Chapter Six
“How do you do it?” Athena asked him as he poured the last pot of hot water into the tub.
“What?”
“Here I am out in the sunshine, sitting in a trough that has seen better days, with water that has been heated on a stove, yet I feel like I’m at a spa in a four-star resort.”
He set the pot near the back door and dropped to his knees by the side of the tub. “My queen wanted a bath. She shall have a bath.”
“I wonder what you’d do if you had a full arsenal of resources at your disposal. You’re a magic maker, Timothy LaStrange.”
“I’m a Marine. We learn to adapt. And I had an excellent muse.” He dropped a kiss to her shoulder and dipped a washcloth into the water before taking it to her back.
She rapped her knuckles on the edge of the makeshift tub, careful to keep her injured arm out of the water. Over the last few days the wound had been healing nicely, but they both didn’t want to take any chances of infection. “Was this the secret mission you spoke of yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“Where did it come from?”
He bit back a snort of laughter. “There’s a ranch about five miles down the road that has a barn not too far off the path. Don’t worry. It’s been sanitized for your delicate skin.”
“Thall,” she gasped. “Did you steal this?”
“Yes,” he replied without apology. “I’d steal the moon for you.”
Truer words were never spoken. If it were in his power, he’d give her anything she asked, even the things she didn’t.
“Don’t worry,” he added as her frown deepened. “I tacked a ten-spot to the side of the b-barn.”
She flicked water at him and he laughed in return. Never before had he felt more relaxed, more at home than he had the last few days with Athena in the little cabin in the woods. However, that didn’t mean he was less vigilant with her protection. Many times a day he checked the alarms he had placed around the perimeter of his property and all was quiet. So far. He was certain the chatter online was roaring with people looking for both of them, but he didn’t dare try to search for information by hacking into the Elite systems. Adamantium was damn good at spotting online intruders and would have a team on his tail in no time. The risk for intel wasn’t worth it.
Besides, he had much better things to do. Like spend his days making love with his queen, and going for walks in the woods around the cabin. And the nights were filled with more bone-melting sex and talks long into the night about nothing important.
Athena did most of the talking, which he didn’t mind. The only topics off the table were his past and her future. Until the trials were over and the major players of the Vengadores club were put away, her life was a black void. Where she’d live, what she’d do—hell, even her name, was yet to be determined, a thought that caused a frown to appear on her face whenever they had stumbled upon talk of the future.
He hated to see her upset, which was why he had made the trek down the hill and procured her the means to indulge in a nice, long soak. Of course, that gave him unfettered access to her body as he ran the cloth over her skin.
“You’re getting your sleeves all wet.”
There was a slight breeze that tickled the tips of his ears. If he took off his shirt, he knew goosebumps would erupt over his skin and the shakes would set in. Getting his long-sleeved T-shirt wet was the better option. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
Athena shook her head, then leaned her neck against the rim and closed her eyes. “You are so strange sometimes.”
She had no idea.
The tub was wide but on the short side, and she had to bend her knees to fit. This left her thighs parted wide for his roving hands, and he wasted no time diving right for the heart of her.
The cloth floated to the surface as his fingers cupped her sex. A small smile curled her lips but she didn’t open her eyes as she said, “Mmm…that’s right. Pet me. Make my kitty purr.”
They both choked on a laugh. Athena had taken to coming up with the most outrageous phrases while topping him. Every order she gave him, he fulfilled with precision, which drove her crazy. She wanted a reason to inflict some punishment, and after his failure their first night to obey her order, he was determined not to disobey her again. So she began to crack jokes to see if he would forget his place and stumble. Poor girl. She didn’t know just how little in the world he found humorous, but she was doing a damn fine job of tickling his funny bone. He couldn’t remember the last time he smiled, truly smiled, so often.
His favorite quip of hers so far was when she shouted at him to wax her headlights when he fucked her between her breasts. Although the time he had her bent at the waist and she demanded he clean her chimney with his pipe cleaner was pretty good too.
Beneath his fingers, her outer lips were slick and the nub of her clit was already swollen and seeking his attention. He spent a moment rolling the button between his fingers then slipped lower to tease the opening of her sheath. The hard points of her nipples bobbed on the water’s surface, rising and falling with her rapid breathing. When she sucked her lower lip between her teeth, he pushed two fingers inside, deep, so deep, he couldn’t go any further, and her eyes squeezed shut.
That flinch was like a starter pistol, and his eyes narrowed and jaw clenched as if he were on one of his missions. Every move he made was with deliberation, calculated to extract the utmost pleasure for his woman.
He crooked his fingers and rubbed the inside of her pussy as his thumb encircled her clit over and over again. His other hand pulled and plucked at her nipple. During the past few days, he had learned how much she loved to have her breasts played with and just how to touch her to make her melt. A roll here, a tweak there. She especially loved it when he growled or moaned as he touched her, which he made sure to do often.
However, Athena wasn’t exactly a quiet lover either. She gasped and groaned just as loud, if not louder than he did, and spurred him on with throaty commands for more colored in foul language and fantastical imagery.
She had said he was a magic maker, but it was she who was the magical one. It was Athena who made the shadows disappear and gave joy to living in the moment. Her smile, the timbre of her laughter. Whenever he thought about her life while under the burdensome cloak of the Vengadores, he wanted to race to the state prison and firebomb the cell her ex-husband festered in.
What could she have accomplished if not buried under the oppressive cloak of fear? The beauty she could have shown the world, but was forbidden to do, was another injustice he was unable to prevent.
Which was why he made certain to make every moment of their time together perfect and commit it to memory. Every gasp, every flutter of her eyelashes, he stored in his heart for his pleasure alone.
Like the way her fingers looked as they gripped the edge of the tub and how her hips bucked against his hand.
“Don’t stop,” she said, gasping. “If you stop, I will cut you.”
If she actually followed through with all the times she’d threatened to cut him, he’d be shredded to ribbons, he thought with a laugh.
Her pussy sucked on his fingers, and he circled his fingertips on that special spot deep inside that made her arch her back and howl, “Timothy!”
Fuck, yeah.
He inhaled her cries as if they were a perfume in the air. She always screamed his name when she came, and every time, he was ready to come with her. Since permission had not been granted, he didn’t dare.
Athena’s head lolled back and forth, and she slowly lifted her lashes to gaze at him with stars in her eyes as she licked her lips. “I want you. To take off your clothes. And get in here.”
Get in where? The water?
His gaze fell to the tub and the two and a half feet of liquid with the ripples rolling along the surface and he promptly stopped breathing.
In his mind, the clear water turned dark and murky, and a cold seeped into his bones that made his teeth chatter. In his ears, a dull roar drowned out all thought. Whether it was from the blood rushing through his veins or the rush of a river, it didn’t matter, because he was floating, caught in a riptide of a memory so vivid that blackness stole his vision.
“Tim?”
He was going to die. Right there in the fucking river he was going to die.
“Tim!”
But the mission wasn’t complete. His team was still in danger. Titanium was caught under a beam. Half dead, bobbing in the rising water like a cork. Thallium grabbed his commander by the flak jacket and pulled, tugging and kicking at the beam until that son of a bitch popped free. Sharp metal tore through their clothing and exposed skin as the rising water forced them out of the ship and into the icy Moscow River. Floating, floating, but somehow, some way he kept hold of Titanium’s jacket even when he lost consciousness.
“Timothy!”
His lungs kicked and a rush of air burned down his lungs. He sucked in a deep breath and another, and another, blinking until his vision cleared and Athena’s concerned face appeared. She cupped his face in her hands and stroked his brow.
“There you are,” she cooed. “What is it, baby?”
He shook his head.
“I’m willing to listen. Or just hold you. Let me know what you need.”
He placed his hands over hers and took in a few more slow, deep breaths, willing the frantic beat of his heart to slow as it choked him.
“Water,” he whispered. “I have trouble in water. Moscow.”
“Oh,” she breathed in understanding. “I’ve got you.” She stroked his face with her thumbs and peppered kisses across his forehead and down to the tip of his nose before pressing her cheek to his. She pulled back just enough to look into his eyes before she slowly drew closer and pressed her lips to his.
Their first kiss.
Unlike their earlier couplings, which had been frantic, passionate, and crazy, her kiss heated him from the inside out and banished the cold. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight to his chest as if she were a life vest. And she was. She was saving him with the intimacy of her touch. Providing him with the connection to something sweet and pure. Joy instead of pain.
The earthy bite of his memories was replaced by Athena’s kisses and the taste of the chocolate she had licked off his body earlier that morning. She bit down on his lower lip and suckled between flicks of her tongue, showing him more tenderness than anyone ever had in his life.
Desire replaced the burn of fear in his lungs as he struggled for breath. Athena too was panting as she pulled away.
“I knew you were going to be trouble from the moment I saw you,” she mumbled against his lips.
“I’m sorry. I’ll try not to be such a pussy.”
“You hush now. I don’t want to hear any of that. Thallium, you are the bravest person I’ve ever known. I will never think you weak.” A speculative gleam entered her eyes. “In fact, I think I need to show you just how strong you are.”
Water sluiced down her curves as she stood and climbed out of the tub.
“Follow me,” she said, heading to the edge of the forest with the sunlight gleaming over her naked and wet body.
“Wait. Let me dry you off.”
“Nature can take care of that. Besides, I have other uses for your hands,” she said with a wink. She led him to a medium-sized Ponderosa pine in a stand of trees a dozen yards away and pointed to the lowest branch. “Grab onto that with both hands. Do not let go.”
After he grabbed on, she angled him so he was standing in the path of the afternoon sun. The rays heated the cotton of his shirt and dispelled the last of his chills.
“I’m loving this idea already,” she said, laughing as she began to pat down his hips, moving down his legs until she knelt before him and lifted the hem of his pants. She hooted in victory and withdrew the blade he had tucked into his boot. “I knew you’d have a weapon on you somewhere.”
The knife looked natural in her hand as she inspected the sharpness of the blade. With a coquettish gaze from beneath her lashes she said, “I hope these aren’t your favorite clothes.”
The implication of her words made his mouth go dry. “Standard issue,” he rasped.
“Good.”
She placed the tip of the blade right over his heart, piercing the fabric just enough to poke a hole but not touch his skin. Once the hole grew big enough, she inserted more of the blade and cut a jagged hole in the cotton over his pectoral.
Next she attacked his sleeves, cutting them off at the shoulder, then working each side up to his wrists and using the lengths of fabric to bind his hands to the branch.
Then to his surprise, she moved behind him and worked on the back of his shirt, cutting the cotton into long strips that fluttered against his back in the slight breeze.
When she returned to stand before him, she flicked at his exposed nipple with her fingertip until it beaded. “I think we need to find something we can clamp your nipples with. You’d look so hot with them pierced.”
He’d never given much thought to having his nipples pierced, although he had once overheard Steele’s girlfriend gush to the other women at the compound about how much she loved his. Now that he saw the hungry look on Athena’s face just picturing the possibilities, he was tempted to go in search of a needle that very moment.
The list he was making in his mind of what he could do to fulfill her wish was shattered all to hell when she dragged the flat edge of the blade over his erection.
“Are you scared, big boy?” She released the fly of his pants and wedged the blade between the fabric of his pants and his skin. “You know I wouldn’t damage my favorite toy.”
True. But that didn’t mean accidents couldn’t happen.
Carefully, oh so carefully, she cut around his deflating erection. Hey, the woman did have a knife to his dick, after all. She bit her lip and worked slow and steady as she sawed through denim and thread until his cock bounced free. Thank fuck he hadn’t worn underwear. He didn’t think his heart could take another round of her cutting.
With the back of her hand, Athena wiped away the sweat that had gathered on her brow. “Wow. That was exciting.”
He could only manage a weak chuckle as his heart rate slowed to normal and his knees shook with relief that his dick had survived.
“Of course, I could have just done this.” She latched onto the waistband of his jeans and pulled them down to his knees. “But what fun would that have been?”
“You’re evil.”
She tossed him a wink then scanned the area around them before bending down and picking up a dandelion with the fattest head.
“Sometimes a weed has its uses,” she said, twirling the bud by the stem before she reached out and swept the yellow petals against his nipple a few times. Next she ran it up the inside of his arm, which made him jerk and laugh.
She laughed with him, “Oh my God, you sound like a little girl when you giggle.”
“Cut it out,” he growled with his most fierce expression and tried to move away from the teasing glances.
She gasped with fake outrage. “Did you just tell your Domina no?”
“I’m sorry, my queen.”
“Sorry’s not going to cut it, mister.”
She twirled the flower down the length of his cock, up around the crown then down again. Over and over she ran a circuit from the top of his cock to the bottom, then the underside of his nut sack.
As he was about to scream at her for more friction, she dropped the dandelion and walked behind him. Temptation pulled at him to turn his head to see what she was up to as he heard the rustle of the trees and the sweeping sound of her feet brushing against the grass.
“Aha! This is perfect,” she said and stepped back into his view with a switch in her hand. Thwack. She hit her palm with the thin branch once then twice. “Yes, I think this should do nicely.”
She trailed the tip of the switch up his right leg then down the other before continuing over his chest and to his swollen cock that bounced in the air. He held his breath, afraid she was going to strike him, but he should have known her plan would be more devious.
Naughtiness colored her smile as she circle behind him. A second later, she struck him with a light tap across his butt cheeks.
“Are you kidding me? Your ass didn’t even jiggle a bit.”
Thwack, she hit the top of his butt. Thwack. Then came a blow to the back of his thighs. With each strike, his torn shirt fluttered and the cotton brushed the sensitive skin of his backside as if they were feathers. A breeze kicked up, adding another erotic sensation.
Despite the harshness of wood hitting skin, the smacks weren’t painful at all. More hot and sharp, like testing the edge of a blade with your finger. When your adrenaline burned in your veins as you rode the danger of getting cut.
Athena dropped the switch and pressed her naked front along his back. Her skin was icy cold from the bath water and the exposure to the breeze and felt fantastic against his overheated flesh.
She reached around and grasped his cock with one hand and his balls with the other and began to pull and fondle, stroking his shaft and smoothing the precum leaking out of the tip up and down his rod. He was so close. So on the edge of unloading into the grass when she tightened her grip around the base, stopping him from coming.
“Fuck,” he groaned with disappointment as she stepped away. “P-please.”
“I will never get tired of hearing you beg.”
She stepped in front of him and knelt at his feet. Time passed in slow motion as she leaned closer and opened her mouth, taking the swollen head of his cock between her lips. She flicked her tongue just underneath the crown, making his eyes roll back in his head. Once she got the tip nice and wet, she pulled back then tilted her head to the left then the right with a contemplative frown creasing her forehead. She drew in a deep breath then slid her mouth down the shaft, swallowing him until he felt the back of her throat closed around the tip.
“Athena,” he groaned. “I’m going to come.”
She pulled back and gripped him around the base, again stopping the sensation of his cum rolling through his balls.
“Don’t you dare. Not yet. I’m hungry and I want a big load.”
She was going to kill him. If she wanted to see if she could make his heart explode, she was doing a damn fine job of it.
But what a way to go.
She was a goddess, kneeling before him with the afternoon sun casting a golden glow to her creamy skin and the breeze playing with the ends of her ponytail. Her breasts shimmied as she brought him to the brink of orgasm again and again before snatching him back from the cliff’s edge. Sweat ran down his body and into his eyes, blurring the perfection of her beauty as she worked his length.
“P-please,” he groaned again and again. “P-please.”
She moaned in appreciation. “That’s what I love to hear. Come for me, baby. Feed your queen with your delicious prick.”
She sucked him all the way in her mouth and fondled his balls, massaging and milking him as he exploded in her mouth. On and on, he unleashed his load as fire raced through his veins.
Over the roar of the blood rushing in his ears, he heard a crack like lightning. Suddenly, he was falling forward, only to be cushioned by the curvy woman who wiggled and shouted beneath him.
“Sorry,” he slurred. His monster orgasm made his limbs as weak as shit, making it ten times more difficult to roll off her.
“Agh!” she sputtered as she crawled away. “Are you all right?”
“Me?” he asked incredulously, both impressed and horrified that she was able to keep from biting his dick clean off as he fell. “I’m okay. You?”
She began to laugh and fell onto her side, holding onto her belly as her laughter grew.
“Oh my word,” she finally gasped and wiped at the tears on her cheeks. “That was the funniest thing ever. For a moment, I thought I was going to be choked to death by your cock.”
“I’m really sorry.” He struggled to his knees, which was not a graceful maneuver to complete while tied to a branch, and wiggled his fingers. “Cut me loose and I’ll carry you inside.”
“Not a chance, sweetheart.” She crawled on top of him and straddled his waist. “You think you’re sorry now? Just you wait and see what I have in store for you next, my big hunk of man meat.”
She leaned forward and sucked his nipple into her mouth and bit down. As the rush of pain shot to his dick, his eyes rolled back with pleasure.
“As you wish, my queen,” he panted. “As you wish.”