Page 69 of The Iron Dagger
Hara surprised him by breaking into a laugh. “I’m genuinely shocked. Although now that I think of it, your motherhas not been letting up in her quest to nudge us together. Perhaps she thinks she is helping you in your seduction.”
Gideon made a face. “Well, it is having the opposite effect. Knowing my parents are scheming for me to woo you and bed you so that you’ll give up your secrets is quite dampening my mood.”
“I would like to see you try to seduce me. How would you go about it?” asked Hara, an absurdly adorable smile lighting up her face. Apparently Gideondidlike smiley women with wide, toothy grins.
“If you were a normal woman, I’d do all the usual things, like a boat ride on the Morais at night when the arctic lights lit up the sky,” he said. “Maybe I’d hide a well-placed love note for you to discover in my pocket—by accident, of course.”
“Of course,” she said with a nod.
He shrugged. “But you are a degenerate, like me. So I’d have to think up something bad. Really naughty.”
Hara furrowed her brows and frowned at him, and he hastily amended his statement. “Just a little degenerate. You were technically an accomplice in robbery.”
Hara folded her arms. “How easily you twist the truth. Sarai was right when she called your family conniving.”
“Did she really?” laughed Gideon. “She must be disgusted with us. Maybe I don’t want you to become friends with my past paramours. Anyway, you were asking how I would seduce you.”
“I can tell you what would work,” said Hara, and she moved closer on the settee. “If you entered into a fighting match.”
Gideon was completely bewildered. Hara kept surprising him this evening; perhaps he did not know her as well as he thought. Hara the Hedgewitch, sport enthusiast?
“You don’t strike me as someone who enjoys boxing,” he said.
“I like watching you fight,” she said, and blood rushed below his waist as she lightly bit her lip. She had moved even closer, the soft light of the fire flickering over her long hair, draped over her shoulder. “In a match, your shirt would be off.”
“Youarea degenerate. What wicked thoughts you have,” said Gideon, trying desperately to keep his voice from cracking up an octave. Why did she make him feel like he was an inexperienced lad?
Hot blood was rapidly gathering in his groin, making it very difficult to concentrate on anything other than her catlike eyes flicking to his mouth.
He was about to tease her, the words on his lips, when Gideon felt her mouth stoppering any further attempts at conversation.
She gave him soft, sipping kisses, gently tugging his lips in invitation. The erection straining against his leg was now at full attention, begging for friction. These sweet, teasing kisses were making him burn. He had to exercise every fiber of self control to suppress his eagerness, trying not to reveal the colossal craving that he’d been suppressing for weeks. For if she knew how deeply he longed for her, how often his thoughts were consumed by her, she would surely shy away.
She likes me.
The thought repeated in his head as her soft lips moved over his, and he felt foolish for the relief those simple words brought. They filled up every doubt and desire that had plagued him. Her kisses were warm reassurance, and he wanted this moment to last, to stretch into infinity. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and lose himself in her heat, to snare his fingers through her hair and drown in her scent. He’d lay her down on this damnably small settee and—
If she wanted to give him slow sweetness, that was what he would take. He cradled the side of her face, his fingers moving into the nape of her neck to fasten into her hair. Gently, carefully.
Hara tipped her head back and opened her mouth to him, letting out a soft whimper. The sound made him lightheaded, and he answered with a groan. He could not remember the last time he had kissed someone like this, with such delicate attention. There was something to be said for sweet, tender intimacies.
Then Hara closed the short distance between them and climbed into his lap, her thighs resting on his.
Gideon swallowed loudly. Not so sweet after all.
His hands moved of their own accord, coming to fasten around her waist as she cradled his jaw, making him crane his neck to kiss her. He slid his hands down her waist where they flared over her spread hips, and he couldn’t stop the sound that escaped him.
The solid weight of her directly over his cock was wonderfully torturous, but then she began to move her hips. Back and forth she slid, and he gripped her harder, urging her. She made needy little sounds against his neck as she clung to him, which he could feel as well as hear.
Gods she was exquisite. He had imagined what she would be like, predicting that she would need plenty of coaxing to warm up, but the way she was using him to get off sent an unexpected thrill through his blood.
Then he felt her hand sliding over the front of his trousers.
A very important piece of new information thunked into his brain: Hara was not shy.
Thought fled as she felt along the hard length of him, and Gideon found it difficult to breathe when she slipped her handbeneath his waistband. It was warm and softer than his own hand, but the pleasure that she began to wring from him made him tip his head back.
He managed to bring a hand up to cup her face, his thumb resting across her plush lips. She opened her mouth and took it inside, and Gideon groaned as she sucked. The warm wetness of her mouth combined with the glorious movement of her hand created a paralyzing pleasure. The sight of her lips wrapped around his thumb was so sensual that Gideon stared through half-lidded eyes, transfixed.
