Page 53 of The Withering Dawn
She thought for a moment and then peaked over her shoulder at me. “Morning.”
“Morning?”
“Yes.”
I grinned, my knuckles brushing across her cheek. “Very well. If you say that word, I will stop. No matter what I am doing, I will stop. But only if you use that word, do you understand?”
Eyes still fixed on me, she nodded, not an ounce of fear in her.
“Lay down on my bed,” I whispered.
Slowly, she turned, stepping toward the bed and sitting on the edge. I stood over her, watching as she scooted further onto the mattress. Despite what she said she was feeling, it was hard to know whether she was nervous or excited. She controlled her expression so thoroughly, but I was determined to change that. I wanted to see everything in those deep eyes.
I stepped to the side, kneeling on the end of the bed and nudging her legs apart. The sight of her body, so vulnerable and so exposed to me, made my cock throb with even greater need. I started to run myhands up her legs, gripping her thighs and pushing them further apart. She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth as if to suppress a gasp, but I lived for those sounds.
“Don’t hide your voice from me,” I said, leaning over her hips. “Before, you didn’t have a voice. Now you do. I want to hear what I’m doing to you.” I lowered my head, my lips pressing against her stomach just above her mound. “I want to know I’m affecting you.”
Moving my body downward, I began kissing her thigh, tracing my tongue over her and memorizing every inch before turning my face toward her sex. I made sure she could feel my hot breath on her before I kissed her there, sucking her little bud into my mouth. She bowed off the bed, pressing herself up against my tongue, and her need provoked my own.
I licked up her seam, breathing in her sweet scent before pushing my tongue inside her virgin entrance. Her sounds were content, wonderful moans and I loved it. I loved knowing that it was me who was making her feel that way. It was me overriding whatever cruel memories she had of a man’s touch.
“You’ve never had a man inside you,” I rasped.
“No,” she answered, breathless.
“I am going to be your first tonight. I’m going to fill you until you forget how to speak, save for my name. I want all of you. All your tears. Your smiles. Your cries of pleasure.”
Her whole body quivered at those words and it drew my lips into a victorious grin. Her sweet arousal permeated the air at my voice. Her skin flushed with color and as I climbed up her body, kissing and tasting her as I went, my cock begged for the heat of her body.
“And,” I continued. “If you let me, I will be your only.” I kissed her stomach, looking up at the way she chewed on her bottom lip, and then moved my mouth to her breast. “No other man will worship you like I am now. And that is what I’m doing. I am being thankful, Aeris, that you are allowing me the privilege of touching you. Because touching you—tasting you—is indeed a privilege.”
I sucked her pert nipple into my mouth and teased it with my tongue. She closed her eyes, momentarily going silent, but that time, the silence was unnerving as if a small part of her mind had gone elsewhere. I pinched her nipple between my teeth and she gasped, one hand immediately gripping the hair on the back of my head as it to tear me away from her.
“Do not wander from this moment,” I said. “This moment is ours. No one else’s.”
“Thank you,” she whispered and I didn’t need to ask to know why she was thanking me.
“Remember your word, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Stay with me. Here. In this room. Tonight, give me all of you and I will do the same in return.”
“I trust you.”
I stopped, looking up at her like those words had slapped me over the head. They were simple words, but I found myself cherishing them. When she realized I wasn’t doing anything, she lifted her head to look down at me and the corner of my mouth curled up with pride.
“I will never hurt you. You know that.”
“Yes. And,” she cupped the side of my face with her hand. “I will never hurt you.”
God, she was consuming me. My mind. My body. She was filling every empty void I’d been ignoring my whole life. Voids I didn’t even know were there until she shed her light in those hollow places.
I crawled over her, bracing my hands on either side of her head.
“What do you want from me?” I asked, searching for truth in her eyes. “Tell me. Tell me why you came onto my ship. The truth. All of it.”
And there it was. The transparency I’d been longing for. Her eyes shimmered. Her brows knitted together and the softest tremble shook her lips.
