Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

FERN

Curling my arms around his neck, I hung on tight as he kissed me—no, devoured me. One hand on my ass, holding me in place, the other still in my hair, tilting my head to the side so he could kiss me deeper, harder. Not like I was broken or weak, but like he truly saw me, beyond all the fractures and jagged edges, like he would die if he stopped.

He kissed me until my head spun, until I was panting and slick between my thighs. I ached for him—so badly.

“More,” I said, hooking my thighs around his thick waist. “Touch me.”

He spun, planting me on the bed. “Tell me where you want me to touch you, baby.”

I dragged my shirt off, and he lifted up, giving me room so I could toss it aside. I unhooked my bra, dropping it as well, and his glowing gaze dipped to my chest. He licked his lips before sliding his hand up my waist, curling his fingers around my breast. He squeezed in a way that I really fucking liked before he swiped his thumb over my nipple. I sucked in a breath.

“You want me to kiss you here?”

I nodded enthusiastically.

He chuckled, and the dark, gritty sound had my nipples puckering even tighter. Dipping his head, he sucked one into his hot mouth, and, gods, my hips bucked off the bed. He tilted his head back so his eyes stayed on me as he sucked and licked and teased me. I thrust my fingers into his long, soft hair and fisted, holding him to me while his other hand slid up my body, and he massaged and toyed with my other nipple.

I was panting, squeezing, and rubbing my thighs together to ease the ache, the deep emptiness. He dragged his hand back down my side and gripped my hip as he kissed my stomach, and his rumbles and growls filled the room as he kissed around my belly button.

Oh my Gods. I gasped.

“You good, Tink?”

I nodded again so fast that I earned another one of those dark chuckles.

“You don’t like something, you want me to stop, you tell me, and I stop.”

“Okay,” I said shakily, hungrily.

I bit my lip, waiting for him to come back up and kiss me again. I wanted him to kiss me again, but instead, he went lower . I sucked in a breath and held it, freezing.

Was he going to do what I’d seen his brother do to that female in the bar? Heat hit my face, and I tried to slam my thighs closed.

“No,” I panted. “Don’t.”

Relic instantly stopped what he’d been doing. “You don’t want your pussy licked, baby?”

I did. At that moment, I wanted it more than anything else I’d ever wanted.

He frowned. “You do.”

Not a question. My desire for him was obviously written all over my face, and of course, there was the fact that he was a hound, so he could smell how much I wanted that, how much I wanted him.

“You scared after what happened? Are you”—his nostrils flared, and his eyes flashed red—“sore?”

I shook my head.

“We don’t have to do that. You don’t want me to touch you there, Tink, I won’t. I can get your toy, and we can do what we did last time.” It had been among my things when he’d dropped all my stuff off here the day after I left.

I shook my head again, struggling to say the words, feeling frustrated and humiliated. Lost.

He massaged my waist. Patient—always so fucking patient and kind.

“After what you’ve been through, I get this might not be something you want. I’m so cool with that, Tink. I don’t want you to feel pressured into anything, but, Fern, you gotta talk to me. I’ll never fucking forgive myself if I scare you or hurt you.”

I had to say it, didn’t I? I had to say the words because I would not let Relic think he was doing something wrong.

“I’m not scared or hurt. I avoid that part of me because … because he made it something clinical, something that he used to hurt me.” I bit my lip and hated when angry tears filled my eyes. “How can you want to touch me there after what you saw? How can you want me at all now that you know what he did to me?”

He flashed his sharp fangs. “There is nothing—not one fucking thing—wrong with you, Fern. I don’t see those things. I see a fucking feisty, beautiful, sexy, hot-as-fuck little female. You drive me fucking crazy with hunger. You have no idea, baby, how much I want you. None.”

There was no missing the conviction in his voice.

“You really see me that way?” I whispered. “You really want me?”

“My dick is so fucking hard right now, sweetness. Fuck, just look at you. Those gorgeous, round tits. These fucking thighs and an ass I want to take a bite out of. Do I want you?” He blew out a shaky breath. “Again, you have no fucking idea, Fern. Fucking none.”

My heart was pounding, and the blood was rushing with force through my veins. I reached down and touched his square jaw. “Then, please, Relic, will you lick me? I need you to show me how good it can be. I need you to give that to me.”

I could love this male, if I let myself. I could fall so deeply in love with him, but that wasn’t an option for me. So instead, I could let myself have this moment with him now.

His snarl vibrated through me before he gripped my ass in those wonderful hands, dipped his head, and dragged his hot tongue through my pussy. I cried out, arching against the mattress, but Relic held me in place. Covering me with his hot mouth, he sent me into another realm, a realm where only pleasure existed. I lost control completely, and locking my legs around his head, I lifted my hips, rocking against his mouth. The vibrations coming from him told me he liked it—the way I reacted. And the hungry way he sucked and licked me told me that he liked the way I tasted, and that just turned me on more.

When I was panting and shaking, he slid his tongue inside me, licking me deep, while his thumb slid over my clit, and I broke, shuddering and crying out, coming against his mouth.

He didn’t let up until I collapsed. Only then did his licks and kisses slow. Finally, he kissed my inner thigh and lifted his head. His eyes were dark and hot, wild.

“You want my fingers for your second one?”

I nodded. Oh, sweet Lucifer, yes. I wanted that badly.

His eyes stayed on me as he slid one long, thick finger inside me.

“Oh, fuck,” I groaned at the feel of him filling me before he slid back out. “I-I like that.”

“Thought you might. You’re fucking dripping, Tink. You want more?”

I bit my lip and nodded, wantonly spreading my thighs wider, and he added another finger.

“Like that even more, don’t you, sweetness?”

“Mm-hmm.” I couldn’t talk as he moved faster, deeper.

In his eyes, there was no hesitation, no disgust, no fear that he was hurting me. He trusted me to tell him the truth, and he loved making me feel good. He truly wanted me at that moment in a way no one else ever had.

He crawled up the bed, those fingers still moving inside me, faster now, and lay facing me. I pressed closer to him, lifting my thigh over his hip, and he curled his other hand around the side of my throat and took my mouth again, kissing me hungrily.

I could taste myself on his lips, all blended with him, and when he nipped my lip as if he couldn’t get enough, my pussy clamped down on his fingers. I came for a second time, rocking against his hand, gasping into his mouth, and kissing him wildly.

Panting, I pressed my forehead to his.

“More?” he growled.

“Yes,” I said.

I pushed at his shoulder now, wild with hunger for my hound. He rolled onto his back, following my silent order. I sat on my shins and gripped his shirt. He helped me tug it off, and I took in his gorgeous, muscled body.

“You’re so beautiful, Relic.” I pressed my hand to his tattooed chest, shaking my head. “No one has ever made me feel the way you do.”

He reached up and cupped my face. “How? Tell me how you feel.”

“Excited, wanted … needed,” I whispered, almost afraid to say those things out loud.

“Show me,” he rasped.

I licked my lips. “How?”

“Any way that feels right. You can do anything you want to me, Fern. I’m yours to touch, tease, taste as much as you’d like. No limits. No part of me is out of bounds. It’s all yours.”

The thrill his words sent through me had me trembling.

“I want you naked,” I admitted.

“Then, have at it.”

I reached for his jeans and shakily undid them. He lifted his hips so I could tug them down. I tossed his boots, socks, jeans, and underwear on the floor, and he lay there, naked, watching me watch him. He was so large—everywhere. His muscles were taut, and the veins in his arms, thighs, and lower stomach all bulged.

“Your body is … it’s so perfect.”

His lids drooped. “Fucking love your eyes on me.”

His cock was so big, angled up, and it looked painfully hard. It was darker than the rest of him, and the tip was glistening.

I knelt beside him, and looking at him like that had me squirming. I reached out, tracing one of the pronounced veins on his lower stomach, down to his groin, and his cock twitched.

I looked back up, and he was breathing roughly through his nose. I kept my eyes on him as I curled my fingers around his thick cock.

“You’re so—gods—so hard.”

“Didn’t know I could get this hard. You did that to me. Only you can make me this way.” He groaned as I stroked him slowly up and back.

He’d enjoyed licking me. Would I enjoy licking him?

Curiosity got the better of me, and I dipped lower and swiped my tongue over the glistening head. A tormented sound rolled from him, and I squirmed again, feeling achy and incredibly wet still. I didn’t think I could ever get enough when it came to Relic. I licked him a second time and rocked against my heels, desperate for another release already, but also wanting to make him feel as good as he’d made me feel.

“Come here,” Relic ordered. “You need to get off. Can fucking smell that pussy, baby, and it needs attention. Come sit on my face, sweetness.”

Oh, fuck . I wanted that. There were so many things I wanted. But right then, I wanted to make him feel good, and I wanted to look at him while I did it. I climbed on top of him, but when he reached for me to pull me up his body, I shook my head. Instead of letting him drag me higher, I ground my pussy on the underside of his cock, trapped between us against his stomach. I knew I could get off this way. He was so hard and hot—gorgeous. I dragged my pussy along his length again, then back.

“Can you … can you come like this?” I asked breathlessly.

“Fuck, yes,” he groaned, his fingers gripping my hips and taking over.

He ground against me, making me cry out from the delicious friction. Planting my hands on his chest, I rocked against him in long, sweeping strokes.

“Relic, I … holy fuck.” I groaned.

My hair was all over my face, and he pushed it back with one hand, watching me lose control on top of him. I slid up, then back, coating him in my slickness, utterly wild with need. On the next glide, I went too far, and when I rocked back, the head of his cock pushed inside me, just the wide tip, but that was all it took—that stretch, that heat inside me. My pussy clamped down on the head of his cock, clutching and releasing it as I swiveled my hips, not taking him deeper—not because I didn’t want to, but because my inner muscles were so tight that there was no way he was getting any deeper inside me.

I came hard while Relic cursed beneath me. I looked down at him, at his taut expression, at the way his stomach muscles looked as if they’d been carved from stone. His hands were now over his head, gripping the headboard, and I knew it was to stop himself from holding me there and thrusting deep.

He pulsed inside me thickly, hissing and groaning. Hot seed filled me with force, making me come again just from how good that felt as well, how seeing Relic this way made me lose it even more.

I collapsed against him, my face pressed to his throat, breathing hard.

“Don’t move,” he said roughly.

I shifted my hips experimentally; somehow, he was locked there.

“Oh.” I shifted again, and he groaned. “Does it hurt you?” I couldn’t imagine how it would feel to have all of him inside me—as it was, just the head had expanded enough that it locked us together.

“Definitely doesn’t hurt. You feel fucking perfect. But if you try to pull away before I release you, you might get hurt.”

I nodded against his chest as he rubbed my back.

“You okay, sweetness?”

“Yes,” I whispered. I felt more than okay, and right now, I was glad he couldn’t see my face because stupid fucking tears were filling my eyes again.

“You’re not okay,” he said.

“I am.”

“Can smell your tears.” He forced me to look at him. “Did I hurt you?”

I shook my head. This was just an agonizingly beautiful goodbye.

“You don’t know what you’ve done for me, Relic. You’ve given me so much, and you … you gave my body back to me. You slowly yet surely helped me take back ownership of a part of me that had been used to hurt and humiliate me. I’ll never forget you for that.”

A fierceness filled his eyes. “You won’t forget me, baby, because I’ll always be right here. By your side.”

“Relic—”

His phone started ringing, and he growled. We stared at each other for long seconds.

“You should get that,” I whispered.

He slipped from me, his body finally releasing mine, and I wanted him back instantly.

He growled again, but snatched his phone off the floor. “What?” His jaw hardened, and so did his gaze. “On my way.” He disconnected. “I need to go, but we aren’t finished with this conversation. I’ll call you when I’m done, yeah?”

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing you need to worry about.”

He was lying. Something was going on, something that involved me.

“Have you found them?”

His nostrils flared. “I won’t know that until we get there.”

A shiver moved through me.

“I’ll call you when I’m done, and you will answer, Fern. Yeah?”

“Yes,” I said, because I got the feeling he wouldn’t leave this bed if I didn’t agree.

Beyond that, this was hopeless. There was only one way our next conversation could go.

I slid to the side so he could get up, and I watched him quickly dress, locking every second of our time together in my mind.

He planted one hand on the mattress and leaned over me. “I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

“Okay.”

Relic kissed me, deep and hard and hungry, before finishing with one sweet, soft brush of his lips. He swiped his thumb over my cheek, and then he walked out, closing the door quietly behind him.