TravelersKiss

by Sherri L. King

  When he touched her, she could hear music again. Real music, not just the memory of something she’d heard before. It was her own personal cavatina playing in the heart of her, when all the external stimuli of the world were stripped away, leaving just her essential self behind. This was the essence of Raine. This pure, simple melody that had no beginning. No end. It was like being born again, and Grimm did that for her, every single time he laid a hand on her. He gave her soul a peace it had never known.

  Even as he drove her crazy, he offered her succor. He would always challenge her, push her to her limits and carefully set her amidst the wolves as he’d done with the Daemons, but he wouldn’t for one second let her suffer any real or lasting harm. She could trust him with her life. She could trust him with her body too. Raine was more certain of this than she was of anything else.

  “Grimm.” She choked out his name and their struggle was over. “I don’t want to fight anymore.” Her taut muscles melted like gold in a furnace, her bloodlust instantly just plain, healthy lust beneath her skin. “I want to be with you.” His arms tightened about her. What moved through her, moved through him, and he answered with an equal passion, holding her so close that for a moment Raine felt as if she might sink through and into him.

  She shuddered. Her vision swam, the room deliquesced and another condensed around them, a bed appearing beneath their bodies, Grimm now on top of her, his weight pressing her down into the deeply piled softness of the mattress.

  There was no turning back now and Raine didn’t care a whit.

  In truth her body thrilled to the knowledge that after this moment, her life would never be the same. Of all the things that had happened to her tonight, becoming Grimm’s lover would be the one event that defined her future—and it was an adventure she now gladly undertook.

  Raine looked into Grimm’s eyes, so marvelous and peculiar, and she knew he would never smother her, but neither would he let her stray far from his sight. She may not see him but he would always be there if she needed him, no questions, no remunerations or penalties. That was the kind of male he was; not man—male. She understood the distinction. He protected what was his.

  Raine sensed his greatness as a palpable force, a voltage in the air around them that made her ears ring and her fingers itch to play over an instrument, if only to release the tension building inside her. He had seen much in his life, all of it was there for any to see in the galaxies behind his eyes. It frightened her, the scope of his experience, yet at the same time it was thrilling—that of all he had seen and subsequently experienced, he was here with her now by choice. Grimm had chosen her. Raine was never going to be able to fully understand or anticipate his reasoning, but she knew that in giving herself to him, he would claim her and invite her into a world of wonders far beyond any she could have ever imagined.

  Grimm’s hands were pushing her tunic up the planes of her stomach, tucking the hem under her ribs. He lithely pressed hot kisses where her diaphragm expanded with each of her starving breaths. His fingertips painted trails over her midriff, again and again and again while he kissed her a dozen times. A hundred. He found the waistband of her trousers and slid them down over her hips, pushing them slowly over her thighs while being careful to trace the pads of his fingers over each inch of skin he bared, as if discovering a prized treasure and learning its worth through the knowledge inherent in his touch. He even skimmed the soles of her feet while disrobing her, making her toes curl, before tossing her trousers over his shoulder and sliding his body back up over hers.

  Raine tangled her fingers in his hair, losing her hands in the depths of his thick locks, stroking the strands as only a lover could. Letting them slide across her palms. She’d wanted to do that very thing since she’d first seen the ruby glints—wondering if its fascinating color would lend it as exotic a texture as the unique, gemlike facets suggested.

  It was smooth as glass, surprisingly thick and strong. Heavy layers of it cascaded down his back, sliding over her skin like water when she combed her hands through it. She brought a lock to her cheek and mouth, let it stroke her flesh like a kiss, marveling at its supple, satin texture. The fragrance wafting from him was strongest here, intoxicating. Base notes of sandalwood oil and sage leaves wafted from his tresses, along with chords of juniper, bergamot and frangipani. Faint traces of rain-soaked moss and cool salt-sprayed wind rounded out the perfumery that was the glory crowning his head.

  It was a scent of unabashed seduction. It inspired daydreams; carnal, lusty fantasies. Raine flashed on images of their naked, sweat-dampened limbs entwined and her sex flushed hot, clenching like a fist, as if it wanted to grab hold of his cock and keep him locked deep inside her forever. If sexual invitation could be bottled and sold in a department store, it would smell exactly like Grimm.

  He knew his effect on her, not by any noise or move she made. Perhaps it was the softening of her mouth or the sharpening of her nipples but it didn’t matter how he knew, only that he was clever with his knowledge. Grimm hovered over her, his weight balanced on his hands, the muscles of his biceps huge by her face. He looked down into her eyes, searching for something, delving so deeply that she felt more exposed than if she’d been stripped bare.

  He licked his lips and something shifted inside her womb, something only he seemed to know how to manipulate, and that she was trembling like tall grass in high wind, her knees quaking and her breath coming faster than ever. His eyelids had gone all heavy; the stars behind them seemed shrouded in smoke. His nostrils flared as he breathed her in too, and she shivered anew, wondering if he liked the way she smelled as much as she liked his scent.

  While she played with the ends of his jewel-toned hair, Grimm eased away and reached back with one hand to find her calf. He lifted her right leg and bent her knee into her chest. Slowly, using every inch of his palm, he stroked his way down from her calf to encircle her ankle with long fingers, leaving her nerves tingling like mad everywhere he has touched.

  He studied her ankle reverently before leaning over and pressing his mouth to it in a gentle kiss. His lips were plump and soft against her skin, hot as a rogue spark jumping free of a fire to bite and sting her skin. Raine felt the tender graze of his teeth follow the press of his kiss and drew her upper lip between her own, biting hard enough to keep her gasp in check. His tongue darted out, and again his teeth. Raine saw his lips parted over her skin and the light playing with the shadows around his jaw was the most alluring thing she had ever seen.

  She reached for him desperately, needing to hold him. He blinked at her slowly, shook his head no and nipped at her fingertips instead. Insistent, she surged forward and took his face in her hands, but he pushed them down by her sides and forced her to lie back again.

  “No,” he murmured in a near growl that made her toes curl.

  Moving on, now unhindered by her hands, Grimm bestowed lingering kisses on her shin, calf and knee. His tongue bathed her skin, tasting and learning her texture. Both her legs were quivering. She knew he was as aware of it as she was; knew he could feel them shaking as well as see them.

  He went so still then that she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. His body language betrayed nothing. His mouth rested like a warning on the crest of her knee. He wasn’t breathing. Neither was she. The anticipation was enough to tug as the threads of her self-control and they were already frayed enough as it was. Raine simply couldn’t stand any teasing right now.

  His fingers began to move on her wrists, rolling the bones in his hands as he squeezed and released. Raine wasn’t sure he was even aware that he was doing it. His cosmic gaze was locked on hers but then slowly, almost imperceptibly, its focus drifted far away. A chill snaked its way into her, pooling in her stomach. He continued to move the bones in her wrists, not hurting her, but such was his strength that she knew he could easily break bone if he wasn’t…well…focused. Present. Here.

  Where was he?

  His long, luscious hair was disheveled and it tickled the
insides of her thighs. All that came between those locks and the moisture between her legs was a flimsy pair of boy shorts. Egad.

  He blinked the dense fringe of his lashes and was instantly with her again, the chill she’d felt gone, the moment fading quicker than a dream. He rooted his mouth into the bed of her knee and kissed her so passionately, Raine’s heart shot up into her throat, her legs falling open, her hips arching up until he put his hands on her hips to hold her steady.

  Grimm turned his head to face her and moved between her legs, stroking his palms over her stomach and hips, back and forth, as if in a trance. Beneath a spill of hair, his gaze captured hers and Raine fell into the great cosmos housed inside his eyes.

  “Raine.” His voice was rough when it came. “You are a most remarkable woman. You deserve the gentlest of lovers, which I am happy to be for you. But just…not this time.”

  The honey between her thighs caught fire, his words exciting her, setting her blood to boil.

  “This time, I will burn myself so deep into your memory that no force on this world or any other could ever reach into your head and remove the thought of me again.” With each word his voice grew stronger. “I will mark you as no woman has ever been marked.”

  Raine’s nipples were so hard they hurt. Her sex pulsed with need. The entire length of her body throbbed with desire—the throbbing echoed the tempo set by his words. He released her hips and took her in his arms, drawing her close to his heart.

  “You are mine, Nightingale.” His sonorous timbre was tremulous with passion. “You have always been mine. Let me show you what it feels like to know that you belong to me.”

  Raine felt her heart swell with music. Their music.

  He swooped down and took her lips with his.

  He was right. Raine had been his all along.

  Grimm did not take this kiss. She gave it.

  It belonged to him.

  Her eyes fell closed.

  Chapter Ten

  He opened her lips with the press of his thumbs at the corners of her mouth and the insistence of his tongue. She gasped and took his breath deep into her lungs. Oh!

  Grimm had exhaled something into her, enervating her with something akin to raw emotion.

  Darkness rose up in a tide and blinded her. Raine clung to him, felt the thick folds of his cloak like waves cover her face, and gasped as they went under together. The world tilted and she was sent deeper into the plunge. Grimm breathed for them both, filling her lungs again and again with that indefinable substance.

  It tasted the way Raine imagined magic must taste.

  Images flashed behind the curtain of dark, far too fast for her to identify. They were more lights than pictures, leaving afterimages seared into her retinas like cigarette burns. A series of them swept past, followed by a pause. Then another series followed. And another. Raine tried to make some sense of them, but so much was happening all at once that she was swept up into chaos and could make sense of nothing.

  Grimm’s mouth was moving on her lips, and he was pressing words against her tongue in a language not her own. His breath was inside her. And they were falling, always falling. Picking up speed with every second, until Raine worried they would pass through and out of the world. Her senses careened out of control. Her body aroused to heights clouded by extremes of passion, uncertainty, desire, fear and wonder.

  Incredible heat pressed against her and it was Grimm’s bare skin on hers. Their clothing was gone. They were naked and nothing had ever been more incredible than this. It was a volatile heat that wanted to turn cold, pleasure that ebbed toward pain. It was recherché—exquisite.

  His skin was smooth but hard, like marble if marble was alive and full of raw verve. Without his clothes Grimm seemed bigger, darker, a thousand times more dangerous. There was something terrifying and deadly about Grimm in the nude, but Raine wasn’t afraid of him. He thrilled her. Her heart skipped several beats, her nipples were so hard they stung, and her mouth was dry as sand, but not because she was fearful of him.

  His hands were everywhere at once. He had more than two, surely he must. They were on her shoulders, supporting her back, her waist, her hips. They squeezed the globes of her bottom, lifting and separating her cheeks, pressing them together then repeating the process until she wanted to weep or laugh or cry. He really seemed to enjoy rubbing his hands all over her ass. Raine loved when he did it. He caressed her ribs, her arms, her thighs—he squeezed and petted her thighs until she was moaning into his mouth and he was breathing those delicious breaths back into her. His tongue darted into her like a sly cock, wet and slick, dancing alongside hers, rubbing her lips until they tingled.

  At the same time, her hands were in no way idle. They ran over his throat—which was thick with hard, corded muscle—down over his wide shoulders and lingered over the massive trunks of his arms. He put every body builder in the world to shame. It stunned her that he’d hidden such enormous muscles beneath his clothes. The same went for his chest. He was a large man all over. All over.

  The pads of her fingers learned every curve, every dip of his chest, and discovered yet more of him. His small, hard nipples fascinated her and when she played with them, he tensed against her and gasped into her mouth. This thrilled her to no end. He was as sensitive and responsive as she was—it was like discovering a sacred treasure.

  Down over his ribs, the tight and rigid muscles that armored his stomach and lower, to the massive rod of his sex. It was formidable. More than that, it was heavy and thick and she simply had no idea how they were going to fit together.

  Raine dared to touch it with trembling fingers. The velveteen flesh was surely hot enough to singe blisters on her skin, but it didn’t. Grimm pulled her closer against him, trapping her hands between their bodies. She was relieved that she couldn’t see him down there—it was like having a foreign body between them. He was so incredibly well endowed, she couldn’t wrap her hand around him, her mind, let alone her vagina!

  Something in her body must have betrayed the primal fear in her thoughts. He eased away from her, gentled his hold and his kiss, let her breathe easier. After several long, languid kisses, she had relaxed once more and relinquished her worries over how they would fit. She trusted him. Grimm would never hurt her that way. It wasn’t in his nature. Her every cell read it in his and responded. He was a dangerous, deadly creature—that was never in doubt—but he was no threat to those in his care. He was an honorable warrior, proud and fiercely protective. Raine immediately softened, her hips cradling his, her toes curling against the soft hairs on his legs as her tension melted away like the remnants of a bad dream.

  Together they made a scent that was unique to them. It permeated their skin and entered their bloodstreams. It filled her head and swam in her mind, creating a perfect melody. It flavored his kiss. She knew he could taste it and smell it on her just as vividly as she did. It was their attar, their sexual fragrance, and it was exotically alluring. Raine instinctively sensed it would evolve and bloom as they mated. It would mark them. Whenever he entered a room she would smell it on his skin and he would smell it on hers. This secret knowledge shared between them would excite them both in the most surprising ways, in unexpected moments. It would serve to keep them eager and ready for each other no matter where they encountered one another.

  As for her, Raine would hear their music whenever she saw him and this was a priceless treasure to her—no one had ever done that for her save her family and dearest friends, and none of them had provided such sensuously inspiring music, of course. No man had ever made her hear music before, either. This moved her more profoundly than words ever could.

  Raine’s hands skimmed over his skin and eventually found their way around his broad shoulders and up into his hair. Grimm’s hair was like a secret portal to bliss. Its softness was unparalleled. Its color even had a texture all its own. She hadn’t known color could have texture before touching her Traveler’s hair.

  Grimm growled soft against he
r lips and gathered her even tighter to him. Now Raine was afraid she might sink into him and disappear—and afraid she wouldn’t. It felt so good it almost hurt. If he let her go, the agony would be unbearable. She wanted to live in his skin. He undulated his body, a movement sublimely graceful, and insinuated himself between her legs. He stretched her thighs wider than she knew they could go. It was sinfully decadent. Deliciously raw and carnal.

  He parted his lips, barely touching her mouth with his. “Do you trust me?” he whispered. “I would never hurt you. You know that, right?”

  Raine looked into the exploding stars that populated his gaze. “Yes,” she breathed.

  His gaze went soft and something in her womb melted, like honey in the summer sun. He kissed her gently then whispered, so softly she almost didn’t hear him, “Hold on.”

  Suddenly, abruptly, gravity ceased to exist and Raine’s heart flew into her throat, her stomach into her chest. Up and down had no meaning. They were free floating now, careening through empty space. She cried out and Grimm caught it in his mouth, swallowed it, and breathed into her the thrill of knowing he was there to hold her tight. Her legs reflexively locked around the small of his back. This had been his design all along.

  Tiny sparks of light eddied beneath her lids, dancing like tiny sperm across her field of vision. They crashed together brilliantly in the center of her skull and her eyes flew open. With a start, Raine saw the edges of Grimm’s hair floating in zero-G. So did hers. But crazier than all of that were the fine ice particles drifting all around them, landing on her cheeks, her forehead and lashes. They didn’t melt where they landed. Some even bounced off and away.

  Beyond them was a darkness so vast it could not be measured, only sensed, felt with the sharp edge of madness, and beyond that lay…

  Outer space.

  When she might have turned her head to gape, Grimm kissed her deeper, his tongue drawing hers into his mouth. Grimm sucked on her tongue, his mouth a wet scald. Raine’s eyes fell closed again and all thought blessedly fled her mind. Only their sweet music and the oblivion of his kiss existed and they consumed her.