She grabbed them from me as if to put them back on, but I removed them from her fingers. Kissing one wrist, then the other, I locked the cuffs around her as gently as I could. The act was one of reverence, of complete devotion, and I wanted her to feel that from me. “Never take them off again, Tiffani. I beg you. My heart can’t take it.”
“I’m sorry, Deek. I didn’t want to. But I couldn’t let you die. I had to let you go. I had to give Seranda a chance to save you.” Tears fell from her eyes even as darker emotions filled them. Anger. Jealousy. Pain. “No matter the cost.”
Stroking her cheek—Gods, it was so silky soft—I offered her a small smile. “Yes, I know that now. But, woman, I never want to wake up to any naked female but you. Do you understand me? I’d rather die than lose you.”
“I couldn’t let you die.”
I shut her up with a quick kiss before continuing. “I do not want you facing down Atlan warlords, criminals, or any other threat on your own.”
“I wasn’t on my own.”
I growled then, warrior and beast.
She looked down.
“Yes, Deek.”
“Now over my knees for your spanking, and then I’ll give you the fucking you need.”
I saw heat flare in her eyes, but she didn’t move. “I don’t need to be spanked.”
Still on my knees, I tugged her over my lap, her head and upper body on the mattress beside me, the towel bunched beneath her waist, her ass ripe and ready atop my thighs. I tugged the towel free and tossed it on the floor. With gentle hands, I gathered her long hair and moved it to the side so I would have an unobstructed view of her plump curves, the side of her face, the need in her eyes.
Caressing the smooth skin, I said, “I need to spank you, to know that you are mine, to know that you are well. You need a spanking because you need the release. You are too strong, too brave. You hold everything inside, Tiffani. I won’t allow you to hide from me, not your fear, your relief, or your desire. It’s time to let everything go.”
I didn’t delay. My palm connected with her ass again and again, making the perfect globes tremble beneath my palm over and over, each sharp slap of my palm making her jump, tremble and gasp.
Smack!
Smack!
Smack!
I kept at it until her slow stream of tears turned into a torrent of sobs, until she stopped fighting her own emotions and let me see her, really see her.
“Don’t hide from me, Tiffani. I want everything.”
She shook her head, denying me, and I spanked her again and again, not stopping until her bare bottom blushed a deep rose.
She cried out several times, but didn’t move. Her eyes were closed, her face strained as tears leaked from beneath her eyelids. I spanked her twice more, then shoved one of her thighs off my lap, opening her pussy to me.
I didn’t wait, the wet scent of her more than enough invitation. Moving slowly, I thrust two fingers deep, moved them in and out several times as her eyes fluttered and she whimpered beneath me.
“You had me so scared. I’ve never been so afraid in my life. I learned the truth about Engel from the guards and what you were doing and I almost died then and there. I swear my heart stopped.”
I continued to fuck her with my fingers, telling her how out of control and desperate I’d been. I also told her how much I loved her, how I couldn’t live without her. How seeing the cuffs on the floor of my cell had ripped open my heart, made my beast howl in pain.
Through my words, she learned how her actions, while they had been solely to help me, had made me age ten years.
“I couldn’t just let you die,” she cried. “I love you. I’d rather live without you than let you die.”
I stilled my hand then, stroked the heated skin.
“I don’t want an apology, Tiffani. I love that you’re so brave, so fiercely protective of your mate. I just want you to understand why you’re over my knee, why I’m giving you a sound spanking.”
I took a deep breath.
“Because I put myself in danger?” She started to cry again then, gently at first, then deep sobs.
“No, love. Because you are hiding from me, not telling me what you are thinking, what you need.” I moved my fingers again. In. Out. Slowly, so slowly. Once my fingers were buried in her pussy, I flicked a third over her clit. “What do you need?”
“You.”
The beast in me had had enough of my gentleness, my games. I flipped her onto her back and locked her cuffs above her head, on the special ring attached to the wall above my bed. When she was laid out for me like a feast, I knelt between her legs and pushed her knees open wide, my gaze roaming every inch of what was mine.