Chapter 81: I Like it Too Much
- RAYA -
"You are tired. I already kept you up too late," Dex whispers against my lips.
"I’m not tired anymore," I shake my head, and when he only smiles and continues caressing my face, I groan and drop back against the pillow. "How are you the controlled one? See. This is why I was worried I was the one making those dreams happen. I want you more than you want me."
"Raya," he growls softly, leaning over me now and using one arm to swiftly pull me closer so that I’m under the blanket of his body. The movement and position strikes me with renewed desire, because it feels forceful and possessive. "I promise you that’s not true."
The desire spreads, fanning out across my chest and inflaming the rest of me with the sudden fire that’s in his eyes. It’s the same look I saw before we were interrupted by the tea kettle whistling. And it steals my breath as I wait to see what he’ll do.
His hand descends, finding the hem of my shirt and teasing the skin below it. I almost whimper when he touches me, because he hasn’t... he hasn’t touched me anywhere else than the politely romantic places like my face and neck and hands. Now his hand glides up under the fabric of my shirt, barely brushing the place where my stitches are. When he feels them, he lifts my shirt up to investigate the area.
Dex’s eyes lift to mine again, this time filled with so much concern and care that it makes my heart ache. He lowers his head and kisses my stomach—a few gentle kisses around the wound that make me tremble—before returning to take my mouth.
I whimper before he growls, but in no time we’re both making those noises that signal the feral emotions straining against the tethers of control. I said he didn’t want me as much as I want him, and he seems determined now to prove that I’m wrong, because the intensity of his desire is plain in the way he devours every whimper of mine that surfaces and attempts to sink so deep that I wonder if he’s not able to possess my soul this way.
When he breaks from kissing me, it’s to pull his shirt over his head with one hand, and I reach up to help him, tossing the shirt somewhere unseen as he descends to claim my mouth again. This is so much better—so much better than any dream.
My hands run over his chest and descend, appreciating every ridge, every small tremble I’m able to tease out of him. There’s a control that I didn’t realize I had, but now it’s obvious. I can make Dex Mobius tremble under my touch, and when I do he growls into my mouth, nipping and tugging at my lips. And I arch, seeking to be pressed against him fully.
His arm snakes behind my back, and god, all I want is for him to let go and complete this for the both of us. It’s like it’s all I’ve ever wanted. Just this one thing. I’ll trade anything for it. I’ll even trade my heart. It might hurt later, but for now—in this moment—it’s worth it.
"Raya, I don’t want to do this too soon," Dex says, squinting with his forehead pressed against mine.
"It’s not too soon," I pant, hands buried in his hair. "You’re mine. I want you to be mine."
Dex pulls away enough to look at me, and from beneath my own hooded eyes I see his look of intense surprise.
"What?" I ask on a whisper.
When he doesn’t answer but continues to gaze at me with so many emotions I can’t begin to decipher them all, I take the opportunity to feel his beard—the bristle of those short hairs under my fingers that lead to the full curve of his lips. My fingers run gently over his lips and then he dips to kiss me again, arching me up with his arm behind my back.
His lips leave mine to trail down my neck and then he finds a spot to bite gingerly, causing me to whimper.
"You shouldn’t whimper," he says gruffly before nibbling me there again, and I arch further into him.
"Why?" I whimper, and he answers with a soft growl.
"Because I like it too much."
Well, that doesn’t seem like a good enough reason. But I bite my lip to try to keep the sound from coming out anyway, and when he returns to kiss me, he smiles and leans against his arm instead, his head propped up next to me as he caresses my face and teases my lip free from my teeth.
"I like that too much, too," he sighs, and I bite his finger instead. "You have no idea how sexy you are, do you?" The question sounds almost like a painful groan, and when he wiggles his finger free from my teeth, his hand descends to my stomach again where he finds my skin to tease with a touch that’s far too gentle.
I groan and cover my eyes with an arm, because I can already feel that he’s abandoning the intensity we reached before.
"Raya," he calls softly, but he doesn’t stop caressing my stomach. I grunt stubbornly without unveiling my eyes, and I hear him chuckling. "Can you tell me that you’re not in pain? That’s all I want to know."
Instead of bothering to answer, I sigh heavily. When I finally pull my arm away, I have tears welling that I don’t understand at all, but the force of the emotion is there. And what’s worse is the empathy I find gazing back at me.
"I don’t understand. Do you want me to hurt you? Is that the memory you want?" He asks gently, tugging on the waistband of my sweatpants. "Because I’ll tell you the word. Maybe it will help you understand why I want to do this right."
A few tears fall, and he reaches up to dry them.
"Do you want to know what it is?" He asks, and I nod—stubbornly not speaking.
Dex sighs, a muscle feathering in his jaw as his hand trails back up under my shirt. It follows the dip of my stomach and the rise of my ribs before curling around my side. His thumb briefly brushes over my bra, grazing my nipple, and a shiver rakes me all the way to my toes. The smoldering fire ignites again in his eyes, and I can sense the hunger that’s there... barely contained beneath the surface.
Dex swallows roughly as his gaze drops to my lips, and then he kisses me again... but it’s returned now to a feathery brush of the lips that then trails into small, sweet kisses all the way up to my temple.
"Mine."
The word is softly possessive when he finally whispers it against my skin... like a warning to anyone else who would challenge him even though it’s just the two of us here. His hand tightens around my side, thumb brushing that same spot over my nipple and sending a new rod of desire straight through my center.
"You’re mine, Auraya."
