Page 29 of Acedia

Damen’s chest felt like a solid slab of carved stone. There were dips and divots and lines that I was desperate to trace while being acutely aware that going lower was a very bad idea.

I wasn’t entirely ignorant—Nana had given me the birds and the bees talk in the most thoroughly off-putting way possible with a lot of emphasis on abstinence—but I’d never touched this much of a man, or a male Shade, in person.

It was better than I expected. My brain was still sensible enough to stop me from being entirely inappropriate, but it was forming some creative what-if scenarios to compensate.

What ifmyhand went a little lower?

What ifhishands landed on my waist? My hips? My thighs?

What if those claws dug into my skin? What would that feel like? Would I like it?

My daydream was interrupted by Damen’s sudden sharp intake of air and the feeling of his horn tangling in my hair as he leaned in closer.

Was he… smelling me?

“Iris,” he said, sounding almost pained, carefully disentangling himself from my hair while I folded my hands safely back in my lap. “I should go. I’m not allowed to… Never mind, I should go. Are you going to be okay? I’ll come back tomorrow.”

He muttered something I didn’t quite catch about a month. Perhaps he intended to visit for the rest of the month?

“Of course. Yes.”

He tripped over something in his rush to get out of the room, and I was left with a swirling mess of confusing thoughts. Had I scared him off? I had been very enthusiastic in touching him. Hopefully nottooenthusiastic, though I really did want to know what he felt like. And I’d wantedhimto know that I wasn’t afraid of physical affection.

I found myself touching my own hair and face, my fingers drifting down to my collarbone, comparing the differences between our bodies in my mind.

Damen probably wasn’t afraid. He was probably just busy doing princely things and couldn’t linger—he’d said he’d come back tomorrow, after all.

Perhaps we’d have the chance to do that again.

Chapter 9

“Is everything okay?” Andrus called as I jogged past his stationed post at the entrance to Iris’s corridor and took a sharp left toward the stairs.

“Everything is fine,” I yelled over my shoulder, ignoring the odd looks that I was getting as I made my way toward my room.

My dick was so hard that it hurt, and I didn’t think I’d be able to focus clearly on anything until I’d come at least several times.

That interaction had been so… unexpected. I’d decided almost immediately that Iris was the one for me because of her sweetness and gentle nature, and of course, I thought she was pretty.

I hadn’t particularly expected any kind of sexual spark to be there—the most I’d hoped for was a comfortable friendship where I could bring her pleasure whenever she was willing.

But Iris had perfumed for me. She’d touched my chest, and her body had announced her desire almost immediately. My cock had been hard and aching since she’d squeezed my horns, but it had begun weeping precum at the smell of her desire.

And I’d stupidly promised Allerick I wouldn’t propose to her for a month. I hoped she wasn’t offended by me running away—all of my decision-making capabilities had been trickling down from my brain to my cock, and I had to get out of there before I lost hold of them completely.

I should have just asked her to marry me and gotten forgiveness from my brother later. Iris would have a mating mark on her already if I hadn’t felt a small smidge of guilt about going against my brother’s wishes.

The moment the door to my bedroom slammed shut behind me, I dropped my shadows and gripped the base of my cock, roughly massaging the beginning swell of my knot. Fuck, what would Iris’s soft, delicate hands have felt like here? Much better than my rough ones, carefully angled to keep my claws out of the way.

I stumbled over to my bed, collapsing on my back and quickly coating my hand with the lotion on the nightstand that I was growing increasingly familiar with. When was the last time I’d had sex with someone else? I couldn’t even remember. With my eyes closed, I could almost imagine Iris’s body on mine, her pussy clenching around my shaft instead of my hand.

Had she been seducing me on purpose? I couldn’t tell. She’d phrased her requests so sweetly, but her touch had been firm and intentional.

I rolled onto my stomach, gripping my cock tightly in my fist and ruthlessly fucking my hand—far more aggressively than I would ever dare to touch Iris’s soft, sweet body. She was so unselfconscious with her body language—my knot had ached from the moment she’d spread her thighs for me so I could kneelbetween them. There hadn’t been a single second of hesitation there.

Would she do the same if she was naked?

Would she have leaned back on that chair if I’d asked her and draped her legs over the sides so I could lick her cunt without my horns getting in the way? I felt certain all the way down to my bones that she would. That Iris would trust me entirely to make her feel good. I would do everything in my power to make sure she never regretted putting her trust in me when that moment came.

---