Showing her into his cabin, Nocren closed the door and leaned against it. Jaw set, he willed himself not to move. Avenor may have been all too eager to benefit from the woman’s reckless actions, but Nocren had a few scruples left.
Calya frowned at him. “What are you doing?”
He had to give her a final out. Even if his more base nature rebelled against the notion, urging him to take her.
“We don’t—” His voice came out hoarse. He cleared his throat. “We don’t have to do this. I just, when I saw Avenor, I… I don’t want you to feel?—”
Calya removed her cloak and tossed it over the foot of his bed. When he didn’t react beyond silence, she rested her ass against the narrow bunk. With slow, deliberate movements, she dragged one boot off. For a moment, Calya held it up, a question and a taunt.
Nocren remained like stone. Unmoving. Definitely, noticeably hard, if the pressure at the front of his trousers was any indication. But he didn’t flinch when Calya let her boot drop to the floor. The second followed. All the while, her eyes never left him. Then she sauntered toward him, swaying slightly with the movement of the ship. In his tiny cabin, it didn’t take long for her to be in front of him again. She reached out, one slim hand trailing over his crossed arms.
“I’m not some naïve debutante. This isn’t my maiden voyage,” she murmured, fingers traveling up to graze his chin. “I can separate business from pleasure. Can you?”
Nocren’s brow twitched. Disgruntlement rose within him at her words.
The corner of her mouth curved, rounding her cheek. “You disapprove?”
He stopped her wandering hand, catching her wrist as she palmed his erection. “Are you always this trusting? You hardly know me.”
An emotion passed over her face, there and gone so fast he couldn’t be sure what he’d seen. If it had even been real. He couldn’t even ask after it, for Calya’s cool fingers pressed against his lips.
“This is just sex. I’m giving you my body for a night, that’s all. Our implied contract doesn’t require trust.”
“Always thinking of business.”
“Always,” Calya agreed. She gave him a frank look. “I didn’t just find that bottle on the ground and drink it on a lark. I know what I’m doing. I wanted this. No sentiment, remember?”
Nocren stared down at her, watching as a shiver ran through her frame. He felt the hairs on her arm stand up, her skin briefly turning to gooseflesh as the full effects of the aphrodisiac hit. The tiny bumps receded, a warm flush spreading across her body in its stead. Her eyes closed in a long, slow blink, and when she finally met his gaze, he could make out his reflection in her blown pupils.
“Have you considered how you might be hindered by your… condition?” Nocren made himself say.
Calya groaned. “I was counting on it, but if your delicate sensibilities aren’t so inclined, I’ll take care of myself.” She made a crude motion with two of her fingers.
When he remained frozen in place, brain and cock screaming contradictions at him, she made an exasperated sound. Turned to retrieve her shed clothes. Prepared to leave.
“Wait.” Eternal Wind damn him for sounding so fucking hoarse.
Calya slowly spun again to face him, head tilting to the side in question.
Nocren reached behind his back, hand fumbling to find the door’s heavy lock. “Last chance, sweetheart. I don’t do one and done. If you stay, you’re locked in here until morning.”
She scoffed, twining her arms around his neck. “You don’t scare me, ranger.”
“I don’t want your fear, Calya.” He threw the deadbolt. “But I will make you scream.”
She smiled hungrily. “Is that a promise? Even with the Kiss in my blood, I won’t be so easily impressed.”
“We’ll see.”
Taking her by the shoulders, Nocren reversed their positions, pressing Calya’s back against the door. He undid the laces at the front of her bodice, carefully drawing the cord through the eyelets. The buttons of her shirt went in equally slow fashion, but evidently, the pace was too lackadaisical for Calya and the enhanced hormones running through her. She shrugged out of her shirt impatiently, dropping it on the floor. She reached for the placket at the front of his trousers, growling when he caught her hands and pinned them above her head.
“Lowe!” she complained.
Nocren tsked at her. A lace-trimmed ivory band covered her breasts, a silver pendant with a wave etched in blue hanging between them on a long chain. He lifted the necklace with one finger. “Pretty, but I wouldn’t have thought it your style.”
“A gift from my sister.”
“On or off?”
