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The pulse in her throat now had a s Even with the breeze co war the raven as her faaze shifted back to the solitary charcoal portrait that had caught his attention
It was a headshot of a woman, drawn from the back She was visible to her bare shoulder blades Her long hair was pulled up, her sli it there She wore a silver collar, locked Her other hand rested on it, as if she ondering at the earing it nificance to you"
In so ht she’d have a picture like that, but she’d found it when she was adding to the bordello gallery It had caught her, haunted her She put it off awhile, but when she received notification another bidder had put in an offer, she doubled it and bought it out from under hiance of willing submission," Mikhael mused "Not someone brutalized into servitude I expect you have clients who come here for both, to a certain point"
"Yes It’s a coe it"
"For soaaze shifted fro in the room to the hub of it all Her "It’s a road you’ve closed to yourself"
"When the craving is twisted, exploited, forced, it’s different" Then it beca at him, she understood what he meant about his ability to read the minds of others It wasn’t telepathy, not entirely Like her, he was in the business of exceptional intuition But it wasn’t an invitation to crawl into her soul Or her bed
"You can e you want to be, Raina You don’t have to trust me as a male, or a Dark Guardian But you can trust me with that part of you, as a lover"
He said it with a serious sincerity she wanted to doubt but couldn’t, because she could read the truth of it fros, right? Sex didn’t matter; sex was just sex, even when it turned your soul inside out That hat ics, capable of crippling
He didn’t blink, didn’t look away He waited on her If she told hio, he would But in this solitary roo souls below depending upon her, she could tell he understood what it was to be lonely To want To crave Goddess
She picked up her tea, sipped it To appear casual, in control As she set it aside, she rose, aware of the give of her ht It hts, her pressed beneath him
She walked across the room
4
HE STRAIGHTENED, CLASPING THE BALUSTERS HE HAD one foot on an upper step, his body canted at an angle that suggested his readiness to ht loved all that power and heated skin He was an unconditional sexual offering She could feel that energy expanding, filling the space of her private roo to take it--and her--over
When she reached the railing, she sank to her knees in front of it, her velvet dress pooling around her She hadn’t changed, so she could still saze dipped to the expanse of cleavage exposed by the low cut of the fabric, the way it held her breasts, the velvet molded over the nipples As she’d co it out through the sleeves and tucking the scrap of lace away in her lingerie chest His attention moved up her neck, back to her face In this position, she was eye level with his, below his, and then his grip shifted, overlapping hers, holding her there
Reaching through the bars with his other hand, he slid his fingers to her nape, applying firh the bars, settling it on his chest Hard ive to it, but the silken hair there coaxed a stroking touch Her nails curled in, digging into his skin, aquickly becahtening to hold him at bay Too intihtened his fingers on hers gripping the railing "Just pleasure," he said "I’m behind these bars, Raina Trust yourself Push your dress to your waist"
Sex felt good Like candy She told herself that, even as tremors swept her limbs and desire filled the empty space in her abdoo, waiting Pushing the sleeves off her shoulders, she drew the soft brushed fabric down over her bosoh and proud, but heavy and eye-catching, and they captured his gaze now
He slid his ar to the sht her forith sith That poasn’t otherworldly Dark Guardian stuff He was plain that strong,her woman’s heart trip a little faster as her knees slid a few inches through two of the baluster openings, holding her open
"There you go," he said, low, as if he were keeping a wild ani such behavior fro "Put your hands through this opening and this one All the way to the elbow Good girl Now fold theht"