Page 23 of Rattle the Cage

The demand made my clit throb, despite the anger I was still trying to quell.

“Understood?” Blade prompted.

Swallowing my annoyance, I knew I wanted to say it. “Yes, sir.”

“Good girl.” Stepping back in front of me, Blade’s eyes travelled down my body as she examined her work. “Perfect.” She let her fingers trace the rough rope, the tips just barely grazing my skin.

A whimper left my lungs.

“I should have stopped her. That’s true.” Blade’s eyes were full of hurt, anguish. “I’m sorry that I didn’t do more. You didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”

The words warmed something that had frozen over inside me.

With each breath I drew in, I felt the ropes pull on my skin. “I’m not just mad at her.”

Pulling a small piece of rope from the pocket of her ripped jeans, Blade wrapped the cord around her fingers as she stood in front of me. “I know that, Trinket.”

My stomach ached as the words I’d been stewing on for weeks bubbled up to my lips. “Do you believe her?”

Squatting down, Blade leveled her green eyes with mine as she shook her head. “No. A part of me never believed it. But Cyrus was so certain, so convinced. And the prophecy…”

Blade’s jaw tensed, her lip piercing twitching as she thought about it. “If it wasn’t you, none of us could figure out who would have ratted on her.”

Reaching for my chin with her tattooed hand, Blade rubbed her thumb along my jaw and looked deep into my eyes. “It doesn’t matter who did. I know it wasn’t you. I was wrong, we were all wrong. I regret every second of my life that I wasted on that stupid lie.

“I swear to you, Tess, I would bleed myself dry to prove what you mean to me.”

Even in the dim, flickering light of the dungeon, I could see her eyes grow glassy.

Poor Blade… my Blade.

She hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone. Me included.

Settling into the ropes, I nodded. “I know, Blade. You were torn between what you believed to be true and what a person you loved the most claimed. It was shitty for you too.”

Blade let her hand wrap around the nape of my neck, cradling my head. “No, not if I have you.”

My body burned for her, desperate to give in. I wanted to forgive her, to let all of this fade into the darkness of Feverpoint’s nights. And a part of me thought I already had.

If my arms had been free from the ropes, I would’ve nudged her shoulders. But instead, I just said, “Ask me next time. I would have told you the truth.”

“I know, baby girl.” Blade’s grip on the back of my neck tightened, watching me with the intensity of a starved tiger as my eyes rolled into the back of my head. A sinister laugh rumbled from her chest. “Oh, how I’ve missed you, Trinket.”

My lips begged to tell her how desperate I was to be with her again. But I still wasn’t quite ready to admit that out loud, even if my body betrayed my every instinct.

As Blade moved around my suspended body, I was left to think about how I’d ended up here again — under Blade’s control.

There was no denying how much I liked it, how wet my pussy became from her delicate yet decisive hands.

But I wouldn’t just be stuck with wild Blade and gentle Nash for the next month. I’d have to live with the demonic presence that called herself Cyrus.

Could I stomach being locked away in her tower of torture?

14

TESS

Tying me had taken hours, but once the sun rose, it only took a few sure strokes of a longsword to free me from my binds.