Page 103 of A Dusk Of Stars

I know this walk.

Frowning, I get up, quickly wipe my tears off and walk over to the door, opening it softly. I was right, he’s right here, standing in front of my room with his hands in his pockets and his eyes narrowed at me. The look makes me feel as if it’s clear I’ve been crying, but I’m all numb and couldn’t bring myself to care even if I wanted to.

“Yes?” I ask, trying to make my voice as flat as possible. “Is there something wrong?”

“It’s midnight,” he says as he strolls past me.Into my room.“Time to put you to bed.”

No, it was one thing to fantasize about this, it’s a whole other to break rules like this. I turn to frown at him, but he just tugs me away from the door, shuts it and turns the key in the lock.

“I don't need to beput to bed,” I protest.

Clicking his tongue, he shakes his head, lifts a hand into the air and closes it into a fist, surrounding us in complete darkness. I feel his breath on my ear just before I hear a low but firm order, “You don’t speak unless you’re spoken to.”

He’s not even touching me, but the darkness, the words and his scent break through the numbness enough to send a thrill down my spine. I forget all about the rules and I move to put my arms around his shoulders, leaning in to inhale him.

He pulls away, making me lower my hands with a frown. I find myself having to look around in complete darkness, sensing him slowly circling me, observing without being observed.

My skin pricks and my breathing turns shallower.

It makes me freeze, when I feel the heat of his body draw near. “Hold your hands out,” he orders in a low voice.

My breath held and my heart racing, I obey, hearing the sound of him unbuckling and sliding the belt out of his pants.

Before I know it, he’s tied my wrists together and is pulling my arms over my head, this soft clang of metal against wood sounding from the ceiling before I feel the belt get yanked upwards.

My feet are still touching the ground, but I find myself breathlessly hanging off the low wooden beam in my room, in complete darkness and with his hand coming to wrap around my nape. He tugs my head closer to him and I feel a slow lick alongmy cheek, one then the other, the tongue wiping the salt of my tears away.

I lean to steal a kiss, but he pulls away and I sense him get on his knees in front of me, his hands slowly and deliberately sliding my pajama bottom and my panties off my legs until they’re pooled around my feet. It makes the coil in the pit of my stomach tighten, when I feel the intensity of his gaze sweeping up my body.

Gods.

“You've been such a bad girl lately,” he says in a low, scolding voice as he gently takes my foot off the ground, makes me bring my thigh to my stomach and presses a kiss into the arch of my sole. It makes me shudder when the kiss turns into a little bite. “Do you know why?”

He’s trailing these kisses and bites up my foot, the curve of my shin, the dip of my knee, straightening and lifting my leg as he goes and making me long for that intense attention of his touch and his eyes to get to my thighs.

He stops and I feel his scolding gaze fix on my face, making me snap out of it. “How the hell should I know?” I protest.

“Oh youwillbefore I’m through with you,” he sneers and dips his head to keep trailing kisses along my thigh, making me shudder with pleasure.

I let out a scoff, but the scoff turns into a shaky breath when he puts my leg down and moves to my stomach, using his teeth to pull at the flesh under my navel, his hands starting slow, diligent work on unbuttoning my pajama top. “So unusual,” he murmurs, “for such a know-it-all to disappoint like that.”

“Yeah,” I ask breathlessly, “how exactly?”

All my buttons undone, I feel him get to his feet even before I see his shifted eyes right in front of me. He threads his fingers through my hair and pulls my head back. “How many times doyou think I caught you staring today?” he demands as his eyes narrow at me.

My breath catches.

“And how many times do you think Ididn’t?” he asks as his free hand slides up my stomach and comes to cup my breast, the thumb playing with the nipple in that way that always makes my eyes flutter shut, heat pooling between my legs.

He leans to breathe down my neck, “You think youknowwhen you’re being noticed, don’t you?”

Still keeping my hair pulled back with one hand, he grips my waist with the other and lowers his head to take my breast in his mouth, making me let out a shaky moan when his tongue starts flicking over the nipple.

He looks up to ask, “You think you knowwhatis being noticed, don’t you?” He sucks my nipple into his mouth, making me grimace with pleasure as I feel myself get wet.

“When, in fact…” He straightens, takes my neck in his hand again and dips his head to softly drag his teeth down my jawline. “You know nothing, isn’t that right?”

“Somethings I do,” I manage to say as he gives my neck a languid sweep of his tongue from the base up.

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