Tender Mercies - By Kitty Thomas Page 0,46
the choice long enough to know I didn’t want that burden anymore. And for taking it away before I had to decide.” Suddenly something felt safe. He wasn’t going to leave her to go through life alone and broken. He wouldn’t return her to Lucas. The flashbacks would stop; eventually they would. And if they didn’t? Then they wouldn’t have anyway. At least now there would be someone to hold her and keep away the chill from that cold, dungeon floor.
Asher lay back on the bed, a satisfied and predatory gleam in his eyes that only made Grace fall further under his power. “Straddle me, kitten.”
She followed the instruction, this time more hyper-aware of the fact that his erection was pressing against her mound and lower belly. Only this time there was no fabric standing between them. He took her hand and brought her closer to him, kissing her palm.
His words were soothing when he spoke, as if he understood she was a frightened, wild thing, and he was trying to coax her toward something she would like if only she could learn to place her trust in him. There was a promise there, and she wanted to believe in it so badly it made her ache. If only she could keep Lucas from crowding out all the good thoughts and feelings in her brain to experience one thing that was pure.
“You were okay when my fingers were inside you. This is only another part of the same body that already made you come. I perhaps shouldn’t have taken you from behind the first time, where you couldn’t see me. I was trying to avoid hurting your back.” He looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to mount him.
He was trying to make it easier, but the look in his eyes said his cock would be inside her one way or another within the next couple of minutes, either of her own volition or against her will. She could pretend she was in control and ride him like he wanted, or he could take her the way he’d started out.
No matter how long she’d been on the island, with its strange culture and laws, there was still the part of her that saw the world in the same black and white she’d been trying to escape. The thoughts that this was wrong, that she was wrong, wouldn’t stop going through her mind, even though she knew she had no hope of ever leaving this place, and no one would judge her for being a good slave.
Whatever fears she had of flashbacks and dreams that might haunt her forever, Asher was a different man, and she was his property. Her stomach fluttered at that idea, and she had to push back another redundant wave of self-recrimination. Right now, she was on top. He was giving her this to help her. And she was grateful for the small mercy.
Before he could say her name or his pet name for her in the master voice, she made the decision and shoved his cock inside her. In spite of everything that had happened, she was still dripping, a furnace of want and need and primal urges that refused to take the past into account. Everything was quiet then, except for the sound of their bodies sliding against one another as she raised and lowered herself on him.
“Good girl,” he said, the praise sending another flip of pleasure through her. The look in his eyes was so intense that she couldn’t break the contact. It was a connection that flowed between them and gave her something that felt safe to hold onto as they broke through the one wall that had scared her so much.
She’d expected he would fuck her soon enough, once she’d known she’d been bought for that purpose. But she hadn’t expected some part of her to want him to.
“Grace,” he hissed, closing his eyes briefly, “. . . so fucking tight. This is exactly what I want from you right now.”
The eye contact and his repeated use of her name tethered her to the here and now, and though she could feel Lucas pounding on the doors of her mind, trying to slither in where he could harm her, Asher wouldn’t loosen the connection enough for her to be tormented by the ghost hanging over them.
He did feel different. So different. His cock expanded her walls to a degree she hadn’t known was possible. A few minutes of this leisurely pace