Rituals of Passion (22 page)

Maven let out a sigh.  It was one thing to  defy the man, but another to ruin an expensive gift on the morning after their wedding. Not out of respect for him, but out of reverence and…well,
fear,
 
she said, “Very well then.” But the cursed thing made her feel all the more trapped.

* * * * *

By the time Dane returned from his meeting with Kells, he was exhausted. Indeed, a rogue band of Virgs  had attempted to  cross the border through a densely treed valley that was among the more difficult spots to  guard. Kells’ men had turned them backquickly, but any breach was important enough to sound the alarms and alert Dane.

Damn, but thinking about the Virgs turned him brittle, cold. It dug deep down into his chest, into the place where sorrow for  the loss of his parents  still lingered, where memories of the horrors of that night still rose fresh and new from time to time. Historically, the Caralonians were a war-making people, but Dane couldn’t help thinking the Virgs put them to shame in terms of desiring war, prodding battle. And when he thought of all they’d taken from him on  that night some  fifteen years ago,  it deepened an anger he hadn’t known could
 
run
 
any deeper.

It was the dinner hour when he stormed into  the fort in a foul  mood. Some of hiscomrades had already begun eating at the long table erected  each night in the great hall—others, he knew, would be close on his  heels, coming in from what had turned into a veritable council of his top men with Kells.

He glanced to the right of his seat, at the  head of the table, expecting to see Maventhere, but that chair sat empty as well. So much for her wanting to  be seated next to himjust as her mother was to her father—even  if the dinner table had not been the venue she’d been referring to.

“Where in Ares’ name is my wife?”  he bit off through clenched teeth.

The happy chatter at the table ceased as they all turned  to look.

Finally, Kaelen rose and rushed over to  him, appearing worried by his tone. Well, they’d all do well to worry—he was in no humor for unhappy news.

“She refused to come to dinner, Dane.”

He let out a long, slow  sigh, trying to keep  his temper from completely erupting.

“Dare I ask why?”

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Kaelen swallowed nervously and spoke in a  low tone. “She said she didn’t wish to share the same table with you. She asked for dinner in her room.”

“Is she there now?”

“As far as I  know.”

“And when  you say ‘her room’, I trust you  mean the room she slept in before last

night?”

The dark-haired maid nodded.

Without another word, Dane turned and stalked from the hall and down the long central corridor of the fort toward the  chamber where he would find his wife. He pushed through the door with the flat of his  hand and stepped inside  in time to see her flinch. She  sat at a table near the window,  a large  tray of food before her. And shelooked more worthy of being ravished than ever before.

As he crossed the room, she pushed hurriedly  to her feet, her eyes wide with  what he hoped to Ares was fear, for if she kept defying him—especially in front of all thosewho followed him—she would soon have
 
reason
 
for that fear. He stepped so close to her that his chest brushed the soft fur of her vest. “I’m told you don’t wish to share a meal with me, wife,” he said sharply.

She let out a sigh,  then  met his gaze, letting  defiance take the place of fear in her eyes. “That’s correct.”

“And
 
that’s
 
unfortunate—for you,” he said. “Because you
 
will
 
eat with me, whether or not you  choose to do so. I’ve tolerated your childish behavior up to this point,thinking you’d come around once we were wed, but since you  haven’t, my lenienceends now.”

With that, he stepped swiftly around her and sat down in her chair, pulling her onto his lap, one arm wrenched tight around  her slender waist, trapping her arms at her sides.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she snapped, struggling slightly  against his grip. “Let me go!”

“I’m sharing a meal with you, bride.” He  clamped his free hand over her thighs and  turned her so that she faced him more, then  met her eyes. “You may fight if  you want  us both to end up wearing our food, or you may be a good little  girl and let us both be  fed. The choice is yours.”

He waited for her answer, but she stayed silent. And also still, which was a step in  the right direction, despite the venom in her gaze.

“Very well then,” he said. “We shall eat.”

With that, he picked up a slice of thick  fruit bread and took a bite. As he chewed  and swallowed, he thrust the same piece toward Maven’s delectable, pouting mouth.  “Eat!” he commanded.

He sensed her weighing her options, aware of  the fire still burning in him, until she

reluctantly took a bite of the  dark, sweet bread in his hand.

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“Good girl,” he said, his voice low. She cast him a sideways glare that, despite his anger at the moment, made him grin.

“Next, let’s try some meat.” He picked up  a leg of chicken, taking a hearty bite  before holding it to her mouth.

With only a slight hesitation this time, Maven bit some meat off the bone.

“Very good,” he said again.

This time she only rolled her eyes.

He couldn’t help laughing a bit, not only  at his resistant little  bride, but also because, suddenly, he was enjoying this, enjoying
 
her
. Even as churlish as she chose to  be, he was having a much better time with  his  lovely, angry wife perched on his lap  than if he’d stayed in the great hall to eat with the rest of the fort’s inhabitants.

After giving them both a drink of water  from her goblet, he fed them both some  more chicken, another bite of bread, and  then  said, “Would you like some fruit?”

Maven nodded, seeming considerably subdued now.

Kaelen had laden the tray with a variety of fruits, including a banana, already peeled. He reached for it, asking  Maven in a  wicked tone, “Were bananas used in your  Orientation?”

She gave her head an innocent shake. “No.”

He smiled. “I’ve heard they’re often used to teach girls the art of  taking a  cock in

their mouths.”

As a thin veil of crimson climbed her cheeks, he  held it  to her lips. “Let’s try it now, shall we? Let’s see how much you can take, my lovely little bride.”

She balked slightly in his grasp.  “Why should I do such a thing?”

“So you’ll have some practice before you try taking
 
me
 
in your mouth.”

“I won’t do that,” she  said, but even as the words left her, he felt the heat suddenlyseem to ooze from her pores onto  him  as a rush of desire filled her eyes.

Rather than  insist that  she would, he decided to take  a different tack. “Well  then,seems the least you can do is let me watch you try with the banana.”

Without awaiting her answer, he pushed it  closer to her sweet berry lips, nudging them apart. She let her mouth open slightly,  giving him a shy glance as he pushed the banana inward.

“Relax now,” he cooed as he  eased the phallic fruit deeper, deeper. Her face  reddened further, but she didn’t flinch or  squirm or take the easy way out by biting the banana off—she let him slide it deep into her  mouth until he felt it touch the back of her  throat. Unable to help being impressed, he  smiled. “That’s very good, wife. I can’t wait  until you swallow
 
me
 
this well.”

Her eyes changed, the ire returning as he  slowly extracted the banana. “I told  you I  won’t be doing that.”

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He only grinned, then slid the moist tip  of the fruit back  and forth across her lower lip. “Eat, Maven,” he prodded in a low tone.

Still looking defiant, she nipped  off the end of  the fruit, and he chuckled, bringing it to his own mouth for a bite before returning it to his bride.

When they’d finished the banana, he said,  “More fruit? Perhaps an  apple?”  He stillheld her arms trapped against her, yet he’d  loosened his grip enough that she could likely struggle free if she tried now. But she didn’t. He began to wonder how wet her pussy was beneath her skirt and if she’d noticed the column now bulging from  the frontof his pants  against her hip.

“Do you feel my shaft against you, wife?” he  asked, reaching for the apple.

She glanced down between them, looking  sheepish but aroused. “How could I not?  It’s huge.”

He chuckled. “Do you like the way it feels against you?”

“No,” she insisted as he took a crunching bite from the ripe red fruit.

He laughed once more. “Funny—seemed you  couldn’t get enough of my cock last night, and this morning, too.”

She blushed even pinker at the reminder of how excited she’d been, and the memory  of  her  double  orgasm  just  this  morning did its part to harden him further as he lifted the apple to her mouth. “Take a bite, wife,” he whispered.

Casting him a quick glance, she  leaned slightly forward to sink her teeth into thecrisp fruit. A spray of juice shot downward  onto her chest. “Oooh!” she squealed, even with her mouth full.

Dane’s desire increased at the sight of  the wetness now shimmering on the curve ofher breast. Leaning in,  he licked the juice from  the hollow of her throat, then lowered his tongue into her cleavage, licking a path across one upper swell.

Her chest heaved slightly beneath him and when he set the apple aside and easedhis hand up  under her skirt, he sank his fingers into an  equally moist pussy.

“Enough eating,” he said low and feral in her ear. “Now it’s time for fucking.”

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Chapter Fourteen

“No,” she said, but her breathing was ragged, the protest weak.

He lowered a kiss onto her neck and felt the  shiver race through her.

“Oh, I hate it when you…”

“When I what?”

“When you  make me…”

“Yes?” he purred in her ear, delivering another kiss just below.

Her head dropped backward as a hiss of pleasure or frustration—he couldn’t tell  which—left her. “Nothing,” she bit out, sounding spent and desperate. “Nothing.”

“You hate it when I make you want me,”  he said, finishing the sentence for her,  then raining still more kisses across her neck,  then lower, on her breasts, all the while  stroking her wet cunt beneath her skirt.

Beginning to moan and sigh with each stroke of his hand, she arched her breasts  toward his  mouth and, now that her arms  were free,  wrapped them around his neck  and pulled him down to her chest. “Oh Ares,” she whispered as his kisses edged lower,  lower, against the edge of her vest, and eased down inside.

Ares, how he hungered  for her. Who needed food when he had this lovely girl to  feast on? He longed  to feel her hard nipple against his tongue, her warm, tight cunt  around his cock. He tightened his grip on her, pressed closer against her hip,  sank his mouth deeper, deeper, into her lush softness.

He loved the sound of her labored breathing  above him, the feel of her hands in his  hair, pulling him against her chest. “You drive me wild, wife,” he murmured against  her tender flesh.

She responded with a moan.

Lifting his  hands up  to her  chest, he fought with  the hooks  on her vest, finallypopping the first, then the second—enough  to allow him to reach inside and lift herbreasts, at the same time pushing the fur  aside to free them. Then he pulled back tolook. Ares, they were beautiful, so soft and  round, their taut pink tips  beckoning.  “Lovely,” he murmured.

“Kiss them,” she pleaded.

He considered making her beg more, like last  night, but he didn’t have the patience. Without further delay, he sank his mouth onto one pink crest, delighting in  the feel of her hard nipple against his tongue, sucking gently, just enough to make her cry out.

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Soon she was sobbing and moaning as he  switched his ministrations from one lovely breast to the other. With one hand, he stroked  his thumb over her free nipple,with the other he rubbed between her legs, now parted  across his lap.

“Oh,” she sighed, “fuck me ”
.

The request shot through him like fire, stiffening a cock that was already at fulllength and  feeling just as tortured as it had  last night,  even without days and days  ofarousal behind it. “Say that again,” he whispered against her breast.

“Fuck me, Dane.
 
Please
 
fuck me.”

The desperation of her plea hit home, satisfying him in a whole new way, giving him a certain ammunition. He pulled back slowly and met her eyes, wild with lust. He spoke with all the calmness he could muster. “Release my shaft and I shall give youwhat you want, my bride.”