“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
He shook his head fast, his eyes still shut.
I sat back on my heels, pulled my hand away, and took one of his. Slowly, I brought his fingers to my lips. “We don’t have to rush. I just—” I looked down at our hands, locked together, the red peaks of his flushed knuckles as he clung to me.
I’d gotten lost in him. Wanted to see what his skin felt like when his heart raced.
I wanted to devour every inch of him, swear myself as his defender, keep him as my own.
He finally opened his eyes when I broke off, and I shook my head.
“Aderyn, it doesn’t matter. I don’t need anything more than having you here with me as my very best friend. We—we’re still that, right?” A sudden spike of panic gripped me. Had I pushed too far? It wasn’t as if we’d never touched before, but not like this.
For a nightmarish second, all I could think was that I was another horrible Cavendish, pressing Aderyn, denying him his freedom and his own desires and?—
And then he smiled up at me, and even though he was quiet, I could breathe again.
He didn’t hate me. Didn’t see me as someone demanding or frightening. I hadn’t messed up that much.
Hadn’t messed up at all, apparently, because he pressed himself up until we were kissing again, and I sank onto him when his arm looped around my back and his hand pressed flat against my shoulder.
“It felt nice,” Aderyn muttered against my lips. “But in a new way. I wasn’t expecting it.”
Between us, he shifted his tunic higher. At the feel of his questing fingers, I sat back to allow him to pull it off entirely.
Then, he was bare before me—his top half, anyway. He had a golden-pink complexion unlike anything I’d seen before, and I stared, awestruck and useless, while his cheeks flushed.
“You’re so beautiful,” I whispered as I dragged my fingertips across his skin, tracing out along his collarbones, then down his chest, circling his rosy nipples with my thumbs before touching lower.
His cheeks turned even pinker. He chewed his lip. The way his blush followed my touch was the most perfect thing I’d ever seen. I bent down to kiss his warm skin, following the pink tinge and the sound of his soft breathing until I reached the top of his trousers.
“Does it still feel good?” I mumbled against his lower stomach, the soft blond hair there tickling my lips.
“Mmhmm,” Aderyn nodded, and I realized he was too overwhelmed to talk.
I didn’t mind. I smiled against his skin and kissed there softly.
“May I keep going?”
“Mm—” He made another little sound that I thought was affirmative, but I looked up to see him nod, just to be sure.
I undid the ties and pulled his trousers down enough to free his cock. It was gorgeous and flushed, with a little curve to the left that was undoubtedly the most charmingly imperfect thing I’d ever seen.
I bent, dragging my tongue up from the base to the tip. Aderyn shuddered beneath me, gripping for the couch before I flicked my tongue beneath his cock’s head, and he reached for me instead.
I tried, really, to take my time tasting him, to draw out a symphony of pleasure so that his whole world was a hazy pink cloud. I wasn’t that patient, though. I wound up gripping his shaft to steady it, sucking his tip like a man possessed, and when I squeezed his thigh, he cried out.
His cock twitched, and then he came bitter and sticky across my spit-slick lips.
I licked them clean as well as I could, swallowed, and smiled up at him. He’d thrown his head back, his eyes closed, his body trembling with every soft inhale.
He’d come fast, but I thought, for our first time, that was simply the best compliment he could give me. I was glad I didn’t have to wonder whether or not I was doing it right for him.
“Good?” I asked.
He stretched out his arms for me. “Yes.”
I crawled up onto the couch and slipped in beside him, wedging my arm beneath his head. He turned in and cuddled into my side, and I let my fingertips dance across his ribcage while he caught his breath.
