Page 101 of The Half King
“Here’s my first command,” she said. “I want you to teach me.”
“Teach you…?”
“Everything there is to know about the act of love.”
He released a breathy chuckle. “We might need more than one lesson for that. There are so many acts of love that a person could spend a lifetime learning them all. And I’m afraid I don’t know the half of it. I’m still a novice.”
She arched an eyebrow.A novice?She didn’t believe him. There was nothing amateurish about what he had done with her on the morning of her Claiming Day.
“Truly,” he insisted. “Books have been written on the subject—hundreds of volumes in multiple languages.”
“Is it really that complicated?”
“Not complicated,” he said. “Diverse. Just like there are different ways to enjoy an apple—my favorite is baked in a pie—there are many ways to please each other.”
“Then show me one,” she said. “Show me your favorite.”
An immediate smile appeared on his face, as if he had been waiting for her to ask. “As my lady commands.”
He lowered to the ground and indicated for her to join him. Atop the soft moss, they stretched out on their sides and traded kisses for a while, building back up to the same breathlessness as before. She was more than ready when he slid his fingers beneath the waistband of her pants. She rolled onto her back and parted her thighs for his touch, and luckily, he didn’t make her wait. He used his thumb to trace circles over her while his index finger dipped inside. She spread wider, arching her back, silently begging for more. Then he slid his finger deep inside her and found an erotic spot she hadn’t known existed. He massaged it while her toes curled, and an animalistic moan rose from her throat.
“I love that sound,” he murmured in her ear. “But I love this sound even more,” he said, and he added a second finger to amplify the noise of her arousal. “Do you hear how wet you are?”
She nodded, rocking against his hand.
“The body doesn’t lie,” he said. “When you’re dripping into my palm like this, I know that you want me more than your next heartbeat.”
He was right. Her body craved nothing except him.
“You asked me to show you my favorite, and this is it.” He withdrew his fingers and sucked them clean. “The taste of you, the slippery feel of you. I want to drown in it. I’ve been dying to do this ever since the first time I kissed you.”
She didn’t fully understand what he meant to do until he removed her pants and began kissing a trail from her navel to her thigh. Then, with his face between her parted legs, he began using his tongue in the same way he had used his fingers. She tensed at first. But as she relaxed into him, she found that she quite enjoyed the sensation of his tongue. He licked her softly, teasing her delicate bundle of nerves to a stiff peak and then lapping at her with more pressure. He kept repeating the cycle, raising her higher and then bringing her down again, intensifying the ache in her core. When he paused for a moment, she remembered to command him.
“More,” she murmured. “And use your fingers inside me, too.”
He did as she asked. Nothing could have prepared her for the pleasure of his deep, stroking fingers combined with the lapping of his tongue. She groaned and let her knees fall out to the sides.
“Don’t stop,” she told him, though the tension was quickly growing unbearable. He kept working her, taking her body higher. Then he drew her into his mouth with a light pull of suction that felt so good she forgot to breathe. It was almost too intense. Just when she was about to tell him to quit, he twisted his fingers around to find that same magical spot, and all of the pressure inside her burst in release. She felt her inner walls tighten around his fingers as waves of pleasure washed over her. The fire in her blood seemed to surge. She couldn’t find the words to command him anymore, but somehow he knew exactly what to do, how to lighten his touch until the final quake had passed.
She lay on the ground with her heart pounding. If he was truly a novice, she couldn’t imagine what he would be capable of as an expert. He placed kisses on the insides of her thighs and stretched out beside her. She recognized the look of pride on his face, but there was something else behind his smile—a longing for the same touch that he had given to her.
She knew what her next command would be. “Lie back. I want to taste you, too.”
He didn’t need to be told twice.
She tugged his pants down the length of his legs and tossed them aside. Then she took a moment to admire him: the muscular planes of his chest; his round, strong shoulders; his lean core; and the dark hair that encircled his navel and led to his unmistakable desire for her.
“The body doesn’t lie,” she repeated as she curled her hand around him.
He was already rigid, but when she stroked him up and down, she felt him grow even harder. A single bead of liquid rose to the surface of him. She used her thumb to spread out the bead and found it slippery, much like her own arousal. She wondered what it tasted like, so she leaned down and licked his velvety tip.
He must have liked that, because he released a groan that echoed through the cavern. The taste of him was salty yet clean. She loved how his body responded to her, the way his muscles tensed with each swirl of her tongue, the guttural moans he released as she stroked him up and down. She had him writhing in pleasure, even though she had never done this before, and that made her feel more powerful than the fire inside her veins.
It also sparked a new ache between her thighs. She wanted him again—all of him this time. A quiet voice warned that it would be greedy of her to take more pleasure so soon, but she silenced the voice. She was in command now. For once in her life, she would take what she wanted and feel no shame about it.
“I’m not done with you,” she said as she tugged off her shirt. She repositioned herself astride his hips, and then she slowly glided her wet, aching core along the length of him.
The rumble in his chest told her he didn’t mind. “As my lady commands.”
