Hearts Aflame Collection III: 4-Book Bundle (12 page)

She walked long enough that even her strong legs were tired, and when she almost stumbled into a stream, she finally needed to rest. Riona had no idea how long she had walked, but the sky looked no lighter. She leaned close to the water to scoop a handful to her mouth, and then she remembered that all of the rivers and streams flowed to the sea, to the west. If she walked upstream, she would be heading east, which would take her to the settled lands where the nunnery was.

Following the stream in the dark was easier said than done, and she found herself heaving herself over fallen trees and slowed to a snail's pace by the bank, which occasionally ended abruptly.

She was just navigating her way around a large spur of dead tangled trees when the ground suddenly crumbled underneath her. With a violent curse that she should not have known, she slid on her rear down the bank.

She stopped her descent by digging her nails frantically into the dirt, but anger at her predicament gave way to fear when she realized how close she was to the water and how steep the bank was. Riona tried to think of a prayer, but all that came to mind were curse words that would have made the sisters drop their jaws in dismay.

Carefully, she shifted her weight so that she was a little closer to one of the tree roots that protruded from the bank. It didn't come out of the bank when she yanked on it tentatively, and she saw that she could move from it to the sturdy limb directly above.

Holding her breath and steadying herself by bracing her feet against the embankment, she grasped the thick root in both hands and started to move. She was just beginning to think it was going to work when the root shifted, and then gave way entirely, sending her plummeting toward the water.

The stream had turned to a river, and the cold of it shocked her body like lightening. She flailed, taking in large gulps that panicked her even further, and to her panic, she could feel herself spin away from the shore.

I'm going to die here
, she thought with alarming calm, and then there was an almighty splash next to her and arms as strong as steel wrapped around her. She could hear an already-familiar deep voice bellowing at her, but she was too panicked to understand. Frantic, she pushed against him before she could stop herself, but he was as solid as a brick, and in a handful of moments, her rescuer dragged her to the bank, where they could climb up easily. He threw her upon the ground as if she weighed nothing, and slumped down next to her.

She lay on the sand, coughing up river water by what felt like the bucketful and crying from fear. Now she could see that it was Rordan who was so close to her, rubbing her back to sooth her. His hands were warm, bringing life back to her, and soon she could talk.

“You saved my life,” she finally managed to say through chattering teeth. “I could have killed us both in the water.”

“
You don't listen very well,” he said, and even after the water, she could hear a thread of humor in his voice. “Did you not understand what I meant, Riona? I would do terrible things to keep you safe, I would suffer terrible things to bring you home.”

The word
home
stuck in her mind, and while there were pictures of the nunnery there, there were other images as well, of campfires, of the mead halls that Ferric and Siobhan had told her about, and bonfires that sent sparks high into the air.

“
Come on, we need to get warm and dry.” With no more warning than that, he swept her up in his arms, making her squeak in surprise, pausing only to retrieve the heavy cloak and sword that he had dropped by the bank.

“
No, I'm too heavy,” she argued automatically.

Rordan snorted.
“It's nothing. It was worse when you were clawing at me in the river.”

When he set her down under the shelter of a niche formed by two leaning slabs of stone, he tore down several pine boughs, stacking them in a frame and then laying more over them. Under the shelter of the stone, it was a serviceable if bristly bed, and he went to start the fire.

“Where are the others?” she found herself asking.

“
Leading away hunters while I went after you,” he said wryly. “They'll take them on a beautiful chase before meeting us again.”

She watched as he coaxed the fire from small flames to a warming blaze, and almost dreamily, she let her eyes drift over the lines of his body, from the width of his shoulders to the handsome narrowness of his hips. He was dressed like his friends, in boots and furs, and the sword that lay close to hand told her what kind of man he was.

Still, she could not stop looking, and when she tried to distract herself, she could only focus on how cold she was, and how heavy her drenched gown was.

Rordan looked up when she rose, doubtless wondering if she was making another escape attempt, but his jaw dropped open when he saw that she was squirming out of her clothing. Beneath her gown was a thin white chemise that fell halfway down her thighs, and she knew how the fabric clung to her generous curves.

“I'll dry and warm faster this way,” she said, her teeth chattering.

He gestured her closer to the fire.

Her back was cold, but her front warmed nicely, and she shot him a look. “Take them off,” she said, pointing at his clothes. “You'll freeze inside those furs.”

He bared his teeth at her playfully, suddenly more wolf-like than he had been before.
“What a thing to say,” he said teasingly. “You'd think it was the proper thing, a maiden telling a man to strip.”

“
It is the proper thing,” she said primly. “Only silly people worry about propriety when they've just been dunked into frigid water.”

“
I defer to your good sense then,” he said, and he stood to unbuckle his belt.

She knew that he wore furs, and underneath them a plain white shirt of linen. Instead of stopping at the furs and boots, however, he pulled the linen shirt over his head, standing in front of her bare as the day he was whelped.

Riona's mouth opened slightly, but she couldn't muster up a girlish yelp or a prudish tut of disapproval. She thought she should, but it all fell out of her mind when she saw the sharp jut of Rordan's hip, the lean length of his thigh, and his cock, dark and heavy against his flesh, more than a little hard.

“
If this is a game, you're losing,” he said, and she thought she could hear a strain in his voice that hadn't been there before.

“
No game,” she said, after swallowing twice. “Just...” Her words trailed off as her eyes roamed his body up and down, and when she focused on his eyes, she could see that he was doing the same. He took in every curve of her, the hang of her belly and weight of her thighs, and he licked his lips with wolfish appetite.

“
Do you know what you are doing, innocent little lady?” he asked, his voice hushed. “Do you know what it does to a man when you look at him so?”

Her gaze landed straight on his cock again, which was harder now.

He made a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a groan. “Say I can come close,” he said from across the fire. “Tell me to come to you.”

There was no other choice in her mind. There couldn't be, when she was confronted with his masculinity and his body so beautiful and so close, not when he asked her with that pleading tone in his voice. If there was a thought in her mind that he would have disobeyed her, she would have pushed him away, but now there was no other answer she could make.

“Yes,” Riona said, her voice full of longing, and he leaped the fire to land at her side.

She started to speak again, but his mouth was on hers. He was gentle at first, his mouth moving slowly and delicately over hers, but when she pressed her body to his, his tongue pressed firmly between her lips. In surprise, she parted them, and the way his tongue slid into her mouth awoke a deep thrum in her belly, making her whimper and press even closer to him.

“Tell me when I must stop,” he said, breaking their kiss. He took her face between his two large hands, making her look at him. She could see the fire reflected in his eyes. “You must tell me if you would stop...”

She only nodded. She couldn't imagine wanting this to stop, ever, not with the pleasure that just his mouth brought her, and now she knew that she needed more. He smiled and pressed her back into the pine bed. Some of the branches pricked her soft skin, but she cared less about it than she did about the way that he stretched out by her side.

Reverently, he slid her shift up over her head and threw it aside before tucking his face into the crook of her neck. She squirmed when he lapped her there, but the trembling sensations that radiated from his mouth made her gasp out loud.

“
Beautiful woman,” he crooned. “I'll be so easy with you, so good to you...”

His mouth, surely the warmest thing she had ever had on her skin, made her whimper, and she pressed even closer to him. She could feel the hardness of his cock against her soft flesh, and though she knew that she should have been shocked, even frightened, she only wanted more.

Her hands ran up the corded muscles of his back, touching him with increasing boldness, and when one hand dipped down to squeeze his hard thigh, he laughed a little.

“
Wanting little lass, aren't you?” Rordan muttered. “Lovely, too...”

He reached a hand down and ran it over the curve of her belly, and she shivered at how gentle he could be.

“You're beautiful, so beautiful,” he sighed, and he brought his mouth down to nuzzle her breast before taking a dark, thrusting nipple in his mouth. It shocked her that he would do such a thing, but she was taken by a wave of hot pleasure. He pulled at her sensitive flesh gently, and then, when she wondered if she could take any more, he put his teeth to the sensitive nubbin of flesh and nipped down with the gentlest of bites.

Her gasp turned into a groan, and she pushed against him even harder.

“More of that,” she whimpered. “I want more of that.”

By the light of the fire, she could see his eyes light up hot and fierce, and she felt a deep tremor run through his body.

“Like coals to the fire,” he said, and that was all the warning she got before he was pressed on top of her, pushing her body into the rustling pine boughs. For a moment she was afraid, but then she felt his mouth on her neck again. There was the brief comfort of his lips, and then more bites, gentle at first, and then harder, and with each one, she thrashed underneath him. Every bit of pleasure made her want more of him, and soon she couldn't stop herself from spreading her legs to bring him even closer. The length of his hard body between her sensitive thighs felt so right, but when he pressed the length of his cock against her furrow, she knew she wanted more.

For the moment, however, he seemed content to bite her, light nibbles and bites with just enough sharpness to make her gasp. He slowly worked his way from her neck down to her shoulders, and then to the lush curve of her breasts, where he paused to suck on first one and then the other nipple, bringing them to aching hardness.

Riona found her hands in his hair, and she couldn't stop herself from yanking hard. “Are you trying to drive me insane?” she moaned.

He laughed, the sound of it echoing through her body.
“It crossed my mind,” he admitted, and then his clever mouth was pressed against the sensitive ticklish skin of her belly, licking a wet path down below.

Riona's breath hissed between her teeth as he spread her soft thighs wide and ran a wide wet tongue along her slit. He was slow at first, taking long, dedicated laps that that made her tremble, but in the space of a few moments, he sped up, making her dig her heels into the boughs beneath and push up against him. His hands were like iron on her hips, holding her still, and it was more pleasure than she thought she could take.

Her cries were echoing against the stones, and she could feel white-hot sparks of pleasure shoot down her spine and her legs. She could never have imagined the sensation, and it filled her up. Just as it was reaching a crescendo, Rordan pulled away.

“
Damn you!” she yelped, startled, but he pressed her back down, rising over her body.

“
You feel so good,” he murmured, laying wet kisses across her breasts and her neck. “You feel so, so good...”

Taking his cock in his hand, he swept it up and down her slit, and she clutched his shoulders hard, shivering.

“Please,” she whimpered. Even though she knew that she ought to be frightened, there was no fear in her at all, and she spread her legs wider for him.

“
I can't wait,” Rordan admitted, and he started to press his cock into her.

There was a moment of pain, there and gone between heartbeats, and then he was seated inside her, touching her more intimately than anyone ever had. Rordan's hand brushed against her chin, caressing her reverently.

“Look at me,” he whispered, and when she did, the connection between them shook her to the core. Then he began to move, long slow strokes that rocked him deep inside her and made her clench hard around him.

He leaned down to kiss her, and she couldn't stop herself. She latched her teeth in his neck and nipped him hard.

It was like a switch had been thrown, and with a deep groan, Rordan's movements grew faster and even more powerful. He was pushing her hard into the pine boughs, and she didn't care. All she could do was wrap her strong legs around his waist to drag him closer, her body winding tighter and tighter.