Page 43 of Bind Me
The plea hit him like a command. He gave her what she asked for. She writhed under him, trying to outrun the intensity, but he held her through it. Her breath turned ragged, breaking into sounds she couldn’t swallow.
And then all at once she broke, a cry wrenched from her chest. Rafael looked up in time to watch her fall apart. His shirt was twisted above her ribs, his handprint bloomed faintly on her hips. He had done that to her.
He should have stopped. Instead, he lowered himself again. His mouth returned, extra gently, reading every twitch, skimming just shy of where she was most sensitive.
“I can’t,” Bea whispered, hand curled into his hair, tugging, her breath hitched in something like panic. Her hips kept trying to tilt away, then returning just as fast. He kept going, testing but not pushing. Letting her decide.
When she stilled, it was with full-body trust. One arm dragged across her face like she couldn’t bear what was coming again.
His mouth curved with dark satisfaction into her skin. The taste of her was sharp and addictive. Firm now, he wound her patiently, ruthlessly, all the way back up. Then she shattered a second time. Harder. Her thighs clamped around his head, and the sound she made held nothing back.
Rafael climbed back up her body, desire rough in his throat, admiring his handiwork as she lay flushed and twitching with aftershocks. He was so hard it bordered on painful. His hands dug into the mattress on either side of her head and clenched against the temptation to take his own relief. He counted to ten, then again.
Bea’s eyes blinked open, soft and dazed. “You kept your promise.”
“Of course I did.”
“I could help you.”
His jaw flexed. “Not tonight.”
“You sure?” she whispered, fingertips drifting over his nipple. She bit her lip. “I want to.”
He caught her hand. “I know. But if you do, I won’t stop.”
She waited, watching, giving him a chance to change his mind.
Seeing he wouldn’t, she said finally, “It’ll be worth it. Our wedding night will be special.”
Rafael almost laughed. She was thinking candles, music, maybe flowers.
He bent low, breath brushing her ear. “Just so we’re clear, baby, romance is what you’re waiting for,” he murmured. “I’m waiting to wreck you.”
Chapter Eleven
There were still stars in the sky. Bea was almost never awake for this part of the morning. The horizon was only beginning to turn bruised, as if the world were being developed slowly in a darkroom.
Rafael sat behind her on the blanket, legs bent on either side of her, her back tucked against his chest. His hoodie swallowed her down to her thighs. She’d layered up and still underestimated how much coastal winds cut through everything.
She tipped her head back against him and yawned, not even attempting grace.
“One Sunrise Without Complaints,” he murmured into her hair. He’d cashed in another one of his Christmas vouchers to bring her to their beach. The man treated those things like binding legislation.
Bea blinked blearily. “I’m not complaining. I love being here with you when the nocturnal animals are still awake.”
A quiet exhale that might have been a laugh warmed the top of her head. “Good. Once we live here I’ll wake you for runs, then.”
She decided to pretend she hadn’t heard that.
Rafael drew her closer, his forearm firm across her middle, anchoring her as if the tide might try to steal her away. Gold began to seep into the margins of the world.
“Don’t work late tonight,” she said. “We have to be there by six thirty on the dot.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Laurent’s involved,” Bea warned. “So it’s either a party or an incident.”
Despite the chaos, she was giving him a proper birthday celebration. She’d spent hours trying to find an appropriate venue before finally caving and asking Laurent for help.
