Page 52 of The Withering Dawn
Inching a little closer, she gathered the hem of my shirt and gradually pulled it upward, lifting the fabric off me until I raised my arms and removed it the rest of the way on my own. Her gentle hands were on me before I even dropped my blouse to the floor, slowly studying and tracing the contours of my stomach. The sparse amountof hair on my chest. The small scars scattered across my front and the still-tender injury on my shoulder.
With every movement of her fingers, my body craved her more and more. With every miniscule change in her curious features, my heart beat a little faster.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
Her hands moved from my chest to my arms, leaving no part of me untouched. When she began to circle around to my back, the way her nimble fingers skated across my shoulders was careful and considerate, especially when she traced the mangled “A” that had been cut into my skin so long ago, a reminder that I was viewed as a possession once. A thing to be branded and owned.
Never had I allowed anyone to touch me with such freedom and never had anyone looked upon me like I was the most fascinating thing in the world.
No matter where Aeris moved, her touch never left me. She circled back around, her eyes meeting mine again, but she never filled the silence with questions. Anything she wanted to ask was asked through her fleeting glances and I answered them the same way.
Lifting one of my hands, she examined every ring on my fingers, slowly pulling them off one by one and setting them on my desk. Then she traced the lines of my palms down to my fingertips and something told me that she was memorizing it all. She moved to my other hand, doing the same thing and removing my jewelry before she took in every scar on my forearms. Every mark. Then her hands were on my stomach again, slowly descending to the thick leather belt around my hips. When she got to the buckle, she glanced up at me with another silent question.
My cock stirred again as I kicked off my boots, keeping her gaze.
“Explore as you wish,” I whispered.
Her throat bobbed at the implication as she swallowed her nerves, pulling my belt out of the buckle. As soon as it popped loose, my own hesitation came and went like a sudden breath. I’d not been undressedby someone else in a long time. No one had ever been allowed free reign of my body.
No one had ever been in control since…
Were Aeris anyone else, my instincts would have her on her stomach beneath me as she screamed into a pillow. I bit back that urge, taking a long, deep breath as I watched her fingers gently pull at the laces of my breaches.
“You’re nervous,” she muttered, pausing briefly. She looked up at me, her eyes instantly soothing any amount of uncertainty I was feeling.
“Are you?” I asked.
“Perhaps. But… in a good way.”
The corner of my mouth lifted at that. “Then keep going.”
Keeping her eyes on me, she moved a little closer until her chest was almost pressed to mine, one hand slipping past the cotton of my pants. She lifted her chin as if to kiss me, but instead she lingered there, her lips feathering across mine as her fingers coiled around the hard length of my cock. I sucked in a slow, ragged breath as she moved her hand down, her thumb smoothing over the tip and making me shiver.
“Have you ever touched a man, muñequita?” I whispered.
She shook her head, sliding her fist to my base before gradually turning her palm to cup me.
I let out my breath on a trembling sigh and caught her wrist. “Any more of that and this will be over too soon.”
I stepped away from her, pushing my breeches down until I could step out of them. Aeris paused, her gaze soaking in every inch of me but paying particular attention to my cock standing eagerly between my thighs.
She hung her hands at her sides, clutching her skirts as if to try and keep them to herself and I fucking loved that. I grabbed the end of the string lacing the front of her dress and slowly tugged, watching her expression for any other wordless tells she might have.
I had loosened her garments enough for the fabric to slide right off her and gather around her ankles. Her red hair hung over her shoulders,partially covering her small breasts and making her look as enchanting as a goddess or a nymph who’d emerged straight from an old painting. I took a moment to admire her beauty in the faint golden light of the candles as I slowly began to circle her the way she had me. I ran my fingers up her bare arms and across the valley of her back, moving all her hair over one shoulder to expose her neck.
“Choose a word,” I said.
“A word?”
“Something you will say if you want me to stop.”
“I don’t want you to stop.”
“You don’t know that yet. My first time with a woman, I wanted her to stop. I didn’t know how to say it. Let me just say that it was good Denham paid her well.”
“Then why would I not just say to stop?”
A smile teased my lips. “Because sometimes we lie to ourselves. Now choose a word. For me if not for yourself.”
