by Lola White
Her momentary happiness swelled beyond her ability to keep it contained and she laughed. “I stood up to them. Even if they kill me for it, I made my opinion known.”
“Will it do any good?”
“I don’t care. It did me good.” Tulah raised her hands to Adam’s chest, scraping her nails through the light mat of hair angling south. She shimmied, trying to follow the line with her gaze, but the shadows pooled too heavily between them.
“Hey, my eyes are up here,” he chided.
She flashed him a grin. “I’m looking for something I haven’t seen yet.”
“And I’m trying to find out if you’re certifiably insane.” His voice took on a dangerous undertone that sent excitement racing over her nerves. “Tulah, you challenged your Family Father and Graves.”
She stroked him slowly as she sighed. She traced his ribs, circled his nipples, let the heat of him burn her palms. “I was raised away from the Family. I was raised to be strong, confident and courageous. Since the moment Graves showed up at my door and demanded my presence here, I haven’t been any of those things.”
“Drove you crazy, huh?”
“Certifiable,” she taunted. “But I finally stood up for myself, and it feels great. I don’t care about the consequences.”
“Maybe I do.” He was getting angry—she could see it, hear it.
She tried to calm him by petting him. It always worked for her. “Imagine being a Ngozi female, completely powerless—”
“Try being a Davenold male,” he shot back.
“You have power!” Tulah tried to push up, but he blocked her, keeping her beneath him. “You don’t know what it’s like, to be beaten at your leader’s whim. You don’t know what it’s like to be tossed out of your home, with no money, nowhere to go, nobody to help you. You—”
“You’re right.” He deflated, the anger leaving his eyes in a rush. “I don’t know what that’s like. The Davenolds never set out to prove a point with our fists. Our Mother takes care of us properly.”
“Your men might not be the dominant witches in your Family, but they’re still valued, Adam.”
“Yes. Not in every Motherhouse, though.”
She glared at him, willing him to concede the point. “But in yours.”
“My grandparents were close. I don’t know if they loved each other, but they were friends. Madeleine was raised by parents who fostered a sense of Family, her grandmother was devoted to Family.”
“The Davenolds are unique among witches, then. The Ngozis are all about gaining power over their brothers, their cousins. My mother’s Family does the same.”
“Which Family did your mother come from?”
Tulah shrugged, shook her head and went back to petting his chest. “Adam, I’m naked in your bed and I would rather celebrate my small victory than rehash the past.” She wriggled beneath him and was rewarded with the feel of his cock hardening further against her thigh.
He looked at her for a long moment. His eyes darkened as if he was in the grip of some strong emotion. Tulah was learning the signs, but Adam still kept his tone even when he spoke. “You’re sure your head doesn’t hurt?”
“Positive. Will you fuck me now?”
A new emotion passed through his eyes. “I don’t know what I’m going to do to you.”
He lowered his head slowly. Tulah waited for him to reach her lips without lifting to meet him. He closed in on her, holding her stare, the blue of his eyes turning brilliant and troubled. She shut off the niggling whisper of doubt and regret in her mind by finally tilting her chin, placing her lips just under his.
Still, he hesitated a moment more. Tulah didn’t push—instinct screamed to hold still and wait, to grab her patience and keep it close. She watched him through a tangle of lashes, felt his breath flow over her and simply let her body relax under his.
Adam took his sweet time. His lips brushed over hers, barely there, just an impression of soft heat. Slowly, he dragged his mouth against hers, learning the shape of her. Her impatience slipped its leash, her lips tingled. Without thought, Tulah parted them, licking the lower curve in unconscious temptation.
Adam’s tongue followed the path of hers. A quick flick, then a longer swipe along the upper curve. Tulah caught her breath at the sheer eroticism of his deliberateness. One by one, the muscles of her body, only just relaxed, tensed again as she fought to keep still for him.
He entered her mouth with a gentle glide. Utterly dominant, wholly possessive. He left her no room for a strong response and she held herself passive under his tasting. He licked over her, sliding his tongue against hers, flicking the roof of her mouth. Tulah simply let him.
He withdrew to tease her with soft nips and wet flicks until her passivity was broken and she reached for him. She lifted her head off the pillow, following as he retreated. She caught him just as the pressure of his lips became a phantom, the tip of her tongue questing.
He caught her mouth in a fierce embrace and she realized she’d somehow given him exactly what he’d wanted. Some unfathomable mixture of challenge and surrender only Adam could measure. His kiss sent her world spinning on a new axis.
He possessed her mouth thoroughly and she fought to take his. The intensity skyrocketed, sending flames winging down her spine, but Adam’s speed never increased. Tulah grew restless beneath him, arching and wriggling until he lowered his hips, trapping her against the mattress, his legs caging hers. She could barely move against his weight, but felt compensated by the heat of his hard cock digging into her belly.
She sent her hands gliding over his chest, using the edge of her nails against him in a tortuous pattern. The friction of Adam’s skin had hers twitching in need when he shifted to catch her wrists. He pulled them above her head, anchoring them in one big palm.
But Tulah was determined to celebrate her success at standing up for herself. She was determined to take what she wanted, not knowing if she’d get another chance and not willing to waste the one she had. She wasn’t about to let Adam simply take her power from her after so recently finding it again. She flexed her spine and forced her muscles into compliance, lifting until her pebble-hard nipples scraped his chest.
Sensation flared and struck deep. For the sheer pleasure of it, Tulah lifted again, rubbing slowly as her nipples hardened further. The first wave of bliss ebbed from the peaks and she noticed Adam’s kiss had slowed into lazy licks as his attention to her mouth fractured. Mischief had her straining her back to roll against him, teasing him with pressure before stealing it away.
Tulah tried to break his control because she didn’t know if she could survive a long, slow loving from Adam Davenold. Didn’t know if either her heart or her conscience would make it through the fire.
His control would not be broken.
He growled low in his throat and thrust his hips against her belly, but Tulah wasn’t fooled. He wasn’t giving in—he was punishing her, tantalizing her by holding what she wanted just out of reach. He dropped his torso until he was a hair’s breadth above her, the points of her nipples sliding through his chest hair with every breath as he ripped his mouth from hers. Lips, tongue, teeth—all were used against her as his caresses slipped down the long line of her throat. Tulah took the opportunity to pant for breath.
His tongue rolled over her collarbone, painting a wet trail over her chest, between her breasts. Every nerve filling the swollen mounds quivered and sat up attentively. She couldn’t stop her body’s movement—small jerks, shivers coursing through her, the undeniable need to push impossibly closer.
Heat flash-flooded her body, her eyes widened to see the distortion before them. Magic coasted over her skin, but she didn’t know if it was his or hers, couldn’t think beyond the sensation of it to catalog the nuances. It hadn’t been like this before, in the sitting room, and he was the first witch she’d ever hopped into bed with.
“Adam?”
“Just feel, Tulah. Feel me.”
He licked her nipple. She held
her breath. His lips closed around the peak and sucked until white-hot wires shot toward her clit, leaving trails of need sputtering in her abdomen. She gasped, her torso left the mattress. He pushed her back down and sucked again, his cheeks hollowing with the force.
Need grew claws and raked her body. She twisted under him as her lungs squeezed, her heart jogged. Heat and magic coated her, sparking against her collarbone, wriggling over her ribs. Her legs grew restless between his and she used everything she had to lift her belly against his cock. Again and again, shifting and arching up, compressing his rigid length between their bodies.
Adam gave, just a little. He pressed his hips down, meeting her as she rose. The friction of his velvet flesh against her lower abdomen only whipped Tulah’s need higher. Adam turned his head, caught her other nipple, tortured it as he had the first.
Time stretched out, an eon of wondrous torment. Nerves she hadn’t known she possessed surged to life, tautened and hummed. Noises erupted from her throat, growls and purrs, a chorus of pleas Adam refused to heed. Blood thickened in her veins until it flowed in syrupy slides of heat, setting her flesh on fire, zinging through her muscles with careless destruction.
She needed more.
With every lick and nip, with every smooth glide of his hand over her body, Adam drew her tighter, wrapping her up in a web of emotion Tulah didn’t want, but couldn’t refuse. She struggled with her own mind, desperate to reject the connection he forced on her, determined to feel the bliss he pushed through her. She felt torn in too many directions and dependent on Adam to hold her together.
He licked down her belly, sliding his cheek against her skin until she was scraped raw by his morning stubble, but still begging for more. Her belly danced, muscles flickering beyond her ability to control, her skin glistened with sweat and flushed with desire. His tongue dipped into her navel and she felt an echoing pulse between her legs.
Without rushing, he moved lower. He was forced to release her hands and Tulah finally had an opportunity to send them sliding over Adam again. She grabbed his shoulders, kneading the heavy muscle. She looked down at him as he looked up at her, and saw the battle he waged in his eyes. He wanted to plunge into her, hard and fast and now, and yet he held back, clearly intent on pushing her higher.
“Why are you doing this?” she croaked. “Why won’t you just take me?”
“Because I want you out of your mind.” His growl nearly had her coming as it vibrated across the top of her mound. “I want you screaming my name and forgetting any others you’ve ever had. I want you so fucking wrecked you’ll compare everyone else to me until the day you die. And they will never measure up.”
She couldn’t understand him. “I just want you to fuck me.”
“I don’t care what you want. I want slide into you nice and slow, sinking so deep you’ll taste me when I come, Tulah. I want you to feel me, every fucking inch, pressing into you, stretching you, and I want you to feel empty when I’m not there.”
She already felt empty. Her body was weeping, wailing, for him, rippling with a brutality that stole her breath and lifted her hips convulsively. Her inner walls clamped onto themselves with nothing else to hold on to, crying for his cock.
He shifted her thighs around his shoulders and dipped his head. His lips closed around her clit and Tulah fell back to the pillows, fighting for the breath to survive. His mouth was hot enough to burn her, wet and slick and expertly pulling on her with long draws and longer licks. Fireworks shot off in her lower stomach, tightening in glittering loops around her spine.
He tongued her soft, then hard, until her clit swelled and pulsed. He sucked her gently, until her body gushed in need. The tendons of her thighs stretched and convulsed, straining, shaking, shuddering against his hold. Her hips twisted, pushing closer until he growled and opened his mouth wider, sweeping the hot flat of his tongue between her folds, ramming the tip against her opening.
He ate her up. His fingers clenched on her thighs, adding to the thrill. Tulah was fluid beneath Adam, lifting for his mouth, twisting against his lips, straining to get closer even as she shied away from the intensity. Her pussy flexed and rippled, a building swell rolling through her. Pressure flared and grew, a deep ache only he could satisfy.
With massive effort, Tulah lifted to her elbows so she could watch. He met her gaze, his eyes neon with need and determination as Adam licked a long line up her slit and flicked her clit. His lips caught her. Pleasure swamped her, blotting out reality. A spasm wracked Tulah’s spine, her elbows lost their strength and she collapsed back to the bed.
He wrenched her legs off his shoulders and surged over her. Tulah was a writhing mess, nearly incoherent as his whole body came into contact with the entire length of hers. Breathless and mute, beyond her capacity to do anything but feel—as he’d commanded—she lifted her legs to his hips, wrapping him tight.
One big palm depressed the mattress at her shoulder, the other closed around her ass. He paused, his fingers kneading, his face lowering to hers. Tulah tasted herself on his lips as Adam thrust into her mouth. His hips shifted, sliding his cock over her sensitized flesh, sending new shimmers of pleasure up her back.
Up and down, there and away, he slipped through her cream repetitively, over her folds, against her clit. So smooth with the honey that flowed from her, so hot. She felt every ridge, every thrum of Adam’s pulse intimately. A new torture that had her crying out for him, that had his jaw bulging with the effort of maintaining his control.
He pulled back, dragging his velvet flesh down until the thick head of his cock rested at her opening. Her body fought for him, sucking the very tip of his dick with a blatant promise of welcome.
“Look at me.” Adam’s voice was dark and strained, not allowing any room for disobedience.
Tulah peeled her eyes open, meeting the hunger in his. His gaze captured her, held her steady and sent her soaring. Energy gathered in his hips, a tangible force between her legs that strummed her nerves like a guitar. He pushed in.
The world stopped turning as he entered her in tiny thrusts, fractions of inches at a time. Torturously slow. Her pussy worked around him, tugging demandingly, filling with heat and cream as her hips jerked. Minutes lengthened to a mind-stealing chain of measured possession. Tulah lost her breath, her ability to cry out, to scream, to think.
All she knew was Adam. His cock stretched her as he’d promised. He filled her until the searing ache of loneliness deep inside her core faded. Somewhere in the hazy depths of her consciousness, Tulah knew it wasn’t just the loneliness of her body he eased. It wasn’t just her pussy he was drilling into or possessing.
She tried to close off her emotions, to shut that door for good, but he demanded entry. Body and mind both, simultaneously. The rigid thickness of him impaling her snatched at her common sense. Instincts raged and prodded, making their own demands, and she jettisoned the idea of standing firm against Adam’s temptation.
Tulah had no choice. She couldn’t fight both him and herself. She let go, followed her instincts and threw open the doors.
She gave him all she was and all she could be. Complete surrender. She softened around him, and let her body flow free. Adam felt the change—she could see it in his eyes, the satisfied light, the telling tautness at their corners. His hand clenched around her ass, pulling her up his length, holding her close until her hips were soldered to his.
“Yes, Tulah. Like that. That’s what I want.”
He pulled back and she didn’t have the breath to protest. She clutched at his shoulders, dug her fingers into his skin. Her legs tightened around his waist. He surged back in, still unhurried, but as powerful as she’d ever felt. Adam was intent, committed to their pleasure, his return a heavy thrust with no end but hers.
He rode her hard, thoroughly, obviously calculating proper force, pressure and speed by her breathless gasps. Tulah watched him watching her, and knew he missed nothing. His expression grew harder, more determined, his lips set into a snar
l that spoke volumes of his own need. Tulah threw herself into pleasuring him in return.
The muscles in her legs ached as she forced them to hold him tighter. Her ass clenched and her belly burned with the force of her wild lifting against him. She drove her body up his cock, forcing him to sink into her, single-mindedly enclosing his flesh over and over. She squeezed every muscle at her disposal around him, until he was locked in her heat and cream and his withdrawals sent flares of delicious pain to mingle with the extreme pleasure.
Adam broke with a gasp. He crushed her to the mattress, caught her lips and surged deep. His hands flowed over her body, plucking at her nipples, squeezing her breasts, clawing at her hips. Tulah threw her arms around his neck and held on as his hips surged faster and faster, his cock forging deep and heavy into her depths.
His body, his magic and his presence filled her from the inside out. From the depths of her soul to the surface of her skin, she was nothing more than his, in that moment. Tulah didn’t have to worry or care about anything, she didn’t have to fear or scheme or hide. She just had to come, follow where Adam led, and he would take care of the rest.
With that thought, Tulah’s body erupted. Heat snaked through her, the hot wires cutting her spine in half pulled taut and sent singing pulses of pleasure rippling down her back. Her legs clenched, her ass lifted. Her body arched until her nipples were welded to Adam’s chest and her head was digging into the pillow.
There was no breath to scream. Every molecule of air in her lungs was necessary for survival as her body broke around his and pulled him deeper. Adam surged into her, pushing her on, lengthening the spasms working deep inside her, sliding against her flickering skin. She shuddered and held on as blinding flashes of magic took her sight.
Adam pushed hard, locking into her as his release filled her with his heat. His hand thrust between them, pressed against her belly and another flash of heat bored into her abdomen. An endless moment threatened to collapse Tulah’s lungs, then her entire body relaxed and melted into the mattress.