Chapter 29 #2
“Yes, Nick. Yes.”
There was no mistaking the breathy quality of her voice as she answered. That wasn’t fear or nerves. He carefully crafted a ward around each wrist.
She shivered.
Her breasts were even more inviting with her arms stretched up like that, and Nicholas could no longer deny temptation.
He cupped one and took the other in his mouth, exalting in the way Sadie twisted to get closer.
After long minutes, he forced himself to move on, kissing a path down her stomach, curving around to her hip, then back to her inner thigh.
He shifted backward and placed his hands on her thighs, gently pushing them apart as he slid his hands down to her ankles.
Then he crafted two more wards, looking up at her as he locked her ankles in place. He didn’t have to ask; she heard the question in his mind and answered the same way.
Yes, Nick. Yes.
He kneeled between her legs and took a moment to admire the view.
Having Sadie splayed out like this satisfied some dark desire he’d never felt before.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want her to touch him, but knowing she trusted him this much, knowing she was at his mercy, he couldn’t suppress the primitive thought that she was all his.
Yours, she agreed.
That thought was enough to cut through the last of his patience. He might have joked that she was impatient before, but in truth, he was burning with desire. He needed to touch and taste every inch of her.
So that’s exactly what he set out to do.
He started at her ankles and worked his way up, getting lost in the sweet heat between her thighs long enough to have her squirming and begging for release.
She showed him exactly what she wanted with her magic, and he rewarded her trust by giving her precisely that, though he’d have preferred to linger.
She shattered on his tongue, her thoughts splintering through his mind in a cascade of images and dreams and hopes.
He crawled up her body, releasing the wards and pulling her close, then shifting so he was on his back with Sadie cradled against his side.
He gave her the tenderness he didn’t think she was aware of asking for, smoothing a hand down the honey-brown hair falling from its pins and murmuring that he had her, she was safe with him.
Her fingers curled into his chest, and she burrowed closer.
“Sadie,” he whispered, needing to ask after the way she’d come apart both physically and mentally. “Was it too much?”
“Too much and not enough,” she answered unhelpfully. “I’ve never—”
She trailed off, and though he waited a minute, she didn’t try to speak again.
“You’ve never?” A thought struck him. Sadie wouldn’t have wanted to be as vulnerable with anyone as she had just been with him.
In the heat of the moment, she hadn’t had any control over her power, sharing every thought she had with him. “Sadie, are you a virgin?”
He didn’t truly care one way or another, but it would be nice to know ahead of time so he could plan accordingly.
She shook her head against him. “No. But I’ve never … without my amulet.”
“Had sex? Orgasmed?” He asked, needing her to be more specific.
“Both,” she said, her cheeks red. “And it’s been a while. Ever since the original power in the charm faded, I’ve always been wary that the trickle I can coax into it is enough to hold up to such an onslaught.”
That she was embarrassed to talk about this after what they had just done, after she had asked him to bind her with his wards, simply wouldn’t do.
Nicholas shifted so he was fully on his back, pulling Sadie over him so her legs ended up on either side of his hips.
“Then I suppose we’ll have to make up for lost time. ”
Her eyes went wide, then she smiled, and the sultry confidence he was used to returned. She pushed up until she was straddling him with her hands on his chest. “An excellent idea.”
“I’m full of excellent ideas.” He let a series of images play through his mind, loving the way Sadie’s eyes went dark as she took them all in.
“That one.” She announced suddenly. The stream of fantasies stopped, and she returned one of them to him, this time from her perspective.
He was leaning against the headboard, Sadie straddling his lap, riding him as he licked and sucked her breasts.
In her version, Sadie’s fingers threaded through his hair, holding him to her, and his hands were on her hips helping her move on him.
Nicholas didn’t waste time. He pushed his upper body upright and claimed Sadie’s mouth in a scorching kiss, then clamped his hands over her hips and slid backward until he hit the headboard.
She shifted, and before he was ready—would he ever have truly been ready?
—she had his cock pressing against her entrance.
She slid down his length partway and ran her fingers through his hair. “You aren’t sticking to the plan,” she said breathlessly.
“Sorry, got distracted.” Nicholas wasn’t sure he was capable of thinking right then, but he didn’t really have to think, only do what felt good.
He leaned in and swirled his tongue around the peak of her breast, and Sadie took him in another inch.
He bit gently and tugged, and she moaned and seated herself flush against him.
His mouth busy, Nicholas tried to think loudly and clearly. Ready?
So ready.
They moved as one, lifting until Sadie was almost completely off him, then coming back together in a slow glide. They repeated the movement a few times, until Sadie’s nails pressed into his scalp and her thoughts became a refrain of More. Faster.
They moved faster, and Nicholas thrust up every time Sadie sank down, angling himself until her body and thoughts both told him he had hit the perfect spot.
He pulled his lips from her breasts, and she was right there, kissing him with the same need he felt, as they both raced toward a cliff of sensation.
Sadie leaped into free fall first and pulled him over the edge with her.
There was no crash, though. They floated down and landed in a jumble of limbs and tenderness.
A short time later, Nicholas was lying on his side, his arms around Sadie while her back pressed against his chest, one leg thrust between hers. She pressed her hands over his. “You have quite the imagination.”
“I will gladly share it with you whenever you desire.”
“If I can’t get a handle on my powers, you won’t have a choice.”
“Sadie.” He pressed a soft kiss to her shoulder. “From what I understand, you’ve lived your entire life relying on a charm to control your magic. It will take time, but you will master your magic.”
“I don’t know if I can do it,” she admitted softly. “Being around people and not being able to control it is disorienting and dangerous. I start reacting to thoughts instead of words, and then people figure out I’m a telepath, and then I’m searching for a new place to live. Again.”
Nicholas tightened his hold on her. He’d been so caught up in making sure she didn’t run away earlier he hadn’t really thought about why she would run when her secret came out. Clearly, his attitude toward her power wasn’t the prevalent one.
He understood that. If Sadie weren’t Sadie, he might have hesitated upon learning she could read his mind.
But even if she were a stranger, he wouldn’t have shunned her or tried to run her off.
It simply would have taken longer for him to be comfortable, and he’d probably have devoted some time to figuring out how to ward his thoughts first.
Acceptance wasn’t a reaction Sadie could even imagine getting, though, which made him wonder just how many times she’d been hurt. “How often have you needed to move?”
???
Sadie was grateful she was facing away from Nicholas. She wasn’t sure she could handle this conversation while looking at him. At the same time, having his arms around her gave her the courage to start talking.
“Since leaving the village where I grew up when I was seventeen, I’ve had to move eight times.
I lasted the longest in the first town I went to, because the charm still had power back then.
But about a year and a half into living there, I told my closest friend at the time about my magic, thinking she’d understand. ”
Instead of saying anything, Nicholas pulled a blanket over them both and pressed a kiss to her head. He understood that she wouldn’t be able to keep talking if he interrupted.
So, Sadie continued. “The charm died about six months after I made my way to a new village, and I was so unprepared my secret was out within a day. I wandered for a bit after that, but it was a struggle, and eventually I settled in another village. Since then, I’ve lasted one to two years in each place before I messed up.
I’ve only been in Lamsdel eight months.”
She fell silent, and though she couldn’t actually hear Nicholas’s thoughts right that moment, she could sense they were intense as he sorted through what she had and hadn’t said and decided on a response.
“You left home at seventeen?” he finally asked.
“I’d have left sooner if it hadn’t been for my grandmother.” Her hand moved toward her throat, but her amulet was lying on the floor in the other room. “Everyone there knew about my power. I was an outcast.”
“And the rest of your family?”
“My parents and brother couldn’t wait to see me leave. They couldn’t avoid me like everyone else.”
“But they knew you had the charm blocking your power?”
Sadie shrugged. “They didn’t trust it. Besides, the damage was done before Nana discovered the glyph for my amulet.”
“I’m sorry, Sadie. I’m sorry your family feared your power instead of helping you learn to control it. I’m sorry that people taught you over and over that your magic made you unloveable, for it isn’t true.”
She twisted in his arms, needing to face him now. “I’m sorry I assumed you would shun me the moment you figured it out.”
“You’ve learned to expect the worst. I can hardly blame you after what you’ve told me.”
“But you aren’t like anyone else I’ve encountered.
I should have known you’d be different. No, I did know.
I was going to tell you, to ask you to help me control my power.
I expected my admission to drive a wedge between us, but I knew you would still help.
But then you figured it out when I had decided to give myself one last evening to enjoy your company before changing everything, and I panicked. ”
“We aren’t limited to one evening of enjoyment.”
“I realize that now, but I couldn’t conceive of that outcome before.” She’d thought, at best, it would be like with her grandmother. He’d want to help her, even as he was wary of her power. She’d never even dreamed that he’d not only accept her power but revel in having her use it with him.
She was almost positive she hadn’t shared that thought with him, but he read her mind, anyway. “Sadie, I don’t think you fully accept yet how alluring it is to have your very thoughts in my head. I’ve never experienced anything like that.”
Though her cheeks were warm, Sadie forced herself to be as open. “I liked when you used your power, too.”
He traced a finger over her cheek. “You know, given the way you reacted at the spring—and especially after what happened in the kitchen—your shyness at this point is a bit of a surprise.”
“At the spring, I didn’t even know you were there until it was already too late. Throwing a fit then would have been pointless.”
“And in the kitchen? You weren’t shy there.”
“I thought I’d be in control.”
He laughed. “You were. You didn’t even have to put your mouth on me before I was in your thrall.”
She patted his chest. “Good to know, but that’s not what I meant. I was the one giving pleasure then. I thought I could control myself, but it was still too much for me. I projected at one point. You were too distracted to notice, but I knew I had overestimated my ability to lock down my power.”
“Pleasure in particular activates your power, then?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.” Nicholas placed a hand on her bottom. “You know how I told you before that the best way to learn to control your power is to use it more in order to get a feel for it?”
Sadie nodded cautiously, not sure exactly where he was going with this.
“And you want me to help you learn to control your power?”
Another nod.
“Then clearly what we need to do is bring you as much pleasure as possible, if that makes you use your power instinctively.” He rolled onto his back and had her straddling him in moments. Then the hand on her ass pushed gently, urging her higher. And higher.
“Nick, what are you—”
He maneuvered her the last bit, and she was straddling his face, the faint stubble on his chin rubbing against her thigh with delicious friction.
“We’re having a magic lesson, Sadie. I’m going to pleasure you, and since my mouth will be otherwise occupied, you’ll have to rely on your power to listen to my directions. ”
“D-directions?”
“Mmhmm,” he hummed into the crease at the top of her thigh. Palms flat on the headboard, Sadie.
She flattened her palms against the headboard. Not obeying that mental order was not even a possibility.
Nicholas grabbed her thighs and tugged. Lower.
She was too aroused to be embarrassed. Too aware of the desire pulsing at the edge of Nicholas’s every thought. She shifted her hips lower and was rewarded for every mental direction she followed. Every thought she projected.
He licked and sucked and made her squirm until pleasure became almost too much.
“Nick!” she shouted his name mentally and aloud, and he took her over the edge.
When the pleasure of release faded away into aftershocks, she was still sitting on his face, her hands pressed to the headboard. His hands smoothed over her ass, and he nuzzled her thigh. Do you have a better feel for how to use your power deliberately yet?
She pushed up and away, crawling off him and collapsing on the bed at his side.
“If I was supposed to be able to think clearly through that, then we’re in trouble.
If the goal was only to generate positive associations to replace the negative memories I have of using my power, on the other hand, I think we can call it a resounding success. ”
“A worthwhile outcome, but not everything.” Nicholas rolled to his side and wrapped himself around her. “That’s all right, though. We’ll keep practicing.”