Chapter 46 #3
I couldn’t get the angle right, couldn’t get the tips of them to work the rope.
Anxiety rose like a gray cloud staining a clear blue sky.
“You want to save me… You want me to live…”
Tears of desperation dewed my lashes and shimmered in my vision.
“Untie Zrenyth’s collar and let me go…”
I couldn’t hold the tears back any longer, and they slipped a hot, stinging path down my cheeks.
“Save me, save me, save me…”
Graysen jerked his head back. Awareness sharpened his gaze as he realized what I was trying to do. I tried to distract him with a desperate kiss, slamming my lips against his, but he pulled away from my tear-damp face.
His throat bobbed with an uneasy swallow. There was something akin to sorrow tarnishing the gold in his eyes. “I need to want to do it for it to happen.”
My hands pushed frantically at his, pawing at the knot, trying to force his fingers around the entwined rope. “Save me,” I choked out, salty teardrops slipping between my lips.
Graysen untangled his hands from mine to grasp a handful of my hair at the roots, arching my neck back to angle my face so he could gently kiss the tears from my lashes and lick the briny moisture from my cheeks.
The words were harsh but softly spoken. “Don’t let that fire of yours go out.
Don’t cry, Nelle. Don’t you fucking dare break. ”
“It’s too late,” I sobbed.
He rose up on his knees, and I clung to him, my arms wrapping around his neck.
He tipped forward, lowering us to the floor.
My legs and arms cradled his body as the soft carpet met my back.
His weight pressed upon me as he rolled his pelvis in slow, seductive waves, with languid thrusts that drove a pleasured whimper to cut through the wretchedness.
Despite the misery, my body responded, and sunshine sang through my blood.
I reached up and cupped his strong jawline. My bottom lip quivered. “Save me.”
Graysen braced a hand beside my head to peel his upper body away. Cool air prickled my hot, sweaty skin. He latched his free hand around my throat and squeezed with enough pressure to get my attention. His voice was dark and almost angry. “Listen to me, little bird.”
My eyes widened and locked on his, but he didn’t stop moving, didn’t stop plunging in with long, deep strokes.
His thick length slid slowly in and out, and every time the fat crown grazed that inner spot beneath my clit, it pulsed with sensuality, like lightning striking the same spot, over and over.
Building. Intensifying. Softly hummed notes of our lust twined together, vibrating between us to rise and fall as each hitched breath and gasp and moan came quicker.
Graysen’s thumb grazed the vulnerable hollow at my throat. “You’re strong. Stronger than me.” His gaze burned fiercely. “You don’t need me to save you. You don’t need anyone else to save you. You’re going to save yourself, little bird. Understand?”
He lowered his body back onto mine. One hand framed the side of my face while his other ran soothing strokes up and down my side, so we touched everywhere as if he couldn’t get close enough to me. He continued that mind-bending slow pace, thrusting in and out, sharp and sweet all at once.
I sighed. I moaned. I cried out for more.
“Let me go…” I gasped, my spine bowing.
“Say it,” he hissed.
His pace picked up, and he fucked in hard and fast between every word. The sound of our sweat-slick skin slapping cut through the dimly lit room. “Say you’re strong enough to save yourself.”
I couldn’t do anything but nod. The friction of the carpet inflamed my skin with every punishing thrust.
“Say it out loud,” he demanded, his expression furious.
“I’m strong enough to save myself.” And this time I believed it with every fiber of my being. I believed in myself. Fire reforged my broken spirit and vanquished despair.
“You’re going to fight me and win, understand?”
“I will,” I moaned, my breasts bouncing at the ferocious surge of his cock. “I’ll win.”
And then he hit deep. His pelvic bones slammed against mine, grinding to hit that sensitive spot, igniting a heady rush of a climax in a storm of fire.
I submitted to the command of his cock and surrendered to insatiable pleasure that swept outward on flames drenched in bliss.
My intimate walls gripped him hard, milking him in hot, quivering pulses.
One hand was spread against his throat, the other I pressed above his heart.
And in a room carved for moonlight, with the stars shining bright in the velvet night, I came apart with his name silently branded on my lips.
I was barely aware that he’d joined me in his own climax with lusty jerks and loud, gruff grunts, his cock kicking and warmth spilling inside.
Both of us were abandoned in a sensual world, gasping for air and sharing breath. When I came slowly to, I discovered he was still on top of me, his hands buried in my hair.
Graysen softened enough to pull free from my body, his slippery seed seeping between my thighs. He kissed my temple, rolling onto his side and dragging me into him, banding an arm and leg around my figure so I couldn’t wiggle free.
I sighed, then inhaled, soaking up a lungful of his masculine scent. I sank into his embrace, snuggling closer. Right now, truthfully, a small part of me didn’t want to be anywhere else.
I pushed the sweaty hair away from my face and angled my head to find him propped up on a forearm and staring down at me. His eyelids lowered lazily, and he yawned, blinking blearily with a lopsided smile.
“You won’t free me, or can’t?” Because there was a marked difference between the two.
His smile faded. “I can’t,” he replied with a bleak undertone to his voice.
I studied his face, the unease skittering across his features.
The worry that I might fall back into despair, that he’d yet again chosen his mother over me.
Deep down I knew that’s what I’d do too.
I’d strap him to a chopping block and hand over a meat cleaver to the Butcher if it meant that I’d save my mother and sisters.
An itchy feeling tickled the back of my mind, and I absentmindedly drummed my fingers across his chest as I thought about it further.
If his brothers knew what I was up to in the library, then it would stand to reason he did too.
He knew that a massive wall blocked the escape tunnel, and he’d have felt me break down there in absolute darkness.
“Did you let Sage in beneath the Keep? Did you send him down there to find me?”
His mouth tipped up on one side. “You needed a friend.”
I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to die,” I told him honestly, but I was too bone-tired and sated to feel anything else but a soothing comfort from being in his arms. The tamer aspect, I expect.
When he next replied, his words drifted apart and were strangely slurred. Respect shone in his cunning gaze. “You’re the girl who bows to none. You’re going to destroy us all to save yourself.”
I tilted my head, perplexed, but I couldn’t stop the small smile as silvery moonlight glowed inside my soul. He believed I would find freedom and burn the lot of them on my way out. “And you’re okay with that?”
He nodded sluggishly, once, twice, his mouth parting to say something before his features slackened and his eyelids fell shut. His head dropped heavily into the crook of my neck, and then he collapsed, his dead weight pinning me.
I gaped in surprise as I stared up at the ceiling.