Chapter 16

Rae.

When I get to the cottage my phone is ringing in my back pocket, as I climb out of the car and pull it out I see Ciara’s name on the display.

“What the actual fuck was that about?” she asks as soon as I connect the call.

“Well, hello to you, too.” I meet her snark with my own.

“Rae! What is going on with you and Edmund?”

“Who says there is anything going on between me and Edmund? I just don’t like snot-nosed, barbie ass, humans showing up and inviting themselves to our family breakfast.”

I storm into the cottage, more riled up again now that Ciara has called and brought the whole thing up.

“Rae!”

“Ciara!” I yell her name back at her.

I hear her sigh on the other end of the phone, accepting that she isn’t going to get an answer from me.

“When you’re ready to talk about this, will I be the first one you tell?” she asks me and I smirk.

“Of course you will, babe. What would make you think otherwise?”

“Nothing, I just want to make sure I’m not left out of the loop. I mean clearly, I already am, but as soon as you’re ready to talk about it I’m here, Rae.”

“I know. I love you. How are you feeling today?”

“Sore, tired. But good. Rian and I should be back at the cottage in a few days.”

“Rian is moving in?” I sigh, this is going to make it even harder for me to see Edmund. I had thought that when Ciara and Rian made up that they would be spending more time together away from the cottage, not spending most of their time together here.

“Yes, what else would you expect, Rae? We’re having a baby. He is my mate.” I sigh at her words.

“I know. I’m sorry. It’s… well… I don’t want to be in the way of you guys. Maybe I should move back to the keep.” I listen to the silence on the other end of the phone, when she doesn’t immediately disagree, I know she was thinking the same thing.

“Rae… You don’t have to do that—”

I cut her off. “I know I don’t, but I will.”

“Well, you can at least wait until it is closer to the time the baby is due.”

“Okay, I can do that. But let me think it over. I want you two to have your time together and really don’t want to be a third wheel.” I hear a knock at the door, startling me. “Hey, I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you about this later. Love you! Bye!” I end the call, cutting Ciara off, and head to the front door.

Opening the front door I see Edmund standing there wearing a fresh change of clothes, his hair still damp, and he is holding a black duffle bag in his hand.

“How did you even have time to shower? I’ve been home for less than twenty minutes.” I smile at him, moving to the side as he steps into the small room with me. “I still need to get cleaned up."

“Good. I hoped you would say that.” Wrapping an arm around my waist, he pulls me toward him and kisses me. I get lost in it and lean my body into his. I don’t think I will ever get tired of kissing this man. When only a short while ago I couldn’t have imagined kissing him.

“I really do need a shower,” I whisper. I’m still wrapped in Edmund’s arms, I wiggle trying to free myself.

“Oh, you’re a dirty girl all right.”

“Shut up!” I smack him on the chest and giggle at his insinuation.

“What? Excuse me? Is that any way to speak to the man in charge? The Master of the house if you will.”

“Master?” I pick up on the way he says the word and smile at him. “Is that what you are now? My Master?” Keeping my tone teasing I look up at him, batting my eyelashes.

“Yes,” he growls the word in my ear and I get a chill through my body, awakening every nerve ending inside me.

“Yes, Master.” I wink at him, my voice is husky. “But, if you’ll excuse me. I have a hot date tonight and I need a shower.” I finally squirm out of his grasp and make my way across the room, swinging my hips as I go, making a show of it. Knowing he is watching me, turns me on. When I look back over my shoulder at Edmund, I see his Adam’s apple bob as he swallows hard and I wink at him, biting my lip.

I shower quickly, waiting the entire time for Edmund to come busting into the bathroom and interrupt me, I am both disappointed and surprised when he doesn’t. I find him lying on top of the covers in my bed, his cellphone in his hand when I come into the room wrapped in my towel.

“All clean? Ready to get dirty again?” He clears his throat and smiles at me when I don’t answer right away, placing his phone on the nightstand.

“Yes, Master.” I use the title for him, granting him the control that I know he craves and I desire to release to him.

Standing from the bed he comes toward me, crooking a finger at me as he does. I drop my towel and close the gap between us.

“God, you’re beautiful, Rae. Don’t you ever forget that.” I think back to the blonde at the table next to me this morning at breakfast and immediately regret it. A sour taste fills my mouth, the perfect Barbie that she is, I could never compare. “Don’t think that,” Edmund scolds me. “I know what you’re doing. I don’t ever want you to do it again. Never will you compare to her, because you are on such a higher level than her. You don’t need the hair dye, the makeup, the fake Barbie look. What you are, the type of gorgeous that you are, Rae is why she hates you so much.”

I snort, but a small smile crosses my lips, his words warm my heart.

“Edmund… I…” I stop myself, the words almost tumbling from my lips, but I stop them just in time. I love him. Not like a brother, not like a friend, I am falling in love with him and I have to accept that for what it is.

“I know.” He nods, his smile spreading over his face. When he wraps his hands around my waist and pulls me to him, I lean in and take in his scent, it is glorious, he smells like home.

“Kiss me,” I demand it from him. My parted lips wait for his to close the space between us and when they do I lift up on my toes, pressing my breasts against his chest and leaning into our kiss.

My hands make their way to his waistband, unbuttoning his pants and slipping my hand inside I find him rock hard and ready for me.

“Mmm.” He moans into my mouth and I swirl my tongue with his. I want to taste him, want to have him fill my mouth and taste all of him.

I fall to my knees in front of him and try something I hadn’t considered until this moment, I position my knees slightly apart, hands resting palms up on my thighs, head bent and I wait for Edmund’s command. I saw women like this at the club, waiting for their sir’s commands. I wait now for my Master’s.

“Rae. Look at me kitten.” I feel his fingers under my chin and I tilt my head back and look up into the eyes of the man standing before me as I offer myself to him. I lick my lips and my eyes dart to his still growing erection and I see him nod. But still, I wait patiently for the command.

“You want to suck my cock like a good whore?”

“Yes, Master, please. May I?” I concede all power to him in this moment. Not only giving him the moniker he has chosen but asking permission to indulge in what I want as well.

“I brought us something.” Holding a finger up to me I watch him, but he hesitates. “Stay just like that.” When he leaves the room I shift my eyes back to the ground between my knees and wait, the excitement coursing through me is growing even stronger and the anticipation of what he is going to get has my pussy growing wetter with each passing second.

When he comes back into my bedroom he has the duffle bag he brought with him in his hands. He sets it on the bed, unzipping it and sorting through things inside.

“Ah, here it is.” Turning around he is holding two different colors of rope, one bright pink and one purple. “Stand up, Rae.” I instantly do as I’m told, curious and nervous at the same time. “Turn around and stand in front of me.” Following his simple instructions, I position myself in front of him, still keeping my neck bent and eyes downcast out of respect.

Edmund takes his time with me then. I can hear the rope unravel and hit the ground behind me, then I feel his hands on my naked skin as he works it around me, moving around the front of me and then behind me again as he goes. Watching in awe I see the two different colors of rope crisscross into a beautiful basket weave pattern over my skin.

Finally, he seems to be finished. When he takes me by the shoulders I startle a bit, having become so relaxed in the moments of him tying me up. I look up at him, coming back to reality. When he moves me to the mirror and I look at myself in it I see an incredible weave of the pink and purple rope across my chest, just under the nape of my neck, rope crossed under each breast, lifting them up and accentuating them perfectly.

“It’s beautiful,” I tell him, trailing my fingers over the rope lying against my skin.

“You’re beautiful. I want you to wear it tonight.”

“Yes, Master.” I agree, I don’t ever want to take it off, the soft pressure of the smooth rope against my skin is soothing. “What’s it called?” I ask as I continue to run my fingertips over the ropes.

“Shibari, it is a basket weave harness. The colors look incredible on you, kitten.” He kisses my cheek and I watch him standing behind me in the mirror. Taking in the sight of me, we both look at the beauty of the harness and my breasts wrapped in it. “You can wear it under your dress tonight and keep it on when we play.”

“What dress?”

“Ah.” Edmund turns from me and back to the bag still sitting on the bed. “This one!” he says with a flourish as he pulls a black dress from the bag. When he holds it up in front of me in the mirror I see that the top of it and the long sleeves are sheer fabric, where the rest of the dress will just cover the lower half of my breasts and the rest of my body.

“You’re spoiling me because you feel bad about breakfast.” I meet his eyes in the mirror and watch as they widen.

“I’m not, I had this planned before crazy showed its face this morning.” He kisses the side of my neck, and my shoulder, lifting my hand and continuing his kisses down my arm. “Turn,” he says and helps me to spin, then applies gentle pressure to my shoulders, “and kneel.”

Doing as I’m told I sink to my knees in front of Edmund, again parting them and positioning my hands palms up on my thighs, I wait for his next command. Taking my chin in his hand he tilts my head back and runs his thumb over my bottom lip, I part my lips and stick my tongue out licking at the tip of it. When he pushes it into my mouth I suck hard on his thumb, wishing it were his dick, wanting to please him now as he has pleased me with his gifts of the harness and dress.

“Eager thing aren’t you, kitten?” he asks me and I nod, eyes wide.

“Yes, Master.”

I watch with bated breath as he reaches into his pants and frees himself for me, stepping closer to me and pushing down on the base of his cock, lowering the tip to just a fraction of an inch from my lips. I don’t move, don’t shift forward and take what has not yet been offered. My fingers twitch, but I keep my hands steady on my thighs and wait.

When he nods his appreciation, I beam internally at his approval. “Good girl,” he praises me as he runs his hand down the side of my face, grabbing my chin again, this time with more aggression than before. “Now you can suck my cock and thank me for your new outfit.”

Nodding I move slightly forward and close my lips over the head of his dick, flicking my tongue over him and looking up as I watch him tip his head back and run his hands through his hair.

When he drops his hands to his side, he wraps one in my hair and takes hold of the back of my head, pushing me further down onto him. I swallow all of him and feel as his cock hits the back of my throat.

“Play with my balls while you suck my cock like a good girl, kitten.” His words free me from my position and I move my hands quickly. Taking the base of his cock in one of my hands and his balls in the other, I follow the movement of my mouth with my hand, jerking him as I suck him hard. Groping and twisting his balls, as I go, with the other hand.

“Fuck!” he roars, his voice filling the room and I smile around him. Happy to be causing him to have such a reaction to me, enjoying the power I have over him at this moment.

Pushing my mouth forward over his cock I run my tongue up the length of him as I go and when I get to the end the suction causes an audible pop to fill the room when I release him from my lips.

“I want to come down your throat, but I want to fuck you. I can’t decide what to do, kitten.”

“Fuck me, Master,” I tell him. My pussy is dripping, my thighs are slick with my need, and I want nothing more than to have him filling me now.

“Hmmm…”

“Please, Master,” I whine as I take him back into my mouth, swallowing him again and twisting harder on his balls.

“Well, since you asked nicely.” He wraps his hands around the top of my arms and pulls me to my feet, then roughly pushes me toward the bed and bends me over it.

Putting one of his feet on the edge of the bed he positions himself behind me and I watch as he takes ahold of the base of his dick, still coated with my spit, and runs it up and down my swollen lips.

“You’re ready for me aren’t you, kitten?” Dipping a finger inside me he swirls it around, then two, when he pulls them out he reaches around me. “Look at how wet you are for me. Open your mouth.” I do as I’m told and he slips his fingers, coated with my arousal, between my lips. I suck them hard into my mouth, enjoying tasting myself on him. “Good girl.”

Grabbing the rope on the back of the harness between my shoulder blades he pulls me back onto him, his fingers still in my mouth as he does and I cry out when he impales me on his cock.

Just as he buries himself inside me he smacks my ass and I yelp, I know it will bruise. When I was in the bathroom I could see the tiny bruises from the vampire gloves, the small circles covering my skin, faded as they are, I’m happy to have new bruises now. The pleasure of having him smack me is enough to bring me close to my orgasm already.

“Master?” I ask, unable to get the complete question out as he fucks me, in and out of my drenched pussy.

“Kitten?” he asks, pulling harder on my harness, his other hand now twisting into my curls and arching my back as he fucks me harder.

“Yes!” I cry out the word, gasping and panting with my need. “I need to come,” I whine at him. It is true, I need it, don’t want it, but need it just as much as I need to have him filling me again and again.

“Come for me, Rae. I want to feel you come all over my cock.” I make the realization then that he doesn’t have on a condom and I still. But when he smacks my ass I cry out and buck back against him.

As he thrusts into me a few more times I feel the pleasure building stronger inside me, my walls tense down around him. When Edmund releases his hand from my hair and wraps his arm under me, finding my clit with his fingers, I scream. The buzzing moves through my body from my clit to my toes, and I curl them. Feeling my muscles deliciously tense as the orgasm flows through me when I feel the rush of come squirt out of me around the cock buried inside me.

“You feel incredible, Rae.” Edmund’s words fill my ears. I smile into the bed as I collapse forward. When he pulls out of me I feel the hot streams of come coating my ass.

“Don’t move.” His voice rumbles through me and I lie still on the bed. “You’re going to let that dry so everyone can see and smell me on you tonight, you’re mine. Marked as mine by my bruises and my come on you. Just like the dirty slut you are.”

I nod, letting the afterglow take me over, my eyelids feel heavy and they drift closed.

* * *

Edmund.

I shift Rae on the bed and tuck her into my shoulder, wrapping my arms around her. Letting her get her rest before we head out for the night. I think through the morning’s events while we lie together in bed. I hope this is the last we see of Carley, but something tells me it won’t be. If she was ballsy enough to show up at the keep to breakfast with the entire family, then she is clearly not going to let this go easily.

Rae shifts in my arms, making a small noise and I look down at her, brushing her hair back from her face and kissing her cheek. I think back to last year before I knew what she meant to me. When I saw her as merely another member of my family. Before I realized that I would do anything for her, die for her even, if I had to.

Carley and I had had a thing during that time, she was a good time and a good submissive, but it just didn’t work out. When I broke it off with her I told her that I didn’t see us having a future together, I knew by the end of our relationship that Rae was my mate. Carley insisted we were meant to be together and kept calling me for months on end, but even that ended nearly six months ago and I expected her to have moved on by now. Since then, I haven’t been with anyone else.

Letting out a long sigh I look out the window, I’m going to have to handle this sooner rather than later. I’ll go and see her tomorrow, tell Rae I am taking care of it, and put an end to any ideas Carley has that she is welcome to just show up in my life this way again.

* * *

Rae.

Waking, I roll over and see Edmund standing in the doorway. “Hey there, sleepyhead. You ready to get up?”

I yawn and shift in the bed. “Mmm-hmm,” I tell him through my yawn. “What time is it?”

“After four, we can stop and grab a quick bite on the way if you want. Or I can make us something here. Do you have any food in the kitchen?”

“I think I have something,” mulling it over as I stretch and get out of bed, “Let me check.”

“You get dressed, I’ll look and see if I can come up with something.”

Smiling, I nod as he leaves the room and heads off to rummage through the bare kitchen cabinets. Finding the dress he picked out for me, lying on the end of the bed, I pick it up and hold it up to my body, eyeing myself in the mirror.

It is beautiful, it will accentuate the harness perfectly and while it covers my breasts and ass, it does so barely. Slipping it over my head and pushing my arms through the sleeves, I zip the back up halfway. Getting a glimpse of myself in the mirror on the way out of the room, I smile at my reflection. I feel incredibly beautiful in it and I know now that is why he chose it for me. I go in search of Edmund to help zip me up the rest of the way.

“Wow,” Edmund lets out a low whistle. “Look at you!” His broad smile makes mine widen across my face further and when he holds his arms out to me I cross to him and let him hold me close. “You look incredible. Everyone will be jealous of me tonight.” He winks at me.

“What did you find?” I point to the cutting board where he has apple slices and cheese laid out as he zips the back of my dress up the rest of the way.

“Just some fruit and cheese, there is a box of crackers too. Don’t want something too heavy before we play.”

Nodding in agreement I pick up a sliced apple and bite into it, the juice runs down my chin and Edmund uses his thumb to wipe it away, then quickly kisses me. Being here with him, like this, relaxed and just enjoying each other’s company is amazing. But as I chew the apple I gulp, I can’t help but think about the one thing I'm craving, and it is not this.

Hunger takes me over so strongly some nights that my throat burns with it. I confessed to him that I slipped up and had a small snack. I don’t know how to do this, after the past year of indulging myself almost every night going cold turkey, without the blood I crave, has been incredibly difficult.

“What’s wrong?” Edmund questions me. “What are you thinking about? Your eyes are far off, you’re not here with me right now. What is it?”

I sigh, tears filling my eyes. I feel so weak, so broken. “I don’t know how to do this.” I hold out the half-eaten apple slice in my hand. “I don’t know how to stop.”

Dropping my head and looking at the floor, I let the tears fall down my cheeks, hiding them from him, hiding my shame.

“Rae, Look at me.” Closing his hand over mine, he pulls me to him and tips my head up with his other hand, so we are eye to eye. “I shouldn’t have asked you to give it up like that. I promised you we would find another way, but I didn’t give you any options. I just expected you to figure it out, because I didn’t have the answers, and that wasn’t fair of me.”

Shaking my head at him, I sob, placing my head in my hands. The reality of what I have done, and what I am, floods me with emotions.

“Rae, look at me. You’re not evil, you’re not broken. I can see all of the things you’re thinking about yourself right now written all over your face and you’re none of those things,” he says, while trailing his hand down my cheek.

Nodding slowly at him I process his words, trying to convince myself he is right, trying to believe him.

“Sure.”

“Sure? Rae,” he sighs. I can tell he is looking for the right words, the look in his eyes scares me. I don’t know what it means, but it feels like he doesn’t believe what he says, feels like he believes all of those things about me are true.

“Edmund,” I sob. My shoulders shaking, all of the past year coming down on me at once, the faces of all of the men I fed on flashing through my mind.

“I know. Shh, it’s okay, kitten.” He holds me, rubbing my back as I cry.

When I have no tears left and my throat is sore from the crying more than it is from the burn of my cravings I finally look up at him. My eyes burning with all of my tears. “I’m sorry. I know we were supposed to be having a fun night. Not spending it having a pity party over my own choices.”

“Do you want to skip the club? We can go hunting instead.” I chew on my lower lip as I contemplate his offer. Shaking my head at last I tell him no.

“I want to go to the club. But can we hunt in the morning?”

“Of course, we can. Maybe we should go every day, if you’re fulfilling your urge to hunt and feed daily, even if it isn’t exactly your preferred prey, that might help. Again, Rae, I am so sorry. I should never have expected you to just stop and not suffer from it.” Edmund rubs his hand over his face, I can hear the scratching of his stubble over his palm as he does, he is thinking through our options, there aren’t many, and we both know this.

“Well, are you ready to go? Did you want any more of this?” Pointing to the food on the counter Edmund picks up another apple and offers it to me. I take it, swiping a piece of cheddar cheese to go with the granny smith, the combination of flavors is one of my favorites and I hope it helps the hunger subside.

“I’m finished, let’s get ready to go.” Kissing him on the cheek, I smile when he pats me on the rump and we clean up the kitchen quickly, ready for the drive into the city.