An Inconvenient Arrangement (Inconvenient Matches Book #2)

Chapter 36: Sylvie

"You were so mean to me tonight!" Sylvie complained petulantly as Raphael took rapid, shallow breaths. In the two weeks since she had taken him as a lover, she had learned that though he no longer had nightmares with regularity, Thomas' death had seemed to have triggered them again. These days, it was almost nightly.

It was why she had taken to staying awhile even after their lovemaking was at an end, she absolutely despised the idea of leaving him to fight his demons all alone. She had accustomed herself to staying alert enough to rise when the clock outside struck six, an hour or so before dawn, to return to her own rooms before the servants started rising. It was not altogether too difficult as she was accustomed to keeping early hours when she had been a tutor.

Some days, it would take him long minutes of forcing himself to breathe in order to finally relax. In those times, Sylvie would hold him and say nothing, stroke him until he stopped trembling. He would utter her name hoarsely and when she answered he would make love to her with such desperate intensity that she would be breathless after.

Then there were times like tonight when he came back to his senses quickly, his sleep would be lost to him entirely because he remained lost to his thoughts. She had found that the best way to break him out of his stupor was to distract him with conversation. Or with kisses. But kisses led to fondling which led to more lovemaking, and quite frankly after the way he had been with her tonight, she did not have another round left in her.

So, talking it would have to be.

"You....were being a.....brat," he grit out between his breathing, his eyes settling on hers, gratitude simmering in them because he knew what she was doing; distracting him. She extended her arms and he took that invitation happily, bearing down on her with half of his weight. She liked it though, the way he went limp in her arms as if he felt safe there. She loved that she could help him feel protected and supported the way he always made her feel. She ran her hands through his hair, along the scars on his back, pressing her mouth to his head.

"I am not bratty at all!" She exclaimed with half-hearted indignation. Truth be told, she had been acting naughty and disobedient just because she had been curious about what he'd do if she didn't listen. She'd discovered that she took a little pleasure in inciting his wrath in the bedroom, of all the strange things. It made him a little wilder, a little more frenzied and Sylvie just relished bringing him to the edge of his composure. When she had tried to make him come with her hands after he told her not to, he had bound her wrists together. When she had tried to touch herself because he refused to, he had spanked her again.

"Liar," he rasped, his stubble scratching her collar as he nuzzled her neck affectionately humming in approval when she ran her fingers along his skin with the right amount of pressure. "I told you not to come without permission, and then what did you do?"

"Well, that was not my fault! I asked you so many times and you refused to let me. I couldn't help it, Rafe," she said haughtily. Her final disobedience really had been entirely unintentional. He had not listened to her pleas for release, had not granted his permission, but he had continued to stimulate her in all the ways that made her body sing. She had very valiantly tried to hold on, but then he rubbed her just the right way and she had been unable to hold back the way her body had shuddered in surrender, nor the hoarse scream that had left her mouth.

"Let's not act like you didn't enjoy the consequences," he grunted, then rolled onto his back, taking her with him so that she was left splayed against his chest, their legs in a tangle.

Well, the aforementioned consequences tended to be rather enjoyable, who could blame her for liking them? Tonight, for example, after she had disobeyed him that last time, he had bound her hands above her and her legs to the bedpost and had declared that if she liked coming so much that she would dare disobey him, then she would come until she could not possibly take it anymore. And he had made good on his promise.