Page 149 of Blood Curse

My back struck the mattress. She sat across my hips with her red hair falling around the Crown, green eyes bright and mouth swollen from my kisses.

Power suited her when it belonged to her.

It suited her even better when it didn’t require anybody else to lose theirs.

She opened the rest of my shirt and bent to kiss my chest. I lifted my arms above my head and closed my hands around the wooden rail.

Bryony went still.

I could have moved before she drew another breath. Instead, I kept my hands where I had placed them.

She covered my wrists with one hand.

Her hold couldn’t have kept a vampire in place. That was what made it perfect.

“You can stop whenever you want,” she said.

“So can you.”

“You could break my grip before I felt you move.”

“That makes this possible. The Crown leaves me trapped inside a body that obeys. You leave every movement available.”

“I trust you to use it if you stop wanting this.”

“I won’t stay still to protect your feelings.”

“It already does.”

She pressed my wrists into the mattress.

I stayed.

The surrender belonged to me because I could end it. Her pleasure in holding me belonged to her because she hadn’t taken the choice away.

The Crown gave us nothing but cold metal and silence.

Bryony kissed down my stomach. Her free hand opened my trousers and released my cock. She wrapped her fingers around me, stroking once from base to tip.

Fuck.

My grip tightened on the rail.

She watched my face as her mouth closed over the head.

Her tongue moved under my cock while her hand worked the length she couldn’t take. I wanted to touch her hair and guide her pace.

I kept my hands above my head.

Bryony took me deeper. My hips lifted before I stopped them.

She smiled around my cock.

“Dangerous woman,” I said.

She released me with a slow movement of her mouth. “You can stop me.”

“I don’t want to.”