It was as if my body was no longer my own. It was all his, an instrument that only played its tune for a master musician. I had no control over myself as he plucked at my strings, and no choice but to ride out each note and surrender myself to the melody.

I was completely and utterly at his mercy.

“You’re so responsive,” he praised me, giving my chest a gentle squeeze, eliciting another stunted gasp. “And I’ve never known anything so beautiful.”

The sultry purr of his voice had fire surging in my veins and goose bumps prickling my skin. He wasn’t even touching my cock, but with the way his words stirred the very air around me, I could imagine a phantom grip slotting over mine. It was a tease, but not for sport. He was realigning my senses, anchoring my attention to one spot at a time and heightening the pleasure, making me feel. He was lighting me up from the inside out, reminding me that I was alive, and everything I’d felt before hadn’t changed.

Exactly what I needed.

With a shaky moan, I let my head loll onto his shoulder, displaying my neck for him to mouth at my thudding pulse. I felt vulnerable, being laid completely bare for him as I jerked myself off, but that contrast in power rekindled the spark of lust I’d been aimlessly tracking before. Being surrounded by his bulk comforted me, had my head floating into the clouds and everything unimportant fading into the background.

“You like being on display for me, don’t you, my heart?” Cair murmured, perceptive as ever, and it would have been a total lie for me to do anything but nod.

“Yes.”

He hummed, the vibration dancing over my collarbone. “Does it feel good being in my arms, having my full and undivided attention on you as you touch yourself?”

Another nod.

“Bend your legs for me, pet,” he prompted, and I heeded him without a second thought. “Now open them a little wider… There you go.” He kissed my temple in approval, and I melted into it. “Being in that position makes you come harder.”

His large hands trailed across my wet torso, traveling downward. I watched as his fingers smoothed over every inch he could reach—my chest, my belly, my thighs—before he repeated the movements with the same tender reverence. My balls hugged the base of my dick, but the lazy bob of my hand wasn’t enough. It kept the flame at a low, simmering burn: a sparkler instead of a firework. I screwed my eyes shut, listening to the bathwater match the sticky squelch of my strokes, feeling the rise and fall of Cair’s chest against my back, and centering on each spasm and tingle, no matter how subtle.

But I still couldn’t come.