After…well, he’d had to temper his desires so he didn’t go too far. Didn’t hurt his partner. He’d had to hold back.
He didn’t like holding back with Lacey. He sensed that Lacey wasn’t a stranger to what he liked but he also sensed she was hiding something from him. Something related to sex. And that made him wary.
So he let her play with him, let her kiss him while her fingernails made teasing strafing runs down his chest to his stomach then to the base of his cock. His shaft thickened again as the amentia simmered in his gut, whispering that once he had her on her back, she wouldn’t complain.
His hands lifted but he forced them to cup her head, weave his fingers through her hair loosely and let her lead.
She kissed him with a lazy thoroughness, as if she’d never done it before and it fascinated her. Her thoroughness sure as hell fascinated him. He felt like she kissed him for at least a half hour, sliding her tongue in and out of his mouth while her hands roamed his body.
He barely realized his hands had moved to her ass until he felt her bare mound press against his hip and her moisture dampen his skin. One hand instinctively moved toward her pussy, craving the silken feel of her.
But she broke the kiss and tsked, her eyes slits of amused blue and her mouth curved in a grin. “I didn’t say you could move your hands, Mr. de Feo.”
Her teasing tone drew an answering smile from him. “May I please stroke you, baby?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think I want you to put your hands over your head and keep them there for right now.”
The dominant in him growled in protest but he forced his hands to do what she wanted. When his fingers were laced behind his head, she smiled again and gave him a short, sweet kiss as a reward.
“Very good. Now just let me…”
He waited for her to finish speaking but instead she bent her head to put her mouth on his chest, her lips curving around one nipple and sucking the little nub into her mouth. His breath hissed through his clenched teeth as she flicked her tongue over the sensitive skin then nipped at him with her teeth.
Damn, he liked that. Wanted her to do it harder, but she seemed intent on teasing him into insanity as she moved back and forth between his nipples.
He could barely breathe as she tormented him with her lips, his chest rising and falling in greater agitation. A light pressure on his stomach caught his attention as her hand stroked down toward his cock.
Her fingers lightly brushed his skin, raising goose bumps on his flesh and making blood pump that much faster to his cock. He was hard and ready to go, his shaft pulsing, balls pulled tight.
If she would just touch him…
Damn it, her hand skimmed away down his left thigh, making his muscles quiver and a groan escape his throat.
And her mouth curved into a smile against his chest.
“I like that sound,” she said, her voice a teasing whisper against his skin. “Do it again.”
“Make me,” he ground out.
The hand on his thigh skimmed back to between his legs and cupped his balls, one finger pressing between the cheeks of his ass.
He groaned for her as his hands unlaced and reached for her, sinking his fingers into her hair. He caught himself just before he forced her closer by tugging on it.
Her head lifted from his chest so she could smile down at him. “Looks like you’re having a little trouble following orders, Teodoro. I think you deserve to be punished for that.”
Her hand moved from his balls and he growled in warning. “Lacey, you’re—”
She tossed her hair over her shoulders, trusting that he would release her. And he did.
Then she shimmied down his body and took his cock into her mouth in one long pull.
“Ah Christ, Lace—”
She swallowed, the back of her throat caressing the tip, and he nearly lost it. Only sheer will forced back his climax.
Holding him there for a few brief seconds, she finally slid back up until only the head rested in her mouth and then, not even that.
“I don’t want you to come until I say you can, Teo.” Her eyes flashed up at his and even through the fog of his lust, he saw something in her eyes, something he couldn’t begin to decipher. “Can you do that for me?”
Hell yes. He’d do anything she wanted. It was taking all of his control to not roll her over and fuck her, so all he could manage was a nod. Which must have satisfied her because she bent her head and began to torture him like he’d never experienced before.
Always before, he’d been the one in control, the one who brought the woman to a shattering orgasm before getting himself off.
Now he gave himself up to Lacey. Reaching behind him, he grabbed for the edge of the mattress and clung as she put her mouth back to work.
She took him back in, her teeth scraping down his flesh, causing sparks to shoot from his shaft through his balls and up his spine. His eyes rolled back in his head and darkness descended. Sensation was all that remained.
His body taut, he hung suspended on the edge of orgasm for Gods only knew how long. She’d take him deep, then come back up to play her tongue around the tip before releasing him completely and sliding her tongue down his shaft to lap at his balls.
Minutes, hours… He didn’t know how long she strung him out.
He only knew when she finally moved away, his cock was so sensitized, the slightest brush of air along his skin made him groan and moisture seep from the tip.
He forced his eyes open to see her sitting next to him, staring down at his groin.
Her lips were slick and slightly puffy and he wanted more of whatever she wanted to give him. But she looked like she was waiting for something, for him to do something.
“Lacey…”
Her gaze shifted up to his and he saw raging desire in her eyes, so much she seemed almost paralyzed with it.
“Teo, I need…” She took a deep breath and couldn’t seem to form more words.
So he helped her along. “I need you to fuck me, baby. Right now.”
A shudder moved through her and her lips parted even further.
It was the last straw.
Teo grabbed her hips and lifted her over him, forcing her to straddle his waist. She weighed nothing at all. Hell, his cock felt heavier. When her knees hit the bed, her gaze shifted to watch her hand reach for his shaft. She pulled it away from his body as he held her above it, waited for her to position it just right, then slowly lowered down.
She enclosed him in wicked heat and tight silk. He wanted to thrust immediately but her expression as she slowly sank onto him spoke of ecstasy. Her head dropped back as she released him, letting him control her movements again.
Watching her face for every shift in pleasure, he filled her in increments, millimeters, extending the sensation as he forged ahead.
Her breasts quivered with each ragged breath and her hands latched onto his thighs behind her back. Arching her back, she changed the angle of penetration…and gasped as he finally seated her completely.
“Teo.”
“What, baby?”
The effort it cost him to hold still showed in the rock-hard muscles of his arms, but her eyes… Oh man, the look in her eyes made him want to hold her there forever.
“Teo, I don’t want to hurt you.”
His eyes widened as he realized she was as serious as a heart attack. And because it was exactly what he was afraid he might do to her, he pulled himself into a sitting position and wrapped her in his arms.
With his mouth against her ear, he whispered, “The only way you’ll hurt me is if you make me stop. I will if you want me to but, baby, I want to make you come again. I want to feel you pulse around me and scream my name.”
She pulled back just enough to look in his eyes. “I don’t want you to stop, Teo. Don’t stop.”
Hands on his chest, she pushed him back, planted her hands on his stomach and started to ride him.
Lacey couldn’t wait another s
econd. She had to move or she feared she’d lose control and fuck him until she drew all of the energy from his body, not just the sexual energy.
There was so much of it lingering in the air around them she felt she could bathe in it.
The surplus didn’t surprise her. Teo had a dominant streak a mile wide. That should have worried her, or at the least given her pause.
Instead, it inflamed her. As she worked her body over his, watching his eyes spark and flare, she let the energy build between them. It spread through her each time she slid down his cock, each time she drew in a breath, each time his thick length stroked a sensitive spot inside her.
She’d never been in charge of a sexual experience in her life and Teo’s submission meant more to her than he could ever know. Than she could ever tell him.
Instead, she tried to show him. She let her body take over, finding a faster rhythm and racing toward a climax. She wanted him to go with her again, wanted to break some of his tight control.
With one hand, she reached behind her to fondle his balls, watching as his eyes narrowed each time she stroked her finger a little lower, almost to his ass. His biceps bunched tight as he fought the urge to grab for her.
She liked that.
She liked the way his abs clenched every time she sank to his root.
Gaze locked with his, she tightened her vaginal muscles around him before starting her upward climb.
His tortured groan flicked a switch she hadn’t known she had. Her pussy started to convulse around him, throwing her into an orgasm so sharp, she could barely breathe.
She froze and finally Teo’s control broke. He reached for her hips as she came and thrust hard and fast until finally he exploded.
Panting, exhausted, Lacey fell forward, knowing he would catch her.
He eased her the rest of the way down, settled her head on his chest and wrapped her in his arms.
Sweet Goddess, she wanted to go to sleep, knowing he slept under her.
But she couldn’t. She couldn’t risk him seeing…
Her eyelids fell and she couldn’t lift them.
Maybe she’d rest, just for a few minutes.
* * * * *
Standing by the side of the bed, arms crossed over his chest, Teo watched Lacey sleep.
Sprawled on her stomach, the sheets covering her from the waist down, and her sable hair flowed every which way over her shoulders and back.
Not completely covering her back.
He knew she’d been hiding something.
He just hadn’t realized how big that something was.
Which explained the folletti wing outline on her back.
If he hadn’t had to go to the bathroom when he’d woken, she’d still be wrapped around his body like a warm blanket. One he’d love to take home and tuck in his own bed, made for his much longer body.
His feet had hung over the end of her mattress all night, but he could handle that.
Hell, he could handle the fact that she had secrets. Everyone was entitled to their secrets.
What he couldn’t live with were the shadows in her eyes.
Dark ones. The kind he lived with on a daily basis.
He hated to see them in hers.
What had put them there? And did they concern the outline on her back? Or the linchetti points on her ears?
He swore his heart had stopped when his brain had made the connection between the outline and the ears. What they made her.
He wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen the evidence with his own eyes.
She was querciola.
Which was just fucking insane.
Quercioli were the dirty little secret of the Fata, one the Fata had tried to erase like dog breeders mating animals to eliminate aggression or short legs.
The rumors—and they were only rumors because Teo had never met anyone who knew a querciola—claimed they were wild animals, preying on men’s sexual appetites to fuel their own raging sexual need. Most Etruscans thought querciola were extinct, as the number of folletti diminished and the winged females retreated to the hidden places of the world.
Quercioli were always female, which shouldn’t have mattered, as the Etruscans were a fiercely democratic society. But somewhere in the past, they’d been demonized.
Lacey was no monster. He’d make anyone who even suggested it eat their words. And maybe their tongue.
But what she was probably explained the shadows in her eyes.
And the weird-ass reaction he’d had to her. The one that had siphoned off the energy from the amentia and allowed him to lose himself in her body without losing control.
He hadn’t enjoyed sex that much in decades. Maybe ever. She was everything he’d always wanted in a lover and had never found, before or after the amentia. Giving, caring, uninhibited.
His.
Definitely his.
She sighed and her hand clenched into the sheets where his chest should be. As he watched, her eyes flew open and she drew in a sharp gasp as she realized he wasn’t there. Scrambling into a sitting position, she clawed at the sheets to pull them up around her as her wide, wild eyes met his.
His jaw tightened at the out-of-control fear in her eyes but he forced himself to keep his expression blank as he eased onto the other side of the bed. He didn’t reach for her. He didn’t want her to pull away. But he didn’t get up either.
“Lacey. It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re okay. I won’t hurt you. No one will hurt you.”
Her mouth opened, but only a whimper emerged. The sound made his teeth clench in pure fury at whoever had done this to her. When he found them—
No. No, he couldn’t think about revenge now. With an effort, he throttled back his anger and focused on her.
“Shh, sweetheart. It’s just me. Teo. No one’s gonna hurt you, baby, not ever again. You’re safe with me.”
For at least a full minute, he sat there, completely still as she stared at him. Watched him with that terrified look in her eyes. But after a while, her fear began to ease. And embarrassment took its place. And shame.
She dropped her head, her hair falling around to conceal her face. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Teo. You startled me.”
“Sweetheart, you weren’t startled. You were terrified.” He placed his hand in the middle of the bed between them, palm up. “You don’t need to fear me. I won’t ever hurt you.”
She shook her head, hair swaying back and forth. “I know that. I just—I didn’t—I’m sorry—”
Whoever had put that look on her face had a death sentence hanging over him, Teo swore. “Lacey, you don’t have to be sorry. Just tell me what’s going on. That’s all I want to know.”
Again, she shook her head, not looking up. “You need to leave, Teo. Please just go.”
He thought about it for a few seconds. She sounded so devastated, he wondered if he’d do more harm by staying. But there was no way he could leave her like this.
“I’m not going anywhere, babe.”
Her back straightened but she still didn’t look at him.
“This is my home, Teo. I want you to go.”
“No, you don’t.”
There. Her head popped up and a hint of challenge in her eyes forced back some of that terrified wildness.
“You don’t own me!”
The force behind her outburst had his eyes narrowing and told him more than she probably wanted him to know. It made his gut churn. “I don’t want to own you. Now tell me who put that fear in your eyes and I’ll make them burn for it.”
Her mouth opened to say something. But nothing came out. When she realized her mouth hung open, she snapped it shut. He caught the hint of tears in her eyes before she scrambled off the bed, dragging the sheets with her, hiding her body. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She took a deep breath, and he swore he saw her dig down and pull her courage up around her like she’d wrapped herself in the sheets. Her spine straightened and she stared down at him with wha
t she probably hoped was disdain.
Her shaking hands negated the effect.
“I want—”
“I’ve seen the mark, Lacey. I’ve seen your ears. I know what they mean.”
She froze. Her entire body just seized up and he thought she might actually pass out from lack of oxygen. He rose from the bed slowly, so he didn’t spook her. He was a foot taller than she was and had at least a hundred pounds on her. But she wasn’t looking at him like she was afraid of him.
No, she was afraid of what he knew.
Her head started to shake back and forth, her hair falling over her shoulders. “Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know anything.”
“Sweetheart, I—”
“Don’t call me that!” Her hands tightened on the sheet, the knuckles going white.
He let a few seconds tick by as she stared at him. “Lacey. How old are you?”
She frowned. “What does that matter? I want you to—”
“I’m one-hundred and twenty-three. You’re…what? Twenty-two? Twenty-five?”
Her frown hardened but her eyes lost just a little bit of that terror. “I’ll be twenty-six next month. A little late to be worried about robbing the cradle, isn’t it?”
He shook his head, letting a smile curve his lips. “Yeah, it probably is. And I’m not worried about that at all. I’m not worried about anything but you, sweetheart.”
“I told you—”
“I know you’re querciola. I know what that means. I also know that there’s something between you and me that works differently. Doesn’t it?” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at her, trying to hold his impassive expression, but it was so hard in the face of her utter terror. “But do you know why?”
Chapter Four
Lacey’s heart raced in her chest, so fast she worried she was having a heart attack.
He knew. He knew what she was.
Fear should be making her shake like a leaf. She should be running for the door, running from this town, from this state.
If he knew what she was, it wouldn’t be long before he told someone, who told someone else. And they would hear about the querciola who’d shown up out of nowhere in Reading.
Seduced by Chaos Page 4