that some part of that anger is because I now have to ask this question: “Was it him you were thinking of when you touched yourself?”
Her gaze darts back up to meet mine. Her face, paler after my display of ire, flushes all over again. Her answer slips out so soft it’s barely a murmur. “No. I was thinking about you.”
The rest of my fury crumbles away under a wave of triumph, more than I’d have expected to feel over one tiny human girl. No, not a girl, not really. She’s a woman coming into her own, bit by careful bit now that she has the room to find herself—and this woman wants me, with every beat of her racing pulse.
She still carries so many wounds, old and more recent. There’s still so much she hasn’t yet experienced. The passion I’m capable of might scare her as much as my anger did. But I can make her mine as much as anyone should while she’s in this state.
I let go of her arm, unable to tear my gaze from her bright green eyes. “Show me.”
She blinks. “What?”
I tip my head toward her body, desire roughening my tone. “Show me how you would pleasure yourself.”
Her lips part, and for a second I think she’ll refuse in embarrassment. Then, ever so slowly, she tucks her hand back under the sheet. From the corner of my eye, I track its movement down her torso, but my gaze stays fixed on her face. She stares right back at me, clearly still nervous, but with a gleam of excitement as well.
I can mark the exact moment she finds the perfect spot between her legs. Her eyelashes quiver, and she sucks in her breath with a little hitch. Her head pushes farther into the pillow instinctively.
My renewed erection strains against my drawers, but this is for her, not for me. This is to give her a taste of the reality of whatever she’s imagining, of what she pictured happening last night.
All the same, I intend to relish every moment.
I bend over and brush my lips to her soft cheek. The essence of her, that wild sap-sweet smell, floods my nose, enflaming my hunger. I kiss a gentle path from her cheek to the crook of her jaw, with the slightest nibble of the tender skin there.
Talia arches farther back with a gasp that’s almost a whimper. I tease my mouth down the side of her neck, tasting her with a swipe of my tongue. Her breath breaks into shaky little pants that make me want to unleash my desire and devour her like a beast.
No. She is mine, and I’ll treat her like the precious being she is.
As I continue to attend to her neck, I glide my hand over the silky fabric of her nightgown to cup her breast. My fingers trace a lazy circle around the small mound. She trembles at my touch, her hips shifting needily beneath the sheet. More of her delectable musk laces the air.
When I skate my thumb over her nipple, I earn my first full moan. She turns her head toward me, seeking me out. No force in the lands could stop me from claiming her lips.
I kiss her deeply, reveling in the tart sweetness of her mouth, in the invigorating sounds that course from her mouth into mine as my thumb urges her nipple into a stiffened peak. Skies above, there’s so much I want to teach her about the pleasures her body is capable of.
I drop my mouth to her collarbone, slicking my tongue across the delicate ridge and grazing my fingers over her chest to her untended breast. Her hips are rolling now as if grappling with the hand between her thighs.
“Take yourself all the way,” I say against her skin. “Find your pinnacle, Talia.”
Her groan sends a violent throbbing through my rigid cock. “I—I can’t seem to get there.”
Oh, my lovely innocent. I nibble my way along the edge of her scarred shoulder, back up her neck, until I reach her earlobe. “Are you aching to be filled? Dip those eager fingers right into your slit.”
A gasp that’s almost startled leaves her lips, but I can tell from the motion of her arm that she’s following my command. Her eyes roll up, a strangled sound following them. “Oh.”
“That’s right. Give yourself over to it.”
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a vision quite as erotic as this nearly untouched woman chasing her release. The flush in