by Mary Winter
Reid snagged the man’s arm. Whirling him around, Reid shoved him back toward the street. “No, you’re not. Someone we cared about very much just died. If you don’t have the decency to wait, then I’ll make you wait.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the second man stepping forward. Two to one odds weren’t the best. But he had excess energy to burn.
“Claim her or we will.” The blond must have been under orders for he snarled at the second man and the two of them faded into the darkness. Moments later, Laura’s front door opened.
“Reid, you okay? What’s going on out here?” She stood on the porch, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She glanced from him to where the men had been. “Don’t tell me my father’s goons came back.”
“Okay, I won’t.” Reid stepped toward her, drawn like a moth to a flame. Looking at her, he knew he only had one choice. Claim Laura. The lussor flared to renewed life within him. She must have felt it for she gasped and closed her hand around the column of the porch.
“Reid?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he replied, his voice husky. He forced himself to stop several paces from her. “Your father’s men said if I didn’t claim you, they would. My control is hanging by a thread, baby. This isn’t the right time or the right place. And to be honest, I probably should clear it with Te first, though I know he’ll approve. What do you want me to do, Laura?” Asking that question had to be the hardest thing he’d ever done. He knew what he wanted to do, had known ever since he’d seen her. Not even the remembrance of finding her in bed with his brother dimmed his ardor. Not tonight. Not after feeling her fingers, her lips against his flesh and knowing just how fucking sweet they could be together.
He waited for her answer. Seconds ticked by like falling stars from the sky. Laura licked her lips. He watched the pink bud of her tongue swipe across a mouth he’d just kissed. Her taste blossomed with a reminder of shared passion.
In some ways, he suspected she should probably thank her father when they went to Brazos. Reid had no doubt he’d see the man face-to-face. After all, Laura had to confront him, especially if she wanted to stay at StarMyst. Without his overt manipulation, he and Laura might have continued dancing around their attraction and their past.
She stepped forward. Holding out her hand, she let the lussor flare. It washed over him like rain. “I’m yours, Reid. I’ve always been yours,” she whispered.
He rushed into her arms. Maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe there wouldn’t be any regrets.
Cool night air wrapped around him as he pulled her tight against him. The blanket slid to a floor in a swish of fabric. Cupping the back of her head, Reid simply held her. He breathed in her scent, that honeysuckle fragrance he always associated with her. The silken strands of her hair tangled around his fingers, her curves pressed against the hard planes of his chest and legs.
His cock throbbed. Reid ignored it. Though it happened far too soon for his liking, he knew what they’d do tonight was inevitable. It had been from the moment Laura had arrived in their small corner of Illinois with her Texas twang and her easy smile. If Edwin were alive, he would have said it should have happened long ago, and perhaps, Reid thought with a pang of regret, if he’d acted on his desires then maybe Laura wouldn’t have had sex with his brother. Maybe her father’s men wouldn’t be here the day of Edwin’s funeral to bring her back to Brazos. Edwin would have been strong enough to keep her here. The need to make up for lost time had him cupping her cheek and tilting her face up to meet his.
“I should have done this a long time ago,” he whispered, his lips just millimeters from hers.
“Yeah, you should have. Kiss me, Reid.” She parted her lips in an invitation he couldn’t refuse.
Lights from inside the house shone through the curtains giving him just enough light to see the need in her eyes. She pressed against him, pushing him to the edge of the porch were the moonlight slanted over their bodies. If her father’s men were still out there, she wanted them to see this. Reid agreed with her. Let them watch. Let them want.
He kissed her, trying to hold back, wanting to make this last. The sweet taste of her mouth filled him with a longing to find out if she tasted as sweet in other places as well. Entwining his fingers in her hair, he slanted his lips across hers and deepened the kiss. His tongue traced her full, lower lip before drawing it into his mouth and suckling gently.
Her lips parted, releasing a needy moan that wrapped around him and squeezed. With his free hand, he skimmed her side until his fingers eventually rested on her buttocks, where he hauled her against the hard length of his erection. She shivered in his arms.
Reluctantly, he ended the kiss. “Let’s get you inside,” he whispered. Not even looking over his shoulder, though he felt her father’s men staring daggers into his back, he guided her over the wadded mess of her blanket and inside the front door. It closed behind them with a deafening click and her house engulfed them once more.
Laura stood there, her chest rising and falling. She stared at him, eyes wide, lips swollen from his kisses. “I don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to do.” Her gaze slid from his face down the length of buttons on his white dress shirt. Briefly, she glanced beneath his belt before twin spots of red colored her cheeks and she drew her gaze back to his face. “This probably isn’t the best time.”
“No,” he agreed as he strode forward. “But there’s no time like the present.”
She backed away from him. Wary, or simply to lead him back into her home, he didn’t know. Stalking her, he pinned her between his body and the counter and rested his hands against the square corners in an attempt to keep her from ducking away. “I offered you an out. You said you wanted me. You haven’t changed your mind, have you?” He gave a meaningful look to the door. Even the roots of his hair ached with the need to take her. This close, her breasts brushed against his chest with each breath and he couldn’t help but imagine what they’d be like freed to his gaze and his touch. His nostrils flared at the need building in his veins.
And the lussor answered. It burned through him, turned his guts inside out and made him nearly spontaneously combust. The long nights of willing it away, or taking matters into his own hands finally took their toll. Whatever happened might not be gentle and it might not be pretty, but it’d feed the hunger. Right now he suspected that’s all Laura wanted too, for she gave a tiny whimper and pressed her hand into his chest.
He covered her slender fingers with his own. Releasing the counter, he reached for her dress and unfastened it, slipping the fabric off her shoulders. Her slip came next, a whisper of silk that pooled around her feet, leaving her dressed in a modest bra and panty set that still took his breath away. He struggled to slow, the relish the pale flesh rising above the lace cups. “I’ll try to take this easy,” he whispered as he reached behind her to unfasten the hooks.
“That can come later,” she whispered. Her fingers fumbled as she unbuttoned his shirt. She slid it aside, flattening her palms against his chest and stroking him from clavicle to navel. “Just claim me, so hard and so fast my father’s men have no choice but to accept that I belong to you.”
His mind focused on those four little words. I belong to you. He cupped her ass and pulled her against him. “Hang on, baby.” Laura tucked her head against his shoulder and he carried her into her bedroom. Unerringly, he found it, and laid her down on the middle of her queen-sized bed.
Gently, he slipped her high heels from her feet, pausing to caress to her arches, her calves. His hands shook as he peeled her stockings down over her thighs, past her knees, until he dropped them on the floor and she lay naked. Her parted thighs revealed her pussy, swollen and wet for him. Drawing her scent into his lungs, Reid forced himself to slow. This was Laura and their first time had to be perfect.
He cupped one foot in his hand. Caressing her soft skin, he used the slow seduction as a chance to get his raging need under control. He fluttered his fingers across her arch, the gentle tickle makin
g her curl her toes against his skin. Her slender ankle made him circle them with his fingers. Feather-light caresses stroked across her muscled calves. He reached the backs of her knees and pressed his lips to the tender flesh.
Laura shivered. She clutched the bedspread to keep from reaching for him.
Smiling against her skin, Reid tongued the erogenous zone he’d found. He sucked her skin into his mouth, wanting her to come from his lips and nothing more. The scent of her musk drifted to him, a heady scent full of woman and want. The plump folds of her sex beaconed to him. Not yet, not until she screamed his name and begged to have him deep inside her.
He released her skin to turn his attention to her other knee. Not as sensitive as the first, he listened to her whimpers as he licked her skin. He kissed a path across the top of her thigh, avoiding the very place she wanted him to touch. His fingers met across her hipbones, and he nuzzled her navel.
“You taste so good. I could eat you for hours,” he whispered against her skin.
His words went straight to her clit like the brush of slick fingers. “Let me touch you,” she begged. Uncurling her fingers from the bedspread, she speared her fingers into his hair. “Please.”
That tiny whimper was his undoing. Sliding his fingers beneath her, he reached the fastener on her bra. She arched her back, allowing him to release it, so he could slide the lacy fabric from her shoulders. Though he was half on-half off the bed, he rose onto his elbows to look down at her breasts. The rounded globes drew his attention. Just looking at the prominent nipples made his mouth water. Reverently, he reached up to caress his fingers across them.
Laura shivered. The tiny ripples darted through her body.
Reid watched, still not quite believing he was here. Rearing back, he quickly shed his clothing. Naked, he returned to the bed, settling between Laura’s spread thighs. A part of him wanted to move her, to make it more comfortable than lying sideways on the bed. She didn’t complain and her ankles would be around his hips soon enough. He lowered his mouth to her left nipple and drew it into his mouth.
Her low moan of pleasure echoed around him. Fingers tunneled into his hair to hold his lips to her breast. Her other hand curled against his shoulder as he palmed the breast he wasn’t kissing. So warm. So responsive. He drew her nipple deep into his mouth, grazing it with his teeth.
Laura wrapped her legs around his hips. Feeling her strong thighs gripping him, her hot cunt brushing against his abs with each pump of her hips, stroked the lussor. They were sorcerers. This was so much more than two people coming together in a bout of hot, sweaty sex. The energy between them raised power, so much so, it tingled along his skin.
Releasing her nipple, he turned his attention to her other breast. Laura belonged to him. She’d spoken the words aloud. In the world of the magician, that was as good as a brand. Surely, her father’s goons felt it. He sure knew he did.
He shifted to the side to skim her ribs with his fingers. Laura parted her legs in invitation, lifting her hips toward his searching fingers. He stroked her trimmed pelt, enjoying the heat and wetness of her need. He did this. He made her hot and wet and when she came, it would be because of him. His lips. His fingers. His cock. All him.
His fingers moved easily over her slick labia. Light strokes of his fingers had her moans escalating. They grew higher pitched. Her hips rising and falling to draw him deeper into her body. Not yet. He wanted her poised on the edge of satisfaction, screaming his name when she tumbled over to the other side.
He kissed over the top of her breast, pausing to lave the sensitive place where her neck met her shoulder. “You like that?” he hummed against her skin.
“Yes,” she sobbed.
“You want me inside you?” he taunted. Following her pounding pulse, he drew the skin over it into his mouth and bit gently. “You want me to fuck you?” He swirled his finger around her engorged clitoris. Mouthing her skin, he raised a hickey on her neck. There—his—for everyone to see including her father’s thugs. He drew her earlobe into his mouth and sucked.
“Reid,” she shrieked. The tiny flutters he felt in her pussy grew in strength and number until she came apart in his arms and her body trembled against him. Her cries turned to wordless sounds of pleasure. Her cream flowed over his fingers and his cock ached to be inside her tight channel, feeling her muscles tighten around his rod.
“Yeah, sweetheart. That’s it. Come for me.” He rocked his hips against her. A surge of masculine pride made him painfully erect. Dipping his fingers into her, he thrust through her orgasm.
Her fingers curled into his shoulder hard enough to leave tiny red marks from her nails. The lussor wrapped them in a warm cocoon. Energy crackled along his skin. Forcing his eyes open, he watched it surround them like an aura. Pale blue light raced between his body and hers, wrapping them in steel-like bands of power. For better or worse, they had been joined by the power. Brazos couldn’t claim Laura. Not now or ever.
She shuddered to completion, her panting breaths the only noise in the room. Reid moved between her thighs. He nestled his hips against hers. Her softness cushioned his erection, her body soft and pliant beneath his. Dipping his head, he brushed his lips across hers. The feather-light caresses turned into a deeper kiss. His tongue traced the seal of her mouth, delving inside.
God, he wanted this woman. His body burned with the need to be inside her. Plunging his tongue into her mouth, he claimed her. A shift of his hips brushed the head of his cock against her curls. He hovered there for a moment, her warmth, her softness drawing him past her folds. He nudged her clit with the tip, loving the whimpering moans he swallowed.
The lussor flared around them. To someone with magical senses, he suspected that they were lit up like flares. Never had it been so hot like this. But never had he made love to another sorcerer before either.
“Reid, please,” Laura whispered as the need for air parted their mouths. “I need you inside me.”
Her words proved his undoing. A subtle movement had him poised at her entrance. Thrusting his hips, he buried himself to the hilt. He savored the sensation of her muscles clamping around him. His balls hung full and heavy against her, the muscles in his arms bunched from supporting his weight off of her. Looking down at her, he drank in the sight of her eyelashes fanned against her cheeks, her kiss-swollen lips parted in silent invitation.
Laura wrapped her legs around him. Her tiny heels dug into his buttocks, her fingers curled into his shoulders. Tiny movements of her hips took him even deeper. She was so tight, so wet, he breathed deeply to regain some semblance of control. Slowly, he pulled out. She gripped him, making him want to sink inside her and never leave. He hovered at her opening then surged forward once more.
Energy filled him. Even with his eyes closed, he sensed the lussor wrapping around them, tying them together. It was deeper than a marriage vow, far more profound than any declarations of love. Like lost pieces of a puzzle coming together, they fit. Perfectly.
Laura. Laura. Laura. He chanted her name with each stroke. In this moment, the past didn’t exist. Only the two of them, coming together, joining as sorcerers were meant to join. He thrust harder, faster, feeling her explode beneath him. Reaching down, he splayed his hands across her buttocks, pulling her even closer to him.
Her primal scream of pleasure echoed around him as she exploded in his arms. Over and over again her cunt milked him, the contracting muscles massaging his shaft. Reid claimed her lips. He held himself at the precipice, his need for release humming in his veins like the energy. One final plunge of his hips and Laura exploded around him. He came like a freight train, so hard and fast he felt as if he’d been turned inside out. His guttural shout echoed around him. His seed pumped from his shaft, filling her with his warmth and life.
And still, he was hard. He rested on her a moment before quickly levering his weight off of her. His cock was buried deep inside her, his erection barely softened. A fine sheen of sweat covered them. The smell of sex hung redolen
t in the room. Reid looked down at Laura, watching her breasts rise and fall with her panting breaths, and grinned like a madman.
Slowly Laura opened her eyes. She blinked, almost as if she didn’t believe this had happened. A wicked grin spread over her lips. Hitching her legs higher on his hips, she wriggled beneath him. She traced a path between his pectorals, her fingers making patterns in the swirls of chest hair she found there. “You’re still hard,” she breathed, eyes wide with wonder. Lifting her hips, she punctuated her point with a short thrust.
Inside her, his cock swelled to full life once more. “You make me hard.” He lowered himself onto her then grabbing her ass, rolled on the bed so she straddled him.
Laura sat up, her palms braced on his chest. “Is that so?” She rocked against him. When he grabbed her hips and joined them even more intimately, she thrust again.
He let her set the pace this time, the lussor a dull throb instead of the blazing need. As she rocked them both to ecstasy once more, he couldn’t help but marvel at her beauty. After all this time, they both were finally where they wanted to be.
But as he watched her, a niggling doubt hung in the back of his mind. He tried to lose himself in the motion, but with the initial rush of lust spent, he had to wonder. Had she done this with his brother?
Reid forced his attention on Laura, on the rise and fall of her body. Her breasts hung before him like twin globes, and he reached up to palm them. From the little noises she made, she enjoyed herself. Soon, her cries filled the room as she came again. He watched her tumble from the peak, eyes half-lidded, breathy little sighs surrounding him. Pumping into her, he lost himself on the flow of pleasure through his body. Balls tightening once more, he spilled himself into her as he came in tiny ripples rather than a pounding torrent.
Leaning forward, Laura nestled against his chest, her ear pressed against his heart. Surely, she heard its pounding. And surely, she realized what this meant for both of them. In the morning, he had to go to Te and explain what had happened. Then, the real fight for Laura would begin. But for now, he wanted to enjoy the moment. He feared it wouldn’t last.