He lifted a hand from my shoulder to brush the backs of his knuckles over the side of my face, tracing my temple, cheekbone, and jaw. “I suppose I can, yes. But... I don’t believe tonight is a good night for that. Just because we’ve done all we can do to keep ourselves safe doesn’t mean that nothing will happen. I can’t in good conscience let myself end up incapacitated and too weak to respond, in case Myrial or Nigellus make a move despite the miles of ocean surrounding us. For that reason, I shouldn’t let you feed on me to the point of uselessness.”
I stepped closer and let my thumb drag over his full lower lip. “Actually, that wasn’t what I was proposing.”
His nostrils flared at the possessive nature of my gesture. “Wasn’t it, though?”
“No, it wasn’t,” I confirmed, drawing my spine straight and my shoulders square with a confidence I wasn’t sure I really felt. “What if I could fuck you into that state without feeding from you?”
A touch of humor lit his summer-sky gaze, but it was wry. “Many have tried, love.”
“Well,” I said lightly, throwing words he’d once said to me back at him, “you know what they say. The more stubborn the sub, the harder they eventually drop.” I slid my thumb past the softness of his lips, and he allowed the gesture with his usual good grace. “I’m going to take care of you tonight, Ransley Thorpe. And I’m going to take you to pieces until you can’t even remember your own name... unless you look me in the eye and tell me to stop.”
Rans let my thumb slide free of his decadent mouth with a wet pop. “Well—you can certainly try,” he said. The words weren’t a scoff, or even a challenge. They were the words of someone who simply didn’t think what I’d proposed was possible... and maybe the words of someone who wished that it were.
“I get it,” I told him. “You’ve played sex as a game so often that it’s second nature. You can play the role of the sub, but for you, it’s a performance more than anything. You don’t mind doing it. You don’t resent it. But it doesn’t really worm through your defenses and touch you. Not in here.” I tapped his temple. “And not in here.” My hand moved downward, splaying over his chest.
He covered it with his. “Nothing much going on in there since the thirteen-hundreds, I’m afraid.”
“That’s bull and you know it,” I retorted without hesitation. “This heart might not beat, but you can’t tell me it doesn’t feel. I know better.”
“No,” he said quietly. “You’re right. I can’t tell you that.”
I slid my hand out from under his and returned it to his cheek. “All I ask tonight is that you don’t fight me. You’ve let me shackle you. Hurt you. Put you on display for strangers. But you’ve never let any of it reach beyond your skin. And I’m not interested in your pain, or your humiliation. I don’t want your performance. I just want you to hand me the reins for an hour or two, and feel what I’m doing to you. Really feel it. Will you give me that?”
He drew me in for a kiss—a bare brush of lips on lips. “I’ll always give you anything within my power, love.”
It was almost an answer. Here and now, it would have to do.
“Then turn around and put your hands on the wall,” I said, using the voice of someone who actually knew what they were doing. “I’m getting some of these clothes off, because as nice as they look now, they’d look even nicer in a messy pile on the floor.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and I didn’t call him on the hint of irony coloring his tone.
He complied as he said it, after all. And there was no reason in the three realms why he should have faith in my ability to deliver on what I’d just promised him. I’d have to earn his surrender, if I could—just as he’d earned mine in the past.
But first...
“One more thing. I need your promise that you will actually stop me if you need to. And in return, I promise not to drain your animus to any significant degree. Though I reserve the right to... play with it a bit, let’s say.”
He glanced over his shoulder, shooting me a look through his messy fringe. “Believe me, love. Needing to stop won’t be an issue.”
That one, I couldn’t let him get away with. “Doesn’t matter. I still want your word.”
He didn’t roll his eyes at me, but it was a close-run thing. “Very well. You have my word that I’ll be a fine, upstanding submissive who uses his safeword when required.”
“And you called me a bratty sub,” I murmured.
“You are a bratty sub. It’s rather charming, really.”
I ignored him in favor of untying the knot at the top of his vest’s corset lacing. The silken laces whispered through the metal grommets on either edge of the panels. I was mildly fascinated by the article of clothing, with its elegantly curved steel boning accentuating the sweep of Rans’ back. My fingers moved down a fraction, and another crisscross of lacing pulled free with a barely audible sussuration.
“That’s going to be hell to re-lace,” Rans observed mildly.
Another length slid free... and another. “And your point is...?”
“It does have busks at the front. That’s all I’m saying.” I could hear the hint of amusement now.
“And your point is?” I repeated.
“Not a thing, love. Don’t mind me.” This time, the amusement was unmistakable. And I was fine with that. It was a lot better than the edgy darkness that had been surrounding him since
