I cross my ankles to still the throbbing between my thighs. “Maybe.”
“Let me help you.” Tolmond’s hands are even more gentle than his words, and when his fingers brush over the skin at the hem of my shirt, I shudder. He grins, lifting it slowly as he continues to trail up my sides lightly. He’s giving me every opportunity to stop him, but I don’t want to.
The truth is that I want him bad. I want to touch him, to know what it’s like for him to touch me, and when he tosses my shirt aside and reaches for my pants, I let him peel them off.
“Should I lose mine as well?” he rumbles.
“Maybe not.”
A soft chuckle escapes him, and I want to melt into a puddle on the floor. “Too tempting?”
I bite my lip, but I don’t know how to respond. The answer is yes. The answer is I’m already wet enough, and he’s going to find out, but I kind of want him to. The answer is if he takes off his pants, I may not be able to hold back.
So, I say nothing. I’m too shy to say any of the thoughts running through my head. Instead, I just say, “Do all my clothes need to go?”
I’m still standing in my underwear, and he takes a step closer so that my arm brushes his abs, and I swear he’s trying to undo me. “Yes.” He grips the waistband of my underwear. “They do, but only for a moment.”
“O-okay.”
He takes that as his cue, and he bends, tugging my underwear down. With a quick flick, he undoes my bra, and now, I’m bare before him.
Just as I expected, his gaze chases over my frame, and I feel like a fireball about to explode as he takes in every inch of my body. When he finally reaches my eyes, his yellow ones flash. “That should do.”
Lightly, he trails his finger down the inside of my forearm and catches me around the wrist. He pulls me softly to the center of the room, and I notice there’s a circle on the floor. He paces behind me, gently resting his hands on my hips to move me in place, and though his touches are light and gentle, they fill me with a deeper longing.
I love the way it feels to have him touch me, and I’m close to begging him for more when he finishes positioning and looks up at me. “Everything alright?”
I gulp, nodding. Am I making a fool of myself? Probably. But who cares? When did I ever think I’d let a demon strip me bare? I might as well take advantage of it.
“Here.” Tolmond presses the gemstone into my hand, and I have to force myself to remember what I’m doing here. He’s going to show me.
Taking a step back, he lifts his hand into the air, muttering in a harsh language I don’t recognize. I feel his magic settle over me, though, and I realize that he must have cast a spell.
Instantly, the stone starts to glow. I’m shocked by it, and for a moment, my attraction and throbbing need for Tolmond is forgotten.
I look down with a gasp to see it shining with every color I’ve ever seen, the rays colliding within the stone and mixing. They are swirling together, creating new shades and colors, and then flashing white. It’s like seeing all the colors and none at once, and I hear Tolmond take a step closer.
“That gemstone tests for the strength of a sorcerer. The more colors, the more magic. The faster they swirl, the more powerful.” I lift my eyes to his to see them filled with awe. “You possess very powerful chaos magic.”
As he says it, I feel the odd flares that I’ve tried to ignore. It feels much like when Tolmond cast his spell over me, and it claws at the inside of me, begging for release. With the demon just before me, I nearly give in – then I remember how I killed someone the last time the magic flared, and the stone turns black.
“You’re shutting it out,” he tells me. “You’re afraid of it.”
“It’s not good. It destroys things.”
“No.” Tolmond walks around me, stopping behind me. I can feel him hovering just behind me, warm and strong though he doesn’t touch me. “It does what you want or need. Your magic has reacted when you need to be saved, but it doesn’t have to lash out. You can master it.”
“How?” I want to sink back to him. I feel so small and afraid, and he wraps his hands around my upper arms, rubbing the skin with his thumbs.
All I can think about is how good it feels to have him this close with his hands on me, and with my mind relaxing, the magic flows through me.
“Good girl,” he whispers, and I can feel my arousal build between my thighs. “Lean into it.”
I know it’s not what he said, but I lean back, getting just a little closer to him, and lost in my desire, I let the magic in.
The gemstone glows even brighter than before, and the heat behind me starts to dissipate as he walks around me. He stops just in front of me, staring down at the gemstone with a grin. He looks thrilled, and pride fills me at knowing I did that.
Tolmond lifts his gaze to take me in, my magic flowing easily now and thrumming through my blood. He takes one step toward me, raising a hand to cup my face, and I gasp. My body trembles under his touch, more so than when he was behind me. Maybe because I can see him now.