Nicholas' Bargain

I've finally completed the story...! I decided to split this final part in two to make the editing easier (part two to come very soon – you can take that as my oath!). I hope you enjoy it and thank you for reading

Lara stared around the dark room. Though there was little light – a mere highlight from the moon outside – she could see enough. A large, canopied bed sat in the centre of the room, facing away from the tall windows looking out onto the handsome square of highly sought after townhouses. Except for this piece of furniture, the room was bare. Where did he keep his clothing? she wondered inanely. But a firm hand closing around her shoulder brought her to herself. Even through her dress, her cloak, she could feel the coldness of his touch.

Turning, she arched her neck to meet the luminous eyes assessing her steadily.

'You didn't answer my question – about Martha. Not directly, at least,' she parried, feeling suddenly very shy after the passion she had exhibited earlier in his arms.

As he had carried her here from the empty room he had discovered her in, he had been silent, his face set in an unreadable mask and Lara had used the reprieve to calm herself. Still, she ached to be touched by him now, the wetness between her thighs a hot reminder of her previous weakness. If only she could be bolder.

Nicholas cocked a black brow at her demanding tone, apparently amused. 'The crone is well, did I not tell you? Put your mind from her. She does not interest me,' he added, his eyes following the path of his hand as it now smoothed its way from her arm to her hip.

'But, Nicholas' Lara stepped away from his attentions, persistent, and didn't miss the black scowl passing over his face at the rejection. Needing to know the truth of the maid's fate, she hurriedly continued, 'She was terribly afraid that she had upset you – by disobeying you in bringing me here...'

Dryly, Nicholas stated, 'While it is true she went ahead of herself, in this instance I can't say I'm entirely displeased with the outcome.'

Lara searched his eyes and finally nodded, well pleased by his answer and disinterest in the matter. 'Oh, yes. I did tell her as much - I knew you wouldn't harm her,' she sighed, swaying towards him, but stumbled as Nicholas's face twisted into a mask of disbelieving fury.

'How? How could you profess to know?' he bit out.

'I just meant...that you wouldn't be so needlessly cruel, so unjust so as to-'

A bark of laughter met her words and she cringed at the humourless, cold sound.

'Ah, then perhaps my instincts were correct to begin with – who are you, temptress?' he seethed, wrapping a hand in her loose hair, holding her still, holding her face up to him. Though the grip was painless, the intensity and suddenness of it stopped Lara's heart. 'Who are you really?'

'I don't know what you mean,' she gasped, snared by his direct, beseeching gaze.

'Do you not? In all my years I have never been thus unsettled by a mortal – or anyone, for that matter. There is something about you, there must be something...' he trailed of, his expression turning to one of puzzlement. 'Why did it have to be

you

who caught me so?' he whispered, as if to the room at large. 'Why you?'

'Do you need to think so deeply about it? I no longer fear you Nicholas. The fact of your very existence is unfathomable to me and yet I accept it. Can't you accept me? I know that for as long as I may live, there will never be another to move me so. You are all the things I dreamed of as a child but so much more that I never realised before now that I needed. You sacrificed the life and soul owed to you, pledged to you by my father's greed...you did so for me. There is no real evilness in you – at least, no more than mere man is capable of.'

Nicholas dropped his hand from her hair abruptly and said in flat tones, 'Do not think to extol me. I am not the prince you dreamed off as a child – and will not succeed in changing me to be so.'

The grim tone didn't faze her, for she saw him suddenly, saw him clearly, sensed his hesitance and fearful anxiety almost as if it was a physical thing, as if a hum emanated from him. He didn't want to believe in her, even after she had cleanly laid her soul open to him. Stubborn as always, she thought fondly.

'Oh, I'm not so sure about that.' Lara reached out a hand, searching out his face in the darkness. 'I'm not sure about that at all. You see, all I dreamed of was a man who would cherish and – love me. Indeed, he was always handsome in these dreams but blond, now that I think on it. Oh well, let us not dwell on the minutia,' she teased adoringly, cupping his sharply angled cheek.

Though he didn't move away from her caress, he circled an unyielding – though painless – hand around her raised wrist. 'I'm no fair haired knight. I will not profess these words of

love

to you that you so crave,' the word was said with mocking distaste, but his eyes, even in the darkness of the room, appeared fever-bright, almost gleaming with an ensnaring inner light, drawing her in as he himself unconsciously, it seemed, swayed toward her, unable to control his will.

'But you do care for me,' Lara shook her head at his stubborn, stoic expression.

His lips flattened into a thin line as he dismissed, 'In the way any master can for a vulnerable pet.'

'No!' Lara slapped his now searching hand away and with a filthy curse, he dragged the chastened hand through his dark hair, physically unnerved, and she was sure her heart pulsed at his inner turmoil. 'No, Nicholas,' she said, her voice steadier, 'I shall wait here for as long as it takes you to admit it – and if you refuse, I shall leave. I wish for there to be only plain speaking between us.'

'I could stop you,' Nicholas said after a pause.

Lara lifted her chin. 'Yes, but you won't.'

It was a long, taut silence before he responded in any way. Stiff and completely unmoving, his very stillness would have once frightened her, though she admitted to being slightly disturbed by it.

'I'd not let you go,' he said at last and Lara stared at him, urging him to continue. 'I'd want you for my own.'

'Because you care for me,' her lips trembled in her insistence. Even separated from him by this small distance, it was a physical pain. A persistent twisting in her gut, not unlike the sensations she had experienced from their first meeting, during his long absence. She almost feared that she needed him like she needed the very air around her – and if she had beg to convince him of this fact, she would. But then, he cried,

'Curse you! If that's what this is, then yes,' his voice was violent in its passion and his face had contorted into the hideous visage she remembered from their very first encounter, when had pleasured her in Amelia's garden. A demon's face. 'I want you by my side. For the now and after. My mate...'

The deep meaning of his words was lost on her as a sense of security enveloped her at his words of devotion and her prior, wounded feelings from the news of her paternity seemed to disintegrate by small but powerful increments.

'Yes,' she agreed, weak with want, willing to agree to anything to soften him to her.

'Then come to me, come to me now and let it be so,' he rasped commandingly, refusing to be the one to bend but she didn't care about pride. Moving quickly, she grabbed at his lapels, twisting on her toes to reach his great height – a largely impossible task – but he didn't allow her to struggle for long as a strong arm encircled her waist and hoisted her upwards with comical ease until her lips, her eyes, were parallel to his.

Allowing herself a few greedy seconds to simply observe him from such close quarters, to almost, it seemed, feel the power and vibrancy emanating from him, she slid a hand into his soft, black hair and pressed her lips against his with clumsy passion. Taking control swiftly, Nicholas slipped his free hand under her chin and coaxed her mouth apart, sliding his own over it sealing it, his tongue playing with tender violence with her own. Though a so-called novice at this task, he pleasured her well and it wasn't long before she was cradled in his arms once more as he moved the few paces towards the imposing bed and settled her onto it.

Closing her eyes, Lara felt her clothes leaving her body as Nicholas dispensed with them with brisk efficiency. The cool chill in the room smoothed up her bare legs and thighs, then her abdomen and breasts as her chemise was removed last.

'Look at me.'

The command was calm and yet strong and when Lara obeyed, it was to find him studying her nude body with hot appreciation. But he made no move to touch her: instead, he turned away and walked towards the door, opened it and hollered for someone and Lara used the reprieve to slip under the fresh and unused, it seemed, quilt, pulling it over her modesty. When Nicholas returned to her a few minutes later, he came carrying with a thick, bright candle.

Placing it on the window ledge behind the bed, he considered her objectively for a pause before pulling the covering veil from her body, baring her body to the flickering glow of the candle, with only her hair to hide her modesty.

'No, don't hide from me,' it was part warning, part command, but tenderly said, as Lara moved her hands over her breasts and crossed her legs. 'I have waited too long to claim you. Come, remove my shirt,' Nicholas demanded with ingrained arrogance, like a king to his adoring subject. 'I want to feel your skin against mine as I take you.'

Shaking, Lara did as bade, kneeling on the plush mattress, horribly aware of her exposed body. Her hands were tentative as they unbuttoned the garment, pausing before boldly slipping inside the material, smoothing over the hard, well-muscled expanse of skin and with a brisk shrug of his shoulders, Nicholas discarded the offensive material.

'Do not stop,' his voice was a demanding rasp.

Too aware of his vital physicality to meet his eyes, Lara let her hands fall next to his trousers and fumbled clumsily for the ties and obstructions keeping him from her and a few moments later he stood before her, nude, strong, proud, the moonlight falling over his taut stomach and his high, jutting cock.

Before she could fully appreciate that particular part of him, he surprised her by pushing her flat onto the mattress before closing in on her, hoisting his powerful body over her, held up by his arms.

'Please,' Lara murmured on a catch of her breath as he continued to observe her thus, denying her the contact of his flesh against hers. At first, she did not think he would obey but slowly, he lowered himself onto her, his hard chest teasing her aroused nipples, the soft hair on his abdomen and groin pressed firm against her soft stomach.

Closing her eyes, despite his prior warning not to, she buried her head in his neck, scared by the desperation of her desire, his smoky smell a drug to already hazy senses. A hand trailed up her thigh, softly, and much to her surprise, she ached for him in that moment to use her hardly and cared nothing for soft caresses.

Her hand curled around his shoulder in reaction to her desire, the nails no doubt biting into the skin and Nicholas, previously nuzzling at her ear, smelling deeply of her hair, grunted slightly.

He raised himself quickly and scanned her eyes.

'You are eager for me,' he breathed. 'I can smell you - do you want me badly, my sweet?'

Lara, her eyes hot with arousal, nodded - shame was now a forgotten thing.

A feral grin moulded Nicholas's usually mocking mouth and he quickly rolled with her until she lay atop him and a startled Lara watched wonderingly as he manoeuvred her limbs and body until she sat astride him, her buttocks cradling his stiff male part, her wetness rubbing against the hair at his groin.

'It only seems fitting that you be the one to master me – for this first time only, of course,' he added the last on a twisted smile. 'You have truly bent me to your will, have you not, my sweet?' the last was said in thready tones as he felt Lara's hips moving against his groin as she pleasured herself, her labia flattening against him as she rubbed herself over him.

Raising a hand to cup a full breast, Nicholas reminded himself to be easy with her, certain that if he released his true lust upon her, he would cause her pain and hurt for their first coupling. And scare her. He did not want her to fear him. Allowing her to ride him in this way seemed the perfect solution though the position of submission was foreign to him and his natural dominance rebelled against it, his free hand flexing at his side as he determined not to lose himself in touching her as he fully desired.

With hard won patience, he waited until she'd readied herself, until the point came in which her eyes rolled slightly as she increased her tempo, the assault from his hand at her dark nipple combined with the friction created by her movements on his hard body enough to bring her close to her release. He longed to roll her beneath him, suckle strongly on a pebbled nipple before thrusting harshly inside her, steadying her with his hands, controlling her pleasure.

Instead, he had to content himself in watching her breasts shake as she bounced down on him and when the moment of her rapture built, he swiftly grabbed her by the hips, directing her to handle his aching cock, to push it slowly within her.

'Easy,' he said on a harsh breath as the thick stiffness slipped in her gasp. Lara looked down at him, her expression helpless, her eyes wide with uncertainty, and it was all he could do not to drag her down to him and fuck her hard until he spent his seed within her receptive body, using her until this unyielding craving for her no longer controlled him.

Focusing his attention on remaining as still as possible, he listened as Lara moaned as she felt the smooth round head of his rod pushing against her entrance, her small hand wrapped as much as she could manage around it. He noted the embarrassed look crossing her face at the state of her arousal, so wet that she had left moisture on his trail of hair which glistened with it.

'I can't,' she said then and stilled on top of him, the knees straddling his waist widening.

'Yes, you can. You will,' Nicholas demanded, his hands by his side, and Lara wondered why he stayed so distant from her, frustrated by it. 'Do it slowly,' he soothed then, his tone gentling somewhat.

Biting her lip, Lara moved her hips fractionally until she felt him slip further into her and there, she used her weight to bear down onto him, gasping at the discomfort of the fit. She moved this way for a few moments, allowing no more of his length to enter him, her movements stiff and small and uttering a filthy curse, Nicholas suddenly grabbed her hips, his fingers biting into her, and pushed her down fully, thrusting up at the same time, his back lifting high from the mattress as he fully impaled himself until the soft hair of his head brushed her nipples, the back of his neck taut as he leaned into her.

Stroking the hair twisting at his nape as sat against her, slumped and cradled against her breast, Lara realised with some surprise that she was crying and upon hearing the sound, Nicholas raised his demon's head and looked up at her, his face a twisted mask.

'Virgin,' he whispered, his handsome face twisted into a gruesome and horrific - and accusing – face. 'Your virgin's blood burns me,' he added, almost dumbly, before pushing her off and away from him, swiftly escaping the bed whilst Lara, stunned by the suddenness of his rejection, pulled the sheet across her nudity and searched him out anxiously.

He stood in a far corner of the room, peering across at her but she could only judge this by the eerie light eyes shining like a beacon in the darkness toward her.

'I only lied because – I wanted to impress you,' she explained unsteadily. 'When we first met...I didn't know...'

'You've never known another,' he uttered in some wonder.

'Never. Won't you come back, Nicholas?'

He hesitated. 'My face does not – frighten you?'

'I love you,' Lara said strongly, feeling strangely amused at the turn events, he uncertain, her assertive.

'I scared you – and hurt you,' he said, coming closer slowly. 'You wept,' he added gravely. 'It displeases me to see you weep.'

'It is said to hurt for a woman's first time,' she cajoled, patting the bed softly as if he were a frightened deer.

Since he had entered her, she had felt a strange feeling settle and increase in intensity in her body. When he had left her, had moved away from her to the farthest corner of the room, she had felt the separation like a sharp kick in her chest. Now, as he stood near her, she felt calmer. She didn't doubt that this strange feeling had something to do with their coupling but focused, for now, on the present.

She said, 'It was my own fault for trying to be brave. I'll be fine.'

'I didn't want to hurt you,' he insisted, and her heart throbbed at the pained sincerity of his words which seemed to come hard to him. He stopped as he reached the side of the bed, his face, though not as cruelly carved and grotesque as it had been in the moment he had discovered her virginity, still not the handsome façade she had come to know. But in that moment, she thought him the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

'Lay beside me,' she urged.

'Nay,' he said quickly. 'Later – I need time to compose myself...I would be too demanding in my lust. I do not wish to use you harshly. Not at first, anyway,' he added, before pulling the blanket further to her chin.

Lara shivered at his words, her inner muscles contracting in need and moved away from his ministrations, kicking the white covering off. 'Not later,' she begged. '

Now.

'

'Lara...' he trailed off uncertainly and she sighed as her name left his lips. Had he ever uttered her Christian name aloud, she wondered, thinking back? He made the simple name sound like sweetest of poetry.

Knowing that she would have to take initiative, Lara reached out a hand and stroked his quickly hardening flesh and he closed his eyes, bowing his head at her touch. She continued petting him for a few minutes until finally he grabbed her hand and held it for a moment, looking pensively down at her.

'How long I have waited for you,' he said then cryptically, his face poignant, before he lowered himself slowly to the bed.

As he moved over her, he said, 'I give you a last chance to flee. After that, I will not let you go. Not ever – you will belong to me. If you run from me, I will find you. Do you understand?' his expression was unwavering.

In answer, Lara dragged him further into the cradle of her thighs, gasping a little at the pressure on her aching mound, still sore from his earlier entrance but she had little time to dwell on past pain as fresh pain was administered. Plunging into her with harsh intrusion, holding her hands suspended above her head, his movements were sharp and hard.

Gasping his name, Lara begged him to give her a moment, just a moment, but in answer, he simply lowered his head and sucked a stiff nipple into his mouth, his cheeks hollowing as he suckled at her, his eyes wide open, staring up into her pale face, unrelenting.

You asked this of me,

his expression said.

Welcome me into your body, accept my ownership.

In silent reply, she grabbed at his head, pressing him closer to her breast. She felt the suction right down to her womb and suddenly, she felt her inner muscles pulling at his cock, closing around it as it withdrew, only to enter again as he continued his merciless rhythm. Though her mind fought against the discomfort of the act, her body convulsed in urgency as she felt herself quickening, the pressure in her belly climbing as he continued to suck on her as fiercely as if he wished to draw milk and then she finally reached her goal, crying out his name, her back arching, her legs tightening around his hard buttocks which continued to flex as he fucked her, even after she finally lay back on a sigh of pleasure.