Page 169 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

Garrik peered up at her, a smile twisted on his face as he released a breathy laugh. “How can I forgive something that does not require it?”

Alora swiped another tear. “But?—”

“What did you have in mind, darling?” But he knew.Starsdamn.He knew.

The rope dawned into his lap. He lifted it to her, offering a reassuring smile. Garrik nodded to it, and she enclosed her fingers around the coarse surface, anxiously sighing as his thumb brushed the back of her hand.

“I wanted to play a game.”

The understanding in his eyes sharpened, replaced with hungry desire. He desired to pull her lips to his and taste her. She had crafted this … whateverthiswas. Andfuckif it didn’t have him bursting to show her how pleased he was with this little game she wanted to play.

Garrik offered her a purely primal male grin and speared her sapphires with glowing silver. “Is that so?” And darkly laughed, squeezing her calves tighter. “There are not many games I know that use bonds besides bloody ones. Tell me, is this from one of those smutty books I catch you reading when you are hallucinating it is about me?”

Scarlet rushed to her cheeks like she had been found out. And to his greatest pleasure, she transformed into that fierce female with her dagger at his neck. Powerful. Demanding. Controlled.

A Celestial demanding to be worshiped from willing knees.

Alora stepped out of his embrace and crossed her arms. “You meanyoursmutty books?” she asked with a flare of teasing.

Jagged rays of sunlight burst around her hair. Garrik gritted his teeth and bent a knee, failing to alleviate the pressure building against the snaps and ties of his pants.

Garrik raked his dilated eyes over her. She was a Celestial ready for war in those fighting leathers, withhissymbol etched into the chest. And he knew if she allowed him, that would be the first place his hands roamed.

Alora brushed a hand down her neck—painstakingly slow as if to purposely cause him considerable pain—until she trailed along that dragon emblem where his eyes hovered. She squeezed her chest, and the leather groaned.

Starsdamn, he did too.

This was worse than any torture he had suffered. Going utterly mad watching her play.

Another smile and taunting squeeze of her breast had him coming undone. His cock painfully pressed against the seam of his pants.

One perfect finger. Then two. Three gripped onto one of the three metal snaps of her upper armor, popping the clasp, and releasing the strap. The scaled leather parted as one by one, she released them, exposing the swell of her breasts hidden underneath.

“Donottease me,” Garrik growled, narrowing his predatorial eyes. The very thin tether on his control was snapping. If he did not do something about it in the next two seconds, Alora would be bare and on her back.

Ruthless memories schemed to seep into his eyes as he felt the scratch of ropes begin to coil around his wrists. But they were not iron—not shackles.

With a harsh tug of shadows, Garrik’s arms were outstretched to his sides, pulled taut and anchored to the tree, and he did not fight it. Surrendering to this haunting thing that was his to control. That he never realized, until Alora had opened his eyes, heneededto control.

Garrik scanned the rope around his wrists. Studied the five separate cords strong enough tomaybekeep the Lord of Darkness from breaking free. By his strength, by how many there were, he would not be able to snap them. Not with how they were tied. Not with how many held him there.

“What are you doing?” Fear clouded Alora’s exquisite face as she surged forward to untie him.

But Garrik stopped her with only a grin and answered, “Playing your game.”

He sensed the war inside her. The one that fought as hard as he had while beaten and bound in shackles, desperately attempting to understand his decision. While the other was plagued with selfish hope. She wanted this, wanted to playalong, but she would not be the female he had come to lo—know if she did not think of him first.

Bordering on something vital, a shadow likeness of his hand caressed her chin. “I want this,” he softly confessed. Meaning it, making sure she heard it in his tone. “I need you to touch me … like this. Everywhere they touched me. Whereshe…” He glanced at the ropes and squeezed his eyes closed, shuddering. “As you said, to replace bad memories with good ones. I can control what happens to me. It is my choice when to end this… That only happens when I am with you, Alora.”

Alora studied his face with liquid lining her eyes.

He felt her sorrow and hope like it was his own. That powerful female inhaled a deep breath before the glow of her sapphires found his.

And she spoke with gentleness and sternness all the same. “You saynoorstopand I will.”

If not for his Smokeshadows, Garrik’s heart would have stopped.

No. Stop.

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