Captive of Wolves (Bound to the Fae #1) - Eva Chase Page 0,78
her cheeks is only delight now, no embarrassment, and her irises flare so brilliantly they put emeralds to shame. I ease down her body to draw one of those pert nipples into my mouth through her nightgown. A cry shudders out of her.
“I still can’t— Would you help me?”
Her voice is so fraught with need there’s no way I could deny her request, even if I wanted to. I trail my hand down her arm to where her own hand is pressed tight to her pussy, the heel of it by her clit and two of her fingers curled inside her channel. Watching her expression, I apply a hint of pressure over her clit, and then a little more, my thumb stroking over the inside of her thigh where the slickness of her arousal has spread.
That small assistance is all it takes to carry her over. Talia closes her eyes and opens her mouth. With a choked cry, her head jerks back against the pillow. Her whole body quakes against mine with the force of her orgasm.
As her shudders subside, her hand goes slack beneath mine. I raise my arm to collect her against me, wanting her to be sure of me in the aftermath as well as in the act itself. She ducks her head under my chin. In her silence, her fingers drift over the collar of my dressing gown.
“This isn’t why—” she starts, and hesitates. “I haven’t done anything for you.”
“Don’t worry yourself about that,” I say, ignoring the ache in my groin. “I got plenty of enjoyment out of this interlude.” Once she’s left, another shower will definitely be in order.
Talia looks up and scoots against me to press her lips to mine. Her kiss is timid but so fond it leaves an ache not in my cock but somewhere in the vicinity of my heart. I brush my fingers over her hair and kiss her back with equal ardor.
I told her last night that nothing we did in this bed would affect her fate, but maybe I was lying to both myself and her. After this intimacy, after the trust she’s shown me, the thought of handing her over to the arch-lords brings a growl into my throat.
And it’s not even the greatest trust she’s offered. I kiss her on the forehead next, and then say, “You stayed.”
“I told you, I felt safer here than in my—”
“No, I mean the night before. After Kellan attacked you. You meant to leave, did you not?”
Talia’s body tenses, but she doesn’t push away. “I did. I thought that would be the safest thing—getting back home.”
“But you changed your mind.”
“When—when I saw how far you’d go to protect me… I don’t know if there’s anyone else in this world or the one I came from who’d care that much what happens to me. My real family is gone.” She lapses into a momentary silence. “I know your people need me and the cure that comes from my blood. I know you can’t promise anything. But at least here, I know where I stand.”
I wouldn’t have thought I could admire her resilience more than I already did, but she’s proven me wrong again. I pull her a little closer against me in anticipation of letting her go. “I’ll endeavor to ensure that’s always true.”
By my life, let me always be capable of that, regardless of what may come.
23
Talia
When I make it to the kitchen, changed from my nightie into jeans and a tee and with my hair combed into as neat a state as the waves will allow, at least half an hour has passed since I left Sylas’s bed. Tingles still race across my skin at unexpected moments, with the graze of my shirt’s fabric or the brush of my fingertips as I tuck an errant pink strand behind my ear.
Being with him was so exhilarating that I want to hole up with him in his bedroom and never leave, and that desire somehow makes the whole thing frightening at the same time. What I did with him and the affection he showed me hasn’t really changed anything—about my status, anyway. My situation here is just as precarious.
But at least, if the days ahead are only one last short taste of freedom, I’ve experienced a lot more passion than I had before I came here. I’ve had more of a life.
August is already in the kitchen, grabbing baking dishes off the overhead racks. When he sees me, he shoots