She waited. Vaara glared at her and said nothing.
She glanced away from him. Then she began to get up.
Before she could move out of reach, he grabbed her collar, pulling her closer to him. Her eyes widened as he dragged her body down over his.
“Stay,” he said, breathing the word over her lips. A surrender.
A hint of a smile curved her lips. “As you wish.”
He did wish. He had wished for her time and time again, since he’d first seen her. His mind had rarely left this infuriating state ofwantingher, and he was not strong enough to turn her away when she offered herself. He brushed his mouth over hers.
This time was not like the first time. There was no frenzied, lustful rush, though the same heated undercurrent was undoubtedly there, driven harder by that strange empathic feedback. Crow’s mouth was tentative and careful on his, letting him guide her. Her hand was gentle and sensual as it moved below his waist. Her palm grazed tantalizingly over the bulge in his pants, cupping between his legs. He quickly began to harden beneath her hand. His hips rolled instinctively toward her.
It was a lot easier to like her when she wasn’t talking. The kissing worked in their favor, in that respect.
As that thought came to him, he felt a vague sense of agreement from Crow—and his first thought was to be offended by it.
She broke away from his lips, breathless. “You can’t have it both ways. Don’t be a hypocrite.”
“I didn’t say anything,” he growled. “You can’t reprimand me for mere thoughts.”
She paused. “Fair enough.”
He covered her lips again before she could say anything else.
As his hands grasped her hips, she started unlacing his pants. She reached beneath and wrapped a hand around him, pulling him free. As her tongue lightly stroked his mouth, her hand stroked his cock.
His entire body was slowly catching fire. Heating. Coming alive. And she was doing it to him.
He realized there was something about it that set him on edge. Having a woman perched above him had never bothered him before, but now, a sense of unease grew in him.
The sensation of a presence on top of him, holding him down, felt dangerous. The feeling of a person touching him, forcing him to gasp and quake, having such dominion over his body, was familiar and frightening.
As her thumb passed beneath the head of his cock, he stifled a gasp against her. With each stroke, he lost more control. He was a puppet on strings, his muscles spasming and relaxing with each of her movements. She began to lower her head toward his lap. It was too much.
Her small, pink tongue came out and licked the head of his cock, soft and warm and wet.
It was an explosion against his skin.
He sat bolt upright, grabbed her, and flipped her onto her back. She looked up at him, stunned, and didn’t look reassured by whatever she saw on his face.
“I… I’m sorry,” she said, bewildered.
He knelt over her, panting. He still wanted her. He could do this, so long as he was the one in control.
Her eyes widened as he slowly worked her leggings down past her hips. She allowed him to pull them off and discard them off the side of the bed. When she lay bare beneath him, she looked up at him with anticipation and curiosity, waiting for him to move first.
Kneeling between her legs, he slid a hand up her thigh until he reached her core. She sucked in a breath as his fingers sank into her wet heat. Again, he was astonished by how slick she was already, and by the way her hips leaned eagerly into his touch.
Impatient, he slid off the bed, pulling her hips to the edge, and spread her knees so he could kneel on the floor between them. Crow gave him a surprised look, but didn’t stop him. She propped herself up on her elbows to watch him.
He brushed his lips against the soft skin on the inside of her thigh, frowning at her. “Do not take this as an act of submission,” he said, “or as one of gratitude, or as any kind of favor to you. I’m doing it because I enjoy doing it.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Whatever you say.”
He lifted her legs over his shoulders and slowly kissed up to the slick angle between her thigh and her center. The muscles in her thighs twitched. He held her eyes as his lips brushed over her, holding back just enough to make her glare at him in frustration. His tongue flicked out to brush against her once, and she sucked in a breath.
“You’ve done this before?” she guessed.