A Dream upon Waking and Trial by Fire
Megan Hart
Smashwords Edition.
Copyright 2011 Megan Hart
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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***THIS WORK WAS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED***
In the eight seasons since she'd been at Somnus Keep, this was the first time Noa had been to this part of the manse. She'd followed the winding stone corridors and descended the curved stone stairways, and now she stood in front of a massive wooden door carved with all manner of designs. She'd stood before this door many times in her dreams, but the reality of it now made her heart thump fiercely in her chest.
Behind the door were the private chambers of Riordan de Cimmerian, Instructor Primus of Magical Theory and Practice. He was the most powerful magicreator in the realm. And her ahavatara. Her first lover.
She hesitated before knocking, though she'd planned this night for weeks. The time of her first flow had come and gone, and seven days had passed since the white cloth she pressed between her legs came back unstained. She'd had to wait much longer than other young women, most of whom earned the right to practice their magic by the age of ten and six. Noa was five seasons beyond that. The time had come to lose her virginity. After tonight, she'd not only be a woman, she'd be a full magicreator.
Still, though this moment had haunted her dreams for nearly five seasons, she almost turned around without knocking. She could make another choice…find another man. She'd had many offers, for she was already an accomplished user of the low magic. The loss of her maidenhead would allow her to access the high magic, and the man who broke that barrier, her ahavatara, would gain some of the power for himself.
Before she could leave, the door swung open on silent hinges. Noa took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold. The door swung shut behind her. She heard the click of a lock, engaged by invisible hands. Despite herself, she jumped.
"Are you afraid of me?"
The voice, like smoke, curled out of the dimness toward her. Noa shut her eyes against its touch on her cheek, her throat, and the twin mounds of her breasts rising beneath the cloak. When she opened them, she saw him in his chair across the room.
"No, sir."
His next words were spoken in a voice so cold it made an instant liar out of her. "Perhaps you should be."
Noa took a step toward him and passed through the haze in the air. She murmured a clearing spell under her breath, and the dust motes hanging in the candle's flickering glow moved aside to clear her view of him. He sat in his high backed chair, a sardonic smile on the mouth she'd tasted so many times in her dreams.
"Sir." Noa bowed her head. "If you would have me fear you, I will."
A low, rumbling chuckle curled through the air toward her. "Are those the games you'd like to play, then?"
Without her even knowing he'd moved, he was next to her. Riordan lifted her chin until she looked up into the depths of his black eyes. His finger stroked the line of her jaw. Noa's knees shook, but she forced herself to stand firm.
With the quickness of a snake, Riordan's hands tangled in the lengths of her upswept hair. The fullness of it tumbled from its pins to cascade down her back and over her shoulders. Vanity swelled in her for a moment at how the sight of it made him run his tongue across his lips.
Then she gasped in pain, because he'd tightened his grip in the handful of hair at the base of her neck. He pulled her head back until she stared up at him. Noa felt her knees give way, and he pushed her to the stone floor in front of him without letting go of her hair.
"Should I make you kneel before me?" he asked as calmly as though he offered her a cup of wine. "Take out my cock and have you suck it? Push you down on the floor, spread wide your legs and ram my length inside you until you scream as I burst the precious veil of your maidenhood?"
Tears sprang to her eyes, but she forced herself to say, "If it would please you to do so, sir."
He let go of her so abruptly she fell to the stones. Her hands slid over their smooth contours. She waited for his next command. This, too, she had dreamed.
Riordan sighed. "By the teeth of Adon'ai, girl. Get to your feet. I prefer a little more expertise in those who seek my bed. Go back to your classroom to your giggling girl friends. Make eyes at some young swain who will woo you with flowers and parlor magic."
Silently, her tears of pain turning to humiliation, she shook her head. She had chosen this man. She would have him.
"No? You defy me?"
Riordan stalked a few steps from her then turned to look back. Noa risked lifting her head to meet his leveled gaze.
"You've heard the tales, haven't you?" he asked her.
She nodded and got to her feet. She stood before him, hands clasped in front of her as she'd been taught. She did not flinch when his gaze swept over her. "I don't believe everything I hear."
He ran a hand through the dark thickness of his shoulder-length hair. The strands glimmered purple, green and blue in the candlelight, a sign of his power. Sparks jumped from the tips of his fingers and lit the planes of his face.
"I don't want to bed you, girl."
Now Noa set her jaw stubbornly. "I am not a girl any longer. And I've come to claim what's mine by right."
He stared at her for so long she thought he might explode in anger. When he spoke, his voice was soft, but deadly. She'd heard it before, when a student failed at some simple task. It was the calm before the storm.
"You know the consequences, don't you?"
She nodded. "But I will attain the high magic."
"You could do that with lesser men than I." Riordan slanted a sly smile across his full mouth. "Kinder men than I."
She stepped toward him. "I want you."
Her declaration seemed to stun him. "For the love of Adon'ai, why?"
Because I love you, she wanted to whisper, but did not. The words fluttered on her lips and passed silently from her mouth to dance among the golden motes of dust. She could not tell him the truth—that she'd watched him the past five seasons. That she'd sat in his classes and tried to concentrate on the spells he taught and not the way his hands would feel on her skin. She could not tell him that his face haunted her dreams, and the scent of him lingered in her nostrils even after he'd passed her in the hallways.
"Because you are a good teacher," she said at last.
He slid his fingers across his mouth then peered at her again. "And because I am the most powerful man in Somnus Keep? Because when I fuck you, you'll attain power most chits can only dream of?"
She shook her head. "I don't care about that."
"And you don't care that you'll link your soul with mine forever either?" Riordan's mouth twisted into a sneer.
I long for it, she wanted to say, but again kept silent. Noa's tongue swept along her lips in a nervous gesture, and she was rewarded when Riordan's hungry gaze fastened on her mouth. Her breath grew lighter, faster. Her breasts rose and fell beneath the weight of her cloak. She clenched her hands to keep them from trembling.
"I should turn you away," he said. "I have other occupations to fill my time this eve. I don't have time to waste on an untried girl with stars in her eyes…"
"You can't send me away. By Shalhevet's Mercy, you must take me because I am a virgin of common origin, and a magicreator. I can't afford the luxury of hiring a doxy to train me in the art of love."
"Shalhevet's Mercy?" Riordan shook his head. "Girl, that edict has not been enforced in nearly a hundred seasons. You know as well as I that you may choose your first partner from anyone you like. Indeed, 'tis better if the first bond is one based on friendship or love, rather than simple attraction, because you will tithe your soul to the one who takes your virginity and gives you access to your full strength."
Noa lifted her chin. "Shalhevet's Mercy, sir. I choose you."
Riordan went to his chair, a massive piece of furniture covered in studded velvet. The swish of his robes on the stones caressed her ears as it had so often when she sat in his classroom. Noa's nipples peaked, and warmth grew between her legs.
He expertly flicked the flowing cloth of his black cassock to prevent it from tangling as he sat. Riordan steepled his fingers under his chin and stared at her without speaking. Noa forced her back to remain stiff, though the way his eyes crawled over her cloaked form made doing so difficult. She wanted desperately to go to her knees before him to take him in her mouth as he'd so crudely offered already. The thought of it made the juncture of her thighs tingle. She bit back a sigh.
"Come here."
Could he read her mind? Noa did as she was bidden, her heart thumping like the sound of a thousand feet running on wooden floors. She kept her hands clasped in front of her, deferent, as she'd been taught.
"Get on your knees."
Oh, how many times she had longed to hear him say those words! So many times she'd dreamed of it as she touched herself in the loneliness of her narrow bed and tried to reach an ecstasy denied her. Noa slid gracefully to her knees in front of him. Her fingers pressed against the chilly stones. She could not bring herself to look at him, for fear her face would give away the intensity of her passion.
As if he could read her mind, Riordan tapped her head to make her look up. Noa felt the heat of a blush steal across her cheeks, and she couldn't stop her tongue from stealing across her lips again. Riordan made a low noise in his throat.
"Touch yourself."
Whatever command Noa had expected to hear, it was not that. Hesitantly, she lifted her hands to the swell of her breasts beneath her cloak. She rested her fingers there, conscious of the way her nipples nudged at the heavy fabric.
She dared not take her eyes away from his. He gazed at her with the familiar, sarcastic look she knew so well. She felt the heat on her face and between her thighs deepen. Noa bit her lip.
"Touch yourself as you do when you are alone. When you think about me."
Noa shuddered, not from fear or from cold, but from the fierce bolt of desire that shot through her. For a moment, she had to close her eyes against the way the room swam in front of her. Drops of sweat collected on her brow and at the nape of her neck, though the room was cool.
"I gave you an order."
"Sir, I—"
"Question me and I'll put you from my sight. Do it."
With trembling hands, Noa spread her knees gently. The folds of her cloak fell into the space between her legs, protecting her from exposure. She touched herself through the fabric, twice.
"More."
She undid the few hooks holding the cloak closed above her knees. The fabric parted with a whisper. Noa looked down at her hands, startled to see them against the whiteness of her skin instead of the cloak's dark gray. She slid a hand inside and found the softness of her pubic curls. She stroked softly and could not stop the sigh that escaped her lips.
Her other hand kneaded the fullness of her breast then undid several of the tiny hook-and-eye closures down her chest. She slipped a hand inside there, too, and found the peak of her nipple with her thumb and forefinger. Noa stopped, uncertain of how to continue. She could feel what her body wanted. She'd spent enough nights doing these very same actions, but never with an audience.
"I did not give you leave to cease."
She gave another brief shudder that pushed the mound of her womanhood more firmly to her fingers. She moved them in a circular motion, just above what her Sexual Arts teacher called "the monk in the pulpit." Around, around, then a quick dip down to find the rising slickness coating her folds. All the while, her hand rolled her nipple in her fingers.
Noa's breath came short in her lungs. She bit her lip again, harder. The sensations flooding her were not new. Tonight, however, she'd achieve satisfaction instead of frustration.
Noa's magic surged inside her as it always did when she touched herself this way. The power slid through her pores and along the strands of her hair, until they stood gently on end. She heard the crackle of the magic as it flowed from her scalp and burst from the ends of her hair in sparks of violet and red.
"What do you think about when you do this?" he asked her.
"You." The words felt thick on her tongue. She expected them to slur.
"Me?" Riordan sounded quizzical. "Doing what?"
Noa's head bent lower. Her eyes fluttered, so she could glimpse her hand where it disappeared into the opening in her cloak one second, then nothing but the blackness of her lids the next. His voice stroked her as she stroked herself. "Touching me."
"Where?"
"My breasts. My thighs. Between my legs."
Faster now. Her fingers were slick with her own juice and sliding without effort over her clit. She thought she might feel shame at performing this intimacy in front of him, but the movements of her hands quickly swept anything but the frenzy of pleasure from her mind.
"What else?"
She took in a deep, shuddering breath. "Kissing me. Making love to me. Telling me…" She faltered at having to reveal to him her secrets. "Telling me to get on my knees before you and to take you in my mouth."
She heard him shift in his chair and risked a glance. He wasn't looking at her. His attention seemed focused on something far away.
His voice had grown rougher. "How long have you thought these things?"
"A long time." She stuttered as her fingers swept again over her clitoris. The muscles on the insides of her thighs jumped. The stones bit into her knees and her heels gouged the softness of her buttocks. She longed to change position, but the ecstasy that seemed only seconds away kept her in one place, afraid to disturb the rhythm.
"How long?"
She thought back, with difficulty, to the first time she'd sat in his classroom. Though his reputation was legion in Somnus Keep, she'd had no more than a passing acquaintance with him until she was a third season student.
"Since I was ten and six, sir. Since I first sat in your classroom. I am one and twenty now."
"Five seasons?"
Noa paused in her movements. Beneath her fingertips her clit pulsed in time to the beat of her heart. Exquisite pleasure-pain radiated from that spot, tempting her to press lightly, then slip her fingers down to probe her opening.
"Yes."
"Sweet stars." Riordan put both hands to his face for a moment.
The haze of Noa's arousal hung in the air between them. It was a pale gold color, tinged with pink edging to red. She could have whispered another clearing spell, but chose instead to watch the aura undulate with her growing sexual excitement.
"When do you think these things?"
She thought of long afternoons watching his hands demonstrate how to work the low and the high magic, the hands she longed to feel against her flesh. She thought of evenings in the older students' lounge, watching him play at Quoites or arguing magical theory with students bold enough to risk his acerbity. Meals in which she'd scarce eaten a bite because she'd had the fortune to sit in view of the teacher's table, where she could watch him eat and talk with the rest of the Somnus Keep faculty. And of course, the nights when her dreams had filled with his face, his voice, his scent.
"All the time."
"Tell me again what you imagined."
She looked to see if he mocked her, but saw no sign of anything but curiosity. "I imagined you licking me. Touching me."
"Fucking you?"
"Yes!"
"Tell me something, sweetling. Are you going to come yet?"
Noa's drowsy lidded gaze snapped wide open. "I want to. But not alone."
She wanted to weep with the unfairness of it. Normal people—those who lacked the nature forces that made her a magicreator worthy of Somnus Keep—could achieve sexual satisfaction at their leisure. She needed a lover to reach her full potential.
Tears pricked, hot at the back of her eyes. What a picture she must make. Her hair had tangled over her shoulders. Her cloak gaped open, barely concealing her nakedness. She pulled her hands from their actions and clutched them in her lap.
"Shalhevet's Mercy," he murmured. "I am not so pitiless that I can ignore that. Not when it is so clear to me how badly you need release."
He pitied her, which was something altogether different than mercy. Noa pressed her lips together, then rehooked her cloak. She got to her feet.
"I don't want your pity, no matter how much I might deserve it." She turned, humiliation burning in her chest. The tears clouding her vision made her stumble, and she caught herself with one hand on the edge of a table. She paused to blink her vision clear. Her body ached from unfulfilled desire, but it was no different a sensation than had haunted her many nights before this.
"I did not say you could leave!"
The thunder of his voice, so familiar, stopped her. Noa didn’t turn. She straightened her back and clenched her fists at her side, then twisted her head until she gave him her profile.
"You take my truth and you throw it in my face to shame me?" she asked. "They say you are arrogant, and I've seen they are right. They say you are powerful, and I know that account to be true as well. But no matter what stories they whisper about you after you pass, no matter what tales the older students use to frighten the younger, I have never believed it when it is said that you are cruel. Until now."
"Take not one step further," he said in warning.
She whirled to face him. "Or what? What shall you do? Bid me get on my knees again? Bid me to lay down on the floor so you can strip my innocence from me while you mock my desire?"
"I am not in the habit of deflowering maidens with such lack of finesse," Riordan replied.
Her anger, spurred by her humiliation, had not abated. "No? From what I heard, you're not in the habit of anything at all!"
His eyes narrowed. "Now what tales do they tell of me?"
She allowed the twitch of smile touch her lips, though she'd never felt less like laughing. "They say you haven't brought a woman to your bed in nearly six seasons. Nor a man. That you spend each night alone, no matter how many willing partners you might have. Some say 'tis because you wish not to dilute your magic with excess sexual congress. Others claim your preferences run to the perverse—that the mere flesh of another human can not satisfy your urges."
He lifted an eyebrow at her. "Really? And pray tell me, pretty one. What do you think?"
Noa replied calmly, "I think you are afraid of intimacy."
His laugh was short and cut off abruptly. He sneered and flicked his hand at her dismissively. "Then you are wrong."
"I asked you to give me Shalhevet's Mercy. I take back my request."
Again, she turned to leave, and again his command forced her to halt. She knew he could have used the force of his will to glue her feet to the floor, but it took only his words to keep her from moving.
"And if I won't let you? If I insist you stay?'
Noa bent her head for a moment, worrying the soft flesh of her lower lip with her teeth. Everything had gone so horribly awry. She'd been a fool to think he'd want her when even the loveliest women at Somnus Keep hadn't been able to lure him into their beds. She'd asked him for Shalhevet's Mercy because she thought it was the only certain way to get him to agree to be her ahavatara, and she'd even failed at that.
"You don't even know my name," she whispered, broken, her heart cracking beneath the weight of the love she did not wish to have for him.
She was at the door, her hand on the great brass latch, before he spoke.
"You do me great disservice," said Riordan. "Noa."
Her fingers clenched on the smooth, cold brass.
"Turn around."
She did, hope setting her heart to a frenzied beat. He hadn't moved from his chair. His hair looked rumpled, as though he'd been running his hands through it. He lifted his hand and crooked a finger at her.
"I cry your mercy, Noa. I was unkind because…because I have no excuse. I was cruel to mock you, and I cry your mercy."
"You shall have it."
"As you shall have mine, not Shalhevet's," Riordan said. "Come here."
She went to him as though upon a cloud of air. Again, he whispered the words she'd dreamed so often, though now they were less a command and more a request. "Get on your knees."
She did.
"Slide up my robe. To my thighs."
Bright sparkles of color flickered in Noa's vision the first time she touched the heavy linen of his black cassock. She heard the soft chuff of his laughter and humiliation stabbed at her. He could see the sparkles, too, and could sense the arousal triggering them to dance around her head. Still, he said nothing, so she continued.
The cassock was lined with crimson satin. She'd glimpsed the color often as she watched him pace the classroom. When he turned corners, the red beneath the black winked at her. Now she let her fingers slide across the luxuriant fabric and imagined it as his skin.
She gripped the robe's hem and lifted it to his ankles. His feet were bare despite the cold floor; his toes long and his ankles strong. She lifted the robe over his calves, scrunching the cloth between her fingers. Her thighs shifted as she knelt, and she fought a shudder as the first coarse hairs on his legs brushed her knuckles. She lifted the hem to his knees, then to his thighs.
Noa stopped, still gripping the handfuls of his cassock. The red satin shimmered in front of her. Riordan hadn't moved.
She waited, aching to move further, but not daring. Her fingers opened and closed slightly on the bunched cloth. She wanted to feel his flesh beneath her fingers, not the damn robe!
"Farther."
She pushed it farther, to the spot where the hair grew sparser and his skin paler. He shifted to allow her to push it higher. Fear struck her suddenly, and she stopped.
"I didn't give you leave to stop."
"Forgive me." Noa had to force the words from a throat gone dry. "I've never… I never have…"
"Of course you haven't, Noa. That's why you came to me, isn't it? To give up your maidenhead in return for the power I can give you?"
Noa nodded, thinking he could never know her real reasons. "I've waited a long time."
"Push it farther."
She took a deep breath and did as he commanded. He was as bare as she beneath the robe, and she wondered for the first time if he'd been expecting her. Then he lay exposed to her, the part of him she'd dreamed of when she squirmed on the hard desk during spells lessons. She blinked and forced herself not to look away.
"You are…magnificent," she breathed.
Her words seemed to startle him, because he let out another low noise. "Take me in your mouth."
Oh, gladly! But Noa had no idea of how to practically do so from her position. She lifted herself higher by putting her hands on his thighs. Now her face was close enough. She closed her eyes, opened her mouth and slid the first inch of him into her mouth.
She could not hold back the moan. Instinctively, she rested her belly on his knees and gripped the length of his shaft with her hands. Oh, she had dreamed of this, but even in her dreams she'd not imagined the sensations would shoot through her like comets in the night sky.
Riordan lifted himself slightly and nudged himself further into her mouth. For one panicky instant Noa tensed, certain the feeling would make her gag. She thought a conforming spell, a calming spell, then could concentrate solely on the pleasure pouring through her.
Though she'd never done this act, she'd spent enough time preparing for it in Sexual Arts class. She let him slide out, then in again, then suckled gently on the contoured head of his erection. Her hands found the weight of his testicles and she stroked them in time to her mouth's movements.
Eager to taste and touch every part of him, Noa slid her mouth down the shaft to the swell of his balls. She pressed her mouth to them, then slid out her tongue to run it along the puckered line leading from the root of his cock. His hands gripped her hair harder, and she thought he muttered a curse.
She slid a hand beneath her robe. She needed no more than a series of light strokes to return her to the quivering brink of climax. Noa slid a finger inside herself, imagining it as Riordan's cock. She eased it in, then out, letting only the tip enter her slick hole. Her thumb rubbed her clit, and her hips bucked.
Noa licked Riordan's balls, losing herself in the sensual onslaught overcoming her. He closed his hand around the base of his cock and slid it up and down as she tongued his testicles. Beneath her cheek, his thigh tensed and relaxed as he stroked and she licked.
Noa no longer had to touch herself to continue her arousal. Just shifting her thighs, slippery from her juices, against one another kept her clit throbbing. She pushed her pelvis against Riordan's chair, aware her body was setting its own pace and following its own urges.
His hands entwined in her hair and she welcomed his instruction. He pulled gently, and she left the sweetness of his balls and returned to his length. When he tugged her hair, she pulled away, and when he pressed gently, she took him back in. She never left him completely. His cock grew slick with her spittle, and she tasted a musky, slippery fluid on her tongue.
Startled, Noa pulled away. It was over so soon? "Sir?"
He'd thrown his head back against the back of the chair. His eyes had closed. Now they opened, and she was surprised and flattered to see his gaze was glazed.
He looked down at his erection, the slickness of her saliva giving it a shimmer in the candlelight. " The deed isn’t done. Only a taste of what’s to follow."
She nodded and pressed her mouth lightly to his cock again, grateful he hadn't mocked her. He could be cruel in the classroom, and vicious to students who hadn't done their lessons. Though his arrogance was part of what drew her to him, she was glad he wasn't showing it now.
She took the head of him in her mouth again, but this time, he stopped her. "It’s not too late to leave."
"No." Noa pushed herself off his lap in dismay. "If I’m not pleasing you, I'll do better."
He made a noise that was nearly a growl. "Not please me?" He grasped the thickness of his erection and slid his hands along its length. "Think you this an indication that you do not please me?"
"I want to please you." Noa moved to go to her knees again, hungry for his cock, but he stopped her.
"There’s more to lovemaking than this. And I would serve you the way you seem determined to serve me."
"Sir?"
"On a bed," Riordan said patiently. "You’ve chosen me, despite the warnings and the stories. I would have you enjoy the experience at least."
Did he think she wouldn’t? "Merely being with you is joy enough."
He gave her a sharp glance. "Now it’s your turn to mock me?"
Noa refused to look away from his steely glare. "I cry your mercy. I don’t mock."
He stood, the folds of his cassock falling back down to his feet. Noa made a small, involuntary noise of protest when the material hid his beauty from her. Then she let out another unintentional noise of surprise when he swept her into his arms.
Noa's breath caught in her throat with a sting like the prick of thorns. For an instant, she fancied she even tasted blood. Riordan's powerful arms cradled her against his muscled chest. He strode without hesitation toward the arched doorway to his bedchamber.
Noa put her arms around Riordan's neck, lost in his embrace. She put her face to his chest and breathed in the scent of him. Smoke and musk…and, incongruously, the scent of flowers. All Soul's Bucket.
He shifted his arm so she slid down to stand before him. Their bodies pressed together. Noa was taller than most of her female classmates, but in Riordan's arms she felt petite. She had to tilt her head back to look at his face.
He gazed down at her, his black eyes smoldering with flashes of gold and red. He gave a sharp twist of his head toward the fireplace in the corner, and it burst into heat and light. He gave another glance at the lamp next to the bed, and its light was extinguished. The scent of flowers grew stronger, briefly. The length of her hair crackled with the spark of Riordan's power.
Now the room was bathed in black, red and gold. Purple and green still gleamed in his dark hair.
He was going to kiss her. Noa let her head fall back further to allow him access to her mouth. Ah, he was going to kiss her, like she'd dreamed, like she'd prayed about…
He didn't kiss her. She opened her eyes, embarrassed to be acting like the mooning schoolgirl she hadn't been before. Riordan tilted his head, his mouth parted. But he didn't kiss her.
Disappointment flooded her, but Noa made no protest when he told her to get on the bed. This was it then. The time had come.
She closed her eyes again, waiting for his weight upon her, waiting for the stab of pain that meant her time with him was over. Tears burned against the backs of her lids.
She felt gentle hands on her, opening her cloak's catch at her throat, then the line of hooks and eyes down the front. She felt the whisper of the fabric against the sheets as it slid from her shoulders. She heard Riordan's sharp intake of breath when he saw she was naked beneath it.
Noa tensed, waiting. At last she opened her eyes. Riordan knelt between her parted legs, his gaze solemn. He looked at her breasts and the nipples she knew must be pink and rigid. His gaze took in the soft curve of her belly, and the circular tattoo that marked her as common born. He looked at the mound of her cunt with its crinkly hair a shade darker than her ash blond head. She parted her legs wider to allow his gaze to caress her everywhere; especially there, where she'd yearned so long for his touch.
Riordan rested his hands lightly on her ankles. His fingers closed on the fragility of her bones. She felt the strength in those fingers she'd seen painting thousands of designs in the air. He could break her bones with little more than his will, but Noa didn't fear his strength.
He slid his hands up her calves, then to her thighs, mimicking her earlier journey. Riordan stretched himself down on the bed's softness. His breath puffed against her center. Noa squirmed.
At last, he kissed her. His lips pressed lightly on the her clit. Noa sighed and shifted beneath him. Her legs parted further, without effort. His hands touched the inside of her thighs and opened her even more. She was exposed to him completely.
Riordan flicked his tongue against her folds, then on her swelling bud. Noa gasped. Riordan swiped his tongue more firmly against her, then took her clitoris gently between his lips and suckled.
Noa's hips rolled upward as the sensation rocked through her. Sweet Stars, but nothing had prepared her for this! She arched her back, helpless against the feeling of the exquisite softness of his mouth on her, the feather-light probing of his tongue along her folds. She’d thought she’d gain pleasure from this night if for no other reason than she loved him. She hadn't dreamed he would see so thoroughly to her pleasure as well.
"Stars above, but you are sweeter than honey."
He continued to stroke her with the fullness of his tongue, pausing now and then to probe with only the tip. Noa rocked her hips, aching for release.
Riordan slid his finger inside her gently. She felt him probe the barrier that had held her back from reaching her full strength. A pain, brief but sharp, stabbed her, and she winced.
What would it be like when he filled her?
Riordan gave her no time to ponder. He slid another finger inside her, stretching. All the while he continued the relentless pressure of his mouth and lips and tongue. He moved the two fingers in and out in rhythm to his strokes, much as Noa had done earlier with her mouth on his cock.
She heard noises coming from her own throat and was helpless to stop them. Words, pleas, his name over and over.
"Riordan!"
She had never called him that before, always referring to him deferentially as my Sir, or Instructor. Now the syllables of his name rolled from her lips with the ease of water flowing to the sea.
His pace quickened and she rode with it, meeting the thrusts of his fingers and tongue with her own. The bed enfolded her, embraced her. Noa felt as though they lay on a ship's deck, moving with the wind and the waves to some distant shore that was rapidly approaching.
He paused. She protested. Her head tossed side to side on the pillow. It was the place he laid his own head at night to sleep and dream, and that thought had her suddenly cresting toward her climax more than anything else.
For this one night, she shared Riordan's bed.
Just when she thought she might cry with frustration, he kissed her again. This time, the gentle pressure of his lips on her aroused clit sent her over the edge. Something cracked within her, exploded, shattered, and she soared on the sensation and rode it toward the stars. Her back arched and her arms came up to cradle her chest and her throbbing breasts.
He pressed against her again, and she surged again, more briefly this time, and less intensely. When she opened her eyes, Noa felt certain she would be in her own bed, waking from the frequent dream.
But no, Riordan stared at her from his place beside her on the bed. She hadn't noticed him moving from between her legs. Now he rested on his elbow on the bulk of her cloak still tangled in the sheets.
Riordan's dark hair fell across his shoulders. A band of red peeped out from above the high, banded collar of his cassock. Against the ivory of his flesh, the color spoke of lust and power, like the man himself.
"You have the most intriguing eyes."
Noa's hand went to cover her face. Her eyes, one green and one brown, had been a source of shame her entire life. Some said the mismatched set was the reason she'd taken so long in reaching her womanhood. Others said it must be the result of her common birth. Nobody had ever called them intriguing.
"Take your hand away." Riordan's voice brooked no rebelliousness. "I would see your face."
She looked at him.
"You were not too self-conscious to meet my eyes before. Why is that?"
"I wasn't thinking about my eyes before."
He passed a finger along the edge of her hairline, then down her cheek. "I liked it better when you spoke my name."
Her cheeks flamed even as her heart leapt. "I shouldn't have taken the liberty."
"You came to my private rooms, naked beneath your cloak, and demanded I make love to you in accordance with an ancient law no one bothers to uphold any longer. You took my cock in your mouth and came with my name on your lips. I think you earned the right to address me by it now."