Alexander was still breathless when Theodora pulled away. He had tasted her, and he needed more but that was not part of the plan. He got up and admired her flushed body.
She is perfect.
“How do you feel?” he asked her own question.
Her lips were red and swollen from biting them, her hair slightly mussed, and her breath uneven. She looked at him as though she was not sure what had just happened, or what it meant, and he felt the same. He had never wanted anyone the way he wanted her.
“It felt…otherworldly. I…I cannot think too clearly now but how did it feel for you? Surely,thatdid not satisfy you?” she cockedher head and she looked even more stunning as her curls fell around her.
“That alone would satisfy a real man, Theo.” He looked at her so intensely and felt his body begin to react again.
“But how would you be satisfied when I have done nothing to return the favor?” she was genuinely curious.
Alexander chuckled as he admired her innocence. “Theo, I do not have to sleep with you to be satisfied.”
She frowned. “But is that not what love is? Putting someone’s needs, or in this case, someone’s pleasure above yours?”
“You do not need to love someone in order to pleasure them.” His response felt cold and he watched Theodora closely as she processed this answer.
“I—should go,” she eventually whispered. Her body trembled as she stood up and looked around for her garments.
Alexander reached for her instinctively. “You should stay for dinner.”
Her eyes widened as she covered her body with her dress. It was not fear he detected, but a sense of surprise at his request. For a moment, he thought she might say yes. He could almost see it: Theodora sitting across from him at the long dining table,candlelight catching in her hair, and her lips still swollen from their kissing.
It will be a welcome distraction.
But she shook her head.
“I cannot,” she said, dressing with shaking hands. “I… I need to think.”
He swallowed as dread slowly filled him. He feared she might have already started regretting their time together, and Alex had never questioned his…expertise before.
“Theo—”
“I will see you tomorrow,” she said quickly, as though afraid he would stop her. “I will bring the cream for your ribs.”
Alex laughed. “You are more worried about that?”
“It is not a laughing matter, Alex.”
He cocked his head at her as she dressed herself clumsily.
“What is wrong? Did you not enjoy our time together?” he asked her as he slipped his shirt back on and did up the buttons.
Theo looked at his naked torso again, and he smirked.
“It is not that I did not enjoy it. Have you forgotten that this is merely an experiment? Therefore…” She paused and slipped her arms through the sleeves of her gown. “I have to go home and write my findings.”
Alex nodded but before he could say another word, she slipped past him and stopped at the library door.
“I will come by tomorrow,” she said before closing the door behind herself.
The silence that followed was deafening. Alexander stood there for a long moment, staring at the door she had disappeared through, feeling as though she had taken the air with her. His body still ached for her. His mind still reeled from the way she had touched him, kissed him, and moaned his name like a secret she had been holding for far too long.
He shook his head and laughed.
He had asked a woman to stay for the first time in his life, and she ran away instead.
