by Ada Harper
His lips touched her mouth, her cheek, and turning to more teeth as he found her neck. Heat swelled in her chest, and lower. Olivia’s fingers tightened on the handle behind her until her nails cut into her palm, surfacing her rational thoughts. She pressed a hand to his chest, gasping just a little.
She slid out from under his arm, escaping the door to gain more space. “Wait a minute.”
“Why?” Galen said as he turned to follow her. A shadow of a smile, calm and a little more, settled on his face. He had the look of a man who’d reached a conclusion that righted his world and nothing would stir him out of it.
“Because we have to talk.” Olivia took a step back even as her gaze dipped from the expanse of his chest to the roll of his hips as he approached. No, focus. “I hurt you. I lied and broke your trust and we should talk about that.”
“All right,” Galen said mildly with another step. “Talk.”
“Okay.” Olivia blinked. She flicked a glance behind her and when she turned back Galen was in front of her. “I’m...sorry?”
“Are you going to do anything like that again without talking to me?” Galen asked mildly. He looked pleased when Olivia shook her head. “Then apology accepted.”
“That’s not—” Olivia’s eyes widened. “You said you wanted to go slow.”
“You hate going slow.”
“I am attempting personal growth for you!” Olivia tried to grasp for the challenges she’d anticipated. “I might do other things you won’t like.”
She skirted a coffee table. Galen stepped over it. “Like what?”
“I won’t stop jumping off things.” Olivia nearly fell into an armchair. She wasn’t quite sure whether this was leading or chasing, but it felt like a promise, not a threat. It sent a thrill up her back.
“And knowing you, you’ll grow wings to spite the air.”
“I might start a war.” Olivia winced. “If I haven’t already.”
“How fortunate that your soulmate has an army.” Galen’s voice lowered and turned raw. “Command me.”
That did absurd and delightful things to her insides. Olivia licked her lips and decided on honesty. “I won’t let you remake yourself for me.”
“I’ve never felt more true than when I’m with you.”
Her breath hitched on the vulnerability in his voice and her knees found the back of the bed. “I hate Empire food. I’m a clean freak?”
“Well, that might be a problem.” Galen’s smile grew. His hand came up, fingertips resting featherlight on the silk vee of her robe. “My thoughts are positively filthy when I look at you like this.”
Something effervescent and bubbling escaped Olivia’s chest. It was too much. She giggled. “Galen.”
“Olivia,” Galen said, mercilessly soft and true. His fingers stroked her hair. His voice was thick against her forehead. “Gods, I missed you.”
She reached up, pulling him down into another kiss that was tender and at its most basic: a press of lips, skin, anything she could reach. He was too tall. She huffed against his lips and executed a twist that traded their places and pushed him to the bed. Galen let out a grunt of surprise, hands coming up to instinctively capture her hips.
“I missed you, too.” Olivia caught his gaze and closed the distance to kneel on the bed next to him. Her world narrowed down to Galen, the light coiling in his eyes, the breath passing over his lips, the time shivering between them, a radiant possibility.
Galen’s palm brushed across her cheek, and her eyes shuddered closed. Then it was gone. When she opened her eyes again, he was watching her with a darkened purpose.
Olivia’s mouth went dry. “What are you waiting for?”
“Oh, no, I am done assuming I know what goes on in that beautiful, clever mind of yours. I assumed I knew what you needed and I nearly lost you.” Galen was close enough that each word was a brush of air against her skin. There was a hot burr in his voice. “If you want something, love, I’m going to hear you ask for it.”
Olivia’s mind felt blank, words pushed aside by need. Because Galen was a need, always had been. She licked her lips carefully. “You could start with a kiss.”
Galen’s smile was a slow, molten thing. He complied, pressing a trail of soft, slow kisses along the curve of her neck and Olivia lost herself. A slow, languid heat built between them. Not hurried by the fear of loss or the shadows of the future, nothing hurt but the sweet ache growing in her core. It was ridiculous that she should fall apart like this, just with his lips on her throat. Galen’s touch ghosted down the length of her arms to her sides, parting silk to find flushed skin. His hands rested at her waist, thumbs pressing slow over the hollow of her hip, and Olivia nearly arched off his lap.
“Galen—”
Teeth nipped at her collarbone, soothed by a warm press of lips. “Yes, love?”
Again, calling her love. Gods, he was going to unravel her without removing a stitch of clothing. A low whimper built in her throat until she remembered to swallow it. “Touch me.”
She expected a surge then, a tightening of hands and a fast press of that firm, warm skin just out of reach, an overwhelming flare of heat she was ready to lose herself to. A fast, decisive fall. Instead he kissed her, the slow, seeking kiss she’d anticipated from the start. Her lips parted on a shuddering breath and he took that, too, using his lips, his tongue, his teeth. One hand wandered slow down her ribs while the other slid up, entwining with her hands above her head. It was slow, unending, and he used patience like a weapon until Olivia’s last reserve fell away.
Her hands came up to either side of his jaw, pulling him back, bracketing his kiss-reddened lips and dark eyes. Her own breath chased her pulse, fast and hungry beneath her ribs. She kissed the surprise off his face. “More.”
Galen smiled, kissing her brow like a blessing as his other hand slid up under her robe and lazily found a nipple to ghost over. “For proof?”
“No.” Lightning lit up her skin where he touched, but the frown that formed on Olivia’s face was instant and unthinking. She was surprised by how much she didn’t want to hear that excuse now. She huffed. “No more proof—this isn’t... I have all the proof I need.”
Galen’s touch paused. He searched her face, suddenly hesitant. She could see his mind turn, and they needed to have those conversations, they really did. But right now, Olivia really needed a different kind of comfort.
Her eyes dropped to the torque on his collarbone and it gave her an idea. She slid back on his thigh, a slow drag that she hoped tortured him as much as it tortured her. “Losing your nerve now? Would it help if you cuffed me?”
There was a pause in his breathing as he recalled the night in the Caeweld, when she had made her first steps toward putting herself in his hands. His eyes blinked, then darkened into something hotter. A sliver of a predatory smile crept up, but that was all the warning she got before hands gripped her hips and the room tilted.
Galen rolled over her, hips sinking against hers so that she could feel the hard length of his interest. His elbow braced by her head, creating a cage of his body. No, not a cage. She never felt trapped, with Galen. Safe. A harbor, open and warm and unshakeable and hers. A soul-deep tension eased, one she hadn’t even realized she’d been carrying. Giving over to Galen didn’t feel like becoming helpless, it felt like becoming invincible.
And a little helpless, perhaps. His free hand snaked up her wrists, pressing into the mattress above her head with a sureness that licked anticipation up her skin. His grin was entirely wolfish, white teeth glinting in the dark as he bent down over her. “For the record, I never needed cuffs to catch you.”
Olivia’s breath was caught somewhere between a laugh and a breathless shiver. “Well, what are you going to—” Her words cut off as he closed his teeth gently on the exposed curve of her throat at her collar. It was nowhere near her scruff, but her muscles turne
d liquid and deliciously warm, perhaps simply because it was him. His tongue worked warm, soothing motions over her skin, humming his approval as he eased his grip on her wrists and she stayed still. He really didn’t need much to control her treacherous body right now.
His hand quickly defeated the knot to let her robe fall away while he continued nipping along her neck. Olivia distantly registered that she was probably destined to have a constellation of red marks on her skin tomorrow, but any concern drove out of her as Galen leaned down and traced his breath over one nipple. A whimper caught in her throat as he caught the hard nub between his lips and dragged his tongue slow and sure against it.
He was patient and focused with his efforts, drifting from one to the other until Olivia felt dizzy in a hot haze. She felt grounded to his touch, and when his braced hand came up to gently, reverently brush across her cheek, she felt tears at the corner of her eyes. And he’d not ventured past her hips. “Galen.”
It sounded more like a whine than she wanted it to. To compensate, Olivia remembered how to move her arms again. She threaded her fingers through his hair, tugging his face to hers as her other hand slid down his stomach and nearly got distracted tracing the muscles there. She bypassed the waist of his pants to palm his cock through the fabric. Its heat felt heavy and if Olivia whimpered luckily it was buried under Galen’s low, urgent growl.
Galen slid down her body with more grace than a man as large as him should manage. Her knees spread as he settled between them. She could feel his breath on her belly, then the sensitive skin between her thighs. And when he brushed the rough edge of his cheek against the damp side of her inner thighs she nearly arched off the bed.
Galen’s hum was a satisfied vibration against her skin. He took a deep breath, and Olivia’s cheeks flushed when she realized he was scenting her. “Gods, you’re perfect.”
“I—”
The words died in her throat. Two of his fingers slid against her slit, feeling the wet of her desire before they delved past her soft lips and into her. Olivia’s head fell back. His stroke was deep and languid, setting all new nerves alight. He picked a teasing pace, relearning what drew the filthiest sounds out of her mouth. She tried to move her hips, chasing more of the feeling, but he held her still with one hand. She was panting when her hand finally found his hair again and tightened against his scalp. “Galen, if you don’t—”
His tongue drew hard and heavy over her slit and Olivia saw lights bloom across her eyelids. He set a steady stroke with his hand after that, clever, greedy tongue drawing over her until it found her clit. His mouth lapped and swirled there, just below the nerves that made her jerk and gasp, until she was rocking against his hand, his mouth, any part of him she could reach.
Heat flooded her senses then converged, tightening into one urgent need in her core. His fingers delved deeper, curling. A moan drove from her lips, and when Galen rumbled in response, his lips translated the vibration straight to her clit and the feeling shattered outward. She shuddered her climax around his touch.
For two breaths, the world was liquid and heavy. When Olivia opened her eyes again she found Galen staring up at her from between her thighs. His lips were inviting and slick, his hair a soft disaster from her hands, and his pupils were dark and blown with wonder.
“You’re beautiful,” he breathed, reverent.
So many words. Another time, she would have had something sharp and clever for such sentimental nonsense. But, as usual, Galen knew how to time his strikes. Her mind was a pleased, purring haze and he looked at her with such awe, like he had the first time in the Caeweld. It made Olivia’s heart clench. Words seemed like a waste after he’d just demonstrated what could be done with a mouth. The flex of his shoulders between her thighs tempted her with a greedy rush of ideas.
Instead of answering, she held his gaze and smiled. She bent her knee and brushed her toes over the hollow of his collarbone. Galen tilted his head. She smiled and pressed.
Surprised, Galen leaned back until he sank back to his haunches on the floor by the bed. When she sat up on her elbows, pressing his shoulder under her toes with an imperious look, Galen’s eyes darkened and ignited. Oh, she realized, he likes this. The thought was a delightful hunger coming into focus.
Galen had shed his sleep pants at some point while taking her apart with his mouth. Her gaze drifted down, tracing over the silver scars and hard planes of his stomach to the thick muscles of his thighs, firm and coiled from kneeling. His hands bunched on his thighs, white knuckled from the effort of holding still for her. His hair was softer there, a downy dusting that she wanted to feel. His arousal was evident. The velvet head of his cock twitched under her gaze.
Olivia flushed, but when she looked up Galen didn’t look embarrassed at all. A small, pleased smile teased at the corner of his mouth. He held still and tilted his head as if to say And now?
Looking at him was a bit like standing at a brink. Olivia suddenly felt uncertain, inexperienced, but pulled into the temptation of a fall. A challenge then—those, she could do. She moved slow, hoping it looked seductive rather than exploratory. She flexed her foot to watch him shiver. Galen’s breath tickled along her skin before he pressed a kiss into her arch.
Olivia removed her foot and tilted forward, letting herself slide off the bed to him. Her knees settled on either side of his. She had to press herself up, feeling spread open by his tensed thighs and the hard line of heat that rubbed along her belly. Galen’s arms came around her, warm hands palming hungrily at her ass, already trying to guide her hips.
“No,” Olivia said quietly, and his hands immediately dropped again. She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips before he could apologize. “I just...want you to wait.”
So close, she couldn’t help but feel how his cock twitched at that. Galen’s pupils were dark and bottomless, and she felt her own breath quicken as he licked his lips. His voice was rough with tension. “Take whatever you want from me, love.”
He’d caught on to how that word affected her. She slid against his chest. The damp skin of her core was already sensitive from earlier, and when she dragged across his length a violent shudder rolled through her. Galen let out a stifled groan. She gripped his shoulders to steady herself. She’d just caught her breath when his hips rolled under her again. She gasped, and Galen chuckled in her ear. His face was liquid with pleasure, eyes closed, only tense at the edges from holding back.
“Fuck, that feels—” He swallowed before opening his eyes again. His expression was hungry but softened a little, as if he read the inexperience she was fighting. “I want to do so many things to you. I want to make you feel good. But there’s no wrong way here.” He tensed underneath her thighs, heat pressed against heat. “Use me, Liv. Pleasure yourself on me.”
Her breath caught and fell out of her, like a door unlocking. A door she’d never let anyone behind, but oh. When she slid against him again, she couldn’t keep the sweet sounds in her lungs. Their hips fit together. The ridge of his cock was hard against her slit, her breath caught as the swell of its velvet head rubbed against her clit. She felt lightning in her veins. Soon the feeling turned from velvet to silk as she began to grind on him.
Galen was making small, tortured sounds, his head fell back. Olivia looked at him despite the haze of heat building, memorizing the way he looked, searing and wrecked. She felt giddy, powerful, as she rode his thighs.
It was an effortless feeling, trading back and forth like this with him. Surrendering and claiming, a push and pull of power and pleasure. She could give him anything and know he would give it back. Treat it tenderly. It was like fighting, but none of the fear. Falling without gravity.
She felt a cresting pressure as she fast approached a peak, and she shivered against his lips. Galen sensed the change and broke. His hands were on her hips, hard enough to bruise and send sparks of pleasure-pain up her back. She tried to shift, but he made a deny
ing growl, and surged beneath her. She was tangled in his arms and then was on the bed again, Galen pressed against her so hard and wanting it stole her breath.
“Liv.” Galen’s voice was rough and near breaking. His fists in the sheets next to her head betrayed the way he held himself back. Still, still. “If you want to stop—”
Every new step with Galen was like jumping out into dark air, a gamble and a thrill. It was like a leap, but Olivia had grown so sure of leaping with Galen. He never let it be a fall. She caught his gaze and dug her heels into his back until he gasped into the thin space between them.
“I want this—” She took a breath, doubt fled her. “I want you.”
Galen’s breath hitched and a raw tangle of relief, tenderness, and lust rolled through him. His hand released the sheet. His thumb traced up her ribs and over her breast. “You have me. All of me.”
Olivia had one moment to wonder whether his hungry tone intended that to be a warning or a promise, then his mouth found her again. His teeth nipped her bottom lip, a spark of pleasure as he pressed into her and every thought fled her.
Galen’s mouth swallowed her breath and she felt him smile wicked against her lips as he held still, not fully joined. He waited until she was whimpering again, hips shifting impatiently to chase more. His hand found her ass as he further stretched her open.
Olivia had said she might have been unpartnered but not inexperienced. It was true, but clever pulse toys and self-satisfaction was a shadow to this. The stretch felt impossible, sharp and soothing at once. The hollow, aching feeling was filled and it felt like the space was transferred into the rush of air from her lungs. Galen swallowed her cry with a kiss, holding utterly still until she relaxed around him. He pressed their foreheads together, raining a soft patter of kisses on her face until she shifted. She clenched her knees up higher around him and gave an experimental rock that pushed him deeper. It was a feeling she wanted to chase.
Galen made a surprised sound that fell somewhere between a growl and a moan. Galen was infinitely patient, but she saw his control fray as he found a precise angle that hit her core in a way that made her jolt and tip her head back, exposing her neck to him.