Memory of an Immortal Heart (Immortal Hearts) (24 page)

She
made her decision.

“Pants,”
Eva demanded, prodding him with her left foot, and sat up closer to him. Closer
to that phenomenal chest. Her thighs spread as she moved and her arousal
stained the air; Brand’s body went rigid beneath her fingertips, and Eva
laughed, enjoying the sensation. She stroked her hands down over him, petting
him, appreciating his strength.
Trust him
. It was in internal cadence
now, a mantra. “Pants, Brand.”

Trust
.

“Good
things come to those who wait,” Brand's voice was strained, with mock
seriousness. He smoothed his hand down her calf in a slow, sensual movement to
just above her ankle.

Eva
yanked the shoe off her foot and he growled softly. “You don’t need to unlace
it,” she said tartly. It was hardly sensual. Though, with Brand, it probably
would be. Something occurred to her; Eva narrowed her eyes. “How old are you?”

“Old
enough.” A slightly-too-innocent grin.

“Old
enough to remember corsets?”

“Maybe,”
Brand said, slipping the other shoe off her foot to set neatly on the floor.

Okay,
so older than I thought
.
Maybe, what, two centuries?
But
Eva could deal with that. Sure she could. “I bet you liked unlacing corsets,”
she challenged. Brand’s grin widened, and he raised her foot to his lips,
kissed the arch of it, before pulling her closer to kiss her ankle as if he were
about to feast on it.

“I like
unlacing
women
.”

Brand’s
grip on her ankle tightened – that was all the warning Eva had before he
pulled. She fell onto the bed and Brand shifted up to kiss her calf…her
knee…her inner thigh…Eva quivered as he moved up over her, pausing as he
gripped her hip and her thigh, and looked straight into her eyes. “You, Eva,
are the most beautiful woman I have ever…unlaced.”

So
serious.

It was
a line. A complete and total line. He probably used it on dozens of females.
And yet, the look in Brand’s eyes, the way he said it…Eva shivered. Her body
was hot, the hunger in her spiraling outward. Eva settled her hands lightly on
his shoulders, almost edgy as she gazed at his handsome, intent face.

“Take
your pants off,” she said again, more quietly this time.

Brand
smiled, leaned to nibble her calf, and rose up closer, hotter as he gripped her
thighs in firm hands, spreading them slowly as he caressed the sensitive inner
flesh. The room filled with the scent of her arousal, and his smile gained a
wicked, pleased edge. “Lay back, Eva. I’m not nearly ready for that.”

“But
maybe I am,” she gasped, but closed her eyes,
tight
, at the tongue that
dipped into the wet swollen folds of her body. He found the nubbin of flesh
there, that bundle of nerves, circled, flicked… Eva clenched, twisting and
Brand tightened his grip on her thighs to held her still, delving deeper along
her cleft. Eva tangled her fingers in the blankets as heat began to hum through
her veins, pleasure and arousal mixing, escalating through in a way that made
everything else disappear. She was on the verge, the edge…

Dimly,
Eva realized that Brand had released her right thigh, leaning back to dip his
strong fingers into her. He found her clit again, brushed over it, and Eva cried
out, jerking as he stroked down to dip gently into her opening. She moaned,
tangling her fingers in the sheets, praying to come.
So close
. “Deeper,”
a hoarse plea.

“Not
yet, Evita,” Brand murmured, and withdrew. “This first time, I should…but I
have to…
Forgive me
,” he growled. “I need to feel you when you come.”
The bed shifted, abruptly cold, and Eva’s eyes flashed open.

“
Brand
…”

The
rough slide of clothing on skin. His pants. “
Finally
,” Eva gasped. The
bed dipped beneath Brand’s weight as he came over her, braced himself on his
elbows. His heat stretched above Eva as she wrapped her arms around him. His
erection was huge and hot and hard against her belly, pulsing. Brand nuzzled
her breast above her heart. Then he raised his face to hers.

Eva
caught her breath. His irises were dark ruby red. The color of pomegranate
seeds, clear and deep. Kaspian gold played in the back of them, with sparks of
deep sapphire blue. She raised her fingers, traced his eyebrow, staring into
that gaze.
So beautiful
.

“Your
eyes are red,” she whispered, and felt something shift, changing deep inside
her heart. Brand settled his hips between the hot slickness of her thighs, and
Eva canted upward, tightening her fingers into the strong flesh of his back.
The blunt head of his shaft nudged her opening, spreading her slightly as he
positioned…then paused. Brand’s shoulders flexed, his neck and jaw tightened.
“Your eyes are beautiful,” Eva gasped, and dropped her own hand to his neck,
holding to him, kneaded her fingers into the tension coiled there.

“When I
take you. You will watch me, Evita,” Brand’s words were a low guttural command,
“and you will
keep
your eyes open.”

Her
mouth fell open.

“Because
yours
are more. More
beautiful
.”

He
pierced her.

Eva
screamed. Her confused mind almost thought it hurt…but no it didn’t, it was
pleasure.
God
, it was pleasure. Eva wasn’t used to feeling so much,
wasn’t used to his
size.
He filled her. She didn’t know if she kept her
eyes open, but she must have, because all she saw was red – and then she
realized it was Brand’s eyes over hers. The blue had disappeared from his gaze,
and all that remained was red and gold…

“Eva.
Evita
.”
A hoarse demand, and she saw the concern and control as he stilled inside her.

“
Fine
,”
she gasped. “A moment.” She was fine, she was good, she was great, oh god.

Eva
gripped his shoulders, shifting against him, adjusting around the thick
intrusion of his length. Brand cursed and dropped his face to her neck, his
body rigid as she moved around him, seeking an easier angle.

“You’re
so fucking tight,” he whispered against her shoulder.

“You’re
so fucking big,” she whispered back, and felt his smile against her skin. He
kissed her collarbone.

“Ready?”

She
tightened her inner muscles in response. They both shuddered. Then slowly,
agonizingly, Brand began to withdraw. Each long heavy inch of him pulled from
the tightness of her body, coiling inside Eva, and she could feel the tension
building in his shoulders. Her nipples rubbed against his chest, so tender, and
she rocked her hips up, wrapping a leg around Brand’s body as the fires inside
her reheated to burn at a higher, more dangerous pitch. His large hands tangled
in her hair, but Brand raised his face from the crook of her shoulder.

When he
pushed back in Eva’s inner muscles clenched, a stuttering beat. He thrust
slowly, deeply, settling against the entrance to her womb, then seemed to push
further.

Eva
moaned, eyelids fluttering shut.

“
Open
,”
a harsh snarl.

Eva
opened her eyes, bared her teeth. Then Brand claimed her lips and thrust the
rest of the way, claiming her cry with his mouth.

He
began to pull his cock out again. Slowly. Eva’s body clenched with need. She
was
shaking
with need. Every inch of Brand’s body was hard with tension.
But he kept pace.

“Oh
God, Brand,” Eva sobbed, the prospect of the night suddenly seeming like
torture – beautiful, exquisite torture – “
Faster
. I can’t
stand this. If you do this.”

“Swore.
If I found you. Took you. Would do this. Would see your eyes. Would make you
need
.”
Brand didn’t deviate. He kissed her throat, hands in her hair.

“Please,”
Eva whispered, several minutes later as the fire agonizingly kindled up through
her toes, her calves, her breasts. The slow build was killing her, the
deliberate feel of his slick unhurried thrusts in and out her swollen flesh
maddening. Her mind was flying to pieces.
Too much control
, she thought.
She needed him to let go. Brand sucked her bottom lip, and Eva gave a half-sob,
trying to push her hips against his own as that impossible thickness bore down
to fill her again.

“Brand,
please
,” she moaned, the slow flames licking up through her thighs, her
arms, through her chest to trickle down her spine and gather in her belly. She
had never had a lover take this much time with her. Eva wasn’t sure she would
survive it.

She
felt her body begin to react, the slow arch back, the sensation of being poised
on the edge of a precipice…

“
Brand
…”
She needed.

“Eyes
open, Evita.”

She
blinked…

Brand
buried his length in her, began thrusting – brutal, hard, deep.

Eva
exploded.

The
orgasm shuddered through her, her body clenched around his thickness, milking
him as she spasmed. Heat and pleasure and hunger spiraled through her and
distantly Eva heard Brand groan, shout in another language. His body clenched,
his erection heavy and throbbing…then he flooded her. Eva screamed tightening
her calves at the jetting streaming pulses, her nails digging into the hard
flesh of his back as she took him in, as Brand filled her womb. She came again,
drinking him in, hungry.

His
breath was harsh. So was hers. She shook as they waited slowly, desperately,
for his orgasm to subside.

The
heat settled as the pleasure diffused into exhausted well-being, and Eva found
she was staring into Brand’s eyes. The bed was soft against her back, her face
was gripped between his palms. Brand was staring into her eyes. His irises were
dark, pure red, no other color. His jaw was tight, his face flushed, intense.

His
body gave one last shudder at his final pulse deep into her, and Eva moaned
softly. Then it was done.

Brand
hadn’t moved his gaze, not once. His strong fingers trailed through her hair,
down her cheek… then, as if remembering what she had told him about Rohe, he
settled his thumbs behind her neck, cradling her. And Eva realized she had kept
her eyes open. Like Brand had asked. The entire time.

I
didn’t think I could
.

Yet
somehow, even when her mind hadn’t known what it was doing, Eva’s body had.

It was
frightening. Terrifyingly intimate, and frightened her to the bottom of her
soul.

Eva
pushed against Brand’s chest, pulling back…and could have kicked herself. For
something shuttered in Brand’s gaze. She hadn’t realized how open they were,
until just now. The red drained into gold and blue; Brand dipped his head to
the crook of her neck and inhaled, pulling her scent into his lungs before
licking the flesh there, nuzzling gently.

Eva
felt awkward, had no idea what to say. He was still thick inside her,
semi-erect and she could feel him growing by the moment…and she was oddly
embarrassed.

It
would have been easier if she were with a stranger.

“Brand,”
she started to say, not sure what she was going to tell him…and then she felt
an almost inaudible rumble settle through her bones. It coursed through her
skin, her body, and into the tight sensitive flesh of her breasts and thighs,
seeming to course down into the mattress itself. “You’re purring,” she
whispered in amazement, awkwardness dropping away as she twined her fingers
into his hair and stared in surprise.

“Haven’t
you ever wanted to purr in bed?” Brand murmured, the vibrations running up and
into his voice, making it gravelly. There was a deep wickedness to his
question, a sexiness only added to by that faint bleed-through of accent.
“Hasn’t a man ever made you want to purr, Evita?”

Just
you
.

Sex was
sex. It took the edge off, then it was done. Or at least, that was what it had
always been. Eva closed her eyes against Brand, trying to deny the desire she
felt rising again in her own body. She should have been sated. She should have
been done.
They
should have been done. But for some reason, she wanted
more.
Needed
more.

“Haven’t
you?” Brand pushed, refusing to accept silence.

Eva
turned her face away, trying to deal with the need, the hunger, and…that
frightening sense of
knowing
. Of knowing
Brand
. With that sense
of connection that somehow, somewhere, had snapped into place, deeper and
stronger than any sense of connection she had ever felt for anyone in her life.

Including
her family.

It
terrified her. Almost as much as the intimacy between them, or the look his
eyes, this connection terrified her.

Brand
smoothed a hand down Eva’s spine, gentling her. Soothing her. That he could do
that, so easily, that he could read her, so easily… Perhaps this was just the
way it was between two Kaspians. That was it. That was all it was.