Tease Me Once

by W. Winters

“If you don’t heal what hurt you, you will bleed on people who didn’t cut you.”

The curious woman who wanted to play with fire no longer looks back at me with the desire she once had. She’s broken and burned. And it’s all my fault.

She doesn’t cry from the pain. It’s because she can’t escape. She saw something she shouldn’t have, and the terror has never been more evident than it is tonight. She’s slow to move, and just when I think she’ll obey, she’ll give me control, she’ll let it all go and forget about the harsh reality, submitting to the pleasure I can give her, her shoulders hunch over and she buries her face between her forearms on the bench.

lift her to my bare chest, needing the skin-to-skin contact, heat to heat. My bare feet pad quietly on the floor as I kiss her hair and move us both to the antique canopy bed. The one she picked out. Like everything else in this room, it’s for her. It’s all for her.

Shushing her, kissing her hair, rubbing soothing circles on her back. I hold her as close as she needs. As she settles, her body relaxes slightly, but she never stops clinging to me. “I will protect you.” My promise to her is whispered at the shell of her ear and she stills. My little pet looks up at me and I’ve never felt so cold in my life. Helpless, alone. I’ve never felt like a failure and less of a man than I do when she doubts me like she does.

She’s fucking gorgeous like this, at my mercy and weak for me. Waiting on me. Trusting me. I love her like this.

love her. I won’t let them take her from me. As I line up the head of my cock at her entrance, I lower my lips to her neck, nipping once and loving the chills that run along her skin. At the sensitive spot there, knowing my warm breath will cause her to shudder, I whisper, “I would kill for you. I would kill anyone for you.”

“The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.” The quote is meant to strengthen the bonds of soldiers on the battlefield. Those you spill blood with are closer to you than anyone else.

Life doesn’t acknowledge pain and the need to pause when it hits. We need to breathe, and life doesn’t care. It doesn’t stop and it doesn’t grant reprieves. In short: life can be a coldhearted bitch.

I’ll fake it ’til I make it. I’ll fake it until every dark thing that’s ever happened to me is far away in the rearview mirror. I’ll fake it until there’s more happiness than pain in my life.

White is worn if a staff member is interested in playing, but has limits.

I knew him before, but this isn’t the person I knew. This man is radiating power and control.

“Is my dress okay?” Declan stares me in the eye. “Red means you’d like to be fucked.”

I think of him constantly at work, and when I lay my head down at night, I dream of him.

She’s like a doll, a pretty little thing to play with. A gorgeous woman to fuck into my ravaged rag doll.

She’s gorgeous, with her already slightly disheveled hair, and her lips parted in a perfect O.

“Only if you want me to cut off your fucking hand. I don’t share my toys.”

It’s not a real priority when Declan’s on my mind. Nothing is a priority when I’m thinking about him. I’ve never been fucked the way he fucks me. He’s hard and possessive about it, and insatiable. I don’t feel fragile with him.

oh my God. I groan, throwing my head back. With my hand over my face, I admit the truth. I am Declan Cross’s whore. Plain and simple. That’s a truth I’ll never admit to my mother.

I wish I hadn’t seen the news. Not out of fear or conflict. It’s because I’m falling for him. Already. I am so fucked.

“Like hell you’re leaving before I redden your disrespectful ass,” I grit out, my teeth clenched as I bend down to grab her. My entire being trembles with the need to punish her for speaking to me like that,

As she calls out my name, her neck arching and her release taking over, I devour her lips with mine and that’s what does it. Capturing her kiss, I come undone with her.

“If we’re going to do this, my little pet, you’re going to have to get very comfortable with a number of very uncomfortable things. I’m not changing and you knew who I was. I know you did. So let that sink in. If you’re mine, then what I am is yours. There’s no compromise there. I thought we already covered this.

Even if the rest of the world goes to shit, the way I feel when Declan looks into my eyes won’t go away.