Nine
The sound of cutlery clashing with porcelain is enough to stir me from my sleep. Squeezing my eyes tighter shut, I stretch my legs and arch my back. I stay that way until the pleasurable tingles cease to dance along my spine.
“Yes, Master Kade.”
Thirteen’s soft voice penetrates my skin and freezes my organs. In disbelief, I shoot up in bed. I move so quickly, the blankets slip from me and fall to the floor, leaving me clasping at my bare chest. Like a true Unfortunate, Thirteen doesn’t allow herself to be distracted. She carries on with her duties, serving breakfast on the coffee table. Sitting here like this, lying in my Fortunate’s bed in his pants while she’s doing her job makes me feel dirty…like I’m the worst person in the world. I don’t talk to her in fear of getting her into any trouble, so I watch instead. She looks like hell. Granted, all of her physical injuries seem to be healing extremely well, but her skin lacks colour and her beautiful, blonde curls lack bounce. For someone who has suffered at the hands of Vincent Sario, I’m surprised she finds the motivation to get up in the morning. The fact she does tells me that Thirteen, the girl I thought to be the weakest coming into this, is in fact the strongest of us all. Compared to her, I’m a coward. I hide behind my Fortunate and hope he keeps me safe. She doesn’t have someone like Kade to protect her. Finally, I open my mouth to talk to her, but the bathroom door opens and Kade steps into the room, adjusting a cuff on the sleeve of his shirt.
“That’s enough,” he tells her as she places the last strawberry into a bowl.
Thirteen grabs her large wooden tray and flees the room without a glance in my direction. I stare at the door, even long after she’s gone.
“Get out of bed,” Kade orders, lowering himself onto the couch, in front of the food. “We have a lot to work on this morning so come have breakfast.”
I slip from the bed and walk, covering my breasts, over to Kade. I sit on the floor across from him and fold my legs. The smell of maple syrup on pancakes floods my senses and my mouth pools. I’ve never tasted pancakes, only the syrup. A little while back, Portia spilled a drop on my dress and I couldn’t resist. I tasted it…and I’ve never tasted anything so glorious in my entire life. The sugar in that one little drop had my head buzzing for hours.
I pluck a slice of warm, buttered toast from the plate in the middle, but Kade sticks to the assorted berries and now that I think about it, he’s always eating berries.
“You like berries?”
He nods and sucks a small strawberry between his lips…never has a piece of fruit looked so good. The juice stains his lower lip and I can feel his eyes on my face as he uses his tongue to lick it up. I do my best not to stare at his mouth, but judging by the way his lips twitch knowingly, I guess I fail.
I clear my throat. “What are we working on this morning?” I ask, hoping to forget his lips.
“The usual.”
Oh. I take a bite out of my toast. I’m still no good at ‘seducing.’ Who would’ve thought a Fortunate needs to be persuaded into sex? We’re taught that it’s second nature to them. When they’re horny, we sate them. That’s it.
Even for a personal slave, they don’t teach how to please our Fortunate. They claimed everyone was different and we’d learn firsthand quick enough. Unfortunately for me (or fortunately, I haven’t decided yet), my Fortunate seems to be wired differently to the rest.
We eat in silence and I taste everything, from the pancakes to the juice, from the bacon to the hot bread rolls, right down to the smallest berries. I eat until my belly is full and stop only when I’m certain anything else will make my tummy explode. The whole time I ate, Kade watched me, amused with my reactions. I tried not to let it get in the way of my adventure.
“Are you ready?” It’s phrased as a question, but I get the feeling it’s not.
“Is that really a question?” I ask, despite my better judgement. “Or do I have to be ready regardless of what I want?”
With the slightest smile, he straightens himself on the couch. “Stand up.”
I exhale and push myself to my feet. I’m hyperaware that I’m still topless, but I don’t cover my breasts. If he wants to see them, I can’t stop it. Besides, Kade has seen them more than enough times for me to be uncomfortable now.
“You need to straighten your posture.”
I roll my shoulders back and step forward, but Kade shakes his head and I stop.
“Your walk is too heavy. Try touching your toes to the floor first and don’t drop your heel. In fact, your heel should barely touch the floor. It sways the hips more and your legs will look longer.”
I do as I’m told and walk the way he wants me to. I feel stupid acting as if I’m wearing an invisible pair of high heels. When I get closer to Master Kade, his eyes rake me from head to toe and he drags his index finger slowly across his full, bottom lip, pondering something.
“The pants,” he says, his voice low and smooth. “They bother me. Take them off.”
I pause, my nervousness spiking. “Then I’ll be naked.”
Kade gives me a look, a look so cold I immediately pull at the strings and hook my fingers around the band of the pants. I drag the fabric down my legs and step out of them.
“Now try it again.”
I turn around and pace four steps away from Kade, then I turn back to him. He keeps his eyes on my legs and my feet as I walk—just like he wanted me to. His eyes thin as he slowly drags his tongue over his lip. “Good.”
My legs brush against his knees and my chest rises and falls quicker than I anticipated. It feels heavy, like my breasts are weighing me down all of a sudden.
Kade lifts his stare to mine. “When you touch me, it should be soft and smooth. Your movements must be calculated. In a single caress, you should know exactly where I like to be touched.”
I swallow hard and my beating heart begins to sound in my ears. I reach out for him, slowly, and his lips twitch as I draw closer to his stomach. As my finger grazes his jacket, his arm shoots out and his fingers clamp around my nipple.
“Ah!” I wince, pressing myself against his hand to get away from the burning pressure.
“If you’re going to touch me there your next move better be to unzip my pants.” He releases me and I gasp. It hurts more as blood rushes to the tip and I reach up to caress my nipple, but Kade smacks my hand away.
“Fuck!” I hiss and Kade’s eyes flare.
“Start high and then go low. You should touch my shoulders, my chest and my arms first, not my stomach.”
“I can’t do it.”
“Of course you can. It’s not hard.” He unbuttons his jacket, shrugs out of it and tosses it to the side. “You have to convince me that you have what I want, not assume.”
He takes my hands in his and presses them to his chest. “Here is a good start. Keep your palms slightly off, using only the tips of your fingers. Drag them lightly, up and over my shoulders.”
Under the tips of my fingers, Kade’s body is warm…and hard. I drop my gaze from his and focus on the way I move my hands—carefully keeping my palms off of him. Though I don’t look at him, I can feel him watching my face. It makes my hands shake and I survey the way my fingers tremble against the white cloth of his shirt. My heart pounds in an uneven, but spellbinding rhythm and in the tips of my fingers, I feel the faint pulse of his heart, too. This is just an exercise. I don’t understand why this is affecting me more than it’s affecting him. He’s probably used to being touched, unlike me. I’m not used to touching, either. I trail my fingers up over his strong shoulders and move along them, feeling all of the rises and dips. His shoulders are much too large for my hands to cover adequately, as is the rest of his body.
“Eye contact is important,” Kade states.
I drag in an inhale, hoping to pick up some courage, too. I don’t. If anything, the inhale makes me feel light-headed. Finally, I lift my gaze to his and the second our irises meet, he locks me in place. There’s no emotion on his face, only pure intensity. I don’t know how else to describe it. Whatever it is…it sends butterflies swirling around my belly and I hope it’s the food that’s making me feel funny and not developing feelings. To feel something other than loyalty to Kade would crush me. There’s no way I’d survive being in love with him and he’s making it hard for me to decipher what I’m feeling. I’m a little uncomfortable, having never been in this situation before, but I’m not scared. I’ve spent my whole life preparing for moments like this. I’m aroused, I can feel it rushing through my veins and pooling in the only area true pleasure can be drawn from, but I’m also disgusted. Not with Kade, no, but with myself. The fact that in this moment I want to push Kade down and force my mouth on his disgusts me. The fact that I want him to lick me from head to toe without a breath disgusts me, and the fact that I think I would let him have sex with me at the drop of a hat disgusts me beyond anything I’ve ever felt. I’m not the same person I was when I first arrived here. I’m not the same girl that only wanted to feel the soft grass between her toes…now I want to feel different things. Harder things.
I’m startled back to reality when I feel his hands on my bare hips. Heat seeps into my cheeks at the touch of his skin. His hands are hot and they ignite my skin as they slide around to the small of my back. His warm breath collides against mine as he brings his mouth closer.
“I want to try something,” he whispers against my lips. “But you have to trust me.”
I pull back and search his eyes. There’s no authority there, but the glistening anticipation I see makes me just as nervous. In spite of that, I know he won’t hurt me. He slips away from me and I remain still as he digs through a drawer in his bedside table. When he turns around, I zero in on the lacy, red cloth in his hands. My heart rate spikes and I take a step back, no longer caring about being graceful on the tips of my toes.
“Relax,” he orders in a smooth, calming tone.
I don’t relax, especially when he toys with it, wrapping it around his hands and letting it slip between his fingers. He swallows the distance between us and my legs lock in place. I’m unable to walk away, even if I wanted to, because there’s a teeny, tiny part of me that wants to see exactly what he has planned. I suck in a breath as he unravels the scarf and brushes the soft fabric against my nipples. They harden further and ache like nothing I’ve ever felt before.
“Will you let me cover your eyes?”
Do I have a choice? The longer I look at him, the more I believe that maybe, just maybe, he is giving me a choice. But if I say no, I’ll disappoint him. He approaches me. He keeps coming until his chest is almost flush against mine.
“Yes,” I answer, shocking even myself.
Kade drapes the scarf over my breasts and my breath hitches in my throat, deepening into a heavy pant. He begins to circle me, dragging the soft fabric up over my bare shoulder.
“You’re having difficulty with my lessons because you haven’t experienced pleasure. I’m going to give that experience to you and you can see for yourself just how powerful arousal is.”
“Wait.” I attempt to turn around, but his heavy hands whip to my shoulders, keeping my back to him, so I peer over my shoulder. “You’re going to touch me? There?”
He smiles a full smile, filled with perfect white teeth. “Yes.” I feel his lips against my shoulder and jump as he nips me with his teeth. “And I promise you’ll like it.”
Kade grabs the sides of my head and straightens it, so I’m no longer looking at him. Then, he covers my eyes with the scarf and I’m blind. He’s doubled it over so I can’t see a thing…and it scares the shit out of me. A cool breeze blows over my exposed skin when I realize I can’t feel him anymore, and goosebumps spring to life. Behind the lacy veil, I blink rapidly, trying desperately to see through it and figure out where the hell he is. It’s then I feel his warm palm glide over the curve of my ass. I gasp and jolt forward, only to be caught by the palm of his other hand as he flattens it against my belly.
“I told you to relax.”
“I can’t. Shouldn’t I least see what you’re doing to me?”
He laughs once. “You know what I look like, imagine it.”
His hands fall away from me, taking his warmth with it and my entire body begins to tremble as I urgently try to foretell where I’m going to feel them next.
“You’re scared?” I jump at his low voice as it bounces around my head. I don’t know where he is…but I can feel the heat of his body crashing over me in waves. I nod my head minutely and not a second later, I register the slight touch of his fingertips as he tucks a lock of my hair under the fabric that shields my eyes.
“I want you to be scared…” His voice is close now and my skin buzzes as I feel his breath brush over my lips. “I want you to be petrified, so you remember the exact moment I take that feeling away from you and make you feel safer than you have ever felt in your life.”
His full lips graze across mine and I struggle for breath as my body hums with electric energy.
“This is the moment I replace your fear of me with lust. This is the moment you truly learn what it feels like to be touched, and I want you to learn…I want you to memorise as much of this as you can.”
Kade softly licks my top lip and soothingly kisses my bottom one. My heads swims and rolls with new thoughts and feelings as his lips skim over my cheek and right to my ear.
“I will not ask your permission for anything, if you don’t want me to touch you, take the blindfold off now and we can try again later. Once I start, I won’t stop until your body is shaking and you’re panting my name.”
His breath is a heady blow of anticipation against my flesh and it flows through me, igniting my blood. I bite my lip, stilling my trembling fingers against my thighs. A few small eternities pass and I swear I hear him smile against my earlobe.
“Good girl.”
My eyelashes brush against the fabric rapidly, as adrenaline pumps through my body. Why am I letting this happen? Why haven’t I said no? I feel him circle me until his hard, suddenly naked torso presses against my back. I gulp on contact and his hands surround my waist. I barely have time to react to his touch before he presses his warm, moist lips to my neck. I quiver and instinctively angle my neck to the side. While he kisses me, his hand works its way down my stomach over my hip and down my thigh before snaking between my legs. Unbearable tingles seize me and I gasp, squeezing my legs shut.
“Open them,” Kade demands.
I’ve never heard him sound like that before and my thighs relax immediately, letting him slide his fingers right between my creases. A strange noise falls from my lips and I unintentionally sag into him. He chuckles darkly into my ear as my head falls against his shoulder. The feelings are so alien to me—am I supposed to feel uncomfortable since this is the first time anyone has touched me like this? Because I don’t. I can feel my arousal leaking from me, coating my upper thighs, and I want nothing more than for his rough hands to explore me further, to show me everything I’ve been missing out on.
He groans in my ear and traces the very tip of his index finger over the small bundle of nerves between my legs. “You’re wet already. How long have you wanted me to do this to you?”
“Forever,” I pant, too heated to stop myself.
“What else do you want me to do to you?” He sucks my earlobe between his lips and nips gently at my flesh. The feeling has me arching my back and on my lower back, I can feel him tightening against his pants and eagerly pressing into me.
My hips twitch forward, beginning to swirl with his hand. The feeling is amazing and I chase it. I want more of it. I can feel it building and building, promising me nothing but ecstasy and temporary freedom from this life. “Everything.”
He shouldn’t be doing this to me. I feel incredible…I’m not allowed to feel this good and he’s going to make me come, I know he is. He knows he is too, but he’s not stopping. He wants to do this for me. That’s how I know he’s not like the others. He’s putting me first. Pleasure is something he wants to give me—the most selfless gift in a world that thrives off selfishness.
“Everything?” Kade does an all right job at hiding his shocked tone, but I hear his undertones. “You want me to do everything to you?”
I nod, desperately. All of it. I want him to do all of it to me.
“Do you want to feel my tongue on your pussy?” he asks in a husky moan.
I get the feeling this isn’t about learning anymore…which is good, because my brain is currently out of order. I whimper my willing response and his fingers move harder and faster.
“Do you want my cock to be the first cock to ever slide inside you?”
Holy. Shit. Again, I nod as warmth builds in the pit of my stomach. Oh, god yes! In this moment, I could be signing my life away and not give a second thought to it.
“One day, I’m going to take you, Nine. Right here in this room. I’ll be sweet to you and give you the love you deserve and then, I’m going to fuck you hard, to show you exactly how crazy you make me.”
“Oh…” I moan as my chest begins to tighten. How long has he thought about that? About taking me right here in his room?
“And fuck, you make me crazy.”
Kade’s fingers viciously circle me and my legs begin to quiver, threatening to buckle underneath my weight at any second.
“Oh…oh…god, Kade.” I gasp my breath coming out in one second bursts as fires rise in my stomach. I dig my fingers into his hand, trying desperately to pry his sexy fingers away from me, but he’s too strong, too determined to shake me up from the inside out.
“I want you to come all over my hand.”
An old fear tries to surface, but my happiness refuses to let it. I grip his hand, lacing my fingers with his. The thought of me even holding his hand is enough to tip the scale and send me over the edge. My entire body stiffens and I feel a scream building its way up my throat. It’s going to burst out and I’ll be hopeless to stop it. As it begins to roll off my tongue and pour out of my lips, Kade grasps my jaw and snaps my head to the side before crashing his lips to mine. In the next heartbeat, I orgasm. I come so hard I see stars. My breath is trapped in my lungs and they burn, but Kade doesn’t want to release it. His fingers tighten around my face as he fucks me with his tongue, absorbing everything I give to him. My head spins for what seems like hours. I don’t know if it’s my body keeping me in this state or my brain. My brain doesn’t want to come back down to normal level. It likes being flooded with these wonderful chemicals. Right now, I’m certain there’s nothing in this world that can tear this feeling down…and that’s when a light knock sounds at the door. Just like that, the feeling of bliss fades and is replaced by dread. The dread wraps tightly around my organs and clutches my heart. We both freeze and instantly Kade pulls his mouth from mine and unthreads his fingers, but I’m still frozen, unable to move. What if whoever is at the door heard us…heard me? I’d be killed and Kade…surely they’d do something bad to him for giving an Unfortunate something they aren’t allowed to have. He whips off my blindfold and stuffs it onto his pocket.
“Sit,” he orders, pointing to the floor and I do.
The varnished wood feels cold against my bare ass and I shield part of my face with my hair. I don’t want anyone else to see my undoubtedly rosy cheeks. Raking his fingers through his hair, Kade opens the door.
“What?” he snaps, not opening the open wide enough for me to see.
Portia—I think—talks, but I can’t hear what she’s saying. Kade pulls in a long plastic bag and shuts the door. In the bag, I see a dress—a deep purple dress.
“Shit,” he swears. “I forgot.”
I want to ask him what he forgot, but I quickly realise I don’t really want to talk to him. What do I say? Thank you? Kade pulls the dress from the bag and I gasp at it. It’s beautiful…in that ‘if you like to be semi-naked’ kind of way. Kade twirls the dress, inspecting every inch of fabric before extending it on his index finger. “It’s Vince’s birthday. He’s throwing a party in the yard tonight. Try this on.”
My stomach rolls at the thought of Vince playing ‘birthday boy.’ All of the privileges he’ll demand. If Kade knows what’s good for me, he’ll keep me here with him. I take the dress from Kade and go to the bathroom. When I emerge, he’s back in his shirt with his jacket to match. You wouldn’t think a few minutes ago he was shirtless and rubbing me to orgasm. I flush at the thought. I glance down at my dress. Tiny silver chains hold the dress together, running across my torso and down my upper thigh, and there’s barely enough fabric to cover my nipples. Of course Vince chose something like this. I peer up at Kade, who’s staring at me, and I feel a vibrant blush spread over the surface of my skin.
“You look…” He blows air from his cheeks and sits back into his chair. “But you aren’t going out there in that tonight. No way in hell.”
I frown. This dress shows nothing, unlike the dress Kade had me wear at his birthday. I’m not sure if he remembers, but my nipples were on show for all to see.
“I’ll have someone bring you something else to wear later. For now, put your old dress back on and go to your room. I have work I need to do.”
I nod and notice I still haven’t said a word to him since he touched me. Like he wants, I change back into my dress from yesterday and head for the door. If I’m being honest, I can’t wait to get out of here. I can’t wait to be alone in my room and alone with my thoughts.
As my fingers brush the door handle, Kade’s unexpected hand snakes around my waist and moves towards my breast. He stops high on my waist, but allows his thumb to brush over the curve. Heat warms in the core of my being.
“You were perfect today,” he murmurs in my ear and I shut my eyes briefly, willing my stupid heart to stop fluttering.
“Thank you, Master Kade.”
I open the door as he releases me and step outside. I move quickly, much quicker than I want to, but I need to get away. We could’ve been caught…it wasn’t supposed to be like this…in the camp, I was smart and I kept my head down, but out here, I throw caution to the wind. And it’s because of him. I know it is. Our souls collide and separate, working against each other like a chemical reaction. He pushes so I pull. He demands so I dissent. He wants and sometimes, I cave. It’s not like me, but with him, it’s all I can be. On the same note, there isn’t much in this new world that truly terrifies me…except him. He’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. Though, it’s not the fact he’s a Fortunate that does it…it’s in the feelings he’s able to pull from my body. It’s in the way he makes my heart race and my body hum like I’m standing naked in the middle of a field, staring into the funnel of a large tornado that’s about to touch the ground. It’s in the way he fucks my mind and gets my body to work with him that scares me the most.
And what’s worse is…
…I let him.
∞ Kade ∞
He watched her walk off, moving urgently down his hall. He didn’t want to, but he imagined her silky pussy in his hand as she poured herself all over his fingers. She felt amazing, but it wasn’t enough. Now he wanted to know what she tasted like between those sweet thighs and what she’d feel like when he slipped his cock into her for the first time. Kade shut the door at the throb of his balls. He’d noticed Nine didn’t say a word to him after he made her orgasm. She was confused, he could see it on her face, and he prayed she didn’t overanalyse what happened between them. Though, he did say all of that shit to her: ‘One day, I’m going to take you, Nine. Right here on my bed. I’ll be sweet to you and give you the love you deserve and then, I’m going to fuck you hard, to show you exactly how crazy you make me.’ What the fuck was I thinking?
This was getting dangerous. Kade had wanted Nine from the moment he laid eyes on her, but never this bad. He leaned against the door and shut his eyes. Kade had never felt jealousy before in his life…and he thought back to the kiss Elizabeth’s Unfortunate gave Nine. The recollection stirred the green-eyed monster that’d been cleverly hiding inside of him this whole time, going unbothered. He punched the Unfortunate repeatedly even though it wasn’t his fault. He was enraged, no, jealous—no—disgusted that someone like River would put his unworthy lips on a girl like Nine. Sure, they were both the same class, the same kind of people to everyone else, but to Kade she was greater than the rest. She was his…something. He didn’t know yet, but for now, she was his something. What was it about Nine that he needed in his life? What was it that possessed him whenever she was around? It wasn’t love, that he knew for sure. And that dress! Fucking Vince. He’s out of his mind if he thinks I’m going to let her out of the house in a dress like that, Kade thought. Granted, it didn’t expose any important pieces of flesh, but Kade knew how Vince worked and he was not going to have the pleasure of seeing Nine in that purple dress. Downstairs, Kade had a full wardrobe dedicated to his personal Unfortunate. During the two weeks Kade left Nine alone, he went into town and bought as many appealing dresses as he could find. To have his Unfortunate look perfect at every party was a must. He wanted his Unfortunate to look better than any slave any of the other Fortunates had. He was certain he could find something for her.
Kade pushed off of the door and sauntered over to his computer. He had to sort his priorities. The mine came first, then Albert, then his father, and then Nine. The base line was, Nine was just a pawn in his plan. Nothing more, nothing less. He’d keep his end of the bargain, sure, but not for her. For his mother. Although she wouldn’t approve of what he was going to do, at least she could see that he was compromising, that he wasn’t completely lost to the new world.
He turned on his computer screen and ran his fingers smoothly over the surface, touching all of the appropriate buttons. He lost all communication with his team the minute they went down into the mine. If they weren’t back in a week, Kade would assume them dead and have to go through with the plan and have Nine get Albert to sign the contract. With a sigh, he leaned back into his chair. Suddenly, the idea of using Nine didn’t sound as appealing. Last night, Kade spoke to Albert. They spoke about the mines and how Albert was looking sell a few of his off, anyway. Of course, the asking price was way out of Kade’s range, but when Kade pointed out Nine, Albert was willing to negotiate a lower price. He lowered his price dramatically for one night with Nine and Kade remembered the way it felt when he saw Albert’s face light up as his seedy stare graced her skin…like a knife. It felt like a knife had been slammed into his stomach and twisted until his organs blended together.
Because Kade wanted Nine.
He knew exactly how it felt to have her lips feather across his skin. He knew exactly how it felt to have her supple skin against his and the feelings it stirred when her skin pebbled with the bare graze of his mouth. He didn’t want to share that with anyone else. He didn’t want anyone else to discover her the way he had. There was also the fear of her safety. Nine didn’t have the greatest control over her tongue. His lips twitched. He liked that she kept him on his toes. It exhilarated him, made him feel alive for the first time in years.
Then it hit him…that’s why he made her come because he knew no one else could or would. He knew he would be the only one who could bring her that kind of happiness and he was being selfish, knowing that for the rest of her life, she’d think of him when anything aroused her. She’ll think about his fingers between her legs and his voice in her ear. Or, maybe, it was just wishful thinking. Originally, blindfolding her was never meant to be a pleasure exercise. Kade was meant to touch her strategically and get her to memorise where he put his hands, how he moved his fingers and used his breath all to his advantage. Then it got out of hand. Way out of hand. Regardless of the growing ball of possession in Kade’s body, he knew giving Nine up was for the greater good. Giving her up meant that he could take his family name higher than ever before. It meant he could get out of this hell hole once and for all. With his father gone, Kade could move into the city, into the Sario skyscraper, and he could get revenge on his father and be happy with everything he would gain from his death.
That was the plan…and he would stick to it. No matter what.