Geared for Pleasure (14 page)

She took an unsteady breath. “What were you looking for?”

He groaned. “I swear by the stars I do not recall.” He stepped away from the door and gripped her shoulders in his hands. “You were alone with my guards with nothing on beneath that jacket? With your body so on display?”

Her body on display? She was covered more modestly than any of the women on the Siren. “I have been in a sheet, a scarf, and in
that foul, pointless chair of yours in less than I’m wearing now. Why does that matter?”

“Don’t remind me about the chair, princess. I may have it confined to my quarters. Or burned.” The flat of his palm slid from her neck to the rise of her breast. “I could release them all from service for seeing you like this. Every man apart from James. He is too good to replace. I will offer him Coral in return for his silence.”

Before she could take in his words he’d lowered his arms and gripped her hips in his hands, lifting her until her lips were level with his. Dare reacted out of instinct, her arms and legs wrapping around him as he groaned into her mouth.

This made as much sense as the dreams she’d been having, but Dare was long past caring. It felt like years since he’d kissed her, since she’d been close enough to feel his arousal mingling with hers, stoking hers.

He turned and walked with long, sure strides, her in his arms. Her back was still bouncing off the fluffed mattress when her boots hit the floor. Bodhan raised his lower body so his fingers could spar with hers on the buttons of her pants before he dragged them down her legs, revealing the bare flesh beneath.

Bodhan inhaled sharply. “Now I just might
have
to kill them. Unless you kill me first. Did you not think to ask for underthings?”

Dare had no ability to argue. She wanted him too much, was overwhelmed by the ferocity of his actions and the strength of his need.

She could use left over exposure to Seraphina’s pheromones as an excuse, but that would be a lie.

Bodhan had been seducing her from the moment she’d fallen—literally—into his lap. The days spent surrounded by guards who spoke freely of pleasure, her time with Phina and Bodhan, every moment on board the Siren had led her here. Into his arms.

This time she wanted to do more than pretend. More than watch.
And this was her last chance before she was set off the ship. Her last chance for Bodhan to be her first, if not her only. Who knew what would happen if she couldn’t fulfill her vow? Couldn’t find the Deviant.

He gripped one of her wrists in his fist, guiding her hand to the hardness pressing heavily against his pants. Against her. She didn’t need to be told what to do. Her fingers trembled and slipped in their rush to release his erection.

Coral had described it to her when she’d brought her food, or rather, when she’d come to visit James Stacy. The heat and smoothness of a man’s phallus. How well it responded to the slightest touch. She’d laughingly teased Dare, saying, “Long and slender, short and stout, all men love when you tug it out.”

Bodhan lifted his mouth to study her when he felt her lips quirk upward. “Something funny, princess?” he growled. “I warn you, laughing at a gentleman in my condition is unwise.”

Dare’s hand reached in to the now-open panel of his pants and wrapped her fingers around as much of him as she could. “Oh my.”

His eyes narrowed to heated slits. “You are forgiven, and those are swiftly becoming my two favorite words. Let’s see if I can make you say them again.”

She was melting from the inside out. The feel of him in her hand was burning her palm, making her ache. None of the women had mentioned that touching him would do anything to her.

Were these
his
feelings inside of her or her own? It was insanity, wherever, whomever it was coming from. They were connected, skin-to-skin, emotion-to-emotion, yet it was not enough. The only coherent word in her head was
more
. She needed more of him. His smell. His touch. His mouth on hers.

More.

“You should never confine this. Never have to hide this beauty.” He reached up to loosen her hair and huffed out a rough chuckle at
her surprised expression. “There is no reason to. We have established that you would never succeed as a spy. You are too much of a distraction, even without all these maddening curls.”

She moaned as he lowered his head and closed his mouth over her nipple, his tongue dampening the cloth that she wished would disappear. “Please.”

He nipped her with his teeth. “Love that word as well. The next time, I will have enough control to draw this out. Long enough that you will be hoarse from your pleas.”

Dare struggled to gasp for air at the first thrust of his fingers inside her. Yes, that was what she wanted. What
they
wanted.

Bodhan’s mouth kept returning to her breasts, his fingers slipping through her sex, making her squirm. Dare squeezed his shaft, marveling at the sensation of iron swathed in silk. Physically, she could feel every ridge and vein, the beat of his heart. Emotionally, she could feel his impatience.

It was an emotion she shared. With her free hand she reached up and tugged on his hair until she got his attention.

Those eerily beautiful blue eyes looked into hers, dilated and unfocused with arousal, and she smiled, knowing just what to say.

“More. Please.”

The vein throbbed at his temple again. And again. And then he shuddered. A fine tremor that sent a matching vibration through her entire being.

“Good girl.” His growl was close to indiscernible, but she understood. And so did he.

He reached over her head, slipping beneath one of his pillows and pulling out something strange. She tried to focus, but it was hard to see. “Another invention?”

“Think of it as my way of protecting you from breaking Theorrean law.” He sighed as he took her hand away and lifted himself off her. Dare whimpered in regret.

She watched Bodhan take a thin sheath of clear material and slide it over his shaft, and was reminded of a hand being covered with a glove. Her heart stuttered at the sight of his erection. She’d known its impressive girth from touch, but the full view filled her with a sense of excitement… and trepidation.

He paused, his hand gripping the base of his shaft, even now giving her a chance to change her mind. She had no intention of letting him stop. She may be intimidated, but she knew Bodhan would take care of her. She trusted him. With her body, if not her secrets.

Her arms wrapped around his neck and she pulled him down for a speaking kiss. She wanted him, no holding back, and he would know it before she was done.

He hummed against her mouth and gripped her hips in his hands. Dare inhaled sharply with the first press of his erection at the opening of her sex.

“Dare,” he muttered against her mouth. “You’re so wet. Relax, princess, and breathe. I have to—”

She cried out as he stretched her, slowly filling her as he stared into her eyes. Dare’s gaze clung to his, and she allowed his utter satisfaction to wash over her, easing her body’s own tension. That sharp prick of pain that was no match for her arousal.

She never realized… never knew it could feel like this. This was more than a tool for procreation. This
was
life. Some pain but mostly pleasure. Indescribable pleasure. All-consuming and as necessary as breathing.

When his hips were flush against hers he buried his face in her neck. “Dare… Dare you feel…”

She knew. She could feel everything. “Bodhan…”

There were no more words once he started to move. It was a rhythm she seemed to know despite her inexperience. Her thighs tightened on his hips, her own lifting off the bed to meet him. Each
thrust was made easier with the slickness of her arousal, intensified by the clenching muscles of her sex.

She was perfection. He’d never felt so lost in a woman. Never been so close this swiftly. Only her.

His thoughts. If they were powerful enough, feelings often found their voice in her mind. Did he truly think that? About her?

He slung his hips with enough force to drag her halfway across the bed and she lost the ability to think entirely. Dare’s fingers curled into his back and he snarled, closing his mouth over her shoulder.

Shameless cries and groans of need sounded around her, whether from the movement of the bed, the surfacing of the submersible, or her own throat, she could not guess. She didn’t care.

“I knew you would be like this. Knew you would feel like this,” Bodhan rasped. “Dare, please—”

He
was begging
her
? He was the one making her wild, the one rocking deep inside her, his rhythm escalating.
Yes… deeper
. She never wanted it to end, wanted to stay connected to him forever. But how much longer could her body take this? She felt charged, inflamed. Combustible.

“Bodhan.”
What was happening to her? To them? Her voice broke as she called out his name again.

“Let go, Dare. I’m here.” He braced his hand over her head and pressed his forehead against hers. “Come with me.”

Feel me.

She did. She was. His adrenaline, his arousal, spiked and shattered in shards of raw passion around her. His strong body pumped against her as he groaned his release, taking her mouth in a ravenous kiss that sent her flying out of the salty water and into the atmosphere.

Not one feeling,
every
feeling. Every sensation. For one blissful moment she was everything. With Bodhan.

Her body was still shaking with the power of it when she felt him move. For a moment, she tightened her arms and legs around him. Unwilling to let him go.

“Shh, Dare. Let me take care of you.” He lifted her off the bed long enough to pull down the covers.

Through vision blurred by the power of what she’d just experienced, she watched him finish undressing. Her hand lifted to her breasts and she sighed. She was still wearing the muslin and Bodhan had still been in his boots. How could her world have been so radically altered that swiftly?

A cool cloth between her legs made her flinch. Bodhan took the hand that rose in protest, kissing the back of her knuckles as he washed her. Soothed her. “Trust me. This will ease you. Make you more comfortable.”

A few moments later he’d set the cloth aside, sliding in beside her. He kissed her fingers, her chin. He was sated. Solicitous. “Do you need anything else, Dare? Did I hurt you?”

She shifted on the bed. She ached, but it was not unpleasant. Her skin, her sex still tingled, and jolts of desire continued to pulse along her nerve endings. “I feel lovely.”

He laughed softly. “You are lovely. Of course, I haven’t seen all of you yet.” His fingers went to her waist, making her giggle and teasingly resist until she allowed him to turn her onto her stomach. He began to place soft kisses up her spine until he reached her nape, pushing her hair over to one side.

One of his fingers started to trace a featherlight design along the left side of her back beneath her shoulder blade and she sensed a small jolt from him. Surprise? Bemusement? The feelings made no sense, so she focused on the physical sensation of his touch on the small raised area of skin.

Her birthmark. She had tried to glimpse it more than once, when
she knew she would not be disturbed, but to her it looked like nothing more than a blurred circle of blue.

Her father had been adamant that she never let it be seen by another living soul. “You have many strikes against you in the Wodes’s eyes, Demeter. Your size disturbs the other shield guards. They whisper that your inheritance is flawed. If they knew you were marked as well, you would not be able to fulfill your destiny. They would not accept you as a Senedal. As a Chalice for Queen Idony.” He had patted her head, his expression grim. “You will hide this as you hide your ability, daughter, or I cannot protect you.”

“Lovely, Dare,” Bodhan whispered, bringing her back to the present. “You are not what I expected at all. How did you stumble onto my Siren?”

They both knew what had brought them together. Chance. An accident of timing. An opportunity for greed. Dare buried her face in the nearest pillow. The real question, the one she had no clue how to answer was, why was there a part of her that did not want to go?

He curved his warm, muscular body around her, tugging the plush coverlet over both their bodies in the lingering silence.

Dare bit her lip, fighting back tears. Had she ever felt as safe as she did at this moment? As full of life?

But what right did she have to feel this way? She was born for one purpose, to be the queen’s companion protector, her Chalice. Idony could be suffering far away from Two Moon Bay, from Centre City. She could be in pain and suffering… though not dead. Dare would have sensed it.

And within the palace? A betrayal of which the magnitude was still too enormous for Dare to completely comprehend was fomenting. In more ways than she could count, she was running out of time.

Knowing that truth, bearing that burden, had not stopped her,
if only for a heartbeat, from thinking that she never would have felt this, would have met Bodhan, if Idony had not been in danger. If Cyrus had not gone missing.

Perhaps this moment with him, this taste of pleasure, had been the greatest mistake of her life. Because now she knew what she was missing. What her blessed, isolated life in the palace had lacked. As she let herself relax against him, Dare knew this was something she should not allow again, yet she could not bring herself to regret it. There would be time enough for that once they’d surfaced.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d slept when a strange noise woke her. Not the external machinery of the Siren. It was footsteps inside the room. Several pairs.

Tension. Impatience.

Footsteps and emotions that did not belong to the man sleeping heavily beside her.

“Had a feeling she would do the trick.
I
am good, but Bodhan was made of stone until she came on board. Who knew he had a fetish for virgins with secrets?”

Seraphina? Why did she sound like she was talking through a teakettle? Dare tried not to move, feigning sleep along with Bodhan. She hoped it was pretense. How could he sleep through this invasion? She supposed it was up to her to determine whom Phina was talking to, and how they had gotten past his guards.