“Spanking? Whipping? Wait, that might draw blood –”
“Cora –”
“Water torture?”
“No, Cora, f**king you so hard you can’t bloody breathe and you’re so damned exhausted after, you can’t move and you’re forced to shut your mouth and bloody listen.”
I snapped my mouth shut.
Shit, I should have never taught him that word.
“That did it,” he muttered.
“You want to talk, talk,” I invited, my tone surly.
He scowled down at me.
Then he sucked in a breath and started, “I hurt you –”
“Yep,” I confirmed. “I checked and I’ve got the bruises to prove it.”
This time the flinch was not nearly imperceptible. This time he flinched flat out.
“Gods,” he whispered.
“You can say that again.”
His eyes warmed again and his hand came up to cup my jaw. “Love, I’m –”
I jerked my head away, doing my best to angle my body to keep it away. My eyes tilted to him and I reminded him, “I told you, don’t touch me.”
“I scared you,” he muttered, studying me, his hand dropping to the pillow by my head and I relaxed.
“Yep, you did that too. Shitless.”
His brows knit. “Shitless?”
“Yes, shitless, as in, you scared me so badly, I was incapacitated. I couldn’t think. You made me cower in front of you like a weak thing. You scared me so much you forced me to humiliate myself in front of you. So, you’ve shaken me before, you’ve spanked me, twice, and done other stuff that’s not very cool but that, that, Noctorno, I cannot forgive you for. I could fight the vickrants with you and, I’ll admit, I was terrified out of my brain while I did but you… it was you who scared me so much, I couldn’t… fucking… breathe.”
He closed his eyes slowly and with them closed he whispered, “Cora, sweets –”
“Get off me.”
His eyes opened. “My love –”
“Don’t call me that!” I snapped and his hand suddenly was back at my face, cupping my cheek, his thumb pressing against my lips and his face dipped lower so it was all I could see.
“Please, let me speak.”
I lifted a hand to pull his thumb from my mouth and hurled, “Fuck that and f**k you!”
“I’m uncertain I understand all the meanings of this word,” he replied quietly.
“I think you get the gist,” I guessed.
Then he suddenly stated, “We were losing.”
I blinked in my surprise, letting my guard down which was foolish. It was foolish because my fingers were still wrapped around his thumb. He twisted his wrist, laced his fingers through mine and then rested our entwined hands on the bed by my shoulder.