HeroRising (14 page)

The only thing marring this perfect moment was the cursed
condom preventing him from bathing in her wetness. A man had invented these
torture devices? Hopefully whoever the sod was had met a grisly end.

Ach, never mind. It was a necessary evil, and if he had to
choose between no contact with Ari or sex while wearing raingear, give him the
fucking coat.

The kiss of her wet pussy lips brushing his pelvis made the
cum roll in his balls, the hold on his control weakening with every jerk of her
hips.

Too soon. Too soon. This perfect moment was going to be over
before either of them was ready.

Reaching for the headboard, he ground his teeth so firmly,
he’d be shocked if he had any left by the end of the night. If anything, he had
to hold out until Ari reached her peak first. Gods grant him the strength.

He stared up at the ceiling and shifted his focus to the
texture of the drywall and not on the press of her hands on his chest as she
rode him in a steady rhythm.
Jesu
, he needed a distraction immediately.
Mayhap he could count the number of stars he had passed on his journey to
Earth. There had been, what, trillions of them? Ah, he knew! A listing of the
names of every Skandavian monarch and their offspring. Please let the endless
roll call temper his desire enough to hold on.

With every name that passed through his mind, the urge to
come relented and the pressure in his cock eased until only a pleasant fullness
remained and he was able to release an easy breath. Now to concentrate on Ari’s
pleasure.

A glance at Ari’s face and stiff posture made him sit up in
alarm.

“What is wrong?”

She shrugged and her gaze fell to his chest. Her folded arms
tightened more across her breasts and he sensed her lust had all but
disappeared. “You tell me.”

His throat tightened as if he could taste the burn of her unshed
tears, and that telltale flush stained her cheeks. She was embarrassed. Why? “I
do not understand.”

“Look, I knew you weren’t a talker, but a sound of some kind
would be nice. Am I boring you?”

“Are you insane?” he yelled before he could temper his incredulity.
“You have me a hairsbreadth from losing all control and I’m doing all that I
can to stop it. If you were any sexier, I wouldn’t survive.”

Her eyebrows rose, revealing her doubt of his statement and
he wanted to shout at the heavens with frustration.

How could she be so unaware of her effect on him? The fact
she hadn’t a clue crushed him as surely as if she had slapped him. Again he
cursed her humanness, for if she had his powers of empathy, she’d never
question how she twisted him into knots with a single glance.

Damn. Damn it all. He sighed and held her against his chest.
The blame was entirely on him. Here he had been determined to not make old
mistakes and he was doing just that, relying on old habits to convey his
feelings. He had to learn some new tricks. Fast.

“How I can please you?” he whispered in her ear and felt the
first flickering of hope when goose bumps erupted across her skin.

“I like it when you touch me,” she said in a small voice.

“Like this?” Starting at her neck, he ran his hand along her
shoulder, down to her breast and cupped the full mound.

“That’s nice,” she sighed and pressed forward, forcing her
breast against his palm. Around his shaft her sheath softened and grew damp
again, allowing his cock to sink deeper. She released a moan. “That’s really
nice.”

Emboldened by her sighs, he cupped her other breast and
plucked lightly at her nipples with each pull stronger than the one before,
testing the limits of how much of his strength she could handle.

“You like this?” He twisted the tips harder and was rewarded
with a throaty growl. “What else do you like?”

“I—oh—your mouth. I like your mouth on me.”

“Ya?” He pressed a line of kisses across her sternum,
tickling her skin with flicks of his tongue until he reached a dusky peak and
sucked it deep into his mouth with a firm draw.

Her fingers dove into his hair, holding his mouth to her
breast as her hips rolled, stroking his shaft with shallow thrusts. Oh ya, his
woman loved his tongue on her flesh, and his teeth too. He smiled when she
squealed in delight at his bite.

“What else do you like?”

“I like how you feel inside me,” she panted.

“I like that too.”

“You do?”

“Ah, Ari. It’s taking all my strength not to hold you down
and ravish you.”

“But I want to be ravished.” She pulled his hair. “Don’t be
gentle. Take me. Take me hard.”

“You don’t know what you ask.”

“I do.” She squeezed her inner muscles as she rose and fell
on his shaft. “I want you. All of you.”

Dare he?

“Please, Bale. I need you,” she cried then bit into his
shoulder, the fabric of his shirt a slight barrier against her teeth.

“Ari,” he moaned. How could he not do as she wished when she
pleaded so prettily?

He reclined onto the mattress and held her hips still as he
lunged up, again and again, experimenting with the force.

“Yes. More.” The ends of her hair tickled his hands as her
head tipped back. “Harder. Yes. Harder.”

Using her gasps and cries as a barometer, he soon had them
racing at a punishing pace with her bouncing on his cock and the need to come
tightening in his belly.

“No,” he barked when she palmed her breasts. The sight of
her bobbing mounds as she took each thrust fascinated him to no end. “Leave
them be.”

“Ah, so that’s how it is.” Her laughter sizzled across his
skin. “That’s it, Bale. Fuck me harder. Make my tits bounce.”

The vulgar choice of words shocked him even as his cock
jerked in agreement and surged within her soaking sheath. The ripple of muscles
stroked him as firmly as a tight fist and her answering moans were a hammer on
his preconceived notions. To have her revel in his possession, wanting more and
not being afraid to ask for it spoke to his need to claim her and his hips
responded in kind.

He was close, so close. And Ari was too. Her orgasm twined
around both of them in a razor-sharp thread that hurt with a pleasure-pain that
brought tears to his eyes. The mist of ecstasy bathed his face, the abyss was
so close.

She balled the front of his shirt in her fists as she hung
on for the ride. Her fingernails clawed at his chest, scoring his nipples in
another bite of pleasure. Over her cries he heard the tear of cotton as she tore
the seams.

“Bale,” she sobbed, caught in the throes of near completion,
her frustration mounting with each lunge. “Please.”

“I have you.”

He slipped his hand between their bodies and found the wet,
swollen nub of her clitoris. A few hard circles pushed her over the edge.

Her eyes rolled back as she screamed and her pussy clamped
down, milking the seed from his loins. Her orgasm reached out to punch him in
the chest and turn him inside out. His release shot up his cock like sweet
fire, flooding the inside of the condom in spurts and obliterating the
barricade he had built to keep out the bombardment of emotions from the world
around him.

Elation, fear, both hers and his, wrapped as sharply as
barbed wire around his chest, climbing up his arms and neck to paralyze him
with the intensity.

Too much. This was all too much. Feeling. Experiencing
emotions with all the subtly of a sonic boom. Colors, sounds, textures so
crystal clear his mind burned under the onslaught.

“Bale?”

Too much. Too much. To handle.

“Bale?”

The world pulled him in, sucking him in like a tree branch
through a wood chipper and spitting him out the other side in a million tiny
pieces.

“Bale!”

Air’s terrified shout made his eyes fly open as he gasped as
if surfacing from the ocean. She sat beside him with strands of red hair
clinging to her wet cheeks. Her blue eyes glimmered with her tears.

“Ari?” he croaked.

“Bale. What’s wrong? Are you all right?”

“Need. I need. A minute.”

A newborn foal attempting to stand had more grace then he
did as he slid from the bed and beat tracks to the bathroom, slamming the door
behind him so hard, the walls rattled.

Knees buckling, he crashed to the floor, the cool press of
tile on his hot cheeks woke him up enough to feel the sensation of Ari’s fear
and humiliation rolling across his skin.

“I’m sorry, Ari,” he moaned. “It’s not you. It’s me.”

It’s all me.

Well. That was a first.

Ari wrapped her arms across her chest and clenched her teeth
to stop the chatter caused by the sudden drop of adrenaline. If she didn’t know
better, she’d have thought she was on drugs by the way tracers floated in her
vision and her mind splintered into several directions of what the hell
happened? Come to think of it, what the hell did happen?

Once Bale had relaxed, he had taken her on a journey beyond
her wildest imagination. For several glorious minutes she had been deep in the
grip of one of those out-of-body experiences she had only read about in books.
Even now the walls of her pussy fluttered, hungry for more of his possession,
and there was no mistaking, Bale had possessed her. She might have been on top
riding him like a mechanical bull at her former place of employment, but he had
her completely under his command with the weight of his hands on her hips and
the fire in his gaze as he had watched her breasts bounce.

And now he was shut in the bathroom, sounding like a wounded
animal as he moaned an apology. What exactly was he apologizing for? The
amazing orgasm?

Or maybe he felt bad for scaring the ever-lovin’ crap out of
her when he fell into convulsions after he erupted inside her with the force of
Mt. Vesuvius.

She climbed off the bed and pulled a nightgown and a sweater
over her trembling body. Geez Louise. Could this night get any stranger?

The man all but disappeared for almost a week with nothing
but a tight-lipped nod in passing then, wham! At the first opportunity she’s
spreading her legs and begging him to plow her. Classy.

But she liked him. She really, really liked him. And the way
he had been about to put the smackdown on that creep? Oh, wicked awesome. He
reminded her of the Punisher or Wolverine, all badass and sexy. What
hot-blooded woman wouldn’t want a taste of that? She was human, after all.

Apparently Bale had more in common with those superheroes
than rippling muscles and attitude. The man had issues. Major ones.

She glanced back at the bathroom door. At least the moaning
had stopped. Whether or not that was a good sign remained to be seen.

Sooner or later, he was going to open that door. Then what?
Did she want to know what set him off? Would he even tell her? The man was a
statue when it came to talking about…well, anything.

And if he did? Was she ready to deal with his personal
demons? It was early in their relationship. She still had the power to walk
away. All she had to do was say thanks for the orgasm and send him on home.
Potential craziness averted.

With another glance at the door, she shook her head. Who was
she kidding? There was no way she could leave him now.

There had been a moment when she had looked into his eyes
and seen forever. Not the live-happily-ever-after kind of forever, but a
kindred spirit. The yearning for more than a quick lay and the discovery of
finding “the one”. For a second she had thought she had seen into Bale’s soul,
and it was lonely and hungry for affection.

Of course, that might have been the hormones talking, but
she never experienced that type of magic. It was addictive, frightening and
wonderful all at once. When Bale had asked her to come with him to the city,
she had taken a leap of faith and received more than she thought possible. She
owed it to herself, to them, to take another leap. If she didn’t try, she knew
she’d think about it for the rest of her life.

She went into the kitchen and popped a pod into the
coffeemaker. Who cared if it was after midnight? It was either caffeine or
whisky and the caffeine was probably the better choice to face the next few
minutes.

After the last drop of dark brew fell into the mug, she
settled onto a barstool and faced the bathroom with the warm ceramic cradled to
her chest. A few sips in and the door opened.

A weight filled her chest when she saw the stamp of shame
carved into his features. His bangs hung in wet strands over his eyes and the
front of his shirt was damp, as if he had splashed water on his face. So much
tension rioted inside him she swore she felt him vibrating to the point of
breakage. Part of her wanted to run and throw her arms around him and hold him
close, while the other half feared whatever, if any, words he’d say next.

“I fucked up, didn’t I?”

Her fingers tightened around the mug. “Truthfully, I don’t
know what’s going on right now.”

He wiped his hand down his face then stared at the floor for
several long moments, and again the urge to offer him comfort made the muscles
in her arms twitch. Self-preservation and prudence kept her butt in the seat.
At some point in time, Bale was going to have to open up and give her a glimpse
at his thoughts. If he couldn’t do that now, she might as well kiss her
fantasies goodbye and show him the door.

Another two minutes passed and just when she thought she’d
have to kick him to the curb, he lifted his tortured gaze, which struck her like
an arrow through the heart.

“I—” He grimaced and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I
don’t know exactly what to say right now. I don’t…share. Ever. But you deserve…
You deserve more.”

Ari pinched her lips together and didn’t dare lower her gaze
as he began to pace in the tiny space of the living room. It was as if she were
deep in the jungle observing a panther. One tiny peep and she might scare him
off.

“I told you that I am sensitive to people. What we just
experienced was…intense. Overwhelming. Spectacular, but overwhelming, and I
couldn’t handle the rush. I’m sorry. You—you were, are, wonderful. And
that’s—that’s why I’m fucked.”

The stop-start of his sentences made her heart climb into
her throat, as if she were watching a scary movie and the hero was in danger.
How she wished she could just fast forward to the end and find the ease that
came with knowing everything turned out all right.

“Ari, I have done…things,” he continued in that stilted tone
that made her ready to scream. “There is a darkness inside me. And you are so
passionate, so fucking brilliant. You make me want.”

She made him want…what?

“What do I make you want?” she asked, daring to interrupt.

“That is all. You make me want.”

“Is wanting so bad?”

“Yes, when I’m afraid my darkness will snuff out all of your
light. You deserve so much better than me.”

“Shouldn’t I be the one to decide that? From what I’ve seen
of you so far, I think you’re pretty great.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “Even if I’m ready to maim
any man who looks to be harboring an illicit thought about you?”

“That,” she sighed, “you may need some help with.”

He chuffed. “The terrible thing is, I can’t really blame
them when I have the same thoughts myself. Even more so. I’m just as vile as
they are.”

Now why did the idea of Bale having dirty thoughts about her
make her skin tingle instead of feeling repulsed? “Like what?”

He shook his head. “I cannot tell you. I do not want to
shock you more than I already have.”

Fool. Didn’t he know his refusal to tell her made her want
to know all the more? “How do you know I’ll be shocked?”

“I just do. Ari, allow me to apologize and let it alone.”

“Stop, just stop.” There was only so much teeth-pulling she
was willing to do. She set her mug down and marched up to him. Clasping his
cheeks between her palms, she forced him to look at her. “Stop trying to
shelter me. I’m a big girl, if you haven’t noticed. I like you, Bale, but I
want to be with the real you. Not the version of you you think I want to be
with. So what is this all about, really? Are you trying to tell me you have a
kink? Most everyone does.

“My last boyfriend always wanted me to wear schoolgirl
uniforms during sex, which is disturbing on so many levels now that I know what
his real job is, but that’s not the point. My point is I like being with you
and want to do it again, without you holding yourself back from me. That’s not
fair to either of us. The least I can say is no. Unless it involves knives
and/or small children. To that I’ll say no right now.”

“Is that so?” The light in his eyes and his deep drawl sent
shivers down her spine that weren’t anything close to fear. “What if I told you
that whenever I look at your lips, I imagine how they’d look stretched around
my cock?”

Oh yeah. Now they were getting somewhere. “Are you speaking
truth or hypothetically?”

“One of the most honest things I have ever said out loud.”

“Then I say that whenever I look at your hands, I want them
all over my body. Pinching, twisting, filling me until I scream and beg for you
to take me hard with that big cock you want me to suck. I want you to hold me
down and take me so hard, I can’t walk the next day. What do
you
say to
that?”

A shudder shook his big shoulders as his nostrils flared.
“Do you mean that?”

“You’re the one who’s supposed to be sensitive to other’s
emotions. You tell me.”

His eyelids fell to half-mast and he reached out a hand,
cupping her cheek. “Ari.”

That was all he needed to say to have her in his arms, her
mouth meeting his in a kiss so hot, she swore it singed the ends of her hair.
Those big hands of his gripped the fabric of her nightgown at her hips and
pulled, dragging her into the curve of his body.

“Wait. I like this nightgown.” She broke away and swept the
garment and sweater over her head then reached for the hem of his shirt. “But
I’m not going to be the only one naked this time.”

He gripped her wrists. “Don’t. I have scars.”

The note of distress in his voice was unmistakable, and with
it he stole another piece of her heart.

She placed a soft kiss on his lips. “Why do I have the
feeling that the worst of your scars are on the inside? Let me in, Bale.”

After another big shudder, he let go of her wrists. She kept
their gazes locked as she pulled the cotton up and over his head. As the fabric
fell to the floor, she scanned the massive area of his chest and stifled a
chuckle. The man was insane to have such body issues. He had the type of
physique that reminded her of the gladiators of old. Six-pack? The man had a
case of muscle feeding into sculpted muscle. Was he scarred? Yes. A line here,
a pucker there. There was a particularly nasty one dominating his right biceps
that looked as if he had an enormous chunk of flesh cruelly hacked out of his
arm, but even so, he was still a beautiful specimen of man.

The rasp of his zipper sent shivers over her skin. Did he
really think she would be offended if he asked her to suck his cock?
Pul-eeze.
She was ready to fall to the floor, claw at his jeans and beg for the
opportunity to get up close and personal with what he was packing.

Hands down, he had the biggest cock of any lover she’d had,
and she was certain to ever have again. She never considered herself a cock
snob before. After all, it wasn’t the size of the ship, but the size of the
waves rocking her ocean that mattered. But after Bale, how could any man
compete?

She sank to her knees as she pulled his jeans down his legs
and sighed like a schoolgirl gazing at her crush when his erection bobbed
before her. Behind the flare of his crown, the stalk was narrow then grew
thicker at the base. The memory of the way he filled her pussy so perfectly
made her mouth water to taste the satin skin.

She licked her lips and wrapped both hands around the shaft,
feeling the pulse of his heartbeat echo down to her core.

Bale stifled a groan and fisted his hands at his sides,
which made her smile. So this was how to make him talk. After a few more
strokes, she touched the tip of her tongue to the bit of flesh under the crown,
loving the way his eyelids grew heavy as he held his breath, waiting for her next
move. She didn’t keep him waiting long.

She parted her lips and swallowed halfway down the shaft in
one move. With the narrow tip, she was able to fit him comfortably into her
mouth without fear of suffocating. Lightly sucking in her cheeks as she drew back,
she reveled in his groan as she worked to take more of his length down her
throat.

“
Liera
, you undo me.” His hands dove into her hair,
his fingers flexed, but he did nothing to control her movements, allowing her
to take the lead.

She smiled around his rod and made sure his cock shined with
her saliva as she pulled back and forth. Under the shaft she rolled her tongue,
flicking beneath the head with each draw. In seconds his cock went from firm to
hot steel within her mouth.

Bale was afraid to reveal his more depraved side, was he? So
far, this was pretty tame in her book. What would he do if she were the one who
pushed the envelope?

Reaching between her thighs, she found the lips of her sex
swollen and drenched. She swirled her fingers in the syrup then reached up to
slide the wet tips across the dark hole of his anus. He gasped, his fingers
tightening in her hair as his cock flexed against her tongue.

“Witch,” he barked. “You push me too far.”

Slowly she worked one finger into his ass, watching from beneath
her lashes as sweat broke out across his flesh and his abdominal and pectoral
muscles twitched. She moaned her encouragement around his throbbing shaft and
sucked harder, rubbing his base with her other hand.

The pupils in his eyes expanded then contracted and his lips
pulled back over his teeth as he snarled her name. “I’m close,
liera
.
Fucking close. Where do you want it, vixen?”

The question was more like where didn’t she want him to
come? If she could, she’d bottle his cum and use it like lotion, she was so
turned-on by watching this big man wrestle with his control.

“Ari. Choose,” he gasped in a tortured groan.

The saltiness of the pre-cum slipping over her tongue was
delicious, but since he was such a fan of her breasts, she wanted to reward him
for sharing a small part of himself he was afraid to allow her to see.