Cassandra's Dilemma (7 page)

Robbed of the effort to fight the compulsion, Cassie slept. Somewhere beyond the thick wraps of satin and silk muffling the world she heard a snort of derision.

Chapter Five

Stretching her right arm out, Cassie suppressed a yawn. The sunlight tickled the back of her hand, nudging her out of sleep. She turned her pale hand from side to side in the sunbeam. The sound of the ocean’s waves lapping kisses at the shore drifted in the window.

The sun was on the wrong side of the bed.

Ocean?

Cassie jerked upright and looked around—her bedroom. The room with its cool shades of peach and rust reminded her of a distant sunset. A long brace of windows facing the western shore splayed wide to catch the morning breeze. The sun came from the lone eastern-facing window that assured her of natural light in the morning. The pale, sanded-wood floors boasted a series of thick, hand-thatched rugs she’d picked up on a trip to New Mexico.

Everything in her room was how it should be.

The bed shifted next to her, and a warm, tanned hand slid along her hip to splay his fingers on her abdomen.

Okay, everything is as it should be except for that.

Helcyon gazed up at her with sleepy intensity. His black hair lay tousled around his face, and what she’d thought of as beautiful before was heartbreakingly gorgeous against the soft, creamy sheets. A devilish look came into his forest-green eyes, inviting her closer. No one should look so damn lickable, not this early in the morning.

“Oh hell.” The memory of the day before rushed inward. Cassie shoved her fingers into her hair and sighed. Her frustration went to war with the disappointment as she met scalp and stubble instead of longer tresses.

“I doubt you mean that as attractively as you put it.” Helcyon’s chuckle shivered through her.

Cassie lowered her gaze to focus on his mouth. The lips were full and even, as though carved by an artist perfecting his technique. Her lips tingled at the memory of how his lips caressed hers. “You kissed me last night.”

His eyes darkened with inexplicable emotion. “Are you planning to protest your virtue?”

“Hardly.” And she was not a nun. She’d been kissed before. She’d been far more than kissed. But aching heat pooled in her belly just thinking of how his mouth shaped over hers, how his breath feathered her cheeks, how his taste lingered on her tongue.

He brushed the back of his hand down her cheek, the gesture a shocking mixture of both intimacy and innocence. “Then what?”

“Why did you kiss me?” Her gaze drifted over his lips and along the line of his jaw before drifting down to the expanse of muscled chest. He was lean but solid, and the sheet drifted perilously close to his waist. She suspected that the sheet was all he wore.

Her breasts swelled under Helcyon’s gaze, as though it were his hands roaming over her. Cassie’s eyes fell half-closed, anticipated pleasure tightening her sex. She exhaled slowly, trying to rein in her rebellious heart as it thundered on passionate hooves.

Helcyon levered himself up, and Cassie held her breath. Heat rolled off him in waves. The bed shifted with his weight, and her leg brushed his. The contact halted him. Her eyes drifted over the chiseled plane of his abdomen to his chest and up to his eyes.

Don’t look him in the…Oh screw it!

She gazed into those green depths, wanting to drown in them. Her heart pounded furiously from the lack of oxygen, but his lips swooping up to take hers swallowed her gasp for breath.

Cassie groaned, sinking into the kiss. His tongue demanded access, and the reality of it was exquisite. His hands slid down her bare arms, skimming her waist, where two simple scraps of cloth kept him from her skin.

It was too much.

She leaned into the kiss, hands stealing across him, exploring the lines of his chest. His swift indrawn breath when her nails scraped lightly across his nipple emboldened her. Tongues twining, she sprawled across him. His cock pulsed against her belly. He stroked a finger around the edge of her panties and explored beneath the elastic, teasing a gasp from her as that questing finger swirled against her clit.

What the hell am I doing?
Her conscience skimmed across her passion-drenched thoughts, but she ignored it. Helcyon tasted divine. She nibbled along the side of his mouth, tongue lapping at the skin. It was hot, salty, and sweet. She gave in to temptation, kissing and sampling along his jaw only to arch upward as his fingers slipped past the waistband of her panties and sank into the wetness soaking the juncture of her thighs.

Her breasts strained against the thin tank top. “Helcyon…” She ached to feel him touching them.
Stop. Must stop.

A groan ripped through her at the thought. When his finger thrust inside of her, her sex clenched around it, pleasure pushing her past the point of coherence. “Helcyon, stop.”

He stilled at the rush of words, and Cassie wanted to weep. Her sex squeezed at his fingers, aching to pull more of him inside. Gritting her teeth, Cassie lifted her head and focused on the corner of his cheek. It was safer than looking him in the eyes and less enticing than gazing at his lips.

“We have to stop.” She exhaled the words, hating each one for passing her lips.

“We can if you wish, but we do not
have
to.” He remained utterly still, her sex impaled on his finger, his hand cupping her mound and his thumb perilously close to her clit.

“Unfortunately, we do. You’re a client, and I don’t—I don’t sleep with clients.” Cassie swallowed against the sob that snuck up on the end of her words.

Beneath her, Helcyon began to shake with laughter. The faint bouncing motion pushed his finger deeper into her. His thumb stroked her sensitive clit. Pleasure exploded behind Cassie’s eyes as her orgasm swept through her. Her nails dug into his arms as the pleasure wrenched from her.

“I have you, Cassandra,” he murmured when she sobbed with the release, and his hand moved, urging her onward, fingers fucking her harder, the world exploding around her. “I have you.”

She wasn’t sure if it was minutes or hours that she lay against him, panting. His fingers slipped away, leaving her spent, trembling body. Beneath her head, his chest rose and fell, his heartbeat thudding in her ear. His cock, thick veined and hard, pressed against her thigh, evidence that his desire remained unquenched even as he slaked hers.

His hand traced a gentle pattern against her bare arm. His dangerous, dangerous hand that wielded her passion and his sword with equal skill. Trembling and tremulous, she lifted her head slowly and abandoned her caution to the wind to meet his gaze. She couldn’t not meet it, not after that mind-bending orgasm.

And only with his hand!

What if he had…? Don’t go there, Cassie!
She ordered herself even as anticipation rubbed through her sensitive flesh.

“Cassandra?” His sleep-rough voice softened, curiosity piquing in her name.

“Helcyon?”
Is that husky voice mine?

“Are you all right?”

“Oh, yeah.” The words rocked out on a shaky little laugh that rolled her body against his. Embarrassment heated her face, and an inexplicable shyness. “I’m sorry.”

“Never be sorry for pleasure, Cassandra.”

“But you didn’t—”

“No, I didn’t.” It was Helcyon’s turn to smile, and his magic fingers reached up to brush the hair away from her face, stroking her cheek. It increased the intimacy of their position.

“So I am sorry.”

He shook his head, another chuckle shaking him, this time pressing his cock more firmly against her thigh. He slid his hand down to take hers to him, wrapping her fingers around the hard, hot length of him. Her eyes widened, but she didn’t pull away.

“Do not be sorry, Cassandra.” He held her hand to his cock then slid his away to stroke her arm. “I will be still, as you bid me now.”

Oh God.
He’d put his pleasure, or lack of it, into her hand, literally. She searched his eyes, but the compulsion to lose herself in them was curiously absent.

They were still beautiful eyes, filled with mysteries that she wanted to plunder. She watched his eyes as she slipped her hand up to the thick crown of his cock. His hissed inhale emboldened her, and she stroked her thumb across the head, teasing the slender slit where a bead of moisture already waited for her.

She didn’t look away, fascinated by the lines tightening around his eyes as she slipped her hand free, tasting that moisture on her thumb. His flavor filled her mouth, drenching her panties with need. His gaze fastened on her thumb sliding between her lips, but despite the longing that crept into his face, he remained still.

The drop tasted sweet on her tongue. Swallowing the taste, she dropped her hand back to his chest, tracing a line across his belly. Delight filled her when his stomach rippled at the touch.

“We so shouldn’t be doing this,” she murmured, more out of obligation to say something than any true desire to stop.

Her hand found his cock, thicker and harder than before. Helcyon said nothing, letting her make the decision for both of them. She could pleasure him or not.

“We shouldn’t.” She repeated it, finding the protest even weaker as she stroked his length. His cock jerked in her hands, and she watched his mouth tighten. His delicious tongue stole across his lips as he inhaled sharply. Her hand fisted around him, tightening as she drew it up and then down.

A low moan escaped his throat as her thumb stroked across his crown, new beads of moisture joining the first. She wanted to taste him again. The thought should have shocked her, but Cassandra found that even the token protest wasn’t worth it anymore.

She slid down the bed, her body aching with renewed desire. Hope flared in those green eyes, and her thighs quivered at the naked want that flashed across his face. He followed her descent as she slid down his body, but even as his cock strained against her hands, he remained still.

It had to be hell.

She smiled.

It was about to get worse.

The heat of his cock flashed against her face, and she inhaled. The musky, rich scents of the earth, the sweet flavor of vanilla and spice filled her nostrils, and her mouth watered as she let her tongue slide across the head. The taste of him was an orgasm all over again. The heavy length of him slid past her lips as she guided him, hand pumping him harder now.

She wanted to know his taste.

She wanted all of him.