Page 52 of Infernal Bonds

I crossed the line I’d drawn and caught her chin between my fingers, turning her face toward mine.

Her breath hitched.

“Is it only the candy that makes you seek my control?”

“Control?” Her breathing changed, and she leaned toward me.

I brushed my thumb over her chin, unable to help myself. “Yes. An anchor through this.” Once again, I softened my voice. “I can feel your suffering, Raelynn.”

She licked lips that taunted me with their fullness.

I pushed aside my body’s reaction and released her, straightening. “I will accommodate your request if you feel it will ease your discomfort.”

While she seemed cognizant at the moment, I needed to remain detached from the situation to avoid crossing boundaries she might establish when fully sober.

I wouldn’t have allowed this earlier in the kitchen, but the extreme inebriation she’d shown there had cleared, though the physical effects remained. She followed our conversation without difficulty, questioned what I offered, and told me what she wanted.

I anticipated a response akin to our previous experiences with blood exchange.

Somewhere between healing her and surviving Cholian together, something shifted between us. My bite would no longer bring her pain.

It unsettled me to think we’d end up in the same situation, blindly reacting.

I needed discipline.

She needed grounding.

If we allowed instinct to steal our agency, we’d both regret tonight, and any progress toward peaceful cohabitation would end. That reality was unacceptable. I refused to live without my brothers, and I knew I couldn’t live away from my Nyrith—bonded or not.

“Yes,” she whispered, pulling me from my thoughts.

Grasping the covers at her waist, I waited. At her nod, I dragged them away.

Her thick perfume filled my senses, almost choking me.

“Lie down.”

Her body instinctively yielded, and she fell against her pillow, already panting though I’d not touched her.

The immediate obedience nearly shattered my restraint.

I swallowed. “Open.”

Her knees parted.

Seeing her inner thighs glistening with her juices, I growled, wanting to taste her. I’d wanted to taste her when I caught her with Ash.

I stood to put distance between us before instinct overruled reason.

Her gaze dropped to where the moonlight highlighted the erection tenting my lounge pants. Even if she couldn’t see it, my scent would expose my desire for her.

She reached for me, and I stepped back, making her whine in frustration.

The air shifted, and I finally realized the reason the starmin hadn’t run its course. The arousal triggered by the active ingredient now fed on the magic in the incomplete Nyrith tethers connecting her to each of us, creating a never-ending feedback loop of need.

We needed to put a stop to it before we all found ourselves bonded to her. She and Zeke deserved better for something so sacred. Cyn wasn’t ready for it anyway, and it couldn’t happen with me.

I looked her over, noticing how her peaked nipples showed through her tight tank top and how her tanned skin glistened with heat. When my gaze returned to the space between her legs, the firm muscles in her thighs flexed.