Winter's Kiss (14 page)

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have him love her. She would never know another’s touch. In her heart, there was only Winter, eternally.

A sigh escaped her when his lips caressed her cheek, following the line of her jaw. Her heart thumped hard against her chest, accelerating with each brush of his lips against her overheated flesh. She kept still, afraid to move and break the spell that they were under. She didn’t want him to stop. She never wanted him to stop.

His hand skimmed down from her jaw to her neck, his touch so light she barely felt it. It tickled her, sending shivers of arousal down her spine and turning her abdomen warm. Her whole body felt as though it was tightening.

“Relax,” he whispered and pressed a kiss to her throat. Her heart broke into a gallop, thundering as he worked his way down the slope of her neck. His mouth paused over her jugular and she gasped at air, drowning in the thought that he would bite her. “You are too tense.”

Too tense in general or too tense to bite? She longed to feel his teeth in her, to feel what it might have been like to be his. Was her blood still tainted in his eyes? Was it tempting him again?

He closed his mouth over a point on her throat and groaned when he suckled her skin hard enough to bruise the soft delicate flesh. It answered her question. He wanted her blood. Did that mean her transformation was complete? She had expected to feel more different.

Her eyes rolled back in her head when a sharp pain shot out from the point where his mouth latched on to her neck. When he sucked again, a low rumbling sound came from him.

Vampires purred?

With a sigh, she let her head fall back and slumped. His arm slid around her back to support her and his mouth continued to work furiously at the tiny scratch on her throat. She silently begged him to bite her, to do more than just take a sip from a scratch. Right now, she would give every drop of blood she had to feel him against her like this, holding her and kissing her, flesh to flesh, and soul to soul.

He kissed up her neck, leaving a wet trail that the chill air caught and froze against her skin, marking her forever in her mind. The point where he had scratched her throbbed and ached, but the pleasure that radiated outwards from that point erased any pain.

“Winter?” she whispered at the ceiling of the barn, not wanting to open her eyes and see where they were. In her mind, they were back in his room, at the place where she had really wanted to ask him to do this with her.

“Quiet,” Winter murmured in her ear and then kissed it. “I will give you this moment, Nika, but I fear it will destroy us both.”

Nika wanted to retaliate by mentioning that, if anything, he was the one destroying them both. He was the one who refused to be with her, who wanted to leave. She held her tongue though, hating herself for understanding his need and reason for leaving and for not having the courage to try to convince him otherwise. This close to him, she swore she could sense his pain and his voice had held such hurt. Now wasn’t the time to try to make him stay. She had wanted this moment, knowing in her heart that it would only hurt her in the end, and she

wasn’t going to change her mind now, not when he wanted it too.

Surrendering herself, she leaned her head against his so their foreheads were touching and placed her hands on his shoulders. She cursed the tears that filled her eyes when he removed her cloak from her shoulders and then slowly laid her down. With the cloak as her
bed,
she lay on the cold floor, waiting, wanting to feel Winter against
her,
inside her.

“Nika?” he whispered and leaned over her. His breath was cold against her lips. She could sense his hands either side of her head and hers settled on his arms. Her eyes slowly opened so she could see him as she wanted to. She needed to see his face and read his emotions in his dark eyes.

They held all his feelings now and hid nothing from her, not like they used to. She smiled up at him and carefully brushed the long strands of hair from his face, tucking them behind his ear. His eyes softened with affection and then darkened again with pain. Her brow furrowed to see how much this was hurting him and it brought back her own pain and fear. She held her smile and cupped his cheek, absorbing how beautiful he was and putting it to memory so she would always remember him this way—unguarded, full of love and as vulnerable as she felt. Her thumb stroked the subtle curve of his lips, her eyes locked with his.

“Quiet,” she said, repeating his earlier words. “I will give you this moment, Winter, but forgive me for hoping it will change us both.”

He closed his eyes and lowered his head towards her. The moment his lips touched hers, she craned her neck towards him, eager for his kisses. They were short and

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fierce at first, gradually slowing and becoming more sensual. A hot wave rushed through her at the slide of his tongue against her lips and she parted them, her own tongue coming to meet his. Using his movements as a guide, she began to respond to his kiss, her lips playing with his in a gentle way that made the cold of the room disappear. Everything disappeared. In this moment, there was only Winter, kissing her, his hands so close to her body but achingly distant.

She moaned into his mouth, desperate for him to touch her. She wanted to feel a man’s hands on her for the first time, wanted to feel Winter’s hands on her in all the ways she had imagined. She was sure it would feel better than she had ever dreamed.

His mouth left hers and he kissed along her jaw. Her head turned to the side, allowing him to reach her neck. She ached for him to bite her too, but something told her that he wouldn’t fulfil that wish.

“Nika?” Winter whispered into her ear between kisses against her throat.

“Yes?” she half moaned, half whispered her answer. A tingling shiver danced across her skin each time he kissed her neck and she wrapped her arms around him. Her fingers burrowed into his hair and she resisted the temptation to untie it. Fallen strands of it tickled her face. She held his mouth to her neck with one hand and slid the other down over his back. It stopped when she hit the wide leather halter on his back that contained small knives. They were ice cold under her fingers, an unwelcome reminder of the danger she was in and everything that was happening.

Her moment of fantasy fled and the knowledge that Winter would leave her haunted her heart. She squeezed

her eyes shut against it, but couldn’t chase it away. Winter’s kisses ceased and he raised himself up. She couldn’t look at him, not while she was teetering on the brink,
torn
between
telling
him to
stop and
begging him to continue, torn between asking him to stay and letting him leave.

He pushed himself up so his body was no longer against hers. Sudden cold invaded her body where his had been, chilling her.

“Sorry,” he muttered and she cracked an eye open to look at him. Her gaze followed his pale slender fingers as he undid the holster of knives and removed it, laying it down in the corner protected by his cloak. He gave her an awkward smile while he removed his sword and dagger from his belt too. She looked down at her own waist and the dagger there. In her haste, she had forgotten about the weapons too.

“Nothing to apologise for,” she said and stood. She undid her belt so she could remove the dagger. The last thing she wanted was to accidentally stab herself or him with it during their lovemaking. She swallowed at that word. Nerves fluttered in her stomach. Lovemaking. The way he had been kissing her and had laid her down on the ground led her to suspect that things were heading that way. She looked around at the barn. She had never thought that her first time would be in a rickety barn in the freezing cold. Then again, she had never thought that her first time would be with a vampire.

A vampire.

Her gaze slid to Winter. He had stood and was removing his armour. She had forgotten about that too. Her gaze wandered downwards as he peeled off the chest plate and then the back plate. It skipped over his black shirt

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to his trousers
and
her eyes widened when she saw the outline of his erection. He wanted her then. There was no doubt about that. A voice at the back of her head told her to look away before he caught her staring at his hard length, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away. They studied the tented material of his trousers and the clearly visible shape of the head as it pressed against the black cotton.

Before she could think about what she was doing, she was reaching out towards it, curiosity driving her. Winter visibly tensed when her fingertips made contact with the sensitive head of his length and then groaned low in his throat. She looked up to find that he had his eyes closed, his hands frozen in mid-air, halfway through unbuttoning his shirt collar. Her heart pounded when he tilted his head back and frowned, an expression of pure pleasure crossing his face. Pleasure that she had caused. The sight of it written so clearly across his face gave her the
courage
to continue. She breathed deep and slow to calm herself and then ran her fingers up the length of his erection. She wanted to touch it properly, to free it from its cotton cage and feel it.

The sound of his zipper lowering was loud in the silence and she swallowed again, her mouth so dry that her throat felt sticky. Her lips parted and she breathed harder, her focus intent on his groin. He groaned again when she slid her hand into the open zipper. She had to turn it at a difficult angle to reach his cock, but when she

did, an inferno burned through her and her groin throbbed in response to the silken feel of his shaft beneath her fingers. It was hard but felt soft. She wrapped her fingers around its girth and gave it a squeeze to feel how hard he was for her. Winter groaned again.

She glanced up at him and this time he looked down at her, eyes rich purple and dark with fiery passion. She smiled nervously and then moved to kneel in front of him. Her leg ached but she barely felt it. She was so engrossed in exploring him that the world could have ended and she wouldn’t have noticed.

Winter’s hands brushed hers and she stilled. He unbuckled his belt, undid the button and pushed his trousers and boxer shorts over his hips. They slid down to his knees in a swish of material and pooled there, halted by his boots. She stared at his shaft. The sight of her hand wrapped around it so brazenly made her blush.

“Have you ever…?” Winter trailed off when she shook her head, answering his half-spoken question. It could have been one of a million and the answer would have always been the same.

Had she ever had sex? No. Had she ever kissed a man? No. Had she ever touched a man? No. Had she ever been touched? No, and she longed to feel it, longed to finally be a woman.

His left hand covered hers where it gripped his cock. His gaze held hers.

“I am hungry,” he whispered and his gaze flickered to her neck, down to her breasts, and back to her eyes again. She knew what he was saying. It wasn’t just blood he craved. It was her body too. “I have little control.”

Those four words frightened her. In his eyes, she could see the truth of it. There was a chance that he could hurt her. She blinked away her fear and told herself that he would try not to. Just as he fought to resist her blood, he would fight to resist being too rough in his search for pleasure.

“Give me some control back,” he said and she wondered what he meant. He cleared the confusion from her mind by moving her hand along his hard length, forcing her to stroke him. He wanted to climax. She had heard from friends and seen in late night movies that when a man had climaxed it made it more difficult for them to do it again soon. Did it also give him more control over his passion and stop him from racing towards his orgasm?

She tightened her grip on his cock and he tensed and moaned. His hand left hers and he nodded when she continued to stroke his length. His eyes closed and he frowned. She noticed he was breathing now, fast and hard. He felt good in her hands, heavy and solid, silken and cool. She licked her lips and slowed her movements, not wanting this to be over too soon.

Moving closer to him, she brought her other hand up and pushed her fingers through the tangled mass of dark curls surrounding the base of his length. Winter moaned again when she lowered her hand
and
stroked his balls. They felt fluid beneath her touch, moving easily. She licked her lips. His length in her hand felt nice. What would it feel like in her mouth? She threw a nervous glance up at Winter’s face to check that he still had his eyes closed and then stared at his cock again. Poking her tongue out, she tentatively licked the head.

Winter’s deep groan filled the broken silence. His hand claimed her shoulder, fingers tensing against it and digging in, as though he needed to steady himself.

She licked again and elicited another moan from him. He preferred her tongue to her fingers. She ran her tongue around the head of his cock, feeling its softness and tasting the salty tang of his seed. Opening her mouth, she wrapped her lips around the top of his length and swirled her tongue around it. Winter’s hips bucked forwards and drove his cock into her mouth. His grip on her shoulder tightened to the point it was painful. She mumbled her ‘ouch’ into his length and his grip loosened.

Stroking his cock with her hand at the same time as she suckled the tip seemed to reduce Winter to a trembling babbling mess. She smiled against him and squeezed her thighs, loving the warm pooling at the apex of them and the way her body felt tense with need. She had touched herself a few times but it had never made her feel like this.