The Queen's Line (Inheritance of Hunger #1) - Kathryn Moon Page 0,27
salty and clean. I blinked once, my eyelids as heavy and dry as bricks, but it was enough to see his bare chest in the bed next to me. I rolled in his direction, and he tucked me against his side, continuing to read until I was fast asleep.
I woke up on rougher sheets than home, feeling hotter and more stifled than usual. But it only took a moment. One soft puff of breath against the back of my neck and a nudge of a stiff length against the bottom of my ass, and I remembered where I was and who I was with.
Cosmo was absent from the bed, and it was undeniably Owen's massive arm that was wrapped around my waist, holding me against his chest as he ground himself against my bottom. He groaned into my hair and began to work himself a little faster, breaths panting on the back of my neck. All at once, his arm tightened, his pants halted with a gasp, and his grinding froze.
"Fuck," he muttered, hips slowly pulling away from mine.
I tried to contain the giggle building in my chest as Owen wiggled away from me, carefully loosening his arm from around my waist, but with a ticklish brush of his fingers against my side, the sound broke free and I rolled to face him.
"I'm sorry," we both said in a rush.
"I don't mean to laugh at you," I said quickly.
Owen was rumpled and his face was flushed, throat bobbing and chest still heaving. I tried very very hard not to look down—or at least I told myself I tried—and then bit my lip at the bulge of his arousal tenting the sheet.
"I didn't mean to…" He cleared his throat and leaned toward the bed, trying to hide the outline of his cock. "I'm sorry. I—"
"You were asleep, Owen. It's all right," I said.
He was shirtless now too, like Cosmo had been when he'd come to bed. For never sharing my bed with anyone before, I'd found it no trouble at all to sleep through the night. The curtains to the room were still pulled shut, but I could see bright sunlight trying to make its way through little tears in the old velvet. Owen was rumpled and warm, and he was studying me with the same interest I had while gazing back at him.
"I should—" He made to move out of the bed, and an impulse struck me.
My hand reached his chest before he could escape, his heartbeat just barely detectable against my palm through the thick planes of muscle. I stretched up from the pillows, Owen held in place by just the pressure of my palm pausing him. I craned my neck, watching his eyes as my mouth lifted to brush against his. Owen had nibbled at my lips when he'd kissed me on my orders, and I did the same to him now, sucking softly on his bottom lip.
There was a taste to him, not sweet but not unpleasant either, just the unfamiliar flavor of another person, and I hummed as he pressed back, both our eyes falling shut. My fingers curled into Owen's chest hair as he leaned into me, and then further, pushing me back into the pillows. The kiss was slow and exploratory and cautious, Owen taking frequent pauses to wait and see if I would come back for more. When our tongues flicked together and a lick of heat flashed against my sex, I gasped and he pulled away, waiting and watching me.
I swallowed hard, staring up at the shadow of Owen and wondering what I wanted next. More kisses? Yes. More than kisses?
Not…not quite yet.
"I was just curious," I said, my cheeks echoing Owen's growing smile.
He grinned, and I held my breath as he pressed down, but it was only to drop a kiss against my forehead, my nose, my chin, and then once more, briefly, on my lips.
"Feel free to be curious any time, Your—Bryony," he said. And then he cleared his throat and leaned back, glancing towards his lap. "I think I'd better…umm…"
He moved to rise from the bed at the same time that knuckles rapped on the door. Owen shuffled to sit in front of me, blocking me from view, but it was only Cosmo coming in. Dark eyes looked over Owen and I briefly, Cosmo's roguish smile flickering.
"'Morning, you two. I think there's something you'd better come see in Thao and Wendell's room," Cosmo said.