Bound to be Tested: Emergence, Book 3 Read online

  “Jude, you didn’t return my call.”

  “Sorry, busy week. What’s up?”

  “I need to meet with you. We have a situation I need to discuss.”

  “Now? Jeez. Can’t it wait? My entire life has been a situation for so many years I can’t sleep. I’m on leave and I’m not under your jurisdiction anymore. Remember that little declaration of intent to retire?” Jude smiled. He knew his old commanding officer well. His humor wouldn’t go unnoticed.

  “Yeah. Sorry, but this is important. When can you come in?”

  “Dude, whatever it is, talk to me now. I’m right here.” Jude stood and headed toward the kitchen. Why the hell did his old commander need a face-to-face during Jude’s leave?

  Lori stepped back into the house at two thirty sharp.

  Jude was on the phone in the kitchen when she entered and didn’t seem to notice her. She quietly removed all her clothes and folded them in a pile.

  She flinched when his voice rose. “I still don’t understand how this is possible.”

  She stood very still, not wanting to interrupt.

  “Where is he now?... What do you mean you don’t know?... You aren’t fucking kidding, that isn’t cool… No… Not a chance… Fuck…” He stood, knocking the chair on the floor behind him. That’s when he spotted her and froze. After a second he nodded in her direction and pointed toward the living area.

  She deciphered his actions to mean that she should kneel where she normally did to wait for him.

  “I can’t talk about this now… Well, what do you want me to do?… No. Not going to happen.” He stomped into the kitchen and out the back door, slamming it behind him.

  She could hear him continue to rant with the caller for several minutes. Finally he stopped. He must have hung up, but he didn’t return for a while.

  When he did, he entered calmer, shutting the door with a quiet snick. He busied himself in the kitchen and then went down the hall.

  Lori waited on her knees beside the couch. She sat back on her ankles when her legs grew stiff. Surely he wouldn’t fault her for that in his preoccupation. What the hell was going on? She’d never seen him that agitated.

  Eventually he reemerged and sat on the couch in front of her. He put his head in his hands and took a deep breath. “There’s a slight problem.”

  She figured that.

  “I don’t want you to worry about it right now. It doesn’t concern you.” He took her chin and lifted her gaze. “Okay?”

  “Yes, Sir.” Her voice cracked. Hell no, it’s not okay.

  “I need you to trust me.”

  Like I trusted you two years ago? Did that conversation have anything to do with where he’d been for the last two years? She knew better than to ask questions.

  “You’re stiff.”

  She was. “Sorry, Sir.”

  He took a deep breath and wiped his free hand over his face. “I need to make some calls. I want you to reacquaint yourself with my vibrator while I work. It’ll help you learn control and keep you occupied.”

  He had to be kidding. He was going to yammer on the phone, and she was going to masturbate?

  “Stand.” He took her forearm when she released her hands and helped her up. “Get on the bed.”

  She followed him, concern about his behavior wearing on her.

  “Lie in the center, arms above your head.”

  She crawled up, wondering how she was going to masturbate without her arms.

  When he approached, she realized his intent. She wasn’t going to get herself off at all. He was going to strap her down and force her. She swallowed a groan as she stretched her arms up and he strapped first one wrist and then the other to the headboard. While she tried to steady her racing heart, he spread her legs and used the infamous spreader bar to hold her open.

  He didn’t talk while he worked. His brow was furrowed. He leaned in to kiss her lips but only briefly. Next he pulled a length of leather from his bag and set it on her body. Her nipples puckered when the soft material hit her.

  A harness. She’d never worn this particular type before, but she recognized it. He strapped it around her neck and then pulled the center length between her breasts to her crotch. “Lift up with your heels, baby.”

  She lifted her body off the bed so he could reach beneath and pull the leather under her back. As he cinched the top section, she closed her eyes. Her breasts were displayed between the triangle formed by the leather, which heightened her awareness of each globe. It was sensual and unnerving at the same time. The leather strip resting below her breasts pushed them up.

  And then Jude pulled her lower lips apart and something cold hit her open sex. She lifted her head and opened her eyes to see him trailing a dildo through her folds. He smiled as he caught her gaze. “Relax. I’m going to make you feel so good.”

  His idea of making her feel good didn’t include orgasm, though. She knew that. Strapped to the bed and wearing this harness, he would want her to remain aroused while not pushing her over the edge.

  He held her gaze while he slid the vibrator home, pushing it deep within her. It wasn’t a slender dildo either. It was thick and long. It filled her almost as much as his cock did.

  Next he held up a plug, slightly larger than the one she’d worn earlier. He squeezed lube onto the tip and used one finger to spread it around the bulb. When he finished, he circled her lower hole with that finger, massaging the lube into her skin. He slid the plug into her without speaking.

  Lori shocked herself that she’d accepted the foreign object so easily this time.

  Jude gave her a half smile. He stretched a section of the leather strap up her butt crack and attached it to the length hanging between her legs from the front. He tightened it, tested it and tightened it again. She was completely at the mercy of the vibrator, which wouldn’t be able to escape her pussy with the harness in place.

  Jude held up a remote. “I’ll be controlling the vibrations from my office. You’ll be controlling your body. You don’t have permission to orgasm.” He pressed a button on the black box he held and the vibrator came to life. It was manageable, a low hum that made her heart rate increase but didn’t cause her too much stress.

  He stroked her nipples and the undersides of her breasts. “I like you in this.” He tested the tightness of every section of leather. When he reached between her legs, he fiddled with the thick strap over her clit, making sure it was arranged to distract her as much as possible.

  “I’ll be back to check on you.” He tapped her leg. “I need to make some calls. I don’t want to hear noises from you. If you can’t control your mouth, I’ll gag you.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  He left.

  She tried to relax into the mattress and stare at the ceiling. As the clock ticked, she could hear Jude on the phone. She couldn’t make out anything he said, but he talked forever with several people. She worried about him. Whatever issue he had, it needed a lot of attention.

  And what the hell was it anyway? He’d said he was on vacation. And then that he was up for retirement. And suddenly this.

  She concentrated on her thoughts, trying to ignore the vibrating inside her. But when the intensity rose, she went rigid for a moment to gather enough brain cells to keep from coming. The damn dildo butted against the plug and caused both items to make her aware of every inch of both holes.

  When she squirmed, the leather rubbed her clit unbearably. She tried to remain still.

  Jude stepped back into the room. He leaned over her and gauged her reaction. “You okay, baby?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  He stroked her body—her breasts, her neck, her belly, her thighs. When he reached closer to her sex, he used both hands to pull her outer lips around the leather. Every touch drove her closer to orgasm.

  A little pop made her lift her head. He
held a tube of ointment. He spread some on one finger and lifted the leather away from her clit. “Just going to rub this on your clit, baby, so it doesn’t chafe against the leather.” When he finished, he left.

  The vibrator continued, increasing another notch as he shut the door. A moment later he was on the phone again, and Lori moaned as low as she could around the need to come.

  She panted several times and tried to think of anything else. After several minutes she became aware of something new. Whatever he put on her clit wasn’t strictly a lubricant. Her clit was alive and pulsing. A tingling sensation was making it throb.

  Fuck. She held still, breathing deeply.

  Just when she thought she wouldn’t be able to avoid orgasm, the vibrations stopped.

  No. No no no. She should have been relieved. If he caught her coming without permission, he wouldn’t be happy. But at this point she’d rather suffer the consequences than have her arousal halted at the peak.

  Her ears seemed to ring from the need as she came down from the highest spot. She squirmed. It took forever, but as she heard Jude in the middle of a conversation, he turned the vibrator back on.

  Damn him and his evil ways.

  She squeezed her eyes closed and took long, deep breaths. Her pussy tightened around the dildo. She tried to ignore it. She heard a low noise and realized it was coming from her. She was moaning and whimpering constantly.

  Jude reappeared. “Oh, baby, you’re doing so well. You look wrung out.” He increased the vibrations as he approached. He swiped a finger under the leather at her pussy. “So wet.” He stroked her, slipping his finger inside her to join the dildo. When he stroked it across her G-spot, she shot off the bed, lifting her ass as high as she could with her legs pinned apart.

  “Go ahead, baby. Come for me.”

  At his words, she went over the edge, her orgasm making her buck upward as she pulsed around both items inside her. She didn’t come down far, though. Not with everything still in place. Even when the vibrations stopped, she needed more.

  Instead Jude released her arms. While she rubbed them with her hands to increase the circulation, he removed the spreader bar and then pulled the leather to one side at her ass and eased out the plug. “Come with me, baby.”

  Stand and walk? She didn’t think she could. It seemed impossible. Her legs would be gelatin, and she needed to be fucked.

  But he walked away and she had no choice but to follow. She pulled herself off the bed and hobbled out of the room, her breasts swaying indecently in the confines of the harness.

  She found him across the hall in the office and approached. He’d placed a folded blanket on the floor at his feet under the desk. “Kneel between my legs, baby.”

  She bent to crawl awkwardly under the desk and turned to face his crotch. She settled back against her feet, feeling like a pet on her hands and knees under his desk.

  “You may rest your face on my lap. I have some more work to do.”

  Lori inched forward and set her cheek against his thigh.

  He stroked her hair, and she tried not to rock back and forth. With one hand he shuffled papers and read information. The other hand he settled on her cheek, letting his thumb fall into her mouth. She wished it was his cock. Why wouldn’t he let her suck him off? She wanted him in her mouth. She missed the taste of him, the way he held her face when she went down on him.

  She suckled him. It was soothing, but it also aroused her to a new high. The vibrations started up again, low but discernable.

  A long time went by. Twice Jude’s phone rang, but he never answered it. He tapped away at his computer. Sometimes he removed his hand for a while, but he always replaced it, positioning his thumb back between her lips.

  Lori sucked; Jude worked.

  His cock was hard, but not as hard as she’d known it to be in past experience. Whatever he was doing was enough of a distraction he could avoid sex. And that was saying something for Jude Cavanaugh.

  Finally he pulled back enough to speak. “Take my cock out, baby. You’ve been wanting to suck me since I returned. Now’s your chance.”

  Lori balanced herself and unbuttoned Jude’s jeans. “Why have you waited, Sir?” She lowered the zipper and he sprang free. No underwear.

  He lifted her chin. “I wanted you to understand that I’m devoted to you, completely. I wanted these first few days to be about you.”

  “Taking you in my mouth is about me too, Sir.” She tipped her head to one side and smiled into his palm. “I enjoy it.”

  He squeezed her face with both hands. “I’m a lucky bastard, baby.”

  She smiled and ducked back toward his cock. The head was wet with precome and she licked it clean before sucking him between her lips.

  While she dragged his cock deep into her mouth, his thighs stiffened beneath her hands.

  She wanted to taste his come. And she worked him hard. He didn’t last long. When he came, he froze as his cock squirted into her throat. Lori swallowed, sucking him dry and licking his length to ensure she didn’t miss a drop.

  She continued to stroke his staff with her tongue while he resumed his work. Lori’s pussy came to instant attention as the vibrating suddenly shot up.

  She released his cock and rocked back and forth on her knees, unable to control her body’s movements under the strain of the vibrations that seemed to get stronger.

  She would come without permission. There was no way to avoid it.

  Suddenly Lori’s vision blurred as she reached orgasm and crashed without warning. Her body wouldn’t wait another moment. Her clit pulsed against the leather strap held tightly between her legs, and her pussy worked to grip the dildo.

  Lori kept rocking. The vibrating didn’t stop. It kept going, perhaps stronger. She moaned and dipped her head to the floor. For several seconds her skin was too sensitive to take the offense, but then another orgasm built and toppled before she could catch her breath. “Oh God.” She kept rocking, not caring how silly she must look.

  She could feel Jude watching her. But she remained cocooned under the desk while her body ruled her world. Or rather Jude ruled it with that damn remote control.

  Finally he took pity and lowered the vibrations gradually until they ceased. Lori sat back on her heels, unable to hold herself up. She let her head rest on the floor, a similar pose she often used in yoga. A relaxation pose he hadn’t given her permission to assume. But she wasn’t in any state of mind to care.

  And then he was kneeling on the floor, lifting Lori from under the desk. “You did well, baby.” He pulled her to stand in front of him and leaned her against the side of the desktop.

  Lori was exhausted. Her body screamed for her to remain on the floor, perhaps nap there. He had other ideas.

  “You’re so beautiful.” He kissed her belly. “Think you can walk?”

  She wasn’t sure. But that wasn’t the answer he was looking for. “Yes, Sir.”

  Jude helped steady her while she tried to gather the brain cells it would take to move her feet. She waited for him to remove the harness.

  He didn’t make any move to do so. When she focused on his face, she found him smiling up at her. He rubbed her thighs. “Go start dinner. I’ll be there soon.”

  In this? No fucking way.

  She stared at him. He patted her ass. “Go.” He nodded at the door.

  Lori turned and shuffled from the room. She gritted her teeth the entire time.

  Jude lay down in the center of the bed with the Lori on one side of him. He pulled her close after she flipped off the light. She snuggled against him, squeezing his arm as though it were a lifeline.

  He’d worried her with his phone calls and demeanor. And he hated what he saw in her eyes.

  Fear.

  He never wanted her to be afraid or put her through what he’d done to her two years ago.

 
Unfortunately, this time he was scared also. Dammit. If he were alone, he would slam his fist into the wall. But he wasn’t, and it couldn’t be helped. He took deep breaths, trying to slow his heart rate. He knew Lori had her hand over his chest and was gauging his weird mood.

  Something like this wouldn’t get by her, and he couldn’t blame her. If he hurt her again, she would kick his ass goodbye and possibly suffer irrevocable damage.

  On the flip side, if push came to shove and he had to send her away to keep her safe, he would do it in a heartbeat. Even if he shattered her heart in the process.

  It would kill him, but knowing she was safe was all that mattered.

  He ran through several of the conversations he’d had today, trying to make sense of what the fuck had gone wrong in his life and why the hell the universe was so against him.

  Lori lay stiff beside him. He knew she wasn’t sleeping. She was sharp. She smoothed her fingers across his chest as it pounded, as though her touch could calm him. And it did, in a way. But not enough.

  Nothing could ease his mind tonight. Not even sex.

  He squeezed her shoulders.

  “Jude?” The one word held so many questions.

  He kissed her forehead and held her tighter. “It’s all right, baby. Just go to sleep.”

  But it wasn’t and he was fooling no one.

  He closed his eyes, promising himself he would only rest them until she was asleep. In her arms he felt comforted. Maybe he could let his guard down entirely and rest like a normal human being.

  Jude’s heart beat so hard he was sure others could hear it. He glanced at his men surrounding him and took a deep breath. Something wasn’t right. They’d entered this bunker to take out the enemy and his men unaware, and they’d succeeded.

  Why did he feel so uneasy? It was over. He stepped around bodies, kicking them to make sure they were indeed limp—dead. Finally he reached the side of the most important one in the group. The leader. The bastard responsible for thousands of civilian deaths. The monster who held no regard for human life.

  A chill went down Jude’s spine as he pondered his own involvement in taking lives. He’d killed to avoid more killing. The irony made him smirk as he leaned over the blank face of the mastermind of years of unnecessary torture and murder.