Page 44 of Straw and Gold
“Hmm?” she answered, keeping her eyes on the book over her lap.
“I told you to go back to sleep.”
She shrugged in indifference, still not looking up. “So you did.”
“You needn’t stay up on my account. I’m fine.”
“Didn’t say you weren’t,” she replied flatly.
Vexing woman.
A low grumble left my chest. I decided on another tactic. “If this is a ploy to stay up until I doze in my chair so you can sneak off to spin straw, it won’t work. I won’t be falling asleep and have excellent hearing.”
She snorted at that, her eyes finally lifting from her book to glance behind me. I turned in my seat, following her gaze, squinting at three spools of golden thread stacked on the small writing desk by the door.
“Morella,” I scolded.
“We’re even tonight, husband. We’ve both kept to our bargain.”
Goddess, her face. Her black hair bundled in a frizzy bun atop her head. The soft brown of her eyes with shimmers of gold and the narrow slant of her nose. Her high rounded cheeks and beautiful lips flushed with delicate red.
I remained silent, keeping her stare, her challenge, and her crumbling hold on what I couldn’t afford to give her.
Her lips parted slowly and she swallowed, gently closing her book. “I’m curious…”
“Yes?” I replied instantly.
“The way you kissed me tonight…”
The way I’d kissed her.
Flashes of her body perched over my mouth ran through my thoughts.
“You regret it?” I asked tentatively, setting my elbow on the arm rest and my chin on my fist.
She shook her head quickly, unfolding her legs beneath her. “No, that’s not it at all! I’m just curious if—if I could do to you what you…I mean not the exact same, of course, but could I also…kiss you like that?”
I stared in stunned silence. “You wish to?”
She rose from her chair, folding the blanket into pristine, even squares. “If I did…”—her eyes rose to mine—“would you teach me?”
I cleared my throat, doing what I could to remain calm. “Brekkan Dioltry did not teach you?”
She shook her head, stepping closer. “I did not wish to ask.”
I snapped my jaw tightly, my nostrils flaring as she continued to move forward, closing the gap between us. Her neatly folded blanket flopped to the floor and she followed on her knees before I could react. She leaned in, settling her chest between my legs, keeping my gaze as she slid her hands down my cotton pants.
“You wish me to teach you, Goldling?”
Her fingers brushed closer. “I’ve wished for you to teach me many things, husband. I see now I need to be more direct with what I want from you, and right now, I want you to teach me about this…”
Her hand lay flat against my cock, stiff and throbbing, though I kept the rest of me taut. I inhaled in a deep shudder, my breath releasing in a low grumble through my chest as her thumb stroked the underside of my dick.
Goddess, she had the power to destroy me and she didn’t have any clue. The night was dark and we’d already explored the attraction between us, so what was a little more in the lessons of pleasure?
I shook my addled head, still deciding, running a hand over my mouth when she leaned further still. “I’m a quick learner, if that is your hesitation. It will not take long for you to teach me this skill.”
“You believe my hesitation is that you will be bad at this?” I laughed low. “Morella, you could merely breathe in my direction and I would use such a sweet sound to please myself for decades to come.”
