Slowly, I reach over to set down my glass as he tracks every movement. Then I stand on the shakiest of legs, the pink blanket softly slipping to my feet, exposing me.
I never changed clothes or took a shower. I knelt in a puddle of piss. My hands are dry, coated in cleaner and dirty water.
But as he cocks his head and lifts his gaze to stare into mine, I know he couldn’t care less.
I see how hard he is, his cock straining against his pants. The deep red of his hoodie seems to set off the shards of amber in his dark eyes and it’s almost difficult to hold his gaze with the intensity of his stare.
I take a step forward, bare feet over hardwoods, past the blanket. Another step, and I feel the plush, mosaic rug beneath my toes. I am giddy, breathless,wondering…
After all we have been through and all we have left, I deserve this. Iwantthis,desperately.
A corner of his mouth turns upward as I take another step, my thighs quivering. I swallow and feel the pull of the bandage he applied along my throat, and I watch as his eyes drop to it, as if we are uncannily connected. His expression doesn’t change, but he doesn’t look away from my neck, his gaze roaming over every inch of it. And I know it isn’t the bandage he’s seeing, but rather where he dug his teeth into me.
A feeling of submission seems to infect every cell in my body. I want his mouth all over me. His canines in every inch of my skin. Bruises, marks, blood; I want to be coated in it, as long as he caused it.
Is this what it’s like to be feverishly sick with obsession? Consumed with the desire to make yourself only available for one other person in the entire world? I would fold myself up and allow him to swallow me whole if he wanted.
I would do anything, I think.
Another step.
He doesn’t stop looking at my neck.
Another, one foot in front of the other, my hands trembling at my sides.
His gaze suddenly shoots to mine, and I stop inches from him, frozen.
The eye contact is all at once unnerving and I look away, needing to breathe as I glance at the gauzy purple entranceway in this room of strangeness, only to find…
Cosmo.
His shoulder is propped against the frame, the curtain draped over his back as he watches me in complete silence.
For a moment, I wonder if I’m only so drunk, I’m seeing things. I told him to stay away, and I squeezed filth onto his face.
But when I blink, my chest growing heavy, the breath stuck in my lungs, he is still there, staring at me as if I am a meal he is seconds away from devouring. He must want retribution. I wonder if he’s ever tasted humiliation before, aside from in the Emporium.
I feel a twisted pride at giving it to him.
Yet it’s Sullen who speaks next. “Take another step,” he says lazily, and I want to tell him Cosmo is spying on us, but my feet stumble forward instead as if my body is only for Sullen to command.
And maybe I want to keep it from him, to protect him. He would not like to be observed this way.
Immediately, my knee bumping his, he curls his fingers around my wrist, tugging sharply and pulling me into his lap.
A whimper escapes me, as if I am on fire from the contact of him, my knees spreading wide, pushing into the cushion of the chair as I straddle him. I bring one hand to his shoulder to steady myself, but he’s still got my other trapped in his grip.
Otherwise, he doesn’t touch me despite the fact I can feel the heat from his solid body beneath me, and feel his erectionbetween my thighs, as close as we are, my low belly pressed to his.
I glance up at Cosmo.
He hasn’t moved.
He hasn’t looked away.
My mouth goes very dry.
I need to say something. I?—
