Something flickered in her eyes. “This is really it, then? After I go back, I’ll never see any of you again?”
A complicated question. “Nothing is impossible. You could always make another bridge. But that defeats the purpose of you leaving, doesn’t it?”
She nodded, those soft lips dropping into a frown, and I couldn’t stop myself from tilting her chin up a little further and bringing my lips close to her ear.
“Maybe you could come back for an hour or two,” I murmured. “When things are a little calmer.”
Her skin heated under my touch. “Just an hour? That’s all you need?”
Hot desire coursed through me at her teasing tone. I pulled back, looking down into her eyes.
“A night,” I told her. “Come back for a night, and I’ll show you what you’ve been missing all your life.”
Her breath caught, her pupils dilating before my eyes.
Or,” I said, leaning closer, “You could bring me there. And I could have you in your own bed, without my brothers or the Circle to interrupt us.” My thumb slid along her bottom lip. “I have every intention of finishing what we started in that alley. And teaching you how to return the favor.”
Her cheeks deepened to a deep pink the same color as her tongue. “I know how to return the favor.”
“Mm, do you?”
In response, she flicked her tongue against the tip of my thumb.
Another surge of yearning burned through me, and I pulled my thumb away and immediately replaced it with my lips.
This wasn’t what I’d intended to do. I’d only wanted to tease her a little, to put her at ease, to momentarily quiet the voice in my mind. And yet here I was, pushing her back against the wall, my hands sliding up her sides.
She didn’t stop me. In fact, she wrapped her arms around my neck, her mouth falling open beneath mine, her tongue soft and pliant against the touch of my own. We had little enough time, but there was time enough to devour her, to release more of that hot, sweet desire she had coiled up so tight inside of her. Time enough, if I chose, to pull her skirts up around her waist, to wrap her legs around me, to slide into her and take her right against this wall.
Normally I’d savor it a little more. Tease it out of her. Taunt and lick and nibble until she was begging for me to touch her, taste her, rut myself deep inside her.
But not tonight. Tonight it had to be quick, and there was enough of that unspent desire within me as well that I would have little trouble keeping things hurried and urgent. There was no madness in this moment, no ache inside me, only pure desire. Pure truth.
I grabbed her skirt, pulling it up her thighs as my mouth tore across her jaw, her cheeks. I had the fabric bunched up around her thighs before my lips met a wet, salty tear.
I paused, lifting my head.
Another tear spilled down her flushed cheek, and when she blinked up at me, more shone in her lashes. She was visibly shaking again.
“It’s nothing,” she said before I could ask her what was wrong. “I just… I know this is the end. Of…whatever this is.” She gave a half smile, and another tear spilled over and trailed down her face. “I know I have to go. I know it’s the best thing. The right thing. But…I’ll miss this. All of this. I wish I didn’t have to say goodbye so soon.”
I reached up and brushed away the last tear with the back of my finger.
“You don’t have to stop,” she said softly. “I don’twantyou to stop. I want a few more moments of…of just this. Of letting go of everything but pleasure.” Her fingers twisted through my hair, gripping tight as if I were her anchor against everything coursing through her right now. “Please, give me this before I have to go.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. Her words were the plain truth, echoed in her eyes and in her touch. And I was too hungry, too desperate, to refuse her.
My mouth captured hers again, and I pulled up her skirt once more, pushing her hips back against the wall. My hand slipped between her legs, and she gasped against my lips as my finger slid against her.
My cock strained against my pants when I felt how slick she was already. How her body quivered against my touch. I was already imagining how tight she’d be, how I’d be the first man to learn what sounds she made when she was completely full.
But her body had to be made ready first. As much as I wanted to sink myself deep into her, with no more delays, I wanted her to enjoy this, too.
I tore my lips away from hers, then dropped down to my knees in front of her. She only needed the slightest nudge from me to spread her hips wider, and then my face was there. I kissed my way up her thigh before slipping my tongue between her legs.
She whimpered, her grip tightening on my hair. And I wasted no time, sliding my tongue across the bundle of nerves at her apex before delving past that, tasting her core.
She was already shaking even before my tongue was inside her. And her whimpers turned into breathless gasps, then soft moans as I licked and stroked and teased her.
