Gleam (The Plated Prisoner 3)

His face softens, and then he pushes me gently until my back hits the furs, and he props himself over me. He has snowfall in his cold hair and adoration in his warm touch, and if I could, I’d melt into him forever.

Slade looks at me like he cherishes me, the sweep of his thumb against my cheek like a kiss of touch.

“I’m happy too, Goldfinch.”

“There’s so much we have to talk about,” I say, letting my hands run over the supple leather on his shoulders. “But for now, I want you to be the commander and me to be the goldfinch, and not have anything to do with cages or crowns.”

Understanding dips into his expression. “I’ll stay in whatever form you like. I’ll give you whatever you need.”

“You,” I answer honestly. “I just need you.”

Slade stands up, eyes never leaving me, while he systematically begins to undress. His coat, shirt, boots, pants, everything comes off, until he’s standing naked in front of me, pale skin and dark spikes on full display.

Along his shoulders is another brush of scales I hadn’t noticed before, the gray of them swept from the blades, nearly up to the sides of his neck.

My eyes trace over every part of him, counting the six spikes up his spine, following the slight arc of them, as if they’re talons from a predator’s feet. The four spikes along his forearms jut out proudly too, but not as much as his thick cock.

Impatient to feel his body against mine, I sit up and lift my arms, and Slade grasps my dress and pulls it off. Just like the night before, he carefully removes my boots, dragging my stockings down right after. “Like unwrapping a present,” he murmurs.

His gaze rolls over me like thread on a spindle, taut against my body. I can practically feel him weaving scandalous thoughts to twine around my skin until I’m wrapped in attentive want, and it makes my whole body flush.

He kneels down on the ground in front of me, his rough fingers skimming up my thigh. “I couldn’t take it slow last night, but right now, I intend to lick your clit until you come all over my tongue.”

My eyes flare, but I click my knees together, trapping his hand. “I, umm, I’ve never…I mean...I don’t know if I’d like it...”

Slade goes still, but his aura seems to stretch out around him, a shadow converging. “Are you trying to tell me you’ve never had someone pleasure you with their mouth?”

I shake my head, my cheeks heating in uncomfortable vulnerability.

Slade reaches up and grasps both of my cheeks,

drawing me into his gaze. “Then I’m the luckiest bastard in the realm, because I get to be the first one to taste you.”

Before I can try to talk him out of it or voice my worries, he leans in and hooks the lace of my undergarments with his teeth and then slowly begins to tug them down. The sight is erotic, his movements smooth and confident.

Once they’re to my knees, he pulls them the rest of the way off and then tosses them away. “Have I told you how sexy you are?” he asks, black eyes moving up to my face.

He leans in and blows lightly on the inside of my thighs, making me jolt from the barest of sensations. “I don’t remember,” I answer distractedly.

“Hmm,” he hums. “Then I’ll have to make sure you remember it now. Trust me, alright?”

The second I nod, he swoops in, and his tongue licks over my clit. My hips buck upward in surprise and sensation, but Slade pushes me back down, his strong hand grounding me in place against the furs. His dark aura writhes in the air around him, easing in closer like it wants a taste of me too.

I’m wound tight, my body stiff with tension, and he looks up at me from between my legs. “Relax. Trust me to give you what you want.”

What I don’t want is to ruin this because I’m feeling so exposed. So with a hard swallow, I nod my head and let my fidgety hands fist in the furs beneath me as I lie back down. “I trust you.”

He lifts my leg, his spikes curved from his forearms like the glint of predatory fangs. When he sees me watching them warily, he gives me a wink. “They won’t hurt you, but for now...” In the next blink, his spikes sink back into his skin until his arms and his back are just smooth skin again. All that’s left are the tiny ones above his eyebrows, stubs of black that somehow make him look even sexier.

Slade drapes my right leg over his shoulder, securing me while also ensuring I’m spread before him. The scruff of his jaw scrapes lightly against my inner thighs as he kisses his way up again before a slow drag of his tongue licks up my slit.

“Oh!” My hands claw into the furs, and my knees try to snap together again, but since one is draped over Slade’s shoulder, they can’t. His tongue drags up again, tasting my wetness, and I can’t help but feel overwhelmed. This is wicked and intimate, and I don’t know if—

“Relax,” he commands again, voice vibrating against my center.

I’m honestly not sure if I can, but then, his mouth descends on my clit again, and I buckle. He goes at it like he knows exactly what I need to make all my thoughts disperse. With his tongue lapping, flicking, and swirling, I forget to think, forget to be unsure, and I just start to feel. And when he presses a finger into my opening and thrusts it inside of me, I let go of the insecurities and the unknown, and I finally just melt into the sensations.

“Good girl,” he growls against me, masculine pride jutting through his voice. “Your taste is my new favorite flavor. I want you on my tongue every night.”