Chapter 16 #3
His voice fell to a mildly curious whisper.
“Your hair is so soft. I think I’m jealous.
” The grip he kept on my hair tightened above the nape of my neck, almost enough to hurt.
My eyes fluttered wide open at the viselike hold that allowed me to do nothing but stare up at him.
He eased my head even further back with another gentle, yet forceful, pull.
It felt incredible.
“You like this too, hm?”
My legs and mind instantly lost their reliability. What was I, some pathetic prey animal that lost all semblance of self-preservation when someone tugged on my hair a little?
Reiven leaned closer, enough that the earthy sweetness of the black tea on his breath washed over me. “Knew it.” He released me far too soon and wandered away to flop onto his cot, as if he hadn’t just kicked some burning desire to life inside me.
I stumbled after him, attempting to put my fragmented, fervid thoughts back together.
The blood pounding inside my throat pumped heat through my veins as I stared down at his lazy, fake-sleeping ass.
Wait, was he just playing with me? Trying to get some revenge for how I made him lose the card game?
I wet my lips. “Move over.”
He popped one eye partially open. “Why?”
“Because I’m sleeping in your bed tonight. Move over.”
He scooted less than an inch over, leaving himself splayed out in the center with hardly any room for me to squeeze onto the cot as well. But I expected as much. He was either becoming laughably predictable, or I had grown to understand him well enough to know he’d be as difficult as possible.
I climbed onto the bed and straddled him. That got his attention. “Now,” I said with a smile. “If you won’t give me any room, I really have no choice but to make my own space.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “On top of me?”
“Mmhmm. Come on, I'm not done bossing you around for the night, Rei.” I shifted my hips, acutely aware of his hard length beneath me and the tightening of his jaw muscles as I moved.
Tempting as it was to tease him about it, I refrained.
Instead, I sent a little spark of pleasure through the hand I rested on his chest, just like I did when we were locked in the hold together.
He stifled a surprised groan, but didn't move to stop me. A depraved glint of darkness shone in his eyes despite the warm yellow light of the nearby lantern. “You really think this is a good idea, Blue?” he hissed.
“Toying with you is always a good idea. I know, you should give me a massage.”
He dragged his smoldering gaze down from my face, almost like he was admiring the way my nightdress clung to my body and showed my skin in all the right ways. He hesitated, so I took his hands and ran them up my thighs at an achingly slow pace.
My breath caught in my throat. The intensity burning in his eyes had me hypnotized. I guided his hands to my hips, then it was my turn to hesitate.
“I should lose bets with you more often,” Reiven breathed, letting his hands continue the path I had started them on. His touch ghosted over my ass and up my back. He pressed his fingers into my skin, kneading my slight muscles with surprising gentleness.
A delicious ache built between my legs, right where I rested on his erection. I teased my lower lip between my teeth and barely kept from drawing blood with my fangs. The warmth from his fingers awakened every nerve in my body. Did he feel the same way when I touched him?
Reiven pulled me to lie on his chest, continuing to massage my back as he stared into my eyes. The sigh of pleasure that escaped me made him chuckle. “At least I know you’re enjoying yourself. What else can I do to please you, mistress?”
I smirked. “Reiven, you couldn’t please me if you tried.”
“Oh, I have a list of all the things I could do to please you, sweetheart.”
His scent was intoxicating. Male musk, a distant hint of smokiness that nearly made me dizzy. It enveloped me, weakened me until I probably couldn’t move even if I wanted to. Somehow, I managed to whisper, “Tell me.”
He gave me a breathtakingly arrogant grin and flipped me onto my back while he settled between my legs.
The woolen blankets and his pillow were leagues more comfortable than the scratchy fabric of my hammock.
But no sensation compared to the soft cotton of his pants brushing against my inner thigh, or his arousal pressed against my heat.
Rei’s voice was dangerously low and powerful. “You’d forget your own name before I was halfway through my list.”
A delicious tremor rippled across my skin. I refused to allow myself to think too closely about what he was saying, and instead fired back at him, “Let me guess, you’d flip me over so you wouldn’t have to look at my face?”
But Rei snickered, and his confidence threw me off kilter.
“That sounds boring as hell. If I had the chance, I’d much rather fuck you like this, so I could watch that defiant smirk melt into ecstasy.
The way your eyes would go wide with each thrust, how your lips would struggle to form any words but ‘please’ and ‘Reiven’… ”
A gasp threatened to leave my mouth unbidden, so I bit the inside of my cheek to hold it in.
He grinned. “Now, you wanted me to tell you what I’d do, so no interrupting, yeah? Before you so rudely decided I’d jump straight to fucking you, I was going to say I’d start with my tongue.”