She didn’t protest when he shifted around to lay her gently back against the soft covers of the bed. A loud whimper escaped her when she felt his hot palm cover her left breast. Unable to resist the sensation of pleasure, she pressed up against it begging for more. Her fingers tightened in his hair as he kneaded her breast before slipping his hand down and under her loose shirt to touch her skin.
Emma pulled her mouth away from his and pressed upwards with a loud hiss. She stared up into his eyes as he gazed down at her with an intensity that almost hurt to look at. His hand paused briefly before he moved it slowly up along her ribcage.
“Tell me to stop and I will,” he bit out harshly. “Tell me, Emma, and I will but if you do not I will claim you as mine.”
Emma stared up into his eyes, heat pooling low inside her at his words. She nervously licked her lips before biting her lower one. His hand paused again, this time just under her left breast.
“For how long?” she asked huskily. “For how long will you claim me?”
Ha’ven’s eyes darkened at her husky question. “Forever, my Emma. I will claim you forever,” he vowed in a soft voice filled with determination and possession. “Forever,” he whispered again leaning until he was a breath away from touching her lips again.
“If you promise not to leave me again, then the answer is…,” she paused as she leaned up enough to rest her lips against his. “… yes.”
Ha’ven’s loud groan filled the small cabin as he captured her lips in a desperate kiss at the same time as his hand captured her unbound breast.
Chapter 12
Ha’ven swore he would have gone mad if she had denied him. He would have left her if she had but it would have come at a great cost. His body throbbed painfully with the need to claim her. The essence that gave him his power burned to complete the joining that would bind them together forever.
He had not been just saying the words to make her feel better. Once he claimed her fully, she would carry the very essence of him inside her as he would her. Their powers would combine to make them extremely powerful. That power would be seen as a threat by those that wanted to destroy him and his family. Emma would become a target, her life in constant danger, if he and his brothers did not eliminate the threat.
“Emma, misha petite,” Ha’ven groaned out. “I need you.”
Emma drew in a shaky breath as he pulled back far enough so he was kneeling over her. Her eyes widened as he waved his hand over his body and his clothes dissolved. She gasped loudly when he did the same to her and she found herself lying under him, nude. Her arms fell to cover her breasts as a bright, fiery blush rose over her cheeks.
“Ha’ven?” She asked, looking up at him with wide, startled eyes.
He grinned crookedly down at her. “I never really appreciated our ability until now. I think I will enjoy removing your clothes… often,” he growled in a playful tone. “Very, very often,” he added as he reached down and gently cupped her hands in his and lifted them to his chest. “Touch me,” he asked huskily. “Please.”
Emma fought her shyness. She hadn’t been undressed in front of anyone except her mother her whole life. She had never even undressed for a doctor since she hit puberty. She had been mortified when her mom had taken her when she was seventeen to the doctor and the nurse told her she would have to undress. Instead, she had bolted from the room and her mom had taken her home. Shortly afterward, her father had died and her mother’s dementia had grown worse.
Her fingers trembled as she touched the firm skin of his stomach. Her lips parted in wonder as she focused on exploring him. The sensations rushing through her were foreign but the ageless fire of desire burst to life inside her. She forgot her own nudity as she ran her fingers over the exquisite form kneeling over her.
“You are so beautiful,” she whispered as she slid her fingers along his heated flesh. “So hard but soft as well. You feel warm, almost hot. Is it natural for you to be this warm?” She asked, flicking a glance up at him before returning her eyes to where her fingers were.
“Gods, Emma,” Ha’ven muttered as he closed his eyes and breathed out heavily. “Your innocence is like a drug to my system. You have no idea what your touch is doing to me, do you?” He opened his eyes and gazed down at her flushed face.
Her hair was fanned out around her head framing the delicate features of her face. Her body glowed with her aura, changing colors as she touched him. His breath caught as effervescent colors danced around her and across her skin. Pinks, soft purples, yellows and oranges swirled across silky pale skin. His fingers slid across her collarbone and the colors reached up and clung to him. His own spun around, mixing with it. He started to pull back when the black strands surged outward.
“I love the way the black swirls when I touch you,” Emma murmured softly. “It makes me feel safe… warm inside. When I touch you, different colors stand out against it before fading and blending into it. Yet, if I touch you they come back. It is like the black is protecting them, only letting them out when it is safe or when they want to come out to play against it,” she explained in a faint voice.
Ha’ven froze as her words sunk in. She was not afraid of the darkness inside him. He looked down where she was running her hands along his stomach and up his chest. Just as she described, her essence danced in a beautiful pattern across his own before disappearing briefly then coming out again. His breath caught and he was held mesmerized by both her hands and the joining between them.
His hands moved to touch hers. She turned her palms and threaded her fingers through his, looking up at him with her soul bare for him to see. A soft, tentative smile curved her lips as she gently pulled him down.
“I like it when you kiss me,” she whispered huskily. “When you touch me, I don’t feel afraid anymore. I don’t understand this or why you make me feel safe but I like it.”
“You…” He started to say before his voice faded.
Ha’ven couldn’t finish his sentence. The emotions that he had felt earlier rushed back through him again, this time with an intensity that took his breath away. He didn’t understand the emotions that she unleashed deep inside him. He didn’t know what they meant. The only thing he knew was that he would never, ever let the delicate female he held in his arms be taken from him. May the Goddess have mercy on anyone who tried because he wouldn’t. He would unleash every ounce of the power that Aria had awakened inside him and damn the consequences.
Ha’ven deepened the kiss even as he slowly lowered his body over her smaller frame. He groaned when her legs instinctively parted to let him rest between them. There was so much he wanted to do to her but he honestly didn’t know if he had the self-discipline this first time. The fear of losing her still brushed along the edge of his consciousness making the need to claim her almost unbearable.
He pulled back just far enough to run small kisses from her swollen lips down along her jaw to the sensitive spot below her right ear. He nipped at her neck, enjoying the gasp that echoed from her reaction. He wanted to discover every inch of her body. He didn’t think a lifetime would ever be enough and Curizans were known to live a very long time.
“You make me feel things I do not understand,” he whispered as he pressed a kiss against her collarbone. “The power inside you calls to my own.”
“You make me feel… things too,” Emma replied breathlessly as his firm lips teased the tip of her right breast. “Please, I want… you too.... This feels so good, so….”
“Right,” Ha’ven muttered under his breath before he covered the taut peak with his hot mouth.
The feel of Emma’s hands tangled in his long hair, holding him to the tip he greedily sucked on, fired his blood even hotter. Nothing in all of his other lovers ever prepared him for this rush of possessiveness. He wanted every part of her; mind, body and soul. Her fingers tugged on his hair. When his eyes lifted to her face, they locked with her wide ones. She stared at him with a hungry desire that poured over him in hot flames.
He released her small breast with a loud pop and slowly turned his attention to her other one. He loved the way her eyes followed him and her body tilted trying to hurry him to the prize. His tongue slowly came out and her breathing became small pants as her own tongue imitated his. He didn’t think his cock could get any harder or his sack any fuller but the sight of her licking her lips as he teased the taut peak made him think of that beautiful tongue doing the same to his hard shaft.
They groaned in unison, her from his finally sucking hard on her nipple; him from the imagery of her sucking on him. He could feel the moisture of pre-cum escape his cock as it brushed along the inside of her thigh. He closed his eyes when she moved her leg, rubbing his swollen, aching tip against her silky skin.
Releasing her nipple with a muttered oath, he rose up over her. “Goddess be praised, Emma. I will have you now and pleasure you to madness later,” he swore as he moved back up her body and gripped her thighs in his large hands.
“Ha’ven!” Emma cried out as he aligned his hard shaft with her slick vaginal channel.
“You will forever be mine, my mate,” Ha’ven growled in a low voice as he pushed forward, impaling her on his throbbing length. “Forever, misha petite. I promise you forever.”
Emma cried out loudly as he pushed forward through the barrier and sealed her to him. He released her right thigh and pressed his hand to her lower stomach, sending a wave of healing energy to ease the pain of taking her. He wanted no memories of pain, only pleasure. He knew the moment her discomfort dissolved as her right leg curled up and around the cheek of his left buttock, pulling him deeper.
“Oh!” Emma said breathlessly, looking up at Ha’ven in shock. “You… I… Oh!” She finished on a moan as he began moving, slowly.
His groan of pleasure drew a soft blush to her cheeks. “Oh, indeed, my mate. You are so beautiful,” he said in a low voice. “I claim you as my partner. In this life and any other the goddess gives us after, you will belong to me, Ha’ven Ha’darra, as I belong to you, my Emma.”
Emma ran her hands up his arms as he leaned forward. She locked her lips to his as he pulled her closer. For the first time in her life, she understood what her mom had meant when she told Emma that her father loved her so much she could walk on a cloud and never touch the ground. Emma felt like she was floating.
*.*.*
Ha’ven lost himself in Emma’s sweetness. The hum of power inside his body flowed around them, in them and between them. Their essence blurred, mixing until there was no separating them now. He made sure of that. He wanted no doubt in anyone’s mind who she belonged to. His body burned and tingled as he fought to bring her pleasure before he found his own satisfaction. The fact that he was her first and only lover was not lost on him. He felt the weight of responsibility of ensuring she knew nothing but pleasure at his touch. Nothing but satisfaction at their joining. She had literally become his world.
He kissed her deeply, ravishing her mouth as the emotions burst through the dam he had tried to secure them behind until he could understand what they meant. His arms tightened around her, pressing her against his body as he rocked deeper and deeper into her. How someone could have such power as to make him lose all rational thought with just a touch shook him. Her hands were doing things to his body that he had never even imagined. He’d had numerous lovers since he came of age but never had the mere touch of their hands inflamed him the way hers did. Her essence wrapped around him, pulling the darkness unleashed during his torture away.
“You make me feel free,” he whispered brokenly in her ear.
He buried his face in the curve of her shoulder, unsure of what to expect. He had never admitted to anyone the weight he had carried deep inside since his captivity. He never even acknowledged his own feelings of vulnerability to himself. Yet, the words had slipped from his mouth without thought as he basked in the warmth of her embrace.
What he did not expect was to feel her slender arms wrap around him to hold him just as tightly as he held her or the touch of her lips near his ear. She squeezed his hard frame to her, seemingly uncaring that he could crush her if he let his entire weight rest upon her smaller form. He stilled as her softly whispered words flowed through him, bringing a warmth to his soul that he thought would never be warm again.
“Nothing will ever cage you if I can help it,” she murmured. “I want to watch you fly to the clouds and dance on the rainbows.”
A shudder shook his huge form. He rolled, shifting so she was on top. Her gasp echoed as she placed both palms on his broad chest. The move drove him deeper into her. Her eyes widened before drooping as he cupped both of her breasts in his hands.
“Come for me, my Emma,” he choked out looking up at her with burning eyes filled with emotion. “I want to see you come for the first time. I want… I want to see you fly to the clouds and dance upon them as you come for me.”
The passion of his words flooded her as he pushed up in a slow rhythm at the same time as he pinched her swollen nipples. Her head fell back, the long length of her hair flowing around her as she splintered into a million pieces. Only his hands spanning her waist kept her upright.
“Ha’ven,” she whimpered as her head fell forward and she stared at him, a soft tremble on her lips.
“So beautiful,” he whispered hoarsely.
His hands tightened on her as the last of his control dissolved at the beauty of her flushed cheeks and wide, expressive eyes. Never in his life had he seen anything more beautiful. It was worth the unbearable pressure building inside him to hold back long enough to watch her as she came apart in his arms. Gripping her hips, he began moving frantically, pushing deeper and deeper as his own orgasm rushed forward.
He groaned loudly when she fell forward, kneading his chest with her fingers as he swelled inside her. Her low mewing grew as she came again, tightening around him until he was panting as he pushed upward. The feel of her vaginal channel squeezing him, wrapping him in her silky, slick heat pushed him over the edge.
“Goddess!” He roared out, arching under her.
Spots danced before his eyes as he poured himself into her. The room began glowing brighter and brighter as their essences burst outward, upward and around them. He knew Emma didn’t see the colors of his aura as they swirled and twisted upward, dancing with hers in an erotic joining that left him pulsing with the power. Her eyes were closed, her lashes crescents of the moon on her flushed cheeks. The black mixed with the colors of the rainbow that Emma whispered of to him and he could swear he could see them dancing together.
“You are right, misha petite,” he murmured as he pulled her limp body down to drape over his. His arms wrapped as tightly around her as he could without crushing her. “I am flying free,” he whispered in wonder as he soothed his hand possessively down her back.
Chapter 13
Ha’ven jerked awake as the transport rocked. His arms tightened protectively around the body curled at his side. A warning alarm sounded before the lights flickered and the transport rocked again.
“Warning. Unidentified ship has initiated fire. Shields maintaining at ninety-eight percent. Defensive actions have been activated,” the transport warning system announced.
“Ha’ven,” Emma’s sleepy voice whispered huskily. “What’s happening?”
Ha’ven’s mouth tightened as he sat up. With a wave of his hand, he was fully dressed. Standing, he looked down into Emma’s sleepy and confused eyes. He held out his hand to her even as another blast hit the outer shields.
“Come, little one,” he murmured calmly. “We are under attack. I want you near me.”
Emma’s eyes widened with fear and she scrambled up, grasping his hand. Even as she stood, he waved his hand and she found herself clothed in a pair of black leather pants, black silky shirt, vest and boots similar to what he was wearing. She stumbled as the transport rocked heavily back and forth.
“Warning. Three additional ships have entered the vicinity. Immediate defensive action
is recommended.”
Ha’ven cursed and gripped Emma’s hand tightly as he pulled her from the cabin and down the corridor to the bridge. He had delayed their flight path to the second Jumpgate as he wanted additional time with Emma. Now, that time may have become a grave mistake.
“Scan ships. Give me armament capability and defense specifications,” Ha’ven ordered as he stepped onto the bridge.
Emma scrambled into the same seat she had occupied only the day before. So much had happened in a short time that her head was spinning. Was it only yesterday that the man sitting across from her had kidnapped her? She shook her head when he started to strap her in.
“I can do it,” she assured him. “What are you going to do?”
“Kill them,” Ha’ven bit out harshly.
Emma stared at the cold, hard face and shivered. Gone was the heated gaze and the tenderness of the night before. Now a killing machine…
No, a warrior of old, she thought looking on as he moved gracefully at the controls.
The black bands were back along with darker, blood red and gold ones. They swirled, blending into the console in front of him. Another blast rocked the transport and a warning light flashed before he muttered a short command and it stopped.
“Open communications,” Ha’ven ordered. “This is the Sentinel, identify yourself.”
An image appeared within seconds. Kejon’s scarred face filled the view screen. The Curizan assassin had a smirk on his face as he stared coldly back at Ha’ven.
“Well, well. It would appear we have found ourselves a royal without his bodyguards,” Kejon observed. His eyes flickered over to where Emma was strapped in watching with wide, frightened eyes. “And one of his whores,” he added, turning to look back at Ha’ven with a raised eyebrow. “Caught with your pants down again. Isn’t that how you ended up on Hell the last time, as well?”