There was some… uncertainty in his tone.

He knew my first time had been with that fae in the hallway, and had never tried to convince me to give him my second. I thought maybe he was just trying to give me the space I’d asked for. Or maybe he wanted me to ask him myself.

But there was always the chance he just wasn’t interested.

“Do you even want to kiss me?” I asked him.

“I just kissed your core, Lae. Do you really need to ask?”

Right.

That was an emphatic yes.

“I don’t know how to instigate those things,” I admitted. “And mentally, I really haven’t been in the right place for it since the attack. I’m not sure I ever will be.”

“You will. When you want something, grab me and take it. I’m yours.” Ravv’s voice lowered. “As far as me holding all the power in our relationship, you should know that’s not true. All it would take for you to seal our bond is to repeat the vow I already made. If you decided to, you could claim me, and I’d be helpless to fight it. Our social positions may not be equal, but you possess the true power between us.”

He caught me by surprise with that.

I tried to recall the words, and they popped into my mind as if by some kind of magic.

"Sillah ovim rett warum."

The urge to speak them hit me, though it wasn’t so strong I couldn’t ignore it.

I pressed my lips together anyway, just to be safe.

He was right; I was in control of our relationship, not him. If I wanted to, I could make the rest of his life extremely difficult by sealing our bond.

I wasn’t going to do that, of course, but knowing it was an option made me feel slightly better.

“I forgot about that,” I admitted to him. “What does the vow mean?”

“The exact translation vanished when the gods were lost. The oldest of our fae believe it’s something along the lines of, ‘my heart and life are yours’.”

That was much simpler than I would’ve expected.

His hands finally left my breasts, sliding down my hips and over my ass slowly. My eyes closed as he cleaned my core, his fingers torturously-slow on the sensitive, aching parts.

“You’re so damn soft,” Ravv murmured into my ear. The brush of his lips made my skin erupt in goosebumps as he continued cleaning me. “Tell me how Jern touched you in your prison.”

Those words snapped me out of the bliss I’d been feeling. “What?”

“You said he was the first to touch you. Tell me how.” He nipped at my ear.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No, Ravv.”

“Yes, Lae.”

I huffed.

He nibbled on my earlobe, making me shudder. And the bastard was still stroking me, which felt incredible.

“He didn’t touch me,” I finally said. “That was a lie. We were nothing more than friends.”