“Little bird”—he quiets my movements with one hand on mywaist, another stroking my back—“if I were to ask you how you prefer to make yourself come…”
“I…” My cheeks redden, and I look down, trying to avoid his gaze.
He cradles my face in his hands again, pulling me back to him. Making me see that there’s no judgment in his eyes, only a desire to understand.
“Tell me you’d know what I was asking.”
She doesn’t know. I already know she doesn’t, and I’m taken aback by how much it bothers me that this is yet one more thing that’s been kept from her. That’s been shamed away.
I take one of her hands and kiss her palm before turning it so that my hand covers hers as I lead it lower, watching carefully for any sign of hesitation before I position it at the apex of her thighs. “Tell me you touch yourself, Cora.”
She flushes, shifting in my lap, but I don’t think it’s only from nerves. “Of course,” she replies, sounding a little indignant. “I bathe.”
“I’m not talking about only when youbathe,” I say, smiling and brushing my nose along her jaw as I breathe her in again. “Although, we will return to that topic at another time. I heard that you told Aiden once he could watch you.”
“I didnottell him—I mean, I did, but I didn’t mean—” Her eyes narrow, her hackles up now that she’s forgotten to be embarrassed. “Iknewhe told you,” she mutters, almost pouting,which gives me the perfect opportunity to tug at that bottom lip of hers with my teeth while I pull her closer, pressing a bit firmer where our hands are trapped between us.
“Cora, I need you to tell me you’ve played with what I just know is a torturously pretty cunt,” I murmur in her ear. “I can’t bear to think she’s been so neglected.”
She draws in a sharp breath, pulling her hand back up and squirming again in my lap in such a way that my cock is also starting to cry neglect.
“God, I cannot believe we are talking about this,” she says, covering her face with both hands. “It’s…indecent.”
I encircle her wrists with my fingers. “Little bird, I must say I have far moreindecentthings in mind for us, although very few of them allow for this much talking.”
“Cypress.” I still can’t see her face but I can hear that she’s laughing before she takes a deep breath and asks, “Isn’t that…isn’t this a sin?”
“What did we just decide about adopting the morals of a man who—”
“It’s not only him,” she mutters, hands finally dropping. “He reminded me of…well, truthfully, of my mother. She always said it was wrong to—” She looks down at her lap. “She was quite clear that no one would want a girl who could forget that her service is to God and not to herself.”
My teeth grind together. Why do so many people feel compelled to accept a version of a God that would wish to deny them everything? That would gift something as divine as a soul, only to declare every expression of it as a sin?
“She was trying to warn me, I think, in her way,” Cora says quietly. “My parents had me out of wedlock. And they tried to cover it up with a quick wedding, but people still knew. Peopletalked. Her parents never forgave her. She…she wasn’t very happy.”
“She took it out on you,” I guess. “Made sure you were unhappy, too.”
“I don’t think she meant to. She worried that, because I was the product of sin, I was tainted by it. That I would be a sinner, too, if I didn’t pray for forgiveness.” She sighs. “Although, even if God forgave me, I’m not sure she ever would have.”
“What happened to her? Something horrible, I hope.”
Cora laughs before clasping a hand over her mouth. “That’s terrible,” she says, once she can nearly keep a straight face. “Actually, I don’t really know what happened to her. She left after my father died. Took my sisters back to Boston.”
“She left you behind?” I say, feeling a profound sense of sadness for her. “She abandoned you?”
“No,” Cora says quickly. “No, not really. I’m the one who ran away, but…she was probably glad I did. She didn’t really want me. Not like she wanted my sisters. There were rumors that— Let’s just say they didn’t remind her so much of my father. Or of me. She…she used to say I was half wild.”
I smile slightly, even as I contemplate what I would do if I ever had a chance to meet this woman. “Only half?”
Cora lets out another huff of laughter, and I bend to kiss her again slowly, lingering over it as if in apology for having taken so long to find her.
“I love that you’re a wild one, Cora,” I murmur. “Don’t you dare try to tame that to please someone who didn’t deserve you.” I stroke the loose hair away from her face, watching her eyes go glassy before she tucks her face into the crook of my neck. “Everyone’s sins are their own,” I tell her, resting my cheek on top of her head. “If you choose to believe in such a thing.”
I can hear the disbelief in her voice when she responds, “You don’t believe in sin?”
I consider the question for a while, liking the way she relaxes into me more and more. “No, I do not believe that I do.”
“You don’t think that people do terrible things?”