Page 24 of Bound

Then Ruby saw the impossible bulge tenting his loincloth, and the fantasy faded with a pang of fear. Daydreams were all well and good until reality set in. There was areasonthey were practicing. If he really held her down and had his way with her, she would be screaming before he was even halfway in, and not with ecstasy.

“Little witch,” Slate rumbled from where he had her pinned against the bed. “You did not answer my question.”

It took Ruby a moment to remember. His eyes were so intense on hers, his stature so imposing as he leaned over her.

But his grip was gentle. Her wrists didn’t even sting, and his claws were the barest brush against her skin.

Ruby shivered, her mind awash with lurid images. Most of them were impossible. They had to start slowly.

She motioned at his face. “Your skull mask… does it come off?”

“No.” He ducked down, gliding the sleek bone over her nose. “This is my face. Does it not please you?”

“No, it does,” Ruby said hastily. She was shocked to find that it wasn’t a lie. Not entirely, anyway. It intimidated her, of course. But there was something about a monster staring down at her with a skull mask leaking shadows that excited her.

Ruby twisted her wrists in his unrelenting grip. “You could… take my dress off?”

Slate cocked his head. At first, she thought he was going to ask her to do it herself.

Then he let go of her wrists—only with one hand, the other keeping her held tight.

That one hand reached down, a sharp claw touching just above her neckline.

He dragged his claw down. The shadowy material parted under his touch, and at first, Ruby thought he was shredding it. But there was no tearing noise, no drag of pressure.

He wasn’t tearing it. He was making itvanish, Ruby realized, her stomach swooping. He had conjured it out of shadows, and he could make it go away just as easily.

Ruby gasped. The shadows ran down her like water. Her beautiful dress dissipated against the coverlet, and suddenly, she was lying naked below him. She was suddenly glad for the fireplace, which had turned the air from chilly to something she could stand being naked in.

Slate’s claw stopped below her navel. His gaze roved over her, and Ruby’s face heated as she realized that he could have her naked at any time. One light touch and she could be fully bare and ready for him.

She glanced down at his impossible cock.

Well. Ready forsomething, at least. Not that he seemed incredibly interested in her when she had offered herself at the ward. She still didn’t understand it. Heseemedlike he wanted her if that growl was anything to go by. Would he turn her down again if she offered her hand or mouth?

Slate’s claw trailed down, curling against the coarse hair over her mound. He was so big he could easily hold her wrists and toy with her hole without straining his arms.

“How many years are you into adulthood?”

Ruby concentrated. It was hard to think with him looming over her like this, his black eyes half-lidded as he slid a finger further and further down. She could feel herself sweating. Her mouth was dry, her heart pounding so loud she could hear it. Couldhehear it? She hoped not.

“S-six,” she stammered. “I was a woman at eighteen.”

“Six years,” Slate mused. He sounded conflicted. Ruby didn’t know if that was because she was young or because he couldn’t translate mortal years into immortal ones.

He hummed, the noise oddly birdlike. Much like the birdsong she had heard during her night in the forest. It made her wonder how much he was part of his void and how much his void was part of him.

Then his claw grazed her sensitive clit, and all her thoughts dissolved into too-intense pleasure.

She let out a pained hiss.

“I’m fine,” she assured him when he drew back, surprised. “I’m just…”

She bit her lip. She wasn’t going to explain how she had gotten herself off on this bed earlier.

“Claws,” she explained.

The pressure against her mound went blunt. “So very sensitive.”

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