Page 26 of Summer

Slap – one of her fingers lingers nearer to my aching pussy, the lightest brush on my lips. I know it comes away wet, and I squirm to turn to see – I want to see, I have to…

Her fingers tighten, forcing me harder onto the desk. Two more quick slaps echo through the room, and I rub my thighs together, grinding them for some sort of friction. I try to move my arms to touch myself, to slid along my slippery clit, but there’s too much fabric.

Another slap, this one right over my aching pussy, and I groan loudly – too loudly. Someone will hear.

I don’t care. I don’t care if the entire estate hears, if all the way back in Celvae they hear. I don’t want her to stop, I want more.

I arch my back into her, trying to get closer, trying to feel…

Her grip loosens on my neck and then releases, the heat of her body suddenly gone. Her footsteps across the room are quick as she moves – no, sprints – out of my room.

The door bangs behind her without a word.

I push myself up from the desk, wiping a line of spit along the side of my face. I start to readjust my dress before removing it entirely. I was right – my inner thighs are coated with my arousal, my pussy aching and open.

I stare at the door, wanting so much for her to return.

It’s only much later, after I’ve gotten myself off three times to the memory of her body against mine, that reason replaces my lust.

Tomorrow is going to be very awkward.

12

GENELLE

Ihear nothing but the hammering in my chest as I fly from Summer’s room and slam my door shut. My chest rises and falls rapidly, my breaths short and strained.

Did I really just flog my brothers betrothed?

No – it was more than that. My body aches in ways I don’t understand, and the only way to relieve the ache is to touch myself.

Multiple times.

When light touches the far end of the property, I’m sure I’ve barely slept more than a few hours. My eyes burn with exhaustion, my wrist aches and cramps.

I rise with the light and do my best to look put together. By the time I’ve bathed and changed, I feel somewhat better. Summer was insolent, she needed to be reminded of her place.

Her place as the marchioness, my mind screams at me. Her place alongside my brother, to eventually become the duchess while I will forever be lady. Her words from last night prick at my skin – what did I know of love? Childhood crushes faded into dust when it was clear there was no reciprocity. They cared for my brother instead, or the boys we saw at the balls.

Every friendship potentially dangerous, squashed before it could ruin me. I toed a delicate line between a close friend and a romantic interest. I’d suffered too many times from my inability to understand what I meant to the other female.

It was not as though it was unheard of, for two females or two males to fall in love. Many alien races did not have a gender binary, and most were not as rigid as ours.

It was my parents that caused me to hesitate. If I married a male, there was possibility for advancement in rank, for creating little heirs that would spread our family’s influence far and wide. Of course, my father would put up a fight at the idea of a sizable dowry, but if it meant prestige, he’d look the other way.

For me to marry a female would mean no heirs, and questions about dowry he wouldn’t want to answer. I knew what he would say; what awful suggestions he’d have for me to just ignore my natural inclination.

So that part of me is hidden away, shoved far below the layers of duty I have to this family. If I must be unhappy, then let my brother be happy. Perhaps that means with this human woman, though I still cannot see why. If I gave her a chance, perhaps I’d find something about her I liked.

That would mean being around her again, and I cannot stomach the thought of being in the same room with her after what I did last night.

I hope I am early enough to the kitchen to avoid Aaoric and Summer, but their whispers tell me otherwise. I peer around the door into the dining room. They sit next to each other, heads bent, words quick and quiet. Her hands are folded in her lap, her legs crossed away from him. He lounges, though his arm is draped around the empty chair at his side – not hers.

Summer glances up as though she’s felt me watching, and when her dark eyes meet mine, my heart freezes in my chest. The images from last night flood my mind, pulling me under. Her warm skin under my hand, her wetness smearing down her thigh, on my hand. Her…

“Lady Gennelle,” she says pleasantly.

Aaoric’s head jerks up and he spots me, guilt etched across his face. “Sister,” he greets, waving me into the room. “Do not hang there, it is rude to eavesdrop. Come, be part of our conversation.”