“I’m not!” she insisted breathily.

I thought she was, even though she’d denied it. I stopped my exploration just underneath her breast and gauged her reaction again.

Her heartbeat thrummed under my fingers, but she showed no signs of refusal. Still, I thought it was smart to tell her of my deal with Sela so that she could be fully informed.

“I went to Sela every time I had to feed.” Isay’s eyes widened, but she kept her mouth shut to let me continue. “I’m not a fan of feeding off the sick and damaged, our approved victim base. It’s… disheartening, which is why I made a deal with Sela. She’d offer me her life force, and I’d offer her my body. Win, win for both of us.”

“Didn’t Ferro say she had a line of males at her doorstep? Why’d she want you?”

I shrugged slightly. “I never cared enough to ask. We did little talking. Like I said, it was purely physical.”

She swallowed. Her passion had cooled, and I couldn’t read what she was thinking. Withdrawing my hand from underneath her dress, I smoothed the fabric before I cupped her face instead. Try as I may, I couldn’t move away from Isay.

She wanted to understand me, and I wanted to understand her, too. So I supposed we should have this talk.

“It’s bothering you,” I stated for her. “But it is in the past now. I can’t take it back.”

I’d never needed to convince anyone of my dedication or intentions, and I wasn’t doing a good job at it now. No idea of what she wanted to hear exactly, I was grasping at straws.

“Did you enjoy it?” Isay asked quietly, not looking at me anymore.

I took too long to respond. I knew I did, because the line of her lips tightened, and she nodded to herself.

I sighed. “I can’t deny it.”

“So she was good?”

“Isay, I don’t want her the way I want you. I don’t feel anything for her. You, my beautiful torturer, are driving me insane. You can either pull apart my past for excuses to push me away, or you can accept that’ll always be a part of me.”

“It’s not—I’m not—I… ah… do you think she could teach me?”

Flustered. Isay was flustered, but we finally got to her issue, and it wasn’t my previous sex life. It was her own, which clearly was nil, and she was self-conscious about it.

I should’ve realised it sooner. While fae males discovered the pleasures of flesh fairly early, the females were cherished and protected. My own insurrection had been my sexual awakening, but she wasn’t even at the peak of hers yet.

“Beautiful, you do not need any outside help. I will teach you.” Now that I knew what was bothering her, I could breathe more easily. It was nothing we couldn’t get through. In fact, it was something I’d enjoy getting through.

Her eyes widened innocently. “But—”

I stopped her with my lips, and she let me muffle her worries. I didn’t completely escape her ‘but’ however; she picked it up right after I released her mouth.

“But she knows what you like.”

I chuckled, “Isay, I also know what I like. Besides, it isn’t rocket science. I am fairly easily pleased. Now, what about you, beautiful? What do you like?”

She squirmed under me, and I beamed.

“You,” Isay huffed. “I like you.”

“Mhmm,” I agreed. Enjoying every single moment of her admission. From the rapid beating of her heart to the hands gripping at my shirt at the back. “Which is good, because I did grope you, although not quite thoroughly enough to my liking.”

“I… I liked that, too.”

“I’d hoped so.” I allowed my fingers their freedom to roam now that we’d acknowledged our interest, and her body sang to me again.

I was going to make her know just how easy it was to please me. She only had to look at me with those hooded eyes and I was eternally hers.

I got her moaning and gasping for air again and grinned around her mouth. “I would like to see this dress on the floor.”

“Okay.” Isay pulled at the fabric immediately to get it over her head, and I stared at her in wonder for a moment. She grunted when the bodice was too tight to pull off and let the hem fall back with a frustrated pout, meeting my amused gaze. “What?”

“I just like looking at you. I was also going to help you with that.” I leaned in and kissed her exposed shoulder, releasing the zipper at the back of her dress.

“Oh,” Isay sighed, and my grin grew.

I had her right where I wanted her. At my mercy. Her skin thrummed at my touch as if greeting me with the eagerness I felt. The shield around her sent currents through my body and intensified the contact of her skin on mine.

With her dress off I had freer rein across her chest. I drank in the sight of her, low lidded eyes on me, mouth parted and my thumb running circles around her perfect perky nipple.

“Kar…” she whispered.

“I like you saying my name, Isay. My full name.” Like? I loved it. She was the only one that kept on doing it. She’d better never stop.

“Karmuth,” she moaned again.

I hummed my approval. “That’s it.”

“I’m burning. I’m on fire.”

“You are the fire, beautiful.”

I showed her just how much she got me burning by pressing my erection on her heat. I’d lost the jeans together with her dress. There was less fabric and more friction between us, but not enough. Definitely not enough.

I had to tread carefully, though. I needed to get this right, as it was her first time and while I had experience, I did not have experience in this.

Bringing my hand back to where I’d felt her silkiness, I very much intended to get her to come for me before I’d see to myself. I caressed her through the fabric of her panties, and she dug her nails into my back.

“And you like that,” I affirmed, doing the same movement again, but slower. Her shiver vibrated through her body.

I kept up the slow barely-there touches that seemed to drive her mad until she couldn’t take it any more. “You’re teasing me!”

“And you’re enjoying every moment of it.”

She didn’t deny it. Of course not, because it was the truth. I also liked—loved seeing her writhing beneath me.

The trust she offered me with the control over her pleasure was something I swore not to misuse, which was why I gave into her desire and slipped my fingers under the cotton and groaned at the pure heaven at my fingertips.

Isay was heaven. My paradise. My world. She was everything I never knew I needed, and I wanted to show her just how much I needed her. Exactly how much I craved her.