Sexy and dangerous as hell. I wanted him, and that was such a bad thing.
“Me tying you back to those posts and fucking yousenseless.”
“Oh.” His crass words sent a delicious shiver of fear followed fast by desire rippling through me, awakening nerve endings dulled by the euphoria that crashed over me not more than a handful of minutes ago. “I thought we already did some of that.”
The memory of his whip—or whatever he’d chosen as his preferred method of torture—slamming into my tender flesh overtook me. I relived those seconds where it took two strikes on the same spot before my body gave in to a new ache.
Rafe tapped my nose. “None of that. You’ll get both of us going again.”
“You can tell?”
He dipped his head to speak into my ear. “I can smell your needy little pussy. And tomorrow, if you like, I’ll do something about it. If you want me, Willow.”
He knew my name. I gripped his shirt in tight fists and nodded. “Yes, please. And thank you.”
“For what?” His voice held a note of amusement layered over a darker one of desire.
“For replacing my ache with a different one.”
His fingers caught my chin and tilted my head back. I lost myself in his dark gaze, mesmerized by the golden flecks that swirled there.
What are you?
“You think I’m a distraction for your grief?”
I straightened and tried to push him away. “Do you know everything about me? Stalker,” I muttered under my breath as he gathered me back into his arms, nestling me back into the same spot I’d tried to vacate.
A huff escaped him. “I know everything about you, Willow. Everything, exceptwhatyou are. You didn’t fill that little section in on your form.” He squeezed me between hisarms. I swallowed and jammed my mouth shut. “Please?” he coaxed, massaging my scalp.
“Why don’t you go first?” I mumbled into his chest. My eyes fell closed against the rhythmic thump of his chest. “You tell me your secrets, and maybe I’ll share mine.”
“You know I’m supposed to be the enigmatic one.” Contained laughter laced his voice.
“Might be nice, for a change.” I yawned and snuggled deeper.
“Are you going to fall asleep on me?”
“Maybe? I’ll pretend the night was a dream.”
“Not a nightmare? It could have been, if I hadn’t stopped—” Rafe broke off with a soft curse. His heart rate increased beneath my cheek. “Did you know he intended to use needles on you?”
Things that pinch.
His words made a terrible kind of sense. “No.”
“I didn’t think so. Did you know that, applied in the right way, sharps can force a shift? It plays on your nervous system, making you believe you’re in imminent danger. But … it can also prevent the change, leaving you caught in limbo. But not by choice.”
“Not by choice.” I recalled the scaled girl in the foyer, his claws tracing over my body. “You controlled it. In you. Your hands.” I caught one and brought it to the front of my face, but his nails were pink, manicured to neat edges. “What are you, Rafe?”
His gaze swirled, gold and black, and my world dropped away.
His fingers curved around my cheeks, drawing me to his lips, and he spoke against them. His skin darkened, shadows flickering beneath, ready to erupt when called upon. “I’m an eagle, Willow. A wedge-tailed eagle.”
I stared into his gaze. “An eagle. That’s … small?” I offered, trying to reconcile the outback bird of prey with the man wrapped around me.
A dark laugh met my lips as he gave me a chaste kiss. “Not that small, sweetheart. Let’s get you dressed. In something rather less fuckable than before, shall we?” Rafe slipped me off his lap and set me on my feet, steadying me until I could stand on my own. His head tilted to one side. “Though I do like that harness. Tomorrow night, seven o’clock. My office.” His gaze searched mine, a flicker of uncertainty in it.
What sort of woman was I to deny Rafe Astor when he’d been such a sweetie?