REWARDS
By the fourth course, my legs ached and my jaw was tired from holding Hunter's thick cock on my tongue in between bites of food. I'd rearranged myself on the pillow, aware of the slightly damp mark I'd made, but my arousal had calmed with hints of boredom.
Hunter brought me up to perch on his lap for the fifth course, poached pears and ice cream, and I thought he might have been growing impatient too, based on the quick trading bites he fed us with.
"You did very well tonight, little one," he said, hand stroking up and down my back as my skin developed goose bumps from the ice cream. I leaned into the heat of his chest, pressing my face to his throat to protest another bite.
"Thank you, master," I murmured, my lips brushing his skin as his hand twined around my braid.
"Are you tired?" Hunter asked, spoon scraping against the glass bowl we'd been eating from.
I huffed against him and caught his hand as he raised the spoon to his lips. He allowed me to put the spoon back in the dish and guide his fingers down to my lap, then between my thighs, purring as I pressed his touch to my sex.
"I know I am here for your needs, master," I said, trying to keep my voice sweet as I shifted to smile at him.
"But you need my cock, little one?" Hunter asked, eyes bright and lips twitching.
He was fun to play this role with, as delighted by my interest as I was to see him reveal a new side of himself.
"Yes, please," I said, batting my lashes and dropping my gaze to where he was still half hard. The power of an orc's arousal.
"You were made to be a pet," Hunter murmured. "Or you are a very good actress. Stand up."
I hurried to standing, and his eyes narrowed as I grimaced, my ankles and feet still stiff from kneeling so long.
"If I harness you now, will you crawl to bed for me?" he asked.
Which wasn't the same as being bent over the table and fucked till I screamed, but I was curious about the harness, so I nodded eagerly.
Hunter grunted, and I tried not to pout as he tucked his cock into his pants and stood from his chair.
His hand reached out, cupping my sex, fingers patting lightly as he leaned down and kissed the top of my head. "Don't move."
I remained stock still as he left the room, as the butler Withes returned and cleared the dishes without so much as blinking at me, even as I heard Hunter's steps return, metal clinking lightly with each step. But I couldn't keep my eyes from investigating what he brought with him.
The leather was a deep, warm brown, embossed and blackened with a simple vine pattern—a motif Hunter seemed to prefer for me—just wide enough to fill the thin straps. Hunter held the harness on two fingers spread between him, and it took me a moment to translate all the lines, buckles, and silver rings. There were two triangles made up of decorated leather straps, and I realized as Hunter neared me that the triangles would surround my breasts like a frame.
I was too busy marveling at the contraption to notice the guarded stillness on Hunter's face until he was right in front of me. He was nervous again. Waiting for my rejection.
"You don't have to—"
"It's beautiful," I said, reaching for the leather, marveling at its buttery softness between my fingers, the lovely texture of the pattern. Even the silver rings were etched, I realized as I brushed one. "Put it on me?"
Hunter stared at me, and I held my arms out in front of me in invitation.
"Turn," he rasped finally.
I spun on my toes, and Hunter's heat stroked over my back as he raised the harness up over my head and around my front. I put my arms under the main straps immediately, shivering as Hunter slid the leather up into place on my shoulders.
"Cold?"
I shook my head, although in truth, I was a little chilly and the silver rings were sharply cool against my skin. Hunter's hands covered my breasts, warming and groping them, as if they might need his help in finding their place too.
The harness tightened as he buckled me in, careful to be sure it fit but didn't dig. Strangely, the structure made me feel a little less exposed and also more possessed. I was fitted to my master's liking, and there was a silver bar over one strap on my back, somewhere for him to grip and hold me as he fucked me, just as he said.
"Did you order this for me?" I asked, whispered in the quiet moment between us.
"I did."
"When?"
"After you told me you liked what the Gemini did to you. It's not the same, I know, to play the part of a pet, but…what you said gave me hope."
I reached behind me and Hunter found my hand, squeezed it in his.
"Now, will you crawl for me, little one?" Hunter growled.
With the leather around my shoulders and ribs and breasts, I settled into my role. I sank smoothly down to the floor, ignoring the bite of the carpet and the ache of my knees.
"Do I follow you?" I asked.
"And deny me this view?" Hunter chuckled.
I grinned and put an extra arch in my back, widening my legs a little as I moved forward, his stare hot on my ass, the rumble from his chest rising in volume.
I crawled slowly out of the dining room on my hands and knees, blushing at the bustling activity of Mayfair just outside of the windows we passed, and Hunter's footsteps vibrated against the floorboards behind me. The tile was painful, too hard and cold, and a little noisy too, hard to travel smoothly over, but all the sensation was dull beneath the awareness of Hunter's stare following my every move.
"Are you intentionally trying my patience, little one?" Hunter asked, rough with warning.
We'd just reached the main entrance, and I turned to face the stairs, my ass towards the sealed doors.
"What would you do if the doors opened right now?" I asked, sharing a coy smile with Hunter over my shoulder.
"Make enemies," Hunter snarled, and he stepped between me and the door. "Crawl faster."
I hurried forward, ignoring the thunk of my knees on tile, the scratch of the carpet as I reached the rug on the stairs. My heart was pounding in my ears, too loud to make out Hunter's steps behind me, and the grin on my face stretched my lips wide and made my cheeks ache.
"Spread your legs, little one."
Crawling up the stairs was awkward and uncomfortable enough, my back and arms straining, but spreading my legs for his view I was sure made me look ridiculous.
But it wasn't Hunter's intention to look. The stairs below me creaked briefly, and then his shadow layered over mine on the thick paisley carpet. I gasped, reaching up for the next step, the harness snagging possessively around my body as claws slipped under the grip bar and I was yanked to a stop.