Steeling himself, he rasped, “You can touch me. Continue.”
“And you won’t touchme?”There was a challenge in her voice, which was a dangerous thing. For an elf caught in the throes of the pull, a direct challenge and a chance to prove his worth were impossible to resist.
“Not until you give me the order,” he answered, heart racing.
“What if I never do?”
Her fingers played with the end of sleeves again. Chest rising and falling with quick, sanitized breaths, he replied, “Then I’ll never touch you.”
“How can I trust that, though? You couldsayanything.”
After a moment of thought, Sloane crouched down to reach into his right boot. Cecilia watched him with confusion as his fingers curled around the hilt of his favorite knife. He planned to rise up immediately, but he didn’t account for the way her seat on the countertop put her at the perfect height for him to bury his head between her thighs.
Sloane stared at the juncture between her legs for what felt like an eternity, his cock stiffening behind the slash-resistant fabric of his pants. He’d never had much of a sexual drive before, but when he thought of what it’d be like to run his tongue along that tantalizing seam, it nearly obliterated the tenuous hold he still had on his control.
Biting his lip savagely beneath the visor, he forced himself back onto his feet.
“Here,” he grunted, holding the knife between them hilt-first.
Cecilia’s cheeks were flushed when she peered at it like she’d never seen a knife before. “You’re giving me aweapon?”
“Yes. To kill me.”
Cecilia leaned away from the knife so fast he nearly reached out to steady her. “Sloane, what the fuck?”
Breaking his own rule for just a moment, he grabbed her hand and forced her to curl her fingers around the hilt. “It’s obsidian — one of the only materials sharp enough to cut elvish skin on the first try. I know it works because I’ve used it. If I ever disobey your orders, kill me.”
He tilted his chin up, showing her the thin strip of skin exposed by the edge of his high collar. “Slice here. Don’t hesitate.”
Cecilia slid the knife out of its sheath. She stared at the black, shimmering blade with wide eyes.
After a moment of hesitation, she raised it to his throat.
The razor-sharp edge of the knife kissed that sliver of skin just below his helmet, but he didn’t move. Every instinct in him urged him to stay still, to show her that he was at her mercy. An elvish woman would’ve been just as deadly with her fangs at his throat, and he would’ve been just as aroused to know his mate held his life in her hands.
Someday, if he was lucky, he’d put his own fangs on her throat. She’d give him that trust, and he’d show her just how much he cherished it when he pinned her down with infinite care and slid his cock into the hot well of her body, forever sealing their bond.
But in that moment, he relished in the feeling of being the center of her world. There was no fear, no worry that she’d take the chance to slit his throat and run. His Cecilia had too much mercy in her for that.
It was that softness he so coveted, and what he’d defend with his life without hesitation.
Her voice trembled when she demanded, “If I told you to let me go right now or I’ll kill you, would you do it?”
“Yes,” he answered, throat bobbing dangerously close to the edge of the knife. “But I’d follow you.”
“And if I told you not to follow me?”
“I’d make sure you never saw me.”
“That isn’t obeying my orders,” she challenged.
Sloane placed his palms flat on the counter beside her hips. “I’ll follow them until they conflict with my duty to protect you. That has been and will always be my first priority.”
Cecilia let out a sound that was something like a huff. “Why me? Why do all of this for me, Sloane? I’m just a regular woman. I’m not special. What made you…”
“You talked to me,” he explained, voice rough behind the shield of his visor. “You touched me.”
Her lips parted. She stared at him for what felt like a long time, her brows bunched in a look that might’ve been understanding or it might’ve been pity. In a murmur, she confirmed, “And you don’t get a lot of touch.”
