“And this.” He slid down her body, the velvet of his skin sparking her every inch into a conflagration. “And this.” He nipped each nipple in turn, had her crying out, before settling into suckling that escalated into ruthlessness, had her core pouring, until she was pummeling him for the release only his invasion would grant her.
He escaped her clawing hands, went down farther, taking her skirt and panties off with him. “And this.”
Holding her feet apart, alternating kisses between them, he suckled her toes, forcing her to withstand the sight and sensations of his ownership, his worship. “And this.” He bit into her calves, kneading them with his teeth as he trailed up to her inner thigh, before opening the lips of her core. Tantalizing her, he lapped up the flow of her arousal in long, leisurely licks before growling, “And this.” He pinpointed the bud where all her nerves converged, took it in a sharp nip.
The discharge of all the pent-up stimulation was so explosive, she heaved in detonation after detonation until she felt as if her spine might snap.
He had no mercy. He pushed two fingers inside her, sharpening her pleasure until her voice broke. He didn’t stop even then. No, he sucked every spasm and aftershock out of her, blasting her sensitized flesh with more growls. “And this.” His thumb circled the swollen nub, had her writhing under the renewed surge, the need for release a rising crest of incoherence.
“Come for me again, my darling.”
It was that “my darling” that hurled her into another orgasm.
After he’d finished her, he came up to loom over her, watching her tremble with what he’d done to her, his hand tracing soothing patterns on her back and buttocks. Mute, saturated with pleasure, hungrier for him than ever, she watched him, the emotions on his face coming too fast and thick for her to decipher. To withstand.
Spreading her legs wide, she begged him, “Inside me, Raiden. Come inside me.”
He looked down at her, sable hair cascading over his leonine forehead. “I want to be inside you all the time, Scarlett. And I couldn’t be for five years. Because you didn’t trust me to understand, didn’t give me the chance to help you, to protect you, to save you.”
Her body contorted under the onslaught of his impassioned upbraiding. “I’m sorry... I didn’t think...”
He captured her face in urgent hands. “You thought too much, and all wrong. And you should be sorry. When I think what you almost did to yourself, what you cost us when you kept me in the dark, thinking you were protecting me, my head almost explodes.”
“I did protect you,” she protested weakly.
“And I want your word you’ll never do anything like this again. Never hide anything from me again, Scarlett.”
“I won’t.” She was half lying, for she was still hiding things, but she had to protect him from further pain. Needing to distract him, needing him beyond endurance, she wrapped herself around him. “Don’t punish me anymore. Just take me.”
His body turned to granite in her arms. “You punished us both when you sacrificed yourself for me. Don’t you know I’d rather die than see you hurt? And for you to be hurt on my account... God, I don’t know how I’ll live with that knowledge.”
She stared into his pained eyes, distress expanding in her throat all over again. No, she hadn’t known that. She’d never dared dream of anything even far less.
Contrition suffocating her, she needed to take him away from the maddening what-ifs, bring him back to her in this moment. “You’re hurting me now, Raiden, making me wait.”