A sob escaped her lips.
Behind her, Ferox stirred. “Velia?” he mumbled. She heard his hands sweeping over the bed as if searching for her. “Velia?” he said again, his voice taking on a more urgent tone.
She found her voice. “I’m here.”
He rose from the bed, a hulking shadow in the dark. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” she said reflexively, but her voice trembled. “No,” she admitted.
His arms found her, clasping her shoulders. A hand slid up to caress her cheek.
She leaned into his touch, closing her eyes. “I keep thinking…about what would have happened if you hadn’t been there. Hadn’t stopped it.”
He was silent for a moment. Then he spoke, his voice low and gravelly. “I would sell my soul to Dis if it would buy you a moment of peace from such thoughts.”
The raw devotion in his voice took her breath away.Dangerous, she chided herself.You’re not supposed to be getting closer to him. Not when he’ll be gone before you know it.
But tonight, she didn’t care if Ferox was leaving in a day or a week or a month. She needed his steady comfort, his unwavering presence.
She wrapped her arms around him, and he returned the embrace, leaning his head down to press against her shoulder. His touch soothed her, erasing the thoughts running rampant through her mind. This was what she needed—a touch that was pleasurable instead of unwanted, someone she could trust with her body and her soul.
“What if there was something else you could do?” she asked. “At not so high a price.”
“Name it.”
She ran her hands over his shoulders, taking comfort in their warm solidity. “I can’t stop thinking about what might have happened. My mind just makes it worse and worse. I’m sure that doesn’t make any sense. I know I should be grateful.”
His fingers trailed over her back. “It doesn’t need to make sense.”
She tilted her head up to look at him, unable to make out much of his face in the midnight gloom. “I need you to make me forget. I want to replace my imaginings about what might have happened with something thatdidhappen. But something good. Something I want. Do you understand?”
He said nothing for a moment. “Are you asking me to lie with you?”
“Yes,” she breathed. She moved backward, drawing him with her, until her back made contact with the wall. “Like this.” It was markedly similar to how she’d been with that man, pressed against a wall, unable to escape.
He hung back, putting a careful distance between them. “You really think that will help? It might distress you.”
“Then we’ll stop.” In the darkness, she found his hands and placed them on her waist. “You said you’d sell your soul to make me feel better,” she murmured. “I’m asking for something far…smaller.” She put a teasing note into her voice as she slid her hand over his decidedlynotsmall member. He stiffened at her touch, even through the fabric of his tunic.
“Velia…” Desire warred with hesitance in his voice.
“It’s not so different from what you seek the night before your fights,” Velia said. “Coupling distracts you, doesn’t it? It soothes you. That’s what I want.”
His touch was the only thing that could wipe her mind clean of what had happened, that could truly bring her back to the here and now.
She hooked her leg around his, pressing their bodies even closer. For a moment, the closeness sent her straight back to the incident that afternoon, the panicked sensation of being pinned and helpless.
Ferox slid his hands up her sides, and the reverence in his touch returned her to the present. He lowered his head to brush her forehead with a kiss. “All right,” he said. “But if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it my way.”
Before she could react, he was on his knees before her, gathering her skirt and lifting the fistfuls of fabric to her waist. “Holdthis.” He grasped her leg and hooked it over his shoulder, opening her to him. Then, his mouth was on her.
“Oh!” Her hands clenched around the bundle of linen as sensation exploded between her legs. She quaked, and his hand found her hip, holding her steady.
He worked her with his mouth, sucking and tonguing and nibbling, until she was panting, writhing between his head and the wall. He slid one finger inside her, then another, and the fullness drove her even higher.
Yes, this was what she needed—a pleasure so strong it chased away every thought, every fear, everything but this present moment.
Ferox released her hip and lowered his hand to his lap. The whispery sound that followed made her realize he was stroking himself, and a shudder ran through her. His groan vibrated against her. The thought of his hand working his cock as he pleasured her with his mouth was too much to bear.
