Aurora's Promise (7 page)

She tugged on his hair again and he growled. The low sound
vibrated through her cunt and pulled her deeper into the blaze of her own
desire. When she didn’t let go of his hair, he turned his face just enough to
bite her thigh. A sharp slice of pain that showed his displeasure and had her
releasing her hold almost immediately. His high-handed use of her body also had
the disturbing effect of heightening her sexual arousal. Like a drugging
aphrodisiac, his insistence on bringing her pleasure had her body willingly
yielding to his demands. But there was something pressing through the carnal
thrill, a claiming touch closing in on her heart.

If he wouldn’t release her, she’d find a different way to
stop his advance into her soul. Instead of struggling against her rising
desire, she flung herself toward it. Soaking in the sight of his head between
her thighs, she focused the streams of magic loosed by Connyn’s touch and
concentrated on the feel of his tongue swirling around her clit ,and the way
his finger pressed deep into her ass. She squeezed hard with the inner muscles
of her cunt around his two fingers as they pushed in hard.

The fire erupted so suddenly it cut off the scream that had
been building at the back of her throat. Aurora could only gasp as the ecstasy
tore through her body like a flame leaping to engulf the very oxygen that feeds
it. Her back arched off the bed as molten pleasure swept through her. A wave of
liquid heat rolled under her skin, rippling from her cunt outward to her toes
and fingertips and carrying her to the peak of pleasure. Her orgasm threw her
against the night sky, pinning her to the stars with the ecstasy Connyn
continued to spin out with his fingers and tongue working her body like a
master.

Another wave of pleasure wove through her body as Connyn
withdrew his fingers and blew a cooling stream of air over her clit. “Fucking
wow,” she murmured as the swirling heat finally began to fade and her body sank
heavily into the bed. She floated on the undulating warmth as the sensations
continued to crest before receding and then shallowly, softly cresting again.

Pushing her hair back from her face, she blinked hard up at
the ceiling, trying to bring the room back into focus. “Oh my god,” she moaned.
“Oh my
god.”
Her arms dropped to the bed and she took a deep breath. “Jesus,”
she hissed. “This is so not good.”

“No?” Connyn asked, the smug confidence in his voice
unmistakable.

“Never mind,” she muttered as the mattress dipped at her
shoulders, taking Connyn’s weight as he positioned himself above her, pushing
her legs wider apart with his knees. She peered up at him, her eyes heavy with
the stupor of complete sexual satiation.

Tension still bridled his features. His storm-cloud-gray
eyes glowed with a restless desire and an arrogance at her satisfaction that
once she regained her mental capacities, she was sure to have issues with. But
at the moment, the will to fight had been temporarily incinerated with the
conflagration he’d just pushed her through and she felt as moldable as a potter’s
clay.

She let out a deep breath, her eyes fell closed as her body
relaxed further, her muscles lax and heavy. The gentle kisses he placed on her
eyelids jumpstarted a delicate fluttering in her belly and she hummed softly.
Arms flung to the side and palms down on the cool, white sheet, she allowed the
full-body contentment of a post oh-my-god-
yes
orgasm that made her feel
like glittering golden fairy dust sifted through her veins. Fairy dust that
started to spark and flash as his lips brushed hers, more and more demanding
with each pass.

At Aurora’s soft moan, Connyn lifted his head and stared
down at his woman, marveling at the intensity of emotion that roiled through
him. He’d lived for the moment he would be able to claim his mate and begin to
fulfill his place in his people’s history. Even before he’d been born, the
expectation had been there. As soon as his mother had suspected she was
pregnant, she’d run to the High Priestess for a reading of omens and stars for
her unborn child. She’d returned to the Priestess the day of his birth and
taken him back every year on his birthday.

Every visit had left his devout mother distraught as each
prophecy failed to produce the clear vision she hoped and prayed for to ensure
her son’s safety and success in a very troubled time. The visions, though
couched in different words and images, always held the same message. Two
disparate futures, each tied intrinsically to Magdalyne’s daughters. Either he
would find his true mate, live long surrounded by his children and fulfill his
family’s honor bound to the prophecy his world hinged on or he would fail.

Fail to find her. Fail to keep her safe. Fail to carry out
his family’s duty to their people and fulfill the destiny he was born to. His
father would be shamed as a distant relative ascended to the throne in his son’s
place. The bloodlines required to complete the prophecy would be weakened and
his failure would endanger his entire world.

He was the last full Heir to the Third House. His birth had
been difficult and his parents had been unable to conceive again. Paired with
the fact that the lands of the Third House held the longest border along
Sleht-held territory, his people had sustained the largest casualties, suffered
the deepest losses. He had been brought up to stop at nothing to ensure the
successful continuance of his ancestors’ lineage and his people’s survival.

Now for the first time, with his mate soft and open beneath
him, the bonds of fear that had been locked around his heart since childhood
began to loosen. From his earliest memories, he’d felt pitted against Destiny.
A heartless bitch that showed no mercy in judging and measuring him, testing
him to see if he could carry her weight and still stand as a man.

His parents had been indefatigable in the search to find his
true mate, a pure-blooded Mystic the stars and Elders would approve. It had
been his family that had uncovered Magdalyne’s lineage while she was still
pregnant with Ellyna. They had brought her to the capital in full expectation
of having the Matching Ritual executed on his behalf and securing his place in
history.

But the gods and prophets had denied them not once, but
three times. Aligning his cousins, heirs to the First, Second and Fourth House
of Ilyria with Magdalyne’s daughters. Time and again, Destiny had withdrawn her
hand of blessing from his head, leaving his family shocked and shamed. His
father had been furious, but his mother had been unwavering in her faith.

Then one morning the High Priestess had simply arrived with
a new message from the stars. The next Mystic-born child, Magdalyne’s fourth,
would unlock Connyn’s destiny. Though the news brought a welcome joy after
years of bitter disappointment, it came with a stern warning to heed the
direction of the immortal gods when walking through a mortal land.

He’d been holding himself motionless above her for several
minutes, looking down into the face of his future when Aurora’s eyes slowly
opened. Her dark eyes were still slightly glazed as she reached up and
feathered light fingertips down the sides of his face and neck, whisper-soft
caresses from his chest to his abdomen, continuing a direct descent to his
cock. Gently wrapping both hands around it, she stroked her pussy with its
head, her heat and wetness pressing against him and focusing every thought and
need within him to the taking of his mate.

His jaw tensed and his eyes narrowed as she guided him in
lowering his hips and positioned his cock at her entrance. Her lips tilted up
in a sorceress’ smile, an allurement so powerful he could do nothing but sink
into her body and offer his soul up for the pleasure.

“Oh god,” she murmured as he slid further into the silky
tight grip of her cunt. Still swollen and slick from her climax, her body
responded to his every move with a heightened sensitivity that was reflected in
her moans, her flushed skin, the way she pulled her bottom lip through her
teeth. He pushed in deeper and watched sated desires ignite with new lust in
her eyes.

She wrapped her arms around his torso and her long legs
around his hips, tilting her pelvis up to allow him in as deeply as their
bodies would allow. Holding her in his arms he held the manifestation of a hope
that had evaded his grasp for years. With a rumbling growl, he slid his arms
under her shoulders and kissed her, letting the emotions, the possessiveness,
the want and demand for her roil through him.

Hugging him tightly, she moved against him, her mouth
becoming urgent against his. He rocked into her, thrusting deep, pulling back
and thrusting deep again, savoring the frantic seizing of her body around his
cock. He swallowed her seductive purring as he continued to kiss her mouth,
press against the cushioned fullness of her breasts with his chest and fuck her
cunt. She was writhing beneath him, her need turned frenzied as he continued to
bait the primal lusts driving them both.

Aurora’s fingernails grazed down his back as she turned her
head from the kiss and gasped raggedly for breath. She unlocked her legs from
around him, dug her heels into the mattress and used the leverage to buck
against him, slamming their bodies together.

Immediately, his world burst apart with a mind-blinding
explosion. He pinned her heavily to the bed and drove into her as his orgasm
unleashed its fiery lashes to whip through his body as he pumped deep inside
his mate’s cunt.

Her body clutched his and Aurora’s hoarse cry bounced off
the neon-lit walls of the small room, her pussy milking his cock as she came
hard after him. She looked up at him, her eyes so wide, her heart so revealed.
She was his. Belonged to him.

“Aurora.” Her name on his lips was more than a promise. It
was a bond, a commitment so consuming it drew up from the deepest, most sacred
parts of his soul. It lanced through him, driving his body into hers again, relentless
and demanding.

Pressing her head backward into the mattress, she cried out.
Her arms, legs and cunt all wrapping around him again and convulsively
tightening as he rode her with a violent passion that bordered the edge of his
control. He pounded into her sweet, receiving body, controlled by a primitive
force that reduced the universe down to this one moment in time where the only
thing that mattered, the only thing that existed, was the two of them together.

“Mine,” he stated. The harsh and demanding claim remained
unsoftened by the low whisper of his words. “You are mine.”

Her body began to tremble, her inner walls quickening in
their contractions. Abruptly her entire body tensed as she gasped out his name
and a fresh rush of liquid heat flowed over his cock, gushing out of her with
his next thrust and coating his balls as he slammed into her.

Another sudden and fierce climax tore through him. Ecstasy
had claws and those claws carved the pleasure of having,
truly
having
his mate deep into his bones. His seed poured into Aurora, swirling with the
evidence of her release and branding her as his to her very core.

His cousins might think he was an arrogant asshole, but it
didn’t matter. He’d done what had been needed to find his mate. He’d fought and
stopped at nothing. And he’d found his mate and made her his. Against the odds,
through multiple worlds, years and unbelievable obstacles, he’d taken on
Destiny and won. Marked his woman and within days would see her safely
delivered to their homeworld and enthroned by his side. Destiny could go fuck
herself.

* * * * *

Aurora lay on her side, still curled up under the blankets,
and watched Connyn stare out the motel window. He’d opened the curtains and had
been standing motionless with his back to the bed since she’d blinked her eyes
open several minutes ago. She didn’t mind. It gave her a good chance to adjust
to his presence in daylight and realign her world after the wild night of sex
they’d shared. Her thigh muscles were actually sore.

A small smile tugged on the corners of her mouth. She hadn’t
had sex that good in, well, in longer than she could remember. Even with the
whole weird vow thing he threw in the middle of it, the night had been right up
there past fantasy-worthy and probably edging on once-in-a-lifetime, though she
refused to go that far because she hoped it wasn’t. After all, she’d be
sleeping with him until he got her to Ilyria.

His hair hung unbound and nearly reached his waist. That
much hair would dwarf a normal man, but with his hands on his hips, the
powerful muscles of his shoulders and arms were only emphasized more. Her gaze
wandered down to his jeans-covered ass. Damn, the man had an A-1,
top-of-the-line ass. As a lingerie model, she knew of at least a dozen
designers whom she’d bet would give their right arm and morning lattes in
exchange for an exclusive modeling contract with him. Until they gave him a
direction and expected him to follow it, then mayhem on the shoot would be a
certainty.

He looked at her over his shoulder, catching her blatantly
ogling his ass. His eyes narrowed and she bit back a smile. The morning light
struck his eyes, making them appear more a smoky blue than gray. Her pulse
skipped as the intensity that always seemed to haunt his expression skittered a
sensual awareness awake inside her. God, her body could hardly move this
morning and yet a tiny look and she was starting to purr.

“Are you hungry?” His question, as normal as it was, was
said with such a deep, sexy rumble, her inner muscles clenched.

She looked past him, through to the sunlit parking lot
beyond and pushed herself up on one elbow, keeping the sheet modestly over her
as she moved. “Just coffee for breakfast is fine.” His gaze had slid to her
breasts as she shifted position and she glanced down to make sure the sheet was
still in place.

A warm tingling started to swirl low in her belly and she
shifted her legs. The tingling switched to an achy twinge, reminding her of a
question she had had last night but was too blissed out to follow up on. “So,
about last night,” she began and then hesitated, not exactly sure about the
best way to ask.

He turned and crossed his arms over his chest, a frown
replacing his own look of hunger that had nothing to do with bacon and eggs.
Not good. She hadn’t even asked the question and already his body language was
defensive.

“I was just wondering about something,” she said.

“Yes?” His eyebrows rose slightly as he waited, his demeanor
darkening with an unspoken threat.

“Do you always come twice?” She blurted out the question before
she could let his intimidation tactics get to her. Connyn looked visibly
relieved and she wondered what he’d been expecting her to ask about.

“No,” he answered. “Once the vows to the Mating Rite are
completed, the first time a Royal takes his mate his body responds by
attempting to ensure the lineage by implanting his seed twice. It’s a normal
part of the Rite, but not repeated after the first time as far as I understand.”

Aurora’s mind blanked for a moment, shock replacing normal
brain synapses that could carry logical thought. She slid her hand under the
sheet and brushed the edges of her birth control patch. The feel of the firmly
adhered patch cleared her mind. What Connyn didn’t know couldn’t hurt her and
would keep him a lot more manageable for the trip to Ilyria if he thought all
his rites and rituals were working.

Ensuring lineages. Holy crap. Her breath eased out and now
she was the one relieved. No lineage had been ensured last night, Mating Rite
or no Mating Rite.

Before the conversation could continue down this dangerous
and no-way-in-hell path, she changed the subject. “You said something about
breakfast?”

He reached for his shirt that had been slung across the back
of a chair. “I’ll see what I can find.”

“Wait,” she said, throwing the covers off and sitting up on
the edge of the bed, “I’ll go with you.” The sudden burst of panic at the
possibility of his disappearing on her easily overrode her sense of modesty as
she reached for her panties.

Abruptly Connyn spun around and whipped the curtains closed.
Just as quickly, he turned back around and glared at her.

“What?” she asked.

“What do you mean
what?
You are not to parade naked
in front of open windows.”

“
Parade?
” Dear god, the man’s over-reactive machismo
was even running on full-force first thing in the morning. “I was
not
going
to
parade
anywhere. I was simply going to put on my clothes.” His frown
automatically had her back stiffening in defiance. “There’s nobody around.
Besides, a quick flash never hurt anyone.”

He took a threatening step toward her and she stood to
lessen her disadvantage. “You need to get over this whole barbaric male thing.
Tell me, is every man in Ilyria so primitive?”

Advancing until he was close enough for her to feel the heat
of his body he said, “Every man is not your concern. All you need to know is
that I don’t share. Ever.” His eyes scanned hotly over her body. “Even a quick
flash.”

She couldn’t tell if his possessiveness turned her on or
infuriated her. Both, unfortunately. “I just bet you were a real joy on the
playground when you were a child. Hopefully your sons will grow up a little
more enlightened.”

Something soft and powerful sifted through his eyes as he
gazed down at her. This time his words were quiet but firm. “Hopefully, our
sons will grow up in a country that will finally know peace.”