“Good.”He dropped his hand from my cheek.“Keep your eyes forward.”
“Yes.”My voice was breathy, thin, eager.
I didn’t move as he stepped out of sight.The soft pad of his footsteps circled the room, followed by the quiet slide of drawers opening and closing.Every sound heightened my awareness as curiosity buzzed through me like static.
But I didn’t look.
I kept my eyes forward.
Like he asked.
After what felt like forever, a warmth brushed my back.Every hair on my body stood on end.
He knelt behind me and pressed a slow, lingering kiss to my neck.
“What’s your safe word?”he murmured against my skin.
“Hades.”
“Good.”
Something in his tone made my pulse trip.Before I could process it, he slipped something silky over my eyes, and darkness swallowed me.
I inhaled a breath, sharp and fast.For a split second, panic clawed up my spine, Victor’s shadow whispering old threats, old fears.
But Henry wasn’t Victor.
Henry would never hurt me.
I wanted this.I chose this.For himandfor me.
I forced a slow exhale, then another, grounding myself in the warmth of Henry’s hands and the steady calm of his presence.
“You okay?”he asked.
“Yes.”My voice came out steadier than I felt.
“Good girl.”
His mouth found my neck again, and I melted into the sensation as he teased me with a combination of his lips and teeth.I was so focused on this one point of contact, I didn’t even notice when he’d taken my wrists and secured them behind my back.
“Okay?”he asked again.
I swallowed hard through the pounding of my heart.“Yes.”
“Good girl.”
He released me, and cool air swept over my skin where he’d been.I listened, every sound in the room amplified.His footsteps.The faint clink of metal.His belt buckle sliding free.
This was trust in its purest form.Terrifying.Thrilling.
Invigorating.
He pressed his hand to my cheek, his thumb brushing my jaw.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” he breathed.“I thought so the first night I saw you.And I meanreallysaw you.Not as someone’s ornament.But as a person.As a goddamn treasure.”
His voice dropped, turning rough, reverent.
