Page 23 of Lera of Lunos
A sharp pain scatters my pleasure and I flinch, clamping my palm over the livid bruises on my shoulder.Deep breath.I repeat the instruction to myself in hopes of my lungs obeying, while the wakened flesh screams its protest.
Crouching in front of me, Tye strokes my hair. “I know it hurts,” he whispers, making no motion to cover his own stab wound. “Let me see the damage.”
“I’m all right.” I swallow, trying to hide the pain.
“Aye, well, I was planning on taking your shirt off either way.” He smiles roguishly, but his emerald eyes betray his worry. Without waiting for a response, the male reaches forward to unbutton my tunic, working the silver clasps apart one by one. If his shoulder screams at him for it, none of it shows in the strong lines of his focused face. His mussed hair stands up in fiery tufts, and I run my good hand through it as he works, making his breath come slightly faster.
Click. Click. Click.
My own breath stalls as Tye opens the last clasp and pushes the wet fabric off my shoulders, pressing a kiss to a scratch at the base of my collarbone, the side of my neck, the top of my ribs. His hands slide down my arms, massaging the aching muscles until I remember how to breathe. When my body finally relaxes beneath his gentle touch, Tye unwinds my chest wrap to let my breasts tumble free against the burbling water.
Cupping a breast in each hand, slowly, almost reverently, Tye looks into my eyes, his own burning with intensity. So different from the other times he’s touched me.
I’m breathless, almost nervous. After wanting him for so long, I’m still marveling at the realization that Tye has wanted me too. All this time. That it was the depth—not lack—of his feelings for me that kept the male away.
“May I take your mind off the pain?” he asks, his thumbs brushing along my peaked nipples.
Zings of sensation shoot from my breasts all the way to my toes. I swallow, my mouth suddenly dry despite the salt water and the steam. My mind fights for clarity against the insistent throbbing in my sex and loses.
“Was that a yes?” Tye murmurs.
“What was the question?”
“This.” Tye’s lips descend upon mine, his tongue deftly slipping into my mouth and coaxing my own into a deep, consuming kiss that has me moaning against his mouth. His scent surrounds me, his delicious taste and warm lips. With the next heartbeat, the male’s hand slides to tangle in my hair, his grip tightening to the edge of pain, which somehow magnifies the pleasure of his thumb stroking my nipple. I can’t move, as if held in shackles by some new brand of magic, unable to think beyond my growing need.
I melt into Tye, my hips pressing forward in search of his hardness. My mind numbing to all thought but the gripping tension coiling through my body. I rake my hand across Tye’s muscled back and he growls, his kiss deepening with voracious hunger. His tongue rolls over mine, no longer sweet or playful but carnal enough to wake each of my nerves. To steal my breath.
This time, when Tye releases me, my swollen lips tingling from the loss of his, I’m so engulfed in the haze of his essence that Tye grips my shoulders just to keep me from toppling over. Stars. The things this male can do with a kiss alone...
I shake myself back to reality. Rub my face. Inhale the mix of cold air and warm steam. Forcing my mind beyond my throbbing sex takes more effort than any sparring match with Coal, but once I manage, I remember where we are. How we got here.
“Your shoulder.” I reach out to stroke Tye’s arm. The cut beside his clavicle looks clean, but his tightly coiled muscles and the memory of my blade slicing into flesh speak the truth. I let the malecarryme here. “You are hurt.”
Tye barely seems to hear me, his intense eyes glazed with the same need that throbs inside me. “Mmm. I forgot about that.”
“Liar.”
Instead of answering, Tye lifts me to my feet and makes efficient work of ridding me of my trousers. His own follow a moment later, and as much as I’d like to help, I can’t take my eyes off the efficiency of his motions, the way his body engages only the muscles it must and not a single fiber more.
“Not a liar,” Tye murmurs into my ear, his soft breath warm and tickling. “A male. One with something else on his mind.”
And not only on his mind, I note from the hardness bumping against me, its velvety head impossibly large and opinionated.
“Can I touch you?” I ask, cringing at the awkwardness of my own words.
Instead of laughing, Tye turns us around and sits on my old underwater ledge. His shaft full and high, he lifts me by my hips and settles me carefully atop him. With my opening just over his cock, I feel every full inch of him as I slide down, my tightness stretching to accommodate his size. I moan and Tye’s eyes shudder in response. The male’s strong hands dig into my hips, guiding them, controlling the impaling descent. An inch. Two. Three. The fullness inside me throbs and I clench around him, even as I know there is more. More than I can possibly take inside.
16
Lera
When I let out a shaky breath, Tye’s finger opens my folds and traces the sensitive tissues around my apex, teasing the hood with leisurely strokes that send spasms along my thighs.
His fullness throbs, stretching me so insistently that I whimper as the head of his cock conquers every ridge inside me, sending a new wave of need with eachbump, bump, bump.When my weight finally settles on Tye’s lap, his cock alive and pulsing, my breath catches.
For a moment, our gazes meet and hold. I notice new specks of silver in Tye’s brilliant green eyes, new freckles across his cheekbones. A tiny scar over his lip that I pull into my mouth, eliciting a soft growl in his chest.
Tye’s chest rises and falls with rapid breaths as he slides his hands from my hips to my breasts, trapping them in his large, callused palms. His thumbs stroke my sensitive nipples before his mouth closes over the left one, suckling it to a hard point. When I gasp, Tye adds a nip to his assault before attending similarly to my right breast, stoking the fire in my core until it is nearly impossible to bear.
