Page 113 of At Her Will

His thumbs moved beneath the neckline of her shirt and bra straps. When he traced her collarbone, sensation radiated toward her breasts. He moved to the round part of her shoulders, down her upper arms, then back up. When he found his way back under her hair, he massaged her neck, clasping her there with a brief tantalizing pressure, giving her the strength of his grip.

She tilted her head back against his abdomen as his fingers slid down the front of her throat, stopping at a spot at her sternum that obeyed her dictate, but also sent more of those sensations outward and lower. Then back up, following ground he’d already covered, but changing pace and pressure so she knew he wasn’t just doing it to kill time until she’d let him get to more interesting places. He was treasuring each touch, treating it as new, something wondrous.

Just as he’d described how he viewed every person he met. A new place to discover.

Hell, he was good at this.

When she felt like she could melt against him, if the chair wasn’t in between their bodies, she had him come stand before her.

“What’s going on in your mind, Rev?” She crossed her legs, folding her hands over one knee. “And why are you standing over your Mistress?”

The flare of heat in his gaze showed the energy shift between them to full-on Domme and sub. He dropped to one knee, denim stretching over ass and thighs. His linen shirt had wooden buttons, two open at his throat. The fabric was thin enough the hue of his bronze skin was hinted at beneath it.

“I thinking about a Sunday school lesson. The structure of a prayer.”

She arched a brow, waiting.

“First you honor God. You seek His will. Ask for what you need, and trust He’ll respond. Not the way you want or you think He should, but how He know youneed. You forgive, to help open your heart. And then you finish by honoring Him again.”

“Why are you thinking of that?”

“God say no false idols. But God is Love, and so if you honor Love in your life the same way, it doesn’t feel blasphemous. There God's Will, and yours, Mistress. I'm good serving both, especially since I'm pretty sure He sent you to me. Or me to you. So…”

He bent forward and put his lips on the top of her foot. “I honor you, Mistress. I want to serve your will, and I trust you to hear my heart, understand my words, my reactions to you, and know what I need. And I hope to show my honor for you, with whatever you command of me, here and now.”

Enlightened. That was what the man was. Pure and enlightened, while also a hundred percent primal, erotic pleasure, in a six-foot frame.

“I like the way your mind works, Rev. Sit up and move back for me. I want to sit in front of you.”

When he complied, they sat cross-legged, their knees touching. She put a hand over his heart. “Lay one hand on your knee, palm up.”

When he did, she put hers in it, and had him place his free hand over her heart. “A closed circle, our two bodies,” she said. “What I’m imagining is you, sitting in the center of my heart, breathing with me. Even when we’re apart, this connection,” her fingers tightened on his, “is there. We can reach out to one another through it. No matter how far apart, we’ll feel that energy. It will only become deeper as we serve it. Trust in it.” A smile touched her lips. “Honor it.”

She stayed that way, and he held her gaze, no self-consciousness, that power growing as if it had merely waited for the two of them to reach for it. If she closed her eyes, it was a flickering, multi-colored flame against her lids, reflecting what was surging through her body, through those energy channels and points of contact between them. Confirming that bond and connection was real, strong, and only going to get stronger, as long as they were open to fueling it. It made her tremble.

At length, she drew back and stood. When she swayed, he stood up on his knees, his arms sliding around her hips to hold her securely. She caressed his jaw with quivering fingertips. “Take me to bed, Rev, and serve me there.”

“May I ask a favor, Mistress?”

“You may. I won’t promise to grant it. What you need, I will always give you. What you want is a gift for me to grant, at my own pace.”

His smile didn’t dilute the intensity in his gaze. “I want to carry you there.”

“Why?” She shoved aside that idiot and typical female reaction, gauging her weight and if he was overestimating his own strength, which might have been sufficient if only she hadn’t had that extra cookie from the metal lunch box full ofthem Cyn had brought to the office. A vintage Wonder Woman lunch box. Mick had bought it for her.

“You know that poem, about the Footprints?” Rev said. “You a strong, strong woman, Veracity. I want to carry you so that you know I can. You care for me, but a submissive takes care of his Mistress when she need it, because that’s part of how he serves her. How this one wants to serve her. Serve you.”

Her trembling increased. She’d held the reins on so many submissives, enjoyed the give and take of those sessions, some more intense than others. But none of them had claimed her whole heart, and she hadn’t been that for them, either.

This was…different. So different. Rev had involved her heart from their first meet. From the first time she saw that quote on the wall of the maintenance shed. And with the exercise she’d just had them do, she’d linked their hearts even more.

She was the Mistress, she was in charge, and he was submitting to her. And yet somehow the two of them were caught up in something so powerful, those roles had nuances to them she’d never thought they could have.

She’d been foolish to think it would be otherwise. Didn’t she have four in-her-face-every-day examples that proved how limitless and undefined those connections could be?

“Carry me to my room, Rev,” she said.

When he rose, she slid an arm around his neck, molding her hand over his broad shoulder. He bent and put his hand beneath her knees, the other behind her back, and lifted her. The gratitude in his expression, tinged with an intriguing possessive satisfaction, made joy skate through her, doing a few twirls and flips along the way.

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