Dangerous.
Too volatile be allowed free reign amongst the priestesses or the elites.
Eyes burning with some unknown, distant pain, I blinked.
Clenching my fists until my nails pressed deep into the meat of my palms, I tired to touch that unspoken hurt lashing at my heart. To know what it was.
“Here,” the captain said, moving on feet silent enough to startle. “Sit.”
I blinked up at him in the gloom. “Where—”
One damp hand landed on my collarbone, pushing me back without bothering to exert his influence. Pushing until my thighs hit the mattress and I sat without meaning to.
For a moment, he loomed above me. Inky eyes gleaming with the spark of ravenous flames. Tense and watchful all at once.
And then he knelt.
Bumping my knees apart, he settled between my thighs and let his fingers trail down. Over the swell of my left breast, smirking when my breath caught, though he moved on too quickly to do more than make my cheeks flush. His touch drifting over the ridges of my ribs, tracing the entire length of my thigh until he reached my knee. Until his fingers found bare skin.
But still, he didn’t stop until he’d caught my ankle in the heat of his palm.
Something warm and wet slapped over my foot.
A wash cloth.
Wiping away the mud caked on my skin, he worked the rough fabric between my toes, paying careful attention to the spots that made me flinch and squirm.
Frozen, I could only watch. Unblinking. Shocked still and compliant as he worked.
When he’d finished with the left, his fingers shot up. Gripping my calf, he threw my ankle over his shoulder and left me spread. My skirts stretched taut, hands thrown back to brace, I couldn’t speak. Not with my heart clawing at the back of my throat, hammering away at my senses in an erratic flail that robbed me of all sense.
Without a word, his attention moved to the other side. Thumbs tracing maddening little circles in the arch of my foot, he wiped away the worst of the mud. Eyes fixed to his chosen task, he left me to shiver in the dark.
To watch as he worked and try to gather my wits.
He tossed the soiled cloth over his shoulder, letting it land with a careless splat.
And then, for the first time, he glanced up. Inky eyes catching on what lay in shadows, he paused at the gap between my knees.
Nostrils flared.
Lips parted on a silent inhale.
Almost unable to draw breath, belly rigid with the tension to hold myself upright with the bulk of my weight braced on my palms, I shivered. Flinching when both of his hands slid over my hips. Rising up, bunching my skirts as he dipped in close. His nose skimming up, between my breasts, over the hollow at the base of my throat, and settled behind my ear.
Rough hands rolled over my waist, fingers spanning the narrow dip between hip and rib, he squeezed where I was soft before the calloused rasp traced the entire length of my spine. He drew me close. Fingertips skating up with a purpose until his fingers found the tie at the back of my neck.
He pulled.
Black silk spilled over my chest, baring me to eyes gone bottomless with greed.
I yelped.
Flopping back, my left arm shot out to cup one breast. My forearm smushing the other, secreting it away from inspection. And with my free hand, I pressed against the expanse of hard, male chest that surged over me. “Asher—”
“Just can’t help yourself, can you?” he drawled, and caught my wrist. Claiming the space I’d tried to force him to abandon, he pinned my right hand high above my head and set his gaze on the only scrap of protection I had left. “Can’t help but fight your nature, no matter that you’ve already well and truly lost,” he murmured, eyes tracing the fatty swell I hid beneath my palm. Under my forearm. “But most of all,” he said, and drew my fingers back. One at a time, plucking them free of that final, guarded treasure until I lay bare before him. “You can’t help the way you ache for more, can you?”
I swallowed,hard. Back arching when he stretched my left hand high above my head. Securing my wrists to the mattress in one palm, he pinned me with his weight. Settling between my thighs so he might admire the pale skin gleaming in the darkness.
