Chapter 34 Just a Voice in the Dark #2
Her breath stutters. The honey in her eyes turns to shadow as her pupils expand, leaving only a thin, shimmering ring of gold around the darkness.
“Let me fix what he stole from us,” my voice is unsteady. “Let me make you forget his words ever existed."
She still doesn’t speak.
My eyes don’t leave hers as I move forward on all fours, one hand following the other, across the floor.
The weathered planks are a frozen wasteland between us, rime crystallizing beneath my hands with every inch I gain.
I am a creature of the cold, dragging my frost toward the only heat I’ve ever known.
I stay low, a predator offering his throat.
Her chest rises and falls faster. I can scent the shift—fear giving way to something else.
“Sael?n,” I plead. “Tell me to stop and I will.” Her pulse pounds in my ears like it’s my own.
I reach the edge of the tub. My claws curl over the porcelain rim, careful not to scrape. I will not startle her again.
Her thighs press together beneath the water. Her arms still wrapped tightly around herself, but her eyes—
Thal?n, her eyes are burning.
“Do you want me to talk the way he did?” I ask quietly, holding her gaze. “You want me to use those words? The crude ones that made you come so hard it woke me from my sleep?”
Her lips part. She inhales sharply.
I lean closer. “I’ll give them to you thal’morin. I’ll give you whatever you want.”
Her arms twitch.
“Every filthy word you want to hear is yours. But when you come—when you fall apart—it’ll be my voice you hear. Not his!”
I drag one claw lightly along the outside of the tub—a whisper of sound.
“So tell me, Lumi.” I tilt my head, watching her like prey I’m about to devour. “What do you want me to say?”
She blinks rapidly, but no sound escapes her.
“If you’re not going to tell me, I’m just going to have to guess.”
Her eyes widen slightly.
“Andrik, you don’t need to do this,” she whispers.
“If you don’t want this... then why do you smell like that?”
“It’s not something I can control.”
“Mmm... Do you want me to stop, Lumi?” I ask.
She bites her bottom lip as she meets my eyes. She shakes her head.
“Put your hands on the edge of the tub,” I say quietly. “Both of them. Where I can see them.”
She pauses, but only for a heartbeat, before her fingers find the curved lip. Pale knuckles against the white enamel.
“Now lean back,” I murmur. “Let the water hold you.”
Her body sinks lower, head tipping back against the ledge. The column of her throat is left vulnerable. Kaemorin. My fangs ache to mark her skin.
“Spread your legs.”
Her breath catches, but I hold her gaze.
“Do it, Lumi. Let me see.”
Slowly, her thighs part beneath the water.
The scent of her arousal seeps into my pores. My claws dig into the tub, scouring the paint.
“Good,” I rasp. “That’s—fuck, that’s perfect.”
The word tastes foreign on my tongue, but her pupils dilate, so I keep going.
“Touch yourself,” I hum, voice dropping lower. “Slowly. The way you did for him.”
Her hand drifts down hesitantly.
“Don’t be shy now, thal’kisha,” I lean even closer, watching every movement. “You weren’t shy when you thought it was me earlier. Were you?”
Her fingers slip between her thighs.
“That’s it,” I praise. “Show me what you did. Show me how you touched that pretty pussy while you thought I was watching.”
A whimper breaks from her throat.
There it is.
Her body responds. Hips jerking forward like the word physically touched her. The water laps against her breasts, and the scent of her vaelis thickens in the air.
“Does it feel good?” I ask softly. “Knowing I’m really here this time? That it’s my eyes on you, my voice in your ears?”
“Andrik.”
“Say it again.” It’s not a request. “I want to hear you moan my name while you fuck yourself with your fingers.”
Her hand moves faster.
“What an obedient little human,” I lean closer, until my breath ghosts across her wet skin. “You will not come until I give you permission. Do you understand?”
She nods.
“Use your words, Lumi.”
“Yes. I understand.”
“Good.”
Her hand speeds up, desperate for more.
“Slower.”
Her movements falter. She whimpers in protest.
“I said slower,” I repeat, voice harsher than either of us is used to. “If you want to come, you’ll do exactly as I say.”
Her fingers move torturously slow.
“Better.” I drag a claw along the outside of the tub again. The scraping sound makes her shiver.
“Tell me how it feels.”
“It—it feels—” She can barely form words.
“Does it ache?” I tease. “That empty feeling? Knowing your fingers aren’t enough?”
“Yes.”
“And you want more, hmm, Sael?n?” I rasp. “You want me to fill that needy pussy until the ache goes away?”
Her hips buck against her hand.
“Stop.”
She freezes.
Her pulse jumps in her throat. The bond screams at me to give her what she needs.
“Look at me,” I command softly.
Her eyes find mine, glassy and hooded.
“You don’t come until I say you can,” I remind her. “Not a second before. Because this—” I gesture to her spread legs, her trembling body, “—belongs to me.”
I let the silence stretch between us so she can feel the weight of my words.
“Again. Slow circles, Lumi,” I settle back, drinking her in. “Show me how my mate likes being touched.”
Her hand starts moving again, but she’s holding back.
“Faster, my little flamebound soul.”
Her breath hitches.
I count her heartbeats through the bond. The second her pulse starts racing, and her thighs start to shake, I stop her.
A broken sound tears from her throat.
“Please, Andrik. I’m sorry. Please—”
I tilt my head and study her face. “You gave him that beautiful release. Now you’re going to earn the right to give it to me.”
I lean forward, chest folding over the lip of the tub, until I’m a whisper from her ear.
“He made you play a game, didn’t he?” I murmur against her ear.
She nods frantically.
“Then let's play our own game, Sael?n.”
She’s right on the edge. Her hand stutters between her thighs. I catch her wrist and pin it gently to the edge of the basin. “I’m going to say things. And you’re going to tell me—with your body—what you like.”
“What—”
I slip two fingers inside her before she can finish the question.
Her freehand grasps my forearm.
“There we go,” I smirk as I press a kiss to her forehead. “Now... let’s play.”
She clenches around me immediately.
“Ready, my love?” I hum.
Her walls pulse gently around my fingers.
Noted.
I pull back slightly and try another.
“You’re so beautiful like this.”
Another flutter. Similar to the first. Pleasant, but not near enough to make her fall apart.
“You feel so good wrapped around me, sweetheart.” I purr.
She squeezes a bit harder.
Getting closer.
“Such a good girl for me, Lumi.”
Her whole body tenses. The strongest reaction yet. Her virae grips me tightly.
I try the vraks?n equivalent.
“My sweet thal’kisha wants more, doesn’t she?”
She moans loudly, her body arches.
Maybe she likes my language more than she realizes.
“That’s it,” I growl, pumping my fingers slowly. “You’re mine, aren’t you?”
She pulses in a steady rhythm around my fingers.
“Yes, I’m yours. Please, let me come.” She whines.
I curl my fingers, finding her favorite spot, as I lean down, dragging my tongue down her throat.
“Do you want to come on my fingers, baby?”
She tenses, going rigid in my arms. Her walls clamp down on me so hard I can barely move them.
Thrahk.
“That’s it,” I breathe, stunned by the intensity. “That’s the one, isn’t it?”
“Please. Please don’t stop—”
“Oh, I’m not stopping, baby,” I emphasize the word. “I’m just getting started.”
I pump my fingers harder now. Water is splashing everywhere. I watch as pleasure twists her features.
“That’s all it takes, hmm?” I taunt. “Just one simple, human word, and your desperate little body can’t hang on anymore.”
“I love you,” she pants through choked breath.
My fingers falter, I almost give in, but I know exactly what she’s doing.
“I love you too,” I whisper. “But that’s not going to work.”
I bring her right to the precipice where she’s about to shatter—then pull my fingers free.
“No, please, Andrik. I’ll do anything.”
“Finish, Lumi,” I command, sitting back on my heels. “Touch yourself, baby. Make yourself come while I watch.”
Her eyes are wild, full of desperation, tears gathering in the corners.
My hand hovers over her core, “Tell me whose pussy this is.”
Her breath shudders, fingernails digging into my arm.
“Say it, Lumi.”
“Yours—” The word breaks. “It’s yours, Andrik. Only yours.”
I growl low in my chest. I hold back for another agonizing minute.
“Andrik, help. Please.”
“I know, ael’soryn,” my voice softens just slightly. “I know it aches, but you’re going to wait.” (My breath in the dark.)
I rise to my full height.
Her eyes widen in panic.
“Where are you going?”
“Nowhere,” I reach for the hem of my shirt and pull it over my head, carefully tugging it over my antlers. “I’m just done watching from the sidelines.”
Her gaze tracks the movement, falling down my chest, my stomach, then lower.
I work the ties of my pants loose.
“Because, unlike him, I’m not just a voice in the dark, Lumi.” I step out of them. Bare before her. “I’m real, and I can back up every single one of my words.”
I step into the tub, water surges over the ledge, drowning the floor.