a little afraid of what the more tender parts of him might feel like. She wondered if he’d burn her.
She wondered if she cared.
She kissed her way up him, feathering her lips along him. She ran her hands up his thighs and along his skin, feeling the taut muscles beneath her begging for more. She reached the apex of his legs and wandered her touch to what she had been so very curious about.
He was nothing like the temple attendant, that was for damn sure.
Fates.
He felt like he was on fire in her hand. It was almost to the level that it was uncomfortable to touch. Almost. But the more she explored the length of him, the more she adjusted to it. And there was so much of him to explore.
“Hope,” he moaned out her name, desperate and needy.
She hovered her lips near him before placing a kiss along the side of his desire. He whimpered. Actually whimpered. The poor man was at his wits’ end. She smiled and kissed him again, wandering up him the same way she had wandered up his thigh. It felt like kissing fire. It felt like bliss.
His hand tangled in her hair, fisting it but not forcing her to do anything. It just seemed like he needed something to hold on to. “Open your mouth, pretty girl…”
The same dusky command he had given her over dinner. The same command he’d said to her when he thrust his tongue into her mouth. She had bossed him around, and now he wanted a little in return. Fine. She was going to do it anyway. She did as he asked and then rolled her tongue around him.
Taking him into her mouth, she moaned with him, albeit much quieter than he. He thrust up, almost gagging her, as he desperately sought more. She didn’t know much about how to please a man, but it was easy to tell what he liked and what he wanted. She bobbed her head on him, taking her time, lavishing him with her tongue when she could. Her hand stroked what she couldn’t reach.
When she began to apply just a little bit of suction, he howled and yanked her head off him. Had she done something wrong? Had it hurt?
“Don’t you dare end our fun now!” he snarled at her. He was spasming underneath her, twitching. He was gasping for air, and she heard him pound a fist into the bed as he seemed to try to regain control of himself. “I need a moment. I’m too wound up, and that was too damn good.”
Suddenly, her world tipped as he grabbed her and threw her onto her back, switching their positions. He was over her, and before she could protest, he had both her breasts in his hands, kneading the globes. She gasped beneath him as he found the pert buds and pinched them.
She arched up into him. It wasn’t pain. It wasn’t. Pain didn’t feel good. What that was, that stinging sensation, was something new. Something wonderful.
“Sweet girl…perfect girl…” His mouth took the place of his fingers on one side. She moaned, unable to help herself as he rolled his tongue around the abused flesh, sucking and nibbling on it.
I’m losing my mind. This is what insanity feels like.
This had transcended desire. This had become need. She needed him.
He switched sides, teasing her, slowing down when all she wanted was for him to speed up. She let out a keening whine, shocked at her own response. He chuckled, and catching her bud between his teeth, bit down hard enough that she squirmed.
He began to kiss down her body. “You thought I was good with my hands, hm? You don’t know the beginning of what I can do.”
He spread her legs to nestle between them, and she laid her head back. There was nothing she could hide from him. There was nothing she wanted to hide from him. When he ran that tongue—that impossibly hot tongue—up her core, she nearly unraveled from that alone. She fisted the silk sheets with both hands.
He hummed in approval at her reaction and began to lavish her in his own right. Delving his tongue around her, dipping it into her, flicking over the sensitive bud that sent her twitching beneath him.
He was taking his time. He said he needed a moment, and this was how he wanted to stall. She whimpered, crying out as she squirmed beneath him. He had to pin her with one hand, or