Page 53 of Feast of Sparks (Thornchapel 2)
Okay.
Okay. Here it goes.
“I was with Becket earlier this week. He—he saw—” My voice snags around the words, and I don’t know why. Do I think Auden will be angry with me? Angry with Becket? If anything, I’m the one who should be angry, but the person who deserves my anger is dead . . .
Auden takes my hand again, and then searches my face with that scouring gaze of his. Whatever he sees has him spreading his feet wide. “Sit here, little bride,” he says, nodding at the stone-paved space between his feet, and I obey without questioning him, which seems to surprise him a little.
“I thought you’d fight me about that,” he says, looking sweetly nervous all of a sudden.
“My ex had me sit at her feet whenever we weren’t in public,” I tell him, settling my skirt around my legs so the stones won’t catch on my tights. I look up at him and then affectionately butt the inside of his knee with my forehead. “You should trust your instincts. I feel better down here already.”
He lets out a relieved breath, confidence squaring his shoulders, and then he threads a warm hand into my hair. His cheeks are still the tiniest bit pink; his lashes still lowered a little. Bashful and powerful all at once. It’s enough to make me want to kneel adoringly at his feet forever.
“You can tell me anything,” he says softly, his fingers moving lovingly through my hair. “Anything.”
I lean my head against his touch, trying to summon my courage.
“You didn’t answer my question about being a good girl this week,” he goes on. “You know you have my blessing to share your body with any of us.”
I open my eyes and turn my face up to him. “Why?” I ask, still bubbling with guilt and doubt. “Why would you bless me for that?”
His eyes are better than entire gardens, entire forests, rich and bright and full of life, when he says, “Because I’ll bless you for anything, Proserpina, haven’t you figured that out already?”
I sigh. “I don’t deserve that.”
“If we deserved the blessings we got, they wouldn’t be blessings, they’d be results. And anyway, you do deserve it—you deserve my trust. You deserve for me to wish for your happiness. You deserve for me to earn you, and I consider seeing to your happiness part of that earning. And if seeing to your happiness means that I allow you to have your needs met when I’m gone, then really, any guilt you might feel about it is a strike against me and my trying to earn you.”
I squint up at him. “What?”
“I’m saying,” he says, tugging my hair so that my face is tilted all the way to his and he can kiss me, “stop feeling guilty about whatever happened and just tell me.”
His chiseled lips move warm and firm over mine until I open to him, and then he slips his tongue against my own for a quick, reassuring kiss before he pulls back to look expectantly at me. “Well?” he asks.
“Becket,” I say. “We fooled around.”
Auden just keeps looking at me, a slow hitch to his eyebrow saying volumes. You can do better than that, the eyebrow says. Try again.
“Becket fucked me with his fingers,” I say.
“Two fingers or three?” Auden asks, his eyes once again raking down my body. “Part your knees as you tell me.”
“Two,” I say, spreading my knees and feeling the cool air between my legs. My pussy is already aching.
Auden moves his foot under my skirt and casually rubs the top of his brogue against my cunt. “Did he rub your clit too?”
My teeth are practically chattering from the glancing pressure against my clit. My hips chase his foot and he gives me an amused look.
“Yes,” I pant. “He rubbed me.”
“And what did you do for him? Did you stroke him? Let him fuck that plush little mouth?”
His shoe rubs my pussy again, sending sparks of pleasure everywhere. “I blew him,” I manage to get out. “
He came down my throat in the middle of the church.”
Auden’s fingers are curled at his side, but I don’t think he’s angry. At least, the blaze in his eyes looks a lot more like hunger than anger, like he’s hungry for me, hungry to come down my throat too. “One day soon,” he says in a low voice, “I’m going to do the same thing. And you’ll stop wearing these fucking tights, so that I can take your cunt whenever I need.”
He drops his foot right as I think an orgasm might be within reach, and I moan in disappointment. Auden looks disappointed too, but also determined, planting his feet on either side of me and giving his erection an impatient tuck against his hip. “Soon,” he says. “But not now. You gave me something to do to earn you, and I’m going to do it.”
