If they had, it would have saved a lot of lives and stopped a lot of heartache, but… “Do you really think they should have?”
“Depends on the day. Right now, no.” He leaned forward. “You’re finished with your supper?”
I nodded.
“Will you join me in my chambers, then?”
My heart immediately sped up at what awaited in the next several minutes. Something did. I knew this because it felt as if something shifted between us. That there had been a change. There had to be because I didn’t argue with him or myself. I rose and went into the bathing chamber to take care of my personal needs and brush my teeth. I was inexplicably nervous as I walked out and saw him waiting by the adjoining door, the bottle of wine from supper in his hand.
My heart started tripping all over the place for some silly reason as he closed the door behind me and followed me into his chamber. It was only then that I remembered I wore nothing but the tiny piece of undergarment under the robe.
Oh, dear.
Nyktos offered me the bottle of wine as he eased past. I shook my head, deciding that I’d had more than enough. I sat on the edge of the bed, fingers fiddling with the tiny buttons on the robe as he excused himself and disappeared into the bathing chamber. All I managed to do while he was gone was scoot back a foot or so and tuck my legs under the hem of the robe. Then Nyktos returned.
Shirtless. The buttons of his leathers undone.
Neither of those two things helped with the nervousness I felt as I watched him walk toward me, the hair against his cheek and the bronze flesh of his neck and upper chest damp.
He sat before me. “May I?”
Stomach joining the flipping and flopping of my heart, I nodded.
Like the night before, he tucked the braid between his thumb and pointer finger and slowly, almost methodically, ran his fingers down it. I bit the inside of my lip as the back of his hand grazed the swell of my breast. I could barely feel his touch through the thicker robe, but a shiver still skated through me.
Nyktos unwound the hair band, slipping it onto his wrist. Then he set about undoing the braid and didn’t speak until he’d finished. “I’ve been thinking,” he said, thick lashes lowering as he drew the length of my hair over my shoulder. “About the demands you made.”
“I wouldn’t say they were demands.” I watched him draw his fingers through my hair.
“What would you call them?”
“Gentle requests.”
Nyktos laughed roughly. “Which part was gentle, Sera? The kicking me, or the holding your dagger to my throat?”
“The part where I didn’t hurt you.”
One side of his lips curved up. “There was one demand you didn’t make.”
“Which one was that?”
He spun one of my curls around his finger. “The offer you made in my office.”
My heart immediately began its rapid beating.
“That wasn’t part of your demands.”
“But it was.” I took a breath.
“Really?” He unwound the curl, letting it lay against my chest. “I’m positive I wouldn’t have forgotten you bringing that up.”
I dragged my teeth over my lower lip as he picked up another piece of hair. “The offer was a part of my request to be of help.”
Lashes lifted, and quicksilver eyes locked onto mine.
“In whatever way I’m needed,” I reminded him, my blood warming.
His lips parted, revealing a hint of his fangs. “That’s good to know.” His voice was rougher, harder. “So, that offer you made? Pleasure for the sake of pleasure? It still stands?”
A mix of emotions swirled through me as my hands fell to the bed. Sweet anticipation and blade-sharp desire crashed into a wild sort of anticipation that carried just the faintest twinge of something I couldn’t name or place, but I said, “Yes.”
Wisps of eather bled out from behind his pupils, lashing his irises. “Are you sure?”
“I am.” And I was.
A ragged exhale left Nyktos. He lifted his hand, placing just the tips of his fingers against my face. I barely felt the faint energy shock as he sat there, still except for his fingers. He drew them down my cheek. His skin was a little warmer. Not as much as it had been before I’d hit him with eather, but what little blood he’d taken from me this afternoon had impacted him.
“Thirty-six,” he murmured, trailing his fingers along my jawline. His thumb coasted over my bottom lip. “Still thirty-six freckles.”
I started to grin.
“I wanted to make sure I’d counted them correctly.” His fingers spread across my other cheek and then down the side of my throat to the panel of the robe folded across my chest. “You have two more.” His hand slipped over my right breast. He cupped the weight through the robe, drawing a breathy exhale from me. “Right here.” He ran his thumb across the area above my nipple. “Two little freckles right there. I think there’s another on the side.”
My trembling fingers dug into the blanket beneath me. “Do you want to check?”
“I do.”
I leaned back a little, giving him access to the short row of buttons. Allowing him to take the lead. Wanting him to. Needing that.
And he did.
His fingers danced over the buttons, quickly undoing them. The material loosened at my shoulders. He said nothing as he slid his hand under one panel of the robe. The eather brightened in his eyes as his skin came into contact with my bare flesh. “Sera…” My name was a growl as he pushed the panels apart. The callused pads of his fingers and his palms elicited a sharp spike of pleasure, and I felt the intensity of his gaze as he bared more and more of me to him. The robe slid down my back, catching at my wrists. The tips of my breasts tingled, hardening under his gaze.
“Fuck,” he breathed, his throat working on a swallow. His head tilted. The tips of his fingers grazed the side of my breast. “I was right. There’s another freckle here.”
My skin felt as if it were on fire. “Do you think there are more?”
“I know there are.”
“Where?”
His hand skimmed my waist and then skipped to my bent knees. He gently pushed them down, straightening them. Spreading them. His lips parted even more as he saw the scrap of black lace. “I approve.”
My cheeks warmed. “You have Erlina to thank.”
“That, I do.” He ran his hand up my inner thigh, stopping midway. “Three little freckles right here, clustered together.” Both of his hands ran up my thighs to the thin strip of silky lace. “Your freckles are like a constellation.”
I lifted my hips as he drew the lace down over my legs and then pulled the undergarment off. His hands returned to my hips, and I let out a startled gasp as he tugged me to the edge of the bed. He lowered himself to his knees on the floor. A pulse of pleasure darted through me as his gaze fixed on the throbbing space between my legs.
“That’s another name I’ll need to come up with. What I’ll call this constellation,” he said, threading an arm under my hips as he hooked one of my legs over his shoulder. The position forced me back onto my elbows. “I’m always more creative when I have something sweet on my tongue.”
Air lodged in my throat as Nyktos lowered his head. His breath on the sensitive flesh there caused my hips to jump. My fingers dug into the blanket as he turned his head, dragging his lips along the inside of my thigh. Then over the very center of me.
My head fell back as his tongue traced the plump flesh there, unerringly finding his way to the ultra-sensitive joining of nerves. When his mouth closed over me, I cried out, shaking. He sucked softly, then harder, and the sound he made at the rush of damp arousal vibrated all the way through me. His head shifted, then his tongue was inside me, and he gave another throaty growl. I moved, rocking my hips against the wickedness of his tongue. He tasted me. Licked. Drank from me without drawing my blood, and the throbbing deep inside me intensified. His head turned, and the edge of his fang skated across the turgid flesh. I came apart. Hard. Fast.