Page 99 of Dagger in the Sea

Turo released his hold on my wrists and his mouth sank between my legs. Another growl escaped his throat, vibrating against my flesh. My one leg hitched around his shoulder, my other foot pushing against the divan as I ground myself against his mouth shamelessly.

His tongue lavished over me, his mouth ripping pleasure from me. He was the pirate looting. He was the crusader conquering. My body trembled and twisted on the thick cushions, and his hand fastened tightly on my hip, keeping me still as two fingers dipped inside me. He blew a small breath in a tiny, careful circle over my wetness.

Burning eyes met mine. “You feel that, Adri?”

I couldn’t answer, I couldn’t think.

He fluttered his tongue over me, around the center of me, and I cried out sharply, my fingers tugging on his hair. He nuzzled and licked and kissed me with a focused, determined abandon. If onlyIcould abandon everything, everything butthis, this moment, these sensations and feelings he’d summoned.

Turo. My conjurer, my conqueror.

The wall towered over me. The one I knew so well. The wall that separated me from receiving, from taking. The wall closing me in, threatening. The wall I had carefully built for myself. That familiar tightness filled my chest, my throat, choking me. I stiffened, I pushed back, pushed everything back.

“Stop. Turo, stop!”

I twisted away from him.

Lost his mouth, his touch. Lost him.

Lost.

Everything was a blur.

“Adri?” Turo’s hoarse voice cut through the loud, dull thud of my pulse.

I pressed my bare legs together, feeling the emptiness, the loss of him. A new kind of hollow. He cupped my bare rear, kissing the curve of my hip.

“Adriana…”

I shivered under the tender caress of his touch, his voice. I didn’t deserve them.

“Did I hurt you, baby? Did I do something wrong?”

I folded up my body. “No, no, it’s me. Please…please.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered roughly. Water on my ashes.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. Please. Don’t. Don’t be nice to me.”

“What are you talking about? I only want to make you feel good, Adri, and I wanted to feel that on me.”

My skin heated. I’d never ever heard anything like that from any man. “It felt good. So good.” I swallowed hard. “Too good.”

“What does that mean? Why did you stop me?”

I sat up, grabbing the thin throw blanket from the arm of the divan, covering myself with it, mortification sloshing through me. “I’m sorry.”

He took my hand in his. “There’s no sorry if you’re not comfortable. I went too far. I couldn’t help myself. I’m the one who’s sorry if I—”

I took my hand back. “It’s me, Turo. I’m the problem.”

“What? What problem? You’re upset. Why?”

My attempt at a smile curled my lips, but it was a shaky, unsteady smile.

“Don’t be embarrassed with me, Adri. You don’t have to be.” He planted a kiss on my knee. “I wanted you to come, to feel good, feel good with my mouth and hands on you.”

I chewed on my lip. “The things you say.”

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