Celeste

An eBook By Augusta Li.

She walked to the table, noticing that the magician's eyes lingered on her long, freckled legs.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked, grinning. "Not afraid of the ghosties, I hope. Have some of this—the very wine given by Dionysos to the Lydian women." "Who—What?" He came around the front of the table and stood very close to her. He wasn't exactly drunk, but his mouth smelled of wine and his nose and cheeks bloomed pink. His dilated pupils made his eyes look like eclipsed suns. "No, thank you," she said decisively. "Still think I want to poison you?" He drank from the bottle again. "Well, I insist you drink my wine." He pushed the round, warm glass into her hand. When she hesitated, he raised the bottle to her mouth by force. She resisted at first, and was stronger. Finally, though, after all she'd been through, she decided she wanted the wine and let it be poured into her mouth. It tasted sweet but ordinary at first. Then she detected a hint of the wild berries she'd picked with her father, and for a moment she had no more cares than she'd had on those childhood afternoons. She could almost feel the sea breeze, the roughness of her father's red beard when he kissed her. Aurelian's hand remained on her wrist. She could see his smooth chest between the buttons of his thin garment. Seeing her look, he pressed her hand over his heart and held it.He kissed each of her four fingertips.

He was making her weak, and she hated him for it. Normally, when she felt lonely for a man, she picked one of the soldiers that looked fair enough and didn't smell too bad. She carefully chose one not ambitious or smart enough to hold the encounter over her later. After she rode him in the hayloft, the armory or the barrack, she left and forgot the matter. She had never been a slave to her desire: never allowed it to distract her.

Kill him now, before you can't do it! She freed her knife and brought it around her side in a graceful, upturned arc. She'd hit his lung, and that was a bad death, drowning in one's blood. But it would end it.

Maybe she hesitated, or maybe he was quick, but he stepped to the side and avoided the blade. It lodged in the thick wood of the table. Ardythe yanked it free. She raised it over head to come again, and he raised his hands. A force radiated from his palms and pushed her back against the column she'd been hiding behind. The energy twined around her arms and pulled them over her head. The knife clanged to the floor. Aurelian pushed aside her shirt and kissed her collarbone.

"Don't you get tired of being strong?" he asked, his lips skimming her jawbone. "Give yourself over to me. Let me be in control, and worry about nothing. You can trust me, and," he dropped to his knees and kissed the hair-covered mound between her legs, "I learned more than spells traveling around the world. You have no idea what I can do to you."

He demonstrated, briefly, pulling open her sex so his tongue could reach the inner folds. It glided over her lips, then separated them, the tip dipping in, pulsing against her inner walls. He licked tight circles around her clit, and she was on the verge of orgasm...

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