The Tempting Touch Of Fire (Elemental Awakening, Book 1)

by Claire, Nicola

  My hands shook as I released my hold on the towel and let it slip from my body. It's not as though he hadn't seen me naked before, but in the heat of the moment you could pretend your imperfections were overlooked. This was different. But it was strangely liberating. Taking the plunge off the edge of the cliff and letting yourself free-fall.

  Oh dear God, I was going to do this, but nothing was going to stop the small tremors that racked my entire frame. He'd be able to tell. I'd be laid bare. In more ways than one.

  Taking in one last fortifying breath I reached forward and pulled the shower door open, then slid inside. Little droplets of water cascaded around me and a fine mist washed over my body the moment the door closed at my back. But I could have been anywhere. In a desert full of sand. In a concrete bunker or a field of wild flowers. Because nothing else registered but the look on his face when he turned at the feel of my body behind his.

  He sucked in a deep breath and swept his eyes over my frame, gold flashing in them in a way I had never seen before. When my hand reached out to run over his shoulder, he made a delicious sound in the back of his throat and closed his eyes.

  "For a moment I thought you were a dream," he whispered, his eyes slowly opening again, showing me the hunger that consumed him right then.

  "I'm real," I managed to say, despite the dryness of my throat.

  Theo turned to face me completely, his hands running up my sides, then back down again in a delicate dance against my skin.

  "Real or not," he husked, stepping closer, placing his body flush against mine. "You are my dream."

  Chapter 22

  But I Fought It, Just As I Fought My Tears

  Theo didn't stop running his fingers across my skin, although I think he may have stopped breathing. Water danced between us, splashing off his arms, coating my chest and breasts, allowing him a slick surface to touch. He revelled in it. He drank the sensations in through his fingertips alone. If I needed evidence of a Pyrkagia's affinity to touch, this was it. He didn't do anything else but stroke, brush, caress... feel. And I could tell he loved it.

  His pupils dilated, gold rimming the edges. His eyelashes lowered, his lips parted and a pulse beat erratically in his neck. There was power here. My power over him. I was giddy with it. With the knowledge that I brought Theo Peters to his knees. I wasn't naive enough to believe that I was the first woman to do so, but for me, this was a coup. The blush-ridden, tongue-tied innocent making the confident, enigmatic and slightly arrogant Theo Peters pant.

  It was almost too much to take in. But I'd come this far, I wasn't stopping now. I mirrored his movements with my own fingertips. Where he touched on me, I reciprocated on him. It was slow and unhurried, despite Theo's earlier comments that Aktor would be expecting us for dinner before long, neither of us rushed this. When Theo cupped body wash in his hands and smeared it over my skin, I did the same. Washing away evidence of today's trials. Replacing it all with the sweet scent of vanilla and raspberry.

  It made me smile to think Aktor had this lotion in his bathroom. Theo's lips twitched when mine did and he murmured, "What's so funny, little Gi?"

  "Why do you think Aktor has this girlie smelling soap?"

  Theo's rumbling laugh in the confines of the shower stall sent a shiver down my spine that ended directly between my legs. He had a very sexy laugh. Deep, luxurious, hinting at what delights he was capable of giving. I'd never realised so much could be said with a laugh, but Theo Peters told a novel's worth of mystery and intrigue with each vibration through his chest.

  I'd known I was well out of my league with this man, but I no longer gave a damn.

  "Should I be embarrassed that when I leave here you'll be thinking I smell like a girl?" Theo asked, his voice an octave deeper than before. I don't think it was the topic of conversation that did it. I believe it had something to do with where his hands currently were. He had obviously decided my nipples needed extensive soaping.

  I moaned and arched my back when he tweaked both nipples at once. The soap making his fingers slide off the peaks smoothly, a direct contrast to the sharp pinch I had just received.

  "You like that," Theo announced, a smug note entering his voice. Clearly he'd moved on from his last question to more important things. "How about this?" he asked softly, lowering his head to my breast and lifting one mound up so he could lick around the areola. "Hmm," he murmured, "soapy."

  A giggle escaped. How could he be so sensual and still make me laugh?

  His lips trailed up from my breast and he started laying kisses over my collar bone and neck. His hands replaced his tongue on my nipples. Heat coursed through me and I had no way of knowing whether it was mine or his. But experience told me Theo wouldn't use his Stoicheio. Not unless I asked.

  He pulled me closer, chest to chest, his arms wrapped around my torso. One hand cupping the nape of my neck, the other firmly gripping a butt cheek. His hips fitted against mine like a missing puzzle piece and I groaned at the feel of how very large he'd gotten since I stepped in here. Evidence of his arousal currently pressed into my stomach demanding my attention.

  My hand slipped down over smooth but hard skin, and wrapped around his muscles. I could run my fingers over those ridges endlessly, but I did have a goal in mind. I cleared my head of everything, save the sensation of his hot flesh under my fingers. If I stopped to think of what I was doing I'd falter for sure. Theo guessed my destination easily and pulled back his hips to allow me better access. I swallowed passed the knowledge that he knew, that he could read me, and that I was so damn obvious.

  Pushing thoughts of being a bumbling guileless girl aside, I wrapped my hand around his erection and received a low growl and rock of his hips in reward. Oh sweet heaven he felt divine. I wanted to see what I was touching, but Theo dragged his lips across my cheek to my mouth and started kissing me senseless again. There was no way I could do two things at once. Kiss Theo and play with Theo. It was one or the other, and although I was dying to see how much I could make Theo lose control with my hand alone, there was no way I could ignore or pull away from his kiss.

  His tongue swept expertly inside my mouth, flicking against the roof, tangling with my own tongue, making me hot and hungry and bordering on shameless. I think I demanded more, I'm not sure if I thought it or said it, but Theo understood anyway. He pushed my back against the slightly cooler tiles of the shower stall and slid a leg between my thighs, offering something for me to rub back against. I didn't think, I just acted. Seeking friction, desperate for sensation, clinging to his frame while I brazenly sought release against his upper leg.

  Oh dear freaking God, when had I become this wanton woman?

  It didn't take long, which was entirely too embarrassing to think about. But within seconds I split apart into a million pieces, and he swallowed my cries of release down with his mouth. My body shuddered against the tiles, against him, and he held me up and softly kissed my cheeks, my closed eyelids and then my lips. It was so very tender and gentle, a caring caress of his lips against my feverish skin.

  Theo made me melt with a look alone, but Theo like this was an inferno inside my heart and soul.

  He pulled back and looked down at me affectionately. I had trouble lifting my eyelids to look at his face. My head was resting back against the shower stall wall, my hands lying ineffectually on his biceps.

  "You are so delicious, Oraia," he murmured.

  The reminder that I fed him, when the heat of lust coursed through my veins, made me wake a little from the delightful fog he'd wrapped around my mind right then. My eyes flicked fully open and there was no stopping the scarlet that heated my cheeks. His lips tipped up at the edges and he sucked in a slow, languid breath.

  Then to my surprise, he reached over and grabbed a bottle of shampoo off the shelf and poured a good portion in his palm. Without another word he washed my hair, taking his time, massaging my skull, making sure I closed my eyes when he rinsed the suds out. I followed suit and washed his hair, the entire t
ime his eyes didn't leave mine.

  There was something incredibly intimate about this. Caring for each other. Cleaning, pampering, petting. It was a different kind of intimacy from sex. I could imagine that sex would come in many varied fashions, but that allowing someone to wash you was an invitation not many gave. This was personal in a way that sex wasn't always.

  And I loved it. And I had never known that it existed until him.

  Once we were clean a nervousness settled in my lower stomach. I didn't want this to end. I didn't want to step out of this shower and go eat a meal with Aktor. I hadn't had my fill of Theo yet. He looked down at me, the spray of the warm water still ricocheting off his chest and onto mine. His muscles sleek and shining in the lights of the room. Every single definition standing out and framed with stunning clarity. My eyes ran over his body, hungry, wanting, needing more.

  "Do you trust me?" he asked, voice low and sensual.

  I nodded agreement immediately, not even having to think about the question anymore. Gold flashed in his eyes and his lids lowered. A sexy half-mast look that melted my insides.

  He stared at me for a very long moment with those hooded eyes of sun-glow yellow. His delicious looking chest rising and falling a little too rapidly. Then he said, in a voice that went directly to my core, "Turn around and place your hands on the wall, legs spread, back arched."

  Butterflies turned into a tornado in my belly. I just stared at him, unable to respond or move or even blink.

  He leaned forward and whispered, hot breath across my lips, "Trust me, Oraia."

  I sucked in a breath and turned around, Theo's hands running softly over my skin, helping me into position. He lay a trail of kisses up my spine, as the warmth of his body slowly seeped into my back and his hands worked their way around to my chest. He palmed my breasts, a torturous massage that made me bite my lip and stifle a moan. His lips kissed along my neck and then nibbled on my ear, a hot tongue flicking out and wrapping around the lobe, then a gentle suck that seemed to pull on other parts of my body.

  Slowly, so very slowly, one hand ran down over my stomach and cupped me suggestively between my legs. His lips remained at my ear as he whispered, "I'm going to make you come again, like this." A finger slipped down the track of my folds, then slowly slid inside. I felt my walls tightening, trying to pull him deeper within. He growled in my ear, his erection jerking between my butt cheeks. "Then I'm going to slide into you from behind," he rasped, "and take you hard."

  My body jumped. I couldn't help it. The image he created with his words, mixed with the sensations he'd already elicited with his touch, made my body convulse involuntarily. But a small sound of distress left my lips, belying my eagerness to have him do every single thing he promised. This was so very erotic, so much more than I had the ability to partake. I wanted it, dear God in heaven, I wanted it. But I was also so very shy about putting myself there. Being taken like that in a shower stall. A shiver dashed down my spine, not missed by Theo.

  "Shhh," he crooned. "I'll take care of you. But, Oraia, there is much pleasure to be gained when you push past conformities. Test your own boundaries. Trust me. Let me help you stretch to new heights. I promise you will enjoy it."

  Oh, this was sweet torture. To be this close to nirvana and walk away because I am coy. I closed my eyes tightly and swallowed down my fears. Theo wanted me. Like this. He craved me, in any way he could get me. Even if I wasn't his Thisavros, even if this all was torn asunder tomorrow, how could I not take the chance to feel this, to share this, with him? Even if just for a moment.

  "O..Okay," I managed to breathe out.

  "That's my little Gi. So fearless," Theo murmured against my skin. I wanted to tell him to stop teasing, but his finger had started sweeping through my centre, dipping in a fraction, then back out and swirling around my nub. The ability to talk was immediately lost and the ability to think quickly followed.

  Theo moaned out a sound in my ear as his finger pressed deeper inside. My hips bucked against him, starting to rock in a rhythm as old as time itself. I felt him grind back against my rear, seeking friction of his own, all the while giving me what my body craved with just his hand. He teased and tormented the flesh between my legs, he rubbed and pinched and then soothed with a soft stroke and tender sweep of his finger through my wetness.

  I moaned and threw my head back on his shoulder and then he slipped two fingers inside. Stretching me, teasing me, making me want more, want him. He started pumping harder, the palm of his hand resting against my mound, while his fingers thrust in and out, over and over again. A crescendo built, a delicious sensation from deep down inside, which spread unmercifully throughout my centre and rushed me, consumed me, made me buck and writhe and cry out.

  I was panting and could barely hold my weight up on my shaking legs, but Theo wasn't done with me yet. His hands gripped my hips, he pulled my butt back towards him, away for the wall and then I felt the tip of him resting right there. I was swollen and sensitive and utterly wet. And I wanted him inside like I had never wanted a thing before in my life. He didn't thrust hard as I expected, he did exactly as he promised. A slow glide between my folds, until he was seated deep inside.

  "Oh Oraia," he breathed out above my shoulder. "So good. So... bloody... good."

  And then he started to rock.

  The pace increased, his hands holding my hips exactly where he wanted me, and the hardness of him filling me, then leaving me bereft, only to punch back in again with force. Hard. He'd said he'd take me hard. And he was. My hands were slipping on the wet tiles, trying to hold my upper body steady as he thrust into me repeatedly from behind.

  I had never thought I'd experience anything as basic, as animalistic as this. And I decided nothing could ever compare again. I didn't want to think about what lay ahead. The fact that my time with Theo may be limited. I didn't want to think I would never experience this sort of abandon ever again. No one but Theo could give me this. To allow me to stretch, to reach new heights, and yet feel so safe and protected while I did so.

  His hands left my hips, running up my sides, sending delicious shockwaves over my skin. It felt different, without his grip to steady my rear. But I also realised I was meeting each thrust with a rock back of my own. Just as eager for that deep, hard penetration as he was to give it to me. His fingers suddenly wrapped around mine, entwining with my own as they rested on the tiles in front of me. He held the majority of his body off my back, the only connection was through our hands and where we met; him thrusting in, me rocking back to take everything he offered.

  It was unbelievable. It was mind-blowingly good. It was... everything I thought Theo would be.

  I felt his body tighten, he grew larger inside me and then as he let out an erotic sounding roar on his release, I followed. I hadn't expected to come again, but Theo was simply too sexy, too virile, to ignore. The orgasm rocked through me and I cried out his name as I came. Shuddering beneath his body as he lay himself down my back, hot skin to hot skin. He kept murmuring words in Greek, which I had no hope of understanding. His lips interspersing each muttered sound with a kiss along the back of my neck.

  I felt so sated, so relaxed and yet so very, very alive. I could do this forever and never tire of it. I would crave this for the rest of my life.

  "Sweet little Gi," Theo murmured, English finally finding its way into his vocabulary. "You are a dream; a delicious, addictive dream." He kissed my neck softly, trailed his lips around to the side and rested his head on my shoulder. I think he was exhausted. I think I'd worn him out.

  A smile graced my lips as one of his arms wrapped around my stomach and held me tight. Then slowly, as though reluctant to do so, he pulled back, slipping out of me and sending an additional shiver through my body. He turned me in his arms and ducked his head down to look me in the eye. The gold had receded, but the hazel was still more gem-like than normal, a shine that did not exist in humans' eyes, but looked perfect on this man.

  "So," he said, a cock
y look touching the corners of his lips. "Do you like stretching yourself, Cassandra?"

  I huffed out a breath, but there was no way I was up to playing games with this man. He'd just reached down into the very heart of me and seen everything there was to see. I lifted shy eyes to his and smiled. I couldn't deny what he already knew. I couldn't deny it even to myself.

  "Yes," I whispered and watched as his lips parted slightly to suck in a deep breath, and as his eyes closed for a brief moment, savouring my answer.

  "The things I could show you, Casey," he murmured, eyelids slowly lifting to hold me in a heated gaze.

  It was a simple statement, one that should have excited me with the promise it held. But there was a note of sadness to his tone. As though he only wished for it, but couldn't believe it would actually happen. Oh, I was sure he wanted to show me all those delicious things, but he knew, like I knew, that our time was not our own.

  When had we both started to doubt this could last? When had we begun to give up?

  The elation of moments before was replaced with a fearful sorrow. He caught the shifting emotions on my face and reached forward to cup my cheeks with both hands.

  "Nothing is set in stone," he whispered, lowering his lips to rest on my forehead. "Dreams can come true."

  But if he thought that, if he truly believed we could go against all the opposition to me being here, against his centuries of defending Pyrkagia, against those who mean me harm, then he would have proven it. Nothing would have stopped him from claiming me again.

  I wasn't sure, I certainly had a lot more to learn about Ekmetalleftis, but something told me that if you held your Thisavros in your arms and feared you'd lose her, you'd mark her again and again. Cling to that claiming, show the world she is yours. I couldn't see an Athanatos not doing that, if they felt their claim was being threatened at all.

  And yet Theo hadn't bitten me again.

  The need to reach up and touch his fading mark on my neck was atrocious in its desire. But I fought it, just as I fought my tears.