Page 117 of As the World Falls

"What about me?”

"How do you feel right now?” His fingers untangle from mine, and he drags them up the inside of my arm, caressing me softly. I shut my eyes, reveling in his touch against my skin and how it melts me completely.

“I feel like I don’t want to talk anymore,” I breathe out, my stomach dipping as his fingers trail over the sensitive skin of my collarbone and neck.

"What do you want to do then, little owl?” I open my eyes, finding his glittering stare on me, full of heated desire.

“Show me something.”

The corner of his mouth drags up into that smirk I love. “Show you something, huh?” I nod, grinning now. I loved it when he spoke more playfully. It made his accent sound thicker and way more sexy.

His hand trails up into my hair now, his fingers brushing through the strands and making me shut my eyes in pleasure again. “If you want me to show you something, you’ll have to keep your eyes open,” he murmurs. I snap my eyes open, finding him watching me in amusement. He guides his hand through my hair and makes a humming noise. He watches me intently and then gives it a soft tug.

“When I do this,” he says, pulling his hand from my hair, dragging his thumb across my bottom lip, letting it catch and release. “Your mouth falls open in pleasure like this.”

I suck my bottom lip in between my teeth, my body lighting up with nervous excitement. He leans into me, his mouth finding the crook of my neck, his breath fanning onto it and making me crazy from the sensitivity of it all. “And when I do this,” he says lowly, his lips dragging across my neck to my throat, giving me goosebumps. “Your skin raises and calls to me like this.”

My dress suddenly felt too heavy while, at the same time, not covering enough of me. He had access to a lot of sensitive parts, but I needed him to strip me of this damn gown and find some more of them. I was going crazy here.

“James,” I plead. I don’t know what for, but I wanted something to end this frenzy he was putting me into. I didn’trealize softly spoken words and light caressing would make me react this way, but it was making me feel anxious with need.

“I thought you wanted me to show you something?”

“This isn’t showing me anything. This is driving me crazy.”

He chuckles darkly. “I’m showing you how your body reacts to me, Cecilia.” He brings his mouth from my throat, grazing down to the pushed-up swells of my breasts, making my eyes nearly roll back into my head. “Like when I do this, your heart begins racing in your chest.”

“You’re just boosting your ego at this point,” I say breathlessly.

He grins, looking up at me. His eyes are an uncanny representation of how he makes me feel—like a cold shock and then a warm heat, making me melt. “No, you are,” he replies, pleased with himself. He lifts his head back toward my neck and to my ear. “Get on the bed, Cecilia,” he demands in a whisper.

He steps back from me and watches me as I slowly move to the bed, sitting delicately on its edge. He smiles from where he’s standing, tilting his head again as he walks toward me.

“Are you nervous?”

“Yes,” I admit.

He kneels on the floor before me, and I look down at him, surprised to see nothing but adoration and concern from him. “You weren’t nervous with me the other day out on the patio,” he says.

“You didn’t tell me you loved me then.”

“Why does that make you nervous now?”

“Because now this means something.”

“It always meant something.”

I nod, trying to shake my nerves away. “I want to take this dress off,” I find myself saying.

He arches a brow up at me. “Take it off then.”

I slowly reach behind me, pulling the string of the corset and letting it loosen completely. I stand up, letting it drop down around my ankles. James stays kneeling on the floor in front of me, looking up as I expose my bare breasts and body to him. My white silk panties and silver heels are the only things on me now.

“Sit back down,” he says, but his voice sounds strained and raw. I do as he says, sitting back on the edge of the bed. He gently grabs my ankle, caressing it and lifting it from my dress. Then he does the other one, lifting it out and moving the dress to the side so it’s no longer bunched at my feet.

I felt strange, sitting nearly naked like this in just my heels. Thankfully, my hair had mostly fallen out of its updo during all the chaos earlier, and it helped me feel a little more shielded.

He sets my foot back on the ground and looks up at me again with an expression I don’t recognize. I couldn’t read how he was feeling or what he was thinking, and it started to make me more nervous.

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