Page 71 of When Ashes Fall

Even if I could speak, I wouldn’t. The movement of my throat might cause his claws to pierce my flesh if I tried.

“Do you know how badly I want to see that pretty, defiant mouth wrapped around my dick, taking it deeper and deeper until you choke on it.”

A fire already burned within me, but those words turned it into an inferno—one that only he could quench.

“You were always so good with that tongue of yours,” he continued. “The way you could suck and lick and fuck.”

He groaned the last word.

“I much prefer it when your mouth is occupied instead of running,” he said.

Despite the need clawing at me, his words ignited my ire again.

“Maybe if you weren’t always such a prick,” I said quietly and from between my teeth, so my throat didn’t move too much, “I’d taste you again, but every time you open your mouth, I want to shove my fist into it.”

A cruel smile curved his lips. “I can smell your arousal, Briar. No matter the words you spew, I know the truth.”

“My body reacts to you. I’ll never deny that, and it probably always will, but it doesn’t mean anything.”

“It means everything. You know”—he lifted his free hand to run a claw down the front of my sweater, cutting it open as he went—“my body wouldn’t react in the harem. I believed they’d kill me for it, but knowing that they weren’t you kept me from getting hard. So, to save us both, the beast emerged whenever they came for us. He satisfied their twisted desires.”

I sucked in a small breath at this revelation as cool air caressed my chest. I hadn’t bothered with a binding; what was the point? Now, I would have given anything for that extra barrier between us as he drank me in.

“You can deny everything, but if you truly didn’t want me, your pussy wouldn’t be dripping right now. I bet you’re throbbing with your need for me.”

By the time he said the last word, there was something far more animal than man about him. He was feral and spiraling, and I was the thing he wanted to devour.

His claw grazed the sensitive flesh of my belly before slicing the sweater the rest of the way open.

“The man never desired any of those casters, and neither did the beast.” His claw slid leisurely up my chest. The teasing caress left me weak-kneed and aching for more while my mind spun at his revelations. “Determined to survive, the beast did what was necessary.”

His eyes met mine as his claw circled my nipple. His other hand remained locked around my throat. “I was never a man when they fucked me.”

What he’d endured and what my kind did to him was so heartbreaking that it brought tears to my eyes.

He frowned at me. “Are you crying for yourself or me?”

“For you,” I whispered. “For me and for everything we’ve lost, but mostly for you.”

“Hmm,” he murmured as he watched his claw circling my nipple. “It’s not your tears I crave, Briar. They won’t satisfy me.”

When his hand on my throat constricted, I gulped. My head tipped back to try to keep my air supply open, but he didn’t cut it off.

“You’re more beautiful than I remember,” he said.

I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t speak while he continued to study me.

“You’ve turned into a woman,” he said. “Who’s begging to be fucked.”

His clawed hand dipped down to the edge of my pants. He gripped the button.

“How wet are you?” he inquired. “If I were to slide my hand between your legs, would I find your pussy also weeping for me?”

He would, but I wouldn’t utter those words.

“Is it begging for my tongue or my cock?” he asked as his face moved closer to mine. “Answer me.”

I gulped as his fingers stopped moving and his claws pricked my flesh again. “Both,” I admitted.