Being Emerald (18 page)

He fell silent and seemed to fall into a memory. She searched his face. He was worried, but his expression didn’t show it. “There will be times when you absolutely hate me and that’s okay.”

“I could never hate you.”

“Let me give you a true and honest taste of my most intense urges. It could ease your fears of the unknown, at least in the physical part of our relationship. I won’t hold back. Consider it a crash course.”

This was it. They’d leave this room with everything, or nothing. What if she couldn’t be what he needed?

“All I ask for is your trust. I’ll never give you a reason to doubt me. And the connection, it only gets stronger…better with time. Give everything to me, Laila, and I promise you’ll be loved, cared for and never have a day of boredom for the rest of your life.”

He waited for everything he’d said to sink in.

“I’ve already made my decision. Did it yesterday. And, for the record, there’s not much I wouldn’t already do for you.”

Relieved, Rock took in a breath. “Yeah?” He stood, bringing her to her feet and pulled her into his arms. “You need to trust me in everything, Laila.”

“I do trust you, Rock.” The whispered words were a fundamental truth, and she held his gaze so he could read it in her eyes. Carnal energy radiated from him, crashing into her like the waves of a storm. She didn’t sense any menace. No, the energy that swamped her as he stepped into her personal space was pure sex.

He stood so close, her chest skimmed his each time it rose and fell with the deep swells of air she rapidly sucked in and forced out of her lungs.

She’d wanted Rock to make love to her since the day they’d met, but this wasn’t the Rock she pined for. There was something or someone in him now she’d never fully seen. This different man, this force of nature, was in control. She froze in full fight-or-flight mode. He’d become the dangerous unknown. Laila swallowed through a dry throat made tighter as Rock curled his massive hand around the front of her neck, gripped it firmly.

“You still trust me?”

Even though he completely overshadowed her, she didn’t feel scared. She felt small. His heavy-lidded black stare gleamed with desire.

“Yes. I trust you.”

A slow, almost diabolical smile transformed his face.

“Wait for me here.” He turned and left the room. His footfalls were slower and heavier than usual. He’d said his peace and hadn’t been turned away. The composure she sensed from him now was at complete odds with the thrill shooting through her veins and electrifying her senses. The racket inside her body made the stillness of the bedroom disconcerting.

Rock returned five minutes later with an armful of items, and dropped them unceremoniously on the dresser by the door.

“Come here.” He held a faded red bandana in his hand.

Laila kicked up her chin as she approached him. Her stomach performed a dizzying waltz within her.

Rock circled her, placed the soft fabric over her eyes and tied it tightly. His clothes rustled with his movements, and she anticipated his touch as he approached her again.

“Last chance to back out,” he said next to her ear, making her jump.

“Bring it on,” she whispered. He was her Rock. She could withstand anything he wanted her to, as long as he was with her. Her throat tightened as she worked through her heightened emotions. In that instant, all she wanted to be was his Laila. God, she was dumb with the drive to please this man. Anticipation was a presence in the room, hanging heavy in the air, its weight conspicuous against her skin. Its potency made her lightheaded as it threaded through her blood.

His hands had been absent from her for at least a minute. Laila straightened and her muscles tensed. “Rock?” The calloused pad of a finger ran from the nape of her neck and bump, bump, bumped over her vertebrae down the length of her spine. She shivered.

Yes, she’d endure anything for this man. That vow was easy to keep as Rock’s hot mouth closed around a nipple. She threw her head back at the relentless suckling and nipping until he pulled free of her breast with a pop. She waited, breathless, for his next touch and he teased her with the absence of it. A cool breeze wafted over her wet areola. She gasped as the air tightened her already hard nipple and raised goose bumps on her skin. Then, cool metal exerted gentle pressure on the distended peak. Whatever it was continued to tighten until it was attached to the bud of her nipple, which swayed slightly from the movement of whatever dangled.

She groaned. “It hurts.”

He gave no indication he’d heard her at all. Suddenly, the process began again on her other nipple. The suction he applied with his mouth was almost painful. Then the breeze that seemed to travel down her spine instead of over her incredibly hard nipple. He took his time placing the clamp, and then he set it in motion so the swaying of the weight teased her flesh.

He kept her guessing, unexpectedly touching her in different places with his tongue, with his fingers, with the rasp of his whiskers. Then, he stepped in close behind her, and his fat cock wedged between them. His muscled arms surrounded her as he skimmed his hands over her abdomen and between her legs. A quick swipe to her clit, and then his hand was gone.

He bent her over the bed, until her breasts landed on the cotton duvet and covered her with his body. He breathed loudly in her ear and his significant weight crushed her into the mattress, squeezing the air from her lungs. “Don’t move.”

The massive body on top of her disappeared. His warmth at her back dissipated. She couldn’t hear him, couldn’t see. She felt him towering over her and imagined him there with his arms crossed over his chest, absorbing the sight of her bent over the bed, exposing her private places.

“I’ve held back so much of myself because of the mission,” he said. “And because I wanted to be sure. You have been bad, so bad. Not just once, but on several occasions. I let it go.” He nudged her feet even further toward the corners of the bed. Her skin thrummed underneath the brushes of his fingers as he tethered her ankles. “But now, I’m sure. And you say you’re sure. Are you still sure, Laila?” he asked as he pressed her into the mattress with a gigantic hand on her back.

“Yes,” she breathed.

He guided her arms over her head. “Keep them there,” he growled close to her ear. She grasped the smooth sheet under her hands and held on tight. “Good girl. I have a backlog of discipline waiting for you.” His lust had come alive when he’d spoken the word discipline, and activated hers. “When you make the disappointing decision to disobey me, to keep secrets from me, or put yourself at risk, you will have a punishment waiting for you in hopes that maybe you’ll give your actions more thought the next time you’re tempted to put yourself in harm’s way.”

He nudged the hard flesh of his cock between the cheeks of her ass, and pressed his chest to her back. “It’s my reward for having to suffer your disobedience as much as it’s deterrent for you. Sometimes, peanut, I’ll punish you just because I feel like it, but on those occasions, you will be the ultimate winner, I promise.” His breaths were labored and humid against her ear.

Rock pulled away, leaving her instantly chilly. A slight panic bubbled. “Rock?”

One of his fingers found the pucker of her ass, and he grunted softly. His fingers were between her cheeks, and then he inserted something small and cool into her anus. It only took seconds for the thing to start stinging, and then the burn began, making her want to curl in on herself. “What did you do? What is that?”

“It’s just ginger. Don’t worry, it won’t have any lasting effects.”

She groaned. “It’s uncomfortable.”

“You deserve it, don’t you, Laila? You deserve to be punished for exposing yourself needlessly to the enemy.”

“Yes.” She cried out. “It burns. Please.” She squirmed, unable to keep still with her insides going up in flames.

“Yes, love. I’ll make it better. But not yet. The next time I catch you talking to Garret, I will make this punishment seem like playtime. Are we clear, Laila?”

“Yes, clear.” She moaned. “Please!”

“Please what, baby?”

“Out! Please.”

He inserted a finger into her rear and pulled the small thing out. Within seconds, she felt as if the ginger had never been in there at all. “Thank you.” Her words were drowned out by the crack of his hand meeting her rear. The first impact was a sting, quick and sharp. Laila cried out in surprise and then again as his second swat heated her butt. She tried to roll away from him. An instinctual reaction to what she knew would become infinitely more pleasurable after a few more blows. His swats stopped, and he said in a warning tone, “Move again and I’ll restrain your arms too.”

Laila stilled and withstood the steady impact on her rear and the back of her thighs. She gripped the sheets desperately in an effort to tether herself to the room, but the spanking still took her to another reality. One where it was easy to let go of her worries. One where she could just…be.

“Listen, Laila. Listen to the music we’re making. The crack of skin against the soft purr of your cries as the background. It’s a beautiful sound, baby. One you’ll long for someday.”

She moaned in response.

He chuckled, and continued, seemingly unfazed by her retreat into her own existence. The violent pairing of his palm to her ass seemed to carry less sting. Then, just as suddenly as it began, the spanking stopped.

Her ears rang with a high-pitched tone and tears escaped her eyes, dampening the soft cotton sheet under her cheek. The rest of the world didn’t exist. Nothing existed, except the sensations of the moment. Her thoughts were muddled, but one thing was clear. Rock radiated satisfaction and pleasure.

Her pulse throbbed, subtly pushing the skin covering her carotid with each thump. Her hands were unusually cool, her adorned nipples impossibly hard and trapped uncomfortably between the mattress and her body.

The pads of his fingers smoothed along the curves of her body, giving her chills. They blazed a trail up the inside of one leg and delivered feather-light touches over her engorged lower lips. God, she wanted him inside her. “Please, Rock.”

“Shh. I know, baby. Now you know, too.” He pinched her clit. “It’s a suffering you need to understand, since you’ve insisted on defying me.”

Rock’s voice seemed far away. She hadn’t heard him right.

“What?” Never in her life had she been so desperate. “Rock,” she implored him. “Please.” Her nails tore at the sheets.

“Please what, baby?”

“Take me now, please,” she said between sobs.

“Remember this moment. Burn it into your brain, baby.”

He was between her thighs, pouring more liquid on her ass. The crown of his penis nudged her there. He penetrated her in a super slow forward thrust until he was all in.

She floated, full to bursting, like a balloon.

He withdrew and pushed in again. “Fuck, yeah. You deserve all of me. Tell me you want all of me, baby.”

“All of you.” Her spoken words left her mouth, unbidden.

His cock retreated from her ass just long enough to stick a vibrator in her pussy. Then, his thick cock entered her again.

Rock curved around her. She felt as if she held all his weight. He pulled her ponytail, bringing her head back and exposing her throat. Wrapping his hand around her neck, he squeezed, making it difficult for her to take a breath. His lips were next to her ear. “Ask me for air, baby.”

An act made almost impossible with his hand around her throat and the full weight of his body on top of her. She dragged in a breath and moaned. She had difficulty ripping her attention away from the vibrator bringing her to the brink of orgasm. Wheezing in another gulp of oxygen, she whispered, “Air. Please.” He released her throat, withdrew his cock and thrust into her again. “Oh God! Rock!” She was suspended, so close to her climax. Her muscles froze. Rigid and strained, she was helpless, unable to do anything but focus on the orgasm just outside her grasp.

Dragging in another breath, she exploded with a bone-jarring climax that curved her body, giving him more of her ass. Her muscles shuddered and quaked through the longest, most intense orgasm she’d ever had. Only as the climax faded did she realize she was wailing.

Rock pounded her with piston speed and hammering strength. He dug his fingers into her hips. “Fucking beautiful,” he cooed next to her ear. Then his hot seed flooded her ass.

Waves of love from this man and for him filled her heart. The life-altering moment was sweet and sacred. As close to the divine as she’d ever been.

A sob wrenched from her soul and came out her mouth. She was in ecstasy. She was home. The sudden relief and rightness of it ruined her. When she recognized the certainty she wouldn’t have to be alone anymore, the certainty that he’d never leave her, she cried her relief. The keening sob she released sounded faraway as she drifted.

Rock was satisfied. He removed her blindfold, and she opened her eyes to the bright light of late morning bouncing off the yellow walls of her bedroom.

Filling her line of sight, he ordered, “Talk to me,” as he unfettered her limbs.

“Uh.” She blinked several times, trying to get her bearings. Rock’s intense gaze roamed over her face.

“When you took away my ability to see, other senses became stronger.” Her words were garbled. He straightened her from her bent over position. She was bone weary.

“Sorry for this. Meant to do it earlier,” he said as he unclipped her nipples.

“Ahh!” Pain struck as the flow of blood started again.

Rock scooped her up, deposited her gently on the bed, and covered her with the light top sheet. He left her briefly then returned with a glass in hand. “Drink,” he said, holding a glass to her mouth.

She was parched, and drank the whole glass before she lay back down and rolled to her side.

He climbed in behind her and cinched her close to him, conforming his body to hers. “Still mine?” he whispered into her ear.

“Mmm, always,” she said as she drifted off to sleep.

As Laila entered the women’s rest room down the hall from her office in the Peacekeeper’s Compound, she heard the sound of babies crying. It was faint but unmistakable. She turned right, toward the sound instead of entering a stall.