Love in the Land of Fire, Brochu, Rebecca [best free novels .txt] 📗

stopped. You reacted at the first sign of real distress. You stopped and you soothed me, let me speak and have my own emotions, not just the ones you’d decided I had a right to feel. You controlled but you also cared, like I’d always dreamed a dom would.”

Rafe breaks off then, his eyes darting down and away from Josiah’s, and Josiah has to control his displeased growl. He doesn’t like it when Rafe speaks to him without eye contact, doesn’t like the loss of a possible connection between them even though he knows that he doesn’t have the right to demand it. Rafe has made a silent offer but nothing has been settled, nothing has been agreed upon, and thus Josiah has no actual rights.

Not yet.

“Even when I hit you, even then you held tight and didn’t try to punish me, didn’t try to hurt me back.”

“Don’t think for a second that I didn’t want to punish you, Rafe. Don’t think I’m some sort of saint who doesn’t have those urges because I do. I wanted to show you your place, wanted to do so much to you, but I didn’t.”

“That’s my point, Josiah. I deserved it. You wanted to do it and I deserved it, but you didn’t and that’s something that I’ve never seen before. That type of restraint is something that I wasn’t even sure existed.”

Josiah studies Rafe, eyes tracking the way his tongue flits out to lap nervously at his bottom lip, the way his lashes fan out against his cheeks every time he blinks. He damns himself for asking but he knows that he’ll always regret it if they enter into this under false pretenses.

“Are you sure this is what you want? Once we’ve entered into a contract I’m not going to let you go easily. I fight to keep what’s mine, Rafe. You’ll never be a prisoner, but you will be chained to me. You do understand that, don’t you? I’ll own you in every way, and I’ll ask you for everything and will give you everything in return.”

Rafe’s breathing goes shallow and there’s alight blush across the sun kissed skin of his cheeks when he makes eye contact with Josiah again. The sight of it has Josiah licking his lips, wanting to run his tongue across the line of red to see if that blush tastes as delicious as it looks. Unable to resist the urge Josiah leans down and brushes a sweet kiss across Rafe’s parted lips, lets his tongue dip inside briefly but withdraws to run his mouth across Rafe’s cheekbones when the submissive tries to draw him into a deeper kiss.

3He tracks his mouth back across the smooth skin of Rafe’s face until their lips are once again flush with each other in an almost chaste kiss, but this time he speaks so that Rafe can hear and feel his words as he says them.

“So is that what you want? Do you want to be mine, Rafe? To belong to me and only me? To perhaps one day Bond with me so that none can ever come between us? Would you give yourself to me and take all that I would give to you in return?”

Rafe shudders beneath his hand, a move that echoes the night before, and Josiah sees his pupils go wide with desire, a flush of lust lighting his face up even further.

“You would…you would consider Bonding? With me? What of the Disavowal? Would you have me give myself to you only to be shamed in such a way?”

Josiah’s hand tightens where he’s gripping the other man’s hair as the mere mention of Disavowing Rafe sends rage coursing through his veins. He pulls Rafe further up onto his knees by his hold on his hair and bends so that he can nip sharply at the small dark bruises dotting the other man’s throat from the night before. He bites down on one that’s situated just below his ear before pulling back to lap at it with his tongue and then he moves his mouth back to its previous position.

“Never. The Disavowal would never happen. You’d be mine until death ripped one of us away. There are things about me, things about my past that you don’t know, but rest assured that you will never be shamed in such a manner. So give me your answer, Rafe. Is this what you want? Will you honor your offer and enter into a contract with me?”

“Yes.”

Josiah doesn’t wait for Rafe to say anything more than that single word of approval, can’t make himself wait any longer. He knows that overall he’ll have to take things slower than he wants to, that Rafe is still healing mentally and emotionally even if his body is fit and sound. He knows that Rafe isn’t ready for everything Josiah wants from him yet even if he’s agreed to a contract between them. He knows all of this but he refuses to wait to have a taste of him, refuses to be denied this one simple thing.

His hands flow down to grip Rafe’s slick shoulders and he pulls the submissive up with him until they’re both standing, facing each other with barely any space between them. In one swift move he spins Rafe around so that his back is to the table and with a careful hand guides him until he’s sitting on the edge of the thick wood. They both ignore the quiet tinkling of glass shifting as his movement rocks the place setting beside him.

“You made me breakfast. I’d like to have it now.”

Rafe looks at him, confused for a second before he blushes lightly, a display that Josiah is now sure will never fail to attract his attention. Josiah smirks slightly at him,