Asher didn’t even let me finish. He nodded quickly, breathless. “Yes. Please. Anything.”
I shook my head and huffed out a laugh. “No, it’s your turn. I offered up the balcony, and I’m pretty sure I shaved a couple years off your life.”
He broke out into an unrestrained, hysterical laugh, the sound vibrating positivity through me where I pressed against him. “Oh, my little siren—you’ve definitely shaved years off from whatever ending I have. But you’ve added some, too, so I’d say we’re even.” His eyes darkened, anticipating my fantasy. “Go ahead. Spill it. What twisted little fantasy is living up in that perfect head of yours?”
Heat climbed into my cheeks, slowly creeping. I shifted slightly on top of him, suddenly aware of our closeness.
“I want…something,” I admitted, my voice wavering now as I chewed the inside of my cheek. “But I want control. And it’s sort of violent, and I feel weird even asking—”
With easy tenderness, he tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Don’t feel embarrassed with me. This is your time to be free. If it’s violent and you want control, you can tie me up so I can’t move. We can have a safe word, and the second you say it, everything stops—”
“Yes. That.”
Confusion flickered across Asher’s curious face.
I shook my head, frustrated by the way words tangled on my tongue. “I think I’d need a safe word or gesture for this.”
Understanding softened his features. “Of course.”
“I want to feel you choke me,” I said, the confession spilling out before I could stop it, shame spreading throughout my body fervently.
He didn’t recoil or hesitate. He didn’t sluff me off or shame me. Instead, he wrapped his arms around my back, drawing me in closer, grounding me. His fingers gently swept through my hair until his thumbs pressed reassuring circles into my shoulder blades.
“Fuck, Lennon,” he groaned. “You’re so perfect.”
Our lips collided.
The kiss desperately shattered through whatever restraint I’d been pretending to hold onto. Hunger pulsed through me. Just to be with Asher was lust-filled like I’d never experienced. I wanted him—needed him.
With Asher, there was a safety I had never known. He gifted me a sense of security I had wanted all my life.
He was safe. But not the safeness of settling. No. He was so much more. The kind you found once in a lifetime. The kind of safe you spent your entire life searching for. The kind of man who protected women. The kind of man who protected his people.
He was that.
A man who shielded what was his.
And somehow, he had chosen me.
“Fermati.”
Asher pulled back, his brows creased as he attempted to understand.
I couldn’t quite meet his eyes when I whispered, “My safe word.”
His hands reached for mine, intertwining our fingers and guiding them to his mouth. His lips brushed soft kisses over my knuckles. His eyes closed briefly, the gesture intimate between us.
An unspoken promise.
A flutter twirled inside my stomach, my core aching for him.
I stood and pulled him with me, leading him down the path toward the opening where the spring-fed water spread wide open. A devious smile curved along my mouth. An old fantasy—dark and submerged—only reaching the surface, coaxed out by the way he handled me. Carefully. Patiently. Like I was something worth preserving.
I walked faster, heart racing, heat rising inside me that wanted him now. I didn’t want to ration myself. I wanted to be free. I wanted to devour it. To devour him.
My desires had been chained down for so long—everything taken from me without permission.
But this?
