Aurora's Promise (23 page)

When she licked her way down to his base, his cock jumped in
her hand. After generously attending to both balls until they started to draw
up, she ran her tongue roughly up the seam between them, continued up the
length of his cock and when she reached the top, sucked the head fully into her
mouth. Her hum vibrated through him with a stunning jolt as her hand massaged
his shaft with a gentle twist.

His hands were on her head, holding her in place as he
thrust up, needing to feel her mouth completely surrounding him. He was seconds
from sending a hot stream of cum down her throat and the thought of how her
lips would slide down, how his release would fill her mouth and how her tongue
would press against his cock as she swallowed had his hands fisting in her hair
as he pulled back, preparing to thrust forward again.

But Aurora yanked her head back and he had to loosen his
hold on her hair or risk hurting her. With a reproachful look, she
tsked
at
him. It was a sound he was quickly learning to hate. A loud, aggravated growl
rumbled out of his chest as he untangled his fingers. She shook her head and
let go of him. “You touched me.”

He couldn’t speak. His entire body pulsed with frustration
and he didn’t trust himself to not reveal the thoughts going through his mind
if he opened his mouth. If she thought his barbaric side had started to shine
through earlier, she’d think he hadn’t evolved at all if she could read his
mind right this minute.

She twitched her index finger back and forth. “No more
touching.” Pushing back up to her knees, she propped her hands on her hips. “However,”
she said, frowning as if she were trying to figure out the solution to a
difficult problem, “I did say you could watch.” Pointedly gazing at his cock
she said, “And I am certainly
not
done with you.”

Her words, paired with the way she looked at him, sent a
lava-hot rush through his blood. The woman was pushing him to the limits of his
restraint on purpose. It both angered and electrified him. He’d tear his way
through an iron mountain to get to her at this moment, yet was using all his
control to stand motionless simply because she’d asked it of him. Every man
knew in his heart that a warrior’s strength was no match for a woman’s will. It
was the warrior’s only boon that few women ever realized the extent of their
power simply because they didn’t understand the limits of physicality when
compared to the depths of their own hearts.

The small part of his brain still able to think grappled
with how this little game of hers just might reveal to her the power she was
capable of wielding over him, but he refused to quit the sport now. He was
seeing a new, wildly erotic side to his mate and there wasn’t a warrior alive
who wouldn’t want to engage her sexual fantasy to the end. But for the sake of
his throbbing cock and his innate need to dominate that twisted and wrenched
against the slippery leash of control he’d lashed around it, he hoped her game
finished soon.

Aurora lay down with her feet in the pillows and her head
nearly hanging off the end of the bed, her hair sweeping down with the dark
ends fading into the glossed black stone of the floor. She lay spread before
him on the crimson coverlet, the sheer strips sliding between her legs and back
over her breasts as she shifted into a comfortable position. Her hands smoothed
down her body from shoulders to thighs leaving behind a trail of chill bumps
that sharpened and defined the peaks of her nipples under the gown. Perhaps she
was trying to punish him after all.

“Come here,” she whispered. Crooking her finger at him, she
urged him closer. “Lean over me so I can reach you.”

When he got close enough for her to touch him, she cupped
his hips and steered him forward. He kept moving forward until his hands were
planted on either side of her opened legs. Her hands gently wrapped around his
erection and she guided him down further until his knees sank into the edge of
the mattress. He was going to suggest a more comfortable position when her lips
closed around the head of his cock. A low, hungry growl rumbled out instead and
his hips automatically rolled forward, pushing his cock deeper into Aurora’s
mouth.

The scent of his mate’s arousal goaded his lust with the
knife-edged spurs of primal, undeniable demand. With a hissed curse, he locked
his muscles into place to stop himself from pushing in further, closing his
eyes to focus on regaining control. But the last thing he’d seen was Aurora’s
swollen pussy just beneath a damp swatch of translucent fabric and the image
still burned in his mind as clear as if his eyes were still open.

He sensed her shift beneath him and his control jerked
fiercely against the final thin cord of restraint, a rein pulled so tightly it
was already beginning to fray. When he opened his eyes again, he was ready to
take his mate into his mouth regardless of her no-touch rule. She’d pushed him
past the place where he could play by rules, any rules.

But he didn’t lower his head, didn’t graze his teeth over
the tender flesh of her inner thigh and didn’t press his mouth against her
mound or run his tongue around her clit. He didn’t move. Suddenly he didn’t
want to do anything to stop Aurora as she pulled the strip of her dress out of
the way and then slid two slender fingers over her pussy and into her cunt.

Pushing her fingers deeper into her cunt, she moaned around
the head of his cock and clasped his shaft with her other hand, sliding it up
and down as she licked and sucked on him. She pulled her fingers out, slick
with her cream and pushed them back in. With her mouth and hand busy on his
cock, he watched her finger fuck herself until her clit swelled and turned a
dark red, until her cunt was unbelievably wet and clutching every time her
fingers drove deep inside.

Fire scored down his spine as her moans vibrated around his
cock. She licked and kissed and squeezed his cock in abandon as her fingers
pulled more cream from her cunt, smeared it over her pussy lips and clit. The
flames razed the last tether holding his control when with firm, fast strokes
she rubbed her swollen, slick nub. When she bucked and writhed against her own
touch, he lowered himself to feast on his mate.

Thrusting deep with tongue and cock, he was swallowed by her
mouth and cunt. He felt the desperate, spasmodic clutching of her inner walls
around his tongue as she arched up and the furious working of her mouth around
his cock. He thought he heard her cry out as his chin pressed her fingers hard
against her clit but every sense was converging into a colossal explosion of
sensation.

He started to pull back, a fear of hurting her momentarily
piercing the sexual frenzy riding him. Immediately, her hand on his cock urged
him back. Spreading her pussy lips with her fingers to fully expose her clit,
she jammed her heels into the bed and pushed herself forcefully up against his
mouth again even as his cock slid deep into her throat.

The tight constriction, the frantic laving of her tongue and
pressure of her lips drew him to the edge of the elemental tempest of ecstasy
at its most primal, powerful level. Her fingertips pressed a spot between the
base of his balls and his anus making his blood roar. Blazing colors blanked
his vision from the inside out. His climax surged through him. His mate’s
orgasm filled his mouth with the erotic taste of her own release as her pussy
pulsed against his lips and tongue. His mind lost its bearings to the certainty
of time and space as his body exploded into a dimension beyond the suns. His
soul soared until it filled the universe and inhaled the sky.

Instinctively he reached for Aurora, for her mind and soul,
the part of her that belonged to him more surely than even her body.

He found her. Saw her. Knew her. And it was not what he
expected.

Aurora was already awake when Connyn’s arms slipped around
her to pull her against him in the morning. Since her back was to him, she left
her body limp and pretended to still sleep as he adjusted her snugly into the
curve of his body. Last night she had played the part so well, had controlled
the lovemaking and her response to him with a precision she’d been proud of.

Until the end. Her climax had been so…so
mind blowing
,
she had lost hold of hers for a moment. A moment she’d give anything to have
back. She had
felt
him in her head and knew that in that brief spark of
time he had, for lack of better words, read a part of her soul. The force of
him was beyond what she had ever experienced and she hadn’t had enough wits
about her to try to jump into his head as well. She had no idea just which of
her secrets he now held and that scared the hell out of her.

He’d held her for a long time afterward, seeming to take her
abnormal silence for granted as post-ecstatic bliss. After a while, he’d
mentioned that he’d learned of her short field trip through the palace compound
with Brooke and Bethany, making it sound like they’d been a bad influence on
her. At the time, she’d not been able to shake the worry of having him in her
head and had barely registered his reprimands and new rules about wandering
outside his family’s sector without his permission. She fell asleep still
wondering what rooms in her brain he’d visited and exactly what he had seen
while there.

The one thing she was sure about when she woke was that he
didn’t want her out of his family’s section of the palace without him.

When he kissed her gently on the neck, she murmured a
sleepy-sounding protest. Sex might numb her fear, but apparently it was the key
that could unlock her brain to the mental link he’d been so worried about. She
wasn’t anywhere near ready to experiment with that unique little twist this
morning.

His hands slid up to cup her breasts. “I’d stay and wake you
properly if I hadn’t promised to meet my cousins for breakfast.”

Aurora’s heart thudded with sudden hope. “Amdyn? Ellen’s
here?”

“No.” His fingers stilled on her nipples. His breath blew
out past her ear with a frustrated huff. “We haven’t heard from anyone since we
arrived. Bornyn, the Elder who receives reports from Shyrana, hasn’t been able
to connect with her since before we left. Even Rordyc’s younger sister hasn’t
heard from Shy.” His hand moved from her breast to her ribs, spanning them
easily. “That’s one of the topics to be covered this morning.”

She rolled over to face him, ignoring his gaze that dropped
to her breasts and how his eyes immediately darkened to a deep silver-gray. “Is
anything wrong? Are they okay?”

“I’m sure they’re fine.” He brushed her hair back. “Are you
sure Ellyna didn’t say anything else to you that would account for her not
coming through the portal?”

Aurora dropped her eyes to his chest as if she were deep in
thought for a moment. “I really don’t know what she was thinking,” she said
truthfully.

With a finger, he lifted her chin so he could look into her
eyes. “Aurora, if you know something, now would be a good time to tell me.”

She blinked, did her best to look innocently confused. “If I
knew why she wasn’t here, I’d tell you.”

His hand slid around to her nape and he pulled her closer
for a long, wet kiss. His tongue swept deep inside, stroking and caressing
until she was close to talking him into missing the meeting with his cousins.
At least the first part of the meeting.

As soon as she softened and arched toward him, he pulled
back. “You’d better.” He looked down at where her nipples pressed against his
chest. “And I’d better go before I forget I have a meeting to attend and stay
here in bed with you all day.” He bent his head and kissed the top of her
breast. “But one day soon…” his voice faded away as he watched her nipple bead
up. He gave her a quick, hard kiss on the mouth and then pushed off the bed. “Soon.”

She watched him disappear into the bathroom to bathe and
dress, admiring his ass as he moved away from her. On any world, the man had a
fantastic ass. Strong, long legs. Broad shoulders and tight, muscled arms.
Jesus. She was getting wet just watching the man walk away.

Flopping back on the bed she gazed up at the domed ceiling
intersected with clear stones that let the morning light through. The stones
were cut in a manner that diffused the light softly through the room and
bounced it off the red stones that had been placed within the ceiling as well.
The effect gave the room a rosy glow that cut the heaviness of the black stones
used for the remainder of the ceiling, the walls and the floor.

She pulled the thick silken comforter up to her chin and
thought about her options for the day. Tomorrow she would be paraded before the
Council. She’d feel a hell of a lot better if she knew when Ellen was going to
show up. She needed her here yesterday.

Connyn came out of the bathroom fully dressed and looking
delicious. She let her lust show in her eyes as she propped herself up on her
elbows. Connyn stopped and an arrogant smile curved his lips.

“That’s the way a man likes to see his woman. In his bed,
naked and looking at him with a clear want in her eyes.”

Raising her eyebrows, she replied with a cool arrogance of
her own, “Perhaps I’m just hungry for breakfast.”

He didn’t deign to answer her with anything more than a
disbelieving grunt as he moved toward the door. She sat up, collecting the
blanket under her breasts in a bunch that plumped them up in a nice sexy
display. “I’m thinking about visiting Brooke this afternoon and going shopping
in the market we passed the other day when they gave me the tour of the
compound.”

His frown was immediately erased when he turned around and
saw how she was sitting. As she had planned. “You may visit Brooke, but Cait
can get you anything you need without you exposing yourself to danger by
wandering around in the crowded market.”

“I like to shop. Try things on.” He stared at her
implacably. “See what’s available. What color goes with which lipstick, shoes.
See what other women are wearing. What’s popular and new. To just get out of
the damn house for a while.” When he still continued to stare at her, she
rolled her eyes at him. “It’s a girl thing, okay?”

“I don’t like it.”

“Well I don’t like someone thinking he can simply tell me
what I can and can’t do, assuming I’ll just fall in line like a simpering
little sycophant.”

He glanced out the window. At the rising sun and then back
to her, a hard line set along his jaw. “I don’t have time to review the
necessity of your obedience to my orders when it comes to your safety. You may
visit Brooke. I will send a unit of soldiers to escort you. We will talk about
your shopping needs tonight.”

“That is not—”

“Or I can see to it that you are locked in our suite until I
return. Your choice.”

She threw the bedclothes off and scooted to the edge of the
bed opposite him. “This is just one more example of you using your brute
strength, or that of those you command, to substitute for an intelligent
discussion—”

“A discussion there is no time for at present. Regardless of
whether you approve of my methods or not, you will be safe.”

“Asshole,” she hissed, not looking back at him to see when
he left as she walked into the bathroom. As soon as she rounded the corner and
was well out of his sight, she allowed a small smile of triumph to settle on
her lips.

Connyn watched his mate walk away from him. Even when she
angered him with her lack of respect for her own safety, she still stirred his
blood to a fever pitch with clothes on. When she was completely naked, it was
nothing short of a small miracle that he could think past the want whipping
just under his skin.

Yielding to desire, he adjusted his vision to watch her through
the wall for just a minute more. Storing up images to revisit while he was
stuck in a room with his cousins for hours. Not that he’d need many more after
last night for some time to come. It was as if she’d sifted through his
fantasies and then created one that surpassed them all. He knew she was upset
with him again by the way she’d stalked off without a glance back. The
stiffness of her spine thrust out her breasts as she rounded the corner and he
had to smile. There were advantages to irritating his mate.

After last night, he felt sure of his place in her heart no
matter how annoyed she became. He knew that he could control her body, make her
want, beg, come again and again. But without the mind link fully engaged, he
never knew where exactly he stood in her heart. Until the breakthrough when she
was climaxing against his mouth and he slid into her mind for just a moment.
Then he finally knew she had taken him into her heart. How deeply, he wasn’t
sure. It lasted too briefly to tell, but at least he was assured that she had
begun to care for him and was tying herself to him on a deeper level. He had at
least sensed those emotions in her.

His smile froze. Every sense went on high alert at the
expression on her face when she tossed her hair over her shoulder and he
glimpsed the smug, satisfied smile that had settled there when she thought she
was out of his sight. Crossing his arms over his chest, he narrowed his eyes to
bring her into sharper focus. The tension in her body melted away as she piled
her hair up on her head and grinned at herself in the mirror. Not the slightest
frown or sign of annoyance.

What had just happened here?

He was half persuaded to forget his meeting and find out
what Aurora had going on in that pretty little head of hers. He’d taken half a
step in her direction when he realized he’d have to explain to Rordyc why he’d
missed the meeting. Control of one’s mate was not an issue he wished to discuss
with his not-so-favorite cousin.

Before his irritation turned into something darker, he
turned on his heel and stalked out of the suite. At least now he was in the
right frame of mind to deal with Rordyc.

* * * * *

Aurora wasn’t surprised to see her “escort” waiting for her
when she exited the suite on her way to Brooke and Rordyc’s sector. She was
surprised to find that no less than fifteen soldiers were positioned in a
semi-circle around the entrance. The soldier Connyn had spoken to when they
first exited the portal was standing in the center of the arc of hard-looking
men. He nodded to her and stepped aside to let her pass.

Instead, she stopped in front of him and held out her hand. “Hi,
I’m Aurora.”

Rather than take her hand, he did a curt, militaristic bow
over it. “Yes. I’m Beyran. At your service. Should you require anything of me, all
you need do is ask one of my men for me if I am not in sight.”

Eyeing the ring of warriors, she raised her left eyebrow. “A
little much for a short walk, don’t you think?”

“No.” His answer was flat. All seriousness.

So much for amicable conversation. Inwardly, she shrugged.
What else did she expect from Connyn’s captain? Though he might not be the
warm-fuzzy kind of guy, he certainly fit Connyn. She bet they worked and fought
together like two sides of the same coin.

At the obvious end of their conversation, Aurora continued
past the line of men. Purposefully, she’d chosen a neutrally colored outfit
that paired loose-legged pants with a sleeveless tunic of a soft, clingy
material. She also wore a long forest green cape open in the front with the
hood thrown back and her arms through the slits in the side. The way she had it
presently arranged, fastened at the neck but worn back over her shoulders like
a superhero’s cape, made it look more like an accessory than planned
camouflage.

The soldiers let her lead the way until they passed the
gates that marked the sector boundary of the Third House. Once they were in the
open area of the palace complex, they closed ranks around her. Since there were
so many she wasn’t personally crowded, but she could only catch glimpses of the
city beyond the moving wall of muscle that enclosed her from any and all real
or imagined threats.

The walk to Brooke’s went quickly. Amazing how fast you
could move through crowded streets when you had your own human steamrollers
paving the way. Once they reached the main gate of the Fourth House, all but
four of Connyn’s soldiers aligned themselves with the soldiers already posted
outside the gate while the others followed Aurora.

The wide doors were opened at her approach and she entered a
large hall set up similarly to the Third House. Brooke was coming down the
center staircase and smiled broadly when she saw Aurora.

“Right on time! I was so excited when Cait brought the
message that you might be able to come by today. No, no. Stay where you are. I
want to walk through the gardens.” She stopped when she got to the bottom and
glanced around at the men arranged around Aurora. “It looks like you brought
your own entourage.”

Aurora rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Totally my idea. If you think
this is bad, you should see what I left on your front steps.”

Brooke laughed and shook her head. “Don’t worry about it.”
She gestured at the Fourth House guards positioned around the perimeter of the
room. “Paranoia is a family trait.” Turning to Beyran, she said in a polite but
regally firm voice, “I trust your men will be comfortable in here while we walk
in the gardens?” She gestured to the perfectly manicured lawns just beyond the
central dome they stood under. “Or do you not believe the security of the
Fourth House is sufficient?”

Beyran frowned but didn’t answer.

“Oh for heaven’s sake!” Aurora bit out. “Do you think I’m in
danger from the flowers? I need some girl talk
without
hovering males
listening in when I ask Brooke to spill all the gory details of what happens to
a woman’s body when she’s pregnant. If you don’t mind.”