Wordlessly, I shook my head.

He flashed a quick smile as he pushed my skirt up my legs. “That’s probably a good thing.” He smoothed a callused hand over my knee. “You make me helpless, Harper.”

I shivered as his palm traveled higher, his fingertips teasing the sensitive skin of my inner thigh. His cock bobbed near my hip, the head round and dark with arousal. A thick bead of precome swelled from the slit. My mouth watered with the need to lift my head and press my lips there.

Well, why the hell not?

I followed my instincts, lifting onto my elbow and swiping my tongue over my target. Einar sucked in a breath. Then he cupped my chin in a warm hand and drew me gently upward so I faced him on my knees.

Narrowed, burning eyes met mine, and his growl rumbled the bed as he reached behind me and unzipped my dress in one precise movement. “You know what I think, sweetheart?” he murmured.

Lust blasted me as he pulled my dress over my head, leaving me in the skimpiest bra and panty set I owned. The black silk had been a rare splurge over the summer, when I earned a little extra money editing essays for students applying to grad programs on campus.

“No,” I told Einar, licking my lips. His taste lingered there, salt and pine and a hint of something dark and spicy. I wanted more.

He unhooked my bra with a deft twist of his fingers, and his nostrils flared as my breasts sprang free. For a second, he seemed speechless, that little muscle ticking in his jaw. Then he cupped my breasts, one in each hand, and feathered his thumbs over my stiffened nipples.

“I think,” he said, “you’re a wicked girl under all your demure sweaters.” He pinched my nipples, sending pleasure-pain spiraling through me.

“Yes,” I gasped, arching into him. His hands were so big, his knuckles sprinkled with golden hair. The sight of his blunt, square nails scraping my nipples was surprisingly provocative.

He kept it up, twisting and pinching. Teasing and tormenting until my breathing went ragged and moisture soaked my panties.

Einar’s nostrils flared. He pinched harder, wrenching another cry from me. “You know what else I think?”

“N-No.”

“You didn’t make me any dessert.” He moved in a blur, gripping me around the waist and repositioning us so he stretched flat on his back and I straddled his chest. My head was still spinning when he ripped my panties from my body, grabbed my hips, and settled me directly over his face. His growl vibrated my clit and shot straight up my pussy. “So you owe me something sweet, love. And I’m going to clean my plate.” He thrust his tongue inside me.

Deep.

I grabbed at the headboard, my eyes already watering from the things he was doing with his tongue. The pressure, the sounds. God, the sounds. His grunts and growls warred with the erotic smack of his lips and tongue working up and down every inch of my pussy.

“Fuck,” I groaned, squeezing the headboard. “You keep ruining my underwear.”

“Then stop wearing them,” he said, his voice muffled. I wasn’t sure how he could breathe—and I suddenly didn't care. My head tipped back of its own accord, and I gazed blearily at the bed’s midnight blue canopy as Einar devoured me like a starving man who just discovered a feast.

My breath came in ragged gasps, my heart pounding so hard it threatened to burst through my ribcage. Pleasure spread from my pussy through every part of my body, my nerve endings electrified. My mind blanked. I couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything but cling to the headboard as Einar sped me toward rapture.

His stubble abraded my sensitive skin. When I squirmed, he dug his fingers into my hips and held me in place, working his tongue harder and faster.

“Yes!” I cried, a bonfire burning under my skin. I existed for this, just this, every part of me designed to receive pleasure.

Einar delivered. He flicked his tongue over my clit, his strokes hard and relentless. Pleasure built—a steady, persistent wave swelling and swelling. The world began to splinter. I was going to fly apart.

Einar moved his hands to my ass. Gripping each cheek, he spread me open and dipped his tongue to a place no one had ever touched me, let alone licked.

He licked. Hot and slippery, his tongue traced my puckered opening. It was deeply intimate. Intense and unexpected. Filthy and so, so fucking good.

“Yes,” I breathed, squeezing the headboard. I rocked on his face, riding his tongue as he swirled it around and around my asshole, sending ribbons of wicked pleasure spiraling through me. Rushing me to the edge of something big and powerful.

He dug his fingers into my cheeks and spread me wider. Worshipping me even as he held me completely at his mercy.

“Oh god, oh god, oh god,” I chanted, hanging by a thread. “I’m… Oh god, I’m com—” My words cut off as Einar flipped me under him in a dizzying display of speed and strength.

“Not yet, you’re not,” he rasped, pinning me to the bed with his weight. “You’re coming with me, woman. I want this sweet pussy strangling my cock.” He wedged his hips between my legs, but it wasn’t necessary. I was already opening for him, my body burning up with the fires he’d stoked.

“Now,” I panted, my hips rolling. I’d never been so aroused. He’d dangled an orgasm in front of me and then snatched it away. Now I was feral for it.