Page 66 of The Duke and the Disciple

“I would be stunned if you behaved any differently.” She laughed. “And, uh, we have a few hours before anyone will expect us anywhere, so...”

“So, Squish.”

“So, Scholar.”

It felt so natural to crane his head back and kiss her. To reach up and cup her face to deepen the connection. She wilted, yielding, as she slid around to the front of him and climbed onto his lap.

Rahn spread his hands against her face, smoothing her hair back. He breathed out, taking her in. All for the notes. Dipping forward, he took her lower lip between his teeth for a gentle nip, and the sound that followed told him it was the right move.

“I’m ready to climb a bit higher, if you are,” she whispered, tracing the words along his lower lip. She lifted in his lap, her arms draped about his neck, kissing him as perfectly as if she’d been kissing him all their lives.

But kissing was... simple. Once they ascended the next rung, there was no returning to the way things were. No pretending it was even possible.

Even amid the inescapable truth, Rahn answered her invitation by hoisting her onto the desk, sending the instructions scattering.

“Wait, wait,” she croaked.

He faltered, frozen by the sinking fear he’d misread her signals.

Until she said, “And another with me,” and he realized they were both already lost.

The way Rahn watched her from above, painting his shadow across her, invoked how she imagined it would have felt had she been caught by her wulf on the night of the Dyvareh.

But he had been her wulf all along, and she wasn’t running anymore.

He came in for another hard kiss, then broke away to look at her. Aesylt curled her hands into his dark waves, bringing him closer with an aggressive tug. She opened her mouth wider to drive his tongue deeper, her toes curling as the hard bulge in his trousers ground against her.

She arced her head back when his mouth brushed the hollow of her neck, his lips dragging down across her flesh and over her collarbone. His breath awakened her, his warmth assuming a clear path of intent, skating along the soft curves of her breasts and burning through her dress as he dipped lower, inhaling her through the front stays of her gown.

One of her legs caught his forearm as she struggled for where to put it. He lifted his arm, and, with it, her thigh and rested it over his shoulder. She pulled the other one up to join it, and he shrugged them both into place, raising her before he lowered to a crouch.

Rahn’s eyes locked onto hers from between her legs. His hands traveled her thighs, edging her dress higher, until it bunched at her waist. She’d never been so grateful to have worn something simple, for anything thicker would have meant she’d have missed seeing the predator lying in wait behind his gaze. The one she’d been waiting for.

She memorized it, for her notes, for... later.

Still watching her, he traced his lips along the soft flesh of her inner thighs, back and forth between one and the other, drawing closer and closer to her undergarment. Chills ripped through her, causing her to clamp onto his head. His response rumbled against her skin.

Rahn peeled back slightly and hooked his fingers beneath her undergarment. “You know I have to ask?—”

“Yes.” Aesylt panted, her chest rising and falling hard. “Yes, dammit.”

His expression darkened with lust. Strong hands brushed down her thighs as he pulled away the last thing holding them back, gliding the fabric down her legs, and released it, where it fell to the floor.

Rahn gave her thighs a tug, adjusting them over his shoulders, and lifted her to his face. She felt the heat of his hesitancy, brushing her just enough to send her climbing out of her skin. Aesylt had harbored fantasies of moments like it for years, afraid to speak of them, to tell anyone how, when the candles were extinguished each night, she found the only release that had ever felt close to freedom.

But she’d always managed her own needs, and this man, whom she respected and cared for, was one flick of his tongue away from fulfilling the crushing desire born of so many nights alone in the darkness.

With a gentle exhale, Rahn parted her with his thumbs and spread his tongue along the length of her in one long, delicate lap. The room exploded with color. Aesylt held her breath, afraid to tarnish the moment she’d waited so long for. He did it again, erupting the stars behind her eyes by starting over at the bottom and climbing toward the spot she knew by heart and wanted him to as well.

He lingered there, swirling his tongue in perfect, spine-chilling rhythm that surpassed even her wildest imaginings. She shuddered all over, an orgasm building far too fast, her body ignoring every command she was giving it to slow down, to ease off.

Rahn abruptly stopped. He looked up. “I don’t know... I can’t tell... Does it feel as you’d want it to?”

Aesylt was suddenly conscious of her vulnerable position on the table, her legs spread wide for a man she knew primarily as Scholar, a man her brother had trusted to keep her safe. She’d been soaked before he’d even touched her, a mortifying consequence of even being near the man. And somehow, she was failing, not performing in some critical way that would show him with her body what she’d already said with her words. “I... Yes, it’s...” It was what? Why couldn’t she answer?

He glanced behind them, as if to be sure. “No one can hear us. If you’re holding back for me, don’t. If I’m going to be the first man you share this experience with, I want it to be one you remember fondly, no matter what the reason.” His lips sheened with remnants of her. “Close your eyes and give yourself to the way it feels. Memorize every rise and fall of your body in response.”

She managed a breathy nod. “For the notes.”

---