Guardian Demon (GUARDIAN SERIES) (55 page)

“For me, as well.”

A short laugh rolled from her. Okay, yeah. Her “while” didn’t compare to thousands of years. But until she learned to shape-shift, he didn’t have to worry about taking in someone this big, either.

“I know. I just . . . I think we should go a little slow, the first time.”

Though the fingers that came up to stroke her cheek were gentle, his voice was harsh, his face dark. “I wouldn’t hurt you. Even if I lost all control and threw myself into the abyss, I would still protect you. But you don’t have to fear that I’ll let myself go.”

That wasn’t what she wanted, either. “It’s okay if you do. I’m tough.”

He shook his head.

All right. So she’d have to break his control. Anticipation a liquid burn, Taylor slipped to her knees. She was too short, but with a hum, Caelum lifted the pavers beneath her. Just high enough. Her fingers curled over the upper edge of his linen briefs and slowly dragged the cloth down, exposing the wide tip of him. God. Oh, God. She moved in close, her breath hot against his skin.

A shudder ran through him.

Her anticipation became raging need. She’d made Michael
tremble
. Then he turned to stone at the first touch of her lips, opening around him for a suckling kiss. His tortured groan unleashed her hunger. Her fingers dragged away the remaining linens. Greedily, she took more of him, deeper, as deep as she could. Another quake shook through his incredible body.

Michael.

Closing her eyes, she lost herself in his flavor, in his response. Wild moans rose from the back of her throat, and after remembering that she didn’t need to breathe, she took him there, too—the fingers of her left hand digging into the tight muscles of his ass, her right fist following each slick stroke of her lips, his every groan making her wetter, every slide of his shaft over her tongue making her hotter.

And she wanted more than this. Needed more than this.

With a last, lingering lick, Taylor eased back. When she looked up, passion glazed his eyes. Perspiration sheened his bronze skin.

He could sprint around the world without forming a single drop of sweat. Only a severe emotional reaction could make a Guardian perspire. Michael was apparently desperately fighting to keep his control—and she loved knowing that just her mouth could do this to him.

And he apparently needed more than this, too. As she rose, his hands tangled in her hair. His head lowered, his lips just over hers.

Thick with arousal, his voice was a rasping lick over her skin. “May I touch you now?”

She didn’t point out that he already was. “Yes.”

His teeth caught her bottom lip, gently tugged her mouth open for the possessive thrust of his tongue. God. His kiss devastated her every time. Everything inside her drew up tight, a knot that wouldn’t unwind. Not just full of hunger now, but sweetness. And longing and desperation, but maybe that was just her, waiting so long for this, for him, waiting her whole life.

But despite the desperation, there was no rush. They had a hundred lifetimes ahead of them and there was so much to savor. The rough passion in his kiss, the gentle strength of his hands sweeping her length. His fingers teased her nipples to aching hardness before slipping down to grip her backside and lift her against him.

He carried her across the broken pavers to the bed.

Taylor moaned, anticipation surging with every step. His mouth never left hers as he made his way to the center of the courtyard, and there was nothing in the world like his kiss, the thrust of his tongue, the heat of his mouth, the humming from his throat. Drowning in it, she clung to him as the realm tilted around her—then settled again, with the bed soft against her back and Michael hard above her.

“Andromeda.” Groaning her name, he tore away from the kiss, then tasted her jaw, her throat, his mouth open and his tongue hot.

His heavy weight settled between her legs, her thighs cradling his hips. She vanished her clothes, loving the delicious slide of skin against skin, every inch of hers flooded with pure sensation. Her toes curled against the backs of his knees before dragging up the length of his strong thighs. Her hands smoothed over his shoulders, fingers tracing the soft down at the base of his wings, catching her breath when he rolled the dark mass of feathers forward against her hands. His lips at her breast, Michael trembled again, though their wings weren’t more sensitive than any other part of their skin. It must not matter where she touched him—just that she enjoyed touching him.

No problem there.

Hungrier now, he returned to her mouth. His fingers slid between them, found her slick and wet. Just a light, quick stroke over her clit, teasing her until she moaned her frustration, but his touch didn’t become any harder—just faster.

Then faster.

Oh, God.
Her spine bowing, she cried into his mouth. His thumb vibrated over her clit, his long fingers sinking deep. Stretching her, filling her. His hand pumped to the rhythm of the thrust of his tongue past her lips, everything wet and slick and the courtyard echoing with her ragged moans and the rapid beat of her heart. Until even that receded, the sound muffled by the ecstasy enveloping her, like the silence before an explosion.

Then it detonated through her, a shock of heat and clenching flesh. Her every nerve a lit fuse, she cried his name, her body arching beneath his. No longer kissing her, Michael watched her face, drinking her in.

And still watched her as he pushed her hands over her head. Just as before, exactly as he’d promised to take her, but with a bed at her back instead of stone. Fist braced beside her shoulder, he poised above her body, still wracked by the lingering shudders of her orgasm. Aching with renewed need, Taylor wrapped her legs around his hips and drew him closer. The blunt head of his cock slid through her delicate folds, her flesh slick and sensitive.

He looked down at her, his eyes black and flat and hungry. The dragon’s gaze.

“Michael,” she whispered.

“I am here.” And his voice was his own. “I won’t hurt you.”

Though her flesh was so vulnerable like this, it wasn’t the thought of physical pain that frightened her. Michael held so much more than her body in his hands.

“I know.” Her legs tightened around him. “I trust you.”

The glow of warm amber flashed through the black. The muscles of his back flexed as he rocked forward. Taylor rose to meet him, crying out as he entered her slowly, sharp pressure building before suddenly breaching her entrance, her body yielding around his thick shaft.

For an instant, he stopped. Their eyes locked.

Then she moaned with him as he began sliding deeper. Her name rose like a reverent song between their lips, then his mouth covered hers and it was a hum instead, filling her with the melody as insistently as his body did. Oh, God. Fierce emotion wedged in her throat and stung her eyes. This wasn’t anything like she’d imagined; it wasn’t anything like he’d shown her on the beach. There was so much more of him to take. Not just his body or his kiss, but the darkness of the wings surrounding her, his sheer strength, his hunger, and the thousands of years that had brought him here to her bed. But she wanted all of him, would take all of him.

Because he was hers.

And yet there was still more of him, thick and deep, filling her to the edge of discomfort—not pain but a wild, vicious pleasure and acute, sharp need. A fierce cry escaped her as she took him completely, and he wasn’t kissing her now but just watching, watching. Stark need and intensity darkened his face.

Breath ragged, she returned his gaze. Pinned again. Her wrists over her head, her hips to the bed. His cock deep inside her.

Taylor loved it all. “Michael.”

“Andromeda.” His voice was deeper, darker. As if he were at the edge of his control.

She’d gone over the edge of hers. Desperate for more of him, she tried to lift her hips. “I need to move.”

“But I want to watch you come like this.”

A laugh of pure frustration burst from her. “I’m not going to come if you don’t move.”

His teeth flashed in a sharp, wicked grin. His head lowered to her breast. Bracing his weight on the hand pinning her wrists, he pushed his other hand between them. He latched on to her nipple at the same moment his thumb began to vibrate against her clit.

“Oh, fuck!”

She shouted the curse, her back arching. The movement pushed her breast deeper into his mouth but it was the only movement she could make. Agonizing pleasure sheared her nerves, paring away her perception until there was only the throbbing heat of her nipples, the torturous bliss of his thumb, and his thick cock lodged deep inside. Involuntarily her inner muscles clenched around him, her body clinging to his. Sweet suction at the tip of her breast pulled her tighter, and the world narrowed again with every draw of his mouth and stroke of his thumb, until she could only feel Michael inside her, so deep, her body trying to hold him tighter and tighter, so desperate for release that pleasure became pain. Sobbing breaths shook through her chest as she writhed beneath him, her torso rising and falling and twisting, and there, there, her wild undulations shifted her along his cock a fraction of an inch but to her needy flesh it speared through her like a full-length thrust. Violently she came, her nipples like fire and Michael groaning her name.

Then he was moving, surging into her with every beat of her heart, every clench of her sheath. His mouth found hers again, his kiss slow and deep. Releasing her hands, he cupped her jaw in his palm, no longer holding her down. Simply holding her. As if cherishing her every response, cherishing
her
.

Her heart swelling, Taylor slipped her arms beneath his, her hands sliding up his back to grip his shoulders. Holding him close, so close. Not just inside her, but skin to skin. Need built again with every slow and long and endless thrust. His kiss deepened as she neared the peak, as her fingers tightened helplessly on his shoulders, and he held her as she went over.

But he didn’t go with her.

Determined not to stop until he did, Taylor pushed against his chest. He went easily, rolling onto his back, his black wings spreading across the white sheet. She sank onto his shaft, her head falling back with a moan before she caught herself. Not this time. No coming until he did. Planting her hands on his chest, she began a slow ride. With a deep hum of pleasure, Michael arched up beneath her, muscles rippling with the movement. So beautiful, with his skin flushed a dark bronze and slick with perspiration, his eyes glowing a steady amber. She increased her pace, his heart pounding beneath her palm, his hands urging her faster and faster, his big body rising to meet her with each roll of her hips. Oh, God. And he felt so good. Her fingernails dug into his pecs and he jerked upward and plunged deep, as if that small pain was the greatest ecstasy, and she tried to hold on to her control, but then he groaned her name and she lost it, her body rocking in a wild race to oblivion, then clinging to him as an orgasm destroyed her senses again.

Trying to catch her breath, she collapsed onto his chest, his cock still hard and thick inside her. As if soothing her trembling form, his hands smoothed a trail from her thighs to her ass, then higher, his fingers lazily tracing her spine.

Several minutes passed before she managed, “You didn’t come.”

“Do you think we’re done? We still have hours left.”

His easy reply left her smiling against his shoulder. He must be taking a rest for her sake. Like his, her Guardian’s body wouldn’t succumb to physical exhaustion. She’d never be sore, never tire, even if they went at this for days. Yet pleasure had wiped her out.

But not him.

Her smile faded. She fought the niggling disappointment that he hadn’t lost it, too—and the niggling fear that even if Michael was hers, she wasn’t enough for
him
.

As if he sensed the small battle inside her, his hand paused on her back. “Are you all right, Andromeda?”

“Perfect.” Because she shouldn’t be sorry for his control, not from someone so strong. She
knew
that. It was just her heart, being stupid. “I’m just a little surprised. I thought the dragon would be all rough. You know, the ‘mount me from behind, be merciless no matter how I beg to come’—that kind of thing.”

A quiet laugh rumbled through his chest. “That part of me wants to possess you in every manner. And it is in complete agreement with the rest of me.”

Maybe that was what he needed to go over, then. Hard and rough. “Would you like it?”

Because Taylor knew that she definitely would.

“Yes,” he said.

“Even the merciless part?”

“Any way that brings you pleasure.”

She turned her head, nipped the bronze skin stretched over his heavily muscled shoulder. “You saw my fantasies. I don’t have many boundaries.”

“And I do not have
any
.”

Abruptly, he vanished. Without his body supporting her, Taylor dropped to the bed on her stomach, briefly stunned. Then the mattress shifted behind her and strong fingers gripped her hips and dragged her up to her knees. A hard hand between her shoulders bore her down to her elbows, her cheek pillowed against the bed.

Callused fingers slicked through her sex. “You wish to be mounted? I will mount you, then.”

His harsh threat brought a rush of wetness and heat between her legs. Shock and need made her breathless. Her fingers curled in the sheet. “Oh, my God.”

“Ask me for it, Andromeda.”

Fisting the base of his shaft, Michael slid the wide tip through her folds, dipping into her with every stroke past her entrance. She tried to push back, to take him in, but his hand at her hip held her fast.

“Michael—”

“Beg.” His voice was dark, an echo from the abyss.

“Oh, my God. Take me.
Please.
”

He slammed forward. His thick shaft plunged deep, filling her all at once. Her scream of pleasure echoed through the courtyard.

Darkness swamped her vision as black wings folded around her. His heat seared her back as he leaned forward, the movement embedding him deeper inside. Powerful fingers threaded through her hair, pulled her closer to his voice at her ear.