Muscles taut, Vorik threw his head back as he drew closer and closer to his climax. Even though he’d stopped touching her, his arousal excited her. She’d meant to take him like this, take all of him, but he lowered his hands to her head to start rubbing and kneading her scalp, and her own lust flared even greater. She scooted closer as her core tightened, heating with need, and she panted around his shaft. She lowered a hand, slipping herunderwear down and touching herself as he’d started to touch her earlier, wanting to come even as he did. Her plan had been simply to pleasure him, to make him want to stay, but she longed to have him within her. She wanted?—
Vorik looked down at her, their eyes meeting, and she was almost embarrassed to have been caught touching herself as she stroked and sucked him, but his eyes flared with lust and… was that satisfaction? Maybe he wanted his body to arouse her, even as hers aroused him.
He shifted back and lifted her to her feet, almost fierce as he backed her into the wall again and moved her hand away from herself.Hissoon replaced it, strong calloused fingers pushing down her underwear, then sliding into her.
Such pleasure swept through her that she moaned and arched into him, gripping his shoulders.
“We’llbothcome,” Vorik whispered, his steamy gaze holding hers. “Every time.”
He kissed her hard as his hand slid into her, rubbing her swollen center, each brush exquisite. She grasped his shoulder, feeling the need to hold on, but she found his cock again too.
“I need you,” she rasped, gripping his thick length, drawing him toward her.
“Good.” He stroked her, making sure she was ready, but she wasalwaysready for him, and she pushed toward him, wanting him so badly. “Good,” he added in a satisfied growl, his fingers shifting away, making room for his shaft as he lifted her against the wall.
So eager it was almost painful, Syla bucked into him, meeting his first thrust. Theybothgrowled, or maybe she cried out. She was so overcome with need and desire and pleasure as they came together that she was barely aware of her actions, her thoughts, their surroundings. She wrapped her legs around him, pushing off the wall so she could take him deeper and deeper, relishinghow he filled her, the friction wondrous as they came together again and again.
She wanted this—him—every night. Somehow, someway, they had to find a way to be together. For more than a couple of days. She wanted him to be hers always, just as she wanted to be his. Theybelongedtogether.
“Yes!” Vorik cried, as if he were thinking the same thing.
Then they came together, their ecstasy matched perfectly as they exploded into each other. A growl that had turned into a cry might have become a howl. Before him, Syla had known nothing like this, and she couldn’t lose him.
As he poured himself into her and waves of satiating pleasure washed over her, she clung to his shoulders, her legs still wrapped around him, and she buried her face in his neck. He cupped the back of her head, the gentleness in contrast to his fiery thrusts from moments before, and he pulled her from the wall, holding her in his arms. Gentle. Beautiful. Perfect.
“I need you,” she repeated her earlier words, emotion thickening her throat, then added, “to stay.”
Vorik didn’t answer, other than to kiss the side of her face and stroke her head. And she knew he couldn’t answer, couldn’t promise that he wouldn’t leave. But she also knew he’d enjoyed this, and she hoped that it—thatshe—would be enough.
“You said there was a room?” Vorik murmured after a time, the first droplets of rain falling.
Syla laughed. “Yes. Should we visit it?”
“You might enjoy a bed more than a wall.”
“Abrickwall.”
“I was thinking earlier about suggesting the room.” Vorik smoothed her dress, then fastened his trousers, and picked up her underwear and spectacles and handed them to her. “But then you grabbed my penis and all thoughts spilled out of my brain.”
“You did seem to find it stimulating.”
“I findyoustimulating.” Vorik caught her by the hips and kissed her, then surprised her by sweeping her into his arms. “Let’s find that room, shall we?”
“Do you want to be stimulated again tonight?”
“Oh, yes.”
6
Syla wokeup hungry but not wanting to leave Vorik’s arms, especially not when the memory of the conversation he’d had with Wise came to mind. She wondered if he’d felt the hint of distress in her lovemaking the night before, first in the alley and again when they’d snuggled into the bed in a spare room behind the studio. Even as Syla had acknowledged Vorik would likely leave—and rationally, she believed heshouldleave—her body hadn’t wanted to accept that, and she’d been almost frenzied at the thought of losing him. It had probably come across as heated lust and intense frenetic need—something that might have flattered him more than alarmed him—but she’d been keenly aware of her feelings, her desire to be sated but also to satehim. Gloriously. In the back of her mind, she may have believed that if she was good enough, that if she gave him enough wondrous pleasure, he wouldn’t leave.
With his arm snaked around her waist, her back against his chest, and his chin resting on her shoulder, Vorik looked quite content. Syla could almost believe that he would choose to stay. But she knew he felt as loyal to his tribe as she did to herkingdom, and he’d also been raised and trained to do his duty, to help his people.
But, as she gazed at his profile in the light coming in the window—light partially blocked by a red tail dangling from the rooftop—Syla couldn’t help but wish they could be together forever. But Wise had told Vorik he had only three days before that tribe meeting. That wasn’t even enough time for her to get her throne back, was it?
As if aware of her studying him, Vorik opened his eyes.
“I do enjoy waking up to find a beautiful woman gazing at me,” he murmured.
