He closed his eyes with a snort of laughter and grew heavier against me, more relaxed. "Youthful vigor, perhaps? It's… There's not a lot of comparison to offer, truth be told." He twisted onto his side, propping his head in his left hand, leaving his right to trace patterns on my skin, between my breasts, down my ribs, and over my hip, then back again.
If I was understanding him correctly, his claim was unreasonably attractive to me. "And this…comparisonis where you learned to…?" I trailed off, finishing the thought by simply pressing two fingers to his mouth. His cheeks darkened, but his eyes crinkled with more laughter.
"You liked it?"
I huffed and raised my gaze above his head. "Obviously," I snapped. My body was still charged with pleasure.
Torion just sighed and nuzzled against my chin. "I'm glad. It's all I've been able to think of for days. You tasted better than I imagined. And how wet you get? I?—"
I jammed my elbow into his side before he could use that wicked mouth to talk me into wanting him again. Torion grunted, but the damn man was still smiling. "You didn't answer my question," I said.
He frowned for a moment, looking away. He'd genuinely grown distracted thinking about what we'd done, and I found it unreasonably charming, flattering even. "Oh, where I learned—? Yes, I suppose so," he said.
"You suppose?" I pressed.
He looked a little sheepish as he shrugged. "It was presented as a means of readying a woman, a courtesy to help ease the start."
"Readying?" I asked, frowning.
Torion stared at me, and I tried not to fidget in the silence. He cleared his throat. "Making her wet, eager, needful. So she might welcome a man more comfortably," he said, watching me for a beat and then continuing. "I was young and impatient at the time. I hadn't considered its potential as a…full and pleasurable course on its own, if you will," he said, grinning once more, and then waggling his brows. "One I would want increasingly more helpings of after every sample."
What a fool,I thought, but I wasn't sure if I meant his antics or the eager little leap in my chest at his teasing. I rolled my eyes just to look away from him and slapped my hand over his mouth.
"Enough," I said, and his laugh vibrated warmly against my palm, running down my arm and into my core. I pulled my hand back roughly and turned to my side away from him. "Who was she?"
Torion stilled and then settled close against my back, his legs curling into mine, an arm over my waist cuddling into my chest in order to draw me closer to his. I couldn't fight him, I told myself. I was too tired, too limp from so much pleasure. And he was so warm.
I must simply…accept how good it felt to be held once more. Acceptance was fine.
"You really want to know?" Torion asked.
I nodded. It would be good to imagine him with another woman. It would cut these little tendrils of feeling that the intimacy we'd shared had allowed to take root.
"She was…" He let out a rough sigh that ruffled my hair. "She was an omega, a beta's omega."
I stiffened, but Torion didn't release me, simply adjusted me in his arms, combing my hair back from my cheek so I could see him out of the corner of my eye.
"My father took me on one of his tours when I was nearing my majority. I wasn't supposed to think of usurping him as alpha, and we never spoke of it, but I'm sure he expected my ambition, so this was a way of teaching me something about the duty. We stayed at one of the lord's estates for several days, negotiating I don't remember what. The lord was quite old, he's since passed. His omega was still young, a few years older than me, but?—"
"How old were you?" I asked tartly, fisting my hands in the sheets as I twisted to get a better look at him.
"Sixteen," he said, and the word struck me hard. I turned back to face the wall, found his arm against my middle and held it tight in my grip. "I was an idiot too. It wasn't that women hadn't started turning my head yet, but I'd no notion I was being seduced. She had to appear in the bedroom one night before I realized why she was being so solicitous."
I ground my teeth. Solicitous indeed.
"If I'd been a few years older, even untried, I would've had the sense not to let it happen. It was just the one night, but…I could've caused a world of trouble for my father, for that woman?—"
"She'd be perfectly responsible for her own trouble!" I snapped, finding myself suddenly sitting up and facing him once more. "I suppose she wanted you to claim her?"
His smile was wry as he shook his head. "I don't think so. I've not sought her out to ask her. She left Grave Hills after the beta passed. I imagine she was just being selfish, taking something for herself. He wasn't a pleasant man."
I chewed the inside of my cheek as I stared down at Torion. He was so beautiful. He'd probably been charming and silly andgloriously good looking at that age—and so, so young. I could not forgive this omega, whoever she was. Just like I couldn't forgive Malcolm for claiming me when I was that young, or my father for letting it happen.
Torion reached up and touched my cheek, the one I was abusing, drawing me back to the present. He was lazing against the bed, his wings stretched out to hang over the edge, body shamelessly on display for my gaze.
"You enjoyed yourself?" I asked, arching a brow.
He laughed. "It was my first time with a woman. Yes, I enjoyed myself. Embarrassingly so. Thankfully, we left the estate early the next morning before I could've given myself away to the old man. My father, however, scented my folly immediately. Gave me the ear scorching lecture of a lifetime. Scared me soft for a few years."
