“I want to wash you too,” she said quietly.
Erotic images bombarded his mind. He wanted to bite her knees and kiss the soft skin of her inner thighs. He wanted to spread her legs and search for the lush scent that tormented him. He wanted to cover her with his body, invade her heat, and find release. He imagined Kyra wet and naked, pouring water over him in the bath. He would circle her waist with his hands, lick at her belly, dip his tongue…
His erection was so hard it was painful.
“Not tonight,” he said, his voice grating in the silence.
Leo stood and lifted Kyra’s legs over and onto the bed. “Do you need to change?”
She nodded. “My nightgown is hanging on the peg by the washstand.”
He walked over and retrieved it for her, trying not to envy the cool cotton fabric that would touch her skin. He handed her the gown, then went behind the screen in the corner, facing the wall as he heard her change from her dress to her nightclothes.
“I’m changed.”
He walked back toward the bed and sat on the edge, forcing his thoughts to remain on the mundane. He took off his socks and placed them at the end of the bed. He removed his shirt; he would need to borrow one in the morning if anything could be found big enough for him. His pants… were definitely staying on.
Kyra was lying on her side with the bedspread pulled over her, watching him as he undressed. Leo blew out the lamp and decided sleeping on top of the bedspread was probably a good idea. In the darkness, her eyes fell to his chest and the dark tattoos that covered his arms and shoulders.
“So many,” she said.
“Call me an overachiever,” he said. He scooted up next to her and put his head on the pillow. “You’re certain you’re comfortable with me sleeping on the bed?”
“Yes.” She lifted a hand, then let it drop. “You make me feel safe, Leo. You always have.”
Leo took her hand in his. “Did you want to touch?”
Kyra’s cheeks went red again, but she nodded.
Leo placed her palm over his heart. “Touch anywhere.”
Her eyes went wide. “Anywhere?”
Oh, heaven give him self-control. He folded his hands behind his head and breathed deeply, the muscles of his chest hard under Kyra’s hand. “Anywhere you want,” he said. “Anything you want. Touch me, Kyra. I’m yours.”
Chapter Thirteen
He’d presented her with a banquet and commanded her to feast.
Kyra was wide awake now. It had started when he knelt before her and washed her feet. Who knew washing feet could be so seductive? Every moment of self-control, every evidence of restraint only teased her further. Ratcheted up her own need.
Kyra felt the tension in Leo’s muscles rippling under her palm and knew he was practicing the most ardent discipline. His eyes were closed, but his lips were deep red and swollen. She remembered how they kissed her skin when he was washing her. Shifting a little, she leaned over and pressed her lips to his shoulder. His skin came alive under her hand and her lips. He drew her energy into his body, drinking it like a parched desert soaked up rain.
He breathed out her name. “Kyra.”
“Leo.” Her mouth moved from his shoulder to his collarbone as her hand traveled south to the defined abdominal muscles she’d been thinking about. She traced each one individually, and he didn’t try to muffle his groan.
“Is it too much?” she asked.
“More.” He turned his face to hers, and his self-restraint slipped. He reached a hand behind her head and pulled her into a hard kiss, devouring her mouth with his own, biting at her lower lip, sucking her tongue into his mouth, shifting so that her hand was pressed between their bodies on the bed. The gold hair trailing down his belly called her, and the black tattoos covering his body began to glow with a silver light. She ran her fingers up and down his belly as she swallowed the moans Leo poured into her mouth.
“Kyra, Kyra, Kyra,” he panted.
“Too much?”
“More.”
“Are you sure?”
His laugh was tortured. “You can do anything you want to me.”
His kisses made her bold. She slipped one arm under his neck and pulled him harder into their kiss while her other hand searched for the hard rock of the erection she felt pressing against her thigh. He was so tall. So powerful. To know she commanded his body like this made her head swim.
“I want to touch you,” she said, tracing his erection over his pants. “May I?”
Leo was in the throes of pain. Or pleasure. It looked very similar to her.
“Leo—”
“This was not what I intended when I offered to sleep with you,” he whispered, his eyes pressed closed.
Kyra began to pull her hand away, but he grabbed it and kept it over his pants.
“That’s not a complaint or an objection. But that’s not why I got in bed with you. You need to know that.”
“I want to… explore,” she whispered. “May I?”
“Heaven above, yes.” He let go of her hand and curled his arm over her shoulders, pressing his face into her neck. “Just be prepared for the reaction you’re going to get.”
“I am familiar with biology, Leo.”
“When you say things like that, it only makes me harder.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
How curious. She scooted down so she could reach better. Leo didn’t want to release her but he did, stroking her hair away from her face and bending down to press kisses to her lips.
“You’re so tall,” she whispered.
“Hmm.” More kisses. A low rumbling sound in his chest that sounded a little like a cat purring. His talesm were definitely shimmering now. They filled the room with a cool glow like moonlight.
She slipped her hand under his waistband and felt the muscles there tense. “Is my hand cold?”
“No,” he forced out.
She heard him swallow hard. Kyra didn’t wait any longer. She slid her hand down, past his hip, and over his hard erection.
Leo’s whole body shuddered.
So did she. Why was his pleasure making her so needy? Every sensation made her more curious. His skin was hot and smooth, but the flesh was impossibly hard and swollen. She ran her palm up and down the length of his penis. “Knowing where this is meant to go, the mechanics of it seem… improbable.”
“I promise you they’re not.” He kissed her over and over. “I promise. Promise, Kyra.”
His forehead smoothed out and his eyes closed again.
“Am I doing this right?” she whispered.
“Heaven above, yes.” He pressed his cheek to hers and groaned when she closed her fingers around him. “Kyra!”
The warmth of his release pulsed over her hand. “Oh!”
Leo let out a shuddering breath. “I did warn you.”
“Let me—”
“No, stay there.” Leo gently pulled her hand from his trousers and rolled out of bed, walking to the basin in the corner again and wringing out the washcloth. He walked back to the bed and cleaned her hand, then unzipped his pants and washed his belly. The casual intimacy of it made her need spike again.
Leo’s eyes landed on her, hot with intent. “Your turn.”
She rolled over and hid her face. “Not yet.”
Leo tossed the washcloth in the basin and crawled over her, bracing himself on his arms and caging her with his massive body.
“Are you joking?” he said. “Kyra, the things I want to do to you—”
“Not yet,” she whispered. “Later.”
He paused, rolled to the other side of the bed, and gathered her into his arms. “Tell me why?”
Kyra’s heart began to race, and Leo caressed her back with long, soothing strokes. She buried her face in his chest and breathed in his scent. Kyra knew, for the rest of her life—however long it was—the scent of Leo’s skin would be the most comforting thing in the world. Touching Leo’s skin, there was peace. Breathing him in, there was happiness. His arms made her safe. His kisses made her brave.
Kyra took a deep breath and tried to explain. “Just watching you is overwhelming.”
“Are you scared?”
“Not of you,” she said. “Just… the unknown.”
He bent down and whispered in her ear. “Have you ever touched yourself?”
She shook her head.
“Never, Kyra?”
“I never felt alone,” she said. “There was never any privacy. And all the women who came to my father… What they did felt obscene. Dirty.”
“Is what you did to me dirty?”
“No,” she choked out. “It was beautiful.” She looked into his eyes. “You’re beautiful.”
“So are you,” he said, smoothing a hand from her neck, down her back, and lightly over her bottom. “And everything we do together will be beautiful too.”
She nodded and tried to regain her boldness.
“Later.” Leo pressed her cheek to his chest. “Sleep, ana sepora. We’ve had a long day. Right now is the time to rest.”
She woke to the sound of birds in the forest and a man snoring in her ear.
Kyra’s eyes went wide.
Oh yes. Leo was in her bed.
Leo was… in her bed.
And she’d done rather wonderful and brazen things to him in the middle of the night.
She’d blame exhaustion, but that would be dishonest. She’d been wanting to touch him like that for… possibly years. Yes, years.