Her body went taut with wanting, and maybe a touch of fear.
“Relax,” he murmured.
She moved her head back and forth against the pillow. “I can’t,” she confessed.
He nuzzled her cleavage. “Maybe I can help with that.”
He continued down her abdomen, leaving a trail of kisses in his wake. And then he was between her legs, a hand on each thigh. He held her gaze, unsmiling—and blew on her clit through the silky panties.
Her hips rocked up. She rasped his name.
He pressed her back down to the mattress. “Slow and easy. Remember what I said?”
Belatedly, she recalled his promise to take things slowly. “No…”
“Shh. This will feel good.” He hummed against her clit. The sound vibrated through her whole body.
A groan escaped her throat. The fada were easy about their sexuality. She might be a virgin, but she’d fooled around with a few of the men in her cohort, especially the year before she met Adric. And then later, when she realized that any man but Adric left her cold, she’d touched herself, learned what she liked.
But nothing had prepared her for this.
A man between her legs, his eyes burning into hers. The hot swipe of his tongue on her most sensitive flesh. The strong hands holding her open for him. The teasing heat of his mouth against her sex through the barely-there fabric.
“Please,” she said. “Please…”
A sexy growl. “I like it when you beg. I just may keep you here for the next hour.” He gently bit her clit through the panties.
Her breath stuttered. Her hands fisted in the sheets. “No…”
His eyes glittered at her. “You don’t like it?”
“No. Yes. I do, but I need…”
But he kept her there for another ten minutes, licking and sucking her through the silky material. Keeping her on a knife’s edge of need until her senses felt overloaded. Then he slid his hands into the boy shorts from beneath, squeezing and caressing her bottom.
And even as she begged him to stop teasing her, a part of her wanted it to go on forever. But then he was easing the shorts down, an inch at a time. Her chest heaved. Her muscles went tight with anticipation.
At last the shorts were off. He tossed them away and came back between her legs. His hands gripped her ass, lifting her up like a special dish for his delectation—and then he swiped his tongue through her slick, needy sex.
Sensation rushed through her like an out-of-control storm. Overwhelming and a little frightening. She was going to break apart, lose herself to him.
From far away, she heard her voice, high and needy. She was speaking in Portuguese now.
“Meu querido. Meu amor.” My darling. My love.
She reached for his head. To pull him closer, to push him away—she wasn’t sure which.
He turned his head and kissed her palm, and then continued licking her.
Her lungs constricted. She couldn’t get enough air into them. “Adric. I—”
“What, love?” A husky murmur against her clit. “Tell me.”
She licked her lips, tried to form the words in English. “I can’t. I need…”
“What?”
She released his head, dug her fingers into the mattress and gave in to it. She wanted this. Sometimes she thought she’d been born wanting Adric.
“More. Please.”
A low chuckle. “Like this?” He closed his lips around her quivering flesh and sucked hard.
Her breath hissed out. Her hips rocked up, seeking more.
“Yes,” he said against her clit. “Come for me, baby. And then I’m going to fuck you, so hard.” He sucked harder.
The hot, dark words mixed with the sweet suction of his mouth sent pleasure rocketing through her. She sobbed out his name and let herself wallow in the sensations. Exhilaration filled her. It was like diving off a high cliff. Standing on the edge, you couldn’t help being afraid, but the surge of adrenaline as you leapt made it worth it.
Her climax coiled in her belly, spread up her spine, unfurled through her nerve endings…and then erupted in a burst of heat and bright color.
He stayed with her but lightened his touch. Soft, sweet licks until even that was too much. Then he kissed her belly.
“Beautiful,” he murmured, and rose from the bed.
She rolled onto her side and watched as he took a box of condoms from his duffel bag and set it onto the night table. She closed her eyes against a pang of sadness. He was right to be careful, but it still hurt.
Fada rarely had children even with their mates. Most fada didn’t bother with birth control, since STDs were almost unheard of and they knew that any child would be welcomed by the clan.
Unless it was a child she’d made with Adric.
Together, they pushed down the covers. He pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “You’re so beautiful when you come.”
She tilted her head, summoned a teasing grin. If they had just this one night, she wouldn’t ruin it by crying for something she’d never have. “You’re so beautiful when you’re making me come.”
“Is that so?” He crawled on top of her with a wolfish smile. “I’ll be even prettier when I’m inside you, fucking you.” He dragged his cock over her stomach.
A hot ribbon of desire curled through her. Goddess, she ached to have him inside her, filling her. “Prove it.”
His mouth came to her ear. She could smell herself on him, a warm, oceany scent.
“I will,” he whispered as if it were a secret for her alone.
He left the bed to roll on the protection and then came down over her. Taking her hands, he pressed them to the bed on either side of her head. Her thighs instinctively bent up to cradle him.
His tip nudged her sex and she tensed.
He stilled. “I’m the first.”
It wasn’t a question, but she dipped her chin.
His eyes flashed, the blue blotting out the bronze. “I thought so.” He pushed a little deeper. “I promise I’ll be…easy.”
She moistened her lips, nodded again. “I know. I want this.”
“Oh, angel.” His voice was tender.
His mouth touched hers. He kissed her, slowly, voluptuously, like she was a feast he’d waited for months to savor. She felt surrounded by him, his body…his heated, earthy scent…the strong hands pinning her to the bed. Against her breastbone, his quartz was warm, almost alive.
Something in her opened, like a flower unfurling, petal by petal. He gave another nudge, and his thick head slipped inside her.
It burned, but in a good way. Like he was marking her as his.
Excitement built in her. She needed this. She needed him.
“Rosana,” he said on a sigh and pressed deeper.
He was thick, hot, wonderful. Stretching her until she had the brief, panicky fear that she couldn’t stretch any more…and then he was inside her.
Her eyes widened. He held still, but she felt his cock pulsing. Or was that her? The small pain of his entrance receded, replaced by a sense of rightness.
This was her man. The one she’d always known would be her first.
Her and Adric, joined together. His flesh deep inside hers. Their two breaths mingling, their hearts beating in time.
“You okay?” His mouth whispered over hers.
“Oh, yeah.” She interlaced her fingers with his, uncaring that it might set off her Sight. Just needing to touch him.
When nothing happened, elation raced through her. She tightened her fingers on his and gave an experimental lift of her hips.
“God’s cat.” His groan was low and raw, ripped from his chest. “You’re so hot…so fucking tight. You’re going to kill me.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Not until you finish.”
He gave a bark of laughter, and she raised up to give him an openmouthed kiss. Their mouths were still joined when he began to move, easy, unhurried strokes.
She tried to pull her hands from hi
s—she wanted to wrap her arms around him—but he tightened his grip and rose higher. Keeping her where she was, open beneath him, unable to do anything but accept his thrusts. Angling his body so that his cock massaged her clit with every stroke.
Heat radiated from him. He lowered his head and sucked each of her nipples in turn. Pleasure streaked through her, tightening her womb.
She was melting. She was burning up.
She dug her heels into the mattress and clenched her inner muscles around him. “Adric…”
His lips moved to her ear. He tongued the outer edge, slipped inside. It was warm and wet, and so sensual.
“Take it.” His thrusts grew harder, more powerful. Dominating her in a way her animal craved.
She dragged in a breath. “Ohgod, ohgod, ohgod…”
“Come for me, love.” A low command in her ear.
It was too much. “No,” she rasped.
“Yes. Take it. Take me.” He pushed into her. “All of me, angel.”
Deep, so deep.
Then again, and again until she broke into a thousand shimmering fragments.
He groaned her name and propelled himself in and out of her, over and over, and then stilled. A growl that was more cat than man vibrated in his chest.
She tightened her thighs around his lean hips as he pulsed deep inside of her. He dropped his head forward, his cheek against hers.
Only then did he release her hands.
Adric hung over Rosana, breath jerking in and out of his lungs.
He felt emptied out—and yet somehow filled as well. Complete in a way he was afraid to examine closely.
His quartz rested between her pretty breasts. Now that he could think again, he realized it had heated as they’d approached their climax. He frowned down at it—and blinked.
The gray-and-orange crystals were lit deep within with a new color, a brilliant sea-green that spiraled through the center in a graceful twist. A green the same color as Rosana’s dolphin’s eyes.
What the hell? His brows drew together.
“Wow,” she said. “Just…wow.”
He shrugged mentally and decided to worry about his quartz later. He lifted up and she gave him a broad smile that warmed him clear to his toes.
He kissed her, wanting that smile against his lips. She was warm, her skin moist with exertion. She smelled like woman and sex—and him. He rubbed his cheek against hers, mingling their two scents even more. For this night, at least, she was his.
“Mm.” She slid a languid hand down his neck, petting him in a way both man and cat craved. Fingering the gold stud in his earlobe. Tracing a finger over his jaw.
He licked her just beneath her ear. She tasted like the sea.
Inside her, his dick lengthened. He’d come hard. No, he’d fucking exploded—and still it hadn’t been enough.
He had the sudden, sinking conviction that with Rosana, it would never be enough.
He wanted to thrust into her mindlessly. Imprint his body on hers so that she’d feel him all week. But she had to be tender, even though she’d been an eager, if innocent, partner.
Hell, he’d been too rough—at the end, his mind had blanked with pleasure and he’d forgotten he was fucking a virgin. But he was fully aware now, so he gritted his teeth and withdrew from her.
Her soft hiss told him she was hurting, at least a little. Guilt tightened his belly. “You okay?”
“Mm-hmm.” She curled on her side, cheeks flushed, eyes half-closed, the picture of a well-pleasured woman.
His guilt eased. He kissed her cheek. “Be right back.”
He made a trip to the bathroom to dispose of the rubber, returning with a warm, wet washcloth. “Let me.” He bent up her top leg and, pressing the cloth to her sex, gently cleaned her.
She winced at even a soft touch, and he grimaced in sympathy. “Sorry, love. I was too rough. I—”
“Was amazing.” She grinned up at him. “It’s fine. I’m just a little sore.”
A wave of tenderness rolled through him. Unexpected and unwelcome—because he couldn’t let this be anything more than it was.
Returning to the bathroom, he rinsed the cloth and tossed it over the towel rack, and then slid back into the bed. He pulled the sheet up over them both and reached for her, but she was already there, tucking herself into his side, one hand on his heart, as if they’d done this a hundred times.
Her hair spilled onto his chest in silky dark tendrils. He pressed a kiss to her temple.
The tenderness mixed with something basic. Primal.
Mine.
He wanted to keep her. Lure her back to his lonely den. He might even be able to convince her it was her idea. Just for the next few days, until he left…
He fingered his quartz, considering. He had a rare, little known Gift—he could hypnotize people with his quartz, compel them to obey him. He could induce Rosana to come back to Baltimore with him.
It wouldn’t be that hard to get her to do something she wanted anyway. Just a nudge would probably work.
But even the cat, primitive beast though it was, knew that was wrong.
And the man admitted that having Rosana move into his den—even for a few days—would be hollow if she didn’t do it with her full knowledge and consent. If she ever came to him, he wanted her whole heart and soul.
His lip curled. Gods, he was pathetic. Next he’d be lighting candles and scattering rose petals on the sheets.
He tightened his arm around her. “Last night—why did you come to me?”
She traced a finger over his heart. “It was time.”
What the hell—? He pulled back so he could see her face. “Are you saying you Saw something? Something about the two of us?”
“Not a vision, no.”
“Then what?”
She expelled a breath. “Look, I wanted you and you wanted me. Isn’t that enough?”
She was evading a straight answer, but he let it slide. “If your brother finds out, he’ll skin me alive.”
Once, that would’ve made this little getaway all the more fun, but not these days. Maybe at the beginning he’d gone after Rosana partly to tweak the other alpha, but he’d long since admitted to himself that he’d want her no matter who she was.
“Don’t worry. No one knows I’m here.”
He played with the pretty silver charm on her wrist. “What if he asks you straight out?”
She moved a shoulder. “I love Dion. He pretty much raised me and Tiago after my mom and dad disappeared.”
Adric nodded. There wasn’t much he didn’t know about the do Rio family, including that Rosana’s parents had been captured by King Sindre when she was just six, leaving Dion to raise both her and Tiago. There were two middle brothers, but they’d left Rock Run rather than challenge their oldest brother for alpha.
“And he’s my alpha,” she continued, “but that makes him my boss, not my master. If he asks straight out, I won’t lie, but otherwise, this is between you and me. It’s none of his business.”
“We’re rival alphas, love. What I do will always be his business, and vice versa.”
“So this is it?” She pulled away and sat up. “One night and nothing else?”
He stared up at her. “That was the agreement.”
But fuck, he wished it were different.
Hurt flickered across her face.
“Hey.” He touched her hand. “You know it can’t be more than that.”
Rosana’s mouth twisted.
He swallowed against the desire to apologize, to somehow take the words back. He owed her honesty, at least.
“Right.” She averted her face. “I understand.”
“Rosana…”
She cut him off with a sharp shake of her head, then rose up on her knees.
His hand fisted. She was going to ask him to take her home, and he’d have to be a fucking gentleman about it. But instead, she straddled him, brought his hands to her high, full breasts. She looked down at him, cobalt eyes unread
able.
He held his breath, but he couldn’t stop his thumbs from caressing her pretty nipples. They beaded under his touch, and his dick twitched in response.
The corner of her mouth edged up. She traced two fingers down his forearm, and every nerve in his body felt the shock wave.
“Then we’d better not waste any time.”
6
Outside, the sun was setting. A hazy winter light slanted through the blinds, gilding Adric’s skin a warm gold.
Rosana ran her hands down his rock-hard torso. Learning the shape of his muscles, absorbing the heat of his skin.
She hadn’t lied to him. It wasn’t worth it—it would make her sick, and besides, he’d scent the lie.
But she hadn’t told him the whole truth, either. Because yeah, it was time.
Not time for them—she’d never Seen whether they’d eventually end up mates. That would be a glimpse into her own future as well as his, and she was as blind as anyone when it came to Seeing her own future. Still, you didn’t have to be a Seer to guess that Adric was preparing to move against Langdon, and she didn’t have another way of keeping him close.
She traced her fingers up and down his forearm. The hair covering it was soft, barely visible, the skin beneath warm. Deus, it felt good to touch someone, be touched back.
“I need you.” She swallowed. “So bad.”
But you need me, too. That’s what I have to show you.
She hadn’t Seen that, but her gut told her she was right, and Colm, the Irish Seer who was training her, had told her to trust her hunches. According to her Sight, Adric intended to assassinate Langdon, but instead, he’d be captured and executed.
She had to do something.
“Good.” His smile was relieved—and a little devilish. “I like you all hot and needy.” He cupped her breasts, squeezing and caressing.
Her breath hitched. She placed her hands over his and set her worries aside for the time being. These sensations were too new, too wonderful to ignore.
“More.” She rubbed her breasts sensuously against his big palms. His hands were hard, calloused, with a couple of healing cuts. What did the Baltimore alpha do that gave him a laborer’s hands?
“Like this?” He rolled her nipples between his thumbs. An electric pleasure stabbed to her womb.
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