Chapter 89 Final decision
“Have your hard limits changed? Is there something you would like to add?”
I looked from silver to blue eyes. It was like a job interview.
“I would like to keep my eyes open.” I swallowed. “Just for tonight.”
The dragon had made me complete a checklist after reading all those internet pages on my second day here.
Blindfolds weren't a part of the few boxes I ticked.
However, he nodded, accepting it. “Why?”
“I want to remember the moment.”
The men exchanged another look between themselves.
“Any other special requests?” Silver eyes found me again. His voice was deep by default, but now, it barely carried.
I stared quietly, wary.
“Is there something else that would make tonight memorable for you?” he clarified, and I nodded.
“Shibari suspension.”
“What?” Hale’s eyebrows jumped, nearly touching his head.
The mug tilted a little this time, and I hurriedly set it down on the table between us. Draki shot his lover a rueful look.
“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, pet,” he turned back to me, nodding in reassurance. “And it’s not an odd request seeing how much you enjoy flying.”
His voice caught on that last word, and his jaw worked silently for the next few seconds.
Finally, he continued.
“However, Shibari is new territory. Is that something you want to take on alongside getting deflowered? It may be uncomfortable."
I gave him a confident nod.
The first time I saw the Japanese rope bondage, I was unable to click away from the page. In an odd way, it brought to mind vertical ballet.
The intricate patterns of the ropes around the subjects’ bodies, binding their limbs in a variety of ways till they looked like art hanging from the ceiling.
As for discomfort, I spent half my time hanging from ropes and anchors anyway.
Draki rose to his feet, and I stared up at the dark god. “Finish your drink, and come to the floor above Finn’s. Last door to your right.”
He turned for the door.
“What should I wear?”
“Anything you like.” He threw over his shoulder, and he was gone.
My eyes found Hale, and our gazes fused for a couple of seconds.
Then he moved and leaned over the table between us to cradle my cheek. “Wear only what you'll not miss. That man will shred your clothes off you.”
I gasped, but he pressed his lips against mine.
My nipples hardened as his tongue ran from the left end of my lips to the right, and I ached to pinch them.
Instead, I brought my hands up and wrapped them around him. His lips were full as sin, his tongue clever, soft, igniting heat between my legs till I moaned against him.
He pulled away, eyes like fire crackers. “You are trouble.”
I watched him leave, my heart thudding, my nipples still tingling.
When he closed the door behind him, I picked up the mug, now lukewarm, and returned to the window seat.
But just as I took my seat, strong wings flapped, startling me out of my euphoria.
hoo-Hoo-hoo.
Big yellow-orange eyes stared right at me through the window.
I stumbled out of the window seat, goosebumps spreading over my arms even though it was just an owl.
Great horned owls were not uncommon in California, but there was a growing disquiet in my belly as I abandoned the mug and turned for the bathroom.
If Grandma was right, tonight would be a point of no return.
I would belong to the Hearthrown Alphas completely. Not that it mattered too much. Just hours ago, I had seen what had become of the woman who had tried to run away from them.
And they had not even wed her.
In the closet, I picked an outfit from Draki's side of my rack for the first time.
A sheer robe, blood-red, edged with soft wool lining the cuffs and hem. Absolutely vintage inspired.
It was not something I would have chosen for myself at a clothing store. But it was everything I imagined his queen Nymphaea would have worn.
My hand shook as I tugged it off the rack.
Would he think I was mimicking his wife? But buying this for me was proof enough that he wished to see me in it, right?
The matching pair of lingerie I found in one of the drawers below did not make me any more confident.
They were scandalous. Strings and lace and sheer.
At this point, I contemplated just showing up in a simple bathrobe. They had seen me naked every day in the past eight days, and would probably find this preening amusing.
But I soldiered on.
Twice, I dropped my body oil, painfully self-aware despite being alone.
The thought of good-man Fentone and his emerald eyes, my protective older brother, and my anxious grandmother were hard to shake off.
It did not matter that this was legal. The right decision.
That I met Hale first. And if that horrible day did not exist, I would have been his wife a full year before Fentone and I ever met.
But all my worries fizzled out when I stood in front of the mirror. I had never seen myself like this.
Mysterious and sensual.
With a little more calm, I browsed through my vanity shelf. Ignoring all the makeup products lined in front of the mirror, I clutched my perfume.
This outfit choice was already very daring. Night take me if I sent the wrong message that I was trying to seduce them.
After one last look at my glass-skin face, shiny with moisturizing serum, I half-ran out of the bedroom before I lost courage and traded the robe for a more comfortable Turkish bathrobe.
“Silver above.” The air was knocked out of me as I ran into a wall.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t…”
We both froze when our eyes met. I stared into those aqua-colored eyes, wondering what the odds were that I would run into him on the stairs.
Not even on his bedroom floor, but the one above. Was this another setup?
His eyes dropped then, and he hissed through clenched teeth.
I blinked, still too stunned by the suddenness of our bodies bumping into each other to take another step. Enthralled by the sight of him.
Finn was beautiful in the way no mortal had a right to be.
“You...” His voice shook. He hissed again and bit his lip hard.
Finally, my brain kicked back to life. The robe. It was sheer.
I gasped, backing away as I hugged myself in an impulsive urge to cover up.
But clumsy fool that I was, I forgot I was on a staircase and not on level ground.
Finn caught me at the last second, holding me to his chest to steady both of us as my heart raced with terror from the near-accident.
Seconds passed where my ears rang. And then it stopped.
He should leave me now.
I should pull out of his arms.
But we remained that way, just breathing. Both his arms wrapped around me.
“Lys…”
“No.” My voice was a plea.
It was difficult, painfully difficult for me to treat him this way, a stranger, as though he meant nothing to me.
One more word from him and I just might break.
“I’m sorry. I should have been more cautious.” I finally pulled away from him.
With an aching heart, and a final awkward smile, I walked past him.
At the door, I hesitated.
“Come.” The cold bass said from inside the room, and the door opened on its own.