“I’m not going anywhere, Phin. I’ve been waiting right here for centuries. A little while longer doesn’t trouble me.” He inhaled and shuddered as I copied some of his movements with my free hand, my fingertips dragging along the sharp line of his jaw, my thumb catching his bottom lip and pulling it down.
Heart pounding, blood rushed loudly in my ears as Tap’s eyes slid shut and his head tilted back. His neck was fully exposed to me, a sign of trust. Surrender.
My thoughts narrowed to the ache in my chest, the hollow throb between my thighs.
“Tap?”
His eyes opened dazedly, his lip soft under the pad of my thumb. “Yes, Feather?”
“Will it mess up the new ink if something rubs against it?”
A crease formed between his eyes, and he shook his head, gaze returning to my mouth. “No. Why?”
“Will it hurt?”
“Far less than doing it in the first place. Why, what—” His eyes widened as I shifted my weight, throwing one leg over the both of his so I was straddling his lap. The apple in his throat bobbed as he swallowed and his eyes flashed red as his hands came to rest on my hips.
“Phin. You…” Tap’s voice trailed off into a breathy whisper, his eyes slipping closed again as my hands threaded through his hair.
I followed the impulses that had overtaken all my senses, reveling in the little sounds he made, the twitch in his fingers as I scraped my nails along his scalp. One of his arms rose and he tugged one of my hands away from his hair, pressing soft kisses into my palm. He groaned as I rested my lower half more firmly against him, shifting gently side to side as I settled in more comfortably.
“Saints.” Ruby greeted me when he opened his eyes instead of silver, the soft gaze of pure adoration nearly undoing me.
Warnings flared faintly in the back of my mind, but I ignored them, instead remembering Ramsey’s words to trust myself, my emotions. This feltright. I would not fear something that everything in my body was telling me it wanted.
Tap was good. He was safe. He would never push, never ask for more than I was willing to give. If anything, I was the one crossing boundaries.
My heart raced as I leaned in, pressing my lips to Tap’s. We were both cautious at first, but fire caught between us almost instantly, the embers we’d been harboring easily fanned into flames. I held his face gently between my palms, doing my best to keep up as he began to devour me whole, his tongue tentatively tasting before tangling with mine as his soft lips turned needy and pulled everything from mine they could.
One of Tap’s hands swept up to the middle of my back under my tunic, a warm, gentle pressure between my shoulder blades as he pulled me closer. The other arm went solidly around my lower back, dragging me in and down against him. I could feel his desire for me through our clothing, and I instinctively rocked myself against him, reveling in the rush of sensation the pressure gave me. My motions elicited another rumble from his throat, and he released my mouth to nibble a path down the side of my neck.
Soon nothing existed except the warmth of his touch, the gentle rasp of his skin against mine. His mouth was on mine, or mine on his; I wasn’t sure it even mattered. The warm, cozy room with low lighting and no ceiling became a place where time was suspended and nothing mattered but us.
Tap’s red eyes were glassy as they tracked my tunic being shrugged off and discarded on the floor. I lifted his arms by the wrist, placing his warm palms over my breasts and holding them there.
His breath left him in a rush, and he leaned us forward, trapping me underneath him on the cushions.
“Phin.” It was only my name, but it came out of him so reverently I felt the prickle of tears in my eyes.
“Yes,” I whispered in response, hoping he understood how many ways I meant the simple word.
Tap growled, and his forked tongue appeared as he lowered his face to my neck. Dueling points lashed against the skin a second before I felt the sharp edge of teeth, but he moved down my throat to my collarbone so quickly there was barely time for me to feel it. As he slid one hand down to the cushion underneath me for balance, the other slid down my breast until it was fingertips against my pebbled nipple instead of palm. He gently pinched the aching tip between his fingers before switching hands. I moaned out when fingers were replaced by his hot, wet mouth. He alternated until I had to tug him away from the sensitive flesh, my breath coming in short gasps.
I pulled him back up my body and lifted my head so I could kiss him again. He lay his whole weight against me as he slowly mapped my mouth with his tongue. His arousal pressed against my aching core, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, breaking the kiss to nip at the tender flesh just under his ear, the little hollow behind his jaw. I sucked hard for a moment, Tap making a noise that reminded me there were somehow still too many clothes between us.
My hands slipped from his bare shoulders to my leggings, and I wiggled and shifted until I could slide them down. He groaned against my mouth, one of his hands in my hair and the other helping me get the fabric down my legs, then removing his own before coming to rest between us.
I sucked in a breath, intense sensation rioting through my body. The pad of his thumb circled my overly sensitive clit and then pressed gently against my opening. Tap’s breath was hot on my neck as he continued to drive me closer and closer to the peak only to back away again, his thumb going farther and farther inside me each time. My hips drove upward, and I tugged on his hair.
“Yes,” I said again, nodding for good measure as I saw hesitance in his eyes. “Please.”
He removed his hand, and the next time I lifted up, I could feel the heat of him there instead. We locked eyes, the thumb he’d been teasing me with in his mouth. His eyes slid closed as he removed the digit, and he seemed almost pained as slowly, his body entered mine. Something felt cooler than skin temperature as he worked his way in, and several times I felt an extra bit of pressure at the edges of me, but I couldn’t think past the sensation of fullness.
Once he was fully seated, he stroked along my cheek with the backs of his fingers, sweat dotting his brow. I started to lift my hips again, doing my best to get the friction I needed. He grunted, his eyes closing as his muscles bunched and flexed, each movement careful, intentional.
“Phin. My lovely Little Feather.” He bent down, mouth pressed to mine as his hips began to roll with more speed. I locked my feet around his waist and tilted my pelvis so his strokes hit a spot inside me that brought stars to my vision.
Tap’s arms wrapped all the way around me as he scooped me into his chest. My body trembled under him, and I became aware that I was making sounds that started from somewhere deep in my chest that didn’t even sound like my voice. As he drove into me, a growl rumbled in his throat. Pleasure washed over me in a hot wave, my muscles spasming as an orgasm swept through me.
