Chapter 26 #2
Kissing him turns out to be a very effective way to warm up, I decide after a few minutes of this, when it becomes obvious my grip on him is the only thing holding me up.
My legs certainly aren’t doing it. I sigh into his mouth, and the sound after that is a little more needy.
Cairo’s purr grows in response, and his hands span my hips, nails pricking at my skin.
“I’ve got you, little bird,” he tells me. His hands shift, roaming upward, until he’s sweetly, teasingly touching me just as greedily as he kisses me. “Just let me take care of you.” One hand disappears, and I watch as he drizzles shampoo onto his palm.
“I just washed my hair yesterday,” I point out, but I’m not really complaining. Cairo fixes me with a plaintive look, and doesn’t deign to respond before he’s gently scrubbing my hair, his claws tingling against my scalp.
My skin prickles, and I close my eyes, letting him urge me against his chest while he rinses out the shampoo and then takes his time to work conditioner through my long, blonde hair thoroughly as though it’s his job.
The purr in his chest is reassuring and sweet, and it’s so easy to drift, though this time it’s less from panic and more because this is just so… nice .
No one’s ever taken care of me like this before, and I decide I’m ruined for anyone else, if this is how Cairo is going to treat me. I don’t feel broken, or fragile, or as though he’s treating me like a child. I just feel cared for and important.
I know I can’t say the words stuck in my throat.
That would make me insane. But I have to bite them back as he gently uses my soft cloth washcloth to wipe down my entire body with soap.
“What are you…?” The words are out instantly when he drops to his knees in front of me, but Cairo grins up from the floor of the shower.
“Returning the favor,” he purrs. “You don’t mind, right? It’s not exactly a chore.” His gaze flicks to the front of my body, and he leans in to lick a strip up to my navel. “Not when you taste this good.”
Swallowing a gasp, I press my hands against the wall behind me, fingers sliding over the grout between the tiles to ground myself. “That could be taken in a vaguely cannibalistic way, coming from you,” I point out, though there’s no fear in me at all.
“Yeah,” he agrees without argument. “I guess it can.” He does it again, the flat of his tongue strokes up over my skin, and he starts moving lower, until he reaches up to part my thighs and on his next lap, his tongue presses firmly to my clit, not going anywhere at all.
I have to take a breath not to move, not to speak, and I can barely even blink as I watch him continue his movements.
His next lick is a long, teasing stroke.
Cairo goes from my slit to my belly, then back again on only a slightly different path.
This time, a needy whimper leaves me, and Cairo glances up at me from the floor of the shower with satisfaction in his dark eyes.
“You’re enjoying this,” I accuse. “Making me want it.”
“Oh, yeah.” His arms wrap around my thighs, holding them parted and perfectly still. Considering his strength, I’m not going anywhere. “And I’m going to take my time, little bird. You have nowhere else to be.”
I don’t.
I never do, not really. The only things holding me here are him and Moro, plus this house that I owe money on. But if he and Moro were to disappear, I don’t know where I’d be.
It scares me when I think about it like that.
Thankfully, his tongue is an effective distraction. Especially when he centers his attention on my folds, and the frequent lapping of my clit, until I can’t help but curl my fingers in his hair.
“Is this okay?” I breathe.
“You are always welcome to hold on to me,” he promises.
I shouldn’t want to cry from that. But I’m glad he can’t see my expression so well when I tip my head back against the wall behind me, face turned up toward the spray.
He’s dedicated and unhurried enough that the pleasure in my belly is a low, building surge instead of the rush of a flame.
I feel every inch of it, every added flicker of heat.
“You know, for a cannibalistic monster who lives in the woods, you’re really good at this,” I huff, my hips rocking in his grip, though only by degrees with how well he’s holding me in place.
His chuckle reaches my ears, but Cairo doesn’t reply. He seems too fixated on his task, and he suddenly growls in appreciation when his tongue swipes through my folds.
“I love how you taste when you’re wet for me.” Shivers wrack through me, and a touch of embarrassment at how easily he can tell only makes this hotter. “Your taste changes on my tongue. Did you know that, Fern?” Obviously I didn’t, but I can’t help listening to every word that falls from his lips.
“I always love how you taste, but when you get close, you get sweeter. You’re like candy on my tongue.
I’ve never tasted anything like you.” To make his point, he thrusts his tongue into me, drawing a sound of surprise from my lips as he tastes all of me he can from this new angle.
His nose bumps against my clit as he fucks me with his mouth, and my fingers tighten in his hair until I’m whimpering and squirming helplessly against the wall.
No amount of praise could ever come close to doing him justice when he’s like this and I’m on my toes. But I certainly beg him for it anyway. “Cairo…” his name is a gasp on my lips, and my fingers scrape against his scalp in a way that makes him purr.
“Will you come on my mouth, gorgeous girl?” he asks, barely moving his face away from the apex of my thighs.
"I want to taste every second of your release. I want you right here.” He licks my slit again, and swirls his tongue around my clit.
“All I want is my tongue buried in your pussy while you come for me.”
Without another word, he lets go of one thigh to use his thumb to play with my clit.
The double sensations—his long tongue wet and hot inside of me and his finger expertly toying with me—are more than enough to send me over the edge with his name on my tongue while my toes curl against the tile floor.
But my tightening body only makes him more indulgent.
Cairo growls, his face buried between my thighs and his tongue licking inside of me, stroking my walls with velvety heat.
It’s a new, foreign sensation that has me panting and struggling against him, even as he drags my orgasm out with the way he’s still teasing my clit.
Finally, I can see straight again, and I relax with weak knees and a hand still buried in Cairo’s hair as he continues to lick me.
But now it’s not just my folds, but also my inner thighs and my stomach as well.
The strokes of his tongue are languid, and when my knees fold, he lets me slide down the wall until I’m sitting in front of him on the floor of the shower, thighs around his.
Cairo purrs and captures my mouth in a kiss, letting me taste my release on him.
He guides my hands toward him, until he’s using my grip to stroke his cock with sure, measured strokes.
It doesn’t take long, and I’m surprised by just how much he enjoyed eating me out.
When he comes, I’m leaning back enough that white, pearly drops spill over my chest and stomach, only to be washed away by the still warm spray before he leans over me possessively, protecting me from the softness of my bathroom if nothing else.
“Dr. Radley knows about you,” I whisper, when I can breathe again.
“Yeah.” He sighs, taking the wet washcloth to my stomach to be thorough. “I sort of figured she did. She’s not exactly subtle. “
“She’s the one who said you’re just lying to me, just pretending to be human to get me to love you.” It’s easier to say the L-word like that, instead of how I really want to.
Instead of coming from me.
“She says you just want to make me cursed like you.” I take a breath, not needing to linger on that. Her sister’s sad tale isn’t as important to me as it is to her, and there’s nothing Cairo or I can do to assuage her grief.
“Tyler found me when I was in the park with Moro.” That makes him stiffen, though he glances up at me with a sallow-eyed look that lacks any real surprise.
“He hurt her,” he states without question.
“Yeah, he wanted to kill me. He said he’s tired of this game you’re playing. He said…” But I trail off, shaking my head. “Obviously, he didn’t kill me. And Moro will be okay. She protected me.”
“She’s how you got away from him?” Cairo guesses, but immediately I shake my head.
“No, he hurt her pretty badly, and she couldn’t get up. Then Hattie was there. It was so strange. He should be stronger than she is, right? So why could she pin him down like she did? Was it just that he didn’t want to hurt her?” Already Cairo is shaking his head, a wry grin on his face.
“I suppose I should be grateful to her, since she’s apparently so attached to you.
” Smoothly he gets to his feet, and pulls me up with him before I can protest that I am not broken and can definitely do it myself.
“She’s new,” he adds when I look at him askance.
“For the first month or so, when we’re new, we’re strong.
Stronger than we should be. Apparently strong enough to take down Tyler for a little while.
It’ll fade.” He sighs, turning off the water and nuzzling against my jaw.
“What does he want from you?” I try not to protest as he carries me in his arms out of the shower, only to wrap me in a towel and set me down on the counter again. “Also, I really can walk, Cairo.”
“And I really like to carry you.” He leans on the counter again, kissing me sweetly, until my hands come up to play with his wet hair and run through the strands. He lets me, purring against my lips, and finally leans in to nose at my jaw like an affectionate cat.
When I shift a little, ready to ask again, he sighs against my skin and licks teasingly at the water trailing below my ear.
“I know you won’t be denied tonight, little bird.
You can at least let me brood a little.” After a quick nip to my jaw, he pulls away, his eyes finding mine in the dim light from the bedroom on the other side of the semi-open door.
“Everything,” Cairo tells me in an empty, echoing voice. “He wants everything from me. And there’s only one way to get that.” His hand comes up, fingers wrapping around my throat.
My blood goes cold, and already I know I won’t like the answer, though I can’t guess what it is, except… “He wants to kill you?” My voice is soft, barely a whisper. Like admitting it out loud will make the idea more real somehow.
But Cairo chuckles. “But he doesn’t just need to kill me for that to happen, Fern. He needs to devour me, down to my marrow. He wants to take everything I am for himself, and only then will he be satisfied with what he has. Or at least, he thinks he’ll be satisfied.”