Page 86 of Besieger
“Here,” Sasho unceremoniously placed a glass before her. It was garnished with a thin slice of orange.
“I didn’t order this.” Leitian turned to her nearest friend. “Deni, is this for you?”
“It’s from the gentleman at the bar,” Sasho announced and looked for something else to busy himself with. Belatedly, he noticed a paper umbrella, plucked it up, and tried to stick it into Leitian’s glass but she pressed her palm over it.
“Vasili?” She tipped her head, trying to see over the crowd.
“No, the other one. Stefan.” When she did not react to the name, Sasho cleared his throat and added: “Redhead, looks like he got run over by a cheese-grater, has a special singles’ night at the club, where he does this trick with a chair—”
“I thought you don’t go to strip clubs, Sasho,” Deni cut in, embracing Leitian across the waist, more to steady herself than to support her friend.
“—this trick with a chair... So I’ve heard.”
“He bought you a drink. How cute!” Deni giggled, her laughter doubling when she saw Leitian’s sour expression. “You should get him one too.”
“He’s in a martini phase right now. The more olives the better,” Sasho chimed in. He looked like he could not wait to tell the other patrons about this.
No, I’ve got something else for him, Leitian thought and gave her order to the bartender.
Leitian wrapped the lapels of her jacket closer and rubbed at her arms to stave off the chill. The nights were cold and she had not dressed with the intention of spending much time outside. It was getting late and most of the bar’s patrons had gone for the night. She was starting to regret not waiting inside, but she did not want to give Sasho an excuse to gossip about her and her alleged suitor. When Stefan was presented with the glass of water Leitian could not see his reaction, but she heard Irena’s cackle and that was enough.
The bar’s door finally opened and a man stepped out. He was wearing a black puffer jacket, zipped all the way to the top and a wool hat with a pompon bouncing on his head as he walked with a brisk step.
“You’re going the wrong way,” Leitian called after Stefan. “The dorms are this way.”
“I know,” he pushed his hat back. The scars on his lips gave him that permanent crooked smile, and Leitian could see he was doing his best to look remorseful. “I don’t live there. I rent by the club.”
“Ah, yes, the strip club Sasho hasonlyheard about.” Leitian straightened her back and began walking down the street. When Stefan did not move, she called out over her shoulder. “Are you walking me home or what?”
Stefan uttered something unintelligible and scurried after her.
STEFAN, 2010
His fingers dug into her hips and he felt her arch as she rode him, her head tipped back. Earlier when Stefan buried his face in her hair, he inhaled deeply, familiarizing himself with her scent.The whole of her.
“I will have all of you or none at all,” Leitian had threatened, refusing to let him come closer. She had got him to follow her to her dorm and then into her bed, but he had to leave behind the game of pretence, that machismo charade he had tried with her earlier at the bar.
He had taken off his clothes and the eyepatch, letting them fall like discarded skin. He had fantasised about wooing her, using any pretext to spend time with her between lectures. He pictured them sitting in the university library: her diligently copying out a bibliography, and him following the movement of her wrist asit gripped the pen, coming up with an excuse to sit closer, to be the centre of her attention. All the dates and excursions Stefan had planned for them fell apart as he climbed onto the bed and breathed in the scent of her arousal.
Not wanting to break her stride, Stefan ran his hands up her body in a feather-light caress before she slapped him across the face.
“I did not say you can move,” Leitian tsked and her hand closed around his throat. She squeezed lightly and tipped his head back so his eye fixed on nothing but her. “Be a good quiet boy for me, Stefan.”
Stefan had really tried to remember the rules of their game, he really had. A rather vague memory on how he could look but not touch, and if he wanted something—anything—he was to ask for permission first. It was hard to concentrate when he was fighting with the awareness of how naked and exposed he felt, scars and tears and the grotesque map of his body. It was not shyness or modesty; he stripped for a living. It was the way Leitian had looked at him, appraising him in the dim light of the reading lamp, as she sat naked on the mattress, waiting.
I will have all of you or none at all...
Leitian’s words echoed in his mind and Stefan bit the inside of his cheek, savouring the sight of her above him; the way the muscles of her thighs tightened with each thrust and her nails raked across his chest; how her pale skin was now pink, and flushed, and warm. What would it feel like to be branded by her? For her human nails and teeth to bite and claw at him, to add to the mementoes already etched into his skin.
When Leitian aligned her body with his and pressed her body to his chest, Stefan wriggled and groaned, brows furrowed with the effort not to move and thrust up, to keep still and let her take him at her own pace. Her lips were so soft, he craved to kiss and suck at them, part them with his tongue—no more than a fraction, no more than what she would allow. If Stefan wanted to kiss her, he had to beg.
Leitian had decided to grant him nothing tonight, nothing but a lesson in obedience, and Stefan was failing.
He wanted to tell her how much he enjoyed it, how grateful he was for her careless, cooed pet names and praise. He wished she had gagged him. That way it would have been easier to keep his lips from smiling, easier to stop himself from opening his mouth at the start of a sentence, desperate to say, ‘Thank you, Mistress,’ ‘Please, Mistress,’‘Anything… everything for you, Mistress.’ But she had left his mouth uncovered and free, forbidding him to utter anything beyond a growl or a hum.This is too cruel, Stefan thought and pressed his lips together, his skin tingling.
“Leitian—” Stefan moaned against her mouth.
She pulled away and straightened her back, her knees digging into the mattress as she resumed bouncing up and down, up and down. Stefan whimpered. There was so much of her he wanted to touch, to kiss and bite. Instead, she kept him pinned down, taking her pleasure from him.
