When he settled back on his heels, I rode him, tilting my hips from side to side with a new angle, bearing down on his throbbing erection to drive him crazy. Slowly, so slowly I moved, so he felt everything everywhere. My hips rolled in delicious circles, a melodic hum crawling up my throat as my clit pulsed and an aching pressure built with an oncoming climax, threatening to incinerate me from within.
But I needed to be aware.
This wasn’t about my pleasure—but, gods, how it was—it was about his.
I wanted him to focus on how I was making him feel. I wanted him to melt and be so caught up in exquisite sensation that he wouldn’t realize my actual intention.
My hands smoothed along his shoulders, up his arms, to cuff his wrists, the leather and silver pressing into my palms as I gently tugged. A silent request for him to let go of the birdcage bed. He did, and I threaded our hands together.
I kept touching him with my lips and tongue, scraping my teeth against his flesh, nibbling and licking his jawline until he was gone, blissfully adrift in a world of us before I placed our joined hands around the back of my neck, right on top of the magical collar. I kissed him until he forgot himself. Until the strip of flesh between my legs completely owned him.
Graysen didn’t notice when I aligned my fingers on top of his and moved them to the knot.
I needed him to save me, even if he wasn’t aware he was doing it.
It was awkward trying to manipulate his fingers to dig around the knot, to try easing the cords apart.
My cheek slid along his, and I whispered into his ear with words as soft as a summer breeze, balmy and barely there.“It’s so easy to do, just undo the knot…”
I fumbled with his slack fingers. Pure panic seized me.
It wasn’t working. It was impossible.
I couldn’t get the angle right, couldn’t get the tips of them to work the rope.
Anxiety rose like a gray cloud staining a clear blue sky.
“You want to save me… You want me to live…”
Tears of desperation dewed my lashes and shimmered in my vision.
“Untie Zrenyth’s collar and let me go…”
I couldn’t hold the tears back any longer, and they slipped a hot, stinging path down my cheeks.
“Save me, save me, save me…”
Graysen jerked his head back. Awareness sharpened his gaze as he realized what I was trying to do. I tried to distract him with a desperate kiss, slamming my lips against his, but he pulled away from my tear-damp face.
His throat bobbed with an uneasy swallow. There was something akin to sorrow tarnishing the gold in his eyes. “I need towantto do it for it to happen.”
My hands pushed frantically at his, pawing at the knot, trying to force his fingers around the entwined rope. “Save me,” I choked out, salty teardrops slipping between my lips.
Graysen untangled his hands from mine to grasp a handful of my hair at the roots, arching my neck back to angle my face so he could gently kiss the tears from my lashes and lick the briny moisture from my cheeks. The words were harsh but softly spoken. “Don’t let that fire of yours go out. Don’t cry, Nelle. Don’t you fucking dare break.”
“It’s too late,” I sobbed.
He rose up on his knees, and I clung to him, my arms wrapping around his neck. He tipped forward, lowering us to the floor. My legs and arms cradled his body as the soft carpet met my back. His weight pressed upon me as he rolled his pelvis in slow, seductive waves, with languid thrusts that drove a pleasured whimper to cut through the wretchedness. Despite the misery, my body responded, and sunshine sang through my blood.
I reached up and cupped his strong jawline. My bottom lip quivered. “Save me.”
Graysen braced a hand beside my head to peel his upper body away. Cool air prickled my hot, sweaty skin. He latched his free hand around my throat and squeezed with enough pressure to get my attention. His voice was dark and almost angry. “Listen to me, little bird.”
My eyes widened and locked on his, but he didn’t stop moving, didn’t stop plunging in with long, deep strokes. His thick length slid slowly in and out, and every time the fat crown grazed that inner spot beneath my clit, it pulsed with sensuality, like lightning striking the same spot, over and over. Building.Intensifying. Softly hummed notes of our lust twined together, vibrating between us to rise and fall as each hitched breath and gasp and moan came quicker.
Graysen’s thumb grazed the vulnerable hollow at my throat. “You’re strong. Stronger than me.” His gaze burned fiercely. “You don’t need me to save you. You don’t need anyone else to save you. You’re going to save yourself, little bird. Understand?”
He lowered his body back onto mine. One hand framed the side of my face while his other ran soothing strokes up and down my side, so we touched everywhere as if he couldn’t get close enough to me. He continued that mind-bending slow pace, thrusting in and out, sharp and sweet all at once.
