“Then why are we here?” she demanded, realizing he was making no move to turn on the firegel lamps. In the deep shadows Ridge seemed very large and threatening. At times he was indeed a creature of darkness; something dangerous and forbidding.
“We’re here,” he said bluntly, “so that I can claim my gift. You aren’t going to tell me I have no right to it, are you?” He began unlacing the leather that fastened the front of his shirt. His movements were deliberate.
In the red-tinted moonlight drifting through the window, Kalena saw the lambent flames in Ridge’s eyes. The fire in him was still evident, but it had taken on a different kind of heat. She caught her breath as full realization flooded over her. In the wake of that womanly knowledge came another emotion, a blossoming excitement of the kind she had first encountered in the garden the night before. Perhaps her rising euphoria also had a few roots in the surging physical excitement she had experienced during the tavern brawl. Kalena wasn’t sure and she didn’t feel much like analyzing the matter. Not now. She didn’t move as myriad thoughts half-formed and then faded in her head. One remained, prodding her to ask the single question that needed to be asked.
“Are you doing this to punish me for what I did tonight?” Her voice was a husky whisper.
Ridge finished the last of the laces and stood with his shirt open. He studied her, lifting one hand to catch her chin. “No, Kalena, I’m not going to make love to you in order to punish you.”
“Then why?”
“It’s our wedding day,” he pointed out quietly.
She shook her head. “But not our wedding night.”
His mouth curved faintly in the moonlight. “We’ll make it our wedding night.”
“Will we?” The excitement was flickering through her, as undeniable as it was dangerous. Aunt Olara would be furious if she knew what was happening. Olara’s fierce objections to this moment of feminine discovery sounded once more in Kalena’s head: You must not allow a man to embrace you until you have accomplished your mission. The honor of your House is at stake. You must not allow yourself to be deflected from the path that has been ordained for you. Passion is dangerous. It can cloud the mind and blind it to what must be done. Nothing and no one must stand between you and your destiny as the last daughter of the House of the Ice Harvest.
But she was on the brink of that destiny tonight, Kalena told herself. Surely it was too late for a man’s passion to deflect her from her goal. She would do what had to be done. The honor of her House would be avenged, Kalena promised herself. But tonight belonged to her. She was filled with a wild, reckless energy that convinced her she could handle both her mission and this passionate encounter.
Tonight she could have still another taste of the heady freedom that would be hers when she had killed Quintel. She was strong enough to risk it. Olara was wrong. She was not so weak as to be seduced from her task by temptations, Kalena told herself. She could sample the temptation and still do her duty.
She felt the rough edge of Ridge’s hand on the line of her jaw. If something went wrong, if she failed in her task, or even if she succeeded but managed to bungle somehow, she could easily be dead by this time tomorrow. The thought of dying without ever having known the end result of this flaring exhilaration was infinitely depressing. Surely she could ignore Olara’s warnings tonight. It was too late for any damage to be done. A few hours of passionate discovery in this man’s arms would not cloud her mind or turn her aside from the task that awaited.
“Do you swear on your honor that you have no intention of punishing me for disobeying you tonight? That only desire guides you now?” she asked softly. If she was going to defy Olara’s teachings and take the risk of giving herself to the Fire Whip, she had to be certain that his motives were as simple and honest as her own. She would take the risk of surrendering to passion and freedom, but she would not submit to some warped notion of retribution. She might be the last daughter of a Great House, but she was, nevertheless, a member of that House. She would act as such.
Ridge cradled her face between his large hands, his fingers strong and sure and curiously gentle on her skin. “I think, sweet farm girl, that you have been breathing the intoxicating air of freedom for the past couple of days. You like it, don’t you?”
“Very much,” she agreed with a tremulous smile.
“Tonight you think you have discovered just how exciting it is to be on your own, calling no man lord, husband, or master.” His eyes gleamed. “You’ve had quite an adventure, haven’t you? Was it fun running a little wild?”
Kalena sensed the new element of indulgence in him. “Yes,” she admitted breathlessly, “it was fun.” More fun than she had ever known in the years spent under Olara’s bitter, vengeful, eye.
“I don’t intend to punish you for the fun you had tonight, Kalena,” Ridge assured her in a low voice made almost lazy with sensuality. “I plan to show you that there is more excitement to be found on my pallet than you’ll ever discover in a tavern brawl.”
Kalena lightly touched one of his hands as he held her face. Her fingers were trembling, she realized vaguely. In fact, her whole body was shivering ever so slightly. She felt light-headed as the reckless elation that had guided her all evening surged to a new strength, a thousand times more powerful than it had been even in the midst of the brawl. Freedom beckoned and could no longer be denied.
“Ridge…” She put her palms on his shoulders, fascinated with the heat of his skin that penetrated the sturdy fabric of his shirt.
“Come with me, farmer’s daughter, and let me show you how exciting town life really is.” Ridge shifted, one arm sweeping under her knees, the other behind her shoulders.
The moon-tinted chamber swung dizzyingly for an instant as Kalena was lifted high against Ridge’s chest. She closed her eyes and clung to him, aware that he was striding toward the low, curtained pallet at the far end of the room. She would not think of the past or her future, she promised herself. What was happening now had nothing to do with her duty or her heritage. This moment existed only for her.
The wide sleeping pallet was on a low, raised dais of richly carved wood. Ridge lowered Kalena to her feet, letting her body slide along his own until she was standing in front of him.
“I’m glad Arrisa and the others didn’t get around to cutting your hair,” he muttered thickly, burying his fists in the mass of curls. He used his hold to tilt her head back for his kiss.
Kalena trembled again as she sensed the full force of his barely leashed desire. Her nails sank urgently into his shirt, seeking his hard, muscled shoulders under the fabric. Ridge groaned and deepened the kiss. His tongue surged into her mouth and Kalena got a sample of the fire in him. She whispered his name, her voice hoarse with pleasure.
Eyes closed, her mouth flowering under his, Kalena was only dimly aware of Ridge’s hands on the fastening of her tunic. A moment later she felt the beautiful material slip to the floor, forming a pool of soft color at her feet. She was left wearing only thin, narrow trousers and soft velvet boots. Kalena was bared to his touch from the waist and the knowledge made her insides tighten with anticipation and desire.
“You have a dancer’s back,” Ridge murmured wonderingly, letting his fingers knead the sensitive curve above her lush buttocks. “Very proud, very elegant. How did a farmer’s daughter absorb such pride and elegance into her very bones?”
But he wasn’t waiting for an answer. He urged Kalena closer until her nipples touched his chest through the opening of his shirt. Crisp, masculine hair teased the sensitive tips of her breasts until she couldn’t tell if the sensation was exquisitely exciting or exquisitely painful. She sucked in her breath and pulled back slightly.
“Don’t be afraid of me, Kalena. I’m going to be your husband. It will be my duty and my pleasure to take care of you. Relax and learn to trust me, sweet wife-to-be. You must learn to trust me.”
Ridge lowered her down onto the pallet and knelt on the rug in front of her. Steadying her
self once more with her hands on his shoulders, Kalena watched through heavy-lidded eyes as he carefully removed her boots.
“Are you very sure, Ridge?” She wasn’t certain of the exact nature of her question, but knew that she needed some kind of assurance from him.
“I’m very sure.” He eased her back against the pillows and flattened his hand on her soft stomach. When she looked up at him with a wordless longing, he murmured something under his breath and stroked the delicate trousers down to her ankles in one easy, sweeping motion.
For a moment he simply gazed at her, and then, sitting on the pallet, he impatiently yanked off his own boots. He got to his feet, golden eyes gleaming down at her in the shadows. He discarded his shirt and unbuckled his belt. The sheathed sintar clattered lightly as it struck the floor beside the pallet. With one last, swift movement, he was naked.
Kalena looked at Ridge, fascinated by the hard, male shape of him. She had lived all of her life in the country and had been raised by a professional Healer, but she had never seen an unclothed man before. She was absorbed by the sight of Ridge, and put the image of him into the only context she knew.
He was a fine male animal in his prime, smoothly muscled and boldly, aggressively formed. The taut planes of his chest gave way to the flat, hard surface of his stomach. Below that the powerful outline of his manhood was enlarged and heavy with the unmistakable evidence of his desire.
“Do you like looking at me, country girl?”
“Yes,” she whispered, vividly aware of his strong hands on her waist as he came down beside her.
“Then we’re in luck. Because I like looking at you. Very much.”
He moved his hand to her breast, cupping her gently as he bent his head to taste the skin of her throat. Kalena stirred beneath him as he used his thumb to tease and tantalize a nipple. Her hands went around him instinctively.
“Go ahead and touch me.” Ridge groaned heavily as she obeyed. “You’re so soft, so beautifully soft and round and warm,” he muttered against the curve of her breast. Then he was taking the erect nipple into his mouth, tugging gently until Kalena cried out softly. “That’s it, my love. Those are the words I want to hear tonight.”
His hand slid lower, shaping the small curve of her waist and finding the gentle roundness below. Kalena’s breath came more quickly as the sensual heat was stoked higher in her body. The fire in Ridge was reaching out to consume her. She let her own hands slip down the length of him, delighting in the hard contours of his shoulders, experimenting with the feminine magic she was discovering within herself.
When Ridge’s questing hand reached the soft nest of hair at the juncture of her thighs, he lifted his head to look down at her. “Part your legs for me, Kalena. Open yourself. I want to touch all of you. I have to touch you.”
She hesitated, more out of a lingering uncertainty than any real fear. But when he coaxed her ankles apart with his foot, she forgot about the vague unsureness she had been feeling and buried her face against his shoulder. She opened herself to him, lifting her hips against the heat of his hand.
“Ah, Kalena, you are as ready for me as the lock is ready for its key. And we are going to fit together just as perfectly.”
Kalena shuddered as Ridge touched her with deep intimacy. His fingers explored her gently, finding the center of her excitement and teasing her there until her hands were clenched into his shoulders, her nails like tiny sintars. Then he stroked inside the dampening channel that seemed to be the core of her body.
“Ridge! “
“Soon, my sweet farm lady. Very soon. When I have made you so hot you think you are going to burst into flames, that’s when I’ll take you.”
“I’ll go out of my head,” she gasped, reaching down to capture his hand and press it more tightly against herself.
“That’s exactly how I want you,” he told her, his voice huskier than she had yet heard it. “Exactly how I want you.”
“Please, Ridge.” She knew this building excitement had to have a release, and she was beginning to long for it as she had never longed for anything in her life.
Ridge said nothing, but bent his head to drop a lingering kiss on her stomach, just above the damp nest he was teasing with his fingers.
“Please, Ridge, now”
His answering laugh was thick with his own passion. “I think you’re right. Even if you could last a little longer, I couldn’t. Part your legs a little more, Kalena. Show me you want me.”
She did as he instructed, making a place for him between her thighs. He came down along the length of her, covering her slowly and completely, resting his weight on his elbows as he looked down at her. Kalena lifted her lashes to find herself looking into a golden fire in his eyes that was not quenched even by the shadows in the room. She wanted to say something in that tension filled moment and could find no words. Her hands gripped his upper arms.
“Wrap your legs around me, Kalena. I’ll take care of everything else.”
She obeyed, aware of the heavy shaft poised at her opening. Tentatively, and then more urgently, she clung to him. She felt infinitely vulnerable, fully aware of her own inability to control what would happen next. A belated fear that was very primitive and very feminine suddenly coursed through her. Ridge felt it at once.
“It’s all right, Kalena,” he soothed. “I told you I would take care of you, didn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“You must learn to trust the man you’re marrying today.” His thumbs stroked the line of her cheek, gentling her until some of the uncertainty receded. Then he reached down between their bodies, fitting himself to her until she could feel the blunt, hard heaviness of him beginning to stretch her in a way that she had never known. He burned at the entrance to her body.
The sensation was exotic, exciting. Kalena forgot the last of her short-lived fear and clutched Ridge more tightly to her.
“I knew I could set you on fire. The first moment I saw you, I knew. Like holding a match to kindling. Like making the steel glow” His fingers moved tantalizingly over the small nub of pleasure he had discovered earlier and Kalena moaned helplessly. “Close your eyes,” he whispered deeply, “and follow me.”
She did as he said, squeezing her eyes shut against the tight, thrilling sensations that were overwhelming her. Then there was a relentless, building pressure between her legs as Ridge pushed himself against her. In that instant Olara’s warnings crowded back into Kalena’s mind, shrieking at her, somehow mingling with the physical shock of Ridge’s sensual invasion. Kalena’s senses whirled and she cried out, her whole body tensing.
Ridge halted abruptly while Kalena gasped in response to the friction that threatened to turn into pain. She made no protest, but her nails bit deeply into his shoulder as if she would brace herself against what was coming.
“Relax, Kalena.”
“I can’t—” But she broke off in bewildered astonishment as Ridge bent his head without warning and took her earlobe between his teeth. He bit down quite sharply.
The totally unexpected assault on her ear brought a small yelp from Kalena, and in that instant Ridge surged fully into her. Her mind was still responding to the nip on her ear when the small flash of pain occurred between her legs. She was barely aware of it. When Ridge was buried fully within her he stopped, his whole frame taut with sexual tension.
Kalena blinked in astonishment as her body adjusted to the reality of the completed invasion. The last of Olara’s warnings faded from her mind. It was too late to heed them now “That,” she finally managed to declare breathlessly, “was very sneaky.”
“Did I hurt you?”
“My ear may never recover.”
His smile evolved into a short, sexy, savage grin. “It isn’t your ear I’m worrying about. How is the rest of you?”
“I’m not sure,” she said honestly.
“Let’s find out.”
He began to move in her, slowly at first, until she began to respond. When Kalena closed her
eyes and murmured his name Ridge increased the rhythm. He began to breathe in heavy gasps as he pushed himself to the limits of his self-control. Kalena could feel his muscles tense as he reigned himself in almost violently. She knew the promise he had made her: tonight was hers. He would not give into the flames beginning to consume him until she found the excitement he had promised.
The small cries she made were a soft, utterly feminine counterpoint to Ridge’s guttural groans. Her passion was a total surprise to her. Kalena had never expected to feel like this. Ridge was shuddering with the force of his own response. She would never forget tonight, Kalena realized. No matter how long she lived or what the future held, she would never forget tonight.
Just as the realization flared in her mind, Kalena felt a new level of tension seize her. She tightened around Ridge, her whole body beginning to shiver with tiny convulsions of ecstasy. Unaware of what she was doing, Kalena sank her sharp little teeth into Ridge’s strong shoulder as she cried out his name in final surrender.
Ridge groaned, holding himself back so that he could drink in the sensation of Kalena’s satisfaction but his own pounding need washed over him, overcoming the iron control he had been exerting. A stifled shout was ripped from him as he surged heavily into Kalena one last time and gave himself up to the mindless release.
He was fire and she was the only one who could quench the flames and bring him peace. The flashing thought crystalized for an instant in Kalena’s mind and then it was gone.
Long moments passed before Kalena felt Ridge stir in her arms. Languidly, she became aware of the drying film of perspiration that formed a fine sheen between her breasts. Ridge’s chest was damp with moisture, too.
Ridge smiled slightly as he watched her reorient herself to the shadowed room. He made no attempt to change his position, continuing to lie along the length of her, although he gently eased himself out of her body. Kalena was aware of the lingering dampness between her legs and the pungent scent of their lovemaking. In that moment she couldn’t begin to define her emotions, but she was aware of being in the grip of a strange state of suspension. It was an odd sensation, as if something important that had been in the back of her mind all along was suddenly trying to free itself and the constraints that had been imposed on it were weakening rapidly.
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