over the tip of her ear. “Okay?”
She gave the smallest of nods.
He traced the quivering whorl with his tongue.
She shivered. Her eyes sank shut.
“More,” he growled.
Her fingernails dragged downward, scoring his skin. With each slow pass, her questing hands ventured farther, tracing the dips of his stomach, the V at his hips, the bumps on his spine, until she reached the low-riding waistband of his covering. She branded every part of him but where he ached the most.
Goose bumps rose on his arms. He fought to keep his eyes open, knowing if he let himself sink too far into the sensation she’d be under him and he’d be balls deep inside her before his next breath.
For a fucking novice, she was more devastating to his will than any seasoned expert.
Her eyes opened as her fingers rose upward once more, gliding across his jaw, over his lips, the bridge of his nose. Excitement shimmered in her gaze as water droplets gathered on her eyelashes.
“That’s right, baby.” He reveled in every stroke like a claiming. “Touch me everywhere. Know me. Like I know you.”
Temper flared in her gaze. “You not know me.”
His sparked in response. “I know you’re clinging to pride and anger because you’re feeling lost and alone. I know you say you want me to change, but you like when I take charge.”
“Maybe so, but that not all I like.” Without warning, her hand slipped beneath his covering and closed around his dick, her hold firm. Anger glittered in her stare. “Rule number one. No speak.” She stroked his length, her grip a hot fist, even as she quoted back some of the first words he’d ever said to her. “Rule number two. You give me full attention.”
Hells, he liked her temper.
His head fell back. His hips pushed into her grip. Her hand was so tiny it barely made it halfway around, but that just made him think of how small and tight she’d be when he buried himself deep inside her.
“You still with me, Grif?”
He wasn’t sure if he wanted to turn her over the nearest rock and spank her or fuck the hells out of her, but either way he was all in. “I am.”
Her thumb massaged the thick vein at the head of his cock. “Rule number three,” she whispered, “you answer questions or there be consequences.”
He fought to find his voice over the chokehold of pleasure. “I see you were listening. Good girl.”
She stopped moving her hand. “Good captives get rewards,” she echoed back more of his earlier words. “Bad captives suffer.”
“Just remember, wild thing,” he warned. “There are always consequences. Even now.”
A faint tremor, but a quick glance at the arms locked behind his back was enough to reassure her. “I in charge now. I decide consequences.”
“Enjoy it while you can.”
Another faint tremble, but then her expression shifted to defiant. She slid her hand along his shaft. His cock bobbed in her hold, his balls tightening—and then she stilled.
“Fuck.” He bowed his head. Panted through the need. Maybe this hadn’t been such a brilliant idea, after all.
“Why you want to help me?”
“Because I can.” Anger and lust made him flippant.
Her grip tightened, sending all the blood rushing to the tip. “Because you think I weak.”
“No.” His hips jerked, the urge to just plow forward and start humping her hot little fist almost more than he could take—and from the speculative look in her gaze, she suspected it.
Hells, she really had been paying attention during their sessions. He willed himself not to move. He could damn well hold his own against a novice.
“Yes. You think I weak.” She dragged her hand down the length of his shaft and then back up. Slow and uncertain at first, but gaining confidence with each stroke, until his breath was coming faster and his balls tingled despite his best efforts. “You think I like all the others. Need saving from angel-like guardian.”
“Honestly?” It was more work than it should have been to sound in control. “Right now, with your hand around my dick, I’m feeling as far from angelic as a male can get.”
The crease between her eyebrows deepened. “You hiding behind joke. I spend so much time on outside with pack, who not let me in, I know. You say touch you and discover your secrets, but you keep them close.”
Fire flared in her gaze. It matched his own.
He hadn’t expected her to push him or how her thumb gliding over his thick mushroom crown would make his thigh