Though all this does make me wonder where he’s taking me…
I don’t ask. My thoughts have gone wild with nerves and excitement from all the moving bodies, the hot desire that fills the sun-bleached air and calls to my own arousal. The need that Ilryth has been building within me is reaching its peak.
Is he taking me to one of those sheltered alcoves? Is he going to kiss me again? Here? Alone? Will I find out exactly what is underneath that skirt of his? I glance at it from the corner of my eye.
“We can go any time you would like,” he says, pulling me from my thoughts.
My eyes drag up from his skirt, across the divots of his abdomen. There’s a knowing gleam to his stare when my gaze finally lands on his face. I’ve been caught. I give him a somewhat sheepish grin.
“I never said anything about wanting to leave.”
His eyes seem to darken with intensity as he stares at me. Ilryth licks his lips and the movement nearly drives me mad.
“You do know why I brought you all this way, don’t you?” His voice is low, husky.
My focus wanders from him long enough to become vaguely aware of where “here” is. We have found our own sheltered alcove. The walls of roots that surround this secluded place extend into the sea, embracing us and offering much-desired privacy. I’m unable to form words for a moment, but then collect myself.
“I think I do,” I whisper in reply.
“We don’t have to,” he says.
“Weshouldn’t,” I correct. But I’m resting my hands on his hips and leaning into him. “But I want to. Do you?”
“More than anything.”
The words are a spark—lightning in the dark—arcing across the waters we’ve made between us. Jolting us into movement. His hands are in my hair. My back crashes against a root. He has me pinned and never have I been so delighted to be immobile.
I open my mouth for him and his tongue is there. Ready. Eager. It slides against mine and explores. I tilt my head back to give him better access. Ilryth knows what I want—what Ineed. His hand is at my chest, pulling at the ribbon of the vest Lucia found for me. I feel it ease around me and yet it is still too constricting. Just the knowledge that soon it will be off and soon I will be exposed to his fingers makes any fabric feel as though it’s constricting me to the point of breathlessness.
Ilryth does not allow me to suffer long. He leans forward, tipping up my chin as he takes the ribbons in his fist. With one confident movement he pulls. My back arches, arms back, to accommodate the removal. I am left gasping.
He pauses, but his expression doesn’t seem hesitant or unsure. If anything, it looks as if he is savoring this moment. He looks at me as though I am a work of art that he has been waiting to bear witness to for his whole life.
It is possible that we have been waiting for this very moment, each in our own space and time. For five years, our souls have been bound together in an unconscious duet. Our movements were in tandem, even worlds apart. Every action, every decision and deed has led us to this very point—the moment where we will come together. We are aware of each other on a level that is innate, that transcends logic.
Even though our better senses are screaming that our actions are wrong, our souls remain assured. We exist only in this glorious here and now, casting off shame and doubt. This moment might well be—probably will be—the only one we ever have.
Ilryth moves for me again. As his fingers slip into my hair, his lips part slightly and his jaw relaxes, but his brow furrows almost as if he’s in pain.
“What is it?” I am afraid of what he might say. If there is some flaw that he finally sees upon me. Something I always knew was there but tried to hide from him because I so desperately wanted him to see me as enough.
Ilryth shakes his head and it is as though he read my mind. “You areperfection. You are as radiant as Lady Lellia herself.”
It is possible that our duet is clouding his judgment, but I don’t question him. I don’t want to argue. So I take his praise with a warm and ready heart.
“You are equally so,” I reply. “From the moment I first laid eyes on you, I thought you were magnificent.”
The compliment seems to catch him off guard. The first time he averts his eyes from my body is not out of disapproval, as I might have once expected, but, it would seem, embarrassment. I press my hand against his chest, leaning away from the root and looking up at him through my lashes.
“You arestunning,” I emphasize again. How a man as fine as Ilryth might think himself otherwise is lost on me, but I will say it as often as he needs to hear it. “And I want you to touch me and hold me until I lose all sense of self. Until the world drifts away and all my worries and pains with it.”
I want to feel while I’m still alive. If only just one more time…
“I think I will be able to accommodate your request,” he says, pressing his hands against my hips and sliding them upward, gliding over my breasts. I let out a gasp. My eyes close and I bite my lower lip, savoring the feeling. He continues moving up, tracing the markings on my chest, shoulders, and arms, down to my hands.
I am your canvas, I want to say.Make me.
Wordlessly, he leads me toward the water’s edge, guiding me down as he sits. My knees frame his hips as I straddle him, grabbing his shoulders as he kneads my thighs and ass. We kiss well past the point that I would think I would have grown tired of kissing. And yet I cannot bear the thought of stopping. I am consumed by a need for more, more sensation, more of this feeling that pulses through me like a fever—like salvation.
