Page 25 of The Gargoyle's Gift
“The rift has been mended, I daresay. And I’m very pleased to see that look on your face for real, make no mistake. But I don’t want to talk about him right now. Not after you grabbed my face like that.”
“What do you want to talk about?” I asked, but my words disappeared into breath as he raised a hand, running his fingers down my cheek, across my jaw. He used his thumb to pluck at my bottom lip, his eyes slipping closed as he released a heavy breath.
“I should go,” he whispered.
I said nothing and literally bit my tongue so I wouldn’t beg him not to. My chest ached to the point of pain. I wanted him to touch me more. To kiss me, to seal this thing between us, to make it real.
“Tell me to go, Lovette.”
“I wouldn’t have invited you in if I wanted that. And I am proud of you, Gaius.”
He groaned, the sound wounded and harsh. Then several things happened at once, my spinning head and pounding heart too slow to respond until it was done. His arms slid around my waist and he leaned back, which left him reclined across the sofa cushions with me astride his lap, a glazed look in his eyes and a very obvious need pulsing between us.
Especially because there was nothing under my tunic.
Chapter 13
Lovette
“Gaius,” I breathed. The ache in my chest and the sudden throb between my thighs was so intense I worried I might go mad soon. My center pressed against his hard length through his trousers, no room to spare for even the slightest bit of shame. I couldn’t fathom ignoring the demands of the bond for many months if it always felt like this, let alone years.
“I shouldn’t, but I just need to feel you,” he said, the words a whisper against my throat. The pads of his fingers ran along my thighs, the sensitive skin on the back of my knees. “How are you so soft?”
My eyes slipped closed at the tingly sensations his touch provided. Every place his fingers brushed turned to liquid fire. I muttered something, but I didn’t even know if they were real words since my mind was so scrambled. I was feverish, my eyes wouldn’t focus, and my throat was dry. There was nothing I could do to slow my heartbeat down and nothing I wanted more than for him to continue the delicate torture he was putting me through.
Suddenly he stopped. I opened my eyes and focused long enough to see him frowning, his hands loosely in front of his chest as he examined them.
“My hands. Are they too rough? The callouses…”
I shook my head. “No.” Doubt creased his forehead. I reached out a hand, grasping his fingers in mine, pressing them to my cheek. “I like the way your hands feel on me.”
A shuddered breath rattled through him as he stared into my eyes. After a long moment, he found whatever he’d been looking for and allowed his fingers to venture further up my body. He adjusted the way I was sitting so I was upright before moving his warm palms along my sides, then to the soft expanse of my belly. I jerked when he hit a sensitive area, and he deepened the touch, made it more intentional as he slid his fingers along the bones of my hips. I felt the rasp of his skin more intensely in the little grooves there, the ones I’d gotten the summer I grew half a foot.
His breath slid along my skin as he sat up and reversed our positions so that he was on top. My tunic became fisted in his hands as he drew it up my body and over my head, twisting it so that it knotted around my wrists. He gasped, finding I wore nothing underneath. I’d been in my own home and ready for bed, after all. “Little Dove, you are a wonder. Truly a gift.” He exhaled slowly through his nose, as though grounding himself before continuing. “This leaves me one-handed for a bit, but I think that’s fine, yes? I will be forced to take my time discovering every inch of you. Are you alright?” He stared down at me, eyes glassy, perhaps feeling as drunk on me as I was on his touch.
“Yes. Please.”
He grumbled again, low in his chest, before devouring my mouth in a kiss that left no doubt he’d finally gotten over his worry about our differences. His lips mapped mine slowly, his tongue teasing along the seam, requesting entrance. I sighed outas the back of his fingers brushed along the side of my breast, giving him exactly what he wanted.
Gaius was like a starved man, feasting on my breath, my taste. His hand rose up to cradle my cheek, the bulk of his body pressing mine into the cushions as his fingers twisted in the shirt holding my hands above my head. The noises he made only added to the flames burning bright within my veins, and every small groan left my thighs more clenched as I sought some kind of relief from the pressure between them.
I gasped when he finally released my mouth, his lips finding my collarbone, my shoulder, the slope of my breast. “Gaius.”
“Tell me to stop, Lovette.” His voice was strained.
“No. Never.”
He growled then, a tortured, fierce noise. He paused to breathe before he nipped a trail down my throat. His hot breath fanned along my skin, leaving me shivering. Abruptly, he grabbed me up and carried me into my bedroom, dropping me onto the mattress before caging me in with his arms, his hands on either side of my head. “That’s better.”
He continued his exploration at a torturously slow pace, returning my hands to their raised position above my head every time they strayed to tangle in his hair, eventually leaving one hand around both of my wrists so I had no other choice.
His body was a study in strength, every part of him made of sculpted muscle that twitched at the smallest movement. I ached to run my palms down his chest, the ripples of his stomach. I wanted to see each of the silver scars his flesh was decorated in up close and personal, taste the story of his life with my mouth.
Instead, I had to survive the blissful torture of him doing the exact same thing to me. And he was taking his sweet time about it.
“Gaius.” I couldn't keep the whine out of my tone, no matter how hard I tried.
Finally, he cupped my breast in his palm, lowering his hot mouth around the peak. I made a noise that was somewhere between pain and pleasure as he sucked. Time ceased to exist as he applied the same treatment on the other side, alternating the two for what seemed like ages before eventually drifting down my body with his tongue and teeth.
