Heat rose up Stella’s neck.
He crossed the room in a few long strides. “You’re really going to pretend that was all the work of the calla root and you feel nothing for me now?”
He yanked the blankets down, his ravenous gaze sliding up her bare legs to the hem of the shirt that skimmed the top of her thighs.
Stella chewed her lip and squeezed her legs together. “I feel nothing.” Her voice was airless.
Teddy cocked his head. “Well, if that’s the case, I’ll leave you to rest instead of finally giving you the relief you begged me for earlier.”
Stella’s mouth dropped open as he turned away and started back toward his chair.
“Wait,” she rasped.
He was back across the room in a second.
Teddy prowled over her, caging her in so that she was staring up into his eyes.
“I’m going to need to hear you say you’re clearheaded,Minyha. You really burned through my self-control earlier, so I need you to say you understand.”
He shifted, and his hardness pressed against her. Stella was suddenly aware of every nerve ending in her body, of the pulsing need that was less of a reaction to an herbal overdose than to the man whose good looks she’d been trying to ignore for the better part of her life.
Up close, it was impossible to overlook how compelling she found Teddy, especially shirtless. He was the exact right combination of handsome and roguish. His nose was straight, but a thin, pale scar on his lower lip and another on the left side of his jaw signaled a history of combat. The brown skin of his chest was muscled and smooth but for a couple of faint scars along his left ribs—his weak side in combat, from what little she’d seen of him fighting.
He leaned closer and his dark hair, normally so perfectly styled, messily fell over his forehead. Dark lash-framed eyes, a deep hazel that lightened to a golden ring around his irises, hooded with lust. The effect was devastating.
The air was tense with possibility. Teddy’s breath ghosted over her lips, smelling faintly of mint from his tea.
“Understand what?—”
He kissed along her jaw and scraped his teeth down her neck. The man literally had his teeth to her throat and all she could do was offer him a better angle.
He yanked on the ties at the top of her shirt, then pulled back to meet her eyes as he unlaced the shirt.
“Understand that if you say yes, I get to do whatever I want. I’ve been crawling out of my skin with anxiety. I have nothing but steam to blow off, and I want to make you scream and come until you cry.”
Stella shivered.
Teddy’s lips tipped into a smirk. “Oh, do you like that,Minyha? When it’s so intense that you cry—so intense you can’t breathe because you need it so badly. So intense it blocks out everything else in the world. Something physical to match up to all those other big feelings.”
Stella was too embarrassed to say that she had no idea that was possible, but he seemed to read it on her face.
Teddy clicked his tongue. “I like you like this. Tied up and helpless to me.Fuck, Stella. There is so much I could teach you.” The hoarse desperation in his voice sent a pleasant shiver through her. “You’re killing me. Say yes.”
“Yes. I’m clear-headed.”
He barely let her finish the word before he kissed her. He tasted like mint and honey, and she’d never tasted anything so perfectly fresh and sweet. Teddy sighed into her mouth and it was as if he’d breathed fire into her. She rolled her hips, grinding against his hardness.
Teddy’s hand instantly moved to pin her in place.
“Slow down. I bet you just need a little more time. A little more patience with yourself.” He brushed his fingers up her right thigh, leaving a trail of goosebumps. “So soft. How do you like to be touched?”
He didn’t wait for her to answer. He brushed his fingertips over her clit. It was so gentle, but it might as well have been a lightning strike. She felt that touch through her whole body.
Teddy did it again with more pressure and she moaned.
He propped himself on one arm so he could study her every reaction. She’d seen this same intensity on his face when he studied an opponent. It was very compelling to be the subject of such focus, butit also frightened her. What would he see when she couldn’t hide anything from him?
It shouldn’t have felt so comfortable to have someone look right through her, and yet it did.
