Page 41 of Grave Curse

The bastard had tied my hands to the table leg.

I was in serious trouble.

“My uncle’s way of punishing you and my idea of punishing you are two very different things. Something you can thank me for later.” With that, he reached for his belt buckle.

Panic and anticipation rose in equal measure. “If you think I’m going to thank you for-forrapingme, you’re as fucking insane as Hades!”

“You tell me, Ginger. Is it rape when you wind up begging me for my cock? To insist I fill you and never leave you because with my cock inside you, you know you’ve found your place in the world and your reason for being?”

When he loosened his pants, then pulled his long-sleeved Henley over his head, the panic began to edge out anticipation. I wanted him, yes, but I also wanted a fucking choice in the matter. “You think way too much of yourself.”

“No. I just know you. I know how brutally honest you are, even with yourself. I’m counting on that now.” His voice turned soft, almost crooning, and I hated myself for taking comfortin it. Maybe that was why I didn’t completely freak out when he worked the fastenings of my pants. The freak-out came as he abruptly ripped them off along with my panties, leaving me naked from the waist down. “I’m counting on you begging to take my cock, baby girl. All I’m doing now is getting us both ready for it.”

“Tyr, don’t.” My throat was so tight all I could do was manage a whisper. I didn’t want to beg, because goddesses didn’t beg. But in that moment I was nothing more than a mere mortal on the verge of being forced to face something I’d been instinctively avoiding my entire adult life. “Don’t do this.” My throat was closing, closing. I could barely whisper. “P-please.”

That one word seemed to reach him, as if he knew how much it cost me to let it free, and for a long moment he seemed to freeze. Then he shucked off his jeans, and I heard his boots hit the floor along with them. “Deep down you know I won’t hurt you, but you’re still afraid. Of what, I’m not sure, but I need to get rid of that fear you have of me. Maybe all you’re seeing right now is a Colgrave, and not me. Maybe you only think pain can come to you from these hands, though I’ve never once used them to harm you. I don’t know. All I know is that I’ve got you where I want you, and you’re going to learn that of all the terrible things there are in the world that can hurt you, I will never—ever—be one of them.”

“I do fear you.” I could barely hear myself now. My voice was leaving me, a true measure of my fear. “I don’t know why, but… I do.”

“Maybe fearing any Colgrave is the burden you’ve been cursed with—a bone-deep fear of me and my family, and it’s there no matter how hard I’ve always tried to protect you. But maybe both our curses can be broken if we just… break right through them. Prove that we’re stronger than they are. Maybe if I can save you from your curse, you can save me from mine.”

I don’t know what your curse is, I tried to say, but nothing came out. Goddamn it. Tears of frustration slipped from the corners of my eyes as I tried again, and nearly choked.

Nothing.

Fuck.

My heart pounded so hard I half-believed it would punch a tunnel out of my chest as Tyr once again positioned himself between my knees. I kicked out trying to fend him off, but he dodged easily, gripping the backs of my knees to spread me as wide as I could go. I would have screamed profanities at him if I’d have a voice, and ultimately the deep silence finally seemed to get through to him.

“You still with me, baby girl?” He draped my legs over his biceps, his hand clamped down on my thighs as his eyes found mine in the gloom. When all I could do was try to kill him with my glare, he shook his head in what seemed to be genuine disappointment. “Scared you into muteness again, huh? That’s twice in one day, damn it. Let’s see what I can do to help you find a way out of all that fear and get you your voice back.”

Try takingnofor an answer, I wanted to shout at him, but my throat remained so locked it barely let air in.

“Have I ever told you how breathtaking you are?” With my legs now secured in a way that couldn’t hurt him, he bent over me again to touch his lips to mine. He didn’t linger, though, apparently intent on moving lower. “My obsession with you started young. I once told my old man you were going to be my back-warmer when we were all grown up. He laughed and told me to go after whatever the hell I wanted and to never let anything get in my way. My old man may have been a mean sonofabitch and he wasn’t often right, but that was some excellent advice he gave me that day. In my own time and in my own way, I always go after what I want. And I am never denied.”

His hands smoothed down my torso, found the hem of my turtleneck—the only piece of clothing I had left—and exposed my breasts. Despite my pounding pulse, the brainless feminine pride in me wanted to see his reaction to my near-total nakedness. With my breath coming in silent, shallow gasps, my eyes clung to his as he backed up to drink me in.

“By God, woman, you can’t be real.” His words resonated with an almost awestruck reverence, and I hated myself for the thrill of delight that went through me. “Ginger Sisko, you are the truest form of perfection these eyes have ever seen. And all of you—every stunning, flawless inch that I see before me—ismine.”

Not even if I lived a hundred lifetimes, I wanted to scream at him. And I would, the moment my voice came back. What I would never do was admit that his words of claiming, of hard-wontriumph, hit me like a tidal wave, rocking me in all the best ways to the very core of my soul.

Then his hands touched where his eyes had roamed. His touch glided up the ladder of my ribcage to claim my breasts, and his hands were so hot they set my skin on fire. I closed my eyes, but I didn’t know if it was to shut him out, or to better drink in the feel of his callused hands caressing over my sensitized flesh. He squeezed my breasts, his rough thumbs abrading my nipples so fiercely it became a painful delight to bear. In my mind, I threaded my fingers through his hair and guided his head down to my breasts, encouraging him to put his mouth on me. But since I couldn’t do anything like that, I arched my back like a cat begging for pets while a breath that was no louder than a whisper escaped me.

“I heard that.” His voice took on that crooning, praising quality that turned me into mush. My stomach muscles quivered with achy need, and wet heat slicked my intimate folds. Damn, that tone really did make my toes curl in the worst way. “You likemy hands on you, don’t you? That’s my good girl. You’re going to like my mouth on you even more.”

That’s what I was afraid of.

Afraid of… because it aroused me so much.

There. I finally admitted it, if only to myself. The mere thought of Tyr’s mouth on me aroused me so fiercely I couldn’t help but squirm with needy hunger.

His dark blonde hair fell over my body in an intimate caress as he lowered his head over me. Every muscle clenched in anticipation as his lips glided from the valley of my breasts up to a hyper-sensitive peak. His tongue circled the aureola in a wet caress and toyed with my pebble-hard nipple, before he closed his mouth around it and suckedhard. A faint squeak broke free from the paralysis in my throat as the pleasurable, near-painful sensation rocked through every nerve. I ground my body against his mouth, needing more, needing everything from him even though I didn’t know what his idea ofeverythingwas.

“There you are.” The triumph vibrated low through his voice, his breath feather-light against my skin still wet from his mouth. “Fear. Excitement. Need. Hunger. All of it, rolled into this. Intous. Who we are to each other. You’ll never feel anything more intense than me, Ginger. You’ll never want any other hands on you, or mouth on you, or cock inside you. All you’ll crave from this point on,is me.”

“Shut up.” It was barely a hiss of sound, because my voice kept dinking out while he predicted terrifying things like my life being forever altered because of him. Sadly, he didn’t shut up. Instead, he laughed under his breath before lowering his head to once more bathe my skin with the glide of his tongue and lips. Eventually he made it down to my navel, where a chandelier charm made up of small opals rested.

“Ooh, I like this, baby girl.” As if to prove his point, he tongued the charm into his mouth and gently tugged at itwith his teeth before eventually moving lower. “Got any other undiscovered piercings I need to know about?”

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