and, from the look on her face, she’d heard every word.
* * *
Eden locked her knees and aimed for casual as she leaned against the door frame. “Were you going to tell me?”
Teeth grinding, Seth said, “Don’t come up. I’ll call you back.” He slammed the phone onto the receiver, knocking a water bottle over. Water sloshed out, puddling on the telephone stand. He swiped a hand through the mess, raking it to the floor with a curse. “For what it’s worth, I just did.”
The band around her chest tightened and she fought the urge to fall to her knees.
Chest heaving, back rigid, Seth stared at her, the whites of his eyes far too wide. “Why aren’t you releasing my flame? I saw you command all four elements in the office earlier. I know you can set it free for me to reclaim, yet you won’t.”
“It’s not that easy for me.” She stood slowly, surprised when she didn’t slump to the floor.
“Explain.”
“We’re not playing anymore.”
“Yet you gave me the green command before you dozed off.”
“I thought you didn’t take commands.” She glanced up at him. “Is there another bottle of water?”
He shoved off the edge of the bed, stalking past her and into the kitchen. Grabbing a bottle from the fridge, he twisted the cap off and snapped it into the trash. “Small sips.”
“Why didn’t you… You know.” She gestured to his groin with the bottle and coughed.
Rubbing his forehead, he ignored the question. “I wanted to remain in control, see if I could wrest the element free by force.”
She sighed, the sound awkward and heavy. “I don’t know how to make you do what needs to be done, Seth.”
“Sir,” he snapped.
“Madam,” she snapped right back.
“You were doing so well,” he muttered.
“Yeah, well, it’s probably better we steer clear of the topic of forcing me to do anything.”
The snort was anything but subtle. “Steer clear, huh? Seems you’re the one with her ass stuffed.”
“The night’s young.”
“For you.”
Guilt slammed into her with the force of a major league slugger swinging for the fences.
“Besides, I’ve been there, done that. It doesn’t flip my switch.”
Something tickled her consciousness, something she knew should be obvious.
What am I missing?
No matter how hard she tried to grasp elusive understanding, all she could imagine was Seth with another man. High color stained her cheeks. “You’ve been with…” She cleared her throat, unable to finish the question.
“I’ve played across the board.” He rubbed his brow. “Does that bother you?”
“It’s actually, um…” She chewed her bottom lip.
Seth’s frame stiffened.
“It’s hot, okay? It’s really hot.” Rubbing the bottle against her forehead punctuated the statement nicely.
He grinned. “You interested in bi-play?”
“Not exactly. Not unless it’s watching you with another man.”
Shaking his head, he chuckled. “You keep surprising me.”
“How am I going to fix this, Seth?” she whispered.
He moved to stand next to her, glancing down before slipping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his side.
Before he could move away, she slid a hand out from under the blanket to twine their fingers together. His hand tightened around hers when she muttered miserably, “Sorry,” and started to pull away.
“It’s fine.” He rubbed his thumb along the heel of her hand, seeming to consider his next words carefully. “How did you manage to separate me from my element in the first place? That’s some hell of a strong magic.”
“I’m…” She forced their hands apart and twisted to face him, propping a hip against the counter. A slight wince marred otherwise smooth features.
He grinned. “Sore?”
“Would you be sorry?”
“Nope.”
Her answering smile felt so good, so right. “Me neither.”
Rolling his shoulders, he turned to face her in the same manner, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders. “How’d you manage it, Red? You said something about how controlling the elements isn’t easy for you. What is it you’re not telling me?”
Emotion clogged Eden’s throat. He’d called her Red. She had to tell him, couldn’t let this huge elephant in the room keep tap dancing around them. “I’m the Elemental Guardian.”
Seth went so still she had the urge to check his pulse and see if his heart had quit moving, too, or if it were racing as fast as hers. He stepped back, breaking their contact and looking at her with something akin to fear. “Elemental Guardian? That’s a myth.”
Her answer was a single, humorless bark of laughter. “Right. Because we’re not myths ourselves.”
“No. I mean, yeah. We are. But we’re not. You, though. You’re not supposed to be real. You’re a nightmare, a threat the elemental djinn use to scare their children into behaving.”
“A nightmare.” The words were so soft they were little more than a breath of air.
“You know—if a kid won’t stay in the spatial bend where we exist, say he keeps playing with mortals before his element is anchored to his soul, the kid’s told the Elemental Guardian will come for him and steal his element as punishment.” Reaching out in tentative fits and starts, he finally rubbed a loose curl between his thumb and forefinger. “You’re our greatest threat and the most beautiful nightmare I’ve ever had.”
“I don’t want to be a nightmare. All I ever wanted was to be normal, to live with people who didn’t try to shove me into some type of ideal Wiccan mold, force me to learn to wield a magic that’s too big for me or try to break me simply to prove they could. I didn’t ask the Goddess for the internal power grid I ended up with.”
“Clearly she thought you were the right person for the job.” He considered her. “Is it true you keep the four elements aligned?”
“Yeah, it is. I hold the core of each one inside me. They’re tied to me sort of like your element is tied to you, but if I lose even one, I have to be destroyed.” She slumped to the floor, sighing when her ass hit the cold tile. “Feels good against the burn.”
“I didn’t leave permanent marks. You’ll feel it for a day or two, but then it’ll get better.” He slid to the floor next to her. “Why did you seek me out, Red?”
A harsh sob escaped. She swiped angrily at the tears that tracked down her cheeks, misery’s little soldiers. “I wanted to know what it was like, to give up the responsibility. I have to take up the mantle of my power tomorrow in a full moon ceremony.” She looked up at him through spiky, wet lashes. “Just once, I wanted to put someone else in charge, switch places and… Oh!” She scrambled to her feet. “That’s it!”
He didn’t bother to get up, just looked at her with mild curiosity. “What?”
“We have to switch!”
Chapter Nine