Page 43 of Insolence (Eisha’s Hidden Codices #1)

El

T iss shows up unexpectedly, shrouded beneath a hooded black cloak despite the rising heat.

I’m grinding ochre for pigment in front of my family’s house. Positioned under the old hazel tree, I cradle the largest of our granite mortars between my legs.

Pounding away at the dense chunks of rock is hard work. By and by, my labor yields an ever finer powder of muted brick red that’ll make an excellent gouache.

Ma will be pleased when she returns. She doesn’t have time to make pigments herself anymore.

I’m so absorbed in my work, I don’t notice her standing at the edge of our yard until she clears her throat. That’s when the thread between us tightens.

I glance up. “Tiss?” Pleasantly surprised, I stand and dust off my hands. Blot the sweat beading my forehead. “What brings you here?”

Her eyes dart up and down the street. She isn’t wearing her cloak with the rich violet-purple lining—Clan Madoc’s color—but a plain black one instead. “I was in the neighborhood.”

That’s interesting. I can’t guess why she’d lie.

My gaze skims over her delicately feminine features. Something I can’t define nags at the back of my mind. It’s murky and imprecise, scratching at the edges of my consciousness.

“Want to come inside? I made fresh tea not long ago.”

She hesitates, eyeing the shaded doorway.

“Nobody’s home,” I elaborate. “Pop’s at the shop till late, and Ma is in Nehel again. I swear, she spends more time with her dusty old manuscripts than us these days.”

Tiss flashes a quick smile, her features relaxing. Moves toward the house.

Once indoors, I remove my dusty work apron and hang up her cloak. I wash my hands at the low kitchen basin that serves double duty for the laundry. Splash water over my neck and face.

She’s behind me, arms wound round me, before I’m done drying off. Before the ochre-tinted suds finish swirling down the drain. She nuzzles into the damp hair at my nape. “Gods, El, you smell so good. It isn’t fair.” Her lips brush my skin with every word, sending shivers chasing all over me.

“Fuck, how long has it been?” Chucking the hand towel away, I turn in her arms.

Her mouth seizes mine in a kiss that feels like coming home. Like finding refuge in a storm.

It turns needy and desperate as she clings to me, clawing my back with her nails. Finally pulling away for air. “Too damned long— aah !” She squeals when I lift her up, spinning her around and hoisting her ass onto the sink basin’s lip. Her legs wrap round me, feet hooked behind my back.

“You’re going to be my ruin.” I roll my forehead against hers, rucking up her pleated skirt to squeeze the soft flesh of her thighs through silk stockings.

“Gods know I’m already ruined,” she breathes.

“I need you. Right now.” I can already taste her on the tip of my tongue.

“I have to tell you something, El. It’s important.” But she’s using her legs to pull me into her heat. Pheromones hit me in waves. All I can think about is kneeling between them.

My hands slide around and down, palming her ass through lace garter belt and panties. I squeeze, and adorable giggles bubble out of her.

“Later,” I groan, then combust when her fingers comb through my short hair. My eyes focus on her. “You. Bedroom. Now.”

“I can’t stay long.”

“Sweetheart,” I drop a peck on her mouth, whisper in her ear, “we don’t need long, and you know it. Now. Get your gorgeous ass on my bed before I put you there myself, Itissa.”

Her breath hitches. “Yes, sir.”

I help her hop down. Let her lead me toward the bedroom. My eyes trace the line of pearl buttons studding the length of her silk-clad spine. They’re impossibly tiny, and it takes all my restraint to keep from tearing her blouse off to see those pretty buttons bounce across the floor.

The nagging sensation travels up our soul-tie, digging at me still. But I’m so overcome with how much I’ve missed her and answering the demands of my raging libido, I shove it aside.

The bedroom door is barely shut before she backs me into it, hands fisted in my shirt, lips crushing mine.

Pheromones ooze from her pores, leaving me in a fog of urgent desire that thickens the back of my throat and pinches between my legs. Pure lust clouds the air around us.

Suddenly, I don’t care about a single gods-be-damned thing other than making her scream. Reminding her who she belongs to.

“You’ve been climbing the walls, I take it?” I pick her up, reveling in the squeal that tears from her throat. The way she flings her arms around my shoulders.

I can feel myself swelling, aching for her already.

“If you only knew. El !” She lets out a shriek when I dump her on the bed.

“Oh, I have an idea.” I drop down over her, jostling the mattress. Her giggle squeezes my heart. “And here I thought you already had someone for that.”

“It isn’t the same. She isn’t you .”

This woman will be my exquisite ruin. My heart glows. “Well. You’ll get what you need. But I need to taste you first.” Gathering her in my arms, my lips claim hers again. When the kiss breaks, I whisper, “You’ve been my only thought for so many days on end, I’ve lost count.”

Her hands frame my face, jewel-blue eyes flicking between mine. “You’re all I ever think about.”

The conviction with which she says it has me yanking the hem of her blouse from her skirt’s waistband. Whipping the garment over her head in a cloud of her dark hair. Giving her a firm enough shove to send her flopping backward, more laughter rising from her throat.

The nagging isn’t even noticeable now. Actually, it’s completely gone.

I strip her down to panties. Hands hooked under her knees, I yank her to the edge of the bed.

Her squeal becomes a moan when I spread her legs, pressing a kiss on her clit through the delicate tulle. I nudge it, tracing with my tongue until the sensitive nub is standing up against the lacework.

The garment comes off in two swift tugs that pry a gasp from her. She props herself on her elbows. Her mouth falls open while I kneel on the floor between her luscious thighs.

“Gods!” She collapses, arms going out from under her when I run my tongue up her slick seam.

Gods save me. Instantly weak and equally as needy, I groan into her. Soon she’s covering her face with her hands and whispering my name.

When I swirl my tongue over her clit, her hands fly to my hair.

“El, please ,” she whimpers and rolls her hips. Her thighs clamp shut, pinning her hands at the sides of my head.

Her taste and fragrance fill me. Her cries pervade my senses. I’m rejoicing in her. I could not be fucking happier if I tried. Another burst of pheromones, and she’s the only thing in the world that matters—the only thing in existence .

I tease the sensitive spot just under her hood, and she damn near hits the ceiling, her voice going ragged. With the way her legs are trembling, it’s not going to take much more.

Her excitement is contagious. I’m throbbing, my own legs threatening to stop holding my weight altogether. My climax builds low in my abdomen. Inevitable.

“El! Oh, my gods!” Her fingers wrench against my scalp, her touch magnificent.

I can’t stop thinking about my cock in the dresser drawer. Can’t stop imagining sliding inside her. Feeling her walls clench around me.

Fuck. I’m a second away from coming.

She curses, rotating her hips as if reading my mind. I suck on her clit, pulling it deep into my mouth and kneading with my tongue. That’s all it takes for her to unravel.

She dissolves into the throes of a climax that drags me over the edge with her. Wailing her release, she writhes and calls my name. I pin her hips, not stopping for anything—even as my own climax bowls through me.

She’s the only person who’s ever been able to make me come without touching me.

“Gods, El. Purple.” She taps the bed and wrenches herself away, panting. Covers her flushed face with her hands again. “Oh, my gods.”

“You really did miss me, didn’t you?” I chuckle. Kiss my way up her curves.

Her hands drop. “You have no idea.”

“Yeah? Try me,” I whisper against her supple skin. Drop gentle kisses on her tits.

“ El ,” she warns, flinching when I get too close to one of her perfectly pointed nipples. She can’t take much stimulation there.

I plant a soft kiss on it anyway, just to be a bastard and hear her yelp.

“El!” She squirms away, her breathless laughter joining mine. She rolls me over effortlessly, reminding me how compliant she lets herself become for me. We both know she could overpower me at any moment. Easily. Easily.

Roles reversed now, she looks at me hungrily, giddy to get on top. And gods , I want her to do it. Words cannot describe how much.

With that thought, my head-space warps. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s just… different. Suddenly, I’m soft and needful and desperate. I want her riding my cunt so bad it hurts .

Most other times it’s subtle. Often I don’t even notice it at first.

Now, the shift from El to Elodie is a little jarring. But it’s like muscle memory. A force of habit wrought from wanting what she’s about to do more than life itself.

She strips me down with enthusiasm. Work shirt, dusty trousers, undershorts. Aside from my sleeveless undershirt and the band of cloth flattening my chest beneath it, everything ends up on the floor.

She climbs into my lap, kissing me and whining into my mouth when she tastes herself on my tongue. Pushes me back on the bed.

Her eyes flash in invitation, meeting mine with an unspoken question in their depths: color?

She trusts me to know my own limits as much as I trust her to respect them.

“Blue, sweetheart.” Rising on one elbow, I cup the back of her neck and pull her to me. Press our lips together in a slow, sensual kiss. I can feel myself growing wetter by the second.

Her hand is between us, smearing that wetness over my swollen clit.

“That’s right, beautiful.” I grind into her fingers and spread my legs. Brush the hair from her face. “Take what you need. Take all of me. I want you so much.”

She lowers herself slowly, lining up our hips. Settling between my thighs. I suck air through my teeth as the world fades away.

My focus narrows on her slick heat, her breathy moan, as our clits touch and throb together.

“For fuck’s sake,” I sigh.

She pumps once. Twice. Then again and again, spreading more slippery wetness between us until my vision warps around the edges.

She whimpers into the crook of my neck. Her hands are in my hair squeezing again. “Gods, you feel so damn good.”

I’m speechless as she curls herself into me, ecstasy coursing through my veins with every agonizing pass. Like two magnetic fields, our bodies exert torque and force. A beautiful crisis exists in the interplay.

Soon she’s wailing and trembling again. My arms are around her, holding her close. My pleasure builds so intensely I can barely breathe.

The only things that exist are her smooth skin beneath my fingers and her hair tickling my neck. Her keening cry in my ear.

She thrusts in earnest, her wet clit slipping past mine. She throws her head back. Throat flashing, she’s the most beautiful creature I've ever beheld.

Finally, she stiffens and gasps. Her back arches, hands braced on either side of me. And I’m wavering on the edge of an endless abyss right along with her. In another heartbeat, her orgasm is swallowing her whole.

“Shit. Elodie, godddsss .”

I cling to her, bracing for the thing that happens next. I know without having to look that our twin sigils are glowing. I hold my breath. Shut my eyes.

Her mouth closes over my neck, teeth gripping sensitized flesh. Pleasure mixes with pain, the combination intoxicating. Her voice in my head is astounding, her claim over me as thrilling now as it ever was. I flush with sudden heat, then the gut-wrenching tug of my essence spilling into her.

This is what sets me off.

My own climax hits. Unable to move or make a sound, the phenomenon is both excruciating and sublime.

Tiss is my deepest rapture and my sharpest pain. But when she’s with me, she is mine. All mine.

She collapses when we’re finished, nuzzling into my shoulder and humming contentedly. I slide my leg between her thighs. Exhale sharply from the contact of her soaked center against my skin. She grinds into me, shuddering with pleasurable aftershocks.

Mumbles her love into my skin.

“I love you so much, sweetheart,” I answer back, my hand in her hair.

We lie together, our breath slowing. Passion cooling. My muscles unwind with a familiar, languid heaviness.