She sucked on him lightly, tonguing him across that slit and around the bulbous head. He was unflinchingly hard, thrusting out toward her proudly and boldly. He took a breath in that was audible to her, and she knew she was affecting him strongly. He drove his hand into the tresses of her still-damp hair, and his fingers closed into a fist. She felt him pulling her hair, and she strained against the pull, rather than go with it, in order to keep her mouth working on him.

  Valerian uttered an unintelligible sound of pleasure, and she took him further into her mouth. Her hair stung at the roots, but she didn’t care. In fact, she welcomed the bracing pain of it. It made her feel as if they were in a contest of wills.

  Whose will would win out? Hers or his? Who would be the stronger of the two?

  She already knew the answer, but it was amusing to toy with the thought that she might somehow prove to be stronger than him in some way.

  She gave to him as selflessly as she knew how; using her mouth in any way she could imagine would feel good for him. There was still a lot about him… about sex in general… that she did not understand. She was still very green. But she had given him this pleasure before, and she felt that it was easily repeated. She could only improve each time, she surmised.

  He tasted clean and wonderful. The smell of the soap they had used was still strong on him. But beneath that was the scent that could only be defined as his. The flavor of him was equally potent. As drips of his seed oozed from the tip of his cock it spread over her taste buds tasting strong and sexy and male.

  A second fist joined the first in her hair, and she could hear the rapid cadence of his breathing. “Yes,” he hissed. “Service me. Give to me. Be my obedient Pet.”

  She sucked at him harder, determined to make him lose control over himself. Determined to send him spinning off into pleasure. Wanting to feel him release.

  “You like this, do you not?” he said. “You’re like a pleasure whore who loves her job. You want to give and to be used. Shall I give you a coin when you’re through for a job well done?”

  He clearly wasn’t looking for a response, so she didn’t break from her act of fellatio to respond. She merely intensified what she was doing, his words spurring her on in a way she didn’t fully understand. She should be insulted by the things he said… and had anyone else said them she would have been. But this was her Sir. They understood one another. She understood that his words were meant to give them both pleasure… not detract from it in any way.

  “Enough!” he barked suddenly, yanking her off of him by her hair, startling her. He pulled her hair hard, bending her head back on her neck. “As much as I would love to come down your throat right now, you have done little to earn such a reward.”

  “But it is not for me. It is for you, Sir.”

  “I do not need your charity,” he ground out, yanking her up to her feet. He kept one fist in her hair and took her arm in his opposing hand. He guided her across the room and behind the curtain, where he threw her down on the bed. “Don’t presume to know what is best for me. I am your master. I am the only one who knows what is best for myself and for you.”

  Chapter Three

  “Get on your hands and knees,” he commanded.

  Confused, she hastened to obey him. What had she done wrong? She had thought he would be pleased by her. Instead he seemed angry. No. Not angry. But something equally tempestuous.

  She faced the head of the bed, so she had to strain to see him as he walked behind her. There was a trunk at the foot of the bed, and she saw him going into it.

  “Do not look at me!” he said sharply. “Do I need to blindfold you?”

  “N-no, Sir,” she said quickly forcing herself to look down. Her curiosity as she heard him rummaging around in the trunk was killing her. She never knew what to expect from him. What was he going to do to her now?

  After a moment he closed the trunk and walked up beside her. She didn’t take her eyes off the bed. Then he placed something on the bed in her line of sight. She drew in a soft breath as she looked down at the exquisite collar of gold links connected to a large gold disk which was surrounded by a circle of diamonds of impressive size. Etched into the front facet of the disk was the insignia she had seen flying from Valerian’s banners as they traveled across the country. A large, majestic eagle. Protruding from this was a solid gold ring.

  “Do you know what that is?” he asked, bending close to her ear to whisper into it.

  “A necklace,” she said.

  “A collar. One that, when you wear it, will mark you as mine.”

  “I am already yours,” she said with a strange sense of excitement tensing in her belly.

  “Yes. You are. But this will announce it to the rest of the world. And a great many things come with this collar. My protection. The respect that is afforded to a woman of import in my life. While you wear this no one will question who you are or any commands you give. Do you wish to wear it? Do you wish to show to all the world that you are obediently mine?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “I cannot hear you!”

  “Yes!” she cried more loudly.

  He snatched the collar away from her sight. “Then you must earn it. I do not give it away lightly or to just anyone. You will notice that none of the women of the harem have one of these. It is one of a kind, meant for one special woman. A woman who proves herself loyal to me. A woman who will obey me in all things without question.”

  “Then I will never earn it,” she said almost sadly. “Because I cannot help but question all things… including you.”

  “Ah, but this is why you will earn it above everyone else. The day you accept my most outrageous command without question is the day you will earn this collar.”

  She struggled with that mentally for a moment. “I hope I will not disappoint you,” she said softly.

  “I have faith that you will not. But it will take some work. You have already come so far so fast. It is why I have such hope for you. And once this goes on it will never come off… unless I take it off of you. And that would be a sad day for you, for it would mean you have betrayed me and let me down. It would mean you are no longer protected by me… or from me. I think you are wise enough to know I have been gentle with you thus far. I am quite capable of being harsh and cold and brutal. These are sides of me you do not wish to see.”

  “I would accept any side of you, for it is a part of you.”

  He reached out and stroked a finger across her forehead. “Is that so?”

  “I-I think it is so.”

  “Let’s test that theory.” He pulled his hand away, and she heard the distinct sound of a blade being drawn.

  Her breath caught in her throat as the next thing he thrust into her line of sight was stabbed hilt deep into the mattress. It was a large dagger with a wicked blade. She saw this as he withdrew it from the mattress slowly before her eyes. The tip of the dagger was curved slightly and it gleamed in the candlelight. He raised the blade to touch her chin, and she felt her heart racing madly in her chest.

  What was he going to do with the knife? Was this simply a test? Or would he be using that wicked-looking blade on her? Would he cut her? Stab her? Surely he did not intend to kill her or do any great harm to her. But did she really know that to be true? This was a man who had whipped her without a second thought.

  He buried his fist into her hair again, and he pulled her head back, bending it until her neck was open and exposed. He then brought the blade to rest against her racing pulse. He scraped the blade up along her throat slowly, sawing it gently as he went. If she had any body hair in that place it was surely shaved away by the act.

  He brought the tip of the blade up along her chin until it came up over her lips. She closed her mouth as a matter of instinct, forcing herself to breathe heavily through her nose. He smeared the blade over her closed lips, as one would use a knife to smear butter onto toast. She felt the sharpness of the blade, felt as it came so close to breaking her skin. It would have, had not the man behind it been so expert at what he was doing.

  He pulled the blade away from her mouth, and she exhaled in relief, making her realize that at some point she had held her breath. But her relief was short-lived. The blade came under her body to glide along her breastbone between her breasts. Her arms and legs began to tremble as she remained braced upon them, afraid to move in any direction he did not wish her to move in for fear she would pay the price by drawing her own blood.

  She felt him kneel on the bed behind her. He wrapped a hand around her throat and pulled her up off her hands until her back was pressed to his chest. Her bottom was nestled into his hips, his erection prodding at the crease of her buttocks. He pulled her head back until it rested on his shoulder, then kept her looking up at the top of the tent as the blade continued to scrape over her skin. She didn’t know what was more intense. Seeing the blade on her skin, or feeling it there without being able to see it.

  The tip of the blade came to her left nipple. He flicked it against the hard point once… then twice… then a third time. Each time he shaved away a layer of skin cells… but did not break the skin. He moved the blade and treated the other nipple the same.

  The knife then traveled down her stomach and headed for her pubic mound. When in the comfort of the harem she had been required to remove all her body hair, but after three weeks of travel without so much as a bath, all her hair had grown back. So now the knife was traveling through the tight blonde curls that protected her sex.

  “Shall I shave you?” he asked.

  “You may do whatever you like. I am yours to do with as you will.”

  “Good answer,” he said with a chuckle. “There is hope for you yet.”

  “I think I have shown more than adequate progress,” she said with a breathy laugh.

  “Indeed you have. I could hardly ask for better. But you still have some distance to go,” he said softly against her ear. He turned her suddenly, lifting the blade away from her skin as he threw her down onto her back in the bed. He knelt between her raised knees, caressing the soft inside of her thigh from knee to crotch. Then he lifted away, and the blade pricked at the side of her knee. He pressed it into her skin until she felt the puncture and a drop of blood welled onto the tip of the dagger. Then he slowly drew the blade up her thigh, leaving a trail of blood as if the blade had been a quill dipped in ink and now her delicate skin was acting as parchment. Melena’s breath came hard and fast. The prick itself had been a twinge of pain, barely there for a second, but it made her very aware of how fragile her skin was beneath that blade, and how she was completely at his mercy. He could potentially cut her anywhere he liked… and he expected her to let him.

  As he drew closer to the delicate pink flesh of her sex she began to tremble. He purposely did not meet her eyes, she knew, focusing all his attention on where he was drawing the dagger. But she also knew he was more than aware of her every reaction… her every facial expression. She had no doubt he was gauging her response every step of the way.

  She wanted to remain calm, but instead her heart raced. But it wasn’t because she didn’t trust him, she realized. It was because she was excited. Aroused. When she thought of what he was going to do next, she felt herself growing wet and ready for him. The reaction still baffled her. What kind of person must she be that she found something like that so exciting? What did it mean that all she could think of as he scraped her skin was the feel of his hard cock inside her, thrusting the way the knife could so easily thrust into her?

  The blade touched the pink folds of her pussy, and he made a sound of approval. “So very wet,” he noted. “Does this excite you, Pet?”

  She swallowed, torn between honesty and the notions she had as to what should be proper for her to feel. In the end the desire to please him won out over her ingrained mores. “Yes,” she breathed.

  “Would it excite you to feel the blade sliding inside your sheath?” he asked.

  Her heartbeat triple-timed. She felt the prick of the tip of the blade right at her vaginal opening. The idea of him putting the blade inside her was overwhelming. She didn’t know what to feel, never mind put it into words. Never mind expressing it to him in any way.

  “I will take your silence as an affirmative,” he said, making her gasp.

  She felt the knifepoint scraping around the rim of her vagina.

  “Hold very still. Relax,” he instructed her softly.

  She struggled to do as he asked, but it was nearly an impossible task. Not with her breathing and heartbeat so wild. Then she felt the cold metal sliding inside her. Very carefully. Very gently. She realized it took a very deft hand to do what he was doing without cutting her. But she also realized he could decide to cut into her at any moment if he wanted to. Still, part of her trusted that he would not… and that trust was rewarded. He didn’t insert the blade more than a few inches, and he withdrew it as carefully as he had inserted it.

  “Good, Pet,” he said softly, looking into her eyes. “Such a good Pet.”

  The blade once again touched her mound. His fingers replaced the blade inside her, sliding into her slippery sheath and thrusting up hard. She moaned as she fought between pleasure and the instinct of self-preservation… the instinct to keep still lest he accidentally cut her.

  He scraped the blade through her curls and she realized he was shaving off her hair. Using the thumb of the hand that was currently inside her, he pulled her skin taut, allowing the sharp blade to scrape close to her skin. Occasionally he would pause in his grooming to thrust his fingers up into her in slow, steady movements. He removed his hand from inside her only when he needed to maneuver inside her lips to catch the final elusive hairs and scrape them away. Then he brushed all the shaved hair away.

  He inched up closer and laid his cock along the damp crevice of her labia, sliding through her wetness, lubricating his cock thoroughly. Each time he brushed over her highly sensitized clit she gasped and then moaned.

  “Would you like me to fuck you?” he asked her, his gaze boring into her.

  She tried to gauge him. Tried to guess what answer would please him most. “If that is what you wish,” she breathed.

  The right corner of his lips twitched upward… but there was no hiding the satisfaction she saw in his eyes. “I wish to fuck you with this knife ever at your throat… knowing all it will take is one slip and you will bleed for me.”

  She swallowed a huge breath inward as the flat of the blade came up to her neck and settled over the pulse point there. She was trying to adapt to the excitement of that when he began to enter her body with his hard, hard cock. Caught between the stiffness of the blade and the stiffness of his cock she could do nothing but abandon herself to him. To trust him.

  He slid in and out of her slowly, almost gently. He braced a hand at her shoulder and leaned over her, thrusting a little more firmly. She began to feel the impact of his body increasing, and felt the press of the blade at her throat tighten with each impact.

  Melena was dizzy with excitement and lack of oxygen. She couldn’t seem to take in air fast enough or deep enough. She was afraid to move in any direction without his permission or instruction.

  “Pet. Oh Pet,” he exhaled above her, his eyes shining with his pleasure. “You’re such a good girl. Such a fine Pet. So hot and so tight. So perfect for me. Do you know how much you please me?”

  She didn’t dare shake her head yes or no. She couldn’t speak. All she could do was lay there with her legs snagged loosely around his hips, waves of pleasure rolling through her, fighting against the waves of excited fear that rippled through her every time the blade pressed a little harder against her.

  She heard his breathing alter. Watched the change come over him as he struggled to maintain control over their pleasure. His hips began to thrust more sharply forward, the impact ricocheting through her. He growled roughly. She felt the world spinning around her as pleasure reached a crescendo inside her. She cried out as orgasm ripped through her, and yet she could not abandon herself to it completely because she didn’t want to move overly much.

  Then, suddenly, he changed pace within her, speeding up, slamming harder and harder into her. The knife came away from her throat, and he stabbed it into the bedding near her ear. Then he grabbed hold of her hips with both hands and went wild inside her. She heard him groan, felt the tension ratcheting up within him. Then just when she was about to come again, he raged into orgasm. His entire body locked up above her, and he roared out his pleasure. His hand came to her throat and squeezed as he emptied himself into her. She launched into a second orgasm, this one far more abandoned than the previous one.

  They remained gripped around one another for long minutes, each trying to catch their breath. He released her throat and bent forward to place a kiss at the corner of her right eye.

  “Did I please you, Sir?” she asked breathily.

  He chuckled. “Are you fishing for praise, Pet?”

  “I only want to know if you are happy.”

  “I… ” He paused, seeming to think on it a moment. A strange expression flitted behind his eyes, but it was gone before she could have a chance to identify it. “You have pleased me very well,” he said then. “For now. We’ll see how you do next time.”

  And with excitement she realized she couldn’t wait for what would come next time.

  * * *

  Valerian left Melena sleeping in his bed and crossed the tent naked to the table that held his correspondence. He stood beside the table, sifting through letters both benign and of import.

  He didn’t know when it had happened, but he had decided to act against his brother. The only thing that had held him back before had been the promises he had made to his father to be the best second son he could be. But he realized now that those promises directly contradicted all their father’s teachings as to what a good ruler must be -- lessons his brother had discarded long ago. Yes, his father had wanted him to be a good brother, but he had wanted to leave a good ruler in his wake as well.

 

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