Page 25 of Bound

“I know,” she said apologetically. She twisted her wrists in his grip.

“Maybe just focus on preparing me,” she told him. “Rather than… other things.”

Slate’s dark brow furrowed. But he pressed his finger against her folds, rubbing obediently against the entrance.

“You have never mated,” he said. “Why?”

“I…” Ruby’s mouth dropped open, a moan spilling out as he pressed his fingertip inside. He was sobig. One of his fingers was easily worth three of hers. She could already feel the strain, even as she started to relax around the intrusion.

“The men in my town aren’t appealing,” she admitted breathlessly. It was an understatement if she’d ever heard one—calling themmenwas a step too far.Immature boyswere more like it. Ruby had avoided them when they were growing up, and she avoided them now. It was one of the good parts of her isolation: she didn’t have to put up with them leering at her in the market anymore. Instead, they avoided her or shot her suspicious looks when she passed. And, of course, they showed up shame-faced and mumbling when they needed their cock sores healed after they got back from visiting the city.

“Understandable,” Slate said, working a finger against her sweet spot. “Most humans aren’t.”

Ruby assured herself she wasn’t offended. But she couldn’t ignore the shard of ice in her heart that appeared at the words.

He let her wrists go and started cupping her breast. His thumb was huge, at least twice the size of the nipple he brushed over, and Ruby arched into it with a conflicted moan.

She couldn’t help it. She needed to ask.

“But I am?” She tried to pair it with a coy smile, but she was never good at coy. It came out shy and vulnerable instead, so meek it would have made her wince if he wasn’t fluttering his giant finger against that spot that made her see stars.

“You are…” Slate hesitated. “Not unappealing. For a mortal.”

With that, he tucked a second finger inside her.

Ruby bit her cheek. The stretch stung, but the slide was delicious. She was so wet his fingers squelched inside her.

She waited for the sting to subside. The pleasure was already mounting, overtaking it until the pain was a distant pinprick.

“Can you take another?” Slate asked, his voice more rumble than words.

Ruby cringed. “I… I don’t think so.”

The fireplace pulsed, sending up a shockingly tall gout of flame. It lit him from behind, haloing him in blue light.

“I think you can,” he said softly.

Ruby doubted it. Then he curled his fingers inside her, and those doubts were suddenly hazy and far away.

“O-okay,” she gasped.

Slate huffed against her hair. A third finger nudged against her entrance.

Ruby braced herself. But the stretch was too much. Even when his gentle probing turned insistent, that third fingertip was nowhere close to sliding in with the others.

“It won’t fit,” Ruby blurted. “Stop.”

Slate stilled. A low chirp rumbled in his chest, and Ruby’s knees trembled against the bed as failure thrummed through her. She could hardly take two fingers. How was she ever going to take his knot?

She glanced up at him, eyes filling with nervous tears. Was he disappointed? Was now where everything turned, and he started to act like she had expected him to when she appeared in his void?

But the words Slate spoke were not of disappointment. If anything, he sounded fascinated as he pressed his two fingers deep inside her.

“You really are incredibly small,” he said roughly. “I keep forgetting. Even when I am looking at you, it seems impossible anyone should be so small. Even a mortal woman.”

His fingers twisted inside her. Ruby moaned, her grip tightening on his elbows.

“I’m notthatsmall,” she insisted. “I’m… perfectly normal for a human.”

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