“What are my fantasies?” she murmured.
“You know,” he said, his breath hot. “You tell me.”
“Do you have a name?”
“You may call me Ochen, if you wish.”
“Ochen.” She closed her eyes, loving his fingers on her hair. “I like that. It sounds exotic.”
“Where I come from it sounds ordinary. Not like you, Natalia Sorvenska. Tell me your fantasies.”
“But you already know them.”
“I want to hear you speak them. Out loud. No one can hear but me.”
Natalia remained silent, not sure she could voice what she wanted, even to him. But if I can’t talk to a fantasy man inside my own dreams, who can I talk to?
“I want to be loved.”
She clamped her lips shut, amazed she’d said that out loud. Bor Nargan women were above such emotions as love, need, passion. They filled their mind with higher things. And the moons spin backwards, and the sand seas are full of water.
“That is not a bad thing to want. You are a loving woman.”
“That’s not the kind of fantasy you meant.”
“Yes it is.” He kissed her forehead. “I need to know everything you need, and everything you want. Do you love, Natalia?”
She thought of her mother, her grandmother, women who had accepted her love. A warmth began to fill her body, chasing away her irritation at Delia and the negative energy that filled Delia’s house.
“Think on that,” Ochen said. “Think of love.”
Natalia smiled, warmth filling her, relaxing her limbs.
Ochen ran his fingers up the inside of her arm. “Now. What do you want?”
“Pleasure.”
“Of course.”
She blushed hard. Ochen was grinning. The man was as handsome as sin, but when he smiled she didn’t want to look at anything but him. Ivan was a pale shadow compared to this man.
He leaned down and licked her mouth from corner to corner. “You have the sweetest smile,” he whispered.
She wanted to melt into the bed. “You must say that to all the women you pleasure.”
“I do not pleasure them.” He dipped his finger behind her lips. “I make their fantasies real. I am not in them as myself.” He trailed his wet finger down her throat to the hollow. “But with you I am.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s what’s in your dreams.”
Natalia laced one hand behind his neck. His hair was warm and silken, feeling so real. She daringly drew his mouth down to hers, and he kissed her.
A soft kiss, no demands. Natalia explored the pads of his lips, hesitant, shy.
“This is a fantasy,” Ochen whispered. “You can do whatever you want. There is no one to judge.”
“Except you. Obviously.”