The Priestess and the Thief Kindred Tales 30 - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,44
now.
Because despite the guilt and the way she’d broken down and cried earlier, her body still throbbed and ached and called for attention—attention Elli knew she shouldn’t give it.
“It is a little bit claustrophobic in here,” she murmured, trying to give an excuse for her restlessness. Which was partially true—the strange little alcove their mattress was shoved into, was pretty cramped for two—especially when one of the two was as large as Roke. He had offered to sleep on the floor but Elli had declined, she hadn’t wanted to feel all alone in the big bed in the vast, spooky bedchamber.
Or maybe you just wanted an excuse to have him in bed with you, whispered a reproving little voice in her head.
“You can have the outside if you want,” Roke offered, motioning to the outer opening in the wall where the alcove was located. “Please—be my guest.”
“All right.” Elli crawled over him, very conscious of the way that her breasts brushed against his broad chest as she made the transition. She was wearing the night dress the seamstress had left for her—a long white gown made of some silky material which clung to her curves—and she was completely bare beneath it.
Roke must have noticed her breasts brushing against his chest because he shifted restlessly himself.
“Gods, sweetheart, try not to get so close,” he growled hoarsely. “You’re going to make me need to jerk off in order to get back to sleep.”
“Jerk off?” Elli asked rather breathlessly as she finally finished crawling over his big body and got settled on the other side of him.
“Forgot how innocent you are.” Roke sighed. “’Jerk off’ is another way of saying I’ll need to give myself some relief if you keep rubbing your beautiful body against me like that.”
“Give yourself relief? How?” Elli asked, frowning. “Do you mean…sexually?” she asked, feeling her heart begin to pound.
“Of course I mean sexually!” he growled. “How else would I be able to relieve the tension I feel when you’re close to me?”
“But it’s wrong to…to touch yourself that way,” Elli pointed out. “Wrong to give yourself pleasure.”
“Oh, so now it’s not only wrong to let someone else touch you, it’s also wrong to touch yourself?” Roke sounded exasperated. “I suppose those are more words of wisdom from your stepmother.”
“Well…yes,” Elli admitted. “That was why she sent me away to be a priestess.” Then she bit her lip—why had she admitted her most embarrassing secret to him? She hoped he was too sleepy to understand her.
But she hoped in vain. Roke was clearly wide awake now.
“So that’s what she blackmailed you with?” he demanded, turning over on his side and propping himself up on one elbow to peer down at her. “She caught you touching yourself?”
“I…yes,” Elli admitted. Inside she was squirming with shame. “I know I shouldn’t have, but it was so hot that night I left the windows open. Even with them open, though, I was still hot, so I took my night dress off. And the wind felt so good blowing against my body and well… somehow I found myself touching…touching my secret spot.” She bit her lip, ashamed all over again when she remembered it.
“Your ‘secret spot?’” Roke was frowning in the dimness.
“Yes. There’s a…a spot between my legs,” Elli tried to explain. “It feels really good when I touch it, only I’m not supposed to—not supposed to touch it, I mean,” she added quickly. “Because it’s wrong and bad.”
“That ‘secret spot’ is your Goddess pearl, sweetheart,” he murmured and Elli was relieved to see no condemnation on his strong features. “And there’s nothing wrong with touching it to make yourself feel good.”
“Of course there is!” Elli was shocked. “Everyone knows that!”
“Your wicked stepmother and all those narrow-minded priestesses might have told you it was wrong, but let me ask you this,” Roke said. “If the Goddess didn’t mean for you to have any pleasure from that ‘secret spot’ as you call it, then why would she create it in the first place? Why not just make you completely smooth between your legs with no way to get any pleasure at all if pleasure is such a sin? Can you answer that?”
Elli opened her mouth…and found she couldn’t answer his question—or refute his logic.
“I…I never thought of it like that,” she admitted in a low voice.
“Of course not—you just swallowed everything you’ve been taught without asking,” Roke said. “Well, maybe it’s time you started asking, little priestess.”