Evil Twin

Gratitude joined the suddenly feral light in his eyes.

Carefully she unknotted the first lace. His erection did the rest. The rising pressure of his turgid shaft forced the ties to slide through their eyelets, until his cock stood proudly between them, huge and thick and a bead of come decorating the tip.

Without thinking, Echo slicked her thumb over the drop. Oh, and the sound he made. A deep groan of arousal and pain. So desperately, she wanted to ease it for him. But she would not be a substitute—and she needed to escape before she was tempted into touching him again.

Heart pounding, she flexed her bound fingers against his where they were bunched in the skirts at her hip, then reached over with her free hand to pry his fingers from the fabric.

The need vanished from the sounds rumbling through his chest. Only a dangerous growl was left, low and—

Oh.

She stopped tugging at the ribbon and stared at his hand.

At the fingers that ended in sharp, deadly claws.

Oh.

Her gaze lifted to his. That feral light was still there, burning brighter. But also she glimpsed something…vulnerable? Surely that couldn’t be. She lifted trembling fingers to his mouth, pushed gently at his upper lip.

Fangs.

“Oh,” she breathed in awe. “I’d heard rumors that some of the warriors who fought the undying scourge had been changed by the venom. But it is not a full change, is it? Not at all.”

And involuntary. Like breathing. Except he breathed all the time. But he didn’t have fangs all the time. So it must be more like…an erection. A response to an emotion.

But a response to what emotion?

She recalled the vulnerability she’d glimpsed.

Because she’d left him paralyzed and helpless. Unable to defend himself. So his defenses had appeared, unbidden.

“You’re safe,” she told him, though he likely wasn’t reassured by that since his fangs didn’t vanish. And now she recalled more. “When your brother said you were a problem to solve, did he mean this? This is why he didn’t want you to remain in Gocea?”

A soft growl answered her. Another unbidden response, since he couldn’t speak under the effect of the poison. Just as he couldn’t stop such involuntary responses like that growl.

She interpreted the growl as meaning that he hated his brother. With good reason. “It only proves that Tamas is a fool. Already you were a powerful warrior. But now, if you are even stronger, to have such as you protecting the kingdom…” She couldn’t fathom not keeping Bane near instead of sending him away. “Does your brother think you are a danger to him? But you always could have been, because you are no less dangerous with a sword than you are with fangs. Does he think you are a danger to his people? But you only would be if you cannot control this—and you must be able to. Most of the time.”

Just as he could not control the other involuntary response. And she could not control her own, the slickness gathering between her thighs, or the way her gaze was drawn between them, to where he was long and thick and swollen with need.

More moisture gathered at the tip and she licked her lips, remembering how the previous night she’d been prepared to use her mouth all over him. While planning it, sucking his cock had merely been a task to perform to reach her goal. Yet now, oh now. She hungered for it. She needed to know if Bane would feel as she had when his tongue was upon her, licking and licking her clit. Her arousal had glistened all over his lips when he’d finished. And when he’d kissed her, she’d tasted—

Oh no.

In a panic she attempted to rise—but froze halfway, with his arm still around her back and her thighs open wide over his lap and her face almost even with his. Laughter shook silently though his chest because he must have seen what she’d done.

She’d licked her lips.

And now she was stuck. Stuck! Just as he was. But in a worse position, because he was sitting on the bench with his feet braced on the floor, while she’d been frozen in the middle of rising over him, supported by her knees but unbalanced, so the jolting of the carriage was tossing her from side to side when it wasn’t making her sway back and forth. If not for the cage of his arm around her waist, she would have already tipped onto the floor.

Backward. With her skirts over her head and tits flopping out. Just lying there with her knees bent and legs widespread.

For hours.

Her involuntary giggles joined the silent quake of his laughter. Until the jostling of the carriage stole her breath on a gasp.

Because she’d felt him. For an instant, as she’d swayed. The hot slide of his cock between her wide-open thighs.