Page 49 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

What her touch could do…

Garrik shifted, making her aware of the unmistakable hardness pressed against her backside.

Heat rushed over her. The aching need built to feel him deep inside her.

Tension rolled through him as she straddled his lap. The fiery warmth of her hands slid down his shoulders, over his mountainous biceps housing his death mark, his chest, carefully tracing the rigid scars until he went taut and stopped breathing.

“Do you want me to stop?” She would. If he needed her to—she would.

In a deliberate movement, Garrik’s fingertips slid up her back. Breathing unevenly, his eyes darkened. “Starsdamn…” he cursed. Then cursed again, unsure until—“No.”

Garrik’s eyes rolled the moment Alora’s hand threaded in his hair.

Stretching his neck, subdued by her hold, desperate growls and whimpers flooded from him as he flexed his hips.

By his silent plea, she traced her tongue over the thick scar on his neck, feeling the quickened pulse while he viciously shivered and his hands claimed her hips.

Alora’s fingers brushed the tip of his ear. Traced down the straight of it and dared to tickle the silken skin and nerves behind.

Garrik’s moan shook the floorboards.“Alora.”

To hear her name likethatagain… Stars, she would crawl for it.

“Yes,” she answered so he couldn’t mistake who he was with.

Alora pressed her breasts to his hardened muscles. Licking up the taste of him from the base of his throat to his jaw, she sent a teasing breath into his ear. Knowing her touch was an extreme form of pleasure to a High Fae male, wanting to bring him to completion by as little as a few perfectly placed strokes.

“Fuck,” he cursed.

Tauntingly, Alora stroked again and rolled her hips.

The floor quaked.

Every stroke of her finger, every movement of her hips—of his—drawing him closer and closer and?—

Garrik’s palm clasped her hand, stopping her strokes. “No.” His voice rough, perhaps more than he meant it to be.

Alora began to pull away when his arms captured her retreat, tucking her against him. “You don’t want to…” She shook her head.Finish.Maybe he didn’t wantherto bring him there.

Maybe he didn’t want her—apart from anything he had already done.

Garrik released a breathy chuckle despite the shadows she now realized were in his eyes. “You have no idea howbadlyI want you,maiez amnors.”

That voice like honey drizzled, now speaking the royal language she was working to learn. Flowing over her like an alluring melody, beautiful yet bittersweet. The words whirled off his tongue as warm fingertips brushed a hair from her face.

Then he transitioned into the common tongue. “You deserve much more than a quick fuck from the fractured shards she left of me.” Garrik drew in a deep breath. “The first time”—his voice shook—“I want you to have every part of me. And it will not be in a decrepit barn fighting to keep nightmares from my eyes.”

Carefully, Garrik bent at his side and draped the blanket around her before laying her on the floor. His face turned painful as his arms left her.

She felt his slight tremble. Saw the swirl of night collecting in his eyes.

Despite it all, he shook his head. And thatirritatingsmirk climbed his face as he exhaled a laugh. “That was better than in my dreams.”

No wonder it was irritating. “I hate you.” Alora lightly smacked his chest but grinned, too.

“I know.” Swelling his cheeks, he flashed her that rare smile, and said, “Rest. I will return shortly.”

She watched as he stood and pivoted to the door. “Where are you going?”

---