Chapter 20

"I love the way you look at me," she whispered dreamily. "Like you want to eat me." She giggled.

The sound went straight to his cock. Or maybe his cock was hard from the visual. Probably a little of both.

They'd had a nice evening with the usual dozen people in attendance and several boxes of pizza. Apparently, Nora had not had pizza until recently, and she tended to request it often, which no one opposed because it was, after all, pizza.

Now, they were upstairs, and Khai was determined to spend the rest of their time awake distracting his woman. The next few days were going to be challenging, and Khai didn't want to ponder it tonight. He wanted to deepen Grace's hazy expression and keep her from thinking about the future.

He set his hands on the bed on either side of her hips. She was right where he'd told her to be, naked, ass to the edge of the bed, a towel under her, legs spread open. Her hands were lying beside her ears.

She licked her lips, breathing heavily as he leaned over, not touching her. He loved how she squirmed.

Slowly, he brought his lips to hers and gave her a deep kiss, the kind that lasted five minutes and left her breathless and panting. Fuck, but she was gorgeous. Her cheeks were red now, and red splotches dotted her chest.

He lowered his head and kissed her nipples, one at a time, reverently, watching as they puckered into hard points.

His gaze lowered to her pussy next. "You're glistening, love. I can smell your musky scent."

She spread her knees wider.

Khai rose and set his fingers near the bandage on her inner thigh. "If you want me to shave you, you have to promise you'll lie still. I don't want to cut you because you're squirming, and I don't want you to do anything to strain this incision. Got it?"

She nodded. "I'll lie still. I promise."

"Do you need to come before I start, Grace?" He would never withhold orgasms from her. It would be cruel and triggering. Besides, why would he want to? She was so sexy when she came. She was also capable of doing so multiple times. He'd rather watch her lose her mind to bliss than force her to wait.

Her brow furrowed slightly as she considered his question. "No. I think after. But I'm going to be so aroused. I already am. It's so…naughty."

He smiled. "Me holding your legs open while I remove your hair and bare your pussy?" he teased, knowing the words would make her blush even further.

"Yes. Do it. I want to watch you."

He stood taller and grabbed the things he would need from the nightstand to set them next to her on the bed. "I think you like the idea of me being so intimate with you."

She nodded. "It replaces my bad memories. You look at me like I'm important and precious, someone to be worshiped and protected. Every time I'm bare and watch you looking at me, it chips away at all the bad experiences I've had being ogled and treated like an object."

He smoothed his hands up and down her inner thighs. "You are important and precious, and I'm glad I can replace those memories. I'll give you a million more until my look is the only one you can remember."

She smiled so sweetly.

"I'm going to take my time because I want to hear you panting." He picked up the shaving cream and squeezed a pile of foam onto his hand. When he set it against her pussy and smoothed it around, she whimpered. "I haven't even started yet, love," he teased.

"You started an hour ago downstairs when you whispered in my ear that you intended to shave my pussy and then eat it until I screamed."

He grinned. Yep. He'd done that. "And then you told everyone you were too tired to watch a movie."

She nodded as he let his fingers trail around her pussy. When he found her hood, pulled it back, and circled her clit, her breath hitched, and she arched her chest. "Khai…"

God, he loved that sound. His name filled with lust coming from her lips.

"Ready, love?"

She nodded. "Please…"

He picked up the razor, held her folds tight so he wouldn't nick her skin, and carefully made the first stroke.

Grace moaned. "Holy shit, that's hot."

He chuckled, rinsed off the blade in the small bowl of water, and made the next stroke.

Grace trembled while he continued. Her pussy was so soft and so damn sensitive. Every time he parted her folds, he saw her copious arousal gathered, waiting for him to touch it.

Like he'd said, he took his time, making sure he didn't miss any spots. When he was finally done, she was squirming with desperation.

"Don't move, love," he instructed as he carried everything to the bathroom and returned with a warm, wet cloth. He covered her pussy with the cloth, holding it steady until he gently wiped the last of the shaving cream from her skin.

She'd stiffened many times, but the gauze covering her wound was still white. He would worry if she started bleeding.

Khai trailed a finger languidly around her pussy, through her folds, down to her bottom, and up to circle her clit. He repeated the trail over and over until she cried out. "Let me come, please."

He immediately dropped his mouth to her pussy, held her thighs wide, and sucked. Two seconds later, she came, crying out as her pussy pulsed against his lips.

Khai didn't stop. He thrust his tongue into her and sucked harder on her clit.

She gasped as her hands flew down, and she grabbed his head. She was not pushing him away, however. She was pressing him harder against her pussy.

Khai ate her like a starving man, enjoying every second. He was so fucking grateful for this woman who'd broken into his cabin and slept in his bed. He was going to get to hear her moan and come for the rest of his life.

He pulled his tongue out of her channel to flick her clit, holding it hostage until she lifted her hips off the bed and screamed. Her second orgasm was even more delightful than the first.

When she finally came down from the intense high of the second round of release, Khai left a chaste kiss on her pussy and wiped his lips on the sheet.

Grace was panting as she released his head. She dropped her hands back next to her ears again, left her legs splayed open wide, and whimpered and moaned. The expression on her face was sated and content. Her breathing was heavy.

"Damn, you're gorgeous when you come," he whispered.

"Are you going to make love to me now?" She pushed out her bottom lip in a fake pout because she knew he'd told her he would not be putting his cock into her until they removed the stitches. The friction would create a risk of infection. Plus, the stitches might come loose.

"Nope."

She rose onto her elbows. "Then can I at least have a turn sucking you like you did me?"

He lifted a brow. He didn't think she was ready for that. He also didn't want her to do so out of obligation. "How about if I lie next to you and let you explore? We'll see how it goes."

Khai chuckled as she scrambled to rise onto her knees.

"Careful, love. I mean it. If you aren't more careful with those stitches, I'll…" He stopped himself just short of making idle promises that would never be appropriate with her. If she were anyone else, he would have said he'd tie her to the bed or spank her or withhold sex for the entire week. Mostly in jest, but he couldn't joke like that with her.

She sobered and crawled closer to him on her knees. Naked, she was a vision, her creamy white skin making his cock hard, her breasts heavy and full, her nipples pink and swollen from his mouth.

She reached for his shirt, pulled it over his head, and tossed it aside. Next, she set her palms on his pecs, leaned in close, and met his gaze. "You don't have to always be so careful about what you say, Khai. I promise. It's okay."

He fisted his hands at his sides. "It's not okay. I don't want to be callous with your feelings."

"You're not callous, and you never could be. You're all that is kind and decent, caring, and loving. You came into my life when I needed you so badly. You were like a savior—a light in the darkness. I was out of food. Granted, it was your food I had eaten, but I was out." She gave him a wan smile.

He set his forehead against hers. God, she was precious.

"I was alone in the world. I trusted no one. I had nothing. Not even clothes. You swept in and fixed everything without asking questions. Goldilocks was sleeping in your bed, and you climbed in next to her, wrapped your arms around the total stranger, and made all her worries disappear."

He swallowed hard. She'd never said all of this in quite this way before.

She kept going. "You spent the next month healing me, even though you didn't know it. If it weren't for you, I don't know what I would've done next. I was out of options. You never once touched me inappropriately or suggested we have sex. You gave me time and space when I needed it."

Finally, he couldn't resist touching her, so he set his hands on her hips, letting his fingers curl around her back, and hauled her closer.

She slid her hands to his shoulders and around to the back of his neck. "You reminded me there are good people in the world when all I'd seen for nearly two years was the worst of society. You loved me unconditionally. When you look at me, I can see how deeply you care. It's in your soul. I can see it in your eyes."

"Grace…" His voice was husky.

She kept going. "We're human, Khai. Sometimes, I'll mess up. Sometimes, you'll mess up. But I don't want you to tiptoe around me for seventy years. It's okay to say whatever you're thinking. It's okay to say you want to tie me down or spank me or whatever else you had in mind. I won't break. When you say those things, the meaning is totally different from what I'm used to hearing. I don't mind. Sometimes, I like it when you get all bossy."

"Seventy years? Do you realize I'll be a hundred and five by then?"

She giggled. "And since you're not allowed to leave me, yes, you'll have to live to be over a hundred. Get used to it."

He chuckled, his chest tight. So full of love.

She played with the hair at the back of his head. "Gemma said she used to beg Damon to restrain her spread eagle on the bed. She couldn't sleep without being tied down."

Khai had heard about this. "He refused, though, love."

She nodded. "Yes. He refused, but he did sometimes let her wear cuffs on her wrists and ankles so she could reach above her head and pretend she was restrained."

Khai's brows came together. It was unconventional, but if it worked… "Is that something you've been feeling you need, love?"

She shook her head. Thank fuck. "No. I'm just saying that some of what we endured changed us in permanent ways. All four of us are now firmly indoctrinated in the kink community whether we like it or not. The type of kink we were subjected to was not consensual. It was forced slavery, but some of the aspects of BDSM remain the same."

"What are you saying, Grace?"

"I'm saying that I want to learn about safe kink practices. I'm intrigued. Like I said earlier, I want you to take me to Roses and Thorns. Show me what healthy kink looks like. Replace the bad with the good. I'm stronger than I was when you found me. I realized today from talking to Carol that I'm stronger than I ever knew or thought possible. I'm going to survive. I already have. I'm a survivor of human trafficking and abuse. I can either wallow in self-pity for the rest of my life, or I can reclaim my power and not let those bastards win."

Khai smiled at her. She was so fucking amazing.

"I choose to win, Khai. I won't be the woman I would've been before I was abducted. She's gone. But a new version of her will surface over time as I find myself. That new Grace will want a bit of kink in her life—consensual kink. She's going to want to experiment with new things. She might like it if you tie her down. She already knows she likes it when you spank her."

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Spanking wasn't part of your captivity. Restraints were."

She shrugged. "Eh. Not the way you'll do it. I liked it when you held my wrists down. It was sexy. I liked it when you spanked me. I probably wouldn't like you to subject me to years of orgasm denial, but a few minutes might make me hotter."

His cock twitched.

Her hands came to the front of his jeans, and she held his gaze while she popped the button at the top open and lowered the zipper. She snaked her small hand into his underwear and found his cock. "I want to experiment. Let's start with your cock."

His breath hitched at her use of the vulgar word. "Grace Scarponi, what a dirty mouth you have."

"Maybe you should fill it with something," she suggested.

He hissed. "Love, you are playing with fire."

She tugged his jeans over his hips, taking his underwear with them. "Show me this fire."

Khai released her hips to finish removing his clothes. His cock bobbed between them.

Grace backed up, crooking a finger to lure him onto the bed.

Khai climbed up to join her like a lion stalking its prey.

She patted the mattress. "Lie on your back. Let me explore."

It would kill him, but he would do it for her. He dropped onto his back and threaded his fingers behind his head, stretching out and giving her free rein to do whatever she pleased.

She kneeled at his side like an angel and trailed a finger all over his chest and around his nipples. "Does it feel as good to you as it does to me?"

"Playing with my nipples?"

She nodded.

"Probably not, but it feels good." He worked hard to stay still. All but his cock. It was jerking of its own accord.

Grace surprised him when she leaned over him and flicked his nipple with her tongue.

"Mmm. That does feel good, love," he admitted. No woman had ever sucked his nipples. He doubted there was anything Grace could do to him that wouldn't feel good, and likewise, anything she did to him would, by default, feel good. Even when all she did was set a hand on his or touch his arm in passing, his heart swelled.

She dropped onto her hands and knees next to him and trailed her wicked tongue down the center of his stomach until she reached his cock. "Only do what feels right, Grace," he ordered. "Do not push yourself to do something uncomfortable. Your mouth never needs to go near my cock if it triggers you, or even if you're just not interested or you don't like it."

She tipped her head to smile at him, her long braid falling to the side. "Shut up. I've got this. Remember, I'm a trained professional. I spent eighteen months sucking fake dicks so I would know how to please a man. I bet I'm pretty good at it. And do I look forced?"

He didn't have a chance to react to her bold words before she dragged her tongue up the length of his cock and flicked it over the tip.

"Jesus…"

"Mmm." She did it again, this time swirling the tip of her tongue in the slit and gathering his precome before tasting it. "Salty."

"Did you not realize that, love?" How…?

She glanced at him again. "Well, I've read about it in books, of course, but if you're referring to the man who bought me, I squeezed my eyes closed, held my breath, and went into my head. I refused to let the experience destroy me. I blocked it out and stuffed it to the back of my mind."

Damn, she was strong.

"Also, he wore too much aftershave. He reeked of it. It was so gross that it overpowered the entire sickening experience. He had it all over his suit coat that night I left him bleeding on the floor, too. I couldn't wait to get rid of it. I hope I never smell that scent again." She shuddered.

Once again, Khai was enamored with the way she could talk during sex. Even with his dick hard and practically tapping her cheek, she was chatting, working through bad memories and tossing them out.

"What did you do with the suit coat, Grace?" He'd always wondered. Even from the first day he'd met her, he'd known she had to have arrived wearing something.

"I burned it in your firepit. The buttons were still there. I left them for a while, though they taunted me every time I walked by them, so eventually, I gathered them up and tossed them in the lake one night. I was more at peace after that."

Khai lowered an arm to stroke her back. He couldn't stand not touching her another moment. "So brave…"

She reached behind her, grabbed his wrist, and dragged his hand around to tuck it against his side, using her knee to trap his hand against him.

He chuckled. "You don't want me to touch you?"

"Just for a few minutes. Give me a chance to explore without you distracting me with your wicked fingers."

He laughed again. How did his woman manage to make him laugh while his cock was so damn hard?

His laughter died abruptly and switched to a groan a moment later when she kissed the tip of his dick. Her lips. Nothing else. This sexy woman could bring him to his knees with nothing but a peck on the head of his cock.

She wrapped her hand around the girth and eased it up and down. "Could I make you come like this with my hand?" she asked reverently.

"Yes. In a heartbeat," he gritted out, trying to avoid just that.

"Mmm." It was like she was from another planet sent here to collect data. She sort of was. Her lack of experience was mindboggling. She glanced at him again. "Does it bother you that I talk so much?"

"Never. I love to hear your voice. Plus, I never want you to feel like you can't tell me something or ask me any question that comes to mind."

She slid her thumb over the slit in his cock. "Does it always leak like this?"

His body shook from trying to keep from chuckling. God, he loved her. "Only since I met you."

She furrowed her brow in confusion.

"When it's hard," he clarified, "because I'm aroused, precome gathers at the tip. I've been in some state of hardness since I first saw you in my bed. Remember, you were naked."

She blushed. Adorable.

"For a moment I thought I was conjuring you up in my head. It was late. I'd driven pretty far. I was so tired. The sexiest woman I'd ever seen was sitting up in my bed with the most beautiful hair draped all around her. It was so long I couldn't tell if it even ended. She was clutching the covers in front of her chest. Her bare shoulders told me she was naked. Her eyes were wide and so green she could've been a Siren. I thought I was seeing things."

Grace's smile broadened. "You were pretty damn hot, too, but I was scared out of my mind."

"I bet you were."

She returned her attention to his shaft, though as far as his dick was concerned, her attention had been on it this entire time. "How small does it get when you're not hard?"

"I can't remember," he teased.

She rolled her eyes.

"Significantly smaller than that. You aren't likely to ever see it that way. It can go from zero to a hundred in the blink of an eye when it finds out you're in the vicinity."

She glared at him. "Now, you're teasing me."

"No, I'm really not," he admitted.

"How long can I talk to you about your penis before you flip me onto my stomach and spank me?"

Her question shocked him, and he tugged his hand out from where it was "trapped" against his thigh to grab her braid. Without saying a word, he pulled the band off the end of it and started unraveling the long length.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Love, you can talk to me all night long if you want. Any subject you'd like. Even my dick. We can discuss the veins and why they bulge, how I like my balls fondled, where not to put your teeth, how often I groom around my cock, what size condoms I use, my circumcision, the way my ass clenches when I come, how much semen comes out when I orgasm, the fact that it leans a bit to the left, and any other thing you want to discuss, but I want to thread my fingers in your hair and stroke through the silky length while I answer your questions."

Her breath hitched. "Now, I'm wet and horny."

He chuckled. "Which part made you horny?" he asked as he finished unraveling her hair and threaded his fingers in the fucking soft length.

"I think it was your voice and how patient you are."

He grinned at her.

"There are sizes of condoms?"

He laughed. "I was exaggerating that part. There are larger condoms, I guess, but it's mostly one size fits all. They stretch."

"Will you hold my hair back while I suck your cock so I can still see you and also not get strangled by my own hair?"

Fuck me. "Yes, love."

And that was the end of her questions. Her mouth went to his dick, and she swallowed him as far as she could while his eyes rolled back in his head.

Khai kept his fingers in her hair, holding it back the entire time she explored his cock. He was far too lost inside his head to remind her she didn't have to swallow him if she didn't want to, but apparently, it wouldn't have been necessary. Not only did she swallow him, but she moaned the entire time.