Page 46 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

Each sweep of his tongue had her aching for more.

Garrik threw his head back and growled when she rolled her hips against him, hard as steel beneath her. His thumbs teased the top of her underthings, looping inside and gliding them down so so slowly. And she could have cracked when his dilated silvers watched her as if waiting for her to object.

But when she didn’t, he continued his tease, and she offered him one of her own by rolling her hips.

His cock eased against her, separated by fabric, and pressed against the pulsing wet warmth of her core.

Until now, they had taunted and tormented each other. Catching quick glances in camp or the firesite. Stealing kisses in an annulus or mountain stairs. How he would toy with her and she’d push back. Never going further than their hands or their lips.

But this … when her experiences had always been cruel and uncaring and painful …

This. She wantedthis—badly.

Warm fingertips threatening to burst scratched down until she reached the raised ridges of his scars?—

And then she was swept away.

Garrik’s body rippled beneath her and effortlessly flipped them. He pinned her onto her back, pulling her leg around his waist, and crawled up her body, nipping and pecking desperate kisses.

He leaned forward and licked along her collarbone. Rasping so low and so ravenous, she hardly recognized his voice, “I have craved touching you since the stairs.” Lips hovering over her ear. “And how you taunted me inside. If not for that barrier…” He shook his head and cursed.

Breathing was nearly impossible. Her heart threatened to stop entirely.

Alora rolled her lip between her teeth, and Garrik’s thumb glided across it, tracking his exploration with predatory prowess. She released it, parting her lips, contemplating taking his finger inside.

A hunger settled in his eyes. “Stop that,” he growled. “I like to think I have impeccable restraint, but darling, if you bite your lip again…” Gritting his teeth, he stopped his thumb. Those silver eyes, even in the shadows, darkened.

Alora only grinned, daring to do just that.

Garrik cocked his head in challenge and burned his gaze into that lip, waiting.

Instead, her gaze drifted down his body and found his cock straining against the fabric there.

Her body tightened. Flame-like bursts waved over her skin. And she realized her mouth had suddenly dried. Forcing herself to breathe. Forcing herself to follow the hardened planes and raised rigid scars of his abdomen to the dip below his throat, inching across the brutal scar and sharpness of his jaw until at last she found him staring.

With one flick to her lips, those enchanting orbs flashed to her eyes. She didn’t know what he saw … but Garrik lowered his head. A muscle feathered in his cheek as he murmured, “I can hardly think when you look at me like that.”

The Lord of Minds caught thoughtless at her mere stare?

It seemed impossible.

“I need to touch you.” A note of pleading in his voice, Garrik’s eyes traced down and over the curves of her body, stopping at the black lace concealing her aching breasts.

There was enough desperation in his tone that it pushed her to want exactly that, too. Breathing slowly, she brushed her fingertips over the swells until they captured the lace and tugged down.

Primal male desire flooded his eyes at her peaked nipples.

The restraint he must have had?—

Shuddering a breath, Garrik’s voice turned guttural. “I want you so fucking badly…” he paused and raked his eyes to hers, “but I am afraid, should you allow me to continue, I will not have the strength to stop.”

A whimper built in her throat. “What if I wouldn’t want you to stop?”She knew the moment the words escaped she was playing a dangerous game.But she didn’t care.

Garrik’s eyes dilated. The warmth of his breath fell against the shell of her ear, growling in desperation, “Then I would take my precious time. Not stopping until you are breathless beneath me. And then, once you have floated from the sky I sent you to, I would worship you so deeply the stars become jealous and cannot contain themselves to fall on your skin.”

She could’ve sworn the stars glimmered brighter between the broken rafters.

Exploring—gripping—claiming the soft strands between her fingers, Alora dove into his hair. One of his found her face, tilted her chin, and his lips devoured her.

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