With his praise, I teetered on the edge, barely in control of my body, a shuddering gasp away from breaking on him. It filled my heart, sudden and stunning—after all this time, after everything, we were finally not just fucking, but making love.
Like he knew my thoughts, he nodded and grazed his thumb over my nipple. “Go on, love. Come for me.”
I did. Stars above, I did.
Crying out, I surged around him, muscles pulling tight. I tried to keep my eyes open but gods knew if I succeeded, because everything went dark with lights sparking like the entire universe was bursting apart and not only me.
Blinking into the dim room, I sagged against the wall, though some part of me kept my hips rolling with his thrusts, and more pleasure seared through me.
With a dazed smile, he cupped my cheek. “I’ve wanted to feel that for so long.”
“So have I.” I wrapped my arms and legs around him more tightly, eager to feel every part, to make us one as thoroughly as I could, and he kissed me, sweet and deep.
But that was the problem.
Gripping his hair, I pulled away. “You’re holding back,” I huffed with his steady rhythm. “You told me not to, and yet…”
He frowned, slowing.
“Yet you don’t hold me down. You haven’t dominated me. You’ve been perfectly sweet. But I don’t want perfectly sweet, Bastian. I want you.”
His throat bobbed as he slid his fingers down my hair and pulled from me. “I didn’t want to frighten you.”
Of course not—not after how I’d reacted to lying beneath him. But that hadn’t been about him, just the past. “You could never frighten me.” Yet my heart hammered. “What I feel for you—that scares me sometimes, yes, but… not you.” I released his hair and cupped his cheeks. “Never you.”
He bit his lip, eyebrows tight together. “I thought after your experience before, this would be better.”
And I loved him all the more for it.
So I pressed a kiss to his lips and nodded. “You have eased me in beautifully, love. But now I’m ready for my bastard.”
He sucked in a breath, gaze skipping to my lips, dick twitching against me. “Say that again. Call me your bastard.”
Like in the training yard, but now I understood.
He’d been called bastard like it was the worst thing—the marker of a man who’d never known the one who sired him and who’d killed one of the only fathers he had known. Not a name he deserved, but one he’d been given anyway, and if the way I said it reframed it for him…
“You’re my bastard, Bastian. My beautiful fucking bastard. Mine. And now I want you to show me everything that means.”
He smiled slowly and caught my wrists. “Are you saying you’ll obey me?”
A thrill chased through me. “I will.”
“What is off the table?”
I swallowed. “Nothing. I said to give me everything.”
Grip tightening, he made a low sound that rumbled into me. “I’m not sure you understand all the possibilities, love. There are more than I could fit into this one night. But we can make a start. What will be your code word if you want me to stop?”
It was an easy answer. “Orrery.”
He huffed, eyes glinting. “Perfect.” Then there was no more amusement, just a glint of a different kind—dangerous and predatory, like when I’d stolen from him.
But I knew him now, and that predation was thrilling rather than frightening.
“Very well. You asked for it.” He scooped me over his shoulder and teased between my legs as he carried me to the bed.
My heart hammered in anticipation, and I took advantage of my position to pat his backside.
“You won’t touch me without my permission.” The warning rumbled through me, another thrill that sent my nerves fluttering.
“But what if I want to touch you?”
He sat me on the bed and stood over me. “Are you going to be disobedient, Katherine?”
With his silver gaze boring into me, insolence suddenly felt a lot less appealing. I wanted to earn his praise… for now, at least. Perhaps I’d push the boundaries another day.
Swallowing, I shook my head.
“Good. Now, on your knees, back to me.”
I obeyed, pulse kicking up once he was out of sight. The uncertainty of what he would do sent my body into high alert, hairs raised, skin humming in the cool air of our room. I tried to breathe slowly so I could hear his approach, but it was pointless with his fae silence.
At last, the bed dipped behind me, and my breath caught. Then came the heat of his body upon mine and his hard length against my backside. I couldn’t help sighing and reaching back for him as he gathered my hair.
“Ah-ah.” Shadows slipped around my wrists and bound them before me.
Perhaps it was the long seconds of absence as I’d knelt and waited, but now I was hyper aware of every sensation, his skin upon mine and the way this pose pressed my tits together.
“What did I say?”
“I’m sorry,” I breathed as he wrapped my hair around his hand, pulling my head back. “I forgot.”
He angled me so he could meet my gaze. “It’s all right. I know you want to be good. I’ll help you.” He kissed me then, deeper and more possessive than anything before.
I trembled in his hold, body throbbing with want despite the number of times he’d already pulled me apart. When he cupped my breast and squeezed, I couldn’t help moaning, and he consumed every drop of sound like a man dying of thirst.
By the time he pulled away, his breaths heaved, fanning my lips, pressing his chest into my back, and I absorbed it all. The purple stain of my magic covered my fingers entirely now.
Watching, he pinched my nipple, and smiled at the way I arched and whimpered.
“See? You are good—so good.”
The words blazed through me, and he touched my cheek as though he could see how much I burned for him.
“Show me how good you can be, my sweet flame.” He released my hair and took hold of my hips.
I gasped and arched as his cock slid between my legs.
With a low sound, he tightened his grip and held me exactly as he wanted. “Patience.” He laughed softly against my shoulder. “I can see your pulse pounding in your throat. Your whole body is practically vibrating with it. And you’re even wetter than before.”
“Please, Bastian.”
He made a low sound of pleasure. “There it is.” He nipped my throat and pressed a palm between my shoulder blades. “Bend over, and I’ll give you what you want.”
In that moment, I would’ve done anything. Months ago, I might’ve been embarrassed to admit just how needy I was, but that was a different life—a different me.
His shadows pulled my wrists apart and guided them down, snaking up my forearms so I was forced to rest my chest and cheek on the bed. Between his shadows on my arms and his hands on my hips, I could barely move as his cock slid along me and nudged my aching bundle of nerves.
“Lift your hips for me, love.” Then, when I obeyed, “That’s it.”
Only once he had me exactly where he wanted did he finally take me.
Moaning as the ridge of his piercing slid into my entrance, I managed to arch my back and chase more, but that was the only movement he allowed.