Page 137

That restlessness settled all at once, dropping away like a heavy towel abandoned before jumping into a pool. I held him tighter, every inch of my body plastered against him. I regretted the pendant around my neck, wanting to remember the way my own scent twined with his, the blend they made in the library’s study room. He didn’t seem bothered by any of it, only holding me closer even as I felt the hard line of his cock against my stomach. Instead, he kept pressing soft kisses across my temple and hair and traced the shell of my ear and nape of my neck. There were more callouses on his hand than before, like he’d spent the week training and not just evaluating the state of the soldiers.

Eventually, my brain restarted, was more than just a base need for scent and touch and him.

I cleared my throat and whispered in Nyndrec, “I missed you.”

His entire body froze, his hand tightening in my hair.

“What?” he asked in Alwesh.

I said the words again, focusing on the third sound that always tripped me up, the one Shelby had helped with the most. His laugh was happy bewilderment.

“You’re spectacular,” he whispered into my hair. “How did you⁠—”

“Shelby and Vincent, mostly.”

He kissed my temple, and then he was moving, walking us back into the sprawling house, both books forgotten.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

He grunted. “I need you alone and somewhere other people won’t see you.”

I closed my eyes and relaxed against him, running my hand through his hair and tracing the shell of his ear. His hold tightened again, his palm firm against my hip, his fingers drawing small circles on my exposed thigh. His wisteria scent grew stronger, and I shivered, swallowing a whine. His fingers traced the clasp of the necklace, and I nodded before I could even form words or let him ask about it. The pendant fell between us, and he carefully pocketed it without breaking his stride. In the next moment, my orange and vanilla scent surrounded us like a blanket, edged with my growing desperate need. Callum grunted like he’d been punched and then his speed doubled, his grip biting into my leg now as he traversed one of the spiral staircases at just short of a run.

He set me on the long settee in the sitting area of our room. My eyes fluttered open just in time to see the door click shut with a push of his magic. And then my entire world was dominated by his strong form as he paused in front of me. I tipped my head back, needing to watch the way his eyes moved with his emotion, the gold swirling like the most mesmerizing fire.

“Sterre,” he whispered.

Then he eased the straps of the dress off my shoulders, baring the short stays with the built-in lining. He undid the laces even faster than library, pulling them off of me like they’d personally wronged him. Wisteria detonated from him, and I moaned.

His hands shook as he palmed my cheeks.

“This is okay?”

I leaned into the touch as I nodded, palming the backs of his thighs. His touch was so precious to me, something I’d craved the last week. I’d never thought I’d want another man’s attention, and yet I couldn’t get close enough fast enough to him now. I pressed my forehead against his hip, rubbing against him like a cat demanding attention. His chuckle was breathless.

And then it cut off all at once as I pulled at the laces of his pants, pulling them apart faster than I’d ever managed any of my own laced outfits. He froze, even his breath pausing for a long minute, but I didn’t let myself drop into worry. Instead, I ran my lips over the line of his hip, tracing that delicious divot with my tongue like I’d wanted to do for a week now, ever since he’d given me those orgasms in the library.

“May I?” I asked.

I slowly traced his other hip bone, going lower than I had with my tongue to make sure he understood exactly what I wanted. His gaze flared hotter, his cheekbones sharpening as he swallowed heavily. Then, faster than I could track, his tunic was off, dropped on the ground behind him. His hands wove into my hair, undoing the styling and letting the ribbon pins drop to the floor in a chorus of soft clinks.

I didn’t tease him, though part of me wished I was capable. I wished I wasn’t so desperate to know how his taste and heft and feel that I could torment him with a longer approach and draw pleasure from his body as methodically as he had with me. The reality was that I didn’t have the control, needed him inside me too much to make this a true seduction.

So, instead, I palmed his cock and then took him in my mouth, deep enough he grunted with sharp surprise, and then lightly sucked as I shallowed out. His hands tightened in my hair, and he muttered a ragged curse. I repeated the motion, taking him deeper each time, until his entire body shook. When he hit the back of my throat and I relaxed, letting him slide even deeper, he pulled away with a desperate moan.

Before I could track what was happening, he had me on our bed and he was crawling toward me, his pants kicked all the way off and his cock a jutting mass between us. The bulge at the base of it stole my breath even as my scent pulsed, a primal siren’s call of invitation that had his eyes growing nearly feral. He kneeled between my legs, spreading them wider as he shoved the skirt of the dress up around my waist and then ripped the small set of panties I’d worn.

“Better,” he whispered, nothing but hunger.

It was enough to have me reaching for him again, palming him again, circling his knot and swallowing heavily when there was at least two inches between my finger and thumb. It was easily as large as a grapefruit. That was going to go inside me.

“Is this…” I trailed off, realizing I sounded like a maiden who’s never seen a dick before.

His smirk had me flushing and a rush of slick coating my thighs. “That’s right. You’ve never seen a knot before, have you?”

“Just the drawing in the book Emma found for me.”

He paused, his eyebrow rising as his smirk gained an amused edge. “What book?”