Page 69 of Ashen Souls
I was losing my mind. My muscles locked, tipping my pelvis upward just to feel the pressure of his touch.
“Fix that?”
“Mhm.” Daeren dipped his head to the hollow of my throat. “I’m going to make you come so many times you forget his name. You forget your own.” His mouth found the vulnerable line of my neck, the wet glide of his tongue tracking the erratic thud beneath the surface. “But only when I allow it. Only when you’ve earned it.”
The casual dominance in his tone sent a thrill to my clit, making me writhe against the rough fibers binding my wrists.
“And what happens if I don’t earn it?”
He went still, a wicked satisfaction bleeding into the silence.
“Then I take my time,” he promised. “Until you do.”
The molten embers in his eyes vanished.
In their place, twin voids of glacial blue seized me.
“What is happening?” The words scraped past a throat tight with catatonic dread.
A sickening, wet crunch echoed over the crackle of the flames as he extended his arm. I watched, paralyzed, as his limb twisted: bone and blackened skin elongating, joints popping out of place with snaps until a monstrous, talon-tipped claw flexed at his side.
“My lost lamb thinks she knows the beast inside me,” he murmured. “Let me show you how wrong you are.”
His claw dug into my hip, driving my weight downward until the ropes suspending my wrists creaked under the strain.
A ragged keen tore from my lips as the fibers buried themselves even deeper into my nerves, carving into the skin of my arms. I was stretched so severely I thought my spine would snap before the bindings did.
Daeren brought the tip of a single talon to the upper swell of my breast. He held it, forcing me to feel the lethal stillness of his restraint.
Then, he began to slice.
The sound of parting silk was a slow hiss. He carved a perfectly straight line down my center. I stopped breathing. That talon was a scalpel, guided with inhuman precision. A single tremor from his hand, or a single flinch from me, and he wouldn’t be cutting the dress. He would be flaying me open to the ribs.
A hideous crack reverberated as his claw snapped and shifted, reforming back into his large, calloused hand. But his eyes didn't change. They remained blue, raking over my nakedness with hunger, like he was deciding which part of me to devour first.
He closed the distance, driving his knee between my legs and forcing my thighs wide open. He planted his palms on either side of my head, trapping me.
“Your gray eyes are so beautiful when you're terrified.” His breath skated over my lips. “And your pupils get so blown out when you're flooding for me.”
He captured my mouth, his tongue plunging deep.
The shock of it stopped my heart. It wasn't just his eyes that had turned to winter, his tongue was ice in my mouth.
He broke the kiss, his mouth trailing a measured descent down my throat. When he reached my breast, his lips circled the flushed skin before his tongue lashed mercilessly across my peak.
The heat between my thighs flared, the slick moisture pooling heavy and slipping down the curve of my ass. He kept going. Kept tormenting me.
His hand ventured lower, tracing over my ribs and stomach. When he reached the apex of my thighs, he paused. His touch hovered just above my core, letting his palm build the anticipation until I was vibrating.
“Look at the mess you’ve made. All for me.”
His thumb found my clitoris, circling with a wicked pressure. I bit down hard on my lower lip to stifle a moan.
He pressed a thick finger inside me. The stretch was sudden and perfect, forcing another arch from my spine. Every stroke inside me matched the wet rhythm of his tongue. I was lost in the haze. The sigil on my wrist burned brighter, binding my pulse to the rhythm of his body. He added a second finger, stretching me deeper.
I teetered on the brink, every muscle tense, straining against the bindings as the promise of release clawed its way to the surface.
But just as the crest of it hit, just as I tipped over the edge into the fall, Daeren abruptly withdrew his hand and his mouth.
