I understood that feeling a little too well, but I wasn’t quite ready to accept the whole truth of what it meant.
“Set your stuff down over there.” I pointed at a corner where there was a small chair and an end table. My voice was calm and controlled, like my blood wasn’t burning inside me or draining to my cock and making me so hard I could barely walk comfortably.
Elena moved, sliding her portfolio onto the table with careful hands. I watched the way her fingers flexed afterward, as if she needed to shake out tension. Her nails were short and practical, with faint graphite smudges at the edges. She looked like she lived with pencil dust under her skin. There were also the faintest traces of ink.
Good.That meant she wasn’t playing at this.
“What do you know about blackwork?” I asked, leaning back against the counter, my arms folding across my chest.
She blinked once, then answered smoothly, like she’d expected to be tested. “It’s about saturation and precision.Clean lines. Negative space. Knowing where to stop as much as knowing where to fill.”
My mouth twitched, not quite a smile.
She watched it happen, and her throat bobbed as she swallowed.
Fuck.
I wanted to hear her swallow again, but not because she was nervous. When she was on her knees in front of me, her lips wrapped around my cock, her eyes glossy with need. Sucking me with everything she had and moaning with delight because she was addicted to the way I tasted.
The thought hit hard enough that I shifted my stance, spreading my feet slightly, grounding myself. I didn’t touch her or move closer. But I didn’t let go of her eyes, my steady gaze locking us together with an invisible tether.
Her cheeks flushed faintly, and she tried to hide it by breaking our connection and glancing down at her portfolio like it would ease the tension in the room. It didn’t work.
“You draw?” I inwardly cringed at the question since the answer was obvious.
Her lashes lifted. “All the time.”
“Show me.”
She hesitated for a fraction of a second, then opened her portfolio and pulled out a sketchbook. She flipped to a page without fumbling, as if she knew exactly where everything was. She held it out, and I stepped closer. Her scent hit me again—clean skin, faint vanilla, and something warm underneath that made my mouth go dry.
The drawings were sharp. Pretty and decorative, but underneath the icing was an intentional structure. The kind of work that made you think she saw the world in layers that most people couldn’t access.
My gaze caught on her hands again as she held the book steady, and my brain went rogue once more. I imagined them trembling when I pinned her wrists above her head and pictured her trying to stay quiet while I fucked her slow and deep until she broke.
I didn’t speak for a moment. Too worried that anything I said would come on too strong and send her running. Not that I’d let her get far.
Elena’s breath got shallow. “You don’t like it?”
I looked up, meeting her eyes again. “It’s fucking brilliant, baby.”
The relief that washed over her face was immediate, and it made something in my chest tighten. It felt a little like pride. She hadn’t soaked up the praise. She cared about whether she’d done it right.
I wanted to be the one who taught her. Who she looked at first and trusted so completely that she didn’t even question what I asked of her.
I needed her to be completely dependent on me.
That was the part that unsettled me because it wasn’t really about control. The urge was about my obsession to have her, all of her. I wanted her orbiting me until I was the only thing she saw.
With a mental shake of my head, I stepped back, giving her space before I did something stupid.
“You worked on real skin?”
She nodded.
“Good to hear. However, I’m going to start with fake skin first. Gonna watch your hand pressure, needle depth, and consistency,” I explained. “Then I’ll have a better idea how to teach you each technique and which ones will require more explanation and practice.”
She nodded again, and I watched her lips part again, like she wanted to ask a question but didn’t want to look stupid.
