Braving the Elements (9 page)

My heart started hammering, suddenly nervous.

“Don’t be nervous,” he whispered. His smile flickered. “I am at your mercy.”

“Does, ah…” I cleared my throat, sweat coating my forehead. “Does anyone know you’re in here?” The tightness in my groin was reaching up through my body and squeezing my brain.

“No one.
Everyone thinks I’ve turned in except for Charles. There’s no way I can taint your reputation from this meeting.”

I stared at him for a second, wondering if he knew what I was asking.
Wondering if I would finally get to do this; to satisfy this soul clenching
need
. Being bold, I rose slowly, my desired solitude long forgotten. His eyes watched me aloofly, waiting to see what I would do. Watching, completely still, as I crossed the four feet between us. Standing beside his legs, my knees butting against the couch, I hesitated.

Now what?

Still he waited, fire in his eyes, heat pumping through the link. He wanted me. I wanted him.

Oh good god I was nervous.

With a deep breath, I eased a leg over his lap, settling myself with my groin over his, his hardness pushing against me. His hands gripped my legs as his face fell. The link soaked through with guilt.

“Wait, Sasha, I have to tell you something.” His eyes lost some of their passion
. “The night I gave you blood—the second time—I…invaded your personal space.”

I leaned closer, heat infusing the space between our mouths.
“Mm.”

“I had you drink from my neck, but then you got aroused, and…” He cut off, his lips squeezing together in a hard line. Releasing a breath, he finished. “I took advantage of you.”

I blinked. His expression held remorse to accentuate the guilt from the link.

“It wasn’t a dream,” I whispered, strangely confused. That was why I only remembered glimpse
s of his face; why most of the experience was sensations. Exquisite, earth moving sensations.

“I should be pissed off, and if I was still with Jared, I would be. But
…I remember asking for more. Did you not hear that? Was that not out loud?”

“I did, but you were on your death bed. It was beyond stupid.
And irresponsible. And…creepy.”

“I
creeped you out?” I couldn’t help my rigidness.

He shook his head in frustration. “I made love to a sleeping girl with a fever without
first getting her permission. No, you weren’t the creepy one.”

I smiled away my insecurity, running my fingers along his raven stubble.
Maybe it was creepy, but I didn’t care. I remembered the feelings—more than just physical. I remembered the closeness that I thought could only be a dream since it felt so completely
natural
. I wanted that again.

His face lost expression immediately, his hands tigh
tening on my hips, as I moved back in, my breath ruffling his hair. My lips glanced his, then more pressure. I licked his bottom lip, asking admittance. He opened to me, licking my open mouth, teasing, chasing my tongue with his.

I slid my hands up his muscular arms, feeling the strength in his biceps and the brawn of his shoulders, before letting my palm settle at the edge of his jaw.

I backed off enough to speak, “Does it feel good when someone takes your blood? I’ve often heard Charles mention it as the most intimate of things. He doesn’t do it lightly.”

“Yes
,” he whispered. His hands felt around my body to cup my butt. “Would you like to take more of mine?”

“I was thinking the opposite. Maybe you should take mine this time?
Even the score. I want to feel what it’s like.”

His mouth dipped to my throat, my head falling back to allow him access. My breath came in fast pants as his lips skimmed my pulse. His kiss was gentle, but he did not bite. “I can’t take yours.”

“Why? What did I do wrong? Too much garlic in my diet?”

He chuckled, his tongue flicking out and licking the base of my neck. “We’ll just say
, I don’t want to mess with…anyway.”

I made an unhappy sound before claiming his lips again, frustrated with the amount of fabric between us. I sat up and unbuttoned my shirt, exposing my breasts slo
wly, my cleavage holding his attention. My blouse fell from my shoulders. My bra quickly followed.

His hand caressed down my chest, cupping a breast in his palm
, rubbing my nipple with his coarse thumb. Pleasure erupted in my core, tied directly to my breast. When he bent down and took it into his mouth, sucking and teasing, I couldn’t believe how good it felt.

He backed off quickly, shedding his T-shirt, and sitting back, two hands now on me. I lowered my hands to his shoulders, feeling the grooves of muscle with my
fingertips. I traced down his chest, running my palms over his defined pecs, down his smooth skin to his rippled abs. Surveying, I ran my hands over his strong arms, his tattoos seeming to wave under my fingers.

“Why the tattoos?”
I murmured, running my hands back up slowly, letting the anticipation build.

“They’
re runes. Spells. They have many uses. For one, they aid in delivering…power. Our hands and arms become weapons, like our swords. Another reason is they gather the darkness, helping us camouflage. Also, they help send magic airborne, like when I wrapped that protective spell around you. We can easily fortify an object with magic, like our swords, or like the walls, but it takes a certain amount of power for magic to travel. Runes, in a set pattern, make that easier.”

“But I can
throw magic without runes. Often when trying to do something normal.”

His hands slid up my back, making
me shiver pleasantly. “Mages have more versatility, they have the power and ability to allow magic a life of its own. Even they require tattoos, usually. You are rare. In so many ways.”

He leaned forward, touching his lips to the base of my neck, then kissing upward to my jaw. His hands crept toward the front of me, to my lower stomach. I felt my top button released with a tiny jerk. My eyes closed as my zipper lowered.

He stood, a mountain moving, taking me with him. Setting me down, his hulking body in front of me, his head lowered to mine, he gently pushed my pants down my thighs, my undies hitch-hiking a ride to the floor.

Another zipper ripped down, pants di
scarded. Stefan stood naked in front of me, his giant member erect and bobbing, freed. I had remembered his size from what I thought was my dream.

It still shocked me.

I inhaled a deep breath as he backed away and sat down, that massive erection half daunting. At least to a woman of my limited experience.

“At your pace,” he whispered. Understanding and support filtered through our link. His eyes, soft, waited patiently for me.

I grinned. “It fit once. And felt really,
really
good, if memory serves.”

“Too good, maybe.”
I barely heard his voice.

“But…protection?”

He shook his head. “We don’t have the same issues with diseases as humans. Something with our blood eats diseases—maybe its nature taking it easy on us since we have a hard enough time procreating.”

I stared at him for a long moment, making sure it wasn’t one of those things a man says to get out of wearing protection. The link radiated honesty, though. And it made sense.

He interrupted my pondering with, “But we can get humans pregnant.”

My brow furrowed. “You can?
Even though we’re different species?”

He half smiled, connecting his warm lips with my chest. “We are different, but not fundamentally diverse enough to prevent the merging of DNA. There are other problems, like watering down magic, and acting like a lottery for each species
to inherent gifts, such as they are, but...”

I waved it away before he could tell me we wouldn’t be marrying and having children, anyway. I couldn’t have reality messing this up. I didn’t want the impractical
ity of
happily ever after
messing up the glory of
right this moment
. I wanted my dreams of him to last a little while longer.

Plus, I
stayed on the pill after Jared for regularity. Problem solved.

Trying to find my breath through my constricted chest,
I straddled him again, flattening his manhood with my body, and touched my lips to his. I felt his lips curl before he answered, passion unfurling between us. I got lost in the kiss, sucked into a void where the world fell away around us. He licked and tasted my mouth expertly, teasing but wanting. I clung on to his body, his tight arms around me.

I slid my body forward, then back, rubbing along his shaft. When we were good and slick, I raised a fraction, his arms around me lightly shaking. His tip crested my folds, having me nearly weeping with the anticipation. I sat, slowly, his girth invading my body, stretching me to the point of pain.

I pulled up, trying to work him in. His hands flew out to the sides, straight along the couch back, and clutched at the cushions. Intense concentration took over his face.

Back down again, filling me.
More stretching, the sweet torture having my eyes fluttering. It felt so good—I couldn’t remember anything, ever, feeling this damn
good!

“Oh god, Sasha
—.” Stefan’s whole body flexed as his eyes squeezed tight, preventing himself from thrusting upward by sheer strength of will.

My heart sank. I wish I knew how to do this better—he was just so big. It hurt to force it, but I could tell he couldn’t handle the slow torture
of working it in. “I’m sorry, I’m trying to—“

Stefan
’s eyes snapped open. His arms crushed me to his chest as he laughed. “Don’t be sorry! I haven’t felt this good in…a long time. Keep going. Don’t worry about me. If all torture felt this good, I would never have another worry as long as I lived.”

He kissed me sweetly, his hands shaking on my hips.

I let out a relieved sigh as my body started its downward decent, once again reveling in that sweet torture. He was right about that—it felt almost unbearably good. I wanted to laugh and cry with each plunge, working in a little farther each time. I was oh-so-graciously full, every sensitive spot sparking and pinging around my body. His hips pushed up, forcing just a tiny bit more in, about three-fourths inside. His arms flew to the sides again, apparently trying to keep from grabbing me and jamming me down.

I bounced twice more, sighing with each plunge. Nearly there, now, barely stretching around his girth.

“Oh fuck.” He panted. “I might…can’t…
oh
—
”
He shuttered, my body filled in a different way.

I stared at him, shocked and
wide-eyed. I’d been atop Mt. Premature many a time, I just hadn’t thought it would be with him.

Ready for the “that’s okay” smile, I put my palms on his chest to push away, only to have his hands grab my wrists and his eyes open
again, hooded.

A lazy smile slid up his face.
“It’s probably better that way,” he said easily, relaxed.

He secured my hands around his neck before his palms found and started kneading my breasts.
“I haven’t been with anyone since…well, you. Full speed ahead.”

“You can keep going?”

He gave me a scoffing eyebrow quirk. “You don’t think I’d leave you on the edge do you? What kind of a male does that?”

“From what I’ve heard, a normal one.”

His grin turned smug. “Exactly. Proceed.”

Half laughing to myself, I sat down, not paying as much attention as I should have been. A dull ache stopped me, my hands
clutching his shoulders like claws, telling him to stop even though I was the one in control.

“Here, let the creep take over,” he whispered, clutching me to his body with one hand and turning us over so he was on top of me on the couch. “I recently had experience in these matters.”

His lips attached to mine, deep and needy. One hand enclosed my breast, his fingers flicking my nipple, causing me to squirm. His other hand paid attention to the top of my sex where I felt things the hardest. A pleasure-filled squirm turned into a full scale buck, thrusting my hips up to meet his. His manhood dug deep, embedded to the hilt, our ends rubbing together.

“Oh!”
I sighed, the dull ache only lingering a moment, and unable to compete with his ministrations.

He began moving slowly, working my body with those clever fingers, building me. Each muscle started to flex, then release, flex, release
, and release again. His hard shaft moved into me, gaining speed. Shivers wracked me, leaving more intensity in their wake. My body sweating, his slick as well, he worked into me, deeper and harder, faster.

My legs squeezed his thighs, my arms clutched his
shoulders, my mouth kissed his neck. The pleasure condensed in on itself, localizing in my groin, tightening. Everything tightening. My body getting dense, blasts silently bursting all over my body in muffled detonations, hinting toward that final event. Tighter still, muscles shaking, Stefan groaning, his face against mine. The world sparkling with color so intense, I could barely stand it. Everything pulled down, winding up, then—
“Oh,
Stefan!” I cried, my body convulsing under him with such intensity, I could barely breathe. Jackhammers of pleasure echoed through my limbs, infusing me with euphoria as the vibration subsided. I had so many endorphins, I wanted to rocket off the couch. I was so relaxed, I didn’t even want to move enough to turn my head, tingles of lingering sensation creeping throughout my body.