Teddy slid a finger inside her with agonizing slowness and she clenched around it immediately, like she’d been waiting for just that. He pumped his finger in and out in a smooth, practiced rhythm, adding a brush of his thumb over her clit as he moved.
“I knew you’d be ready for this.So ready. Gods, you’re so wet for me, Stella.”
His praise twisted the tension in her body a little tighter.
“More,” she rasped.
Teddy hesitated a moment before pushing a second finger inside her. The pressure increased along with his pace and he kissed a line along her collarbone, looking appreciatively at her breasts.
“Have to admit, I like seeing you all undone and wearing my shirt.” It was more a subconscious admission than actual praise for her, but it still made her shudder.
He kept up the steady, insistent rhythm, adding a little more pressure on her clit with the heel of his hand, until Stella’s heart was racing, her breath coming in and out in shallow, rapid gasps.
She was so close—right on the edge of her climax. If her hands weren’t still restrained by the belt, she would hold his hand in place right where she wanted him. She lifted her hips, desperately chasing a little more pressure, but Teddy stopped.
Stella let out an outraged cry, and Teddy chuckled against her neck. “Not so fast, Stella. I have to take you up slow.”
“Fuckslow,” she whined. “I don’t want to go slow.”
She felt Teddy smile against her pulse point. “I’ll make it better.”
He yanked the opening in her shirt wider and kissed down her pale skin, his teeth nipping at the soft curve of her breasts. Finally, he started to move his fingers again, and pleasure sparked to life across her skin.
He sucked her nipple between his lips and dragged his teeth over the peak. Stella’s whole body clenched. Teddy hummed hisapproval, and she was pathetically desperate to hear the sound again.
Stella was frightened of how good it felt—of how eager she was to sink deeper into this consuming pleasure. Teddy touching her felt equally novel and normal. This was territory she’d never even thought of exploring with him, but now that he was touching her, it seemed like they’d somehow always been heading here.
He started to kiss lower, dragging the hem of his shirt up her skin. His fingers skimmed the rough terrain of the new scar on her right side, and Stella went rigid.
Teddy scraped his teeth over her hipbone, and she twitched. He drew back and pressed her legs wider, continuing to pump his fingers lazily in and out of her and brushing his thumb over her clit.
Teddy was always so uptight. She hadn’t expected him to be so wild now, but he descended on her like he was ravenous. She writhed away from him reflexively, but he pinned her hips to the bed with an arm as he licked her clit. He sucked hard, and she gasped as chills raced over her skin.
She’d never seen someone so unrestrained and singularly focused on her pleasure. He was as skilled with his tongue as he was with his fingers, and she didn’t know something so filthy could feel so good.
Teddy varied his pressure and rhythm, using his mouth and fingers until her muscles were clenching seemingly at his will and she was gasping and muttering curses.
It was too much. Too intense. There was so much pent up in her body. The fear of the fight, the anger at Kate and Grace, the desperation to survive. It all broke at once, the climax bursting like sparks behind her eyes.
A hoarse cry scraped up Stella’s throat, something guttural, as if the pleasure was pulled from the deepest part of her. It rolled over her in wave after wave until her thighs shook violently and her feet cramped and tears streamed down her cheeks.
Teddy kept his fingers moving even as she twitched and tried to escape his grip.
He clicked his tongue. “Poor Stella. Is that too much?”
She nodded frantically, but he sucked her clit harder and her body felt fractured between too much and not enough. She tried to squirm away, to get just one moment of reprieve, but Teddy was in the grips of their bond or the remnants of the calla root. He had no mercy—only hunger.
“Teddy,” she whined.
He bit her inner thigh and grinned up at her. “I like you like this. No clever comebacks. So wet and needy for me.”
Stella tipped her head from side to side. “No one has ever touched me like this.”
He froze, heat flaring in his eyes and rushing through her chest. “Grim’s gates! You’re killing me,Minyha.” He bit her other thigh, and she gasped. “One more. Give me one more and I’ll let you rest.”
Part of her wanted to say no, to rip her hands free and shove him away and have one blessed moment of feeling nothing, but a greater part of her wanted whatever was building. She was afraid of this—afraid of the way the first climax had shaken loose all of her emotions. Another might break her into someone who could not survive him.
The bond hummed in her chest. She pressed her heels harder into Teddy’s shoulders and gripped the leather of his belt tighter. Teddy’s arm across her hips pushed her into the mattress more firmly.
