Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
He’d lost his mind. Nocren could think of no other explanation for his actions.
Divining magic could do that to a person; he certainly wouldn’t be the first. The wind and his magic had been obsessed with Calya since the moment their paths crossed.
But every time he thought he understood the wind’s intention, reality slapped him in the face.
Showing her into his cabin, Nocren closed the door and leaned against it. Jaw set, he willed himself not to move. Avenor may have been all too eager to benefit from the woman’s reckless actions, but Nocren had a few scruples left.
Calya frowned at him. “What are you doing?”
He had to give her a final out. Even if his more base nature rebelled against the notion, urging him to take her.
“We don’t—” His voice came out hoarse. He cleared his throat. “We don’t have to do this. I just, when I saw Avenor, I… I don’t want you to feel—”
Calya removed her cloak and tossed it over the foot of his bed. When he didn’t react beyond silence, she rested her ass against the narrow bunk. With slow, deliberate movements, she dragged one boot off. For a moment, Calya held it up, a question and a taunt.
Nocren remained like stone. Unmoving. Definitely, noticeably hard, if the pressure at the front of his trousers was any indication.
But he didn’t flinch when Calya let her boot drop to the floor.
The second followed. All the while, her eyes never left him.
Then she sauntered toward him, swaying slightly with the movement of the ship.
In his tiny cabin, it didn’t take long for her to be in front of him again.
She reached out, one slim hand trailing over his crossed arms.
“I’m not some na?ve debutante. This isn’t my maiden voyage,” she murmured, fingers traveling up to graze his chin. “I can separate business from pleasure. Can you?”
Nocren’s brow twitched. Disgruntlement rose within him at her words.
The corner of her mouth curved, rounding her cheek. “You disapprove?”
He stopped her wandering hand, catching her wrist as she palmed his erection. “Are you always this trusting? You hardly know me.”
An emotion passed over her face, there and gone so fast he couldn’t be sure what he’d seen. If it had even been real. He couldn’t even ask after it, for Calya’s cool fingers pressed against his lips.
“This is just sex. I’m giving you my body for a night, that’s all. Our implied contract doesn’t require trust.”
“Always thinking of business.”
“Always,” Calya agreed. She gave him a frank look. “I didn’t just find that bottle on the ground and drink it on a lark. I know what I’m doing. I wanted this. No sentiment, remember?”
Nocren stared down at her, watching as a shiver ran through her frame.
He felt the hairs on her arm stand up, her skin briefly turning to gooseflesh as the full effects of the aphrodisiac hit.
The tiny bumps receded, a warm flush spreading across her body in its stead.
Her eyes closed in a long, slow blink, and when she finally met his gaze, he could make out his reflection in her blown pupils.
“Have you considered how you might be hindered by your… condition?” Nocren made himself say.
Calya groaned. “I was counting on it, but if your delicate sensibilities aren’t so inclined, I’ll take care of myself.” She made a crude motion with two of her fingers.
When he remained frozen in place, brain and cock screaming contradictions at him, she made an exasperated sound. Turned to retrieve her shed clothes. Prepared to leave.
“Wait.” Eternal Wind damn him for sounding so fucking hoarse.
Calya slowly spun again to face him, head tilting to the side in question.
Nocren reached behind his back, hand fumbling to find the door’s heavy lock. “Last chance, sweetheart. I don’t do one and done. If you stay, you’re locked in here until morning.”
She scoffed, twining her arms around his neck. “You don’t scare me, ranger.”
“I don’t want your fear, Calya.” He threw the deadbolt. “But I will make you scream.”
She smiled hungrily. “Is that a promise? Even with the Kiss in my blood, I won’t be so easily impressed.”
“We’ll see.”
Taking her by the shoulders, Nocren reversed their positions, pressing Calya’s back against the door.
He undid the laces at the front of her bodice, carefully drawing the cord through the eyelets.
The buttons of her shirt went in equally slow fashion, but evidently, the pace was too lackadaisical for Calya and the enhanced hormones running through her.
She shrugged out of her shirt impatiently, dropping it on the floor.
She reached for the placket at the front of his trousers, growling when he caught her hands and pinned them above her head.
“Lowe!” she complained.
Nocren tsked at her. A lace-trimmed ivory band covered her breasts, a silver pendant with a wave etched in blue hanging between them on a long chain. He lifted the necklace with one finger. “Pretty, but I wouldn’t have thought it your style.”
“A gift from my sister.”
“On or off?”
“On. It has a protection charm. To keep men honest for her baby sister.” Calya tugged against his restraining hand.
Nocren smirked. “I doubt you have such troubles.” He pushed her breastband up, but instead of adding it to the growing pile of clothes, he left the garment tangled around her elbows.
“Patience,” he drawled, fingers skimming over her exposed breasts.
He cupped one, luxuriating in how it spilled over his hand.
The gentle weight nestled against his palm, her nipple already beginning to pebble at the slightest attention.
Arousal added a delectable pink flush to her fair skin, heightened sensitivity causing her to shiver when he tweaked her nipple.
With one hand, he kept her wrists anchored in place while the other continued its slow trek down her body. He traced the modest nip of her waist, followed the line of her form as it flared into her hips. It was an easy thing to push her trousers down, letting them snare her shifting legs.
Her panties followed suit. Nocren’s finger pressed along the juncture of her thighs and pelvis.
Feathered across the chestnut curls guarding her entrance.
Started to tease at her lips. But when she tried to cuddle into his touch and draw him in, Nocren pulled away.
At her exasperated sound, he smirked. What fun it would be, to have her in such play.
Use his body to cage her in, use his fingers and mouth to bring her to the edge—and leave her there.
Repeat the sensually vicious cycle until she was malleable in his hands.
Until she tucked her face into his neck and begged for release.
Nocren’s cock bobbed in agreement, the fantasy playing out in his mind driving his arousal even higher.
Calya gave him a haughty glare, a pointed tug against his hand emphasizing her annoyance. “For someone who’s supposed to be fucking me through a storm, you’re doing a shit job of it.”
He leaned in, mouth stopping next to her ear. “We’ve hardly begun. Be nicer to me”—his free hand drifted lower until it hovered above her entrance again—“or you’ll be waiting all night.”
Her thighs parted for him. “You wouldn’t dare,” she said, a moan escaping as he traced along her seam, the flesh already wet with desire.
Nocren only chuckled darkly in response, enjoying the way her eyes closed, her head tipping back as he let one finger slip between her folds.
In truth, she was right. At least for tonight.
As enjoyable as it would be to edge her until dawn, especially with the Kiss influencing her every reaction, Nocren’s own will wouldn’t hold out that long.
The desire to bend her over the bed and rut into her like an animal was intense to the point of aching.
Besides, there was more than one way to make the imperious little minx beg.
Calya tried to grind against his hand. Her breath caught when he finally let his finger breach her entrance, her exhalation long and ragged.
“Prove to me that I wouldn’t have been better off by myself,” she said, hips angling up into his touch.
She was already soaked, her pussy so pliable. So fucking ready for him. The addition of a second finger elicited another moan of pleasure, her hands twitching against his hold. Her inner walls clenched around him, dragging his fingers the slightest bit deeper.
“We both know I already have.” He curled his fingers as he rubbed along her front. “Look at how hungry you are. Your little hands aren’t enough to please you.”
“But yours can?” The snark in her tone was undermined by a gasp as his fingers found the spot that made her back arch.
“I know it.” Nocren’s thrusting picked up. “This is just a taste, sweetheart.”
He shifted so his knee could keep one of her legs open, his hand still pinning her arms above her head. He was immovable even as she began to squirm.
“This will be enough for you to come, but it’s not what you want.” Nocren’s teeth grazed her ear. “Not what I want.”
“Which is?” she hissed out, her pussy’s rhythmic clenching beginning to stutter.
“I’d have you on your hands and knees, your ass up in the air for me, your hair wrapped around my fist. I’d finger-fuck you until your pussy was nice and swollen.
I’d have you coming all over the floor until you begged me to stop.
” Nocren pressed the heel of his hand against her clit and crooked the fingers he had buried inside her.
With a nip at her ear, he murmured, “And then I’d give you my cock. ”
Calya spasmed, breath escaping as short, sharp puffs as she came. Nocren grunted as her liquid heat drenched his hand, her pussy rippling around his fingers. Her hips bucked lightly with each wave of pleasure, drawn out by his long, slow strokes against the tender spot on her front.
Gradually, the quivers faded, and she exhaled a hoarse, “Fuck.”
Nocren eased his fingers free, holding them up so she could see how they glistened in the lamplight.