The Alpha's Choice (17 page)

"Cold?"

She almost said, "What the hell do you think?
I don't have the body heat of a wolver." She'd noticed they all
felt a little warm. Instead, she held her tongue and nodded. Her
next giant shiver convinced him.

"Don't look down," he said.

She didn't need to. A soft golden glow
illuminated the area around them. It was the same glow that filled
the room when he healed Buddy. The warmth began at her feet and
rose up her legs. When he reached the tops of her thighs, he moved
to her arms and the same flush of warmth suffused them. He moved
around her, never touching her, but wherever his hand hovered was
warmed. Across her shoulders and down her back, the heat soothed
her like a steaming shower at the end of a long day and as she
often did in the shower, her head tilted back and she sighed with
pleasure.

"Damn, kitten, you're beautiful," he
breathed.

And then the light dissolved and her source
of heat was gone. She almost cried out at the loss. Instead, she
wiggled her rear end to show him he missed a spot.

"Always complaining." He smacked each cheek
and on the cold flesh, it stung. "That's for trying to shorten your
punishment."

Kat eeked and did a little dance with her
feet, jiggling those stinging globes. It was as much for his
pleasure as her relief and if he was distracted…

"Ready, set…"

This time, she was leaping from the rock
before he got to "go". She ignored the stubbly growth jabbing at
her feet. There was the bucket and suddenly, there was Charles
picking it up by the bail before she reached it.

"Hmm, what should the penalty be if you've
nothing left to forfeit."

Fully in the spirit of this extraordinary
game, Kat slid her hand down the center of his chest and along the
valley that separated the muscles defining his abdomen until she
reached the button of his jeans. It was too dark to see his face
from her position on her knees, but she took his sharp intake of
breath as permission for her to continue. She freed his erection
and took him into her mouth.

She played with him as he had played with
her, teasing with her tongue and teeth and 'purring' once she had
him fully in her mouth. She kept her hands behind her back as if
tied. This was, after all, her forfeit and punishment.

Charles understood the gesture right away.
"Finally," he sighed, "I've found a woman who likes to play."

She wondered vaguely about how many women
he'd gone through to find her and had to remind herself that it was
okay as long as she was the last in line. Still, the jealous
thought gave her an idea for a bit of revenge.

She increased her efforts, teasing him with
her teeth and working him with her tongue, sucking him deeply into
her throat until his body tightened and his breath quickened and
she knew he was reaching the height of his control.

Whereupon she pushed herself to her feet and
took off for the barn, shouting, "Ready, set, go!" as she ran.

She was laughing and running full speed, her
punishment over. She was sure she would win this leg of the race
and the barn had to be warmer than the great outdoors. She had the
door open before he caught her.

"You cheat," he said, laughing as he gave her
a playful shove into the barn. He closed the door behind them.
"You'll pay for that."

"I hope so," she laughed back. She threw her
arms around his neck and pressed her body to him. She was shivering
with a mixture of cold and excitement, but not for long.

Charles wrapped his arms around her and held
her close, running his warm hands over her back and buttocks while
he kissed her with all of the ardor she had come to expect from
this strange and exciting man. Cold as she had become, she was
strangely invigorated by the chase through the yard and anxious to
satisfy the cravings her body had developed during her run.

The bulge pressing firmly to her belly
through the rough fabric of Charles' jeans told her that in spite
of his wet exposure to the cold, those cravings were shared. He'd
enjoyed the chase and she found a certain pleasure and satisfaction
in that, so when he gently pushed her away and took her hand to
lead her into one of the stalls built along one wall of the barn,
opposite the cars and trucks, she followed him willingly.

If the barn was warmer than the outdoors, the
stall was warmer still, particularly after he closed both upper and
lower halves of the door. The floor was covered in fresh straw and
smelled sweet to her unaccustomed to nose. The walls were solidly
built of fresh cut pine and sturdy hooks dotted the upper reaches
holding various pieces of rope, leather, and metal which she
assumed were used for horses. Faint light from the main part of the
barn seeped over the tops of the walls giving an impression of the
muted glow of dawn.

After looking about the stall, she turned to
Charles who met her with a small white towel in his hands. Without
a word, he began to rub her down with it. Starting with her arms
and moving to her legs, he rubbed her briskly with the course
cloth, heating her skin with rough friction.

"I want you warm and toasty. Raise your
arms," he ordered as he began the vigorous application to her
back.

Kat did as she was told, but not without
question. Looking back over her shoulder she told him, "Charles,
honey, I'm warm. You don't need to do this."

Her answer was another sharp smack on her
ass, this one a little more painful than the last. "Ouch!"

"No talking during punishment and keep your
arms up."

Chapter 16

Kat tried to step away, but an arm snaked
around her waist and held her in place. "B-but I already served my
punishment, the chase across the yard."

She was rewarded with another smack to the
other cheek. This time she didn't lower her hands, but grabbed the
fingers of one hand with the other and squeezed.

"Eavesdropping and lying. Two infractions,
two punishments."

He was speaking to her back, but Kat heard
the amusement in his voice.

"Charles," she pleaded.

Another crack on ass, this one hard enough to
make her feet dance before he moved to her front and worked the
rough cloth over her breasts which bobbled back and forth under his
ministrations. He moved to the soft mound of her belly and the
small pouch she could never be rid of no matter how much she
exercised. It jiggled, too, and she was embarrassed until he kissed
it and murmured.

"I love this part of you, so round and soft
and feminine." He whispered it with his lips against her skin and
in spite of what he was demanding of her, he made her feel sensual
and sexy. Towel cast aside, his hand moved down between her
legs.

"Open," he ordered and without thinking, Kat
obeyed, again with both eyes and legs.

His finger probed more deeply this time than
it had before and Kat whimpered a little when with the moistened
tip, he circled her clit. At the sound, he plunged his finger
inside and slowly withdrew it. His eyes never left her face and
what she saw in those glittering green orbs took her breath
away.

She wasn't allowed to speak, so she inched
her feet a little further apart as an answer to what she'd seen in
those eyes.

Charles lifted the finger now coated with her
juices for her to see and then he slowly drew it into his mouth and
cleaned it with his tongue, sighing when he removed it as if he'd
tasted ambrosia.

Kat was glad he walked behind her to retrieve
something from the wall so she could close her eyes and sigh. She
wasn't sure what this was, but she knew she liked it and would do
whatever he required. No one had ever made her feel this way. She
was his to command and yet she felt the power was all hers. She
excited him. The waves of his magic crashed soundlessly against her
and like an addictive drug, she wanted more.

She felt the heat of his chest at her back
and then his hands were caressing her shoulders and following her
arms up to her wrists where he wrapped them with something firm yet
supple.

"Up on your toes, Katarina mine." Her body
stretched until her toes barely touched the ground as he forced her
hands upward where he hooked what she now realized was a leather
thong about her wrists to a hook drilled into the support beam
above them. Once her wrists were in place, she could put her heels
back on firm ground, her body stretched, but not uncomfortable.

"Open," he said and she obeyed, but it wasn't
enough and he tapped the inside of her ankles with his bare foot
and she complied. With each tap of his foot, she spread herself
further until she was spread so wide her weight hung from her
wrists and her feet could only provide balance. Charles tied her
ankles in place with the soft rope that dangled from opposite
walls. He wrapped a silky cloth around her head, covering her eyes
and blocking out what little light there was and then left her
there, hanging in this vulnerable and precarious pose.

She didn't move. He didn't speak. The long
silence gave her time to think about the position she'd allowed
herself to be placed in and her mind wandered to places where she
didn't want to go. In the position she was held in, she could only
imagine one thing happening.

A little spanking she could handle. The sharp
slaps to her ass stung, but they also excited her and caused her
juices to flow. But this? Kat's mind shouted "No, no, no!" and yet
she remained silent, her body tense and waiting and Charles let her
wait.

He was watching her. She could feel his eyes
wandering over her as his power sent those sensual flames of
arousal pirouetting over her body. She thought, no, she knew she
could feel the beating of his heart matching the beat of her
own.

She'd trusted Charles from the beginning of
this 'punishment' and he hadn't hurt her. He had, in fact, thrilled
her with the adventure of it. She would trust him now. She forced
her body to relax against the restraint at her wrists and settled
more firmly on her feet.

"Ah, my Katarina, you are a treasure."

She sighed with bliss when his hands stroked
lightly down her back, sending those electric tendrils of desire
coursing through her. In such a short time, she'd come to crave
them. Those wondrous hands stroked and caressed and tickled as they
play along her arms and legs and danced over her stomach and back,
never touching the places that craved their touch the most.

Finally, when she thought she could stand no
more, those warm hands covered her breasts and continued to stroke
and knead and heighten her tactile arousal. Her nipples were hard
and tight, pebbled almost to pain and when he rolled them between
his fingers and thumbs, she gasped with pleasure.

"Do you like this, kitten?" He asked as he
gently rubbed the slight pain away.

Now that he'd given her permission to speak,
she could only nod and gasp as he rolled her nipples again. She
felt him nuzzle her hair and breathe deep of her scent and heard
him whisper next to her ear.

"I want to hear my kitten purr."

His hands cupped the bottom of her breasts
and he pulled her tightly against him. He kissed her neck and the
sensitive place behind her ear. He caressed her shoulders with his
lips and tongue, tiny darts of moist heat that made her quiver with
need. He kissed his way down her spine to the base, all the while
caressing and kneading the cheeks of her ass. He ran his finger
along the crack that separated those cheeks, paused for a moment at
the rosebud opening and she tightened against the possible
invasion. His laugh was a deep rumble before he continued on.

She felt him sink to his knees in front of
her where his tongue found a new playground and frolicked happily
around her clit. She was so aroused from his previous attentions
that it didn't take much to make her body dance to the tune his
eager mouth played.

"Purr for me kitten," Charles ordered and
Kat, the kitten, purred.

His mouth and tongue took her higher and
higher until she felt ready to explode with the sensation and then
he stopped and withdrew, stroking her thighs and buttocks until she
calmed before turning his attentions once more to her cleft. He
brought her to the edge, over and over, until she moaned with her
need for release. She could feel the moisture dripping from her and
each time he returned to her burning clit, she tried to angle her
body and increase the pressure to give her the release she
sought.

And every time she moved, she earned a smack
on her ass from the hand that wasn't busy tormenting her along with
an admonishment to stay still, an admonishment that was barely
heard beneath the sound of her whimpers and moans.

"Tell me what you want, kitten. Tell me what
you need from me."

Kat had trouble finding her voice, but she
knew he wouldn't release her from this agony of need unless she
told him what she wanted, needed.

"You," she breathed, "You. Oh god, please let
me come, please."

"Did you just call me a god?" he
chuckled.

He was asking this now? "I'll call you
anything you want, you furry bastard, just let me come."

He let her come. He took her over the edge in
a flash of light and sound that left her quivering with exhaustion.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her through it and murmured
of his pleasure in her ear.

His words were largely wasted. Kat was so
caught up in the sensations coursing through her body that she
couldn't hear or speak or see. She felt him unhook her wrists, felt
him gently lowered her to the ground, felt him take her into his
lap and felt his warm and comforting arms surround her. She
whimpered and snuggled more tightly into his chest each time a tiny
orgasmic aftershock exploded in her core.