Savage Lessons (Temple of Luna #3) (5 page)

She was breathing fast and shallow, her full breasts outlined under thin white robes, and a shudder ran through her. "This is impossible."

"Impossible," he agreed, pressing her back into the wall, pressing his body to hers. "This is impossible."

Lexa trembled. Then she moaned, buried her face against his neck and bit him. Hard.

Pleasure swelled, intense and exhilarating , and strong enough to overcome reason. He fisted his hand in the thick strands of her hair and snarled as he wondered how long her mark would linger.

When she released him, it was only to drag him down for a fierce kiss. She tilted her head to fit her mouth to his, her body softening, eager for touch.

Too eager for an unprotected hallway. Not nearly eager enough for the need that throbbed inside him. He needed to reclaim sanity, reclaim his hard-won control, but the beast rode hard and close to the surface, hungry for the woman he'd only been allowed to taste.

"Not here." Her hands opened and closed on the back of his shirt, kneading like a cat. "They gave me a -- a new room. Do you know where?"

If he was caught going in or out of it she'd suffer, lose what status she'd fought so hard to gain. "Not your room. The gardens. Meet me tonight."

She licked her lips. "What time?"

"The third chime." Late enough that no one would be about but servants bringing meals and wine to priestesses and the warriors they entertained.

"Yes." Lexa kissed him one last time and jerked away to hurry down the hall.

Celine was going to
murder
him, and the beast was too pleased to care.

Lexa held her breath as she ducked around a corner to avoid two gossiping servants. The path to the trainers' gardens had been anything but clear, and every near miss ratcheted up the tension inside her.

Now I know why people always find illicit things so delicious.
Her body throbbed with anticipation already, and she refused to believe that all of that unbearable arousal was due to the fact that Dejan waited for her.

He couldn't affect her that much, because she couldn't afford to lose herself in him.

Of course not. That's why you're jeopardizing everything you've worked for just to touch him again.

Lexa cursed and hurried through the door to the gardens.

A hand caught hers at once, but when she turned Dejan held a finger to his lips, his face barely visible in the shimmering light from the moon. He tugged her deeper into the gardens, past a burbling fountain and a bench surrounded by gently swaying wind chimes that filled the night with soft music.

"Here," he said finally, dragging her between two tall, twisting trees. Their branches met overhead, but just beyond them lay a lush circle of grass bathed in silvered light. The tall stone wall that ringed the trainers' garden sat beyond it, softened by ivy climbing subtle wooden trellises.

Her heart pounded. She gripped his hand tighter. "Are you certain, Dejan? That you want this?"

"That I want you?" A sharp tug brought her body tight against his, his chest to her back, and she felt the hot, unyielding press of his erection.

Desire left her weak, her tongue thick, but she forced out the words anyway. "No, that you want me like this. It's dangerous."

"And yet you're here."

"Did you really think I could stay away?" She caught his hand and pulled it down, closer to where wet heat gathered between her thighs.

His hoarse chuckle rasped out of his throat, stirring the hair at her temple. "You ask my question, and yet you don't know the answer."

There was only one answer, only one thing that mattered, and it was easy to confess in the dark solitude of the garden. "I need you, Dejan."

He gathered the fabric of her robes, somehow managed to let it tease over her skin as he lifted it. "How badly?"

Guilt and lust burned through her in equal measure. "I ache. Does that appease your ego?"

"My ego doesn't need appeasing." His foot nudged the inside of her ankle, widening her stance. "The beast inside me does."

"So badly you couldn't find another woman who would suffice?"

"So badly no other woman
could
suffice." He bit her earlobe as his hands worked her robes above her thighs.

The cool night air caressed her skin, but even that couldn't lessen the heat that rocketed through her. "You flatter me."

His fingers smoothed over her leg. "Close your eyes. Use your power. Feel what I need, and tell me it's flattery."

What radiated from him and flooded her was nothing short of hunger, and she yearned to satisfy it. "I don't want to talk."

"I'm not done yet." His touch drifted higher teasing across her abdomen. "I'm considering how to take you. On the ground. Against the wall. Standing, maybe?"

Lexa had to clear her throat to speak. "Does it matter?"

"It shouldn't." A groan, and the world spun dizzily as he whipped her around, dragging her against his body. "I want to give you what you need."

What she craved was
his
pleasure. She pushed him down to the grass and followed, climbing astride his thighs.

His hands spanned her hips, then slid up, dragging her robes with them. "Take this off. I want to see you."

Again, she wanted him to tear the fabric from her body. And again, it wasn't part of what they had, this clandestine encounter. Lexa pulled both robes over her head at once, leaving her completely bare.

Glazed pleasure and appreciation filled his eyes as he smoothed his hands up to cup her breasts. "You're beautiful. Wicked."

"Wicked?" She tugged his shirt up and spread her hand across his stomach. "Why, because I tempt you?"

His thumbs brushed over her nipples, plying them with teasing gentleness. "You tempt me more than is rational."

"Temptation isn't about rational thought." She leaned forward and bit her lip when his strong hands cradled her breasts more fully. "It's about need."

A smile curled his lips before he caught her nipple and tugged it. "Tell me what you need. What makes you ache?"

"You." She loosened his pants, impatient to have him inside her again. "The way you watch me. Want me."

"Need you?" He hissed out a breath. "I can't think about anything but having you around my cock again."

"I know." And she did. If he'd been able to walk away, he would have. There was no reason to sneak around and jeopardize both their positions unless the need clawing at them would allow no rest or respite.

His hand trailed down the center of her body until his fingers brushed between her legs, slicking close to her clit. Lexa couldn't concentrate on talking while she undressed him, so she lapsed into silence. There would be time for words later, if they found themselves with anything to say.

She stripped off his shirt, but only eased his pants down until she could close her hand around his erection. She longed to taste him again, feel him in her mouth, but there wasn't
time
.

There would never be time.

Lexa crawled up to kiss him, grinding her hips down so that his shaft nestled between the wet lips of her cunt. "Take me again," she whispered.

"Under me." He nipped her lips and rolled, bringing her body to the soft grass. A low, rumbling growl worked its way up out of his chest as he kissed her hard enough to intensify the ache inside her with only that contact. One thrust and he was inside her, hot and large, pressing down until their hips met and he groaned against her mouth.

She bit his shoulder to hold back the sharp cry that rose and then dug her nails into his back as she panted. "Dejan."

"Tell me." It was half command, half plea. "I need to hear it. I need to
know
."

She could barely breathe the words through her moans, but she'd never before meant them so completely. So utterly. "I'm at your mercy, warrior."

He bit her throat and rolled them again, bringing her on top of him in a surge of muscle. "Sit up. I want to see you."

Lexa obeyed. She trembled and swayed and finally braced her hands on his chest. "What do you see?"

"A woman." A roll of his hips lifted her knees from the grass and drove him deeper inside her. "Not a priestess. A beautiful, hungry woman."

Her lip bled where she'd bitten it, and still a too-loud moan escaped. "You have no idea how hungry I am." Her body clasped him tight as she began to move, rolling her hips eagerly over his.

"Yes I do." His thumb dipped lower, found her clit and rubbed in slow, maddening counter-point. "As hungry as I am. Almost."

Fire blazed up inside her, and Lexa caught his hand. "I'll scream if you keep doing that."

"Then muffle it." His hand continued to move, as if the weight of her grip was no hindrance at all. "I plan to see you come again and again."

"
Dejan
." She bent and closed her teeth on his jaw. "I'm already trying to be quiet."

His body tensed underneath her, the only warning before he spilled her onto the grass. Large, strong hands dragged her up to her knees, and his cock pressed against her ass. "You put yourself at my mercy, didn't you?"

"I did." She shook with wanting him. "At your mercy, Dejan. Everything in me is yours."

He covered her, chest to her back and arms on the ground on either side of hers. "Do you know your own power?" The words fell against her cheek in hot bursts of air as he rocked forward, eased his cock into her. "You give yourself... and own me."

"I only know what I feel." He was hard inside her, and so deep. He spoke of her owning him, but he was the one leaving his brand on her body and soul. Lexa turned her head and spoke against his lips. "Do you put yourself at my mercy? Do you trust me to give myself to you?"

Teeth caught her lower lip and dug in. "Yes."

"Hold me and don't move." Trusting him to do as she asked, she threaded her fingers through his hair and slid her other hand down her body to stroke her clit. "When I come, fuck me hard."

The arm wrapped around her body tightened, and his growl vibrated against her back. "Tell me how you're touching yourself. Slow? Rough?"

"Soft now. Slow. When I get close --" She shifted her hips a little and gasped sharply. "Rougher when I get close. Harder."

He turned his head and bit the inside of her wrist. "Will you like it just as much when it's my tongue?"

The thought made Lexa clench tight around him, and she moaned helplessly. "We can't, Dejan."

"Can we stop?"

They had to. Sooner or later, they'd be caught. Still... "I can't stop wanting you."

"So show me." One little bump of his hips, driving deeper into her. "Come, so I can fuck you."

Her vision swam. She muttered a curse and sped her movements, desperate for him to continue those tormenting thrusts. "Tell me."

"Tell you what?" The arm wrapped around her trembled. "That I'm
at your mercy
?"

It wasn't fitting for a warrior, much less a trainer, to feel such things for a priestess. But here, in the garden, they were only a man and a woman. "Yes, Dejan --
yes
--"

The world shook apart and took her with it. He hissed his pleasure and gave her the movement she'd needed, a hard, deep thrust followed by another, and another.

Lexa dropped her hands to the ground, fingers digging past grass and into the earth as she tried to anchor herself in something other than Dejan's body over hers, in hers.

It was no use. The way her body and her magic embraced him so completely could only mean one thing. No amount of fighting would change it.

She was
his
.

Dejan buried his face against her shoulder and closed his teeth on her skin, muffling the hoarse, desperate groan that accompanied his release. Power flooded her, demanded she come with him as his steady rhythm turned ragged.

His frantic pleasure sparked her own again. Lexa tried to hold back her scream but a keening wail escaped, and she bit her lip hard to quiet it. It was too loud even to her own ears, which still buzzed and roared in the aftermath of orgasm.

"Lexa." Her name rasped from his lips as he stilled above her. "Mine."

Too late for the word to bring anything but warm satisfaction, but Lexa was nothing if not stubborn. "We are allowed no claim on one another."

His nudged her hair out of the way and pressed a hot kiss to the back of her neck. "Tell me it's not the truth."

"That doesn't make it less likely to hurt us both."

"And hiding from it will?"

"No." She sighed. "Impossible, and I still can't walk away."

He whispered the word against the back of her neck a second time. "Mine."

Maybe they could handle this. All she knew was that they had to try. Lexa lifted a hand to his face. "Yes, yours."

The ball slammed past Dejan, and Hektor barked out a laugh. "You're not even paying attention."

He wasn't, and he knew it. Dejan ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head. "I'm too tired for games today. I didn't sleep well last night."

Hektor caught the small white ball as it rebounded. "So the rumors floating around the lounge are true."