Page 65 of Thief of Roses
“Especially with your birthing hips.”
He expelled a long-held breath and met her gaze to determine the veracity of her words.He struggled with the belief that anyone could want him.After all, his nighttime visitations over the last centuries consisted of being told that he should be grateful for those since that was all he could ever expect.But there were no lies in Rivani.The warmth of love flooded back into him with the abatement of his fears and he bit his tongue to keep from putting words to it.It mattered little if they coupled or not.He longed to make Rivani happy with his body, with his devotion, with his worship, with anything of him she would have.
Rivani crossed over to him, pulling her top off as she made her way.Her palms melded against his chest.She stroked the fur and twined her fingers in the curls at his chest.
“You set the pace, Baró,” she told him.“If something frightens you or makes you hesitate or if you find that it is not pleasant to you, you must tell me.We will stop or resume something that you enjoyed.”She stood up on the tips of her toes and kissed the underside of his chin.“If I touch you in a way that you do not like, you must tell me that too.”
He shivered under her touch, so different than what he had known.He hesitantly laid his hands on her shoulders, waiting for her to request that he not touch her.That request never came.
“My hands are rough.I am sorry.”
Her sigh became a purr.“Long have I been desiring to feel them do more than just hold me at night, although that too is a pleasure I will not forgo.”
He had almost forgotten what to do with a woman.The Magic, even when he submitted and serviced, did not respond like a woman who wanted him.It responded coldly, like he was a plaything performing a routine obligation.The display of affection resurfaced old memories of women he had seduced and of women who had seduced him, people he had forgotten until a pleasant touch or whispered breath against his skin revived them.He slid his hands down her arms and then moved them over her back, running the tips of his claws down her shoulder blades which rewarded him with shivers and cooing.His body was strange even to him, but if it could produce pleasure and delight for Rivani, then it was a good body no matter how strange.
She pressed her body close against him, murmuring in contentment and pleasure.In his arms she felt like a girl, although compared to most women, she would have been tall.He thought of a few other choice descriptors that may have been apt and would have been considered complimentary in his circles when he was part of the world, but he wasn’t so certain they would be received as well now.While slender, it was the leanness of work without consistent and sufficient nourishment, although she had filled out a little in the time that she had been at the fortress.She had always had muscle but had grown according to her proportions.He might, in hunting terms, have called her this side of gamey, although he never would have told her that either.
His hands slid down her back as he stepped away from her and lowered himself to his knees so that he was at a more accessible height.He wanted kisses the like of which she had bestowed upon him not so long ago, hands over his face and body with the passion she claimed, the gentle affection that had been so long denied him.He reached back out to put his arms around her once more and guide her closer to him, pressing her belly against his chest.She slid her skirt down over her hips and let it puddle around her ankles, then carded her hands through his curled fur.
“Can you lie down, Baró?”She leaned down to kiss his mouth.
He paused and studied the pallet he had made up for them.“Not on my back, not since it changed.I could prop up though.”He caught his teeth in his lip while he mentally configured the layout he would need.
Rivani stalled him with another kiss.“My beautiful Baró,” she murmured against his mouth before she released him.
He gathered enough of their furs and blankets to make it similar to the nest Rivani had originally created for herself, and with so much material, he constructed a prop against the chaise to accommodate the curvature of his back.It would not be ideal for sleeping, but it would suit their current purposes.With Rivani’s encouragement, he lay back on the fur and blanket prop and braced himself for whatever came.His heart raced and he cursed himself for a fool, knowing there was no reason to fear Rivani or anything that they had implied doing for each other.
In the dramatic shadows of the fire, Rivani shone like an angel, the golden light ablaze at her back, her statuesque build silhouetted against the firelight.Her front resolved as she approached him, her long braid draped over the front of her shoulder.She positioned herself over him, straddling him, and gently settled herself atop his hips.She let her hands go back to exploring his chest, smoothing down the fur and tracing the lines of his scars with the tips of her fingers.She bent down and kissed a scar that crossed above his nipple.“Let me know if you feel at all uncomfortable, Baró.I will not be offended.”
He shivered under the brush of her lips.“I am uncomfortable, but,” when she moved away, he grasped her shoulder, “not in a bad way.”He almost told her of his nighttime encounters, that he had not been a willing participant in any act like this since he was a man.But he remained silent, refusing to have his time with Rivani tainted.He retrieved the end of her braid from his chest.“May I undo your hair?”
She pressed her hands back to his chest and bent to kiss his mouth.“Please.”
He used his claws to pick at the ribbon that held the end of her braid and then began sliding his claw through the plait to loosen her hair, letting it free in a long wavy cascade.
“If I do nothing with it, my hair curls like yours,” Rivani explained, “at least how yours used to, but I keep it braided so that it does not become a hopeless tangle.”
“I think your hair is beautiful,” he assured her, “tangled, braided, loose.”He caught his lip with his teeth.Their compromising positions far exceeded in scandalousness such an expression of appreciation, but he still expected his advances to be spurned.He took a deep breath, trying to fight past the lump in his throat.He floundered like a green youth who had never courted a woman, let alone coupled with one.“I think everything about you is beautiful.”
Rivani paused for a moment to take in his declaration.Then she buried her face in his shoulder and shook with uproarious laughter.
“Oh, Baró, thank you,” she said through her outburst, “but I am so plain and square, no one else has ever thought me so!”
Then that, at least to his mind, made them equally matched in bias.If he thought her beautiful and she assured him that she was not, what of her telling him that he was?More people would agree with him than with her.
“Does that matter so much?”He asked.“You think me beautiful and though I see it not, I accept that you see it.I think you are beautiful, and though you tell me that no one else would agree, can you not accept that such is what I see?My eyes have lost so much of their vision, but as of yet, I have not been deprived of knowing when a beautiful woman is in my company.”
“I am sure that you have known many,” Rivani teased.“That you would put me in any category with such amuses me beyond words.”She kissed the underside of his chin and dotted little kisses along his jaw.“Could you imagine what your family would say if they knew who you took to your bed now?”
“Technically we’re not in bed,” he corrected.“And my family instructed me on whom to seduce.”
That caused Rivani to draw back and tilt her head.
“Really?A young handsome prince only bedding those he must?That doesn’t sound right.”
He ran his claws through her hair.
“There’s a difference between privilege and freedom.For someone with so much status, I had no power.I lived at the pleasure of the crown.”
