Page 59 of A Dance of Water

Water dripped down the front of her neck, disappearing under the low neckline of her gown. Dark blue eyes tracked the droplets as they raced down her clavicle, over the Binding mark, the swell of her breasts, and down into her gown. She felt it between her breasts, against her stomach, past her navel.

Luella squeezed her legs together to stave off the intense awareness throbbing between her thighs. "What are you doing? W-what is this?"

Graves pressed his other hand over her lower stomach, rightwhere that throbbing feeling started. She shuddered from awareness. A hoarse, strangled moan fell from her lips.

He was touching right where she almost wanted. Just a little lower. She shifted against the cushion as though she could move his touch where she truly wanted it, needed it.

He nipped her neck, his wet tongue coming out to collect a few beads of water. "Not so fast." He drew away from her, the ice cube leaving her skin as well.

And she was left unmoored in the wake of him.

"What have you done to me? What is this… feeling?" She could not collect her thoughts, they were scattered like the wind.

Her neck and chest felt wet with cold, from the memory of what he had just done to her.

"Call it what it is. Use your words. Let me hear you say it, and I can tell you how to get rid of it."

She rolled her lower lip between her teeth, remembering what he had called that feeling before she froze the glass.Desire, lust.He wanted her to saythat? She did not think she could say the second, it was too lewd—but the first?

Could she?

She felt as if she might do anything to abate the intense throbbing ache between her thighs. Never had she felt like this. But she might even like it.

Graves smirked, the scar on his lip tugging. "Say it."

"D-desire," she squeaked.

He danced a finger over the rim of the glass on his lap, lifting it up and swirling, swirling it. The ice inside clinked. She blushed. She did not think she would ever be able to see ice again without remembering.

"Desire. You want to know how to get rid of this feeling?"

Feeling foolish, she nodded.

He shot forward, placing the glass on the table without care as he grabbed her shoulders. Before she could even register it, she was halfway under him, her back propped against the soft cushions as he loomed over her, a knee notched by her thigh. She placed shaking hands against his chest, tangling in the folds of his cloak.

His eyes searched hers. They both felt it. The call. That little thread—a binding chain, really—between them.

"Touch yourself," Graves breathed over her flushed face.

"Touch m-myself?"

He leaned down and ran his nose along the length of hers, giving a deep, throaty hum. "Tonight. When I take you back to Vale’s rooms. Light a candle, wear something silky, think of me"—he took her limp hand away from his chest and trailed it down between her thighs—"and touch here."

Light filtered over his skin, illuminating the scar on the side of his face.

The silky, blue curtains parted, and before she could take her next breath, Graves lifted himself away from her and sat back against the cushions, once again swirling the ice-filled glass in a hand as if nothing had ever even transpired between them, as if he had not just upended her very existence with his sensuous instructions.

Luella sat up, stunned into silence.

Tharen sauntered into the alcove, brows raised with curiosity as he took in her flushed cheeks, the way she was not yet sitting up fully, Graves with one glove off and his cowl under his chin.

"It looks like I missed all the fun," the mage announced.

Her skin was so hot she wondered if steam was going to soon fizzle off of it.

For all his madness, the Prima was highly intelligent. She saw the exact moment he noted the ice-frozen glass in Graves’s hands—the frosty surface of the glass and the frigid air in the closed-off alcove. His eyes narrowed, but he did not address it.

"Vale told me that she should get back to his rooms for the night." Tharen threw a glance over his shoulder. "Unless she wants to part from her innocence and revel with the sinners."

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