Tales of the Djinn: The Double (20 page)

“Spell that onto his left wrist.”

Cade obeyed. Elyse took Arcadius’s right arm, sliding the bracelet gently over his clenched fist. His head craned around to watch her, his gaze cautious. She stroked his knuckles, silently coaxing him to relax. Seeming reluctant, Arcadius straightened his long fingers.

“You have beautiful hands,” she said as she continued to caress them.

“I have scars.”

She’d noticed them before—and that Cade had none. “The correct response is: thank you, mistress.”

“Thank you, mistress,” he said.

Elyse smiled. “When I spell this ring to clasp your wrist, you won’t be able to smoke out of it, will you?”

“No, mistress.”

“Does the one Cade attached to you hurt?”

“No, mistress. The chains aren’t designed for pain.”

Satisfied, she repeated the same spell as Cade. The second ring closed snugly around Arcadius’s wrist.

He felt the imprisonment—at least psychologically. His body rolled, his wide, muscled shoulders coming off the bed. His hips followed. His cock was hard and red. He couldn’t resist rubbing it on the mattress when he came down again.

“That won’t do,” she said, though she went hot all over watching him. “I didn’t tell you to give yourself pleasure.”

“Perhaps you should punish him,” his double suggested.

She cocked her head at Cade.

“Mistress,” he amended.

What was going through her lover’s head? He’d locked down his expression the way Arcadius liked to. He was aroused, regardless, his fully-fledged erection pulsing straight up in front of him. The organ was powerful, its veins engorged and dark. She suspected Arcadius’s cock was in a similar state.

Cade flushed when he saw her look at his.

“Will you imagine yourself in his place if I punish him?”

His diaphragm jerked with a quick breath. “Yes, mistress,” he grated out.

For the first time, the title sounded natural in his mouth. Hearing that made the little swelling between her legs ache harder. Maybe there was more than she knew to this dominatrix thing.

“Is there a good toy for discipline in this box?”

“There’s a whip,” he said, his voice even rougher than before. “It’s the same as we use on soldiers for serious infractions. It won’t break skin. It simply feels as if it does.”

He’d thought about this before . . . which meant Arcadius had as well.

She found the bullwhip among the jumble of other things. The tail was long braided leather, the stiffer handle portion thick. Cade wet his lips as she curled her fingers around the grip, the shape reminding her—ironically enough—of an erect penis. She shifted her attention to Arcadius. Sweat glistened on his gorgeous face. He rolled his lips together like he was tempted to lick them too. His hips shifted restlessly, almost but not quite buffing his cock on the bed again.

“I have a feeling,” she said, “that you’re too proud to admit if I hurt you more than I should.”

His gaze sharpened. “Why would you worry about that?”

“Because I’d rather make you desperate for pleasure than for a surcease from pain. I think Cade had better tell me when you’ve had enough.”

“You think he will?”

“I know he will. He understands you better than you do him, and he knows what I want from you.”

“What do you want from me . . . mistress?”

Elyse dragged the tail of the whip down Arcadius’s spine to the first rise of his buttocks. The strong muscles clenched as she flirted the leather into his crack. “I want what any mistress would: your complete surrender.”

“You’re fooling yourself if you think I’ll give you that.” He wasn’t bragging, just stating what he thought was fact.

She drew the braided tail up the other way, causing him to grimace at the tickling sensation. The answer she needed came so easily she wasn’t aware she’d searched for it. “I don’t think that’s true. I think you want someone to tell you what to do. I think that’s why you let your mother order you to carry those loads of firewood around your village when you were young. You believed doing what she said would turn you into a good soldier. ‘Arcadius the Burro’ wanted her approval.”

Arcadius’s face tightened. He didn’t appreciate Cade having told her this private story, though it had been Cade’s childhood too. Elyse ignored his displeasure and leaned closer to his ear.

“I’ll tell you another secret.” She laid the hand that held the whip across his tailbone. His skin was hot, his pulse beating strongly everywhere. She dropped the truth bomb on him in a whisper. “It doesn’t matter that I’m a human. You want my approval too.”

“Shh,” she said when he opened his mouth to argue. “If you fight me, I’ll assume you want more punishment.”

He closed his mouth and glared.

“You’re beautiful when you’re angry,” she teased.

With the aid of the footboard, she climbed onto the bed. She nudged Arcadius’s calf with her toes. “Spread your legs. I want to stand between them.”

He spread them and she stepped over. He couldn’t watch her now because she was directly behind him. Cade’s attention would have to satisfy her need for an audience. She stroked the length of the whip thoughtfully. “I suppose I should test this out before I use it. I imagine it’s something like fly-fishing.”

Either it was or the whip was spelled to allow any user to wield it successfully. Her first attempt produced a beautiful cracking in the air. Arcadius tensed but didn’t jerk.

Please God, don’t let me really hurt him,
she prayed.

She brought the lash down across his shoulders. Arcadius hissed as a stripe of pink appeared and then almost instantly vanished from his skin. She glanced over at Cade. He nodded, letting her know that hadn’t been too much. She brought the whip down the other way, crisscrossing the stripe that had disappeared.

Arcadius sucked in air again. “Is that all you’ve got?” he goaded.

“I have what I decide to have,” she countered. “I control what happens here.”

She felt in control of herself. Neither angry nor afraid, she stepped back on the soft mattress so she could reach more of him. She made the whip whistle onto his back six times more. As a soldier, he was used to refusing to let pain weaken him. This wasn’t simply pride: it was him proving he was man. If she wavered, she wouldn’t win the prize she was aiming for. Trusting Cade to warn her if she went too far, she licked the leather more determinedly across his buttocks. Arcadius took six lashes, his jerks of response increasing, though he made no more sounds.

“That’s the idea,” Cade said softly.

She didn’t look at him. She brought the whip down a seventh time. The most vibrant welt yet appeared and faded. An idea came to her of how to make the experience more powerful for him.

“You’re mine, recruit,” she barked.

She didn’t know if it was the final whip stroke or her choice of words, but Arcadius clenched his ass and groaned.

The sound went through her like a caress—deep and low and unmistakably aroused. The same instinct as before gripped her mind and her arm muscles. This was what he needed. This was what she had to do.

Once more,
she thought, raising her arm and slashing it sharply down.

Her victim writhed with abandon on the covers.

“Be still,” she ordered in her harshest voice.

Arcadius ceased moving and just panted.

“Better,” she said grudgingly. “Though I suspect you need more discipline.”

She put her foot on his cheeks, her weight pushing his hips deeper into the mattress. If he were as excited as she suspected, this would feel both bad and good. Arcadius groaned again.

“That’s right,” she said. “This ass is mine, soldier.”

“Don’t.” His voice was so soft Elyse barely heard the plea.

“
Don’t
?” she repeated in disbelief, fully immersed in her role of sexual drill sergeant. She dropped to her palms and knees. Her fingers still clenched the bullwhip. She threw it aside and drove her hand under his pelvis. He gasped when she found him. His cock was so hard it shuddered. She gripped it tightly and pulled one long stroke up the pounding shaft. “This is saying
do,
soldier. This is saying
pretty please
.”

She let him go abruptly.

“Fuck,” he breathed, his whole body shaken by sensual tremors.

“Now that request I can fulfill.” She turned to Cade, who was watching her openmouthed. Shock wasn’t his only reaction. His penis was shuddering too. “Dig out the box of dildos.”

“Don’t,” Arcadius repeated.

Elyse reared up and spanked his ass with her open palm. She didn’t hold back. She was certain this didn’t hurt like the whip. It was, however, more personal. “There’s only one man here who I trust to tell me
no,
and—forgive me—but you aren’t him.”

Arcadius twisted his head around. Sweat rolled down his near temple. “You put him ahead of me?”

“Don’t kid yourself. I’m doing you a favor, and both of you know it. He’d pay to be where you are right now.”

“Then he’s an idiot.”

“He’s you, Arcadius. He knows all your dark secrets—all the things you’ve ever wanted but never dared to say. The difference is he’s not afraid to embrace them.”

“I’m not afraid of anything.”

She almost spanked him again but stopped. The angry glint in his eyes was too close to an
I dare you.

“That’s interesting,” she observed. “You’d rather I hit you than pleasure you anally.”

Taking this as his cue, Cade handed her a dildo carved of cobalt semi-translucent stone—possibly an actual sapphire. Djinn did like real gemstones. “The size of this one seems good.”

Arcadius looked at it, then clamped his mouth tightly shut. He wasn’t denying his double had chosen well. Tellingly, he didn’t look away when she tapped the smooth object against her lips. He might dread what was happening, but he didn’t really want to escape.

“This dildo has a nice shape, doesn’t it?” she asked. “The way it curves. The rounded flare beneath the head. I bet it feels like a real penis going in. Like you’re really submitting to being fucked.”

“I am not a lover of men.”

His protest was surly but shaken. She dragged the tip of the dildo down the perspiring channel of his spine. “Who says you have to be? It’s a symbol of submission. Submission to me, in this case.”

“Maybe I should lubricate him,” Cade volunteered.

That was an interesting suggestion, considering Arcadius’s recent objection.

“We’re . . . linked up again,” he explained, blushing. “I can tell exactly what he likes best.”

This revelation sent a long hard tingle up her most erotic nerves. “That’s a convenient development.” She studied him, waiting patiently for her decision. Cade was going along with this game more voluntarily than his double, but she sensed he wasn’t quite his normal self. Part of this wasn’t pretend for him.

“No,” she said. “I prefer to prepare this recruit myself. I’ll enjoy it twice as much knowing I’m affecting both of you. You can ensure he doesn’t hide anything from me.”

Cade didn’t have to say
yes, mistress.
She read that in the respectful manner with which he bowed his head.

~

Arcadius couldn’t grit his teeth hard enough to stop his body from reacting. He didn’t want what he knew was coming but also couldn’t bear to wait. The link with Cade made it worse. He craved everything for two.

Get it over with,
he thought, desiring and dreading Elyse’s next touch on him.

She was right. Taking the whipping had been easier for him.

That was over, though the jolts of pain seemed to have wakened every nerve he had. Hot chills chased in waves down his trembling spine and limbs. His groin was pounding, silky wetness seeping steadily from his slit. The sound of Elyse unscrewing the lid of an unguent jar inspired a further shiver of excitement. He hid his face in the covers under him. Though that was cowardly, he couldn’t stop himself.

Two of her fingers spread warm slick lubricant down his crack. When they rubbed his asshole, hot chills became hot tingles.

“Stop clenching,” she said. “You’re a soldier. You can take anything.”

He was so tense he didn’t think he could relax. One slender finger pushed into him anyway. He groaned at the sensation. The slow penetration was intensely pleasurable, more than he expected. He’d never had this done to him. No woman had ever tried. Did Elyse want to because human females had no proper sense of place?

Was that what made it—and her—so exciting?

He gasped as she continued rubbing, his head arching off the bed with enjoyment. She leaned closer, her harness-covered breasts touching his back lightly.

“You see,” she said. “You like giving in to me.”

“No.” he said. He didn’t mean it, but something about denying her claim was thrilling—as if striving against her was part of the excitement.

“Yes,” she contradicted, her teeth closing on his nape in a quick light nip. He’d done that to her in the closet. Now it seemed she was claiming him. The way that made him feel, the bone-deep longing for it to be true, threatened to strip him to his soul. He couldn’t let that happen, not when this was simply an exercise.

“Get on with it,” he growled.

“Get on with what?” she responded mockingly.

“Get on with fucking me,
mistress
.” The shudder that rolled through him as he addressed her by the title put the lie to his belligerence. He cursed silently.

He might as well have begged her.

She laughed the same as if he had. “I’ll get on with fucking you, recruit. I just hope you’re man enough to take it.”

She moved back, wet slapping noises informing him she was slathering the dildo.

“You need a cushion for your hips,” she announced. “Cade, put one under him.”

Cade got a name. Arcadius was only
soldier
or
recruit.

Chains rattled as Cade lifted him at the waist. The bolster he shoved under him tilted his ass upward. The position was hardly one of authority. Arcadius should have fought it. God forbid any of his men saw him offered up like this. Instead he hitched his legs wider and panted.