Page 33 of The Tenth Muse

“How would you like me to worship you?” Two galaxies stared back at me, drawing me in. “Say it, Songbird.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never…” I swallowed down the rest of it, not that it mattered. I had no experience, no idea what to do, how to find my own pleasure, how to return it even if I desperately wanted to. I didn’t even have to say it—Reaper could hear it all.

I stared down at the patch of emerald grass next to the tub. Calloused fingers brushed down my neck, trailing the skin between my breasts.

“Part your thighs and unfurl your tail.” Reaper’s voice was a sultry command.

The feathers not submerged rippled in anticipation. I unwrapped my tail that covered myself, bearing me to the stars shimmering above.

“Have you ever felt desire before, Songbird?” Reaper asked, the question both genuine and coaxing. Their other hand wrapped around mine that clutched the edge of the tub, guiding it off the porcelain before they interlaced them with their fingers.

“Yes,” I rasped, gaze trailing our joined hands as they dragged down my stomach.

“When?”

“At the palace,” I began, following Reaper’s gentle guidance and parting my thighs. They slid their free hand across my feathered waist, down my hip, and then lifted my leg until I rested my foot on one side of the tub. “This one night when the Emperor brought back two courtiers for me to serenade from my tree.”

I could sense Reaper’s gaze on me, drinking in their fill of where my lips beneath the water’s surface were open and throbbing with wanton heat.

“And what did these courtiers do?”

I was so exposed, our joined hands still resting on my stomach, Reaper drawing slow circles there that I wished would move lower.

What had they asked me?

…Oh, the night at the palace.

“Tell me,” Reaper encouraged. “You can stay silent but that faint blush to your cheeks, and the way your body clenches before me tells me everything I need to know. What did you want to do when you saw them? Join them, perhaps?”

“I don’t know. Maybe… I just wanted...”

The thought died on my tongue, the spiral of our hands moving lower drawing all my attention.

“Use your voice, Songbird.” Reaper peppered kisses up the side of my throat, and I began to lift my foot off the edge of the tub.

“Did I say to close your legs?” They warned, and I quickly dropped my heel onto the porcelain. “Keep them apart.”

“I just wanted to know what it felt like to be wanted. Touched.”

“Is that so?” Reaper’s smooth lilt curled in my ear, our hands lowering into the water. “I think you can spread those legs even wider.” I slid my foot against the tub’s bottom, dragging it closer to me until the water sloshed into my sensitive pearl, makingme jolt. Reaper moaned appreciatively, eyes downcast over my shoulder as they directed my fingers to draw my lips further apart until that dusky nub was visible to them. “Every part of you is perfect.”

I craned my neck, Reaper adjusting their body to support me before grazing their lips up my jaw. “Do you wish to be touched, Songbird?”

“Y-yes.” I whimpered as our fingers moved lower.

“Then heed my command and touch yourself.” They released my hand from their grasp, splaying it across my lower belly and tracing over the submerged feathers. The water weighed them down, but they zinged in preening appreciation with each devoted brush from Reaper.

I lowered my fingers to the sensitive spot that ached, making the lightest flick of my finger. I gasped and my hips jerked. Moving my fingers like I had in the greenhouse, unpracticed and without grace, I tested different motions until my body began to wrap itself up, tension building like the last inhale before releasing a high note.

My diaphragm and core tightened with each movement, the pleasure only heightened by Reaper’s breathing over my shoulder, their dark gaze watching everything, giving sounds of encouragement when my body reacted under my touch. They never moved their hand away from my abdomen, as if wanting to experience the building crescendo alongside me.

“It would be impossible not to be drenched with you writhing in my lap,” Reaper said. I whimpered against them.

And I wanted them to feel it, wanted them to feel every pleasure alongside me as each strum of my fingers brought me closer and closer to the precipice—like standing on the ledge of the world before leaping off into the velvet-swathed sky. I wanted to leap into it with my compara.

“I promise I will have you on your knees before me soon enough.” Just that idea had my back arching, their nipples grazing my sore shoulder blades. The pleasure was so much.Too much. My fingers worked vigorously but I still wanted more.

“Do you want to see how they feel deep inside of you?”

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