Page 15 of The Naiad's Wish

I blinked, realising that it was the first time I’d given any thought to how and where our lovemaking happened.

Thismust be why Erik fussed about not wanting to do it on the ground outside, on the fallen tree, in the water, on the lakeshore.

It was about comfort, yes, but more than that, it was about spinning out the moment between us.

Erik moved over me in slow, deep pulses, his breathing loud in my ear.

I licked my lips. “How is the view from there?” I asked teasingly. “Not too close?”

He stopped moving.

I made a noise of complaint. I wasteasing, I didn’t want him to stop!

“You make a very good point,” he said, and slid off me. “I was supposed to be watching, wasn’t I?”

I threw a hand back to grab him, but too late.

The sofa creaked again as he sat. I groaned and dropped my head, panting into the carpet. Spreading my legs wider, tipping my arse up, I shoved a hand beneath me and gripped myself. The position was not something I’d normally choose, but I liked the way it felt at the base of my spine. I liked the heat of Erik’s attention on me.

Oh, how I liked it.

I sighed and flexed my hips, pushing into my fist, letting my arse rise and fall just a fraction slower than I normally would, because I knew that was what Erik wanted.

“Sayan,” Erik said roughly.

“Mmm.” The noise that came out of me in response was involuntary, but once I made it I couldn’t seem to stop.

I spread my legs wider, thinking that he must be able to see everything now, and continued to pump into my hand.

I continued to do it slowly, steadily, adding an extra twist at the top of every push.

“Is this what you wanted to see?” I asked him.

“Yes.”

“I could do this for hours,” I warned him. “I could get lost in it.”

“Do you touch yourself often?”

“No. I don’t know. Perhaps. What is often? I used to do it when I was lonely. Oh. Ohhh.”

As soon as I’d said the wordlonely, Erik was with me again. “You are not alone,” he told me, closing a firm hand over the back of my neck. “You willneverbe alone again, not as long as I live.”

“Or after you die,” I reminded him.

Sometimes the things Erik said made me think he didn’t know what was waiting for us on the other side. Humans had the most peculiar ideas about death.

“Never, if it is in my power,” he said, lifting my chin and turning my face to his. He leaned down and kissed me. It strained my neck and pushed me off balance. I went with it, rolling slowly to my back.

“I’m sorry,” Erik said. “This wasn’t a good idea. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“You wanted to admire me,” I reminded him, sliding my hands down my sides then laying one on his thigh where he knelt, rubbing it up to his stomach and back down.

“I can admire you perfectly well from here.”

“I do not mind it.”

“That,” he said with a smile, “is not good enough.”

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