“Sweetness, you knew me as Nicolai for a long time. I’d hope you wouldn’t be able to forget that in a blink. Not after what we had.”
“Have,” she corrected breathlessly. “What we have.”
“Yes, God yes,” Nicholas agreed, kissing her again. “What we have.”
“But I’ll try to remember. I’ll try.” Raven grinned, a thrill racing up her spine, a thrill she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. “I like Nicholas, though.”
“Yeah?” he murmured, nudging his lips with hers. “Nicholas likes you, too.”
“It fits you.”
Raven’s mouth found his, her hips gyrating against his with need she barely recognized. It had been so long since she’d been touched. Even with what he’d done to her the previous night, her heart hadn’t quite sung like it sung now. For the first time since she could remember, every bit of her was at peace.
“Nicholas…”
He pulled back only slightly, his eyes burning into hers with need she knew well. “I know.” His left hand dropping to cup her backside, anchoring her forward into the eager thrusts of his hips. “It’s been forever.”
“Literally.”
A grin tugged at his mouth. “You brought me home. I’ll never thank you enough for that.” He stole another kiss, trembling hard against her lips. “I’m at your mercy. Do what you will with me.” He paused and pressed himself forward, capturing her well and truly between the hard planes of his body and the tree at her back. “Just do it before I bust a nut.”
Raven’s nose wrinkled. “You were almost poetic there.”
He chuckled and nipped at her lips. “Story of my life.”
“Not out here, Nicholas.”
“No?”
“We’re in the cemetery.”
“Yeah? And we were last night, too.” The hand at her ass slipped over her hip, traveling upward until his fingers were barely grazing the fabric protecting her center. “Let me have you?”
Raven gasped and arched under his gentle touch. “You have me. I just…” She forced her eyes open to focus beyond the sea of his gaze. She forced the screaming nerves in her body to calm so that her surroundings solidified again and she could survey their options.
A mausoleum waited over his shoulder.
“There.”
Nicholas didn’t even turn around. The next instant he had his arms linked around her waist and was pulling her forward until the ground beneath her feet vanished and her weight became entirely dependent on his. “Wrap your legs around me,” he murmured. “And hold on.”
Were her need not as great as his, she might have laughed at how quickly he carted her through the ornate doors. As it was, she couldn’t praise his speed enough. The wind whipped against her face, and she lost her stomach at some point, but before she could blink, she found herself seated upon a large stone sarcophagus with Nicholas perched attentively between her thighs.
“Need you,” he gasped, shedding his shirt so fast it might as well have been a mirage. “So much.”
Raven nodded, gulping down air as though to keep herself from drowning. Her arms shot upward when his hands fisted the cotton of her tank-top, dragging the material over her head. She hadn’t had the chance to change from her standard training-attire, not that Nicholas seemed to mind, but she took a second to identify the irony.
It would be twice, now, that he’d taken her virginity.
How many girls could say that?
“You’re wearing a bra,” Nicholas said, his wide, nearly-dumbfounded eyes taking in the gray fabric concealing her small breasts. “You never wore bras.”
Raven rolled her eyes. “They didn’t have sports-bras in the eighteenth century. It’s not exactly easy to fight baddies while wearing a corset.”
“Yeah, but those buggers were sexy as hell.”
“Not to mention guaranteed anti-breathing or your money back.”
Nicholas smirked, his hands skimming up her belly until he had her breasts in his hands. “Well, I like it,” he purred, his thumbs caressing her hardened nipples. “It’s so…soft.”
“Helps with the…fighting.” Raven drew her arms up again as he dragged the sports-bra over her head. “Keeps me from…bouncing.” She paused and glanced down sheepishly. “What little I have to bounce, anyway.”
“Bite your tongue. These here are perfect.”
“You have to think so or I’ll kick your ass.”
Nicholas glanced up, an impish gleam in his eyes. “Kinky,” he purred, taking her bare breasts in his hands, the mischief just as easily fading into reverence. “God…Raven…” His head came forward as though magnetized, his eager mouth sucking a nipple between his teeth. He released her just as quickly, licking his lips. “Your taste…”
Raven whimpered and arched her hips off the sarcophagus. “Nicolai…”
He glanced up, a soft smile tugging at his mouth. “I do like that,” he murmured. “Can’t really explain it. It’s like I knew all along. Just a part of me was fighting to get out so the rest of me would stop being such an idiot.” He flicked her nipples with his thumbs, his lips stealing another kiss from hers. Then his left hand had abandoned her again, skimming down her bare abdomen, his touch feather-light but unmistakable in intent. “Gotta get you outta these.”
Raven snapped upward at the same time, her hands seizing fistfuls of his tee. “No fair,” she pouted, lifting her hips to help him drag her sweats down her legs. “You got a…head start.”
“You’re just outta practice.”
Nicholas froze the second the words escaped his lips, his eyes immediately going wide with contrition, searching her face for forgiveness. While his reaction aided in calming the inner hysterical screaming, Raven couldn’t help the cold shudder which commanded her system at the practically-screamed implication. Now that he remembered—God, now more than ever—the thought of him with anyone else made her want to do very violent things.
A long sigh rolled through his lips as he dropped to his knees. He’d managed to rid her of her sweats and her sneakers—though the latter, she didn’t know when—leaving her clad only in her thoroughly unremarkable white cotton panties, a twin to the pair he’d seen the night before. She was slick with desire but suddenly cold with jealousy.
She wasn’t angry with him for Octavia, though she couldn’t help feeling hurt and irritated with herself. It made no sense, she knew, but emotions like jealousy rarely did. She couldn’t begrudge him for being with someone else, and she knew that.
Yet, at the same time, she couldn’t help it.
“She wasn’t you,” Nicholas murmured, hooking his thumbs under the elastic of her panties and slowly slipping them down her legs. “Not one piece of her was you.”
“I don’t want to hear this.”
“You need to. I don’t want you thinking…” His eyes fell to her exposed flesh. “Christ, you’re so pretty.” He tenderly ran his fingers over her shaven mound. “I won’t pretend she didn’t mean anything to me,” Nicholas said finally. “But fuck if I know how I was able to touch anyone after you, even if I didn’t remember. You were always with me. I told you that. My night angel.”
“It’s okay—”
“No, it’s not. I don’t want you developing some silly complex.” His index finger slipped between her pussy lips, tenderly rubbing a lap up and down, the pad of his finger striking her clit with every stroke. It was subtle but the slightest touch had her drenching his flesh as the rest of her burned with need. “I told you a long time ago…I didn’t know love until I knew you.”
Raven’s vision fogged and she nodded. “I remember,” she gasped, thrusting herself wantonly against his touch. “Nicolai, please.”
“I need to explain this first.”
“I believe you.”
“I haven’t said anything yet.”
“Really, I—”
“It’s true. All of it. I’ve never known love until I knew you. Not the first time. Not this time.” Nicholas broke off and shook h
is head hard, his fingers, almost subconsciously, slipping inside her wet channel and wringing a desperate gasp from her throat. “I’ll always be grateful to her for finding me. But Raven…trust me. Will you trust me?”
Raven met his eyes reluctantly. It was a very odd sensation. Her nerves blazed, his fingers locked inside her body, and she burned with such envy she felt liable to scream.
“I was always lost, see. Always. I thought I was complacent—or I tried to be. But every night, every fucking night, I dreamed of you. Didn’t know it was you, of course, till I got here. Didn’t know what it meant till tonight.” Nicholas dipped his head toward her center, hesitated, then took a long lick of her clit, his fingers curling inside her. “It’s always been you, Raven. Always. Even when I didn’t know you, it was you. She just led me here. She led me to you.”
His words broke her heart, and without warning, pieces came flying together in a pristine collage of absolute understanding. God, how could she be so stupid?
Whatever she felt—despite how sick it made her—was in the past. It was gone. It was something that had happened because he hadn’t known her. They hadn’t known each other. There was no indiscretion and no reason for apologies. He didn’t need to tell her he hated Octavia. He didn’t need to explain anything, no matter how much she knew he wanted to.
“Nicholas…”
He licked her clit again and glanced up.
“I don’t want our future to be based on the past,” she said, her hand finding his cheek. “You didn’t know me.”
“I still loved you. All my life. You’ve always been what I want.”
“I’m not going to be all Psycho Raven because there was this time when you didn’t remember me and were with someone else.” She smiled gently and coaxed him to his feet, her eager hands immediately going to his belt. “You still love me.”
“Always,” Nicholas said again, and if his voice wasn’t enough to sell her, the glaze of tears in his eyes had her thoroughly convinced. “I’ve never loved anyone else.”
The sound of the belt buckle hitting the stone floor reverberated through the still walls, but not as much as the definitive sound of his zipper being lowered. Raven kept her eyes on him, even when his cock sprang eagerly into her grip. He whimpered, his eyes fluttering closed even as they fought to stay with her.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about the first time we did this,” Raven murmured. “You took me by such surprise.”
“You had no idea what I was doing,” Nicholas agreed, his voice strained. “I had to walk you through it. Best night of my life.”
She grinned, her thumb caressing his swollen head as her other hand skimmed up the inside of his thighs, resting his balls against her palm. “Which one?” she asked.
“Both. Either. Though this one’s gaining speed.” Suddenly her head was captured between his hands, his grip directing her southward until his cock was caressing the pursed line of her mouth, begging entrance. “Please…just for a minute.”
Her lips parted without a fight, and she suckled him eagerly into her mouth, moaning around him when he whimpered and thrust himself deeper down her throat. It was funny the way so much time could seem to have passed, yet all of this remained so fresh in her mind. If she closed her eyes, she could easily see herself back at their cottage on the outskirts of the village, laughing and battling each other for dominance. She almost always won, but she’d long assumed it was because he liked seeing her on top.
His taste was the same, as were the little noises he made. He still purred when she squeezed his testicles and whimpered when she suckled his head. Her name still spilled through his lips with deference, and she felt his love through every needless breath. It was all the same. It was as though not a day had passed.
Yet here they were.
“So hot,” he moaned. “Raven…”
He pushed her away without warning, leaving her to blink in confusion until he gently guided her up his body and stole her lips in a kiss. Then his cock slipped across her slick flesh, moved between her spread pussy lips and drove her out of what little mind she had left.
“I need to be inside you,” he whispered against her lips.
“I’m not stopping you.”
“Might sting a bit.”
Raven grinned. “Didn’t the first time.”
Something dangerous flashed across his face. “You haven’t touched any man here, have you?” he demanded. “You’re mine. All of you. I—”
“Aren’t we the hypocrite?”
“Raven…”
“I meant our first time,” she assured him, wiggling her hips in a vain attempt to capture him. “It didn’t hurt then.”
“But this time—”
She pressed her index finger to his lips, her other hand slipping between them. “You’ve always been my only,” she whispered, wrapping her fingers around his cock and nudging him down to her aching entrance. “Love me, Nicholas.”
There were no words. She expected him to whisper something in her ear or against her lips. She expected him to hold her to his chest. She expected a thousand things.
Nicholas surprised her. Instead, he buried his head in her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her middle, and she was the one holding him. Holding him as his cock began to push inside her, as her body tightened, her vaginal muscles clenching in a bizarre tug of war to both reject his invasion and draw him in deeper. It was strange and wonderful, feeling something she already knew for the first time. She relaxed with a long sigh, her eyes burning again, her arms tightly wound around his neck until the slight sting of discomfort abated and her body welcomed him completely. Her muscles clamped around him, drenching him with her desire and holding him inside—the piece of her which, for so long, had gone missing. She was remade in that moment, split between something so new yet so familiar. She knew him—every ragged breath he stole, every inch of his skin, and every tremble of his body.
She knew him.
“I do,” Nicholas whispered, “love you.”
“I know.”
“You all right?” he asked softly, hugging her tighter. “Any pain?”
She shook her head. “No pain.”
Nicholas’s chest rumbled against her when he chuckled. “High kicks and horseback?” he murmured hoarsely.
A rush of warmth filled her veins. In a blink the gap of her experience sealed, and she was made whole. “Must be it.”
“Raven…” He pulled back just slightly so he could see her eyes and watch her as he pulled back and slipped out of her pussy before sinking in again. He watched her watch him, and the flash of his gaze spoke for everything he could not.
“I want to tell you things,” Nicholas murmured, his movements slow and tempered. “I wanna tell you how hot you are.”
“So tell me,” she replied, her hips nudging forward to reclaim him as he pulled away again. The absence of him from within her left her achingly aware of a void time had somehow forgotten. “Tell…me…”
“There aren’t words. Not for this.”
“Nicholas…faster…”
He blinked in surprise. “You’re not hurting?”
Raven shook her head. “No. No. Please. Not hurt.”
His lips claimed hers as his body conceded. This was a dance they’d performed well, performed often, yet while sitting on the brink of knowledge, she couldn’t seem to remember her moves. She wanted to please him and wanted to rid Nicholas’s mind of every wayward thought of the moments they hadn’t spent together. She wanted to mark him as he’d never before been marked, a mark which wouldn’t fade if time and death forced them apart a second time, a mark which would tattoo more than just her face in his memory. She wanted him so desperately, and even though she had him, his hard length pumping into her aching body, it never seemed to be enough.
“I missed you,” Nicholas panted against her, his voice rising as his thrusts grew quicker. He was still going slow, his pace increasing in fragments. He gave her the time to ask him to stop or te
ll him she hurt. Need strained every corner, but he fought it. He fought it while giving in. He was the only man who could. “I missed you so much. Even when I…didn’t know you…I missed you.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Never. Never be sorry for it.” A kiss burned her lips. “Never be sorry.”
Raven couldn’t help what she felt. No amount of wishful thinking could make it otherwise. Similarly, she remained true to what she’d told him just minutes before. This wasn’t about the past. This was about their future. Death had ripped them apart, but time pieced them back together.
“Look at us, baby,” Nicholas moaned, directing her attention downward, his hips crashing harder against hers. “Watch us dance.”
She did as she was told, taking in the sight of his cock, glistening with her juices, pushing in and out of her warm body. She watched her feminine folds mold around him and welcome him inside her. She fought him whenever he tried to leave. It was the most erotic thing she’d ever seen, and at first glance, she found she was mesmerized. She didn’t want to look away. She didn’t think she could.
In all the times they’d been together before, she’d never watched, only felt. Now she watched and felt, and every time his length disappeared inside her pussy, a new, previously undiscovered bundle of nerves erupted, and she felt herself break into tremors.
“Raven,” Nicholas moaned into her hair. “My Raven.”
She nodded hard. “Your Raven.”
“Faster. Need…”
“Yes.”
“Don’t…wanna hurt…”
“Don’t care. Just need.”
His pace heightened in intensity so rapidly that it took a few seconds to reconcile the bolts of ecstasy shooting through her veins with the glances of his cock plunging ruthlessly into her wet flesh. Ecstasy laced with pain. Pain she grasped. Pain she didn’t mind. And without warning, it became too fast to watch, too fast to merge together the bliss of sensation with what her eyes were telling her. Raven blinked hard and glanced up, and found herself instantly absorbed in his gaze.
“You feel it?” he asked thickly. One of his hands somehow managed to worm between their battling bodies, finding her clit with ease that nearly seemed unfair. The smack of their flesh stung the air around them, melting into the foreground of his voice until she nearly heard naught but a distant ringing. It took a few seemingly endless seconds to work her way back to herself. “You feel it building inside you?”
Ripples Through Time Page 23