Trials (The Forever Series, Book 6) (26 page)

“Don’t you?” she retorts.

“No. I love them.”

“Well, it does seem you have less to deal with than me.
Maybe when you take them all you will see what I mean.”

“Take them all? Never. I will never be what you are,” I say.

“Oh, sweetie. Don’t be naïve. You have already set your
course. If you haven’t already accepted your connection to Xane, you will. Cade
will bond with you. Sebastian is… well I will leave you to figure that one out
and Finn is your chosen Dragon mate.”

“Chosen by whom?” I ask absently, as I am thinking about
what she said about Sebastian. Leave me to figure what out?

“Our mother, of course.”

“No, your life is not what my life will become,” I say
forcefully.

“How do you know?”

“I just do. Speaking of our mother, do you know who our father
is?” I ask in a quick change of subject that I know works to throw people off
guard as CK uses it all the time.

It works all right as she blanches, “You don’t know?”

“Nope. I am guessing you do.”

“No,” she says, pulling herself up straight, “I have no
idea. It is of no interest to me.”

Riiiiiight. Sure. Whatever.

Now I am more curious than ever but by the looks of it I am
not going to like the answer.

“You should leave now,” she says. “Think about what I said
about us helping each other and what I said about Fraser. If you still want to
find him, he is back in Scotland.” She Astrals out without another word and I
just stand there wondering: What the fuck?

What do I do? Do I go to find him or leave it be, as she
said? Mean and cruel? I just don’t see it. But there again, look at other me.
What a bitch. Not really knowing what to do but knowing I have to get back to
my life, I go to the bathroom and wish myself back into my world. It works as I
see the full bath and hear Cole knocking on the door. “Liv? Are you okay in
there?” he calls.

I quickly strip off, sending my other outfit straight back
to the closet where I pulled on it from, and sink myself into the bath, not
bothering with the lock because as I said earlier he will get in if he wants to
and I have to actually be wet when he sees me. I duck under the water as he
bursts in, punching the door almost clean off its hinges and he drags me out
from underneath the surface. “What the fuck?” he yells at me.

“What?” I say innocently.

“You locked the door and you weren’t answering me, I
panicked. And then I saw you here under the water.”

“Cole, I can’t drown, sweetie. I find it peaceful under
there,” I placate him and feel dreadful for having deceived him.

“Peaceful?” he continues to yell at me. “I was worried
sick.”

“Sorry, baby,” I murmur. “Why don’t you join me in here
now?” I pull his head closer to mine, tilting my head up to distract him and it
works like a charm.

“Hm, do I get to take my liberties with you now?” he asks
with a smile.

“Anything you want,” I say.

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

“Come with me then.” He pulls me out of the water and I
stand. He picks me up and carries me, dripping wet, to the bedroom and places
me gently on the bed.

“Devon said he cuffed you?” he asks casually.

I nod cautiously.

“Will you let me tie you up?” he asks shyly.

I nod, “I said anything.”

“And you promise to stay in place?”

“Yes.” I shiver as he pulls out four ties from his closet.
He starts with my ankles and ties them each to opposite ends of the bedframe.
He crawls up me and wraps the tie around first my left wrist and then my right,
leaving me spread-eagled on the bed. He looks at me adoringly and sighs. “Do
you know how beautiful you look?” he asks softly, exactly as Devon had. “So
vulnerable.” He brushes his hands lightly down me. Over my aching nipples, down
my stomach, flitting over my pussy and all the way down my legs. He climbs off
the bed and undresses slowly, taking his time as I watch him hungrily.

“I love that way you look at me,” he says as he crawls back
on the bed and over me. He puts his hands in the crooks of my elbows and pushes
me into the bed. He pins me down with his weight and enters me slowly. I wiggle
to gain some leeway but he says, “No. Don’t move,” before he kisses me lightly.
I wiggle again to move with him but he says again, “Stop moving.”

He speeds up his movements and comes quickly as he still
kisses me, leaving me not only wanting but wondering what this is. Some kind of
fetish I don’t know about, obviously.

“Cole…”

“Shut up,” he growls at me as he drops his fangs and feeds
from me, lifting me up by the shoulders, twisting my arms painfully and biting
down roughly.

I am too startled to say anything. I can’t even remember the
last time someone told me to shut up. In those exact words, anyway.

He pulls back and stares at me as he retracts his fangs. “So
vulnerable,” he says again as he impales me again, pinning me down with his
weight and his hands on my hips to stop me from moving. I growl at him as he is
just taking advantage now, holding me in place while he fucks me for his own
pleasure.

He silences me with a rough kiss and comes again with a loud
grunt as he shoves himself further into me.

Well, I said I would stay in place, but I am not having this
so I squirm against the ties and Shift so my claws can slice through them.

“No.” He stops me with his hands on mine. “You said I could
take any liberty with you and that you would stay in place.”

“That was before you held me down and fucked me,” I snap at
him.

“Is it so wrong to want complete control over you, just
once?” he snaps back. “I put up with a lot of shit from you so you will let me
do this. You will let me have complete control over you and you won’t enjoy
it.”

What? I must stare at him in horror as his face softens and
I can see him reevaluate his plan. But then he shakes his head and the hard
mask falls back in place. “Don’t look so shocked,” he says quite unpleasantly,
especially for Cole. “I am tired of everyone else getting you exactly as they
want you. It’s my turn.”

“And you want me tied up and helpless while you fuck me.
There’s a word for that,” I snarl at him.

“Use that word and so help me god, Liv, I will slap you so
hard you will feel it for a week,” he snarls back at me and I stare at him,
mouth agape, although his assertive self is turning me on now in ways I didn’t
know were possible and I feel myself get wet in response to his threat. “That
isn’t what this is,” he says quietly. “I love you. Just once I want to be the
one with all of the control. And besides which, you are hardly helpless.”

His blue-gray eyes find mine in earnest and I lose any anger
or shock at his behavior. He must see me go pliant as he smiles. A wicked curve
to his perfect lips, and he inserts two fingers into me. A slow pulsing and
then he brings them up to my mouth. “Taste us,” he whispers as he shoves his
fingers through my lips. I lap at his fingertips, nipping them gently and he
growls at me. “Put your fangs away,” he drops to kiss me, swishing his tongue
around my mouth, tasting us on his own tongue with a small moan. I wiggle in
response and he pulls back, lifts my hips, and gives me a swift slap on my
backside. “I said don’t move.”

“Do I have your undivided attention?” he asks suddenly.

I nod, demurely.

“Good. I want you to take me Hunting,” he says and my eyes
widen as I take in his words. I open my mouth to protest but he continues, “I
am prepared and I am ready. I want to know what it feels like.”

“Cole, no…” I start but he shoves his tongue in my mouth to
stop me speaking.

“I told you back in L.A. you aren’t being an
equal-opportunities sire. You owe me the full experience.”

I owe him? The chance to go and kill somebody?

I shake my head, “No, Cole. I don’t want that for you.”

“Tough shit. You don’t get to decide.”

“Oh yes, I do. I am your sire and I will not let you do
this.”

“You will or I will find someone else who will.”

“Cole!” I exclaim.

“Liv, I want to do this. You said you would do anything.”

“Not that, baby. You will regret it,” I plead with him,
still tied to the four corners of the bed. Not exactly the most dignified
bargaining position.

“I won’t. I told you I am prepared.”

“It isn’t that easy to get away with it,” I say, trying a
different tactic. “What if you got caught?”

“So find me a murderer down a back alley,” he says and
shrugs.

This is all sounding a bit too familiar to the conversation
I had with my own sire just a few days ago. I wonder if The Thirteen is behind
this attitude?

“Cole. You are not being yourself.”

“I think I am being perfectly myself. You just haven’t given
me the chance to be the real me.”

“The real you? Are you crazy?” I shriek at him. I extend my
claws again and this time I slice through the ties and they fall away. Slashing
through the ones binding my ankles I round on him and say, “I will not let you
do this.”

“I told you, you don’t have a choice.”

“Cole.”

“Liv.”

“Baby, please be reasonable.” I remember then what CK said
to me and I add quietly, “If you still feel this way tomorrow I will take you,”
hoping against hope that this is The Thirteen somehow manipulating him as it
did to me.

“Good,” he says. “I knew you would see reason. Now I am not
happy about you moving. You said you wouldn’t.”

“Then let me make it up to you.” I sidle closer to him,
needing to distract him from this evil train of thought.

“No. I am not done with you yet.” He grabs one of his
severed ties and frowns at it but ties my wrists together with it anyway. “Now
stay where I put you,” he says, pulling me off the bed and turning me around.
He pushes on my back so that I am leaning forward onto the bed. He gives me a
hard slap to my arse and I bite my lip. “You aren’t being very nice to me,” I
sulk as he smacks me again, harder than before. “I may have to dish out a
punishment for this,” I add as he smacks me again.

“Keep talking and I will keep at it,” he says before he
shoves his huge cock inside me, gripping my hips in a vice as he fucks me hard.
“You are too wet, I told you not to enjoy it,” he complains and I have to laugh
out loud at him. I think that is the first time I have ever been reprimanded
for enjoying sex.

“I can’t help it, baby. You are turning me on with your
assertiveness.”

Another slap to my arse makes me jump. “I told you to shut
the fuck up.” He pulls out of me and shoves his cock higher up knowing that I
won’t get anything out of this position. I grunt as he roughly enters me. It
takes him all of a few seconds to come inside me and he is breathing heavily
now with the exertion. “I am going to use you up today if it kills me, and not
once will I let you come.”

I am appalled at his words. I have half a mind to tell him
where to go and get myself out of this post-haste. But the other
self-destructive, damaged part of me is thrilled with him. It is that part that
makes me want more and I stay exactly where he put me even as he flops down
onto the bed to rest.

He peers at me closely and then with a wicked grin he says,
“Good girl. See to me.” I stand up straight and move over to stand in front of
him. I place my bound hands on his chest and lower my mouth to him. I lick him
thoroughly until he is ready again and I put him in my mouth, sliding my tongue
over the tip and he moans and sits up. “I am going to fuck that pretty mouth of
yours,” he says quietly as he brushes my hair out of my face and runs his
fingers over my lips. He stands and I fall to my knees. He holds my head in
place as he shoves his cock into my mouth and slowly, slowly fucks me again so
I get no release. “Seeing you at my feet while I fuck your mouth is better than
seeing you tied to our bed.”

There seems to be a recurring theme here between my husband,
Devon, and Lincoln. If I didn’t know better I’d say the three of them were
comparing notes.

Cole comes in quick bursts down my throat as I reach up
awkwardly in my binds, to cup his balls. “Not fair. You aren’t supposed to touch
me,” he says. “I wanted that to last longer.”

“Sorry, baby,” I murmur. “I wanted to taste you.” I lick my
lips and he loses it. He drags me to my feet by my hair and extends his claws
to slash the tie away as he kisses me, his fangs ripping into my skin. He
pushes me back against the wall and lifts my leg to wrap around his waist. “I
love you,” I murmur and he closes his eyes wanting to hurt me but unable to
when I utter those three words.

He drops my leg and turns me around, pushing me into the
wall, pressed against me as he fondles my clit. His fingers slide inside me and
my knees buckle as he rubs against my g-spot. “Please, baby. Let me come,” I
whisper.

“No,” he says, pulling his fingers out again. He pulls me
away from the wall and bends me over, pushing roughly on my back. I grab my
ankles to keep from toppling over as he again shoves himself inside me where he
knows I won’t come. I growl in frustration. He has four to my zero and I have
had enough. My sire self is frustrated, my wife side is getting upset, and my
Dragon is all kinds of mad. I step forward pulling him out of me and stand up
straight. “Enough,” I demand in a tone like ice.

He smiles at me. “There she is,” he says softly as he
brushes my face lightly. “I wondered how much more you would let me get away
with before you had enough. I have to admit, it was more than I thought. A lot
more.”

The infuriating beast! He was playing me this entire time?
Using me for his own amusement. Well, two can play at that game. In a flash of
Vampire speed I have him on his back on the floor and I am straddling him,
riding him fiercely as I come loudly within seconds. I don’t give him a moment
to think as I continue my pounding against him as I come again. I can tell he
is close and I stop and stand up, panting, and walk back into the bathroom and
turn on the shower.