30 #2
I didn’t ask if he’d stopped because he needed assistance. As our eyes caught, I took the book from his hand. Without looking, I dropped it on the nightstand. Again, I lifted his chin.
And leaned forward to kiss him once more.
This time, I lingered longer. I treated him to the same heady softness he often gave me, gently pressing my mouth to every part of his. His sigh spread his lips, and I skimmed the top one. Lightly clasped it between mine.
A low snarl climbed his throat.
Then he kissed me back.
But he didn’t do so sweetly. His mouth swept against mine, opening it as his hands grasped my face. He slid his tongue between my lips to touch my own and retreated with a groan. I clung to his robes, grappled for breath as he kissed the corner of my mouth. My chin.
He dragged his parted lips over my cheek. “Do I interest you?” When he reached my ear, he whispered, “Because you interest me, Princess.”
Interest was not the right word, and I was far more than fascinated. I was giddily entranced.
Guiltily entranced.
But I just taunted, “Do I?”
“You do.” His mouth descended my cheek. As it encountered mine, our eyes locked. Lashes low, he exhaled, “So much that anything else is a fucking bore.”
I shouldn’t have believed him. Probably shouldn’t have trusted a word he said.
Except I did.
I leaned back onto his legs to untie my robes. Voran tensed. His lashes lifted, a question shadowing those ice-rimmed eyes.
“You interest me, too.” With tingling fingers, I opened my robes. The material slipped down my arms to puddle around our legs. My nipples instantly tightened.
He didn’t move.
I wasn’t sure whether either of us breathed.
His eyes stayed fastened to mine, slightly squinted as if it pained him to keep them from my exposed upper body.
Then his nostrils flared. Gaze still on mine, he reached over to the nightstand, about to snuff the candle with his fingers.
I leaned forward to grab his wrist. “No.”
Air hissed between his teeth.
I realized why when I found him looking at my breasts, which were pushing against his chest. Every inch of him had turned to stone beneath me. His erection poked my stomach. My bare stomach.
There was nothing between us but his loose robes.
But I’d taken my own off for a reason, so I sat back on his thighs.
His gaze drooped, stuck to my breasts. Lips slack, he stared at them for moments that surely became minutes. Or perhaps I was just growing so anxious that it felt like a long time had passed. My nipples softened. The urge to cover myself became an itch I nearly scratched.
Then his giant hands folded over my breasts. He lifted them. As he did, his gaze searched my face. When his fingers brushed the sides of each breast, calluses tickling, I shivered and sighed.
He did so again before trailing a fingertip over my arm, tracing the gooseflesh.
My nipples hardened, drawing his attention next. He skimmed his roughened thumbs over them. I took my lower lip between my teeth, biting down so I wouldn’t make a sound. Noticing, he touched them again and again until I squirmed on his thighs, wanting friction.
Voran muttered something in that ancient language.
Just when I thought he might be done, and that maybe I could touch him, he swept his fingers underneath each breast.
I gasped.
His gaze met mine, and he did it again. When I squirmed once more, his eyes flashed. He wrapped his hands around my ribs—as if he knew my heart needed the extra barrier to keep from pounding free.
“I want to bite them.” His thumbs stroked. His eyes roamed my pebbled skin. Thickly, he murmured, “Want to put my mouth all over you, broshklin.”
I wanted that as well. I wanted it so badly, it caused an ache just to imagine it.
But I also wanted something else.
Scooting forward, just far enough to avoid his groin, I gave his robes a little tug. Voran sat up and kissed my jaw, my cheek, as he untied them and shoved the sleeves down his arms.
I sat stunned by the sight of him. The enormity of him.
The terrifying beauty of him.
Moon and candle light adored his physique, crawling over him as though they wished to touch every muscle, learn every scar, just as much as I did. I traced some inked marks with my finger, then pushed him back against the headboard to do the same with my mouth.
“Fuck.” His hand burrowed into my hair, fingers bunching it.
His chest seldom rose. When it did, it fell harshly—as if he only breathed when he had to.
Wanting more, I moved down his legs to move my mouth down his torso. Addicted to the sighs that left him when my tongue snuck out to lap at his ribbed abdomen, I lingered there. I dragged my lips across two thick scars, then up the center of his chest.
My fingers climbed his arms as I straightened, splaying and stroking mounds of muscle. The violent dips in his clavicle.
Voran shivered.
I smiled.
Then I almost squeaked when he rose to claim my cheeks and mouth. He kissed me gently, then firmly, and I couldn’t decide which I preferred.
Against my lips, he rasped, “I like your mouth and tiny hands on me.”
My fingers danced from his broad shoulders to his face. His lashes fluttered as I sketched the fierce shape of his brow. “They like touching you.”
I trailed a finger from the ridge of his cheek to his jaw, and tipped it until our eyes clashed. His appeared drowsy, but I knew he wasn’t. Beneath heavy-looking lashes, he watched me as he ran his hands up my sides.
I tensed, releasing a tremulous exhale when he again wrapped his hands around my ribs. His thumbs brushed the swells of my breasts. “Need to put my mouth on them.”
I wanted that and told him so by tucking my hand beneath his hair to his nape. Tentatively, I pushed, my teeth taking my lower lip.
He needed no more encouragement and lifted his legs.
I grasped his shoulders and trapped a laugh, sliding until I was close to straddling his chest. Before I could worry about the awkwardness or how uncomfortable he might be, his mouth latched onto my nipple.
And I became nothing but melting bones.
He held me firmly as he tended to each breast with a near-ravenous hunger. When he appeared to have sated it, he slowed down. He noted my every sigh and shiver—learning that I most liked the featherlight strokes from his tongue and lips. The teasing scrapes of his teeth.
The humid evening and his hot skin caused sweat to mist. My hands slipped down his chest. As he finally lowered his legs, one fell to his lap.
Voran flinched.
My eyes widened, and my face instantly reddened. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“Do it again.” A gritted plea.
I looked up to find his jaw clenched. The blue in his eyes shone brighter than the lone flame on his nightstand.
Keeping my gaze on his, I reached down.
He tensed. When I placed my finger on his erection, a violent shiver shook his body. His robes shifted as I then slowly moved it over the hard length of him. “Is this what you—”
“Yes. More.” The grunted words were pushed between his teeth.
Smiling a little, I continued to stroke him through his robes. He was long, as predicted from feeling him against me. But he was also thick. So much so, I gave in to the temptation and wrapped my fingers around him.