"I don’t believe you. You were jerking off in the bushes like some creeper."
This time, her own laughter joined his as his shoulders shook, and that curious warmth curled through her once more. "I wasn’t! I swear!I barely slowed down, just enough to see you taking control, making those orcs do what you wanted...back arched, that confident smile . . .butI’d be lying if I said that’s not a vision I’ve revisited many times since then, Nanaya. "
The notion of him pleasuring himself to thoughts of her being taken on her knees was very appealing, she decided, but still...she was slightly embarrassed that he’d seen her that way, had seen her been so thoroughly used. She suddenly had the desire to pick a fight with him, wanted to raise her voice and have him do the same, wanted to feel her face flame and her pulse race. A shouting match to whet the appetite...then rip his clothes off right here.
"What does that mean? I did tell you my name, didn’t I?"
His laugh was a deep rasp, a steel guitar pick, scraping over stone, and she shifted impatiently in her seat. Ainsley leaned forward, propping a leather-clad elbow on the table, tightening the space between them. She watched the chain attached to the piercings in his ear swing as he lowered his head conspiratorially.
"Nanaya was an ancient goddess," he explained with an arched eyebrow, "of sexuality and pleasure and war. She was worshiped under many names . . . Inanna, Ishtar, Tašmetu . . . I thought it was a fitting sobriquet. That’s what I’ve been calling you in my head all this time." He paused, tipping back the remains of his glass before re-fixing her with a heavy, hooded look that caused a tingle between her thighs when she squeezed them. "Her followers celebrated with ritual sex for days and days, a bacchanal at her temple, that she would bless them with pleasure and fertility."
Ris leaned forward on her own elbows, closing the distance from him across the table. "And what does that make you? High priest? Acolyte? Creeper in the bushes?"
"Devotee?" Heat pooled low in her belly, a quiver of excitement ran down her spine and rippled in her blood, igniting the tingle between her thighs to a bright spark of need as Ainsley leaned further in, close enough to kiss her, if she only inclined her mouth. "A worshiper, prostrate before your altar. You know, you never answered the question."
"You’ve asked me about two hundred questions already. Which one did I miss?"
He smiled with his whole face, she thought, watching his eyes brighten and crinkle, his nose scrunching slightly as his mouth split. She’d always heard the expression ‘a sparkling smile,’ but she’d never understood what it meant, not truly, she realized then. It had nothing to do with attractiveness or intelligence, both of which he had in spades. It was an inner warmth, Ris decided, one that radiated out of the person possessing it, and he shone as warm and bright as the sun.
"What’s your cost of entry, Nanaya?"
The whole world seemed to slow, and the only thing that existed was the closeness of his mouth, the twinkle lights reflected in his shining eyes, and the certainty that she was standing at the precipice of change, the opportunity to pull herself from the grasping pit of inertia which had mired her, all she had to do was take the step . . .
"I’m not looking for a serious, monogamous relationship. I don’t want kids and I don’t want a husband. I just want someone to have fun with, without all the pressure of what’s supposed to come next."
She tilted her head, able to feel the heat of him nearing her lips, her stomach clenching in anticipation . . . when the moment was broken abruptly, the lights above them flickering out. Ris jumped at the sudden darkness, as the light in the dining room was also extinguished.
"Ains, I still need to make my kid’s lunches and do laundry. Are you planning on observing our business hours at any point tonight?" The willowy, beautiful moth leaned in the doorway, her arms crossed resolutely in front of her.
"You know, Tate needs to leave you in charge more often, Cym. You're a natural leader. A+ focus on customer experience."
The lovely moth scowled as Ainsley rose, giving Ris a conspiratorial wink as he did so. "Yeah well, you’re not a customer. You tricked me into giving you free champagne and you’re preventing us from going home. No!" she cried, blocking the door when Ainsley scooped up the empty bottle and glasses. "You can’t come through this way, I finally got the floor perfect. You know he’s probably going to pop in at the crack of dawn just to check up on me. Just leave it on the table and go out the gate."
Once more, Ris found herself easily scooped up by the tall orc, as Ainsley stepped over the black spikes of the terrace fence. He carried her that way until they’d reached the intersection, and she tightened her arms around his neck before he had a chance to set her down. It was easy to reach his mouth, easy to kiss him the way she’d wanted to at the table, and so she did, aloft in his arms on the empty, darkened street corner. His breath caught against her mouth, groaning as she nipped his lower lip with her teeth, sliding her tongue against his slowly.
"Where to, Nanaya?" His voice was slightly breathless as the kiss broke off, his eyes crinkled with mischief and desire. She released her grip on his neck so that he was able to lower her to the ground. He was going to need his energy, she reckoned.Time to order off the menu.
"To the resort hotel."
♥ ♥ ♥
The journey to theresort from the little downtown was a fast flight, full of laughter and groping kisses in the dark, until they burst into her rented room. If she’d thought the length of time they’d spent talking on the bistro’s terrace was indicative of what they’d do once they arrived at her bedside, she would have been disappointed. Her jacket was dropped in a heap, and Ainsley had wasted no time before slowly peeling her tank up her body, his hot tongue licking across her collarbone and down the valley between her small, firm breasts. His leather jacket joined hers on the floor, once her skirt had been eased down her hips, and she’d paused undressing him, taking a moment to enjoy the slow glide of her palms across his leanly muscled chest. It was completely different than any other experience she’d had, here at the resort, with any other orc she’d encountered. Ris considered, as he caught her wrists, meeting her mouth with his own once more before quickly reversing their positions, laying her out on the bed and dropping to his knees before her, that perhaps he was right, and she’d been the one who was wrong all this time. They might have all been cruising for the same thing, but maybe they weren’t all the same.
"A disciple at your altar, Nanaya," he murmured into the skin behind her knee, kissing his way up her leg, grazing her with his teeth.
The smooth hotel coverlet bunched in her fists as he reached the juncture of her spread-open thighs, licking a broad stripe over her hot flesh. If she had thought it was going to be a fast prelude before he climbed over her, intent on his own pleasure, she would have been wrong. Ainsley seemed intent on showing her his devotion, groaning against her heat as he licked, slipping his tongue inside her before dragging the moisture up her flesh, pausing to suck and nibble at her aching clit. He teased her relentlessly, changing his pattern, never staying in one spot for long, caressing with a tantalizing fingertip until she was lifting her hips, attempting to buck against his face.
"I-I don’t know if I’m going to be a benevolent goddess if you keep this up," she panted, gasping when his deep chuckle vibrated against her.
"Your namesake is not, so that tracks. It’s the journey, not the destination, laughing girl."
She was panting, crying out in pleasure and frustration every time he suckled at her clit before pulling away, knew that she was drenching his face, simultaneously wanting him to continue this game indefinitely, and hurry up and give her what she wanted. The great spikes of his hair were handy to grab onto, she decided, directing his head and holding him in place as her hips bucked beneath his attentive tongue, daring him to pull away. When he finally settled into a pattern, licking her steadily, it was an embarrassingly short amount of time before she reached her peak. She could feel his deep chuckle as she came against his tongue, shuddering as he continued to lap at her pulsing flesh. When the pressure at her clit became too much, she stilled him with a hand to the side of his shaved head. He pulled back immediately, transferring his attention to her quivering thighs, kissing up her hip, over her stomach, crawling up the bed until he met her mouth.
Curling his fingers with hers, he caged himself around her, as he’d done at the bar. Ris was able to taste herself on his mouth as he kissed her, deep and slow, kissingher, not just just the next mouth in line. It seemed, she thought, almost impossible that she was in the same place. He rolled to his back with a laugh when she pushed him, folding his hands behind his head, letting her struggle with removing his tight, black jeans. Peeling the uncooperative material down his endlessly long legs at last, she crawled back onto the bed with a devilish smile, pulling back the waistband of his boxer briefs, releasing his swollen cock with a bounce. A deeper shade than his fern green skin, thick with a slight curve, he seemed completely at ease with her eyeing his cock as if it were a tasty meal. The wrinkled skin of his scrotum was yet a darker shade of green, the heavy balls it held hanging like a piece of juicy fruit. He was just as well-endowed as his fellows at the tiki bar from the previous evening, and a million times more interesting than any date she’d recently been on.Well hung and a better conversationalist, she thought, pulling back his foreskin to lick a broad stripe over his shiny head; circling with her tongue once, twice, closing her lips around it on the third, hearing his groan.
"I take it back. She’s a benevolent goddess," he grunted when she sucked him deeply, relaxing her throat as best she could until she gagged. He flipped them deftly when she’d finally released him with a pop, laughing again when she’d tugged her purse strap, still sitting on the edge of the bed, spilling out the orc-sized condoms across the mattress. "Altar tools," he grinned down, raising her ankles to his shoulders.
She wanted him closer than he was, wanted to be able to feel his heat and grip his arms for leverage, but he towered over her, a million miles in the air, leaving her gasping as he rubbed himself against her, coating himself in her slick, teasing her once more. When he finally pushed his cock into her, she cried out in relief, exasperated by his maddeningly slow pace.
