Page 40 of Savage Blooms (Unearthly Delights #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Nicola

Nicola was aware something had shifted between Adam and Eileen after they returned to the house arm in arm and damp from the rain and smelling like freshly turned earth, and she strongly suspected that something was sex.

Nicola had supposed such a scenario might drive her mad with jealousy, but when Adam sidled up against Nicola in the upstairs hallway, murmuring a hello against her neck with the fading scent of Eileen’s crushed Iris perfume clinging to his skin, what Nicola felt was hot all over.

She had always taken a guilty thrill in watching Adam disappear into dark rooms at parties with other girls, or return from “stepping out for a cigarette” with another boy with a hickey bit into his neck, but it was better now, because it was unclouded by the pain of pining.

Now she could touch Adam, she could kiss him in the hallway until he smelled not only of irises but of daisies, and she could press her body to his up against the wall and tease him mercilessly about hooking up with Eileen until Adam, flushed and hard and grinning, divulged just enough details to stoke the fire in her belly.

“And you like that?” Nicola responded between kisses. “Having sex outdoors where anyone could see you?”

“I don’t know,” he said breathlessly, digging his fingers into her soft hips. “I like everything these days. I want everything, with everyone.”

Nicola let out a moan and only kissed him harder, wantonness responding to wantonness. He was the only person she knew who was as much of an unrepentant slut as she was, and she loved him for it.

Then Finley called from downstairs:

“Soup’s getting cold, lovebirds! Eileen found a muscadet in the cellar; get down here before she drinks it all.”

“I would not!” she called back, faux offended.

Nicola and Adam hustled down the stairs with their fingers loosely linked, doing their best to suppress their laughter.

Something about the pervading warmth inside the house, balmy as summer from the heady mix of domesticity and carnality despite the rain outside, made Nicola feel pleasantly feverish from her head to her toes.

She could get used to this.

Nicola hoped she and Adam would have the chance to deepen their connection in a more physical way after lunch, but Adam was swept almost immediately into a studious genealogy research session in the library with Eileen, and they even left the door open so Nicola could see that research was actually what they were doing.

Adam and Eileen had an easier rapport after their tryst under the sky, Eileen running her hand along Adam’s waist as she directed him to read a passage of a book more closely, Adam tucking Eileen’s hair behind her ear as she leaned over a cardboard box to retrieve documents.

Finley, regrettably, had to go fix a retaining wall on the east side of the property, which left Nicola to work on her book quietly in the sunniest alcove she could find.

It was a padded bench seat set into the windowsill of the stair’s landing, under a window featuring a trio of hares captured in stained glass.

Nicola was grateful for the quiet time to pour all of her new-found inspiration into her work. Although it didn’t soothe the pulsing ache between her legs much at all.

The next day, Eileen and Adam disappeared into the attic to retrieve more boxes of family records, leaving Nicola and Finley with the run of the manor.

Finley had been loitering around the house all day, draping himself across furniture while reading (or pretending to read) The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the sleeves of his green henley pushed up around his elbows as though he were trying to tempt Nicola.

He was freshly showered and smelled faintly of cologne, of vetiver, spiced woods, and sweet, vulnerable tonka.

He couldn’t have possibly looked more enticing, lounging on the couch with his curls gleaming and his lower lip tugged between his teeth in thought, if he had been trying.

And Nicola was pretty sure he was trying.

She remembered what Finley had said to her on the lawn, about never being the one to be pursued. If he was locked into his role as initiator with Eileen, it might feel nice to have someone else initiate for a change. Maybe this was an invitation, if Nicola was bold enough to take it.

Nicola kicked off her jeans in her bedroom, shimmied into her sheerest black tights, stepped into a short cranberry colored-skirt, and swiped on some lip oil. She could hear Adam and Eileen’s footsteps above her, confirming that they were still busy sorting through boxes.

If Finley wanted Nicola to be daring, she could be daring.

Nicola let herself quietly into the library, standing barefoot in front of Finley until he glanced up at her, as though only just noticing she was there.

“Hello, Finley,” Nicola said, bouncing on her toes. She was excited, but she was also nervous.

“Hello,” Finley said, closing the book and tossing it aside. “Can I help with something?”

“I was wondering if you wanted to play a game with me,” Nicola said. The ball was in his court now.

Finley sat up straighter, pushing forward in his seat so his knees were almost touching hers. He was perched on the precipice of the couch, as though waiting for her word to pull her down onto the sofa with him, or slide to his knees to kiss the damp spot in her tights.

“What kind of game? Chess or mahjong or…?”

Nicola traced the floral pattern of the rug with her toe. She might know exactly what she wanted, and she might be sure down to her bones that Finley was the person she wanted to ask to do it with, but that didn’t mean she didn’t feel bashful.

“I’d like to play Ravishment,” she said finally.

Dark hunger flickered behind Finley’s eyes despite his pleasant smile, and something about that total restraint, the way he never moved a muscle or dropped his friendly affect despite his not-so-friendly interest, was enough to make her stomach tremble.

“I like the sound of that game,” he said. “But I don’t think I’ve played it before. Can you tell me the rules?”

“It’s easy,” she said, breath catching in her throat. “I run, and you chase me.”

“What happens if I catch you?”

“If you catch me, you get to keep me and do whatever you want with me.”

Finley wordlessly slid his hands up the back of her thighs, then cupped her ass beneath her skirt and pulled her closer, until she was standing right between his parted knees.

He ran his thumbs across her skin through the paper-thin fabric of her stockings, a rhythmic gesture as soothing as it was inflaming.

“I’d like to chase you, and I’d really like to catch you,” he said, voice soft. “But I might not know what to do with you until I catch you. I might want to do anything. Is there anything you don’t want me to do with you when I have you?”

Nicola shook her head, lust making her reckless, and then thought better of it. Even she had limits, at least the first time and without proper preparation.

“You could have my mouth, or my pussy,” she said, voice little more than a whisper.

It excited her so much to say these words, but she was afraid that if she spoke them any louder, something about this perfect, charged moment would shatter.

“But not my ass. And I get frightened when I can’t breathe. So no choking.”

Finley nodded, keeping his expression neutral even as he made a quiet, anguished sound in the back of his throat. He kept nodding as he kissed her belly through her sweater, deliberating with himself.

“Can I do whatever I want with you even if you tell me to stop?” he said into the wool.

Nicola threaded her fingers through his hair, scratching down his scalp to the base of his neck.

“Yes, please. I want you to keep going. I want it to feel nice for you even if it doesn’t feel nice for me, because that will make it feel best of all.”

Nicola had never felt so turned on or so powerful, standing over a man who looked like he might cry from gratitude for the privilege of bruising her skin.

Finley pulled away and looked up at her, brown eyes somber.

“Are you on birth control?” he asked.

“IUD. Hasn’t failed me yet.”

“And how will you show me if you want the game to stop right away?”

“I’ll say something silly that I wouldn’t usually say. Like the word Eileen uses with you.”

“What word will you use?”

“Marzipan,” Nicola said, the word coming to her unbidden. It was her favorite candy. She wasn’t likely to panic and forget that.

Finley huffed out a laugh and grinned up at her. A wolf delighted by a lamb, or perhaps a loyal dog eager to be run hard by his mistress.

“Does a fifteen-second head start sound fair?”

“Yes, yes,” Nicola said, nodding fast. Adrenaline was already coursing through her, spiking her heart rate and urging her to run for her life.

“Do me a favor and try not to break anything in the house, or else Eileen is liable to kill me. Either way, I feel like this is going to be worth it,” Finley said, letting her go as he rose to his feet.

He pressed his hands against the base of his spine, stretching up to his full height, and then glanced down at his watch and waited for the second hand to tick all the way up to the top.

And then, with a finality that Nicola felt drop into her stomach like lead, he said, “Go.”

Nicola tore out of the library, kicking up the rug in the process, and scurried down the hall.

She didn’t have the house mapped correctly yet, and the thought that she might run into a dead end or turn the wrong way just to run headlong into Finley, who had grown up here, only made the game hotter.

Her heart pounded, blood singing in her veins with a feral terror and joy she probably couldn’t describe even if she dedicated a whole book to it.

Alive was the only thing she felt right now, and that was the refrain chorusing in her head as she ran, alive, alive, alive.