DREAM UPON WAKING Read online

"Take your hand away." Riordan's voice brooked no rebelliousness. "I would see your face."

  She looked at him.

  "You were not too self-conscious to meet my eyes before. Why is that?"

  "I wasn't thinking about my eyes before, my lord."

  He passed a finger along the edge of her hairline, then down her cheek. "I liked it better when you spoke my name."

  Her cheeks flamed even as her heart leapt. "I shouldn't have taken the liberty."

  "You came to my private rooms, naked beneath your cloak, and demanded I make love to you in accordance with an ancient law no one bothers to uphold any longer. You took my cock in your mouth and came with my name on your lips. I think you earned the right to address me by it now."

  She had never felt so naked as she did then, with him still fully clothed beside her. Though her nipples still peaked with arousal, the rest of Noa's body felt warm and languid. Her vagina felt stretched and slightly sore.

  She sat and tried to gather the folds of her cloak back around her.

  "Don't do that. I want to look at you some more."

  She let the garment fall back to the bed beneath her, but gave in to her sudden desire for modesty by pulling her knees to her chest and clasping her hands around her shins.

  "Perhaps I should leave," she said in a soft voice.

  Riordan tilted his head to look at her. "Do you wish to leave with the task unfinished?"

  "No." The boldness of her answer surprised her, but once the word shot from her mouth Noa didn't regret it. "I want to stay with you."

  Forever, she thought, but didn't say. Some faint echo of her thoughts must have reverberated between them, however, because his mouth thinned and his dark eyes sparked. Riordan left the bed and paced in front of the fire for a moment before turning to face her.

  "I give you one more chance to go," he told her. "And you will owe me nothing."

  "No." She shook her head until the pale strands covered her shoulders.

  "Stay and be bound to me forever, is that what you want? For me to hold a piece of your soul until you die?"

  More than anything.

  "You make no protest. I might think you do."

  Noa could only stare at him. The fire outlined his silhouette in gold. With every movement, his cassock swirled around his bare feet. The pulse of his magic crackled along the garment's lines and added bursts of color to the dark cloth.

  His voice was cold when he spoke next. "And if I refuse you? If I send you away? What will you do then?"

  Noa lifted her chin, her heart turning cold. "Would you have me leave? Did I not please you?"

  He turned from her to face the fire, and though his words were pitched low, she had no trouble hearing them. "You please me too much."

  "Then why won't you look at me?"

  "I thought you were a quiet, little mouse." Riordan turned back and pierced her with his eyes. "Seems I was mistaken."

  Noa, emboldened by his admission, smiled. "We are not in the classroom, my… Riordan."

  Ah, she liked the way that sounded. My Riordan, as though he belonged to her. A giggle burbled in her chest and she bit it back. It would not do to laugh right now.

  "Nay, but you have chosen me as your teacher, have you not?"

  "And I am your willing student."

  Noa let her arms fall away from her knees and found the bulk of the pillow behind her back. She allowed it to support her as she let her legs fall open just slightly.

  She watched his face, reveling in the opportunity to do so. So often she'd been too shy to look at him when she thought he might be able to see her watch him. She knew intimately the curve of his ears, the line of his jaw, the strands of his hair and shape of his body…but she'd never been able to indulge herself in complete and utter contemplation of his face.

  His skin was pale in sharp contrast to the ebony of his hair, eyes and brows. His nose was thin, but his mouth full and red. His teeth, when they flashed in a rare smile, were perfectly shaped and white as pearls.

  He wasn't smiling now. His mouth thinned as his eyes raked over her. He focused on the space exposed between her legs. She felt the weight of his gaze there, and she shifted again to flaunt herself.

  He put a hand to his throat. His fingers worked the buttons. His cassock opened like a crimson-lined mouth. He slid it from his shoulders and tossed it to the floor.

  Noa's breath caught in her throat at the sight of him. He was magnificent from his broad shoulders and finely muscled arms down past his trim waist and long, lean legs. The hair tufting under his arms and between his legs was as purely dark as that on his head, while the line of hair on his belly and covering his legs was of a slightly lighter shade.

  His penis stood only half-erect, but under her perusal it rose to nearly meet his belly. Noa took in the sight hungrily as his balls tightened and relaxed. His erection pulsed a little as it lengthened, and she felt an answering throb in the place he'd earlier stretched her.

  "You've always been one of my brightest students."

  "I never believed you noticed me before." Noa leaned back further on the pillows. She touched her breasts lightly then ran her hands down to the slight curve of her belly. She ventured no further. The touch of her hand would be a sad substitute for Riordan's.

  He crawled up the bed toward her. He kissed the inside of her calf, paused to press his lips on her inner thigh, passed over the juncture of her womanhood and slid his tongue across her belly. He moved his mouth first to one breast, then the other, suckling briefly at each nipple while she writhed beneath him.

  "That is so sweet," she murmured as warmth burst inside her.

  Then his face was before hers, and his weight rested along the length of her. Noa froze, shy again. Riordan's gaze didn't waver as his nose brushed hers lightly.

  Then, at last, he kissed her. His mouth was warm and full as he slanted it along hers. She'd never been kissed before, preferring not even to participate in that level of sanctioned experimentation among the other students at Somnus Keep. She'd been saving herself for him.

  She sighed and her lips parted. Riordan slid his tongue inside her mouth. He stroked her with its velvety softness, slowly in, then out, in a rhythm she ached for him to repeat with other parts.

  "Let me hear you say my name," he whispered.

  "Riordan."

  "Noa," he whispered back against her lips.

  His mouth left hers and she gave a whimper of protest that quickly turned to a gasp of pleasure when he found the sensitive spot beneath her ear. He gathered a handful of hair and pulled it up to further expose her neck to his questing mouth. Riordan nipped at her. "Stay still."

  She could not obey. Every touch had her squirming against him. His hardness pressed her belly, hot like a brand.

  Riordan slid his mouth along her shoulder and again to her breasts. This time he paid them more attention. He took one firm globe in his hand and sucked the nipple until it stood up in his mouth. He painted moistness on her breast with his tongue then blew on the heated flesh left behind. The combination of heat and chill made her wriggle all the more.

  Riordan bent to Noa's other breast and lavished the same attention on it as he had the first. His hands still caught in her waist-length hair, and he held her so tightly in place she could no longer arch beneath him.

  "Stay still, I said." His command was firm but not cruel.

  "If it pleases you," Noa managed to say. Her voice sounded husky and low, not like her normal voice at all.

  She wondered if he might move lower again and the thought of it made her feel faint. He came to her mouth again and captured it. His chest crushed hers, and for a moment, she felt truly light-headed, until he released her hair and rested his weight on his palms, one on either side of her.

  His scent filled Noa's nostrils, her lungs. She breathed his breath and felt him become part of her, and she exalted in it.

  "Are you ready?" he asked.

  She nodded her assent, though, just as suddenly, ne