“I don’t have a refractory period.”
“Then hand me that damn water,” I said, half laughing and half shuddering as I climbed over him to take a sip, and he rubbed his palm more firmly against the front of my trousers.
“You still have all your clothes on.”
I started on my shirt’s few remaining buttons. My hands were shaking.
“Come here,” he said.
I moved up the bed, straddling his hips. He sat up, and the only sound was the guttering of a candle and the softpickas he undressed me one button at a time. When he got to the last one, he pulled the shirt down my arms, tossing it aside without taking his eyes off me.
He traced a lazy finger down the midline of my belly hair, and all the muscles in my stomach jumped.
“You can take off the rest.” He leaned back on his elbows, kicking one leg up. “I’ll watch.”
I was a basket of nervous energy. I got off the bed and kicked off my shoes first. Then one sock at a time. I unbuckled my belt, undid the clasp of my trousers. Kessian’s eyes tracked my movements, his dagger-sharp smile curving the edges of his mouth.
I hurried up because I wanted to kiss that mouth.
I dragged both trousers and pants off in one go, balling them up and tossing them. My cock bobbed free, still heavy and hard. Kessian made no attempt to disguise where he was looking. I walked over and put one knee up on the bed beside him.
His eyes finally raked up to meet mine, a glint of mischief in his expression. “I didn’t say anything at the time, but from that first night we met, I fucking knew it’d be big.”
“It’s not that big.”
“Only men with big cocks say that. They all look big next to mine.”
“You know a lot of men with big cocks?”
“I’ve met a few.”
I crawled over him until he lay flat against the bed. “Is it all right if I do my best to make you forget them?”
One of his hands hooked around the back of my neck, drawing me in so he could whisper in my ear, “Yes, please.”
Then he lay back, his hair spread out like strokes of paint against the covers, his knees knocked apart to make room for me, and he looked so tender and beautiful, it hit me how unfair it was that I’d never see him this way again.
But we were pretending.
I played with a strand of hair that had fallen past his ear, combing it back with the rest, and he did something that nearly cracked my heart in two. He leaned his temple against my knuckles and nuzzled into my hand, until I was splaying my fingers against his cheek, into his hair, and he looked at me with an invitation in his eyes.
“Should I ask Lunaris to conjure a condom?” I whispered.
“I don’t think we’ll really need that here,” Kessian whispered back.
I didn’t know what the rules of the strid were around contraception. If our bodies were technically floating off in a river somewhere, he was probably right, but he certainly felt real with his hot skin against mine.
“You sure?” I said.
“Tal, I know we’re pretending, but if this is our last night together, I want you bare.”
It felt like my brain was made of ceramic and he’d just smashed it against a paving stone.
“I’m afraid I’m too turned on to speak,” I said frankly.
“Don’t speak. Kiss me again.”
I followed his command and pressed his lips apart with my tongue. I let my knees slide out from under me, my arms making a halo around his head, combing his hair back so I didn’t trap it under us. And then there wasn’t much space between us.
