Medusa's Heart: A Contemporary Paranormal Erotic Romance Novel

by Joey W. Hill

  “Will you come and let me hold you, and know that I’ll do nothing you don’t want me to do?”

  It was intriguing how her hesitations created a different weight in the air than her pauses. He hoped the sense augmentation Maddock had given him was permanent, because he was discovering far more nuances of body language than he ever knew existed.

  “Would you like to come closer? Touch me?” he asked in a steady, firm voice.

  “Yes.”

  “Then come here.” He kept his hand out, and when he heard the movement of the water and felt her wet fingers in his, talons curving over them, a surge of satisfaction and contentment filled him.

  “You like that command. ‘Come here.’ ‘Come to me.’”

  “Yeah, I do. I like how you respond to it.” He drew her closer. Her arm was tense, but she wasn’t actively resisting him. He brought her into his arms, his lips and nose twitching as her wings fluttered, like a falcon brought off her roost. They showered droplets on them both.

  “Easy,” he murmured. “Put your arms around my neck. Let me carry you through the water.”

  She slid her fingers up his chest, through his chest hair, onto his shoulders. Her other hand clasped his biceps as he closed his arms over her back and hips. So much smooth skin, the curves coaxing his fingers into places he knew she wasn’t yet ready for him to go. “You can coil your legs around me if it’s easier to hold on that way. You’re safe with me.”

  “I’m not sure of that.” But she did it. As she put her legs over his hips and adjusted her arms around his shoulders, it took an effort beyond description not to hold her so close against him they would seem like they were breathing together. His light hold caused another torture, though. The tips of her breasts brushed his chest, disappeared and brushed him again, a pleasant repetitive friction while they floated together. Using his one free arm and legs, he turned them in slow, wide circles to get the full benefit of the cool water’s flow.

  “Now tell me why you’re not sure you’re safe with me,” he said.

  “If I tell you, I’m not sure I’ll be safe with you anymore.”

  Way to make his blood heat. Thank God for cold water. When he idly tangled his fingers in her hair, he was amused to feel that all the snakes except one were piled on top of her head like a wedding cake, avoiding the water as much as possible. He followed the line of the other snake’s body and discovered it was in the water, the serpentine form moving sinuously around Medusa’s side. “Let me guess. That’s Waterlight.”

  “Yes. She alone enjoys the water, though Earthson does on rare occasions.”

  “How do you wash your hair, when four of them are so averse to water?” Because her hair was definitely clean and regularly cared for. Either she took pains with that shining mass of ringlets, or the Xena-like sexual allure she had was a magical defense as he’d speculated, and her hair was part of that. He knew a lot of women who’d claim to take the curse she bore in a heartbeat, in exchange for hair that could be so thick and shining without effort.

  “When I immerse myself in water where they can’t avoid it, they’ve learned to tolerate it, but if they have the ability to avoid it, they do.”

  “Like a dog having to take a bath.” He trailed his fingers over her shoulder and earned a shiver of reaction. Her nipples pressed against his chest more firmly and he realized he’d tightened his grip. She hadn’t resisted.

  “Medusa.” He stopped their rotation and touched her face. “You remember what you said about me not being so courteous?”

  “Yes.” She sounded wary.

  “On that same note, do you want to be entirely safe with me?”

  A weighted pause. “I’m not sure. Sometimes not.”

  “Okay.” He hoped his reaction to that came off as a reassuring warmth, rather than a blast of lustful heat. “I’m glad to hear it. I’m going to kiss you, but that’s all I’m going to do. No matter what you beg me to do, kissing is all you’re getting. Got it?”

  She stiffened. “I will not beg you to do anything. And—”

  His lips were so close that when she formed the And, her mouth brushed his. Whatever else she was going to say died away, and he took that as his cue, closing the distance. He constricted his arm around her like one of her snakes, coiling it around her waist and dropping the hand so it cradled her buttock while the other stayed high on her back. He bit back a male animal noise of pleasure that might have scared her. Christ, her ass was such a nice handful, soft and firm at once, a pleasing curve he could explore for days, rousing all sorts of erogenous areas she probably didn’t know existed.

  Her arms, wrapped around his back, shifted so her hands framed his neck. Her fingers slid into his hair behind his ears, the talons digging in. She’d essentially put a set of knife blades against vulnerable tendons and his spine, but he didn’t sense she’d done it to threaten him. She was getting into the sensations, trying to figure out how she liked them. Keep trusting me, sweetheart, and I’ll help you with that.

  He deepened the kiss, coaxing her lips apart, playing his tongue over her sharp teeth, then tangling with her tongue. He felt her sudden tension, but he merely increased his grip on her head. He intended to make this a slow, long, wet, kiss that would alleviate any concerns she had about him being put off by a forked tongue.

  If she knew some of the fantasies he had about how that tongue would feel on certain parts of his anatomy, she might be both reassured and more anxious. But her words, about not always wanting to be safe with him, told him that anxiety was starting to take some key steps away from fear and into a far more pleasing direction for both of them.

  He loved kissing the way most men loved fucking. While he found the latter pretty damn pleasurable, kissing a woman thoroughly had rewards that men who rushed past it to get to the fucking part missed.

  Focusing on the kiss and doing it right affected a woman’s whole body. Teasing her teeth and lips with the tip of his tongue had her arching her body into him. Thrusting deep with it while pressing harder against her lips, making things more demanding, elicited a little whimper. One hand dropped from his hair to his shoulder and the claws bit into his flesh. Her thighs quivered as he eased up the pressure of his mouth to play along her lips, nip with his teeth, make her chase him for more.

  In short, every bit of foreplay could happen between their two mouths. If he did it right, a woman was so wet and wild by the time he was done, she might come the moment he thrust his cock home inside her willing, writhing body. He loved to see that happen, that total loss of control from nothing more than a full, merciless seduction of her mouth.

  He’d never been gladder of his pursuit of that skill than now. Before this, he’d noted a constant level of tension when his hands were moving below her neck. As she grew more lost in the kiss, that tension was ebbing away. He stroked her spine, her hips, and clasped her waist. She was unconsciously climbing up his body as she pressed more insistently against it. One of her arms was tight around him, the other hand braced on his shoulder as he cupped one side of her face and neck with his large palm and kept her kissing him and being kissed.

  The sounds coming from her were perilously close to the begging at which she’d scoffed, but he wasn’t going to tease her about that. Not when the heat rushing through his veins was making his cock so hard and thick he might do some begging himself. He was thankful he was wearing the constricting wet jean shorts, because he didn’t want his reaction to startle her as he’d done the other night. But it seemed they’d made progress there as well.

  Her mons was pushed against his abs, creating friction against his sectioned stomach muscles. As she rose and fell, the base of her ass was rubbing against the steel cock caught behind the zipper. He growled into her mouth but eased back, wishing he could see the look on her face. Swollen lips, moist from his mouth, dazed eyes.

  “I will take my prize now, my lady,” he said.

  Her fingers convulsed on his shoulders, her body shuddering from arousal. “Wh
-what?”

  “It’s time to collect my prize.” He brushed his knuckles over her face. Her lips were swollen. He moved her back toward the ledge. “I think you’re in the best mood for it now.”

  “That was all…to prepare me?”

  “Oh, hell no.” The quick flash of amusement helped his own sexual frustration. “I wanted to kiss you and hold you while you were naked. The two don’t necessarily have to be related.” Though they were, enough that he probably was going to be nursing a painful hard-on for the next hour.

  “But…I wanted…”

  She wanted him to keep kissing her. He knew just how she felt, but he’d stopped at the right time, since she couldn’t verbalize it. She was on the verge of spooking herself again. He guaranteed she was marshalling her defenses, trying to backtrack. She cleared her throat.

  “Perhaps I am not ready to grant you your prize right now.”

  Lifting her onto the ledge, he pulled himself out of the pool, water splashing onto the rocks from his body. “I’ve won, my lady. So I can demand my prize at my leisure. You’re a woman of honor.”

  “If I had won, you could have produced my dress right away?”

  “Yes, I could have.”

  “You have no way of proving this.” She had that snooty edge to her voice that was a goad and a defense both. He was sensitive to the latter, even as the other added fuel to his desire to redden her ass right here and now.

  “You’re arguing an irrelevant point, my lady. It’s a spanking. You’ve seen it done to children. Surely it doesn’t scare you.”

  “No.” Yes. The unspoken word was hovering on her lips, because some part of her knew how her body and mind would respond to it, even if she didn’t consciously acknowledge that. “But I will dress first. You made no demand that I be…unclothed.”

  He put out a hand. “True, but that’s the way I prefer you. Come to me, my lady. I hope you’re learning you won’t come to harm from me. At least enough to trust me for this.”

  “I don’t understand why you wanted this as your prize.”

  “When I’m done, you will.”

  He could hear her feet shifting as she rose, a ripple of nervous movement going through her wings. Then she came to him, and put her hand in his. While he’d kept his tone steady and unrelenting, which could have a compelling impact on a sub, her compliance humbled him enough that he lifted her hand and pressed his lips above her knuckles. “You awe me with your courage and trust, my lady.”

  “You are a strange man.”

  “No argument there. And you’re a miracle, putting up with me the way you do.”

  The dubious sound that came from her lips made him smile. He guided her closer to the falls, sitting down on the flat rock near it, where the spray would mist their skin. He wanted her bottom glistening wet, so she’d feel the sting acutely, but not so wet it would interfere with other plans he had in mind.

  “Come down here, over my knees.”

  He imagined her lips pressing together nervously, betraying some self-consciousness, and he helped her this time, drawing her down to him, easing her over his lap. As he smoothed his hand over her buttocks, he bit back a groan again. Christ, she felt like heaven. And he wanted to see her.

  “I’m taking off the blindfold, my lady. You need to keep your head down so we won’t make eye contact, unless you’re going to trust the contacts.”

  “No, I don’t…”

  “I assume turning me to stone isn’t an issue when looking at your backside.” Well, except for one key part of him, but that had nothing to do with her lethal gaze.

  “No. But I don’t like you not wearing the blindfold.”

  “Tough. My prize, my rules. I want to see you.”

  He removed the blindfold before she could say anything further. It said a great deal about how far they’d come already that she didn’t put up an argument fast enough to stop him.

  Yep, he was right. Heaven. Curves of golden skin, with a faint blush of color, and still damp from their swim. Since she was stretched over his thighs, her bottom was canted up enough to hint at what was between her closed thighs. Her long dark hair was falling forward, but he could see the curve of her breast under her arm, below where her elbow was braced on the rock. Waterlight was resting on her shoulder, facing him as if interested in what he was planning to do.

  Hopefully she and the other snakes wouldn’t interpret this as an attack on their mistress. He wondered if they knew the difference between agitation from fear versus arousal. He supposed if they didn’t bite him, he’d have his answer to that. He got a closer look at Treebark, the spiny, venomous snake peering at him through a parted curtain of hair at her nape. Tunneltrap and Ratqueen were still coiled around the top of her head and seemed unconcerned.

  “Will your snakes be okay with this?”

  “Yes. I can tell them it is what I wish.”

  Her voice was quiet, and he coiled his hand in her hair, giving it a tug that lifted her head several inches from where she had her face tucked down between her flattened palms on the rocks. Her breath drew in at the firm hold. He knew it had caught on words of warning not to look upon her face, but his grip conveyed a different kind of warning.

  “Is it what you wish, Medusa?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t understand your desire to do this but, as you said, it makes me feel… I want you to do it, and I don’t.”

  “Then let’s do it and see what happens.”

  Chapter Eleven

  When he’d held out his hand to her, Medusa had stared at it for a few heartbeats. After what had happened at the beach, she’d told herself she was going to be sensible about granting him his prize. She wasn’t going to let that despised panic take over again. Her inability to control it had made her furious with herself. Up until then, she’d not only made a good accounting of herself in the match, she’d earned John Pierce’s unprompted praise.

  It should have built her confidence, not only about her trusting him more, but trusting her own strength to protect herself. Instead, when his body had covered hers in what wasn’t even the most secure pin of their match, the memories had surged up instantly. It had been like a surprise attack by a powerful predator, paralyzing her.

  Time had helped her regain some perspective, as well as pride about holding her own against him. Though, based on his skills, holding her own in a fair fight against John Pierce Zeus, meaning him not blindfolded or holding back, might not have had such an equal result.

  She knew he had held back. Oh, not on the wrestling part, which was why she was proud of herself there, for pinning a far stronger opponent twice. But whereas she’d utilized kicks and blows with fists in addition to wrestling maneuvers, he’d limited himself to the wrestling. He would not strike her.

  Well, until this moment, and she had a feeling this was a far different kind of blow.

  He was a formidable warrior, one who seemed determined to convince her he was not here to harm, but to protect and serve her. If it was a ruse, he was being remarkably consistent about it.

  Seduction or rape. If the end goal of the male was the same, to take, what was the difference? She’d felt a decided difference when he was kissing her, however. Perhaps that was what had her hesitating when he’d reached out a hand to her, a tacit gesture to confirm her consent to his prize. He had an undeniably seductive effect upon her, and she was drawing ever closer to surrendering whatever it was he wanted to take.

  He’d stopped instantly when her fear had taken over on the beach, and he’d seemed genuinely concerned about her. She was starting to believe him, when he said she merely had to say stop, and he would. Well, yes, he was being insistent about this spanking idea, but in a way that didn’t feel so much like he was ignoring her protests as tapping into something inside her that wanted him to insist. To take charge.

  No, not that. She wouldn’t agree with that assessment. This had to do with honor, because he was right about that. He’d won fairly, and she’d agreed to the terms.
She ignored the sly voice inside that said it was convenient for her to capitulate to something she might want just as much as he did.

  She put her hand in his.

  As his large fingers closed over it, he ran his thumb over her knuckles and drew her close to the falls, where the spray misted the skin. Since he was blindfolded, she watched carefully to make sure he did not come too close to the edge, but he seemed to know his footing. His wet shorts clung to his body like a snake’s skin. They were no longer than a man’s short tunic, but the fit drew her eyes to his groin, to the size of his muscular thighs, to the way the fabric clung to his backside.

  Then he brought her down over his lap, and insisted on removing the blindfold. She would have protested, but the other things he was doing had shortened her breath and increased her heart rate. She made herself press her palms into the rock, but when he gripped her hair like that, refusing to let her put her head down, more unusual feelings coiled in her lower belly.

  She wanted to see what this was about. Why it intrigued her, the description of it, without her having any experience of it.

  He rubbed his hand over her bottom, slow, as if to reassure her, but it awoke nerve endings. Maybe they were anticipating the pain, but it wasn’t that which had butterflies whirling in her stomach. He was looking at her. At her back, bottom, legs, at the snakes in her hair and her wings, her claws scraping against the rock. She stiffened at the thought but then—

  Whap!

  She jumped at the sting and, just in time, remembered to reassure the snakes. Play, no fear. No attack. They took anything she said at face value, but more than that, they read her emotions. She was pretty sure they would not pick up fear from her right now. Not the kind that would put them on the defensive.

  Her adrenaline spiked, her body tensed, and her claws dug deeper into the rock. John went back to rubbing.

  “You have a gorgeous bottom. All drum tight but round and soft, like that pretty pale green melon that grows here.”