Hope Restrained (Estate Series) (7 page)

He caught her just as her body collapsed. Her skin was pink
from the heat of the water and his hands slid along the soft and dripping wet
surface of her body. Picking her up, he laughed to himself thinking that she’d
been a bit too high to handle the temperature of the bath.

While carrying her to his bed, he couldn’t stop thinking
about the view of her body when she’d stepped in the bath. He’d watched
intently when she’d descended, noting the way her body shook when her wounds were
touched. It took all he had not to rip off his clothes and climb in behind her.
Her ass was perfectly toned, the contour formed by hours of running, walking,
fighting. When she dipped beneath and when her body broke the surface, he
groaned at the way her ebony hair plastered itself with sweat across her
shoulders and down her back. But even these intense moments were eclipsed when
she looked down to find her skin prickled and flushed while her breasts
tightened around achingly aroused nipples. Slashes of battle scars draped heavy
and white across her tan skin — prideful reminders of the men she’d
fought. She was decadence hidden within a recalcitrant package, a force to be
conquered and a predator to be tamed.

Laying her body atop the silk comforter, he instantly
noticed how her skin glowed against the blinding white of the fabric. His mouth
salivating, his teeth aching to bite down into the smooth flesh of her body, he
retrieved a key from his pants, unlocked the shackles at her wrists and pulled
the belt from her limp body. He pondered the convenience that she’d passed out
again, but brushed it from his thoughts, sliding her body up the bed, securing
her arms and legs. He hated to continue using the sharp metallic rings on her
wrists and ankles, but anything less and he knew she’d find a way to escape her
binds.

He looked over her body, completely bare except for a scrap
of material between her thighs. It would be so easy to take her right then and
there, but he didn’t want to simply fuck her body. No. He wanted to warp her
mind so that she begged him to fuck her, so that she believed him as necessary
to her as breathing. He regretted that he’d have to fight her, but she was the
type who needed to be truly dominated, the type who needed to be defeated in order
to be owned.

Moving up the bed, he ran his fingertip across the center of
her abdomen, his eyes fixed on the way the muscle flexed beneath his touch. He
increased the pressure of his path up through the center of her breasts and
over her neck, his other fingers brushing against the slow pulse below the
skin.

“Wake up, Sunshine. Don’t leave me yet.” He tapped her cheek
playfully and her eyes moved beneath her lids, eventually fluttering open to
reveal a groggy cloud within the gold. She looked sated and satisfied,
completely lost to a sea of obscurity.

“Come back, beautiful. We were just getting started.”

She blinked up at him, attempting to move her arm to rub the
sleep from her tired eyes. When the chained had been stretched taut and her
hand couldn’t go farther, she groaned and rolled so that her face was pressed
against the pillow.”

Turning, he went back into the bathroom to get a glass of
water, filling the cup, he took a vial of clear liquid from his pocket, adding
a few drops. It wasn’t fair for him to keep her drugged, however he wanted her
shoulder to have time to heal before she moved in a way that might injure it
further. He’d lied to tell her that the last dose had been given when they’d
removed the bullet, but he didn’t feel guilty for having done so.

When he approached her again, he placed the glass on the
table, reaching his hand beneath her back and pulling her up into a seated
position. The chains had just enough slack that she could move about
semi-freely; another good reason to keep her sedated.

“Drink this. It will make you feel better.”

Her mouth and throat worked hungrily at the liquid, her
tongue sweeping out against the glass, desperate for the last drops of
moisture. He pulled it away and set it back on the table.

Her head rolled in his direction, the sluggish movement
youthful and endearing. “Is this the part where I’m supposed to beg you not to
fuck me?” Her gold eyes flicked open but remained hooded. “Where I say I’ll
tell you everything if you’ll just spare me my dignity?”

He thought about her words. Smiling, he replied, “Well, it
would make things easier.”

“Fuck you.” The corners of her lips curled. “You’re wasting
your time, unless it’s for your own benefits more so than for making me talk.” Her
speech was slow, slurred, but he appreciated the intelligence that remained hidden
behind the fog he’d created in her head. However, his dissatisfaction with her
continued fight rubbed irritatingly across his nerves.

Slipping his hand between her legs, he slid upwards against
the skin, pinching it between his thumb and finger while the other fingertips
gripped into the muscle of her thigh. Her head rolled back, her body arching
slightly in response to the hints of pleasurable pain he was forcing through
her. Reaching the apex of her thighs, he pulled up, barely brushing against the
flesh, his eyes taking in how her body responded to every soft touch.

Running his hand over the slight curve to her stomach, he
stopped at her ribs, tracing his fingertip along her breast. His words came out
in a throaty whisper. “I don’t need to fuck you to get inside you, Hope. I know
what you like, what excites your body despite your hatred of me. I know your
dirty little secret, the one you use to your advantage.”

Her eyes widened as much as the haze would allow and she
looked at him, focused on the features of his face and appeared to study him; every
expression, every movement. He enjoyed these moments; ones where she was
between doses, when hints of her drive and personality peeked through the fog
until the next wave of euphoria returned her to oblivion. He pressed his hand
up until it covered her breast and, after taking the soft skin on the side
between his fingers, he bent down to bite on the hardened tip while pinching at
the side. His tongue laved across the tip and she arched up almost instantly,
the flexibility of her body apparent in the way it bent towards him. While
continuing to work at her breast, to apply just enough pressure to awaken the
nerve that ran to her core, he looked up at her. Her lip curled up, her teeth
grit together. Her hands wrapped into the chains to which they were secured and
she writhed, silently begging for more, for a sharper high — a stronger
hit to her system in order to induce the rush of blood and endorphins that came
after it. His body shivered over her, his own rushing blood creating in him an
inferno of desperate want. He enjoyed overtaking her, empowered by not only
dominating her, but for sending her to heights he wasn’t sure she’d reached
before.

When he released her breast, he pushed up to sit over her,
wiping the moisture from his mouth before placing his hand on the bed next to
her head. Her hair was spread across the sheets, the silk of it wrapping around
his fingers. He tugged and watched as aftershocks of pleasure rolled across her
prickled skin. Bringing his mouth to her ear, he knew she could feel the heat
of his body wash over her — the power to the beat of his heart where he
pressed his chest against hers.

“Your strength is also your weakness. You’re able to endure
because you like the pain, but you like it a bit too much don’t you?” He bit
down on her earlobe, felt her chest collide against his from the movement of
her body. “I’m sure no man lived long enough to discover that secret; but I did,
and I intend to use it to my advantage as well.” Pushing up, he looked down
into the enraged gold. “You can kill me tomorrow if you win — but I can promise
you that if I win, I’ll fuck the shit out of you before you tell me what I want
to know.”

Removing his weight from her, he held himself above her and
watched as she settled from the pain he’d granted. Her lips curled slightly and
parted from her heavy breath. He heard the chains shake from the movement of
her arms and legs, her ass grinding down into the mattress, moving in a manner
meant to seduce and entice. It was carnal and it was raw — a woman
overtaken by her body’s darkest needs.

Her mouth moved, but her words were barely discernable. The
pink tip of her tongue flicked out to run along her lip. He tracked its movement,
gripped his hand into the mattress to ease the ache of want it ignited inside
him.

“Again.”

It was faint and he almost believed he didn’t hear it, but
when she repeated it, stronger, slower, he looked at her and smiled.

He responded to her just as slow and assured. “Will you beg?”
His eyes searched hers. Every so often, light would spark off the gold making
them appear metallic.

Her eyes rolled back slightly, before she blinked and
refocused on his face. “Again.”

Dark laughter rolled within his chest. She wasn’t begging,
but she wasn’t giving up either. He was suddenly glad he wasn’t a better man; refusing
because she was drugged would have been difficult if he had been. Trailing one
hand down her stomach, he kept his gaze locked to hers. The tips of his fingers
slipped beneath the thin patch of material and she shook her head. “No … not …”

“Shhhh. I know what you need.” It was a resolute vow that he
whispered to her.

And he did. It was exactly like Maddy had said; you could
recognize it — Hope’s darkness. Her body reacted to pain and torment like
it was a lover’s touch. She craved it; was starved for it. Nothing could take
her to the same peaks. She needed it to remain sane.

Moving down her body, he trailed his lips over her abdomen,
allowing his teeth to graze across the skin. Ripping the last bit of material
from her body, he didn’t take his time to run his finger down along the skin,
discovering how ready her body had become. A growl emanated from his chest and
he breathed in deeply the smell of her skin. When he reached her hip, he bit
down on the skin, her body bucking up in response to the feel of his teeth on
her the delicate nerve endings. His fingers dug into the tight muscle of her
ass and thigh, and he shuddered to feel it move within his grip, to tighten. Her
body was perfection; strong and lean, every tendon, every muscle and fiber
within her developed and honed to fight. His hands gripped her legs, forcing
them apart, bearing her to his eyes, his hands, his mouth. She moaned above
him, the effects of the drugs heightening her reactions making her hyperaware
of every brush of his hand across her body, every drag of his fingernail
against her skin. Unable to resist, he covered her, allowing the heat of his
mouth to sink into the sensitized flesh, allowing his tongue to flick out and
tease the skin.

Her taste was divinity, ambrosia intended for men far more
worthy than him — quite possibly too good for any man at all. He lapped
at it, desperate to fill his mouth with her essence, her need. Holding her
down, his hands preventing her hips from moving beneath him, completely
overpowering her efforts to demand more. The chains rattled and he looked up to
see her hands grasping desperately to the sheets, her breasts swollen and
throbbing for his touch, for his abuse.

Slipping one finger within the heat of her body, his groaned
in appreciation of the muscles rippling down, gripping at him at tightly as his
other gripped in the skin of her leg.

“Fuck.” He breathed out the word without being able to stop
himself. Working her body, plunging his hand deeply, only to tease and twist
her up inside, he asked, “Is every part of your body so fucking strong?” He’d
never felt anything like it, her grip becoming almost painful when he finally
slipped a second finger inside.

The sounds that escaped her lips were driving him to a point
of painful frustration. The material of his pants had become offensive and
tight across his cock. She was a trigger ready to be pulled and he wanted to
bury himself inside, to feel and experience her body as it milked him, devoured
him when she was lost inside a rapturous deluge of heat, ecstasy and carnal
need.

Pulling away, he reached up, pinching the small bundle of
nerves at the top, applying enough pressure that would make most women scream,
but Hope seemed to absorb it, her skin flushing red and white, stretching taut
across her twisting frame. She was wound too tight, small quakes rolling
through her, her breath escaping her in moans as she panted erratically. Fuck,
if she wasn’t the model of perfection, then Xander didn’t believe it could ever
truly exist.

Kissing along the inside of her thigh, he squeezed down on
the small bundle while at the same time, sinking his teeth into the delicate
skin of her inner leg. When the minute hint of iron met his tongue, when he had
to stop himself from biting down harder to taste more, she screamed. He slammed
his finger back inside to feel the exquisite strength of her core while her
body tensed above him. The chains rattled across the sheets and her chest
seized with her stolen breath. He released her leg, looked up to watch her face
twist with blissful passion and dangerous heights.

And he lost his ability to resist.

His hands made quick work of his shirt and pants, tearing
the cloth from his body, his muscles tense across his bones and his cock so
fucking hard that he feared just lightly touching it would send him crashing through
into the same agonizing release he’d just witnessed her endure. He crawled back
over her, his hands coming down on her arm, his mouth trailing over her neck,
nipping and biting until he covered her mouth with his, his tongue demanding
dominance over hers, his teeth scraping over her swollen lips. He growled out a
command into her mouth, refusing to release the contact.

“Beg for it.”

He positioned himself at the opening to her body, teased her
by sliding within, but never truly filling her or stretching out the muscles
that throbbed hungrily for him to bury himself inside. He wanted to break her,
to shame her, to make her plead for him to take her and control her — to
fucking own her.