Instead of speaking, she slid her hand down her belly and watched him watch her idly play with her clit.
“You’re so sexy. I’ve never met anyone like you.”
And she never wanted him to again. Selfishly, even though she knew she couldn’t have him, she wanted to be indelible. She wanted to be the woman who marked him forever. Gods knew he’d marked her. She’d forever measure every man she ever met against him and they’d all end up paling in comparison.
“I love to come with you inside me.”
“I love to watch you come when I’m inside you. We’re a perfect match.” His smile lost its edge and she knew what he felt. She did too.
Stupid rules. Stupid, stupid Family rules.
Instead of lamenting, she concentrated on what she had right then. Him in her bed, in her body, his hands on her, his gaze devouring her as she made herself come.
When it came, it hit faster than she’d expected it to. It raced up her spine, dizzying her. She drove herself down on his cock over and over, hearing the slap, slap, slap of wet flesh each time.
“Keep your eyes open, Abbie. I want you to see when I come. See how you make me feel.”
She dragged her eyelids up and locked her gaze with his. His grip on her hips tightened, his fingers digging into her muscles. He exhaled hard and his eyes lost focus as she felt him pour into her body.
He held her there, down on his cock, until he finally softened. Carefully, he carried her into her bathroom and they showered without a word. He put his hands all over her body. Soaping, caressing, rinsing and she let him minister to her, loving it all the while.
Roman never expected the depth of feeling she drew from him. She reached deep inside him and touched places he’d walled off years and years before. But she laid him bare, and while he felt exposed, he also felt safe.
He dried her off and they headed back to her bed to snuggle under the thick coverings.
“It’s cold in here. Come closer and let me warm you up.”
She obeyed, pressing herself to him. That she let him take care of her like this was nearly as good as fucking her. He took care of people every day, all day. But this was different. This was not care-taking, this wasn’t her needing something, this was his woman and he wanted to show her what she meant.
“Why isn’t the heat up?” he asked, kissing the top of her head as she nestled it under his chin.
“It is. This is as warm as it gets.” She laughed. “I warmed up some sweet cakes my mother sent over just before you got here. That’s why it wasn’t cold when you arrived. This building has two hundred units, that’s a great deal of steam. We can’t all live in an enormous mansion that sits on steam vents.” She said it sleepily, without any anger.
“Are you this cold the entire season?” It angered him to even contemplate her not being comfortable at all times.
She turned to look into his face. “Are you angry?”
“I’m—yes, I’m angry! I don’t want you to be cold. I’ll have the building owner fix the problem immediately. It’s unacceptable, Abbie. Warmth is—should be—a right of all my citizens.”
She kissed the tip of his nose. “Roman, that’s very sweet. It really is. But the flat we lived in when we came to the capital? The walls were very thin. My mother stuffed sweaters and blankets around doors and windows to keep us warm. This isn’t bad. This is a nice building, as it happens. It’s not painfully cold. I sleep with nice, thick blankets and I’m comfortable. Many people have less. You have to know that. You’re not naïve.” She put two fingers over his lips. “And you can’t fix everything either. The farther people live from the vents, the less immediate heat they have. That’s a reality and that’s why most people settled in the inner circle and the first two rings. The resources are here. Poorer people live further out and that’s a reality, too. People with more credits live more comfortably.” She shrugged.
He sighed. “I hate to think about you cold. I want you to be in my house. In my bed. Where it’s warm and bright.”
Her eyes filled with unshed tears. “We can never have that. Reality, Roman.”
He sat up and pushed the hair from her face, cupping her cheeks. “I hate that. I hate having to hide this. I want to touch you in public. I want to kiss you when the mood strikes me. I want you to be warm and taken care of.”
A tear broke and slid down her cheek and he thumbed it away.
“Don’t make this harder than it is. Do you think I want to wait here alone? Knowing you’re off somewhere living a life without me in it?”
So complicated. He sighed. “You’re in it. Even when I’m not with you, you own my thoughts.” Settling back down, she eased against him once more.
“Don’t you have to get back home?”
“I do. But I don’t want to. I want to be here with you. I want to sleep here.”
She sighed. “Roman, as much as I love having you here, tomorrow is a work day. The paths and walkways will be filled with people. You will be recognized. I want you, but I don’t want to destroy you. Do you understand? You risk a great deal to be here. You could, of course, pass it off that you’re just getting a little taste of an unranked woman before you settle down. But that’s not who I am and you are not allowed to think on a woman like me in a serious fashion.”
“Why do you have to be so good? Can’t you be selfish?” he teased.
“I’m so very selfish.” She laughed without humor. “I want what I cannot have. Each time you come to me you risk yourself. And yet, I want you here.”
“A less principled woman would use this to get her way on the advisory council issue. What would your parents do if they knew?”
“My mother would be worried about my heart getting broken.” She shrugged before her face got very serious. “But my father cannot know. Listen to me carefully. If my father had any idea, he would use you. He would manipulate us both to get what he wants.”
Roman did not like the pain he heard in her voice. “Why would any father harm his child?”
“You don’t understand. He is committed to many things, his causes are chief in his life. First it was the school and in recent years it’s been the MRD, which I actually organized and started. He loses all his logic when his causes are at issue. He’s not evil, but he would see using this to his advantage as the greater good.”
He snorted. “My father shoved a seventeen-year-old boy into the leadership of House Lyons, married him off to a total stranger and nagged, using his health as a cudgel, until he had grandchildren. I do understand the greater good parenting excuse. I just don’t believe in it.”
“You tell me something, then. If you were ill tomorrow, thought you were going to die, would you give House Lyons to Alexander or would you give it to Deimos? Knowing he’d have to give up his youth to lead? Millions upon millions of lives at stake. You and I both know Alexander would not rule well. He does not care for soil, for earth and seeds and steam heat for citizens.”
“Why must you be insightful? Can’t you be but a pretty piece of fluff waiting for me in my bed each night?” He hugged her tight and she squeezed him hard in return.
“You said you needed to tell me something earlier. What is it?” Her words were slightly slurred. He remembered his presence robbed her of sleep.
“What are your plans for your days off?”
“I have none. I usually work or spend time with my family.”
“I want to have three days with you. Just you and me. Alone. Marcus knows about you and me, I’ll have him schedule something, make arrangements. Can you get away?”
“Yes. Yes, I’d love to spend the time with you.”
He got up, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Stay beneath the blankets. I’ll let myself out. Marcus will be in touch.”
“Be careful, Roman. I’ll wait to hear from Marcus.”
He carried her scent on his hands as he quietly left through the back lift and into the city.
Chapter 19
Abbie stared at the hous
e on the shores of Lake Alessandre. Marcus had described it as a cabin, but like everything else about Roman, this “little cabin” was a grand home.
She’d taken the train out of the capital and had traveled due south for a large part of her morning. Instead of taking a stack of work, she looked out the windows and read a book. Leisure time wasn’t something she got much of, so she thought that for those days she had with Roman, she would take them.
The train moved past the outer rings and toward the mountains in the far distance. At the station nearest the lake, she’d detrained and headed, according to Marcus’s directions, up a small hill and through a lovely wooded path.
Because it was the off-season, there were few people, and she enjoyed the silence and time alone as she made her way to the cabin.
And now she stared at the two-story manse and laughed, breaking the silence.
Roman poked his head around a line of hedges, his face softening when he saw it was her. “You’re here!” He came forward quickly to take her small bag. “I’m sorry you had to carry this all the way from the station. I wanted to pick you up but Marcus gave me a lecture about being seen.”
She stood on tiptoes and kissed him soundly. “Hello to you as well. Thank you for carrying my not very heavy bag, and Marcus is right.”
Sliding his arm around her shoulders, they walked through the lovely garden at the rear of the house.
“This is, um, pretty impressive. And also? I’ll be taking you to a cabin one day, just to show you this is not one. This is a manse.”
“Come inside. It’s cold out here. I’ve built a fire and dinner is nearly done. And this is not a manse. It’s a large house.” He snorted and led the way through the large double-glassed doors and into the house.
“If you say so.” She turned a circle, looking up at the beautiful wood and metalwork. “It’s beautiful, Roman. Truly.”
He dropped the bag and pulled her against his body. “I’m glad you’re here. I have you all to myself for three days. Whatever shall I do with you?”
She grabbed his cock, already hard and poking into her belly. “I have no idea at all.”
“Hmm.” He looked around and reached for a pillow from a nearby chair, tossing it on the floor. “You can suck my cock while we think then.”
“What an original idea.” She dropped to her knees, the pillow softening her fall.
Abbie just wanted to fade into him. To be absorbed into his body and soul. She rubbed her cheek over his cock through the soft material of his pants and smiled as she felt him unpin her hair. She would have worn it down on a normal nonwork day but she knew he took pleasure in unbinding it, so she put it up just for him to take down.
How lovely it was to know that about him.
She unfastened his pants and slowly pulled the waistband of his underwear down with her teeth. Given the sound he made, he heartily approved, and she made a mental note to do it again in the future.
The heat of him flowed against her face as she inhaled his scent. Man, musk, sex, power. Roman Lyons was a walking aphrodisiac.
The slit of his cock seeped a bead of semen. The salty taste of him entranced her as she ran her tongue through it. Swirling the tip of her tongue round and round the head, she sank into the rhythm of pleasing him. She let herself listen to his body, to remember and learn what he liked, what made him moan and hiss, what brought his hips forward unexpectedly.
She angled him so she could suck him into her mouth, her hand gripping at the base. Her other hand palmed his balls, massaging but not squeezing too hard. He liked a bit of rough handling, but it took a lot of trust to let her down there with his cock in her mouth and his sac in her hand, so she took it slow, built up gradually and took care of him.
His fingers slid through her hair until he cradled her skull. She rocked, forward and back, sucking him in and pulling off, keeping him nice and wet.
Abbie licked down the column of his cock, down around his balls and he gave a low, deep sound of need and pleasure, so sharp her cunt clutched and her clit bloomed. She was wet, so wet she knew her panties would be wet. She could smell her longing, the tang of it hardening her nipples in response.
“Fuck.” He nearly growled as she took his balls into her mouth, first one and then the other. “Abbie, gods, that’s so good.”
She urged his thighs wider and then, reaching between her thighs, she got her fingers wet with her own lube and brought them back to him, just past his balls and against the pucker of his ass.
He tensed up as she circled her slick middle finger there, against the sensitive, nerve-laden skin. She pulled back and looked up at him. “Roman, has anyone ever played with your ass?”
He blushed. This dirty-talking man actually blushed. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and pressed a bit.
“I’m going to put my fingers in there. I’ll stroke a spot inside you so good you’ll wonder why a lover never did it before. But not while you’re standing. Later when you’re on the bed.”
He exhaled and relaxed, moaning slightly as she continued to circle that pucker.
She went back to sucking him, in and out, harder and faster, as the time passed until his grip in her hair went tight, tight enough tears stung her eyes and he came, filling her mouth with his taste.
Abbie had barely finished when he dragged her up the front of his body and kissed her, his tongue invading her mouth, owning her and she let him because she was his.
Utterly and totally.
“Abbie, you’re so damned sexy. The things I have planned for us, well—” He sent her a wicked grin. “You’ll need to get your rest when you can. You’ll need your strength.”
She laughed. “Feed me, then. I’m starved and it’s been a very long day.”
Roman looked at her as she sat across from him at the small table. Her feet were tucked beneath her and she enjoyed every bite of the dinner he’d prepared. Or rather, of the dinner Nyna had prepared and he’d brought with him.
“My sister is an amazing cook, isn’t she?” Abbie winked at him. “What? You think I wouldn’t know?”
“She offered. Through Marcus. I can manage the basics, I’m not completely helpless, you know. But I’m better at heating things up than preparing them.”
She laughed and he loved the sound. He’d lit candles and the golden light made her appear luminous. Abbie was so very pretty. Petite and lovely. Big brown eyes, full lips, skin pale and creamy. She did everything with zeal, listened with interest, spoke with passion and fucked like no one he’d ever met. And she was there in his home. Gods, he enjoyed her.
“What?” She tucked her hair behind her left ear.
“Nothing. I just like looking at you.”
“Oh. Well, thank you.”
“And now I want to lick your cunt.”
The flush on her face made her even lovelier.
“Come with me. I have a surprise.”
She took his hand and he led her upstairs to the bath attached to the master suite of rooms. As he’d expected, she froze in the doorway at the sight of the magnificent bathing tub.
“There’s a hotspring. The water here comes directly from it. Undress and I’ll run us a bath. I know a few people with some influence, I think I can avoid the water fine.”
“You’re officially my favorite person ever.” She tossed off her sweater and shimmied out of her shoes, tights and pants.
“No underpants and a see-through, shiny bra? You’re officially my favorite person ever.” She removed the bra with a flourish and stood before him naked and gorgeous. “Correction. Now you’re my favorite person ever.”
Laughing, she stepped into the deep tub and sighed happily. Lindy needed constant praise, big, expensive presents all the time. And here Abbie was, happy about a big bath.
“Now you should be naked so I can look at you and have lust in my heart,” she called out gaily as she quickly twisted her hair into a makeshift knot.
He got rid of his clothes and stepped in, sinking into
the water with her. “Naked, wet and willing.”
“Don’t tell anyone. It would ruin my reputation as a tough barrister. By the way, I’m being interviewed on the vids right after the appearance before the AC.” She delivered this bit of information as she settled back against him.
“Abbie,” he warned.
“Don’t you Abbie me, Roman. I have a job to do. People want to know what’s happening and I’m going to tell them. I hope I can assure them we’re being listened to. But if we aren’t, I’ll say so. I may enjoy this thing between us, but your cock isn’t so magical I’ve lost my sense of direction.”
He didn’t want to be amused. She had no idea of how grave things had become since this whole debacle with the Walker Family involvement in treason. If the Imperialists found a weakness they’d exploit it. Still, he was amused because she had an unwavering commitment to her dreams, and even while she sat naked and cradled against his reviving cock, she stuck to her convictions.
“You’re a pain in my ass.”
“I was a pain in the ass long before I met you, Roman. Don’t take it personally.”
“On the edge of the tub then. Show me that ass. I want to eat you from behind. I’m going to lick your clit until you come.”
She turned slowly, sending the water around them. “I love your filthy mouth.”
“Knees on that step there. You can watch in the mirror. Let’s see if I can’t make you love my mouth a bit more, shall we?” As she knelt and then bent forward, her top half braced out of the tub, he drew his fingertip down her spine, over the cheeks of her very fine ass and unerringly found her gate.
“I’m pretty fond of your fingers just about now.”
He laughed before he bent forward to bite her ass cheek. She squealed, laughing, and water sloshed up. He made a small wave, moving his hand back and forth so the water caressed her pussy. Her laughter melted into a sigh.