Page 72 of Unbound By Shadows
“Yes.”
When he had raised her arms, the motion pulled the robe apart, revealing a sliver of flesh. His eyes locked on the bare skin that stretched from her neck to her waist. Where should he start? What would she expect? He wished that instead of asking “where” she wanted to be touched, he had asked, “how.”
Slow build.
The term came to him suddenly. It was one of the tenets he remembered from his many explicit books. Females like a slow build. They like to be teased and tantalized, not pounced upon, and clumsily groped. So even though she was laid out for him like a banquet, straining for his touch, he would go slow. To make it good for her. To make her forget everything she had seen that night.
Softly, he touched her collarbone, careful to keep his claws sheathed. Then he traced his fingertips down the exposed flesh between the lapels of her robe. He caressed her from the hollow at her throat, across the valley between her breasts, to her quivering stomach. And when he reached her navel, he circled back to do it again. Back and forth, slowly. Gently.
She rocked her hips, seeming impatient. Tentatively, he became bolder with his strokes and skimmed his hand over the silk covering her breast. She arched up into his touch, so he did it again. When his hand fully closed around her fullness, his cock jerked. When she whispered, “Yes,” he couldn’t hold back his groan.
He swiped his thumb over the fabric straining around her nipple, fascinated by how tight it had become. This motion made her gasp, so he continued, growing more bold with his touch. Pinching and tweaking her flesh until she cried, “Ah! Too hard.”
He jerked his hand back. He knew he was going to ruin the moment somehow. His inexperience and questionable restraint could only be hidden for so long. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
She pulled his hand back to her. “Don’t look so stricken,” she said, smiling. “Just do it a bit lighter.”
He studied her. She wasn’t upset or angry; she was expecting him to continue. A slow smile spread across his face.She’s teaching me howto touch her.He suddenly became filled by a rush of appreciation—for her patience, understanding, and the serene way she carried herself. Even in intimacy, she eased his qualms. Heartened by her instructions, he took more care as he lavished attention on the other breast.
Just as he was debating what to do next, she shifted her hips again. The motion dislodged the robe, exposing her body fully to his gaze.
He sucked in his breath, staggered by the sight. Queen Thema’s library had an extensive collection of nude depictions, but Sam was certain that none of them rivaled Selene. The breasts that he had been fondling were full and lush, with pink-tipped nipples that made his mouth water. Her stomach was sweetly rounded, the waist nipped in before her hips gracefully curved out. Her legs were long and shapely, but it was the triangle of dark hair visible through the cotton she wore that drove him close to the edge.
Tear it away. Bare all of her.
“Sam?” she whispered, making him realize that he had been staring for several moments.
“Beautiful,” he murmured. He wouldnottear off her underlinen. Not unless she asked him to. He would enjoy this moment as it unfolded.
He traced light circles around her breast with his finger. “May I kiss you here?” he asked.
“God, yes.”
Their eyes met before he leaned down to run his tongue over her nipple then drew it into his mouth. Selene moaned and forgetting his instructions, tangled her hands in his hair. He didn’t correct her. The idea that she wanted to hold him in place while he did this was too exciting.
He flicked his tongue, then sucked wetly, surrounding the pearled bud with heat. At first, he wondered if he was being too greedy, but when she arched against him, he realized she was enjoying this as much as he was.
As he moved to kiss her other breast, his free hand roved over herbody. He was growing fevered, dancing on the edge of pain, but he didn’t want it to end. Nothing had ever been as good as this.
He drew his hand down the full length of her body, and she moaned when his hand brushed against the mound between her legs. He brought it back up to cup her core and found it wet. She was wetfor him.She spread her thighs wider so that the heel of his hand pushed into the top of her sex.
“Oh! Like that!” she cried. “Just like that. Again!”
Her instructions made him nearly come. Right there, in his trousers. But he didn’t release his control. He couldn’t, not when she was so clearly enjoying what he was doing.
Sam did as she asked, pressing down, then moving his hand in a slow circle. He wanted to touch more of her, to dive past the fabric barrier to stroke her slick folds. But she hadn’t asked him for that. She had asked him to keep touching her just as he was doing now.
She began to pant, and her head thrashed from side to side. He knew what it meant, and the sight made him surge with satisfaction.
When he was young, and Eldridge had talked to him about the act of mating, the Goblyn had stressed that the female should always find release first.If you take care of her, she’ll take great care of you, he had said. But the stories Sam had read of pleasuring females made it seem difficult, as though only a very experienced lover with honed techniques would do.
It was not so with Selene. She made it easy. All her little moans and gasps were like signals to him. Guideposts on how to delight her. All he had to do was pay attention. And when that failed? She simply gave him instructions. A revelation. He rubbed his erection against her, feeling as desperate to come as she was.
“Keep going,” she murmured, as if anything could make him stop.
This was real.It wasn’t a dream or a fantasy. This beautiful, passionate creature was nearly naked and asking for more of his touch. He hovered above her lips, overwhelmed by a deep need tokiss her. But then the sound of a loud bang coming from outside the cottage made them both freeze.
“What was that?” Selene whispered; her voice panicked.
