I haven’t experienced anything like this ever.
The years alone, waiting, what were they for? I needed a woman under me.
I needed Arlet.
“It’s like you’ve been waiting for me to do that since we met,” I say into her throat. “You're soft and slick for me, Firelocks. Like a rainstorm beating on stone. Your body tells me stories your mouth would never dare utter.”
She pants.
“Is this enough showing?” I nip at her neck, almost without thinking.
“Vann.” Hesitation lingers in the last bits of her voice.
“Yes…?” I coax, still not thinking as I lavish wet kisses over her shoulder, down her sternum and up to a breast.
She takes a deep breath and her soft body goes rigid. I pull back immediately.
Her eyes glisten as she looks up at me. Her cheeks are flushed, and there is something akin to regret in her eyes.
And then tears fall down her temple.
“Firelocks, why do you cry?”
"Because this might be the first time I've ever felt completely, utterly known by another."
“I see you, and gods, it’s the most breathtaking sight.”
A smile breaks through her tears.
I shift our positions immediately. Propping her up, I reach for the folded nightgown she’s worn the past few nights and begin to slip it on, threading her arms through it.
She lets me do it all, and it fuels this need in my gut—an instinct to care for her, to be the sole person who would be hers.
A darker, more possessive thought creeps in. That all her passion and pleasure would be mine alone. As if I could make up for time lost being angry when we could’ve been this.
I would try.
I curl my body around her. Despite the moment of hesitation before, she pushes into me.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
I press my nose into her hair, loving how it brushes against my chest.
“Tavra sathen ri, fel avel'dras mivara.” I say into her essence, breathing it deep.
Sleepy eyes look up at me. “I’ve given you back a… piece of yourself?”
I smile down at her, throwing a leg over her hips.
“Yes. And now you own it, too.”
Chapter 32
VANN
Ihad fallen asleep almost immediately after Arlet and I finished. But my long-needed rest did not last long.
Arlet thrashes in my arms and I am forced back into consciousness.
