Chapter 26
Nelle
Shamefully, I strained to hear if Graysen would moan my name once more.
The wallpaper rasped beneath my palm as I pressed my ear to the wall, wondering if he stood on the other side, braced against the same spot.
Heat flared low in my belly at the thought of hot streaming water pelting his hard body… his hard naked body.
A strange sound came from the bathroom.
My brows inched together. All my senses alert and cast wide.
It came again, this time pitched much lower, rumbling from Graysen’s throat, gruff and fierce with need.
A growl.
A demand.
A call.
The resonant sound trembled through stone, wood, and plaster, vibrating along my fingertips until it buzzed beneath my skin.
Merciless craving.
Cruel desire.
I clapped my hands over my ears, but the sound pulsed relentlessly through me.
The threads of magic that tied us as one cinched harder.
So did the whispering silk of midnight and sunshine, of wyrm and tamer.
And beneath it all, something intrinsically us and much simpler—strands spun from shadow and light, a boy and a girl.
My breath hitched. Every thought emptied but for that growl, rich and commanding.
And then I was lost.
Completely lost.
I drifted forward, leaving the safety of my room behind.
My body felt weightless, moving through a dark space between worlds where nothing could stop the trajectory I’d set in motion.
The bathroom greeted me with a rush of tumbling steam that clung to my dress, making it damp and tight against my skin.
Heat radiated from the stone floor, warming the soles of my feet.
Graysen stood with his back to me, one arm half hidden, moving in a short, jerky rhythm.
A dark warning twanged through me as I sucked in heady lungfuls of tamer-laced air. Before I could stop myself, I inhaled greedily, chasing the sensation of walking through a storm-drenched forest. Each breath softened my will, loosening the last threads of resistance until I felt undone.
My world dimmed at the edges, and everything else ceased to exist but us and this.
Quiet, quiet, quiet…
I stalked around him, my footfall silent, keeping away from the seeping water.
I watched with bright, curious intensity, my breathing coming quicker as that tantalizing heat built between my thighs, its burning sting an achingly sweet torment I knew only he could ease if I welcomed his body inside my own.
I want, want, want…
Eyes closed, Graysen was lost somewhere inside his head as water poured from above, striking his body and sending spindrift spinning through the air like the outer bands of a cascading waterfall.
Steam-filtered light glinted off his gorgeous, parted mouth.
The lines in his features deepened as if he were in agony.
I couldn’t stop watching him.
Wanting to touch him.
Beads of sweat trickled down the valley between my breasts, and my nipples pinched tight.
Want ignited, then blazed like an inferno.
I wanted to scrape my teeth down neck, feel it tighten against my lips as he swallowed, then groan.
Lick a curved line of fiery ink. Dip my tongue into the hollow at his throat.
Press a kiss upon ruined skin and delight in his gasp.
I wanted to feel the rapid beat of his heart thudding against my open mouth.
Water ran over his skull, sifting through the wet locks of hair, and rolled down his torso.
The light smattering of dark hair plastered to his lower stomach enticed my gaze down, down, down…
to those fingers clenched around that thick, impressive length.
The full arm sleeve of wyrmfire and Ukkenskrit inked tales shifted minutely as tendons and muscles flexed and bulged as he tugged obscenely fast, almost angrily.
He growled, and the raw sound was a tremor through the thick, steamy air. Inflaming my body with its rich echo. A sonorous summons vibrating through my very soul.
And I responded with a soft, dulcet hum.
Stepping closer to reach through the rainfall, I watched in dreamy fascination as his muscles twitched in response to my hand stroking downward to follow the graceful curve of his spine but never touching.
The intense awareness between us sparked with a zinging electricity, practically crackling and spitting through the conduit of water.
The creases in his knuckles went white as he flexed his fingers and pushed harder at the stone wall. Feral tension entered his limbs and the surrounding air.
My gaze drifted hungrily along the sublime lines of his glorious body.
Black ink contrasted beautifully against golden-bronze skin.
He looked dangerous and filthy hot as his fist furiously beat his cock.
Angry.
Beautiful.
Mine.
A fierce growl, louder and more insistent, scraped the insides of my ears, hollowing them out only to fill them back up with a pure sound of wholly male arousal, and I found myself rising on my toes as my hips swayed toward him.
My panties grew slick with need. Electric desire pulsed through my clit and speared through my core and captured my breath.
At the low growl and broken moan and the soft chant of my name, every sensitive place in my body thrummed at once, like fingers strumming a chord.
Then the rush of untamed pleasure twisted so sharply it hurt.
I need, need, need…
Another soft hum inched up my throat, my hand reaching closer to touch his back.
It was the whip scars that woke me up. Hot water had reddened his ruined, textured back, and the cruel lines that gouged his skin with such hatred startled me to consciousness.
My mind snapped out of the animalistic state into which I’d heedlessly fallen.
Shock cracked through every nerve ending in a blinding jolt.
I blinked, stumbling away.
Hellsgate, I need to get the fuck out of here!
As the rough, virile sounds of his building release crashed through the bathroom, I jittered on the spot, glancing wildly about. I couldn’t let him find me standing right behind him, staring like a godsdamned voyeur.
What to do?!
Make a dash for it?
Pretend I’d accidentally stumbled in here?
Holy Skalki!
Graysen angled his head toward the door, cutting off my retreat.
The noise of falling water striking flesh and stone, his half-growl and ragged breath, more animal than man, concealed my movements as I scurried to the vanity and eased open a drawer.
I panic-rummaged through it, desperate for anything that could explain why I was here, because Graysen could never know the power he held over me.
The sound rumbling from his throat had enthralled me, and with chilling certainty I knew he’d held me spellbound.
I’d have given him anything he’d asked of me.
I froze, fingers wrapped around a small, round tub.
A terrifying thought crashed through my mind.
Did he…?
Had Graysen held sway over me as a Tamer?
He’d demanded obedience with a growl.
He’d called, and I’d come.