Chapter 24 Uncloaked #2
Kat tapped a quill on her chin while staring at their list, and Azrion leaned on the bookshelves behind her.
She tipped her head, and her hair fell away from her face, her blunt teeth teasing her bottom lip.
He stepped closer to peer over her shoulder—at the list, of course. “Could you add misty buckthorn?”
She wrote it in. “What’s that?”
“One of Heck’s rarer plants. Its water properties are unique, and a few of these runes feel like that sort of magic.
Plus I’ve heard it can cause skin mutations in the few unlucky demons who are allergic.
We can probably get a sample from Kizros and experiment.
Also we should pick up some illofras while we’re there. ”
“I don’t know how to spell that.”
“Ah, well…” He reached around her and cupped her hand with his own, guiding the quill she held over the parchment to spell out the word. When he was done, he didn’t let go. Discussing skin mutations wasn’t exactly arousing, but the heat off her skin certainly was.
Kat let the quill fall and stretched her fingers out under his hand. He instinctively entwined them with his own, clasping gently onto the back of her hand and rubbing his thumb along its soft edge.
“It’s getting late,” she said in a voice so low he could only hear because he’d moved so close.
Azrion’s lips grazed her rounded ear, the smell off her already intoxicating. “Do you want me to walk you home?”
“No.”
He pressed his mouth just to the hollow behind her jaw. “Are you sure?”
“No,” she said with a slight waver, so he pulled back. “I mean, I want to stay because we have all this work to do.”
The same guilt he knew was tugging at her reached out for him too, but it only pulled them closer together. “We won’t be able to resolve this tonight, and if I’ve learned anything about studying, rest and relaxation are necessary parts of the process.”
“So, we should sleep?” She turned over her shoulder, and there was a mischievous spark in her eye, one he was desperate to pique.
He snapped with his free hand, and the lights dimmed. “Is your mind ready for sleep?”
She shook her head slowly, and the tip of her nose brushed his.
“I have some other relaxing ideas, if you’re willing.”
She nodded, and her breath came a little quicker.
“Something we’ve tried before.”
“Practice?” Her eyes lit up, and she flipped her hand so that their palms were clasped together, such a nimble move just like when she climbed those ladders in the post and every other time she didn’t think she was being watched.
“You could call it that, but there’s not much you need to do. Practice for me, more like.”
“What does that mean?”
Azrion cleared his throat and slipped his other hand up the back of her neck. Gentle pressure held her still so she couldn’t shy away. “I want to please you, Katarina. I want to give you what I failed to provide at Lykalia.”
Her eyes went big and round but not with fear. He could feel her pulse under his fingers, and he itched to speed it up.
“I’ve been longing to touch you since the caves. To feel you quiver on my hand instead of against my thigh.”
She flushed but didn’t try to escape his grip.
“I want to hear you scream my name while you come undone on my tongue.”
“Tongue,” she repeated, unmoving and starry-eyed. “How?”
“It would be my pleasure to show you. And yours too, if I succeed, though I intend to persist until I get it right.”
The corner of her mouth twitched up. “O-okay.”
Azrion took a deep breath, straightened, and swept everything off his desk with his tail in one fell swoop.
Kat sprang upward, hands over her mouth to muffle a cry.
“Always wanted to do that.” Azrion wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him.
“But our work! And all your things!”
He gestured casually to the end of the desk, and she leaned out of his grasp to see where everything had been collected by a spell in a neat pile on the floor. “Worry not. Not about that anyway.” And then he spun her by the hips and lifted her onto the cleared desk.
Katarina flailed, the whites of her eyes flashing with the momentary shock, but then he nestled himself between her legs and tugged her backside to the desk’s edge, and that shock turned to excitement. Her hands fell on his chest, and then he closed his mouth over hers.
It wasn’t frantic this time. There was passion, yes, but neither rushed.
They’d tasted each other’s mouths already, and now it was time to savor them.
Azrion darted his tongue over her lips between slow kisses and then slipped it inside to tease at new places, and her grip on his shirt let him know he was doing everything right.
He’d wanted to do this in the caves but feared she would regret it.
Then she’d charged into his office, spoke her mind about her sister, and asked questions about magic without couching her words for fear of showing ignorance.
Kat had finally been herself, the version of her he had seen only glimpses of but had fallen for hard and fast, and this Kat was begging to be free.
He pressed his hips to hers and elicited that sound he’d earned during Lykalia, that throaty moan of pleasure that already had his cock hard and willing and probably weeping too.
It sent shiver after shiver down his tail as she wrapped her legs around his waist to keep him tight to her heat, her hands roving over his shoulders and neck.
Her fingers were always searching for a place to hide and finally found it in his hair.
She dug in and clung on, and he coveted every gentle caress and prick of pain.
He tried to give them all back, skimming fingers down her back and pinching her thigh as he hitched it higher.
She inhaled sharply against his mouth and then ground her center into his cock, hunger growing in her eyes.
He was utterly enamored of her, this he knew, but when he’d heard she ever thought of leaving, it became imperative to show her he was worthy of her remaining in Heck. “I could give you more if you’d let me undress you,” he said as he broke away from her mouth.
Her fingers slid down to his neck as she contemplated the prospect.
“Not everything,” he offered. “But there are a lot of layers between the two of us.” Then he thrust his hips into hers.
Eyes wide again, she reached around and fiddled behind her back, returning his thrust with her breasts into his chest. He nearly descended on the clavicle she displayed until her face screwed up in frustration.
“Let me help,” he cooed, and pressed himself fully to her front to peer over her shoulder. There was a knot in the ties that a flick of magic wiggled loose, but there was more work to be done than just that.
Without words, Azrion slid her off the desk and turned her around. A pretty blue ribbon crisscrossed up her back. He slid his finger below the bottommost row and gave it a tug. Her body came with it.
“Stay still,” he whispered and wrapped a hand around her hip while working at the second crossing of the laces. The fabric loosened, and Kat dragged in a breath, dropping her hands onto the desk and back arching.
Azrion pulled at the next cord and the next, desperate not to rush.
He didn’t care that he had already seen the warm skin of her back or that she was surely wearing something under the dress, he only wanted her to be free.
When he reached the last lace, he took a peek over her shoulder, and her gripping knuckles were white. “Are you all right, darling?”
She nodded fervently, and he believed her.
With the last ribbon loose, her dress came apart at its middle so she could emerge from it.
He eased both hands along the shoulders and slid them down her arms to reveal a simple shift beneath.
Azrion would have perhaps fantasized before about a gaudy, decorated, brightly colored thing that clung to her body, but nothing could have been more satisfying than plain white linen.
Kat released the desk, and her outer dress fell to the floor. The shift was loose without the shell, and a sleeve slipped off one shoulder. Two darts at the waist gave it the faintest shape, though the fabric was thin, and the outline of her actual form teased him beneath.
Azrion took a deep inhale of the newly exposed skin of her neck at shoulder, her human smell heady.
He pressed lips to the back of her neck and drew his tongue downward to try and sate himself, but the taste wasn’t enough.
He gripped her middle, fingers finally feeling the twitch of her skin beneath them, and pressed his hips to her backside.
The softness of her arched into the hardness of him, and she moaned an all too pleased sound into the office, urging him on.
He trailed a hand upward, over her belly and her ribs to very carefully cup her breast. Through the fabric, her nipple peaked, and he ran a thumb over it as he massaged the heaviness with his palm.
“Oh, Azrion,” she breathed, reaching behind her head to hook around his neck, and whether she knew it or not, she was opening her chest for his exploration.
He cupped her other breast and trailed kisses down her neck as she writhed against him.
If he wasn’t careful, he would end up just like in the caves, spilling in his pants up against her body without permission.
He trailed one hand back down her belly where she twitched playfully under his palm, and he teased at her hip. “Can I touch you here?” he asked, inching fingers closer to the source of her warmth.
“Yes,” she breathed. “Please.”
“You shouldn’t be the one begging, Katarina,” he growled in her ear. “In fact, I should be on my knees for you.” He grazed her heat and felt her buck exactly as he expected, then dipped lower to press his fingers between her legs.
Katarina let out the most glorious cry of relief as her body sank backward into him.
He had learned in the caves that she liked something different than demon women and didn’t need penetration to come undone.
Being the scholar that he was, he presumed something intriguing was going on between her legs, but there was really only one way to find out.
“I think it’s time you get back up on the desk for me, Katarina.”