With the Colonel’s Help: A Pride and Prejudice Variation

Otto dropped the peck of a kiss to my lips before he ordered, “Don’t move,” in that rumbly, powerful voice.

“I don’t think I could move from this bed if the house was on fire.”

I was nothing but a puddle of mush.

Languid bones and sated muscles.

And a little sore on top of it.

Otto squeezed my hip with one of those massive mitts. “Don’t worry, gorgeous, house catches fire, and you’ll be over my shoulder so fast you won’t know what hit you.”

“I already know what hit me,” I said, words laden with a tease and wonder.

His chuckle scraped across my overheated skin, and he squeezed a little tighter. “That was me goin’ easy on you, Raven. You don’t have the first clue what I have in store for you.”

I snuggled down deeper into the rumpled sheets of the bed, still completely nude, skin sticky with sweat, limbs so heavy I couldn’t move. Still, I was unable to stop the ridiculous grin that spread across my face. “You say that like I might object. Bring it, Burly Bear.”

Otto laughed a little harder, though his tone went predatory as he leaned in closer to my face. “You think you can handle me, do you?”

“I was made to handle you, Otto Hudson.”

“Ah, my little moonflower really is ready to bloom.”

“I’ve been waiting for half my life.”

His features softened, tenderness and something that resembled regret. He stroked his thumb over the freckle at the side of my upper lip. “Didn’t mean to make you wait, Raven. Didn’t mean to keep you from what you needed. Just didn’t think I could ever be worthy of holding something as beautiful as you.”

I set my palm on the stubble of his cheek. “Everyone deserves to be loved, Otto. No matter what you’ve done. But you? You deserve it more than anyone else I know.”

He flinched. “Nah, baby, I’m just the lucky bastard who somehow is fortunate enough to get someone like you to look at me the way you do.”

“It’s not just looking. It’s seeing, Otto. I see you. I see you for who you are.”

Blue eyes dimmed, and he leaned in, so close to my face that our mouths were nearly touching. “One day, I’ll let you see all of it, Raven, then you might change your mind.”

It hit me like a threat.

Like shame.

Like fear.

He pushed off the bed before I could say anything else, and he strode for the bathroom.

Completely bare.

I rolled that direction and propped my head up on my hand so I wouldn’t miss a second.

His back rippled with strength and his perfect ass flexed with each step that he took.

He flipped on the light since the sun was steadily sinking behind the trees, and I listened as water ran and a cabinet banged before he returned to the doorway with a washcloth, so close to the way he’d done last night, though everything had changed.noveldrama

He wavered at the threshold. Greed gripped him as he froze there to take me in.

Ravenous eyes glinted beneath the fading rays that speared through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the man lit up in a glittering spotlight.

A treasure that had been unearthed.

A crude, rugged, priceless stone.

His hard, packed body vibrated with lust.

His giant cock twitching where it bobbed, still partially hard.

The designs on his flesh writhed, like each depiction had come to life.

And I swore that somehow I saw the petals of the moonflower on his hip unfurl further beneath the shower of the moon.

His head cocked to the side as he let his attention devour me. “If I could only paint you like that, Raven Tayte. Capture the absolute splendor that you are. Woman lying there in my bed like a portrait. Fuckin’ stunning. Stealing my breath and my mind. Stealing my heart.”

“It seems only fair since you’ve always had mine.”

“Want to keep you right there, just like that, for the rest of my days.”

“I wouldn’t mind. All except for the fact that I’d need you over here in this bed with me.”

Arrogance rolled through his demeanor, and he started across the floor. Though he took it slow, like he was relishing every second that he got to keep me like this.

“I intend on taking you right back to my bed, but I think I need to feed you first. You’re going to need your energy.”

Excitement pranced in my stomach, and I pressed my thighs together as he made it to the side of the bed.

He dragged a fingertip from my chin and down to my chest. A shiver rolled, but he didn’t stop, he kept moving lower across my belly until his fingers fluttered just at my pubic bone.

“On your back and spread your knees.”

Surprise jutted out of me, though I was quick to comply, my thighs shaky as I bared myself to him. He pressed the warm washcloth to my center.

A little moan climbed my throat as he gently swept it over my tender flesh. “You sore?” he asked, voice low.

My nod was tentative. “A little. But I like it.”

“You like feeling how I marked you? How I claimed you?”

That time, my nod was erratic. “Yes.”

He wiped the cloth between my legs before he stood and moved to take me by the chin. “Gonna write myself on every inch of you.”

My teeth clamped down on my bottom lip. “That’s where I want you. Everywhere. In every way. Forever.”