“With pleasure.”
He slipped one hand beneath the silk gown and his light touch slid over my calf, against my inner thigh, then slowly traced circular patterns there, roving a bit higher with each daring stroke, until I could no longer stand it. I stopped pressing my knees together and he dragged a finger across the apex of my body. It felt better than the Sin Corridor and Crescent Shallows combined.
Wrath pressed me forward until I was nearly bent over him, then trailed kisses down my spine. My skin tingled with each pass of his lips. All the while his fingers teased and danced across my body, driving me into a frenzy.
Once I was convinced I’d perish from the pleasure, he slipped them inside me. I stilled, getting accustomed to the feel of it as he slowly began moving them.
Unable to handle how good each sensation was, I sat up and pushed against him, his arousal hard and welcome against my backside. He paused his kisses and gently bit my neck.
My breathing quickened. I was chasing a feeling, almost familiar and not quite. It was magnificent. Ecstasy unlike any other. Sensing my growing need, Wrath’s fingers moved faster and that ache turned into the most glorious tidal wave of euphoria.
I stopped being self-conscious and shut out thoughts of everything except that incredible feeling. I moved against him, chasing the rapture, realizing Wrath was now letting me take my own pleasure. I was setting the pace and moving as fast or slow as I wished. That I was in command of my own body, my own desires, that no mortal rules would bind me…
… I came undone.
I cried out as pleasure broke through my body, in one marvelous tingling wave after another, then finally slumped against his chest, breathing as if I’d just run for my life.
Once I stopped trembling from the release, Wrath slowly removed his hand from beneath my skirts and righted the top of my gown. A long beat of silence stretched between us as I adjusted the straps with more care and attention than was necessary.
I shifted in his lap, noticing his arousal hadn’t abated. My heartbeat sped up. We could complete one of the next steps of accepting our marriage bond in moments.
Right here. In the weapons room. Only his trousers and my gown lay between us. And they could be removed easily enough. Perhaps it was the euphoria still running through my veins, clouding my senses, but it didn’t seem like such a terrible idea.
If a ceremony was needed as the final step, we didn’t have to perform it. We could indulge in carnal pleasure and remain free from any bond that would tether us for eternity. I shifted in such a way that our bodies intimately rubbed together. The sensation it created, especially after the pleasure he’d just wrought from me, was a new level of rapture.
Wrath didn’t move. He was giving me leave to choose.
I grabbed the hem of my skirts and slowly brought them up, over my thighs, my ass. Now all Wrath had to do was release himself from his trousers. I sat back, and the friction of his arousal against my body had me swallowing a moan. His hands tightened on my hips.
A bolt of alarm shot through me, stealing my breath. I no longer knew if sleeping together was a good idea, or if my judgment was impaired from what we’d just done. It was probably nerves. I steeled myself, refusing to succumb to second-guessing anything.
“Our training for this evening is done.”
In one swift motion Wrath stood, bringing us both to our feet. I spun around, staring at him. He was wholly unreadable. “Training? That’s how you’d describe what just happened?”
“You asked for seduction. I obliged.” He bent at the waist, offering a polite bow. “Now that you know what you enjoy, you may find the same pleasure at your own hand. Good night.”
TWENTY-FOUR
“He said what?” Fauna’s eyes were as big as saucers. She looped her arm through mine and escorted us out onto a covered pathway. “Maybe you misheard him. Or misinterpreted his meaning. That’s possible. Isn’t it?”
“Of all the things he could have said after that moment.” I exhaled, my breath clouding in the frosty morning air. I was too annoyed to be embarrassed. After the incident in the weapons room, I hadn’t seen Wrath for the rest of the night. “I well and truly loathe that demon.”
My friend snorted but held her tongue. We strolled across one of the long stretches of covered parapets that surrounded the castle. Guards nodded from their stations on the wall as we passed. Once we were far enough away, Fauna leaned in. “Perhaps he only said it because he’ll be envisioning you doing that from now on.”
“Doubtful. He couldn’t remove himself from the room fast enough.”
“I bet all of House Greed that he took himself in hand last night and thought of you while he spilled his seed.”
Even with my newfound confidence in owning my desires and feeling no shame, my face heated from the openness with which Fauna discussed such private matters.
She’d called on me first thing in the morning and managed to wrangle what had been troubling me before I’d donned my velvet cloak. Fauna hadn’t blushed or batted an eye at the topic, one that would have caused shock and scandal back home. She’d simply asked if I’d returned the favor with either my hand or my mouth, then giggled wildly when I’d asked for clarification on the latter.
“Maybe he didn’t want to take you in the weapons room where anyone could walk in. You are to be his wife. It’s not out of the question that he’d protect you from prying eyes.”
“Please.” I nearly snorted. “Half this realm is content to fornicate in public. I doubt he’d let someone walking in on us deter him.”