Page 99 of Bound By the Sleeper’s Harp

The heat of her skin, the feel of her nipples pressing into him, sent his movements into a frenzy. His balls tightened. He had to slow down or he’d spill himself embarrassingly early.

Her skin was flushed, cheeks pink, eyes bright. “You like when I come inside you, Elle?”

“Ye—yes,” she managed.

“Want me to fill you up, don’t you?”

“Bastian!” she cried. “Are you always this dirty?”

“What’s the matter? Does it make you blush, sweetheart?” It did. Her skin flushed a darker shade of pink. A smirk pulled at his lips. “I want to hear you say it.” He slowed to a stop. Her hands tugged at him to keep going, but he didn’t. “You want that, don’t you? You want me to fill that pretty pussy to the brim?”

“Oh, my God. Yes. Yes—just—keep going.”

“I’d rather it be my name on your lips. But… I still want to hear you say it, baby girl.”

A laugh fell from her chest. “Yes, Bastian. I want you to fill me up. I… I like it.” Her lip caught between her teeth, pinned there.

So damn sexy.

He growled. “Good girl. I know you do.” He started again. Teasing her was the only way to keep from exploding too soon. But it also drove the primal side of him wild. Catching her mouth in his, he brought her to orgasm, crying out her name when his flooded through him, spilling every drop of his seed inside her the way he’d promised. Then he slowed, his kisses turning gentle.

“Don’t think I can ever let you go,” he admitted, voicing his fears, unable to keep them buried. There would be no releasing her. He’d known that, known what would happen if they went this far. His goblin side would never allow it.

But then her next words blindsided him—completely blindsided him.

“You don’t have to,” she managed, her eyelids fluttering open to look at him. Her proclamation made his throat ache. He kissed her more deeply and they stayed on that bed for the rest of the damn afternoon.

34

The next several days passed in a blur of lovemaking, eating, and Vortex. I showed up for every shift, worked until 3:00am, then collapsed into Bastian’s bed where he’d wring every last bit of energy from my body before I drifted off. He kept me plied with pancakes in the mornings, then disappeared for work, leaving me alone for most of the day.

Those were the only moments I had to myself. I used them to read, to exercise in the basement, and even to simply catch my breath. I tried to make him dinner in the evenings, often having something finished by the time he came in. While he hadn’t returned covered in blood, I couldn’t help but hold my breath each night when I heard the garage door.

The hours before work usually passed in a jumble of carnal activities—sex, mostly. He sampled me on just about every surface in the house. Splayed me across the dining room table, let me ride him on the living room couch, took me against whatever wall was closest, bent me over his desk, clutched me to him in the pool, the bath, the sparring mats in the basement. He ruined me for anyone else. I wasn’t sure how I could come back from something like this.

Maybe you don’t have to, said a voice inside my head. And yet, in the quiet moments when I had time to catch my breath, I found myself wondering when the other shoe would drop. Expecting it, because good things didn’t last, because someone like Bastian, a goblin bounty hunter for the fae, would never end up with a mundane human like me.

We just…couldn’t be endgame.

“Ready to go, sugar?” Bastian’s head popped into the doorway of my bathroom as I finished my makeup.

“Yep.” I turned and grinned at him, recalling too acutely the way we’d fucked like animals on the sparring mats just earlier, before I’d come up to get ready for work. He’d shown me the secret button that opened an entire wall of weapons, which in turn, had made my panties flood with wetness. Mostly because I had immediately dredged up fantasies of him using said weapons, which resulted in me being pinned beneath him for the next hour.

A phantom ache lingered between my legs as I squeezed my thighs. Bastian’s eyes darted there, and a smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.

“We can go back down there once we get back. I might even show you how I handle some of the more exotic pieces, if that’s your thing.”

“Or we could skip Vortex entirely,” I suggested, lifting my brows. “Go back down now.” Returning to normalcy had been his idea, after all. I’d worked five nights in a row and still no sign of Luke.

“Mmm.” His hand tightened on the doorframe. Was he was considering it? He blinked, then dropped his hand. “I want to, but I also want you to be safe. As tempted as I am to keep you locked up here—preferably chained to my bed, which is something we absolutely need to explore—I know you want your life back, Eleanor.”

“I do,” I nodded, expelling a huge breath. Truth was, I missed it. I missed Vivi, missed our girls’ nights, which I never thought possible. I missed all of it. But I especially ached for the fantasy he’d created—one where I might go back to school once Luke was gone. “You’re right,” I said at last. “Let’s get this done.”

“Good.” He walked forward. “I got something for you.” A narrow leather band appeared in his hand with a small dagger. It was the one he’d trained me with earlier. I’d never trained with weapons before, but he’d insisted. “Let me see your arm.”

I frowned but complied. He fastened it around my bicep. “There. I think you earned it, after today.”

“I can’t exactly walk into the club with this thing on, Bas.”