by AJ Nuest
“Well, I’m off to check on the shop.” Oliver dumped the remains of his cup into the sink and set the empty mug on the counter, glancing at Jon. “I’ll meet you at Bloomingdale’s in an hour?” He jabbed a button on the music box and, when the relentless hammering ceased, Caedmon expelled a breath in relief.
“I’ll be near the men’s fragrance counter.” Jon decanted a steaming black liquid into a fresh cup, rounded the table and placed in front of Caedmon. His hand landed on Caedmon’s shoulder and he patted, swiping his palm to and fro. “I’ll check the wardrobe department at the theatre and see if we can find anything appropriate for the big guy here for Violet’s soirée.” He frowned, dancing his fingers down Caedmon’s upper arm, clutching and gripping along the way. “I swear to God, I have never felt such dense muscle in my entire life. Is it always this hard?”
Caedmon squinted at the clean, perfectly trimmed nails digging into his bicep, pinned Jon with a hard stare and brushed the offending appendage from his person. The man would be wise to keep his hands to himself.
“Yes.” Rowena chuckled and then quickly clamped her lips together when Caedmon shifted his attention to her. She bit into one of her pastries and spoke around the food. “Well, it is.”
Oliver rolled his eyes, backed into the swinging door and disappeared.
Another penetrating squeeze of his arm and Caedmon whipped his head around, surging to his feet. Jon squeaked and hopped back, holding both palms in the air in a display of surrender. Yet the merry twinkle in his eyes and unrepressed smile dallying about his lips fully eradicated the notion any fault lie with him.
“Sorry, sorry. I couldn’t help myself.” He grimaced, shoulders high and tight, twiddling his fingers. “You’re just so wonderfully…masculine.”
Caedmon fisted his hands to keep from throttling the infuriating man. Whether it ruined everything they stood to gain in this realm or not, his tolerance for Jon’s veiled advances had reached its limit.
“You will cease in these attempts to earn my favor.” A sidestep from the table, and he poked a hard finger into Jon’s chest. “No more dreamy sighs, no more lingering glances and no more affectionate missives signed in an inappropriate manner. Do you fully comprehend my meaning?”
A tense moment passed between them before Jon blinked and tossed his head, smoothing a lock of hair back from his face. “I do.” He batted Caedmon’s hand aside. “But, obviously, you don’t understand me at all.” Nose perched at an imperial angle, he crossed the room and placed his palm on the door. “He’s a true beast at times, isn’t he?”
Rowena scooped a spoonful of her beloved peanut butter into her mouth. “Consider yourself lucky. You should see what he can do with a sword.”
Jon sniffed. “Yes, well, hopefully you’ll be able to improve his attitude while we’re gone.” He darted a scathing glare at Caedmon and pushed into the hall.
Silence reigned in the room, and the sidelong glance his love shot at him from under an arched brow irrefutably placed the blame solely on him. He plopped down into the chair, his elbow thumping the table, and pinched the bridge of his nose. Mayhap she was right. Ever since their arrival, a fell portent niggled at his gut. Like a prickly burr beneath a saddle, the tremulous fate of their combined future scratched and burrowed ever deeper into his consciousness. Coupled with the incisive flashes of his time spent at Castle Seviere, he had to wonder if he’d lost the last tenuous grip on his sanity.
A soft hand smoothed up his forearm and pried his fingers from his face. His heart lurched at the confused turbulence swirling through his lady’s emerald gaze. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”
He sighed and shook his head, dropping his focus to the black liquid rimming the lip of his cup. To speak of his worries…to entertain that perchance their safest course would be to let her remain in this realm where she would be protected and want for nothing…would surely initiate her wrath. And, in his current state, he had neither the energy nor resilience to argue his case.
Until they met with the witch, Violet, and he was certain no other path lay before them, he must abide his disturbing proposal and prepare his line of reasoning for whence it served him best.
She twined her fingers through his, cupped his cheek with her other hand and lifted his face until he’d no choice but to meet her intent inspection. The ball of her thumb swept the skin beneath his eye, and sadness shadowed her face. “You didn’t sleep at all, did you?”
“I suffered distressing nightmares of my imprisonment.” Sheltering her hand within the length of his, he turned his head and kissed the tender slope of her palm. “Since waking, I’ve been plagued by visions of Gaelleod’s cruelty.”
“Oh my God, Caedmon.” She sat forward, weaving her hand into his hair to draw him near. His forehead came to rest on her shoulder and he closed his eyes. The pressure of her fingers at the nape of his neck eased the steady pulsing in his temples. “That’s horrible. Do you have any idea why? What might’ve started these flashbacks?”
A small breath flared his nostrils and he smiled against the strap of her funny pantaloons. “Any number of reasons come to mind. Our trip through the veil, perchance. The hard truth I find myself completely outside my element, or mayhap I am simply at a loss since this is the first you’ve not been in pursuit of our eminent doom.”
A quiet laugh shook her shoulders and he withdrew to return her loving smile. Clasping both her hands behind his head, she lowered his brow to hers and searched his gaze. “So what you’re saying is you don’t do down-time well?”
“Apparently not, my love.”
She sat up and smoothed both hands along the tops of his shoulders, down his arms and back up again. A frown marred her forehead and she squeezed his arms. “My God, Jon was right. You’re so tense your muscles are nearly fixed in place.”
Rising from her chair, she rounded his side to stand behind him, and a groan eked from his lips when she dug her nimble fingers into the acute stiffness on either side of his neck. He dropped his chin to his chest and let her apt ministrations work their magic.
“You know Jon meant no offense, right?” Her thumbs prodded a tender spot between his shoulder blades and he hunched forward to offer her better access to his spine. Sweet tits, the kneading of her hands secured a high spot on the list of pleasurable things she’d previously done to him. His cock twitched as each of those singular delights came to mind. “In fact, his comments were meant more as a compliment than anything else.”
Jon…the troubling visions…the impending decisions regarding their future…none of those complications seemed to matter quite as much anymore. Not compared to the indulgence of her skilled nurturing. Not with the way the soft ends of her hair fell forward to brush the sides of his arms. His shaft lengthened and tightened inside the fitted constraints of his breeches. “Must we discuss this now, my love?”
“Maybe if you think of him as a woman, that will help.” Hands tugging the side of his arms, she eased him back in the chair. The pointed tip of her elbow depressed the top of his shoulder and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head. She repeated the motion on the other side and he lifted his face toward the ceiling, extending his legs to ease the building ache in his groin. A murmur of contentment left his lips as her fingers tended either side of his throat, up his jaw to his temples. The small circles she focused on his hairline tingled along his scalp.
“Then you’ll understand his intensions really weren’t meant to seduce you.” Her fingers thrust up under his hair and she clenched her hand, kneading the back of his head as she rounded the chair. She straddled his thighs and sat on his lap, pressing the heels of her palms into each side of his chest. “It’s just that he’s more overt in his sexuality. Sorta like those young maidens of the court.”
He sighed. “I do not wish to discuss Jon or his feminine tendencies, overt or otherwise.” He grasped the backs of her knees and wrenched her higher up his legs, seating her over the hard ridge of his erection. If the evidence of
his arousal did not stem the tide of her prattling, nothing would.
She gasped and her eyes widened a moment before a clever smile stole across her lips. She lowered her chin, chuckling. A journey of both hands down the length of his arms and she shook her head. “Nope. You’re still too tense. Try though I might, this is like trying to massage a brick wall.” She grasped both his shoulders and stared him straight in the eye. “Time for more drastic measures.”
Before he’d had the chance to glean her meaning, she rose from his lap and sauntered toward the kitchen door. A glance at him over her shoulder and she tossed one strap of her pantaloons down her back. “Are you coming?”
Not all the goddesses in paradise could have kept him seated. He sprang from the chair and trailed her from the kitchen, down the hall to a small, strangely appointed room. With the unbuckling of her second strap and a tumble of those bizarre breeches down her legs, the reason behind why a lidded, porcelain seat had been bolted to the floor no longer warranted his deliberation.
The enticing curves of her bottom peeked at him from beneath the edge of her white shirt as she stepped from her pantaloons and swept a patterned curtain aside. She leaned over to twist a series of silver knobs affixed to the wall and all the blood in his body raced straight into his shaft. His eyes feasted on the tender skin of her upper thighs, the smooth white arcs of her flawless backside, and the craving to have those soft globes cushioning his stomach as he drove into her from behind had him struggling to draw his next breath.
Water rained into the tub, doused her hand as she held it beneath the steady spray. Steam billowed into the cool air and he squinted at the droplets racing down her forearm to the bend in her elbow. She turned with a smile and ran a heated stare up and down the length of his body. “You might want to undress.”
His jaw unhinged. Sweet tits, they were meant to step under the water?
Wet. It would be wet and warm. And she would be with him. Naked.
He fisted the back of his shirt and whisked it over his head, released the buttons on his breeches and shoved them to his ankles. By the time he stood, she’d discarded her shirt and was swaying to and fro beneath the spitting stream. She lifted her face heavenward, eyes closed, and ran her splayed fingers down the sides of her head. A quiet moan issued from her throat as the water saturated her long hair, trickling over her shoulders, the swell of her breasts, dripping from the pointed tips of her nipples. The skin of his cock flexed and stretched as he tracked the wet trails down her stomach to the nest of damp curls between her thighs.
As sure as Helios ruled the sky, he’d never witnessed such a glorious sight.
“Are you going to join me, or are you just going to stand there with your mouth hanging open?”
He snapped his jaw shut. Though his first—and only—impulse was to immediately accept her invitation, neither could he deny the vast enjoyment of such a titillating display. Mayhap he should detain their coupling a bit longer and, in the process, heighten their stimulation toward climax. He crossed his arms and cocked a brow. “And if I prefer to watch?”
Her chest heaved with a taxing sigh, but the mischievous twinkle in her gaze spoke of seductive deviltry. “Fine. Suit yourself.”
She selected one of the bottles balanced on the wide ledge and poured a creamy dollop into the palm of her hand. Lather formed as she rubbed her hands together. The scent of sugared vanilla filled the air. All the tension she’d worn from his body returned the moment her soapy fingers cupped the underside of her breasts.
What in all of Helios’ bright reign had possessed him to waylay her plans? He raked a hand through his hair and fisted the strands at his nape. Goddesses wept, he was an addle-brained fool.
Foam gathered between her thumb and index finger as she skimmed one hand up the slim column of her neck. Her other hand forged a soapy trail down to the moist skin of her inner thigh. Knees bent, she slowly straightened, her hand slipping to the thatch of hair which covered his path straight to paradise. Her moan echoed off the shiny tiles. She shuddered and tossed her head back. Water splashed her cheeks and she shook her hair, gasping for breath.
He gritted his teeth, knees trembling against the heated tingling at the base of his spine. His hips jerked and he lowered his hand to stroke the thick pulse of his cock. He would slide deep inside her, stretch her, mold her. Brand every inch so she would always be his.
Turning her back to him, she arced her sinewy spine and cradled her bottom in both palms. The nails of her fingers whitened as she clutched and pinched her flesh. Her hips wiggled. She widened her stance. He thumbed the head of his cock and pressed down hard to beat back the surge of his impending release.
Need burned through his veins. His heart pumped a persistent command. …take her, take her, take her…
She bent forward at the waist, her hands floating down the backs of the legs, hair slipping over her shoulders, and presented him the full view of her sweet round ass.
The last barricade on his restraint cracked. He strode forward, encircled her wrists in his hands and wrenched her upright, propelling her forward and stepping into the tub with her until her splayed fingers pressed the wall.
“Feel what you do to me.” He ground his erection into her lower back and she shivered beneath him. Water pummeled his shoulders, tunneling hot and slick between their bodies. Sliding his fingers between hers, he lifted and smacked their hands back to the wall. Throughout realms. Across time and distance. Amid the future and past, he would never have enough of her. “I am beyond wanting you, my love.”
Her low laugh mingled with the rushing water. “Then let’s get this party started.”
She snatched her hands from under his and spun around, placing them on his chest. A wicked smile curved her lips as she guided him backward a step, stopped him amid the full force of the shower and dropped to her knees. “Close your eyes. I want you to try and relax.”
Sweet goddesses’ tits. She asked the impossible. With her kneeling before him just as he’d envisioned, the last item on his agenda was to relax.
Hot droplets caught in his lashes as he screwed his eyes tight. Rivulets streamed down his cheeks to his clenched jaw. Her cool fingers gripped his shaft and he slapped a hand against the tile on his right. A glide of her silky lips over the swollen head and a fire ignited in his veins. He instinctively pushed forward, was granted entranced into the warm cavern of her mouth, and groaned as she swallowed him whole.
The firm band of her lips constricted around him as she withdrew. A dense suction arrowed down his erection, tugging in his balls. He wove his fingers into her hair, held the back of her head and pumped into her a second time. So good. So sweet and warm.
She rolled her tongue and the head of his cock swept the roof of her mouth. He gulped a lungful of air, blinked and blew the droplets from his lips. The muscles in his thighs shook from the strain. Much more of this ecstasy and his desires would erupt.
Her fingers danced up the inside of his leg, clasped the base of his cock and stroked him as she eased away. The tip of her tongue swirled a lazy circle around the fleshy rim. She prodded the slit and he grunted. Her satisfied hum reverberated along his skin as she sucked him down, all the way in until he bumped the back of her throat.
She seized his hips and swallowed. The undulating ripple detonated an array of white sparks down his cock, into his groin, up his spine. He gritted his teeth until pain blossomed along his jaw. Another deep swallow and he hunched forward, wrestling the frayed tethers of his control. One more and he would unravel, and he’d not yet paid homage to her needs.
He stepped back, gathered her in his arms and twirled her to face the wall. Widening her stance, she rose on tip-toe and braced her heels on the tops of his feet. He dragged his knees down the backs of her thighs as he bent low, tracing his erection over the cool skin of her ass until it was nestled between her thighs.
A push forward, and a groan grated the back of his throat. The head of his shaft slid sleek and smooth throu
gh her slippery folds. Another thrust past the rim of her core and she whimpered as the head of his cock prodded her distended clit. Her head lolled back on his shoulder. He rotated his hips, his hands traveling the length of her stomach to pluck and tweak her taut nipples.
A shiver wrenched her body and he wrapped an arm around her waist, gliding his other hand up her slender arm, along the wing of her shoulder, under her hair. He clasped the nape of her neck and bowed her over the brace of his forearm. Panting in anticipation, primed to delve deep, he jolted when she cupped him between her thighs. She rocked back and forth, forcing him harder against her, increasing the friction until a steady drone built in his ears and flashes of light blurred the edges of his vision.
It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. He pulled back and, with one deep thrust, hurtled them straight toward bliss.
Her gasp bounced off the tile as he drove into her. She braced her palms on the wall, arching into him, gyrating as she met him stroke for stroke. The tight fit of her channel gloved him from base to tip. He slithered a hand over her hip, down between her legs, and forked his fingers around their linked bodies to tap and rub her with his thumb.
Her muscles tensed. Her cry of release rang out. A deep shudder tore through her body as she came undone in his arms, convulsing beneath him.
Her internal walls clamped down and an uncontrolled laugh burst from his throat, rolling up from deep in his belly as the force of his orgasm exploded and throbbed inside her, pulsing and melding into her core. He pumped and rode the thrill onward as it stormed through his veins.
His motions gradually slowed as the last of the tremors leaked from his body. Lifting her in his arms, he kept them joined as he turned her to face the water. Droplets wet his cheeks as he dotted kisses down her neck, along her shoulder. He brought one of her trembling hands to his lips and nibbled the tips of her fingers.