Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
He gently pulls away from me, his eyes hot with silent emotion. We’re sticky with his release, both of us, and I gently trace a finger through the mess he’s left atop my breasts. “My thanks, my husband. I enjoyed that thoroughly.”
Ranan’s eyes immediately narrow as he goes still. “I told you I didn’t like lies.”
I stare at him, open-mouthed. He thinks I’m deceiving him? “Why would I lie right now?”
“Because you’re still trying to please me.” He gestures at me. “You got nothing out of that. It was all for my benefit. I should have pleasured you, too. I didn’t think about it. It was…difficult to think.”
That makes me smile. “That was my intention—to make you feel so good that you couldn’t think. And just because you were the only one that came doesn’t mean I didn’t get pleasure out of it. I liked touching you. I liked knowing that you enjoyed my touch. I liked making you come. If that’s wrong, well then, I guess I’m wrong. Because I got a great deal of pleasure out of that.”
His expression remains skeptical.
With affectionate exasperation, I try a different tactic. “Do you pet a cat expecting it to reciprocate? Or do you pet a cat because the cat likes it and you enjoy making it happy?”
“I have never petted a cat.”
“Well, perhaps you should get one. They’re good at keeping mice and rats away.” I trace circles in his seed, noticing his gaze flicks there, and then lift my messy finger and lick it clean. “I promise you, if I don’t want to touch you, I will let you know. But I wanted to touch you today, and it pleased me to make you come.”
“Not as much as it pleased me,” he grumps, gesturing at my slick breasts. “Obviously.”
I giggle. That might be the first joke he’s ever made. “You make it sound like that’s a bad thing.”
He sits up, grimacing, and eyes me. “It is when you are in pain. I should have let you rest.”
In pain? It takes me a moment to realize that he’s talking about my menses. “I’m faring better today, and it’s just my moon flow. I can’t laze about clutching my stomach for a week every month or I’d never get anything done. I’ll just do like all the other women I know and grit my teeth through the worst of it.”
His expression still seems worried. He reaches out and affectionately brushes his fingers over my ear, and that small touch means more to me than a dozen flowery admissions of love. “Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?” he asks. “More tea?”
I shake my head, because I’m going to pace myself on the tea. My menses are a regular visitor and I don’t want to be greedy with the tea. I can make it stretch. “Perhaps a towel so I can clean off?”
He’s on his feet immediately, digging through the fabric. I grimace when he pulls out a dainty scrap of something that’s edged in what looks like very expensive, crumpled lace that manages to be pretty and delicate while soft at the same time. But when he kneels next to me and gently cleans off my skin, I decide it doesn’t matter how nice the material is because his touch is even better. Ranan is so sweet about taking care of me that it makes me want to preen under his touch, and my nipples harden as he moves the fabric over them.
“Can we talk a little?” I ask. “If you want to know what would make me feel better, I’d love to know more about my future as your wife.”
His gaze flicks over me and he goes back to wiping my skin, this time taking a clean corner of the lacy material and mopping my cheek and chin with it. He’s quiet for a long moment and I worry he’s going to ignore my request, but he finally speaks. “Tell me what you wish to know.”
“Well…is this where we’re going to live? Here in this grotto?” I gesture at our cluttered surroundings. It’s not the most ideal house, but I’m already thinking of ways I can make it more like a home. A makeshift hearth of some kind. A bed. An area that I can set up a loom in…
“Here?” He huffs, as if the idea is ridiculous. “No.”
“Oh.” I’m disappointed, strangely. Sure, it’s a cave, but it’s cozy enough and I feel safe, especially given that the only way in and out is through the tunnel in the water.
“It’s too isolated,” he adds.
“I don’t mind isolated. Not after running into those scoundrels on the beach.”
Ranan’s expression darkens and he shakes his head. He takes the fabric he used to clean me and drags it over his cocks, cleaning himself off, and I watch him discreetly, eyeing the still-solidly enormous lengths of him. “We’re going to the flotilla once you’ve recovered.”