Flame of the Alpha Page 4

  Unfortunately, Neo hadn’t learned much from the pleasure servants. But there was a wealth of information to be had from a priestess…or if he played his cards right, from the High Priestess herself.

  Whatever was going on behind closed doors at the Academy went against everything the Terran government believed in. It was Neo’s duty to find out what kind of deviant behavior went on inside and bring those involved to justice. If the High Priestess was offering the sexual talents of her priestesses outside the government’s sanctioned service, then she’d be punished like everyone else.

  “Stand,” Neo commanded, his voice thick with desire.

  Shit. When had that happened? He was the one in control here. He’d been mastering his own sexual impulses long before he’d learned to master the sexual demands of others, and he was damned good at doing both.

  Scowling, he pulled back out of Dante’s reach and cupped his saliva-slicked shaft as the man rose to his feet. Sophia went to stand beside him, the back of her hand gliding across Dante’s. The pleasure servant glanced down at her, the fury in his eyes softening for an instant as he inhaled deeply and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. She didn’t fight him. For a fraction of a second, she looked as though she might lean against him, but then eased herself out of his arms, shrugging him off.

  Odd. Actually, the whole thing was fucking bizarre. She still stood too close, as though wanting to reassure the collared slave. And he let her.

  Neo’s nostrils flared. If he hadn’t already been certain that something untoward was happening, witnessing this little moment of intimacy would have served to cement that belief.

  What game was the High Priestess and her little pet playing? Worse yet ‑‑ were they playing him?

  “He failed the first task,” Neo informed Sophia as bitterness rose to the back of his throat. The statement was only partially a lie. Dante’s talent had been unschooled, but the raw, natural emphasis of his tongue gliding across Neo’s flesh had nearly made him squirt his cum in the man’s mouth anyway.

  They didn’t need to know that. As long as he acted like the authority figure he was, he’d remain in control. And in the process, he’d learn everything he needed to know about the Academy’s surreptitious affairs.

  The High Priestess lifted a slender shoulder in a half shrug. Her breasts, large and tipped with rosy areolas and hard nipples, shifted as she moved, heaving with the rhythm of her shallow breathing.

  Oh, yeah. The woman was nervous, all right. Now to push her a little farther over the edge and he’d have her exactly where he wanted her.

  Neo’s cock pulsed, another bead of wetness snaking up to the tip of his shaft. With any luck, he’d have them both. The idea of finally training a man who could keep up with his carnal, commanding lessons made his sac swell full and tight against the base of his shaft.

  He stilled his strokes, realizing he’d taken over where Dante’s mouth had left off and forced himself to drop his hand to his side.

  “The second test is much less complicated, though no one but a true pleasure servant will be able to appreciate it.”

  Sophia’s spine straightened and she exchanged a silent message with Dante, her eyes speaking volumes even though her mouth didn’t utter a word. She was anxious. More so than Dante, whose easy stance and confident attitude betrayed an inner rage, which only served to intensify Neo’s turbulent arousal.

  Neo pointed to a nearby bucket and the thick leather handles that stuck up above the rim. Whips lay dormant in water, waiting for a patron to test their potent sting on a pleasure servant’s creamy flesh. “Bring me one of those.”

  Dante looked like he was about to argue. His gaze shifted to Sophia, who nodded almost imperceptibly. The man’s gaze dropped to her chest, where it lingered for the span of a heartbeat. His cock stiffened, rising up proudly against his flat stomach.

  Doubly interesting. Sucking Neo’s cock hadn’t been a completely unpleasant act for Dante. His cock had responded as much as could be expected, but the man’s erection raged out of control from one potent glance at Sophia’s full, lush breasts.

  Heat pulsed in Neo’s groin as he watched Dante’s long, muscular legs stride toward the bucket. The other patrons were busy dallying with a few pleasure servants of their own choosing, but their gazes continued to dart in Neo’s direction.

  Dante chose a whip and swished it through the air, sending water droplets in every direction. He ran his fingers down the length of the eight-woven switch, his eyes once again locking with Neo’s in silent challenge.

  “I think you’ll find that our servants are as well trained in the art of receiving pain as you’d expect from any of Saint Valentine’s children,” Sophia said. She fidgeted, her fingers intertwining in front of her stomach, betraying her confident words.

  “We’ll see.”

  Neo crossed the distance to Dante and yanked the whip from his grip, then grabbed his wrist and led him to the center of the inner sanctuary, where they were in full view of everyone assembled.

  Saint Valentine’s Pleasure Academy graduates were valued for one ability above all others…that of associating pain with pleasure. The two were almost indistinguishable for a properly trained pleasure servant. The touch of a whip would send exquisite longing into every sensual nerve ending, as would the bite of a switch or the sting of an open palm. It didn’t matter what tool a master chose to use with his or her slave. The result was the same. Pure, unadulterated lust.

  That was one of the reasons Neo had such a difficult time re-training Academy graduates. They wanted to be on the receiving end of the whip and revel in the bliss that came with the anguish of a thorough whipping and the humiliation that was never far behind.

  “Kneel,” Neo commanded. “Over the cushion on that bench.”

  He didn’t have to point. There was only one bench where they stood, and it was higher than most, crafted specifically for such a demonstration.

  Dante’s tongue snaked out to wet his lips, the gesture more erotic than he’d probably intended. He glanced at the crowd, which had fallen deathly silent to watch the display.

  After only a moment’s hesitation, Dante turned his back on those assembled and bent over the cushion, lifting his sculpted ass high in the air. A wave of pure, unadulterated lust washed over Neo.

  Saints, the man had the most perfect ass he’d ever laid eyes on. Perfectly formed cheeks bordered the crevice hiding Dante’s tight sphincter. Below the mouthwatering crack, his balls hung, low and heavy, between his rippling thighs.

  Before Neo could raise the whip, Sophia ran around the other side of the bench. She tangled her fingers in Dante’s curls and pressed her mound to his mouth.

  Dante inhaled sharply, his balls drawing up close to his shaft at the smell of her. She urged him on silently, her hips moving, her pussy pushing close to Dante’s face.

  Neo frowned, confusion swirling through his mind. He couldn’t remember ever hearing of a High Priestess participating in a showing ceremony, but then again, he hadn’t attended any in the past, either. Perhaps this was part of a bizarre ritual required by the Academy’s patron Saint.

  Dante’s mouth clamped firmly on Sophia’s pussy. Her back arched and a tortured cry escaped her lips as Neo brought the whip down, lashing Dante’s skin. A perfect red welt rose up where the braid had touched the man’s flesh, but no sound rose from his throat.

  A second strike hit lower, at the junction where Dante’s buttock met his thigh. This time, a low gasp muffled by Sophia’s pussy slid through the garden, followed by the appreciative murmurs of those assembled.

  Dante didn’t try to kick or twist away. Instead, he licked Sophia’s cunt with more ferocious hunger, delving inside the pink depths of her folds, making her cry out again and again. And he angled his ass closer to Neo’s whip, the motion defiant and sexy beyond belief.

  Oh, Saints. This was definitely not what Neo had expected. The need to push Dante past of the point of resistance burrowed low in his balls a
s he gripped Dante’s waist, holding him down though it wasn’t necessary. The man’s skin radiated warmth, heat blazing from the places where he’d been hit.

  Lust raging out of control, Neo continued to whip Dante. The pleasure servant’s tongue worked faster, harder, at Sophia’s pussy, swirling around the tight little nub Neo could see peeking from beneath its delicate hood and the neatly-trimmed black curls decorating her plump labia. Dante drew out her musky scented heat, letting it linger and wrap around Neo until he felt like he was drowning in the combined scents of male and female arousal, both wreaking havoc on his libido.

  Neo let his sharp strokes fall vigorously, holding nothing back. He removed his hand from Dante’s waist and wrapped it around his cock, pumping his fist over the length of his shaft in time with the blows. The plaited switches lashed Dante’s ass, turning it a vivid red, marring the perfectly sculpted flesh with deep scores that marked him as Neo’s property even before the paperwork had been drawn up.

  There wasn’t a doubt in Neo’s mind that he wanted this man. He had to have him, had to train him. Dante took the whipping like a trained pro, but the fiery hunger in the way he pleasured Sophia told of barely constrained anger simmering beneath the surface of his obedience.

  Oh, the things Neo could do with ‑‑ to ‑‑ a man like that! The things he could teach him. His mouth went dry and his cock shuddered, spasming furiously as the seed spurted from the tip of his cock to land in creamy streaks across Dante’s back and dripped down the striped flesh of his ass.

  Neo pumped harder, drawing every drop of cum from his balls, drowning in the hoarse sounds of Dante’s moans and Sophia’s cries as she reached the peak of her own climax.

  A round of applause filled the air, bringing Neo back to the present. He didn’t acknowledge his audience, but fixed his gaze firmly on Sophia and waited for the haze of her euphoria to pass. She blinked her eyes open, watching Dante with unrestrained awe.

  Then she looked up, and the awe turned to ice. “You’ve had enough of a demonstration for today, yes?”

  She wanted him to leave. Hell, she’d wanted him gone from the moment he walked through those doors.

  “Yes.”

  She sighed, relief flooding her features. “Good. My guards will show you out.”

  “I didn’t say I was leaving. I said the demonstration was sufficient.”

  Confusion wrinkled her brow. She pulled back a fraction of an inch, her hand languidly sweeping through Dante’s hair in a fond, appreciative gesture. “I don’t understand.”

  “Congratulations, High Priestess,” Neo said, imbuing the title with as much sarcasm as he could muster. “It seems you were correct. Dante is a…unique specimen.”

  She cleared her throat, watching him warily. “Thank you.”

  “That’s why I’ve decided to purchase him. He’ll be coming home with me. Today.”

  Sophia felt the color drain from her face. She didn’t have to look at Dante to know he was furious. Tension rolled through him like a maelstrom as she smoothed his curls over his forehead and let her fingertips trail down to his shoulders.

  She dug her nails into his flesh, hoping the message she sent him was clear enough.

  Don’t do anything stupid.

  She squared her shoulders and met Captain Jolen’s unreadable black gaze. “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

  The bright mid-day sun scattered golden hues across the Captain’s aristocratic face, doing little to hide the subtle nuances of emotion furrowing his dark brows. “This is a simple purchase, Priestess. The Terran government looks favorably upon such transactions, and this is no different. I’m a potential patron, ready and willing to buy one of your servants. You will draw up the papers. Immediately.”

  Dante stiffened and jerked out of her grip, rising to his feet. She caught a small grimace as he straightened, the pain across his buttocks obviously flaring to life with the small movement. Sophia’s inner walls clenched, fluttering madly with remembered pleasure.

  Dante met the Captain’s haughty glare head-on and Sophia grimaced. So much for the dutiful servant. He’d taken the whipping well enough, but she didn’t fool herself by believing he’d have been as obedient had she not offered herself to him. He’d gripped her hips fiercely as he’d licked her pussy, varying the intensity to match the speed of the strokes slamming against his ass.

  Fast, slow, then fast again…each swipe of his tongue across her slick folds had been pure heaven. She’d closed her eyes, depriving herself of her sense of sight in order to better hear the braid cut through the air with a potent whoosh before slamming down across Dante’s firm buttocks. Her clit had responded to his ministrations as well as to the sound of the whip, her senses filling in the blanks for her, imagining what he felt with each blow of the lash.

  If she could have, she’d have taken Dante’s place. As a priestess of the Pleasure Academy, Sophia had been training pleasure servants since reaching the age of twenty, what the Terran government considered the official age of consent. At twenty, Earth’s citizens were deemed to have reached their prime, and were able to carry out their assigned duties.

  She’d had a number of tutors herself while growing up at the Academy. Some had been kind and eager to pass along what they’d learned of pleasure. Others were cruel, delighting in delivering heavy doses of miserable torment and agony along with their lessons.

  Having been acquainted with the kiss of a whip herself, Sophia was familiar with the bliss that could be found in submitting to a master’s expert touch. She’d grown accustomed to the nuances of a whip lashing against bare flesh. She recognized the sound of an angry, jarring blow as well as she could identify the confident strike of a maestro’s flicked wrist.

  Captain Jolen wasn’t an unskilled patron. At best, he was a connoisseur of the twin highs of pain and pleasure. At worst, he was a skilled specialist, adept at bending a pleasure servant to his will with nothing more than a few whispered commands and the promise of an open-handed slap across a fleshy cheek.

  In either case, Dante wouldn’t last an hour alone with this man.

  “His training isn’t yet complete,” Sophia said, imbuing her voice with as much confidence as she could muster. “You said so yourself.”

  Captain Jolen shrugged. “No matter. I can continue his training myself.”

  Sophia’s stomach sank to her knees. So the good Captain was used to delivering instruction away from the spaceport and Central Command. That made matters a hundred times worse.

  “I couldn’t allow that. It would be highly inappropriate,” she argued. “We only sell Academy graduates. Those who haven’t achieved that status cannot have their ownership transferred to a master.”

  “If he’s not ready to be acquired, then why put him on display at the showing? And why offer me such a delectable demonstration?”

  Sophia faltered, her mind spinning as she tried to come up with another lie. “I ‑‑”

  “She did so at my request.”

  Sophia’s eyelashes fluttered closed for an instant to hide the wild relief that would be obvious in her eyes. She’d never been so grateful for a patron’s interference in her life.

  “I asked for Dante specifically. Rumors of his existence had been circulating for weeks. Quite an impressive specimen, wouldn’t you say?”

  Faye Laurens dragged the tip of a perfectly manicured finger across Dante’s washboard abs. His stomach rippled beneath her touch and a muscle ticked wildly in his jaw.

  Sophia watched Dante as he assessed Faye from beneath long lashes. His gaze swept over the touches of gray in the mane of black hair bound in a fashionable coil behind the woman’s head and lingered on the faint lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth. At last, he tilted his head in a polite gesture of respect, but was wise enough to keep his mouth shut.

  Sophia placed a palm on Dante’s shoulder, urging him to step closer to Faye. “He’s magnificent, but difficult to train.”

  Faye’s easy laugh carried throu
gh the garden. “Why, darling, I believe that’s the point.” She pressed a hand to her cleavage, which pushed up through the low-cut top of a yellow sundress. Looking remarkably youthful for a woman her age, Faye never failed to attract the attention of the most skilled pleasure servants.

  At the last showing, Faye had purchased Rhyanne Hamilton, a lovely and demure Academy graduate who’d drawn nearly half a dozen bids from interested parties. Sophia was the only one of the Academy’s staff who knew Rhyanne hadn’t been acquired for Faye at all, but had been meant as a gift for Quinton Stillwell, the Alpha whom Faye had raised from a wild, careless pup into the captain of a transport ship.

  Sophia flipped her loose hair over her shoulder and turned her attention back to Captain Jolen. “As you can see, Dante’s already spoken for. Faye had expressed interest in acquiring him some weeks ago, although she’s aware he won’t be available for another couple of weeks yet.”

  A scowl deepened the lines in the Captain’s face. He spun around to face Faye. “I can outbid you.”

  “Doubtful,” Faye said, her fingertips drifting lower to glide across the slick surface of Dante’s cockhead. He shuddered at the contact. “I’ve already declared my intent to pay six million tokens for him.”

  A gasp rose up from the nearby patrons who overheard the outrageous sum. Even Sophia’s mouth went dry. She was used to dealing with large transactions, especially for pleasure servants who had demonstrated exceptional skills during their training, but any sum larger than four million was unheard of.

  Dante’s lip quirked upward in an amused smile, the first genuine one she’d seen from him since he’d drawn her onto his lap after being collared. She couldn’t help the urge to smile back.

  “Ten million.”

  At least a dozen patrons crowded in around them, jaws gaping. Sophia instinctively slid her hand into Dante’s, curling her fingers around his. “That’s insane,” she whispered.

  Faye blanched, the color draining from her face. She darted a glance from Dante to Captain Jolen, then shrugged apologetically at Sophia. “I can’t beat that.”