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He groaned and guided my hips over his shaft. “Hells, I’m going to lose my control at any moment.”

A sly kind of grin split over my face. “I’m in favor of this plan, Whisper.”

No, I wasn’t experienced, but my body knew it wanted him. It craved him. I dragged one palm down his chest, the flat planes of his stomach, to the laces of his trousers.

Silas moaned and tightened his mouth, almost like he was in agony, not pleasure.

My hands trembled when I unthreaded the top lace.

“I rarely feel safe in this world,” I said softly against his mouth. “But the moment I saw you in the dark, the moment you took my hand, it was as though all the fears faded. Even for a moment.”

Silas studied me. He’d given me freedom to touch and tease til now, but dark want in his eyes spilled over. He scooped under my thighs, lifting us off the bench. I let out a shriek, and grappled to hang onto his shoulders until my back struck the woven rug over the floorboards.

“I’ve clung to a fading reality,” he said, dragging his lips across my throat. “Sometimes I do not know what is real, but you have always been my guide in a confusing existence. You are my beacon in the night.” He lifted his head and peered down at me. Silas brushed his thumb over the ridge of my cheek. “I would wait a thousand lifetimes for you.”

My eyes fluttered closed when he tugged at the shoulder of my tunic with a touch of uncertainty. Silas kept glancing at my face, as though reading my countenance. My stomach twisted in nerves, but my heart yearned for more.

I touched the scar on his face, holding his gaze, urging him to go on.

With the sleeve pulled off my shoulder, Silas kissed the bony ridges. I unlaced the next row on his trousers. The crown of his length split through the top seams.

I swallowed. All hells, he was thick and hard. How would he bleeding fit?

Silas kissed his way back to my mouth. I held the back of his head, holding his mouth to mine, needy for more of his taste. His hips settled between my thighs, and I moaned, seeking the pressure, though it seemed too much, too fierce.

It was as though the surface of my flesh was set ablaze. Heat pooled between my legs, throbbing and pulsing in a way I’d never experienced.

He dragged his teeth along my bottom lip. For a moment he lifted his head, face flushed, breaths heavy, and held my gaze, perhaps looking for any hint I wanted him to stop.

He wouldn’t find it. I gripped the bottom hem of his tunic, sliding it over the carved muscle of his back. Silas grinned a little viciously when he shifted, aiding me in removing his top.

Bleeding gods. Muscle and strength was carved across his chest, his shoulders, the slope of his back. I wanted to touch every divot, kiss every surface.

“Is . . . is this strange for you?” I asked. “We’ve . . . we’ve grown, but we haven’t touched really since childhood.”

Silas held one side of my face in his palm. “You were my only friend, Calista Ode. You are still that, but you became the beat of my heart. To touch you is my greatest honor. It is the dream that has kept me living.”

What the hells was he thinking, talking in such a way? I’d be blubbering in a pool of my own damn tears if he kept it up.

I tilted my head and kissed him, silencing that horridly beautiful tongue of his.

Silas shuddered as my fingernails dug into his bare skin. One of his hands slid my tunic over my head. Cool air bit at my naked flesh. Instinct drew me to try to cover, until I saw the liquid heat flow through Silas’s eyes when he drank me in.

His palm splayed over my belly, frozen. I licked my lips and gripped his wrist, slowly guiding his hand up my ribs, between the cleft of my breasts.

“Gods.” Silas groaned, dropping his forehead to mine when his palm covered my small breast. He gripped my hip with his other hand, holding steady as he plucked at the peak of my nipple.

“I want to taste your skin,” he whispered, a soft admission, one lined in hesitation.

With my palm, I nudged his face to the other side. “I want you to.”

I cried out, trembling under his larger form when his tongue lapped at the hardened point of my other breast. He rocked his hips against the boiling apex between my thighs. The weight of his thick length added a new ache to my core. A frantic need, an obsession to join with him in every way.

I tucked my thumbs into the waist of his trousers and tugged.

“Silas,” I breathed out in a rough gasp. What was I trying to even say? I shook my head and simply blurted, “Please.”

He lifted his head from my chest, tugging at my nipple with his teeth before releasing me. “Open these legs for me.”