Page 34 of Ashborne Forged

‘Keep watching me, or I’ll have to slow down further.’

Her eyes flew open. ‘Please don’t!’ Her expression dropping to tormented pleading when I shrugged my jacket off, then started on the shirt. With each slow reveal, she trembled, until, when I finally dropped the shirt to the ground behind me, her hands twitched at her sides.

‘I want to touch you,’ she whispered in my head, and there was a flash, an image, there for a blink, then gone, of her hands plunging into my hair and pulling me closer—

My breath rushed out of me.

‘Soon.’ But the incredible intimacy, the union of speaking in our minds, was suddenly cloying. I cleared my throat. “The beauty of this kind of delay is, your peak will be easier to reach,” I said in a hoarse croak, as I reached for my own belt and buttons.

Her round gaze dropped from my eyes, to where my hands worked, and her throat bobbed. “I don’t think it will be hard,” she said breathlessly.

“Oh, it’s hard,” I muttered, finally releasing my straining cock from the stricture of the leather.

She spluttered a laugh, but only for a moment. It died in her throat as I returned to my feet, looming over her, trailing fingers up that beautiful slice of bare skin, until my fingers touched the undersides of her breasts, and for the first time, I allowed my hands to travel under her clothing to cup the weight, and tease those rivet-hard nipples with my thumbs.

She exhaled heavily, arching her back to press into that touch, her eyes dragging closed again.

“Eyes on me,” I growled, before I could catch myself and soften the tone. But her beautiful blue eyes popped open again, flashing with need that was reflected in the bond, and locked on mine. There was no fear in that gaze. Only eagerness. “From this point on, you speak,” I instructed her quietly, trying desperately to keep my voice warm, despite the harsh gravel. “You tell me if you like it. You tell me if you don’t. Do you understand?”

She nodded quickly.

“I always want to know what pleases you,” I rasped.

“You please me,” she breathed and dear God help me, I almost gave in and dove on her. Her breath caught as I leaned closer, but I caught myself. Cursing under my breath.

“That’s good,” I croaked. “But I need to know, always, what pleases you—and what doesn’t. Don’t hesitate.”

Grace nodded again, and I rewarded her, flicking both nipples with the calloused sides of my thumbs. She shivered. Her eyes glazed, but she stayed locked in.

And I kept her there as I began to undress her…

11. Safe Words

SOUNDTRACK: Chokehold by Sleep Token

~ VOSKI ~

I slid hands around Grace’s body, pushed the shirt and jacket aside.

‘Let your arms fall back.’

She did as I asked, and I slipped hands up, up, up, my palms sliding over her breasts, then higher, to push back until the garments fell to the floor with a thick slap. I slowly tugged the shirt out of its tuck at the back of her trousers. She almost lost her balance and fell into me—but caught herself before she touched me.

‘Good girl,’ I rasped in her head, and her lips quirked up in a smile.

The world shrank in those minutes while I unwrapped her like a present, then made her watch as I finally bared myself completely as well, until we stood, toe to toe, unclothed, both panting.

The air was heavy, warm, the firelight flickering over her skin in ways I wanted to follow with my fingers. With my body. The anticipation was a painful ache in my belly, and my cock strained.

I swallowed hard. “The delay,” I croaked. “It increases the fire for both of us. I’m going to show you—but if at any time it’s too intense, or you feel unsafe, use the safe words we agreed upon.”

Her brow pinched. “The safe words?”

She felt so close, so connected, I tried something new—taking a memory and placing it in her head as I would with Kham. Though it wasn’t nearly as easy. I was sure she missed pieces of it.

But she blinked rapidly, her expression twitching from awe to confusion to concentration—but she saw enough, at least. Those moments in the clearing, the first time she’d found me, when her appearance had almost sent me out of my skin, and I’d hurt her. Frightened her desperately.

God, my chest ached at the memory…