“Fuck.Fuck.”Taevas wiped at his mouth. His gaze roamed her exposed skin and over the layers of her frothy robe, which spilled out around her waist and across her thighs. His eyes weren’t the sultry half-mast she’d read about in books, but almost too wide, like he was trying to take everything in at once and afraid that a single blink would dispel the image.
It was with the utmost delicacy that he finished unwrapping her. Taevas picked at the edges of her robe, touching as little as possible as he pulled it completely apart. She stopped breathing when he took a measured step back.
This, she realized, was what it was to beadmired.
Taevas stood with his palms braced on the back of his head, his expression the picture of sheer disbelief as he looked and looked andlooked.For someone so used to hiding, to wishing not to be seen, it should’ve been uncomfortable. But Alashiya was shocked to discover a wild, fiery thrill at his silent observation.
She liked it. She liked ita lot.
Alashiya watched his face contort into a visage of agony when she slowly raised one leg and rested her heel on the edge of the counter. The warm air kissed the slick flesh between her legs. The feeling of exposure, the possibility that this might be a humiliating failure of seduction, ratcheted up her lust until the ache grew to a nearly unbearable level.
“Naine,”he growled at last, “I think I’ve already died.”
Her gaze dipped. It fell down the slabs of strong flesh that made up his chest and stomach and settled on the straining shape of his cock tenting the thin material of his pants. A shiver of trepidation ran through her. Perhaps she wasn’t ready forthatyet, but the thought of it, of him wanting her so badly with just a few touches and a look… Alashiya took another risk.
The dragon’s gaze somehow managed to grow wilder when hetracked the progress of her right hand over the softness of her stomach to the dark curls of her mons.
He made a low moaning sound and lurched forward until he stood between her legs once more. She had no idea what compelled her to do it. The gods knew her last fumbling attempts at intimacy nearly a century prior hadn’t exactly primed her for boldness. And yet she found herself placing her foot above his pounding heart, stopping him abruptly when he reached for her.
They both stared at each other in surprise. Taevas didn’t move. His normally smooth voice had gone rough as sandpaper when he said,“Naine?”
Praying she wasn’t making a massive fool of herself, Alashiya swallowed hard. “I like it when you watch me.”
Taevas’s mouth snapped shut. A muffled sound, a little bit like the whistle she’d heard that first night in the barn, came from somewhere deep in his throat. His attention zoomed back to her right hand, which had begun to slowly part her slick, swollen cunt.
“Can I touch you?” There was an edge of desperation in his voice now, but no frustration, no pushiness. Hewantedto touch her, had no problem expressing just how much he wanted that, but he would only do so if she agreed to it.
He was always so bossy, but now… Now he seemed ready to beg.
A heady sense of power overcame her. She’d dared to command a dragon, alord,and now he askedherfor permission.
“You can touch my legs,” she allowed, following the familiar path over skin that begged to be stroked. Alashiya was an old-hat at self-pleasure, but she didn’t think any experience going forward would compare to how it felt to swirl her fingers under Taevas’s ravenous gaze.
One of his hands instantly banded around the delicate bones of her ankle, while the other pressed into the plush skin of her thigh.
“Let me help,” he breathed, voice ragged, as he stepped closer.
Gently, he slung the leg she’d propped against his chest over his elbow. The other he lifted and pushed up slightly, taking her weight off her thigh so it didn’t cut into the counter.
Having him so close, the feeling of his pants brushing her inner thighs, the way his eyes never wavered from where they watched her… She knew how to get herself off quickly, but that wasn’t what she was after. Just to see what he’d do, Alashiya observed him closely as she slid one finger inside her slick cunt.
Taevas had a full-body reaction to the sight. The hard lines of his face went even starker than normal, and he lifted her leg to press an open-mouthed kiss against the smooth skin of her thigh. He left his lips there, moving restlessly, as he stared unblinkingly at the finger that slowly went in and out of her with wet, sloppy sounds.
She slid another finger in to join the first and ground the heel of her palm down, providing just enough friction to ease the ache. His fangs scraped her skin. A shock of pleasure, made sharper by the tiny bite of pain, made her gasp.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he breathed into her damp skin. “A work of art. I want to make you come so bad,naine.I want to show you what it’s like to be worshipped. Let me do it.”
Forcing him to watch was all well and good, but when it came down to it, Alashiya didn’t actually want to do everything herself. She’d had a lifetime of that, after all.
But she wasn’tquitedone yet.
She lifted her chin in the direction of his hips. “I want to see you, too.”
Taevas let out a husky laugh. “Haven’t you already? That’s why you ran, if I recall.”
“Not like this.” She slowed her movements down. Curling her calf over his side, she pulled him in just a little closer. “I want to see what you look like when you’re hard for me,argaman mlk.I… want to see my husband come first.”
All the hard lines of his body stood went taut. “Keep calling me that,naine,and I’ll give you anything you ask of me.”
