Page 58 of A Murderous Crow
“You know you don’t have to do all of this if you want sex, you know…” I said and I couldn’t readily identify why, but I was getting mildly upset.
“Of course I don’t,” he said. “I’m doing this because I want to – not because I feel obligated to. I do what I want,” he said the last simply as though it should explain everything but quite honestly, it explainednothingand just left me that much more confused.
I turned over onto my back and he sighed, a long-suffering sound and cocked his head.
“Don’t,” he warned and I raised my eyebrows.
“Don’t what?” I asked.
“Don’t ruin it by starting a bunch of shit,” he said.
I felt my brows crush down into a frown and said, “I’m not trying to start anything, Corbett – I’m just trying to understand…”
“Understand what?” he asked.
“Why you’re being so nice to me…”
I fell quiet, because once I’d said it out loud, it sounded… lame. Stupid.Desperate.
He sighed and reached out a hand, curving it around the back of my neck and smoothing a thumb along my cheek. His whiskey-colored eyes searched mine, and he had such a look of tender concentration on his face.
“Because you’ve done well, despite so many hard things lately. Because you deserve the reward for all the shit you’ve put up with. I’m not an easy man to—” He shook his head and said, “I’m not an easy man to get along with, and you’ve done admirably in keeping your cool and sticking things out. The least I can do is spoil you just a little.”
I thought about it and lay still beneath him. He kept up on his knees, and rested his hands atop his thighs and I thought, and not for the first time, that as arrogant and irritating as Corbett Prescott could be – he was agorgeousman.
I swallowed hard and said, “I don’t really know what to do with the kinder, gentler Corbett Prescott.”
He smiled then, and said, “How about Corvus?” he asked. “Corbett feels like a shell. A costume I wear.”
“Corvus…” I murmured and it was my turn to cock my head like the curious bird the name came from.
“Why did you choose that name?” I asked.
“Turn back over, let me touch you, and I’ll tell you.”
I stared at him, wary for a moment, but then complied. I hated how unreadable his face was to me.
He pressed hands into my lower back and slid them up to my shoulders, pressing deep, my back giving a series of satisfied pops as he dropped his weight onto me. One hand slid down my body in a deep caress, the other came up and his hand captured my chin.
He murmured next to my ear, “If you just want to keep it to fucking, I can do that…” and his hand that wasn’t holding my chin fast, delved in between my body and the bed, his fingertips aiming for and finding my clit effortlessly.
I kicked, and struggled and he laughed.
Of course, my efforts were ineffectual. He had me, whether I liked it or not. What did it say about me that Ilikedit?
He pulled back on my chin, my back arching, my pelvis thrust into his hand and the mattress below as he rubbed at my clit. I pressed hands against the bed for lack of anything better to do with them, and whimpered when he pulled just a little too much and my abdominals stretched painfully.
He didn’t let up.
If anything, the small sound of pain heightened things for him and he redoubled his efforts with his fingers slicking through my wetness, to get me to rise rapidly.
I panted, knowing he wouldn’t relent until I came, andGodwhy did that turn me on that much more?
“That’s it, Kitten. Come for me, baby,” he growled and I whined, the pleasure coiling low in my belly like a snake, waiting to strike. I was on that sharp precipice for far too long, until with a wiggle of my hips, grinding down against his hand, I hit that spark and the snake struck, and I was coming with wave after euphoric wave of pleasure slamming through my veins.
I panted, and he lowered me to the bed, and massaged my back, stroking over my skin lightly as the poison took hold and I swallowed my fear and accepted that Corvus was a drug, and like most drugs, he was highly addictive and I was hooked.
I shuddered helplessly beneath him as he chuckled darkly above me and I realized that I was wholly in his thrall.
