Page 56 of Acedia

But his easy kindness this afternoon had been weakening my resolve. And the idea of being naked in his space…

There was something sort of territorial about it, though I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what that was.

“Iris. Your scent,” Damen groaned.

“What about it?” Why did my voice sound like that? Like I was out of breath even though I was just sitting still?

“It’s… intoxicating. Your desire is the most addictive scent I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

My desire? Somehow, it had never occurred to me that Shades would be able to smellthat, though of course it made sense since they could pick up our other emotions.

“Does it make you uncomfortable that I’m aroused?” I asked curiously, trying to establish if I was being inappropriate or not.

“That’s not quite how I’d describe it,” Damen rasped. Oh good, his voice sounded just as strained as mine did.

“How would you describe it then?”

He groaned. “Iris, you’re killing me. I’m trying to behave myself. You don’t want this from me.”

“What don’t I want from you?”

“Sex. Intimacy.”

I frowned, thinking back on our conversations. “When did I say that?”

Damen was silent for a long moment. “I guess you didn’t. You said you didn’t want to get married.”

“No, that seemed like a rather dramatic step to take when I’d just arrived,” I agreed. “But I never said anything about not wanting sex. I’d love to have sex. I came here thinking I’d be having sex all the time.” I paused for a moment, giving it some thought. “I’ve never done it before though, so I might be bad at it.”

“Fuck,” Damen whispered, sounding almost pained.

“Should I not have said that?”

He laughed, though it was strained. “I would prefer you not say it to anyone else. I find I amveryjealous where you’re concerned.”

I frowned. “I wouldn’t say that to anyone else. I feel safe with you, Damen. Only you.”

“Good.” He exhaled loudly. “Will you allow me to bring you pleasure, Iris? It would be the greatest honor of my life.”

That seemed a little extreme, but I wasn’t going to complain. “Of course. I would love that.”

Did that mean we were going to have sex? Surely that would mean that he would experience pleasure too, and he made it sound like it was just a me thing.

“Will you lie on my bed for me, Iris?” Damen asked. His tone was polite, but there was a rumbly edge to his voice that I hadn’t heard before. It seemed to creep down my body, settling somewhere just south of my belly.

“Yes,” I whispered, sucking in a breath of surprise as he scooped me off the couch before I could stand and carried me over to the bed like I weighed nothing, laying me out on it like I was something precious to him.

There was the faint sound of Tilly’s paws clicking against the floor as she made her way outside of her own accord. I was quietly grateful for that—I didn’t want to traumatize my dog.

“Can I lift your skirt?” Damen asked. So gentlemanly.

“Yes, you may.”

I shivered as the air hit my bare thighs and Damen’s claws drifted gently over my skin, right up to the elastic edge of my panties. His breath seemed to hiss out between his teeth as he inhaled, and I fervently hoped that he liked what he was seeing. Arousal wasn’t a foreign feeling for me, butseductionwas a game I had no idea how to play.

When I’d listened to characters flirting in movies, they mostly sounded quite sure of themselves, and I didn’t know how to replicate that.

“Can I take these off you?” Damen asked, a faint tinge of desperation in his voice. Maybe he didn’t mind that I wasn’t sure of myself.

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