Chapter 25
Graysen
Every cell in my body was attuned to Nelle, and the longer I lingered, the more her presence serrated my nerves.
Excruciating. Exquisite. With every inhale, her scent seared my lungs and scorched my skin.
Even the soft loops of carpet gouged the soles of my feet like a bed of thorns as I stalked back and forth, a caged animal in my own godsdamned tower.
And the irony wasn’t lost on me. Yet none of it quelled the lust racing through my veins like jacked-up adrenaline.
I didn’t need to see her to know exactly what she was doing.
Even if I hadn’t scented her arousal permeating the air, her tells would have given her away: the quickened breaths, the shift of weight on the mattress, the soft sound of a page turning.
And then that breathy little sigh… gods, it nearly undid me.
My cock hardened instantly, straining against my jeans, like a sad virgin losing fucking control at the first brush of a girl’s hand.
I didn’t know what turned me on more, her alluring body spread upon the bed or that brilliant mind of hers.
Pure challenge had gleamed in her gaze after she’d informed me she was ‘done answering my questions’ and mocked me with a yawn.
She’d cleverly flooded the air with her arousal just to twist the knife deeper and drive me from the tower.
Instead, I stayed like a pathetic fool.
Holy shit…
I froze mid-step, my heart hammering against my ribs.
A mindless hum drifted from her bedroom.
The sound crawled inside my ears and vibrated through my head to skitter along my bones.
Craving strummed a devious note. It felt as if snakes writhed beneath my skin.
My periphery blackened as I spiraled into an almost animalistic state that tugged me deeper into its shadowy side.
I was only distantly aware of the low growl that rumbled from my throat.
I wanted to pounce and claim her. Flip her over and push that beautiful body into the mattress beneath me, bend her to my will.
Instead, I mentally slapped myself hard. The surrounding room grew brighter with self-awareness.
Fuck, fuck, fuuuck!
I needed to get the hells away from her.
Cracking my neck, I stalked into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
No amount of pacing or running through the complexities of my mother and Nelle’s circumstances could take the crazed edge off.
Nor soften my cock. It ached like a motherfucker, and there was no way I could go anywhere, certainly not meet with my brothers, until I’d dealt with it.
And by dealt with it, I meant jerk off.
So once again, here I was in the bathroom, fucking my fist.
Scalding water rained down from the ceiling.
My fist moved up and down, buffeting the steam aside as it whorled like mist. My entire body felt like it was on a knife’s edge.
The best kind of relentless torture, achingly sweet and desperate.
But the worst kind of torment too, because Nelle didn’t want me like I wanted her.
I wanted to kiss her and kiss her every-fucking-where.
Mark her body with my lips and teeth, bruise her honeyed skin, so everyone would know she belonged to me.
And while I was eager to grind up against that hot-as-hells body, Nelle hungered to incinerate me with wyrmfire, kick back and smoke a cigar as she toasted marshmallows over my charred remains.
Completely understandable.
I pressed my palm across the cool tile of the shower wall. The constant stream of water beat against my body, fogging my thoughts and loosening muscles pulled taut as a drum skin.
Apart from my cock. It ached so fucking bad.
I wished it were Nelle’s slender fingers fisting my cock, stroking up and down, pumping slow, then fast.
Thick clouds of steam made the world around me hazy and painted it with a dreamlike quality, making it so much easier to disappear inside my head and fantasize about what it could be like between us.
It was easy to imagine a shocked gasp.
The sound cut through the noise of falling water. My entire body locked rigid, but I didn’t let go of my cock, my fingers still moving of their own accord. I couldn’t stop, didn’t want to stop.
A sultry voice flowed over my skin and raised goosebumps. “Yes, like that, keep going…lower…slower…”
In my imagination, I half-twisted around. Droplets of water caught on my lashes, and I rapidly blinked to squint through the shimmer of moisture that blurred my vision.
When my sight readjusted, I met eyes bright with exhilaration.
I knew she was a dream, an elaborate fantasy spun by my mind.
I could bend her to my will and change her responses at my whim.
But I didn’t want to. I wanted her just as real as she was in life.
Spirited and full of fire. Simmering with resentment.
Desperate to ignore the longing that shadowed the dislike.
A curl of derision twisted Nelle’s lush lips.
Fierce denial smoldered in the rich depths of her expression, which melted away slowly like morning sunshine greeting frost when her silken gaze poured down my chest. Her lust was almost tangible, ghostly fingertips stroking over the ripples of my abdomen, along the sharp cut of my hip, to the dusting of wet dark hair plastered to my lower stomach, and down lower to glide over my cock.
It pulsed and flexed against my clenched fingers, desperate to be inside her.
And when her glance brushed over its smooth crown, its desire for her made it weep and me groan, gruff and greedy.
Nelle stepped closer. “Maybe, Crowther, you hoped I’d find you here, catch you doing this, and find myself unable to resist touching you.”
Yes, fuck, yes…
She made a sound in her throat, one of thoughtful consideration before angling her chin to the bathroom door. “You should have locked the door behind you if you didn’t want me to come in… Or did you leave it open on purpose?”
Maybe I wanted to get caught out.
Maybe I wished she’d step inside the bathroom.
Maybe I’m all kinds of fucked up since I’m imagining this all in my head.
She isn’t real…
This is all a fantasy… A girl I can’t ever have…
Yet I couldn’t stop myself from closing my eyes and seeing how this would play out.
A sound of swishing fabric. Wet footsteps on stone.
The feel of her fingers on my bare skin burned like flames. She marked me in her own way. Claiming me as her own.
“I can see your reflection perfectly on the wall. Keep going, I want to watch.”
And there was something so heady and powerful about the fact I was standing there stroking myself, my calloused fingers tugging at my cock while she stood right behind me watching my distorted reflection in the moisture-streaked wall.
“Do you want to touch me? Do you want to run your hands all over my body and in between my legs?” she asked softly.
I couldn’t stop the helpless groan at the thought of being able to put my hands once more upon her body. Nelle kept her gaze level with mine while she slid one of her slender hands between her thighs, the saturated dress clinging to her curves. “Would want to kiss me right here and make me come?”
Yes, yes, yes…
“Would you kneel before me?” she asked, stepping forward to stand beside me. My gaze slid sideways as she angled her head, a challenge flashing across her delicate features.
I would, I would, I would…
I’d teach her a lesson.
If my little bird couldn’t fall to her knees, I would.
And I let myself fall into pure fantasy.
I’d lower myself slowly to the floor. First one knee and then the other.
My hand would look large wrapped around the back of her thigh.
Her skin would feel silken beneath my blade-roughened palm.
I’d hear the catch in her breath and feel the quickened thud in my chest as my heart sped up to match her rhythm.
Watch her eyelids grow heavier as anticipation thickened the surrounding air.
I’d hitch her leg over my shoulder to get better access to her pretty pink pussy hidden behind plain white panties.
And I’d hold her gaze, both of us unblinking, as I lowered my head.
I would mouth her through the wet fabric. Scrape my teeth against soft skin to bite along her curves. Tease her mercilessly with my lips and tongue until her hips chased mine and her broken moans spiraled through the steam to strike upon marbled tile.
And still, I wouldn’t give it to her.
Not until she chanted my name.
Then, and only then, I would push her panties to the side to find her swollen and pink and dripping wet.
My fingers would slide through her glistening folds, my lips would play in her velvet wet heat, and the taste of desire would be an exquisite liquid splashing across my tongue.
I’d drink her down and greedily demand more, again and again.
Until she begged no more.
Nelle’s voice cut through my thoughts when she asked, “Who are you thinking about as you touch yourself?”
I shook my head as if to say—Don’t ask, you know who.
She rounded, ducking under my arm, to stand in front of me.
The water raining down from the showerheads soaked her hair and darkened the white blond to ash.
Water spilled over her forehead, tracing her nose and freckled cheeks before gathering at her lips.
Her breath came quicker as she looked up, gaze glistening with heat and want.
My gaze skimmed down the column of her delicate throat to her dress. A hint of dusky pink peeked through the drenched fabric that clung to the swell of supple curves, those breasts of hers I wanted to suck and bite and kiss.
When my gaze snapped back to hers, I met such longing that I knew the same was reflected in mine when she softened and became conflicted.
She rose on her toes, one hand reaching out and splaying across my chest, fingers spread wide and nails digging into hard muscle. And I wondered if she knew her hand was pressed against my heart. If she placed it there on purpose?
But those thoughts were splintered apart when she said with fake surprise. “Me?” Her huff of laughter brushed over my mouth. “You’re thinking of me?”
“Always…”
“Yes,” she agreed, a small smile of victory curving her lips, a glint of triumph brightening her gaze.
She stroked the backs of her fingers along my jawline, and my heart thundered in anticipation as she drew closer.
Wet hair feathered through her parted fingers as she lifted her hand and pushed it around my head.
One blink was the only warning I received.
Long, thick lashes fluttered around a gaze that revealed a myriad of emotions, mischievous and spiteful, shot through with lust. She suddenly bunched a fistful of hair and yanked hard.
Sharp pain lacerated across my scalp, dragging a gasp from my throat.
Delight flashed through her expression as she pulled me close.
My nostrils flared as I resisted, wrenching back, because that’s what we did. This was our way. Both of us fighting for dominance and submission.
A heartbeat later, I acquiesced and allowed her to draw my head down because she led and I followed.
Always, always, always…
Her fierce grip loosened to gently massage the ache from the back of my skull, and her soothing touch felt so good I almost purred.
I wanted to kiss her. I was on the verge of begging her to kiss me.
Her mouth parted, and I caught a flash of straight white teeth, the tip of her pink tongue.
And I remembered how our kisses felt, how every time we touched, an intense thunderstorm of feeling broke loose in my chest. I knew her body intimately.
My hands and teeth and tongue had touched every place, mapping her lithe figure, learning the spots that drew out gasps of pleasure, broken moans and soft sighs, hitched breaths too.
Yes, yes, yes…
But she didn’t kiss me. She nipped my bottom lip, and pain flared.
Pleasure and pain melded together, and my hips sought hers.
My hand jerked up and down my rigid cock at a bruising pace.
The back of my hand grazed the flat of her stomach, the wet fabric heating my knuckles, and I wished for nothing between us but bare skin so I could drive my cock against her body and use the friction to get off.
My balls draw tight, so fucking tight.
It was her intense gaze locked on mine and her voice that triggered the building climax. The single word ghosted my lips. “Always…”
There was no darkness inside my mind, but a girl of moonlight.
I willingly lost myself within the reverie of her feminine curves.
The loud thud of my heart pulsed in time with the torturous ache in my cock.
The bathroom swelled with the pounding sound of raining water, splashing against flesh and stone and pelting the flooring, but beneath it all was a wicked strain of twining sounds—a rich baritone growl and a soft dulcet hum.
There was one thing I wished more than anything as I fantasized about fisting those drenched locks of pale hair to angle her head, the light above catching on the freckles smattered across her cheeks. Eyes darkening and flaring wide with uncertainty and mutual craving as she stared back.
It was a wistful torment, cruel and savage, the desire to hear my name.
She’d refused to utter it the moment I’d hidden her away at the top of a tower.
I wanted it.
Needed it.
Was desperate for it.
Say it, say it, say it…
And when I imagined her lips parting, the sweet sound of my name, more air than voice, an intense rush of mind-bending pleasure speared down my spine.
I cried her name, softening to a mantra that I whispered over and over, “Nelle, Nelle, Nelle,” as my hips jerked and my body shuddered and cum splashed over my fingers and sprayed in ribbons across the dark stone.
I didn’t want to let the dream of Nelle go.
I didn’t want to let the coldness back inside to carve emptiness within my chest. But it was inevitable, like drawing the next bittersweet breath.
Bracing both hands on the stone wall, I forced my breathing to steady as the stark reality of my life filtered in once more.
When I slowly pried my lashes apart, and the room slowly came into focus, instinct and hope made me turn my head over my shoulder, desperately wishing I’d see a trail of small, wet footprints retreating to the bathroom door.
But there was nothing on the rough stone.
Nothing at all.