Текст книги "Blood Warrior"

Автор книги: Lindsey Piper

Соавторы: Lindsey Piper
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Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 21 страниц)

I’m not going to stop.

“Good,” she whispered.

Tallis closed the scant distance between them and brought his mouth down to her neck. “Don’t do that again.”

“I can’t help it if you’re screaming.”

“Don’t do it again,” he simply repeated. “Stay with me.”

She nodded. “Right here, Tallis.”

She was clean and warm, delicious and intoxicating. He let his mind slip down to where he savored the elemental. The raw. The crazed. She responded with restless hands that skated over his chest, around his ribs, and down to his ass. As she had when she’d used the towel, she laid her palms flat. Only now, she grasped handfuls of muscle. He replied with a thrust. His cock rubbed between their lower bodies, nestled against the firm muscles and soft skin of her abdomen. Kavya gave him a long, mind-numbing exhalation.

He repeated the thrust every time she squeezed her fingers. His power was hers—for the moment.

Her breathing was sharp and uneven when he returned to kissing her lips. Taking those puffing exhales into his mouth was more proof of her excitement. Every hair and every pore and every deep clutch of her fingertips wrote erotic poems.

He sucked her tongue between his lips and bit the fleshy middle. The urge to use more force would’ve been enough to crush the bones of lesser men, but Tallis was still in charge of his inner frenzy. He only wanted to give her a sample of the aggression he withheld. Kavya slipped her taut hands up his back. She held on to his shoulders, bracing her weight against his, and accepted his testing assault. Only when he released her tongue and licked it, soothing, did he pull away to see her reaction.

Her eyes revealed every color of fire. “Again.”

Tallis recaptured her mouth. She forced her tongue between his lips, between his teeth. A dare. He clasped harder, holding the bite as if he’d sunk his teeth into the sensitive skin at her nape. The thought of claiming her in the Pendray way shook his control. That manner of claiming symbolized permanence among his clan.

He didn’t lose control. He didn’t bite deeper. But he realized that an imagination was a bad thing when he was already so overwhelmed. To picture him bowed over her body, both of them on all fours, was an invitation to ruin her first time by default—not because he would hurt her, but because he’d be some untried lad who came before sinking home.

He released her tongue, then traveled lower. She seemed to like his hair, because she threaded her fingers into the thickest locks at his crown. Her touch didn’t guide him, but as when he’d licked and sucked her pussy, she offered tiny flinches as signposts. She liked slick tonguing kisses on the undersides of her breasts, and she liked a hint of teeth across the tips of each nipple. She liked the way he breathed against her damp skin, and how he slid his caress down each gracefully strong thigh.

He knew, because she was one of the most articulate lovers he’d ever taken. She spoke with the unconscious language of her body. A week and a ream of paper wouldn’t have been enough to transcribe what he learned from dipping his tongue in her navel. She offered praise and encouragement with goose bumps, panting breaths, and restless hands across his upper body. Everywhere she touched, she trailed flame.

Kavya’s skin. Tallis’s skin.

They still had names. They were still contained in separate bodies.

Time to change that.

He knelt on the ground with one knee on the hard concrete and one accidentally padded by a strewn towel. Only once did he glance up. Kavya had lowered her chin and was staring at him with more of that unspoken fire. She smiled. “I like this part,” she said, the words full of husky teasing.

Tallis tasted and teased her honeyed sex. Every lick dragged him closer to the moment when he would need to be inside her. Somehow. Anyhow. He could become addicted to her as easily as he’d become a supplicant to his dreams.

But no.

He stood abruptly and kissed her again, sharing the taste of her by plunging deeply, giving no quarter. This was no dream. He was with Kavya. She moaned. The sound reverberated down his throat and his chest, until that humming excitement ratcheted his arousal. This was real because it was imperfect. A laundry room? The basement of a hotel he’d broken in to? Imperfect, yet just what he needed when the perfection of Kavya’s responses raised his suspicions that she was too good to be true. Too much like his dreams.

Her slender hand grasped his cock.

“Bathatéi!”He snatched her wrist and pinned it against the cinder block. “Don’t do that again.”

She held his gaze, flames watching flames, and smiled. “I have before.”

The shock of her other hand was just as powerful. Only this time, Tallis didn’t pull her away. “Fine,” he ground out, closing his fist around hers. “If you want to play, play.”

Her rhythm was more assured this time. Long strokes down. Long pulls up. Tallis pressed harder so that their hands became overlapping vises to torture his engorged flesh. He’d taught her the rhythm he liked, the speed he liked, but he hungered for the closeness of his closed fist around hers as they pumped.

“You’re big. Did I forget to mention that?”

Grinning felt out of place, but then again—no, she was smiling and he wanted to as well. “I am. And you did forget.”

“You’re practically monosyllabic. Although I’m impressed I can talk at all.” She wiggled the wrist he’d pinned against the wall, silently asking permission to be freed. He complied. Cupping his cheek, still gripping and caressing his cock, she gazed up at him with an expression of wonder layered over with frustration. “I didn’t think I would, but I wish I could read your mind right now.”

“I’m glad you can’t.” He grunted on a particularly fast trio of strokes.

“I wouldn’t like what I found?”

“No. Just . . . pointless. Thinking. Feeling. Inseparable right now. Tell me I’m wrong.”

Kavya closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the wall. The hand holding his cheek slid down, down, until she found the meat of his upper arm. She smiled softly, contentedly, although her body still hummed with want and pent-up energy.

“You’re not wrong,” she said. “Thinking, feeling. All the same. When I think about your size, my body aches. Thinking, feeling . . .”

“Come here. Up.”

He cupped the back of her head to drag her to face level. Her eyes were hazy, yet sharp with curiosity. He would’ve loved to fuck her against the wall, just taking, which would scrape the living hell out of her back. The demon in him wanted that overload of sensation.

Tallis released her hand and forced her to release his shaft. “Hold on. Your arms around my neck.” She complied, and he lifted her off the ground. The crooks of her knees locked over the inside bend of his elbows. He gripped her ass, then braced himself with his back to the wall.

“This is your first time, Kavya.” He shook his head. “I can’t trust myself.”

“Tell me,” she whispered.

Tallis closed his eyes. “Against the wall. Or down on the ground.”

“You’d lose control.”

“Yes.”

She purred in the back of her throat, with a cat’s smile to match. “Someday, maybe. But for now?”

“ You’regoing to fuck me.”

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

His words jolted through Kavya with as much force as every physical torment he layered over her body. He wasn’t kissing now—not anywhere—although the memory of his mouth between her legs released another rush of wet, hot readiness. He was enormous. She was ready for him.

He held remarkably still, considering how closely they were perched on the edge of falling. It felt like falling, into an abyss of sensation that would fill her mouth, flood her lungs, and drown her. She sucked deeper until those sensations became air and untold boldness. She leaned forward and licked from the notch at the base of his throat to his thin lower lip.

“Again,” he rasped.

Because he’d complied with her equally blunt demand—when he’d bit her tongue, just shy of pain—Kavya returned the favor. That was the best part of sex so far. Returning favors.

He was sandalwood-scented, as she’d imagined, but retained a slight hint of salt and musk. The scent and taste of Tallis. Although the notch was smooth, his skin turned rougher, pebbly and scratchy with stubble as she dragged her tongue up his throat, over his chin, and back to the utterly sleek welcome of his kiss.

“Put my cock between your legs.” He swallowed tightly. “I’m holding you. But I can’t be the one who starts this. But once we start . . .”

“You’ll set the pace?”

A ragged grin turned up one side of his mouth. “Yes, I will.”

Kavya reached a hand between their bodies and grasped his thick, hard shaft. She’d loved the rush of power that came with stroking him. Now . . . now her body would do the same. Perhaps her youthful fears of being forced had made the act seem so one-sided. There was only penetration and being penetrated. But Tallis would be just as helpless as she, sucked into her warmth and pulled by the need for more and more pressure. She saw it so clearly now.

There was penetration, and there was being consumed.

They were devouringeach other.

She rubbed a drop of slick fluid around his throbbing head. He hissed. He shifted his grip. “Do it, Kavya.”

“I could tease you all night,” she said against the hollow behind his ear. She licked there, then applied a test of teeth to his lobe. His reply was a thrust and a squeeze. She loved that call-and-response.

“No teasing.” His voice was suddenly brittle. She heard bitterness and emotional pain. “Kavya . . .”

“You’re right. No teasing. That’s not what I want. I’ve been curious since those first moments in your tent. I’ve been hungry since you stripped for me. I’ve been half-mad since you tasted me in the sunlight. It’s been long enough. More than that, it’s been more than enough since meeting you.”

With a shift of her pelvis, she angled so that the head of his cock nudged between her slick lips. She took a breath. Looked him in the eyes. Smiled.

She kissed him when he slid home.

Pain bolted through what had been perfect pleasure, leaving aftershocks of surprise and a gasp that he swallowed with a deeper kiss.

“So full,” she gasped again, barely able to connect words. “So . . . Tallis, oh, Dragon damn.”

“Big.” He thrust up, deep. She’d thought once was spectacular enough. “Right now you can’t believe it’s possible. How I’m filling you.” Dipping his head, he licked the tops of her breasts. “You’re greedy to learn how much more you can take.”

With her temple pressed down against his, she laughed. “ Nowyou can talk.”

“Only one of us at a time.” He caught her gaze. The animal—his great gift—was staring out from Tallis’s deep blue eyes. “But we’ve started now, Kavya.”

“Yes. I don’t know what I need. You do. Please.”

A feral smile replaced his crooked tease. “Hold tight around my neck. I won’t let you fall.”

He started by drawing back from her, until his ass must’ve touched the wall. The entire time, he held her hips with his big, widespread hands. His surging return shook her thoughts into scattered puzzle pieces. Kavya threw her chin toward the ceiling and shuddered. He withdrew and returned. Withdrew . . . and slammed back. Each time, the feeling came as a surprise—being stretched and filled, as if she’d always been missing this questing pulse.

She tightened the insides of her knees against his arms and began to work her hips in a matching rhythm. They parted. Their eyes caught. They joined. The intimacy was breathtaking. This was feeling. Feeling. She’d never been closer to another living soul, in ways that had nothing to do with thought and little to do with the flesh. The flesh was the inspiration for something far deeper.

Her heart fluttered in her chest, out of time with the rest of her body. She shoved aside confusing emotional reactions in favor of ones that made sense. Tallis had bared his teeth. Each thrust freed another glimpse of the raging violence he kept leashed for her. A growl followed. His eyes were hazy and intense and burning and lost.

Kavya used his body. She hadn’t known that was possible either, but it was so simple. She trusted his strength and his solid hold. When the pressure of pleasure began to build—almost baffling, in that it could be so much more intense—she pinched the caps of his shoulders. He took her aggression and fed it back. He drove into her with such speed and force. Sweat shimmered over his gold-flushed flesh and dampened his chest hair. She bowed her head and licked. Tallis lifted his hand, holding her mouth against his skin. He bucked up, up, up as she dropped her hips to meet him.

With her face held firmly against his chest, and her legs spread, and the whole of her stability—her satisfaction—dependent on Tallis, she finally gave up on thought. She was being penetrated andconsumed. There was nothing of hers that he didn’t master. Taking. Giving, until Kavya held nothing back. The beautiful pleasure became the pounding of drums. Bright. Sharp. Loud. She cried out against his chest, then bit into firm muscle.

And burst apart.

She shook and gasped as distilled pleasure bathed her nerve endings. Sugar and wine and rain. Behind her lids was only white upon white.

Tallis grounded her.

Until it was his turn.

He slapped both hands back on her ass and immobilized her pelvis. She hadn’t realized how much freedom he’d given her to move. This was for him. He took. Head lifted, Kavya watched him hurtle toward release. She could sympathize now, envy now, appreciate now—how the tendons on his neck were tight cables and how his bared teeth gave him the appearance of a man in pain rather than on the cusp of pleasure.

“Kavya,” he breathed—a whispered growl. “You’re real.”

She crossed her arms behind his neck and pulled their upper bodies close. She was coming again, slower this time, but with a stronger power, diffuse, slamming her from all sides. Finding one of those tight tendons, she bit his neck as the shocks and aftershocks, ripples and undertow sucked her down again. In a beautiful fog, she realized what he needed.

“I’m real, Tallis. I’m Kavya of Indranan. You’ve just made your goddess into a woman.”

He growled, tensed, drove deep one last time, until his breath became her name in a shuddering chant.

–

Tallis slowly eased free and lowered Kavya to the ground. Her knees buckled as she took her own weight. He was exhausted, his mind blown, his body sated, but he pulled her to his chest in a protective, solid hold. The wall at his back was steady, just as he was steady for her. They stood that way, naked and vulnerable. He traced the length of her drying hair. She made a contented sound and nuzzled deeper. Her cheek pressed into the hollow between his pectorals. She’d be able to hear his heart, which was only beginning to return to a normal pace.

She shivered.

The room was cold, but only with that delicate shake of her shoulders did Tallis realize it. He stooped to grab one of the towels and threaded it around her back. She hugged into it, then returned to his embrace.

“Thank you,” she whispered against his skin.

He was humbled. He was definitely speechless. Few events in his life had affected him with such power. To have pleased her while being given the gift of her trust was miraculous. This wasn’t something he could smile about while walking away.

Especially when she shifted her weight and winced.

He glanced down. “Oh, fuck. Your feet.”

Blood smeared the concrete where she’d rested the weight of one foot.

“It’s not as bad as it looks. You know it’ll be healed by morning.”

Tallis was unmoved by protest. “Come here.”

“Another go? So soon? I guess I never thought to wonder if Dragon King men possessed yet another gift—one human men would envy.”

Returning her arch smile, Tallis scooped her into his arms. “And here I’d thought I was just a special case.”

“You are a special case,” she said, swirling her fingertips through his chest hair.

“Now you’re just being a flirt.” But her words were enough to still his heart—before sending it speeding to double time. “Sit here. I’ve got your back.”

“That’s the sexiest thing a man can say to me.”

He nuzzled the hollow beneath her jaw. “I’ve got better. You just caught me out in a laundry room.”

“Took you by surprise, did I?”

“Very much so.”

“Good. I wanted to.”

Tallis turned on the warm water, still supporting her so that she perched on the edge of the deep utility sink with her feet dangling inside. “Why was that important?”

“I was at a disadvantage. You’d given me a preview, but I didn’t know what to expect. I’m not used to going into a situation where I can’t get a read on it. I liked that you didn’t know what was going to happen either.”

“With you, Kavya, I never know what’s going to happen.”

She turned to kiss his shoulder. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Because he was again at a loss for words, Tallis set about tending her injured soles. “Lean forward and grip the faucet. Hold your balance while I grab more towels.”

She did so, naked and glowing with clean skin, vibrant energy, and the sexual authority of a woman who’d been thoroughly satisfied, and who apparently knew what it was to level a man with her creativity and responsiveness. Tallis had been leveled. She peeked sideways through her draped hair, watching him as he gathered a trio of towels. Her smile was soft and private, yet invited him to return.

He draped the towels all over her. “As much as I’d want warm water for you, it has to be cold.”

“To help stop the bleeding. Yes.”

Taking each calf in hand, with his chest pressed against her graceful back, Tallis realized that no matter how satisfied he’d been by their first encounter—that was the catch. He wanted to think of it as their first, not their only. The first of many. Because her calves were beautifully sculpted with soft muscle and elegant bones. Her feet were dainty. Her ribs were narrow but told him that her breathing was picking up speed again. Those details were innumerable.

He’d never learn them all in the span of a few days. That realization stabbed regret behind his sternum and choked off his next breath.

A quick fuck against a laundry room wall wasn’t enough. He was a greedy ass for wanting more than what had just blown reality onto another plane, but there it was. He wouldn’t be satisfied with one taste of this woman. His deeper, animalistic soul wouldn’t be either. There was tenderness to be had, and there was blood-stirring aggression—the kind he hadn’t been able to indulge for her first time.

Kavya hissed when the cold water sluiced over her feet. “Oh, Dragon be. That’s just mean.”

“At least it’s not the mountains?”

“I’ll never be warm when thinking about that day. Not ever.”

She began to shiver in earnest. Tallis held her closer, sharing his warmth. He rubbed her upper arms and the tops of her thighs. A gentle moan worked out of her throat.

“I guess that’s not so terrible,” she said.

“But we don’t need you frozen either.” He used one of the towels to pat dry her soles. The terry cloth came away tinged with watery pink. “Not perfect, but better.”

He hoisted her from the sink and sat her on the pile of white he’d tossed down from the wire shelf. She still huddled into one towel, but it didn’t cover beautiful glimpses of her body. Copper skin poked out everywhere. The backs of her hands, the slope of her throat, the tops of her knees. He shook his head and focused on his task. He couldn’t get them up to a room without looking the part of a guest.

The hotel room was the goal. He wanted her there, in bed, in his arms.

Then they’d talk about Scotland. He had a plan, finally. She needed to know why he was contemplating the unthinkable.

Going home.

Tallis pulled on his new clothes.

“That’s hardly fair,” she said with a smile.

“You’re the invalid. Get better, then you can make the rules. I’m not playing nurse while kneeling naked.”

“You just don’t want me to see you when you’re not so Dragon-damned impressive.”

He wiggled his eyebrows above a smirking smile. “Doesn’t matter. You know what’s waiting for you when you want it.”

“I want it.”

She didn’t look away or blush like a girl, nor did laughter tickle behind her words. It was a blunt, assured statement that unmoored him again. Tallis knew how things ought to have been. This wasn’t it.

Only, he couldn’t find it in himself to wish for anything else. Just him. Kavya. A cold cement floor. And a magnet-strong attraction between them that neither could deny.

“Did I hurt you?”

“Not any more than I wanted.” She trailed her fingertip up down his forearm. “It was . . . There aren’t words.”

With his gaze riveted to hers, he said evenly, “You’ll have it. Me. My prick. At your beck and call.” He paused, but realized he had one more promise to make—for him, a man who didn’t make promises. “And I’ll have your back.”

She stilled her petting caress on a soft, “Oh.”

Tallis had to look away. She infected him with a complete loss of perspective. He’d experienced that same feeling before, when under the spell of his dream version of the Sun, and swore he’d never again fall for that spinning, twirling sense of losing his way.

Being with Kavya was being lost and found.

He used the point of his seax to shred pieces of a towel, then fashioned them into neat bandages that looked a little like socks. Not the most traditional of Indian garments to be worn with a sari, but he only needed to fake their way upstairs. Carefully, he smoothed her new slippers over the wrapped cloth. He helped her stand and retrieved the simple blue sari from their collection of new purchases.

One look at the yards of fabric and he simply handed it over. “Can’t help you there.”

“Oh, but you help getting it off just fine.”

She pleated and twisted intricate folds until she was swathed in blue. The color didn’t bring out her eyes so much as create an undeniable contrast. The purest sunrise blue against amber-brown mountains. With a few deft moves, she braided her hair and tied it off with a piece of the ruined maroon sari. Up and around, she curled it into a dark, lustrous crown, then wrapped the last swatch of blue cloth over her head, around her throat, and down one shoulder.

Tallis stared, blinking only when she asked, “Respectable enough?”

“Just enough.”

While packing their things and setting the laundry room to rights, he shivered. Only once, but it penetrated into his marrow and every cell. The basement cold wasn’t to blame, but the realization that with regard to Kavya of Indranan, he was in very deep trouble.