Page 22

22

NERYS

You’re going to break your own heart.

I ignored the warning.

Pushing aside my conversation with the queen, and an instinct that told me this was a bad idea, I walked to the windows. Rowan followed. But instead of standing beside me as I looked beyond the iridescent pools and lights scattered throughout the palace grounds to the sea beyond, he stopped behind me.

Rowan gently moved my hair to one side, placing it in front of my right shoulder. I waited. Anticipated. Sure enough, his breath on my exposed neck told me what Rowan intended. At the first touch of his lips, I closed my eyes. His lips were warm, his hands laying on my hips as if to keep me in place, like I would dare move.

A second kiss, and then a third, and Rowan was just below my ear.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he whispered.

“Later,” I said, preferring to delay the inevitable. “The queen interrupted us once. I’d not have her do it again.”

Wordlessly, Rowan kissed just below my ear. It was rare for a Thalassarian to get cold, our climate remaining temperate. But nevertheless, I shivered.

Turning my head to look at him was my second mistake of the evening. Where a moment ago, his movements promised a slow and steady seduction, now, his eyes blazed. Spinning me around to him, Rowan captured my mouth, though I was a willing captive. In a tangle of tongues, we melded together like before. But this time, a promise of more hung in the air.

We stayed that way for some time, Rowan’s low groans and my own whimpers the only other sound beside running water. I’d been in others’ arms many times, but never been so consumed by a kiss as this.

My hands dropped to the hem of his tunic, but when I tried to tug upward, our bodies got in the way. In response, Rowan broke off the kiss and all but ripped the tunic from his body. Wanting to see him again, I fumbled with the buttons on his linen shirt.

“You are well-formed.”

“For a human?” he teased, helping me with the buttons.

“For an Elydorian,” I said. “Human or otherwise.”

With his shirt off, I wanted to explore. Touching his chest, both palms splayed across muscle that tensed deliciously beneath my fingertips, I licked my lips. His eyes dipped down to my chest. Without a second thought, I spun back around, presenting him my back. “There is a zipper,” I said of the human invention, one of a few that had been brought to Elydor.

The pressure of his fingers at my back was followed by the loosening of its bodice. Pulling my arms from each sleeve, I let the gown drop to the floor, stepping out of it. Tossing off the heels that I so despised, I wore nothing but undergarments which matched the gown itself, though made from the finest lace in all of Elydor. Rowan lifted it and carried my gown to the trunk at the foot of his bed. As he draped it carefully across the top, I followed.

“This is dangerously close to the bed,” I said as I sidled up to him.

“Is it?”

In response, he lifted me up by the waist as if I weighed as much as a piece of sea coral. Holding on as he stalked toward the bed, I only let go as he placed me onto it.

“Yes,” he said, quickly unlacing his boots and tossing them aside. “It is.”

One moment, Rowan was joining me. The next, he was removing my linens, the soft fabric made of fine Thalassarian seaweed fibers tossed onto the floor.

“Look at you.” Rowan positioned himself between my legs. Spreading them wide, his thumbs pressing into my thighs, he smiled as if privy to a private jest. It was quintessential Rowan, and I was reminded of when we first met. “I’ve lived only one lifetime,” he said, his thumbs now circling gently as his hand inched upward. “But long enough to know you will enjoy this.”

I did not doubt it.

“You seem confident in your abilities, Sir Rowan. From experience, no doubt?”

Reaching my upper thighs, he stopped. Grinned.

“You will enjoy this because I intend to worship you, Nerys, as you deserve. I’ve never kissed a woman and had the feel of her lips linger all day. Or held someone, never wishing to let go. I sometimes forget you are the most powerful water-wielder in all of Elydor, because to me, you are my escort. Someone I can talk to as easily as I might those I’ve known my whole life. But then I see what you are capable of, and I’m honored to be in your presence. You are extraordinary, Nerys. And deserve no less than to be revered.”

With that, his finger found me. Rowan didn’t look away. His gaze held mine as he unraveled me. “How should I make you come first? With my fingers or my tongue?”

He was brazen, “my” human.

How many times had I said, he’s not my human? Yet right now, it felt as if he might be. As I was his, at least for this night. And maybe a few more. Until it was time for him to leave.

“The thought of your tongue on me?—”

I hadn’t finished the thought before Rowan’s head was between my legs. At his first touch, I melted. His fingers opened me to him, and whether Rowan admitted it or not, he clearly had experience in this area. I gripped his sheets as Rowan’s tongue circled and then plunged inside as if I were a feast and he was a starving man.

“Rowan,” I pressed into him, both wanting to close my eyes and keep them open. A sound escaped my lips: part sigh, part moan. I both wanted more and for him to stop, the building sensation threatening to have it ended too soon.

“Mmmm,” he murmured as my eyes whipped open. He looked up and licked me from one end to the other. Then with a devilish smile, he began to flick his tongue against me, likely knowing that I was so close to exploding.

“You are unbelievable,” I managed. Even if I wanted to hang on, I couldn’t. But Rowan did not stop. Not as I screamed his name. Not as my legs shook.

He did stop when I finally caught my breath.

Leaping from the bed with the grace of an Aetherian, he removed his belt and breeches. Relaxed in the after-effects of release, I was still able to take in the thick, muscled thighs and a readiness for me that was most impressive.

He was above me in a heartbeat. Leaning down, Rowan captured my mouth in a searing kiss as his hands explored. I did the same, wanting to touch every bit of him. When his thumbs ran across my nipples, hard and ready, I arched up, telling him I wanted this now. Instead of granting my silent request, he had the audacity to chuckle against my mouth, playfully circling my tongue with his.

In a mass of tangled limbs and fervent kisses, we explored each other until finally, mercifully, Rowan pressed one finger inside me. Finding it slick with need for him, he replaced it, the head of Rowan’s cock now where his finger had been a moment earlier.

But instead of pressing into me, he pulled up. Halted our kiss. Implored me with his eyes, though said nothing. If he were waiting for me to stop him, I’d not do it. When he finally guided himself into me, my head fell against the pillow. By the time he was fully buried inside me, I had no inclination to move slowly. Apparently, neither did Rowan, because a few quick thrusts later, he was filling me so completely and without abandon that I wondered how this time could be so different than any other.

But it was.

Our pace matched each other’s perfectly. It wasn’t a soft or gentle one, but one born from frantic need. I held onto his shoulders as Rowan’s hand moved between us, finding the sensitive spot that assured I would come again. Already, it was building, the sight of him, when my eyes peeked open, reminding me that he truly was as perfectly formed as I remembered.

We kissed, his tongue matching the rhythm of our lovemaking.

You are extraordinary, Nerys. And deserve no less than to be revered.

That was the reason it felt so different. Rowan promised to worship me, and that was exactly what he did. With his mouth, his body, and the care he took in pleasing me.

“Please,” I begged, tearing my lips from him. I wanted to see him. Look at him. “Rowan…”

“Go ahead, Nerys,” he said, my name on his lips just one more sweet pleasure. “Let go. Give me all of you.”

That’s precisely what I wanted to do. I held back nothing, my fingers squeezing his shoulders, telling him I was close.

“I cannot wait to release myself inside you, Nerys.”

That was all it took. Thrusting my hips into him, I held on and looked into his eyes, showing Rowan how right he was about enjoying this. In response, he buried himself full hilt, his mouth opening as we called each other’s names.

It had been frantic and wild, perfect in every way. As I shuddered around him, holding on tight, I tried to catch my breath. Rowan collapsed on top of me, holding himself back enough as not to crush me.

I buried my face in the crook of his neck, sighing against it. In response, he did the same, clearly contented, as I was. And despite the afterglow, shivers running from my shoulders down to my toes, I knew one thing for certain.

This had been a mistake.