Page 19 of Insolence (Eisha’s Hidden Codices #1)

Itissa

T hese past few days Sadrie, Cordelia, and I have fallen into an easy routine of meeting each other in the atrium after chores, then walking to the refectory together for dinner.

Cordelia is sitting alone on one of the benches by the fountain when I show up. Which is unfortunate, seeing as I’m deliberately several minutes late so as not to be on my own with her.

“How was the Archive?” she asks mildly. A finch chirrups at me from its perch on her finger. She’s taken to scattering crumbs so often that many of them will hop right onto her hand or let her pick them up.

“Fine,” I say a little too quickly, praying I don’t blush. “It was cozy. Very, ah… educational.”

“Did you end up picking out any books or just taking a look around?”

“Oh, we just looked.” Avoiding eye contact, I drop onto one of the other benches.

I can’t stop tasting Sadrie; the memory of her flavor on my tongue has been a torment since the Archive. The briefest thought of her cheek brushing mine or her husky murmur of what else she wants to do to me resurrects a ruthless hunger I can’t seem to satisfy.

Cordelia’s gaze roves over and around me until I’m half-convinced she’s reading my wicked thoughts. Sadrie walks up, saving me from inventing more poor lies.

“Sorry for the delay. Today was starching and ironing,” she grimaces. “Who’s hungry?”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you.” Sadrie looks at Cordelia, setting her plate on the table next to her before plopping down on the bench. “You didn’t seem upset at all today when we were being briefed on the lottery.”

“That’s true,” I say. “Everyone was so agitated when we found out about the betrothed, but you were calm the whole time. Like none of the information surprised you.”

“It’s not that it didn’t surprise me. Something… unusual happened, is all.”

“Oh?” Sadrie cuts into her baked chicken on a bed of cabbage.

Cordelia’s gaze goes dreamy, drifting around the expansive hall. “It was after my bath yesterday. The handmaiden styling my hair stepped out to grab more oil for my curls. That’s when I heard a voice coming from the mirror. Except it didn’t sound like any earthly thing at all.”

Sadrie and I exchange glances.

“You heard a voice? From the mirror ,” I say, unsure if I understood.

“What did it sound like?” asks Sadrie, eyes wide.

“It’s difficult to describe.” Cordelia takes a breath. “It was the sound of rain on a pond and wind through the trees. A crash of thunder. The cry of a baby.” She slowly shakes her head. “It was all of these things and none of them at once. I know it sounds impossible.”

“Not exactly,” says Sadrie with a tilt of her head.

“Did the voice say anything?” I ask.

Cordelia’s smoky quartz eyes go distant and unfocused. “She said my name.”

Goosebumps spring up all over me. I gape at her, fascinated.

“It seemed like the voice was… beckoning me. So I peered into the glass. But”—she pauses, prompting me and Sadrie to lean in closer—“it wasn’t my reflection looking back.”

“What did you see?” whispers Sadrie.

A small smile tugs at the corners of Cordelia’s mouth. “At first it was just hazy white light, but it morphed into a vision. I know it sounds crazy, but the goddess appeared to me.”

“Eisha?” asks Sadrie, completely riveted.

Cordelia nods. “Her head was crowned in blinding light. I couldn’t see her face.

But I felt her. She was there. She told me not to fret.

She said that I’m hers, that I’m destined to draw a white sphere and become an acolyte.

That’s when I was overtaken by a feeling of intense love and connection to this place.

I knew then that being here isn’t a mistake.

” Unshed tears stand in her eyes, and she sets down her fork, tucking her hands into her lap. “It was sublime.”

Silence reigns. Nobody moves for several moments. Finally, Sadrie smiles. “Well, no wonder you weren’t unsettled in class. I’m happy for you, truly.”

“I know I have a higher calling. Do you remember what Ghisele said about being ‘touched by the goddess’s hand’?

” Cordelia gives a happy sigh. “I feel as if I have been. But not just that.” Reaching for Sadrie next to her and across the table to me, Cordelia grabs our fingers and squeezes.

“I have a feeling all three of us will draw white spheres—I can feel it.”

“That means we’ll be able to stay together,” says Sadrie.

“Exactly.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it,” I murmur, not quite able to pretend I’m convinced.

Sadrie rests her chin on her hand, her grin widening at Cordelia. Secretly, she slips a shoe off beneath the table. The first touch of her warm, stockinged foot to my ankle nearly makes me jump. My surprise is replaced by sharp yearning as she skims her foot up my leg.

Her eyes never stray from Cordelia as she asks follow-up questions, teasing me ruthlessly unbeknownst to the rest of the refectory.

A soft knock lands on my door not five minutes after I’ve cleaned my teeth and finished changing for bed. Sadrie is leaning on the wall by my doorway when I answer it.

“I can’t stop thinking about you,” she says. “I don’t think I can sleep.”

“Gods, me neither. Come in.” I have no idea how long it is until lights out, and at the present time, I don’t particularly care.

Cordelia may be convinced the three of us are going to stay together, but I’m not so sure. For all I know, Sadrie and Cordelia will draw white spheres, and I’ll draw black tomorrow. And didn’t Sister Delia say acolytes and the betrothed won’t be mingling very much?

This could be the last night Sadrie and I have an opportunity to be alone together. Perhaps the same idea occurred to her. Sapphire eyes fixed on me, she kicks the door closed and eliminates the distance between us.

“I want to taste you,” she says as her mouth closes over mine.

We wrap our arms around one another as we stumble toward the bed, her hands bunched in the fabric of my sleeping shift.

“Yes, please,” I murmur between greedy kisses. The edge of the bed sneaks up, folding my legs at the knee. I drop to the mattress with a surprised laugh.

She pulls my shift off over my head, leaving me bare aside from my panties. “Gods, you look delectable.” Her gaze travels slowly down my body, clinging to my breasts, waist, hips. “Stay right there and spread your legs,” she orders with a lift of her chin.

I flush and obey, speechless as she kneels between my knees.

Hands caressing my sides, she brushes kisses on the swells of my breasts before pulling a nipple into her mouth and giving it a hard suck.

The pleasure immediately borders on painful overstimulation. “S-sensitive!” I gasp, my hands fumbling in her hair and at her shoulder.

Understanding, she flattens her tongue and swipes a softer lick over the tender bud. The gentler pressure is perfect. I let out a whimper as she moves to my other nipple, skimming it lightly. Arousal pools between my legs, a sharp need that pulses through me.

Fingers hooked in the sides of my underwear, she kisses her way down my stomach and slides them off. She lets me undress her until she’s kneeling on the floor between my legs in her white cotton panties, garter belt, and stockings.

We gaze at each other, neither of us breathing. Her head tilts coquettishly while I take in her curves and lines. Her elegant neck and gently sloping shoulders. Her small, round breasts and tulip-pink nipples tightening in the cool air. The bend of her waist and the lush thickness of her thighs.

My scrutiny seems to excite her, and she reaches for me.

“I can’t get the taste of you off my mind, Tiss.

Ever since I licked your come off my fingers.

But it wasn’t enough.” Her whisper is fierce as her hands move down my waist and hips, caressing my thighs and finally brushing my sex.

“Lie back. I need you in my mouth before I come apart from craving you.”

I comply, gasping as her thumb slides up my cleft. “ Shit ,” I hiss, feeling how wet I am.

She pushes my trembling legs further apart, dipping her head between them.

The first long, hot stroke of her tongue sends my hands clutching the bedding. I shove my head back hard into the mattress as she kneads up from my opening, teasing my clit with agonizingly soft strokes.

Lightning shoots up my spine. “Sadrie, please,” I plead and push myself deeper into her mouth.

Drawing too-light circles with the tip of her tongue, she has me sighing and groaning in delectable frustration, already eager to unravel. I’m desperate, every muscle in my body tense, when she shifts from teasing to pleasuring me in earnest.

Pulling my throbbing bud into her mouth, she sucks and prods with the tip of her tongue. Heat spills through me, starting at the crown of my head and waterfalling down to clench in my lower belly.

Rapture builds and swells until it doesn’t have anywhere else to go. I convulse, straining not to cry out when my orgasm crests. Bliss overwhelms me until the only thing I’m aware of is the intense pleasure of her mouth and the sound of my own pulse rushing in my ears.

Caught up in my excitement, she squeezes my thighs and licks me through my climax until I pull away with a curse. My body goes limp as the ecstasy slowly dissipates, leaving an afterglow in its wake that bathes me in sweet listlessness.

She crawls onto the bed and drags me into her arms. Stunned but happy, a giggle bubbles out of me. She takes me in, one eyebrow arched.

My hands fly to my burning face. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Good,” she smiles. “I think I enjoyed having the element of surprise.”

“ You ?” I snort, even as the hungry beast inside of me rumbles—somehow still possessed of an unquenchable appetite. “Mm, I need to taste you, too,” I say and pull her close for a kiss.

I try to sit up when she breaks away, but she stops me.