North steps around the Soothsayer, pointedly keeping his eyes on me and not the surly god-bond, and I smile at him softly, the type I reserve just for my Bonded. He smiles back before looking me over from head to toe, assessing me for any damage that might be left behind, but, thanks to the Soothsayer, I’m completely healed now.
A shiver of anticipation runs down my spine.
“I don’t care what the god-bond wants, Bonded. What doyouwant? If you’re tired, you should get some rest. Everything else can, and will, wait.”
I open my mouth but nothing comes out, my eyes darting around at each of them. I don’t want to start a fight with them. I’m definitely too tired for that, but am I too tired to give the god-bond what he wants?
No.
I need the connection as much as it does, and my bond is very interested in the dark hunger in its void eyes.
It just feels impossible to speak with them all staring at me like that.
“You have a meeting in the morning. Go get some sleep, brother.”
Relief floods me at Nox’s words, the tension in my body leaving me in a rush. When North sees it, he turns and nods at him, and then leans down to kiss me as he heads back towards the door. The reassurance that his brother is here with me, for however long he deems necessary, is enough for him.
It’s not enough for Atlas, though.
Nox stares him down for a minute before he says, “You too, Bassinger. I’ll call you both if we need something.”
That’s Draven code for ‘if shit hits the fan in here’, because I doubt there’s much that Nox couldn’t handle for himself.
North shoots a look at Atlas and pushes the door open, gesturing for him to leave. I’m waiting for the argument to start up, and a full tense minute of silence passes before, finally, Atlas ducks down to kiss me as well. Without another word, he leaves. North just shoots me a look, one full of fiery promise and possession, before he leaves as well.
Nox pulls his jacket off as shadows fall away from his body, Mephis and Procel forming at his feet, and he takes a seat on the small, plush chair in the corner. He settles himself there without a word, as calm and self-assured in this moment and what’s about to happen as ever, but my heart starts thudding hard in my chest the more I look at him.
He’s here to keep me safe.
The same way Gryphon had when we’d Bonded, back when Nox had no desire to be in the same room as me, let alone have sex with me. He’s here to make sure that this god-bond really is going to pleasure me and treat me with the same respect that any of them would.
He’s going to watch it all.
My eyes flick down at Gabe again, checking that he really is asleep. There’s nothing for me to worry about, he’s out cold. My only real concern about him waking up is that he’s always been my most cautious Bonded about sex, the one who draws the line at what my bond does when she takes control. I wasn’t lying when I said I don’t have it in me to fight them on this. I let out a sigh and roll my shoulders back, confident that nothing is going to go wrong here. The moment I look back up to the Soothsayer, he stalks back to me.
He’s done waiting.
It’s a good thing I’m done fighting this as well.
With a single hand wrapped around my thigh, the god-bond lifts me up and crushes me into his chest with the other, his lips crushing down onto mine in a biting claim of a kiss. There’s a stark difference between the man and the bond. The ways they move are nothing more than an echo of each other. I find myself desperate to know how far those differences go.
Will they fuck differently too?
Will he eat me out like Gryphon does, as though he’s a starved man who needs the taste of me to survive?
“Yes, to all of it. I will give you everything you want and need, Bonded,” he murmurs into my ear, barely louder than the sound of my heart thumping in my chest as he walks us around to the other side of my monstrously huge bed.
A shiver runs down my spine at the feel of his breath against my neck. It’s a simple seduction that I’m not sure he even realizes he’s doing, but it has me wiggling in his arms all the same. I want to feel that breath lower, over my chest and my nipples, the planes of my belly, between my thighs. Fuck, I want to feel it on every inch of my skin as he explores and claims this version of me.
I want to be his favorite vessel.
I want him to love me like he loves my bond. I want him to be desperate for us both, to hunger formyattention as much as the god’s within me.
I want everything.
The god-bond spreads me out onto the bed carefully, tugging at my clothes in a rough demand until I’m naked for him, his eyes roaming over me as though he’s committing every little freckle and dimple to memory. I don’t feel shy about it either. I stretch out and arch my back a little, smiling at the way his eyes glue themselves to the swell of my breasts as I move.
He undresses in a frenzy of tearing fabrics and buttons popping away from their stitching, as though the very idea of unzipping and carefully disrobing is an insult to both of us and our Bond.
