Hers To Cherish (Verdantia Book 3) (23 page)

Ram seethed. No, he hadn’t read the fine print. He hadn’t even
seen
the gods-be-damned entry form.
Nice of DeTano to warn me.
Ram rolled his head and shrugged his shoulders to dispel the building tension. His brows lowered in thought.

If
he and Steffania
were
that popular, perhaps others would want to watch his
téad de ghrásta
demo. His demonstration would provide an excellent distraction for Tok to establish a communications link with the League. Narr’s actions indicated a watchful distrust of Ramsey. He would bet money Narr would attend the
téad de ghrásta
demonstration – if for no other reason than to keep an eye on him. Deciding in that instant, Ram addressed the attendant.

“I’ll agree to a demonstration. Tell your master I’ll do it at 900 NT Solar. Where?”

The Bromian held the silver tray—with the once-more floating cube—and rose, gazing warily at the Verdantian. “His Excellence, Ambassador Kurnic, indicated that
Dominus
Narr has placed the Azure Patio on the eastern side of the main residence at your disposal.”

Ram watched the Brom
ian attendant glide off and took another sip of his drink. “Tomorrow, during the demonstration, will be a perfect time to signal the League. Arrange a pick-up-point within the grounds and a time window. We’ll find DeAlbero, get your ‘quiet room’ evidence and get the hell out of here.” Ram raised the beverage to his lips once again.

Tok grunted his agreement.
“Yes, though I’ll be sorry to miss your demonstration.”

Ramsey cut his eyes to the Khlossian long enough to see his
teasing leer.

To Ram, it seemed he had no more wrapped himself around Steffania than Pansy was shaking them both with the news that the Khlossian was at the door.

“Tell him to
go away and come back in the morning.” Ram nuzzled further into Steffania’s fragrant hair. In response, she wiggled her buttocks into his groin and pulled his arm tighter around her breasts.

“I’m sorry,
Dominus
. It
is
morning.”

“No. You lie.”

“I’m sorry,
Dominus.
But it’s not a lie.”

Ram
flopped to his back with a groan of protest. “Let him in.”

He lay there
, trying to convince his body to move. Ram couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a full night’s rest. Of course, he admitted, some of that sleep loss had been self-induced – not a waste of time, mind you – just self-induced. He would never exchange those nights with Steffania for mere sleep.

“Are all Verdantians as lazy as you?”

Ramsey cracked an eyelid. “Not lazy. It’s the vision of your revolting face first thing in the morning. You’re like that old-Earth creature, the one with the snakes on her head. So ugly one sight turned men to stone.”

Tok filled the room with his rumbling laughter.
“Sounds like a beautiful maiden to me. You must be at the Azure Patio in an hour, so it’s best you rise, stone or not.”

Steffania pushed herself up onto her elbows and
through disordered clouds of red hair –
gods I love that hair
– regarded Tok. “What happens at the Azure Patio at,” she shook her hair out of her face and peered at the ornate time-keeper on the bedside table, “nine o’clock?”

Tok rumbled into more laughter. “Ah, Verdantian. You didn’t share the news with your woman?”

“Ramsey...what news? What happens at nine o’clock?” Steffania poked his ribs.

He glared
at Tok. “Thanks,
friend
.”

Tok shrugged with a grin.

“I demonstrate
téad de ghrásta
to the Bromian delegation and whoever else wants to attend.” {Meanwhile, Tok is going to try to contact the League.} Ram returned Steffania’s steady regard.

“And who is going to be your subject?”

“You.”

“Ramsey
...I...I…” Steffania took a long steadying breath. “That is an intensely private thing. I can’t be put on public display.”

“It’s a little late for that.”
Ram would have murdered DeTano on the spot had he been there. “You didn’t read paragraph ten, section 2.5 either, did you?”

“What does that mean? Paragraph ten of what?”

“Never mind. Get up. Wear your hair off your neck. Don’t forget to wear your jewels.” He eyed the other woman in the room. “Pansy, stay with Tok. I’m not sure how long this will take, but we’ll meet you back here at, say, one?”

Tok nodded his agreement.

Steffania
followed Ram and the gray-man, Eagan, through what seemed miles of hallway to the Azure Patio. She couldn’t say how long it had taken them or how they had gotten there. She floated in a hiatus of mind-numbing disbelief.
This is not happening.
She followed blindly and face-planted into the back of Ramsey when he stopped. The Azure Patio. As her eyes wandered, she could see where the name “azure” came from.

Flowing patterns, reminiscent of clouds or ripples of water, in all shades of blue stones – some precious – interlocked the
courtyard tiles. The columns holding up the latticed roof were inlaid with some sparkling blue material – even the vines of blossoms, draping the lattice and perfuming the air with a subtle sweetness, carried a tint of blue.

Every time reality threatened to break her fragile peace into a thousand jagged shards, she retreated
further into disavowal of what was to come. Ram shouldered his way through bodies, her hand firmly held in his, and pulled her into an open space. Murmurs of “barbaric Verdantian,” and “unusual sex practices,” alighted on her ears. Their meaning registered only in passing.
This is not happening
. But as Ramsey’s firm hands positioned her in the center of the open-air courtyard, the hundreds of eyes that dissected her opened a gaping fissure in the fragile shell of her denial. This
was
happening.
No!

She
turned to bolt.

Ramsey flattened her forcibly against the hard planes of his chest and tucked her head into
his shoulder. {Stop. Now. Listen to me. Steffania, listen.}

She struggled in his hold.

He jerked her even harder into his length.

Her muscles twitched, longing to tear away and run, but his immensely strong arm banded her waist and snugged her to him in an inescapable embrace. The other arm crossed over her back and his big hand cradled her head into the crook of his neck.

{
Don’t fight me, Steffania. Stop.}

{
Ramsey! I can’t...I can’t . . .}

“
Easy, vixen. Listen to me. Listen; concentrate on me – only me.”

The deep bass of his voice soothed enough
of her panic that she could nod.

“You can do this, Steffania.
” {Tok needs this diversion.
We
need this diversion.}

{
No, Ramsey. Not in public. Not bound with alien eyes observing, speculating. Oh, gods, no! I can’t.} She tried to push away from him but his arms restrained her like iron bands.

{
You can. Ignore them. Block them out. They don’t matter. You do this for
me
, vixen – only me. Only me.} His deep voice whispered those two words over and over in her head until she stopped straining to flee.

She wondered miserably if perhaps with a blindfold – and Ram’s voice?
She gradually relaxed in his arms and laid her cheek on his shoulder. “Will you cover my eyes?”

“
If you need it.”

{
You must talk to me. I...ah...I need to hear your voice.}

He tilted her face to his. His gaze caught hers and he leaned down to kiss her, his mouth warm and gentle on her lips
– a kiss of reassurance – not lust.

“
Vixen, before this is over, you’ll be telling me to shut the fuck up.” His teasing murmur against her lips pulled a hesitant smile from her. She stepped back as he released her. Holding her eyes with his, he whispered, “Trust me, Steffania. This is only you – only me. No one else is even here. We are alone.”

She swallowed
and offered him a jerky smile. “Okay. Just you, right?”

He nodded.
“Yes, vixen. Only me.”

His eyes
held hers as she took a deep, ragged breath and slowly exhaled. “I’m ready,
Dominus
.”

A brilliant smile flashed across his face and she was suddenly
, desperately, glad she’d been able to hold it together. She would do this – for him.

Steffania didn’t know how
Ramsey worked his otherworldly power. He must have used some arcane sorcery. Her world collapsed and coalesced until it held only the rush of the ropes’ sensual constriction heating her to white-hot arousal and the penetrating, crystal-gray gaze of Ramsey blazing into her psyche. She thanked the gods he hadn’t blindfolded her. She consumed the flame of passionate awe living in his eyes as if it were her soul’s food and drink.

Nothing existed for her outside of the brush of his hands as he wound her in the
exquisiteness of the intricately interlaced rope. Nothing existed for her beyond the continual caress of his hushed words of praise and murmurs of profound desire. He never moved so far from her that she could not feel the heat of his body, for when he stripped her, he had stripped himself to only his synth-leather pants. He radiated warmth like a sun to her moon.

Amazing twists
, wraps and diamonds of red and black rope decorated and bound each leg separately – and then up her lower torso. With every constricting bite of cord around her flesh, endorphins induced a languid dissolve of tense muscle and stroked her arousal into bright coals of ardor.

{
Only me, vixen.}

Ram pulled a black cord snug around her thigh and his fingers lingered for a moment.

{Only you,
Dominus
.}

By the time Ramsey had reached
the juncture of her thighs, her arousal glistened on the once bright thatch of flame hair, now dark with her moisture.

{
Yield – for me, vixen.}

{
Yes.}

As
Ram crafted his intricate artwork across her abdomen, he paused for a moment and sank to his knees, gently nuzzling between her legs. She felt the warm fondle of his tongue swirl around and around her swollen pearl and it was all she could do not to melt to the floor and beg him to take her. He groaned, barely audible. She felt it more than heard it.

{
Your passion, your surrender...it slays me. My cock is a gods-be-damned iron spike. Hell’s breath, Steffania.}

With a
checked grunt, he stood again and resumed his careful work. His eyes returned to hold hers and she lost herself in their living intensity, in their compelling message of a desperate desire restrained. He did not pause again until a beautifully interwoven corset stretched up her ribs to support her full breasts.

“
Mmm. These I cannot ignore.”

He
cupped her thrusting breasts in both hands and compressed them. His thumbnails teased the hard, pebbled points of her nipples with repeated thrums.
Ah! Ah!
He watched her, noting the flare of her eyes and quickened breath. Her pussy wept tears of arousal. Her body’s lubrication tickled as it escaped her inner lips and rolled down to soak the rope in the crease of her groin. Her hips moved in an involuntary roll. When Ram replaced his thumbs with his mouth, her upper torso undulated slowly in uncontrolled response. She yearned for a stroke to her burning clit, a cock to stretch her aching pussy – anything to assuage the inferno of the new sun dawning between the black and scarlet bindings of her thighs.