CRAVE (29 page)

She arched into him laughing. “That’s not what I meant.”

“No?” he said, intent on undoing the laces that held her jacket bodice together in the front. His gaze flicked up, but went right back to the bodice project. “You look good enough to eat.”

“What about you? You keep upping the ante. Now I have to say you’re the most beautiful male in the universe.” While he was preoccupied with baring her chest, she pulled the tail of his shirt and ran her hands down the sides of his hips. “Hmmm. These pants are so soft.”

“Hmmm. But not what’s inside.”

She purred, but ducked out from under him. Feeling sexy, perhaps for the first time in her life, she experimented with sashaying over to the table. She plucked a plum from the almost obscene glut of mixed fruit and took a bite. “Oh,” she said moaning and licking her lips, “you have to have a bite of this.”

“You are driving me wild.”

She chuckled as he stalked toward her. “Stop right there! I haven’t eaten all day.”

He grabbed her, buried his face in the still-to-be-undone bodice, and growled into her chest. “Fuck now. Eat later.” And with that he resumed undoing the laces that held her jacket together. When a hint of the bra lace underneath was exposed, his pupils seemed to dilate. He gave her a look that was titillating and scary at the same time. She’d never seen Crave so intent on coupling.

That was when she remembered the secret thing Flora was reputed to give to males on their promise night. “Oh. You’re under the influence of Flora’s potion.”

“What?” He looked up with eyes that appeared slightly out of focus. “No! I don’t need that when I’ve got…” He pulled her jacket further open to reveal the see-through bra underneath. When his eyes jerked up to hers, again she felt a tinge of fear mixed with excitement.

Just when she thought he was going to rush her and take her to the ground like prey, he turned his back on her, pulled a chair out from the end of the table, sat down, and took another plum from the pile of fruit. Except for the look on his face, he gave the devil-may-care impression of being casually draped over the chair.

“Take that off,” he said in a voice so gravelly he barely sounded like Crave. He licked the juice that had escaped down his lip as he looked at her hungrily.

Looking down to where he’d pointed, she said, “Uh, this?” The jacket was hanging open except for the last ties at the bottom. She fingered it, looked back at him, and felt herself smile seductively as she pulled the laces free and slowly dropped the jacket from her shoulders.

Crave had stopped chewing, mesmerized by Dandelion standing there in a blood red lacy see-through bra and a matching tulle skirt. He’d never seen anything like that in his life, but hoped he would get to repeat the experience many, many times in every color of the rainbow plus black and white.

He finally decided to swallow the bite of plum still in his mouth. She watched his throat work as it went down and felt her nipples harden. He noticed the change. His gaze went straight to the taut buds trying to poke through the lace. He scooted down lower in the chair, letting his legs spread farther apart to relieve some of the tension straining against the crotch of the doeskin pants, and absently took another bite of plum.

“Take that off.” He pointed to her skirt with the hand holding the plum.

One of the green logs on the fire chose that moment to make a little popping and hissing sound, seeming to punctuate Crave’s demanding tone and the heat behind it. Dandy wasn’t sure what to make of that. Crave wasn’t ever bossy with her. Unless he was trying to teach her how to play scruffal.

Looking down, she found the ribbon tie on the side of the skirt and pulled the bow open. The waist of the skirt loosened enough to drop to the floor. So she released it, not taking her eyes off Crave because, as acute as was his interest in what Dandy was doing and wearing, she was equally mesmerized and excited by his reactions. Not to mention that her curiosity about what he might do next had her jumpy as a cat.

The layers of skirt pooled at her feet so that she looked like a wicked nymph standing in a fifteen-inch-high cloud of red tulle.

His eyes went straight to her pubis, revealed by the see-through red lace, yet partially hidden in the most delicious and tempting way. They traveled downward over her bare thighs to the large cuffed tops of the over-the-knee boots and started back up, slowly devouring every inch of her.

She’d never felt self-conscious about sex before. It had always involved good wholesome nudity and straightforward friction. But this, the intensity of his stare and the scrutiny he was giving her body was something entirely different.

Crave brought the plum to his mouth and lazily took another bite without taking his eyes away from her. He chewed, swallowed, set the plum down on the table then came to his feet so fast it startled her. She jumped, but didn’t retreat.

As he prowled toward her with a smile that she didn’t know how to read, he pulled the shirt over his head and let it drop.

Dandy continued to battle her inclination to turn and run. She forced herself to stay where she was, but it wasn’t easy. She’d been intimate with Crave a thousand times and not once had he ever looked like an advancing predator.

When he drew close enough that she could feel the heat emanating from his body, he shoved both hands into her hair. “I like your hair this way. Wild.”

“I know,” she whispered, having barely enough breath in her lungs to say those two words. She didn’t look away. She was too fascinated by Crave and too apprehensive about what might happen next.

“I like the flowers, too.” He blew the whisper in her ear, which was so arousing it made her come up on her toes.

“Oh,” she said.

He gave a grunt of approval, bent his knees, cupped his hands under her butt cheeks, and lifted until her legs hooked around his waist. He stepped over the skirt and walked toward the bed, at the same time taking her mouth in a kiss that was surprisingly soft and sensual. His lips had completely healed and were restored to the plump fullness she’d always loved. His unrelenting tongue danced with hers until she was panting.

When he reached the bed, he set her feet down and guided her to sit at the foot of the bed. She reached down to take off the boots, but he stopped her.

“No. Those stay on.”

She looked surprised, but smiled and nodded. He gently guided her down by pressing on her shoulder until she lay on her back with her feet on the floor. When he knelt down between her legs, she came up on her elbows so that she could see what he was doing.

He began teasing the insides of her thighs with tiny brushes of kisses, nips that were bare brushes of teeth, followed by a hint of licking. Continuing that maddening pattern, he slowly worked his way upward toward the blood red lace panties. Long before he reached the apex of her thighs, she was squirming and her chest was heaving. The sight of Crave’s eyes shining up at her, carefully gauging her reaction to everything he did, was by far the most erotic thing she’d ever seen.

He planted a slightly firmer kiss on the crotch of the panties at the top of her slit.

That caused her to throw her head back and let out a snarl of agitation. “Stop teasing, Crave!”

The bastard had the gall to laugh softly, but was, apparently, not in a hurry and not going to be rushed.

“Crave!” she warned.

He caught the top of the panties, pulled one side down a mere eighth of an inch, and licked the skin underneath. She growled in response.

There was an unmistakable twinkle in his eyes when he said, “Go ahead and make all the noise you want, mate. My brother told me this place was built so that I wouldn’t keep Exiled awake at night.”

She struggled a little, testing whether or not getting up was an option. It wasn’t. He held her legs in place and smiled, knowing that she was capable of releasing her claws and slashing his throat open, but also knowing she wouldn’t.

He pulled the panties down her legs and over her boots and tossed them over his shoulder. He stared at her like he hadn’t seen her bare and spread before. Dandy didn’t know what to make of it.

His eyes moved slowly up her body until they reached the lacy bra and then stopped there. He jerked his chin in the direction of her breasts. “Take that off,” he demanded.

She sat up slowly and made a point of looking like she was considering whether or not to do it, taking her time to decide. Thinking two could play at teasing, she decided that she would remove the bra. As slowly as possible.

She reached behind her. Since she was used to binding her breasts and had never worn a bra before, she fumbled with the hooks and eyes, but eventually it came undone. Leaving her breasts covered by the barely-there cups, she lowered one strap at a time then lay back, propped up on her elbows as she’d been before, the bra cups still in place.

When he realized that she’d kept her breasts covered in pure defiance, he dragged his eyes away from the bra and caught the mischief in her eyes. She waited until she was sure she had his attention, then said, “If you want it off, you can take it off.”

He smiled and left it in place for the moment as he licked up her slit from stem to stern. Her head fell back in ecstasy at the touch of his tongue, which was slightly rougher than humans. When he began to purr with the exquisite deep rumbling of an adult male, the vibration coming through his tongue was her undoing.

She came almost immediately, letting out a shriek that sounded more like a panther scream than the shout of a human female. Crave ripped the bra from her chest and licked his lips.

He stared at her erect nipples while he kicked off his boots and shoved the doeskin pants down his legs. Still standing at the foot of the bed, he pulled Dandy’s hips up to the height that was just right so that she could hook her legs around his back. Her vision cleared in time to appreciate the magnificent male that was her new mate.

She was sure that his cock, which as he liked to point out, was of an admirable size, was bigger than she’d ever seen it and supposed it had something to do with Flora’s love potion. Her eyes fastened on the drops of precum oozing from the head just before he slid all the way through slick and silky folds.

He stood above Dandelion, fascinated by the sight of his own cock emerging and disappearing as they came together and came apart. He was equally fascinated by the way her breasts jiggled when he thrust. Even with so much to look at, he knew the most sensuous thing by far was the look on her face. She was flushed so that her cheeks were almost as red as the dress she’d worn to their mating, pupils dilated so that her eyes hypnotized him.

And she was all his.

“Your desire is my desire,” he said. She whimpered. “Say it! Your desire is my desire.”

“Your desire is my desire.”

He didn’t smile, but he did look supremely satisfied. When he knew he was coming, he reached down with his thumb and coaxed her body into a mutual orgasm. When her vaginal walls clamped down on him hard, he roared loud enough to test the theory that the building was soundproof.

He woke a few hours later to see Dandelion, naked except for the thigh high boots and the few rosebuds that remained tangled in her hair that was even wilder than it had been earlier. She was bending over, putting more logs on the fire. He remained quiet as he found the view immensely entertaining.

When she turned to tiptoe back toward the bed, she saw that he was awake and looking her over unabashedly. When she passed the skirt, still on the floor, he pointed and said, “Put that on.”

“Put that on?” she smirked. “That’s a new one.”

He shrugged and grinned. “My desire is your desire.”

“Maybe today, but I can foresee the possibility of you wearing that out.”

“That,” he pointed to the skirt, “on.”

Shaking her head as she laughed softly, she picked the skirt up off the floor. Sorting through the layers of tulle, she stepped into it and retied the waist. When it was done, she held her hands out as if to say, “Here I am. What now?”

Crave rose and stalked toward her looking like a male on a mission. He came through the opening where the iron door had once hung and pulled her into a long slow kiss. Dandy closed her eyes from the pleasure of the sensation, which meant that she was a little disoriented when he suddenly turned her around. She was then facing the table where they’d devoured the beautiful feast like locusts a few hours earlier.

He bent her forward so that her hands were flat on the table, then bent over her and blew in her ear while he ran his hand over her tulle-covered backside. She moaned and arched into his touch looking and sounding more like a female in heat than one who had been well-loved. Multiple times.