Page 76 of Crown of Briars
Varius chuckled. “Yes. We are immortal, after all.”
“I—I just mean… how long does it last?” I couldn’t tear my eyes away from them. “Won’t they finish soon? What will they do afterward?”
Varius was silent for so long that I looked at him. His expression was torn between amusement and confusion. “I thought you said you were familiar with the male body.”
My cheeks heated. “Iam. But… it… well for me, it hasn’t lasted very long. Notthislong.”
Varius tilted his head, considering this. “Then whoever is pleasuring you is doing a terrible job. When doneproperly, it can sometimes last for hours. With multiple climaxes.”
My heart seized in my chest, and heat pooled in my belly.Stones, multiple climaxes?Surely this had to be something unique to the fae. I couldn’t even imagine such a thing with Gerard.
My thighs tightened, and I resisted the urge to squirm on Varius’s lap.
Something brushed against my arm, and I turned to find Varius’s barbed tail coiling toward me. Despite the sharp points, its touch was soft and feather-light. I sucked in a breath as it dragged slowly down my arm, then curled against my calf.
The first time I’d seen his tail, I had perceived it as a weapon.If he thrashed his tail against an opponent, it could easily tear through flesh.
But this… The movements were delicate enough to tickle my skin, proving that even the prickliest parts of Varius were capable of tenderness.
I sucked in an unsteady breath. “What are you doing?” My voice was as shaky as my breathing.
“Proving to you how much I can make youfeel… even without my hands on you.”
Cool air whispered against my skin, making the hairs on my arms stand on end. I suppressed a shudder, glancing down to find a tendril of Varius’s shadows creeping up my leg.
“Don’t worry,dannahla,” Varius murmured in my ear. “I meant what I said before: I won’t touch you until you arebeggingme to.” He paused, and a shiver of pleasure rippled through me. “But I can’t speak for my shadows.”
More shadows encircled my legs, then tightened like ropes. I inhaled sharply at the cool contact. The shadows loosened, then warmed slightly, and I wondered if Varius was reading my reactions and making it more… pleasant for me.
Why? Why was he doing this?
I was about to ask him when a thick shadow slid up my skirt and plunged between my legs.
I jerked wildly, unable to keep myself from crying out.
The shadow withdrew, leaving me panting. My legs parted of their own volition, and Varius’s shadows inched closer, as if waiting for me to stop him.
I did not.
My body quivered with a need I didn’t know I possessed. Could he really do…this? With his shadows alone?
The strand of his shadow thickened and solidified until it was almost corporeal. When it met my sensitive flesh again, it was firm and almosthard. Just like… just like…
The smoothness burrowed between my thighs. I let my head roll back against Varius’s chest, my eyes closing.
“I think, darling wife, that you have been deprived oftruepleasure.” Varius’s voice was hot in my ear. His shadows pushed inside me, and I writhed my hips with a low moan. “This is merely a taste of what I can do for you.”
The shadows thrust hard, and I bit down on my lip to keep from screaming. My thighs spread wider, urging him onward. The shadows twisted, curling inward, driving into me with relentless intensity.
“Oh,Stones,” I breathed.
“If you want me to stop, just say the word.”
“Don’t stop.”
His shadows pounded into me, harder and faster. The feel of them, gliding through my body, burrowing deeper than I ever thought possible, made me see stars. Sweat trickled down my neck, and my body seemed to burn with each movement as his shadows claimed me. Again and again.
My arms lifted, needing to touch him. My fingers found his neck and tangled in his hair, which was thicker and more luscious than I imagined. “Varius,” I whispered. Tension coursed through me in violent waves, winding tighter and tighter until I couldn’t breathe. The sounds and sights before me faded. All I felt—all Iknew—was the force of that hard strength thrusting into me. He consumed my senses, driving all other thoughts from my mind. I needed more of him. So much more.
