~8~
They talked well into the night. Long past the dinner they’d both fully enjoyed. The pasta had been paired with scratch made rolls. A great deal of their discussion had focused on Athena’s cooking skills and how she had managed such a feast from the meager offerings inside Liam’s cupboards. From there, conversation returned to his family and hers.
They cleared the table and washed dishes together, then made their way to bed...seperately. Athena let an hour pass before deciding she’d had enough of pretending to be asleep. She made her way down the short hall to Liam’s room.
She hadn’t changed from the sundress. The house was still comfortably warm even as the embers cooled in the hearth and wood stove. She paused at the doorway.
The day before, Dante had called Liam Tesano dangerous. She agreed, but for different reasons that had nothing to do with the darkness attached to his family name.
It wasn’t a secret that she enjoyed men. That Liam seemed to have no idea of her reputation was quite the surprise. The men she took and allowed to take her were no great brains. They would never be anything more than what their fathers before them had been-goat herders or bandits. All, had exceptional bodies, but not exceptional minds. That hadn’t mattered. They indulged her when she wanted to be overpowered and handled. Afterwards, with their own base needs sated, they were easy to discard with no questions.
Liam Tesano came from different stock and she was glad. He was something different and she enjoyed different. From what she had seen so far, his body was as exceptional as any she’d ever seen. Moreso, if she were being truthful. He was a beauty, fresh, his body untainted by overindulgences in drink and sinful living. He was dangerous because he’d practically destroyed all she thought she knew of men and their ways. She enjoyed men for the stimulation they brought to her body. Never had she expected one of them to stimulate her mind.
Athena pulled free of her deep thoughts and spent another few moments in the doorway watching him sleep. She pushed off the frame, ready to return to her room.
“Athena.”
“Scuse, I-” she kept her back to him. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Are you alright?”
“Very. You should go back to sleep, Liam.”
“I wasn’t sleeping. Don’t think I’ll get much while you’re here.”
“Should I go-”
“I want you to stay. Long as you want.”
Athena turned. “I don’t want to make things difficult for you.”
Liam braced on an elbow. “You haven’t.”
“I could if I stay as long as I’d like to. You may start to feel uncomfortable if I stay that long.”
“Uncomfortable. How?”
Self-control, she urged herself. She wanted him, but to take him now would be greedy not to mention scandalous. She hadn’t earned the right to take him yet. More than that, she didn’t want him that way now when she’d been in the clutches of two other men less than a day before. She would never come to Liam Tesano a virgin, but she could at least wait until she felt...cleaner.
She still had several days before her monthly flow was on her. It was a kind of cleansing, her mother had told her. She would wait until she’d bled, bled out all traces of her lovers’ attentions. Then, she’d be ready for him, properly prepared to take one such as him.
“Athena?”
She went to him then. A taste wouldn’t hurt, she told herself. A quick peck on the patiently crafted mouth. It was all she wanted. Self-control, the inner voice warned again. She would listen, she swore she would. He sat up when he saw her moving toward him.
Athena crossed the room on sure-footed steps that brought her to the foot of the bed. There, she waited for several moments before tugging her dress so that the hem rose to her calves as she climbed up on the linens.
“Athena-”
“Shh...” she crawled slowly to him until she was straddling his hips. She didn’t move beneath the covers, but set herself down atop them.
The moan surprised her when it left her throat. She wasn’t surprised by his reaction, but its size was unexpected. Self-control, the voice seemed to plead with her then.
Liam’s hands were at her hips, steadying her, lifting her. Athena knew he meant to maneuver her under the covers. She resisted with a squeeze to his hand even as she worked herself over his groin, sure to keep the bed linens as a barrier. She cupped his face, thumbs brushing his jaw and marveling at the flawlessness of his skin. He was past the age when his face should be marred by whiskers in need of shaving. Liam Tesano’s face betrayed no such imperfections. Athena was certain he’d never had the need to use a straight-edge.
Her hands drifted down the wide, strong column of his neck, over his collarbone and the breadth of his shoulders and chest. His skin was beautifully sleek and so like the church statues that entranced even as they looked down upon their worshippers and judged. His body felt like marble-hard, unblemished yet pulsing with life and desire...for her.
She cupped his face again and brought her mouth down to his, another perfect attribute, she decided. His lips were firm and supple but it was his tongue that forced another shocked cry past her mouth. He kissed like a skilled lover, as if he’d had much time to perfectly master the art.
He took her mouth with long, slow thrusts that dampened her thighs. She squeezed them around the folds of the sundress, so she wouldn’t dampen his sheets. The kiss went on and on, their tongues dueling and evading. When he lifted her again, Athena had no time to resist his intention to put her on her back. She lost her hands in his hair and moaned over predictions of what the dark mass would feel like between her legs while his gifted tongue took the heart of her.
Liam was on top of the covers now, same as Athena. It wouldn’t be long until she learned what other parts of him might feel like between her thighs. She murmured his name, uncurling loose fists to smooth her palms across his chest.
“Liam,” she said and instantly sensed his embrace cooling around her. He lowered his head and she felt his divine chest expand and contract amid deep breaths.
“Making you feel uncomfortable this way is the last thing I want to do,” she felt him nod at her collarbone.
Liam shifted back into place under the sheets. “You can share my home and my bed when you want. Good night, Athena.”
“Goodnight, Liam,” she scooted from the bed and smiled all the way back to her room.
~9~
A gentle roll of thunder pulled Liam from the abyss of his thoughts that morning. A dimple spliced his cheek when he smiled, upon realizing he’d been chopping the same corner of the weed-infested garden for the better part of 20 minutes. Thoughts of Athena Cavalese were ravaging his mind.
His early morning foray into the garden had done nothing to push aside those thoughts. She had expressed an interest in putting the garden in order and he’d decided to clear the weeds for her. The garden would be a large enough chore without having that exhausting responsibility. He’d wanted her to enjoy it so she’d...what? Did he really want her to stay with him, indefinitely?
Share my bed whenever you want, he said. Why the hell had he said that to her? Because he’d been thinking with his cock, of course. His brain had never entered the decision except when he indulged in the memory of her in his arms the night before. She was as supple as he knew she would be.
