Chapter 76
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX
ROSAMUND
My beautiful wolf, my protector and friend, my sexy mate. He watches me from under his pale lashes as I tug on the laces of his shirt, a smirk curling the corners of his mouth.
He helps me remove the garment, baring that magnificent chest. Then he reaches for me, and I shake my head.
“Lie down. No touching. Only I get to touch you now.”
“Cruel,” he remarks, but his grin says otherwise. “You promised to tie me up.”
“And I always keep my promises.”
He laughs softly when I push him further up against the mound of pillows. I pull each of his muscular arms and secure his wrists with the holdbacks on either side of the headboard. Test the knots.
“Do you like this?” he asks eventually when I don’t move, gazing at him. “Like having me at your mercy?”
“That’s why you hated it so much back home,” I whisper, figuring things out as Darian’s words settle inside me, slotting into the bigger picture of Valen’s life.
“What?” He looks like a dream, a sexual fantasy, tied up like that, his eyes gleaming, his upper body sculpted, his muscular thighs stretching the fabric of his loose pants… his knot and cock bulging between them.
“You hated being tied up and muzzled.”
A dry laugh leaves his lips. “Who wouldn’t?”
“Valen…” I lick my lips and wish I didn’t have to break this moment, but it’s perfect, with him being literally forced to hear me out. If he doesn’t just snap the bonds and leave the room, that is. “Darian told me a little story.”
A frown mars his brow. “Oh? What about?”
“About the years after your mother went missing.”
He goes very still. “Darian talks too much,” he says eventually, his normally bright eyes shadowed. His hands clench in the flimsy bonds. “My failures are none of his business.”
“Why failures?”
“I… lost myself. Enslaved myself so I wouldn’t have to think or feel. I wasted all the years I could have spent looking for my mother.”
Kneeling between his legs, I place a hand on his chest. “She was already dead, Valen. You didn’t know it then, but it wouldn’t have helped.”
“I chose to join that temple. Chose to stay. Pretended nothing had happened. That one day I’d return, and my mother would be here, waiting for me.”
“Gods, Valen.” Slowly, carefully, I slide my arms around his neck and rest my cheek on his chest. “I’m so sorry. You were only a child.”
“So were you,” he breathes, his heart beating an uneven, jagged rhythm. “When those wolves attacked you.”
“You suffered. You were tied up. Those scars on your back, Valen… You were whipped. Many times.”
“More times than I care to count,” he agrees.
“What else did they do to you?”
“Collected some blood once a month. Had me do heavy chores. It wasn’t that bad, Princess. Darian likes to make a bigger deal out of it than it was.”
I don’t buy it. “You were a slave. For years. Did they put a muzzle on you? Was that why you couldn’t stand it, why you hated having your hands tied? They hurt you. They abused you.”
“The God demands pain and sweat. Blood.” His voice is a low growl.
“I knew that. I wanted information, and okay, maybe I also wanted pain. Physical pain to counter the pain of losing my mother. Their priests also taught me to fight, to meditate, to rest my mind. They didn’t coddle me or pity me.
It helped me in ways staying here with my friends and family wouldn’t have. ”
I nod. “I think I can understand that.”
“I didn’t mean to keep secrets from you,” he whispers.
“And I didn’t mean to pry into your past,” I whisper back.
“That’s okay. You should know who you’re tagging along with.”
“I know who you are, Valen. None of this changes how I see you. If anything, it makes me love you more.” I place a finger on his lips when he seems about to reply, and then trail my hand over the old scars on his shoulders. “Do they hurt?”
He shrugs. “In bad weather, they pull. But they also remind me to empty my mind, to keep fighting.”
“And the tattoos?”
“It’s my world. The tales my mother told me. My anchor to this earth.”
“Gods, I love you so much,” I whisper. “I’m here. Not going anywhere.”
“I know.” His amber eyes find mine, a spark lighting in their cores. His lips tug up. “So… I answered your questions. I’ve been good. Is it time for my reward?”
I let myself be pulled into his teasing to lighten the moment. He’s laid himself bare for me, and now is struggling with dark memories, and Gods, am I going to reward that.
“You deserve everything,” I tell him. “Let me take care of you for a change. Trust me?”
“With my fucking life,” he growls.
“Lie back and let me touch you. Let me show you how much I want you, my wolf. You’re mine.”
“All yours,” he agrees on a breath, hands fisted against the headboard, his gaze fixed on my face. “Body and soul.”
Healing touch, I think. He taught me that. Healing pleasure. And I want him. I want him so badly. This will be healing for both of us.
“Touch me,” he whispers. “Don’t make me snap these stupid bonds and ravish you. My control is tenuous already.”
I lean to lick the corner of his mouth. “I want to see that control break.”
“You may get your wish,” he growls, “if you don’t—”
I bow over him, letting my long hair curtain us as I kiss him. Lips dragging over soft lips, then his tongue tangles with mine, the metal piercing a hard counterpoint.
He sighs against my mouth. “Princess…”
Gods… Seeing him spread like that does things to my insides, turning up the heat in my belly, making me gasp with desire. He’s at my mercy, not because of the ropes, but because he decided to let me be in charge.
His body is mine to explore and arouse, caress and pleasure. Mine to make all better. To break and put back together. The thought makes me dizzy with excitement.
Now that I have him tied up, I undo the laces of his pants and pull them off him. Thankfully, he’s naked underneath, and I stare as his cock swings up, thick and rock-hard.
Good Gods. So impressive.
Then I use my hands to tease his small nipples and trace the ink and scars on his torso. Later, I replace my fingers with my lips, kissing and licking every scar until he sighs and murmurs my name.
Moving down, I dip my tongue into his navel, and then nuzzle his cock, inhaling the musky, nutty scent there. It nudges my cheek.
“Ah, little minx…” His cock jumps when I ghost my lips over its length, then over his knot. “You like tormenting me.”
“Just to clear your mind,” I tease.
A huff of a laugh escapes him. I gaze up the length of his body and take in the strain in his strong frame, in his jaw. He’s so beautiful, aroused and tied up, every muscle in his powerful body standing out in stark relief, lovingly carved.
Now I let my fingertips ghost over his cock, lightly encircle it. Lightly squeeze.
His hips jut up. “Godsdammit. Your mouth.”
“What was that?” I ask sweetly.
“Your mouth, Princess. I need your mouth on my cock.”
“Let me think about it.”
“Think about it?” He groans. “I thought you wanted it.”
I tap a finger against my lips. “Wait, you’re right, I do want to taste you again. I loved it the first time. I loved making you come.”
“Hot damn. Keep talking dirty to me, pretty girl. I might come without you even touching me.”
“No,” I whisper, “you don’t come unless I say so.”
“A monster,” he growls. “I’ve created a lovely monster. Use me, Princess. Do what you wish with me. I’ll be your toyboy.”
“Though not really toy-sized,” I mutter, eyeing again that monstrous cock and knot. “It looks larger than last time.”
“That’s because I’ve been hard for an eternity,” he grouses.
“A little dramatic, are we?”
“It feels even longer.” He shifts on the bed. “I’ve barely been able to piss or sit. Barely been able to think about anything else except fucking you. How is that for dramatic?”
“It will do,” I say smugly.
“You’re the sexiest, hottest woman in existence. In history. In…” He grunts when I touch his cock. “Hells…”
Without a warning, I wrap my lips around the head of his cock and suck. He cries out, hips lifting clean off the mattress, jackknifing into my mouth. I suck harder, bobbing my head, and wrap my hand around the base, where his knot swells.
“Hot damn!” He squirms and writhes. My eyes feast on that powerful, muscular body turning this way and that, as if he can’t take so much pleasure. “Princess!”
I hum in reply, and he yells again, his cock twitching in my mouth. It’s heady, seeing how much I arouse him, how defenseless he is when I touch him. How vulnerable.
How hot.
How delicious. I wish someone had told me I’d be hungry for a man’s cock, that I’d delight in sucking him off, wrenching such desperate sounds from his throat. That I’d love to gag on his erection, fondle his balls, feel his knot.
Though I’m pretty sure it’s not just any man’s cock I want. It’s Valen’s. He’s my first and my last. My body craves his, the same way my soul seeks his soul. I love his mind. I love his heart. I love his flaws and strengths, his desires and frustrations.
And his body…
“Princess,” he growls. “Fuck, I thought I could take this, but I’m about to come all over your face. Fair warning.”
“You won’t,” I whisper, pulling back a bit, “because I want to swallow.”
“Oh, fuck me…”
“Would that be to your liking?” I wink at him. “My lord?”
“Stop torturing me, Sweets, just…” He hisses when I take more of his cock into my mouth, gagging when the head hits the back of my throat. “Shit. Gods below and above. Ah yeah…”
I wish someone had told me I’d get so wet from giving head to my mate, that my pussy would clench and weep with arousal as I swallow him down as far as I can go, using my hand to trace his balls in their sac, full and heavy.
He bucks when I slide my fingers around his massive knot, stroking it, then bucks harder, his cock twitching and jerking in my mouth.
“Fuuuuck…” He comes against my tongue, a jet of hot cum, salty and bitter. I take him even deeper, and I choke a little, but I keep swallowing. “Oh fuck, you’re killing me, you’re saving me, you’re…” Another shot of hot cum hits my throat. “Princess…”
Slowly releasing his cock from my lips, I cough and wipe a hand over my mouth. “I think you liked this.”
“What gave it away?” His laugh is low and relaxed, and when he snaps the bonds and opens his arms for me, I nestle against him, smiling.