Holding Hope Word Doc NC (4 page)

As she leaned over to
continue her explorations, her breasts brushed against Lucas over-sensitized
flesh. Ella’s body beckoned him as he fought to keep their first encounter slow.
He intended to make her first time exactly how she needed it to be. Easing her
into his lifestyle was best. Though he understood this on an intellectual
level, in the moment all he desired was to sink inside her heat. Her next move
nearly brought him there.

Her fingers swirled in
his belly button before moving to the patch of hair above his shaft. She
brushed the curls and slowly, ever so damn slowly, ran her hand along the full
length of his cock. When she reached the head, she wiped away a drop of pre-cum
with her finger and brought it to her lips. She sucked it in as she might
someday suck his cock and he thought he might lose all control.

“Holy Goddess, Ella,”
Lucas called out as he flipped them to place himself above her. “What did you
do,
mi
amo
?”

“I needed to taste
you.”

“I don’t expect you…”
Ella’s lips brushed his, silencing him.

“I know you don’t
expect anything of me. I needed that. I needed to know what you tasted like,”
Ella explained.

“May I see what you
taste like?”

Her eyes flared just
before she responded, “Yes.” Ella’s voice was just a whisper but it rang as
loudly and clearly as if she’d shouted it. He wondered if she understood to
what she’d just agreed. No matter, she’d understand soon enough.

Lucas leaned in and
kissed her. He held nothing of his emotions back. He gave everything within him
to her. “I’d like to taste your cream, Ella,” Lucas spoke the words against her
lips.

“Yes.”

Taking her mouth again,
Lucas kissed her in thanksgiving for everything she would give to him. Pulling back,
again only enough to speak so that his breath still touched her lips, he asked,
“I’d like to taste your blood.”

“Yes.”

“You aren’t surprised?”

“I’m not. What confuses
me though is that I feel a connection to you already.”

Lucas stroked her hair
back from her face. “Forgive me. Before I could stop myself, you see, you were
in pain, and I needed to… I couldn’t see you hurt and not do something… And
then he tried to… I’m so, so sorry, Ella.”

Ella reached up to
place her finger on his lips. “I’m not angry. I would’ve expected nothing less
from my mate.”

Her smile rendered him
speechless. All he could do was lean in to claim her lips
once
again. For long moments, their mouths fused as one and time was lost. There
were no words necessary as they shared their emotions through their joined
tongues.

Without coaching, Ella
ran her tongue along one of Lucas’s sharp teeth and broke the skin. Lucas
scented and tasted the blood at the same time. He groaned in sweet agony as he
tasted the elixir he’d only dreamed of. It was heaven. In a burst of clarity,
Lucas could feel everything Ella felt, and when combined with his own desire,
their joining –that bond all Valendite Breeds share with their mates- was the
most powerful thing he’d ever known.

“I promise to go slow.”
Lucas spoke as he moved his mouth along the column of her throat. Now that he’d
tasted her blood, he wanted her cream.

“Not too slow,” Ella’s
voice was rough and her breathing more labored. Lucas knew she was as aroused
as he was but he’d promised her he would go slowly. “It hurts a bit.”

Lucas lowered himself
to her breasts, greedy for a taste of her nipples as well. His tongue licked around
the most perfectly peaked nipples, swirling and nibbling until she pushed up
against him seeking more of the sensation. He obliged and gave her a firmer
suction only to release them and lap the wetness with his tongue.

Just as his tongue
dipped into her belly button, Lucas saw her Magdalena Circle sign just to the
left of the precious indentation. He traced it with his tongue as he gave
thanks for his mate. This sign that every woman of the
Magdalena Circle
wore as a birthright showed Ella’s soul sin of
lust. It reminded him that until meeting him she’d not experienced sexual
desire. What a brave woman she was to be welcoming him now, not to be running
away from him. She’d not had an easy life but he meant to change that now.

When he moved lower
still and found her warm center, he felt her shudder. Stopping, he asked, “Are
you okay, Ella? Should I go slower still?”

“No. I- I need you.
This is so- so overwhelming but please don’t stop,” Ella spoke so softly, so
timidly, Lucas could feel her uncertainty. He would be the man to bring out her
confidence in bed, the one who taught her how to find satisfaction for all her
sexual needs.

“No stopping then,” Lucas
murmured against her tiny thatch of curls as he breathed in her scent. He
rubbed his nose into her curls and drew in the heady aroma of her desire. It
was like cinnamon and honey, causing his hunger to multiply tenfold. He sat up
onto his knees and placed one hand on her belly before using his other to
stroke her curls, skimming the apex of her core as he readied her for him.

With a single finger, Lucas
explored deeper, pressing along her wet folds. Suddenly right where he wanted
to be, Lucas was in no hurry. Time stood still as he prepared his mate to take
him. She grew wetter as her sweet moans grew louder and hungrier. He would
forever remember this one moment when he claimed his mate.

“Do you feel it? My
need and your need are woven together now. It’s part of the claiming. We can
feel each other’s desire.” Lucas smiled down on her to see her watching his
face.

His need swept through
him as he continued to prepare her. She was perfect for him. Thank the Goddess
he hadn’t been cursed to be alone for his entire life. Lucas grew harder as he
considered being bound to someone so seemingly perfect for eternity. As he grew
still more rigid, he knew he wouldn’t last long and, from the wetness on his fingers,
he could feel her readiness too.

He sank a finger deep
inside her core until she pushed against his hand. He palmed his own erection
with a promise of more to come before he brought his moist fingers up to his
lips and licked them, sucking them into his mouth as Ella watched. Her mouth
hung open and her eyes were sparkling. Small sprinkles of light released from
them like lightning bugs in the summer sky. He knew it was her magic and it was
telling him she was ready for more.

Lucas held her knees up
in each of his arms and placed himself at her core, opening her to his body and
slowly pushing himself inside. Working to maintain control of his own need, Lucas
pressed forward only an inch at a time. He felt her channel open and allow her
to accommodate his size. Her channel squeezed him as he pushed inward but he
watched her face for any sign of discomfort. He refused to cause her pain.

He felt the slight
resistance when he reached her barrier. Instead of continuing as he was, Lucas stroked
her clit to bring a flood of pleasure into the small tip and distract her. He
brought Ella to the edge of her orgasm before he pushed in more. He watched as she
was overcome by the sensations flooding her and fell in love as she so
trustingly gave herself over to his care. Just as she was going over the edge,
Lucas pushed his shaft deeper.

Lucas held still while
his cock found its home inside his mate. Small beads of sweat formed on his
forehead as he held himself back from driving into her. She was glowing under him,
just coming back to him from her first orgasm. Her skin glistened, her chest
and cheeks flushed and her eyelids fluttering. Her hair was a mess around her
head. Short strands of honey blonde hair stood straight out from its roots.

“Open your eyes.” Lucas
kissed each eyelid. “We aren’t finished yet,” he explained and then chuckled at
her surprise.

“That wasn’t it? I don’t
think I can…” Ella’s words were cut short by Lucas’s thrust. He positioned
himself carefully so she would feel him rubbing along that same sensitized clit
that had moments before sent her flying. He knew it would still be sensitive.

“I’m positive you can.”
Lucas leaned down and took her lower lip between his teeth, lightly nipping at
her flesh and then soothing it with his tongue. “Feel how perfectly we fit together.”

Lucas flexed inside her
again, pushing himself forward and spreading her legs even wider. He watched as
Ella’s eyes looked down toward where they were joined before she sought out his
eyes. Her gray blue eyes lit up, mesmerized and transfixed as she felt him
shift his hips back, drag his cock out against her clit and then press back in again.
Whimpering and shaking, Ella pushed her hips forward to meet his thrusts. He didn’t
stop his motion as he strove to push against the mass of sensation swelling
around them.

Feeling his own release
close, Lucas sank his cock deep into her core even as he felt her inner muscles
contracting around him. He balanced himself so that he could reach down with
his hand to pinch her puffy little clit. Like magic, Ella came again even as
Lucas came. The spasms swept over him for long moments. His cock refused to
soften, a common occurrence in mated males to assure a complete joining with
their mate. Lucas smiled at the reminder that already their mating had begun. For
the remainder of their time, Lucas and Ella would take their nourishment from
one another.

As a woman in the
Magdalena Circle
, she was a destined
mate of a Valendite Breed. While she provided him strength and life through her
blood, his blood would bring her lengthened life. They would live and die
together, a thought that very much pleased him. Lucas remained inside her,
dreaming of their future, as they held each other and waited for sleep to take
them.

Chapter
Three

Ella awoke with a warm
body next to her and a tightening in her lower stomach. That need she’d first
felt when she’d met Lucas continued to thrum inside her even after spending the
last few months here with him. She was shocked to realize she needed more of him
each day despite falling asleep out of sheer exhaustion each night begging for
mercy. Now she couldn’t remember ever sleeping as soundly as she did in his
arms. Lucas made her feel safe, and loved and so, so hot. Goddess, she needed
to get up and splash water on her face.

Slipping her legs from
the sheet, Ella slowly moved to the edge of the bed but got no further than an
inch or two before Lucas’s arm banded around her waist and pulled her back.

“Just where do you
think you’re sneaking off to?”

“I’d like to take a
shower,” Ella explained.

“Sounds like fun,”
Lucas purred into her ear, his voice still sleep-roughened. “I think I need a
shower too.” Still, he made no move to get up as he gathered Ella closer. She
felt his erection at her back and wiggled her bottom into him. He inhaled
sharply, let out a long moan and bit down on her shoulder.

“How can we possibly
want more?” Ella asked even as her body began to tingle. Her skin came alive,
her flesh on fire everywhere he touched.

“
Mi
amo
, I don’t know if I’ll ever have
enough.” Lucas continued nibbling at the tendons in her neck, alternating with
sucking and licking the tender spots, until Ella couldn’t stay still.

“I’m not sure I will
either,” Ella conceded before tilting her head to give him greater access.

“Your neck is
tempting.”

“I’m not stopping you.”

“I know but I’m trying
real damn hard to not overwhelm you.” Lucas sighed. “Are you tender?”

“A bit,” she admitted.
“But I can rest after.”

“After. I like after. I
like now even better,” Lucas’s words faded as he went back to her neck, to that
spot that made her believe nothing else in the world mattered.

Ella lost herself in
the feel of her mate loving her. Never before had she felt so safe, so
connected to another human being as she had since she met Lucas. Yet the
reality was that neither of them
were
truly human. She’d
finally found the world she belonged in because this was her world, not the
human world where she was forced to exist.

Lucas’s tongue lapped a
wet line along her neck. “I need to drink from you,” he whispered just before
she felt his teeth pierce her skin. He drank deeply,
so
very deeply as he always did, and as he swallowed her blood, she couldn’t hold
in her sounds of pleasure. She lifted her arms over her head and stretched to
run her fingers through Lucas’s thick, wavy hair. She pressed her bottom back against
his pelvis, ready to scream as he continued to take his nourishment.

“Lucas, I need—” Ella
turned her head to the side to reach him for a kiss.

Lucas cut off her
words, “I know. Take from me first so that I can give you what you need.” He
nipped at her lips, drawing blood and waited as she did the same to him before
their mouths fused. Their tongues danced as they shared their blood. Then Ella
pulled away and turned her body for a closer touch.