He looked down, but he wasn’t in the mood to admire the beauty before him. He wanted—no, needed—to taste her.
Velario wasted no more time. He leaned over and sucked at the bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs. Reyn bucked off the bed, and he clasped his hands on her thighs and held her down for his pleasure. No, her pleasure. Their pleasure.
Now that he had his mouth on her, Velario rediscovered his patience. He took his time learning what made her writhe, moan, and whimper. Then he put it all together, driving Reyn up, but never quite over the precipice. Then he drove her higher and higher still. Finally, he slid two fingers inside her slick heat and let her come.
Her climax brought forth a scream. Her inner muscles clutched at his fingers. She shuddered for long moments as the aftershocks rippled through them both, her fingers digging into his shoulders.
Listening to her, feeling her come for him, had Velario on the verge of release himself. He pulled back. It wouldn’t do to mess up her experiment now.
While she lay unmoving, her eyes open to bare slits, her entire body relaxed, Velario rearranged her. She let him turn her to her side without protest, and the only reaction she had when he unbuttoned her gown was a lazy look over one shoulder. When he urged her to sit up so he could slide the dress off, she didn’t hesitate.
“You know this isn’t necessary,” she muttered, slipping her arms through the sleeves.
He tossed the dress over the back of a chair and removed the last few pieces covering her. “It is very necessary.”
Velario took a moment to savor the view of Reyn, naked in his bed. She did not attempt to hide herself, though the languor from her climax was wearing off, based on the look in her eyes. Her blond hair trailed over one shoulder, teasing the tops of her breasts but not obscuring them from view. His eyes lingered on them—another place to use his mouth before this night was done.
Reyn crossed her arms, pushing her breasts up in an even more enticing display. “You have considerably more patience than I am accustomed to. Perhaps too much patience.”
Velario began unbuttoning his jacket and waistcoat. The last thing he wanted was for Reyn to decide he wasn’t the proper person to test her hypothesis with. Surely she wouldn’t change her mind now? “It isn’t patience. Believe me, I am not feeling at all patient at the moment.”
“Then why the delay?”
“Appreciation.” Velario dropped the clothes from the top half of his body to the floor. “And while I wouldn’t call myself patient, I do understand the value of delayed gratification. If this is going to be over fast, as you suspect, then I must make the most of it.”
In truth, he had reached the end of his patience. Velario rid himself of the rest of his clothes in a rush and climbed onto the bed next to Reyn. He wasn’t sure if their arrangement for the evening included kissing, but he figured if he didn’t go for the lips, she wouldn’t accuse him of thinking this meant anything more than it did. He lowered his lips to her breast instead.
He kissed the upper slope of one and let his hand trail up her side and to the other. She shifted, and a sound caught halfway between a moan of pleasure and a sigh of disappointment escaped her. He abandoned his slow approach—she didn’t want patience, after all—and took her nipple between his teeth. This time, the sound she made went straight to his cock.
He shifted to her neglected breast and pressed her down into the mattress. Then he moved over her, aligning their bodies. Her fingers laced through his hair, holding him against her, but he kissed his way up to her collarbone, then her neck. When he reached her chin, he pulled back enough to check her expression.
She didn’t give him a chance to make sense of what he saw. She pulled him back down and kissed him. Their tongues darted against each other. Every sound Reyn made pushed Velario closer to the edge, and he hadn’t even entered her yet.
Some small portion of his brain remained functional enough to note that he was in danger of coming ahead of schedule, just as she feared. Mostly, he was beyond thinking, and sensation and physical reactions became the whole of his being.
When Reyn’s hands slid from his hair and down his back, his body told him it was time. He thrust into her in one smooth stroke. She was hot and tight and exquisite. Velario gloried in the feeling for a heartbeat, but then he had to move. He set a rapid pace, and she climbed with him toward climax. He used what he had learned when he pleasured her earlier and slid one hand between their bodies to find the spot that drove her wild. He would see her climax again before he let loose his control.
Reyn shouted and came around him. Velario didn’t know if it was the feel of her on his cock or hearing his name on her lips when she came, but he didn’t let loose his control so much as have all control vanish as if it had never been. He thrust into her with no rhythm, just need, and emptied himself.
Reyn lay underVelario’s body, warm, sated, and wondering if she had just made the biggest mistake of her life. She had . . . that was . . . she didn’t have words.
She had heard stories. Reyn had seen her sister blush, and Merine stare off into the distance with a dreamy smile. She had heard Lisca and Selona extol the pleasures of the bedroom. Reyn knew that her previous experiences had not been what they should be. But she had never imagined what had just happened with Velario.
He rolled off her and stood. He made his way over to the washbasin and grabbed a clean cloth. She stood as well and accepted the cloth when he came back to her side. Then she reached for her chemise. This entire plan had turned sideways on Reyn, and now she didn’t know what to say.
Velario hesitated a moment, watching as she slipped the thin silk over her head. Then he grabbed his trousers and put them on.
He did up the laces of her corset and the buttons on the back of her dress without being asked. In fact, they finished dressing without saying a single word.
When she turned to face him again, Velario finally broke the silence, but his voice was flat. “So, your experiment was a success. Or, rather, a failure, I guess.”
Reyn tried to sound as unaffected as him. She was an honorary Lhanaperan. Part succubus. She could do this. “You seem to have disproven my theory, certainly. You felt nothing unusual that might have been my lure?”
“It’s hard to say. There was plenty of lust in play, but I’m not qualified to determine if it was natural or magical. I can only offer my own opinions.”
“And what is your opinion?”
“Your previous lovers were inept fools.”
