Page 22

Twelve

CIANA

I was an enthusiastic hugger. I used to hug people for any reason or no reason at all. I hugged to say hi or to say goodbye, to say thank you or to just show I was happy to have them in my life.

Hugging Kurai held an added pleasure. He always stilled in my arms, as if savoring every moment of our connection, and it made me want to keep holding him. It made me want to do more things than just hold him.

I pressed my face into his chest, breathing in the warm scent of his skin.

Desire stirred low in my belly, resonating with the warm glow in my chest. I’d thought all these feelings were long dead, murdered by the unworthy man of my past. It was surprising but also so very thrilling to have them coming back to life now.

Doubts came rushing in again.

Was it too soon? Too fast? Inappropriate?

How was I supposed to know for sure that this was the right time? The right place? The right man ?

I’d made mistakes before. Huge mistakes. Once broken, trust was hard to repair, and it was so scary to trust my heart again.

Leaning away from him, I caught the sight of his soggy boots and the soaked wrappings on my legs and blurted out the first thing that came to my mind through the hurricane of conflicting feelings, “We’re wet.”

I was sitting on his lap with his legs and mine dangling in the warm pool of water.

“You ruined your fancy boots.” I smiled.

He seemed a little disoriented after my hug. Running a hand over his black hair, he nodded, collecting himself.

“We should have a bath,” he said.

Now that thirst no longer tormented me, the awareness of the dust on my skin and the sand trapped in every crease of my skin and crevice of my body became the new torture.

“Are we alone here?” I glanced at the shallow niches carved in the walls with round beds inside them, then at a wide archway leading to another room on this floor.

“I believe we are,” he said. “If there was anyone else here, they would’ve come out already.”

“Is it normal to leave the temple empty like that?”

“Not really. I, for one, have almost never left it before. But with the Joy Vessels now in the kingdom, we have all been busy. Either way, the doors to the temple are locked and only a Joy Guardian can unlock them. We’re safe.

Let me just take care of you first, then I’ll try to find out what is going on out there. ”

Setting me gently on the stone path next to him, he pulled off his boots, then unclipped his skirt.

Anticipation thudded in my chest. It was a pleasure to watch Kurai undress as he revealed every inch of his perfect body.

His well-defined muscles shifted and bulged under his skin so absolutely dark, it seemed to absorb all light and every color.

Even when fully naked, however, shadow fae always looked less nude as compared to humans. The area between his legs remained innocently smooth .

He glanced at me with a flash of curiosity in his green eyes, then put his skirt away and reached for the bindings on my legs. “Let’s get these off now.”

He’d been calm and even indifferent when he’d put the bindings on my legs back in the desert. Now, he seemed to be aware of his every move. When his fingers touched the skin on my thigh, a shiver scattered along my skin, and Kurai stilled as if afraid to touch a live wire.

“Ciana?” His voice came out with a deep rasp. “Out in the desert, you said you weren’t afraid of dying because there was nothing else you had left to experience in life.”

I didn’t recall the exact words I used. The memories of our journey through the desert were muddled, filled with the torture of heat, thirst, hunger, and exhaustion. But I remembered the sense of being invincible that came over me once I’d realized that death no longer scared me.

“But there is a need in you,” he continued. “An unfulfilled want that grows more intense when I touch you.”

With his tendrils connected to my feelings, I couldn’t hide anything from him.

“You didn’t just bring me back to life, Kurai.

I’m afraid you’ve revived the things I thought have long died.

I like you far more than a friend. I…I want you.

I want more with you. And if it makes you uncomfortable…

” I moved my arm forward with the smoky ends of his tendrils buried deep in the leilathas of the ribbons circling my bicep.

“It’s probably best to disconnect these now. ”

“But I don’t want to disconnect. I want to feel everything you’re feeling, good and bad. I want to give you everything you long for, including showing to you what it’s like to be with a man who really cares.”

His words resonated with my heart’s deepest desire. Excitement fluttered in my belly like a kaleidoscope of butterflies.

He pressed his forehead to mine. Standing in the pool with the water reaching up to his hips, he was eye level with me as I sat on the stone path that ran through the pool to the drinking fountain in the middle. It made it easy for me to slip my hand behind his neck, pull him to me, and kiss him.

He swallowed my breath in a gasp. Tenderness, deep affection, and desire swirled inside me in a sparkling hurricane of emotions.

Doubt tried to weigh it down, but I brushed it away.

I got a second chance in life both physically and emotionally, and I had to live it to the fullest, to have everything I wanted. And what I wanted was him.

My lips stung, still rough from the desert’s storm.

But I didn’t care, and he didn’t seem to mind.

Unsure at first, he mirrored me, cupping the back of my head with his large hand.

As our kiss grew longer, his confidence also grew.

Tentatively, I slid the tip of my tongue along his bottom lip, and he met it with his tongue.

I couldn’t hold back a moan, and he held me tightly, sliding his palm down my back.

A shiver of pleasure ran down my body, and I pulled back, needing to catch my breath.

“You like it…” he rasped. “You enjoy my hands on you when I remember you begged everyone not to touch you before.”

The bewilderment in his voice made his words sound like a question. I was tempted to answer it with a kiss instead, but he was trying to learn more about my body just as he’d been learning all about my soul.

“It all depends on who is touching me, Kurai. I know you now. I trust you. And I want you.”

He leaned forward for me to kiss him again while letting his hands explore. He stroked my back, ran his fingers down my arms, then up my sides, finally brushing with his palms over my breasts.

My inner muscles spasmed with a zap of desire.

“Here, isn’t it?” he murmured, instantly bringing his hands back to my naked breasts.

I smiled as he cupped my breasts, squeezing them slightly. He moved his thumbs, searching to replicate the sensation he’d just sensed in me. I sucked in a breath as his thumbs flicked my nipples with another surge of arousal warming my skin.

“Yes… Right here,” he exhaled, lowering his eyelids in pleasure.

Dropping his head to my neck, he trailed light kisses along my skin while playing with my breasts. Deliberate and confident, his touch remained gentle—a caress meant to give not to take. I swayed forward, my body melting into him with trust I hadn’t felt for a man in a long time, if ever.

My muscles relaxed, allowing pleasure to take over.

“You want more.” Kurai lifted his head, searching my eyes. “Your need is growing. Please, tell me how I can satisfy it. They said humans derived the most intense pleasure when touched here .” He cupped me between my legs.

The warmth from his large palm seeped through my skin. I squirmed, arching my back and rocking my hips forward.

“Who said that to you, Kurai?”

“The Joy Vessel Keepers. Everyone who enters the queen’s sarai is instructed on how to handle a human. But I don’t care about all other humans. Tell me, how do you like being touched? Like this?” He extended a finger, slipping it between my folds.

I whimpered, pressing my forehead to his shoulder.

“You’ll have to tell me, sweetheart,” he whispered, kissing above my ear, while his fingers continued to explore me between my thighs. “I feel a burst of pleasure wherever I touch you, but your need keeps growing. Tell me how I can give you what you want.”

Tell him?

I wished I knew how. I’d never discussed my needs with anyone before. With Dylan, it’d always been about his pleasure, not mine. I had no words to tell Kurai what I needed, so I reached for his hand to guide it instead.

The pad of his finger brushed over my clit, blinding me with pleasure.

“It’s here, isn't it?” With one arm around my middle, he eagerly shifted me closer to him. “Right here, my sweet, sweet Ciana,” he murmured, circling my most sensitive spot with his finger.

Pleasure surged as my need for him spiked.

“Yes, Kurai…” I opened my legs wider, giving him better access to where I needed him most.

His breathing grew heavier. He pressed his lips to my neck, working me harder with his deft fingers. Letting go of my waist, he stroked my nipple. He left my clit to caress my other breast but returned to it immediately, sensing my disappointment at the loss of his touch.

“Fuck,” he cursed. “I don't have enough hands.”

I exhaled a laugh. “Use your mouth.”

A thrill flashed in his eyes, and he sank to his knees. Gripping my hips, he slid me closer to his face, then brought his hands up to my breasts again.

I leaned back, propped on my hands. He used his tongue the way he’d used his finger earlier, swirling the tip around my clit.

The change of sensations spurred my desire higher.

“Harder.” The thought flitted through my mind, but I didn’t need to voice it.

Kurai sensed my need and met it with perfect precision. He pinched my nipples just enough to spike my arousal while his tongue lapped at me below.

Need rolled through me in hot swells of pleasure, taking me higher and higher. After all the trials I'd put my body through lately, it ached for a release. And Kurai knew it, not stopping until I went undone. The heels of my feet dug into his back as my hips rocked against his mouth.

A spasm rolled through his body, too, resonating with my orgasm. His moans echoed mine. His tongue softened, stroking my clit gently to milk my climax for as long as I could stand it.

With one last shudder of bliss through us both, Kurai dropped his head in my lap and draped his arms loosely around my hips .

I rested my hands on his wide shoulders.

“Are you alright, darling?” I stroked his hair gently and smiled, warmed by the afterglow.

He moaned in my bare thigh, then kissed my lower stomach.

“I’ve heard of this…” he murmured against my skin. “I just never thought it would be this…this absolute .”

He raised his head, finding my eyes.

“What do you mean?” I brushed away his wavy, black strands that had fallen over his face.

“This is the most intense pleasure I have ever felt. You are the most wonderful miracle, Ciana. You are…” he gushed. “You have no idea how precious you are.”

I took his face in my hands. “This was your first orgasm, wasn’t it?”

He nodded.

Of course it was. Kurai had never been with a woman before, either human one or fae. But even if he had, sexual pleasure, just like any other kind of joy, was only possible for a shadow fae to experience through a human.

Affection filled my heart to the brim. Kurai had been gentle and loving with me. He’d been a friend when I needed one. He protected me with his life. I wanted to give him everything that fate had denied to his kind. He deserved to be happy and to feel happiness.

“Oh, sweetie… come here.” I kissed him. “My pleasure is yours, Kurai,” I vowed against his lips. “Whenever I feel it, I’ll share it all with you.”