“Fuck . . . me. I would’ve cut dinner short if I’d known. Fuck . . .” His gravelly whisper increased the glow of my skin. “Arms up,baby.”
I raised my arms, and he slid the dress up my body and over my head. I almost moaned with relief as my skin broke free from the unpleasant contraption. “Whoever sewed this dress should be forced to wear it,” Imuttered.
Jarod laughed softly. “I’ll be sure to pass this on to”—he read the label—“Hervé Léger, at the same time I tell him how much I enjoyed how it embraced your extraordinaryassets.”
I reconsidered my aversion to the dress . . . Concessions could be made, I thought, as I began to slide my shoesoff.
“Keep them on, Feather.” His timbre seemed to have dropped a full octave. “And bring out yourwings.”
I made them appear, and then I stretched them out as though I were winging Jarod. My skin had stopped smoldering, but my silver wings took over, shimmering in the candlelight. Jarod’s eyes ran over my flesh and feathers with unprecedentedhunger.
“Your turn,” I said, tipping my chin toward his shirt and dresspants.
He didn’t move for so long I worried my words hadn’t reached him. But then, he unbuckled his belt, tossed it to the floor, and unbuttoned his shirt. He sank onto the cowhide lounger I abhorred and unlaced his shoes. He let them clatter against the floorboards, then dragged off a pair of royal blue socks. Shrugging out of his shirt, he stood up, unhooked his pants, and flung them off. His black briefs vanishednext.
Unlike at the spa, I let my gaze travel over every dip and sinew, every sharp edge and honed muscle, every curl of dark hair that adorned his body. I took a step closer and ran my hand over his chest, through the soft hair that vibrated with his heartbeats, across his small, hardened nipples, then followed the trail down the seam of his ribs across his belly button that juddered when my fingertip dippedinside.
Years of warnings stilled my hand. I pushed out the Ophanim’s voices, pushed out the rest of the world, as I lowered my hand to the part of him that stretched hard and proud towardme.
Jarod sucked in a sharp breath when my fingers closed over him, and then he shuddered as I dragged my fingers gently along his silky length until I reached the tip that glistened with a shiny bead oflust.
When I swirled it with my thumb, he groaned, “Feather.”
I glided my hand back toward the root of his shaft, and his muscles bunched and spasmed. On my way back toward the tip, Jarod snatched my hand off him and scooped me up. My hands came around his neck as he crossed the room toward hisbed.
He tossed me atop the mattress, bruising the dusting of petals, and looked me over with the ferocity of an untamed beast who’d cornered his kill. Even though the velvet edges of the petals pricked my backside, I could feel little else than my sinner’s eyes. The sultry fragrance of roses churned around us, blending with the fig and musk scent coming off Jarod. Never—not even during the best meals—had my senses all been awakened at the sametime.
After he climbed over me, I locked the heels he’d asked me to keep on around the backs of his legs. His wet tip glided over my soft stomach, then a little higher before slipping back down and settling heavily between mythighs.
As Jarod kissed his way up my neck, the pulse that ignited in my core rivaled the throbbing in my chest. He moved his body against mine again but didn’t breach my walls. Instead, he rose to his knees and tugged on my hand as he dropped against the mattress and rolled me ontohim.
Jamming a pillow behind his head, he seized my waist and forced the body I kept hovered over his down until we were aligned. “Spread your wings for me,Feather.”
I stretched my wings, purring when his fingers grazed their undersides, and my body dropped another inch, sheathing just the tip of him between myfolds.
“You set the pace, baby. You’re in control.” His obsidian gaze didn’t stray off my heavy-liddedeyes.
Pressing my palms into his chest, I lowered myself another inch, gasping. He stroked my wings faster, and the pain was superseded by a growing, billowing heat. I closed my eyes and took more of him in, feeling as though he would soon reach the end of me. My wing bones tensed as the pleasure building within them began to sizzle and crackle like the candle wicks burning all aroundus.
Inhaling a lungful of rose and fire, I lowered myself without stopping, hissing as he stretched and reshaped me. “Jarod,” Igasped.
“Look at me,Feather.”
I pried my weighted lidsup.
His jaw and brow were taut, as though he were also in pain, as though he was experiencing what my breasts and ass had been subjected to throughoutdinner.
As he ran his palm over the bottom edge of my wings, I asked, “Does ithurt?”
He laughed, and it softened all the hard lines of his face. It also made the part of him buried inside my body vibrate, sending renewed shards of pleasure and pain coursing through mycore.
Sobering up, he said, “You’re in pain,though.”
Before he could suggest we stop, I lifted my body a few inches and slid him back inside. The vein in his neck jumped, and his fingers tightened on my feathers as though he were about to pull themout.
I did itagain.
Andagain.
