Raven walked into her apartment and flopped down on her sofa (which has seen better days) with a little 'oomph'.
"Why do all men have to be jerks, Diablo? Is it in their programming or something? Can't at least one of them want to have a decent conversation without staring at my body?"
But, with her wild riot of auburn curls dancing around her shoulders, her bright gray eyes, full, round, perky breasts, slender waist, curvy hips, and her long, lithe legs, no man was able to resist Raven's looks. Diablo just purred and jumped into her lap, pawed at her legs and arched his back, begging for attention. Raven ruffled his fur with a little laugh.
"Why am I even asking you? You're the biggest, most stuck up man I know."
Diablo's answer? A little hiss, a switch of his tail and an elegant jump off of her lap. Raven laughed a little then sighed and got up to rummage through her refrigerator.
"Damn. Forgot to go shopping again." She looked at her watch. "Damn. 3 a.m. I just left the bar so I'm not going back out to the store to deal with even more drunks."
She tapped her long blood red fingernails against the door and muttered, "I swear I haven't been able to think straight since . . . "
She slammed the door shut and rested her forehead against the freezer door.
"It's been 3 years. You'd think I'd have gotten over him by now!"
She punched the door and let out a string of explicatives that would make a sailor blush. Raven shoved herself away from the door and trudged into her bathroom to get ready for bed.
Stephen disappeared three years ago without a trace. No one has heard anything, seen anything from him since. Raven was probably the most hurt of anyone. He was Raven's Master. The Love of her life. The other half of her soul. He was the one reason for her to live. He found her at her most desperate and brought her under His protection. He loved her, nurtured her, taught her then disappeared.
Raven stared at her reflection in the mirror and swore again when the view started to become blurred by tears.
"Dammit all to hell! I will not start crying all over again!"
Automatically she thought "Master is going to punish me for swearing." She gasped and lifted her hand to her mouth in surprise.
"I haven't thought about that part of our relationship for a while. Why is it coming back now," she questioned her reflection. Her reflection answered with a little waver and the appearance of a pair of green eyes, the color of the sea after a storm. Stephen's eyes.
Raven's eyes widened for a moment then she slammed them shut.
"No. No. NO! This is so not happening. I am never drinking again. I am not hallucinating. I am not seeing Stephen's eyes looking back at me."
She turned her back to her reflection and rested her behind against the counter top. She buried her face in her hands for a moment before letting out a quiet sob. Her head snapped up and she wiped the tears away from her cheeks.
"Sleep. Yes sleep. That's what I need."
She wandered blindly into her bedroom, stripping clothes off as she went and turned out her light. She pulled out Stephen's old, ragged college t-shirt and with a soft, resigned sigh, slipped it on. Raven curled up under the blankets, in the bed that she and Stephen had shared, and cried herself to sleep. That unbroken bit of peace that she so desired never came. The moment her eyes were shut and her unconscious took over Raven was plagued by dreams.
From what seemed like a million lifetimes away, Stephen smiled as he looked down on her sleeping form, laid out before him on his bed.
"So innocent in sleep," he thought. "But I certainly know how much of a wild animal she is when she is in my hands."
He traced a callused finger down her ivory cheek and chuckled when she instinctively turned her head towards the touch. A soft moan escaped from between her soft lips and Stephen's crooked grin appeared.
"Oh my little one. I never tire of hearing that wonderful sound from you. And I will hear it again, little girl."
With one swift movement, Stephen scooped Raven up into his strong arms, walked out of his chambers and journeyed through the halls of the castle towards his play area. Servants ducked out of his way, smiling knowingly at the lord of the manor. A few daring ones even winked. A few of the maids in the main hall sighed as their hearts fluttered at the impressive sight before them. Stephen was not a small man. Even when he arrived at Ravencrest Manor, he was not a small man. But in the three years since, he became the man of his destiny. Finely chiseled muscles grace his form now, honed by years of practice with sword and bow, with battles fought to protect his home. His towering frame, easily a foot above the tallest man in the manor, filled out and changed from that of a businessman to one of a warrior. His wide shoulders flow down into his chest, his stomach tapers in a v down to his hips. His muscled arms carry the burden of his sleeping love with no signs of tiring. His strong legs eat up the stone as he strides confidently lower and lower into his castle's dungeons.
Raven shifted slightly in his arms and buried her nose deeper against his chest. His laugh rumbled in his chest but still it did not wake her.
"Good thing you are such a deep sleeper, my love or we would never have made it this far without you waking up in one of your wonderful moods. But soon, little one. Soon you'll awaken into a world of pleasure you have never known. A world you only dreamed of. A world I can finally give to you."
Stephen shouldered the heavy door of his playroom open then kicked it shut with a muscular leg. His movements became a little more impatient and agitated now that he was so close to his prize. He quickly crossed the room and laid Raven down on a table that resembled a medieval torture device. He slipped her slender ankles into shackles and locked them tight, her legs spread out wide by a spreader bar. He smiled as he shifted her body to remove his old, hole-infested college t-shirt that Raven faithfully wore to bed.
"This, my dear one" holding up the shirt, "will have to go. You will have no more use for clothes of that time anymore."
But he tossed it in a corner, knowing that she will want to keep it for sentimentality's sake. Raven's wrists were hastily bound in shackles attached to a long chain, stretching her arms above her head, then he stepped back to survey his work.
His heart raced at the sight before him, his blood began to roar in his ears and his cock twitched again in anticipation. Raven's ivory skin glowed in the candlelight and was perfectly offset by the dark wood on which she slept. Her hair was fanned out around her head like a halo of fire. With her arms stretched above her head, her full breasts were bared and slightly thrust upward towards him, like an offering to the pagan gods and goddesses. The delicate moons of her long lashes rested against her slightly flushed cheeks, hiding the true treasure of her being. Her beautiful gray eyes. Eyes that Stephen knew could be as dark as a storm cloud, showing him her passion, or as clear as the sky at dawn, letting him see deep into her soul.
