going to talk to them.” He stalked toward the tent flap. “I trusted them to take care of you, and they did a shit job.”
“No. Wait.” The simple touch of her hand on his forearm stopped him cold. “They nice to me.” Her fangs flashed, tugging at her lower lip. “They say mean things about you.”
Ah, hells. He was so lost in this female.
He turned to face her, wrapping his hands around her shoulders. “I can handle a little criticism. It’s probably well deserved. As long as they’re nice and welcoming to you, I’m good.”
She shrugged. “I see enough anger with Talg. Such feelings only poison and twist. I don’t want that for you or them.” Her ears twitched. “I knew would be hard for me here. I didn’t realize hard for you, too.”
He ran his arms up and down the length of hers. “Everyone is just adjusting. Give them some time to catch up with us.”
She nodded, but shadows still darkened her gaze.
“What else is worrying you, wild thing?” He cradled her jaw between his hands. “We share our secrets, remember? Even when it’s hard.”
“I like when you push me,” she whispered the words. “I like when you hold me down and make me burn. Th-the brave females say I should not like what you did to me, but I did. I-I want it even now.”
Ah, fuck him. Nayla was finding her voice and coming into her own. Which was good. But it just might kill him in the process.
He brushed his thumbs across her cheekbones, soaking in as much of her courage as he could. “Whatever you feel is never wrong, so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Your body likes what it likes and you’ve had too little pleasure in your life to feel bad about what makes you feel good.”
He swallowed hard. “It is true though that you haven’t had a lot of chances yet to judge what you like best. There…there could be other forms of touching you like better. Or,” he forced the words out, the monster in him roaring all the while, “even another male who—ˮ
“No.” She cut him off, thankfully putting him out of his misery. “You only. I know. I like your rules. Your strength. Your command. It…it feel right.”
His cock went rock hard beneath his covering. “It feels right to me, too.”
Her gaze never wavered from his. “I want to be brave like those other females. I want to say what I want.”
He was in so much trouble. “Good. You should.”
She nodded again, her tiny fangs chewing at her lip as she gathered her courage. “Then I want you touch me, like before. It made me feel so good.”
He was still recovering from that declaration when she pressed her hand to his chest, the same place she had the first time she’d touched him. “I want to touch you, too.”
“Done.” Lust a red roar in his brain, he squelched the whisper and doubts. He’d vowed to take care of her and this was what she wanted. He’d make her feel so fucking good. He’d make her forget there was ever a time she’d feared him. He’d make her forget that the mean things those females had said about him might not be so wrong.
“We begin?”
He hid a smile. For someone who said she liked his commands, she gave a lot of her own.
“We begin.” He slid one hand to the nape of her neck, the other to her ass, and drew her close.
She melted against him, her eyes fluttering shut.
But it was the soft, sweet sigh of surrender that whispered past her lips that got him worst of all. The sound wrapped around his soul like the finest of shibari rope, a web of connection he doubted he could ever unravel.
After all she’d been through, and after all he’d done, she still trusted him.
He tried his whole life to be a White Knight and obliterate the taint of his father from his veins, but he’d never felt more like the real thing than in this moment.
“What we have special.” She arched against him. “Not everyone have.”
“I know.” He swallowed hard, humbled that she saw it, too. “I never thought I’d feel as close to another soul.”
He’d thought taking care of Nayla would be solely about her, but it wasn’t working out that way.
With every touch, with every shared confession, his tie to her thickened and solidified, wrapping tighter and tighter around his chest.
The tips of his fingers skimmed across her