Page 211 of Hunters and Prey

He stretched out next to me, and I found myself looking him over, in spite of myself. I’d seen him naked recently, of course. He didn’t leave me alone, not for more than a few minutes at a time, so I’d seen him naked a lot, including in the shower.

Still, it felt like I hadn’t seen him naked very much.

It felt like I hadn’t spent any time naked with him at all.

“Believe me, ilya, I know,” he murmured, leaning over to kiss the side of my face.

I felt him hesitate as he looked at me, feeling the separation pain on my light, even as I felt the pain grow more noticeable on him. That damned separation pain we got as seers made it really hard to go without sex. Even when sex probably would have been the last thing on the mind of a human, seers found themselves thinking about it constantly.

Seeming to feel where my head was going, he met my gaze, opening his light more, as if suddenly second-guessing what he was about to do.

I could feel how tired he was, though.

I could feel the worry weighing on him, and I slid closer to him on the bed, stroking his bare chest with my hand.

He felt and looked like he’d lost weight.

I promised myself that if this worked, if he managed to keep me in bed with Velcro straps and the sheer force of his will, then I’d go with him to the downstairs gym the next morning, and make sure he ate a huge breakfast.

He smiled a little.

It even came close to reaching his eyes that time.

“What’s going on out there?” I asked him, my voice soft. “With Charles. With the riots, and––”

But Black was already shaking his head.

“We’re not talking about that, ilya,” he growled. “And if we sleep tonight, and you don’t go anywhere, I can think of a lot better ways to get some exercise in the morning than going to the gym.” Smirking when I snorted a laugh, he nudged me with his hand. “You can still feed me the killer breakfast. Preferably naked. Preferably with my cock inside some part of you.”

That made the pain worse though, even as I gripped his arm, closing my eyes.

“For now,” he added, softer, leaning over to kiss me again. “We’re going to sleep. Both of us. And hopefully my obnoxious, overbearing presence will keep you here with me.”

Smiling at that, I only nodded.

I just lay there while he began attaching strips of canvas to both of us, Velcroing them around our wrists and even our ankles, tightening the straps until the only way for either of us to lay was more or less on top of one another.

By the end of it, I felt even more turned on, but also weirdly reassured.

Laying my head on his chest, I wrapped my arm around his upper chest, where he had my wrist strapped to my other wrist so that it wrapped around him. I was a little worried my arm might fall asleep, but Black had tied it so that my right arm went around his neck, not his back, the strap then looping over his shoulder so that he didn’t have his full weight on it.

I could feel pain on him, from the proximity and skin.

When I glanced down his body, I noticed he was hard, as well.

I laughed a little when it occurred to me that even if he’d wanted me to give him head, I wasn’t sure I could pull it off, not in our current, weirdly pretzeled position. I might be able to manage a hand-job, but that would be weird too, with my hands tied together and around him.

Hearing my thoughts, he snorted.

“Pervert,” he said, gruff.

“What?” I said. “You’re going to tell me this isn’t weirdly kinky?”

Clicking at me, he shook his head, wrapping his bound wrists, hands and arms around me and squeezing me against his chest. “I’m scared to death for my wife, and she’s making bondage jokes… when I’m hard as fuck and I haven’t slept in four days.”

He said it in a teasing tone, but his words sobered me.

Resting my cheek against his chest, I blew warmth over him with my light.

“Go to sleep, Black,” I told him softly.

I felt him briefly regretting his words to me.

Then I felt him deliberately let it go, even as I closed my eyes.

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