He only let her look at him for a short period of time before he was bracing a hand on the bed by her head and looming over her. His fingers were at the buttons of her shirt, undoing them in rapid succession. Within seconds he was parting the fabric, exposing her midriff, her bra, and her panties. Next he went to the front clasp of her bra and snapped it open. Then he lifted her limp body up and shucked it all away. She lay there naked and vulnerable, nothing but her panties to protect her.
“Look. A wee li’le bow,” he said with amusement, touching the tiny bow at the top center of her panties. “Gods, I canna decide if you’re adorable as hell or sexy as hell. I’m torn betwixt the two and was never happier for it.”
That made her smile.
“I like the idea of being both for a change.”
“For a change? You ever were,” he insisted. “Nothing has changed on you from the time before I met you tae today. You are what you ever were. Beautiful, amazing, sensual. All that and more adjectives a brute such as me has little access tae.”
“You’re not a brute. No more now that you ever were. Not to me.”
He unbuttoned his jeans with a single hand. “I doona want tae frighten you,” he said after a moment’s hesitation.
“I’ve seen it before,” she reminded him.
“Aye. Only this time you’ll know my aim is to put myself inside you and that’s more than enough to frighten any lass.”
“I’m not just any lass,” she said on a whisper of breath.
“Oh aye,” he agreed, then slowly unzipped his jeans and pushed them down and away from himself. His erection was an astounding thing of beauty. Bold and thick, flushed and taut. She couldn’t help but to reach out and touch him, and the moment she did she felt him shudder hard. He said something unintelligible under his breath and even though she didn’t know what it was she understood the sentiment behind it.
Slowly she wrapped her hand around him, just lightly at first, drifting her touch up and down the length of him, learning every single taut vein and bump. Then she went to stroke the head of it and was instantly rewarded with a bead of fluid against her fingertips. She rubbed the fluid back into him and he cursed.
“Nay. You’ll make me come just as we are, that’s how eager I am for you,” he said after snatching her touch away from himself. He reached for her panties and in one swift jerk of movement he’d shucked them off her. And now she felt truly vulnerable. Truly exposed. She wasn’t made perfectly, had no supermodel figure. She had some good curves in some places and some bad ones in others. But looking into his eyes she could swear he didn’t see a single one of them, and that made her doubts about herself instantly evaporate. His hands were on her body then, running up her entire length from kneecaps to shoulders and touching everything in between. It brought her skin to life and her nipples tightened, jutting up toward him and eagerly begging for his attention. And he gave it gladly. First with the touch of his fingers. A brush. A stroke. A pull. A pinch. Then he wrapped a hand around her ribs and jerked her torso up about six inches and brought her directly to his mouth. Teeth. Lips. Tongue. All of it in parts and then together. The feel of it making her go wild with need. How was he able to do this so easily? How was it as smooth as water over glass with him when before, with others, it had always seemed like so much effort?
He shifted from one nipple to the other, cuddling and cradling each breast in their turn. She arched her back, pressed back her shoulders. He tasted her until she was raw with need and her fingers were nearly tearing the hair out of his head.
“Ahnvil, please …” she moaned softly.
“No’ yet, love. No’ yet.”
And then his touch drifted down over her belly, causing it to contract under the attention. He found the soft mink curls guarding the treasure he was truly seeking and scraped through them with the tips of his fingernails. He imagined himself doing the same with the claws he grew when he changed and it was all he could do to keep himself from doing so right then. He didn’t want to frighten her. Not when he was so close to having her. And anyway he didn’t feel things as finely when he was turned to stone. It was one of the reasons he could take hit after hit after hit and just keep coming.
But now he didn’t want to be so rough and so tough. He was afraid of being that. Afraid of hurting her. God, she was so small! But fiend that he was he couldn’t make himself walk away. He was going to do everything in his power to make her sing. Everything he could to see to it she felt nothing but the sweetest pleasure the world could offer. So he touched her gently, felt how wet she already was, and groaned as the flowering flesh gave way beneath his fingertips.
He immediately stroked her in short, languid circles. Her knees drew up instinctively, then one fell aside, completely opening her to him. He could see her, so pink and so pretty. He wasted no time sliding a probing finger into her. But even his fingers were big in the face of her smallness so he went gently. She made a sound and with the sweep of her hips pushed him into herself faster than he had planned on.
“You’re tormenting me,” she accused him on a soft cry.
“Nay. I just doona want tae hurt you.”
“You won’t. I know you won’t. Just … please …”
So he thrust his finger into her and felt her give way. Her hips rose again, along with the erotic scent of her. That left him with only one option. To taste her while he touched her. There was really nothing else he could do. Nothing else he wanted to do.
When his tongue unerringly touched her clit Kat gasped loudly into the room. To her it sounded as though it echoed. But none of that mattered. What mattered was the pleasure that was echoing through her. She rolled her hips, chasing his mouth, rubbing herself against the tongue that was laving against her. It took no time at all before she reached a high point of pleasure, trembling on the very brink of release, needing so badly to fly. And then she was gone. Soaring beyond him, beyond the room, beyond everything she’d ever thought she was or could be. With him there were no limitations.
There was absolutely nothing weird to be found anywhere.
“Ah, Kat, you’re the prettiest picture a man ever saw,” he said as he carried her back down to earth with languid little strokes of the fingers inside of her. Two fingers, she realized. When had that happened? Did it matter?
No. Absolutely not.
Then he pulled them free of her, the wetness of it so obvious to them both. He took those two fingers and touched them to the head of his shaft, rubbing her wetness into himself there. It was the most erotic thing she’d ever seen in her life. And there was nothing she wanted more than to feel him inside of her, she thought as he moved over her, his cock heavy in his hand as he aimed himself carefully against her.
The instant he came into contact with her they both gasped aloud. He bent for her mouth, kissing her fiercely, all the while bathing himself in her wetness. He groaned as he thrust against but not inside her. Running himself over her again and again until he was sure she and he were both as wet as they could be. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life. Even escaping from captivity had never been as hard as trying not to come against her before either of them was ready. He felt green and eager, as though she were his very first, and in a way he supposed she was. She was the first mortal woman he had allowed himself to be with since his forging. Ihron had been less discerning, but he had not been made as big as Ahnvil was. For him … he’d always been afraid his ferocity would hurt them.
But here ferocity was and yet it played in perfect tandem with gentility. And it was with leashing one and letting loose the other that he began to slide inside of her. Inch by excruciatingly lovely inch.
“Yes!” she cried, once again lifting those mobile hips of hers up into him. It brought him ever deeper inside of her. And deeper still with another undulation. And that was how it went, with her working herself along the length of him. It was torturous and sweet. Lush and violently needful. He wanted more and more until he was flayed apart from the pleasu
re of it.
And then, with a thrust he could not control, he shoved himself into her. She sucked in a hard breath, as if she had been hurt and he immediately cringed and went to pull back, but she grabbed hold of his shoulders and dug in her nails.
“No,” she said, groaning tightly. “Don’t move yet. I just want to enjoy this for a moment. Enjoy the first time you’re inside of me.”
“Oh, lass. My Kat lass,” he said with a relieved wash of breath escaping him. “Doona take too long because I doona want tae spend myself wi’out so much as a thrust. And as it is I’m a hairsbreadth from it. God, oh God you feel like … like … like I’ve never known anything could feel. Can I move now? Please,” he begged her.
“Yes. Please do,” she said with a laugh. “You do beg so well.”
“Oh aye. And soon you’ll be doing the same,” he said with a grin.
“Promises, promises,” she sing-songed.
“You’ve got that right. And I’m a man who keeps his word.”
And he kept it with a long, deep thrust that took her breath away. And then another. And another. A volley of them so stunning and so arousing, each to the highest degree. She knew within seconds that she was going to come again. There was nothing she could do to prepare herself, no hope of even stopping it … if she might ever want to stop anything like it.
She didn’t.
Ahnvil felt her contract around him just as a cry of pleasure exploded out of her. Again, she worked her hips against him, using him however she could to derive the most out of her pleasure. It was absolutely maddening for him. He lunged into her then, the feeling like ripping free of chains and launching into freedom.
He was now thrusting into her in earnest. He needed it, couldn’t stop it, rode into her like a madman. He forgot all about being gentle with her, forgot how small she was, forgot everything but the pleasure her body was giving to his. His hands gripped at the bedding on either side of her, just as indulgence was gripping at the very heart of him. He needed to indulge himself in her. Every last part of her, both physical and the ethereal. And as he pushed her into her third orgasm that was exactly how she looked. Heart-stoppingly, grippingly ethereal. And that was, in the end, what gave him the deepest pleasure. He lunged into her and started to come, thrust after thrust sending more and more of his seed deep inside of her. She had done it. She had taken everything that he was and had done it spectacularly.
And as he slowed to a stop, as he tried to catch his breath, he prayed he had not pushed her into something she would regret doing. When they had come up here she had said she didn’t want to take this big of a leap, and he had threatened to push her to the limit of what she would allow. Would she regret this now? Would she try to backpedal away?
These were the worries that filled his thoughts as he moved free of her slight body and rolled onto his back, drawing hard for breath. He had given her pleasure, and that would have to comfort him for now.
“Oh my God,” she gasped. “Oh my God. I can’t wait to do that again!”
Startled he looked at her, his disbelief obvious because she laughed at him. “I know. I’ll let you catch your breath first!”
“You sound as if … You doona regret what we’ve done then?”
“Regret it?” she was incredulous. “I’m lying here replete and asking for seconds and you’re afraid I am feeling regret?” She laughed at him again.
“But a li’le while ago you said you dinna want tae do this. You dinna want tae … not all the way, in any event.”
“I’m a woman. I changed my mind.” She smiled beatifically at him. “And a damn good thing, too!”
“Aye,” he agreed. “A bloody damn good thing.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ahnvil trailed a finger down along the braided chain of the Amulet, until he reached the shining pendant itself. He carefully lifted it from between her bare breasts and examined it. He didn’t want to give the impression he was trying to take it off her. He didn’t want it to jerk her away like last time, possibly hurting her.
“Come,” he said after a moment, “Let us see a man about this bloody thing. The sooner we get it off you the better it will be.”
She hesitated before agreeing with him. She sat up and retrieved the shirt she’d been wearing from where it had landed on the corner of the bed.
“What is it?” he wanted to know as he reached for his jeans, studying her face all the while.
“Nothing,” she said. Which was a lie. She was worried suddenly. If they removed the pendant, then there would no longer be any reason for her to stay. She suspected she knew exactly what Ahnvil’s first reaction would be. To protect her … even if it meant sending her away. And if anything was obvious, it was that this was a dangerous place for a mortal woman to be.
But she was in danger every damn time the sun came out. Life wasn’t about avoiding dangers. She had spent her entire existence avoiding dangers, but never could it have been considered living a life. She’d just been making her way through, carefully, cautiously. She didn’t want to live like that anymore. At least when she’d had her job in the ER she’d been doing something exciting and useful with her life. But then she had let the opinions of others chase her back into the darkness where she had thought she belonged. For the first time she was feeling as though she were out in the sun.
“Now, I can see that’s no’ true,” he said seriously. “Are you hurt? Did I say something—?”
“No. Stop,” she soothed him with a hand on his chest. “You’ve done nothing wrong.” She looked down at her knees. “I’m just worried.”
“Doona worry. We’ll get it off somehow.”
“No. No I mean … I’m worried that … you’ll send me away after it comes off.”
He frowned. “Well, of course I’ll send you away. This is no place for a mortal girl.”
“Max is mortal,” she pointed out angrily.
“I doona decide what Max does wi’ his life.”
“Oh. You’ll just decide what I do with mine?” she bit out.
“That’s no’ what I mean.”
“Then what did you mean?” she wanted to know.
“I just meant that you’re very fragile. And Max is … Max is …”
“A man?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my God, you’re a sexist pig on top of everything else!”
“What ‘else’?” he wanted to know. “What’s so wrong wi’ me? You dinna think there was anything wrong wi’ me a few minutes ago!”
“A few minutes ago we were equals. Now the only thing we’re equal at is being equally pissed off at each other. Only my reasons make sense!”
“And mine doona? You doona think there’s any danger in staying here?”
“That’s not the point! For the first time I’m somewhere where my affliction doesn’t make me stand out. For the first time I’ve found somewhere where being me is ‘normal.’ Do you really think I want to give that up?”
“You do if you’ve any sense in your head! ’Tis dangerous here!”
“ ’Tis dangerous anywhere there’s a goddamn sun!” she spat out.
“Och! I doona believe you’re talking like a madwoman. And here I thought you were a sensible girl!”
“I am not a girl. Nor am I a madwoman. You’re just a boorish pain in my ass who thinks his way is the only way and screw what everybody else thinks!”
She got up and scooped her panties up off the floor. “And now I’m going to go find a shower and some decent clothes. Because God forbid someone even looks at me the wrong way, you’ll be wanting to rip their arms out of their sockets! Then I’m going to call my mother. At least she’ll be happy to hear what I’ve got to say.”
“But … I doona want you tae go,” he said suddenly, his tone quiet and low. “Is that what you think? That I want you tae go?”
She frowned and looked down at her toes. “Well, what am I supposed to think? You’re having sex with me one minute and the next you can’t wait to ship m
e off to where it’s ‘safe.’ ” She looked up at him. “I don’t want to be safe. Not anymore. Safe is … safe is … kind of boring. You know? I’ve played it safe all of my life but these past few days have been like … like something out of an adventure story. And it’s been happening to me.” She pointed to herself. “Me. The queen of hiding and playing it safe.” She frowned again. “And if I had played it safe that morning in the woods I would have called the cops and left you out in the cold until they got there. I would have hidden in my house until it was all over with. But I didn’t, and I’m glad I didn’t.” She rubbed her hands together. “So don’t ask me to throw it all away. I don’t want any take-backsies. I don’t want to go backward. Can we please … please just take it one night at a time? If I feel I’m in too much danger believe me I’ll be the first to cry uncle and I will lead the charge in the other direction.”
He was frowning as well, and it was clear it was a difficult thing for him to wrestle with, the idea of letting her remain in an unprotected state.
“I know,” she said softly, climbing back on the bed and straddling his thighs. She took his face in between her hands and looked down deeply into his golden eyes. “I know it’s ingrained deep inside you to protect. I understand that you were made that way. Ihron told me your forger made you that way in order to force your loyalty.”
“Aye. He did, the bastard.” He sighed. “And now I’m going tae take you tae him.”
“You’re going to …?”
“Up!” He lurched up to his feet, taking her up with him. Instinctively she clutched around his shoulders and her legs wrapped around his waist.
“But why would you—?” She huffed in frustration. “I don’t understand!”
“Do you remember when I said there was someone here who would know how tae help us get this bloody thing off you?”
“Yes, but …”
“His name is Kamenwati.”
“Kamenwati. Your forger is here?”