34. Breath and Surrender
Chapter thirty-four
Breath and Surrender
Kenji
I was back in the water.
The bath accepted me a second time.
I let it.
The leather cuffs remained firm around my wrists.
My heart slowed to her count.
The ceiling broke into ripples.
Candles turned to comets.
Heated liquid braided around me.
Sound flattened, and the room lost its edges. But, even without hearing, I felt what she intended—the pause before her touch, the tilt in the water when she shifted closer, the warmth that gathered when she leaned.
Breathe when I lift you, the water seemed to say. Remember me in pleasure when I lower you.
I did.
The world narrowed to texture. Stone at my shoulder blades. Silk-slick ripples gliding over my ribs. The faint shiver that ran the length of my spine.
The dragon within folded in obedience and then curled its smoke. I had spent too many nights commanding chaos until it wore my face.
Here, chaos laid down its teeth.
Here, my Tiger was watching me closely. When I was typically used to being the watcher. Now, I was the one being observed with intent.
This flipped our usual power dynamic in a way that felt safe.
She saw everything, kept track of every move, and gave me an answer for each one.
In my world, my actions often went unchallenged and unquestioned. Here, my Tiger noticed, not to punish me, but to engage.
And I didn’t know why but that validation was intoxicating.
It didn’t make me feel small.
In fact, I was feeling more known.
I was a man who equated vulnerability with danger, so this sensation of giving her all my control and power. . .was a rare and almost addictive relief. It made me feel seen. It made me want to kneel before her every day for the rest of my life.
She skimmed one palm across my sternum, and my body sank deeper. Her other hand was against mine as if waiting for me to give the signal to let me back up.
But I would not.
I held still.
I would only rise when she wanted me to.
The need for oxygen clawed at my lungs, hot and primal. My body screamed to break the surface.
I denied it.
Her fingers tightened along my hand. Perhaps, she sensed my straining.
I was unsure.
I kept my eyes open beneath the blur of water and watched her in fragments—light on collarbone, the dark sweep of wet hair curling along her face, her breasts swaying and bobbing.
I yearned to touch her, but the cuffs would not let me.
Seconds turned into small knives, carving through my lungs. Each one slower than the last. This might have been the longest I’d ever been without oxygen in my life.
The only thing harder than my lungs was my cock, straining against the heat of the water and pleading with my Tiger to stroke it some more.
My pulse thundered in my ears.
Pressure turned into permission. The ache I carried under my breastbone—the dead’s names, blood oaths, hard brutal choices—spilled out of me.
My lungs stretched thin, then thinner. The line between pleasure and panic began to blur until I couldn’t tell which side I was on anymore.
And maybe that was the point.
Because I belonged here.
Suspended.
Waiting.
Even though, my body begged and my instincts howled. If she left me down here another second, I would drown. . .willingly.
Tora. . .
As if she heard me, her palm left my chest.
I rose, breaking the surface on her order alone.
Water splashed.
Air rushed into me like wine poured too quickly into a crystal glass—spilling, flooding, overwhelming.
I gasped.
Oh fuck!
My chest rose hard.
Next, came ragged inhales.
One.
Two.
Three.
Each one tearing into me.
Oxygen hit my blood in a dizzying rush.
Tilting the world at its edges.
Water ran over my lids.
Gasping, I blinked over and over.
Heat from the bath clung to my skin while the cool bite of air kissed my face, and the contrast left me swaying.
My adrenaline spiked.
My cock jerked.
I’d thought my senses had been sharpened already, but now they were blinding.
Tripled.
Electrified.
The room swam in a fever of sensations—candles flaring in gold bursts at the edges of my vision, water streaming down my jaw in hot rivulets.
The air tasted different now.
Metallic.
Sweet.
Her silhouette bent over me like an eclipse, cutting the light. Her perfume drifted down and owned me—dark amber and ripe plum. I could hear the slow drag of her breath above the faint hiss of the water, could feel the cool air shift to warmth with her nearness.
I wanted to be inside her, but all I could do was focus back on breathing.
Every inhale shifted to surrender.
Every exhale served as an offering.
I was living in the chemistry of my body now. The sharp bite of oxygen, the slow thrum of my heart. It was a new language I was learning to speak.
I blinked up at her. “Tora. . .”
“Yes.”
“What you just did. . .you trapped yourself to me. Forever.”
“I already thought I was trapped to you.”
“You were. . .in this lifetime, but now I will follow you into other lifetimes and find you in the next and next, trapping you each time.”
Her lashes lowered. “I may enjoy that in my other lives.”
“You will. . .in every one.” I panted. My body hummed. “Come here.”
She drifted closer, and her body leaned into my space. “How do you feel?”
“Amazing.”
“Do you still feel high?”
“Tora, I am on Mars. Where are you?”
She chuckled. “Perhaps. . .Pluto. . .”
I tried to think of the solar system but could no longer remember how close the planets were to each other. “Can you at least see me between the stars?”
“Of course.” She lowered her mouth to mine.
The first brush was heat on heat. A slow seal. The water lapped at my chin. I groaned into her mouth and the sound broke at the edges, half-swallowed by the water.
She controlled the angle.
She controlled the pace.
When I tried to follow, she eased back and made me chase air for a heartbeat, then returned to me with a slow stroke of her tongue that made my hands clench against the leather.
Oh, Tora. When I get these cuffs off. . .
My pulse rocked hard.
My cock throbbed.
She kissed me again, deeper, and I let myself be kissed, let the pleasure be something given instead of taken. It changed the shape of our intimacy—made the erotic heat bloom wide instead of sharp.
Wanting turned into being wanted.
Between our kissing, soft moans left her lips.
She kept her palm under my jaw and slid the other hand down, skating her fingertips over my throat, and then tracing my collarbone.
She didn’t stop kissing me until I was certain my lips would remember the shape of her mouth for the rest of my life. Slow seals, parting lusty heat, the occasional wicked curl of her tongue when I thought she’d let me catch my breath.
Every withdrawal left my chest hollow.
Every return filled it again.
Then she broke away entirely.
Her hand drifted from my jaw, slid over my throat, lingered in a slow stroke against my collarbone, and then she pulled back enough for her eyes to skim me. “Okay.”
I quirked my brows.
“I could let you fuck me right now, Kenji. . .but then I wouldn’t get to play with you the way I want to.”
“You have played with me long enough. Give me that pussy. It’s mine.”
“Be patient.”
“I have been patient long enough. I want to be deep inside of you.”
“Maybe, I should make you beg.”
“Careful. The more I beg, the more you will scream later.”
“That’s pretty bold to say while handcuffed and close to being fully submerged under water.”
“I’m a bold Dragon.”
“You’re not the Dragon in this water. I’ve washed away the beast. You’re just simply mine .”
“Mmmm.” A dark groan left me.
“Okay. I have a few more things we will do first.”
“What things?”
“You’ll see.” Without another word, she drew a breath and went under, disappearing into the water.
What now?!