Chapter 23
“Ithink you delight in impressing me,” Bastian rumbled.
His hands darted out, wrapping around my waist and pulling our bodies flush together.
He was tall enough to touch the bottom, but I was not.
I practically groaned at the feel of him against me.
The contrast of heat pouring off his skin against mine, surrounded by cold water. My nipples turned to painful points.
“Is it working?” My words were breathless. “Me impressing you?”
I tried to keep the mood light, despite the sparks crackling between us.
“I’ve been impressed since the moment you sassed me in the coffee shop.”
“Oh? Not used to women mouthing off at you?”
“Depends on what you mean by mouthing off.”
I choked and made a half-hearted attempt to push him away. His hands tightened. He backed up until I could just reach the bottom if I pointed my toes. Then his knee parted my thighs, leg pressing against my pussy. I whimpered.
Bastian’s mouth found mine, swallowing the sound.
I tried to touch him everywhere, desperate for the feel of him, desperate to explore.
I wrapped my fingers in his wet hair, searched for purchase on his broad shoulders.
When his hands gripped my ass, I brought my legs up and wrapped them around his waist. His cock nudged between my folds and we both groaned, breaking away from our kiss, panting.
“I want to see you without your glamor,” I breathed, barely able to formulate thoughts. His hands on my hips pushed them far enough away that his length was no longer pressed so perilously close to me.
“Not sure I want to do that,” he said, his voice a warning.
“Why not?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Not to me, no.”
He sighed. “Sugar, the last thing I want is to frighten you.”
“I’ve already seen your goblin form…sort of.”
He hesitated. “It’s not just the visible aspects. When I submit to my form, that side of me comes out to play.”
“I want to play,” I quipped, then felt my cheeks flame hot. Really? Had I just said that aloud?
His rumbling laugh resonated low in my belly. “That so? Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
His glamor fell away, like pulling a sheet off old furniture after sitting in wait.
His ears sharpened to points, revealing twice as many piercings.
His features turned more angular, sharp.
A piercing appeared on his lower lip, near the corner of his mouth.
His eyes turned entirely black, no white, no green iris.
They were also a little wider. His hair, though wet, showed shiny strands of deep green.
His skin turned a color of dark aluminum, stealing my breath at the sight of it.
And where he held me, I felt the sharpening points of his nails.
I didn’t dare pull my gaze from his as I said, “You’re beautiful.”
He made a sound in the back of his throat, more growl than anything. “I was hoping for dashing, or hot, or sexy…” In this form, his voice was lower, rougher. It sent chills across my skin, made my muscles quiver in anticipation. “But, beautiful works too.”
I laughed, the sound bursting from my chest before I could help it. Bastian growled, his hands tightening on me, pulling me more firmly against him. The tips of his nails bit into my skin, but not enough to hurt.
“I like that sound,” he purred, mouth moving against my ear.
My laugh died, breath catching in my throat.
“I must warn you now, Eleanor. Goblins are fiercely possessive creatures. We greedily hoard treasure without shame. We are not to be denied. We allow nothing to come between us and that which is ours. I will allow nothing to come between me and that which is mine.”
The pulse between my legs pounded. “What are you saying?”
A long silence and then—“I’m not sure you know what you’re getting into, little female.”
The next words out of my mouth surprised me. “I trust you.”
Bastian blinked, surprise morphing his features. “Hmm. Well, in that case—”
I yelped, as he moved with superhuman speed, wading the couple of steps to the edge of the pool, lifting me up and over. My bare ass came into contact with cement. My breasts on full display. Bastian parted my thighs. His face was suddenly so very close to my exposed pussy.
“Shit…” I breathed. That had escalated fast. He held inhumanly still, looking his fill. His black eyes darted over me, over my folds, like he was trying to memorize what he saw. He inhaled then, drawing in my scent, and heat spread up my neck.
“Now this—this is beautiful,” he growled. A desperate mew escaped my throat. His eyes finally lifted to mine. “May I?”
My pulse thundered in my ears. I swallowed, then nodded, not trusting my voice.
At my permission, his hands wrapped around my hips and slid them forward, slipping me across the wet cement.
My thighs parted wider to accommodate his shoulders.
A hand came to my stomach, fingers splaying wide as I was pushed back.
“Bastian!” I half yelped, half scolded. I tried to lift to my elbows, to see what he was doing, but the low growl and firmer press of his palm had me accepting. I laid back against the cement. It was still mildly warm from a day in the spring sun.
Fingers pressed at my opening, spreading me wide, immediately followed by the warmth of a wet tongue and—
“Oh!” I jerked as the ball of Bastian’s tongue piercing sent a zing of pleasure straight to my core. His hand slid down my stomach, coming to rest low on my abdomen, pinning my hips. “That feels…so good,” I moaned, still trying to squirm.
“You like that, baby girl? Makes your pussy come alive for me, hmm?”
A shocked gasp fell from my lips. His words made me blush more furiously than the mouth between my legs. I simply could not respond.
But he didn’t expect a response.
His mouth lavished me, tongue licking in broad sweeps.
An animalistic growl vibrated against my flesh, eager and possessive in nature.
Occasionally it was fractured by words as he said naughty things, sometimes muttered to himself, and sometimes directly to me.
A dart of his tongue slipping inside me, rubbing his metal piercing around my entrance, had me tightening.
A pause and then—“You taste sweet enough to eat, sugar.” My head jerked up to better see him.
My muscles twitched, heat searing through my core.
The points of his teeth connected with my clit, gently pulling.
I cried out, letting my head fall back. Above me, the stars glittered, uninterrupted, blurring together as the pleasure inside me rose.
Bastian worked me until my thighs quivered. I glanced down when he lifted his hand, biting off the sharp tips of two nails. Then his fingers were slipping inside, plunging in and out to the speed of his tongue. “Such a perfect pussy,” he purred against me, “I want you milking these fingers.”
I squeezed around him.
“Good girl,” he said, rewarding me with a long suck against my clit. My breathing turned to gasps, chest arching, fingers clawing at the cement with nothing to hold on to.
The intensity of his movements paused, the world frozen for just an instant.
Then his pointed teeth nipped my clit again and I shattered over the edge.
A strangled cry fell from my lips, my back arching up off the cement.
His hand wrapped around my lower back, pulling me upright while his mouth continued to feast before slowing to a gentler pace.
I whined, my heart pounding, trying to catch my breath. My fingers wrapped around his head, pressing him more firmly to me, even though I’d just come. I didn’t want it to stop.
But it did, his movements eventually ceased, fingers slipping out of me.
He looked up, a smug expression curving his lips.
The sight of them, moistened and swollen, had me tightening all over again.
I glanced below the water’s surface where I could just make out the gray head of his cock. My breath hitched.
A low, laughing grumble brought my eyes back to his. “Not tonight, sugar.”
“What do you mean, not tonight?” I pouted. “You aren’t going to let me return the favor?”
“It wasn’t a favor. I just took what I wanted.”
I gave a dismissive snort. “I seem to recall agreeing.”
“Even still.”
“That’s not fair, and you know it.”
His jaw tightened. “When I fuck you, Eleanor, it’s going to be harsh and unrestrained.”
“That’s a bullshit excuse, Bastian. You think I don’t want that?”
“You’ve been hurt before. I don’t want to hurt you—”
“You won’t!” There was something else. Something he wasn’t telling me.
“I said not tonight, Eleanor. Do not push me on this—please.” The last word. The openness in his expression, the pleading I saw there, made my chest sink.
“All… All right. But you will, right? At some point in the future? Or was this it?” I hated how disappointed my voice sounded.
Bastian ran a hand over the shaved side of his head. “I’m not ready, Eleanor.”
That wasn’t an answer. I clenched my teeth, trying to ignore the unsettling flop of my stomach at being rejected. A piercing needle of anger hit me. “I thought you were all about casual sex, one-night stands and all that.” The words were out before I could stop them.
Bastian flinched, the movement subtle, but I caught it.
His mouth pressed into a line, eyes tightening.
“There is absolutely nothing casual about us. If I take this further, a single step further, there will be no going back.” I opened and closed my mouth.
Damn it. He was right. He didn’t do relationships, and I was too scared to allow myself to fall into another one.
I knew even now, after only a few days with him, that if I gave myself to him entirely, it would break my heart to end things.
And yet, if I stayed with him, my heart could break just as easily.
“You see now?” he prompted.
I swallowed. “I don’t accept this—”
“You don’t have a choice. I said I wasn’t ready, and you need to respect that.”
My stomach dropped. I wasn’t trying to force him, was I? That wasn’t what this was about. I just didn’t understand…
“Is this because of the human thing? Does your mistrust of humans, your dislike for them, have something to do with this?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s simply that I feel too much for you. If I have you, I will own you. If I own you, you will be mine. I warned you, did I not? I will not relinquish that which is mine.”
“I’m not property, Bastian. I’m not a possession—”
“Which is exactly why we cannot go any further. I don’t do relationships for a reason. I’m a possessive bastard. I know what I am, Eleanor.”
“What about the things we can do that aren’t sex? Things I can do. Why won’t you let me touch you?”
He gave a frustrated growl, backing up several steps. “Because if you so much as lay a finger on my cock, Eleanor, then I’m going to bend you over the side of this pool and fuck your fucking brains out.”
I swallowed. That’s…exactly what I wanted.
And maybe I didn’t mind the possessive aspects that might come hand-in-hand with it.
But I wasn’t sure I could open myself up to the relationship that might follow.
The heartbreak that would assuredly come.
Clearly, he didn’t want to either—or was afraid to, because of his tendencies.
Fuck, I was so confused.
“Come on. Let’s just…swim. Enjoy our wine.”
I hesitated, waiting for the ball to drop. He didn’t say anything else, so I did instead. “Do you regret it?”
“Regret what I just did to you?” he asked. I lifted an eyebrow, challenging him. “Not at all, sugar. I’m quite pleased with myself for that.”
I huffed, then slipped off the edge and into the water. “Fine. Let’s swim.” And that’s exactly what we did.