Sheer pride rippled through him. That he’d done that to her. That he’d been the one to give her pleasure no one else ever had.
He pressed his lips against her lower belly, then kissed her higher, moving back up her body as he crawled out of the water and eased over onto his side next to her, marveling at the way she didn’t flinch from his touch. At the way she sighed in complete contentment.
His fingers grazed her right breast, and she trembled again. Bracing himself on his elbow, he looked down at all her luxurious hair laid out beneath her, wondering how he could have thought she was a highborn that very first day. Wondering how the hell he hadn’t seen the goodness inside her. It was his anger, he realized as he took her in. All that pent-up fury he’d shielded himself with after Talah’s death. He hadn’t thought Ghuls were all evil before that day. Hadn’t ever expected it would take a slave—a Ghul slave—to show him they weren’t all evil now.
“Did you enjoy that, rouhi?”
Her eyes fluttered open. Glossy, seductive, radiant eyes met his. Eyes that drew him in and pushed all other thought right out of his head. “Yes,” she whispered, brushing her fingers against his arm. “Very much.”
“Good. That’s what I wanted.”
He lowered to take her mouth. Intended it to be a gentle kiss. But when she threaded her fingers into his hair and dragged him closer, all that pent-up arousal pushed his need right back to the forefront.
Her mouth… Her breasts pressing against his bare chest… The way she lifted her leg and parted her thighs, inviting him, luring him, drawing him closer to all her succulent heat…
“Kavin,” he managed, trying to pull back from her lips, failing miserably. His cock was so hard against her thigh, his need so great, he didn’t know how much longer he could resist.
“I want you, Nasir. I want to feel you inside me.”
Oh, Allah. So did he. So much so he could barely see straight.
It took every ounce of strength he had to ease away. “I…can’t.”
“But I thought—” She looked down her body, to her bare hip, where his throbbing erection pressed hard and hot and so eager to get inside her. Then her gaze snapped back to his. But this time, it wasn’t brimming with desire; it was laced with confusion. And disappointment. A whole lot of disappointment that speared straight to his chest. “I thought you wanted me,” she said in a small voice.
He hated that look of rejection on her face. He was responsible for that. After the way he’d treated her before… After the things he’d said… But he could change it now.
Brushing her hair back from her face, he leaned down to kiss her lips again. Gently. Sweetly. Over and over until she opened and slid her tongue into his mouth, drawing him deeper into something he knew he’d never escape. His blood was a roar in his ears once more. His cock so hard he hurt. But his suffering was worth it if it killed the worry in her eyes.
“I’m not ready to share you,” he said against her lips. “I don’t want them to take you from me yet.”
She eased back, stared up at him with even more confusion. But swimming in her sea-green eyes, he saw heat. The same heat burning him from the inside out. And followed quickly on its tail, a burst of tenderness that softened her entire face.
“Oh, Nasir,” she whispered, running her palm against his stubbly cheek.
His chest tightened. A sensation he hadn’t felt in so long he wasn’t sure what was causing it. But he liked it. So much that even though he knew this was futile, that eventually she’d be taken from him or one of them would die, he turned his lips into her hand, kissed her palm, then closed his eyes and hung on to the feeling.
Not of despair and misery but of hope. And the promise of a tiny speck of blessed light instead of all the wretched darkness he’d been living with.
She pushed him back so he was sitting, then moved into the water. Surprised, he looked down at her. At the wild tangle of red hair around her flushed face. At the same hunger he felt reflected in her eyes. She knelt on the steps, gorgeous and naked and his, and when she pushed his legs apart, then ran her hands up his fabric-covered thighs, sparks of heat ricocheted right up his legs and into his groin.
“I want to pleasure you, Nasir. The same way you pleasured me.”
He sucked in a breath. Unable to move. Unable to think. Unable to do anything but stare. And want. And lust.
“I want to feel you against my tongue,” she whispered, reaching for the button on his pants. “This time, I want to taste you come in my mouth.”
* * *
Kavin’s pulse beat so hard she was sure Nasir had to hear it.
Did he want that? Did he want her to touch and taste and pleasure him the way he’d pleasured her?
He’d said he wanted her. His words from moments ago—his reason for not claiming her—still rippled through her chest, sending warmth to every nerve ending in her body. No words had ever meant more to her. But did he want her mouth on him right now, the way his had been on her?
Please say yes. Please say yes…
For reasons she couldn’t explain, she was dying to see all of him, to feel him with her hands, to taste him with her tongue. Though she’d never felt the urge before, right now, she needed to make him feel as good as he’d made her feel. Craved it in a way she’d never craved anything else.
“Nasir?” she asked hesitantly when he only continued to stare at her with those heated, dark eyes. Eyes that sent desire skipping right back through her veins, mixed with a wariness she knew he saw.
“It’s been a long time for me,” he said in a low voice. A sexy voice. An oh-my-Allah, I-could-come-again-just-listening-to-that-voice voice. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“I want to.” He didn’t stop her when she unhooked the button at his waistband. And she took that as her sign, slowly sliding the zipper down his fly. “I need to.”
He tensed when she pushed her hands beneath his waistband, one on each side of his hips. His skin was warm against her palms, the muscles bunched below so damn alluring. Bracing his hands on each side of him, he lifted for her, letting her slide his thin black training pants past his hips and down his thighs.
His erection sprang up, so thick, so hard. And then it was her turn to draw in a sharp breath. Her hands faltered as she looked her fill. He was bigger than she expected—thicker, longer, darker at the tip—but it didn’t frighten her. If anything, the sight of him so aroused excited her. She drew in his scent—musk and man and need. Licking her lips, she dragged his pants the rest of the way off and tossed them onto the tiles beside the bath, then wondered—imagined—how he would taste in her mouth, how he would feel sliding inside her body.
Her pulse raced. Leaning forward, she braced her hands on his thighs and felt him tense all over again.
A smile curled her lips. He liked her touch. As much as she liked his. She tipped her eyes up to his. “You may need to help me a little. I’ve never done this.”
His eyes darkened, and he drew in another deep breath as she leaned forward and extended her tongue, licking just the very tip.
He was warm and hard and just the slightest bit salty. An interesting and unusual taste. But when he groaned low in his throat, she lost her inhibition and leaned closer still, running her tongue along the underside of his head, then opening and wrapping her lips all the way around him.
She knew, of course, what to do. As a jarriah in training, she’d seen pictures and drawings of the various sex acts. She’d even, secretly, been shown a live encounter between a jarriah and a highborn. A visual that had left her sick to her stomach at the thought of being forced to do any and all of the things she’d witnessed. But this wasn’t forced. And this didn’t leave a pit in the bottom of her belly. In fact, as she moved her lips lower, suckled, and drew back, her own arousal increased, until she had to press her thighs together to assuage the ache growing once more between her legs.