I needed her,cravedher to the point of madness.
One glance at the fastenings her dress was all I needed to know that I’d never have the patience to undo them all. She would look awfully good bent over the table—No, Rían.She deserved better.
I wanted her stripped bare so I could memorize every curve, trace every freckle, taste every glorious inch. I shifted my dagger, drawing the tip down her throat, loving the way she shivered. “Do you fear me?” I asked.
“No.”
I pressed the tip down to her breast, breaking her perfect skin, marking her as mine. The cut should be enough of a deterrent for Ruairi and Tadhg—and anyone who knew me—to keep their filthy hands off her if they wanted to continue drawing breath.
“You should,” I confessed, running my finger along the length of the wound, healing the broken skin before bringing my fingertip to my mouth.Divine. Sweet as a spoonful of sun-drenched honey. The darkness that I’d tried so hard to keep from touching her awoke at the taste.
“What are you doing?”she gasped.
“I’m only half fae,” I confessed. Goosebumps followed the tip of my blade along her flawless chest. “My mother is a witch.”
My words were a warning to run away, to save herself. A plea to accept me as I was. Even the darkest parts.
She didn’t run. If anything, it felt as if she held me tighter.
So I cut her out of the dress, leaving only her shift, wanting her to know there was still time to change her mind. Even though it would kill me to do so, if she said the word, I would stop.“Tell me where he touched you so that I may burn his memory from your skin.” I tugged down the sleeves of her shift, whispering against the heat of her bare shoulder. “Here?”
“Yes.”
My tongue traced along her collarbone, following the neckline to her breasts. Breasts that fit perfectly in my hands. I swallowed my moan, knowing there was no way the man she’d been with had resisted such perfection. Still, I had to know, “Did he touch you here?”
She whimpered a response, her back arching. My magic escaped, my darkness seeking her light. By some miracle, I managed a tost. It would do neither of us any good for her to wake all of Graystones with her screams.
I forced my mouth away from her skin so I could revel in her beauty. The dip at her waist. The swell of her hips. The softness of her thighs. Even her simple white undergarments made my cock swell. When I drew those undergarments aside and slipped my fingers into her slick heat, I knew I was done for.
“Here?”I choked. Her head fell to the crook of my neck, so I couldn’t see her face when she nodded. “Don’t hide from me. I want you to watch.”Watch me take you apart.
I stroked slowly with one hand, catching her curls with the other the way I’d been dreaming since the day we met, twisting the wild strands and forcing her eyes to mine. “Do you feel this?” Magic pulsed through my veins, a buzzing heat reaching all the way to my fingertips. Aveen squirmed, her eyes rolling back as her chest heaved. “I can make you burn for me the way I burn for you.”
I would unravel her, thread by glorious thread. Stealing her sanity the way she’d stolen mine, until I became every wayward thought, the air she breathed. She fumbled with my breeches, finding my stiff cock with her soft hands, drawing curses from my lips as we searched for a rhythm together
“How many times did he have you?” I asked. She whimpered when my thumb found the right spot, leaving me grinning like a fool and more determined than ever to wrench that sound from her throat as many times as I could tonight. “How many times must I take you before you feel me and only me?”
“Only once,” she breathed on a ragged exhale.
The lust-filled haze in my mind cleared. I released her hair and withdrew my hand, needing to make sure I’d heard her correctly. “Once?”
Worried blue eyes met mine, and she nodded.
Shit. Aveen may as well be a maiden.What if I hurt her? What if she ended up hating it? What if she ended up hating me?It doesn’t matter, the darkness in me screamed.Tonight is all you’ll ever have. Take it. Take her.You’re not the hero in this story.Bring her upstairs and ruin her.
My hands tightened on her hips as magic collected in my fingertips—
No. I couldn’t do it. Not to her. If she wanted me, I’d let her be the one to take me. She could decide how much she could handle. How hard. How fast.
I brought her hips in line with mine, urging her to rock against me. When we finally came together, I wanted her dripping with desire. She adjusted her position, gripping the chair at my back so she could move on her own.That’s it. There you go.
I could go slow.
I could take my time.
I pressed a tender kiss to her lips, the slender column of her throat, her magnificent breasts.
“Will I stop at one?” I whispered, taking her pebbled nipple into my mouth, flicking my tongue against the rigid peak.