Forbidden Craving

by Gena Showalter

  She trembled. “Valerian said I couldn’t survive the water alone. We’ll have to help each other swim.”

  “I’m ready.”

  She glanced to the bathing curtain, saying, “Then there’s no better time than now.” She had to speak past the sudden lump in her throat. She wished she had time to tell Valerian goodbye, wished she could kiss him once more.

  As if attuned to her, Valerian suddenly called, “Shaye!”

  Her eyes widened, and Brenna gasped. If they didn’t leave now, they would lose this rare opportunity.

  “Come on.” They sprinted past the front door and into the hallway.

  No guards. Valerian hadn’t wanted anyone to hear what he’d hoped would be a happy bath time. A very sweet gesture—

  Stop missing him and run!

  “Shaye!”

  He’d given chase!

  She increased her speed, and when she blazed around a corner, she plowed into a couple writhing on the floor. A frantic Brenna helped her stand as the couple ignored them, lost in each other.

  Lungs threatening to burst from strain, Shaye dared a backward glance. A naked Valerian was closing in on her and...part of her wanted to run to him, just as he’d hoped.

  “Faster,” she shouted at Brenna. “Which way?”

  At a fork in the hallway, Brenna swerved right and Shaye followed. If Valerian caught her...

  Doorways branched in every direction. They darted past men who regarded them with curiosity, but didn’t try to stop them.

  Then, suddenly, steal clamps anchored around her waist, lifting her off her feet. She screamed and flailed. Brenna whirled and, spotting Valerian, withered in place.

  “You tried to leave me,” Valerian grated.

  Disappointment and relief mixed, confusing her. She decided to go on the offensive. “For all you know, we were going for a leisurely jog around the palace. No big deal.”

  “No big deal? No big deal!”

  “Oh, good. Your ears are working.”

  “You tried to leave me,” he repeated.

  A kernel of shame. “We never agreed to a bargain, remember?”

  A growl rumbled from his chest. “When a warrior runs from his commander,” he said ominously, “he is punished. Are you ready for your punishment, Shaye?”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  VALERIAN ESCORTED BRENNA to Shivawn without uttering another word. The warrior with beads in his hair accepted her with a frown and a muttered, “Thank you, great king.” The entire time, Shaye’s warrior carried her under his arm like a sack of potatoes. She’d never been so nervous. This was the first time he’d ever projected such blazing fury in her direction.

  And yet, she was still oddly relieved that she’d failed to escape.

  “Go back to your duties,” Valerian snapped at the soldiers watching in the hallway.

  His men jumped into action, looking anywhere but his naked form or Shaye.

  “Valer—”

  “Do not speak,” he interjected.

  “Valerian,” she persisted. “I told you I would try to escape. You can’t say I didn’t warn you. At least I didn’t lie to you. We’ll always be honest with each other, remember?”

  “I gave you what you wanted, Shaye. I didn’t press you to make love, and yet you ran from me anyway. How am I to treat you now?”

  * * *

  VALERIAN STILL COULDN’T believe his woman’s daring.

  He stalked to their room and tossed her onto the bed. She bounced. He stood in place, staring down at her. She didn’t try to run again, just regarded him warily.

  Light as she was, carrying her shouldn’t have affected him, but he was panting. His arms seemed to weigh more than usual and fell to his sides; he was losing strength quickly.

  He needed sex.

  He needed Shaye.

  He’d felt her gaze on him during his bath. Had smelled her desire for him. He’d thought victory was finally within his grasp. And then she’d run. Run! As if he meant nothing to her.

  Was the thought of making love that abhorrent to her?

  “Do you want me?” he said darkly. “A simple yes or no question, requiring only one answer with zero explanations.”

  She scrambled to the far edge of the bed. Her overlarge shirt gaped open, revealing succulent hints of her breasts.

  “I’d rather explain without giving a definitive yes or no,” she said nervously.

  “You tried to escape me, so we’re talking about what I want to talk about now. Do you desire me? Yes or no.”

  She kept her gaze on his chest, not daring to look down, where he was thick and ready.

  A tremble swept through her. In fear? In yearning?

  “Yes,” she finally whispered. “But—”

  “No buts.” Something inside him lurched. “Do you want my kiss...my touch...?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “No buts.” Triumph bloomed alongside relief. “You look so beautiful on my bed, Moon, with your hair draped over your shoulders, your legs stretched in front of you. But...”

  “No buts,” she said.

  “In this case, I’ll make an exception.” He let his hands and knees fall on the mattress. Slowly he crawled forward.

  Eyes wide, she tried to scoot back even farther. The wall blocked any escape.

  “Did you hate the thought of leaving me?” he asked.

  She scowled at him. “Yes, but—”

  “No buts.”

  She pounded a fist into the mattress.

  “You feel the connection between us, I know you do. Give me one chance to convince you to stay. If I fail, I’ll take you home.”

  She gasped.

  His gaze swept over her, and he suddenly wished he possessed the fire of the dragons so he could burn away her clothing. “I know you’ve never been with a man, but have you ever engaged in love play?”

  Stubborn to the end, she pressed her lips together. “That’s none of your business.”

  He paused, his hands on either side of her knees. The fact that she didn’t try to kick him was more telling than she probably knew.

  Untouched. His mate was untouched by any man. He would be her first. Her only. He’d be careful with her.

  “I like that you’re a virgin, Moon.”

  She flicked a piece of lint off her shirt. “That’s hypocritical, don’t you think? You’ve been with thousands.”

  “I’m sorry that I don’t come to you pure.” Nymphs never saved themselves for their mates; they were too sexual, their needs too great. But now he wished he’d waited for her. “Perhaps every other woman was merely practice for the day I met you.”

  She swallowed, bit her lip. “That’s, like, the corniest line I’ve ever heard.”

  “Is it?”

  “For sure.”

  “Is it, though?”

  “Maybe,” she conceded grudgingly.

  Blood heated to a sizzle inside his veins. Possessiveness and pride stormed him as surely as his army had stormed this palace. No man had ever sneaked past this woman’s cool facade to discover the passion underneath, but Valerian was close.

  I will give her so much pleasure she’ll scream and beg for more.

  He crawled the rest of the way up her body, until they were nose to nose. “You fear the unknown. You fear the pleasure I will give you. You think you’ll become a slave to it. To me. So I’ll dispel your fears or I won’t. There’s a chance I could screw this up. Ruin it for you. Then you can leave Atlantis with a clear conscience. You gave it your best shot, and the blame rests on me.” He placed the softest kiss on her lush mouth. “You want to make an informed decision, don’t you?”

  Her mouth parted on a gasp—perhaps a sigh. “I’m not dumb. You’re working
this situation to your favor.”

  “To our favor, Moon. Our.”

  Her eyes narrowed in an attempt to hide the emotion banked in their depths. “Yes. Okay? Yes. But are we going to talk all day or are you actually going to get this seduction routine over with?”

  “So I have your permission to touch you?”

  “You have all the permissions!”

  Trying not to grin, he reached out and palmed the fullness of her breast. Her eyes closed, her hips arched slightly, a look of divine pleasure consuming her features.

  Satisfaction speared him. He plucked at her nipple with his fingertips. “Do you hate me when I do this?”

  A moan shuddered past her lips. “It feels...it feels terrible.” He thought she added, “If terrible is the new word for wonderful,” but he couldn’t be sure.

  He loved seeing her cheeks deepen with rosy color—with arousal. “Just think how much worse it will feel when I suck this hard little morsel into my mouth. I hope you can endure.”

  She groaned, a sound so laden with need he responded on a primal level, his muscles clenching, his bones vibrating. When he removed his hand—only for the barest of seconds—her groan became a growl. He slid his fingers under her shirt, gliding over the smooth skin of her stomach, surely the softest, sweetest flesh he’d ever encountered.

  Rapture glowed from her like a halo, and she trembled.

  “Does this make you shudder in revulsion?” he asked, his voice strained. His fingertip brushed the underside of her breast.

  “Shudder,” she gasped.

  “Me, too. Oh, me, too.” He held up his hand, his fingers quaking. “I’m disgusted.”

  “Yes, oh, yes. It’s the...worst thing...ever,” she said, panting. “Don’t stop.”

  * * *

  I SHOULD SO make him stop, Shaye thought. Should make him stop...in just a...little while. This was crazy.

  His fingers were white-hot, searing, and everywhere they touched, a fire kindled below the surface of her skin.

  Her mind blanked; she was consumed only with pleasure as his hand closed over her bare breast. Instinctively she parted her legs, a silent invitation for him to pin her completely.

  He didn’t accept. In fact, he lifted slightly.

  She almost cursed him.

  With his other hand, he inched up the hem of her shirt. “If I cover you, I’ll take you,” he explained. “I need to see you first.”

  “Yes,” she said, wondering who this passionate creature was. Not Shaye, surely. She wasn’t concerned with either of their pasts, or what would happen once the loving was finished; she lifted her hips to give him easier access. His erection rubbed against her belly, and she hissed. He hissed. The absolute pleasure...the wild sensations.

  “Mmm, yes,” she said. “I like. No, hate. I hate. Stroke it against me.”

  “Like this.” He pressed his erection between her legs and stroked uuuup.

  Her stomach tightened, quivered. “Yes.” She arched her hips for another go.

  “That one was free. You want another one, you’re going to have to pay for it.” Valerian pushed the collar of her shirt beneath her breasts, baring them to his gaze.

  Cool air around her—and yet the heat in his fingertips burned her.

  “Like this,” he rasped, licking his lips. “So beautiful. So perfect.”

  “Payment through stripping. Got it.” She plumped both breasts. “I think I like my job. Or hate it. Yes, I meant I hate it.”

  His pupils basically exploded. “I have to taste them. Have to have those sweet little beads in my mouth.”

  She had an unquenchable desire to feel him knead her breasts and slide and pump and grind inside her. To know and understand how people became slaves to their emotions over this one act.

  So much better to be informed, just like Valerian had said.

  He closed his fingers over her wrist. “What are you thinking about?”

  “Passion,” she admitted. “Sex.”

  “Look at me. Show me your passion.”

  Her gaze jerked to him, and she stilled, amazed by what she saw. He was drinking in the sight of her as if she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever beheld. As if her too-pale skin and her average-size breasts topped his Christmas list.

  “I’m thinking that I’ve never seen a more wondrous sight. Your loveliness captivates me,” he said, his tone reverent.

  Her mind struggled to believe. “You’ve been with a thousand women,” she reminded him softly. “A thousand times more beautiful than me.” He might want those women again after he’d had her—she was going to be a disappointment, wasn’t she?

  “None are more beautiful than you, love. Now or ever.”

  “I’m nothing,” she insisted. “I’m—”

  “Everything.” One of his hands cupped her jaw, and his thumb caressed the side of her face. He forced her to look at him, to see him. “You are everything to me.”

  “You don’t know...” But he did. He was learning all about her. Her argument that they were strangers no longer held any sway.

  It was just...people didn’t say beautiful things like that to her.

  Tears stung her eyes, and she scrubbed them away. She’d always prided herself on her independence, on her lack of need for another’s approval. And she still didn’t need someone else’s approval; her worth wasn’t based on his opinion. But truth was power and the things Valerian said to her...they were truth to him. They mattered. They empowered.

  He wiped those tears with his thumbs, his touch gentle.

  He was poised above her, his big, hard body illuminated by a golden glow of light. Muscles bunched, strength and arousal exuded from him in mouthwatering waves. His stomach was ripped and hard. His penis stretched toward her center, so thick and hard, reaching for her. A sprinkling of golden hair surrounded the heavy weight of his testicles.

  The sight of him, this god of beauty and sex, made her breathless. “You—” she cleared her throat “—aren’t bad-looking, either,” she said. She’d never given a man a compliment before; she always shoved the opposite sex out of her life as quickly as one entered. And Valerian already had an ego.

  His lips twitched. “I’m glad you don’t find me ugly.”

  “Yes. Be very glad.”

  Inch by agonizing inch, he lowered his head, giving her time to protest, but a gasp of anticipation caught in her windpipe. She could say nothing...finally, blessedly his mouth closed over her nipple, surrounding it with moist heat. When his tongue flicked back and forth against the aching bud, her hand tangled in his hair, holding his head in place. He kneaded her other breast, and the double sensation had her hips writhing.

  “Did I not promise you it would feel terrible?”

  “Awful, just awful. Don’t stop.”

  “Stop? Oh, no. You make me feel feverish, as if my very life depends on you.” He sucked hard, and she groaned at the pleasure-pain of it, then he licked away the sting and she moaned at the heady bliss. “When a nymph makes love with his mate, he becomes completely absorbed in the act, ferocious and bestial. Nothing else matters except the woman in his arms.”

  I need him the way he needs me, she thought with a yearning she’d never before experienced. I do. I really do.

  With the admission, something cracked and crumbled inside her. The last vestiges of her resistance? Fear? Doubt? Her anger over her abduction, perhaps? They were suddenly gone, replaced by a need to know him, all of him—in that moment he became more important to her than breathing.

  She wrapped her legs around his waist, locked her ankles and jerked him on top of her. All of his weight suddenly pinned her, and it was purely blissful. She savored, reveled in the exquisite press of him. Basked in her first true taste of capitulation. No more denying her needs, no more ignoring her s
ecret wants.

  “Shaye?” he said, his voice hoarse. He closed his eyes in sweet surrender, his expression entranced, shocked, awed.

  “Valerian.”

  He nipped at her collarbone, licked up and down her neck. His fingers glided under her panties, to the center of her being.

  She nearly screamed as she arched her hips to urge him further.

  “Most women think this is the most pleasure-receptive place on their bodies.” His fingers pinched her drenched core lightly. And with that one touch, she almost reached the gates of paradise. So close to climax...so close...

  “They’d be right,” she managed on a pant.

  “No, they are wrong.” He slid a finger through her damp folds and into the very heat of her. “Small,” he said, his voice strained. Sweat trickled from his temples. “Tight. Wonderful.”

  Had she thought she’d neared paradise before? Not even close. Her feminine walls clamped around him, holding him captive. In and out he moved slowly, and it was sheer torture. She gasped, then gasped his name, then gasped a curse.

  “Some women think this rhythm is the cause of their desire.”

  “Are they...wrong, too?” Oh, my wow. She was on fire. Her cells were traveling through her bloodstream at full speed, scorching everything in their path.

  “Oh, yes. They are wrong.”

  He continued sliding those fingers into her, and her stomach coiled, tensed; her leg muscles quivered around him. Orgasm teetered on the sweet brink of arrival.

  “Valerian,” she beseeched.

  “Oh, but I like my name on your lips.” His thumb brushed her aching core.

  Her head thrashed from side to side. She burned, so hot, nearing explosion. “Show me the most pleasure-receptive place on my body.” She had to come. Had to...would die...soon...

  “For a kiss,” he said, wanting to bargain even now. “I’ll give you the world for a single kiss.”

  “Don’t want the world. Want you.”

  “Shaye. My Shaye.”

  She meshed her lips into his. The moment his tongue collided with hers, his taste filled her mouth. The exquisite sensations between her legs intensified. She unlocked her ankles, letting her knees fall onto the bed, opening herself for whatever he might do.