Page 104 of Salvaged Hearts

“But won’t it?—”

“Leave it,” he repeated over my concern, a bit out of breath.Right. Because thousands of dollars in jewels were disposable in this world. Nodding, I closed the gap, stepping over the tiledivide and into water so jarringly cold it yanked my breath away. “Breathe,” he ordered, snaking an icy hand around my middle and pulling my ass to his groin. Shakily, I fought to comply. “Own your fear. You’re not dying. Tell your body that.”

“E-easier to do when you-re n-not at risk of h-hypother-mia,” I chattered as tears burned in my eyes.

He was torturing himself like he should be punished for Reginald’s transgressions.

“Breathe,” he repeated. “Control your mind. Learning control will keep you alive, baby. You never should’ve bolted into a situation without knowing it inside and out.”

Fighting to comply, I jammed my eyes closed as every inch of my bodyscreamedfor relief. How in the fuck was hetalkingright now?

“My back seizes in this kind of cold,” he explained. “I’ve been working to master it for years. I assure you, you can breathe through it.” I wanted to argue that I wasn’t capable of that. Greyson had always been motivated by control. It didn’t surprise me that it extended to his own body. But…then his hands were sliding over my skin, rough and desperate.

He slipped them up to my breasts, kneading them urgently before giving my nipples a demanding tweak that sent desperate need blooming across my body.

A ravenous caress warred with the cold as one palm slid down my body until his fingers found my clit, where he began a steady circle of pressure.

“I need you,” he admitted with a jagged exhale. Somehow, it was all the more vulnerable. My own oxygen now came in broken inhales as pleasure and cold warred for my focus. “Need to feel you. Know you’re safe.”

Nodding. Nodding, I could still do.

His responding chuckle was a desperately needed warmth, although I wished it could spread as my body shook againsthis, mind fighting to control the response. “You’re crazy,” I mumbled, finally about to call it quits when he increased the pressure on my clit, drawing my focus to the waves of pleasure his fingertips delivered.

Cold-pleasure-cold-pleasure.

My brain was short-firing, unsure of what the hell to focus on.

“That adrenaline rush heightens your awareness, doesn’t it?” Greyson whispered coyly in my ear, fingers working so deftly my legs were shaking from something other than the frigid temperature. I nodded and a pleased growl rumbled in his chest as he dipped his fingers into my entrance, pleasure sending my head flying back to land on his shoulder as he pinned my body against his with the opposite arm. “I’m not sure I can be gentle,” he warned as he leaned into my back, his pecs flexing against my shoulder blades.

With my eyes still jammed closed and my breath coming in desperate pants, I gasped, “So don’t try.”

His palm flattened against my low belly as he yanked me back into him. “You scared me today.”

“I’m s-sorry.”

“Are you?” he scoffed. “I don’t think you understand what I would do to keep you safe, my Belle.”

Those words wrapped me up just as much as his arms did, as he traded his forearm across the necklace on my chest for a palm wrapped around my throat, keeping my chin tipped up where I rested on his shoulder.

“I won’t be s-so reckless.”

“You’re freezing, princess,” he noted with some trace of amusement.

“Y-yeah,” I said with all the tact of a ‘duh.’

Greyson’s opposite hand reached for the shower handle, flicking it to the left. By the time his fingers were back on my clit, the water was warming up, my entire body sighing with relief.

“You’re mywife. Myworld, Alessandra Hart. Don’t forget that.”

Nodding, I managed to catch my breath as he gently worked his hands over my body. It was only the involuntary burning at the bridge of my nose that made me process what he’d just declared. Why was I always crying around this man? Did he mean that? In some small part? Or was that just lust steering his words?

“Did you mean what you said at the manor or was that the adrenaline talking?”

“Which part?” I asked, still trying to wade through his prior declarations.

“That you want to bepunished?” he asked playfully, giving my clit a tap. What little air I’d managed to gather rushed out of my lungs in one blow, heat coursing through my entire body like he’d dropped a match into gasoline.

“Yes,” I admitted, not hiding any ounce of the desperate need consuming my body.

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