Deception (47 page)

“I love your heart,” she whispered, flexing her fingers in time with the organ’s strong beats. “And I love that it's mine to touch.”

“It's been yours from the beginning.”

“I know,” she sighed, a blissful smile curving her lips.

Quin inhaled her honeyed breath while drowning in the liquid eyes that changed his life. Then he parted her lips with a kiss while moving between her legs. The simple shift was tremendous in its significance, and her breath caught in her chest as her muscles tensed.

His kissing paused, but his eyes stayed on hers as he found the pulse point quivering her throat. “Hey.”

“Hey back.”

“It’s okay,” he soothed. “I’m going to take good care of you.”

She reached for his cheeks and raised her knees to his hips. “I know. It’s just new.”

“Let’s change that,” he suggested, following it with a kiss. Then he pressed his lips to her forehead while reaching between them.

She grasped his biceps and squeezed, and he opened her with his fingers, gliding two of them inside. Despite exploring her this way on five separate occasions, she remained tight, and it was doubtful she’d be able to take him without first taking some pain.

She wiggled, her chest fluctuating as she pressed against his palm, and he took a deep breath while waiting for her to draw back. When she did, he let his fingers slip away, and the next time she lifted her hips, her humid heat enfolded the head of his aching shaft. His lungs froze as she tried to take him, but she squeaked and came to a halt, squirming as reflexes instructed her to flee. He wasn’t holding her down or forcing himself on her, but unless she was willing to reject him, she had nowhere to go, so she dug her fingernails into his arms and tensed around his hips.

With her muscles blocking his way, he took a steady breath and kissed her head. “Are you okay?”

She nodded then buried her face in his throat, vibrating from head to toe.

He swallowed a lump as he glanced at her aura. Then he touched his lips to her hair. “It’s hurting.”

“Yes,” she sobbed. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, angel. Do you want me to desensitize you?”

“No.”

“Just at first. Then I can release the spell.”

“No, Quin. I don’t want to do that. Please don’t do that.”

“Okay,” he breathed, sliding a hand between the bed and her back.

He firmly pulled her to his chest. Then he rose to his knees and forced her legs further apart. He hated the idea of hurting her, but he felt like he’d die if he let her go. Every part of him screamed for every part of her, bringing about a painful combination of emotional and physical disquiet.

Her chest quickly rose and fell over shaky breaths, and she remained wrapped around him like a python. “Try to relax,” he instructed, and she obeyed, but her rapid breaths still steamed his pecs. His fingers closed around curls as he poised to enter her body. Then he kissed her head and whispered. “Ready?”

“Yes.”

As her lungs emptied with her approval, he pulled her closer, entering his long awaited heaven much slower than he wanted to.

Her chaste frame was reluctant to yield as it hotly pulsed and constricted, torn between pushing him away and sucking him in, and she’d tensed again, her body trembling and flexing around him.

He took a deep breath then forced himself to swallow her pain and push beyond it. Another squeak muffled into his chest as her reflexes tried to close him out, but then moisture rushed her core, easing her tension and granting him full access. He quickly took advantage, clutching her shoulder blade while pressing further inside, and their muscles stretched as moans rolled in their diaphragms.

But the oral delight never hit the air.

As soon as he managed to nestle himself inside her heavenly body, magic took over, and they both gasped as their world changed.

The room’s temperature spiked as a force beyond their control pulled them together, and as oxygen rushed their lungs, their bodies floated from the bed. Tingling shocks sparked from their fingertips and toes, lifting their hair at its roots. Then the electrifying energy intensified and flowed inward, vibrating their arms and legs.

His name tumbled from her lips, hitting his heart with an impact as physical as any he’d ever felt, and he closed his eyes, receiving his first out-of-body experience. He saw himself holding her in mid-air with magic exploding around them – sizzling clouds of color and shiny silver ribbons snaking into a cyclone. The bright storm grew more tumultuous as the energy invading their bodies drew closer to their physical connection. Then the room flashed as the two forces collided.

Raging heat rushed Quin’s veins, jolting him back into his body. But the fire extinguished as quickly as it ignited, leaving them floating in a cool sea of contentment.

The words pleasure, happiness and peace couldn't begin to describe it, because neither of them had ever been so pleased or so happy or so peaceful. In that moment, everything was right and nothing was wrong. Inconveniences – they didn't exist. Danger, pain, sorrow, stress and fear – none of it was real. The only need they had was for each other, and that need was one hundred percent fulfilled.

Their trembling bodies descended to the bed, and he forced one of his hands from her back to brace his weight, but he didn't lay her down. He kept her to his chest as their hearts thundered and their lungs dragged in air.

When he looked down, she looked up, and as their shocked eyes met through a glimmering golden haze, reverent sighs whispered from their parted lips.

He had to touch it. He needed to touch her face to make sure it was real. He hovered from the bed then sat back down, keeping her wrapped around him while running his fingertips along every inch of her face. She'd always been perfect, and nothing about her features had changed, but now, incredibly, he found more than smooth skin, pouty lips, rosy cheeks, and emerald eyes. He could see everything about her when he looked at her face. Everything he loved emanated from its surface. Her capacity to feel emotions on a higher level, her ability to love abundantly and unconditionally, her generosity, optimism, humor, grace and strength… her internal beauty, it was all laid out for him to admire and touch anytime he wanted to. One look at her, and he could see her angelic soul.

His hand came to a rest on her cheek, and he had to swallow a lump to talk. “Layla Love… my perfect angel.”

Her wide eyes filled with moisture as her lips quivered, but she didn't respond, and he figured she was too overwhelmed to talk. He slowly leaned forward, watching her glowing face as his lips touched hers, and for several seconds he held them there, breathing the same air as her while burning the moment into his memory. It would be the most magnificent memory his mind would ever hold, this he knew, and to his ultimate elation, there were more precious memories to come.

He parted his lips around her pout, and that was all it took for Layla's mood to shift from utter peacefulness to intense anticipation.

She released his waist and took his face, pulling him closer and licking her way into his mouth. His chest rumbled as he sucked her in, and his hands slid to her butt, grasping and lifting her off him. He pulled the oxygen from her lungs as surely as he pulled himself from her body, but then he rolled her back down, making her gasp and shudder.

The moment she stopped vibrating, he raised her again, holding her still as he hovered on the brink of insanity, and she tilted her head back and arched, tempting him with a divine view. He groaned and lowered his mouth to her cleavage, curling his tongue around a hard nipple. Then he let her slip from his lips as he brought her back down.

Choppy moans skipped over their tongues as pleasure caught their breaths, and their hearts hammered as the need for more throbbed through stretched veins.

Making love to her was unlike anything he'd felt before. Each time she enveloped him, a sublime thrill shot through his body, leaving everything in its path awakened and soothed all at once. And even though they’d just begun, he was already on the edge of ecstasy, physically able to make the jump. But he wasn't ready to let this feeling go, not even close, so he carefully measured his movements, treasuring every feeling and sound, all the delicious smells and tastes, and the incredible views.

Layla wasn't holding on so easily. Every time he reentered her body, she convulsed, and there was no withholding the breathy moans that exploded from her chest. She'd released his face with the first thrust, and her fingernails had found his shoulders, digging in with each rapturous shudder. Combustion seemed like a very real prospect as the heat flared within. Then his rhythm quickened, plunging her into a world where the lines between body, mind and emotion didn’t exist. She needed his touch on the inside as badly as she'd ever needed it on the outside, so she pulled herself tighter against him and found his mouth with her own, starving for him to touch her there as well. She needed him everywhere.

Quin thought he was experiencing maximum pleasure, but when she added her own hungry movements to his, taking exactly what she wanted while giving him so much more, he realized how wrong he'd been. She was about to blow his mind.

They fed on each other without reserve, freely gripping dewy flesh as wave after wave of ecstasy crashed over them, and when their frenzied yet harmonious movements reached their peak, so did they.

She flexed around him while biting his neck, and he curled his fingers in her hair, letting his satisfied roar roll toward the chandelier. Adrenaline surged their veins, galvanizing their cores like amphetamine, and for several heavenly minutes their bodies vibrated and sparked, keeping them in a glorious and unreal state of pleasure. When at last their blood slowed, a peaceful feeling settled into them like an opiate, and she went limp as his lips got lost in her curls.

They had no idea how long they stayed that way, recuperating from the overwhelming experience, but by the time they raised their heads and found each other's eyes, they were ready to do it again. They couldn't repeat the once in a lifetime experience of bonding, but they could relive the enrapturing experience that followed, so that's exactly what they did. Again and again… and again.

Chapter 30

Layla and Quin ended up back in the bathtub, but this time they had coffee instead of wine, and there wasn't a towel covering his lap.

Layla sat between his legs, leaning back against his gorgeous body and all its incredible parts, and because it felt as natural as breathing, she wasn’t the least bit shy. In fact, she was in heaven. Her entire life she'd viewed sex and romantic relationships with only mild interest, and for the most part, she'd considered them unnecessary inconveniences. That had changed completely. Never had she imagined sex could bring such pleasure, and just as he'd predicted, it wasn't purely physical. Her insides bubbled with intense emotions, her head swirled with newfound knowledge, and her nerves tingled with constant anticipation. She’d been all wrong about sex. It wasn't just a way to pass the time and please your man – a concept apparently instilled in her by society at some point. Sex was an unparalleled way to give and receive pleasure, and a supreme and unique way to connect with the person holding your heart. It was a necessity to the body all the time, and a necessity to the heart when in love. And when done right, it was a purely beneficial liberty, one she'd been missing far too long.

“I still can’t believe it, Quin.”

Neither of them had wrapped their minds around the fact that they were bonded yet, as they'd spent the past five hours wrapped around each other, but now it was seeping in… slowly.

He set his coffee aside. Then he magically kept hers in place so he could lift her up his body and nuzzle her neck. “It explains a lot.”

“I think it raises more questions than it answers,” she countered, watching silver ribbons snake around their touching legs. “Like that silver. It’s not in my grandparents’ bonded lights.”

“I know.”

“Have you ever seen it before?”

“No.”

“What about this?” she asked, lifting his hand, and they both looked at the crease where their forearms touched. Small sparks shimmered across their flesh in waves, tugging on their hair follicles, so skin contact alone easily provoked shivers and goose bumps.

“Nope,” he answered, entwining his fingers with hers. Then he stretched her arm out and kissed his way from the inside of her elbow to her shoulder.

She closed her eyes and tilted her head, giving him access to her neck, and warm and fuzzy tingles rose from her toes like bubbles in carbonated soda. Being bonded to him was a dream come true, and she wanted to maroon herself in the fantasy, drown herself in everything good about it, but more than blissful love accompanied bonded mates. She'd seen what can happen to them, and sharp daggers of fear ripped holes in her euphoria. Her parents' experience flashed through her mind, and not only did she see what was beautiful about it, she saw what was tragic about it.

Her heart stopped as her eyes widened, and she jerked upright, slopping coffee across her hand. “Oh god. No. What have I done? How could I have done this?”

Quin swallowed the lump that leapt into his throat when she jerked from his arms. Then he vanished her mug and wrapped his arms around her chest, trying to calm her down, but she wasn't so easily soothed. He could feel her heart beating through her back, and her aura had changed completely. He’d never seen it so torn, and it had his stomach flipping. “Calm down, Layla.”