Page 30 of Bound

Yesterday, thoughts of sex were a dim and distant past. Today, it’s been all I can think about. Whether Rych really wants me, whether he’ll want me again, or if he’ll wake up and realize his mistake. Realize he was wrong about me, that I’m just a weak, pathetic, sick human and no match for a bright, virile male like him.

But the tone of his voice now chases all those fears away.

“I have arranged for the Zarvu to send you some fresh clothing,” he says as I turn to face him. “Food is available whenever we want. Just have to make a call.”

God! He looks impossibly handsome stood in the center of the room, great wings set so I can see both the edges of slate gray and the stunning pale stripes underneath. Feathers which are so beautifully soft to the touch as I can now attest. His abs are outlined with the dust from the path we walked, his strong cheekbones also.

And his eyes, those dark pools—they are filled with hunger.

“I thought you might like to bathe first,” he adds, his brows dipping as I drink him in like a woman with a never-ending thirst.

“Bathe,” I say, my power of rational thought obviously deserting me.

“Come,” he says, holding out his hand.

What else can I do? I take it, feeling the callouses worn there by a long time spent handling the weapons which bristle from the straps on his back. He leads me through the apartment to a door, which slides into the wall exposing a set of steps, and I’m hit by the scent of hot water, metallic and fragrant.

“We have our own private entrance to the baths?” I query.

“I doubt very much the Zarvu would allow anyone to share them with a Gryn. Not if he knows what’s good for him…or anyone else,” Rych growls as he takes the lead into the rough-hewn passage.

At the bottom, we turn a hard right, and before us is a great cavern, the ceiling low and the entire place lit up beautifully to show off the natural features. Down here, the striated stone is jewel bright, layers of colors which sparkle as if they’re filled with diamonds. It curves all around us, sinuous and beautiful, the formations carved by the water almost sculptural.

Steam rises from the clear water, ripples from the surface reflected on the sandy bottom.

“Do you like it?” Rych says, shifting from foot to foot.

“It’s incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” I say in a hoarse whisper.

Rych toes off his boots and shucks off his pants and stands before me naked. And aroused.

“Clothes,” he orders. “Off.”

I put a hand on my hip, and he growls. The sound reverberates around the cavern.

“Or I will remove them for you, and I won’t be careful, meaning you’ll have to stay bare until I say.”

I don’t really want my clothing destroyed by a feral Gryn, or at least not today, so I strip slowly, folding each item and placing them on a nearby rock until I am as naked as he demands.

When I look up, he is directly in front of me. An arm snakes around my waist, and I’m pulled against his hard body and harder cocks.

“Vrex,” Rych rasps, running a knuckle down the side of my face. “You are so vrexing beautiful, little mate, so fine, so perfect.”

“I’m anything but perfect.” I stumble over my words. “I’m…”

“You are mine,eregri, which means you are perfection,” Rych says with conviction.

“I’m sick. I caught a virus which has made me a shell of who I was. I’m a sick human no one else wanted other than Fenek,” I blurt out, unable to keep my emotions in check. My words echo around the cave, coming back at me, hateful and a truth I didn’t want to admit. “You don’t want me.”

“I know what I want,” Rych growls. “And I know you belong to me. I see no sickness, only you.”

RYCH

My sweet mate doesn’t know what she releases within me. It is a volcano of desire, a rising inferno of need. When she claims she is sick, I can’t comprehend it.

Chrissie shakes her head. “You don’t mean that. Fenek said…”

My growl is loud in the cavern.

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