Page 31 of Trial of Three
Heat touches my cheeks as River catches me watching. Likely thinking me an idiot for enjoying the show instead of getting on with things. “Right,” I mutter as I rise. Turning my back to him, I reach for my shirt quickly, trying to make up for lost time. We don’t have a lot of that. “Sorry.”
Attacking the shift first, I pull on the fabric. Once. Twice.Stars.Twice my size, my uniform tunic usually feels like a bedsheet—yet the one time I need to remove it expeditiously, the thing grows vines for sleeves, which wrap tighter around my wrists the harder I try to pull them off. My jaw clenches, the humiliation in my throat somehow making my hands work even worse.
I feel River’s warmth behind me, his earthy scent and power caressing my skin. Wordlessly, the male takes hold of my hands, calming them. That done, he brushes his wide palms along my body, his touch practical but gentle. Finding the hem, he pulls my tunic over my head with a great deal more grace than I was managing.
Cool air brushes my skin, but I let myself think about none of it as I reach for my chest wrap.
“Why don’t I do that,” River says, his voice so carefully controlled to conceal reproach that I flush again. “At the rate you’re going, you just might strangle yourself with the cloth.”
Right. I stand still, begging the stars to open a chasm in the floor beneath me. Instead, they grant me only the efficient feel of River’s hands as he removes the rest of my clothes and, sliding his arms beneath me, lifts my naked body onto the bed. Practical. Controlled. Kind. The perfect commander, simply doing his duty to protect his quint.
River hovers over me and runs his gaze down my body, stumbling on my peaked nipples. His breath catches, his hands fisting in the sheets. “I’ll—is there anything specific you enjoy to prepare?”
Breathe,I order myself, the proximity of River’s body already making me throb with need. Prepare. I think I’ve been prepared for River from the moment I shared his saddle on our ride through Mystwood—at least my body was. My mind... That is another matter. Though thoughts are quickly losing all meaning. Blinking at River, I realize that he still awaits an answer and I feel my sex tingle in spite of itself.
I meet his eyes, the wall inside them too high and thick for me to see through. But as my stomach tightens with hurt, I discover a new desire burning in my core. This coupling, it isn’t something River is going to dotome. It will be something we do together. Drawing a shallow breath, I run my palms over River’s arms, his shoulders. His chest, tight with a held breath as he braces himself over me on outstretched arms.
Tense, hard muscles holding so still for my exploration that I wonder whether the male isn’t made of stone. Only the sight of his cock, large, glistening, and twitching with every heartbeat, gives away that River is aware of my touch.
In spite of myself, I feel my gaze rivet to the twitches. To the small bead of moisture slipping from the tip of River’s cock and snaking down along the velvety head, begging to be lapped off. My own sex, somehow finding the pattern of River’s throbs, clenches in an uncomfortable harmony.
Pulling my eyes away from River’s cock, I slide my hands along his abdomen, his muscled thighs. Cupping his balls, I stroke the velvet-smooth shaft with my other hand. His eyes shudder closed for one brief moment, then open with a snap as if nothing happened. “Are you ready?” I ask. My voice is hoarse, my lips begging to make contact with his.
“Yes,” River says.
Yes.The word echoes through me, filling a longing that I thought would remain a dream forever. Except that in my dream, River said yes for pleasure, not prudence.
I wait for something more from him, for a flash of need or desire. For anything but those neutral gray eyes, that impenetrable wall that will not let me through.
Nothing.
I swallow. “All right, then,” I say after a moment, surprised by my steady voice. “I’m ready too.”
The male nods and lifts one arm off the bed, spreading open my legs with a warm palm. I whimper softly as my thighs separate with a soft, wetplop.
Without another word, River cups my backside, raising it to a perfect angle before slowly sliding himself inside.
21
Lera
Igasp.
The size of him stretching my opening, the sudden fullness inside me, makes my nerves sing. River’s eyes flicker, the only sign he gives of feeling anything. He stills at once, giving me time to get used to the length of him. To the girth that still sends a shiver of want through my thoughts.
“Are you all right, Leralynn?” he asks, his voice calm, in control.
No. I’m not. I want to shatter that damn control. For River to move, to grip my shoulders and fill my mouth with his tongue while his cock takes me to the end of pleasure. I want to see the blazing thunder in his eyes. Lifting my head, I brush my lips over his, my heart stilling as I wait for a response.
River tenses, beyond what I already thought possible. When I pull back to study his eyes, I find him staring at the wall above my head. For all the world, I swear he is counting his breaths.
My chest clenches, a stinging bitterness coating my tongue and eyes. “You can start,” I say finally, the words a dull surrender.
With a nod of acknowledgement, River begins to move. A steady and rhythmicthrust, thrust, thrustthat strikes just right deep inside me. My sex tightens around him, swelling with a zing of need at each impact. My breath quickens, the spot River’s cock pounds shouting its agony and pleasure through my core. My hips undulate hungrily, meeting his stroking pelvis, demanding and begging it to do more. Harder. Faster.
Stars. My toes curl, my struggles to rein in my own need doing nothing.Thrust, thrust, thrust.
Each plunge of him into me is a surge of sensation, a rising wave that halts a breath short of breaking and recedes for a moment before rising again with the next thrust. My body tightens, my breaths ragged as my legs wrap greedily around River’s waist.
