Page 14 of Claiming Starlight
Disappearing behind a partition wall, into a closet maybe, he came back out in tight briefs and nothing else. He switched off the overhead light and climbed onto the biggest mattress she’d ever seen, all while she stared numbly after him. “Come here, Sophie.”
Afraid to deny him—afraid to move. Sophie shook her head, wiping at the tears leaking from her eyes that wouldn’t stop, choking back a rising sob. A bed meant sex. Sex meant she would no longer be a virgin. The final nail in destroying the safety of her charted life. The life she’d risked to find her brother. He frowned, and lines of displeasure creasing his brow.
“Now!”
Her feet started moving before she registered the command, her body doing his bidding without her consent. He lifted the blanket, and her gaze dipped low to where a ridge of flesh strained against the material of his briefs. She tensed, dread filling her stomach as she slid onto the mattress next to him. He was big all over.
She tried to keep space between them, but Micah’s arms came out of nowhere, dragging her all the way to the middle of the mattress before laying down on his side and curling himself around her. “Quit twitching.” Micah murmured, low and gravelly.
His hot hands went up and down her arm, fitting in the dip of her waist and over her hip, petting her.
Touching her.
What should she do? Scream, fight, cry, give in, enjoy it? His smell was intoxicating, and Sophie couldn’t think straight. She whined anxiously, then bit her lip to muffle the sound.
The uninvited touches felt nice, but she hadn’t asked for this. Couldn’t take it. If she lost her virginity, she lost her value and her livelihood. There could be no going back.
But his touch made her think of sunshine and warm honey. It poured over her in a thick, sticky invitation to taste its sweetness, coaxing her to let it cover her skin, seep into crevices, and merge with the heat bubbling up inside her.
“So fucking pure and clean, aren’t you, baby?” he said against the top of her head. His left hand found a braid, followed it to the end, and released the band.
“Shiny and brand new, a star fallen to earth. You lit up the street like a beacon, brightness cutting through the filth like the sun through shadows. My sister had a kitten when she was little. Fluffy white, got hair everywhere, blue eyes just like yours. Named her Star. Is that you, you a star?” His voice was a low murmur near her ear as he finger-combed her braid, then loosed the other and did the same to it.
“Please,” Sophie begged as his hands smoothed out her hair. It was too much. She knew she shouldn’t allow this, but her will grew weaker by the second. She didn’t know what to do with herself.
“Please what?” he asked with a soft, amused chuckle. “Scared little kitten, aren’t you? Just let me pet you. I’ve never seen anything like you.” He traced the shape of her face, his fingertips brushing over her eyelashes, down her nose, her lips, the softest of touches.
Those were the worst of all. So intimate and gentle. It hurt to have each prickling thorn of want discovered and exposed, one after another, and then stroked into wakefulness. “Micah. Please.” She tested his name, hoped it would matter. “I don’t want to do this.”
“That’s a lie. Why would you do that? Don’t you know I can smell when you lie?” His fingers continued their unauthorized exploration, dipping and drifting over her body.
“Not a lie,” she insisted, pinching her eyes closed and trying to ignore how her body ached for more. “You cast a spell, or something. What did you do to me?”
“What am I doing, lost little kitten? What is so awful? Maybe I want some of your light. Need it more than a greedy vampir needs more spells to throw at his enemies. Don’t want to hurt you, Sophie girl. Just want some light to see by, to feel on my skin. Is that so wrong?”
He stroked her, his fingers drifting down her throat in long, soothing sweeps. Despite the situation, the danger, Sophie’s tension started to melt.
“Why are you doing this to me? Can’t you find some other girl? Some girl who knows what to do, who wants to do it?” She complained, pressing her thighs together tight and trying to ignore the sensations he created.
“Want you. Bright. New. Fucking beautiful.” His hands were warm, but it was his words that burned.
She felt his breath on her forehead, his lips against her temple as he nestled closer beside her.
“You just relax, little Sophie girl. Stop thinking so hard. Stop trying to live ten years in the future. You are here, now. Right here with me, beautiful girl. Fuck. You don’t know, got no idea how you light things up and what my kind would do to get that. What any old blue-blood from the beyond-places would do.” Micah’s soft, full lips nuzzled her brow and down to her cheek. She closed her eyes and let go–so tired, so confused, so…. Aroused.
But he didn’t push. Eventually she drifted; not awake, not asleep, constantly aware of his warmth surrounding her, chasing out the cold and doubt.
How long did they stay that way? She didn’t know. Too comfortable to move, not wanting to lose the small bit of rest.
She felt a little more awake, now. More aware. Micah’s foot lay between hers, his leg angled over her own, a comfortable, snuggled-in weight, all his long lines and muscle wrapped around her smaller body. The sheer size of him made her feel like a tiny, fragile doll. One of his hands lay open on her belly, under her shirt, measuring her from hip bone to hip bone, a finger circling her belly button.
How long had this gone on? It wasn’t his touch that woke her, but a discomfort in the angle of her neck. The lazy caresses against her bare skin soothed ragged worries instead of causing the proper alarm they should have because the man wasright there,and she wasn’t wearing any underwear.Still in a drowsy state, her body overruled stirring concerns, and misty desires swept her weakened inhibitions away under the wicked seduction of his presence. She liked the warm, rough weight of his hand, and badly wanted to open wider into his petting.
“Beautiful Sophie. Want to keep you. Will you let me? You’re a good girl, aren’t you, Sophie?” His voice was rich velvet in the dark.
“Micah,” she whispered.
A deep, pleased rumble escaped him. “That’s it. Say my name. Say whose girl you are now.”
