4: In Which She Gives Him a Taste

4: In Which She Gives Him a Taste

**********************************

Nikolai took his sweet time to tear his lips away from mine but I didn’t push him off because I was frozen. I’d always thought that that was a ridiculous exaggerated figure of speech but in that moment, it certainly felt like I was an ice sculpture.

“Yes, Inga?” Nikolai said expectantly, running a thumb across my kiss-swollen lower lip.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt, Dyadya.” Inga’s casual voice was what thawed me.

I turned around, wincing when I saw the open curiosity in her moss-green eyes.

“You didn’t interrupt anything, Inga,” I told her, forcing that same casualness in my voice. “Are you heading back to the castle?”

“Inga, please drop the uncle thing,” Nikolai grumbled from beside me. “I’m not that old.”

“It’s only respectful,” Inga said softly, “and yes, Ophelia, I’m returning to the castle. There are a few wedding arrangements that need my attention.”

“Great. I’ll, um, come with you.”

“You don’t have to…if you’re busy,” she said slyly, giving me a slow wink. “I didn’t mean to interrupt but you are in the middle of the path.”

“I’m not busy.” I practically grabbed her hand and tugged her away from an amused Nikolai.

When I was sure we were out of earshot, I implored, “Please don’t tell anyone.”

Inga slanted a look at me. “Tell anyone what?”

I liked Inga, don’t get me wrong, but just right then, she was pissing me off with her faux ignorance. She’d just caught me making out (did people my age even use that term?) with her uncle-in-law-to-be and she wanted me to spell it out for her.

“What you saw back there…was just a one-time thing,” I faltered, receiving a girlish laugh at my weak explanation.

“It’s fine, Ophelia. I know how that man gets,” she said, waving a flippant hand. She glanced at me. “It’s just…you know Mikhail has always thought of you as a baby sister, right?”

No, I didn’t know that. That kind of info would’ve come in handy when I was eighteen and trying to seduce him.

“I guess so,” I mumbled.

“You were homeschooled all through elementary, right?”

What is this? Some kind of episode of This is Your Life?

“Yeah.”

“And when you were packed off to boarding school with Sav, Misha was one of the first people you got tight with?” She waited for my affirmative. “Well, you two have a timeless history but Nikolai – he’s a nice guy, to some extent –will hurt you. He just can’t help it. I don’t want Misha to lose one of his oldest friends because of his womanising uncle.”

“I think you're making a hell of a lot of assumptions here, Inga,” I declared, flushing beet red. “For starters, what you saw was a kiss. He kissed me. That’s it. Sure, he’s a flirt but that doesn’t mean I’m the kind of girl that spreads her legs because of a few sexy words thrown her way.” I bit my lip. “Furthermore, if I happened to sleep with the guy, it would be just that – sex. No promises, no broken hearts. I’m not some young, dumb thing here.”

Inga halted beside me. I stopped as well, meeting her eye. She was grinning.

“What? Did I say something funny?” I snapped.

She shook her head, getting into motion again. “I was just thinking,” she said genially, “if you and Nikolai ever did get serious and maybe even got married, you’d be Misha’s aunt. Considering the fact that he wanted to ask you to senior prom, that would be a little awkward, right?”

***

That night, sleep just wouldn’t come.

After tossing and turning until I was too annoyed to do that anymore, I kicked the covers off and swung my feet out of the high bed. Out of ridiculous self-preservation, I’d ditched my usual PJs and had covered up in grey sweatpants and a sweatshirt. If that wasn’t asexual, I didn’t know what was.

Slipping my feet into my comfy bedroom slippers, I exited the bedroom, intent on exploring the castle when it was dormant. Out in the living area, I spotted the fireplace and, for whatever reason, decided to find out how the secret door worked. I flicked on the lights before beginning to run my hands along the empty mantelpiece before working my way down the sides. In the movies, there was usually a secret lever of some sort. I knelt before the grate, which was stuffed with unused firewood.

I reached out for a fireplace poker, ready to poke through the wood – and the wall shifted.

I jumped to my feet, nearly clapping my hands together like a kid about to go to Narnia.

The passage wasn’t lit up so I turned and dashed back to my room to get my BlackBerry before I ducked into the darkness. With the light from my screen, I was able to see that the stone walls were incredibly narrow, so narrow I wondered how someone as broad-shouldered as Nikolai hadn’t had to be a professional contortionist to get through.

Every step I took, took me further away from the glimmer of light back in my suite.After what seemed like forever, the passageway began to wind and when I put my ear to one wall, I could hear the low hum of a TV. I pressed against the stone, surprised to find that it felt hollow. Kneeling and holding my phone out in front of me, I found that there was indeed a lever, just like I’d expected.

Pleased with my discovery, I got up and, in the process, accidentally kicked the lever.

Holy fuck! I thought in a panic as the wall slowly began to rumble. What if this is the king’s room?

But that was ridiculous because he and his new wife weren’t even in the country, so why would his TV be on at midnight?

That didn’t mean I wasn’t fucked. My fight-or-flight complex was taking too long to kick in so it was more like freeze-or-gape. I did both, especially when the room I’d inadvertently broken into became apparent as the wall swung inward all the way before me.

Nikolai was crouching before the new entrance, a glass of amber liquid in one hand as he looked up at me curiously.

“To what do I owe this pleasant surprise, little cat?”

“Yet another mistake,” I retorted, staring at him incredulously when he held a hand out for me.

“You just can’t stay away, can you?”

Anger spiked in my veins. “You know what? I think we do need to talk.” Ignoring his outstretched hand, I stooped and entered his room, aware that dust was now clinging to my hair.

His bedroom was huge, probably huger than my entire suite yet it had no living area. The focal point of the entire room was his bed – or, more fittingly, the California King Island of Sexual Activities.

Nikolai followed my gaze and smirked. “Takes you back, doesn’t it?”

“You’re disgusting. I hope, for this country’s sake, you never get to be king.”

He laughed. “And you think my half-brother’s doing a better job?”

I looked at him, thankful that he was still in the clothes he’d worn earlier that day and not in a distracting state of undress. “The king’s your half-brother?”

“Don’t you think we should get a little more comfortable before we braid each other’s hair and tell our secrets?”

I glanced at his bed and he let out another laugh.

“I was thinking the sofa, little cat.” He nodded at the spacious, comfy-looking leather couch pushed against one wall. “My bed can wait.”

I snorted, marching past him and taking a seat. “I’m all ears, Dyadya.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Don’t call me that.”

“Why not? Isn’t it respectful?”

“No, it’s creepy,” he stated firmly, sitting at an appreciated safe distance from me. “I don’t want someone I’ve fucked to call me uncle.” He leaned back, downing the remainder of his drink. “Want one?”

I shook my head. “So, you were saying? About King Mikhail, I mean.”

“It’s not a big deal. We share a father but have different mothers,” he told me, “just like you and your brother.”

At the mention of my family history, I said, “I don’t want you hanging out with my dad over this week.” I glared at him when his lips twitched. “I’m serious. You don’t know him. If he ever finds about what happened between us, he’ll –”

“What happened between us?”

“You know. Don’t make me say it.”

His eyes danced. “You want me to say it?”

I shut my eyes, asking God to give me patience. When I opened them again, he’d shifted closer, so close that our thighs nearly touched.

“Will you let me taste you?” he said softly, tracing a finger along my jaw.

“You have,” I whispered back, so much tension coiled in my belly that it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. Under his aqua stare, it was a given I’d forget how to inhale and exhale.

“Not here,” he explained, running his finger across my lower lip. “Here.” And he reached between my legs and cupped my sex.

I whimpered. For all my confidence, I was the first to admit that my bedroom activities probably seemed like a game of Scrabble to the average teenager. No one had ever wanted to taste me there, even though I’d been more than generous when it came to giving head.

“You're thinking too much, kotik,” Nikolai said soothingly. “Just relax. This will be good for the both of us.”

“I don’t want to fight this anymore,” I confessed, leaning back into the heat of the couch.

“Good. I don’t want you to.” He swooped in for the kill and I met him halfway, kissing him as feverishly as I could; tasting the whiskey on his breath. Because I wanted to, dammit.

He hoisted me onto his lap so that I knelt astride him. I threw my arms around his neck, shivering when I felt his hands on my hips. Nikolai’s thick erection was raised between us and he gripped the back of my thighs so that my pelvis was thrust into it. We moaned together when he pushed upwards. His tongue became more insistent as I rubbed myself against him and not for the first time did I wonder why I was trying to deny myself this pleasure.

So what if he was eight years older? That was nothing and besides, it wasn’t like we were dating or anything concrete. So what if he was Mikhail’s uncle? I wasn’t about to kiss Nikolai in front of him. And so what if he was a real, honest-to-God prince? He cursed like a truck driver and called me a pussycat, therefore he was human.

Nikolai let out a soft grunt when I gripped his erection through his pants. He really was big and suddenly, I wanted to see him in the light. Ignoring his muffled protest, I unfurled myself from his lap and slid down between the V of his long, muscular legs.

“What are you doing?” His voice was hoarse, breathless.

“What does it look like?”

A slow smile spread across his face. “Ah, but you’re not ready for it yet.”

“I’ve had it before.”

“It’s changed since then,” he murmured cryptically, and that only heightened my curiosity.

I reached out to unzip him. “Then let me see.”

He didn’t protest and when I felt the silk of his boxers, my mouth actually watered. I traced the bulge of his erection, looking up when he hissed a breath through his teeth. His face was beautiful when he was angry but when he was turned on… I clenched my thighs together to relieve the pulsing between them.

I parted the slit at the front of his boxers and his cock sprang out like a jack-in-the-box, bobbing a little before settling proudly against his T-shirt-covered belly.

I swallowed, mystified.

“Did that…hurt?”

Nikolai laughed, glancing down at the head of his cock. “Like a bitch!”

He was pierced. Down there. A silver barbell with a ball on either end went straight through the top of his shaft and through to the underside. It caught the light in the room and winked at me.

I caught Nikolai’s heavy-lidded stare and reached out to touch the piercing. I felt him tense and retracted my hand.

“Oh, does it hurt?”

“No. I got it done years ago.”

“Why’d you do it?”

He licked his lower lip. “Oh, you’ll find out,” he growled, “when I’m inside you.”

I let out a whoosh of air. Nikolai was incredibly erect. So erect that it looked painfully uncomfortable. And that piercing… It looked like it would hurt like hell if he tried to enter me wearing it but then, what did I know?

You'll find out when I’m inside you.

“Get up, little cat,” Nikolai commanded, sending his erection back into its satin cage. “A midnight snack is in order.”

I hopped back onto the sofa, watching expectantly as he slid off the couch and knelt between my legs. My slippers came off and my sweatpants slowly followed. The black lace panties I was wearing were expensive La Perla because underwear was the one thing I allowed myself to splurge on. In fact, most of my pay check went to my secret lingerie addiction. As if exciting underwear would make my life more exciting.

Judging from Nikolai’s low groan of pleasure, they were certainly worth the investment.

“I don’t want to die before I’m forty,” he murmured, leaning forward and pressing his lips against the practically nonexistent crotch. “You will be the death of me.”

I moaned, bowing my back. His warm hands ran up my calves, up my thighs. He pulled me forward until my ass was dangerously close to the edge of the couch. He raised my legs and perched them over his shoulders.

“Take your sweatshirt off,” he growled, smacking my hips.

I jerked from the sting, realising that I was so uncomfortably hot between my legs and he was making it worse. Tugging my top off proved to be an unsexy mission that left my hair a rat’s nest, I was sure.

But Nikolai’s eyes were trained on my heaving breasts.

Murmuring something in his language, he grabbed a fistful of lace at my hip and pulled. The fabric bit into my skin as it resisted but it was useless against his strength and ripped away from me.

I was completely naked.

“Fuck, little cat,” he said huskily, probably because I was clean-shaven. “Now that’s a pussy.”

His face disappeared as he leaned forward and hot air hit the sensitive bundle of nerves between my thighs. Sensation burst through my lower belly, turning me into a writhing mass. Nikolai held onto my thighs but the assault of his breath on my pussy was just too much to sit still through.

He hadn’t even really touched me. Was I honestly going to come because he was breathing on me?

“Fight it, myshka. Don’t let go right now,” he instructed, lightly caressing my skin. “It’ll be so much better when you finally come. So much better for the both of us, especially when you say my name.”

Was this what absolute abandon was? Unabashedly thrusting your wet heat into a man’s face? Writhing and fighting an orgasm you really wanted because you still weren’t used to it?

I felt Nikolai’s tongue at my entrance and I all but shoved myself into his mouth. His chuckling against my flesh sent vibrations straight to my painfully erect clit and I cried out in frustration.

Too much… Just too fucking much… Need more…

“You’re so wet, kitten; so tight,” Nikolai murmured approvingly, and then he wasn’t talking anymore because he was licking. Licking his way up my slit until he got to my clit.

His mouth covered it, sucked it in like a vacuum cleaner.

My hips bucked against him, feverishly. Wildly. Violently.

Never before had foreplay felt this good. I was doing everything in my power not to come so quickly, only because he’d told me to. It was amazing that after the few disappointing tumbles in the bedroom I’d had – where I’d inevitably chant my I will climax tonight, I will climax tonight mantra – Nikolai had the innate ability to so much as lick my thumb and make me come.

When he slid a finger inside me, I thought I’d explode. Fists balled at my sides and body wound up with tension, I said a silent prayer that I wouldn’t prematurely combust.

In, out, in, out, lap, lap, suck, in, out, in, out…

I was soaking. Dripping. Wet. I could feel the moisture drenching my legs; could feel it squelching on the leather beneath me. And Nikolai… God, Nikolai was going at it like I was his last meal before he sat on the electric chair. Tongue and finger – no, fingers now – working me to a torturous climax, he made the occasional mm sound deep in his throat that was the hottest things I’d ever heard – until hemurmured, “Come now, kotik”, and that took the hottest-thing title.

I was bucking against Nikolai’s mouth, writhing and squirming as I finally, finally let go.

Ah, there it is… Hello, O. They call me O, too. We’ll be great friends.

O slammed into me like a freight train, dragging me across the tracks. I welcomed her, embraced her. Every bone in my body had been liquefied and all I could do was quiver like a bowl of jelly. Every nerve was on fire and I couldn’t put it out, not until I emptied myself into Nikolai’s mouth.

He held me tight, his mouth pressed firmly against me as he drank all of me.

It took me a while to even think in full sentences after I came crashing down to earth. The musk of my arousal hung in the air and for only one full second, regret slammed into me about what had just taken place here.

Only one full second.

Nikolai placed a soft kiss on my inner thigh before nipping at it. I squealed, tugging at his hair and jerking his head up. His dazed, satisfied gaze stopped me short.

“You didn’t say my name,” he noted, licking away the remnants of my eruption.

“Nikolai,” I whispered.

“Not the same,” he groused, slowly getting to his feet. “I probably shouldn’t have let you come.”

Panic had a chokehold on me. Was I only able to come because he said so? Was that an actual thing? Would he be that cruel?

He let out a soft laugh, reading my mind. “Relax, Ophelia. I’m not the Grinch that stole orgasms.”

“Well, I should get going,” I muttered.

I stood, realising too late that my bones were still mush. Nikolai caught me before I fell flat on my face. He ran his hands down my sides and goosebumps prickled the places he touched.

“Stay.”

Just one word, one syllable – but a million meanings.

“I can’t,” I told him, tearing myself from his warm, hard body and gathering up my clothing. “Besides” – I pulled on my sweatshirt – “you have a variety of bridesmaids to choose from, remember?” I stepped into my pants. “Inga’s cousins are very nice to look at.”

He stared at me long and hard before letting out a heavy sigh. “I suppose you’re right, little cat. Get some sleep while it’s still dark.”

I bristled at his response. Is that a twinge of jealousy, Ophelia?

Shaking my head, I shoved my hand into my pocket and withdrew my phone, astonished to find that an hour had passed since I’d stepped into this room. “Crap. I have to be up early,” I groaned, suddenly remembering the girls-only plans at sunup. “Inga said something about going into the city.”

Nikolai nodded. “She’ll probably bypass the slums and take you to the upmarket places,” he muttered, sounding and looking bitter. The look was instantly replaced by his usual impish smirk. “Would you like to skip her tour and take mine?”

“Ruslavian strip clubs and bars? No, thanks.”

He gave me a wounded look. “Is that really what you think I’m all about?”

“Does it matter what I think?”

He looked away. “Think you can be ready by seven?”

“I guess so,” I hesitantly replied, wondering how I was going to explain my absence to Inga. Then I decided that there was nothing to explain. Besides, she knew. Sort of.

“Good. I’ll walk you to your room,” Nikolai was saying.

“No, no. That’s OK.” I was already shuffling toward the fireplace. “It’s not that far and I have my phone.”

“Ophelia –”

“See you tomorrow, Nikolai. Well, today.”

Before he could say anything else, I ducked my head and slipped out his bedroom and out into the corridor. When I finally made it into my suite and sealed up the secret passageway, my phone pinged with a BBM request. A request from PantyDropper. I didn’t know anyone that arrogant and immature…

Oh, wait. I do.

Seconds after I accepted his request, I got a message.

PantyDropper:I hope you didn’t get lost, little cat.

OhFeeLeeUh:Getting into bed right now.

PantyDropper:I so didn’t need that visual. Still hard here.

We were not having this conversation.

OhFeeLeeUh: Too bad. Goodnight.

PantyDropper: Guess I’ll just have to jerk off with your panties, then.

Nikolai Alvonich was just full of too many freaking surprises.