Savage Chains: Scarred (#2) Read online

  He held her gaze, his expression somber. He touched her damp hair, her cheek, then thumbed her lips. “I want to enter you.”

  She rolled her hips in response and cooed, “Yes.”

  Using his hand, he guided himself to her opening, then began to push.

  She planted her hands on his shoulders, gazing into his eyes. She wanted to remember this moment forever, the first time he penetrated her.

  Her lips parted as she drew in a deep breath.

  “You’re very wet.” He thrust gently, each time going deeper.

  “I’ve wanted this, Reyes, more than anything.” Her breathing grew rough.

  ###

  With each thrust of his hips Reyes felt more and more connected to Angelica. There was no question that he’d imagined doing this to her repeatedly. He was a man.

  But he’d never been in this place before, desiring a woman not just with his cock but with his entire being. Planting his forearms and curling his hips with each thrust, he watched her move beneath him, her dark eyes glittering.

  Her lips parted and a series of small gasps came out. He watched pleasure stream over her face. He was doing this to her, giving her what she’d wanted for a long time.

  Nothing seemed more important than that he please her. Her head rolled from side to side and she now had a hard time focusing. “That’s it, Angelica; you’re feeling me now, aren’t you?”

  “I am.” Her words were hushed and hoarse. Her breathing uneven in the best way. “And I can feel how much pleasure you’re experiencing at the same time. This is amazing.”

  He thrust faster and her back arched. She moaned, gripping his shoulders, her body tensing and releasing, getting ready.

  She gripped him low. “Reyes,” she whispered.

  “I’m here. I’m with you.”

  “Do you want to come?”

  “I want to see you come first. Can you do that, Angelica? Can you let go?” He leaned down and placed a kiss on her cheek, then her other cheek, then her lips. He played his tongue over her mouth, dipping in.

  She moaned and he kissed her hard, driving his tongue deep. She cried out against his mouth and her whole body spasmed. I’m coming. Oh, God, Reyes!

  He held back. Though he wanted to release, he’d been well-trained and kept himself hard for her. As he felt her orgasm reach a pinnacle, then finally ease down, he slowed his rhythm, yet still keeping the push-pull steady.

  She kneaded the muscles of his shoulders, her fingers falling to his biceps. He flexed for her.

  “My head is spinning,” she whispered.

  “Want more?”

  “Do you know what I want?”

  “What’s that?” He kissed her again, a soft pressure against her lips.

  “I want to watch you come, Reyes. That’s what I want. That’s the only thing I care about right now, seeing you have pleasure because you’re inside me, because we’re connected.”

  Reyes had never heard such words before, and for a long moment they didn’t connect inside his brain. He’d never had a woman put his pleasure above hers or engage with him as though he had importance of any kind.

  Yet he saw in Angelica’s eyes and felt in the way she caressed his arms that she was truly thinking of him right now and not what she could wring from his body.

  He moved faster. “You give me pleasure, Angelica, in everything that you say and do.”

  Small gasps once more broke past her lips. “I feel the same way about you.”

  His body heated up, a fire that raged through him, that made him want more than anything to release while ecstasy held her in its grip. He drove stronger now and deeper so that she cried out. “Reyes, will you come with me?”

  “Yes.”

  He’d never been so hard as he drove faster and faster, slamming into her. She cried out in long, almost anguished sounds, pleasure building.

  I’m close, she sent.

  And I’m ready. Look at me, Angelica. Look at me.

  He could tell she struggled to stay focused on him because her body raged with passion.

  Reyes. Her gaze locked with his. I’m coming.

  As he watched her tip over the edge his release rocketed. He shouted as his cock pulsed with heat and as pleasure streaked through him.

  Angelica screamed, which in turn intensified the ecstasy that rushed through him in heavy pulses. And still he held her gaze. Emotion swelled within him as the moment rolled out and his hips flexed in rapid jerks.

  Reyes. She spoke his name one last time within his mind, then finally relaxed beneath him.

  He slowed his rhythm, then finally stopped, his body satiated.

  Still connected deep, he kissed her, a long, lingering kiss, then looked at her some more.

  He felt mystified, unable to comprehend what he was feeling. He’d never experienced anything like this in his long-lived life. He’d never been around someone like Angelica before, who actually saw him as a person and not as a tool to be used.

  He frowned slightly as she caressed his face. “How was that for you? Were you satisfied?”

  Her eyes popped wide. “Didn’t I scream loud enough to make myself clear?” She laughed.

  He chuckled. “Yes, I guess you did.”

  “Why the question?” She thumbed his scruff and sighed.

  “Hard to explain, I guess I just wanted to be sure that I did well by you.”

  At that she leaned up, surrounded his neck with her arms, and pulled him down to her. “You were magnificent and that was beyond anything I’ve ever known before. But Reyes, I’m not talking about your technique. I’m talking about you.” She fondled his arms, his shoulders, his neck.

  He simply couldn’t fathom what it was he felt, except suddenly he was taken back to a time in his youth when he’d been with his mom and dad. They’d taken him night-fishing on the Amazon. They’d all laughed so much.

  And that’s what it was about Angelica. She reminded him that before he’d been taken into slavery he’d known what normal felt like, when he’d been a typical kid and known how to laugh, what being loved had felt like.

  “Where did you go?” she asked softly, still touching him, this time rubbing his back.

  But it was all too much suddenly, too good, too normal. And it couldn’t last.

  He shook his head and lifted off her. “I don’t know. I’m uneasy about what we have to face.”

  “Do we have to think about that now?”

  “I do.” It was only a partial lie. He just didn’t want to be feeling so much for Angelica. He didn’t want to live with the hope that his life could actually be different. He couldn’t risk believing in the impossible.

  But he wasn’t about to hurt her in the process. He leaned down and kissed her. “I loved every minute of this. Thank you. You’ve been wonderful.”

  Slowly, he pulled out of her and rolled onto his back.

  Time to fix his thoughts on the performance for Scorpion.

  Chapter Five

  Angelica knew something had happened to end the moment; she just didn’t know what. Although she was pretty sure she could guess. The vampire had a lot on his mind. For herself, she tried not to think about what would happen on the following night or how ill she felt with thoughts about what they’d be required to do.

  But she also believed in present-moment living. Sitting up, she turned toward Reyes. He had his arm thrown over his face, his eyes closed. “Reyes, I’m starved. How about you?”

  At that he shifted and opened one eye, his lips curving. “You need some food?”

  “I do. And maybe another quick shower would not be unwelcome, either.”

  “Very pragmatic.”

  “It’s either that or I’m going to start screaming at the top of my lungs out of fear about what we’ll have to do tomorrow night.”

  He winced, sitting up as well, his gaze falling to her bare breasts. They were puckered in the cool air of the room. She didn’t bother covering up. She wanted him looking. She wanted him to miss he
r when she was gone. She also knew her breasts were one of her finest assets.

  She put her hands behind her back and arched just a little.

  He met her gaze, his brows raised. “What are you doing?”

  But she just laughed. “You were staring, so I thought I’d help you look at me better.”

  He reached for her, covering her breast with his hand and fondling her.

  One thing led to another until he asked, “Think you can wait for your meal a little longer?”

  “I think I can do that.”

  He made love to her again and again.

  Later he called his housekeeper to have a tray sent up.

  After a quick shower Angelica dipped into yet another fragrant soup and savored a glass of white wine. Reyes seemed preoccupied.

  “Anything on your mind?”

  He glanced up from a full spoon that had been sitting midair for about minute. Lowering it to the bowl, then leaning back, he drank from a bottle of beer. “Just the usual. I’m feeling the need to check the Starlin Web site, to see what’s going on, if anything’s developed that would require our attention.”

  “Good idea.”

  He rose, crossing to his desk, and brought his laptop back with him. He sat down in a different chair adjacent to his meal and watched the screen as he began tapping keys.

  She watched his expression shift as some kind of video began running and the changing light played over his face. She heard laughter and shouts, lots of voices.

  Suddenly he slammed the lid shut, shading his face with his hand.

  Angelica had the worst feeling, and the chain at her neck vibrated with an emotion that ranged somewhere between full-out rage and a pit of despair.

  She left her seat, rounding the table. She tried to lift the laptop lid, but he wouldn’t let her. “Don’t.”

  “Starlin, right?”

  “Yes. On the fucking home page.”

  If this had been any other situation, if she hadn’t already been abducted by the vilest people she’d ever known, she would have let it go.

  Instead, she knew she had to see what had so swiftly taken him down. He rubbed three fingers across his forehead, digging in as though trying to force the images away.

  “You have to let me see.” How calm her voice sounded.

  He stared up at her, that familiar haunted look in his blue eyes, the one that seemed to be the sheerest gateway to his soul and to what gave him the greatest pain. “I don’t want you to see this. I don’t want this for you. Dammit, it isn’t right. You shouldn’t have to know this kind of thing exists.”

  Angelica was torn. She valued that he was trying to protect her from what he knew to be the worst of his kind, and part of her wanted to stay in that safe garden. But another part, the part of her that had chosen to stay with Reyes through the duration of the Starlin Festival, had already gotten her hands dirty and didn’t intend to stop now.

  She drew close to him, then slid onto his lap and put her arms around his neck. She held him, not saying anything.

  For a long moment, he did nothing as well but remained immobile, unyielding. But in the end, he wrapped her up in his arms and held her tight, even rubbing his hands every now and then up and down her back. She remained silent but let him feel her determination, knowing that their blood-chain bond would communicate what he needed to know.

  Finally, she drew back and met his gaze straight on. “Show me, Reyes. I can take it.”

  “Just prepare yourself.”

  He shifted her on his lap, turning her toward the table, then lifted the lid, and the video began to play.

  The young Russian woman’s body, eyes wide and empty now, lay on a bloody sheet. She was naked and had cuts and bruises everywhere. She wasn’t alone, either, which might have been the worst part, because there seemed to be a party going on in the background. Several pairs of naked muscular male legs surrounded her. Laughter ensued. Some cheering as well.

  Her skin was pure white, with smears of blood on various parts, and fang-puncture marks that hadn’t closed up. There couldn’t have been a drop of blood left inside her. She’d not only been brutalized, but she’d also been drained.

  “They killed her.”

  “Yes. And they were betting on the moment of death.”

  Angelica felt dizzy and sick to her stomach. She kept thinking she’d never be shocked again; then a new horrible event would knock her off her feet once more.

  Closing her eyes, she worked at adjusting to the reality of the murder, that the innocent woman had died by torture and that there’d been nothing Angelica could have done to have stopped it. In this moment she thought she knew better than ever what drove Reyes to keep going and her resolve deepened.

  When she opened her eyes she forced herself to witness the gruesome spectacle all over again.

  But this time, as she settled her eyes once more on the laptop screen and started replaying the video, familiar waves began to flow all around the edges of computer. The actual images of the video began to grow indistinct and a revisiting vision arrived.

  Uncertain what to do, she told Reyes what was happening.

  “Just go with it,” he said. “There’s something here you’re meant to see.”

  “Okay.”

  She watched, panning backward, and found that the room was full of about thirty people, most of them drinking. One part of the crowd was clustered around a series of flat screens that each held stats of one kind or another, typical betting windows.

  Now that she’d moved into the past, Angelica could hear the young woman moaning and words spoken in what sounded like Russian. She told Reyes.

  He held her tight. “You can stop anytime.”

  But she couldn’t. She felt it now, what she was meant to see.

  Hearing a voice that sounded familiar, she panned to her left within the vision and kept turning until she reached the arched doorway to the large room. “Your former captor is there, Sweet Dove, the one with the red hair. She’s definitely a Starlin member. She’s standing in a doorway and a man is with her. He has his arm around her, but I can’t quite see him. I’ll have to pan just a little bit more.” She could almost see him. She shifted the vision slightly so that he came into view.

  Engles.

  She gasped, surprised all over again but not certain why she should be. If two people had ever been made for each other, it was Sweet Dove and her mentor.

  “It’s Engles, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. They’re enjoying the moment, each holding a drink and looking nonchalant, as though nothing especially significant is going on.”

  “Typical slavers. Are they talking to each other?”

  She nodded.

  “See if you can hear what they’re saying.”

  “Okay.”

  Even though what she saw had already happened, she trembled as she drew close within the revisiting vision. Evil lived in these two people.

  Sweet Dove tweaked Engles’s ear. “So you think Reyes will do it? Will he perform for Scorpion and for you? Because from everything you’ve told me, I don’t think he likes you very much.”

  “I think he hates me, but that doesn’t matter. He’s been clamoring to get into Starlin for decades, and I saw how his eyes lit up when I mentioned the Board of Governors. You were right about him, my darling, and I confess you trained him well. He has more ambition than I’ve seen in a long time.

  “But it was fun watching him jump through so many hoops, making him wait for over two decades, and it was absolute genius that you had me let him win the bid. He’s very possessive of Angelica, which means that taking her away from him is going to be a lot of fun. But are you sure you still want him back?”

  “I owned him once, remember? I will always think of him as my property, to do with as I please. So, yes, I want him back. Only now that he’s embraced the lifestyle, and he’s become a slaver, we’ll have new territory to cover and it will be extraordinary.”

  “He’s not the same man, not a
youth to be seduced and trained.”

  “But he’s not an Ancestral as I am, which means that I can handle him.” Sweet Dove pulled at one of her long red curls.

  “But he has Ancestral potential.”

  “And I’ll make sure he never uses it.”

  “You are so beautifully corrupt, but when do I get my reward for doing your bidding?”

  She held Engles’s gaze. “Just be patient and you’ll get your prize. I tested Angelica when she first arrived, so I happen to know just how much she can take, and yes, she’ll break every endurance record. We’ll both earn another small fortune through the gaming organization.”

  Engles smiled, his eyelids low. “I can hardly wait. She has so much fire.” He then turned to Sweet Dove and nuzzled her neck, asking quietly, “But when do I get to meet Scorpion? Haven’t I proved my loyalty yet?”

  “Ah, yes, your ambitions.” Sweet Dove turned and kissed him, then bit down hard so that he cried out.

  Drawing away from her, Engles had blood pouring from a deep wound on his lower lip. He scowled at her. “What was that for?”

  “For fun, of course, and to remind you that I won’t be hounded or manipulated by you or anyone. When Scorpion is ready he’ll bring you into our partnership, and not a moment sooner.”

  Engles drew a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at his lip. “And will you be present tomorrow night when Reyes performs for Scorpion and me?”

  She shook her head. “Scorpion won’t allow it.”

  “Yet you’re partners.”

  “Scorpion always has his reasons.”

  But at that moment Sweet Dove got a funny look on her face and turned in Angelica’s direction, almost as though she could see her. “Engles, my darling, I don’t believe we’re alone. Someone is here, watching us.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just a strange kind of spidery crawl up my spine.” She narrowed her gaze as though trying to see better.

  Because Sweet Dove took a couple of steps in Angelica’s direction, Angelica knew it was time to shut the vision down. She had no idea whether it was actually possible for an Ancestral of Sweet Dove’s power to make contact over time and space, but she definitely didn’t want to find out.