Page 34 of By the Horns (Royal Artifactual Guild #2)

Mucking hells, this woman is going to be the death of me.

I bite back a groan, leaning in and nipping her tiny ear.

I’m careful with my teeth, but I let them graze over her lobe.

She gasps and clutches at my shirt, and just like that, any potion I might have had left in my system is completely obliterated.

My cock swells, and the band of flesh at the base of my shaft prickles with awareness.

“Tell me to touch you,” I demand. “Tell me to make you feel good.”

“Touch me,” Gwenna breathes.

Our eyes lock and I release her jaw, grabbing the waist of her pants.

I put my hand on her belt, and then very slowly undo the knot that clasps it to her waist. She doesn’t tell me to stop.

She doesn’t tell me that she doesn’t want this.

She just continues to meet my gaze, and when I loosen her belt enough to slide my hand into her pants and between her legs, she makes a hungry little noise and spreads her thighs farther apart.

I have permission, which is all I needed.

I cup the mound of her sex, loving her gasp. She’s not quite wet enough for me yet. “You want me to pet this pretty little cunt of yours until you scream?”

She nods, her eyes growing heavy-lidded.

“Tell me that, then.”

Gwenna growls low in her throat. “Pushy bastard.”

“Never said I wasn’t. But tell me to finger you and I’ll make you feel so damn good you’ll weep with joy.”

She rolls her eyes and reaches for the ring through my nose, lightly tugging on it. Even that makes my cock twitch with awareness. “Quit talking. You’re cooling my ardor.”

“Am I? I don’t think I am.” I stroke a finger through her folds, exploring her with a light touch. As I do, more wetness seeps from her core and dampens my skin. “Feel that, love? All that glistening slick doesn’t come out unless you like what I’m doing.”

And just to make a liar out of her, I slide my middle finger into her, and she’s already slippery enough that I glide in like butter.

Gwenna gasps again, turning her head slightly and rolling her body to move against my touch.

“So pretty,” I croon. “Such a soft, dainty little thing—”

“I am not dainty—”

“Hush. To me you are. You’re nothing but a dainty doll of a woman I want to bend over this counter and fuck with my knot until you scream.”

She bites her lower lip, rocking her hips against my hand again.

“But maybe that’s for later,” I whisper in the ear she’s presented to me.

I’m having to hunch over just to maneuver close to her ear, but it’s not uncomfortable.

Having her up on the counter helps, and I keep that in mind for the future.

Because this is absolutely not going to be the last time I touch her, I decide.

She’s made the mistake of showing me that she’s interested, and now she’s never going to shake me.

“How does my finger feel inside you?”

Her breath hitches and she moans.

“Ah ah,” I chide. “I don’t think that’s a word. I’m afraid I need to hear more.”

She tugs on the ring, pulling my nose down. Again, our eyes lock. “Are you going to touch my clit or do I have to find someone else to do it?”

I want to laugh with pure delight, but a growl escapes my throat instead. Sexy little thing. “You want me to touch your clit for you? Make you come?”

“Yes.”

“Say my name.”

“Raptor.” She breathes it out, oh so prettily.

“Good.” I place my thumb between her folds and slip it through her increasingly wet channel until I find the bud of her clit. It’s a prominent one, and I bet it’d look so pretty against my tongue. I stroke my thumb pad over it ever so briefly. “Better?”

She moans, her entire body shuddering. By the five gods, I wish she was naked so I could admire the bounce of her glorious breasts. I bet they jiggle the entire time she’s being fucked. I want to see that so damn badly that my knot aches just thinking about it.

But I want her a little more talkative. I still my thumb. “You didn’t answer me, Gwenna. Is that better ?”

“You prick,” she wheezes, squirming against my hand. “Move.”

“What shall I move? My thumb or my finger?”

“YES,” she snarls at me, pressing her nose to my much bigger one.

She’s so needy and charming I can’t stand it.

I stroke my middle finger in and out of her a few times, letting it build up, and then I take on a much slower pace, occasionally teasing her clit to feel her jump against my hand.

I’m making it impossible for her to climax, and she realizes it, too. “Raptor,” she pants. “I need more.”

“So do I,” I all but purr even as I finger her. “Tell me that you were Sarya and I’ll make you come.”

Her expression changes to one of anger, and she squirms against my hand again. “Fuck you.”

“You want me to stop? Tell me to stop.” I skim my thumb over her clit again, and then drill my finger deeper into the sucking, needy well of her cunt. “Tell me to stop touching you and I will.”

“Make me come.”

“Tell me what I need to hear.”

She growls again, furious. Gwenna lets go of my nose ring and plants her hand over mine, trying to use me to work her cunt, and I grab her wrist, grinning. I love how bossy and demanding she is. She’s not telling me to stop. She’s wanting that orgasm. I can read her like an Old Prellian glyph.

I work her with my finger, adding a second one and driving both into her with quick, hard strokes. I grin down at her as she rides my hand, panting. And then I stop again.

She all but screams in outrage.

“Fine.” Gwenna spits the word at me, her eyes snapping fire. “It was me, all right? I told you I was Sarya and I climbed on top of you and used you for sex. That what you want to hear?”

My suspicions are confirmed, and I can’t stop grinning. I never told her that Sarya climbed atop me. It truly was her. “I do feel better hearing that, aye.”

And I cup the back of her neck, holding her even as I finger her and work her clit just the way she wants. Her mouth drops open, and when she comes, it’s not with a noisy cry but with a choked little sound, followed by a sigh of pure satisfaction.

I decide I like that better than any theatrics.

My knot aches and throbs, and I want nothing more than to bury my muzzle in the crook of her neck…

and then bury other parts of me in her body.

But there’s a very real potential problem.

I’d expect a sex worker to have birth control handled, but Gwenna isn’t a sex worker.

“Is there a chance of a baby? Between us?”

“No. I already had my period.” She wrinkles her nose, glancing up at me even as she pushes my hands away and fastens her pants once more. “But I did want to ask. Sparrow says that Taurians only have a knot during the Conquest Moon. Or is she wrong?”

“Tell me why you fucked me that day and I’ll tell you all about my knot,” I drawl, watching her with a possessive gaze as she straightens her clothing.

The more she moves, the more confident I am that she is indeed Sarya.

There’s a brattiness to her that shields her vulnerability, and it’s that same thing that attracted me to the mysterious woman I’d touched in the hospital bed.

Her expression grows shuttered, and she hops down off the counter. “That’s my business and not yours.”

“Don’t tell me I’m going to have to finger all your secrets out of you,” I tease, and lick those selfsame fingers as she watches me. Her taste is magnificent.

“Fuck right off.”

She flounces out of the room, and I watch her go with a grin. Oh, this is going to be fun .