Chapter 24- Incentives R-17*

POV- Nathan Cross

The next few weeks were relatively normal, training, sending Peter off to go hunt weapon sales of dangerous alien hybrid tech, and attending school. Luckily for me though, I had both Bucky and Ophelia to train me.

Ophelia had been okayed by Steve after a lengthy debate referencing Bucky and Natasha being ex-members of evil organisations, however, she was still banned from the tower. She had funnelled some of her money into a rather nice house though, just 10 minutes from the tower, with a nice indoor pool, home theatre and large-sized basement with concrete floors she had renovated into a training room.

Flashback *

"See, it's a nice place, right?"

"I guess." I was a little impressed but to be honest, so much that would have amazed me or made me envious a year ago is worthless to me now, home theatres included. "Ophelia, what're you going to teach me?"

"How to collect information, and how to kill people. I'm surprised you haven't been training with the Winter Soldier on that last one."

"Well, most of my training is physical, and Bucky isn't a great teacher…plus he's never around anyway. Off righting his wrongs or whatever."

"Well then, I guess we'll be spending more and more time together. And if we ever need a break… the bedroom has almost as much equipment as here, for more personal training." 'Great, so I'm a training whore. At least she's tough enough to almost keep up with me.'

"We can begin with hand-to-hand combat, which you seem drawn to. I usually use poison-coated weapons, but you need more lethality in your strikes. Like many with superstrength, you are using regular strikes and letting your enhanced body do most of the work. Martial arts and combat styles can be used in many ways. In modern times, for training and sport practitioners would avoid joints and vital areas to prevent injury, however, to incapacitate, striking to nerves and joints is almost mandatory, especially if you are of the same strength. When aiming to kill, however, we should remain efficient, targeting major arteries and positions that upon striking, guarantee death. Luckily for me, you heal like some of the more regeneration-focused mutants, so I can demonstrate them on you. You can hit me as hard as you want, but know that I don't recover as quick as you, and if you kill me…you have no hardcore fuckbuddy."

"…Or trainer."

"That too. Come on, show me what you've got, each of us at human level."

"That narrows it down like saying find a book in a library, regular athlete standard?"

A smirk reached her features, "Good observation. I was going to remain at my normal level to teach you a lesson." 'Who's to say she still won't?' I was proven right mere seconds later, and I catch the kick, dropping to one knee as I perform a basic judo throw, bringing her to the ground before using her leg as a leverage point for a grappling hold. Her other leg, far more flexible than I anticipated, hooked over and smacked me in the face, releasing the grip on her leg, as we were 'playing' at human. She spun on her knee, launching at me, catching my neck between her thighs in a way I was very interested in repeating later. Letting inertia and the strength of her core drag me to the ground, I brace myself on my elbow, my other hand striking sharply into her kidneys, the brief autonomous full-body wince letting me slip further on top of her, her legs now around my waist as I strike into her throat, stopping only once I've gripped her windpipe.

"I know I've lost Ophelia; you can take your hands off my chin and nuts." She'd stopped as I had, from ripping my jewels, which would have incapacitated any man, and from ripping my neck sideways, or sliding her hand to my throat and using her razor-sharp claws to sever an artery or windpipe.

"I'm a little impressed. I thought you'd have little to no training, but you have the basics of several martial forms." Hearing my years of training being listed as 'basic,' was a little demeaning, but in a universe with the iron fist, daredevil and ninjas, that was probably an exaggeration of my skills. "But there were far too many openings. You rely on your healing too much Nathan. Until you have the healing of the Wolverine, don't trust in it, and you should NEVER rely on it. Dodge what you can, trade what you can't. You never know when someone could somehow circumvent your healing. By the way, for every 10 losses, I'm gonna pick the bedroom play we're doing." 'And how does she figure I'm going to just go along with her weird ass requests? And if she thinks anything is being put inside me, she's gonna end up with a broken pelvis.'

After 14 losses and one victory, she was practically skipping despite her bruised and bleeding state. The two of us only grew less controlled the longer we fought, both of us eager for the training to end and enjoying the sensations experienced when fighting. While I had to hold back, she could go all out, and only grew wilder and more excited the more I hit her.

"Time to show you my…our room."

"I don't live here, Ophelia."

"I'm sure I can persuade you," she hummed, guiding me out the elevator and towards a set of double doors of thick, reinforced steel, layered with a small layer of wood to match the décor. Inside was a room far less gaudy than the room we shared and destroyed in Madripoor, with tasteful art on the walls and a large, almost definitely strengthened bed. "This is mainly for sleeping, the fun room's through there." 'If she's got a furry suit, I'm leaving I swear to God.'

Inside the 'fun' room, was hooks with paddles, whips, and toys, while the remarkably smaller room held an X-shaped rack designed to pin the victim outstretched. There were handcuffs, ropes, chains and a large collection of blades, batons, and a cupboard full of different costumes.

"Hey, Ophelia? Why have you put more effort into designing and equipping this room than any other room in the house?"

"Ah, well…I figured we'd be spending more time here and, in the bedroom, than anywhere else, and we only need a reinforced room to train in."

"Seeing as we're here…what's on the menu?"

She ran her fingers down my cheek, trailing her fingers off my chin and down my chest towards my groin, stopping mere inches from my rapidly hardening wood. "Well, I'm going to get tied to that rack and whipped. I won after all. But we're not going to have sex until you can beat me 3 out of 10 times."

"That seems to affect you more than me," I raise. "And I'm not sure how you plan to stop me from getting it elsewhere."

"Oh, you can be gentle and sweet to whoever you want, but we both know I'm the only one who can take YOU. That violence you keep under control. The strength that would kill anyone else you know. We were made for each other Nathan. So, you can sleep with whoever you want, but I know you'll come back craving and FUCK me. So…" Her smile never faded as she reasoned, completely confident she was right. The problem is that she was. While I couldn't go full-bore on her, I didn't have to actively control myself the entire time, like I was handling a fragile doll. And with her regeneration, slow as it is, I could be rougher.

R-17 Ahead*

"I guess you better teach me well then," I growl into her neck, kissing along the side as my hands trace up her back, pulling off her crop top, and throwing it aside. Sliding my hands to her wrists, I tied her to the rack, her arms and legs splayed to stretch out the muscles and prevent movement. I could force myself on her, but the thought was immediately sent out of my brain. 'She might enjoy it, but that's a dangerous road, and forcing myself on anyone disgusts me, which is why I'm so damn careful with my pheromones.' Slowly sliding my thumbs inside her training shorts, I strip her bare. Her pale skin glows under the light, as my soft kisses trace down her spine and her ass as I tie her legs down to the padded metal frame.

With her exposed back to me, I press myself against it, whispering into her ear. "If I'm not going to fuck you later, I may as well leave a mark." My words send a shiver down her back and my hands caress down her ribs and waist, biting down on her ear before I move off to the whips. 'It's nicely organised. I doubt I could lose anything in here…apart from my morals.' I can feel her eyes on me as I brush my fingers along the whips. From long, single-tailed leather, to multiple-headed with metal beads, I pull out the one that caused her breath to hitch. Brown handled with relatively short tails, the whip had almost a dozen tails, each headed by small glinting blades that glimmered in the bright lights. 'Oh, this is going to hurt a LOT.'

Between my enhanced hearing and smell, I could feel how turned on she was, being hurt by someone she was now connected to. Giving up control. The blades chimed together as I circles around behind her, getting a feel for the distance and the whip itself. Running the tails up her legs and over her ass and back, I noticed a shine from between her thighs. "Barely two weeks since you followed me here and already you've made me wait this long. What do you say?"

"I'm sorry it took so long, the renovations took time."

"Excuses." I groan, drawing back the whip and dragging it through the air, the leather and steel scratching through the skin.

"AUurgh! I'm sorry."

"Two whole weeks my little Viper. You need some punishment." 'There is nothing in this scenario she doesn't want, an utter crazy bitch…and I LOVE it. Whipping her again, she shrieks, though the wetness between her legs only grows. "You should be thanking me you old slut. For taking you in and disciplining you, for showing you even an ounce of attention. Again I whip her, crossing over the previous lashes, but this time she grits her teeth, before groaning out her gratitude.

"Thank you Nathan."

*Whip*

"Fuck, thank you for punishing me."

*Whip*

"For taking in an old bitch."

*Whip*

"EAugh, For showing me attention."

*Whip*

"AHHh. For making me yours."

As I whipped her again, her voice became breathless, and her legs began to shake, her arms fully stretched supporting her body weight as her legs weakened. Putting the whip aside on a small table, I pull myself closer to her, holding her shoulders as I kiss along each whip trail, blood coating my lips. I wanted to just take her here and now, but I resisted, my work in resisting my own pheromones finally showing some success. Instead, I rubbed some cooling cream into her wounds gently, kissing and biting her ear and neck while she remained tied in position. "I know for a fact you could get out of this in a matter of seconds, so I'll see you later in the week, Ophelia." Placing a kiss on her lips, I turn and leave, headed back to the tower for some team training.

~~~

Present

"Isn't your birthday coming up soon?" Bucky asked after training, towelling his face and wiping the sweat and blood from himself.

"Yeah, mine's in a few days, and Pete's is two days after that. Don't try and plan something stupid, Peter is having a thing with school friends on his, and I was planning on just taking the day off to relax somewhere."

"I wasn-"

"Yeah, but you can tell Steve the same thing. Just make sure I don't have to come in for any shit, and I'll be happy enough."

"Well, actually it was Stark that brought it up, since the last party you threw emptied his upstairs bar." The two of us chuckled remembering how annoyed he had been, but he continued, "Just expect everyone to know about it."

"Did anyone do anything for yours?"

"Steve did, we went out and shared some drinks, but that was for my 99th, not my 16th."

"Close to triple digits old timer," I joked, copping a sweaty towel to the face. "Besides…I can always go visit Ophelia."

"You really shouldn't be sleeping with her. She's older, an ex-assassin, and only recently ex. Not to mention she's batshit insane."

"Hey Bucky, I'm a literal flesh-eating monster. She was made aware of this, and gave zero fucks. I'll take what I can get."

"Just don't fall in love, she's an experienced woman trained to manipulate." A laugh slipped out as I remembered her from two nights ago, a twitching mess after I finally beat her with human standards three times, filling her so much she was leaking with my cum, unconscious on the bed. 7 hours we went at it before her body couldn't keep up, and I made sure to remind her of her place.

"Sure thing, matchmaker. Go date someone yourself before coming at me for my tastes in women."

"Your tastes are, older, murderous and insane."

"Your point? That describes a lot of our friends and teammates as well."

"I'm so telling Nat you called her old and insane when she gets back," he said as he headed off to the showers. "I'll tell Steve not to throw anything, but everyone already knows, so…"

'Well, I'm avoiding Peter's party of school 'friends,' so I may as well just relax here for the rest of the week. It's a shame I won't be seeing Nat for a while. She's one of the only people around here who can joke, and tease with me. She's a bit like Ophelia that way, but far less submissive.'