“Patience,” he said, gently pushing her hair away from her face, touching her everywhere but the places she wanted. Lore turned her head, tried to capture his finger in her mouth; he pulled away with another light slap, this time right below her hips, and she arched into it.
“I’ve been patient.” She pressed her thighs together, all butpanting. “You could have had this at any time. All you had to do was say the word.”
“I know,” he said, skimming his hand lightly down her neck, between her breasts, but lifting it away before he went lower. “So I’m making up for lost time.”
Because there was no way to know if this first time would also be the last.
As if he’d heard the thought, he kissed her again, tender and sweet, a counterpoint to the pressure he held on her wrists. And finally, his hand went where she wanted it.
Lore writhed on the sand while Gabe played her like a harp, bringing her over and over to a breaking point, then taking it away right before she went over the edge. She gasped and she cursed, quivering while he laughed, low and rumbling against her neck, kissing her there to make up for it.
“You asshole.” Her voice came broken, every nerve in her body vibrating like glass about to shatter. “You’re a monk, you shouldn’t be so good at this.”
He chuckled again against the shell of her ear, the sound going straight through her and making her legs clench around his hand. “I didn’t always hold so close to my vows. I told you that.”
She looked at him, something bittersweet spilling through her chest. “So why not with me?”
He looked at her a moment, all games gone, his eyes still heated but with a kind of sadness, too. He kissed her cheek. Not her forehead, like Bastian did, as if he knew that they each had a place with her and wouldn’t overstep. “Because I knew I would love you, and I didn’t know how to yet. It was too much.”
It was all still too much. But she didn’t want to think about that. She angled her chin so he would move his kiss to her mouth, and as it went deeper, as his hand worked at her just where she needed him to, she finally came with a hoarse scream.
Gabe swallowed it, let her ride it out, his palm pressed flatagainst her as she tremored through the aftershocks. When it was done, he let go of her wrists, gathered her close.
But Lore wasn’t going to let that be it. She tugged at his hip bone, just like she had that night in her room, cold window glass at her back.
This time, he did what she wanted.
Lore sat on her knees on the sand as Gabe slowly stood, slowly took off his robe—a feat, since it was the same one she’d been wearing, but he managed to make it last. He was as meticulous with this as he was with everything else, folding it neatly, laying it flat on the ground.
“Gods,” she rasped, “hurry the fuck up.”
“Watch your pretty mouth,” he said, looming over her still, grasping her chin in a firm but gentle hand, “unless you want something else to do with it.”
“Maybe I do,” she said, and proved it. He tasted like salt, and she licked along him, humming in approval when he tensed.
“Gods,” Gabe murmured. “Gods.”
His head dropped back, his breathing ragged, and when she hummed, he jerked, one hand coming to her head and pushing her away. “That’s enough, unless you want to wait at least fifteen more minutes.”
“I’ve waited longer,” Lore said, but she let him lay her down on the sand, let him brace himself above her. And when he surged into her, she kissed him again, and didn’t stop until both of them came apart, the tide swelling around them.
They didn’t untangle, even afterward. Gabe dropped his head into the crook of her shoulder, kissed it lightly. She ran her fingers through his hair.
The air around them shimmered. The dream, close to breaking.
“We found the piece of the Fount,” Gabe said reluctantly into the crook of her neck. “But then we got captured by the Prime Minister’s pirate lover. After he killed him.”
“That was probably information you should have shared before we got started,” she said, nuzzling into his neck.
“Probably,” Gabe agreed, arching beneath her touch. “But for once, I did what I wanted to do first.”
She couldn’t blame him for that.
“You’ve had an exciting few days,” Lore said. “What with a pirate lover.”
“Believe me, it is more irritating than interesting.” He shifted over her, running light fingers down her side. “In fact, I am currently passed out in what I believe he is using for a dungeon.”
“You should be dealing with that instead of sleeping with me.”
