He huffed out a chagrined laugh. “I don’t want to hurt you. You’re so small and delicate down there.”
“Babies come out of there,” she reminded him. “It’s made to stretch.” Sliding her hand down his hip, she wrapped her hand around his rigid cock, delighting in how he stiffened, eyes going wide.
“Iliana!”
“Han.” She guided him toward her entrance, fitting his head against her and lifting her hips to help with the angle. Tantalizing, teasing her need. Not nearly enough. “Push,” she urged him.
His breathing ragged, fulminous blue gaze locked on hers, he eased into her, going torturously slow until she grabbed his ass with both hands and pulled him into her. Their groans intertwined, bodies shivering together. Iliana had never felt so close to anyone, so rawly vulnerable and so complete at the same time.
“Are you all right?” Han asked in a shaky voice.
“Yes.” She moved under him. “More, please.”
He laughed, huskily, then levered up on his elbows, finding her hands and lacing their fingers together. She wrapped her legs tighter around his waist as he moved in her, their gazes locked. Finding the answering rhythm as he pressed deeper and deeper into her, she felt as if she flowered, opening to him, her heart overflowing. She saw the climax in his face, the wave overtaking him, his thrusts increasing, the rhythm falling apart in his extremity.
To her surprise, the fist of orgasm grabbed her, too, and she followed after him, throwing her head back to cry out in the keen knife-edge of pleasure. He fastened his mouth to her throat, biting down so an arc of fire ran from there to her groin, making her spasm again. “Han!” she gasped, loosing the last of her reserves, spilling herself open in a gush. “Oh, Han, how I love you.”
~ 8 ~
In the dark,erotic clasp of Iliana’s sweet body, Han nearly missed the words. His head swam dizzily, his body still shuddering from that release, beyond anything he’d imagined. Her scent filled his senses, her skin like softest silk against him, her perfect curves arousing even as he crested down from the impossible heights.
He lay over her, boneless, still buried to the hilt in her, his mouth against her swanlike throat, her fiery curls under his cheek. Dimly aware that he should move so he didn’t crush her, instead he whispered, “Say it again.”
For a long moment, she didn’t say anything. Then she kissed his brow, tightening her embrace around him. “I love you, Han. I always have.”
Closing his eyes, he absorbed the sweetness of hearing those words from her at last. “You’re right—we should’ve done this a long time ago.”
“This was perfect. I wouldn’t change anything.”
He lifted his head, managing to make his sluggish muscles obey enough for him to lever up onto his elbows. She took a deep, grateful breath and smiled at him, more radiantly lovely in this moment than he’d ever seen her.
“I’m glad you were my first,” she said quietly, her lips rosy from his kisses.
“Me, too.” He opened his mouth to say he wanted more than that, but she shook her head sharply.
“No talk of the future,” she warned. “Don’t ruin this.”
He nearly argued, wanted to protest that ignoring the future wouldn’t make it go away, but he also didn’t want to ruin this magical night. “Will you stay?”
She hesitated, eyes going to his El-Adrel clock, much fancier than hers.
“I have a lot of freckles still to kiss,” he coaxed. “Stay the night with me.”
“Not all night,” she responded firmly. “I want to be back in my room before everyone wakes up.”
“People are going to be up and about all night,” he argued.
“They’ll be going to bed around dawn so they can be awake for the feast tonight. I’ll go then.” She wriggled out from under him. “Lie back. It’s my turn to explore and kiss the secret places.”
He heaved out a heavy sigh, pretending to be long-suffering, privately delighted that she wanted to enjoy him, too. Stretching out, he savored the rapt expression on her face, the love she let show at last. Her fiery hair tumbled around her pale, freckled shoulders, outlining her exquisite figure, hips flaring from her narrow waist, and petite round breasts tipped with charming fawn-colored nipples. He could spend a lifetime exploring her lovely body.
“Nowthisis a feast,” she murmured, sliding her hands over him, echoing his own thoughts, and set to tasting.
Iliana made itback to her room in the dark, pre-dawn hours without being observed. That was, without being observed by human eyes. Still, it was Founder’s Day and typically there was latitude for everyone to be out celebrating at unusual hours.
Grateful the rest day let her go back to bed, she slept a few hours—much needed, as she and Han hadn’t slept at all, making up for lost time with such hunger that she ached all over—and woke midmorning with a sense of being still in a dream. Had last night really happened? In the cold light of the winter morning, it seemed far more likely that she’d fantasized it all. But her body felt the truth of it, both deliciously sated and sore in new places.
Whoa, and her hair was alarmingly snarled, she saw when she went to the mirror. It stood out around her head in a wild tangle, prompting her to uncork her grooming imp and setting it loose even before she liberated the water elemental to bathe her body. She’d love to have a full bath, but the academy had limited facilities for that—students didn’t rate—and they were on a strict schedule. But water elementals left a lovely, dewy clean feeling, so she didn’t mind too much. As they worked, she took stock of the marks of her night with Han. In particular, he’d left a vivid love bite on her throat, and the memory of his mouth there as they writhed together warmed her all over again.
