Page 75 of A Lick of Flame

I’m not!

I’m not!

I’m not sure at all.

“I think you felt all of those things. Desire and lust…need. I think you wanted me to put my hands on you in the same way I was touching myself. I think that you still do…”

I start to protest, but he puts a hand up, stopping me.

“You asked. Now let me finish. Here’s the thing, Maya. I wanted to touch you, too. All I could think about was you watching me. I was picturing you…how you would look naked. How you would feel and the noises you would make for me. I couldn’t help it, and I couldn’t stop. I don’t want to explain to you what completion means. I want to show you what it means. I want you to feel it.”

Kakara help me, but my skin has gone all tight again. I can hardly catch my breath. My dress feels tight over my breasts.

“Say something. Call me a brute and a rogue or a—”

I shake my head. “No, you are neither of those things, and you’re right about why I watched you.” I chew on my lower lip. “I was too ashamed to admit it. I liked watching you… It made me feel—”

“We shouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“You told me that there was no shame in it.” My tone is clipped. I hate the mixed messages.

“There isn’t…” He shakes his head, running a hand through his hair. “Hades be damned.”

Orion moves quickly. One second, he’s sitting opposite me at the fire, and almost in the next, he is on his knees in front of me, putting himself at my height. He takes my hands in his. They’re warm and calloused.

My heart quickens. My blood fires.

“I like and respect you too much to take you to my bed because it would be just for a night or two, and you deserve more. You deserve forever.”

I bite on my lower lip to tamp down the sheer disappointment I am feeling all over again, and yet, I’m not sure if it’s because we won’t be having sex or if it’s because it won’t be long before we have to part ways. I haven’t known Orion very long, but I have come to…to like him. Like and admire and respect him. I have feelings for him. I think they’re deeper than I will allow myself to admit.

I smile, but I think it might hold the sadness I am feeling. “You have a kingdom to take back and an evil queen to overthrow.”

“That’s right. Only right now and in this moment, Maya, I wish it weren’t so. I wish I wasn’t a king, that I didn’t have a care in the world. I would take you then, and not just for one night.”

A lump forms in my throat.

He caresses the top of my hands with his thumbs. His touch is as soft as his words are beautiful.

“I would like to taste your lips…just once. I know it is wrong of me to—”

I press my mouth to his before he can finish his sentence. I let go of his hands and clasp his broad shoulders, marveling at how corded they are. My eyes are open wide. His lips are so soft. Much softer than I thought they would be.

Orion pulls back a little, and for a second, I think he’s done. Perhaps he didn’t like the feel of my lips against his. His eyes move to my mouth, and he gently takes it back, covering my lips with his in a gentle brush.

I make a soft moan. I’m not sure where it came from. Only that it sounded as needy as I feel.

“Oh, Maya,” Orion says, his voice thick and deep. He cups my face gently in his big hands and kisses me again, a little harder this time. His tongue slips between my parted lips, and we’re kissing. Really kissing. And I can’t get enough.

I moan. He does, too. Where my moan is soft and breathless, his is deep and harsh. I pull him against me, trying to get closer. We fall into each other in a way that is pure magic. At least, to me, it is. We’re both breathing hard by the time he pulls back, leaning his forehead against mine.

He says something strange. “Definitely a rose.” Perhaps with my brain this frazzled, I might have misunderstood him.

“I like kissing you,” I tell him.

He laughs; it sounds tense. “I like kissing you too.”

“You have soft lips, but the rest of you is hard.”

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