She stilled, her expression tightening, and for an instant he thought she might look at him with that same need and vulnerability as when he’d held her in his lap and she’d melted into his touch…but no such luck.
“I done.” Her expression returned to cool and distant, as if she’d never been vulnerable in his arms, as if he didn’t know her deepest pain and darkest secrets. “Your turn.”
Being shut out after knowing her soul stung a lot more than expected. It pissed him off a little, too.
The silence stretched, the rush of water between them the only sound.
Sometimes it took a fucking battering ram.
“Wash me.”
Her head snapped up. “What?”
“Bound arms. I can’t clean myself.”
“I—”
He didn’t wait for her to tell him no. He stepped beneath the falling water. Spray pelted his skin and sent every cell roaring to life. His loincloth cleaved to his hips and thighs, making no secret of his cock rising beneath.
Her gaze darkened, her fangs peeking out as her mouth opened on a silent O.
Fuck. The way she watched him, tracking every rivulet that streamed down his chest and disappeared beneath the cloth sitting low on his hips. That same open need, awe, and uncertainty sparkling in her gaze as they had back in the cave.
It made him hard as hells.
“Blood won’t come off without some help.” The statement might have been a little stretch of the truth. The force of the jet was strong enough to knock most of the grime and blood away, but he’d never pretended to be anything but ruthless when it came to her.
She swallowed hard. Her hands fisted by her sides.
Her hesitation told him everything. Tenderness intermingled with lust and need. “You said no one had touched you skin to skin before me. How about the other way around? Have you touched anyone?”
She froze, and for an instant he feared she’d run, but she stayed right where she was. Brave as ever. “No.”
He gave up seeming indifferent, his voice a rumble of desire. “Do you want to put your hands on me, Nayla? Do you want to touch me like I did you? Explore me. Figure out what makes my breath come fast and my cock hard as rock?”
She jerked in place, her chest rising and falling overtime. “I-I…”
“You want your chance to be in control.” Following his instincts, he moved so close the spray hit his back and fanned out, misting the whole area and making it look as if tiny jewels were settling in her hair. “Touch me, beautiful. Discover my secrets, just like I did yours.”
Her breathing hitched.
“You want to. I can see it in your eyes. The flush across your skin. Your body doesn’t lie to me, even now.”
She shook her head, denying him. Denying them both.
“What’s between us isn’t going away.”
“E-enough.”
“I know while we’ve been apart you used the time to tell yourself I didn’t mean any of what I said. That I was only pretending to care to trick you to get the information. But that’s not true.”
Her fingers curled into the hem of her shirt.
“Your choice this time.” He let the monster inside him out for a heartbeat. “I didn’t take you for someone who would let fear control you.”
Defiance flared in her gaze. Her hand shot out, sending droplets into his hair and hers.
The pads of her fingers touched his chest, just above his heart.
Heat seared through him.
Her first touch. By her own design.
Maybe he should have felt guilt at the way he’d baited her, but it was white-hot pleasure that slammed through his spine. Her sweet, soft touch rocketed him to the edge.
He locked his fingers together and forced himself to breathe through his darkest urges. He couldn’t afford to lose control now. Not when they’d come this far.
Still, the binds at his wrists cut into his skin as he strained against them, every part of him taut as a bow string. “Fuck, Nayla.”
Her hand tensed. “I do wrong?”
“No.” He stepped closer, pushing his chest into her hand so that her palm seared deeper into his skin. “You’re doing it right. So damn right.”
Her pupils shrank, her ears twitching as her breath came faster and her expression shifted from hesitant to raw lust and fierce determination.
His cock throbbed harder.
Stepping closer into the fall of water so that their bodies were only a hair’s breadth apart, her hand stroked across his chest, the hollow of his throat, his jaw. Learning. Exploring.
He leaned forward, his mouth hovering over the tip of her ear. “Okay?”
She gave the smallest of nods.
He traced the quivering whorl with his tongue.
She shivered. Her eyes sank shut.
“More,” he growled.
Her fingernails dragged downward, scoring his skin. With each slow pass, her questing hands ventured farther, tracing the dips of his stomach, the V at his hips, the bumps on his spine, until she reached the low-riding waistband of his covering. She branded every part of him but where he ached the most.
Goose bumps rose on his arms. He fought to keep his eyes open, knowing if he let himself sink too far into the sensation she’d be under him and he’d be balls deep inside her before his next breath.
For a fucking novice, she was more devastating to his will than any seasoned expert.
Her eyes opened as her fingers rose upward once more, gliding across his jaw, over his lips, the bridge of his nose. Excitement shimmered in her gaze as water droplets gathered on her eyelashes.
“That’s right, baby.” He reveled in every stroke like a claiming. “Touch me everywhere. Know me. Like I know you.”
Temper flared in her gaze. “You not know me.”
His sparked in response. “I know you’re clinging to pride and anger because you’re feeling lost and alone. I know you say you want me to change, but you like when I take charge.”
“Maybe so, but that not all I like.” Without warning, her hand slipped beneath his covering and closed around his dick, her hold firm. Anger glittered in her stare. “Rule number one. No speak.” She stroked his length, her grip a hot fist, even as she quoted back some of the first words he’d ever said to her. “Rule number two. You give me full attention.”
Hells, he liked her temper.
His head fell back. His hips pushed into her grip. Her hand was so tiny it barely made it halfway around, but that just made him think of how small and tight she’d be when he buried himself deep inside her.
“You still with me, Grif?”
He wasn’t sure if he wanted to turn her over the nearest rock and spank her or fuck the hells out of her, but either way he was all in. “I am.”
Her thumb massaged the thick vein at the head of his cock. “Rule number three,” she whispered, “you answer questions or there be consequences.”
He fought to find his voice over the chokehold of pleasure. “I see you were listening. Good girl.”
She stopped moving her hand. “Good captives get rewards,” she echoed back more of his earlier words. “Bad captives suffer.”
“Just remember, wild thing,” he warned. “There are always consequences. Even now.”
A faint tremor, but a quick glance at the arms locked behind his back was enough to reassure her. “I in charge now. I decide consequences.”