Page 82 of Spark of Madness

“Arlo…” I speak his name, but I’m not asking for anything.

Suddenly, I spin. His hands are on my body, turning me until I’m facing him. Then he reaches over me to grip two ropes that reach from the loop above to the middle of my back. He pushes on them, leans forward against them, and it causes my body to lift upward. He angles me so our gazes meet. His lips are parted and eyes are hooded as he lets them wander down my form.

“I’ve wanted to see you like this since I saw you hiding in that tree in the forest. Since the night you sinned, I’ve had images of you this way clouding my mind, stealing my peace, threatening to destroy my self-control. And seeing you this way now, in the flesh…it puts those images to fucking shame.”

I don’t know what to say, so I say nothing.

“I’m fighting sin, but, Mercy…” he pauses, leans close, and brushes his mouth over mine, “I want you to drag me to hell.”

His lips are a flint sparking a flame between us, and I tilt my chin, capturing his kiss before he can steal it away from me. His pillow-soft lips press hard enough to bruise. His tongue is long and thick, sweeping past the threshold of my parted lips, tasting me with unburdened passion.

My arms twitch against my bindings, aching to wrap around him. As I wriggle uselessly, he palms the back of my head, gripping my hair and lifting my head away.

“No fighting,” he pants, pressing his forehead to mine. “Be still. Practice endurance. I promise I’ll give you everything your body is begging for right now.”

“Touch me,” I beg.

“Where shall I touch you?” he whispers, his breath hot as it breezes across my face. A playful smile touches his cheeks, tugging at the long dimples that draw such beautiful lines down his face. “Do you want my hand between your legs like it was in the forest?”

“Yes.”

“You’ll have to earn it, then.”

All at once, he drops me and steps back. I cry out with the rush of fear that grips me as I fall forward, my brain lagging in the knowledge that I’m suspended and secure, and not on the precipice of dropping into that dark abyss. The ropes snap me to a stop.

“How…how do I earn it?” I ask between panted breaths.

He grabs hold of me, stopping my body’s sway. His hip presses against my side as his hands reach around my body and his palms find my breasts. I moan as he squeezes, kneading my flesh. “You earn it with patience.”

I don’t understand.

“Tell me how,” I whimper.

His long fingers drag and dig before pinching my nipples, twisting, squeezing, turning painfully before releasing.

“Please…”

His touch turns soft, fingers grazing over the hardened buds and caressing gently.

“Stop begging.” His voice is strained. “I know what you need from me without a word.” His hands drag down my torso as he moves backward along my body, stopping to grip my hips to hold me steady. “But just as you’ll be in the trial, I want you still and speechless right now. I want nothing more than your whimpers and moans, your acceptance of my touch.”

I whimper, both as a natural response to his thumbs digging into my ass and to make it clear that I understand him.

“I’m going to touch you, Mercy.” His voice trembles at this admission of his choice to sin with me. His hands drag heavily over the curve of my ass, tracing down the backs of my things. “I’m going to lick you, taste you, fuck you. I’m going to bring you to the brink of pleasure…” his hands stop at the bend of my knee and dig into my thighs, slowly pushing back up again, “over and over and over again.”

His hands meet the crease beneath my cheeks and stop, fingers splaying, thumbs dipping between my legs and rubbing in small circles. “I’m going to bring you right to the cliff’s edge of pleasure, and I’m going to pull you back every time before you fall.”

“Why?” The single word slips out before I can stop myself.

One hand leaves me, then quickly finds me again with a sharp strike against my cheek. The slap reverberates through the darkness as it shocks me with pain, but the pain fades so easily.

“You will not give my brothers the satisfaction of your words in the trial. Do you understand me? Do not speak, do not beg for mercy, do not ask for more. If you can’t control yourself, then I will gag you.”

Why do I want him to controlall of this? All of me?

Why do I wantto give him that power over me?

He’s as dangerous as any of the Control…perhaps even more dangerous for the fact that he can make me feel this way. I try to bring my shields up, to shut off the desire and lust which burns within me only for him. But trying to fight it only makes it burn deeper and hotter.

---