“I will give you anything you desire, starling,” he laughed. “But perhaps somewhere more private?”
A blush crept over Lunelle’s pale face as her eyes followed his down the hall. It was late enough that hardly anyone was wandering the palace, but the servants didn’t need to bear witness to her bad decisions. He backed away from her as she fussed with her handle, pushing him into her bed chambers as she glanced over her shoulder. Arcas was already halfway across to her bed when she turned around.
He paused, his long arms snapping around her waist, drawing her into him.
His lips found hers again, pulling and tugging across her body as she whined at the pressure between their hips. She leaned back against the writing desk she’d left covered in musings her sister would never read, making room for him to settle between her legs. His tongue found hers while her fingers desperately wrestled his trousers.
Arcas laughed as she shoved his pants away from his waist, breaking the spell that had settled over her.
“What?” she asked, her eyes widening as she caught sight of him.
“The last time we were alone, I thought you needed a chaperone, and I daresay that book was right.”
Arcas grabbed the back of her head, pulling gently at her hair and exposing her neck to his mouth as her fingers reached for his sensitive skin.
“Gods,” he hissed. She found a firm hold on him, swallowing hard as he fought for a deep breath. He pressed into her lips with his thumb, stroking the swollen petal pink of them. “Should have expected you’d show no mercy.”
Lunelle swallowed, the intensity of his gaze almost too much to carry. She moved her hand slowly, letting the velvet of him slip through her fingers and admiring the length of his lashes as his eyes closed and his breathing quickened. He braced himself on the wall behind her, gasping softly with each stroke.
She’d let their first night paint an underwhelming portrait of him in her mind. Here, stuttering at her touch, she could admit she’d neglected to see the strength in his jaw, or the statuesque curve of his nose. She’d ignored the soothing tenor of his voice, even more attractive to her as it fell into taut notes as he lost the ability to suppress his pleasure.
He was not nearly as pathetic as she’d imagined, despite the near whimper building at the back of his throat.
She quite liked drawing the desperation from him.
“I will not last, Princess,” he warned, gripping the back of her neck as she watched his teeth crush his lower lip. Lunelle did not slow her pace, merely pulling him down to her lips to take advantage of how lost he was in her.
“Princess,” he hissed between increasingly rapid breaths.
It was the undercurrent beneath his intriguing angles and lines that really enchanted her, she realized as he choked on a soft moan, his jaw clenching against his release. A shadowy depth she did not fully understand, but enjoyed watching dissipate when she drew near.
“Give me what I want,” she hummed, his eyes closing tightly.
“Fuck,” he groaned, gripping her shoulder as he arrived. Lunelle didn’t speak as she wiped away the evidence of his lost control on her skirt, her spine straightening with the power she found in bringing him to such a quick finish. He refastened his trousers, unable to look her in the eyes.
“I’m no maiden, Arcas,” she said, brushing her hands against his waistband. Her silver gaze captured his as her lips curled into a sly smile. “That was exactly what I wanted, there’s no shame in giving me what I want in a timely manner.”
“And what about what I want?” he asked, leaning over her and cradling her neck. Lunelle rested her hand on his wrist, staring up at him as she stroked the pale blues of his skin.
“I’m afraid to know what you want,” she confessed.
Arcas chuckled, trailing his hand down her sleeve and pulling gently, exposing her gleaming shoulder to his haunting touch. She leaned into the sensation, urging him silently to reveal more of her. He slipped the fabric away, her breasts falling freely into the cool air.
“I want to know what a Lunar goddess sounds like when she comes.”
Lunelle gasped quietly as he claimed her mouth again, dropping his hands from her neck to the exposed curves of her breasts and massaging gently, slowly, reverently.
She broke from his touch, standing to pull the rest of her dress over her head and sending it to the floor as he watched the slopes and valleys of her twist in the low light.
Shelikeddrawing those strained sounds from him. Shelikedknowing he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Shelikedthe tightening of his throat when she gripped his hand and brought him to the soft cloud of her bed, lying back so he had full access to her as he kneeled between her legs.
He did not hesitate to push her thighs open, his breath hitching at the sight before him, and shelikedthat, too.
“Demigoddess is an understatement?—”
“Less talking,” she dismissed him.
Arcas rolled his eyes and crawled his fingers over her thigh, just brushing her center as she twitched in response. Lunelle gripped the back of his head, forcing him to her, a low rumble of laughter reverberating in his chest as he began stroking her slowly.
