Healing Eden (12 page)

He caged her against the wall, her back to his front. Her ear nearly brushed his lips, her neck exposed by the long, thick braid down her back. He dragged his finger down the center of the plait. Myrens rarely bound their hair in any fashion outside of a relationship as it signaled commitment. The idea she’d come here bound to someone else rankled. “Why did you bind it?”

“The wind.” Energy bristled off her, and her stance made her seem torn between flight and surrender.

“There’s no one else?”

She peeked over one shoulder and shook her head, eyes trained on the floor.

The breath he’d been holding released and stirred the fine hairs at her nape. He toyed with the platinum bead keeping the braid in place at the tip. “Will you let me free it?”

An innocent question for a human, but for a Myren it was intimate. A gift restricted to deeply tied lovers and mates.

She lifted her gaze, bringing her full lips close enough her breath fluttered against his face. “Please.”

His heart jolted, just the illusion of intimacy with this woman driving adrenaline through his bloodstream like a mainlined drug. He kissed her barely parted lips and groaned, imagining her soft, plump mouth stretch around his cock.

“Turn around,” he breathed against her mouth.

She shivered and turned, but kept her gaze locked to his until the last moment.

Using his mind, he warmed and loosened the platinum bead, and slipped it free. He sifted through the soft strands one section at a time until the fiery mass spilled down her back, unleashing more of her unique scent. He nuzzled the spot behind her ear. How easy it would be to lose himself with this woman. In her scent and her warmth. He let out a rough exhale. “This is wrong.”

She stiffened, but he tightened his grip on her hips and kept her locked in place.

“The secrets.” He pressed a lingering kiss where her neck and shoulders met. “They’ll hurt you and your brothers.”

“They’re only secrets if you’re not willing to own them.” She met his stare and a shiver rattled through her. Covering his hands with hers, she urged them up her torso. “I’m willing to own this.”

The predator in him wrenched free, her confidence and sweet curves heady enough to drown his reason. He cupped her breasts, full and free of the undergarments so common in Evad, the only barrier her gown’s slick fabric. He wanted to see her. To stroke and suckle the hard tips raking against his palms. To find every spot that made her arch and moan. To whisper salacious thoughts in her ear and watch her come.

He tweaked the tiny buds through the material.

Her eyes fluttered shut and she sighed, dropping her head back on his shoulder. “Yes.”

Fuck, that word sounded sweet on her lips, a desperate plea that shot straight to his dick and drew his nuts up tight. He shouldn’t do this. It was unfair and a gross abuse of trust, but damn it, he’d be dead tomorrow, and she’d been the one to come to him. What was the harm in pleasuring them both?

He swept her into his arms and forged toward the stairs, pulling the hidden door open with a hasty thought.

“Where are we going?”

The bookcase thunked closed behind them, and the quiet snick of the lock ricocheted down the shadowed hallway.

Galena tensed. “Reese?”

“Shhh.” He cradled her close and strode through the darkness, brushing a kiss across her temple. “You’re safe.”

She loosened her grip, but craned her head to take in her surroundings, eyes widening as he carried her into his room. “The upstairs is a ruse,” she said with undisguised awe.

“The rebellion taught my mother caution if nothing else.” He lowered her to her feet, and she padded deeper into the room, examining every detail. To him it was barren and nondescript. Minimalist Blackwood furniture, pewter curtains and bed covering, and not a single accent or personal object to add personality. But watching her, the way her mouth parted with a tiny smile, made him wonder how she saw it.

She paused at the foot of the bed, her gaze locked on its center and the stark white sheets turned back at an angle. “This is your room?”

He should give her distance. Wait and gauge her intent.

To histus with that. Galena was in his room, an arm’s length from silk sheets and sparking with sexual tension. He stalked forward. “There’s nowhere else I’d take you.” He caressed her upper arms, her back to his front, and brushed his lips along her neck. “You don’t know how many nights I lay there, hard and ready, thinking of you.”

The grumble in his voice couldn’t be helped, his throat too tight to offer better. Admitting such a thing was probably too much. Too bold and too fast, but he was mighty close to not caring.

“What did you think about?” She turned in his arms. Just looking at her made his body tighten and crave things he never should. “Tell me what you imagined.”

Their naked bodies tangled together. Breathy moans. Slick, heated skin.

No. She couldn’t want him. It had to be a trick, all of it. “Thinking of giving a dying man his last wish?”

Galena shrugged him off and took the tiny step left between her and bed. She lifted her chin. “You seem to always assume people have the worst of intentions.” Her lips pressed tight and her eyes flickered with what looked like guilt. “I asked for me.”

Trapped with the bed behind her, he crowded close and gripped her face with both hands. Not harsh, but enough she couldn’t escape his study. “Why?”

Her aqua eyes deepened, more like deep ocean than shallow beach waters. “Because I scanned your memories.”

Fuck.

He swallowed past the emotional vise gripping his neck. Granted, he’d already confessed, but what else had she seen?

“It was just a glimpse.” She gripped his biceps, a nervous, urgent squeeze. “It was rude and unforgivable, but I wanted to see if you’d meant to hurt me. Nothing more.” She fanned her fingers across his pecs, the cotton of his T-shirt heightening the touch. “But the way you view me.” She shook her head and tried to free herself from his grip.

He held fast. “What of it?”

Raw need flashed before her eyelids fluttered closed. “I want to be that woman. Just once.”

Every muscle unwound, his mind gobsmacked. She wanted to be what? Sexy as hell? Earthy and sensual down to her toenails? Surely she knew her effect on men.

She squeezed her eyes tighter.

Histus, she didn’t. “Look at me.”

She shook her head.

“Galena, look at me.”

She opened her eyes, slow and hesitant. Vulnerability shone bright in her glassy gaze, honest and open, rearranging every priority down to the very reason for his existence.

He released her and stepped back, limbs shaking. The exact opposite of what he craved, but the right action to give her what she needed.

Her breath shallowed and her lips parted. She pushed her shoulders back, a proud defiant stance that raised the swell of her breasts above her neckline. “I’m sorry I threw that on you. It was wrong. Completely unacceptable.”

“Undress.”

Galena gasped. Silence rumbled in behind the breathy sound and a tiny blush stole across her cheeks.

“Only a fool would turn you away, Galena. You asked what I imagined. Lose the gown and I’ll show you.”

She licked her lip.

Oh, sweet mother of all that was holy. Her whole demeanor transformed, a spark he’d never seen before flaring soft, but beautiful. Her lips curved, slow and sultry, and she trailed her fingers up between her breasts to toy with one strap of her gown.

“Like this?” Her smooth voice wound between them as she pushed one strip of evergreen fabric over her shoulder. In hung, teasing around her bicep, prevented from traveling farther by the gathered waist of her gown, but displaying the upper swell of one breast.

She traced a path across her collarbone to the other strap, toyed with the slick fabric long enough to make him wet his lips, and tugged the material so it hung lose and matched its mate. The bodice barely covered her nipples, and the smile on her face taunted him to step in and finish the job. A test of wills and a greedy game of anticipation all rolled up into one. Definitely a game worth playing.

With a grin, he pulled his T-shirt free and loosened the top two buttons of his jeans. Not nearly enough to ease his aching cock, but enough to tease her with what lay beneath. “Show me, Galena.” He palmed his dick through the denim, and her eyes darkened to near black, locked on the motion of his hand. “I’ve had enough of fantasies. Show me the real thing.”

Her gaze lifted slowly along his torso, and his muscles flexed as though she’d physically touched him.

She nibbled her lip and hesitated, the barest tremble where her hands hovered at the top of her gown. She sucked in a shaky breath and pushed the fabric free.

The gown pooled at her feet, and all the air in Reese’s lungs followed suit, his feet anchored only by the lust paralyzing his mind. “Perfect.”

Had he said that out loud? It was all he heard in his head. He’d dreamed, but reality was so much better. Luscious curves, rosy nipples, and full breasts. This was happening. Really happening. Tomorrow didn’t matter, because he’d already found nirana.

Her flush deepened and crept down her neck to the top of her chest.

He prowled closer, the air between them fairly snapping with energy. “My imagination didn’t do you justice.” He traced a path along her jaw, down her neck, and between her breasts, the perfect mounds so ripe and ready for touch, it was all he could do not to give in and fill his palms with their delicious weight. At her navel he drew slow, teasing circles. “Will you let me show you more?”

Galena whimpered. “Please.”

Eager to oblige, his cock twitched behind the painful confines of his jeans. Hell, he’d give her everything. With a mental push, he swirled cool air around her legs and up her torso, stirring the hair at her shoulders. He streamed a thin gust between her thighs.

Galena whimpered and her eyes fluttered shut. Her nipples jutted hard and ready for his mouth.

Praise the Great One, he wanted to touch her. To explore and sample every inch of her until he found the spots that made her moan and beg for more. He fisted his hands at his sides and tried to bank his escalating lust. He couldn’t give in yet, not until he’d proven his point. “Lie on the bed.”

She moaned and reached for him, her fingertips grazing his abs.

He captured her wrist, her pulse frantic beneath his thumb. “That’s not what I said. I want you in my bed and stretched across my sheets.”

She tugged until he freed her, a conflicted scowl on her face.

“Your call, Galena. I’d never force you into something you don’t want, but I won’t shortchange you either.”

Seconds ticked by, every damned one of them prodding the pacing beast inside him.

Slowly, she turned and crawled to the center, her perfect, heart-shaped ass swaying with each movement. Auburn hair spilled nearly to her hips, fire against golden, Myren skin.

He’d take her that way. Not now, but soon. Drape himself against her back and plunge deep.

She rolled to her back and rested her head on his pillow, knees crooked to one side.

Dear God, her hips were meant for a man’s hands. His hands. He sucked in a breath and reached deep for control. Tonight was for her. To show her the image she’d seen wasn’t just his perception, but reality. The same reality for any sane man with a beating heart.

Popping the remaining buttons on his jeans, he pushed them past his hips. His cock sprang free, his pulse a steady, pounding presence along the shaft. “Draw your knees up and wide. Bare yourself me.”

She tensed, and splayed her fingers at either side of her hips against the sheets.

“Look at me.” He couldn’t give in. Wouldn’t let her give in until he’d shown her the truth. He fisted his staff, the touch not nearly enough to sooth the raging throb just looking at her created. He teased her thighs with another swirl of wind, an invisible but subtle pressure at the insides of her knees. “You can do this.”

Her eyes went wide, so trusting and vulnerable. She sucked in a shaky inhalation and shifted, centering her knees. Her thighs parted and she arched her back, head thrown back and eyes closed in surrender. She stroked between her folds and a ragged moan filled the room. “Reese.”

Enough. More than enough to prove his point and light years past the amount of temptation he could bear. He kneeled between her legs and covered her hand with this own, their fingers sliding together through her wetness.

Her eyes popped open and locked onto his.

“You see?” He overpowered her movements, guiding her slender fingers and gathering her juices to slick around her clit. “You can’t be the woman in my mind
just once
.” He circled the swollen nub and teased one nipple with his tongue. “You are that woman. Always.” He pressed one finger deep and sucked the tip in his mouth.

Galena cried out, her hands fisting in his hair, holding him to her breast while her hips undulated in a slow, sexy cadence.

He nipped the tight peak and laved the sting away with the flat of his tongue, reveling in her ragged moans and the thickening scent of her arousal. Bracing himself on one arm to see her face, he added another finger. Her walls clamped around them with each thrust, so wet and tight his cock flexed against his belly. “That’s it, sweetheart. Let it happen.” He licked her lower lip, no more than a tease. “Ride my fingers. Let me watch you come undone.”

Her eyes flared and a tiny whimper huffed past her lips.

He circled her clit with his thumb once, twice.

Her hips quivered.

Angling his wrist, he stroked her front wall and pressed his thumb against the swollen nub.

“Reese.” Her grated wail filled the room, husky and so damned enticing his nuts tightened to the point of pain.

Ah, but the clench and release of her pussy was heaven. He worked her sex and kissed his way down her torso, milking every drop of her climax while he feasted on her sweat dampened skin. “So slick and sweet.”

“Reese.” Galena clawed his shoulders, her efforts useless against his determined path. “Let me touch you, please.”

He sat back on his heels and palmed her hip with one hand, her legs still wide, but now boneless from release. Her release coated his fingers, still leisurely pumping in and out of her pretty pink pussy. He pressed her knees wide and his mouth watered. “Later. Right now I want you on my tongue.”