by Ophelia Bell
“Food first,” she said. “You really can’t survive on sex alone.”
He frowned. “I can try.”
A laugh escaped her and she threw her head back, the sound ringing through the air. Nicholas couldn’t help but smile, his insides suddenly warm with the simple delight of hearing her mirth.
She clutched his head with both hands and grinned at him. He stared back, giddy under her attention, and he wasn’t quite sure why. She kissed him again, a solid, hard press of lips against his mouth before she was gone, leaving him confounded.
All he could do was watch her, enjoying the sight of her disheveled golden locks flowing over her bare shoulders as she danced around her kitchen, retrieving a variety of instruments. Bowls appeared from below the counter, pieces of crockery came down off shelves, and a large piece of bloody meat appeared from inside her fridge, along with a pile of what he assumed were vegetables of some sort, but none he recognized.
Her eyes flashed excitedly as she put the meat into a large pan, anointed it with an assortment of aromatic oils and spices, surrounded it with chopped vegetables, and put it into her oven.
After that, she was a whirlwind, her pretty voice humming a nonsensical tune while she set pots on the stove and mixed and cooked until the room was filled with delicious aromas that rivaled her own natural scent. His craving for another round of lovemaking was quickly overshadowed by his hunger for whatever it was she was making. His stomach rumbled and his mouth watered at every new dish she concocted, her activities a blur and the entire kitchen filled with golden smoke that seemed to have a mind of its own, swirling around her and sinking into everything she made.
Finally, she slowed long enough to give him a brilliant smile. “Almost finished,” she said, dipping a spoon into a bowl, scooping out a huge dollop of creamy chocolate, and spreading it on top of a large, brick-shaped cake she’d just finished building, layering each tier with an assortment of fillings.
He swallowed a fresh mouthful of saliva to keep from drooling.
“I can’t wait.” He really couldn’t, and finally gave into the urge to interfere. The multitude of platters and trays that were now arranged around her counters, piled with delicious-looking confections, looked so good. He stood and wandered over to her, inspecting each item, wondering where she’d let him begin. He stopped behind her, peering over her shoulder into the bowl.
Her hands were streaked with the different substances she’d cooked with, and when his nose hovered near her neck, he smelled her familiar citrusy scent beneath all the other aromas that clung to her now.
“Only a few more minutes,” she said.
“I might need a bite of something to tide me over.” He dipped his head lower and inhaled, not even trying to disguise his hunger. His stomach rumbled just as he brushed his lips down the side of her neck, darting his tongue out for a taste.
Aurum twisted away from him, turning, but he gripped the edges of the counter, caging her in his arms and bending his head to chase her movement. Before he could reach her neck again, she shoved a spoon into his face.
“Here,” she said, laughing. “Have a bite of this, you hungry bear.”
She turned fully in his arms and he leaned back slightly, looking down at the proffered utensil, the sweet, chocolaty scent filling his nostrils. He opened his mouth and she inserted it, the flavor exploding on his tongue like an orgasm.
Nicholas growled low in his chest. Pleasure had never in his life originated from his mouth to such a degree, except for the moments when he had Calder’s cock between his lips, or just recently tasting his own juices mixed with Aurum’s between her thighs. But even then, the tangy taste of sex didn’t compare to the sensations of ecstasy he experienced now.
He sucked the spoon clean and opened his eyes. Aurum beamed at him, her cheeks flushed pink.
“You like?” she asked.
“Mmm,” he murmured, taking the spoon from her hand and dipping it into the bowl again over her shoulder. He scooped as much as the spoon could hold, bringing it to his mouth. On the way up, a dollop of the delicious concoction fell, landing with a little plop on the swell of Aurum’s breast.
“Hey, you’re making a mess, and spoiling your lunch. Save room for the meal before you fill up on dessert.”
The spoon was already in his mouth, being sucked clean for the second time when he saw her grab a cloth and move to wipe the fallen chocolate from her skin. He dropped the spoon into the bowl and grabbed her hand.
“Mine,” he said, swiftly bending to lick the chocolate off her breast. It had begun to run, a trail of it arcing over the curve toward her sternum. Aurum gasped when he darted out his tongue, trailing it over her bare skin and in between her breasts to make sure he caught every last drop. The chocolate tasted even better licked off her than it had coming straight from the bowl.
Hungry for more, he looked into the bowl, then down at her. Aurum was still smiling, but had a bewildered look of amazement on her face, her mouth open and the breath of a laugh escaping her.
“What are you thinking?”
“That I want to do a cooking experiment. See how good the rest of you tastes with chocolate.”
“I … need to finish the cake,” she said, looking over her shoulder at the bare patch left on one side of the thing she’d spent the last hour constructing.
Nicholas scooped up chocolate, dumped it onto the cake, and smeared it haphazardly around. It wasn’t pretty, but enough to cover the spot.
“Done,” he said. “Now you.”
He abandoned the spoon, dipped his fingers into the remaining chocolate, and drew a stripe of it across her lower lip. She opened her mouth a little, tongue darting out. Before she could taste it herself, he bent and drew her lip into his mouth, licking and sucking gently to get all the sweet flavor off, then continued to kiss her, tangling his tongue with hers to let her have a taste of the chocolate.
Another swipe into the bowl and then he drew two more stripes over the tops of her breasts just above the fabric of her dress. Her fingers carded through his hair as he licked, going slow and savoring the sweetness of the chocolate, and beneath it, the salted caramel flavor of her skin.
Her chest rose up to meet his lips as her sigh hit his ear. “You’re making a mess,” she said again, as though they were the only words of objection she could muster.
He hooked his fingers into the thin straps of her dress and pulled them down her arms, tugging until the bust line fell past her nipples and the fabric clung to her waist. Dipping into the bowl again, he came back with a healthy dollop of the chocolate on his fingers and smeared it first around one tight, pink nipple, then the other.
Aurum moaned as he drew the circle, letting the last bit of chocolate drip off his fingers to land on the tip of one breast.
“I know you put magic in this stuff for me,” he said, bending his head and looking her in the eye. He leaned one arm against the counter while he continued to trace his other chocolate-coated finger around and around her nipple. “I like your other magic more—the kind I get when I make you come. But I want to find out how they taste together.”
Her chest heaved, her eyelids fluttering with desire. She nodded and arched into him when he bent his head and licked the very outer circle of the design he’d drawn around her nipple. He captured the chocolate, savoring it as he cleaned it from her skin and continued working his way to the center, making sure he didn’t leave any behind.
Aurum’s nipple pebbled under his tongue, the rough texture a delicious counterpoint to the smooth, creamy sweetness of the chocolate. He flicked his tongue lightly over her hard tip before wrapping his lips around the flesh and sucking until every last remnant of the chocolate had been swallowed.
Lowering himself to his knees, he took her other chocolate-covered nipple in his mouth and attentively cleaned it off, sucking until Aurum’s fingernails dug into the back of his neck, her pleasure apparent through the sounds she made as much as the increasingly potent scent of her a
rousal that was almost strong enough to rival the scent of the chocolate now.
He tugged her dress down and it fell away from her hips onto the floor. Grabbing the bowl off the counter, he set it on the floor for easier reach and sat back on his heels, surveying his canvas. Aurum’s nipples were dark pink and wet with his saliva. A little bit of chocolate remained under one and he leaned in, giving the lower swell a slow lick, followed by a tiny tickle of her nipple.
Reaching into the bowl again, he discovered they were running low on chocolate, so he’d have to be more conservative—save the bulk of it for last. He drew a light trail down from her sternum to her navel and licked, then swirled a little spiral over her womb, slowly working his way out from the center as he licked her clean again.
The closer he got to her core, the more potent the scent of her arousal, and the harder his cock. His face at the same level as her gilded mound, he leaned in, pressing his lips to the top of her cleft. Slipping his tongue out and along the contour of her hard clit, he tasted her sweetness, savoring its pure essence before he mixed it with the delicious, dark flavor of the chocolate.
She spread her legs and he glanced up at her. Seeing nothing but eager desire in her eyes, he swiped his finger into the bowl, then drew it down the center of her folds, pressing against her clit as he went until his finger sank into the slick, wet heat between.
Aurum’s legs quivered and she moaned when he went deeper, pushing two chocolate-coated fingers inside her and fucking her with them while he watched her breasts rise and fall from underneath.
Rising up onto his knees, he latched onto one nipple again, sucking it deep while he continued to push his fingers into her, loving the way her muscles tightened around him. He would taste her soon enough, but wanted her juices good and stirred up with the chocolate first.
When her moans sped up and her body flushed hot enough that he knew she was close, Nicholas removed his fingers and bent his head again, licking at the tip of her exposed clit. Her hips bucked forward and he twisted around, pushing his face up between her thighs to get at more of her.
Aurum spread her legs more, her sweet folds parting over his lips. Gaia, he needed to get deeper. Reaching up, he hooked his arms behind her, grasped her around the waist with both hands, and pulled her down against his mouth.
She let out a cry, balance faltering, but he had her gripped tightly enough to control her descent. He slid lower against her cabinet doors, twisting around until his head was on the floor with her delicious snatch against his hungry mouth.
She tasted so fucking good, now that he could get at all of her, and she rode his face like a wild thing, his tongue just barely able to keep up.
Her hips tilted forward, her clit slipping against his tongue, then her breasts pressed into his belly and a strange, cool wetness hit the head of his cock.
He froze for only a second when he heard her breathy voice, muffled by her thighs against his ears.
“I want to see how you taste covered in chocolate, too.”
Wet heat wrapped around the head of Nicholas’s cock, and he growled against the flesh riding his mouth. His hips jerked upward, and Aurum’s soft laugh vibrated through the entire length of his erection as she took him between her lips.
Bliss sank into his bones, both from the delicious mix of her juices and the chocolate coating his tongue, all the way through his body to the glorious, hot pull of her mouth on his cock. Her lips slid up and off, but her tongue remained, flicking around his girth in a way that made no sense, yet felt like heaven.
She rocked her hips above him, pushing her clit harder and harder against his tongue. He clutched at her ass for leverage and lifted his head, sucking and licking until the moans around his shaft vibrated through him so hard he was sure he’d come any second. Aurum’s noises became higher-pitched whimpers. When her mouth sank back down and sucked hard, his entire world went bright, exploding in a supernova of pleasure as his cock erupted into her mouth.
A shuddering moan rocked through her, and a second later, her flesh spasmed against his lips, more wetness gushing over his tongue—and along with it, that bright flood of magic that filled him from head to toe with happiness.
Fuck yes, he could live on sex, especially if it was this good.
Chapter 13
Nicholas
Nicholas lay panting on the floor, staring up at the square of blue light in the ceiling above him. Some small part of his brain knew that was the sky staring back at him through Aurum’s skylight, but with his body still energized from Aurum’s magic and his tongue tingling from his efforts to drive her to another orgasm on top of the first, nothing else mattered but where both their bodies rested.
He felt grounded for the first time since leaving his cell and losing Calder. Solidly anchored to the world enough that the sight of that bright blue emptiness above didn’t bother him at all.
Aurum’s sated weight still pressed down on him, and he lifted his head to peer over the globes of her ass and his two chocolate hand-prints to the tangle of gold hair that covered one of his thighs and half his cock. Her lips were still softly pressed to his tip and she darted her long tongue out, playfully tickling the underside of his entire length. The warm touch sent a shock of sensation through him and his cock twitched, growing half-hard again in an instant. His stomach rumbled loudly, as though voicing its own objection to the impulsive urge his other body part seemed to have, to the exclusion of all else.
With a sigh, Aurum slid off him and sat up, blowing hair out of her face with a puff of breath. She licked her lips and smiled.
“Time to get some real food into you, I think.” She reached out and patted his taut stomach.
“How could you tell?” he asked, smiling up at her over the sound of another rumble from his midsection.
Too swiftly, she began to clean up around him, handing him a warm cloth and urging him out of her way.
He went back to the table and sat in one of the chairs, relaxing as he watched her move around again while he idly wiped his face and hands with the cloth. Then he inspected his cock, only to realize she’d managed to lick him completely clean down there.
Seeing that she’d conjured herself a fresh dress, he remembered the dresser full of clothing that had been part of the furnishings she’d included in his room the day before and went to find something to wear.
Clad in a pair of loose, soft pants and a tunic that fit him perfectly, he returned, his mind fixated on the delicious aromas that filled the house.
Within moments, the table was set and covered with a meal even more elaborate than the one she’d fed him the day before. He gave himself up to the hunger, digging in with abandon until his belly was full and nothing but scraps were left on the platters. She followed it up with the chocolate dessert, stuffed with flavors he would forever associate with her. By the time he was finished, his cock was hard again, but an uncomfortable silence had descended between them.
Rather than sit and watch her clean up again, he rose. “I think I’ll go for another swim,” he said.
“You don’t need to do that, Nicholas,” she said, turning to him and setting the empty dishes on the counter.
He paused and faced her. “I can’t expect you to always fix me. You said yourself I should swim as often as I can to take care of the … the physical stuff. My head’s not in a bad place right now, at least. Everything you’ve done so far has helped.”
He trailed off, uncertain what her strained expression meant—like she wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the words and instead stood there, staring at him and chewing on her lower lip.
A strange wave of longing hit him, the surge strong enough to make him dizzy. He shook his head, blinking to try to dispel it. The feeling was both familiar and foreign, and it took him a moment to register the look on her face and the fact that it was her emotion that had drifted over him like a heavy, suffocating blanket.
“I don’t want you to,” she said. “Every time I’m left alone,
all I have are thoughts of him. I have that one memory of him in the flesh and the moment when he left. When you’re here with me, it lets me forget that he isn’t. I … I wish you would tell me about him, but I understand why you won’t. You deserve more than to be a stand-in for him.”
“So do you,” he said. “But we’re all we have at the moment. I still want him, even though your magic makes it not hurt so much. It doesn’t change the fact that he might as well be right here in between us. The fucker should be here, for you at least, and it pisses me off that you’re hurting because he isn’t and that you have to help me because he isn’t. It isn’t fair to either of us. So I’m going to go take a swim because you shouldn’t have to be his substitute every second. You deserve more.”
He turned and headed for the door, closing his eyes against the knowledge of the lie he’d just told her—that to him, she was so much more than a substitute for the man he’d loved for most of his life. Her magic had subdued his longing to such a degree that there was no mistaking the physical craving he had now was for her, and for the glorious elation he got from giving her pleasure.
His yearning for Calder hadn’t disappeared, hadn’t been replaced by his desire for Aurum. The two feelings coexisted inside him now, and yet the difference between the two was painfully apparent to him. But wanting her this way would get him nowhere, in the end. Not when he would wind up losing her too, when it was all over.
The scent of chocolate and oranges hit his nose a second before a hand pressed against his chest. Nicholas opened his eyes, startled by how swiftly Aurum had appeared in front of him, blocking his way out.
“Then stay and give me more, Nicholas. Calder left us in an impossible situation. I can’t hate him for it because I know what’s at stake, but I doubt he’d have expected us to suffer in his absence. But I don’t know … you would be better equipped to say so.”
He took her hand, brushing his thumb over her knuckles while he stared down at it. He shook his head and swallowed thickly, remembering the last conversation he’d had with Calder before Marcus and Aurum’s brother had arrived to let them out of his cell.