Page 36 of A Breath of Life (Shadowy Solutions #4)

“I know.” He grinned and ground his erection against my leg, still moving, never missing the beat. “I told you. It’s foreplay. It feels really fucking good, doesn’t it? ”

I made a noise in my throat that I hoped conveyed my agreement.

My movements weren’t nearly as fluid, but I caught on and worried less about how ridiculous I looked and instead focused on the hot man in my arms. My hot man. If rubbing up against Tallus was the goal, I would win the game. I gripped his ass and pressed him tighter against me.

Tallus whimpered and moaned as he closed his eyes.

It was kinky. It was seductive. It was more than I expected.

Growing brave, I turned him so his back was to my front and wrapped my arms around his middle. With our bodies locked together, Tallus found the beat, encouraging me to copy. I moved with him, unable to stop. His scent surrounded me. I wanted more.

Lured into his seductive game, I brought my mouth to the curve of his shoulder and kissed a path over his heated skin. The whole time, I never stopped rutting against his backside. Pleasure coiled in my low belly, ached along my length, and pooled in my balls.

Tallus tipped his head, tilting it to the side as he exposed his neck. His eyes fluttered closed as I tongued the length of the taut tendons, ending by his ear. He moaned, pressing his ass harder against my cock. Fuck I wanted to be inside him.

He’d washed the day’s sweat away and tasted clean and fresh. He tasted like Tallus—a potent drug I never wanted to quit. An addiction stronger than any of my vices, one I would never give up for the world.

I took his earlobe into my mouth and tongued it, suckling gently as I skated a hand over his hard cock.

Tallus rocked his hips, encouraging friction. I stroked him through his underwear, acutely aware of the other requests he’d made when determining suitable prizes for a successful lockpicking .

The idea of marking him disturbed me on a cellular level. I wanted to push those thoughts away, but the desire to please Tallus trumped everything. I didn’t know if I could follow through, but for him…

My erection flagged slightly at the thought, but he didn’t notice.

I abandoned his earlobe and peppered kisses over his neck, gently scraping my teeth along his skin, testing myself.

Bite me , he’d said. He wanted teeth marks. Slaps on the ass. Bruises. I couldn’t. No. I grazed my teeth over his skin again as a sick sludge coated my belly. It was not hard enough to mark, but he groaned and trembled with pleasure. With anticipation. Was I a disappointment?

“Diem…” Another whimper. “I need you inside me.”

“Not yet,” I breathed near his ear. Give him something , my brain demanded. He asked. He consented.

He whined a protest, but it turned into a groan when I slipped my hand down the front of his underwear. Circling the swollen heat of his steely erection, I stroked him bare as I continued to assault his neck with tongue and lips and the faintest rasp of teeth.

Battling my mind was no easy task.

His tip wept precum, and I smeared it over his cock head with my thumb as my mouth watered. I wanted to taste him, suck him down my throat, and make him cry out with pleasure. I wanted to bury myself in his ass and fuck him for days.

I did not want to mark his perfect skin.

Where these bedroom fantasies had come from, I had no idea. He’d voiced them on a few occasions. He knew they were hard limits for me. Why was he so persistent lately?

I had a different fantasy. One I’d never spoken aloud. The closer we got, the more ardent my desire burned.

It required words. A conversation. Exposing my heart. My wishes. My dreams .

Bringing up such a monumental request was beyond my capability.

So I remained quiet. Content with what we had.

Why couldn’t Tallus be the same?

I nipped again at the tender skin below Tallus’s ear. Tongued. Nibbled. Kissed. Nibbled again. I couldn’t convince myself to apply more pressure, to leave teeth marks. The idea alone made me queasy. But a hickey?

Tallus’s rhythm faltered. He couldn’t find the music’s beat, and I was in no position to lead, so any attempt at dancing fell by the wayside.

I rode his ass, rutting and grinding as he rocked back into me, willing my cock to stay hard in the face of this new struggle.

He fucked himself into my fist with every forward thrust and rubbed his crack over my length.

I tongued the base of his neck before applying the slightest suction. Tallus shuddered and gasped. His cock pulsed in my hand, spilling more precum.

Jesus. He really did want this.

“Gnnah… Fuck, yeah, D. Oh god, yes. Please.”

I sucked again. A fraction harder. A smidgen longer.

He whimpered and trembled. His cock leaked and throbbed. I stroked him with determination as I shut off my brain, closed my eyes, and sucked on his neck like he wanted without releasing that time.

He moaned, chanting, “Oh fuck yeah… oh god, D… stroke me faster… yeah… like that… oh fuck… oh god… Don’t stop.”

In seconds, he was coming. The warm, wet spread of his release spilled through my fist and ran over my hand. By the time he rode through every pulse, I released his neck, panting and quaking as badly as him, but for different reasons.

I was no longer hard .

When I saw the deep purple mark left behind by my actions, I squeezed my eyes closed and pushed the revulsion away, reminding myself that he’d wanted it. He’d asked for it. He took pleasure in it.

You didn’t hurt him. You didn’t hurt him.

Tallus collapsed heavily against me, his knees threatening to buckle. “Christ, I’m spent. Holy fucking shit… that was… fucking incredible.”

He reached up and touched the place I’d marked, grinning over his shoulder. “Did you…”

“Yeah,” I rasped.

He hooked a hand at the back of my head, tangled his fingers into my thick hair, and tugged me down for an awkward kiss. I turned him in my arms so I could join our mouths properly. He fumbled with the button on my pants, reminding me that I had been fully clothed this whole time.

“Wait,” I said against his mouth, clasping a hand around his wrist before he discovered I was no longer aroused.

The satiated sheen in his hazel eyes spoke of a satisfying orgasm. “Don’t you want my mouth on you?”

I did, but I needed a minute to digest.

I hiked him into my arms, earning a devilish grin as I carried him down the hall to the bedroom and tossed him on the mattress. “I’m not done with you. Hands and knees.”

He didn’t question me and rolled, first plundering the drawer of supplies in search of a condom and lube. I stripped while his back was turned and crawled over top of him. He handed me the foil-wrapped package as he turned to face me.

“I want to see you,” he said, and I couldn’t argue.

I lay my naked body over his, bracing my hands on either side of his head as I peered down at the man who had somehow wormed his way through my steel barricade into my heart.

The man who left me perpetually vulnerable, whose life had become more important than my own.

The mark on his neck stood stark against his pale complexion. I touched it gingerly, delicately. I didn’t like it. It soured my gut, and I must have made a face.

“Thank you. Now I’m yours, Guns. Consider it a brand.”

“A brand.” My voice croaked.

“You didn’t hurt me.”

I nodded but didn’t feel as confident.

He smoothed a thumb over my creased forehead. “Stop fretting. In case you missed the fact that sucking on my neck was an incredible turn-on, I’d like to refer you to my cum-filled underwear on the floor.”

An unrestrained chuckle burst out of me. “I noticed.”

“It was good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

He smoothed his hand over my biceps as we studied one another.

“Why is your brain still in a knot?”

“I… Tallus…” The frog in my throat persisted.

“What’s up?”

I wet my lips and searched for the right words before shaking my head.

“Don’t do that. Talk to me.”

“I…”

“You?”

I touched the hickey on his neck, the bruise I’d left behind. A brand. “I don’t like marking you like this. It doesn’t feel right. It’s not… I would prefer… Fuck. What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I fucking talk? ”

Tallus pressed a finger to my lips. “Think about the words, then say them.”

But I couldn’t. Too many things were happening all at once. What if he rejected the idea? “Not tonight.”

“You’re upset.”

“It just… didn’t feel good. For me. I’m sorry.”

Sadness filled his eyes, and I hated myself. “No. Diem—”

“Can we not talk about it? I want to make love to you and… forget the world.”

That was all it took. A simple request.

Tallus wrapped his hands around the back of my neck and pulled me into a kiss.

The silky glide of his tongue against mine was a delicacy in itself.

I lost myself in the euphoria of Tallus, the accumulation of stress I’d gathered vanishing for the first time since I’d been clubbed over the head and kidnapped.

He was the one spot in my life that was untouched by trauma.

When I escaped into his arms, into his body, the past disappeared and worries about the future no longer mattered.

Nothing mattered. We existed in the moment.

He and I. Alone on an island. Tallus gave me something nobody had ever been able to give me. A sense of safety. Of peace. Of relief.

Our sex life might have astronomically improved, but we clearly had a long way to go. I wanted him to be happy, but I didn’t yet know how to cross these new bridges. At times, I still struggled to take control in the bedroom, fretting over details and fighting with awkward advances.

Tallus’s patience knew no bounds. He directed less and let me experiment more. I’d learned to pay attention to cues, read his body language, and not worry so much about clumsiness or getting it wrong. Tallus never berated my sloppy advances, but he voiced complaints if I remained too stagnant.

I broke the kiss and eyed the mark on his neck, trying to make peace with something he clearly enjoyed and wanted.

He watched. Waited.

“I won’t ask again, D.”