Page 39 of Fifth
“Nothing will be decided for you,” he said. “I will ask. You will answer. Iwill ask again.”
Her pulse fluttered at her throat. “Ask.”
He held her gaze, unblinking, aquiet command and a question layered together. “Do you want me?”
“Yes.” It leaped out before she could soften it, heat rushing from chest to mouth. The word tasted clean on her tongue, like truth and courage.
“Say it again.” His jaw flexed once. Not impatience—containment. She picked up on the careful hold he kept on himself, the way he waited so she would hear her own certainty.
“I want you.” The second time settled heavier in her body. Want stitched to choice.
“Say it with your name for me.” His voice dropped a shade and his hand at her hip warmed, steady as a promise.
Awareness sparked under her skin where he touched her. “I want you, Locus.”
He breathed once, asmall exhale that sounded like a burden set down. “I hear you.”
He didn’t lunge. He didn’t rip or rush. He slid his hand into hers and hauled her higher onto his lap, setting her knees wideto bracket his hips. The headboard caught his broad back and the mattress dipped underthem.
His hands settled heavy at her hips, possessive without pressure, promising constraint if she wanted it and power if she asked. His fingers slipped into the hair at the base of her skull and tugged, baring her throat. He waited. She gave him a nod and a quiet yes. His gold-tipped canines marked her there with a careful bite that made her knees tighten around his hips. He breathed against the mark, arumble in his chest as if tasting victory and restraint atonce.
He kissed her once, closed mouth to closed mouth, then took her deeper, teeth grazing her lower lip in a question she answered by pressing in. Heat opened with it. She tasted him and something that was this room and this moment and the relief of not being alone in her body burned through her. Her fingers fisted in his top as if to hold that jolt of wanting. He caught her wrist and turned it, mouth grazing the flutter there as he drew in a slow, greedy breath, scenting her like he meant to remember it forever.
Clothing went in swift pieces. The cleansing had left her skin hyperaware. The brush of fabric down her arms touched her like a secret. Her top whispered to the floor. He stripped his own tunic with one hand and tossed it aside without looking. His chest was heat and hard planes under smooth skin that caught ship-light in soft gleams. She splayed her fingers over him, muscles tightening and releasing at her touch.
“Tell me if I go wrong,” hesaid.
“You won’t,” she whispered.
He smiled with his eyes more than his mouth, then lowered his head to kiss the place where her pulse raced in her throat. His mouth was warm. He learned her with unhurried intent. He tookthe time to find every point that made breath hitch and surety soften into want. His hands cupped her through fabric, then under it, asking with touch and waiting for the way she leaned or pressed or stilled.
The first sound that escaped her was small and unguarded. It startled her. He stilled as if it mattered more than anything that camenext.
“Keep going,” she breathed.
He did. He removed the rest of what she wore like he was unwrapping something he had promised to guard and was finally allowed to touch. He traced where bruises had been as if memorizing that they weregone.
His thumb smoothed over the pale place rope had burned. “They will never mark you again.”
The vow settled in her bones. “I believe you.”
He exhaled, relief occupying his chest for a moment before heat swelled back in its place.
He kissed her mouth until her body loosened fully into his. He kissed the slope below her collarbone, the quick beat at the edge of her breast, the path down her torso. He pushed her back against the mattress and took his time at her stomach, pressing hungry kisses there as if the center of her carried a power he was claiming by naming it with his mouth. When he looked up, his eyes had gone darker, adeeper amethyst that drew light like a magnet.
“Tell me what pleases you,” hesaid.
“Everything so far.” Her voice sounded gentle and new. “I like your mouth on me. Ilike your hands holding me. Ilike whenyou look at me before you do something, like you’re checking that I’m still choosing.”
“I am.”
He slid lower and kissed the tender inside of her knee. She felt it high under her ribs. The heat in her hips gathered like a tide pulling. He looped an arm beneath her thigh and gave her time to adjust to the openness of it, to the intensity of beingseen.
His mouth found her with hungry focus. He spread her with his thumbs and held her open with one forearm locked under her thigh, then ate at her like a man who had permission to be ruthless and the discipline to be precise.
A growl vibrated against her. He tasted. At her arch he pressed harder. She tensed and he eased, then returned relentless until she shook. Her climax broke through and pulled a cry from her chest she couldn’t swallow. He didn’t let her fall. He kept her pinned in pleasure until the tremors smoothed, his palm a brand of heat at her hip, his mouth slick withher.
Words returned, and she was already reaching for him, greedy. He kissed his way up her body, as if unwilling to skip a single inch he’d already claimed with his mouth. She pulled at his pants, needing him without any more delay. He let her push them down and kickedfree.
