I bit my lip as I waited for him to answer while I smeared the last bit of paint across his jawline. After I finished, I leaned back as far as his grip on my wrist would let me and surveyed my work. Some of the tightness in my chest eased—what-ifhad disappeared back into the dangerous mask of a man named Phoenix.
He looked like my raider again.
My raider…fuck.
At least I could look at him now without seeing possibilities that threatened to shred me to pieces until there was nothing left.
His lids fluttered open—a sharp contrast made harder now that they were lined in black—and the look he gave me held the edges of the command he usually had.
“Roll over.”
The demand made my breath catch, my body clench. I didn’t want—no, I wasn’t sure I wascapableof a rough fuck. My body ached, mysoulached. What happened last night in the rain had broken me along every line I’d been trying so hard to hold together for the last few years, and he didn’t even realize it. He didn’t understand what he’ddonefor me by making mefeelall of that and scream that pain into the rain. I’d had it all trapped in my chest for so long.
Instead of waiting to see if I’d listen, Phoenix rolled his hips and easily flipped me with the strength of his lower body. I ended up flat on my back, and the position made some of the tension in my chest ease.
I could see when he straddled me, his thick thighs cagingmy own and his broad chest filling my view, that fucking wasn’t his intention.
My next breath came in a soft sigh when he took the paint from my fingers and I realized what he wanted. He drizzled the black across his hand and pressed lines over my chin, my lips. The motion ran more than skin deep, and my body instantly relaxed into the familiar feel of the ritual. He was putting my mask back on for me too, wiping away the Aubrey he’d demanded to see last night—the Aubrey who’d been beaten by his father, who’d been captured by scientists, who’d fallen in love with a soldier and ended up mourning everything he’d never be able to have.
That was fine. I couldn’t be that Aubrey, but I could be the raider he painted me to be. I could be his dog that wore a collar, a killer ready to cut down anything that stood in the path of his master.
I knew I probably looked vulnerable beneath him, and I could tell by his expression that he could see it. I felt so fucking raw, so broken. Sobarewithout my paint that my eyes pleaded with him to put me back together even though my lips weren’t moving.
I wasn’t sure if my emotions were too much, or he simply didn’t like what he saw. Whatever it was, Phoenix’s hand came up to press against my jaw. The wet feel of paint turned my face to the side and broke our eye contact, and when he came back and ran his fingers across my lips, I let out a groan. His touch was so soft.
I had no idea Phoenix knew how to be gentle.
He took a few minutes to add on the finishing touches in familiar strokes that I recognized, but the feel of his handcoming up to cup my jaw and keep my face pressed to the pillow was new. It flooded my world with the smell of sweat and sex and Phoenix, and left me blind as he moved to press his lips against the side of my neck.
I waited for the feel of teeth sinking into my skin—he was hovering over that spot that he’d bitten so many times I knew the scar would never fade. Instead, there was just the feel of his breath, warm and soft, and the heat of his tongue as he licked the lines in a slow, deliberate motion that made me groan again and squirm.
I’d meant to stay passive beneath his hands and hope he realized that I was too exhausted, too fucked out from last night to do this again, but this touch was so different from anything he’d given before. It was a punch in the gut to realize that as much as I wanted his violence, my body had missedthis.
The low hum of satisfaction against the curve of my throat told me he could tell whether I said anything or not, and the sweep of his mouth against my jawline made me squirm again. I couldn’t hide the little cut-off sounds of pleasure and surprise any more than I could hide the goosebumps that sprang up across my bare skin. His mouth brushed the edge of the collar I wore, before tracing featherlight kisses along the line of my shoulder in such a tender motion it nearly made me beg him to stop.
Phoenix kept his hand on my face so I couldn’t turn to look at him—I didn’t know if it was because he didn’t know how to be this person when someone could see him, or if he knew meseeingthis would be too much, that I’d try to run. Whatever it was, it left me helpless to know what he wasgoing to do next when I felt his tongue trace the jut of my collarbone, leaving behind the cool sensation of saliva. He trailed back across the line with gentle kisses and nips that made my entire world feel like it was slowly catching fire.
Why the fuck was he doing this to me?
His lips worked like he had a map to every place on my body that had ever ached, and his tongue was hot when he flattened it against my nipple and circled the taut peak in a slow, lazy motion that made my back nearly come off the bed.
I opened my mouth to tell him I couldn’t do this—that I couldn’ttakethis version of him, and he slid two fingers between my lips and pressed down on my tongue. I sucked the taste of bitter paint from his skin to hide the moan that tore from my chest when his teeth gently bit at my other nipple in warning that he wasn’t going to take any interruptions.
His head worked lower, and Phoenix mapped out the path of my abdomen with steady strokes of his tongue, dipping and delving into each valley and plane until I was a squirming, writhing mess. It was worse because I could feel the fullness of his lips curve into a wicked grin every time I reacted, proof that he noticed how much my body wanted this side of him too.
He turned and ran his tongue along the jut of my hipbone, biting down until my legs started to shake and I cried out around the muffle of his fingers as he soothed the sting with a kiss.
Phoenix was relentless—he blew a hot breath across the line of my pelvis and gave my other hip the same treatment,then dropped his head lower and nuzzled at the juncture of my thigh, pressing open-mouthed kisses against my skin that had me spreading my legs almost against my will. He took the invitation, turning his head to lazily lap at my balls for a moment before dragging his tongue along the underside of my cock, which had jumped to life at his saccharine touch and unexpected softness.
Who was this?
I groaned against his fingers, sucking on them in a vain attempt to keep myself from tearing my mouth free and…
What?
Beg him to stop? Beg him to keep going? He wasn’t taking me into his mouth—he just licked and teased along my length, letting his hot breath play against spit-slicked skin before ghosting his lips down my shaft in another gentle, teasing caress.
I was going crazy—maybe this was more punishment for last night. Phoenix was trying to drive me insane. It was the only explanation I had for the way he finally parted his lips and took me to the back of his throat without hesitation.
