Page 40 of Virelai's Hoard
They’d done this little dance before. She was perfectly aware of the electric tension between them, but it had all been harmless play so far. A casual brush of the fingers, unnecessary body contact during their reading lessons, small jabs here and there meant to rile each other up. But that was all it could be. If eitherof them got attached, things could get messy, and Sable didn’t want to deal with that particular sort of headache.
So she took a step back and turned away, heading for the right-hand wall of the cabin, where more sandbags lay heavily against the wall.
“I didn’t take you for a coward.”
Sable’s movements stilled–the words tugged at the knot in her stomach. Her teeth gritted. “What did you say?” she asked quietly, daring Riley to repeat herself as she looked over her shoulder.
Riley smiled that mischievous smile of hers, apparentlydelightedto repeat herself. “Isaid, I didn’t take you for a–”
In two paces, Sable crossed the distance between them. The last word caught in her mouth as she gripped Riley’s chin and crashed her lips against hers. Hard. Not gentle or careful, not the way she’d imagined it–once or twice too often. It was heat and salt and something reckless, like wind catching a flame.
Riley smirked into the kiss. As if this was what she’d wanted all along. As if Sable were the slow one, catching up to something Riley had already claimed.
“Take your fucking clothes off,” Sable growled.
An amused grin broke their kiss, and Sable leaned back, frowning. Did she misinterpret this? Was Riley just playing with her? Her hand flinched away from her chin.
“I’m sorry,” Riley said, suppressing her grin and sliding off the table to stand in front of Sable, so close to her they were almost brushing against each other as they breathed. Riley laid a hand on Sable’s chest. “But if you think you know how this is going to go… Well, you’re wrong.”
With that, she pushed, just a gentle press of her hand, and Sable looked down at Riley. Something about her had shifted, her features harder and less playful, a confidence in those hazel eyes that stole Sable’s breath away and made her pliable to thesilent request. For now. She stepped back, and Riley followed, until their feet met the sand covering the center of the room.
Riley’s hand moved to cup the side of her neck then, and she leaned in, her warm breath caressing her ear as she said softly, “Up there you might be the one ordering me around, but here? I’ll be calling the shots.”
Despite herself, Sable shivered, her eyes fluttering closed. This wasn’t how things usually went, but Riley had a knack for being unpredictable, didn’t she? It was half her charm.
A smile snuck its way to Sable’s lips. She had to admit it; she was intrigued. Perhaps letting go was exactly what she needed after today.
“Alright,” she said, opening her eyes. She relished the warmth of Riley’s palm against her neck. “How is this going to go, then?”
Riley’s eyes glinted in the flickering light of the lantern as her hand fell from her neck. Sable’s skin cooled with the loss. The other woman took a small step back, and she drew a line in the sand with her boot.
Riley pointed her chin at the line. “You’re going to kneel on this line,” she said, and a rush of warmth escaped the knot in Sable’s stomach, spreading up and across her back. Riley’s eyebrows rose. “Now.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, and it was the softness of it that made Sable’s knees give into the command.
She knelt in the sand and looked up at Riley, licking her lips as the anticipation of what would happen next made her fingertips tingle.
Riley slid a booted foot toward Sable. “Take them off for me.”
Sable swallowed, and she reached out to untie Riley’s boots and hold them still as Riley stepped out of them. Her feet were bare and smaller than Sable had expected. Those boots weren’t fitting her.
“Good.” Riley smiled, starting to untie the knot holding her trousers up. In a moment, her pants fell to the floor. Sable’s pulse quickened, hard and fast under her skin. “Now you’re going to hold me up, and you won’t stop until I tell you to stop.” Her hand came to cup Sable’s chin, drawing her gaze from Riley’s naked skin to her eyes. “Okay?”
Wordless, Sable nodded.
With little ceremony, Riley tossed her trousers to the side and stepped closer. She raised one leg up and across Sable’s shoulder, and Sable reached to wrap her arms around Riley’s thighs, holding her steady as Riley offered herself up to her.
Sable didn’t need more of an invitation than that. Looking up at her, she pressed her mouth to Riley’s heat. The lantern hadn’t shone enough light to show much, and Sable hummed in pleasant surprise as her lips met the slick wetness of pure want. It was echoed by Riley’s own breathy moan, low and barely more than a vibration in the air. With a few open-mouthed kisses, Sable coaxed Riley to trust more of her weight to Sable’s hold and relax. She barely weighed anything, but the steady pressure of the contact and the wetness coating her lips was all Sable could concentrate on, anyway.
Riley’s hand cupped her scarred cheek, guiding her movements as she slowly started to rock her hips against Sable’s mouth. Sable took it gladly, using the flat of her tongue for Riley to ride, her own breathing getting deeper as Riley’s desire coated her mouth, her chin. The moans were getting louder, and a clearer-headed Sable might’ve worried about that, except that every rock of Riley’s hips and every hitch in her breath sent heat pooling between her own legs and she really didn’t give a fuck about anything else right now. Her fingers dug in Riley’s ass as she pressed her cunt more firmly against her mouth, moaning into the heat and wetness and the sounds and smells filling the space around her.
“Sable, I-” Riley breathed shakily, a shudder going through her as Sable penetrated her with her tongue. “Fuck. Don’t fucking stop.”
Sable didn’t dream of it. Sensing the impending climax in Riley’s urgent moans and the tension in her muscles, she renewed her efforts, licking and sucking on Riley’s swollen clit until the other woman’s hastened movements halted with a strangled whimper. Sable kept going. She drank Riley up until Riley’s hand moved to her shoulder with a weak, “Stop.”
So Sable helped keep her steady as Riley unhooked her leg from across her shoulder and stepped back.
“Ah, shit.” Riley grinned, reaching out to swipe her thumb across Sable’s lower lip. She brought her thumb to her lips, and Sable swallowed as she watched Riley lick it with a playful flick of her tongue. “We should’ve done this sooner.”
With that, Riley pulled up her pants and her boots and was out of the room with a wink.
