by Ellen Mint
“Well, this is…not the most interesting place in the world,” Emeric began, a hand rubbing vigorously through his hair as if he hadn’t planned to bring a woman up here. Oh dear lord, Nadire, what are you doing?
His wandering eyes shifted from the silent television to hers, and the electricity snapped into place. A lopsided smile played with his lips. “Though your presence increases its standing dramatically.”
“Why do I have the sudden suspicion you’ve well rehearsed this part?” Nadire’s brain tried to throw cold logic on her rampaging lust, but her famished tongue twisted the words into a playful jest. She didn’t care if she was woman number five on his stop. Not when he stared at her like he struggled against himself from scooping her into his arms.
Emeric snickered at the idea. “If true, I would have a finer selection to calm the nerves.” To articulate his half-thoughts, he strode to his luggage and procured a bottle. It was already half consumed. “Would you care for a drink?”
“Schnapps?” Nadire chuckled, once again wondering who this man was. “Peach no less. Who drinks it straight?”
“Fair enough.” He placed the bottle onto the dresser in case it was required to puncture through the awkward situation of two near-strangers attempting to get into each others trousers.
The doubt she thought she smothered was finding its way into her ear. It whispered how foolish this was, how she’d only come to regret it by dawn’s light, as was typical for her. The eyes that pinned her to the ground wandered off to stare at one of the paintings over the bed. That gave doubt all the opening it needed.
Nadire scratched at the back of her head, as if she could pluck the foolish fear free and flick it away, when she wiped at a sheen of sweat clinging to the nape. Humid heat clung to the still room, her body finally noticing the still air. “You don’t have the A/C on?” she asked, trying to waft the lapels of her blazer to get a bit of a breeze going.
Emeric glanced to the unit below the window, most rooms rattling away while cooling their beds to near freezing. His lip curled up in thought as if he hadn’t noticed and her asking made him realize the faux pas. “No.” He shook his head, his eyes crinkling at the edge. With a measured step, he moved closer to Nadire.
Even as her skin broiled, her body froze in his headlight stare. She clenched her toes in her shoes, wondering what he was doing but incapable of moving away. No, not incapable. She didn’t want to. Emeric paused a hand’s reach from her, his chest rising as if he too was struggling for a breath.
Slowly, he cut through the muggy air, the tips of his fingers glancing against the middle of her forehead. Nadire stared up into his face watching the beads of sweat part from his fingertips. “I don’t like the cold,” Emeric breathed, his fingers slipping across her forehead. Sparks erupted in their wake, her eyes burning to not miss a second of his handsome face, her skin aching for him to swipe his touch back and forth. Not just over her forehead but every inch of her.
With a pout to his chewable bottom lip, Emeric slid his palm down her hairline and back towards her ear. Just as his tips combed through her fallen tresses, the forefinger glancing to her nape, Nadire launched forward.
She ached for a proper taste of him, of those lips that flitted so easily between smirk and concentration. How softly they parted, skimming against hers and sending glimmering sparks down her spine.
Emeric’s caressing hand wound her hair up into a fist and he tugged her to him. What was supposed to be a gentle first kiss, a tender dip to test the waters, erupted into an aching need. Nadire scrambled to yank her blazer off even as she returned to his lips. Slipping her tongue into his mouth, she tasted a surprise of cardamom and anise instead of the lingering beer. Hungry for more, she puckered her lips against his bottom one and slowly sucked it in between her teeth. She didn’t bite down, not yet, but scraped the tip against his tender skin.
That caused a reaction, Emeric rearing back in surprise. His lips slipped from hers, his hands falling from her hair. Trying to not flinch, Nadire feared staring up to find the man had been joking about the biting suggestion and was actually as vanilla as one could be.
Ice-blue eyes scoured her, stripping her to the bone. Nadire gulped, shifting haphazardly on the heels she hadn’t even kicked off yet. Running was an option. Forget the blazer, she had better at home. Just turn to bolt and…
Hands swung around her waist, both so large the heels rested upon her hips even as the tips danced against her spine. She gulped, staring up into a wolfish grin running from his lips to his eyes. “Merciful Lord in Heaven,” Emeric gasped. With nary any effort, he spun on his feet, lifting Nadire into the air.
A slight panic merging with a laugh erupted from her throat when she fell from the stretch of his arms onto the bed. As soon as her backside sunk into the mattress, Emeric’s free hands slammed in beside her hips. Both fists dug into the duvet, wadding it as he dove forward. Burning lips suckered first to hers, then down across her jawline. It was no kiss he lavished her in but a tender bite, his teeth scraping deeper with each one.
Nadire’s breath panted in staccato, her eyes shut tight as she savored in the thrill of a man nibbling down her throat. As Emeric slipped from her neck to her collarbone, he paused at the blouse still in the way. Nadire had to shake her fingers awake. They’d been digging so hard into his shoulders to keep him going they’d lost all feeling.
Staring deep into his begging eyes, she started to unbutton her blouse. As the cream silk fell to the sides, revealing her white lacy bra, an animalistic moan erupted from Emeric. Nadire was only halfway through the buttons, but he couldn’t wait. Sweeping a hand over the collar of her shirt, he exposed her shoulder and plunged his lips down.
“Dear God!” Nadire cried as he bit into her skin. Not enough to break the surface, or even leave a bruise, but it was… She had no words. It hurt the way a pinch would, but it wasn’t pain that emanated from the bite and through her blood. Her loins pulsed to be strummed, the bite adding another plea for the maestro to drop the first beat.
But concerned twisted to her, Emeric leaning away from her flesh even as he lapped his tongue down his lips, the tip dancing against his chin. He moved to slide away, the hips that’d nearly pressed against her falling further away. No, she didn’t want that. She needed him!
Grabbing his shirt, Nadire dug in with her claws, holding him in place. He glanced down at her grip, a laugh rumbling in his belly, when she yanked the shirt apart. No buttons ripped off from her hunger, but — like magic — his shirt fell apart to reveal that she wasn’t even close in her earlier assessment.
Where Nadire had assumed a taut form out of the renaissance was in actuality a barbarian god. His pecs heaved, pillowed from the strength wrought inside the sheer cliff of muscles. The abs peaked and peeked between the dangling remains of his shirt, her fingers trembling to trail up and down each beckoning curve.
Screwing her courage up, Nadire reached out, a trail of black hair beckoning her to trace the path deeper to his rising action below. Just as she was about to skirt a finger against it, the terrain rose away. Frowning, Nadire looked up to watch Emeric shrug off his shirt.
“You’re much more forceful than you look,” he said, dropping the useless fabric to the floor. She expected him to return to pinning her to the bed, but instead, he sat down beside her. His free hand caressed her shoulder he exposed, the tips darting over her collarbone but never dipping down her lace-shrouded breasts.
“Is that a bad thing?” she asked.
“No, not in the slightest. I dare say I prefer it. It’s only…” His face crinkled in consternation, the puzzling look returning. Bending over, he placed his parted lips against her skin. It wasn’t a kiss, nor a bite, but it caused Nadire to pant for more as he pulled his tender lips in swerving circles across her shoulder.
Warm breath parted the sweat beading up her skin and Emeric paused. “You do not taste of sin,” he said, rising away to once again pin her in place with his eyes.
D
idn’t taste of sin? That was a new one. “Well,” she shrugged, her shoulder yanking the shirt enough it exposed all of the left cup of her bra. Glancing down at it, Nadire chuckled. “I’m no saint.”
A laugh rolled from Emeric’s mouth to his eyes. It had to sequester there as he guided Nadire back onto the bed. “Good,” he whispered before plunging deep into her mouth. Balanced upon a solitary hand buckling the mattress beside her head, the tips of his fingers plying through her fallen hair, Emeric began to undo the last buttons. Nadire drew her thigh higher, skimming her calf against the man’s tight hip. In doing so, the bottom of her heel bounced against the firm buttock. His hungry lips parted at the move, the gasp of shock billowing in her mouth as he screwed his hypnotizing eyes up tight.
Nadire smirked, about to gently kick into him again, when a hot palm pressed to her naked flesh right below the belly button. Sweet Lord in heaven! He cupped her curves, the pinkie playfully fluttering below the waistband of her pants. When it found the panties low on her hips, it slipped its way under. Moaning, Nadire kicked herself higher up the bed, giving him the reach to plumb her depths.
“No.” The lips that sucked the air from her lungs drew away as his forehead pressed against hers. “No saint,” he laughed, the entire flat of his palm tucking under her panties.
Painstakingly slowly, his fingers drifted through her tended bush as if he was caressing a wild animal. Nadire’s legs hooked around his hips, both ankles pressing the edge of her heels into his hard flesh. Emeric plunged in, swirling her arousal up to her throbbing clit.
Pleasure overload flooded her body, goosebumps erupting across her skin as his certain, whisper touch turned to rampaging electricity. Nadire clenched upward, pressing his trilling finger as hard as she could against her, her lower half leaving the bed entirely as she jammed her head into the mattress. Fumbling to reach for anything, her hand smacked against his shoulders, the man not even flinching from the attack.
Quietly apologizing in her head, she pawed about that mountainous terrain of his chest. Soft black down tickled the tips of her fingers, bringing another flush to Nadire’s already raging inferno. The hair upon his chest was as thick as his head, Nadire’s hand parting it like a family of deer fanning out through a field of wheat. She delighted in the primal masculinity, twirling her fingers to get a grip when her pinkie fell into a fallow section of the lush field.
Curious, she traced the empty line back and up, which was when Emeric removed his pleasureful finger dance from below her trousers. Nadire rose to sit and watched the man slowly taking in a breath as if he had to calm his racing heart. Her hand hovered just above the section of missing chest hair, right at the top of his left pec.
Stark white lines cut through his light tan skin, each one swooping from a blunt end to a sharp point as if a calligraphy pen drew them. It reminded her of the old cave paintings of animals, this one clearly a four-legged creature though only two were drawn. A thin head that was conical shaped peered to the left, while a great arc three times the size of the head curled off the top. Horns?
A thousand questions rolled through her mind. What was that? What did it represent? How did he get a scar of such strange proportions? But, as she focused away from his trembling chest she found concern in his eyes. They didn’t root her to the ground as before or cause her entire spine to tremble in anticipation of his touch. No, now they pleaded with her to…
She dipped deeper into her mind, trying to get a sense of the want that was written across his face. It had to be there. Something raw and painful, so deep that it must burn.
Damn it. For some reason, it wouldn’t come. But he was still looking, still staring.
“Does it…?” She swept her fingers against the rich hair circling the startled scar. Emeric filled his lungs with air, inflating his chest to press closer to her palm. “Does it hurt?” she finished, cupping her palm over the white mark.
A smile lifted the edge of his lips, whatever concern he’d had banished. She stared at him, waiting for an answer, but Emeric drew his palm against her shoulder. Her blouse slipped free, revealing the mass of freckles. Traipsing his fingers against her exposed collarbones, every touch leaving ripples of excitement through her body, Emeric began to slide down her still clothed right arm.
As he circled his hand against the back of her palm, he pressed her touch tighter to his skin until both hands were flush. Leaning so close, he tipped Nadire back until his lips brushed against her ear. “No,” Emeric whispered.
Her head swung to the side, catching him in a kiss. As he yanked the last of her shirt off, she swept down the chest hair to find his belt. Blindly, she tugged on a strange buckle, not caring what it looked like as long as she could get it free. Emeric made quick work unhooking her bra from behind her back. Clamping his teeth around a shoulder strap he began to free her breasts from their lacy purgatory. While tugging it down her arm, he let the edge of his teeth scrape against her skin, slick hot kisses trailing its wake. Nadire gasped with each touch.
A metal clank announced the breaking of his belt, her trembling fingers wrapping around the zipper. She could feel his excitement pressing against his pants, begging to be unleashed onto her. With a smirk, Nadire tipped her head to the side, her black curls tumbling off her shoulder to hide away a single brown nipple.
“What do you want?” she purred, waiting to learn every dirty thought rampaging in his mind.
Only silence answered her. Every other man she’d been with it was a cacophony, an unending press for her to do this, to be this, to perform that. And now…
Emeric drew his palms up her waist, pausing just below her breasts. “Isn’t it obvious?” he asked.
No. Did he not want this? Was she not even acceptable enough for him? Why couldn’t she hear his wants?
Hands cupped her breasts, gently pulsing into her giving flesh as he sucked upon her neck. Nadire’s arms enveloped his head, her skin nested in the thick black mane as she pulled him tight to her. When he flicked both thumb and forefinger over both her nipples, Emeric breathed, “You.”
Grabbing onto his chest, Nadire spun the pair on the bed so she was on top. Emeric’s eyes opened in shock, blinking fast from her display of strength, but Nadire wasn’t finished. With a hunger stirred to life from her first glance into his eyes, she yanked his pants free.
“It’s uh…” Whatever Emeric was going to say to defend his penis, not that it needed an acolyte, was trampled by Nadire leaping back on top of him. Hands kneaded breasts and buttocks, lips sucked upon necks and nipples, and all the while her body pulsed as if it was approaching an explosion of unending pleasure.
When he finally unbuttoned her trousers, tugging them down her hips and exposing her pubic hair to the air, Emeric sighed. “You don’t happen to have any prophylactics, do you?”
“What?” She gulped, trying to yank her mind back from the blissful thoughts of his cock gliding against her inner thigh. “You don’t?”
The naked man shrugged. “I wasn’t the one to suggest we leave the bar.”
“Yes, it’s…” Panting, Nadire slipped off the bed. Her trousers tumbled off her legs, landing inside of his pants as she fumbled at first for any drawer in range, then paused. That would be impossible to explain. Her purse. Reaching her hand inside, she tried to drum up the necessary want. Give me a damn condom, she thought hard, but her fingers only rustled through emptiness.
Flushing with both embarrassment and anger at this foolish failure, her eyes drifted from glaring through space to the naked man stretched out upon the bed. His cock stood straight at attention, practically pleading for her to return. He’d raised up on his elbows to watch her, causing the crown to lay flush against his bellybutton. A sheen of sweat drew a tempting sparkle to the skin that intoxicated her with one touch.
I don’t just want him, I need him.
Plastic and foil pinched between her fingers and she smiled wide. “Got one,” she pronounced, tugging the latex out and scampering back. Emeric wa
s fast to catch it, his fingers working to tear the condom free when he paused and spun the packaging around.
“Candy cane colored?” He laughed, pointing out the red and white stripes along the outside.
You have to be kidding me. Nadire groaned internally, wanting to punch whatever deity gifted her these powers, but it wouldn’t do well to anger the giving horse. Instead, she threw on a smile. “They love to stick to theme at these things.”
Emeric chuckled, already barbering up his pole. “I don’t mind…” His ice-blue eyes raised from the red and white striped cock Nadire refused to look at now. A fire burned inside them while he roughed his palm over her jawline. Stumbling over, she knuckle-crawled her way back to him. His hand wrapped around the nape of her neck and he whispered against her lips, “…as long as I get to use it.”
Hot kisses wet with need slathered her body as Nadire climbed atop him. She savored in his strong cock stroking her naked backside while she roughed her nose through his chest hair. Emeric resumed titillating her breasts, his gentle twists of her nipples growing more daring with each pant from her throat.
It was delightful, to lose herself in the taste and the woodsy musk of his skin. To not feel a man begging and pleading inside of her soul for what he wanted. To listen only to her wants in her head. But, as Nadire’s wandering lips found their way back up to his neck she found herself bereft. What was she to do if not appease his want?
“Please.” A palm cupped her cheek, fingertips brushing her hair back behind her ear as his thumb circled her lips. In exquisite agony, she rolled her tongue around it, trying to invite the digit into her mouth, but Emeric held it aloft. Nadire blinked, focusing on him.
His gaze burned brighter than the northern star, his face flush in desire as he moaned, “Let me watch you come undone.”
Giddiness flooded her, Nadire ecstatic at the thought of giving in to her own wants, to live for herself. What a novel concept. Parting her thighs, she eased back carefully, fearful of a too-tight fit. But Emeric had been stroking her both outside and in since their first meeting. She feared she might gush from the level of arousal gliding him in.