Gentle, tickling touches nearly as brief and light as his breath. His hand slipped from her waist, stroked the edge of her ribcage and paused below her breast. She shifted restlessly. Just a little higher. “You were trained at the University.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Some of the happiest years of her life, at least at first. Lifted from poverty when her gift was identified. Given a small private room, two meals a day, daily baths and free access to the library. And magic, everywhere magic. At the University, she’d been surrounded by the finest musicians and artists. As an initiate, she’d been exposed to all of the disciplines—but she’d always known what she was. The ritual had only confirmed it.
His finger lifted to graze across her nipple. She held her breath until he returned to it, slowly rolling the tip between two fingers. Her skin tightened and her hunger grew.
“But you didn’t join the guild.”
“I did.” She touched his hair and he turned his head, pressing a kiss to her wrist. “But then I left.”
He was gorgeous even at first light. There was a crease on his cheek from his pillow and his hair was disheveled. She didn’t know why this would make him even more appealing, but it did.
“Why? The guild would protect you, make sure you had food and shelter, vet your patrons.”
She shook her head. “Why are we talking about the guild?”
“I only wish to understand you. What would you rather talk about?”
She smiled. “You woke me, surely it wasn’t to talk.”
Something flickered in his eyes and she felt a twinge of uneasiness. He’d be disappointed if he hoped to use either her connections or her past against her.
But that thought was gone when his smile widened and he rolled them both forward—her landing on her stomach, him behind and on top of her. She pressed up onto her hands and knees. Nudging her legs wider, he moved in behind her. His hips butted against her and his hardening cock tapped the inside of her thigh. When he shifted back, his cock slid between her buttocks and he rubbed against her.
“You think I’ll let you mount me like an animal?”
He smoothed his hands down her back, settling them at her waist. His fingers spread, gripping her just above her hips. “You’ve never had sex like this?”
She started to crawl forward, intending to leave the bed rather than answer his question, but he caught her elbows. If she moved, he’d pull her arms out from beneath her. Her heart beat harder in her chest but before she could begin to fight him in earnest, he released her. She twisted around and he came down on the mattress beside her. “Maybe later then. When you made me that offer, I didn’t expect to find you such an innocent.”
“I’m not innocent.”
One finger stroked down her cheek and then his hand turned to cradle her jaw. “I would like to take you from behind. I want my hands tangled in your hair while you suck my cock. I want to fuck your mouth and your ass. I want to taste you, bury my face in your spun-sugar pussy and listen to you beg me for release. I wanted to take you in the bath, at the table while the servants watched from the shadows. I wanted you in that alley, rug to cushion us or no.” He dropped a kiss to her lips. “And I’ve shocked you.”
His gaze held hers, heated and terribly intimate, as she struggled to deny the images he conjured. Her lips on his cock. His mouth on her. He was thinking about it too, and she wanted him, was ready to take him in any way that would ease the urgent need rising in her blood. Too much. He would take everything from her if she let him.
But he didn’t try to turn her again. Instead, he moved over her. Setting his hands to either side of her ribcage, his forearms pressed tight to her body, locking her in place. She spread her legs for him when his knee came up between her thighs, moaned when he rubbed against her. She was so wet that she coated his skin, but he didn’t seem to mind. She didn’t either, when a moment later he shifted his hips and sank into her with a heavy groan.
There were little tics and twitches in the big muscles of his arms that supported the weight of his body. He began to move, slow and easy,