Jaenelle would have paid almost any price to know what Daemon was thinking as he searched her smiling face. He seemed to come to some sort of realization and then he cautiously set it aside. A relaxed and sleepy look spread across his face and he let the tension out of his body again.
Lying next to him now rather than on top, Jaenelle took a moment to applaud herself for her handiwork. Her eyes wandered freely over him and she took in everything. The way his legs had arranged themselves carelessly as if they didn't have the strength left to straighten. The way his hands lay helplessly by his sides. The way his eyes were just barely shut as if he wanted to open them but could not.
Janelle wondered if he did the same thing when she luxuriated, eyes closed and serene, in the after glow of pleasure. Did he watch her and gauge the success of his seduction and his bedroom skills by the softness of her body and the peaceful look on her face?
She reached out with her hand and touched Daemon's chest. A smile began to spread across his face before he opened his eyes. Encouraged, Jaenelle let sexual heat show in her face to show him that she was satisfied and hopefully to get some attention paid to her shamelessly neglected body. However, when Daemon registered the desire in her look, he immediately tensed and almost backed away. Jaenelle froze and then slowly pulled her hand back from him to retreat to her own side of the bed. When he realized that his wife had pulled away from him, he looked miserably enraged.
It wasn't fear that she had seen in him at that moment but dangerous calculation and fierce self-preservation. They had explored unfamiliar territory and Daemon had found himself in a strange situation. He had reacted without thinking and now he was angry with himself.
It didn't take a mind reader to know that Daemon did not know how to deal with a female who had just pleasured him. He was over-reacting, of course, but he had maintained control over his situation by being the one who gave all of the sensation. Now that he had accepted pleasure, the rules of the game had changed. He was instinctually wary and in that instant of seeing craving in Jaenelle's eyes, he had wondered if he would be punished for taking his pleasure first. Then his reason had taken over and he felt stupid for distrusting her.
Jaenelle understood all of this and did the only thing she could think of. She opened her arms to Daemon and waited. It took a few moments for Daemon to fight with himself but finally he moved towards her and pressed against her. He buried his face against her neck and wrapped his arms loosely around her.
Before long, Jaenelle began to gently run her free hand from the nape of his neck, along his spine, and across his buttocks in long, soft, rhythmic motions. Daemon sighed and shuddered lightly, pressing himself closer. She continued to pet him, casual and undemanding. Eventually, where he was pressed against her leg, she felt him hardening again, but she ignored it. It was too soon. He was not ready. Daemon had open the flood gates and given her access not only to his body but to his complex psychology. She knew that she needed to navigate his emotional mine field carefully.
Here in her arms, he was a needy male for the first time since they had been reunited. When he had been unconsciously stuck in the role of pleasure slave, it had effected other aspects of his maleness as well. He hadn't had the trust to fuss with her to the infuriating extent that Lucivar did. He used sex as bait but he hadn't ever truly dug his heels in…or thrown her in a pond when she refused to listen. And he had let himself love her and serve her, and she knew the fierceness with which he did both, but somehow it had been too much for him to just need her as a female until now. A wife he could make love to and provide for, a Queen he could protect and support, fulfilling the duties of a Warlord Prince. But it was the simple feminine that soothed the male and taught him to be vulnerable. It was only then that a woman could heal not just the wounds from battle but the wounds of the heart. And it was then that she earned the right to be defended at all costs.
Daemon's father would know, Saetan would understand.
