“Daddy,” she choked out, making his back stiffen. “I want to be your sparrow.”
Cal twisted around to look at her so sharply that the wheels of his chair caught on the hardwood floor. She eyed him nervously, gripping the edges of her shirt as he took her in.
Apart from her underwear, she was wearing nothing else.
“You’re drunk,” he said, but it was not quite a reprimand. His eyes were tracing the marks he’d left on her throat with a look of carnal satisfaction.
“I thought it might be better.”
“Oh?” He leaned forward, propping his elbow on the armrest in a way that caused his shirt to fall open a little more about his bare chest. His abdominal muscles scrunched, almost hiding the little trail of hair disappearing into his pants. “What would be better, Nadine?”
She forced herself to meet his eyes. “When you chase me.”
He uncrossed his legs and straightened, gripping both armrests loosely now. Ready to spring, she thought, her heart beginning to pound as he took in his deceptively faineant slouch. His fingers idly stroked the leather as she watched, riveted.
“You want me to chase you, little sparrow? But what if I want to do more than that?”
Instead of answering, she flung herself back through that hallway, slamming the door behind her. She started to close the one on her side as well, but he threw it open with one arm, knocking her several steps back. Her bladder felt light as he stalked towards her with what looked like real menace on his face. Maybe it was—but at least it wasn’t lethal.
She skirted around him and headed for the door, both of them knowing she had no intent of leaving. But it allowed him to corner her, and he did, picking her up from around the waist and lifting her clean off the floor by her hips.
His eyes were on her face. “You know what I want from you.”
“Everything.”
His mouth parted into a feral smile that took her breath away. She swayed dangerously when he set her back down and would have fallen if he hadn’t put his hands on her hips and started walking her backwards. “What a brave little sparrow,” he said. “Courting the arrow before it pierces her heart.”
Yes, she thought, when he kicked her legs apart and hauled her back against the mattress, forcing her body into a deep arch. His hand covered her breast, as if he were trying to claw her heart out, and she pressed herself against him as they kissed, molding herself against that lean, predator’s body as if she were offering herself up to be consumed.
And consume her he did. With a low growl, he yanked her underwear to one side and slid into her ungently, watching her face with grimly satisfied eyes. Not the eyes of a man seeking out places to bury a knife, but an ardent lover wanting to claim and be claimed.
She fumbled for the rest of his shirt buttons, wrapping her legs around his slender waist and taking him deeper as she touched his chest, until he knocked her hands away and bit her shoulder through her shirt, hard enough that it stung.
Her panties ripped, and then they snapped painfully at her skin when he tore them the rest of the way off, tossing the ruined fabric to the floor as he recentered himself against her. Sliding lower, until the sticky head of his cock was just nudging against her ass.
“I want you this way,” he said, in a dark voice. “I want you every way. Even if it hurts. That’s what it means to be a sparrow, Nadine. It means submission—and surrender. To me.”
She was panting, gripping the sheets so hard that she was leaving indents in the threads. He pushed again and she felt her flesh beginning to part around the thick head of his cock. The pressure was bright and hot and terrible, but she had already been singed by the dark.
Cold ashes and dark dust: that was the train of the true Cullraven Bride.
“I’myours, Daddy.”
She leaned up to accept his fiery kiss as he reached between her legs, working her clit so furiously that she unconsciously leaned into him just to give herself more contact. It pushed her body into his next spearing thrust, muscles tightening and releasing, and when she climaxed under his skillful touch, she felt his cock slide home, with a hot, glowing pressure she could feel everywhere. She let out a sob when he pulled out because the slackening of tension felt almost as good as coming did, until he entered her again and something inside her broke.
(They didn’t always look right when they came back out again)
She slid her hands into his open shirt and buried her nails in his shoulders. She gripped him so tightly that it felt like her fingers would break.Use me, she thought wildly.Do whatever you want to me. Just don’t take me out to those woods and kill me. Don’t leave me alone in the dark.
“Cal,” she sobbed. “Daddy.Please.”
He kissed her again, fleeting and gentle; it was a jarring contrast to the way he was fucking her, and she opened her mouth to it, letting him claim her lips as ferociously as her body.
“You’re all mine,” he hissed, and she tilted her head, allowing him to bite her throat.
He held her afterwards with her legs caught between his. He’d cleaned her off with a soft cloth, and given her a glass of water to drink. Now his arm was looped around her waist and she could feel his breath stirring her hair. Everything was sore and stinging, but her heart was still beating beneath his cupped hand, and she was still alive.
“You’ve never been more beautiful,” he whispered, fingering her necklace.
