Otto rumbled something in a language she didn’t understand and slowed his strokes again. “Easy, easy. It will feel good again soon.”
She was not entirely sure she believed him, but Josephine found herself relaxing anyway. The beast trusted him implicitly.He’ll make it better,it whispered.He’ll take care of me.
Burying her face in his hair, she held on tight as he opened her body for him, slowly reigniting the pleasure.
“I regret that it hurts you,” he told her, beginning to increase his pace once more. The sound of his fingers sliding in and out of her was lewd. It was also terribly compelling. “But you must trust me,kone.I will make you come. I willalwaysmake you come.”
She was not entirely sure what that meant, but she did not have the breath to ask. It was all she could do to listen to him and hold on.
Otto pressed the heel of his hand against her and ground down. Her back arched as pleasure bloomed from that simple touch. “There she is.” He sounded both pained and proud. “Yes, claw me. Sink your little claws in deep and breathe for me,kone.Ah, gods, look at those fangs. Did they come out just for me?”
She did not have the presence of mind to ask why he might make that request, nor answer his question, but it became clear enough when he began to slowly work another finger inside her.
The breath wheezed out of her lungs as her muscles attempted to accommodate the sudden stretch. She’d thought herself full before, but it was nothing compared to this.
Otto breathed harshly in her ear as he gently but firmly stroked her from the inside, tangling pain and pleasure such that she could no longer separate the two. “I know it is uncomfortable, but it must be done. It would kill me to hurt you when I claim you. This will make it easier.”
If this was the price for pleasure, Josephine decided she would pay it a thousand times. Besides, it wasn’t so bad. Certainly she’d endured far worse than a burning stretch. After a few moments of careful, insistent stroking, the sting began to fade once more.
The pleasure returned in force. So too did the frenzy, the wild certainty that he needed to take herjust nowor else… Well she didn’t know what might happen, but the beast couldn’t bear whatever it was.
The beast took over. She became senseless, frantic, desperate for something she never knew she wanted and could never have hoped for.
Speaking against his ear, she breathed, “I love your hands on me. I love your touch. I want— Iwantyou to claim me now. Please, Otto.Please.It aches so badly, I—”
He let loose a guttural groan, his hips rolling between her legs as his movements became faster, more forceful. The lewd sounds echoed off of the stone walls, accompanied by the clatter of his chains and their combined heavy breathing.
“Not yet,” he gasped. “Not until we’re free.”
Josephine and the beast had never been more blended than in that moment, when they both went wild. “Youmust,”she heard herself growl over the rushing of blood in her ears. Her hips moved frantically, rolling hard into his hand, as she made her demands. “You need to! I need you to!”
“Fuck!”Otto plunged his fingers deep and curled them, hitting a spot inside her that made sparks fly behind her eyes and her mouth pop open. “Come for me now,kone.Come!”
Teeth closed over the side of her neck, just above the collar of her blouse, and bit down harshly. It was not enough to break the skin like the beast demanded, but the sensation still sent her careening over that cliff’s edge with a hoarse moan.
Her inner muscles spasmed around his undulating fingers as wave after wave of tingling warmth rushed over her. At first she was stiff, every muscle locked, but as the waves began to recede, she became languid, her mind fuzzy with a glowing sort of pleasure.
She slumped against him as he gently set her on her feet. The rise and fall of his chest was rapid, and the blond hair covering his scarred pectoral was a little prickly against her cheek, but she loved it all the same.
Chains rattled behind her. Josephine felt like she was moving through molasses when she looked up and found Otto running his tongue over every inch of his glistening fingers, eyes closed and brows furrowed in bliss.
The roof of her mouth pulsed angrily, but the sharpest edge of her urgency had been dulled by drugging pleasure, allowing her to appreciate the expression of rapture on his rough features.
When he was done with his task, Otto looped his arms around her once more. Settling his cheek on the crown of her head, he croaked, “Now,kone,let us plot our escape before the last of my will does the same.”
The beast snarled at being denied, but as her heart began to slow, she began to see the sense in his restraint. It would be a disaster if her father suspected anything. The gods only knew what wretched experiments he might concoct if he found out she felt the urge to bite him, or that Otto mate with her.
Besides, she wanted to believe in the future with the den and the table and the cubs. That future did not begin in the cell.
Pressing her nose against the hair-roughened skin below his chin, she shyly demanded, “First, tell me whatkoh-neymeans.”
His arms tightened. “Ah, my Josephine, it is a Danish word.”
“For what?”
Gentle hands ran up and down her back. “It meanswife.”
ChapterTwenty
