Fisting the pillow beside him, I smacked him in the face with it. “Meanie.”
Midas took the hit but caught my wrist and yanked me forward until I fell against him. Tossing the pillow onto the floor, he trapped my wrists between our chests then coiled his arms around my back to keep me from escaping.
Amusement sparkled in his eyes, heat too, but it was the soft laughter that convinced me he needed kissing.
Wriggling to get higher, which caused all sorts of interesting things to happen in his lap, I pressed my lips to his. He kissed me back, and I took us deeper with a nip of my teeth that gained me access to his mouth. The slow glide of my tongue along his coaxed him to moan, and I smiled against him.
“You’ll only encourage bad behavior if you reward it like this.” He tucked his face in my neck and breathed me in. “You always smell so good.”
“It’s a patented combination of sweat, deodorant, and whatever I’ve killed recently.”
“It works for you.” His breath warmed my throat. “It works for me too.”
Curling my fingers into the soft fabric covering his chest, I asked, “How do you feel about removing your shirt?”
“Like it’s a trap.” He locked me tighter against him. “You’ll wait until I’m preoccupied then bolt.”
A snort of laughter escaped me. “I’m not a bolter.”
“You’re not a great liar, Hadley.”
Fluttering my lashes, I gazed adoringly up at him. “What if I promise not to budge?”
“Your promises have more loopholes than fae contracts.”
“Ouch.” I reared back. “That actually hurt.”
“Want me to kiss it better?”
“Hmph.”
Angling my head away, I showed him what I thought of his offer, which is to say I made it super easy for him to nibble on my throat until my toes curled and I was squirming on his lap. I almost fell off the couch in shock when he smoothed his thumb over the button of my jeans then traced the zipper’s teeth to the apex of my thighs.
“Midas,” I whispered, hands now free to dig my nails into his shoulders.
“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do this.” He stared at me, crimson flecks dancing in his eyes. “I want you, Hadley.”
While I worked on unsticking my tongue from the roof of my mouth, he began making tiny circles that caused smoke to pour from my ears.
“Me too.” I trembled. “I mean, I want you. Not me. That would be weird.”
“You are so…you.” He increased the pressure. “I love that about you.”
“I’m a weirdo,” I panted. “Just say it.” I rocked against him. “I am at peace with my geekiness and my—”
The orgasm exploded through me like a bottle rocket, and my breath punched from my lungs. I shivered and shook, whimpering as he lightened his touch but kept his skilled hand right where it was.
Muscles turned to liquid, I slumped over him, my face mashed into his shoulder.
Linking his arms at my spine to keep me from spilling onto the floor, he murmured, “Now we’re even.”
“You didn’t have to pay me back.” Shirt got in my mouth, but I couldn’t lift my head. “No one is keeping score.”
Rubbing his hands up and down my back, he confessed, “I didn’t want you to think it would always be…”
“I have to stop you right there.” I finally got my neck to cooperate and turned my head toward him. “This is a relationship, not a performance exam. Neither of us have been intimate with anyone in years, right?”
Hand closing over my nape, he held me down like I could possibly rise. “Years about covers it.”
As in, he hadn’t had sex in longer than I had been alive.
“Neither of us lasted five seconds. Who cares?” I managed to scooch close enough to kiss his throat. “I like that we’re both rusty. It puts less pressure on both of us to get everything right on the first try. Or the second. Or the third.” He swallowed hard, and I nipped his ear to be extra helpful. “See where I’m going with this? We’ll practice. We’ll get better. Together.”
“I already need a cold shower every time you look at me like you love me.”
“I must do that a lot, you know, since I love you, and I have trouble keeping my eyes off you.”
His hesitant smile mingled fragile hope with shining happiness into the most perfect expression, and just like that, it became my new life’s mission to keep that look on his face.
“Seriously,” I reassured him. “You have nothing to prove to me, in bed or out of it.”
“I can’t help but feel graded on everything I do.” He referred back to my exam comment. “Every aspect of my life is witnessed and evaluated by the pack, by rivals, by outsiders, even by my mother.”
“Please don’t bring your mom into this.”
He chuckled at the joke, but then he sobered. This was a sore spot for him, and I had to tread softly.
“I want to get an A plus,” he murmured, “but I would settle for a C minus.”
“I’m not grading you on sexual performance. That’s…” I discarded several options before I settled on. “That’s not healthy. For either of us.”
“I want to please you.”
“The fact you’re mine-all-mine pleases me.”
Hello, double standards.
“I want to pleasure you.”
“You just did.”
“I want—”
“—me to film us so you can evaluate your own performance?”
“No.”
A horrible idea occurred to me, but it was so great I had to put it out there.
“I can see it now.” I rallied my strength and sat upright. “Attack of the Gwyllgi Prince with Love on His Mind and a Roll of Quarters in his Front Pocket.” I laughed so hard, I worried I might have peed a little. “I would so watch that.”
“How about The Necromancer Gets Bitten by a Gwyllgi and Runs Screaming.”
“Depends.” I choke-laughed. “Are we talking about the same gwyllgi? Like is that the sequel? And has he run out of quarters yet?”
The bone-rattling growl that pumped through his chest only made it more hilarious.
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