“Let me just go talk to Kaylee about it,” Mia said, rising from the piano bench. “She’s my best friend but she’s also kind of my boss. She’s the music and choir director and I’m just her accompanist,” she added, in explanation.
Storn nodded. Even though he was seated while she was standing, they were still nearly eye-to-eye because of his immense height.
“Very well—go talk to her, why don’t you?” he murmured. “But first…may I have a morning kiss?”
“Oh, um…” There was nothing Mia wanted more than to kiss him. But she still felt shy in the light of day. Still, the music room was empty and no one was watching. “I…I guess so,” she said at last, hesitantly.
“Come to me, then.” Storn put one muscular arm around her waist and drew her gently toward him so that she was standing between his thighs.
“Oh!” Mia whispered a bit breathlessly. She found herself looking deep into his chocolate brown eyes and now she noticed that there were flecks of green in them as well.
“You are so beautiful,” Storn rumbled softly. And then he was kissing her—gently at first, not pressing too hard—just letting her get used to him all over again, Mia thought.
It was she who deepened the kiss. Breathing in his warm, spicy scent she suddenly felt a wave of desire overcome her. Her heart started pounding and a hungry lust gripped her, just as it had the night before when she had recklessly pulled down her dress and taken off her bra.
Oh God, more—I need more! she thought and then she was sliding the tip of her tongue across the seam of the big Kindred’s lips, asking for entry, begging for what she needed so badly.
With a soft groan, Storn opened to her and Mia explored his mouth, tasting him and learning him exactly the way she wanted to. He tasted like cinnamon and some wild spice she’d never had before—a flavor she found instantly addictive.
But kissing him wasn’t enough—she wanted to touch the big Kindred, too. Wanted to touch all of him. With a little moan, she began running her hands over his broad shoulders and then up to stroke the strong nape of his neck. She tangled her fingers in his thick, black hair and then her seeking hands found his horns.
They were surprisingly warm, she thought, as she ran her hands tentatively over their curving sides. Warm and ridged but smooth in places, like old ivory. They—
Storn broke the kiss abruptly, and pulled away a little, panting.
Mia was instantly concerned.
“Storn?” she asked uncertainly. “Did…did I hurt you? Should I not have, er, touched your horns?”
“You are welcome to touch them all you like,” he told her. “Gods, lovely one, your soft little hands on me feel so good! It’s not that your touch hurts me—it is that it brings me pleasure.”
“Really? Your horns are, um, sensitive?” Mia wondered if they were some kind of erogenous zone for his kind of Kindred.
He nodded.
“They can be as hard and unfeeling as stone when I use them in battle. But there are pleasure sensors in them—nerves that only come awake under the touch of a beloved mate.” A shiver went through his big body. “Your touch on my horns is so pleasurable it is almost hard to bear,” he admitted in a hoarse voice.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Mia exclaimed. She wondered if she had been doing the equivalent of jerking him off and blushed at the idea. “I didn’t know,” she said.
“Of course you didn’t—how could you?” He caught her hands in his much larger ones and gave her a sleepy-eyed smile that made her heart flutter. “I love the touch of your soft hands on me, lovely one, but maybe you should go and speak to your friend about what your plans are for today. Much more of this kissing and I fear I might unsheathe.”
Mia had no idea what he meant by that, but she decided to defer the question for another time. Returning his smile shyly, she went to knock on Kaylee’s office door.
“Come on in,” Kaylee called. She was sitting at her desk, working a little too diligently, Mia thought.
“All right,” she said, laughing a little. “Tell the truth—were you spying through your office window?”
“No, of course not!” Kaylee exclaimed indignantly. “Well…maybe a little,” she added, when Mia fixed her with a mock-stern glare. “Oh my God, Mia, he’s so handsome! Those horns are really hot!”
“Apparently they’re sensitive too,” Mia told her, blushing. “I was, ah, touching them and he got kind of hot and bothered.”
“Seriously?” Kaylee’s eyes got wide and she covered her mouth with her hands to keep back a girlish giggle.
“Seriously,” Mia confirmed. “But I didn’t come here to gossip—I want to know if you’d like me to start work today since my face is all healed.”