Page 38 of Degradation
She nods a little hesitantly and her eyes find me. ‘Would you...’ She winces. ‘I’d like?—’
‘Want me to lay next to you?’
She nods, but as I get up, she shrugs out of the robe and throws it down by the side of the bed.
She’s naked.
‘What are you doing?’ I ask, taken aback.
‘I want what you did before.’
She wants me to...
My eyes widen in shock at what she’s asking...but notasking. Jesus, she can’t even say the words. What were Blake and I thinking before Halloween?
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ I murmur, eyeing the bruises, some of them looking a lot like finger marks around her breasts.
The look she gives me is a sneer, but not just any. That’s a Blake sneer, if I ever saw one. A perfect mimic.
‘I’m not deficient up here.’ She taps her head. ‘You know that, don’t you?’
I nod. ‘Of course. You’re a... You’re really smart, Daisy. That’s not in dispute.’
‘Really?’ she mutters caustically. ‘Because, to be honest, I’m getting a bit sick of everyone else deciding my life for me as if I’m a child or aretard.’
I wince at the word. ‘No one would ever call you?—’
She snorts. ‘They do all the time, Mav. Didn’t you ever hear them? Where have youbeen? Anyway, if it was up to you, Shade and...Blake, I’d still be trying to fumble my way through an English degree in misery, or back in England, also in misery. I’m here because of me. I’m able to help you in the lab because ofme.’
She rolls her eyes and lets out a breath. ‘Fine. Don’t. Whatever. Thank you for the painkillers. You might as well go.’
You’re useless to me.She doesn’t say that last part, but she might as well have.
I stare, oddly stunned by her little tirade. I don’t think I’ve seen her like this. Maybe at Shade that time. I’m kind of proud that she’s standing up for herself.
‘What is it you actually want?’ I ask. ‘If you can say the wordslike an adult, maybe I’ll give it to you.’
Shit. Am I actually going to do this?
‘I want you to...’ She stops and I think she’s going to back down.
‘I want you to come over here, lay next to me, spread my legs and touch me until I orgasm.’
She says it so succinctly, though color rises in her cheeks.
My eyebrows rise involuntarily.
‘Is that good enough?’
I nod, stepping forward. ‘Yeah, that’s good enough, Tulip,’ I murmur.
I pull the covers off her and she gasps, but she doesn’t try to cover herself as I look my fill, trying to ignore how banged up she is.
‘Are you sure?’ I ask, looking into her eyes.
She nods, meeting them for longer than she usually does before she moves her gaze away, I notice. She wants me to know that she’s not on the fence.
‘What is it that you actually want me to do?’ I ask.
