Page 135 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

“I see,” she breathed in that small voice that shot blood south again.

It came out of nowhere. I laughed so hard she flinched.

“Why did you think I needed a moment?”

“I don’t know. I don’t usually stay after, and I try to take what I want before—”

“Before.” They come. “You said try. Try to take what you want.”

She blinked once. “I sometimes get bored before I do, so I don’t, you know what.” She quickly put a hand over my mouth, glaring at me. “Don’t laugh. This is so embarrassing,” she whispered.

I pulled her hand down. “That's sad, little bird. I wouldn’t dare laugh. Did I bore you, too? Actually, don’t answer that. You came all over my cock.”

She went beet red. Why for I had no idea. “Malik.”

“Fuck, where else do I need to fuck you to start calling me Mal.”

“I like your name.”

I wanted to know what else of mine she liked. “Do you mind this?” I asked, pulling onto her nipple until a squeak of a whimper left her lips.

“You don’t have to be gentle with me. I know what you like. Celia talked.”

My whole body froze. “Celia was a whore. Her job was to take me off the edge, not push me over to another.”

Her mouth parted open, but no words came out for a while. “Isn’t that what you want from me?”

“I want to stay on this edge and dangle over it until you decide to push me.”

“I don’t like that.”

“Didn’t sound like it.”

“I want to be good for you.”

“Sweetheart, you have no idea how good you were for me.” Good? She was perfect.

“Don’t hold back on me.”

“Do you want to be treated like a whore, Thora, is that it?”

“What if I want to?”

My silly little bird. “You can’t. You’re mine.”

“Then treat me like I am yours.”

A knock rasped at the door, and I dropped my head back. Some god was working hard against me. “Fuck off!”

“It is an emergency, Commander,” one of my Eldritch soldiers called.

If it wasn’t for the worry on her face, I wouldn’t have given a single damn.

“Stay awake for me?” I asked. For me, not because of nightmares, or the past, or whatever haunts your thoughts behind those vivid eyes, stay for me. But I could not say that just yet. I couldn’t say so many things, but I was hoping she’d know like she always did.

“I will wait for you,” she said, lifting on her tiptoes and leaving a chaste kiss on my lips.

Despite how tempted I was to ruin every bit of innocence left in those touches, I wanted to take my time with her. I wanted to watch it all unfold before me. Slowly.