Page 20 of Nidev and Lyric

“Don’t hide,” he ordered when Lyric turned to undress in his bathroom on shaking legs. God, if he liked her bold, she was in for a very low grade. Assuming he was grading. Pretty sure he graded all things at all times.

She turned to face him, her bones having an earthquake. He sat on the three-foot-wide vanity built into the wall with mirrors left, right and center. His glowing white muscles filled with scrolling tattoos against the black onyx made him look terrifyingly wicked and lethal. She resumed unbuttoning her black satin blouse, prepared to die of embarrassment. She had serious breast complexes due to the locker room trauma she’d endured in junior high. They called her puffy tacos because her boobs were more elongated than they were round, and the areolas were puffy instead of flat. She’d grown more mound since, but they never lost the elongated shape. She’d managed to forget all about it till the marriage assignment with George. Even then she was able to think of her body as a tool for science and looks didn’t matter so long as the parts worked. But having George refer to hernipplesasvery different,well, nightmareresurrected.And obviously they weren’t agoodkind of different since he never seemed to want to touch them.

“Come here,” he ordered quietly when the final button was undone.

The hard edge in his tone spoke to her supper, and it suddenly wanted someplace else to be besides her stomach. Standing before him, he took hold of the satin material and moved it aside. She wore a black lace bra which was only a thin shield, but she desperately wanted to keep it even as he traced his fingers along the edge of it.

“What do you fear, my Doo-nie?” he asked, her chest heaving.

She couldn’t lie but wasn’t about to saythattruth. “I’m… not very good at exposing myself.” One thousand percent truth.

He helped remove the blouse then set it on the counter as she put her hands before her, trying to give her boobs a rounder appearance.

“Take it off.”

Oh God.

She reached behind her and undid the clasp, then slowly removed it. There was no stopping her forearms from becoming a shield. She closed her eyes unable to bear seeing himlook.

He took the bra from her, and she could only guess he set it with her blouse.

“Tell me why you are hiding yourself from me.”

Even with his curious, gentle tone she had to push down her rising panic. She really wanted this with him and didn’t want to blow it. She hated that everything felt like an audition at the academy. It was that way since she got there. She already felt like a fraud since her gifts were invisible to her. She couldn’t see or hear or feel them. What if they realized she wasn’t gifted enough? “I uh…”

He placed gentle hands on her shoulders and eased her closer to him. “What could my beautiful Doo-nie possibly fear?” he whispered, turning her heart into a war machine in her chest.

“It’s… childish… nothings.”

His finger slid along her chin and pushed her face up. “All your fears… belong to me now.” His thumb glided along her jaw, sending a shiver through her. “Do you know what I do with your fears, Doo-nie?”

She forced a head shake, and the bounce of her curls made her feel more childish.

“Icrushthem of course. Unless I determine they serve a good purpose.”

The sudden need to bury her face in his body had her shaking.

“I do pray you’ve never had your body worshipped,” he murmured hotly.

The term and unusual confession brought her gaze up as his fingers traced over her arms where they covered her breasts. “What… do you mean?”

“It means I intend to adore every inch of your perfect body with every fiber of my being. And the thought of another man tasting what is now mine, feeds my insanity.”

Oh God, how sweet and incredibly hot. “I’m not… perfect,” she managed to force from her throat, praying her gifts were working for her and not against her. “I’m sure George had something to say about that in the dissolution paperwork.”

His touch stopped and panic flooded in when his gaze rolled up to hers.

“What did George say to you?”

The sudden cold edge to his tone brought visions of a maimed George across the screen of her mind. “George is… he’s very inexperienced.”

He pulled back, staring at her, stroking along her shoulders. “What. Did George. Say. This is no longer a question.”

“He just… I-I’m blowing it out of proportion.”

“Lyric.”

“That my boobs were very unique, which could mean a million amazing things.”

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