Page 60 of Librarian

I let out a hoarse half-laugh that cuts off as he slips his fingers free and then fucks them back into me hard. “Maybe just a little bit.”

He hooks those digits against my front wall, finding my G-spot with unerring accuracy as his mouth descends towards my clit.

It’s cruel, really, that someone so arrogant should have good reason to be. I collapse back onto my elbows with a moan.

“That’s it,” he murmurs as he licks up the mess he’s making with those talented fingers. “Keep soaking my hand like that.”

He sucks my clit sharply; the tug resonates through my body, dragging a cry from the depths of my lungs. My muscles tighten around his fingers as he continues thrusting them in and out of my sopping pussy. He’s stopped curling them, but something about the angle and power behind them is different. He rotates his hand, doing something that scrambles my brain.

“Let go,” he murmurs. “Trust me, darling. Let go.”

Pleasure is building deep and low in my abdomen, and when he adds a third finger, stretching me, it rushes out of me in a gush.

No. Not a gush, a flood.

My mouth drops open with a scream as I soak Pierce’s face, his hand, and probably the whole piano. I’m left panting, shivering, and completely wrecked as he wrings the final drops from my body.

“You’ve been holding out on us, Ice Queen.” North’s voice breaks through my exhausted fever dream, and I lift my head to find him leaning casually against the door frame.

“I didn’t… I’ve never…” My cheeks flush, and words fail me.

I’m not a squirter. That’s a mythical romance novel thing.

Stars, if I’d known this could happen to me, I would’ve insisted he put down a towel. And why are North’s golden eyes blazing with envy?

“She can’t help it if you’re just not talented enough to get her there,” Pierce taunts, completely unbothered. “I hope you enjoyed the show, Ackland. That’s as close to sharing as I’m getting tonight.”

With that statement, he withdraws his hand from between my legs, leans over and shuts the door, kicking North out. Without the light from the hall, darkness falls over the room, like the final curtain at the end of some erotic performance. I can just make out Pierce rubbing that same hand over his mouth, spreading the shining evidence of what just happened across his lips.

I reach for him, intent on slipping to my knees and returning the favour, but he gathers me into his arms, heading for the bed instead. His sheets are satin, a far cry from the cotton ones on my bed down the hall, and I smirk because he must’ve conjured his own rather than accept the ones the McKinleys provided.

Of course, Pierce would never sleep on anything but the best. He is a Carlton, after all.

He sets me down, flicking on the small lamp beside the bed and watching impassively as I lay a hand on the runeform inked into my stays and murmur the incantation to unlace them. They fall away easily, but when I reach for him, naked and ready to continue, he simply rolls up his sleeves and tucks the blankets around me.

Those grey eyes are soft as he says, “You were feeling rough before we started. You need rest.”

I hate that he’s right. Benny’s potion did alleviate the worst of my symptoms, but I’m still tired.

“Will you stay?” I ask, unwilling to argue.

He nods, settling on top of the covers. “It’s my room, after all.”

I rest my head against his arm and let the darkness and the steady rhythm of his breathing lull me to sleep.

When I wake,it’s to the gentle chiming of the piano. It’s so peaceful, so unexpected, that it takes me a few bars to realise I’m in Pierce’s bed. It’s still dark outside. The soft light from the lamp throws the ghosts in his eyes into sharp relief as he leans over the keys, wearing nothing more than a pair of loose pyjama bottoms.

The lid is still down, muting the sound, but I recognise the piece.

Rachmaninoff’sLilacs.

Pierce plays the instrument like it’s second nature to him, and I file the information away in the small mental folder of things I know about him.

The light is so dim that it takes a moment for me to realise what I’m seeing.

Scars.

So many scars.