Page 106 of A Vow of Blood and Tears

“Believe me, were I shaped like the men you’ve seen before, I would have you in bed all night and day.” He laughed sourly. “I don’t think we’d see the outside of this room for a year, and I wouldn’t regret a second of it. So… I live with the fear that I will destroy you. Secondly, I live with the shame of what I am. There is a reason there are only four of us; few of my kind are willing to give up their beauty when they know this awaits. Few of my kind even want to touch us. Everything we are is meant to evoke primal disgust; we are the most base of my kind.”

Iwant to touch you, I told him, waving his hands away.I don’t want another hand tonottouch you; I wantmineto be on you. There is a difference.

I signed slowly and carefully, Bane’s eyes tracking the movements, and he finally understood.

“I know. But, Cirri… it’s been so long. I won’t allow my self-control, or lack thereof, to be the reason for your destruction.” He smiled mirthlessly. “Let me alleviate your fears, at the very least. I have never wanted Auré, and I certainly don’t now. There has never been a woman I want more than you. While I find it delightful that you want me enough to feel jealous at all… the feeling is entirely misplaced. It isn’t—”

I stood up abruptly, and reached up to cup his face. Hard peaks and crests under my palms, his eyes alight with surprise. His ears had swiveled to point straight up, the tips trembling.

Could he hear my racing heartbeat? The rapidness of my breath?

I was more nervous than I’d ever been before, even on the day that I’d learned I was to be sold to him. I believed him, but I also couldn’t stop myself from seeking out a more physical brand of proof.

I slowly ran my fingertips down over his neck, to the swoop of his collarbone and the broad chest beneath. Bane’s own breathquickened, each exhale a low snarl. Tension quivered in his limbs.

Do you not want me to touch you?I asked, pausing.I will stop. Say the word and I’ll stop. But I do want you, and I don’t want you to fear my touch.

And, what we both knew and weren’t saying, was that I wanted proof that he wanted me.

I put my hands back on his chest, feeling the slow, steady thud of his heartbeat. I knew what he looked like beneath the shirt, at least, remembering rippling muscles in the stableyard as he picked up a thousand pounds, and the heat that flooded through me at the memory was more shocking than it was then.

It was the sheer intensity of it. I’d been surprised by my desire for a fiend at all; now I was surprised by how my hands shook, wanting to tear the clothes away and feel him all over.

Tell me no, I signed one-handed, unwilling to remove my palm from his heart.Or tell me yes. You choose.

“Cirri… if I hurt you…” He closed his eyes, chest rumbling.

You won’t hurt me. I smiled up at him.Because you’re not allowed to move. If you tell me yes, you have to keep your hands to yourself.

He opened his eyes a crack, peering at me. “I… cannot move? What game is this?”

The kind of game where no one gets hurt, and everyone is happy. I trailed my hand further down, my stomach clenching at the sensation of hard valleys of muscle under my palm.

A minute ticked by, then another. My nerves were strained to the breaking point.

Those hard muscles twitched under my touch, and the rumble in his sigh gave away the answer before I heard it. “Yes.”

I exhaled silently, acknowledging how afraid I’d been that he would say no, and then letting it go. The only way this wouldwork was if we trusted each other, and he was finally granting me some of that trust to not be disgusted by him.

I took one of hands and raised it, pressing a kiss to his palm as he had done to me earlier, then brought his hand firmly to his side and patted it.Stay there.

Then, a little worried about what I would come to, but burning with anticipation to finally sate my curiosity and lust, I returned my hands to his shirt and slowly unbuttoned it.

Bane tensed a little under my touch; I kept my movements slow, brushing the hot velvet skin of his chest with my fingers as I went. Soon he had shed it, revealing the carved bulk of his physique, the defined brawn that made my mouth water. The lower half of his stomach was a muscular V, quivering under my touch.

I kissed his chest, moving my hands lower and feeling a thrill of nervousness and anticipation when I came to the trousers. I tugged at the laces one-handed, unwilling to take my hand from skin even for a moment, and Bane’s own hands clenched into fists.

Tell me to stop, I reminded him, and gave him a moment to decide. He finally nodded his horned head, eyes narrowed to slits as he watched me tug the laces out and slip a thumb into the waistband.

I tugged them down, revealing the cock that I’d ridden through my nightgown, felt pressed against my ass in the morning, the member that had brought me pleasure already, even as it brought him shame.

He had been right, in that he was nothing like human men.

The most salient feature was the monstrous size of him; even without the unusual changes, I realized hecouldtear me apart, if he wanted. I slid two fingers down the stomach muscle to the hard, throbbing shaft, shivering as Bane sucked in a breath.

The thick shaft was not smooth like a human’s. The cartilaginous ridges of his body continued down his stomach and sides, growing smaller and more closely-aligned the further down they went; they extended to his cock, all the way down the shaft to a head crowned with firm barbs that flared outward.

With the way they were shaped, I could see what he meant… this was an appendage meant to spear deep, and tostaythere.

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