Chapter 12 #2
I pitched the sound differently this time.
Not projecting outward; I was driving the sound into her.
I started a low, chest-deep hum, the kind of sound an enormous cat makes, or a generator.
A continuous, sub-bass frequency that vibrated through my skull, through her skin, and into the clenched muscles of her abdomen.
Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Tessa gasped, her hips jerking. "Oh. That feels... weird."
"Good weird?" I asked, the words buzzing against her skin.
"It... it numbs it," she whispered. "Don't stop."
I shifted higher.
My beard brushed against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh, the coarse hair creating friction that made her shiver. I nuzzled into the center of her heat, inhaling the intoxicating musk of her arousal mixing with the pain.
I found the center. The swollen, aching bundle of nerves that was screaming for release.
I pressed my mouth over the fabric of her underwear, right over her clit.
"Is this okay?" I asked, my lips moving against the sensitivities. "Tell me to stop, Tessa. Tell me to leave."
"No," she choked out, her hands flying down to grip the headboard, knuckles white. "Don't leave. Never leave."
That was it. That was the permission.
I opened my mouth and breathed hot, damp air through the cotton. And then, I began to rewrite the silence.
I didn't just use my tongue. I used my voice.
"You are so strong," I murmured, pressing my lips firmly against her. The vibration of the consonants buzzed almost directly against her clitoris. "Look at you. Surviving."
Tessa cried out, her back arching, her hips snapping up to meet my mouth.
I licked a broad, wet stripe up the center of her already soaking panties. Then I hummed again, a deep, guttural growl that resonated in my throat.
Grrrr-ummmph.
The effect was instantaneous. The combination of the heat, the wet tongue, and the sonic vibration caused her to shake apart.
"Daniel!" she screamed, her voice breaking. "It’s too loud! It’s vibrating!"
"Let it," I said against her, sliding my tongue under the elastic of her panties, nudging the fabric aside. "Let it shake you apart, Tessa. I’m right here."
I found her flesh.
She tasted like salt and iron and sweet, wild fruit. It was the taste of the girl who had haunted me for years, condensed into a single drop of nectar.
I groaned, the sound purely involuntary, a primal reaction to the taste of her. The vibration of that groan against her bare clit made her shriek.
"Please!" she begged, her legs clamping around my head, trapping me there. "More. Talk to me. Just talk!"
She wanted noise. She wanted to drown out the memory of the laughing crowd.
I gave her a symphony.
I worked my tongue in a relentless rhythm, swirling around the hood, flicking the sensitive peak, all while keeping a steady stream of low, vibrating praise flowing from my throat.
"That's it," I rumbled, my lips moving against her slick skin. "So sweet. You taste like a masterpiece, Tessa. You taste like power."
I felt her internal muscles clenching; the cramps transforming from pain into the jagged edge of an orgasm.
"I can't," she whimpered, tossing her head on the pillow. "It's too much. I'm afraid."
"I know," I said, pausing to press a firm kiss to her center. "I know you're afraid. But I'm not in the choir anymore, sweetheart. I'm not quiet. I'm right here. Listen to me."
I went harder.
I sucked her into my mouth, creating a seal, and hummed a rising tone, pitch-gliding from a low growl to a resonant shout directly against her pleasure center.
"You are so good," I praised, the words vibrating her entire pelvis. "You’re perfect. Safe. Come for me, Tessa. Come on my mouth."
She shattered.
It wasn't a slow build. It was a structural failure. She screamed, a raw, torn sound that echoed off the glass walls. Her thighs crushed my ears, her hips grinding explicitly against my face.
She convulsed, violent waves of release rolling through her, drowning out the pain of the cramps, drowning out the storm, drowning out the past.
I didn't stop. I kept the vibration going, holding the low note against her, anchoring her through the crash. I drank her cries, her release. I marked her with my voice and my scent, and my taste.
Slowly, the tremors faded. Her legs loosened, flopping onto the mattress. Her breathing was a ragged, wet sound in the quiet room.
I stayed there for a beat longer, pressing one last kiss, soft, reverent, to her swollen, sensitive flesh.
Then I pulled back.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, breathing hard. The scent of warm spiced chai and fresh bread radiating off me was now spiked with salt and honey.
I looked up.
Tessa was staring at the ceiling, tears tracking silently into her hair. Her chest was heaving. Her hand drifted down, hovering over where I had just been, as if checking to see if it was real.
She looked at me. Her grey eyes were blown wide, stripped of defenses.
"You," she whispered, her voice cracked. "You didn't stop talking."
"I had years of silence to make up for," I rasped, my voice sounding deeper, rougher than before.
I reached out slowly, telegraphing the move. I took the hem of her t-shirt and pulled it down, covering her.
"No hands," I reminded her softly.
I picked up the tablet from the floor. I didn't try to touch her face. I didn't try to hold her, though every instinct in my Alpha body was screaming at me to climb onto that bed and wrap her in my arms until the sun burned out.
I stood up. My knees cracked. I felt heavy, energized, and terrifyingly attached.
"Try to sleep," I said. "The vibration should keep the muscles loose for a while."
I turned to leave.
"Daniel?"
I stopped at the door, looking back. She was curled on her side, watching me.
"The book," she whispered. "What happens to Lady Charlotte?"
I looked down at the tablet in my hand. Amused that the question was coming from the author herself.
"She rewrites the laws," I said. "And she burns the council down."
Tessa closed her eyes, a small, exhausted twitch of a smile ghosting her lips.
"Good."
I walked out into the hallway and closed the door.
I leaned against the wall, sliding down until I hit the floor again. My mouth still tasted like her. My heartbeat was booming in my ears like a war drum.
Anders was at the end of the hallway, staring at me. His face was pale, his eyes wide. He had heard everything. The reading. The screaming. The praise.
"Did you..." Anders started, his voice hushed.
"She was in pain," I said, my voice grating like gravel. I wiped my mouth again, knowing he could smell her on me from twenty feet away. "I fixed it."
"You crossed the line," Anders whispered. "Again."
"The line is gone, Anders," I said, closing my eyes and tipping my head back against the wall. "She erased it."
I sat there in the dark hallway, savoring the salt on my tongue, and waited for the next storm.