Page 74 of Boundless
She threw out his filthy clothes as soon as she'd peeled them from his body, then helped him ease into the steaming floral-scented water. He hissed when the water touched his cuts and deeper bruises, and she wanted to cry at how much weight he'd lost since she'd last seen him. He'd worked so hard to put it on that it was tragic to see it gone again. But if he did it once he could do it again—she just had to trust.
Daega stripped down and slid in behind him, spreading her legs and pulling him back against her. She rested her chin on his filthy hair, holding him tight in the bath. "Vitrin's mercy, I was so scared I'd never get to do this again," she whispered, her arms tightening around him even more. "You are my heart, Lenlethael. I missed you terribly."
He covered her arms with his, shuddering and choking on a sob. "I-I-I—" He gave up on talking with a frustrated little snarl, then sank back into her and let himself crumble.
Her heart bled to see his pain, but she was glad, as always, that she was the one to help him through the storm. She folded herself around him, caging him in with all her limbs, as he cried and shivered and clung to her. She rocked him, clucking and murmuring at him, reminding him over and over that she was there, that she had him, that he was safe and loved and back in her arms.
By the time the storm passed his eyes were bloodshot and swollen, tears and snot caked on his sweet face. Daega took a washcloth from the stack on the sideboard and began to wash him gently. "How are you feeling, sweetling?" she asked him, pressing a kiss to his cheek.
"B-better," he croaked, sighing when she trailed more kisses along his jaw. "Thank you, my love."
She smiled against his damp, warm skin, nuzzling him before resuming her careful cleaning of his battered body. "Any time, my heart. Always."
She took her time tending to him, coaxing him into dipping his head back so she could scrub his golden curls and carefully detangle them with her claws. His eyes slipped closed, his muscles melting as she cleaned him.
Once he was done she drained the filthy bath water and drew more, dousing him in clean water to be sure he was spotless, then eased him out of the tub and into a huge fluffy towel to dry off. He was yawning, weaving on his feet, and she chuckled, then tugged him over to the bed and got him settled in, still naked. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, his full lips parting on soft snores and his damp curls splayed out around his head in a halo. She finished cleaning up from their bath, then slipped in beside him, snagging him around the waist to pull him back into her body to cage him once more in her limbs.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Recovering
LEN
LEN AWOKEsometime in the night, the jagged edges of a bad dream slicing at him. He was crying, hot tears cutting across his cheeks to soak into his still-damp hair. Daega was close beside him, curled onto her side, and seeing her beautiful face in the dim light of a single lantern soothed him somewhat. He tried to stop crying, taking deep breaths in through his nose that were laden with the comforting sweetness of his wife's scent, but he couldn't seem to shake the feeling that something waswrong—deeply, irrevocably wrong—and so he instead tried to cry quietly.
But Daega had an almost supernatural ability to sniff out his pain to try and soothe it, and despite his best efforts she stirred, reaching out to pull him against her, his back to her front, before her eyes were even open.
"What's wrong, Len?" she croaked in his ear, nuzzling the side of his face. "What do you need, sweet?"
He shuddered, pressing back into her and rolling his hips suggestively. She rumbled a pleased little noise, her hand skating over his side to grip his hip. "I—I want you," he managed, the tears still falling despite the hot spike of arousal making his cock twitch against his leg.
"You know I'm always happy to have you," she told him, rising up onto an elbow to be able to look down on him better. "But you're upset, dove. You're crying."
He bit his lip, choking back a sob of frustration as he flopped onto his back. Something was happening inside him, something ugly, and he needed her—needed her to soothe him, to take him away, to flood him and bend him until he almost broke. But he couldn't seem to find the words to say it. All he managed was a weak and desperate, "Please."
She cupped his face, her black eyes searching, searing into his spirit and making him want to squirm, but he held her gaze, letting his hand drift down his flat, quivering belly to stroke his aching cock.
She growled, stilling his hand with her own and stealing his breath with a bruising kiss. His every hair stood on end with anticipation.
"Alright, pet. I'll trust you to know yourself. But no safe words tonight—you say 'no' or 'stop' and that's it. Alright?"
He nodded, his heart hammering in his chest. "T-tie me up," he rasped, his cock bucking eagerly at the thought. "Make me...helpless."
He saw a dark brow lift at that, but she nodded, slipping out of bed to raid his closet for scarves. He wanted her cock, but he knew she wouldn't have it on her. He needed her to take him utterly. He needed it more than he needed his next breath.
She returned quickly and got to work, taking each of his limbs in turn and tying them down to the bed at the corner posts, spreading him open wide. He tugged at his bonds, testing their strength, and found he had almost no slack, the knots firm and ungiving. He swallowed, precum pulsing from his cock and onto his belly as Daega crawled slowly onto the bed, dark gray skin even darker in the weak light, looming over him like a dark goddess, like a demon queen come to take his soul. She had another scarf, he noticed, and she used it to carefully blindfold him, her lips soft and sweet on his.
"Is this alright?" she asked him, her fingers trailing over his skin, claws extended just enough to scrape deliciously.
He nodded. "Y-yes, Mistress. P-please—please use me."
"Use you?" she chuckled darkly, capturing his nipple and pinching it hard enough that he gasped. "Perhaps I will. In time. Once I've had my fun with you." He wanted to sob his thanks, but at the same time, he didn't want to give away that he was still struggling to keep from crying.
He felt her weight shift, heard the bed creak faintly as she slid down his body. Tension drew him tight, his ears straining for any sound that would give him a clue as to what she would do next.
She settled between his spread legs, her warm hands caressing his hips, before wet heat wrapped around his cock, swirling and squeezing all around him—her tongue. He cried out, head angling back and stretching his throat. He felt something ghost over his lips, startling him, and then the delicious friction on his prick let up for just a moment. "Suck," Daega barked, and he parted his lips obediently, moaning at the taste of her skin as her fingertips invaded his mouth. He sucked and licked her digits with everything he had, desperate to please her. The sensations barreling through him were incredible, his hips twitching up into the slick tunnel she'd created with her long tongue, and at length she withdrew her fingers, bringing them to his sensitive hole to stroke and tease at the tight pucker for entrance. He whimpered when she carefully sank a wet finger inside him, pumping slowly, coaxing him carefully into opening for her. He was about to beg for more, for her to add another finger, when she withdrew the one to add a second, sinking deep inside him and hitting his prostate with unerring accuracy. He whimpered, his orgasm barreling closer, causing his sac to tighten and draw up closer to his shaft. He felt the first tingle of it in his limbs when suddenly, frustratingly, she was stopping. Her fingers stayed in his ass, pressing into his prostate and massaging it gently, but her tongue left his cock, her mouth pressing soft kisses to his thighs and hipbones instead.
Len was embarrassed at the pathetic whine that escaped him. "Daega," he pleaded, wriggling his hips.
