Page 234 of Halfblood Deceived

He nodded. “My pleasure. Now, I know Sebastian gave you one of these already, but you can never have too many.” He placed thin bracelets made of the most delicate silver metal Aella had ever seen around both of her wrists. “They summon a sword each.”

“I love them,” Aella said, understanding why he had looked irritated at Sebastian’s gift.

“I’m glad,” Zeydan smiled, wrapping a lock of her hair around his finger. “You cut your hair.”

“Only a bit.” She bit down on a satisfied smile. “I’m surprised you noticed.”

“You are not the only one with a hair obsession,” Zeydan said, lifting the strand to his nose and inhaling.

Aella gulped. “You like my hair?”

“Yes, it looks like blood and fire all at once.” His eyes turned intense, almost hungry. “It suits you, Amazon.”

“I think you forgot one gift,” Aella said.

He blinked. “Did I?”

Aella nodded, her pulse racing with sweet anticipation. “A kiss.”

Zeydan’s smile was slow and utterly ruinous. “My bad. I’ll make it right then.”

He wrapped his hands around her waist, gently pulling her against his solid, warm body. Then he kissed her.

Aella clung to his broad shoulders, deepening the kiss, desperate to feel his beating heart against hers. The press of the firm, muscular planes of his chest against her breasts was achingly enticing. She was wearing a bra, but it wasn’t padded and the three layers of clothes separating them suddenly felt like too much and too little. Her nipples hardened with the combination of chilly air and body heat. Aella moaned into Zeydan’s mouth.

He hummed in delight and slid one hand from her waist to her hip. His thumb drew slow circles over a sensitive stretch of skin next to her navel. Aella’s addled brain supplied her with phantom sensations of how his fingers would feel between her legs.

She felt the soft, now familiar throb down low and pressed her thighs closer, but that was worse. She was slick with desire, something that had never happened before she met Zeydan. Something that she had tentatively explored recently in the privacy of her dark room with her head full of memories of Zeydan’s lips on hers.

Zeydan trapped her lower lip between his teeth and then licked it. His hand moved up her waist and caressed the sensitive skin under her breast. Then he did something with his tongue that felt almost indecent.

A shiver shook her whole body. The need for friction increased. Her hips pushed automatically against nothing.

Zeydan noticed.

He lost a breath of surprise and then inhaled deeply. A rumbly sound reverberated in his throat. He held Aella’s gaze as he slid one hand under the skirt of her dress, brushing her bare thigh with his hot fingers.

Aella moaned.

“Tell me what you need,” Zeydan said.

Aella bit her lip and placed her forehead against his shoulder, embarrassed. “I can’t. I’ve never…”

She trailed off, unable to finish that sentence, unwilling to ruin their beautiful moment with her past.

“If you can’t tell me, you can show me,” Zeydan suggested.

Aella gripped fistfuls of his shirt. She felt inadequate and prudish, but didn’t know how to stop being like that.

“How about if I tell you what I want, then?” Zeydan asked.

Nervousness and desire speeding her pulse further, Aella nodded.

“I want to put my hand between your beautiful legs and caress you until you come for me,” Zeydan said, his voice low, scratchy, and full of hunger. “Would you like that, Aella?”

She nodded.

Zeydan slid his hand a few inches higher. “Then look at me, Amazon. And say ‘yes.’”

---