His face tightened. “Rae.”
“Please.” She didn’t think he would, so she waited as he fought an inner turmoil she couldn’t comfort. He finally turned, revealing the slope of his back. There was no gaping wound like she’d expected, just perfect skin where his right wing should have been. “It’s like they were always supposed to be there.” His tattoos had shaped themselves around his left wing, his muscles solid when she stroked against the edge with her fingertips.
His wing snapped open, knocking everything off the sink to crash onto the floor. Several feathers fell, the largest the size of her forearm. “Shit.” He pulled it closed, but she could tell it took effort.
She walked around until she faced him once more. His expression had closed off, almost cold. It was an emotion she wouldn’t allow, not after everything. “So you’re this sexy warrior that has magic, telepathy, a beast mode, and now wings?” She stroked across his chest. “You’re just trying to make me feel inferior.”
Titus lifted her under her thighs.
“Ti!” she squealed, automatically circling her legs around his waist. “What are you –” The hot water hit her skin, the shower steaming up around them. He held her against him, not letting go even when her shivers stopped, her back arched against the stream. He couldn’t fit himself inside too, his wing too tall, too big.
His lips feathered along her ear, and she quivered for an entirely different reason. “Trust me, my Rae of Sunshine. No one could ever seeyouas inferior.”
Her breath caught, and she tipped her head back as he dropped his head to kiss her. His lips tasted of salt, his grip tight on her thighs as he devoured her with deliberate strokes of his tongue.
“You said I wasn’t ready for what you want,” she said when they finally released for air.
His voice was soft. “Rae – ”
“There’s no more fighting this. Fighting us.” She curled her hands around the back of his neck. “But I’m ready for everything with you. I want you to punish me.”
Chapter30
Titus
Iwant you to punish me.
Six words, and he had already forgotten that he’d blurred the lines between druid and Daemon. It was a fear he’d never admitted out loud, not even to himself. It was never about the horns or the wings. It was the magic, so powerful, so addictive that it had terrified him.
Not many could survive such power without losing themselves, and yet that same magic that he’d feared, had saved Rae.
“It’s never been about punishment,” he said, placing her on the bed. His cock already rock hard, the urge to mark, to show everyone that she belonged to him such an overwhelming compulsion that he was willing to ignore the fact he’d just grown fucking wings, despite the extra weight at his back.
He couldn’t deal with that right now, not when Rae’s skin was flushed a beautiful pink, her eyes darkening until her pupils nearly swallowed the green of her irises. She lay complacent on the sheets, a goddess surrounded in fire. “Then what’s it about? Submission?”
“Pleasure.” The women never came to him to be hurt, it was about balancing pain and pleasure, and finding a release in other ways. “Giving yourself over to someone you trust, to let them take care of you.” It was a gift for anyone to offer their body, but it was even more so with Rae, the trust that he wouldn’t hurt her intoxicating. It was what he enjoyed, the dynamic of giving his partner exactly what they needed, even if they didn’t know what that was. The ability to control their body, their orgasms.
Her lips twitched, legs clenching together before he settled between them, palms pressing her thighs apart. “You like to be in charge.”
“Yes.” There was no point denying it. “I found I needed the control. Needed the power that came with someone tied up and begging for my attention. I discovered it was cathartic for me, healing I guess.” He paused, wanting to elaborate, for her to understand a part of him he couldn’t change, but not right then. “They were never allowed to touch me, and I usually didn’t even fuck them.”
“You didn’t?” Rae frowned. “Then why?”
“I got off on their pleasure, on what I could force from their body.”
“And that comes with pain?”
“Sometimes.” His fingers found the edge of her underwear, the fabric digging into her hips before snapping. “Some came to solely be punished, releasing them from their guilt, a penance. With pain comes pleasure, but only if you learn your partner’s body. Is that what you want, Rae? For me to learn your body, to know exactly your threshold for pleasure and pain?”
“I want you to punish me.”
He placed a kiss on her inner thigh, watching how her breathing quickened. “Why?”
She cleared her throat. “I need it. I need you.”
“That’s not enough.” He made his voice stern, authoritative. He’d never be able to do what he truly wanted, not without the right equipment and planning. But he could give her a taste. “Tell me why?”
* * *
