"Promise me Aura, promise me and I will stop." She heard his husky, breathless voice whispering in her ear, though neither of them believed either could call a halt to what was happening between them anymore. He had taken the lesson too far.
She had no idea what he wanted her to say and when she would have asked he kissed her into silence. He could not let her answer for he feared the effort of letting her go would kill him. He could not; his body told him, give her that chance. He coaxed her tongue into his mouth then suckled it in a manner that shot bolts of flame through her. She felt his hands move to the front of the bodice of her gown to rip it and she whimpered as she turned her head from his to end the exchange.
"No," she gasped, "Please."
He had no idea what she was trying to tell him. Whether she pleaded for him to stop, or to refrain from destroying her gown. Then, when her hand guided his to the back of the garment to pull the opening free he felt he had the answer and he smiled in his triumph as he continued to caress her. His hands undressed her with slow circling movements, within moments she lay naked beneath him and he clutched her to himself. She was his.
God the woman was beautiful, his mind and senses screamed at him as he explored her body with his. He had gone beyond wondering who was winning and who was losing long ago. Nor did it probably matter; not anymore, not when her fingers unlaced his shirt to draw it over his head before returning to wind around his torso to draw him still closer.
Somehow, he had managed to remove his breaches himself, a break which seemed to act as a brief return to sanity for her. As when she felt his naked and alien maleness against her she began to struggle anew.
He chuckled softly at her last attempt to ward off the inevitable. He knew that within moments she would be lost once more to his touch. He bent his head lower to take a pink nipple into his mouth and suckle her breast, making light sounds of delight as his other hand kneaded the other. He had, he felt, no control of his hands any more as they moved, touching, caressing, stroking, kneading, feeling the heated softness that was Aura. His lips moved from one breast to the other, toying with her passion swelled body as he did and reaching to touch the soft silky pelt which covered her parting before sliding a finger over her over sensitized sex. She was slick and wet and his fingers moved to create a heated friction as he urged her thighs further apart.
Aura, who had been straining already to keep from crying out in her passion induced state, moaned aloud as she moved against the intrusive digit, a motion which only served to increase her want and need, fueling her lack of control. He stroked her again and her hips bucked against him, seeking a release from the still building pressure within and she gave a cry of need.
Thorn felt her readiness in the hot, slick swollen parts between her legs and almost burst in reaction as he strove to prepare her for his possession. She was, he realized, ready for him. He heard her mews of passion, felt the smooth fragrant cream of her body's arousal as well as his own body's response. Yet he still held back. He wanted to make this more than a seduction, he wanted her to remember, to feel the want so bad she would do anything. He wanted it all from her, mind, body and soul. He increased the pressure exerted against her by his stroking fingers and inserted a sole finger slightly into her tight sheath. She cried aloud at that and he moved lower, to continue to kiss and lick at her body with his lips and tongue, until his face rested between her legs.
With soft nips and kisses he allowed his lips to travel up the soft inner thighs, which lay to either side of his face. He then stuck his tongue out to taste and tease the swollen bud of her passion. He caressed her, covering her with his lips, suckling her as he had her breast and she arched towards him as her womb clenched and released a thick cream, which he lapped at with the flat of his tongue. He added another finger to stretch her further, her hips moved to meet his stroking fingers and she gave soft pants and whimpers of need. Her fingers tangled in his hair and her breaths came in gasps as she labored for oxygen. Thorn felt her response and knew she could deny him nothing, not anymore, from this time on she was his. His dream-come true.
Aura was lost to herself, her senses fully under Thorn's command and fed by a yearning and fire so all consuming that she could have had no hope of fighting it. Nor did she even try as he continued to tease her body, fueling her desires with a flame of his own. She felt his tongue and mouth over the sensitive parts below and bucked in reflex action towards him, before she wound her fingers in his hair and voiced her objection.
"No Thorn. Please. No more. Thorn, please, I will do anything."
He made his way back up her body, nipping, licking and kissing parts of her body as he did, stopping to suckle at her breasts once more on his progression upwards, until his face hovered over hers. She lifted her head to meet his lips with hers and tasted the salty flavor of her own body on his mouth. It was the most erotic thing she had ever experienced and she wound her arms about him as the kiss deepened. He smoothed his hands down her body with a gentle touch to place his hands beneath the small of her back and as she arched into his touch to meet him, he positioned her for his possession.
With a cry of triumph from Thorn he pressed his throbbing shaft into her hot pulsing sheath, reveling in his possession of her and he groaned at the exquisite tightness of her all around him. Aura gave a startled gasp as he entered her and her whimper of pain was stilled by his lips as he broke through her maidenhead to fill her, as he sunk right to the hilt. A few heartbeats later he gave another cry, this time calling her name in the throws of passion. He drove repeatedly into her, no longer aware of anything but his body's need for fulfillment and release. Nothing had ever felt as right to him as this woman in his arms and he was never going to let her go.
Aura seemed unaware of his lack of control as she gave gasping cries of her own, her movements matching his as she wrapped her legs about his waist in an abandon she would never have believed herself capable of. She screamed his name as she climaxed and he continued to thrust hard into her.
Thorn heard her mewling cries, mixed with his name, which merged along with passionate gasps from her lips and it drove him on. He had never felt like this, never wanted a woman so bad before, and now that she was his he wanted his possession to last forever. He felt her climax, heard her call his name then felt his body answer as he also felt his own peak a split second before he spilled his seed deep inside her. He lay over her for a while after that, his length still sheathed in her and sighed. It had been all that he had hoped for, but still not enough, and he knew it would not be long before he took her again.
He withdrew himself from within her body and felt her silent sob as she cried, not understanding why. He brushed her hair from her face with tender loving strokes and kissed eyes hot with unshed tears. He could only hold her and hope that she would share what was bothering her. She had seemed to want him every bit as much as he had wanted her once he had broken though her natural objections to his possession. He stroked her hair and kissed her face making soothing little noises.
"Everything will be alright my love." He crooned.
"I thought I could control that, but I am so weak, I am so ashamed."
"You need feel no shame in loving me, we were meant to be. We complete one another. You are the missing part of my soul."
Aura had no idea what he was talking about, what he meant. She felt his kisses, half asleep as she was and felt as if she could scream. She had wanted him! She had actually wanted him! Just as now she needed him to hold her, to offer her comfort. She felt the weight of her troubles heavy on her, and as he released her she curled herself into a ball by his side and fell asleep.
Thorn hoped his words brought her comfort and understanding, just as he thought he understood why she reacted as she now did. She had thought herself invulnerable, more than just capable of controlling such feelings, only to find herself overwhelmed by what she had been forced to feel; but he felt, she would learn to deal with it. People, after all, did. They then moved on.
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br /> Aura woke feeling chilled and with the combined sweat of the both of them on her. She smelled the scent of the earlier lovemaking still hanging heavy about them and knew that what had happened had not been a dream, nor had it been all that long since it had happened. She felt Thorn's arms about her as he held her to himself, with her back pressed against his chest and felt his hands as they played with her breasts, making the peaks tighten then stroking them with his thumbs, making them throb with remembered sensations. She moved, feeling an urge to hold him back, to press herself to him, and his arms, which had held her close, drew her even closer as she turned to face him.
Thorn felt a deep tightening in his chest, a feeling akin to the pride of possession, yet so more. She was his, and he would never let her go. Never. She turned to him and he crushed her to himself, kissing her in his attempt to reclaim what he had felt earlier, and he felt the stirring of a response in her, just as he noted her recoil of acceptance. She would fight him even yet. He could admire that, but never accept it.
Growling as he lifted his lips from hers and still reeling from the surge of triumph he felt deep within his heart, he snarled; "Deny now my right to touch you, and your desire for me to do so. Deny to everyone that you are mine and always will be."
His lips descended on hers once more and her body immediately responded to his touch. It did not matter what he said, just what he made her feel. She heard herself moan as he sought to arouse her once more, she then gave a deep sigh as she gave in to his demands, for she found that she seemed to want him as much as he seemed to want her. Nor was it anything either of them had that much control over as they burned with mutually shared passion. Aura wondered, as their bodies joined once more, whether it would always be like this between them, whether she would always burn for his possession at the merest touch of his hands, and it scared her.
She would have to watch herself, she thought, or she was going to find herself pregnant. It was not a pleasant thought, considering the time and place.
CHAPTER XVI
Thorn woke as the first signs of light touched the horizon and he looked out of the window to watch the breaking dawn. He thought over the events of the night before and wondered what had happened to make him act as he had done. He had never intended to offer for Aura, not really. He could hardly believe his actions. He had dragged her off to her room in the midst of a mood that could have had only one conclusion. One; he thought with a contented smile, he would remember to his dying day. Aura, he felt deep within himself, was the woman of his prayers and dreams. She now belonged to him. It was no mistake that he had acted as he had.
When he began to piece things together he could see signs of his sister at work, and he chuckled in amusement at her manipulations. It had been Signi who had told him which rooms were Aura's in her daily reports of their activities, and he had given her more than ample encouragement in her matchmaking. He had listened with avid enthusiasm to any news she had brought of the girl. If she had been late in her daily visits he had found himself awaiting her presence with ill concealed waspishness, and when she had come, he had pressed her for any news he could get. It might not have been a conscious action, but it had been there and he was sure Signi had been well aware of it.
Oh yes, he reflected, Signi had woven her web well and she had caught both of her victims in it, the Lady Aura and himself. He had not believed himself hooked, until he had walked into that banquet hall late, to the sight of Aura standing in the middle of the room, being offered like a sacrificial lamb to a pack of hungry wolves. He had seen how several of the men had looked at her and he had bristled. They had no right to look at her like that. She was his. HIS! Then when Lord Roberts had offered for her he knew no other would and he had felt compelled to act. With a sigh he admitted it hadn’t been just Roberts. He would have been compelled to act as he had with anyone who offered for Aura. He had wanted her. Roberts was well known for his ability to hold a grudge, but that did not bother him. He had no reasons to fear the man, although the reverse might apply. Under the circumstances he would have it no other way.
She would be stiff and sore when she woke and he felt a twinge of guilt at being the cause. He should have been more careful when he had first taken her. He knew that even lost as she was in her passion she would have had pain with his possession of her. It was an unavoidable part of the transition between being a maiden and becoming a woman. He frowned as he admitted that he had not been very careful the second time he had taken her either. She would have still been still sore from their first bout of lovemaking and he should have considered that.
His response to her had shocked him in some ways. He had always had more control over himself in the past. Lord but she had felt and tasted good and he had a hard time believing his luck as her passion had risen to match his own. Just thinking about it now was making him hard all over, and he knew he should think about something else, though he found it impossible. He smiled as he thought of her actions, for she had been even less in control as they had joined and he had loved her until she had called his name in husky tones, lost in a burst of sheer ecstasy.
Vernon entered the room as Thorn lay deep in thought about his new state of being and was rewarded with a snarl from Thorn.
"Who invited you in?"
"I would have thought you would have been in a great mood this morning Thorn, all things considered." Vernon motioned towards the bloodstains on the bed cover where Thorn had first taken Aura.
"She is mine Vernon," Thorn warned him, not trusting anyone at the moment. He knew Vernon had not been in favor of the match.
"Nobody is disputing it, although I wish you could have waited a couple weeks more to have taken her." Vernon admitted.
"Why? Does it really matter?" Thorn continued to snarl.
"Not anymore, as her virgin’s blood testifies. I have a question for you though. After all the maids I have put before you that you rejected, and all things considered, why pick this one? This one whom I almost forbade you to take?" It was something Vernon was curious about.
"To be honest with you Vernon, I have no idea, but for some reason I was drawn to her like I have never been drawn to another woman in my life. As for you having forbid this, I know I would have fought you for her. I could not have helped myself. I had to have her. She had been made for me and I could never have let another man own her." Thorn was blunt in his explanation. Vernon, as far as he was concerned, needed to know where he stood on this issue. It was more than mere possession. It was a matter of belonging.
Aura woke to the sound of voices, and moved ever so slightly, only to have Thorn's arm tighten about her as he spoke. She sighed lightly and, as she opened her sleep filled eyes, she caught sight of Vernon, who stood at the foot of the bed. She blushed and buried her face against the side of Thorn's chest.
"You alienated your brother last night Thorn, was she worth it?" Vernon asked in concern. The brothers fought well together and guarded his Western boundaries.
Thorn smiled in amusement as he felt the heat emitted by Aura’s flaming face against his chest, and answered: "By tonight Edwin and I will be back to normal. As for Aura being worth it," he stopped a moment to look at the top of her head, which was all that he could see at the moment. "Yes. She is worth it, and more."
"Lord Roberts is not pleased with you either right now."
"That butcher can go to hell for all I care. He has killed enough women, and if he objects to my possession of Aura, he knows what he can do about it, if he can. No matter what he tries you will find that she will remain my lady. You also know me enough to be sure of three things. One. I never share what I own that I consider important to me, not with anyone. Two, what I have, I keep. And three, Aura will be mine until the day I die. You also know that if he tries to even touch her, I will kill him. You can be assured he knows that too."
Vernon nodded an acknowledgment; he knew what Thorn said to be fact. "I have arranged for you to wed your lady later today, with the priest. Do you thi
nk you can make it?"
"We shall be there." Thorn stated and he turned to Aura as he drew her head up from under the covers. He watched her as Vernon sought her reply as well as his.
"Lady Aura, do you agree to this marriage? And before you say yea or nay. I must warn you, you have but two choices. You can either become Thorn's wife and Lady in truth, or just his mistress, for he will not release you, not now that he owns you. I know him well enough for that. He is a man of his word and he has said so."
"I will be there." Aura agreed with uncustomary meekness.
She had seen how the mistresses were treated, passed from man to man then discarded when the men were with tired of them. She wanted no part of that. She also faced another undeniable fact. Some part of her had changed after her night with Thorn, and she could feel it. She understood. She could never go back to being what she had been. Part of her belonged to the man by her side and always would. He had taught her that lesson only too well.
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