“I mean this.” His hands left my breasts and slid down my trembling abdomen to the tender vee between my legs. I gasped and bit my lip as Richard ripped a hole in the crotch of my pantyhose, exposing my white silk panties.
“What…?” I couldn't even form the question.
“Are you wet for me, Rachel?” he whispered softly, cupping my pussy through the thin, silky material in one warm palm. “I'm only going to ask you one more time. Did your body respond when I kissed you?”
The panties I had on were unlined, and I gasped as he pressed one large finger against them, rubbing the slippery material into the hot, wet folds of my cunt. I had never allowed him to go so far while we lay in bed together, but now I couldn't seem to stop him. I could feel my body opening for him spontaneously, my pussy lips so swollen and hot that they were spreading of their own volition, welcoming his invasion despite the thin silk barrier between us. But still I couldn't bring myself to tell the truth.
“N—no,” I whispered, biting my lip as the lie escaped me.
Richard sighed. “You leave me no choice, Rachel,” he said. With one swift, violent motion, he gripped the crotch of my panties and ripped them away, baring me completely. I gasped when I felt the thin sides of the panties give way and the cool air of the room hit my unprotected sex. Then Richard's big hand was there again, cupping me, spreading me so that his blunt fingertips could explore my naked cunt with nothing between us.
“Richard…please,” I begged, but I didn't know if I was begging him to stop or to never stop. I had never felt so helpless or so completely out of control of my body. Here I was, straddling his lap, my breasts exposed completely and my legs spread wide while he explored my naked, wet pussy with gentle but insistent fingers, and yet I couldn't stop—didn't want to stop.
“If my kiss didn't arouse you, then why are you so wet?” he whispered roughly, in answer to my plea. “Why are you spread out on my lap, letting me touch you like this if you don't like it? Who have you been saving yourself for all these years, if not for me, your Lanor-zur?” he demanded.
I shivered and bit my lip as he pressed one long finger gently into me, feeling my virgin barrier. No one had ever touched me there before, not even Charles. But I could feel my body wanting more, wanting Richard to breach that barrier and claim me as his own, even as my mind was insisting that it was completely, utterly wrong. It was difficult to understand how something that felt so wrong mentally could feel so right physically.
“Please,” I gasped again, then bit my lip to keep the rest of my plea from coming out.
“Do you want me to stop?” Richard's eyes were half-lidded, an almost lazy expression of lust in his pale green eyes. He seemed to enjoy watching me writhe against his exploring fingers, watching the needs of my body war with the conflict in my mind.
I couldn't say a word, but I found myself shaking my head very slowly. If he stopped now, I'd die. I needed his touch on my body the way the parched land of the desert needs the cooling rain.
“Didn't think so.” One blunt fingertip began to stroke relentlessly along the sensitized side of my clit, building incredible sensations in the tight little bundle of nerves even as I moaned and cried, writhing against his hand. I found that my own hands were on his broad shoulders, my fingernails digging into his back as the pleasure built inside me.
“I want you to do something for me, Rachel,” he whispered, never stopping the steady motion of his fingers inside the wet folds of my cunt. “I want you to come for me, right here and right now. I want to watch you come as I claim you—watch you come as I finger your hot, wet cunt and prove to you that we belong together.”
Even as he spoke, I felt the waves of pleasure beginning to crest inside me. The orgasm he was building in me was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. No hand but my own had ever touched me where Richard was exploring with such expert care. No one had ever spread open the lips of my pussy and pressed his fingers inside me to test my depth, or caressed my clit so knowledgeably with just the right amount of pressure to make me come.
“Oh, God!” I moaned. I was coming so hard. I threw back my head, giving in completely to the sensation as I pressed myself against him, feeling my inner muscles contract around his fingers which were suddenly inside me again, fucking me as deeply as he dared without breaching my barrier.
“God, Rachel, I can feel you coming.” Richard's deep voice was ragged, as though he was at the very edge of his control. “That's right, baby, come for me. Come hard,” he murmured, still stroking in and out of my wet sex. “My sweet one, my Lana-zeel.”
“Richard…Richard!” I dug my fingernails into his shoulders and closed my eyes, my orgasm so intense I actually saw stars behind my tightly closed eyelids.
No one had ever made me come like this before; no one had touched me as he touched me; no one had made me feel so alive, so perfectly aligned with the needs of my body. How could he do this to me—make me react like this? He can do it because he's right—you're both of the Amon-kai, and you belong together, whispered a little voice in my head.
But as the intensity of my pleasure ebbed, I pushed the certainty away. This was wrong! Richard was my brother in all but blood, and besides, I had a fiancé whom I was going to marry in two weeks. It was as though the orgasm had cleared my head, broken his hold on me, and I found myself finally able to pull away from Richard's addictive touch.
“Richard,” I said in a shaky voice, putting my hand to his wrist and pushing him away from my unprotected sex. “We can't do this; it's wrong.”
“Then why does it feel so right?” he countered, grabbing my arms when I would have slipped off his lap.
“I—I don't know. But you can't always allow yourself to be led by how you feel,” I said, trying to make myself believe it. “We can't do this, Richard, so let me go.”
He frowned, and his hands tightened on my arms, obviously unwilling to comply. I was sure for a fleeting second that he would unzip his jeans and force me to spread my legs once more, this time to receive his hard cock into my pussy instead of his fingers. I felt my heart rate double at the thought, and my naked cunt felt even hotter and more slippery than when he had been touching me. Would he do that to me? Would he take what he wanted by force?
“No.” His voice was a growl and then he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, as though forcing himself to get control. “No,” he said again, and his grip on my arms loosened, allowing me to scramble off his lap and pull down my skirt. Richard looked up at me as I buttoned my blouse with shaking fingers. There was a mixture of despair and determination in his pale green eyes. “I won't take you against your will, Rachel,” he said at last. “When you give yourself to me, I want it to be voluntary and with all your heart. I won't claim you completely until you can do that for me.”
“Then you'll never claim me,” I whispered through trembling lips. “I'm sorry, Richard, but I can't do this with you. Never again.”
He stood up from the couch suddenly, looming over me like an ominous dark mountain. “Never is a long time, Rachel. And don't forget, I won our bet. I'll come back to collect when you're ready to be reasonable.”
With those words he was gone, leaving me alone in my little purple house to cry in bewilderment and need on the small, lumpy loveseat where he had touched me so gently.
Chapter Nine
He didn't come home that night.
I sat up until almost three o'clock in the morning, hoping to hear his key in the door, his step on my front porch. But there was nothing. I finally fell into a troubled sleep a little after three and then I had the dream over and over again—the moon, the statues, the boy, the wolf, the blood…it beat in my brain, making me crazy, waking me over and over with his name on my lips.
I felt like shit the next day, and I'm sure I looked it, too. I lost a case that should have been a cut and dried conviction and went home early with a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. Would he be there, waiting for me, as though nothing ha
d happened between us?
He wasn't. I sank onto the uncomfortable loveseat wearily after checking the entire house. The only thing that gave me hope was the fact that his clothing was still there, neatly placed in the small bureau I had cleaned out for his use. If Richard was leaving me for good, he would have taken his clothing, wouldn't he? I tried to cling to the hope, telling myself that it was all right, that he would walk in the door at any moment, and we would be together again soon.
It didn't occur to me to wonder why I needed him so much—I was hurting too badly to give the source of my pain much thought. I had read that people who lost limbs often had phantom pains, an aching where the part of them that had been amputated had been, and that was how I felt now. It was as though a part of me had been cut off, leaving me helpless to do anything but hurt.
My cell phone chimed, startling me out of my misery for a moment. I fumbled in my purse eagerly and flipped open the phone without checking the caller ID. “Hello?” I was almost breathless with anticipation, certain I would hear Richard's familiar, deep voice on the other end of the phone.
“Darling?” The nasal, proper tones of my fiancé in my ear dashed all my hopes completely.
“Oh, hello, Charles,” I said dully, forcing myself to speak.
“Are you all right, Rachel? You're not quite sounding yourself,” he said briskly.
“Fine, I'm fine,” I lied. “I just…thought you were someone else. Look, Charles, I'm really busy right now so if you don't mind getting to the point—”
“The point is that I'm calling to see if you and Richard are up for our little double date tomorrow night.” He sounded a little huffy now, probably at my abrupt tone, but I couldn't make myself care.
“Double date?” I tried to force my tired mind to remember what he was talking about, but I was drawing a blank.
“Yes, Ursula is so excited. I went ahead and took the liberty of getting a reservation for four at Bern's,” he continued. “I didn't want to wait too late to book.”
“I…Charles, I'll just have to get back to you. Honestly, I'm just about to walk into the courtroom,” I lied. “I promise I'll call you back tonight or tomorrow. All right?” Without waiting for his answer, I flipped the phone closed, ending the call. Then I balled myself up on the loveseat and closed my eyes, trying to forget everything and just sleep.
But sleep wouldn't come. I was tormented with thoughts of Richard and new doubts that kept rising in my head. Why, I asked myself for the hundredth time, had my mother been so desperate to keep us separated? Obviously she was worried that Richard and I would end up together in a way she had never meant us to be, but the fact was, there really was no blood tie between us. Was she that worried about us breaking a taboo that wasn't really there? Or was it something else? Something to do with the Amon-kai? The strange “teachings” Richard had spoken of? Why had she urged me to be so human, so normal, to ignore and forget everything she and my father had taught me for the first seven years of my life?
And why did Richard keep insisting that he “needed” me so desperately? Was there really a tie or bond between us that even seventeen years of separation couldn't break? And what about the weird and frightening fairy tale Richard had told me to explain why we should be together? What were the words he had used? Lana-something…And the talk about bathing in blood—what was that about?
My eyelids began to feel heavy as the unanswerable questions swirled in my brain. Whatever or wherever Richard was, I only knew one thing—that I wanted him back with me. Thinking of that, I fell asleep, my head cradled in the crook of my arm against the side of the tiny loveseat.
* * *
Warm arms encircled me, pulling me close to a hard, muscular chest. Someone placed a tender kiss on my temple and whispered in my ear.
“Rachel,” he said, and the deep voice was wonderfully familiar. I was almost afraid to open my eyes, for fear of it being a dream, but when he kissed me again, I couldn't resist looking.
“Richard,” I breathed, staring up into his pale green eyes, so much like my own. “I thought you were never coming back.”
“I had to come back,” he whispered tenderly. He scooped me up and lifted me as though I weighed no more than a feather. “Couldn't stand to be away from you any longer. God, it was hell leaving in the first place, Rache.”
“Then why did you?” I demanded. He was carrying me toward the bedroom now, but I didn't even care.
“I had to.” His voice sounded ragged and strained. “As hard as it was, I had to show you that we belonged together. Did you miss me as much as I missed you?”
“More.” I put my arms around his neck and nuzzled my face into the hollow of his shoulder. He was warm and smelled spicy and right—the scent of the Amon-kai, I vaguely acknowledged to myself. “Never leave me again,” I told him.
Richard laid me on the bed, but remained hovering over me. “I never will, if you're ready to admit that we belong together. Are you ready to do that, Rachel? Are you ready to give yourself to me? To let me breed you?”
I felt myself go cold and hot all over. He wanted me. No, I told myself. Be honest; say it like it is. Richard wanted to make love to me—wanted to fuck me. Or to breed me, as he put it. And if I was completely honest with myself, I knew that I wanted it, too. But I just couldn't do it.
“Richard,” I said as gently as I could, stroking his cheek, which was sandpapery with two days' growth of beard. “I can't do that with you. You're my brother, for God's sake. Not to mention the fact that I'm supposed to be marrying another man in two weeks.”
“Rachel…” He shook his head, his handsome face looking haggard. “You know there isn't any blood tie between us. And you know that you don't love Charles. Please…if you only knew how much I need you.”
“Can't you just lay here beside me for a while and forget about that?” I pleaded. “Can't we be close without being…well, that close?”
He sighed and slumped on the bed beside me, one arm over his eyes. “I'd never hurt you or force you, Rachel, but, my God, you're making this difficult.”
“Richard…” I propped myself up on one elbow beside him and leaned over to run my fingers through his mane of wild, black hair. “If you only knew how much I love you. I'm so sorry I can't get past the way we were raised. If only your parents hadn't died, if you hadn't been raised as my brother…But it's too much, too…too wrong. I just can't.”
“Can you keep your end of the bet, at least?” he asked, uncovering his eyes and looking up at me.
“Bet?” I frowned, at a loss for a moment.
“You lost yesterday.” He sat up suddenly and flipped me onto my back in one smooth move. “We bet that if my kiss didn't excite you, I'd leave your life forever.”
“I don't want you out of my life,” I protested earnestly, looking up at him. “I want us to be close, Richard, just not the way you want us to.”
“It doesn't matter because I won the bet.” His eyes were blazing now, despite the fact that his voice was low and gentle. “You can't deny that, can you?”
I bit my lip and looked away from the eager, hungry expression on his dark face. The worst thing was I could feel that same hunger in me as well. “No,” I said at last. “No, you won the bet.”
“Do you remember what I won?” he asked softly, stroking my cheek.
“Another kiss?” I looked up at him again, feeling my heart start to pound.
“Several more, to be exact.” He leaned down and kissed me lightly on the nose, making me smile despite my fear and the forbidden desire. “Take off your clothes, Rachel,” he said softly. “I want to collect on my bet.”
“But I don't…we can't…” I shook my head, my heart racing. It wasn't so much that I didn't want him to see me naked—it was the fact that without the barrier of our clothes, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop myself from going too far, from taking that final step and letting him fuck me.
“Don't worry,” he said, obviously seeing the fear in my eyes. “I
won't do that until you're ready to. I won't let things go too far; I just want to kiss you for right now.”
“Why do I have to be naked for you to kiss me?” I protested, hearing the fear in my voice.
“Because I didn't say where I was going to kiss you.” Richard smiled at me lazily, already unbuttoning the blue silk shirt I had worn to work that day. “I don't want to just taste your lips this time, Rachel.” He pulled apart the pale blue silk and unhooked my bra effortlessly, peeling it back to reveal my breasts. My nipples were already hard in anticipation, and I could offer only token resistance when he leaned down and kissed the right one gently.
“Richard,” I protested weakly, “You know we shouldn't do this…”
“You mean this?” He leaned down again, this time kissing the left nipple very lightly. “Or maybe this?” His tongue flickered out, lapping my hot flesh and making me gasp. “Or even this?” Richard whispered. This time he sucked my nipple completely into his mouth, nipping it gently and sending a shower of sparks throughout my entire body.
I moaned and pressed myself up to his mouth, offering my breasts to his gentle, intoxicating torture. It felt so good, so right to let him do this, even as my mind was screaming that it was wrong, wrong, wrong. I tried to remember all the troubling questions that had been running around in my brain before I'd fallen asleep on the loveseat, but I was drawing a complete blank. My body had taken over now completely, and all I could do was feel.
Richard spent a long time on my breasts, sucking and biting my nipples gently, marking the tender slopes of my tits with dark red love bites I knew wouldn't fade for days. I was helpless to stop him—in fact, I urged him on. I buried my fingers in his thick black hair and pressed my breasts up to his mouth, giving him free access to my body.
But while Richard's mouth was busy above my waist, his hands were busy below. I barely realized that he was undressing me until I felt the cool breeze of the ceiling fan on my unprotected sex.
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