The taste of her lingered on his tongue, and he’d have sold his soul for more of it. She felt like paradise, the feel of her curves under his hands, the smell of her, warm and musky and so essentially female that he literally felt dizzy. Thank the Lady he’d finally gotten them horizontal. Taking advantage of his own good sense, he framed her face in his hands and dove back into her brandy-flavored kiss.
“Mm.”
Her throaty moans drove him crazy. This human he’d been afraid of shocking apparently didn’t know she was supposed to be significantly less aggressive than a Fae woman. Her hands wove themselves though his hair, nails raking his scalp and sending tremors shivering down his spine. They kneaded his shoulder like kitten paws then dove between their bodies. She shifted position, wrapping one slim leg around his hip, opening herself and letting his body sink deeper against her, but she never interrupted their kiss.
Their mouths fed on each other as she maneuvered her hands with surprising dexterity in such tight quarters to attack the buttons of his now too-tight jeans.
Luc barely managed to stop himself from releasing them with magic. Instead of whisking them both naked with a flick of his fingers, he savored the maddening slide of her fingers over his hips and thighs, the brush of knuckles against his straining erection, as she struggled with metal and denim.
When she finally got the last of the buttons open, she moaned her relief against his mouth and slid her hands inside to close reverently around him. Slim, feminine fingers curled and flexed, exploring silky skin and lingering over urgent hardness. Lady knew, there was no way on Ithirhe could possibly get any harder, short of turning completely to stone. And even then, it would be a close call.
Her other hand burrowed lower to cup him in a tender palm. The satisfied purr she gave when she did that almost finished him in her hands, and he cursed his own impatience. He felt like a boy again, too eager to pleasure the woman who promised him a taste of heaven. He’d be damned if he’d disgrace himself.
He tore his mouth from hers just long enough to strip his shirt over his head and toss it away. Before he had time to grasp the hem of hers, she dove headfirst for his bare chest and laid her warm, clever tongue against the hollow of his throat. He cursed. Between her stroking hands and her darting tongue, he didn’t stand a chance. If he didn’t stop her right now, he’d never be able to live with himself. And Corinne certainly wouldn’t be asking for a repeat performance. Easing her hands from his body, he decided it was his turn now.
In one dizzy rush of motion, he stripped her T-shirt over her head and flung it away into the darkness of the room. Before she could do more than blink up at him, he had her pants, shoes, and socks off and was kicking out of his jeans, leaving them to join the pile of abandoned clothes on the floor. Naked, he forced her legs apart and settled himself in the saddle of her hips. No place in this world or his own had ever felt more like home.
Bracing the weight of his torso on one hand, he curved the other around her breast, flicked his thumb over her erect little nipple, and grinned down at her.
“Hey,” she protested, even as she parted her thighs wider and wrapped her smooth, golden legs around his hips. “You’re not fighting fair. I was enjoying myself.”
Luc ducked his head until he could scrape his teeth over the delicate tendon along her shoulder. “I’m not fighting at all.” He inhaled deeply to capture her scent. It was a heady mix of honeysuckle, clove, and warm, willing woman. “And I’d much rather we enjoy ourselves together. What do you say?”
He rocked his hips against hers, savoring the music of her ragged gasp. Goddess, he couldn’t wait to be inside her.
Teeth clenched, he rose up above her, watching the arch of her throat as she threw her head back, the fluttering of her eyelashes when he gently kneaded her full breast. He stared down at her, at the dark, expressive eyes currently narrowed in arousal, at the warm, olive skin flushed with passion. He could stare at her forever, he realized, and never see enough. She held the whole universe within her. His whole universe.
“I say I’m way ahead of you,” she murmured, and her mouth curved in a smile so slow and warm and sexy he felt his heart stutter before it raced forward with excitement.
“Then let me catch up.” He grinned and slid into that smile like a runner stealing third.
She shifted beneath him, not content to let Luc set the pace. Her hands stroked over the taut, flexing muscles of his back, feeling they way he moved and shifted above her. The clasp of her thighs urged him toward her, and the sweet, sharp hunger of her kiss removed the last film of anticipation. It was time to experience.
His hands shifted, sliding beneath her hips to lift her to him, and she met him, hands clinging, back arching, calling him home with a heated siren song of pleasure. He dove into her like a pool of clear, crystalline water, letting the sensation of joining envelop him in silent perfection. The only sound was the too-rapid beat of their hearts as even the breath seemed to freeze in their chests for that one amazing moment of recognition.
They had found each other. The search was over. All was right with the world.
Time stood still for a second, no longer. The urgency of their passion was too strong to allow for any more. With a groan, Luc snapped and gave in to the driving need to move, to touch, to feel. His hands stroked and savored, his body moving in a primitive rhythm that seemed directed by something within himself he’d never known existed.
Corrine cried out, her head dropping back to the cushions even as her hands clutched at his shoulders. She tugged as if to pull him nearer, and Luc obeyed, pressing their sweat-slick bodies together from neck to groin, feeling the way she fit him as if someone had taken a mold and designed her just for him. He’d never felt anything as amazing as this woman, as the way she made him feel, just by being. He clutched her to him as if he could crawl inside her skin, get so close to her that not even the air could separate them.
The feel of her body cushioning his drove him crazy, almost as crazy as the pleading whimpers that issued from her parted lips with each ragged breath. He crushed her mouth under his, swallowing those whimpers, catching them on her tongue, and returning them in the form of his own deep, rumbling groans.
For hours they strained together—or what seemed like hours to his fevered brain—struggling with the instinctive need to become one, but in the end they gave in to the inevitable. Pleasure overtook them and she gave a choked cry, her body convulsing, leaving Luc to follow her into ecstasy. With the feel of her shuddering and sobbing beneath him, it didn’t take long. Three hard, endless thrusts later, he exploded, emptying his entire being into her, until all he could do was sink heavily atop her and wonder whether this amazing woman was really human after all.
SEVEN
Corinne lay beneath him, heart pounding, lungs aching, muscles burning, and struggled to remember the last time she had been this wrung out by sex. She couldn’t. She’d never experienced anything like it. It had been like being hit by a tidal wave, the adrenaline of the attack suddenly morphing into a need so sharp it had been like a knife in her flesh. The urgency and desire had felt almost unnatural, like a spell that compelled her to get as close to him as possible before she took her next breath.
Judging by her present position, Corinne thought she’d managed that well enough.
Wary, she checked for any lingering signs of that driving need, but it seemed to be gone. Oh, she still wanted him, but this time she felt she could wait another few minutes if she had to. Though she’d like it if she didn’t have to.
He covered her like a duvet and generated more heat than an electric blanket without the pesky need to plug him in. Just call her an environmental crusader, cutting down on power consumption one bout of hot, sticky sex at a time.
Luc stirred above her, nuzzling the curve of her shoulder, stroking his hands down her sides to cup her ass for an affectionate squeeze. Humming in pleasure, she shifted beneath him, stretching abused muscles and not even wincing at the resul
ting aches.
“Are you okay?” His deep voice sounded even deeper than usual, more like a rumble of distant thunder. She felt it as much as heard it.
“Mm, I thought I was pretty damned fabulous, didn’t you?”
He chuckled, his shoulders shaking beneath her fingers. “Oh, absolutely. But I was actually wondering if I hurt you.”
If her eyes had been open, she’d have rolled them. “Oh, please. Is that in a manual all men read or something, so you all feel compelled to ask it afterward?” She turned her head until she could reach his shoulder and taste the salty tang of his skin. “Trust me, I’m not easy to hurt, and if you did manage it, I can guarantee I wouldn’t have sounded quite so happy a few minutes ago. Pain is definitely not my kink.”
He grunted in satisfaction and pulled her closer, bodies still joined, heart rates still somewhere north of normal. It felt good, she decided, to lie here with him, all warm and sated and cozy. She felt comfortable with him, she realized, despite how briefly they’d known each other. She winced, realizing she’d broken a personal record by getting naked with Luc a mere four and a half hours after first meeting him. Still, there was no awkwardness in being stretched out beneath him and around him on her cushy living room sofa. It felt…nice.
Though now that she thought about it, being able to breathe would feel pretty good, too.
She nudged his shoulder. “Luc?”
He grunted but didn’t move. Typical male.
“Luc, I hate to ruin the mood here, but you’re getting kind of heavy, and I’m starting to think those spots I’m seeing might be a sign of oxygen deprivation rather than just good sex.”
“Great sex,” he corrected, but he was already wrapping his arms around her and flipping so that he lay on his back on the sofa and she draped over him instead. “But yeah, since I probably outweigh you by a good hundred pounds.”
Corinne definitely approved of the new arrangement. He made an excellent mattress. Extra-firm for comfortable support. Now she had room to stretch, which she did with great satisfaction, the friction of her skin gliding over his bringing a satisfied smile to her face. Satisfied, hell. She probably looked like the Cheshire cat. Only bustier. And less furry.
Bringing her knees up alongside his hips, she pushed herself to a sitting position with every intention of swinging her leg over his hip and climbing off the well-used sofa. She definitely needed a shower and, come to think of it, something to eat. As her stomach had begun to point out to her, she’d just burned off one hell of a lot of calories and it had been hours since dinner.
The problem with her plan lay in the execution. Sitting up astride Luc’s hips realigned their bodies and solidified the intimate connection they had yet to break. She shivered, her breath sighing out as a residual burst of pleasure set her nerves back on alert. She planted her hands on his chest and lifted her hips to separate from him, only to find his electric eyes locked on her face, as focused as if neither of them had climaxed like an atom bomb just minutes ago.
He watched her through narrow slivers of green so intense they seemed almost to glow. The color looked even darker and more vibrant than before. In fact, everything about him seemed more intense than it had an hour ago. His eyes looked more exotically slanted; the slash of his brows, darker and sharper. His cheekbones seemed more prominent, and the line of his jaw looked like it could have been chiseled from granite. He looked like the man she remembered, just…more. Sharper, clearer, more defined, and more unbearably attractive.
His hands closed around her hips, fingers biting into her flesh as he encouraged her to sink more heavily onto him. Apparently her plans for that shower would have to wait. He guided her into a steady rhythm of long strokes seemingly designed to make the top of her head fly off and her nervous system short-circuit like an overloaded breaker switch. She moaned when he released her and sent his hands stroking up her torso to cup and cuddle her breasts in his large palms.
Her hands clenched in the unyielding muscle of his chest, and she locked her elbows to keep her arms straight and give her even more leverage to ride him. He matched her pace seamlessly, his body flowing into hers, muscles bunching and shifting beneath her.
“Bend down.” He gave the order in a voice so harsh with gravel it took her a moment to realize it was more than a wordless groan. “I need to taste you.”
She bent, bringing herself within reach, until his mouth closed hot and strong around her nipple, and she whimpered in pleasure. He drew on her with hard suckling motions, as if he could draw her heart out through her breast. The little bud contracted, beading tight against his tongue. The feel of his mouth on her sent shock waves racing through her to the spot where their bodies joined. Overwhelmed, she wrapped her arms around his head to cradle him closer.
Her body and heart ached with the beauty of the moment. Corinne had had good sex before—she’d even had great sex a time or two—but she’d never had this, whatever this was. Sexseemed like such an inadequate word. This went beyond a mechanics of tab A and slot A. This felt more like soul A and soul B matched on some sort of elemental plane of need and fulfillment. What one sought, the other gave; what one offered, the other welcomed. Body matched body, breath matched breath, heart matched heart. It made her head swim and her senses ache and her soul rejoice.
And it made her wonder how she would continue to breathe when it finally ended.
That happened all too soon. As much as her soul wanted the joining to go on forever, her body reached its limits with a shudder and a sigh. She came apart on a long, quivering moan, her body clenched tight around him, pulling him after her into the shattering pleasure. Wanting to see his face in that perfect moment, she forced her eyes to open and watched as his jaw clenched and his breath caught and his eyes went dark and blind while he poured himself into her.
That’s when she noticed the glow.
At first she tried to blink it away, but the glow remained, a bright, golden aura that radiated from him like a halo. It made her eyes widen and her jaw drop as a voice inside her head whispered something she decided not to strain to hear, something true and profound and way too much for her to deal with just yet.
“Um, Luc,” she whispered and pointed to the glow that emanated from his warm skin, “is that, uh, normal?”
He froze and eyed her warily. “Is what normal?”
She pointed again. “That.”
He shrugged. “It’s a Fae thing.”
“A Fae thing,” she repeated, voice flat. “So that happens every time. Whenever you have sex, you just…glow.”
The man looked a lot less comfortable than she’d expect of someone who should have been boneless and exhausted after a couple of truly exceptional orgasms.
“Luc?”
“Whenever the sex is like this? Yes.”
Corinne paused to consider that. Okay, really she paused to savor the knowledge that she’d managed to rock the world of someone who could make the most ardent man hater on earth rethink her devotion to the cause. She decided pretty quickly that there were worse feelings to be burdened with.
“Okay,” she allowed finally. “Something to get used to, I guess. And look, it’s already fading.”
He grinned, looking smug and sly and too damned sexy for his own good. Or hers, for that matter. “Want to charge me up again?” he purred.
Corinne laughed. “Please. Unless you’re the most mature-looking eighteen-year-old I’ve ever seen, you’re going to need a few minutes for your body to catch up to your intentions, Romeo. Nobody’s got that much energy.”
Luc wrapped his arms around her back and pressed her to him as he sat up and swung his feet to the floor. “I’m afraid you don’t know very much yet about the romantic inclinations of men from Faerie, sweet Corinne, but don’t fret; I’ll be more than happy to see to the gaps in your education.”
He slipped one arm under her bottom and stood, lifting her with him as easily as if she’d been made of feathers. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs ar
ound his waist, hooking her ankles together behind his back and holding on tight. Luc gave a pleased little grunt and leaned in to kiss her, exploring her warmth with way more enthusiasm than any man should have been able to muster by that point in the evening. Corinne couldn’t even be sure her own enthusiasm was up to the task.
She pulled away to suck in a deep breath, prepared to break it to him gently that friction led to heat led to chafing led to rest periods involving long soaks in deep bathtubs, but before she could speak, he began to trail slow, heated kisses down her throat the delicate skin over her collarbone. He paused there to nibble and Corinne forgot entirely what she’d been about to say.
“Which way is the bed?”
Her eyes crossed when his right hand shifted to squeeze her ass with affectionate intent. Giving up, she let her lids drop. “Left,” she gasped.
He took the doorway to the left, walked down a short hall, and located the partly open door to her bedroom. Shouldering his way inside, he carried her to the side of the full-size mattress and dropped her. She bounced on the springy coils.
“You need a bigger bed.” The complaint didn’t stop him from following down to the surface, but she could see his point. Even conserving space by stretching out directly on top of her, his feet likely hung over the end of the mattress. “This is too small for the two of us.”
She wrapped her arms around him and shivered when he buried his face in the warm hollow behind her ear. A man could make her rob banks by scraping his teeth over that delicate skin, she realized. Just like he did right then.
A disconcertingly girly little squeak escaped her lips. “So either learn to be inventive, or find someone else to crawl into bed with.”
“I think not.” His voice issued in a raspy murmur then traveled along her spine like caressing fingers. Looming over her in the dark, he pushed himself back to his knees so that she could see the way his skin began to heat and radiate that strange, incandescent light.
Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale Page 9