Chapter 6

Bliss stared at Chal with helpless eyes. She had no hope that he would be able to save her, not twice, not with a man as evil and powerful as Garret. The man had placed offers with her previous Master. He'd been allowed her company and she shuddered in terror at the thought of being with him now.

But Chal was strong and he took care of his own. For some reason-- a reason she just couldn't understand-- he had made her his.

"It's okay, C-Chal." She tried to sound strong but a sobbing hitch to her breathing betrayed her. "I'm all right.

Garret shook her. "Shut up! If I wanted you to speak, I'd tell you what to say!" He pressed the knife so that its sharp blade indented the flesh of her neck. A single drop of blood dripped from that blade. With a gleam in his eyes, he ran his hand from her waist to her breasts, caressing her nipple through the gown. "She likes this," he jeered, as if trying to provoke Chal's temper. He pulled at the gown and ripped it further until her nipple was exposed and he tweaked at it, causing her to jerk away from his groping hands. He yanked her back again and thrust his hips against the softness of her buttocks. "Tell him how much you like it, bitch. Tell him how much you want me. Tell him that you want to stay with me and be mine."

A flush of shame suffused her face as her nipple grew hard under the onslaught of his fingers. In a clearly awful exchange, he moved one hand down to her naked pussy. She tried to jerk away then but he wouldn't allow it. It might have been that last lash of his fingers or the name he called her, a name she absolutely loathed, or maybe just Chal's presence, but she turned her head, ignoring the knife at her throat and glared up at Garret. "I've been dragged around and beaten, sold and abused, raped and tortured, and if you think you can do anything to me with that knife that I'm not ready for, you are sadly mistaken. So use the..." she turned her head back and stared straight ahead, hatred in her eyes. " ... fucking knife or let me go!"

Garret stared down at her in surpriise. Those had been the last words he'd expected her to say and they flabbergasted him. Gabby had promised that the bitch had been cowed by her previous owner. "Shut up, slut! You will do what I say without question or I'll rip your fucking head off with this knife and then fuck your bloody throat."

"Try it bastard." Bliss looked at Chal, her eyes speaking things she'd hadn't said in the few days she'd known him. Her eyes were saying good-bye. "I don't think you have it in you, Garret. I don't think you have the ... the stones to kill me. You know if I wasn't here, Chal would have ripped your head off. He might have drained you dry as well though that would definitely be an unsavory meal."

Chal stood ready to intercede if Bliss pushed Garret too far. A sardonic twist of his lips greeted Garret's eyes. He nodded his approval at her choices of words and gave her a smile that set her soul to quiver. Then he cocked his head questionably. "I guess the lady has had enough of your company, Garret. So ... what do you say, let her go and I won't let her hurt you. Otherwise I might actually enjoy watching her take you down a peg or two." Bliss grinned at his words. There seemed such acceptance in his tone and she basked in his approval.

As long as Chal was with her, she could do so many things that had seemed too beyond her. It was like having a door open in front of her, just waiting for her to decide her next step. "So Garret, what's your answer? Let me walk now or ... You're beginning to look hungry, Chal." She cocked her head to the side and gave him a slightly coy smile.

His hand touched his stomach. "I could eat." He was amazed by her strength and her will.

Garret's hand was shaking and not quite so steady with the knife against her throat. It was now or nothing.

A second later, he dropped the knife and a high pitch squeal came from his mouth. He fell to the floor and clutched at his favorite appendage. He rolled on the hard, cement floor, spluttering and moaning. Bliss stood over him for a moment then stepped between his legs. "You'll think again before you do this to another woman." She drew her leg back and kicked him once more, a kick so hard that a sharp, undulating squeal came from his mouth. She held out a hand to Chal, the other held the edges of her torn gown. "Can we go home?"

Chal ran the back of his fingers over her soft cheek then took her hand. "We certainly can."

"I'm so sorry about the gown, Chal. It was so beautiful." She glanced up at him from behind thick lashes. She opened her mouth to say something else but Chal stopped her.

"Don't you dare tell me you're sorry. That is completely not your fault. If Garret wasn't on the ground already, I'd knock him down a couple of times for just making you worry." He smiled down at her as she tentatively touched him. His arms went around her to tenderly hold her close.

He was moving slowly, too slowly. She just couldn't feel fear from his touch. Instead she wanted him to sweep her up and embrace her, to lay to her down and do things in the big bed in her room that would make her blush. With this, with him all of this seemed like a nightmare, quickly forgotten. She wanted his passion and she wanted his touch. She needed his touch more than she needed to breathe.

"I missed you." His voice was low and intimate.

Bliss felt her heart swell. "You were gone and I couldn't find you. Garret said that he had killed you and I wanted to die too." Her words were quiet but she knew that he heard her. He swept her up in his strong arms, carefully keeping his movement slow and gentle. He had taken care of the two men that had been stationed at the top of the basement stairs. Garret had hired men to patrol his grounds with huge dogs, Chal had taken care of all of them. There were more of Garret's men in the guard shack at the end of his drive.

Cuddling her close, he tried to keep her from seeing the dead guards that were there and on the outside of Garret's front door as well as the shack. His step was sure and her weight seemed like nothing. He walked down the walkway to the driveway, than started down the long drive. The gate was open and as he reached the road, he was running and then he blurred out of sight.

She couldn't lift her head. He ran so fast and so easily that she felt as if they were flying. It was an exhilarating and terrifying sensation and she couldn't keep her eyes open to watch. Instead, she buried her face against his neck, wrapped her arms around him, and inhaled his spicy, male scent. She laid a tender kiss against his skin just under his ear and felt him shudder. "You can't," he growled. "You have to Stop. You're killing me, Bliss."

She heard him even though his words were quickly lost in the wind he created with his passing. A little imp, one she hadn't felt since before her mother's death lent her eyes a twinkle of mischief. She lifted herself in his arms just enough to reach his ear then traced the outside whorl with her tongue before breathing her answer into it. "I can't? I think I just did."

He stopped running just inside the back gate of the gardens in his own back yard. His breathing was rough and he slowly let her legs drop, his arm still wrapped around her back. "No. You can't. If you continue, I won't be able to control myself." He took a step back, releasing her completely only to take her arm as she swayed. "I could hurt you, Bliss."

Bliss smiled and stared up into his warm eyes. She couldn't help but feel a thrill at the power he gave her with his words. "You wouldn't hurt me."

"I could do so much more than hurt you." There was a trace of self-deprecation in his voice, a hint of cynicism that had her cocking her head.

Her eyes never wavered from his. "You won't hurt me, Chal. You are too good in here." Her fingers brushed over the soft fabric of his jacket. Her palm gently rested over his heart.

He tried to turn and walk away but it had been so damn long since he'd felt the gentleness of a woman's touch, a touch not coerced by his combined gifts or his money. "Do you have any idea what I am? I could rip you apart with my bare hands, Bliss. I could drain you dry and leave the empty husk of your body out there to blow into little more than dust." He took a deep breath and gently allowed his forehead to touch hers. She was shaking and he didn't know if it was fear or if she was just chilled from the cold breeze. "I could... literately fuck you to death."

"I'm not scared. You won't hurt me." She took the last half step to press herself against his hard body. He was trembling under her hands and felt the shiver as she got the first taste of him. That quiver affected him. It made him want to touch her but he knew he had to run away from her.

He shook his head and tried to turn his back to stop her. Her hands moved over his chest, softly stroking his cool skin. "Please Chal. I want you to take me in your arms and make love with me in that wide bed in your room. I want to be yours. I am yours." She pressed her breasts against him.

"I'll take you into the house, but I will not kiss you or touch you. It's too dangerous. You're too dangerous. I would lose myself in you; in your touch, your scent, and the way that you kiss me. You are just too tempting. If I lose control, I could kill you." He turned toward her, his hands encircling her wrists, keeping those hands off his body. "No touching." He patted her hands, moving them to her sides.

Her arms instantly went around his neck. "I want you to lose control with me. I want you to bury your body inside of me. I want to forget all those others that came before you. Please, help me forget, Chal. I know you won't hurt me." She was breathless, and her eyes didn't leave his face even as he picked her up.

They were on the back veranda so quickly, she placed a hand on his cheek to ground herself.

"Are you all right?"

She nodded and he set her down in front of him. He stopped just short of the french doors that Garret had taken her from and ruefully made to set her down. "I'm going to take you up to your room. Then I have to leave. Kissing you has me famished, Bliss."

A green haze colored her vision and had her dropping her arms. "You would reject what I want to give you and go to some other woman." She glared up at him, a range of emotions crossing her face. "What can she give you that I can't?" She made to move past him but he wouldn't allow it.

"You know what I am, what I could do to you if I lost control. If I ever hurt you, I wouldn't be able to live with myself, much less touch you again. You are so absolutely precious to me. I just want you too much to be able to trust myself." He dipped his head and kissed her gently. He tried to keep it soft and sweet, but Bliss could feel how he struggled.

Her hands moved over his flesh, quickly unbuttoning his shirt so that her fingers could trail over his ribs. She hummed her appreciation of his hard, muscular chest and satiny skin. "Make love to me..." Her lips left a scorching heat that drew him even further under her spell. Her tongue slipped across his ribcage and stopped at the hard nubbin of his nipple. She teased at it using her tongue as she moved from one nipple to the other.

"Bliss, no ... you can't." His head fell back and he stumbled, his back hitting the french doors. He growled at the feel of her lips, and the heat of her tongue. "Gods!"

"I can. I want to." Her voice was soft but the power of her words was not in the volume but in the meaning and she meant every word. She reached up, framing his face with her tiny hands. "I need to, please. Chal, don't tell me no." She wriggled against him and felt the hard bulge in his pants. "I need you," she whispered desperately and slid her tongue over the skin of his throat.

His hands moved over her back restlessly, finally filling with the supple muscles of her ass. He lifted her and she wrapped her legs around his slim waist. "Please, Chal." She gasped as one big hand turned her face up to his, his lips taking hers. Another gasp left her lips, captured by his as a wave of unbelievably strong pleasure shuddered through her. It was like a sweet spear of rapture. It made her feel weak and her toes curled, than she was strong when she heard his out-of-control moan.

His mouth moved down her throat to that sweet spot at the base of her neck. His teeth nipped at her flesh and she echoed his moans. "God yes, please..." His hand fisted in the rags of the dress he'd given her. One tug and the dress ripped, exposing the gentle curve of her breasts. A sound came from his mouth, a purr that tickled her flesh and coiled within her body.