Shit. I fell asleep too fast.
I knew it the moment I opened my eyes, hearing the faint sounds of a deep rumbling voice coming from the closed closet door across the room.
Groaning, my arm stretched to the opposite side of the bed, feeling cool empty space where Corvus should’ve been.
Fuck.
I was going to be out a hundred and fifty bucks.
My eyelids peeled back, adjusting to the glow of late evening light.
Evening?
I quickly rolled to the other side of Corvus’ bed, his engine oil and spice scent filling my nose as my legs slipped over his tightly tucked sheets to snatch my phone from the nightstand.
I flinched at the brightness of the screen, seeing that it was past eight in the evening before peering back to the closet door. He wouldn’t have stayed in here for eight hours, would he? We got here around eleven, and I was probably passed out by twelve.
My muscles ached, protesting the movement as I swung my legs from the warmth of the covers and off the side of the bed, touching my toes to the carpet. I leaned forward, pressing my palm into the hollows of my eyes.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept this long.
The three hours I’d gotten last night plus however many I’d had now equaled a greater amount than I’d probably had since I was a fucking toddler.
And I’d done the sleeping next to another human being. Twice.
What was happening to me?
Inside the closet, something crashed and the door pushed open, an angry Corvus quietly stepping through to avoid waking me. Behind him, his mic was knocked against the wall, hanging from the stand awkwardly like he’d tossed it away.
He stopped in his tracks, seeing me sitting up in bed. “Fuck,” he grunted, throwing a fist through his hair. “I didn’t wake you up.”
I shook my head. “You didn’t. But you should’ve. Why’d you let me sleep so long?”
He gave a one shoulder shrug, and I noticed he was already dressed again, the boxers and t-shirt he’d slept in now joined by a pair of faded black denim jeans. “You needed it.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “That wasn’t the point. The point was—”
“Sparrow, I just woke up.”
“What?”
“About an hour ago.”
I couldn’t contain my triumph as a relieved grin spread over my face. “Really?”
He nodded, seeming just as shocked himself. “Yeah, really.”
“I knew it,” I muttered to myself. “Those fuckers better pay up.”
Despite having just slept for what I had to guess was a pretty good amount of time, Corvus still managed to look exhausted as he crossed the carpet and sank onto the edge of the bed with a deep sigh.
I crawled back across the tangle of blankets to sit next to him, indicating the tossed mic in the closet. “What went on in there?”
His jaw clenched. “I had an idea for something new and I thought…”
“What?” I asked when he didn’t finish. “You thought what?”
He fell back onto the bed to stare at the ceiling. “There’s no point,” he said numbly. “Primal Ethos is dead. Besides, the gang needs me right now. I shouldn’t be wasting time—”
“Shut the fuck up. Don’t be stupid. Primal Ethos isn’t dead, not unless you let it die.”
His expression darkened, his gaze never leaving the ceiling. “You don’t get it, Sparrow. It’s over. The Bone Man—the mystery of him—that was the allure. Without it, I’m just another jackass with a microphone.”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed, and his forehead creased, betraying a rage he usually kept tampered down.
“I’m sorry but that’s fucking bullshit. Have you looked online at all since you were outed?”
He didn’t answer. It was answer enough. He hadn’t.
I shook my head. “You should. If anything, they’re even more mad for you now than they were before.”
I wasn’t going to let him do this. He was too talented to throw this all away. With or without Diesel’s permission, he needed it. Pushing to my feet, I grabbed both his hands, dragging him up from the bed. “Come on, show me what you were working on.”
“We need to check in with Diesel.”
“He can wait another hour.”
“Sparrow—”
“Just do this for me, okay? Show me what you’re working on. Maybe I can help. And then as soon as we’re done, I promise you we will go and check in with the others.”
His resistance weakened as I hauled his ass to his feet and toward the closet, dragging him into the small enclosed space with me. I dropped his hands and lifted the mic back into position, fiddling with it until it sat properly in the stand.
“Okay. Now show me.”
“It’s just rough shit. It isn’t even finished yet. It’s… it’s missing something, but I can’t fucking figure it out.”
I bit my lip to keep from smiling. Was Corvus James nervous to show me something? It wasn’t a look I’d seen on him before. It was… kind of cute.
I reached past him and shut the door behind us, feeling a tingle go up my spine at the feeling of being in a confined space, of him being so close I could feel the press of him like a physical touch even though we were nearly a foot apart.
“I’m waiting,” I prompted him, looking up at him coyly from beneath my lashes. Fuck. Had he always been this tall? In the tight space, he seemed to tower over me, and from the way he was looking at me, I could tell his mind had gone to a similar place as mine.
I swallowed. Cleared my throat.
Corvus smirked before lifting his phone from his back pocket to tap the screen, bringing up what appeared to be some rough lyrics in a notepad app.
“Since you’re here, mind giving me some rhythm?”
“Hmm?”
He hit a section of not padded wall with the side of his closed fist to create a simple beat, showing me what he meant.
I stepped closer, copying the beat until I had it right and he could lower his fist.
Surprising me, he reached up and caught the string dangling from the light above us and tugged it, plunging us into darkness. The rhythm of my fist on the wall faltered and my pulse picked up, but I recovered quickly, my belly tightening as Corvus began to hum into the dark. A deep sound that I felt all the way to my toes as he moved through the opening of the song.
He began to sing, filling the small space with his voice so fully that he could have been singing inside of my head. His rough voice ricocheting through my body as he sang of being stronger.
About how he thought he’d made himself into something that couldn’t be affected. Couldn’t be broken. Couldn’t be hurt. How he never saw me coming.
The lyrics hit me hard. I could’ve written them myself, and when he began the chorus again, my voice rose to meet his, feeling the truth of the song flow through me like I was nothing but a vessel.
Our voices trailed off as one, and I was left momentarily breathless, body aching. Pulse throbbing with a need so pure it could’ve brought me to my knees.
“Sparrow,” Corvus whispered, and I felt him grow nearer in the pitch darkness. His knuckles brushed down the back of my arm, making me shiver and a little gasp escape my lips. “I think you were the thing that was missing.”
Rough fingertips found my temple and skated down the line of my jaw until they rested against my lips, making them part.
“You were always the thing that was missing.”
He pressed this thumb into my mouth, a slight groan on his lips as he slid it against my tongue, pushing to the back of my throat until I moaned.
“Tell me you want me,” he said, so close I could feel his breath fanning over my lips as he withdrew his thumb, wetting my lips with it.
He moved fast, gripping the back of my neck to haul me closer, until I could feel the brush of his lips against mine when he spoke again. “Tell me.”
“I want you,” I muttered breathily, my panties already soaked, thighs squeezing at the hot ache between them.
“Good girl.”
A ripple of unexpected gratification raced through me, making me shiver.
His lips pressed to mine, hot and full as they pried mine apart to allow his tongue entry. My back slammed against the padded wall, wrists held against the wall to either side of my head. I moaned into his mouth as he pressed into me, letting me feel the hard length of him against my belly.
I struggled against his hold, needing to be closer. Needing to take off the layers of clothing separating us, but he held me there, hands tightening around my wrists.
“Now, Sparrow,” he chastised. “Did I tell you that you could move?”
My mouth parted, but no words came out. I’d never given over control like this before, but something about letting myself go, about handing that control over to him and not having the burden of it on my shoulders turned me on so much it fucking hurt.
I wanted him to make me his. I wanted to relinquish myself to him. And it scared the shit out of me.
“You will not move,” he said, and a stuttering breath left my lips as he released my wrists, and I kept them there, high above my head as he traced a light line down them with his fingertips. Down past my shoulders, over my breasts, down my waist to the elastic band of my panties.
He hooked his fingers into them and pulled them down painfully slow. I tried to wiggle my hips to help him along, but he placed a warm palm flat against my lower belly and pushed, holding me still as he used his other hand to finish removing them.
“C-Corvus,” I said, my voice breaking on his name as my arms started to lower of their own accord. I needed to touch him. Needed to feel him inside me.
Warm breath fanned over my greedy little cunt, and I bucked against his hand, my own hands delving into his hair to find something to hold on to.
He grabbed my wrists and spun me, pressing my chest to the wall as the sound of leather rushing through denim echoed in the darkness and his belt was wrapped tightly around my wrists, binding them together at my back before he flipped me back around.
Corvus kicked my legs apart, and I groaned as he laid a kiss to the sensitive skin of my inner groin.
“Stay still, Sparrow,” he told me, and I cried out as he closed his mouth over my wet heat, tasting me, his tongue flicking over my swollen clit.
He groaned. “You taste so fucking good.”
I whimpered, my body near to convulsing as he added a finger to the repetitive movements of his tongue, pressing it slowly into me.
“That’s it,” he cooed between teasing licks. “Sing for me, Sparrow.”
He plunged another finger inside of me and increased the speed of his tongue, making me cry out at the intensity of the sensations, wrists trying to break free from their binds as I ground against his mouth.
“Oh fuck,” I said on a breath, my orgasm building to the breaking point.
He feasted on my cunt, hands gripping hard at my waist to keep me pinned there, unable to move as the orgasm rushed through me, making stars burst against the back of my eyelids in the dark.
I tried to pull away, the orgasm almost too much to take, but he held me through it, forcing me to feel every last spark of it until the flames subsided.
“Holy fuck,” I said, letting my head fall back against the padding to catch my breath. Was it bad that I wanted more? One of the best orgasms I’d ever had and I was already primed to beg on my knees for round two.
“You want more?”
I nodded, still struggling to catch my breath.
“I need to hear you say it, Sparrow.”
“Yes.”
Corvus pulled me down until my knees hit the carpet and I sensed him rise above me. Heard the shuffle of his clothes as he removed his jeans.
The light flicked on and I blinked at its brightness, staring up at Corvus as he finished removing his shirt, his chest covered in a tattoo I’d never seen before. Actually, I didn’t think I’d ever seen Corvus without his shirt on. The name Emmanuelle was written over his chest in black script, surrounded with a myriad of imagery.
A crowned heart.
A massive crow.
A sparrow.
Roses and thorns.
I followed the lines of ink all the way down to the massive cock hiding beneath thin black boxers.
My mouth watered.
“I want to see you,” Corvus said, his left hand sinking into my hair as he thumbed the waistband of his boxers and tugged them off, letting them fall to the ground at his feet. His massive cock sprang free and I remembered the feeling of it inside of me that night in Lodi. The fullness of it seated all the way to its hilt, hitting something so deep it bordered on pain.
How I’d been so angry and so turned on and so confused.
I wasn’t confused anymore.
Corvus’ grip on the back of my head tightened as he guided me forward. “Open,” he ordered me, and I did as I was told, opening wide for him as he pushed between my lips. The salty taste of him coated my tongue, and I moaned around his girth as he shuddered, fingers knotting into my hair.
“Fuck, Sparrow.”
I let my tongue slip over the underside of his cock, my arms straining at the binding holding my wrists together. I wanted to touch him. To feel the silky slip of his base against my palm.
Corvus picked up his pace, pressing in deeper, until I could feel him at the back of my throat. I could feel my own wetness smearing over my thighs as he pumped into my mouth and I pushed forward to meet him, trying to show him that I could take it. I could take it all. He didn’t have to hold back.
I wanted him to choke me with it.
I wanted him to leave me gasping.
Sensing what I wanted, he lifted me until I was plastered against the wall, the back of my head cushioned by the padding as he fucked my tight little throat, hot hands clasped to either side of my face as he panted.
“Damn,” he cursed, slipping out from between my lips as I gasped for air.
I was going to ask him why he stopped. I could feel that he was close, but before I could get enough air into my lungs to speak, I was jerked back to my feet and Corvus had me with my chest against the wall again. The belt slipped from my wrists at the same time as he lifted my hips and thrust into me.
I moaned at the fullness, adjusting to his size as my fingernails dug into the padding on the wall.
“God, Sparrow, you’re so fucking wet for me.”
He reached a hand around to my front, and I felt my shirt tear from my back as he ripped it clean off my skin, fingers finding a nipple to squeeze.
I jerked at the pain, arching my back. “Yes.”
Corvus squeezed the other nipple, harder than the first, as he eased out and slammed back into me.
I fought to stay on my toes as he fucked me from behind, his height making for a challenge.
“Come for me, Sparrow,” he said, breathless as he continued a quick pace, and I felt a tightening at his command, the beginning of another orgasm spurred on by his command.
His hand slid down the slippery skin between my breasts until it found my clit. He rubbed it viciously as he fucked me, grunting into my ear as he held off his own release.
“Choke me.” The words fell from my lips unbidden, and he did as he was told, wrapping his free hand around my throat from behind, cutting off my air supply at the perfect moment.
I came hard on his cock, writhing against him, grinding into his hilt as the orgasm spiraled through me.
“Fuck!” he hollered as he came with me, rough, wet fingers wrapping around my middle as he thrust his last, pressing me into the wall.
I gasped as he released my throat, both of us sinking to the floor, knocking the microphone against the wall. He hauled me to his chest as he sat awkwardly against the wall in the tiny studio, and I crashed against him, listening to the quick steady beating of his heart until our breaths began to even out.
“Do we have to leave this room?” Corvus asked after a few minutes, and I knew what he really meant because I could stay here forever, too.
