by Lora Leigh
She was so close to coming she could feel it, at the edge of awareness, building and building, but Shane refused to make that one touch, that one stroke that would send her over the edge. He kept her poised on the brink, his tongue working her sensually, sexually.
She was barely aware of what was going on as he used one arm to hold her knees back toward her stomach. His other hand then smoothed down the side of her thigh, his fingers caressing, warm and calloused.
She took only a distant note of the fact when his tongue left her rippling pussy to lick and caress her clit, because his finger was there, dipping into her, filling her before retreating. Her juices were rolling from her cunt, along the narrow crevice to her rear, making the area, slick, hot.
But when she felt his finger press inside her anus, sliding with one sure, firm thrust deep inside her, she bucked, crying out as she nearly reached her peak.
His finger retreated, and next two filled her, tighter this time, working inside her, building the pleasure/pain to an explosive peak and filling her mind with an image she didn’t want to see, didn’t want to know, yet it was there.
His thumb moved to her pulsing pussy, pressing inside her, filling her as his fingers continued to work her anal muscles. Pressing, stretching her, opening her with slow, patient thrusts until she was fighting to breathe through the pleasure as the third was inserted.
“Shane.” Her head tossed on the bed now, depraved pleasure sweeping over her, making her mad for him.
This was insanity. Not the whispers on the wind or the craziness her father swore she had. This was madness. The words she fought valiantly to hold back and failed, would be her downfall.
“Fuck me,” she groaned, panting as she felt his fingers work deeper, deeper inside her. “There, Shane, fuck me there.”
“Where, Ariel?” His voice was strained at the effort to hold onto his control. “Where would you have me fuck you?”
“There.” She pushed against the invading fingers driving inside her ass now.
“Tell me where, damn you,” he snarled. “Give me the fucking words, Ariel.”
“Fuck my ass!” She wanted to scream, but could barely gasp as the three fingers plunged inside her with forceful dominance. “Damn you, shove your cock up my ass.”
He jerked from her. Her eyes rounded in surprise when he jerked a small tube from one of the duffel bags in the chair and moved quickly back to her. One hand lifted her legs again, a second later, she felt the cool rush of a lubricant sliding deep inside her anus from the small opening of the tube.
She moaned in rising lust. The forbidden act was washing over her with such carnal hunger that she was lost within it.
“There is a line between pleasure and pain,” he told her as he placed her feet at his shoulders, lifting her hips in his hands until the head of his cock lodged at her anal entrance. “A line filled with sensation and ecstasy beyond anything you know.”
As he pressed against the relaxed little hole, one hand moved between her thighs, his thumb exerting a heated pressure against her clit. Ariel gasped, her muscles convulsing a second before she felt the entrance flare open around the tip of his cock.
“There you go, baby,” he crooned roughly, his thumb feathering her clit again, producing the same reaction along with an involuntary cry from her lips. “Milk me in, Ariel. All the way in, baby…”
Her head thrashed on the bed as perspiration coated her skin. She couldn’t believe it. Fire was racing through her anus, her cunt, striking her clit with deadly blows as his thumb continued to massage the flesh along the side of it.
She could feel her muscles flexing, convulsing around the flared head of his cock, doing just as he said, milking his cock up the narrow, sensitive channel of her ass. Inch by fiery, destructive inch, she began to fill with him. Untried muscles clenched and throbbed before spreading wide for the impalement.
It hurt. She clenched her teeth, her groan rushing through her throat as her neck arched against the sensations. He was filling her slowly, stretching her impossibly, the pain blending so deeply with the pleasure that there was no fighting it. Hell, she wanted more of it.
She relaxed further, a short scream tearing from her as the head of his cock pushed past the tight anal ring, locking him inside her, making it impossible for her go back, to change her mind about it.
She could have never imagined there was such pleasure in pain. That her cries would ever echo around her as she begged for more of the agonizing rapture. But she was doing just that. Her heels braced at his shoulder, she allowed her hips to arch against him, working him deeper, deeper, until finally, with a ragged groan she felt him slide in to the hilt.
His erection throbbed inside her, the heavy pulse of blood through the thick veins echoing through her body as her muscles rippled around him. Slashing fire streaked through her nerve endings, sensitized her further, pushing her higher, leaving her craving more.
“God. Ariel. Dammit…” His cock flexed within her, causing her to whimper at the exquisite pleasure that echoed through her. “Son of a bitch. You’re fucking tight. So fucking tight you’re killing me.”
Hot steel filled her ass. Thick, and so hard. She could feel every inch, every thick vein pounding with blood, stretching her wide, filling her with fire.
“Fuck me, Shane.” Her voice was a thread of sound as his hands spread her legs once again, his eyes going to where he had lodged inside her.
“Stroke your clit,” he ordered harshly then. “Touch yourself first.”
Desperate lust, incredible pleasure. Her world narrowed down to his voice, whatever he commanded, whatever he needed, if he would just push her over the edge she was teetering on.
Her hand lifted from the bed, her fingers stroking over her engorged clit as the fingers of the other hand began to pinch and pull at the nipple of one breast as well.
“Oh yeah, baby,” he growled, his gaze darkening further as he watched her and began to move.
It was the most intense sensation she could have imagined. Burning, streaking strokes of pleasure that defied description. His cock stroked the nerve endings in her anus like velvet fire, rasping and caressing, sending electric shards of sensation ripping into her pussy, pulsing through her clit.
Her fingers stroked her clit but it was her cunt making her insane. The building heat was throbbing there, streaking from her ass to her vagina, tormenting her with the escalating need.
Then his fingers were there. As though he knew she needed more, two pushed forcibly past the tightened opening of her pussy, pressing inside her as his hips began to move faster, stronger, driving his cock inside her ass as his fingers fucked her pussy with a deep driving rhythm.
The explosion that ripped through her tore something apart in her soul. She felt it rip, shred, felt something pour free of her, even as she fought to understand what it was amid the violent tremors that shook her helpless body.
Her wail was quickly followed by his harsh cry as he thrust one last time, burying deep inside her ass before she felt the hot spurts of his semen jetting into the gripping, rippling tissue there.
Her legs spasmed as she tightened. Her womb shuddered. Taut as a bow her body arched as the final, climactic surge burned along her nerves and flung her past any preconceived notions she may have had of true pleasure.
It could have been minutes later, it could have been hours later when she felt him pull slowly from her and collapse on the bed beside her. His arms pulled her close to him, sheltering her against his chest, where she could hear the ragged thump of his heart.
And that something, that unexplained emotion, that had torn loose inside her rose once again, causing her to flinch, to attempt to escape his hold.
“You fear me?” he asked her then, his voice quiet, reflective.
“I don’t fear you,” she whispered. “Maybe it’s myself I fear.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
There were so many unanswered questions. Too many. As the rush of adrenaline from the fi
ght and their passion slowly faded away, Ariel was able to feel the shift in the air that hadn’t been there before.
Shane’s anger was like an echo around her. She could feel it vibrating on the air, despite the fact that he was now in the shower. But it wasn’t just anger. It was pain. Emotion. A hunger she couldn’t define, yet one she was beginning to feel herself. As though the sex, despite the pleasure and the power of it, was still missing something. Something deep, something overwhelming.
But there was more than that moving around her now. She could feel it slowly wrapping around her consciousness, making her wary, on guard.
Her skin prickled with a strange sort of awareness, her mind felt energized, on guard, the power rushing inside her warning her of danger. At her breast, the crystal throbbed with an increased awareness that had her nerves on edge.
The shower she had taken earlier hadn’t eased the nervous tension and now, as Shane made use of the bathroom, she paced the suite slowly, her arms clasped across her chest as she tried to make sense of it.
She walked to the tall, wide windows, lifting the curtain aside to stare into the darkness with a frown. In the distance, she could see the lightning. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but jagged, furious streaks of lightning lit up the sky like bursts of fireworks toward the mountain in the distance.
They were only a day’s ride from their destination, she knew. Did that have something to do with it? It couldn’t. Caitlin controlled the water, not the lightning. Was Caitlin somehow in danger? Had Jonar found her?
Swallowing tightly, Ariel slid the lock on the window free, opening it the mere six to eight inches before the steel lock stopped its progression. The wind blew into the room then, twisting around her, a cool breeze filled with scents and sounds that seemed to whip around her in a chaotic jumble.
There were no screams of pain, though. No pleas for help. The wind didn’t call out to her to go, to run, to aid.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep hard breath and in that second made a decision she prayed she wouldn’t live to regret. She had the power, she controlled the winds. It would do her bidding, she knew, stream through time and space to bring her what she needed.
“Find her,” she whispered to the breeze as it grew in strength. “Find her. Let me know if she’s safe.”
She felt it whip through the opening in the window, crying out in joy at her command as she waited, silent, listening to it to carry the order until all she heard was the echo of her own voice coming back to her.
Ariel… There was surprise in the voice, a vague drowsiness as though Caitlin had only just awakened. Do you need me?
Ariel breathed in roughly in relief.
“Are you well?” she murmured. “Do you need me?”
Ariel sensed a flurry of movement from the other woman before the connection increased, became stronger. The smell of rain in the distance reached her sensitive nose.
There’s no danger here, Ariel. There was an edge of confusion in the voice. Is there danger there?
Was there?
“I don’t know,” she kept her voice soft, trusting the winds to carry even the softest breath of sound. “Tell me where you are, Cait. I don’t like this feeling. It frightens me.”
She sensed the winds wrapping about her in comfort, in protection, even as her words were carried to some distant point.
There was silence then. She could feel Caitlin’s indecision, her need to reach out to the crystals connecting to her. And Ariel was well aware that in the space of seconds, Chantel had added the power of the Earth Crystal to that of the Wind. There were no commands from Chantel for the wind to seek more than Ariel wished, even though she sensed the sister crystal could have done so. She merely waited, loaned the power needed and drew on a patience Ariel found herself lacking.
As she stood in the window, slowly, gently, she felt the moisture that began to join with the breeze outside. Rain. A light, gentle shower that washed over the land, seeking, searching.
She tilted her head to the side, searching silently for more information, before a smile tugged at her lips. The rain had come from all directions. Her sister wasn’t a fool.
Ariel, you’ve been followed. Caitlin’s wind-soft words had her eyes opening in surprise, staring into the darkness outside her window. The danger is to you, but it seeks me as well.
“Cait, please,” she whispered again. “Stop running.”
Light laughter filled the silence.
I’m not running little sister, she whispered then. I’m merely waiting.
A soft caress of mist touched Ariel’s face, a gentle kiss of consolation to her cheek as the rains receded as quickly as they had come.
You’ve been followed.
The words echoed around her.
“Who follows me?” she whispered to the winds.
They swirled around her, whipping outside then back, whispering to her, but none of the sounds that met her ears carried her name or a hint of danger. As though whoever or whatever tracked her, knew her power. Knew that once whispered, sound never ceases and was then at the mercy of the winds.
She could feel the oppressive sense of danger thickening around her. The air itself was attempting to place a shield around her, one that would be impossible to penetrate.
Leaving the window open, she paced to the far corner of the room, hearing the water in the shower turn off as Shane finished. She needed him to hold her, but she felt like a baby. Only a baby needed to be held when confused or frightened.
She curled up in a chair instead, biting her lip as she stared around the dim room. It was too dark. Even the low lamp beside the bed wasn’t casting enough light. It was dimming, growing darker.
“Shane!” She moved to jump to her feet, her feet tangling in her gown when she felt the first streak of pain.
Blinding light shot through the room, white-hot and destructive as it caught her across her shoulders. It seared her flesh and sent her tumbling to the floor as a scream of rage and pain tore from her chest.
Another bolt shattered the coffee table at her side as she scrambled past it, hearing the roar of rage that echoed from the bathroom.
Everything happened so fast. Too fast. The bathroom door flew open as Shane rushed into the room, only to take the next strike to his chest.
Ariel watched in horror as a bloody slash streaked across his flesh, the blow bringing him to his knees as he threw himself at her.
“No!” She knew what he would do.
“Protect him!” She screamed out to the winds as they roared around her now. “Protect him!”
She couldn’t lose him. Oh God, she couldn’t let this happen, she had to stop it. She screamed as he was struck again, the bolt so powerful it flung him across the floor, charring his flesh.
“I command you to him,” she screamed desperately, fighting, struggling against the restraining winds that held her in place. “Leave me now, damn you! Protect him as I command you!”
Her voice grew hoarse as her screams went unanswered and each sizzling strike at Shane’s undefended body ripped further into her soul. She was going to lose him. God help her, she couldn’t survive it. How could she go on if she lost him? If she lost the only warmth she had ever known in her life?
Another lit up the room, this time, striking him across the shoulder and throwing him backwards.
“Chantel, where are you?” she screamed out, staring around wildly as she fought to find a way past the winds that pinned her securely in place, keeping her from reaching him, keeping him from her as bolt after bolt of white-hot heat slammed into his flesh.
He was enraged. His eyes were black with it, his furious bellows echoing with it as he jerked his sword from his sheath, rolling to his side and countered the next blow with the steel he placed in front of it.
“Get out of here,” she screamed desperately.
“Use the winds, Ariel,” he ordered savagely. “Command them.”
“They won’t,” she cried, nearly suffocated by the
thick shield of the winds swirling around her.
“They will. Command them damn you!” He blocked the next strike at his defenseless body, but jerked in pain with the next as it seared his calf.
“Find them. Make it stop…” she screamed out to the winds, tears pouring down her cheeks as they refused to leave her, refused to heed her commands, they only swirled harder, faster around her.
Another slash of destructive light whipped into the room, barely missing Shane as he rolled to the other side of the room, his sword blocking it in the nick of time.
“It’s Jonar, Ariel,” he yelled desperately. “He can kill with these bolts, dammit. He’ll kill both of us. Command those fucking winds.”
She saw the next one coming. Larger, thicker, if it hit him, it would destroy him.
The winds allowed her to move, but swirled thicker, furiously around her rather than Shane as she had commanded.
The crystal was burning hot, impressions, memories, scattered phrases singing around her as she watched, as though in slow motion as the bolt zipped from the stars above and headed for them.
Her hands lifted, power raged inside her as she heard the bedroom door behind her splinter. Lightning crashed outside, rain fell in thick, blinding sheets that did nothing to slow the powerful energy missile as it came toward them.
“You will turn it back.” She forced the power from her, her hands rising sharply. “You will turn it back now! Obey me, I am the Mistress of your existence, I command you, turn it back now!”
Her voice rose, she turned into herself directing the energy pouring through her to the winds that screamed both outside and in. Instantly, pure violet light shot from her crystal, shooting to the weapon aimed for her. The winds followed, shrieking and moaning, screaming in fury as they rushed toward the destructive surge of energy, meeting it only feet outside the window, dissolving it, disintegrating it before the violet ray shot further into the night.