Aurora's Promise (5 page)

He kissed her neck and moved his hand to cup her breast.
She gasped. He covered her breast with his palm and squeezed.

“Oh no. Please…”

His hand slowly rotated and her nipple tightened and
began to ache, echoing the unfamiliar sensation between her legs.

“I am pleasing you.” He gently pinched her protruding
nipple and she started to tremble. “And you are certainly pleasing me.”

When he molded her breast into his palm once again, her
back arched and the hand he still held behind her pressed against something
hard and hot. Instinctively she curled her fingers around it. Too late she
realized she’d just fondled him quite intimately. His groan was the sound of
pure male need and she’d never in her life expected something that uncivilized
directed at her. It surprised her and jerked her past the rioting sensations in
her body. With renewed determination she pushed out of his embrace and rushed
to put the table between them.

He didn’t give chase, but a dark look had settled in his
eyes. Deep lines bracketed his mouth as his hands slowly flexed at his sides.
Power radiated out from his presence. His look suggested that he wasn’t
thwarted often. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe that he had been put off all
this time by her youth, innocence or anything she’d said or done. He was
waiting, wanting something. He’d not touched her and kept her from his crew for
a reason. But obviously he’d nearly reached his limit or was second guessing
his decision.

“Whatever it is you want, I’ll make sure you get it in
return for my freedom,” she blurted.

A look of surprise replaced his frown. “What?”

“Whatever amount you were planning on selling me for or
whatever it would cost to…satisfy your men or whatever reason you kidnapped me
I’ll double it.”

“And how do you presume to pay for your freedom?”

“I have some inheritance to be released to me upon my
next birthday. Within the month.”

An amused look of indulgence cleared the anger from his
expression. “I see.”

Relief flowed through Phoebe like melted wax. The man
could be reasoned with after all. “Good. Name your price and upon my release at
the next port, I will see that you receive it.”

He walked around the table and she automatically skittered
to the other side. Not quite the picture of confidence she’d been meaning to
portray. “My price for your freedom…” he started as he followed her around the
table in measured steps.

She had to force herself to stand still and look him in
the eyes. “Yes?”

“Is your body.”

Phoebe’s mouth fell open. Her eyes rounded in shock. “My
body?”

With a lift of his chin he stared down at her. “That’s
your choice. Give me your body willingly and when we reach port, you will be
released. Refuse and I’ll have you anyway but will retain your services for as
long as I desire.”

“That’s not a choice! That’s—”

“This offer will expire in three seconds,” he said,
crossing his arms over his chest. “It is the only one you will receive. If you
do not accept it, you will fall into the terms of refusal.”

“It is outrageous! I cannot be expected—”

“One.”

“There has to be something else I have or could get that
you—”

“Two.”

“But I can pay you enough to buy a dozen women who would
gladly—”

“Thr—”

“Yes!” Phoebe’s heart hammered so hard against her ribs
she thought it would burst out of her chest any second.

“Yes?” One eyebrow arched.

She nodded. “For my freedom, I—” Her breath caught and
she had to close her eyes before continuing. “I will willingly give you my
body.”

“Take off your clothes.”

His abrupt command had her eyes flying open. He had
stepped closer and was looming over her. His silver eyes, serious and hot,
burned into her. When she didn’t move, he repeated the command and then added, “Willingly,
Miss Ballantine.”

Assuring herself that a life stabled in a brothel would
be much worse than a moment of shame, she set herself to the task of attending
to his demand. She took her time with her shoes and stockings before starting
on her dress. It was some time before the final undergarment was loosened and
slipping down the slopes of her breasts. Abruptly she caught it against her
chest.

“What guarantee do I have of my freedom once we dock?”

“My word as captain.”

“Pirate. Not captain.”

Tilting his head slightly to one side, he gave her an indulgent
grin and waved away her barb. “Semantics.”

“Truth.”

“You have no option but to take me at my word.”

Meeting his superior look with a glare, she refused to
flinch, cower or stoop as the last shred of material covering her body pooled
on the floor around her feet. For long minutes, he held her gaze and something
akin to approval moved through his eyes. At first she’d been too enraged to
feel embarrassed, but once his eyes began their slow, thorough inspection of
her body, heat rose with a furious burning up her neck and into her face until
she felt like she was running a deathly fever. The thought that she might
actually die in the next few moments from mortification was not unwelcome. Then
both his hands closed over her bare breasts and embarrassment fled before the
novel sensations of having her body so intimately touched by a man.

His hands were large and covered her breasts. Strong as
she knew him to be, he touched her with a surprising gentleness. Lifting her
breasts until they pressed together he circled the sensitive tips with his
thumbs.

The fleeting guilt that she might actually be enjoying
the ravishment of her body was banished by the practical thought that she had
no real choice. As such, she absolved herself of any further penalty of attempting
discipline over her body when she obviously had no experience with which to do
so. The novelty of this encounter would no doubt steel her against his future
seductions, should there be such. Therefore—

He took one of her nipples into his mouth. With a startled
gasp, she clutched his head with her hands. He sucked harder and his tongue
rolled her nipple against the top of his mouth. Lightning jolted in jagged
spurts down to her very core where it circled and then leapt outward until her
fingers and toes tingled with it.

She started to fall but he caught her. Wrapping an arm
around her back, he went down on one knee and continued to fondle her breasts
with his mouth and hand. Teasing nips, fiery licks, caresses that became
increasingly demanding yet shockingly wanted had her spinning in a world of
carnal ecstasy she’d never known.

When his hand left her breast, she started to protest
until it moved over her belly, down her thigh and back up to squeeze her
bottom. He switched breasts and pulled her other nipple hard into his mouth. A
throbbing started between her legs and she moved against him restlessly, not
knowing how to stop or complete the need he was driving in her. His hand cupped
her mons and then pushed further between her legs. Startled, she jumped and
clamped her thighs together.

He looked up at her, his eyes dark with lust and his face
sharpened by a need etched on it that hadn’t been there before. A darkly erotic
tremor spun through her at the sight of his face at her fully rounded breasts
peaked with arousal. They sported a rosy flush from his attentions and her
hands fisted in his gloriously long hair she had pulled loose from its tie.

“Open for me.” His voice was low and rough. His left hand
stayed splayed over her back, supporting and confining as the fingers from his
other hand insistently pressed between her legs to emphasize his meaning. She
knew he could feel her trembling under his hands.

He waited. Licking her lips nervously, she unclenched her
thighs and moved her feet apart slightly.

“More.”

She did as he commanded and fought for breath when all
four fingers of his began exploring her most private flesh. Biting down on her
lower lip, she tried to prepare for the pain she’d always been warned that the
touch of a man there would bring, but instead her body reacted with rolling
waves of pleasure that intensified with every stroke he pressed on her. The
throbbing engulfed her entire body as a desperate need pulsed louder and harder
through her veins with each second.

The heat inside turned liquid and covered his fingers.
She searched his face for any sign of revulsion, but the wetter she became, the
more pleased he looked. Breaths turned to pants and she closed her eyes as the
sensations began to rise in force within her.

“Look at me.”

Opening her eyes, she tried to focus on the man
controlling her body. His fingers were firm as they stroked and circled her
clit, teased at her opening, made her want him to keep touching her, made her
want
him
.

One finger nudged gently inside her as his thumb continued
to flick back and forth over her clit. She could feel the tightness of her body
around his slight invasion. He twisted his finger and pushed deeper. The snug
fit magnified the sensations of such an intimate touch and a quaking started
deep in her belly.

He pulled his finger partially out, pushed it in further.
Turning it and making her lose her sense of reason to wild emotions. Still
lavishing attention on her clitoris with his thumb, he stroked the swollen nub
unrelentingly back and forth, concentrating on a spot that made her suck in air
the first time he passed over it.

The fire in her body raged out of control. The sensations
crashed through her like a bull elephant on a wild rampage, crushing and
destroying everything in its path. Fear of the unrestrained passion storming
through her and tearing at the civilizing restraints tying her to all known
propriety had Phoebe trying to push away even as her body arched into his
touch.

She cried out his name and twisted in his grip. His arm
tightened around her back and he took her breast in his mouth again. He pressed
his thumb against her roughly over and over, his touch sure, fast and hard. His
finger pushed in yet deeper.

Phoebe screamed as her world burst apart and—

Oh god! Aurora’s entire body went rigid as she thrust two
fingers deep and high inside herself. Her cunt spasmed in the ecstasy of
release as she imagined Connyn,
Pirate
Connyn, holding her tightly as
she came apart in his arms.

Her muscles relaxed and she slumped against the mirror. She’d
wound herself so tightly and held herself from coming for longer than usual. It
had definitely paid off. The climax had been hard and draining.

Taking a deep breath, she inhaled the steam from the running
shower and blinked against the bathroom’s bright vanity light over the sink as
she pulled her fingers out. She shivered at the sensation. Her pussy was still
incredibly sensitive and throbbing. Jesus. If Connyn was half the lover in real
life as he was in her fantasy, the next several weeks could be interesting.

After
they got to Ilyria.

Right. Sliding off the sink, Aurora pulled off her remaining
clothes and dropped them on the floor. She smiled to herself as she thought
about the lust-filled look of Connyn’s that had driven her into the bathroom.
The man could try any come-on he wanted but it just wouldn’t work on a comatose
woman. She was exhausted, sated and soon to be showered. Sleep would be no
problem even if she were lying next to a sex god.

Connyn shifted his position on the bed, torn between cursing
and thanking the gods for the gift they’d granted him. Aurora lay on her
stomach next to him, dead to the world and completely at peace. Every time she
moved, no matter how slightly, he was immediately aware of the change in her
position, the sound of her altered breath, the shush of the sheet against her
soft skin. And every time his body surged under the demanding need to take his
mate.

He glanced at the red glowing numbers on the bedside clock.
4:52. He’d been lying here for nearly four hours, wide awake. A better option
than closing his eyes since every time he did, he saw his mate stripped down to
black lace and bringing herself to orgasm. Her hands sliding over her ass, her
fingers—

Shit. Connyn’s eyes flew open. If he couldn’t get his thoughts
under control, sleep wasn’t going to happen. Ever.

Or at least until he fucked his mate.

It was Aurora’s fault. He hadn’t planned on invading her
privacy. The supernatural gifts the gods so sparingly doled out to the royal
male heirs of the Five Houses were never to be abused, used for personal gain
or taken for granted. The abuse of their powers by his ancestors caused the
gods to curse Ilyria in the first place. But Aurora had been in the bathroom
for a while and he hadn’t heard the shower.

After the trouble they’d had that day, he’d been concerned
she might have gone into shock or become ill. It was his duty and his right as
her mate to make sure she was feeling well. Knowing that if he asked through
the door he’d most likely receive a flippant answer and not the full truth, he
naturally used the power the gods had given and simply adjusted his vision to
look through the door.

His heart thumped hard at the memory. The sight he’d caught
had nearly brought him to his knees. His woman was bent over, still in her
heels and stockings, legs spread and ass high. She was wearing a black thong
and a belt that held her stockings up with straps running over her ass. Because
of how she was standing, the panties were pulled tight between her ass cheeks
and over her clit. Her pussy lips pillowed out around the slice of material and
he could see the little bulge of her clit trapped underneath.

When she moved her hands up the back of her legs to her ass,
his eyes had started to burn from not blinking. Her fingers dented her flesh as
she squeezed and pulled her ass cheeks apart, revealing more of her thong and
the puckered sides of her anus. He wasn’t sure when he’d unzipped his pants,
but as she kneaded her cheeks and circled the material over her asshole with
her finger, his cock was in his hands, hard and ready to finish what she had
started.

He had to put his hands on the doorframe to keep himself
from coming when Aurora shook her thick black mane out of her face and looked
up at her reflection in the mirror while she was touching herself. From the way
she was positioned facing the mirror, he could see her ass, her cunt and her
breasts, which looked close to spilling out of her bra any second. And then she
moved her fingers down and started to stroke herself. Slow and steady. His
fingernails had dug shallow half-moons into the wood of the doorframe when she
pushed her fingers into her cunt.

“Fuck,” he hissed as he glanced down at the tented sheet
over his cock. The possibility of sleep tonight had just become an impossibility.
By the time she’d finally gotten into the shower, he’d had a raging hard-on and
a raging headache from holding the vision through the door at a high level of
clarity for such a long time. Aspirin had only relieved one pain.

It didn’t help that he’d expected to have his woman tonight
since he’d explained her place in his world, but she’d taken care of her needs
by herself and then gone straight to sleep. Her actions puzzled him, but he was
a Kilth and the Kilth never forced their women. The way she’d reacted to his
kiss in the parking lot proved that she wanted him. And once they’d reached the
room she’d been ready. His desire was obvious and she had teased him, wanting
him. When she finally met his gaze, her desire had shone in her eyes and flushed
her cheeks.

And then the damn woman had turned around and run into the
bathroom. Why the hell had she done that? And why the hell hadn’t the gods
granted him the full scope of telepathic powers if they had chosen such a
confusing mate for him? How was he supposed to meet her needs if he couldn’t
figure them out? Once they completed the Mating Rite, there would be a mind
connection between them, but he wasn’t sure how deep it would go. It seemed
that with his cousins, it started with a strong empathic link initially and
deepened from there. At this point, he’d take whatever he could get. In more
ways than one.

Aurora murmured softly and rolled onto her side. He turned
his head toward her and that need, swift and biting, sliced through him again.
Light from the motel’s sign outside the window sliced through a slit in the
curtains and splashed over her face in an unvaried pattern of neon flares. Even
in the garish flashes of pink and green, the woman was beautiful, no question.
Her black hair splayed over her pillow and her eyelashes lay in thick, shadowed
half-moons on her cheeks. Slightly parted, her lips were soft in sleep and the
desire to hear his name whisper past them as she climaxed in his arms cut like
a double-sided blade.

She was beautiful, but what drew him most and surprised him
most was her courage. It flowed through everything she did. Fighting a Predator
or standing her ground in an argument, Aurora didn’t run. The fear of gaining a
weak mate that had murmured in the recesses of his mind since he’d begun the
search was finally silenced. Any Kilth mate, but especially those chosen to
stand beside an eldest heir and imminent head of household, must be able to
withstand the dangers and strain inherent in the sovereignty she would occupy
immediately once they returned to Ilyria.

His mate.
The truth drummed through him with the same
certainty as when he had vowed to return to Ilyria with his mate or die trying.
No wonder his cousins ran around acting like total idiotic madmen once they
found their mates. The culmination of years of hopes and dreams and promises
was fulfilled with their mates in their arms. Even the brief embrace he’d
shared with Aurora in the parking lot had made that abundantly clear to him.
And when she had melted into his kiss, he felt the very purpose of his
existence down through the darkest, most secret corners of doubt hidden in his
soul.

Shifting to his side to fully face her, Connyn traced the
angle of her cheek with the tips of his fingers. Even her features were bold,
sharp and startling. Her eyes and hair were dark against her pale skin. Her
high cheekbones, pointed chin and full mouth would overwhelm a more petite
woman. On Aurora, they fit. They not only fit, they charged every sexual
fantasy he had.

He trailed his fingers over her lips and she murmured again,
his cock hardening as her breath fanned over his skin. She reached for him,
scooted close to him in her sleep, her silky sleep shirt the only barrier
between his chest and her breasts. Wrapping his arms around her, he gathered
her more firmly against him. Her legs slid against his and he buried his face
against her neck, inhaling her clean warm scent.

“Connyn?”

Her voice was barely audible above the rattle of the room’s
heater. He kissed his way up her neck, stopping to swirl his tongue at the
corner of her jaw when she hummed and arched under him. He slid his hand under
her shirt, gliding over the smooth skin of her waist to cup her breast. Her
nipple beaded as he thumbed gently back and forth over it.

“I want you,” he said, brushing his lips over hers.

“Mmmhmm.” Her sleepy response purred into his mouth as he
covered her lips in a softly questing kiss. She opened for him and his tongue
delved for more of her taste before pulling back. In a few quick seconds, he’d
removed both her sleep shirt and panties. Covering her body with his own, he
groaned at how absolutely incredible she felt underneath him. Her hands slid
over his shoulders as she mumbled something about a pirate.

He lifted his head to look down at her face. Her eyes were
still closed. He kissed the corner of her mouth and she turned her head to find
his lips. When he moved his lips away from her advances, her legs shifted
restlessly under him.

Finger-combing her hair back, he kissed the other corner of
her mouth. Immediately she turned her face to follow. He let her catch him. Her
kiss was soft and languid, her tongue stroking his as one of her long legs
curled around his hip. The movement opened her cunt, hot and wet, against his
cock. Something deep and possessive stirred through him.

“You’re mine,” he whispered against her cheek. “My mate.”

“Mate?” Her voice was as soft as her lips.

He removed his hand from her breast, ignored her quiet
mumble of protest and pulled the intricately fashioned ring from his little finger.
It was a perfect duplicate in design of the larger ring he wore on the middle
finger of his left hand. A Matching Ritual ring. Placing the smaller one on the
middle finger of her left hand, he pressed her hand flat on the mattress under
his, aligning the two rings.

“You are my mate, Aurora. Forever to be kept, held and
protected as such by me and all that is mine.”

Aurora stilled. Blinked her eyes open but closed them when
the green light flashed to pink over her face. “Kept?”

Connyn rocked his hips and the head of his cock pushed
against her entrance. She gasped and then let out a low moan as he pushed
inside. Liquid heat welcomed him, enveloped him. The slick friction of their
joining had his entire body straining with the need to fuck his woman.
His
woman.
His
mate. He pushed in deeper, stomach to stomach and chest to breasts.

“Oh…” Both of Aurora’s legs wound around his thighs and she
lifted her pelvis up to grind against him. “God you feel good,” she whispered.

Light was starting to explode behind his eyeballs and lust
roared through his veins. She squeezed him with her thighs and the inner walls
of her cunt causing him to instinctively thrust deeper. Pleasure swirled at the
base of his skull and then spiked down his spine.

His tongue swept past her lips, stroking inside her mouth as
he thrust with his hips to stroke inside her body. Bringing her feet up to rest
flat on the mattress, she gained the traction she needed to move with him,
meeting him. With a low curse, he lowered his weight on her, holding her
captive beneath him.

“Aurora.” His voice was tight, the word harsh with warning.
She ignored him and wiggled her hips to take him in further. He lowered further
until his weight completely stopped her movement. When she tried to pull her
hand from his grip, he held it more tightly.

“You are my mate,” he said.

“I…what?”

“I take you as my mate. Now and forever. With all that is
within me and mine, I willingly bind to you as yours.” Lightning burned up his
arm from where his ring touched hers and circled through his chest. He’d once
overheard his cousins Rordyc and Wyc speaking about the jolt that came when
they’d spoken their mating vows, but even so, he wasn’t expecting the depth of
feeling the words unleashed both in his body and his soul.

He believed that his cousins had unnecessarily risked the
success of the prophecy in allowing their mates to take so long in finishing
the Mating Rite. Of course, they’d already been matched as children before the
women had been swept away into this world, a convenience the gods hadn’t found
fit to accord to him before the daughters’ disappearance.

Pure-blooded Mystics were less than rare after decades of
being hunted first by the warring clans of the five brothers from whom the
royal households were descended and now more recently, by the Sleht. Their
enemy’s attempts to capture or kill Ilyrian women with the Mystic bloodline had
risen in frequency and brutality every year. They, like the heirs to the
Houses, felt the crunch of time as the final generation approached that would
either fulfill or fail the prophecy determining the future of Ilyria. Full
power to rule their world would either be returned to the Ilyrian Royals or the
royal line would be destroyed forever and the people would fall to the Sleht.

Connyn looked down at Aurora, her dark eyes gazing up at him
in confusion. An unfamiliar emotion slithered through his soul like thin
tendrils of smoke, circling and wisping away from his groping reason when he
tried to identify it. He shrugged it away and focused on what he knew.

“I’ve taken you as my mate.” When she didn’t reply, he
glared at her pointedly.

She frowned. Blinked the final cobwebs of sleep from her
gaze. “Uhhh…okay?”

“Take me as yours.”

“As my mate? Like a husband?” Her nervous shifting sent a
small shockwave of pleasure skimming under his skin.

“A shallow comparison but appropriate for this world.”

“Since we only met last night, don’t you think a
mating
might
be rushing things? Maybe you should recant or something until you know my
middle name or what flavor ice cream I like or how I feel about global warming
or—”

“It’s too late.”

She stilled underneath him. “What do you mean, it’s too
late?”

“I’ve taken you as my mate. I made the vow and I choose no
other.”

“But what if you find someone else who fits your prophecy?
What if I’m all wrong for you? What if it turns out I’m not the one you’re
looking for? Where’s the out clause in this agreement?”

“Out clause?” His rising temper at her questions was
tempered by the knowledge that both Wyc’s and Rordyc’s mates had had the same
reservations. Even with the Matching Ritual Guardian tattooed on their inner
thighs as proof, Bethany and Brooke had needed time to accept that they
belonged to their mates. It was understandable for Aurora to go through a phase
of uncertainty as well.