My eyes shifted from her to the books, and I could feel myself softening. The books represented more than vessels of knowledge, they meant something to me. For years, they had been my companions, the one place I could escape to.
“If you are afraid of spilling water or dog-earring them, fret not. All the books and materials in this library are enchanted. But please—no open fire.”
She hummed. “That is good to know. Because it means I can dothis.”
And before I could stop her, she grabbed the first pile she got her hands on and pushed it over. The books landed on the floor one after another and with every thud I flinched. Admittedly, the effect probably hadn’t been as great as she had imagined because the floor was carpeted, but my heartskipped a beat nonetheless.
The urge to instantly retrieve the books from the floor was almost unbearable, but I didn’t move and simply stared down at her. She was trying to coax me into showing emotions.
“Why did you do that, wordsmith?” I asked in a measured tone.
Her eyes were sparkling with mischief.
“I can not work like you do, science or not. The books are protected, so I am going to do this my way. If you value my input, let me work in peace.”
Her intention was clear. So far, none of this whole scenario had been her choice. She needed to feel in control, like she wasn’t merely a pawn to be pushed around on our game board.
The tension between us seemed to suck the air out of the room. Sweat was forming on my skin, the paint on my skin feeling unnaturally warm. Her intense gaze bore into me like a dagger ready to pierce my skin.
Truthfully, I didn’t need to even consider her request. I had been ready to grant it the minute she had asked to rearrange the piles. Taunting her had been… fun. I rocked back on my heels and nodded.
And then my newfound bravado around this woman made me do something stupid. Something I could not explain with logic or reason. It was so out of character, that had someone asked me if I could ever see myself do something like that, I would have declared them mad on the spot.
Without saying a single word, and without taking my eyes off her, I slowly dropped to my knees in front of her. Like a sinner, kneeling at the altar of a deity, ready to confess my sins and have her judge me in any way she saw fit.
My head was level with her stomach, but I kept my eyes on hers. She sucked in an audible breath and her eyes widened at the sight of me, kneeling at her feet.
From this position it would be so easy to grab her by her waist. To hook one of her legs over my shoulder and push her dress up over her hips. I wanted my hands on her bare ass, and I wanted to breathe in her heated scent. I wanted to get lost in the taste of her to rid myself of this burning desire I had felt from the moment she had walked up to my temple.
Her hips rocked forward slightly, as if my thoughts had pulled her closer, as if our bodies were magnets, gravitating towards each other.
She closed her eyes for the briefest of seconds, then took a step back, putting some much-needed distance between us.
Fuck, I needed to get a grip.
My heart was hammering in my chest, and my dick was so hard, I probably wouldn’t be able to hide it, even under these robes. Clearing my throat, I began gathering the books from the ground. Taking my time, I stacked them into neat piles and rose only when it finally felt safe to stand.
“Very well, wordsmith. Do it your way,” I said with an exaggerated sigh, handing her the last of the books.
For the next couple of hours, I watched her as she skimmed through the papers and started sorting them all over the floor. She wrote little notes of why certain books looked promising, she connected books that seemed to have been written in the same time period and cross-referenced authors andlocations.
In between completely destroying any semblance of order, she told me that she truly had no idea what she was doing, but that she was “following her instincts.” It took every ounce of my self-control not to step in and give her a lecture about bibliographic research and source analysis. She was peculiar in the way she moved through a room. Her eyes darted around, as if mentally cataloging her surroundings. Sometimes she stilled in the middle of a task, the fingers on her hand tapping a silent rhythm and she hummed, only to fall into action again a few seconds later. Was it a ritual? A song she was singing? So much of her was a mystery to me.
Watching her interact with the material itself was even more fascinating. Despite her earlier careless treatment of my most valued books, she was now handling them with respect and something akin to tenderness? Her hands carefully picked up a book, as if she was weighing it in her mind. Sometimes, she closed her eyes for a few seconds before letting her fingers travel the edges of the book in slow deliberate strokes.
Other times, her fingers hovered over the title, or she ran her fingertips over the embossed letters. Her slow, but deliberate movements seemed out of place, considering that we were under immense time pressure, but the way she took in the books mesmerized me. Watching her open a book for the first time was exhilarating, her eyes jumping from line to line, drinking in the information on the first pages.
Her nostrils were flaring as she shuffled through the pages, as if the smell of the books carried meaning. Watching her fingertips trace pictures and letters, only for her to raise them to her mouth and lick them before turning a page had to be the most erotic thing I had ever seen.
Granted, being a virgin, I hadn’t seen much action before, but the way shefeltthe books was turning me into a puddle. Maelis’ thick wavy hair fell into her face as she examined the book on her lap closely and she absentmindedly tucked it behind her ear. The warm light from the nearby orbs exposed her throat and drew my attention to the slow and steady rhythm of her heartbeat. Her tongue darted out in concentration as she turned another page, and all I could think about was what it would feel like to suck her tongue into my mouth, to let my lips glide over her chin and neck, driving her insane with lust only to make her cum on my fingers right here between centuries of knowledge and wisdom.
My dick grew hard and painfully strained against my briefs. I had undergone days of torturous abstinence since she had arrived at my temple, not allowing myself to find release when she was the only thing on my mind. But obviously my strategy wasn’t working. Back to desperately fucking my hand in the bath it was.
As if Caelan knew I needed the save, he suddenly appeared. His eyes took in the mess of books and letters and ledgers on the floor and he visibly recoiled.
“Dear Fates, what happened here?” he asked, his voice getting higher with every syllable.
I snorted and closed the book I had been pretending to read while I was watching her.
