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He started to laugh, the tension ebbing. Reaching for my hair, he began to play with the length, his features going soft as he grew thoughtful. “The devious student has finally found she can no longer lie to get what she wants.”
His words annoyed me. “I had good reason to do the things I did.”
“So did I,” he purred.
Another impasse.
Glittering green eyes running all over my naked body, Cyderial said, “You look beautiful this morning.”
Slimy and leaking? Hair tangled and skin sticky, I didn’t feel very pretty.
Looking him over as he lounged under me as if I had pinned him to the mat, I found him intimidating. The muscles of his abdomen defined yet relaxed, pectoral muscles, broad shoulders, strong jaw, high cheekbones, vorec-green eyes.
Blond.
I had always noted his pale-blond hair.
As his mate, if I were to be an acceptable one, was I supposed to touch it the way he was touching mine? I had fisted it more than once in a sexual frenzy, and he hadn’t seemed to mind. Had it been soft?
I had been too focused on my own pleasure to notice.
His lips were harsh, but when he used them on my body, they could be silken. But more often, he was rough with them.
I think I preferred rough to soft.
“What are you thinking?” he murmured, enjoying my obvious scrutiny.
That my survival would require a massive shift in perspective. “You look different when you’re not scowling or glaring. Your smile, it makes me nervous.”
Maybe I could touch him, just once. Show him I was confident and could earn freedoms he would not let me buy with sexual favors.
Tentatively, I reached forward, unsure what I was doing.
With bated breath, he waited.
Slowly, I took him by the throat, the same way he had done to me back in his office. Talons dancing over a vital artery, I felt an unexpected growl in my chest, even as I leaned closer, mesmerized by what I could do with a flick of my fingers.
I could rip his larynx right out, make a different kind of mess all over the bed.
But no matter how much latent rage was festering deep inside me, I could not bring myself to break his skin.
Minutely raising his chin to give me a clearer target, Cyderial bared his throat to his captive.
To his mate.
I drew in a deep breath, my hair falling around me, and I crouched over him.
I could kiss him this way, my mouth hovering over his.
The noise in my chest wavered between violence and another sound; there was no question he knew my thoughts were dark.
But I was fighting to remember my choices that day might define my next ten years. Still, I growled, “I used to dream of painting my talons pink just to piss you off. Hiding in my room with prohibited magazines, sewing a dress from rags in the dark.” Anger glittering in my dark eyes, I hissed, “You destroyed my dress.”
Obliterated it to shreds. For all I knew, it was still on his floor.
Hovering over his lips, I added, “I want a new one that does not make me feel ashamed.”
“Lorieyn.” Tucking my hair behind my ear, he cupped my cheek. Tender, he murmured, “This will get easier.”
