The Royal's Obsession (6 page)

“I don't,” he said. “Ask for another truth.”

He was like a cobra that had captivated her. She stared up at him. In the darkness, she could make out only a few details of his face. She knew that he was smiling, that much was true. She swallowed hard.

“Give me another truth,” she said.

“From the moment I laid eyes on you, I’ve been imagining what would happen if I kissed you instead of talking to you.”

Her breath sighed between her lips. With him so close, she could imagine the soft brush of his lips against hers, the sweetness that they could share together.

“Ask me for another truth,” he urged.

“Tell me another truth.”

“When I see you laugh and walk, I see such grace that it might drive me crazy. You could seduce a man simply by walking past and looking at woven goods in a little marketplace. I have never met anyone quite like you, and it makes my heart beat faster.”

He paused. Augustine reached out one hand towards her face. She didn't flinch back; instead she simply sat still and wide-eyed as he stroked the gentlest caress down her cheek. His touch left electricity in its wake, and she stifled a soft sigh.

“Give me another truth,” she murmured, eyes never leaving his.

“Sometimes I want you so much it makes me cruel. I am not proud of this, but I recognize it. You deserve to know that as well.”

The silence between them stretched out. When Anastasia swallowed, they could both hear the dry click of her throat.

“Ask me for a truth,” she said softly.

“Tell me something true, Anastasia.”

The part of her that he had hurt so carelessly on the island cried against this. It told her that what she did next was pure foolishness and that she would quickly regret all of it. The rest of her responded that she didn't care. He had asked for a truth, and there was one above all that she wanted to give to him.

“I…I have been drawn to you ever since I saw you. I don't always know what to do with that. Sometimes you are cruel, and I want to get as far away from you as I can. Sometimes you are kind, and it lights up the world.”

She struggled with her words for a moment, and then she decided to throw caution to the winds. She reached up to take his hand, pressing it to her cheek.

“But my truth right this moment is that I want you to touch me. I want you to touch me so deeply and so thoroughly that I forget my name and shout yours instead.”

He froze, hand still outstretched, still as a statue. Anastasia's heart started beating faster. Perhaps she had misread him. Perhaps he was offended, or angry, or…

Suddenly, he knelt in front of her. She barely stifled a squawk of dismay before he leaned in for a kiss, his hand cradling her face with a shocking amount of tenderness.

The kiss was gentle and sweet, surprising in its own way. The touch of his lips against hers made her whimper with the electricity between them, and that was before his tongue ran silkily along her bottom lip. She held herself still as he kissed her, holding himself back with beautiful restraint. When he pulled back, his eyes were wild.

“I want you,” he said roughly. “I want you. More than I can remember wanting anything. If you say yes to me right now, I swear I will make you feel so good, Anastasia, I swear—”

“Yes,” she murmured desperately. “Yes. That is what I want. Please. I want you, Augustine—”

His mouth pressed against hers, stopping her impassioned words. This kiss, though still sweet, was hotter, filled with masculine need. When his tongue pressed into her mouth, she welcomed it, relishing the hot vital life of Augustine's body. Somehow her hands landed on his shoulders, clinging to him as if it would kill her to let go.

It took her a moment to realize that when she grasped his shoulders, she had let go of her robe. The sound he made, half-groan and half-sigh, make her pull back with shock. The edges of her silk robe had fallen apart to reveal her pale breasts and belly. She would have blushed and stammered, but with a gentle touch to her neck, Augustine told her he didn't mind at all.

“God in Heaven,” he murmured. “I might not have been nearly so collected if I had known that you were entirely bare underneath your robe…”

“You came knocking on my door in the middle of the night,” she murmured. “I don't know what you were expecting.”

“Not this,” Augustine admitted. “Though perhaps in my deepest heart I hoped…”

With a surprisingly delicate touch, he eased the robe down her shoulders. She felt naked for a single moment, and then, still kneeling, he was pressed against her, his mouth on hers and his hands brushing against her shoulders with gentle touches. She could feel the light hair on his chest brush irresistibly against her nipples, making them harden with excitement.

When he edged a little closer, she had to part her knees so he could press between them. She could feel his flanks against her calves, and even that intimacy threatened to take her breath away.

Through it all, he never stopped kissing her. Augustine kissed her as if he wouldn't stop until the sky fell in, and all she wanted was for him to be closer.

After some timeless moment, his mouth drifted from hers down to the point of her shoulder. To her surprise, he kissed his way down her arm to her hand. At first, she didn't understand, but when he lapped at the cup of her palm, a shiver of desire ran up her spine.

“You are simply exquisite,” he murmured, kissing each of her fingers. “Every breath of you is responsive and wanting.”

She started to reply, but then he slipped two of her fingers into his mouth, suckling on them gently. She wouldn't have thought that such a simple thing would arouse her as much as it did, but when the shivers of desire raced through her body, she could only moan. Her knees tightened on his legs, and right then, she would have likely agreed to anything he asked.

Slowly, leisurely, he worked his way down her arm again, and this time the target of his tender ministrations were her breasts. She had never thought of her breasts as a very sensitive part of her. She had certainly had to fend off amorous suitors to the point where she knew they were desirable, but until Augustine started kissing them and stroking them with the most delicate motions, she had never realized how much pleasure they could bring her.

By the time he was done, she was squirming in the chair, her breath coming in soft mewls of need. When he pulled back, she cried out, but he only laughed.

“Patience, beautiful. I'll give you what you want, never fear.”

He slid back slightly, but only so he could spread her legs a little wider. She whimpered when he started to kiss his way up one smooth thigh. Her hands ended up knotted in his thick dark hair, but she couldn't pull him forward. It was as if he were made of living stone, stone that was intent on pleasuring her in a slow and unhurried way no matter what she needed.

When he came to the very seat of her desire, he started slowly and gently. At first, he only drew his tongue along her slit, adding the wetness of his mouth to the wetness that was already there. She could feel the heat in her body rising to meet him, making her more and more desperate. Then the tip of his tongue found her clit, sending a bolt of electricity through a body that was already sensitized to his touch. He didn't stop there. His tongue worked at her clit even as his hands held her legs wide for him. With her legs immobilized, it was all she could do to hang on to him.

She was held open to the pleasure that he wanted to give her, and she was helpless against the power of the sensations that he was visiting upon her. Anastasia could feel the shocks of pleasure shoot through her, each more powerful than the last until she trembled with need and desire.

“Please, please, Augustine, please! I need you, please!”

As if her cry had given him what he needed, he pressed his mouth hard against her body, giving her the sensation that she needed to explode. It was like fireworks shooting through her body, it was as if a thousand colors suddenly bloomed in sightless eyes. Her body was rigid with pleasure and need finally released. She knew she was crying out with her release. She knew that her fingers were buried in his hair and yanking quite hard. She knew nothing else as the pleasure took her.

Finally, she fell back bonelessly in the chair, her body soaked in sweat and her eyes wide. She felt as if she had passed through fire and come through exhausted but triumphant. All she could do was reach down to brush her fingers across his cheek, making him smile.

“You are beautiful when you are racked with pleasure,” he said tenderly. “I have never seen anything that I want more…'

“What are you waiting for?” she said, finding her voice. “That wasn't all that I wanted…I mean, I didn't intend for this pleasure to be one sided.”

He chuckled a little, shaking his head.

“I wasn't so crass as to come down here with a condom.”

“Hardly a problem. Trinity made sure to stock all of the dressers in the rooms with a healthy supply of condoms. I think she said something about stranger things happening at sea.”

With a slightly incredulous look, Augustine stepped over to the drawer she indicated. The selection in that drawer was enough to make his eyebrows shoot up.

“My sister-in-law has a very enthusiastic idea of what her guests will be doing,” he said, pulling a condom out of the assortment.

“Well, in all fairness, we are putting it to good use.”

He turned, stepping out of his pants to sheathe his cock in latex. For a brief moment, she could see his member jutting proudly from his body, and the only thought that entered her mind was how much she needed him.

When he turned around, she stood up, her hands twisting in front of her.

“I…I haven't done much of this,” she murmured. “Will you tell me what pleases you most?'

Any amusement fell off his face, and he looked at her tenderly.

“You please me,” he said simply. “You, as you are, standing there with your skin still flushed from my mouth and still wet from your desire, you please me.”

He leaned in close to kiss her again. She realized with a pleasant shock that she could taste her own moisture on his lips. When they broke apart, Augustine pressed her down to the bed. She lay back and gazed up at him as he knelt over her.

“You're so beautiful,” she murmured, and he laughed.

“I think I should make love to you in front of a mirror sometime,” he said, coming to lie down on top of her. “I should show you how lovely you are after you have found your release.”

She wanted to answer him, but then she felt his cock brush against her slit. She could feel him covering his cock in her juices until the slide was smooth and easy. To her disbelief, she felt her body start to rise and meet him again.

“That's my beautiful girl,” he crooned. “That's perfect…”

He slid inside her with one deep thrust. In a single moment, they were as close as two humans could get, staring into each other's eyes. Then with a sound that was as much a growl as anything else, he started to thrust inside her.

Each thrust was slow and deep, ending just short of driving her head into the bed frame behind her. He took his time with her, drawing out his own pleasure as much as he had hers.

She would have been lost in a sensual haze if she hadn't felt the first urgent sparks of electricity fly through her again.

“Oh god,” she whimpered, making Augustine halt with concern.

“Anastasia? Are you all right?”

He started to pull away, but she halted him with a hand to his hip.

“No, please…please don't stop. It's just that I think I might…again…”

She couldn't find the words in her pleasure, but he understood her well enough. His eyes widened, and she could feel a tremor run through his muscular frame.

Suddenly, his motions became less focused, less steady. He was muttering something to her in his native Greek, and even though she didn't understand, it struck a spark inside her. She knew that he spoke of need and want and how good she felt.

Somehow the idea of him losing control made her pleasure even hotter. Without thinking of what she was doing, she wrapped her legs around his hips, dragging him even closer as she ran her hands down his arms.

“Oh, please, please,” she whimpered. “Please!”

On her final word, to her near disbelief, a second orgasm rocketed through her body, making her cry out. She clung to him, sobbing into his shoulder as he thrust into her one last time.

For a long moment, they simply shook together, clinging to one another as if they were lost in a storm. In a way, they were.

She was the one who moved first. As good as he felt, he was heavy, and so she pushed him to one side. She felt the loss of his presence in her body keenly, but she snuggled up next to his side as comfortably as if she had done it for years.

“You are…an incredible woman,” he murmured. She was pleased to hear how hoarse his voice was.

“Oh really? I would say that you were the one who was doing all the work,” she murmured in amusement.

“Well, I have always believed that there is an art to accepting pleasure,” he said, bringing her even closer. “When I saw you tense a second time, when I felt the way you clung to me…You are wrong if you think you are anything less than incredible, Anastasia.”

“You almost sound serious,” she said with a chuckle, and when he opened his mouth to argue, she leaned up and kissed him.

“That's one way to shut me up,” he said with a sigh.

He went to her small bathroom to take care of the condom, leaving her in a bed that smelled of him, of her, and of what they had done together. While was gone, the bed felt absurdly cold and empty. It was as if she were returning to reality, and she fought it off as best she could.

When he came out of the bathroom, he simply came and stood by the bed.

“What is it?” she asked, propping herself back up on one elbow. “Was I taking up too much space? There's actually plenty of room.”

He laughed a little at her joke, but he still didn't climb back into the bed with her. “Anastasia, how do you feel?”

She blinked. “Is that a trick question?”

“Not at all. Just a question for which I want a truthful answer.”