Robyn smiled faintly, still clutching her cloak to her as she shivered. Though the space was still uncomfortably cool for a human, enough so that she obviously did not want to shed layers, she would never get warm that way. Drawing up to his full height, Ashul walked over to the bed and pulled off one of the thick furs, snapping it firmly in front of him to remove the worst of the dust before returning to her side where she fumbled at the clasp of her coat.
Murmuring a soft, nonsensical sound used to comfort drow children, Ashul set the fur on the table and brushed away her hands, unfastening her cloak himself and drawing it from around her. As he feared, she was as soaked as he was, but had far less tolerance for it. Her arms instinctively tucked into her chest as she shivered, and he quickly set to work gently pulling her layers from her body before wrapping her thoroughly in the thick fur.
Robyn’s head ducked, her nose brushing the fur as he coaxed her to stand and drew both her and her chair toward the hearth, where he got her settled once more beside the warm blaze. He hovered over her anxiously, his eyes fixed on her until she finally gave a soft sigh and relaxed before the fire as her body thawed.
It was only then that he felt comfortable enough to step away and work on shedding his own wet clothes clinging to him. Toeing off his boots, he allowed them to slosh and thump where they landed as he stripped off his tunic and let it hit the ground with a slap of soaked fabric against stone. With deft fingers, he yanked his ties free and hooked his fingers into the waistband of his trousers. They peeled away from his ass and legs, but he was immediately distracted from the way the fabric clung unpleasantly to his skin by the soft gasp that came from behind him.
Lips curling, he kicked the material free. Brushing the wet length of his hair behind his shoulder, Ashul straightened and turned toward his necromancer, enjoying the way her wide eyes roved over him. His cock twitched, the hetier flexing beneath it where they were currently hidden. Robin’s eyes snapped immediately down to it, her cheeks coloring delightfully.
“Tell me, songbird, do you like what you see?” he purred.
The scent of her desire bloomed thickly in the air, her chest moving rapidly with her little panted breaths. He wanted to capture this moment forever and at the same time he could not wait for her response. Would his little bird fly away again, or would she finally come willingly to his hand?
ChapterThirteen
He did not just do that!Robyn gaped, her mouth drying as she stared at the long, muscular length of Ashul’s bared body. The deep matte silver of his skin glowed with an inner warmth with the firelight, every muscle stretching slowly and gleaming from the water still clinging to him.
His eyes hooded and his lips curved. There was something both challenging and taunting in his expression as he looked back at her, the flickering firelight and shadows playing over his features. His words invited her admiration and, gods, he was inhumanly beautiful—as if he were sculpted by the hand of the gods of beauty and lust. He invited it, but he wasn’t coming to her. She would have to go to him if she wanted this.
She licked her lips nervously. This is it.
Slowly she stood, letting the fur slip from her body. Her confidence grew as his eyes flared with heat, glowing faintly in the low light. Palming her breasts, she took a step toward him, and then another. His smile grew, his cock thickening and lengthening as it rose. Heat spread over her skin at the obvious sign of his desire, tightening her nipples and flooding her sex with arousal, slickening her thighs with every step. Her eyes drifted down his sculpted belly and lingered on the cock jutting up at her.
Her steps slowed to a halt as she stared at it in surprise. She didn’t have an abundance of experience, but she was pretty sure no man that she had lain with had a cock like Ashul. Three spiny protrusions like long rose thorns ran along the bottom of the shaft of his sex, and half the length thickened in a bulge near its base. She jumped as suddenly something uncurled from beneath the base like a butterfly’s proboscis. Or perhaps a young fern with the way it caught the firelight. It seemed to taste the air for a moment and then was joined by a second and a third. Ashul’s hand brushed his cock, and the tendrils jerked up in response, catching and clinging to his fingers as he gave his bulge a squeeze.
“Do not look so worried,” he rasped with desire. “Surely you have seen a naked male before.”
Tearing her gaze away, she lifted her eyes to meet his amused regard. “I have,” she agreed as she worked to keep the uncertainty from her voice. “But you’re made a little differently.”
His head tipped as he looked down at himself. “Ah. How so?”
She shot him an exasperated glower that he would even ask her to describe the difference, but he merely grinned back at her, unperturbed. She wiggled her fingers at his sex. “It’s just all the extra… bits.”
“The hetier? Humans do not have these?”
His claws teased the small, curled fronds until they grasped and tugged along his fingers in ways that made her clit throb. She squeezed her thighs together as a fresh wave of arousal slid through her, imagining those hetier stroking her flesh as his cock thrust roughly into her. Robyn shook her head, her eyes widening when one of them sprang up, unfurling its full length, striking him on the wrist.
“No, nothing like that. Or the thorns on the underside of your shaft. Honestly, I’m not sure those even look safe for human anatomy.”
Ashul chuckled. “There is no cause for worry. I will show you. Here, give me your hand.”
He offered his free hand to her, and she nervously stepped forward, placing her palm in his. His fingers curled around her hand, the claw of his thumb gently stroking below her knuckles. Drawing their joined hands down to his cock, he turned her hand in his so that he cradled it palm-up in his and pressed it against the underside of his shaft. She winced, expecting to be pricked, but instead they rubbed with a light pressure.
She relaxed as he moved her hand into a stroking motion, noticing as he did so that the “thorns” were truly nothing of the kind. They had a fleshiness to them with a slight give rather than something sharp digging into her hand. Nature had designed them to rub firmly without tearing. Reflexively, her fingers curled around his length as she shifted closer and began to take over the stroking on her own. Even the top was textured with thick, ridged veins that seemed rise from the skin the harder he got, providing an entirely different but equally pleasant pressure against her fingers.
What would this feel like buried deep inside, rubbing her deepest, most sensitive places?
She swallowed back a groan, her fingers squeezing as she stroked his cock until his hand fell away with a low growl of pleasure. That growl drove through her, heating her blood further as it made her belly spasm and clench. His nostrils flared, no doubt scenting her lust as his black tongue stroked over his lips with a sinuous hunger.
With a rumble deep in his chest, he knocked her hand away, his arms banding around her, dragging her against him as one hand cupped her ass and the other her back so that he could easily lift her up the length of his body in one motion. Cradling her against him so that her pelvis was pressed against his, he growled with pleasure as she instinctively wrapped her legs around his narrow hips, lining them up even closer.
His cock twitched against the mouth of her sex, his hetier writhing against her folds in an eager, seeking motion. Her eyes rolled back in her head at the sensation, but she had barely drawn in a needy breath before he was stealing it, his mouth dropping and sealing over hers ravenously. His tongue did not sweep against her lips in a polite request for entry. It pressed forward, diving between her lips at her gasp when he tilted his hips at an angle that caused the head of his cock to press against her clit. He swallowed her gasp, taking it for his own as he invaded her mouth like a conqueror.
Shifting his hips as he began to walk forward, he ground his cock against her, smearing her slick between them and coating his cock liberally as his tongue stroked against hers, enticing her into an erotic dance. She arched into him as she kissed him back, her tongue following his until he suddenly sucked it deep into his mouth, sending a hard bolt of pleasure into her belly. She moaned into his mouth and whimpered when one of his hetier slipped into her channel with a twist. She jerked as she felt it suddenly seem to expand with a teasing sensation, brushing over the sensitive walls.
Cold, hard stone flattened against her back as Ashul brought them up against a wall, bracing her firmly as his hand moved from her back to wrap firmly around her neck, his fingertips pressing against the sides of her neck with a soft brush of his claws—not in threat, but a tender possession. Her pulse jumped in excitement from his blatant domination, and he purred in response, driving another pleasure-inducing vibration deep into her. The two sensations mingled into a feeling of raw heat that swept through her so that she clawed at his back, dragging on the power of his leash, knowing that he would feel it tightening on him with her demand.
His cock jerked hard against her, its large head suddenly slipping into her, stretching her as he growled. He tore his mouth free to peer down at her, heat in his glittering eyes.