Control. Power. Pleasure. It’s all a dark storm inside my mind, but pleasure is my dominant need once more.
His pleasure as well as mine. Dragging me toward a peak that I want more than anything.
His hands are tangled in my hair, his forehead against mine as he continues to grind me against him, my wetness making the movement slick.
“One day, you will allow yourself to lose control,” he snarls.
Maybe.
Maybe.
I throw my head back and let the release take me, hot and chaotic, clashing sensations of hard and wet driving me to an edge I want to step over but won’t.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The morning sunlight hurts my eyes.
It blazes beyond my eyelids, making it impossible for me to open them.
With a groan, I reach across the floor, hoping to find something I can use as a blindfold. In the next moment, the keeper’s voice sounds and soft material is pressed against my arm. “Use this. It’s a strip of material from the curtains.”
I crack my eyes open to take a quick look at the cloth before wrapping it around my eyes. It has a gauzy weave, but it’s wide enough for me to fold it over a few times, and then it’s the perfect thickness to protect me from the sun’s glare.
Sitting up, I find the keeper kneeling beside me, holding out a little, black cup. It doesn’t have a handle and the rim is a dark, glossy, green color.
It’s steaming and its contents smell like grass, similar to the floor.
I consider the liquid with wariness. “What is that?”
“Green tea.”
I take the cup and sip at the liquid, expecting to dislike it because of its smell. It’s unexpectedly refreshing and, by thetime I swallow the last drop, I’m no longer feeling sleepy. “Why do I feel more alert?”
“It contains something called caffeine.” He shrugs. “Or so I recall from a dark creature’s memories.”
He rises to his feet, his gaze passing from my tangled hair to my bare toes before he gestures to the side of the room. “As much as I like you naked, there’s plenty of clothing this way.”
We remained in this large room for the rest of the night before we fell asleep here.
Other than the light, not much has changed. The curtains continue to billow in the windows and beside the door, although one of the curtains is visibly shorter than the others and I guess that’s the one from which my blindfold came.
The air brings with it the intensely salty tang of the sea and feels filled with moisture, probably the cause of my clumped hair and sticky skin.
Well, maybe I can’t blame the salty air for all of it.
I side-eye the keeper with a satisfied smile as I rise to my feet, and sashay past him with the cup in hand.
My stomach growls on the way.
“I don’t suppose there’s food in here, too?”
“Unfortunately not. There’s a little kitchen to the side of the back room, along with a small bathroom, but the kitchen contains only tea-making facilities.”
At my groan of disappointment, he continues.
“But your brother was true to his promise and arrived at the crack of dawn, asking how you were. I told him to come back with food.”
“At the crack of dawn, huh?” My question is a careful one. “I take it you didn’t sleep much?”
