“Mmmm . . . I really should get up.” The room around us went hazy when she guided me into her heat. If the world ended right now, I’d go to my death with a smile on my face.
“Off first, my love. Then up.”
Despite all the books I’d read on physical intimacy, I’d been grossly unprepared for my first time with Leesha. Seeing as it was her first time as well, we’d found our way together. Six months later, we were getting pretty good at it, if I said so myself. I had to think about other things to keep from losing control too quickly. Didn’t always work. Like right now. Counting the knots on her wooden headboard each time I thrust wasn’t dulling the sensations as it had last night.
Her throaty moans weren’t helping either.
Leesha unhooked my hand from its death-grip on the sheets, pushing it down past her navel. “Touch me.”
I slowed my movements, forcing myself to focus on something besides the tension ratcheting up my spine. “Show me where.”
She guided my hand to a spot just above where we joined. “Like this,” she whispered.
I couldn’t tell if I was pressing too hard or not hard enough. And with me focusing on that one spot, my hips had lost all sense of rhythm. “Is this . . . is this right?”
A smile played on her lips. “Yes.”
“Should I go faster?” I felt like I should go faster.
“It’s perfect.”
The way her back arched gave methe opportunity to lather some attention on her breasts. I heard the change in her breathing. Felt the tightening of her body around mine. Watched the haze of pleasure wash over her features. “Did you—”
“Yes.”
Oh, thank feck.It took about ten seconds to chase my own ending, leaving me shuddering and collapsing onto the bed next to her, our chests heaving in sync.
She brushed the hair out of my eyes. “We’re getting really good at that.”
“I don’t know. I think we could use some more practice.”
Her laughter was like sparks of sunlight.
Far too quickly, she kicked away the covers, rolled off the mattress, and cleaned the evidence of our lovemaking from her creamy white thighs using a linen towel. I watched her flit between the dresser and bed, my senses slowly returning, until I, too, got up and dragged on my own clothes with leaden limbs.
With no mirror in the cramped space, I had to rely on Leesha to get my cravat tied correctly. I’d offered to buy her a mirror before, but she’d refused. Maybe I’d give her one as a birthday gift when she turned twenty-one in two months.
Dressed in a simple lavender linen dress and white smock, Leesha wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her head to my chest. “I’ll see you tonight, yeah?”
I held her close, wishing I didn’t have to say goodbye. “I already can’t wait.” But we didn’t have a choice. Not yet, at least. When Leesha’s sister was old enough to take over her duties on the farm, we would escape this island and never look back. “My brother will meet you at half seven. Don’t be late.”
“I love you, Rían.”
The taste of her truth tingled on the back of my tongue. “Not as much as I love you,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple before disbanding the ward and evanescing back to the pit I called home.
Raging waves pummeled the cliffs below the onyx castle, the place hope and dreams came to die.I made my way along the path, trying to keep dirt from dusting over the tops of my black boots lest I be forced to spend my afternoon polishing them. Before I reached the high black gates, I withdrew the ceremonial dagger my father had given me. The locks and wards required blood to enter, a fun little treat every time I arrived home.
I cut my palm, watching deep red well from the wound—the only bit of color in this hell—and letting it drip onto the lock. The wards tickled against my skin, letting me slip past without additional bloodshed.
Two guards stood like statues on either side of the arched door facing the wasteland known as our front garden. Not even their eyes peeked from behind their black masks, making me wonder if they were actually people or some hideous monsters my mother had spelled to do her bidding.
My shoulders tightened when I crossed the threshold into the white marble foyer.Princes don’t slouch. Never mind my brother slouched and slumped like a beggar, and his mother, my aunt Bronagh, hadn’t given out to him once.
Tadhg could do no wrong.
I, on the other hand, could do no right.
“Where have you been?” a voice called.