Page 11 of Magpies & Mayhem
“I think what we need… is a safe word,” I said. I’d stumbled over the word ‘we’ almost saying ‘you’, but I didn’t want to point out his obvious nervousness. And if I had been entirely honest with myself, as I looked at his tense muscles and remembered the strange glow his eyes got sometimes, I might have wanted one too.
“A safe word?” he repeated, his voice sounding unimpressed. He was trying to scowl, but I caught the slightest lift at the corner of his mouth.
“Yes,” I said with mock brightness as I made myself comfortable on my knees. I cast my gaze around the room, looking for inspiration, and my eyes landed on the embroidery hoop. “My safe word is ‘cross stitch’. If at any point, I say the words ‘cross stitch’, I want you to stop what you’re doing immediately.”
His fingers were clenched in the sheets next to him. I reached forward slowly, keeping my eyes on him and his reactions, before taking his wrists in my hands and directing them upwards. “This will be your ‘safe word’,” I said, wrapping his fingers around the top of his wooden headboard. “If you take your hands off the headboard, or break something, I’m done and I leave.”
“What?” The word was completely flat, and I almost laughed.
“We’re going to work on your self-control,” I said, placing my finger in the center of his chest and trailing it lightly down to the top of his boxers. He shivered and shifted his gaze between my finger and my face, as if he wasn’t sure where to focus. “You complain about your strength, but it’s your lack of self-control that’s the problem, not your strength.”
“What?” His brain was stuck, and he tightened his grip on the bed.
I could tell his mind was having trouble focusing on my words, so I paused and looked at his face. “I could tie you up, but I suspect you’re too strong for that, aren’t you?” I glanced pointedly at his hands. “So, you’re going to have to be your own restraint. Consider it character building.”
Every time I’d leaned forward so far, he’d tensed or flinched, like he was cringing away from me, but he was fine with me being between his legs. He just didn’t want me near his face. I wondered if maybe he had some hang-ups about his new fangs. I could work with that.
I let my gaze drift down his figure, from his tense but interested expression, to the tendons standing out on his forearms, to his loosely sprawled shape lying on the bed in front of me.Delicious.I decided I liked him like this.
I chose to start with what I thought might be an insecurity first, reaching slowly when he turned his head away a fraction, and tapped his chin. “So, what have we got going on in here?” I asked casually and pulled down his bottom lip with my thumb. He flinched again, and I pulled my hand back when I saw the hint of panic flicker in his eyes. But we were going to talk about it, so that he knew I wasn’t scared. Maybe I should be, but we were going to talk about the fangs, get it out of the way, and then it wouldn’t be an issue anymore.
I heard him swallow roughly and his arms started to tense again, so I decided he needed some incentive to talk it through. “Can I touch you here?” I asked, setting my hands lightly on the inside of his thighs. He took a deep breath and gave the briefest nod, so I slid my hands up to his rock-hard erection and rubbed.
“Oh, Sid,” I heard him breathe, and even biting my lip couldn’t stop my grin. His cheeks flushed the lightest shade of pink and he shifted his eyes to focus on my mouth, and then my neck, before letting his gaze drift down to my breasts. His pupils had completely swallowed up the pretty amber flecks in his brown irises, and I couldn’t help but mentally preen at his reaction.
“Focus,” I reminded him, reaching up to tap his chin again. “How does this work?” I pushed his head back gently and peered into his mouth, like someone might when checking out a docile pet’s teeth. Like I did this every day. No big deal. Nothing to be afraid of here. He turned his face away again, so I went back to rubbing his erection through his boxers, smirking mentally when he shivered.Interesting… Face, no… dick, yes. He’s got some strange boundaries.
Seemingly lulled by my casual charade, he finally answered. “Venom sacs, in the back of my mouth, up in the soft palate.”
I massaged the base of his erection a little harder—a reward. His breathing hitched. “Huh. Like a snake?” I tried to look in his mouth again, but he stuttered out an agreement, so I relented and focused on his eyes instead. “So, even if you bit someone, you wouldn’t actually turn them unless you meant to?”
“Right,” he gasped, and I increased the pressure again.
I studied his face, trying to understand the issue. “Then what’s the problem?”
“I just don’t like people in myspace,” he growled quietly, clenching his teeth, and staring at the ceiling.Huh.“And they look ridiculous.” He suddenly bared his sharp teeth at me.
I blinked at him. “I don’t think they look ridiculous at all.” My voice was matter of fact. And I didn’t. It made him look a little feral maybe, kind of vicious, but I counted that in the plus column, personally. I slid my hands up to the waistband of his boxers and gripped it in my fingertips, enjoying the way his abdominal muscles flexed and twitched.
“What… what are you doing?” he rasped out. I bit my lip so hard to keep from laughing. What did he think I was doing? Poor, sweet Jordan. This was going to be so fun. His abs flexed again as I curled my fingers around his waistband and tugged. His breathing was already a little rough, but it sped up as his mental gears started turning. He lifted his hips enough to help me get the material down, and then I jerked it the rest of the way off, gleefully tossing it over my shoulder when it was free.
I couldn’t help the pleased sound that escaped me as I felt a Cheshire grin spread across my face. He had a nice figure—even if he was a little lean compared to what I tended to drool over most often.Had I really thought I was only attracted to burly men?I’d even say Jordan had a nice-looking dick, and I hadn’t really thought such a thing was truly possible. But what I hadn’t been expecting were histhighs.
What on earth had he been doing to develop thigh muscles like that? First of all,yes please,and secondly, I kind of hoped he didn’t crush me with these beauties. I raised my eyes to meet his and let my pleased disbelief show clearly on my face as I prowled back up between his legs.
“Someone doesn’t skip leg day.” I trailed my middle finger lightly down his thigh, from his hip to his knee. If I could have been purring, I would have been.
“Didn’t,” Jordan choked out. “I was still playing hooks every day before the change. It doesn’t matter what I do now though.”
“Hm.”Interesting.“Venom sacs, pointy fangs, muscle retention… what else should I know?” I trailed my fingers back up his leg toward his groin, stopping an inch or two before I got there. He was hyper-focused on my hand. “Jordan?” I prompted.
“Are you going to take the shirt off?” he asked my chest.
“Maybe.” I shrugged one shoulder, looking between his eyes. “Are you going to answer my question?” I knew he heard me. I wasn’t above bargaining.
“What else do you want to know?” he bit out. “I can’t get or carry diseases. I have a stupid diet, and I can’t age—or die unless somebody kills me. Sunlight hurts like a bitch, and I get tired during the daytime. What else? Oh, and I probably can’t get anyone pregnant now.”
I’d been unbuttoning my borrowed shirt but paused with my fingers on the last button. His eyes were locked on my bare skin. “You can’t have kids?” I’d known that was a probability for him, being a vampire now, but hearing it confirmed still felt like a punch in the gut. I felt my eyebrows draw together.
