“Is this okay? Am I hurting you at all?” Kieran asked, his fingertips gently brushing over my torso where the Leshy had struck, where scar tissue had already started forming thanks to the dedicated efforts of the clerics.
I shook my head. “I’m good. The tincture is still working wonders,” I breathed. “I can’t feel a damn thing.”
“Not a damn thing?” he teased, rolling his hips against mine. A self-satisfied smirk curled across his mouth as I moaned softly, feeling exactly what he wanted me to feel.
Godsdamn.
My eyes roved over the sight of him on top of me with both awe and greed as he shrugged off his jacket, his hips still pressing into mine. Deft fingers made their way from his collar to his navel, swiftly unbuttoning his shirt. I marveled at the hard expanse of muscle revealed, the gleaming golden-brown skin made all that more beautiful by a collection of scars, and those strange, dark tattoos. Hungry and aching, my eyes followed that thin trail of black hair from his belly to below the waist of his well-tailored trousers. Now in a state of partial undress, Kieran threw both articles of clothing off the bed so aggressively that he overshot—the buttons of his coat making a sharp littlethwackas they hit the wall.
“So violent,” I giggled.
He grinned, his fingers already beginning to toy with the hem of my sweater. “You have no idea. May I?”
“By all means,” I offered, lifting my arms above my head.
Slowly, Kieran began to push the fabric up. Too slowly. Desperate, I started to writhe beneath him before reaching down, attempting to speed up the process. He caught both of my wrists in one hand without even trying.
“Oh no you don’t,” he growled, shoving them both up against his headboard. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting to do this? I’m gonna be taking my sweet ass time with you, Little Conduit. Let me savor this.”
I shivered, absolutely fixated on the commanding look in his eyes as he released my wrists and shifted himself, leaning down to press a kiss just below my navel. One of his arms snaked underneath me as he did so, gently lifting up my torso. With the other, he tugged my sweater up and over my head, the static cling taking the chemise I’d been wearing below right along with it.
That left us both naked from the waist up, and there was an unholy degree of reverence in his gaze as he looked down at me, eyes coasting over every inch of exposed skin.
“Fucking Hel. You’re so beautiful,” he whispered hoarsely.
“Get back down here and say that to my face, Vistarii,” I demanded, drunk off his praise.
He smirked. “Oh, with pleasure, Asher.”
In one fluid motion, Kieran shifted himself again, this time so that we were nearly chest to chest. As he shoved one of his knees in between my thighs, I couldn’t help but wonder if he could feel how wet I already was for him. These tights were far too thin to conceal my arousal for long. He kept his torso hovering just above mine, his body forming a cage of muscle and skin and heat around me as he leaned most of his body weight against his forearms. His eyes gleamed with adoration and something a bit darker as he spoke.
“You are,” he whispered. “You’re so fucking beautiful, Arken. It devastates me. You know that, don’t you?”
Abyss take me. I couldn’t handle what his affection did to me, it was driving me insane. I slid my hands around his waist, digging my nails into his lower back and begging him to come closer. I wanted to feel the weight of his body against mine, Ineeded to know what it felt like, I had imagined it so many times…
As my nails bit into flesh, Kieran gasped, his eyes going wild as whatever grip he’d had on his self-control seemed to be severed. He didn’t want to hurt me, I knew—but I hadn’t been lying when I said I couldn’t feel the ache of my wounds. Even if I could, I’d never tell. Everything about this moment would be worth the pain, should it return. So I dug my nails in harder, and my reward was instant: His body crashing into mine, his mouth claiming me again with unapologetic fervor as we picked up where we’d left off in his living room.
I groaned as I felt the warmth of his bare skin against my own, and the hard length of him pressing up against my inner thigh. As I slid my tongue back in his mouth, fingers tangling themselves in his soft hair, I could feel him twitch and throb.
For one gasping moment, our mouths broke apart. He ran his crooked nose against my jawline as I tried to catch my breath, tilting my head back against the pillows in pleasure. It was then that I noticed his windows. The curtains were still open, leaving us in clear view of any occasional passers by in the alley.Whoops.
“Kieran—” I started, struggling for coherency as he was nipping at my earlobe.
“Hmm?”
“I’m going to hate myself for asking this because I’m fairly certain I’ll actually die if you leave this bed, but… could you close those curtains? I’m afraid I’m not much of an exhibitionist.”
Kieran chuckled, the low vibrations of his rumble running straight between my legs.
“Anything for you, Little Conduit,” he purred. “But I do think I’ve had enough of your little near death experiences.” Lazily, he flicked his fingers in the direction of the curtains in question.“Good thing I don’thaveto leave this bed to keep you all to myself.”
I felt a ripple of his power pulse through the air as pitch-black Shadow began to creep across each pane of glass like hoarfrost. The umbral effect coated his windows until they were fully opaque, darkening the room.
“Better?”
I nodded, biting my lip.
“It’s okay, Ark, you can admit you find my arcana sexy,” he teased.