Yours to Command #2
The words I’d once vowed in my head to Phillip spilled from the Dark Fae’s mouth.
It struck me stupid for a second. I couldn’t fathom how I’d one day have the same words said to me, or that the person saying them would be someone as impossible as a Dark Fae I kept by my side out of necessity.
But probably most surprising was how happy it made me.
I had trouble keeping the overwhelming feeling to myself. It was a struggle not to smile.
Cash sucked in a breath, his gaze firm and set. “I am yours to command, V.”
He’d never looked as determined as he did now. Like he was proposing. Fuck…was this a proposal? What the hell did I’m yours to command even mean?
I didn’t think I’d find my voice, but when I did, I asked, “Why would you do that for me, Cash?”
For the first time in what felt forever, the Dark Fae laughed. “I thought it was clear, but perhaps I’ve been too vague.”
Still not following, I licked my lips. His eyes followed my tongue, his pupils blowing out and nearly devouring all the purple.
Another shockwave of sensation slithered down my spine.
The Dark Fae looked like a wild animal. The way his eyes traced my lips, neck, and the subtle curve of my body gave my heart a little start.
“I—”
His mouth came down hard on mine, cutting me off. It was a terribly soft but hungry kiss. It made it impossible to think, let alone speak. His lips moved greedily over mine for heartbeats, nipping, tasting, sucking. Never slow. Never cautious. Desperately wanting.
When I returned his kiss, his tongue pushed its way into my mouth and smothered the gasp leaving my throat.
I anchored myself to the fabric cloak he’d fashioned like a jacket.
I didn’t push him away like my head told me to.
I pressed into the kiss. I indulged in the sensation of his sinfully soft mouth devouring mine.
Holy shit was this recovering villain a good kisser.
Talk about looking one way and kissing another.
I was ensnared, and I couldn’t even find the energy to complain about it.
It was that good. Addictive even, as annoying as that was.
I couldn’t tease him about being a bad kisser.
If anything, I was worried about being the bad kisser between us.
Before I could really put my all into the kiss—I’d hate if he thought I didn’t have any skills—he moved away and waited for his punishment.
But all I could do was stare. And the smile he gave me when I didn’t immediately beat him senseless for the stolen kiss made the place between my thighs throb treacherously.
Fuck, that kiss was trouble. A big fucking problem. Maybe the worst thing that could be happening right now. What do I do now? How would I think of anything else? Now that I’d experienced how good he was at kissing, I was doomed. I needed more. I wanted to know what else he was good at.
I was already indecently wet between my legs, and the asshole had only kissed me for heartbeats. Maybe a minute. How long were our mouths touching? It didn’t feel like enough. I needed more, and I should feel guilty, ashamed, impulsive, stupid, but I didn’t.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Cash’s eyes darted off to the left, then his devastating smile was gone.
“Darling, I can get to her in a way they can’t.
I’m asking you to trust me. We don’t have time to wait.
She’ll be gone before the first rays of light.
So I need you to come with me and end this tonight.
I’ve waited all this time to take my revenge, and I won’t let her slip away before I can.
So, do you trust me to be by your side no matter what happens? ”
“What do you mean she’ll be gone?”
“Magnus didn’t return to her. She’ll act fast. She’ll know there’s a chance someone might find her. I…can sense her unease,” he whispered to my continued confusion.
“Sense her unease?”
“Being what I was, the blood I shared with her left a sort of stain on my body. A faint connection of sorts. Whenever I’m close enough, I can sense her emotions.
I’ve evaded her for years thanks to that connection, but that’s also why she doesn’t trust anyone but her favorites with her blood.
And it’s why if they betray her, they die.
She can’t possibly risk another me being out there somewhere, now can she, love? .”
That last little bit seemed to give him the most joy.
“You could say that she’s particularly weak to the thought of tying herself indefinitely with the ones she adores. Albeit through forcible torture and confinement…and compulsory physicality, but she’s someone who vies for the same things you humans do. Love.”
“That’s not love. That’s vile,” I hissed. “You’re saying that she…hurt you? Forced you? Tortured you? What, until you did what she wanted? Until she convinced herself what you shared was love? That’s…”
Nodding, Cash brushed a hand through his hair like it didn’t bother him, but it had to. I wasn’t an authority on PTSD or trauma coping, but stuff like that people just didn’t get over, supernatural or not. It marked them.
While the Dark Fae played his part well enough, he touched me as if he was worried I’d disappear if he didn’t.
Like I was the anchor keeping him from drowning in the nightmare she’d created all those years ago.
My heart ached watching him act as if it was ancient history when his haunted eyes suggested otherwise.
“Nothing I do to her will come close to what I endured for centuries under her so-called love, but I’ll take whatever revenge I can get. And I won’t let her slip through my fingers this time. Not when I’ve dreamt of this moment since I escaped all those years ago.”
I couldn’t hide my disgust. The thought that Cash had been forced to be someone’s plaything sat in my stomach like lead.
Yet, he’d vowed to let me use him. Why? How could he give me that sort of power after it’d been used to exploit him so horribly?
My stomach twisted, and the subtle hum of power in my core scorched the floor at our feet.