Heat

Chapter Eleven

Even before Raven woke up, she hurt.

Her pussy, her arms, her breasts…everything was agony. Her jaw hurt the worst; it felt like she’d blown a horse and then taken a hoof to the head for her trouble. The tendons of her jaw were so sore, she couldn’t even close her mouth fully. What had he done to her?

Raven tried to sit up and realized she was tied spread-eagled to the bed. Baffled, she tugged at the shoelaces binding her wrists, but they might as well have been handcuffs. Why in the hell had he done that? Had she tried to run? She couldn’t really remember. She could remember getting pierced and tattooed. She could even remember having to drive home afterwards, and she could sort of remember falling asleep on the floor and waking up there the next day, but everything else was blank.

Her arms were killing her. Raven pulled, trying to at least straighten out even if she couldn’t sit up all the way, and her entire pelvis went magenta as soon as her hips moved. A cry ripped out of her and Kane, working at his computer, half-turned and gave her a distracted once-over.

“Please,” she gasped, rolling her shoulders in a vain effort to stretch her arms. “Please, let me up.”

Kane pushed his chair back and stood up. He came to the bedside, his head cocked and his eyes moving intently over her. Finally, he began to untie her. As he bent to pick at the knots in the shoelaces, Raven saw red crescents all over his shoulders and chest. She’d bitten him. Hard enough to penetrate even his thick skin in places.

Served him right. She had to have given him the champion of all blowjobs to hurt her jaw this much, and then he must have fucked her in spite of her new piercings. She’d fought him like a mad bastard, clearly, but he didn’t appear to be holding a grudge. Asshole.

Kane slipped an arm behind her and helped her to sit up. The pain swallowed her the instant her pelvis took her weight. When her vision cleared, Kane was holding out the lotion he’d made her. It wasn’t a pain-reliever, but it took the heat out of the ache and that was something. Raven could see Kane’s face out of the corner of her eye as she worked the lotion into her swollen pussy. He was smiling. Bastard.

“If you need to piss, better do it now,” he said. “No shower.”

Were they leaving? He wasn’t packing up. He wasn’t even wearing his boots.

Raven hobbled into the bathroom, leaning on the wall and taking arthritic grandma-steps. It took forever to get there.

In the bathroom mirror, Raven paused long enough to look at herself. The studs in her breasts and the rings in her nipples actually looked pretty good. They were a little red, but not puffy at all. They looked as healed as her belly button ring had looked a whole week after she’d gotten it. The same went for her eyebrow rings and her stomach-hoops. Her pussy, though. God, that hurt.

Raven washed her face and dabbed under her arms with soap, trying to take off just a little of the sweat-smell fogging around her. She scrubbed up with the corner of a towel, then ran cold water over it, wrung it out good, and just touched it to her sex. Nothing down there could possibly feel good, but the cold towel made it at least less bad. A little. When she took the towel away, there were tiny spots of red here and there.

The door opened and Kane leaned in. He cocked his head at the towel in her hand. “Is that blood?” he asked.

“Are you surprised?” she asked irritably.

“No.” He laughed a little, and then came all the way in and dropped to one knee. She felt him fingering carefully at each metal setting. “Nothing looks torn.”

“Better luck next time.”

He glanced up at her with a particularly wry smile, but said nothing. He continued his inspection, and when he was finished, he stood up and washed his hands. “I’ve made you something for the pain,” he said. “Hopefully, something a little more your taste.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He gave her hip a pat and left her.

Raven finished cleaning herself up and shuffled back out to the main room. He was waiting by the table, loading his injector, and it was more than just the pain of movement that made the trip across the room a long one. What were those drugs he was putting into her? She’d done just about everything that could be done in her short street-life, but at least everything she’d popped, smoked or swallowed came from Earth. Kane didn’t even know how to open a can of pop, and he was making drugs for her?

But when he snapped his fingers, her feet took her to him without hesitation. She had misgivings, but they were all intangible. Pain was real, and as much as she hurt now, she knew he could always hurt her more.

She held out her arm, wincing away from it as though trying to physically separate herself from it. She felt his hand enclose her wrist and then the cool head of the injector pushed down on her skin and spat something into her. It stung, but only for a second. Then there was warmth, blushing out through her entire body and nestling in her brain like a bunch of happy baby snakes.

Kane was still holding onto her, staring up into her face with an expectant expression while he rubbed his thumb over the point of injection. She wasn’t sure what he was waiting for, but she found herself strangely agreeable to being petted. He could be gentle when he wanted to be. It was almost enough to make her wish he wanted to be a little more often.

“How do you feel?” Kane asked.

Raven ran her hands down her body. “Like skin,” she told him, and giggled. “God, that shit works fast!”

“Yes, it does. Can you walk?”

Raven obligingly stepped over to the door and back again. She finished with a twirl and would have tried a curtsy, but she got dizzy and needed to fall into Kane to keep her balance. He caught her, which was thoughty of him. “Whoops!” she said brightly, and bit him.

He tensed, his hands clenching on her briefly. “I wish I knew what was making you do that,” he murmured.

“Mm. You taste good.” She wriggled against him more fully, twining her arms around his neck and nibbling all over his chest.

He shivered, still holding her, and growled like thunder. Far-away thunder on a warm summer night, with stars coming out and a full moon rising and crickets singing, maybe a little smoke hanging just under the smell of impending rain. Yeah. He growled just like that.

Raven closed her eyes and moved her mouth over him. Every slow bite brought a new bloom of pleasure from muscles that she knew should be sore. She began to dance lazily in place, just to feel her pierced nipples press and slide against him.

Kane growled sharply and suddenly pushed Raven to arm’s length. “We’re not playing this game again,” he said severely.

Raven put her hand over his groin and rubbed at the growing bulge he constrained. “Who’s playing?”

“You need to heal.”

“I need to fuck.” She started to touch herself, but Kane caught her wrists and held them up at shoulder height. She leaned forward and licked his chest instead. “I feel fantastic.”

“I cut that dose in half,” Kane muttered. “Maybe a little less chozo.” He bent with an air of real reluctance and grazed his teeth along her shoulder as she bit and sucked at him. “Maybe not.”

Raven leaned into him and slowly, grudgingly, he allowed her to move against him. The salt of his sweat was the greatest rush she’d ever had, the tang of blood, orgasmic. She ground her hips eagerly at his, letting his hardness act as catalyst for brilliant euphoria as her bruised sex pressed into him.

“Don’t!” he snarled, and shoved her back again. “You’re never going to get better if—”

She dropped to her knees, wrapped her arms around his waist and bit him on his i

He raised her wrists over her head, but let her bite. Slyly, she slid around to grind her hips at his leg, riding him like a badly-trained bitch. He yanked her to her feet at once, and then pushed her away. The back of her knees struck the bed and she fell onto the mattress, bouncing like a little kid.

Kane approached her, smiling crookedly. “Close your eyes,” he said. “Count to ten.”

She started to obey, but she only got to three before she realized he was tying her up again. She started struggling at once, howling dismay, but Kane had her bound hand and foot in less than a minute.

She lay glaring at him, twisting ineffectively at her restraints. “You’re mean.”

“Ah, I’m just misunderstood.” He sat down beside her, his eyes ru

She writhed on the mattress, pulling at her bonds one at a time, her face contorting with frustration and ecstasy. “Can I fuck you, pleeeeese?” she whined.

“No.”

“Can I blow you?”

“Not a chance.”

She pouted for a second or two, still struggling. “Can I have breakfast?”

Kane glanced toward the door, his eyes narrowing. “I suppose so. Where do you keep the money?”

“I don’t know.” She grew crafty. “Why don’t you search me?” She snapped her teeth at him.

His nostrils flared and half his mouth drew up in a smile. He leaned over and put his hands on her shoulders, and then swept them down, cupping her breasts. She arched up, moaning happily, and his hands continued down over her ribs to her belly, her hips, her thighs, and finally up again to stroke and tease at her sex. Pleasure blew out and out until it enveloped her completely.

“Nope, no money.” Kane stood up and backed away as Raven surged against her restraints.

“No! Come back here! You jerk!”

He laughed as he fished through her skirt pockets. He came up with the cash and then climbed into his long coat.

“Are you leaving?” Raven asked plaintively.

“Close your eyes,” he said again. “Count to ten.”

He left as she counted four. Raven cried, got distracted by her toes, and then lay quietly and watched the ceiling.

She had completely forgotten all about Kane when he suddenly returned, holding a paper bag stained with good-smelling grease. The unexpected sight of him caused her to shout his name with giddy delight, renewing her struggles. He came and sat beside her, tolerating her snapping teeth when they closed on his forearm, and held an eggy croissant to her mouth so that she could eat.

“I love you,” she said happily, chewing.

Kane shook his head and rubbed at his eyes. “I really have to work with this formula a little more.”

“And I love eggs.”

“Good for you.”

She bit him. He smiled.