She cleared her throat and spoke into his chest. “Dahlia put — I’m on — ” She sighed, and Jayden stroked a hand down her back to sooth her. “I am safe,” she finally said. “I’m taking something that will keep us from creating life together.” She buried her face further into his chest, and Jayden froze.
That was why he kept himself from her. His Fall. He should feel relief. He could be with her and not get her with child. Would that keep him from Falling? Obeying the letter of the law but not the spirit?
Jayden did not know. In fact, he only felt a painful pang at the thought that she would not carry his young — the proof of his love for her.
He loved her.
His body’s lack of any surprised reaction told Jayden he must have loved her for quite some time. Peace — the last emotion he would have expected in the face of such a revelation — settled down into Jayden’s soul.
Unable to keep himself from tasting her any longer, Jayden placed a finger beneath her chin. He raised her head.
She looked at him with those beautiful gray eyes, and he saw the same desire he felt echoed in her gaze. It was a flame licking up his spine.
His shaft grew hard instantly, filling and pressing into her belly. She could not miss it, and her eyes fluttered closed, and she sighed happily through parted lips, rubbing against him with her hips. Jayden lowered his head.
She seemed to sense him, for even though her eyes were closed, she tilted her head as his lips descended. At the first sweep of his lips against hers, they both sighed. Their open mouths fit together, and Jayden swept his tongue inside, needing to taste her as deeply as possible. Needing to taste her.
The thought struck and planted in fertile ground. He lifted her gently within his arms, and walked slowly to the bunk that he had not once used since being closed in this room. As he walked, she wrapped her arms around his neck and sucked his tongue even deeper into her mouth, twining hers against it with a sharp sound of desire.
He lowered her so she was sitting on the edge of the bed, quickly kneeling between her knees, allowing her to keep her arms around his neck. Her lips on his. Without sight, he sought out her buttons and removed her blouse and undergarment. Knowing she was bare from the waist up was exquisite torture, but he could not even consider breaking their kiss to look, the need to taste her the most severe of feelings.
But then, she pulled from the kiss and began trailing her lips across his cheek to nibble on his jaw and then brush kisses down the column of his throat.
He tilted his chin up with a groan, allowing her better access. He wrapped his arms around her, splaying his hands on her back and drawing her close. Every sweep of her hot tongue, every brush of her soft lips driving him to insanity. He ran his hands over her exposed skin, touching her with gentle slowness. Though his desire to possess her was so intense, he shook from it; he would not touch her with any measure of roughness.
He knew intimately the violence with which she had been introduced to sex. He would never allow that to be even a shadow of her experience with him. And so, he moved slowly. Knowing he could savor her, and in so doing, make the experience good for her.
He dipped his head and found her lips again, gently pushing her back into the mattress and leaning forward with her, crowding into the space between her spread knees and lying flush upon her breasts. Her softness met his hardness at every angle. And then, he began to kiss her cheek, moving to her neck just as she had shown him moments ago.
Her fingers tangled in his hair as she clutched him close. His fingers found the zipper of her pants and worked it down. Without breaking the kiss, he swept them and her underwear down her legs. With her pants gone, her knees spread even wider; his body surged into the valley of her thighs. His shaft pulsed against her sex, the moisture and heat of that part of her body penetrating his robe. Before he could forget his intent at the sensations shooting through him, he moved his body, slowly sliding down to kiss her collarbone. Her breasts.
He paused to languidly suck each nipple into his mouth briefly before descending further to press kisses down her ribcage. To swirl his tongue around her belly button, which made her belly quiver and her knees shake, much to his delight.
When his kisses dipped below her belly button, her fingers tightened in his hair, and she tugged fretfully. Jayden quickly scanned her thoughts and saw no fear, only embarrassment. He would not allow her to be embarrassed of this. He slowly but insistently pursued his downward path, arriving at last at his intended location. He nuzzled her auburn curls, and when she tried to close her knees self-consciously, he redirected her legs over his shoulders.
“Jayden?” she asked nervously.
But he barely heard her. She was spread open right before his face — the first woman he had ever seen like this. The last woman he would ever see like this.
And she was exquisite. So pink. So swollen. So wet. He swept his index finger down the center of her folds, and her body leapt. She jerked to an upright position, but he held her legs firmly, keeping her just where he needed her. He looked into her eyes.
“I love you,” he said, no longer able or willing to keep his feelings to himself.
She gasped in disbelief, but before she could say anything, he bent his head while keeping their eyes locked and placed an open-mouth kiss right over the bud that lay at the top of her sex, throbbing for him.
She made a small noise in the back of her throat and closed her eyes.
He pulled away to say, “Watch me, Grace.”
Her eyelids fluttered open again, and she turned her unfocused gray eyes upon him. Confident she would not look away, he dipped his head again, further this time, to gently penetrate her, briefly sticking the tip of his tongue into her opening, then pulling it up and over her bud. She moaned long and low, her body trembling. She shifted her weight to the side and braced herself with one hand. With the other, she stroked her fingers into his hair, cupping the side of his face, looking at him with … love. She was looking at him with love.
“Oh, Grace.” Her name was a groan. A plea. He fell forward, burying his face in her sex. He slipped his hands beneath her bottom and pulled her close, loving the pleasure of this intimacy. Of being so close to her.
Her fingers sifted through his hair. He kissed her bud once again.
Her sigh was one of want. He would deliver. He began to lap her, flattening his tongue and passing it over this center of her pleasure. He created a steady rhythm he knew she would love, a rhythm she had shown him before. He looked at her again, and with his eyes, he implored her to not break their visual connection. It was a beautiful gift. He did not miss a moment, as her eyes grew rounder and rounder. As her body shook harder and harder. As his tongue took her over the edge. As she cried out. As her eyes flooded with tears and she stroked his face while undulating beneath his mouth. As her body softened. As her hand caressed the back of his neck. His shoulder.
He turned to kiss the inside of her thigh, and straightened. He wanted to love her with his body now. Returning her soft smile, he slowly pulled his robe over his head.
Her smile turned completely lecherous as she reclined upon the mattress again, and crooked a finger at him.
He brushed his hands up from her knees to cup her breasts, kneading softly. She arched her back into his touch, and the movement pressed her sex against him.
His shaft fell directly on her cleft, the head sliding up through the moisture his mouth had created to brush against the bud. She moaned and pressed against him again. It was unlike anything he had ever experienced. Her body was hot and slick and perfect. He leaned forward and gathered her up in his arms. Rising slowly to his feet, he brought her with him, directing her with his hands to wrap her legs around his waist. She was embracing him with her whole body, and he wanted — needed — to be closer.
His wings circled them, holding her as close as his arms did. His feathers brushing across her skin and raising goose bumps. They were looking into each other’s eyes when he clutched her bo
ttom and repositioned her. He was so hard, he did not have to position himself; he just naturally perched at her entrance. With his other hand, he cupped her cheek and stroked his thumb across her bottom lip. “Never doubt I love you, Grace,” he whispered. “You are my first. My only.” He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against hers, their eyes a breath apart. “My everything.”
Then he slowly flexed his hips and lowered her body onto his shaft. Inch by inch, he filled her, entering a woman for the first time in his existence.
Her sheath clenched tightly around him. The heat. The softness. Every inch of her stroked him in ways he could not believe. He glided in to the hilt, his body shuddering, the sac between his thighs tightening. The pleasure was so great he had to close his eyes. Focus intently to control the urge to thrust once more and empty himself inside of her. So tight!
But she whispered, “Watch me, Jayden.” The echo of his earlier plea made him smile.
He opened his eyes and stared into hers. “Lord of the Most High, you are so beautiful,” Jayden breathed.
She closed the distance between their lips, sweeping her tongue across the seam. Inviting him to penetrate her here as well.
His arms began to shake as he slipped his tongue between her lips. At the same time, he tightened his arms, lifting her. She flexed her thighs where they hugged his waist and helped him withdraw his shaft and slowly enter her again.
With a shuddering sigh, she buried her face in his neck, nipping him gently. “So good,” she whispered, her breath tickling the damp skin and wrenching a groan from Jayden’s chest.
His arms tightened even more, holding her as close as possible. One hand slipped up to cup the back of her head and cradle her face against his throat. The other hand tightened on her bottom once more. Then he began a slow, steady rhythm of thrusts.
She began to make the most tantalizing noise in time to his movements. A mix between a gasp and a moan each time he filled her body fully. And then, when he was seated to the hilt, her sheath would squeeze him. Milk his shaft. It was pleasure so intense, his eyes rolled back into his head.
Control of his breathing entirely abandoned him. He realized he was panting as he began to move her body slightly quicker. Her breasts rose and fell, brushing against his chest deliciously as he worked her up and down on his arousal.
Her noises abruptly cut off with a startled, “Oh.”
Her sheath began to flutter along his shaft. She was about to peak. In answer to this knowledge, his own body surged toward completion, his seed pooling at the base of his shaft.
He wanted to watch her face. He pulled back, encouraging her with the hand to her nape to lock eyes with him. Her eyes were wide and unfocused when they met his. He brushed his nose across hers and thrust into her one final time.
She cried out, her eyes widening even more. And then, breathing his name, hugging him close, she sank down on his arousal even further. Her body seized around him. Her inner muscles clamped down.
Jayden groaned. Every muscle in his abdomen contracted. His seed surged. He crashed his lips onto hers to muffle his cry, thrusting his tongue inside her mouth as his seed shot into her womb. Stars danced behind his eyes.
His heart swelled.
With a shaky breath, Jayden ended their kiss with one final press of his lips to hers. She smiled at him softly and nuzzled against his neck once again. He pressed her close in one last embrace and then carried her over to the bed. He lowered her to its surface and followed her down, refusing to leave her body.
“Make me invisible again?” her sleepy voice asked.
He pulled back to look into her eyes. “You could never be invisible, Grace.”
Her eyes drifted closed on a sigh. Jayden kissed her forehead and rolled to his side, a heaviness settling into his eyelids. He wrapped his arms and wings around her, and together they slept, Jayden slumbering for the first time in his life.
Chapter Sixteen
Grace woke to the sounds of a soft snore. It took her a few moments to realize where she was, but the warm, firm muscle beneath her cheek was a dead giveaway.
She was in Jayden’s cell. In Jayden’s arms. And he was snoring.
Grace felt her cheeks stretch in a grin. She snuggled into Jayden’s chest even more, throwing a leg over his hips.
Her body jolted as the inside of her thigh encountered a part of the angel’s body that was definitely not sleeping. “Oh, God,” Grace breathed as she moved her leg, stroking him with the sensitive skin of her inner thigh.
Immediately, she wanted him again. She felt herself flood with moisture and muffled a groan by burying her face in his chest. Images of their lovemaking just hours ago flashed behind her closed eyelids. He’d held her aloft in his arms, his wings wrapped around her, and rocked his body into hers until he’d brought her to the most gentle, sweet orgasm she could have ever imagined.
But right now she felt anything but gentle and sweet. Details she’d noticed but not dwelt on now came to the forefront of her memory. The way his muscles had bulged in his arms, shoulders, and chest as he had moved her body up and down his cock effortlessly.
She shivered. Delicious. She opened her mouth and licked the valley between his pecs. A field of goose bumps erupted on his skin. Grace’s head snapped up to look at Jayden’s face. The angel slept on, though his body reacted to her closeness.
Grace smiled, the beginning of an idea forming. She smoothly slid her body onto his, straddling his hips without jostling him awake. She silently congratulated herself.
And then she was completely distracted by the view.
God, but her angel was magnificent. Here perched on his hips, his erection wedged snugly against her clit, she could look down on him and see his gorgeous body uninhibited.
His face was turned toward the side, his lips inches from where her head had been moments ago, giving the impression he had fallen asleep with his kisses pressed to her hair. Her heart lurched, and her eyes traveled down the column of his neck, to the hollow of his throat, to his torso.
Slabs of muscle covered him from shoulder to hip, creating the most beautiful landscape of man Grace could have ever imagined. His dusky brown skin was warm as syrup, and from memory, tasted as sweet. His flat nipples were erect; his chest still dotted with the goose bumps her lips created. As he breathed in and out slowly, his abdomen dipped and rose, creating sharp ridges of muscle. Good lord, the man had an eight pack.
She couldn’t keep from touching any longer. A careful eye on his closed lids, Grace leaned forward, running her palms up from his stomach to his pecs. She splayed her fingers across the muscles of his chest. The muscles leapt beneath her fingers, but other than a flutter of eyelashes, those honey-green eyes didn’t open.
His big hands, however, did move. They trailed up from the sheet to rest on top of her thighs. He squeezed her legs in his sleep.
Grace felt an answering ripple in her belly, and more moisture pooled between her legs, spilling out onto his erection. His fingers tightened on her skin, and his breath caught. His eyes remained closed.
Oh, this was deliciously wicked, this seduction of a sleeping angel. Very slowly, she rocked her hips, moving back and forth once on his shaft. Spears of pleasure shot up from the friction he created against her clit, and she couldn’t prevent a sound from escaping her lips.
His eyes popped open, full of sleepy un-focus. Slowly his head turned, and those green eyes came to rest upon her. Naked. Straddling him. “Grace?” he asked in a sleep-rough voice.
“You were sleeping,” she said, and then she rocked over him again.
A harsh grunt erupted from his chest. His fingers clenched on her thighs. “Sleeping?” Disbelief dripped from his tone. “Is this a dream?”
He looked so endearingly confused. Grace couldn’t help the bubble of joy that surged up through her. “No, angel, this is not a dream.” She rocked on him again, and all of the sleep vanished from his eyes. They focused on her sharply, quickly raking down her naked body. Sh
e felt everywhere his eyes touched like it was a caress.
God, when he looked at her, she felt pretty. Something she never thought would happen.
“Heaven, you are beautiful.” Sleep now gone, his voice filled with awe. His hands rose from her thighs to cup her breasts. His thumbs swept across her nipples, wrenching a small cry from Grace. She arched into his touch, feeling an urgency to join with him.
He gently squeezed her breasts, but Grace needed more than gentle. She slid forward until the head of his erection was at her entrance. Leaning down and bracing her hands on his chest, she canted her hips and shoved back, taking him inside of her to the hilt with one quick movement.
She slammed her eyes shut and cried out. Loudly. A sound she heard him echo. She felt her core seize on his shaft, and hissed through her clenched teeth as she fought with all of her strength to keep from coming right away.
His hands abandoned her breasts and grabbed her ass. His hold was almost rough, and it was obvious he was preventing her from moving again. She opened her eyes.
His face was inches from hers. His eyes were wide and horrified.
That wasn’t right. “Jayden?” she asked softly, feeling unsure.
“It … f-felt so good,” he stuttered, sounding panicked. “And then you cried out. You clenched your teeth. God, Grace, I hurt you. I am so sorry.”
Hurt her? Grace felt her heart crack right in two and then fuse back together, stronger than ever. Her angel, so wise, so implacable, was nonetheless innocent in what happened between a man and woman. She smiled down at him and stroked his face. “Oh, Jayden, you didn’t hurt me.”
His eyes narrowed skeptically. She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his grim lips. “It did feel good. That’s why I cried out. You cried out, too, you know.”
“I — I did?”
“Oh, yeah,” she straightened and found his grip on her ass had loosened enough for her to move again. “It was sexy,” she purred.
Operation Middle of the Garden 03 - Of Consuming Fire Page 14