“Wider.”
Heat surges in my core as I shift my legs a little farther apart. An ache builds beneath my bones, an emptiness that begs to be filled. Every demand Rowan makes is fuel, every word incendiary.
“Wider, Sloane. Stop trying to hide from me because I promise you now, it’s not going to work.”
I swallow. My legs spread to the point of discomfort.
A beat of time passes before Rowan’s gaze unlinks from mine to travel down my body. I feel it in every inch of flesh, the weight of his desire as it travels over me, his thinning restraint like fire beneath my skin. His attention settles on the apex of my thighs as the muscles of his forearms tense.
“The clit piercing. Tell me.”
He doesn’t look up when I pause. He just waits, watches. “I was eighteen,” I say. “It was my second body piercing, after my navel. It hurt, of course, but not as bad as I thought it would. Once it healed, it helped, I think. With orgasms.”
“You couldn’t orgasm before?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t have the right…situation…up until that point. But it felt like it gave me control.” I remain still as the muscle in Rowan’s jaw jumps. His eyes are dark, hooded. He knows just enough about my past to cement the gaps in his knowledge with his own imagination. “The labia piercings I got when I was twenty. I liked the way it looked. I know they’re small, but somehow they remind me of armor. Maybe that doesn’t make sense.”
“It does,” he says as his eyes anchor to mine.
I give him a faint smile that fades in a heartbeat. “The last one, the fourchette, I got that a few months before I met you. It just made me feel more confident. And I thought a partner might like it too.”
Rowan’s eyes are a lightless void, his voice a deep and gravelly rasp when he says, “Did they?”
My gaze travels across the room to land in the shadows. I don’t look at him when I shake my head. “I don’t know. I haven’t been with anyone since I met you.”
Those words are met with silence. They hang in the air. They consume the oxygen in the room. When my gaze lifts from the shadows, it collides with Rowan’s and I see it, the exact moment his restraint detonates.
“Why not,” he demands.
I shake my head again.
“I told you already. Stop hiding. It’s not going to work with me, not anymore. You want this? You want me? Then fucking tell me, Sloane.” Rowan’s arms unravel from his chest. His hands lay on my knees, steady on the tremor in my bones to capture the tectonic shift that’s cracking me apart. “You fucking tell me, so that you know when I ruin you for all other men, it’s what you asked for. Tell me—”
“You,” I say. Every breath shudders through my lungs. “I met you. I didn’t want anyone else. Just you. I only want you.”
There’s no amusement or relief in his eyes, only predatory intensity. He looks at me the way a tiger would a lamb.
A meal to be devoured.
The mattress dips as he shifts one of his legs onto the bed and then the other to kneel between my spread calves.
“Remember what you just said when you think you can’t possibly come again. Because you will. We’ve got four fucking years to make up for.” Rowan sinks down between my thighs, his calloused palms wrapped around my tender flesh to keep me bared wide open. Every exhalation warms the moisture gathered at my entrance. His eyes still hold mine from the length of my body, a gravitational pull I can’t escape from. “Pick a safe word. Do it now.”
I swallow. Hard. “Chainsaw.”
He huffs a laugh, a burst of warmth against my core. “How fitting, love. Now be a good girl and find something to grab on to…” he says, then passes one long, slow lick over my center. “...Because I’m about to destroy you.”
17
BEAUTIFUL DISASTER
ROWAN
I told her I’m no angel.
I don’t think she believed me.
But she’s about to discover that I’m the devil she never knew she needed.
I flick my tongue over the curved metal bar just below her clit as my thumb circles her sensitive nerves with just enough pressure to leave her wanting for more. Sloane bucks from the mattress and gasps a breath when I suck the piercing into my mouth. The scent of her arousal mixes with the lingering soap on her skin. I’m already nearly mad with the need to sink into her tight heat.
“Rowan,” she whispers. My free hand slides up her body to toy with the heart that surrounds her peaked nipple. I trace the curves and the tiny balls at each end of the bar before I give it a gentle tug that elicits a shudder. Her responsiveness makes me smile, but her restraint has got to go.
“I didn’t quite catch that, love.” I latch onto her clit and roll my tongue across the bud and the metal bar until a loud moan finally passes her lips. “That’s better,” I say when I let her free of my mouth.
“They’ll hear us,” she whispers. “Fionn and Rose.”
“Good. We’ll show them how it’s done. Give Fionn something to think about. Maybe he’ll get over himself and make a move on Rose.”
Sloane huffs a laugh that becomes a cry of pleasure when I plunge my tongue into her pussy to taste her sweet, hot arousal, letting it cover my senses and burn into my memory. My fingers trace the symmetrical rows of titanium balls and bars that frame her entrance and she squirms before I drag my tongue through her lips and return to her clit to dip a finger into her pussy. Her eyes are closed, her head tilted back against the pillow. Her good hand grips an iron rung of the headboard as she bites down on her lip.
My finger curls to stroke a slow path over her inner walls. She writhes and sinks her teeth down into her flesh. That definitely won’t do. I give her breast two gentle slaps in quick succession and she immediately lets go of her lip to suck in a needy breath.
“I still can’t hear you.”
“Rowan,” she whimpers.
Sloane writhes when I give her another little slap. Her pussy soaks my hand as I pump my finger in slow strokes. “Did you want something, Blackbird? You’re going to have to speak up.”
“More,” she says, louder this time. “I need more.”
I add another finger and a louder moan slips past her lips. But she’s still holding back. “You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to come.”
A shiver wracks her body as I blow a thin stream of air over her exposed flesh.
“Please, Rowan. Please,” she rasps.
“I’ll tell you what,” I say. She meets my waiting gaze, her eyes hooded with lust. “Since you asked so nicely, I’ll give you this one and let you come. But you’d better find your voice quick, little bird. Because we’ve only just started, and I will keep this up as long as it takes until I’m satisfied that you’re not hiding from me. By the end of this, you’ll scream. That’s a fucking promise.”
A strained whimper wrestles free of Sloane’s chest.
I slide my free arm beneath her hips and raise her ass off the mattress.