The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2)

by Claire, Nicola

  "That's just it," Theo answered, returning his attention to my head and hair again. "He has always argued some of the lessons Nico and I'd learned as adolescents, but he is a lower class than I. Destined to serve from the beginning. Often what we learn as royalty is quite different from that which those beneath our class have been taught. Initially, we both had no way of knowing who actually knew more of the truth. But with the way my father and his cronies have been behaving, we are both in agreement that what we do know cannot be trusted."

  I nodded slowly, hearing his disappointment at his father's behaviour in his tone. Theo has had his world order shaken. Had his belief systems shattered. His father had always been a tyrant, but with my life in jeopardy from the Rigas, Theo had been forced to realise his father's actions were not as he had always seen them. It must have come as a surprise and a huge let down, to know the man who ruled your kind was not the man you had thought him to be.

  "Nico," I said abruptly, wondering what had happened to Theo's cousin after I left. The last time I had seen Nico, he had been trying to kill Aktor and I had retaliated by sending him deep into a prison of the Earth.

  Theo gave me a crooked smile and then smoothly stood to his feet. He glanced at what I had managed to eat, which was actually a fairly acceptable volume, and offered me his hand. I took his palm in mine and let him pull me to my feet.

  "Ah, Nico," he said, starting to lead me to the bathroom again.

  "What are you doing?" I asked, getting distracted by the anticipation of showering with Theo that had suddenly consumed my body and mind.

  "We are still pressed for time. We need to leave, so we'll continue this conversation while we freshen up."

  "Oh," I said, a little disappointed I'll admit.

  Theo chuckled, leaned down and whispered huskily in my ear, "I said we're pressed for time, Oraia, get those wicked thoughts out of that beautiful head."

  I humphed as he presented me with a clean toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. He just rumbled with amusement and fished out his own from a toiletries bag on the bench.

  I started brushing my teeth as Theo went on - such a domesticated scene.

  "Nico was retrieved after you left and paid for his... treachery."

  I spat foam into the sink and rinsed before I spoke.

  "Paid? How?"

  "I burned him to a crisp and destroyed every single piece of property he owned."

  He'd said it so casually, without any inflection in his tone at all. Then followed it up by brushing his teeth, as though the toothbrush in his mouth would stop me from demanding an explanation.

  "You what?"

  He spat, rinsed and then wiped his face with a cloth. Then turned to face me, hip to the bench, arms crossed over his chest.

  "He tried to kill Aktor. He harmed you. He was going to hand you over to the Gi."

  "I ended up with the Gi anyway, and he was only trying to save his beloved Pyrkagia. They were dying," I pointed out. "Because of me," I added, mirroring his stance.

  He growled. Gold flashed.

  "He betrayed me, Casey. I do not accept betrayal lightly. And besides," he added, with a negligent wave of his hand. "I only burned him, I didn't decapitate him. He survived."

  He moved to the shower and angrily turned the taps on. I couldn't help the smile that curved my lips. I knew he wasn't angry at me, but at Nico. Watching his temper fly though, was a beautiful thing. Feeling his temper fly, was impossible not to respond to.

  His robe came off his shoulders and he threw it in the corner of the room, then he reached in and tested the water. I slipped out of mine and stepped closer to his back, reaching up and running a delicate finger down his spine. He shivered. All over.

  "Cassandra," he purred. "We are on a deadline here, little Gi."

  "So?" I queried. "We can do two things at once."

  "Yes, talk about what we're going to do next and get clean," he offered, but I saw the Fire light in his eyes.

  I shrugged my shoulder, as he turned to look at me, taking a step backward to bring him under the spray of the shower. Water cascaded over his very fine body, running in rivulets down his broad chest, dipping into the ridges of his muscles, making sure my eyes were brought to every dip and curve, every expanse and hollow.

  "Like what you see?" he asked with a sexy smirk. I nodded, unembarrassed by my hunger.

  Good Lord, I had come a long way in such a short amount of time. But Theo did that to me. It was all him.

  "Then come and get it," he husked, bracing himself against the shower wall, hands spread either side of his hips, palms flat against tile. He spread his legs and let me take my fill. His sex lengthening and thickening under my hungry perusal.

  I licked my lips and took the necessary step to bring me under the spray with him.

  "I'm not going to touch you," he whispered. "If I touch you, we'll never leave Manaus and we both know we cannot stay here."

  I nodded, my eyes not leaving his erection. It jerked.

  "Do what you must, Thisavros. But do quickly. The longer we stay, the more chance of the Gi finding us."

  My eyes reluctantly flicked up to his. "Where are we going to go?"

  His face softened, he'd been holding himself rigid, probably in an effort not to reach for me. But the concern in my voice affected him too greatly.

  "To start with," he whispered, "away from here."

  "Anywhere but here," I offered. He nodded.

  The future was definitely uncertain, and once we walked out of this hotel, with its carefully placed Pyrkagia shields, we'd be vulnerable. Who knew when we'd get the chance to taste each other again.

  "On your knees," Theo commanded, in a sexy, deep voice.

  "I thought I was in charge," I argued.

  "Oh, Cassandra," he murmured, his lips lifting into a sexy, smug smile. "I'm going to show you just how much you are. Now," he growled, then huskily whispered, "On... your... knees."

  I was on my knees in front of him before he'd finished the command.

  Me, in control? Not a freaking chance.

  Chapter 12

  Maybe This Will Be Fun After All

  "For the love of Aetheros, Casey. Lick it!"

  A huff of a laugh burst up my throat. I'd been staring at Theo's erection for some time, enjoying the droplets of moisture as they ran down the thick, raised veins on either side. Each time a drop of water landed on the flared head it jerked, and Theo groaned. He probably thought my hesitation was due to inexperience, and I admit, there was a flutter of nerves inside my belly. But it was a delicious mix of anticipation and desire. I wanted to taste him, and my body's natural needs were outshining any reservation I had because of my lack of know-how.

  I licked my lips greedily.

  "Minx," he muttered. "Suck it."

  My hands lifted to his hips and fingernails dug in, making Theo inhale a sharp breath of air. I blew slowly across the surface of his heated and distended flesh, letting my body dictate the pace.

  "Casey," he pleaded, a sound so wretched I'd never expected to hear Theo Peters use it.

  My eyes flicked up to his. He was watching me, gold brimming his eyelashes, heat - Pyrkagia heat - reaching out to caress my body and urge me on.

  "Are you using your Stoicheio, Theo?" I asked, reasonably. My voice steady, but a trembling had started through my frame.

  I was determined though, to delay giving him the contact he desired where he desired it most. A natural borne instinct to tease, which I hadn't even known I had until now.

  "I never said I wouldn't touch you with my Stoicheio," he explained, voice straining. "I had been inferring I wouldn't touch you with my hands." He made a show of slapping his palms against the tiles at his side, in case I didn't get his meaning.

  I raised an eyebrow at him and felt his touch, through his Fire, as it caressed down over my breasts, my stomach and delicately stroked the flesh between my thighs. As though it was his finger, his tongue, not just the manifestation of his elemental power.
>
  This was new, and decidedly wicked. I closed my eyes, rocked my hips and moaned. Theo must have thrust his pelvis forward, because the next second his arousal was butting up to my parted lips.

  "Open wider," he rasped.

  I flicked my tongue out instead, tasting his pre-come, making him moan in delighted shock.

  "You're teasing, Casey," he pointed out correctly, returning his sex to my mouth, and then making the broad tip stroke across my lips with a sideways sway of his hips. "Two can play at that game," he added, just as his Stoicheio flicked my little nub, then somehow managed to rub.

  My head fell back, my lips parted on a moan, and then his 'touch' was gone.

  "You want more, vixen. Then take me in your mouth and suck hard."

  My head fell forward and I lifted heavy eyes up to his. This was a Theo I hadn't yet met. Hungry, demanding. He wasn't sheltering me from his fervent desire, he was letting me taste the real him. And seeing if I flitted away, like a little bird, and hid in amongst the trees. A small moan of arousal escaped my lips. He groaned. The look he gave me told me just what he wanted to be doing right then, and it would have definitely involved his hands touching me.

  "We're wasting time," he pointed out in a whisper. He shook his head, looking saddened. "Sweet little Gi, you distract me with such delicious ease. We need to leave here, find somewhere safe to contact Aktor and decide what we're going to do next." I understood what he was saying, but his ability to turn off the lust and return to matters of dire urgency, was infuriating to say the least.

  So, what was a girl to do?

  I leaned forward, eyes still locked on the tormented ones of his, and licked the length of his shaft.

  "Casey," he warned, shaking his head still.

  "Hush," I chastised. "I'm concentrating," I added, in a mimic of his earlier words.

  His fists curled against the tiles and I slipped the rim of my mouth over the tip of his sex, and then sucked as I brought him in deep.

  "Oh, Aetheros," he murmured, rocking his hips slowly, matching my movements, increasing the depth he went with each thrust. "Spread your legs," he ordered, already breathless. "If we're to do this, it must be fast."

  I nodded, made him growl with the unexpected movement, and renewed my efforts, trying my best to get him to lose control under just the touch of my lips and tongue and teeth.

  Pyrkagia swirled inside the small shower stall, stroked down my back, fisted metaphysical hands in my hair and held me still. Theo pumped himself into my mouth, taking back control the only way he was allowing himself to right then. But the fact he was doing it at all, let me know I had won. His hands fisted so hard at his sides on the shower wall tiles, his knuckles had turned white. He was groaning and muttering words in Greek as he succumbed to my touch. I don't think he realised what he was doing. He'd fallen into the moment so completely, that the water had turned to steam. Heat engulfed us, and with a small amount of my attention, I searched inside to ensure it wasn't from me.

  Miraculously I was containing my Stoicheio, but Theo was not.

  Knowing I did this to him, made him lose control to such a degree, felt heady, powerful in a way my Elements did not. I gladly let him hold me still with his Pyrkagia, I moaned with abandon as he thrust again and again across my humming lips. His moans mixed with mine, as he let his Stoicheio reach further, down my back, over my rounded butt cheeks, stroking lovingly across each curve, and then moving on further to start a rhythm of its own between my moist folds.

  "Casey," Theo murmured, increasing his pace, softly banging a fisted palm against the tile with each urgent thrust. "You are fantastic," he breathed. "Utterly beautiful."

  My eyes came up to his face, finding him watching avidly as his hard length pierced my lips, breached my mouth.

  "Mine," he rasped, making me feel him everywhere. Making my muscles clench and an orgasm begin to build inexorably. "Come for me, sweet little Gi," he murmured, as his Pyrkagia coaxed me closer and closer. "Come for me as I spill for you." He groaned, his eyes closed, his hold in my hair firm, but also tender, even as his palms slapped the tiles at his sides.

  It was a strange feeling, knowing he wasn't touching me with his fingers or hands, but he was touching me everywhere it counted. I loved the sensation of him losing himself in my mouth. I loved the sensations he was creating between my legs; deep, down inside. I loved that he was driving me as crazy as I was driving him.

  I was determined to get him to relinquish that last little hold of himself. Unsure exactly what I was demanding, but knowing I craved it all the same. A small spark of my Fire directed straight into his heart and he spasmed, cried out my name in surprise and then cupped my chin with his hand and pulled himself free.

  He'd touched me, with his hand. He'd lost that last control, but not in the way I had intended. A mewl of protest spilled from my lips, over the tingling loss of sensation he'd left in his wake.

  "Shhh," he murmured, then voice slightly rasping, he said, "It's too soon for that, Oraia."

  He hadn't forgotten my inexperience, and for a moment I wasn't sure if I should be angry at his protective instinct or pleased. Theo would never push me too far too soon, but I knew when he deemed the moment right, he would push me. I lifted shy eyes to his face, and was rewarded with a searing look of utter hunger.

  "Like this for now," he husked, reaching for my hand and guiding me to his straining erection. He wrapped his hand over mine and started to stroke. Squeezing my palm around his circumference, showing me how hard he needed to be held.

  I started panting again, breathless with awe and my own need. He groaned, bucked his hips into our hold and then after only a half dozen pumps, exploded with an ecstatic roar of release. I was utterly mesmerised, and totally turned on.

  When he finally released his hold on my hand where it wrapped his slowly softening length, he returned his fingers, shaking, to under my chin, lifting my face back up to his. His eyes blazed gold and he rasped, "How the hell could I be so fortunate?"

  Then he was on his knees, his lips on mine, his hands - real hands - fisted in my hair, as he kissed me with utter devotion. Letting his Stoicheio finally finish what it had started, stroking, flicking, rubbing and then consuming me, as the orgasm crashed and rolled and carried me away. For several blissful moments I was floating, surrounded with Fire, caressed from the inside out.

  My eyelids flickered as I came back to awareness, cradled in the circle of his arms as his lips trailed light kisses across the curve of my neck.

  "Utterly beautiful," he murmured against my skin. "Do you see now, Cassandra? How much you control? How much of me you own?"

  I nodded, panting for breath still, clinging to him for fear I'd float away again.

  "About as much as you control me," I finally murmured, receiving a chuckle from deep inside his chest.

  "That is what being Thisavros means." He kissed me again, ran hands through my wet hair and over my sensitive skin. "I'm in heaven," he murmured against my lips, lifting me to my feet smoothly, and then beginning to spread liquid soap all over my body. His heated gaze watched as the fine hairs on my skin lifted, and my frame shook with tiny trembles.

  He looked fascinated as he washed me. Totally absorbed in what he was doing and how it was affecting my body. Completely lost to the moment, even though it was simply a moment to show he cared. To clean me, with me returning the favour and cleaning him. Nurturing each other, loving each other in a non-sexual way, but sensually nonetheless.

  We towelled off in silence and then with robes on again we returned to the main room. Taking in the disarray of the sheets on the bed, the smoke marked ceiling and scorched furnishings.

  "Not even twenty-four hours together again and we're destroying the place," Theo quipped, as he delved into his suitcase and began taking clothes out to get dressed.

  He surprised me by having an outfit for me to wear. Obviously he'd not thrown my small wardrobe of clothes out after I'd left Auckland. He presented me with my familiar
yoga pants, singlet top and hoodie, all in black. Not necessarily appropriate tropical wear, but mine. All mine. I hugged them to my chest and dipped my nose in amongst them, smelling Aktor's laundry detergent. A smile graced my lips when my eyes came up, meeting the amused hazel of Theo's.

  "It's all I could grab on such short notice."

  "It's perfect," I replied, grabbing the underwear he'd also provided and getting dressed quickly.

  I hadn't realised Theo was just watching me, wonder and that ever present hunger in his eyes.

  "You have grown so much, little Gi," he murmured, when I raised questioning eyebrows at him. "You would never have gotten dressed so casually in my presence before."

  I offered a smile and small shrug. "Some things don't seem so important anymore," I admitted. Then suddenly thought to add, "But don't think I won't still make you work for it."

  He threw back his head and laughed, mirth flashing in his eyes as he slowly slipped the robe off his shoulders and made a show of stripping what little he had on for me.

  "Will this do as payment?" he queried, seductively.

  "Theo Peters," I chastised. "Do you wish us to get out of Manaus or not?"

  He continued to laugh as he picked up speed, dressing in a more normal fashion. I returned to the bathroom and brushed my hair out, searching through his toiletries for some moisturiser for my face. I heard the main door knock again, making me frown at who would be on the other side of it. I couldn't find the cream I wanted, so with defeated eyes stared at myself in the mirror, wondering if I passed the Isadora test. Knowing I'd fail in comparison to her well put-together image.

  I sighed, straightened my shoulders and walked back into the room.

  And immediately came up short at Isadora in trim linen pants and a fitted blouse, wedge-heel sandals and sunglasses. But that's not what made me stop in my tracks. She had a brown long haired wig on, and when she removed her glasses, her eyes were dark blue. Gi wannabe.

  I snorted. She turned an imperious arched look at me.

  "Something the matter?" she queried.