Page 136 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

For her baffling refusal to quit after she’d set her mind to something. For her unshakable confidence that hid oceans of uncertainty. For the pragmatism, strength, and self-reliance that cloaked a soft heart.

Vaara had somehow seen as deep into her as she had into him, without ever having to use empathy to do it.

In his memory, she felt Vaara’s heart jump when he looked at her. He had the desire to reach out and hold her. He had an almost painful need for her—not just for her body, but her mind, her spirit, her words. She felt his yearning, his admiration, his affection. She felt how he loved the way her hands slowed and grew gentle when she touched him, and the smug quirk of her lips when she thought she’d gotten the better of him.

She saw in his memories the way she’d laughed, open and unguarded, when she’d had too much to drink, and the way her breath hitched when he came close, and how she shivered when his hands and lips ran over her skin.

She felt his reluctant pleasure at the soft touches of her mind against his, intrusive and frightening but strangely intimate and thrilling. She felt his fear of her empathy, but also his fascination with it.

And as the Crow on the street in his memory reached toward him, she felt his alarm. He had realized, at that precise moment, that he loved her. And now she was reaching toward him, and when she touched him, she’d know what he’d realized, too.

Crow opened her eyes to the present, and Vaara’s face still rested in the crook of her neck, motionless. He was oddly stiff, like he was holding his breath.

She slowly raised her hand to rest against the back of his head. She took a tight breath. “Vaara—”

“Yes?”

“I would like you to make love to me.”

He slowly pulled back, smiling in a way that sent a tiny shudder through her. “How would you like me to make love to you?”

“Must I guide you in everything?”

“No,” he said, putting a hand on her chest to push her backward onto the bed. “Only some things. Like whether you like it fast and hard, or slow and gentle. Whether you want me to pick you up or lay you down, and how many times you want me to make you come with my fingers and tongue before I use my cock.”

Crow licked her lips as he lowered himself over her. “I would like to do all of those things. Maybe not all in one night.”

He gave her a sneering grin that somehow, because it was him, managed to come off as charming. “Do you not have the stamina for it?”

“I’m not the one whose stamina we have to worry about. But since we’re walking back into your prison tomorrow and will probably end up fighting for our lives, perhaps we shouldn’t exert ourselves too much. We’ll have time to try all of it later.”

He paused. “We will?”

She brushed her fingers through his hair, tentative. “If you like.”

His smile faded a little. He lowered his head to kiss her cheek. His lips dragged over her jaw, brushing the corner of her mouth, her chin, her neck. His hands found her wrists and held them gently by her head.

“There is something I’d like,” Crow said.

“Yes?” His lips found her ear. She felt his teeth graze her.

She showed him an image of him beneath her, naked, and her sitting astride him. She leaned over him, resting her hands on his chest, head thrown back, as she took him inside her. Vaara lay still except for the convulsive thrusting of his hips—letting her take control, letting her touch him. They shared breath, bodies, flesh.

He was breathing harder when she came back to the real world. His erection pressed hard against her thigh through his pants.

“That’s what you want?” he asked.

She smirked, glancing pointedly at his crotch. “Is it whatyouwant?”

He rolled over to lay on his back.

She rested one hand over the bulge in his pants and fingered the edge of his shirt with the other. “You’re wearing too many clothes.”

“I can fix that.”

“Hurry up.”

She watched him peel off his shirt, and then his pants, and it was a struggle not to put her hands on him immediately.

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