SovereignsChoice (5 page)

He brushes my throbbing clit again as he
thrusts into me and I can’t help it—with a low moan that sounds suspiciously
like his name, I am coming again. This time it’s a deeper orgasm, one that
seems to well up from within and overwhelm me. I can feel my inner muscles
clench hard around his fingers.

Aiden must be able to feel it too. “Good
girl,” he says, still pumping into me. “Good girl to come so hard for me. Gods,
you’re tight.”

At last the pleasure recedes, like a wave
pulling back from the shore. It leaves me feeling drained, both mentally and physically.
It’s almost as though I’ve run a marathon—or what I imagineit would be
like after a marathon, anyway. I only run when chased.

My new Master seems to be finely attuned to
my body. When he senses that I’m finished coming, Aiden withdraws his fingers gently
and strokes my back in soothing circles.

I just lie there, limp. My pussy might be
tight but the rest of me feels like overcooked pasta. I’m completely exhausted.
I think I’d be happy to lie here all night, facedown on his lap, and sleep.

But Aiden isn’t going to let me. “Very
good, Emma,” he says, sitting me up. “You’re beautiful when you come. Has
anyone ever told you that?”

“No,” I whisper, looking down. Now that I’m
upright again, my lassitude seems to have magically drained away and I’m
ashamed to face him. I can’t look him in the eye after writhing all over his
lap and spreading my legs for him. Can’t let myself admit that I called him
Master and begged him to make me come.

“Just look at you, you’re blushing.” He
sounds surprised. “Was it really that hard for you to give yourself to me?”

“It was…intense,” I say, trying to find the
best word to describe the experience. In fact it was so intense my chest feels
tight with emotion. I’ve never given this much of myself to anyone before.
It’s
not a big deal to him, though,
I tell myself sternly.
It’s just business
as usual so stop getting all emotional.
I take a deep breath, trying to
calm down.

“It can be overwhelming the first time you
submit to someone,” he says softly. He cups my cheek. “It was intense for me as
well, accepting your surrender. You are so very lovely when you give yourself,
my darling.”

His eyes hold mine and for a breathless
moment I’m sure he’s going to kiss me. But he doesn’t. He simply strokes a
strand of hair out of my face and looks at me.

“Th-thank you,” I stutter.

“You’re welcome.” He kisses my cheek
lightly and sits back. “You did very well. But this was just a small step
forward.”

“It was plenty big enough for me.” Despite
my calming breaths, I’m still blushing and trembling, pressing my thighs
together. The last orgasm he gave me echoes through my body, like the
aftershocks of an earthquake.

Aiden frowns. “Really, Emma, anyone would think
you’d never had a man touch you before.”

I glance up at him quickly before I can
stop myself. Then I look back down at my hands, hoping he can’t read my
inexperience in my face.

“Emma?” he says.

I only looked at him for a moment but apparently
those gray eyes are as sharp as they look. “Yes?” I whisper.

“Exactly how many sexual partners have you
had?” he wants to know.

“Oh, you know…”

“No, I don’t,” he says sternly. “Not until
you tell me.”

“Fine,” I say, half angry, half ashamed. “None
,
all right? No one in the supernatural community wants to date a dud. Or a
prudish witch, one who’s too afraid and ashamed to take off her clothes and get
naked in public. Or in private for that matter.” I look down at my hands, the
words coming faster now. “I know it sounds pathetic. I’m twenty-two and still a
virgin. I probably could have found some willing guy just for the night to get
rid of it but…I’ve never wanted it to be like that. I want it to be more than
just a…just a quick fuck.”

Goddess, I’m so stupid!
My cheeks are so hot I feel as if my face is on fire as I wait for
his reply. He’ll think I’m weird now, strange, defective…

But Aiden’s answer, when it comes,
surprised me.

“Of course it should be more than just a
fleeting encounter—a night spent in the dark with a stranger.” He strokes my
hot cheek gently. “I must confess, I know it makes me sound old-fashioned
but…I’m glad you’re a virgin.”

“You are?” I look up at him uncertainly.

He nods, a little smile playing around the
corners of his sensual mouth. “Don’t forget, Emma, I come from a time when
virginity was mandatory for females until marriage.” His gray eyes become suddenly
serious. “I swear to you, darling, when I take you I’ll be sure you’re ready
for me.”

“Th-thank you,” I stutter, my cheeks
flaming with embarrassment. Goddess, I’m such an idiot. I can’t even talkabout
sex without getting all flustered.

“Your modesty does you credit,” Aiden tells
me. “And your virginity is a welcome surprise.” He sighs. “Although we
may
have
to take some extra measures to get you ready to make love.”

“What?” I look up at him, surprised. “You
mean…you’re not going to…to do it tonight?”

“Tonight?” He looks almost shocked. “Of
course not.”

“But why?” I say, uttering the forbidden
question.

Aiden doesn’t reprimand me. “For one,
because I think you’ve endured quite enough shocks for one night. And for
another, we have an entire year. Why rush our pleasure?” His eyes are suddenly
heavy-lidded with lust as he stares at me. “And believe me, Emma, it will be a
very great pleasure to sink my cock deep into your soft little pussy and pump
you full of my cum. To claim your body with my own.”

“Oh,” I whisper, my breath catching in my
throat. There’s something about hearing dirty talk in that low, sensual voice
that sends me into instant overdrive.

“But that is for another time. As for
tonight,” Aiden rises from the bed, “I think it’s time you got some sleep.” Coming
around the side of the bed, he helps me slip under the satin coverlet and cool,
crisp cotton sheets below. I don’t usually sleep naked but he hasn’t offered me
anything to wear to bed and suddenly I’m incredibly tired.

“What about you?” I manage to ask before
yawning. “I thought you said I’d sleep in your bed.”

“This is my bed and you will be sleeping in
it. I, however, will be sleeping elsewhere.” He strokes my cheek gently.
“You’re lovely but I don’t sleep with anyone.”

“But…” I want to protest that I’ll feel lonely
in this huge bed all by myself but I can’t seem to get the words out. Aiden is
looking into my eyes and the more he looks, the sleepier I get. It occurs to me
to wonder if he’s put me under some kind of a sleep spell—can vampires do that?
I thought they didn’t do magic…

But before the thought can fully form, my
eyelids close and I’m gone.

When I wake up in the morning, sunlight is
streaming through a wide window at the far end of the bedroom. I shift in the bed
and make a little noise of pain when my tender ass rubs too roughly against the
cotton sheets.

Wait a minute, why am I tender there?
What’s going on? And for that matter, where am I?

I shift again and suddenly everything comes
rushing back—the Sacrifice Ceremony, the lesson in submission, the spanking and
most of all, the way Aiden fingered me and made me come.

Oh my Goddess, did all that really
happen?
I sit up in bed, wrapping my arms around my
knees. I want to deny it, to pass everything off as a dream but there is no
arguing with this vast bedroom and its massive furniture, or the huge bed I
spent the night in.

I wonder where Aiden is.
To my shame, the mere thought of the big vampire makes my heart beat
harder. It’s almost as if I’m infatuated with him, which of course, is
ridiculous. I just met him yesterday—he’s practically still a stranger.

A stranger you bared yourself to body
and soul. A stranger you told your most embarrassing secrets,
whispers a little voice in my head. Trying to shut it up, I flop
back down and pull my pillow over my head. As I do, I stretch out my arms and
my fingertips find something thin and smooth that crackles when I touch it.

I sit up again and look to see what’s in my
hand. It’s a piece of paper covered in bold, flowing script—a note.

My Darling Emma,

I trust that you slept well after your
exertion last night. I will be waiting for you in the dining room when you
awake. Please wear what I have left out for you—you will find it on the
dresser. Wear this and
nothing more
. I look
forward to continuing your education.

A.

“Controlling bastard, aren’t you?” I
grumble to myself as I read over his dressing instructions. Then again, I
suppose that’s part of the whole Master gig. My heart skips a beat when I see
the last line about continuing my education. Goddess, what does he have in mind
for me today? “Only one way to find out,” I murmur and hop out of bed.

After a quick but refreshing shower in the
master bathroom, which has marble everything and is bigger than my living room,
I wrap myself in a plush crimson towel. Then I wander back out to the bedroom
to see what kind of outfit my new Master has chosen for me.

“What the hell is this?” I stand in front
of the large mahogany dresser with its ornate oval mirror and stare at the
outfit. Only it’s not an outfit at all—it’s a
collar
. A lovely one, to
be sure—it’s been made to look a little like a necklace with a ruby charm
dangling from the front—but a collar just the same. It even has a buckle
instead of a clasp. Seriously, he expects me to wear this? This and nothing
else?

“I don’t think so,” I mutter to myself. I might
be willing to wear the collar, since we’re playing this dominance and
submission game. But there is no wayI’ll prance around naked with it
on. Letting Aiden see me nude is one thing. Walking around with no clothes in a
house made of glass walls is something else entirely. It’s not going to happen.

I’ll just wear what I had on last night,
I tell myself. But when I go to search for them, my
blue halter top and peacock-colored skirt are gone. Well crap. It doesn’t look
as if Aiden is leaving me many options.

But I’m not going down without a fight. If
I can’t find myclothes, I’ll have to wear some of his.Opening
the mahogany wardrobe at the far end of the room, I begin rummaging through the
rows of clothes. Hmm, it smells wonderful in here—like cedar and some kind of
dark spice—Aiden’s personal scent, I realize. I’m tempted to burrow in among
the hanging suits and dress shirts and just breathe him in. Maybe I can find
the entrance to some magical land where animals talk and nobody expects you to
submit and wear a collar. But I sense I’ve kept my Master waiting long enough.

I pick a long-sleeved deep-red shirt and
put it on. Aiden is so big his shirt falls to my thighs, making a suitable, if
somewhat short, dress. I have to roll the sleeves up almost to my elbows and then
I look at myself in the oval mirror.

Not bad.
The
crimson shirt contrasts nicely with my pale skin and makes my mousy-brown hair
almost blonde. My mother had the same pale skin but her hair was raven black
and fell to her waist. I sigh, wishing that I’d inherited her hair color and
not just her skin tones.

The shirt looks good but what about the
collar? Reluctantly, I decide I’d better wear it. I’m already disobeying
Aiden’s orders about not wearing anything else. Maybe seeing that I also
slipped on the article he left out for me will appease him.

I buckle it around my neck and am surprised
when it fits perfectly, almost as though it were made for me. It doesn’t feel
constrictive and it doesn’t choke me. Instead, the smooth black leather seems
to mold itself to my throat, like a second skin. The ruby pendant nestles in
the hollow of my throat, resembling a drop of blood, glittering when I move.
I’m glad I chose the red shirt because they definitely go together.

Finally I’m ready to leave the room. I let
myself out of the bedroom and start walking but soon I find that the house is
kind of a maze. There are hallways branching into hallways, sitting rooms,
bedrooms, a study lined with leather-bound books, even a professional-looking
kitchen hung with burnished copper pots—but no dining room that I can find. The
glass walls everywhere make it seem like a mirror maze at the carnival—I’ve
always hated those things. Even worse, I start getting the weird, creepy feeling
that someone I can’t see is watching me.

Just as I’m about to get really weirded
out, I turn another corner and find myself in a large, formal dining room.
There, sitting at the far end of a table that could easily seat sixteen, is
Aiden. He has a laptop open beside him and is going over a thick sheaf of
paperwork but when I come in he looks up.

“Ah, finally.”

“Sorry, I got a little bit lost.” I come
over to the table, very aware that he is staring at me without blinking.
Goddess, suddenly wearing his shirt when he expressly forbid me clothing seems
like a bad idea. “Do you like my outfit?” I blurt at last when he still doesn’t
say anything.

“You look very fetching in my clothing,”
Aiden rumbles, frowning. “But as you well know, Emma, you’re not supposed to be
wearing anything but the collar.”

“I
am
wearing the collar, see?” I
shake back my hair, baring my neck for him, making sure he can see the ruby
winking in the hollow of my throat.

“Yes, and it looks lovely on you. But why
are you also wearing my shirt?” Oh crap, he sounds so stern.

“I…uh…” I swallow hard, trying to think of
an excuse. “I thought I might be cold?” I say weakly.

Aiden frowns. “The house is kept at a
constant seventy-five degrees during the day, Emma. And with all the sunlight
coming through the windows and walls, there’s no way you could be too cold.”

“Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it?” I
snap, suddenly angry at his unreasonable demands. “Maybe I don’t want to run
around nude in a house that has mostly glass walls. What if some pervert was
peeking in?”

“That’s impossible,” he says flatly. “I highly
value my privacy and I pay well to make sure it stays intact. No one will see
you, Emma. Remove that shirt right now.”

“I don’t want to,” I whisper, clutching the
crimson fabric to my chest. “I-I feel safer with it on.”

“That’s exactly the point,” Aiden says patiently.
“How can I break down your boundaries when you feel safe? You need to be out of
your comfort zone.”

“Maybe I
like
my comfort zone,” I
say mutinously.

He sighs. “Do you really think I want you
naked just to discomfort you? I have other reasons as well. I want you to make
friends with your body.”

“Make friends with…what?” I stare at him incredulously.
What the hell?

Aiden must see the skeptical look on my
face, because he raises a hand and says, “All I mean is that you need to spend
some time in your own skin in order to realize how beautiful you are.” His eyes
roam over me from head to toe, making me feel hot all over. “To see yourself as
I see you.”

“That sounds like some kind of crazy
therapy,” I say but I can feel myself blushing from the way he’s looking at me.

Aiden shrugs, his broad shoulders rolling
under the expensive gray suit jacket he has on today. “Call it what you will
but until you learn to love yourself, until you’re completely comfortable with
your body, you can’t submit to me properly.”

I sigh. “I still don’t understand why you
need my submission so badly. Is this the way you augment your power?”

“Something like that but it’s not what you think
at all. This isn’t just for me.”

I look around. “Are we doing it for someone
else? Are they watching?”

Aiden laughs. “No, Emma, it’s nothing like
that.”

“Then what is it like?” I demand.

He sighs. “I will tell you all in the
fullness of time. For right now, please remove the shirt so we can eat.”

I can tell he’s not going to let this go.
And he’s already seen me naked last night so this should be no big deal. But
somehow it is, it
really
is. It’s much harder to take off my clothes in
the broad light of day than it was to slip them off last night in the warm,
forgiving lamplight of the bedroom.

I unbutton the shirt slowly, trying to put
off the moment of complete nudity. Aiden watches me, his gaze roaming over my
body as more and more of me is revealed.

“Lovely,” he growls softly when I reach the
last button and the shirt hangs open around me. He pushes back from the table
and beckons to me. “Come here, Emma.”

Not knowing what else to do, I come to him
and stand where he indicates, right between his legs. He’s so tall that, though
he’s sitting and I’m standing, we’re still eye to eye. “Master?” I whisper softly,
hoping to appease him, wondering what he’s going to do.

“So beautiful. Such full breasts.” He palms
one of my breasts gently and thumbs the nipple until it’s a stiff little peak. I
have to bite back a moan—Goddess, his touch sets me on fire. “I love the way
you look like this, with your nakedness framed in crimson,” Aiden murmurs,
cupping the other breast and giving it the same treatment. “I’ll tell you what,
Emma…”

“What?” I whisper as he continues to stroke
and tease my breasts. He seems to like pinching my nipples until I gasp and then
circling their aching peaks until I moan.

“I’ll let you keep the shirt on,” he
murmurs, looking up at me. “As long as you keep it open, just as it is now, and
don’t try to hide your body from me. I want to see you every minute—looking at
you is a visual feast.”

No one has ever said anything even remotely
like this to me before. I’m stunned for a moment but then I realize this is the
best deal I’m going to get. I’d better take it quickly. “Yes.” I nod. “Yes Master,
that would be nice.”

“Very nice,” he murmurs. “But I’m afraid
you’ll still have to be punished for disobeying me.”

“What? But I thought we had a deal,” I
protest.

He frowns. “A deal you forcedme to
make when you came out here dressed instead of nude, as I required. That kind
of manipulation from a submissive is called ‘topping from the bottom’ and I
won’t have it.”

“Wh-what are you going to do to me?” I ask.
“Bend me over your knee and spank me again?” I’m ashamed to admit the thought
of that, of being held down and punished by him, is making my pussy wet.
Goddess, what’s wrong with me?

“Nothing would give me more pleasure,”
Aiden growls, his gray eyes flashing silver for a moment. “But I have much to
do today and I’m already running behind.” He looks at the heavy gold Rolex on
his wrist and frowns. “However,” he looks up, “I dohave a means of
punishment here that I think will be appropriate.”

Before I can ask what it is, he is pulling
what look like two little alligator clips from his pocket. They have black
rubber tips and are attached with a length of fine gold chain, which coils in
his palm like a pet snake.

“What are those?” I ask, looking at the
clips apprehensively.

“You’ll see soon enough. Come here.” He
beckons for me to get closer, which I do, even though it puts my breasts right
in his face.

Aiden doesn’t seem to mind in the least. He
palms one of my heavy breasts and sucks the nipple gently into his mouth. I
gasp as he takes me into his wet heat. His tongue plays with me, circling my
sensitive bud, then lashing it until my legs are so weak I feel as if I might
fall down. It seems as if each new sensation of pleasure goes straight to my
pussy, making it wet and hot and ready for him. He sucks me hard, taking as
much of my breast as he can into his mouth at one time until I moan. Then slowly
he pulls back, eyeing my fully erect nipple approvingly.

“Very good,” he murmurs. “And now that
you’ve had your pleasure, it’s time for punishment.”

“What kind of punishm—” I begin but that’s
when he clamps one of the black rubber alligator clips to my nipple—the nipple
he just finished sucking. The one that’s still so sensitive even the soft
breeze from a nearby window feels too intense.

I yelp and try to jump away but Aiden holds
me still. Swiftly, he sucks the other nipple until it too sticks out. Then he
puts the second clamp on. When I look down, I can see the fine-link gold chain
swaying between my breasts. It feels as if someone with mean fingers is
pinching my delicate buds as hard as they can.

“It hurts,” I protest, wishing I dared to
take the damn things off my nipples. One look in Aiden’s gray eyes tell me
there’s no way I can. Not without incurring his wrath and an even more severe
punishment.