Page 18 of Currency in Flesh

I nodded, and the added pressure the movement of my head added to my throat nearly sent me tumbling into unconsciousness. She released me at precisely the right moment, and I sucked in greedy breaths of hot, steam-filled air. I could taste her—the heavy sweetness of ripe, black plums wrapped in smoke and flame. I wanted toreallytaste her,neededto taste her.

“Please,” I rasped, “kiss me?” It was a plea, not a command, and I was desperate for her reply. I had never needed anything like I needed her kiss. There was nothing I wouldn’t do in that moment to convince her to press her mouth to mine.

She gave me a vicious smile and a deep, fiendish chucklebefore lowering herself and placing her hands on either side of my shoulders. Our lips were so close I could feel the heat of her breath with my own inhale. Could I survive on air from her lungs alone? I didn’t even care. I’d gladly die if it meant I could be hers.

The instant the thought passed through my mind, I realized it was true. Maybe it was some psychological trick, my brain absolving her of all her sins simply because she had saved me from Sean’s. What did they call it? Stockholm Syndrome? Butfuck,even if this feeling was some emotional fault that necessitated therapy more than indulgence, I needed it. I needed her.What are you doing to me?I asked without words, frenzied in my desire but all mixed up over what it all meant.

“I do not require sorcery or subterfuge, pet. Whatever you are feeling is a creation born entirely of your own mind. My only aim has been to drag you up off the floor and teach you to stand.” Her lips brushed mine as they formed the words, and I angled my face to feel every single consonant. Her mouth curved into a smile and then she kissed me deeply, the fathomless yearning within my very bones vibrating with satisfaction.

She kissed like she could sentence me to contrition by way of her tongue. I gave in like a kneeling, penitent soul, begging for absolution. I moaned into her mouth and she swallowed every sound, pulling noises from places I didn’t understand. Again, her long, writhing tongue pushed past the entrance of my throat and I gagged around it. She only pressed further, shoving her way in. My eyes squeezed shut, so I felt rather than saw her climb astride me—sensing the way her body moved alongside the rough motion of her mouth. Lady Cora’s hips rolled against me as she fucked my throat with her tongue, and I was nearly overcome by the urge to move my hand between her legs.

She pulled herself from me with terrible slowness, swirling around my mouth before leaving me completely empty, and Ialmost cried from the feeling of loss. But she kissed me gently, with approval, and my chest bloomed with a pride I didn’t understand. “Oh, what a good pet you are,” she murmured, pulling her lips from mine. “Do you want to be my good little pet?”

“Yes, Lady Cora,” I panted. And I did. I wanted to do whatever she asked of me, wanted her to keep asking.

I felt her hand wrap around my forearm, moving my hand up precisely where I’d wanted it—hovering between her thighs. “Do you want to give me pleasure?”

“Yes, Lady Cora.” My voice was a plaintive whine.

“You want your fingers deep in my wet cunt? You want to feel what it means to make a goddess come?”

A sob tore from me. I was so overwhelmed with desire and desperation I couldn’t find the words to answer her, so I just nodded, hoping it was enough.

“No, pet. I want to hear you say it. Tell me you want to please me, tell me you want me to ride your fucking hand.”

“Please, Lady Cora,” I whimpered. “I want to make you come. I want to be inside you. Please, please let me touch you.”

Her other hand dared out to clutch my jaw, pricking my cheeks with the points of her nails. Tears streamed down my face, and I knew she had broken the skin from the sharp sting of salt. “Open your mouth,” she commanded, and I complied with no hesitation. She licked my lips, the ghost of a laugh dancing over my tongue as she did. I could hear the note of approval in that laugh and I preened. Without warning, she let go of my cheeks and plunged two of her fingers into my mouth and down my throat. This time I didn’t gag, I welcomed her in. She swirled her fingers through my saliva and I opened my eyes when I felt her gaze on mine. She smeared my spit over my cheeks, through the tears and tiny spots of blood, and lifted them to her mouth—sucking them off with an audiblepop.

I writhed beneath her weight on my lap, feeling how slickmy thighs were where they rubbed together. “Do you want to make me happy, Grace?” It felt like the glow of her eyes saw through me to the fragile threads binding this confusing, inexplicable need for her.

“Yes,” I replied. “Please.”

Her hand struck my cheek hard enough to knock my face to the side. I was breathing heavy, panting with a heady blend of pain and pleasure. She grabbed a handful of hair at the crown of my head and pulled my face back to hers. “Then do it.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

She angled my wrist upward and dropped herself onto my hand with a soft cry. In an instant, three of my fingers were buried deep inside her wet heat. The muscles of her pussy pulsed around me, and I adjusted my hand so I could bend my fingers forward to press right where I knew she wanted me. She released my arm, slamming her hand against the stone at my shoulder to support her weight as she rode my hand with unrestrained abandon. Head thrown back, hair glinting platinum and gold in the candlelight, she was fucking radiant. I could feel her dripping down my wrist even beneath the water, making my entire hand slick and slippery.

“More,” she growled, and I moved my pinky beside the rest of my fingers. She cried out as her cunt strained to accommodate the fourth. They were not slim and bony like hers, they were soft and plump and I spread my hand out, moaning in time with her as I stretched her pussy wide and felt her slide over each of my knuckles. Curling my fingers toward me, I pressed on her soft walls, feeling her flesh give beneath my touch. She moved faster, and the water splashed around her asshe crashed down onto me again and again. My thumb moved up to find her clit, letting the firm bud grind against it with each movement of her hips.

I could hear her breath beginning to quicken, and I didn’t change the motion of my hand, letting her have all control over how she found release. But as the muscles of her cunt started to grip me harder, I curled my fingers forward in one quick movement and felt her come apart like shattering glass.

She cried out with a ragged scream and I followed as her hips lifted from the water, but the hot rivulets that ran down my forearm over and over again were not from the spring. I had never come like that, and I found myself unable to look away as her climax drenched my wrist and collected in my palm with each rhythmic pulse of her body. After a moment, she began to still and her breathing calmed enough for her to open her eyes and look down at me from beneath tangled, sweat-soaked hair. I didn’t dare withdraw my fingers, remaining completely unmoving as she adjusted herself to better support her own weight. My teeth pressed into my lower lip and a shiver ran through me, the steaming pool feeling suddenly cold in the heat of her gaze. She didn’t look away or react at all while I slowly lowered my arm, my fingers slipping from her and back under the water. She reached for my face, cupping my cheek and running her thumb over my swollen, bitten lip. “You are a very, very good pet, Grace.”

I beamed at her praise, flushing cherry-red and my head dipped beneath the magnitude of the compliment. “Thank you, Lady Cora,” I said in a voice that didn’t sound like mine. “I—I’m—” My thoughts escaped me, and I didn’t try to chase them. I didn’t know how to explain, what it had been like to be used without being disrespected. I didn’t have the words to articulate how fucking good that felt. So I simply leaned forward and she wrapped her arms around me, pressing my cheek to her chest. It was the safest I had ever been.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Lady Cora’s heart beat a steady rhythm. I followed it like a metronome, its cadence a comforting constant amidst the tumultuous whirlwind of my emotions. Wrapped in her arms and the enveloping heat of the spring, I felt as though nothing in this world or the next could cause me harm. I felt protected in a way I hadn’t known since childhood, and the realization sent a rush of tears spilling down my cheeks. She let me cry—only moving her fingers over my hair in a gentle, reassuring caress.

When I at last thought I could speak properly without the fear of a sob interrupting, I pulled away reluctantly.

“I do not think anyone has ever before thought of me as safe,” Lady Cora said, placing her knuckle beneath my chin and lifting my face to hers. “You are an interesting contradiction, marigold.”

I felt a blush hit my face. It was one thing to feel something, but another thing entirely to hear it spoken aloud. I wasn’t sure why it was so embarrassing. My private thoughts have always remained private before Lady Cora, and I wasn’t accustomedto hearing them articulated when I couldn’t even do it for myself.

Sensing my discomfort, her thumb ran across my jaw. “Would you prefer to continue honoring our agreement now that your thoughts are not filled with lust?”

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