“No!” she said.
“Yes. Ariana I must have you. I’m going mad having you this close to me and not being able to be inside of you. I haven’t had nearly enough time to get to know you in that way. To be your lover. I've enjoyed getting to know you in other ways, but in this way…I crave you to the point of insanity. You have no idea how frustrating this is for me!”
She could hear it in his voice, see it in his expression, just how disturbed he was. His hands were still skimming heatedly over her body…curving over a hip, a thigh, a breast…clearly desperate to have a part of her. Any part of her.
Ariana drew away from him, ignoring his huff of frustration as she got to her feet and walked out of his reach. Then she walked to the door, closed it and threw the bolt that locked it. When she turned to face the man in the bed, he had a wolfish grin on his face. He held out a hand to her and beckoned her forward.
“We do this my way,” she said when he reached to grab her hip and draw her close. She kneeled on the bed, throwing a leg over his thighs, hiking her skirt up so her legs were bared above the knee. She then removed the pillow from behind his head and saw to it he was lying flat on his back.
She then began to caress him. He was naked beneath his covers, him not having progressed to struggling with a pair of skintight breeches. He usually wore a robe when out of bed and nothing while in. Ariana pulled the covers back and away from between their bodies so she was watching him fill out and grow aroused before her eyes and so he could feel the bareness of her sex and backside across his thighs.
She reached for the sash binding her waist and pulled it free. She let the long, silky length of fabric slide off over the side of the bed and she grabbed for the hem of her blouse. She stripped it off, leaving herself bare-breasted. His eyes raked over her hungrily. He reached for her, touching her thighs because they were the only thing within his reach that didn’t require him sitting up a little.
She knew his desires as soon as he did and she slid up over him until she was straddling his hips and they were bare sex to bare sex. She picked up his hands and brought them to her breasts, leaning forward to make it easier for him to reach her and yet making very certain she did not rest any weight on his chest. Bracing one hand on the bed by his shoulder, she lifted up and made room for her hand to slip between their bodies. She wrapped her fingers around his jutting length and stroked him into full hardness. All the while he had his hands on her breasts, his finger plucking at her nipples his palms kneading the soft mounds.
“I want to put my mouth on you,” he said in a hot whisper.
She obliged him by rising up further onto her knees and releasing him in order to feed her breast to his lips. He sucked on her nipple eagerly, then bit at her with gentle loving bites until her nipple was a hard, aching point. She then fed him the opposite breast, which he gave equal treatment. She ran her fingers through his hair, holding him to her. She felt his hand skimming up her sides, then down again to grasp her hips.
“Come up here. I want your flavor on my tongue. I want your wetness all over my face.”
She looked down at him for a long moment, but her body was already eager with anticipation of feeling his mouth upon her.
“You’re not to lift up in any way,” she warned him.
“I won’t have to if you come up here.”
She laughed at his persistence. Then she did as he asked and brought herself up his body until she was straddling his head, her sex within easy reach of his mouth. She reached out and grabbed the headboard for balance as his tongue darted out and licked her. His hands came up to frame her hips, his hold on her guiding her to where he wanted her. She gasped as his tongue danced across the sensitive knot of nerves he found buried within folds of femininity. He lapped at her until she was moaning and her hips were shifting of their own volition. His tongue slid down and darted into the entrance of her body. Then it was back up to her clitoris and those endless, joyous circles of pleasure. He persisted until an orgasm whipped through her, both of her hands gripping the headboard now as she tried to keep her weight on her knees.
As soon as she came down from that peak, and before he could drive her up to another, she eased back down his body. She decided it was high time to return the favor and so moved down until she could pick him up in her hand and bring him to her lips.
Sin had nothing to hold on to, as she had moved all of her delicious parts out of his reach…provided he remained flat on his back. But he knew the moment he tried to sit up and reach for her was the moment she would put a stop to everything. He didn’t want that at all, so he bore the torture of her mouth on him by tangling his fists into the sheets. It was natural to want to thrust his hips upward, but even that action would cause him pain. He could do nothing to hurt himself or she would know it and she would stop loving him. He found the whole exercise of being still to be almost as erotic as if he were engaging his body fully. She could do anything she wanted to him and he would have no say in it whatsoever.
Her mouth closed around him and he closed his eyes. But only for a moment. The sight of her taking him in her mouth was too gorgeous to deny himself. Combining the sight of her with the glorious feel of her sucking and bathing him was more than could be borne. Sin groaned as her teeth skimmed against the skin of his cock. She playfully nipped at the head and he sucked in a breath. She was slowly driving him mad. She wasn’t in any hurry, her touch torturous and slow and very, very thorough. Her tongue was wicked as it laved and licked.
“Enough,” he croaked as he began to feel the beginning swirls of release coaxing at the edges of his sanity. “I want inside of you.”
She released him with a pop of sound and, continuing to stroke him with her hand in slow, saliva-wet pulls, she raised her eyes to his.
“If I wanted to, I could make you come just like this. There would be nothing you could do or say to stop me. That was the rules.”
“I don’t remember there being any rules,” he rasped.
“I’m in charge. You lay back and take. I give. Simple rules that you must obey.”
“But I want us both to have pleasure,” he said, his tone coaxing…yet there was a desperate tinge to his voice he knew because her stroking hand was making that impending release rush harder against his waning control.
“This does give me pleasure.”
“Please. I am begging you!” he cried, not caring that he begged no man for anything. He was not a man to beg. But for her he would. He would do anything for her.
This seemed to surprise her almost as much as saying it aloud had surprised him. Her touch on him slowed and she rose up onto her knees. She threw her leg over his thighs and then slid herself up so their bare sexes were in contact once more. Sin reached out and gripped her by her hips as she removed her hand from between their bodies and with a sinuous movement of her lower body she impaled herself on him.
Sin closed his eyes once more, overwhelmed with the sensation of her around him. He held her still, let himself revel in the sensation. Then he opened his eyes against and took in the sight of her. She was like a proud and perfect goddess. Powerful…confident in her ability to give him pleasure. To give them both pleasure. She wasn't afraid to be responsible for it. He would remember this for the future. He would let her take command so he could see this beautiful creature she became again and again. Oh, she was always beautiful and desirable, but like this she was erotic and exotic.
Even though he was connected to her, she suddenly felt too far away from him. He was just about to demand she give him her mouth when she lifted from him slowly, then sank back down on him. He swore at the violent pleasure it gave him and she laughed at him.
“That’s an odd reaction,” she noted.
“It is all I can think clear enough to say. You have my mind completely muddled. I’m completely under your spell.”
“Good. That is just how it should be.”
She lifted from him again and retook him into her body. It was frustratingly slow
and he wanted to thrust up to meet her, but he knew he could not. He was helpless.
Ariana knew he was frustrated just about as equally as he was excited. He was a dominant man. He preferred to be in control of his passions and his fate and everything around him. But that was just too bad. She was in control of this moment. It was her responsibility to bring them both ultimate pleasure. She quickened her pace, using the powerful muscles of her thighs to raise and lower herself onto him, being careful not to rest any of her weight onto his chest. She did stroke him though. Over his strong belly and the curving muscles of his chest. She began to pick up a rhythm. Slow and steady, reveling in the feel of his hardness inside of her. She grew more aroused as she moved, heat slithering through her body in hard damp waves. His groans of pleasure stimulated her. She began to ride him in earnest. She gasped as her pleasure bloomed. Ariana gripped at him with both hands and body. She felt ultimate pleasure chasing her down, riding her just as hard as she was riding him. She barely felt the way his fingers dug into her hips, helping her ride him to a crest.
She orgasmed hard, her whole body tensing as waves of undeniable ecstasy crashed over her. She was drowning in pleasure, gasping for every breath, her every muscle taut and grasping. She heard Sin roar out her name, and she watched his face as release rushed over him. She could see the combination of pain and pleasure that rocketed through him. He probably wouldn’t admit it to her, but the tension of having an orgasm was probably a bit painful to a man in his condition. Still, he had wanted this. And so had she.
As she came down from her high they were both gasping for breath. Her first inclination was to drop her boneless body across his chest, but she resisted the urge for obvious reasons. She did lean over him and kiss his mouth in a series of lingering, drugging kisses. All the while they both drew hard for breath through their noses.
When they drew apart at last, their eyes met and held.
“Let’s do that again,” he growled.
“Oh no,” she said with a laugh. “Not you, my lord. You are going to rest.”
“But—“
“No buts. We will revisit the idea later, but for now…rest.”
“Will you lie with me?”
“Of course I will,” she said. She separated their bodies and moved to curl up against his left side. He draped an arm about her shoulders and, ignoring the discomfort it caused, he hugged her to his chest. “But only if you don’t hurt yourself,” she felt the need to add as she loosened his hold on her.
“Very well. If I must.” He smiled at her and lifted his head to kiss her. She made it as easy as possible for him to reach her. “Rest with me,” he urged her, pressing comforting kisses to her cheeks, lips and brow.
She closed her eyes and did exactly that.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Several hours later, after taking dinner with Sin, Arianna begged off for a few minutes of walking outside with Mariah. As they walked through the snow of the barren winter landscape, the two women talked of a variety of light topics. Ariana was not very forthcoming about the nature of her relationship with Sin, although Mariah was well aware of her lady’s affair. She had been called to dress her lady in the mornings after she awakened in the raja’s bed. If one was looking for Ariana, they need not look any further than the raja’s bed. She was with him nearly every minute of the day. What Mariah did not know was if it had been commanded of her mistress, or if her mistress was giving her attentions willingly.
Oh, she knew the decision to become lovers with Sin had been a conscious and willing one. Ariana had confided that much in her to put her mind at ease that she was not the victim of rape. No, it was clear her mistress was very much a willing participant in the affair.
What intrigued Mariah was the single-mindedness Ariana used in not discussing Sin with her. In the past, Ariana had confided almost every detail of her love affairs, what few there were, with Mariah. They had talked and tittered about them like best friends sharing secrets. But this time Ariana was keeping all the details to herself.
Ariana was not trying to make the affair an enigma, but it was simply unfolding that way. She didn’t know what to make of it for herself, so how could she explain it to anyone else?
As Mariah and Ariana walked, a guard walked a discreet distance behind them. It was Mordol again. The insolent guard was her least favorite of those left in charge of her. He always had some rude comment or other to make. Ariana ignored it for the most part. Words did not hurt her and she didn’t think the bully had the nerve to do anything that might incite his master’s wrath. She supposed she could have complained about him, but Sin had enough on his plate at the moment trying to run a country from his sickbed. And the day she couldn’t handle a smart mouthed bastard was the day she turned in her leadership credentials.
It did seem as though he was there every time she turned around. Even when others were supposed to be in charge of her. If anyone else noticed, they never said anything.
The guard she most enjoyed was Lindo. He took a small shift every day, usually when she was out walking or visiting with Fatima. He would walk with her and sometimes they would talk. He was a man of few words, but the words he spoke were profound and saturated with loyalty for his raja.
“You are very good for my raja,” he had said to her earlier that morning, before she had made love with Sin. “And it does not go unnoticed how much you have devoted yourself to his well-being.”
“I am not doing it to be noticed.”
“And that therefore makes it more remarkable,” he said. He had regarded her thoughtfully for a moment. “I do not think even you fully understand the passion with which you care for my raja.”
“I am simply taking care of a man who has been gravely injured while protecting my life. It is the very least I can do to show my gratitude.”
“Gratitude is it?” he had smiled enigmatically. “Would that I would be deserving of being thanked by a beautiful woman in such gracious ways. I would be a very happy man…as my master is at present.”
She had blushed and asked him, “You have no wife?”
“My duty binds me to my raja in such a way that I fear it wouldn’t be fair for me to marry or even court a woman who might ask even the most reasonable demands of me, only to have them rebuffed because my duty to Sin comes first in all things.”
“That hardly seems fair to you. Surely Sin does not require that you be alone for all of the days of your life that you serve him. That could mean a lifetime of solitude if you plan on serving him the whole of your life.”
“Sin does not require it of me. I require it of myself. As I said, it would be unfair to bring a woman into my complex world where I must satisfy my raja’s demands above all others. Even those of a lover.”
Ariana had understood his reasoning. In a way, she lived exactly the same way. She had to serve the demands of her country above anything and everything else. Often at the expense of a lover’s needs. Almost all of her love affairs, few though they had been, had ended because she had been more devoted to her country than to the needs of her lover.
Mariah and Ariana headed back toward the temple. The weather had turned colder and while Ariana could keep herself warm in the face of it, Mariah could not. And there was only so much that huddling up against Ariana for warmth could do for her. It was best they return to the temple.
They went to her room and Mariah put together a fresh outfit, folding the clothes neatly for the trip back down the corridor to the master’s bath. Plumbed and tiled, this bath delivered hot water into a huge square tub sunk into the floor of the room. Sin had insisted she use it instead of having a cramped copper tub in her room. She had been happy to oblige him.
Mariah filled the tub with gas heated water, although Ariana could have easily heated the water for herself. She drizzled bath oil into the water until the room smelled sweetly of wildflowers. Ariana undressed and sank into the water. Mariah gathered her discarded clothes up and went to leave the room and give her some peac
e and privacy.
Ariana relaxed, letting the heat of the water seep into her muscles. She was just dozing when she suddenly felt a hand wrapping tightly around the loose curls of her hair. Her head was jerked back and she felt the unmistakable edge of a knife at her throat.
“If I see so much as a flicker of flame,” Mordol hissed into her face, “I will make a new hole for you to speak out of.”
Ariana remained calm.
“What do you think you can gain here?” she asked him reasonably. “I should like to know your goal.”
“Well, my first goal is to shut you up.” The knife left her throat so the fist that held it could punch her square in the face. Blood burst from her nostrils and her teeth cut the tender flesh of her upper lip. Dazed, she had to struggle to keep her head on straight. Suddenly Mordol yanked on her hair, dragging her bodily out of the tub by it. Her wet body slid across the cold tile easily. The knife was at her throat again as he came around her body and straddled her. “My next goal is supposed to be to gut you. From top,”—he dragged the knife in a straight line down her body, starting at her throat and ending at her pubis—“to bottom. But I think I’m going to take the time to sample what the raja has had. What does it feel like to fuck a girl the raja would go to such lengths to obtain? There must be something pretty special about your pussy, and I’m going to find out what that is.”
She would burn him to a crisp first. But she had to plan it carefully. She had to wait until that knife was in a less dangerous place. In the time it took her to ignite him, he might still have the opportunity to cause her some damage. Worse comes to worst, she would take the stab and hope she survived it…because there was no way she was going to let him get away with what he was planning.
“What do you mean you’re ‘supposed to’ gut me. Clearly this isn’t your idea. Whose is it?”
Mordol huffed a snort of laughter. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” He pressed the knife hard against her windpipe, cutting the skin there, making sure she knew how sharp the blade was. “But that’s not the way this is going to work.” He freed his hand from its punishing grip on her hair and went for the buttons on his fly of his breeches.
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