What could she do to make him not wish he were dreaming?
He’d asked her to be more empathetic. And she wanted to be. But she didn’t know how.
The other day, he’d said he wanted to be wanted. She wanted him so badly she was losing sleep over it.
“I want to kiss you again,” she said, choosing her tone carefully. There was none of the anger and urgency that had been present when she’d asked him the other day.
For a moment, she couldn’t tell whether it had been the right thing to say. But then he leaned close, cupped her chin in his hand, and bent low to bring his mouth to hers.
It was soft. Painfully soft. He gently touched closed lips against hers, lingered there for a few moments, and then pulled away, still holding her. Eyes like molten gold hovered inches away, staring into her.
“Like that?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “Again.”
His lips twitched into a smile. It had been the right thing to say.
He obediently leaned in again, and his mouth connected with hers, hot and soft. He put a hand between her breasts and gently pushed her backward, fencing her in against the wall the way he had when he’d first arrived. Heat rose to her cheeks.
He pulled away again, his forehead leaning against hers. His hand held her cheek, his long fingers slowly stroking her skin. She felt his smooth nails scrape lightly on her jaw. “How was that?” he asked.
“Good,” she breathed. Gods, it was more than good. She could feel the warmth of his body framing her in, and she wanted more of it. She wanted to be closer to him. She wanted him to touch her everywhere.
He looked her up and down for a long moment. The way his eyes pulled across her body made her feel like she was already naked.
She reached out and tentatively put her hands on his chest. It felt strange and thrilling to just reach out and touch him, because surely it was a breach of personal boundaries, but he responded in kind to the touch, bringing a hand to her neck and curling an arm around her waist.
Kadaki had understood that there was physical pleasure involved with acts of intimacy. But she had not expected the emotional pleasure his nearness gave her. Somehow, he had become the constant in all this chaos. He was the person she felt most safe with.
She wondered if it was possible that she made him feel safe, too.
“I could do more than kiss you,” he said, his voice low.
Something inside her quivered, wound tight with desire. Apparently she wasn’t the only one who had grown short on patience.
Her hands clenched on his vest. “All right.” It came out like a question, her voice shaking slightly.
“What are you nervous about?”
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“You don’t have to worry about impressing me. I’m Ysuran. Sun elves will sleep with anyone, right?”
She frowned at the bitterness in his tone. She was about to protest, but then his mouth landed on hers again. She sucked in a startled breath as his hand crept across her collarbone and grazed her breast.
He paused, and Kadaki worried he was having second thoughts. But then he said, “Some people who are inexperienced with these things have difficulty communicating what they want or don’t want. If I go further than you wish, you must tell me. If you enjoy something, you should tell me that too, and I’ll keep doing it.”
She felt slightly patronized, but at the same time, she was glad he’d said it. “All right.”
His hand spread over her breast, sending a shiver through her. For a moment, the sensation was so overwhelmingly foreign that she almost asked him to stop. She held her breath, and the only sound in the hall was of fabric shifting as he cupped the curve of her. But as he brushed a thumb over the peak, a shock of pleasure went through her, and she knew she needed more.
She closed her eyes. “That…” she whispered, and he paused. “That feels good.”
“Good,” he said, his soft voice vibrating against her as leaned in to kiss her again.
She felt faintly embarrassed by the way her nipples quickly came to stiff points against his fingers. Intense heat, almost a thrumming vibration, built between her legs. In the back of her mind, it occurred to her that they shouldn’t be doing this in the hallway, that they should move to a bedroom, but she couldn’t bring herself to interrupt what was proceeding.
He gently coaxed her mouth open and flicked his tongue along hers in a sweep of wet heat that seemed to mimic what was happening between her legs. His body shifted closer, and she felt the hard length of his cock prodding her stomach. Instinctively, she reached to touch it. He shuddered when her palm grazed the tip of it. Fascinated, she carefully closed her hand around it, feeling the shape of it through cloth.
