Chapter 22
twenty-two
. . .
peony
After our lunchtime escapade, we clean up together, then I head back to my own room to take a shower because I’m covered in sweat and Rupert’s cum. I’m a bit tender between the legs, but I’ll grow accustomed to him after a while.
When Kellen finally returns, I’m certain that he heard us all the way across the mansion last night because he wears a knowing smirk when he greets me that evening. But he doesn’t comment, and I don’t bring it up, either.
Whatever Rupert and I have is fragile and young, and I want to protect it.
I’m feeling myself after the last twenty-four hours, so I cook a big dinner that night with Rupert’s help. We work seamlessly together in the kitchen, and it reminds me of my days at the restaurant.
Maybe if I can get my feet underneath me, I could try working my way up to that again. But that would mean leaving my job here, and I don’t know if I want to do that, either. Rupert would have to hire someone else, and then he would go back into hiding, which I don’t want for him.
After dinner, when Kellen makes himself scarce again, Rupert takes my hand and leans down to whisper in my ear.
“Would you like to sleep in my room again tonight?”
Oh, I would love that more than anything.
I bounce up on my toes and kiss his cheek. “Please. Lead the way.”
Instead of walking together to his room, Rupert scoops me into his arms and carries me up the stairs, then all the way down the east wing without any change in his breathing. I clutch him around the neck, and he chuckles.
“I’m not going to drop you,” he says, leaning down to bump my nose with his.
“It’s just so high up!” I’m a good four feet off the floor. No one’s ever just carried me around like a pet cat before.
“Not for long.” Rupert manages to open the door with me still in his arms and carries me inside, down the hallway to his room, where he sets me on the bed.
He looms over me, licking his chops as he surveys me up and down.
I don’t move as he slips off my cardigan, then reaches for the hem of my shirt.
I help him take off my clothes until I’m bare in front of him, but he’s still dressed.
“Not fair,” I grouse. With a snort of amusement, my monster takes off his own clothes, one item at a time, until he’s as naked as someone covered in fur can be. His sheath has already parted, the head of his pink, wet cock starting to poke out.
I’m curious about it, so I slide off the bed and kneel on the ground in front of him. Rupert arches a brow, watching me carefully.
“Why are you on the floor, Peony?”
I shush him with one hand, focused completely on the object in front of me.
Rupert’s breathing speeds up as I reach out and pet his furry sheath, and even more of his cock emerges.
But my curiosity insists I explore more.
I glance up at him for permission, and he grants it with a nod, his eyes wide as I trace my fingers down underneath, where two rather large, furry balls are hanging.
Cupping one in my palm, I’m surprised by how significant and heavy it is. Rupert inhales sharply, and now he’s fully engorged, his cock pulsing next to my cheek. He grunts as I play with them, getting to know them, and leans against the wardrobe.
Keeping one hand on his plentiful balls, I bring the other up to his bare flesh, which is hot to the touch and smooth with moisture. My hand skates along his cock, and Rupert bites his lip.
“Your hands are so wonderful,” he says in a heady voice.
“Wait until you feel my mouth.” Before he can object, I raise my head and slip that blunt head between my lips. Rupert’s whole body convulses.
“Peony!” His neck bows as I take more, enveloping him.
He’s staring down at me with huge, round eyes, as if he can’t believe what he’s seeing while I bring him back out of my mouth again, licking my way around that textured crown before sliding him deep into my throat.
His strangled moan fills the room, and I know I’m doing a good job.
Perfect. I want to bring him so much pleasure his head spins. I want to show him how I feel, how it means the world to me that he’s let me in.
Plus, his cock is incredible, and he tastes… strangely delicious. His scent is much stronger here, and just breathing it in is making me rub my thighs together. The flavor is unlike other men, though—it’s salty and yet also sweet, and the more he leaks for me, the more I lap it up and swallow it.
“Peony.” Rupert’s voice is firm and unyielding. “Get on the bed.”
I look up, my mouth full of him, wondering if I’ve done it wrong.
“I need to fuck you. Right now.” Rupert’s eyes are wild—blazing—and so I obey, releasing him from between my lips and then stumbling back to the bed.
“Bend over it,” Rupert commands, and I shiver from my throat down to my pussy at the strictness in his tone.
Obediently, I stretch my arms across the bed and lift my ass into the air. I’m answered with a groan of appreciation. When I glance over my shoulder, Rupert’s crouched behind me, almost inspecting me.
Then, his tongue laves over my exposed clit, and I sink forward into the bed.
“Rupert!”
He grabs my thighs and presses his tongue down harder, making my toes curl. Then he drags it upward to my opening, drinking from me like I’m a melting ice cream cone.
“So damnably good,” Rupert says, just before he returns to making loops around my clit. He flicks it, then circles again, and soon I’m mewling and grinding myself against his face.
“Please,” I find myself begging. “I need you. Please.”
One clawed hand grips my ass, and Rupert rises to his feet. Still holding me tight, so I can feel the sharp tips in my flesh, he nudges me open, then thrusts into me.
I gasp at how much tighter everything is in this position, and he halts partway, gripping me even harder.
“I can’t believe this little cunt can take me,” Rupert mutters, and I’m not sure if he’s saying it to me or himself. “Utterly perfect.”
Taking care not to go too deep too soon, he tests the waters until I’m used to him. It’s just as delicious of a stretch as before, and I tremble all over as he pushes in as far as he can.
“Fuck.” Rupert growls behind me as he pauses there. “I just want to let off in you over and over. Watch my cum drip from you. Smear it all over you so you smell like me.”
He’s talking so filthy, it turns me on even more, and I roll my hips forward against the bed so I can take him in again. I’m rewarded with a low moan, and then, Rupert’s instinct takes over.
He growls low in his throat and plunges into me, spreading me open for him. That ring buries itself deep, then pulls back out again in a feral rhythm. I grip the comforter, burying my face in it so it can swallow up my screams.
He takes me ruthlessly against the bed, snarling in a way he hasn’t before, raking his claws down my back with every stroke. I orgasm hard, so hard my head swims, but he isn’t done.
“More,” he says low in his throat. “Give me more.”
My body obeys, rocking in time with his, and then he nurses another, even bigger climax out of me. It’s like we were made to fit each other the way he stimulates every last part of me, his steadily growing roars driving me deeper and deeper into a pool of pleasure that never ends.
When he finally explodes, it’s an eruption inside me. Rupert climaxes with such ferocity that it nearly winds me, and his cum spurts out as he thrusts again, moaning with his own bliss.
After a moment passes, Rupert speaks.
“Peony?” He sounds different, more… human. “Are you all right?”
I moan, and he hastily withdraws from me, sending more of his cum spilling down my thighs.
“I-I’m fine,” I manage, crawling up onto the bed so I can finally relax my legs, which are shivering underneath me.
“Your back.” I turn around to find Rupert staring at me, horrified. “I scratched you.”
I reach around and smooth my hand down my spine. It doesn’t feel bad.
“Not a big deal.” I smile up at him. “It felt good, actually. I’m not bleeding or anything.”
Rupert shakes his head, though, like he doesn’t believe me. “I went too far. I hurt you. The… the monster hurt you.”
I frown at him. “What? You didn’t hurt me. Rupert, listen.” I take his hands in mine and tug him toward the bed, then down onto it with me. For a creature so big, he looks small. “You didn’t go overboard. It’s all right.”
“But what if it’s worse next time? What if I really lose control?” He balls his hands into fists.
“You won’t.” I sigh and pull his face into my chest. “And hell, so what if you do a little? That was some of the best sex of my life. I liked it.”
Rupert doesn’t move, but he doesn’t relax, either, as I stroke his ears.
“Try not to worry,” I tell him. “It’s all right to be yourself. I won’t break.”
I can see he wants to believe me, but he doesn’t. Not yet.
rupert
Peony drifts off soon after I have her bundled up in my arms under the duvet, but I can’t stop spinning in my head how the world changed in that moment.
I was single-mindedly focused on her, on making her mine.
I would consume her, filling her up again and again, owning her body as much as her heart.
It was like my vision narrowed to this single point, and then I lost control of it, watching as my body devoured hers, as my claws dragged down her back, as she screamed and writhed underneath me.
I can’t sleep until the wee hours of the morning, only finally drifting off as the sun comes up. When I spring awake, the sun is already high in the sky, and Peony is gone.
Instantly, I’m alert, wondering where she is, whether she’s safe. Then my sense of human reason comes back, and I smell her in the bed, but she must have left a few hours ago without disturbing me.
When I make my way out into the main room searching for her, a plate sits on the table by my chair.
Your favorite.
-P
I pick up the sandwich and bite into it, finding arugula, goat cheese, and fig. It’s a nice, light lunch, and it settles my soul to know Peony is simply off somewhere cleaning, and made sure to let me know she hadn’t forgotten about me.
I feel strange knowing she is already at work while I laze about. We will have to have a discussion about her hours—and how our relationship has changed now.
It’s lovely to make my way down the stairs in the daytime. I forgot what it was like to walk around my own home in the open.
After searching the manor, I find Peony in the washing room with the linens. Her bright smile when she sees me fills me up with warm bubbles, and so I help her with the fiddly fitted sheet, marveling at how deftly she folds it.
“I’ve never seen anyone succeed at that in any clean manner,” I say as she adds it to the stack in the hamper.
“Learned it from a video.” She winks as she passes me, heading out into the hall. I follow her to the linen closet and help her put all her acquisitions away again. “I can also fold the hell out of a shirt. Like, in the air, with my eyes closed.”
“Oh? That’s a feat.”
I love her smiles. I could eat them all and still want more.
She keeps talking as she works, and I follow her around like an idiot puppy. But I can’t help myself.
I know what I want. I want this, forever, until we both get old and die. Now I simply need to convince Peony that she wants it, too.