They were. I knew it. That Xumi could be dead, and yet still come between us, sent a pulse of rage through me. I folded my hands around his, and said, “You are mine, Talakai.”
“I want to be yours,” he rumbled. “But I am not in control.”
Clarity came to me in a blinding flash.
And it inspired a plan. To set him free.
“No, you aren’t in control,” I hissed through my teeth. “BecauseIam.”
I grabbed his hands and pushed them down to his sides. “You cannot touch me unless I permit it.” Fed by my rage, my voice rang with power.
His eyes widened, and between us, the scales barely contained what bulged from within. The muscles of his arms flexed, testing my control.
I didn’t need chains to achieve it. “You. Will. Not. Move,” I commanded, winding my energy tighter and tighter around his, until his lips pulled back from his teeth.
My beast coiled within me, eager for what it sensed beneath my hands. My beast wanted it all. As I let slip the leash, it wound through my alpha energy, and fastened onto Talakai.
He groaned, a long, ratcheting sound, and his scales could no longer contain him. I reached down, and ran my fingers along the silken skin covering rigid steel. The tips encountered ridges where I didn’t expect them. I’d felt them before and thought they were veins—but this time, I realized what they were.
Scars.
She’d even cut him there. In the most intimate of places.
My rage empowered me, and I pushed him back against the rock into the cascading water. I watched as it traced every muscle, every contour of him, and he quivered when the cool water hit his burgeoning flesh between my stroking fingers.
Once again, he tried to break free from my control, but I wouldn’t permit it. “Hold. Still.”
His eyes flashed fire, but he obeyed. His wet skin shivered as my fingers stroked away from his rigid shaft. I slid them to his balls and gently squeezed and pulled before climbing the landscape of muscle to his belly and then chest. As my beast fed deeply, setting fire to my every nerve and pooling heat between my legs, I dug in my human fingernails and leaned in to pull his nipple into my mouth. Nipped at it.
His groans became a rumble that did not end as I ran my hands, teeth, and tongue over every inch of him. After that first contact, I fought my hunger for the jutting shaft that he thrust toward me, letting it randomly rub my belly and breasts as I worked up and down his body.
Every time he tried to move, I held him with my power. It coiled around him like a snake, holding him as the tension built. Until his beast prowled just beneath his skin, clawing to be set free.
But he held it back. Xumi had trained him well. He now craved the torment, and didn’t believe that the beast within could ever win. The effort it cost him to hold back had every fiber of him trembling.
I needed him to lose control. It was the only way to set him free.
“Give me your wings, Talakai,” I ordered.
He stiffened, trying to pull away, but I sank my fingers into his forearms. “Now,” I commanded.
They emerged from his back, arching into the water and sending spray flying. I pulled on his arms, spinning him face-first into the surrounding rock.
“Stay like that,” I insisted.
The powerful muscles of his back quivered as I ran my hands over them—and then I danced the fingers along his wings.
And he shuddered. The rumble coming from him deepened, and his feet shifted, spreading farther apart, the knees bending as though he were having trouble remaining upright.
I pulled on the long bones to bring his wings lower and continued to stroke along the membranes. The soft skin vibrated beneath my touch, and when I leaned in to nibble on them, his knees did buckle.
“Aannaa...” he moaned.
I kept going, nibbling and licking and rubbing, while he swayed and shuddered and groaned. The water ran over us both, adding to the sensuous stimulation.
The pooling heat begged for release. To feel him surging within me. I almost couldn’t breathe it was so powerful.
I put my hand on his hip and turned him. His hands at his sides had sprouted talons from the fingertips, and his beast raged at me from his eyes.
