Chapter 3 #2
“What a shame. Let me help you rectify this, my lord.” Snaking her hands down his arms and around his back, Talia pulled at his cotton shirt, dragging it loose from inside Leander’s trousers.
“Leo.” Leander corrected for a second time.
“Leo.” Talia agreed, a smile pulling the corners of her lips upwards.
Shirt loose, Leander raised his arms to allow Talia easy access to remove his shirt over his head. She took her time in doing so, her perfectly manicured nails scraping lightly at his defined abdominal muscles in admiration of what she could feel and see.
Once off, the garment was left to fall to the floor beside them as Leander dropped his hands to rest on Talia’s shoulders before running down her arms and then to pause on her hands.
“Lie down,” he ordered.
The girl did as requested while Leander returned to his goblet of wine. He watched as Talia’s fingers traced her own body, as if she was showing Leander where the sweet spots were.
As if he didn’t already know.
“Join me, Leo,” she requested, tone inviting him to explore the wonders of her body, “or is the wine a better companion?”
Leander took a long swig of his drink before placing the goblet back down, he approached the bed and clambered on top of it. Talia stretched her legs straight so Leander could place his knees on either side of her.
Hands and knees supporting his weight, Leander leaned in to dip his head against Talia’s shoulder.
It was easy enough from there for his lips to access her pulse point, and his lips twitched as he felt the instantaneous rabbiting of her heart.
“You have no idea…” he began, his mouth never quite breaking contact with her skin, and his warm breath tickling her ear, “…how long I’ve waited for this. ”
What he meant by that was intimacy with someone who wasn’t trying to please him because of his station. Being the God of Lies, Leander could always sense the untruths of someone seeking a union to match their own agenda. Sex with a selfish liar was unpleasant.
But Talia wouldn’t know that. “Has your poor little cock been starved of attention?” she asked teasingly as her hands explored over his trousers and found his hard length underneath, ready and waiting.
Leander was not a man with unlimited patience, and he was done waiting.
And Leander was not the only one reactive to the other’s touch. He could sense Talia and her cravings. That wasn’t acting—she wanted him too.
His thumbs and fingers never quite stayed still, constantly moving against the girl’s exposed skin, and his tongue had now joined the exploration of Talia’s body.
Leander could feel her pulse racing, as well as the way her muscles seemed to simultaneously relax and contract under his attention.
He wondered, briefly, if this was how she reacted to every customer of Jasmine’s brothel, with whomever she shared a bed. He pushed the idea from his mind and continued his ministrations, determined to enjoy himself tonight.
Talia mewled.
“Oh?” the lordling purred. “For someone who has been so articulate up until now... now you’re struggling to vocalise exactly what you want?
” Leander’s voice had become deeper, and slightly huskier, with arousal as he reached up to kiss just under her ear…
gratified immensely to hear her breathing hitch.
Leander’s hand drifted south, seeking Talia’s sweet centre under what remained of the whore’s clothes.
Her back arched. Only Leander’s eyes hinted at his desire.
.. everything else, his actions as ever were slow and controlled, and there was the unmistakable unflappable discipline masking his expression .
“What do you want, Talia?” He returned his tongue’s attentions to her neck and collarbone. Leander loved this position, where his partner was so vulnerable, left at his mercy. He enjoyed the slow torture of another, especially when they were so responsive to him.
His kisses sank lower on her body as his fingers worked to remove the last of her clothing. It was a beautiful piece of embroidered and sequenced fabric no doubt… far finer than a girl of her station could afford, but it needed to go.
The bang of the door being opened caused both Leander and Talia to flinch in shock. Two pairs of eyes turned to see a young man standing there.
“I…” The intruder’s eyes were wide, as if surprised to find the room occupied. “Sorry.” The man turned to leave.
“Hold on,” Leander called, irritated at the disturbance, but enjoying the aesthetics of the boy and wondering if Jasmine had sent him someone else to enjoy alongside Talia. “Come in.”
The other man hesitated before taking a few steps into the room.
Leander extracted himself from Talia (who seemed about to speak but remained silent while Leander examined the new arrival) and stood, picking up the two goblets and offering one to the man, who was unbelievably attractive. “What is your name?”
“What would you like it to be, my lord?”
Leander frowned, sensing deceit radiating off the man. The man in front of him was beautiful, with raven-coloured locks and strikingly intense cerulean eyes. Olive skin indicated he was another foreign beauty of Jasmine’s.
Leander wanted him in an instant, but not when he obviously wasn’t wanted back. In the back of his mind, there was something—and he couldn’t quite put his finger on what—that was familiar about the man standing before him. Possibly with a clearer head, maybe…
“Do you not like wine, boy?” Leander waved the goblet, which had been offered some time ago.
The prostitute reached out to accept the wine and took a hasty sip of the drink.
All the while, Leander examined the intruder. He could tell the man didn’t want to be here. Talia, who had shifted from the bed to join him at the door, ran her perfectly manicured fingers up the ridges that formed Leander’s torso, and the demigod turned momentarily from the intruder.
“Leo…” she murmured, a husky, breathy way of summoning him back to a moment he had been thoroughly enjoying. “I have something to show you… privately.”
Oh, what a promise to make. Talia was unimpeachably good at her job. Leander leaned in and captured her lips in a kiss, sealing the deal, because he very much wanted to know more.
“Can your friend not join us?” Leander turned back to the other man. “You’ve ruined what promised to be the best night I’ve had in a long while, boy. How can you possibly make it up to me?”
A dark expression passed over the other man’s face and he opened his mouth to speak. “I don’t know, my lord. In any way you please.”
Ignoring the way Talia’s anxiety spiked, Leander’s hand trailed over the man’s hand and up his bare arm, snaking a pattern with his index finger.
When it reached the man’s shoulder, he traced the man’s neck and brought it along his jaw, angling the head downwards just a tad so he could look into the taller man’s piercing eyes. They were mesmerising.
“He’s not?—”
But Leander didn’t give Talia the opportunity to finish. “You don’t know…” he muttered, disappointed at the man’s lack of proactivity and resourcefulness. Surely that was what a whore knew best, how to help shy customers out of their shells. Leander did not, therefore, like a coy whore.
“What would you like me to do, my lord?”
There it was again, that ridiculous and self-effacing turn of phrase that probably got the dicks of other lords rising to the skies, but it did not have the same effect on Leander.
Sighing, he moved his hand to rest on the chest of the man standing in the door and pushed him back lightly. “You’re no good to me, boy. Get out,” Leander ordered before the man could come up with some undoubtedly unobtrusive and reticent phrase to appease him.
The beautiful man immediately turned on his heel and departed the room without another word.
Leander rubbed his face with his hand, watching him go before closing the door and turning back to Talia. “Now, you were about to tell me what you want,” he smiled, approaching the bed once more.