Page 56 of Ironling
“No, no, don’t mind us,” she insisted. She cleared her throat as silence stretched.
Hakon dared pick up his head, unable to help how his gaze fell greedily upon her. Fates, she was all softness in the lantern glow.
Good thing Fia was there, for if she wasn’t, Hakon didn’t know if he’d have been able to stop himself from doing something foolish.
More foolish at least than murmuring, “It’s good to see you, my lady.”
He didn’t imagine how her pulse visibly beat at her throat. A purr of desire gathered in his own, and although he knew he should look away, he couldn’t.
“You, too,” she said, her voice a low, breathy noise that drew him up, up the steps, until he was just one below hers.
Those brilliant golden eyes of hers searched his face, and he wondered if she could hear him crying out to her—send Fia away, come back to me, come with me.
If she did, she said nothing. Her lips parted, but no words came out. Hakon stared at those lips, his body rocking toward her as if she was a celestial body and he was pulled inexorably into her sphere.
“Goodnight, Master Hakon.”
He looked at Fia in a daze, seeing her arched, expectant brows.
Hakon swallowed hard.Fuck, what am I doing?
He stepped as far back as he could, bowing his head once more.
“Goodnight, my lady, Fia,” he said, and took the steps two at a time.
By the time he was safely sequestered in his room, his pulse pounded at his ears and his cock bobbed in his braies.
He’d never forget the sight she made—soft, glowing, perfect. And never to be his.
Aislinn lay awake for a long while, her body overwarm despite having long since dried off from the baths. The castle was quiet and still in the deepest hours of the night, all but the night watch having found their beds. Yet Aislinn couldn’t rest, couldn’t turn her mind from the sight of the blacksmith coming up from the baths.
Another wave of longing surged through her at the memory of him, glistening from his bath, every heavy muscle thrown into stark relief in the light and shadow of the lantern. She couldn’t stop thinking of how his damp hair had been slicked back close to his head, nor how droplets of water gathered on the pointed tips of his ears. His cheeks had been rosy and his skin supple from the steam.
And his braies…clinging to his thick thighs from the dampness, they left little to the imagination over his shape. Aislinn’s throat ran dry thinking of the outline she’d glimpsed of his cock, hanging against a thigh. She shouldn’t have looked, but his head had been bowed and she was excruciatingly curious.
Had Fia not been there, Aislinn suspected she would’ve given in to temptation—thrown herself into the strong form of him, finally indulge and discover what his truest scent was, how his skin would feel against her cheek, how his arms would feelwrapped around her…what those big green hands would feel like as they pushed away her dressing gown and revealed her to the soft light…
Sucking in a breath, Aislinn pulled down the neckline of her nightgown to run her fingertips over one pert nipple. Bending a knee, she rucked up the hem to her waist and set her other hand to exploring between her legs.
She hadn’t brought herself pleasure in quite a while. She’d certainly thought about it since meeting Hakon, but now, she couldn’t go another moment without satisfaction.
Her fingers worked in a practiced rhythm, and Aislinn was quickly slick as her hips rolled beneath her hand. She pinched and worked her nipple and clitoris in unison, wringing her pleasure out with familiar movements and tricks she’d learned over her youth and womanhood.
She’d lain with two men before, but she herself was always the one to ensure her own pleasure. Her climax built, gathering tension low in her belly, until it all released in one bittersweet moment. Her thighs clamped around her hand as her hips rolled and rolled, chasing the pleasure.
His name was on her lips as she crested, pleasure pooling like syrup in her veins.
She lay for a long while in the center of her bed, the sheets tangled round her, staring at the canopy and thinking,I wish I was with him. In the baths. In this bed. Anywhere. Everywhere.
She’d tried to resign herself to distancing from him. She thought it would be for the best.
Her mood only worsened with every day she didn’t see him.
The wooden rose she kept in her pocket was a constant comfort but also a reminder of him. That she hadn’t spoken with him in days. Even if he was only ever to be her friend, she was grateful for it. There were few people in her life who she’d found it easier to talk to than Hakon.
What am I to do?She’d been asking herself that for days without finding an answer.
Somehow, tonight, it felt as though a line had been crossed or a rite performed. Something had happened, but she couldn’t quite say what.
