Chapter 35
THIRTY-FIVE
KAI
“See?” I give the epee another jab into her shoulder. “You’re safe.”
Gwenna looks down at herself. My jacket’s big on her—way big on her—but it’s not like I’m hitting her hard. And I have to say, having never put a girl in my fencing kit before?
It’s a good look.
Gwenna frowns. “It’s just fabric, though.”
“Yeah, ballistic nylon,” I say, giving her another easy tap with the tip. “800 Newtons of force resistance. Put on one of those things and you’re coming out without a scratch.”
She gives the jacket a skeptical look. “Not if you’re Kingston. Remember his arm?”
“What, Glassjaw Pendragon?” I wave a hand. “King’s like the princess and the pea. Easily bruised. Always has been. Point is, you’re not going to die.”
Gwenna nods, eyeing my blade.
“But you could kill someone with one of these,” she says, as I put on a little show for her with a weird parry 7-parry 9 move. “If you wanted to.”
“I could kill someone with a toothpick if I timed it right.” I reset to en garde.
“But…yeah. Sure.” I straighten back up. “People have died in fencing—modern fencing, I mean—but it’s less hack-someone-to-death and more a…
stab them in the ribs and cause a pneumothorax.
Suffocate them, essentially. But in that thing, you’re snug as a bug in a rug.
” I shrug, then push the epee gently into her chest, right above her heart. “Trust me.”
“I see.” She chews her lip, then fiddles with the velcro at the neck. The zipper. Pulls it down—all the way down.
She is…not wearing a shirt under that jacket. Just a bra.
I wag a finger at her even as I’m grinning and my pulse is beating hard and fast. “That is not regulation. The armorer will never let you on the strip.”
“It’s hot in there,” she says, pulling out one arm. “I didn’t want to pass out. I don’t know how you do it, honestly.”
I spin my epee until it’s levied right at her shoulder.
“Hey!” she cries. “I thought you weren’t allowed to point a weapon at anyone out of kit.”
“I’m extremely precise.” I tuck the tip of the blade right under her bra strap. Flick my wrist and—
Snap.
“Oops.” I shrug and lower my blade.
Gwenna clutches at the cut strap as it springs off, surprise and—thank God—delight on her face.
She’s so pretty. She’s so fucking pretty.
“What are you going to do now?” I ask, fully rhetorically, as I lower my blade and take a stride or two towards her. “Whatever are you going to do?”
I lean over her, not too close. And she grabs for me.
I fling my weapon to the ground and kiss her. Kiss her stupid and senseless—which with Gwenna is hard to do.
Finally, she pushes at my chest, extracting herself.
“Just…hang on.” She’s panting, her cheeks a little flushed. She looks around at where we are—the middle of the salle, in the middle of the day. “If the others…I mean I guess they know, but…”
“No.” I nod. “You’re right. You want to…” I glance back at the stairs. “My room?”
She nods.
I rip down my zipper and fling off my jacket in a single move. Then I bend down and scoop her up under her legs and shoulders.
Gwenna laughs, squirming a little in my arms. “You don’t have to carry me.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
She laughs. Closes her eyes. “Right. I never thanked you for that, did I?”
Instead of answering, I just kiss her. “All good.”
When we reach my room, I kick the door open and immediately question my judgment, because my room is an absolute war zone that has no business hosting a lady friend.
Clothes everywhere, bed that’s never made, crummy posters I got for free from the Art History faculty lounge just so the place would look less like a drug den. And fencing shit everywhere.
Welp, too late now. I set Gwenna gently on the edge of my bed and watch her as she takes it all in.
“Are you…packing?” she says.
“Huh? Oh, no.” For St. Ignaty. I guess we are leaving in…Christ. Less than 24 hours. But…
“No,” I say again. “This is…just how I live.”
“I see,” she says, eyeing the tennis ball dangling from the extended gooseneck lamp on my desk. “Modern art?”
“Bladework,” I say. “Little target to hit.” I stoop down, pick up a random old foil, and demonstrate with a little bop. “Anyway.”
Time to move past the surroundings. My sexual career may have been abridged, but I got started early.
Meaning I’ve had a nonzero amount of fuckbuddies, and meaning I know that the longer you let a girl linger on your shithole of a room, the worse it’s going to go.
Better just to let her get what she came for and not have to think too much about how it’s you and your digusting belongings that she’s debasing herself with. She’s a nice girl, after all.
And Gwenna is far too nice for all of this.
“C’mere.” I take the back of her head, cradle her so she’s looking up and me.
Now she smirks. “Make me.”
Ah, fuck me. “With pleasure,” I murmur, and push her none-too-gently onto the mattress.
I feel drunk when I’m kissing her. Like I don’t know where to start. My dick does, certainly, jumping to attention as soon as I get a taste of her, but that I’m not so concerned about.
What do you want, Gwenna Vale?
Her breath hitches as I move off of her mouth to her jaw, then to her neck, suck gently right where I feel her pulse under my lips.
Doesn’t take much to get her bra off now that it’s half-destroyed, and to my surprise and delight, she wiggles right out of her panties, too, as I ease the strap off her shoulder.
“You in a rush?” I murmur into her neck.
“I’m…ah.” She gasps, and I release her from where I’d caught her neck with my teeth. Not hard enough to bruise or anything, but. “Are you not?”
“Correct. I am doing everything in my power not to be in a rush,” I say, shifting up so I can plant a forearm on either side of her head. “If you…catch my drift.”
“Ah…ha.” She smirks. Like she thinks that’s funny.
“Oh, you little fucking tease,” I crow, stroking the top of her head. “Trying to get me to bust early?”
“I’d be flattered.”
I snort. “You say that now.” I lean in and take her mouth again, because it’s been like thirty seconds since I properly touched her and that’s way too fucking long.
I try to take my time here—just brush my fingers over her smooth, warm skin, pull her closer to me half an inch at a time, until finally she pushes me away.
“Can you…” She swallows. “I want…you. To.”
God, she’s cute when she’s inarticulate. “To?” I prompt.
“Um. To…” She squints up her eyes. “Can we have sex now?”
I cannot stop the smile that takes over my face. Is there a less sexy way to ask that question?
No, I answer myself. And there’s no more Gwenna way, either.
Outwardly, I just cock my head. “You think you’re ready?”
She gives me a look. “Kai, I’m an adult woman. I’m not—”
Jesus. “Not…emotionally ready,” I interrupt. “I mean…”
I shift slightly and slip my fingers inside her.
“Ready.”
She shudders.
“Hmm.” I draw my hand away slowly, dragging a smooth, slick finger over her clit as I do.
Yeah. She’s good.
Okay, so fuck going slowly. I rock back to my knees, more than ready to get these stupid breeches off, which only makes Gwenna whimper, and I’m out of the suspenders and shoving the waistband down my legs when a thought occurs to me.
Shit. I kick the pants away and crawl back up to Gwenna, lying on my side to face her. Frowning, she turns to me.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” I say. “I just have to…tell you something first.”
Her frown stays put. “Tell me something,” she repeats. Then her expression changes. “Oh. I’m on birth control. It’s fine. I mean, unless you’ve got some…”
“No, no, nothing like that,” I say quickly. “Trust me. I mean, I haven’t bothered to get tested in a while, for…obvious reasons, but I was and am clean. Promise.” I chew my lip ring like it’s a prop I can use to segue the conversation.
“Then…what?” There’s the faintest edge of concern to her voice.
“Ah, how do I put this?” I tip my head to the side. Just spit it out, idiot. “I’m…pierced.”
“Mhm.” Gwenna nods a few times. Then her eyes get wide. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.” I bite back a smile.
Gwenna frowns. “Why?”
I blink, give my head a little shake. “What do you mean, why?”
“No, I…sorry.” She presses a hand to her forehead. “I just mean…if you were sworn off of women and all that. Why bother?”
“Because…I don’t know. My body, my choice?
” I sigh. “I did have a few years of freedom before locking up the chastity belt. Once I realized I was going to have an indefinite dry spell, I did the extremely mature thing and ran out and got a dick piercing. As one does.” Teenage Kai was such a dipshit.
On a lot of fronts. I reach down and stroke her cheek, the side of her mouth.
“I just wanted to give you fair warning, is all.”
“Okay.” The suspicious look is back. “Why? Is it going to hurt?”
I press my lips together. Don’t laugh at her, asshole. Even if she is being adorable.“I…gather you have not been with a pierced guy before.”
Gwenna shakes her head softly against my sheets. “I’ve barely…”
She doesn’t finish the sentence. Okay, then.
“No,” I answer, giving my head a slow shake. “If my…feedback is accurate, then it’s more like the opposite.”
“Ah.” Something flickers deep in those green eyes. Something I like. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay,” she confirms, a little frustrated. “Would you just—”
“Okay.” I kiss her, grinning like a moron. “I’ll take it easy on you, promise.”
Problem is, that’s going to be…hard.
Because Gwenna Vale, fully fucking naked in my bed, is not something I’m inclined to enjoy slowly.
I slow my breathing a little, try to get control of my racing pulse—difficult considering my body is pushing what feels like all the blood in my body into my dick—and take her hip in one hand, moving her legs gently apart so I can stroke her clit some more.
She stiffens first, then relaxes, kind of melts around my touch as I keep kissing her, and then slowly, very gradually, I start to push inside.
“Ah!”