Temptress Unbound Read Free Page B

wouldn’t know I was there, unless I made a point of letting you know.”
    â€œThen let me know. Come, Nimia, why not? If you can make this tie between us, then you’ll be able to reach me if you need me. That’s worth something, isn’t it?”
    I felt myself wavering. “I don’t want you to ever feel like I might be digging through your mind when you don’t know it.”
    â€œI trust you not to. Besides, there’s enough filth in here that you won’t want to come back without a good reason.”
    It wasn’t filth I was afraid of seeing. Arthur had once said that Terix was in love with me, and I didn’t want to see such a raw and vulnerable emotion in him, laid bare to my eyes. Pretending that such a possibility didn’t exist was the only way I knew how to continue our closeness.
    If Terix wasn’t afraid of revealing too much, however . . . maybe Arthur was wrong.
    I reined to a halt, and Terix did the same. “All right, I’ll try it. You’re going to have to stir up some lust, though, to help me get into you. Can you do that?”
    â€œDo you not know me at all ?”
    â€œYeah, yeah, I know. Tell me when you’re ready.”
    â€œYou’re not going to help? Augustus wouldn’t mind a little hand-holding.”
    â€œI thought you changed his name to Zeus.”
    â€œZeus sounds too much like a sneeze, and no lady wants to think of snot when a man comes.”
    â€œI’m sorry to tell you this, Terix, but they already do.”
    â€œCrude, coarse wenches.” He grinned. “The cruder the better.”
    â€œYes, well. Close your eyes and think of what you’d have liked to have given the Summer Maiden.”
    â€œNo need.”
    I glanced at his crotch, and even through the layers of warm clothing, I could see a ridge that said Augustus was alert and ready to serve.
    â€œGive me a moment,” I said. “I have to stir myself up, if I can.”
    â€œWant help? Penelope hasn’t been getting much attention lately, I’ve noticed.”
    â€œPenelope?”
    â€œI considered ‘Pandora,’ but there’s too much ill luck that comes with that name.”
    â€œThis isn’t helping my mood, Terix.”
    â€œIf you’d hike up your leg, I could reach under your skirts and—”
    â€œTerix.”
    â€œYou know it always feels better when someone else does it.”
    â€œIf it’s the only way to shut you up.” I grabbed the front of his cloak and pulled him toward me, our bodies leaning awkwardly over the space between our mounts, then I pressed my mouth to his.
    He was too surprised at first to do more than keep his balance, our lips mashing together too hard, one of the horses shifting her weight and almost breaking us apart. Then he recovered, and with a strength I hadn’t expected he pulled me off my mount and across his lap, one arm around my waist, the other behind my head. His lips parted mine and his tongue delved inside.
    I closed my eyes and let him take control, and coaxed myself to forget whose mouth was on mine and just feel . He knew his way around a kiss, with no timid hesitation, no messiness—only the sure strokes of a tongue displaying that most crucial of all elements for arousing another: hunger.
    Desire stirred inside me, and with its first sparks I opened myself and allowed his desire to flow in. It came like a stream of honey, thick with passion, fragrant and fermented, a heady mead I could drink forever.
    The first shimmer of the golden walls appeared in the corners of my vision, startling me, scaring me enough that I remembered my purpose and closed down the flow to a trickle. I pushed myself upstream against it, through the warm, wet contact of our mouths, and into his mind.
    It was an inferno of lust, blotting out all else.
    Terix, I silently said into the fire.
    I felt his body jerk, his tongue stilling in my mouth, and