Page 20 of Reflections of Silence

His hand in my hair tugged me back to reality. I tangled bare legs around his thighs, the hardness of him rigid and urgent against my heat. I didn’t remember removing our clothes, but let him take charge, unable—unwilling—to fight him for dominance. I craved his touch, ached for him between my thighs. He nudged my body, slicking us both in my desire.

“Wider,” he murmured, pausing until I did as he asked.

I sighed my pleasure over and over, sinking deeper against the floor, my hands open at my sides.

“Gella,” he whispered, his voice straining.

I moaned against his shoulder, shifting against his body.Don’t stop. Please, never, ever stop.“What are you?—”

I blinked at the man, themonsterbefore me. His mouth glistened red, twin scarlet trails framing his perfect mouth. The logical part of my brain noted the discrepancy in a dispassionate way, as though I weren’t the reason his mouth was coated with my blood. I made the mistake of looking down at my breast.

Two small puncture marks indented the skin against the dusky pink of my nipple. A thin stream trickled over the swell of my breast. I watched as Sebastian lowered his mouth to my pale skin and lapped at the blood, smearing the scarlet trail across his mouth and me.

Torn between the awareness of my nakedness and the need to cover myself, my mind chose to focus on a growing horror,the understanding in my mind of who—what—my husband was. I wriggled beneath his weight, frantic to move away, to beanywhere elsebut near him, beneath him.

Don’t. Move.

A whisper in my mind reminded me of the bliss he offered as he sucked at my breast in a twisted parody of mother and child, life giving sustenance. Heat bloomed anew in my belly.

His tongue worked my nipple, pulling and tugging once again until he broke free of my skin with a loudpop.A scream built in my throat as he watched me, too calm, knowing he maintained ultimate control of the situation while I writhed beneath him, helpless.

Prey.

Between my legs, a finger delved into my wet heat and flicked once. I gasped, still pulling away, though my hands tangled themselves around his arms, pulling and pushing away at the same time. The finger flicked a second time, tracing the outline of my nether lips, learning the shape of me.

My cheeks burned as my own desire reflected in his eyes. Then my gaze dropped to his lips, red still staining the skin there. I pressed back into the thick carpet, my hips rising of their own volition to meet his touch.

Desperate to get away from him while my flesh demanded I drew nearer, I gasped again, moaning as his finger slid to the knuckle inside me. Sebastian held me tight, bands of iron arms surrounding my back, preventing me from moving away.

“Please—I have to—” I tore at his arms, my eyes latched to his, as his tongue cleaned the red from his teeth and lips.

My blood.

Rocking my hips against his hand, I watched in fascinated silence, unable to tear my gaze away from the horror caressing my body in such an intimate way.

“Gella,” he said again, his voice thick and rough, reaching around me, pulling me closer as his touch paused, though his finger still filled me. “Don’t fight me, little hellion of a wife.”

Ruby lips hovered over mine, the tip of his tongue flickering out to taste my mouth. I pulled back, but the action was half-hearted, and we both knew it. Heat gushed between my legs, coating his hand in a way I couldn't hide my reaction to his monster, his authority. Something—triumph, victory?—lit his eyes as he dipped his mouth down to mine.

The same lips that dripped with my blood.

His mouth crashed against mine, his other hand sliding down my back, to press me against him, harder onto the demands he made of my body. Fear abandoned sense, giving way to the infatuating need to be closer, melding our bodies together.

I cupped my hands to his cheeks, opening my lips to his kiss as his fingers and tongue dueled for dominance within me. Over me.

Mine.

His voice caressed my mind, and I jerked back, staring. A shadow of implicit knowledge flickered in his face. His eyes held mine, a challenge to defy him written there.

I didn’t.

He slammed his hands into the carpet beside my head, his breath cool against my searing pulse. I rolled to one side, folding my arms around my body. My mind still revolted at the idea of the man I had married while my body craved him like an opium eater deep in his den.

Sebastian grabbed my hands, pressing my wrists to my sides, apart from my body. Holding me in place he knelt back, watching.Longing.My nails imprinted on my palms, the biting pain dousing the edge of my arousal the slightest amount.

His much larger hands pressed over mine, entwining our hands in a hard squeeze. “Don’t hurt yourself,” he murmured, uncurling my fingers in one hand and kissing each one, and then doing the same to the other hand before he pinned my wrists where they had been. This time, I let him. “Gella, you’re beautiful. So, so beautiful.” His body settled over mine, every inch of him finding a place against me.

If I hurt you, I beg my forgiveness with pleasure.

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