Braden (20 page)

“This is goodbye, Braden. If you’ve listened to this entire
message, I thank you.” The formal tone left her voice and she touched the
screen. “I truly thank you. And I’ll miss you. Goodbye.”

The screen went blank.

Braden stared at it, suddenly unable to breathe. Voices
cried out in his head, anguished at the loss of something precious and rare.
Something that would never come again.

Braden touched his console as though he still saw her face,
while his heart lay like lead in his chest.

This is what he wanted, wasn’t it? For her to break from
him, to go on with her life?

Her goodbye meant that Braden could tell Rees he’d join him
in finding a way off planet. Justin still had his problem, but they’d work
something out.

Braden had told Rees he’d rather stay and watch over Elisa,
but maybe that would be too hard. It was too damn hard just listening to her
messages on the console.

Elisa had left her order. She was no longer an official
celibate.

Damn her, why had she decided to do that? Had she asked
Braden’s permission first? No, she had not. He needed to punish her for that.

Braden tamped down on his level-three instincts. It was
Elisa’s life, her choice. Why the hell should he care?

But he did care. Elisa was throwing away something important
to her. And why? For a Shareem. A person who, according to the rules, wasn’t
even human.

What if the dickhead she’d dumped used her leaving the order
to renew the breach of contract suit? Dickhead and his family could ruin her.

And she’d have done it because Braden had taught her that
sex wasn’t so bad.

Damn it all.

Braden sprang up, slammed into his bathroom and started
retrieving toys from the sterilizer.

“Where are you running off to?” Justin ducked into the front
door from wherever he’d been roaming and watched Braden shrug on his leather
tunic.

“The Serestine Quarter, to teach a pretty young lady a
lesson.” Braden stopped, studied Justin. “Hey, are you busy? Wanna help me?”

Justin gave him a wide, very Shareem grin. “Thought you’d
never ask.”

* * * * *

When Elisa woke in darkness to the cuff closing around her
left wrist, her heart began pounding in joy.

She’d not changed the key code since sending Braden the last
message, retaining hope. He’d come to her. He’d received her messages and come
to her.

Braden tugged her right hand to her left one and closed a
cuff around that wrist. An inch-long chain joined the two cuffs, keeping her
from moving her wrists apart.

Elisa felt momentary panic over the restraint. It was a
strange sensation, and instinct wanted her to get free.

Braden’s strong hand smoothed her hair. “Shhh. You’re fine.”

Elisa took a long breath. She drew on her meditation
techniques to calm her, focusing on her breathing to swallow her fear. She
rested her hands calmly on her belly and waited to see what he’d do next.

“That’s it, love,” he said, touching a kiss to her lips.
“You’re doing well.”

Braden kissed her again, his lips on her mouth, chin,
throat. He raised her bound hands over her head and rolled her over onto her
stomach.

“Lights,” he said. “Dim.”

The lights rose marginally to reveal Braden in black leather
tunic and leggings. He unfastened and slid off her nightclothes in swift,
practiced movements then he stretched a chain from her bound wrists to one of
the bedposts.

Elisa’s skin prickled in anticipation as she lay facedown
and watched him. Would he play with her? Spank her? Enter her? Would it be in
her vagina or—happy thought—her ass again?

For an answer, Braden slapped a hand to her buttocks. “You
left your order. Why? Did I give you permission?”

“Braden, I—”

Another slap. “Answer the question. Did I?”

“No.”

He drew a thin piece of leather from his pocket and unfolded
it. Elisa’s eyes widened.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Are you afraid, my librarian?”

Terrified. And excited, so excited. “No,” she said. “I’m not
afraid.”

“Good.”

Braden pulled out the next thing from his pocket, a simple
piece of cloth. He braced one knee on the bed and tied the cloth around her
eyes.

Elisa sucked in a breath. “But I can’t see.”

“If you could see, it wouldn’t be a very good blindfold,
would it?”

“But why?”

Braden leaned down, his cool leather clothes touching her
skin. “You think you want to be with Shareem, Elisa. I’ve been going easy on
you, being gentle, because I know you’re new at this. But that’s not what you’d
get if you stayed with me. You’re not ready for the real things I’d do.”

“Real things? What does that mean?”

“Level three. Every bit of it.”

Braden’s large hand landed on her ass again, a mild sting.
She’d grown to love the sensation, especially when he soothed it away with a
caress.

He didn’t soothe this time. He lifted his hand away, and
next she felt the sharper cut of the leather lash.

She cried out, and Braden’s hand soothed the fire. “Hush
now. This is for your disobedience.”

“What disobe—”

Swack.

“I said, hush now.”

Elisa clamped her lips together. She curled her hands into
the rumpled sheets as Braden smacked her with the strap, stopping every couple
of strokes to ease her.

“This is level three, baby,” he said. “Discipline and
bondage.”

Elisa squirmed as the next slap came down. She was his. That
was what the strap told her, what the manacles told her. He was in charge of
her.

The strap hurt and it didn’t. The sting radiated through
Elisa’s buttocks and her pussy, making her undulate in pleasure.

Slap, sting, fire, soothe. Slap, sting, fire, soothe.

The sound of the leather hissing through the air added to
the pleasure…the creak of his clothes, the whisper of his breath.

“Your ass is so red, sweetheart. So pretty.” Braden kissed
it, his lips cool to her hot skin. “You make me want to fuck you.”

“Please.” Yes, to feel him enter her after this would be
heaven.

Swack
.

“Not yet.”

He’d liked it when she’d begged for him before. “Please,
Braden. Please.”

Swack
. “Hush now, or I get out the gag as well.”

Elisa closed her mouth again. What did he want? For her to
tell him she’d changed her mind about leaving the order? It hardly made sense
for him to be pleasuring her if he preferred she go back to being celibate.

Braden spanked her a few more times with the strap, kissing
her to soothe it instead of using his hands. Then the strap went away but, joy,
she felt his finger, cool with lube, at her anus.

She lifted her hips, eager for him to touch her there.
Braden gently pressed the opening. In the darkness behind the cloth, her hands
unable to reach for him, she felt only that sensation, a point of excitement.

Elisa let out a little moan as she felt a plug slide in,
this one the largest yet. It was still fairly small, about the size of his
finger, but the difference was there.

“I have a surprise for you,” he said. “A few, actually. This
is the first one.”

The plug began to vibrate—fast. It buzzed and hummed, and
Elisa pressed herself upward with the pleasure. Maybe, just maybe, he’d put
another one in her vagina. Or better still, roll her over and enter her in the
front while the wonderful plug did its dance in the back.

When the strap cracked across her buttocks again, Elisa
screamed in joy. He had to take her now, had to.

“Are you ready for the second surprise?” Braden asked.

The vibrator and strap together
wasn’t
surprise
number two? This could be wild.

Braden left the bed. The mattress no longer bore his weight
and she felt suddenly cold. She wanted to beg him to come back, but maybe he’d
punish her. Glorious thought.

Then again, him
not
taking her now would be the worst
of punishments. Elisa bit the inside of her mouth and said nothing, in case.

She heard the door of her bedroom hiss open, the tread of
someone else entering the room.

“This is my friend Justin,” Braden said. “Justin, meet
Elisa.”

Justin—the tall Shareem with brown hair she’d seen leaving
his house two days ago. Seeing her naked, facedown and blindfolded, hands
manacled, her ass rising as the vibrator pleasured her.

“Very, very nice,” Justin said in a rumbling voice.

She heard Braden’s voice in her ear, felt his lips brush her
cheek.

“Surprise,” he said.

Chapter Seventeen

Two Shareem.

Two. Taking her.

She couldn’t. Elisa couldn’t let them.

Her body—excited, shaking, hot, open—told her she could.

Braden watched Justin look at Elisa as she lay stretched out
for their pleasure. The light at half volume flooded her body with a rosy glow.

She was beautiful, her cheek on the pillow, her ass slightly
elevated, showing Braden how much she craved him. He didn’t need to touch her
to know she was wet, so very wet.

Justin eyed her like a hungry man at an unexpected banquet.
The idiot probably hadn’t gone to a woman since he’d arrived in Bor Narga.

“What can I do?” he asked.

“Anything you want,” Braden said. “Touch, taste, play, fuck.
The pussy is mine, but all else is fair game.”

“Got it. Can she do a double?”

“I think so. I plan to try.”

He imagined Elisa lying on him, fully enclosing his cock,
while Justin came behind her. The two of them sandwiching her in ultimate
pleasure. Gods, yes.

Elisa had been made for pleasure. She might not have
realized it until she’d dumped the asshole who’d wanted to marry her for her
money, but she was. At least she’d been wise enough to prefer no man at all to
one who’d never fulfill her.

When Braden had walked into her library, he’d seen the spark
in her eyes in spite of her celibate’s robes. She was a woman who wanted to
know pleasure, to discover the depths of her own sexuality.

So lucky Braden was willing to show it to her.

Justin approached the bed and started stroking her skin—legs
and arms, back, getting to know her body. Elisa moved under his touch,
responding to Shareem caresses.

Braden suddenly wanted to snarl, dash across the room and
shove Justin away from her. Maybe this had been a bad idea.

Mine. My Elisa.

His spark of jealousy surprised him. Braden had done plenty
of two on one—even three and four on one. He’d never been jealous of the
second, third or fourth man in the equation.

Focus.
He’d brought Justin here for Elisa’s pleasure.
Not for his needs or Justin’s.

“Nice to meet you, Elisa,” Justin said. “For real, this
time.”

His hands went all over Elisa’s back, down her legs to her
feet and up again. Braden clenched his fists and forced himself to watch.

Justin flicked the vibrator with his fingertip. “This looks
fun. Is it?”

Elisa made a little noise of surprise but said nothing.

“Answer him,” Braden said.

“Yes,” Elisa groaned.

“Would you like my cock back here?” Justin asked, caressing
her buttocks. “My cock
will
go back here, and you’re going to like it.”
He grinned, his level-two pheromones heating. “This would be even more fun with
whipped cream. Got any, Braden?”

“No,” Braden growled.

Justin shook his head. “What can you do with level threes?
No sense of play. I’d like to dab whipped cream on my cock and have you suck it
off, Elisa. Maybe with a cherry on top. Then I’d lick the cream from your
pussy. I’d lick it so slowly, Braden would be all hot and bothered and pissed
off at me, because he’d be dying to have you.”

Elisa quivered both from Justin’s touch and his words. The
dark of the blindfold shut him out but Elisa remembered walking past him and
looking up into his lonely eyes.

Now she heard glee in his voice, felt heat in his touch. He
might be sad and lonely, searching for something, but he was putting that aside
right now to be Shareem. For Braden and for her.

Justin’s touch was different from Braden’s. Justin’s hands
were as hard and calloused, but his fingertips skimmed featherlight over her
skin. He tickled, he wove patterns over her back, he playfully dipped to her
pussy and out again before she could gasp.

Level two. Fun and games.

His hand rested on her buttocks, caressed. Then spanked. Not
as hard as Braden did, more like friendly little pats.

Then the strap, stinging across her backside. Again not as
hard—just enough to make her squirm and laugh.

Justin swatted her a few more times, then he put his hand on
her shoulder. “Turn over, sweet thing.”

Elisa waited, sensing that Braden wouldn’t like it if she
obeyed Justin without question.

“Go ahead,” Braden said. His voice held approval, as though
she’d done right.

Elisa maneuvered herself onto her back. The butt plug fit
snug against her and kept on vibrating.

“Pretty,” Justin said.

He skimmed hands over her breasts, tugged at her nipples.
His hair brushed her belly as he leaned down and licked her navel. She giggled.

“Level twos,” Braden said in disgust. “Never can keep to the
essentials.”

Justin licked Elisa’s navel again. She loved the tickle of
his tongue.

He pressed a kiss below her navel and another just above her
clit. “You shaved her.”

“I like it bare.”

“So do I,” Justin said, breath warm on her clit. “Hair is
nice too, though. It can be pretty.”

Justin continued the kisses, dropping light ones to her clit
and across her opening as he bent her knee and pushed her legs apart.

“She tastes good,” Justin said. He blew on her opening.
“Come and taste this, Braden.”

“I’ve tasted it. Keep on.”