Page 17 of Ecliptic

I crinkled my nose with a smirk. “Did I say that?”

“That’s a polite way of saying you prefer it as it was.” He grinned, a crooked smile pulling at his full lips. “I’m beginning to see you have very specific desires for my facial hair. The last time I shaved it off, you nearly punched me in the face.”

I laughed, remembering how furious I’d been when he’d gotten rid of it. “Don’t mess with perfection.”

“Spirits, how I’ve missed that laugh,” Rowen groaned, his voice a husky whisper filled with longing. Every part of his body, essence, and awareness reached for me, but he remained where he stood, fighting the urge to claim me as if it were the greatest battle he’d ever fought. “I’ve missed every part of you. Your smile, your taste, your laugh, your strong-willed spirit.”

“I’ve missed you,” I whispered, scanning every perfect line of his face and body, fighting my own silent battle.

Rowen approached me with the tenderness of a man handling a delicate yet wild creature. He removed his overcoat from my shoulders and eyed the blanket covering my body. His jaw ticked through his dark beard. “How I wish I could strip you of this and touch every inch of your skin that I uncover.” His voice was rough yet fluid, like a tumbling of unpolished stones.

“I wish that too,” I exhaled with a breathy moan when suddenly, memories of Erovos making me strip in front of him flashed through my mind, and I clenched the sheet tighter.

Rowen’s emerald eyes didn’t miss a thing as he assessed my body language. “What is it?”

“Erovos made me take off my clothes in front of him.”

With a darkening, murderous gaze, he asked, “Do you need me to override that memory?”

I nodded, grateful he knew the exact treatment that would heal me. I wanted his precise and wild love to guide me away from this darkness. I needed his hands, mouth, and tongue to bend my body and pleasure to his will. “Yes.”

“Then undress for me and only me,” he commanded, his eyes blazing with a fire that promised to both scorch and heal me. “Anytime you remove your clothing, you will think of me and no one else. Do you understand? That memory will hold no power.”

Knowing we were playing with fire, I eyed him with a hunger that wouldn’t,couldn’t, be sated tonight. I lowered the sheet over my bare shoulder, revealing my collarbone and the swell of my breast.

His eyes darkened thunderously. “Don’t toy with me, Keira. Take it off. At least let me admire what I can’t touch.”

I let the blanket tumble down my body and pool at my feet. A low groan rumbled deep within him as I stood in his full view, allowing him to drink me in. “You are so fucking breathtaking,” he said without taking his eyes off my alabaster skin.

He stepped toward me, the air pulsing between us. His breath washed over my face and chest, and he watched with satisfaction as my nipples hardened and my breasts turned heavy.

An unrestrained moan passed through my lips as he lowered his mouth to the soft flesh just under my ear. I was so sensitive that even without his touch, my body still responded to him. “Lie on the bed,” he whispered, his lips hovering painfully over my skin as he trailed a breath down to my pebbled nipple.

Coming out of my trance, I asked, “While you clean?”

He chuckled. “I said I would do that while you rest. Rightnow, I have other plans for you. I need your scent back in my sheets.”

“How?” I asked, gesturing to the distance between us.

“I don’t have to touch you to make you come, Keira.”

My brows furrowed in confusion.

He chuckled again. This time, darker, deeper. Depraved. “Your hands will do my bidding,” he said as he stalked toward me, forcing me back until my legs hit the bed.

Realization dawned on me as warmth pooled between my thighs. “Oh,” I said as I lowered onto the sheets without breaking eye contact. I’d never done anything like this before, but my aching body begged me to try. “I might be bad at this.”

“That’s impossible,” he said, his gaze pinning me to the sheets. “Just do as I say. I want to watch as my words make you unravel. Now, lie back and run your hands along your body.”

His voice radiated through me as I laid down and traced my body with my fingertips. I watched his eyes taking in every inch of me, leaving no part of my skin uncharted.

All his intense focus was centered on me. It was intoxicating.

I arched my back as I drowned in the power of commanding such a formidable warrior. My undoing was the only thing that could claim his complete and utter attention.

“My hands are at your perfect breasts,” he said, and my fingers found and pinched my nipples. “Good girl,” he praised, his voice a tortured gravel.

“More,” I moaned.

---