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His stillness was eerie, even the pounding of his heart against her slowing as he fixed her with the wide-eyed gaze of a predator. Devin always knew she was prey, the weaker one. In that moment, she needed to be just as still, lest she attract more attention from the beast whose embrace tightened with every stammering breath.
“You made me forget everything else,” Devin whispered, suddenly unable to remain silent. “Every little degradation Beau subjected me to, you made it go away. I barely remember what that fear and pain felt like, Daniel. Gods, I come for him because you… you made it okay. Good.”
The preternatural calm was a lie, Devin realized. His body was poised, ready for the killing strike. It was his eyes though that showed his turmoil beyond the fixed stare. Clamping her lips into a hard line, she gave a minute shake of her head. Refusing to bare more of her soul to him.
“Despite sitting at that stupid desk, watching him destroy me a little more each day, you made it better,” she breathed, eyes widening as she willed her treacherous tongue to stop moving. “Just seeing you, even smelling you… There was hope, somewhere in all of it, and…”
“Enough.” His was a voice dragged over hot coals, wrenched from a place neither of them knew existed. A dark abyss that became more twisted, more voracious as Devin shone a glimpse of light upon it.
“You always made me feel safe.”
“And you hated my touch. Always yelling your accusations of stealing things from you, taking everything away,” he snarled against her lips. “You tried to kill both of us, to destroy all of this, and you expect me to believe I made you feel safe?”
“It scared me, Daniel.”
“And now you’re not, is that it?”
“Not of you.”
As if it had never faltered, the shimmering heat returned. It bloomed through her chest, tangling through her limbs as she struggled to work them free to return his crushing grasp. Whining low in her throat when he kept her imprisoned, she did the only thing she could. Arching her neck, she brought their lips flush. Her tongue teased at the tender flesh, begging for entry. Devin whimpered when he tore his mouth away.
“No.”
Collapsing back into the mattress, Devin sighed, no idea what to say to make him understand. Closing her eyes, she focused on their bond, and gasped at the intense rush. It flared and sparked in the darkness, a live wire that writhed between them. Lost in wonder, she felt the steady push and pull of it, the hard punch of his heartbeat enveloping the softer tempo of hers. Every breath doubled, even beyond what she could hear in the ragged inhalations from him above her. Rey was inside of her in ways that defied all laws of the natural order of things. Teasing along those same tangled threads, she imagined she could see where certain pieces had been ripped off, their ragged edges knotted back together. Some shorn clean apart. She’d done some of that. Rey wasn’t without fault, but she could see where the bond had been worn thin as she’d used it against him, a weapon to hurt her mate.
Devin always was a visual person. It made sense that concentrating on it in this way would give her a better perception.
“This,” Rey groaned, rubbing his scratchy cheek against hers before dropping his mouth to where his claiming bite lay. “Take all of it. Make it right with this.”
It lit her up, a thousand brilliant pinpoints of illumination driving away every dark recess until all that remained was him. Espresso and strawberries came to life on her tongue long before she drew it down his neck, nudging the collar of his shirt aside to taste the wrinkled edges of her mark on him.
“Yes,” Rey moaned as he worked his way between her thighs. Rutting against her once again, unable to stop himself despite his denials.
The thought was fleeting, gone before Devin could grasp it in her fingers. Too lost in the gilded swirl of heat and security enfolding her. She remembered the thundering roar she heard in the dank cellar, the way it vibrated through her. It hadn’t come from around her, but frominside. Long before Rey breached the doors and rushed in to find her gone yet again.
She had no idea how much time passed before she opened her eyes. Devin imagined she had the same dreamy expression as Rey, that their smiles were a match.
Gasping as he entangled their fingers, Devin didn’t argue when he drew her up from the bed. He guided her to the bathroom, stripping away their clothes as if it was the first time. Relearning the hills and valleys, the hard planes and soft curves of each other as he brought her beneath the pounding spray of the shower.
It wasn’t sex, or at least not only that. Devin would have liked nothing more than to sink to her knees, to feel the heavy weight of him on her tongue, but Rey continued to deny her any real act that would lead to completion.
“If you’re not going to fuck me, Daniel, talk to me,” Devin groaned against the hard swell of his chest as she pressed close, trapping his thick shaft between them. She’d thought he felt larger before with him clothed, but now that she could see, there was no denying it. It looked painful, the length shading to red as it throbbed, the heavy weight of his sac tight beneath it.
Devin wanted nothing more than to ease his discomfort. She didn’t understand why he tortured them both like this.
Rey grunted above her, burying his nose in her wet hair as he rocked his hips once before stepping back to rinse the shampoo from his hair.
“What do you want to talk about?”
Devin opened her mouth, taking in a breath that she released immediately on a ragged sigh. Every word dancing upon her tongue sought to ruin this moment, to drag back the shadowed darkness. She didn’t want that. Her doubt lingered, gnawing at the edges of this new calm. The rasping breaths of anger were hot on her neck, waiting for the wrong word to spill past their lips.
“How’s the club?” Lips twisting up to one side, Devin bounced her shoulders once at Rey’s arched brow.
“The new office manager is shit.”
“You haven’t found another one to replace the last one?”
“Thisisthe new one.”
