Chapter LXII
LXII.
Kerasea
I thought Torren was about to kiss me, but instead, he tips my chin up with his thumb.
“What do you want, Kera?”
He’s so close that our breath mingles. He smells like snow and sandalwood, and his nearness makes it hard for me to form a coherent thought. But he waits patiently.
What do I want? I didn’t come here for this, but now it’s difficult to think of anything else. I came here because I thought he’d understand how I felt. Because I wanted to be near him again. Because I missed him. And because I wanted to finish what we started.
“You,” I say. “I want you.”
His pupils dilate, a flash of pleasure on his face before his lips mash against mine. He wraps his arms around me, pressing me against the hardness of his chest. He’s all ridges and cuts, lines and muscle, but his touch is gentle…until it’s not.
With one motion, he unhooks my cloak, and it falls to the floor. I’m wearing a simple white dress beneath it. He gazes down my body, his eyes adoring, and then he picks me up. My sandals slide off my feet, and I’m weightless as he carries me into his bedroom.
I thought he’d fling me onto his mattress or pin me to the wall again, but instead, he gently places me down next to his bed. The tiles are cold on my bare soles, the room fairly sparse but lived in.
So this is where the Praetorian sleeps. There’s a simple double bed, a single nightstand, and a wooden dresser.
Everything in here is well cared for, including a full bookcase.
There was one in his living room as well with poetry, history, science, and maths.
The spines are worn but the bindings well kept.
He studies and teaches himself. There’s something endearing about that.
As Praetorian, he has a villa on the Southside, but I’d already heard he never uses it. He chooses to stay in these two rooms in the barracks.
We stand beside his bed, and he leans down and kisses me again. My body hums, but it’s not blood magic—it’s something else. The bottom of my stomach flips from his kiss, and all I want is more. I wait, impatient, but he takes his time. His hands barely graze my breasts as desire builds inside me.
He kisses me until I’m breathless. I try to take his underwear down and he stops my hands. Then he looks me in the eye.
“Don’t rush, Kera,” he whispers. “We have all night.”
This thing between us, whatever it is, swirls and crashes like waves. The throbbing between my legs is intolerable. I want this. I don’t care what the fallout will be.
“Take all of me,” I say.
His full lips curl into a wicked smile as he grabs me and turns me around.
With my back to his chest, he doesn’t hike up my dress.
Instead, he takes my hairpins out, dropping them to the floor one by one until my ebony locks cascade around me.
It’s so intimate. So different from last time.
Then he kisses the side of my neck, his tongue making me shiver as he unties my dress.
In seconds, I’m undone.
Torren’s rough hands gently slip the straps off my shoulders, and then he lets my dress fall to my waist. The bodice holds at my hips until he guides it down to my ankles. Like him, I’m now left in my undergarments—a white chemise and panties.
I’m exposed, but I’ve never felt this safe.
He pushes on my hip, wordlessly asking me to face him again. I comply. His eyes drink me in, and then he lifts me up and we careen onto the bed. We land with him over me, the heat of his body radiating into my bare skin. The weight of him feels divine as he presses me into the soft bed.
“Kera,” he murmurs.
Even the way he says my name is intoxicating.
He’s already hard, his underwear straining, but he takes his time. Actually, he’s moving painfully slowly, sliding his hands under my chemise. He cups my breasts, his thumbs grazing my nipples. His touch sends waves of pleasure through me, but I want more.
Finally, he peels down my chemise and kisses a line across my collarbone and then down.
Deliciously down. My nipples strain toward his mouth, my back arching as his tongue flicks against them.
Little bursts of pain and pleasure hit my spine as he nips, his white teeth biting gently.
I moan, and he presses a finger to my lips.
“These walls are thin,” he says.
“Do they think you’re a virgin?” I smile.
A serious expression wrinkles his brow as he shakes his head. “I don’t bring anyone here.”
I’m trying to absorb that when he strokes my cheek.
“And your moans are only for me,” he says.
Something in my core melts at his words, and desire flashes in his eyes. Still fondling my breasts, he begins to kiss the line down the center of my stomach. Then he gets to my panties. He looks up and smiles before he tugs them off me.
When my panties are on the floor, he sits back and admires me.
“Gods, you’re perfect,” he says.
Heat rises into my face, but the desire to watch him is so strong that I don’t look away.
He runs his hand from my ankle along the inside of my calf and then up my inner thigh.
I part my legs to give him more access, remembering the pleasure from his tongue.
He groans, adoration in his eyes. He leans down and then begins to kiss the very top of my inner thigh.
I raise my hips, shamelessly begging for more. Then he dips between my legs.
I gasp as his tongue hits the very sensitive parts of me. His tongue is so soft and gentle as he teases my lips, my clit. I move my hips and run my hands through his hair, but he won’t be rushed.
“Impatient little priestess,” he murmurs.
“Please, Tor.”
He glances up, all mischief in his eyes. Then I see the ceiling and I gasp. My back arches as his tongue finds exactly where I need him again. I grab his pillow and bite into it to try to keep quiet.
But he’s trying to make me scream. Wicked man. He works his tongue in firm strokes as I tense, both wanting more and not knowing what to do with this feeling. He grips my hips, holding me in place, leaving me no choice but to submit as he licks me again and again.
Waves of pleasure crest, make me quiver. I rest my legs on his shoulders as tension builds and builds. I claw the pillow, the sheets, trying to hold myself together, but it feels like I’m falling apart.
Then he moves his hand between my legs. I’m already so wet that his finger slides inside me. Then another parts me, filling me, as he continues to lick my clit in maddening strokes. The pleasure is too much for me to take. I shudder, shaking.
“Please,” I whimper.
“Come for me,” he says. “Now. Give me all of you.”
He puts his mouth on me again, and pleasure rises until my muscles are so taut that I feel like they’ll snap. And then I jump over the edge. It’s an eruption and a collapse at the same time. My vision goes white as I come, moaning his name into the pillow.
He keeps licking, claiming me, as I shudder with aftershocks. It’s not until I go limp that he sits back, admiring me.
I try to catch my breath as my face tingles. I’ve never been so satisfied and yet still so hungry. Tor is also breathing hard, but he’s in no rush. Maybe I am impatient, but I can’t wait any longer.
I lean forward and push on his underwear. I know that I can’t do a thing on this bed that he doesn’t allow, but there’s something freeing in him having full control.
Slowly, he takes down his underwear, exposing his large, thick cock. Bottomless desire like I’ve never felt hits me, and I want to consume him the way he just did to me, but he gently pushes back on my shoulders.
I land on the bed, my eyes wide in surprise.
“I need to feel you,” he says, lying over me.
He runs his hands along my curves, and I wrap my arms and legs around him. And then he guides his cock into me.
He’s so thick that my eyes widen as he slowly pushes inside me while kissing my neck. I gasp, the sensation incredible as he enters me. This is what we started. What I craved. He gives me time to adjust to every inch, to want more of him, and then he pushes deeper.
But I’ve never been filled this way before. I’ve had sex and I’ve enjoyed it, but nothing like this.
“Gods, Kera,” he says in my ear as he pushes deeper inside me. I dig my nails into his back.
Torren keeps his eyes on mine as I open to take him. Then he turns, picking me up so I land straddling him. He sits up and kisses my breasts, my mouth as I start to ride him.
Despite his arms wrapped around me, he doesn’t move my body.
On top of him, I can control how much and how deep I take him.
I start slowly, but he groans in pleasure when I take more.
It’s as intoxicating a sound as it is a feeling.
Every time I pull back, my hips moving up, I miss the sensation of his cock filling me.
I just want more. I ride deeper until eventually I’m taking all of him.
A deep moan escapes my lips from how good he feels.
He smiles and kisses me, and it’s like I can feel him straight from my mouth to my core.
His hips move with mine like we’ve done this a hundred times before.
Yet his eyes constantly search my face, reading me, giving me what I want.
He’s so large, so good, that it’s an embarrassingly short time before I start feeling the same buildup of passion, but greater this time. An earthquake compared to a tremor.
I tense as he finds just the right rhythm. He grips my hair, and I throw my head back, grinding against him. Nothing, no sensation has ever felt this good. And then his hips shift and it feels even better.
“Give everything to me,” he says. “Now. I want all of you.”
He puts his palm over my mouth as I begin to come. The orgasm rips through me as if it will split me in two. My toes curling, my fingers gripping his shoulders, I lose myself completely. I forget where I am, even who I am. I’m just his.
“You’re mine,” he whispers in my ear.
A second wave crashes through me, the euphoria nearly unbearable. Like the first time communing with a god—pain, pleasure, a heady high. Then I fall against his chest, exhausted, but still wanting more. I want him to feel the same. I need to watch him lose himself the same way.
He lays me down again, moving me like I weigh less than a feather. Then he pins my hands above my head, careful to avoid the bandage on my wrist. I feel how much he needs to possess me. The need for control is radiating from him.
“I need you, Tor,” I say.
His eyes smile. With his other hand, he guides his cock into me again.
I lean my head back, enjoying how he fills me. He’s still so hard, so strong. He could take whatever he wanted, but he keeps looking for permission. I didn’t expect him to be so gentle, so giving. He moves his hips, watching me. But I want him to lose control, too.
“Take what you want,” I say.
He groans and moves faster, deeper. “Kera.”
I hold his shoulders as he pushes harder. I can’t help but moan. He presses his lips to mine, but he’s breathing hard, pleasure building in him.
And in me.
A kind of greed I’ve never felt before has me shifting my hips up to meet him. He notices, like he notices everything.
“I need you,” I say. “Make me yours.”
“Mine,” he groans.
A sound like a growl mixed with a groan rumbles in my ear. He comes so hard, I can feel it filling me, triggering little ripples of pleasure inside of me.
Torren lies back, breathing hard. Sweat shines on his brow and he strokes my hair, then he pulls me into him. Not to have me, but to hold me. I rest against his chest, but it’s hard to ignore how much I still want more.
“I’m not done with you,” he says, stroking my cheek.
A hunger from deep inside me stirs, and I whimper. He smiles and presses his lips to my forehead.
“Rest—for now.”