King of Clubs (15 page)

She took a deep breath and pushed open one door and slipped into the dungeon. The door banged shut behind like a concrete lid sealing a tomb. It was dimmer than usual with candles flickering around the room, and she had to blink until her eyes adjusted.

Her breath caught as her gaze rested on Kir and Rafe. Kir stood with his arms crossing his massive chest, and Rafe had one shoulder hitched against the wall as he studied her with obsidian eyes. They both wore leather breeches and boots, but both had bare chests that any red-blooded woman would want to rub her hands over.

Where’s Ty?

“Are you ready, Milady?” Kir said with a lazy sort of drawl to his voice.

Rafe just watched her with his dark gaze, as though seeing into her soul, seeing something that she didn’t.

It came to Awai then. No, she wasn’t ready. She’d never be ready. She wanted Ty and Ty only.

And what had been upsetting her so badly had been the fact that Ty would be willing to share her in any form.
How can he love me if he’ll let other men touch me?

The dungeon doors swung open and a white tiger bounded through with a roar that rattled windowpanes and snuffed candles. He came to a stop then stalked slowly toward Kir and Rafe.

Neither man moved or seemed the least bit concerned. The tiger gave another room-shaking roar and then shifted…into Ty.

He stood with his back to Awai, facing the two men. “I will not share this woman,” he growled. “She is my heart, my soul, and she belongs to me.”

Awai’s own heart began pounding in her throat and the joy that had been missing all morning suddenly filled her again.

Kir bowed and Rafe look amused. “It is as I expected,” Kir said. “She is your lifemate and I must say it took you long enough to realize you could not let us have her in any way.”

Before Awai had time to blink, both men shifted into wolves. The golden wolf gave a quick howl, then both loped from the room. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought the two of them were laughing.

Ty slowly turned to face Awai, his chin high, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “I am sorry, Awai. I tried to go along with it, to fulfill your fantasy, but I could not. I love you, and I can never share you with any man or woman.”

Awai ran toward Ty and jumped up, grabbing him around the neck and wrapping her legs around his waist. She pressed her lips to his, kissing him long and hard. He buried one hand in her hair while his other hand cupped her ass, holding her tight.

When she pulled away, Ty stared at her with a shocked look. “You are not angry with me?”

She shook her head, her hair sliding across her shoulders and onto Ty’s chest. “I can’t be with anyone else. I realized that today.” Her eyes locked with his as she added, “You don’t know how happy it makes me that you feel the same way.”

The relief that rushed through Ty was so great that he gripped Awai tighter to him as he gazed into her beautiful blue eyes. “Are you sure, my love? I feared you would be disappointed with me for not giving you your fantasy. But I can never allow another man to touch you.”

Awai smiled. “I love you, Ty, and you’re the only man I’ll ever want or need.”

Ty let loose with a roar then kissed her long and hard, letting her feel all the pent up frustration and joy he felt at that moment. He held her close while he strode through the still open doors. With his magic he slammed the doors shut behind them as he carried Awai from the dungeon and through the palace. She kept her legs locked around his waist, her arms around his neck. Her smile was radiant and he could see the love in her eyes that matched his own.

While he strode through the palace, intense joy flowed through his heart and soul. Awai had declared her love for him and he wished to shout it out so that all might hear.

When he reached his bedchambers he carried her straight to his bed, straight to the one place he wanted to keep her forever. With a flick of his wrist he lit candles scattered across the room, bringing light to what was dark from the storm outside.

He laid her gently upon the soft coverings and she released her hold on him. For a moment they stared at one another in silence. She looked so beautiful, her dark hair splayed out behind her, the white leather dress hugging her slender body, her breasts ready to burst from their bonds.

She held her arms out to him. “I want you. I need you. No roles, no playing.”

He smiled at her and lowered himself onto the bed beside his woman. He wanted to love her like he never had before, and then he wanted to show her that she was his in every way imaginable.

Awai sighed as Ty lowered his lips to hers. Gone was all the doubt and indecision. She knew he would never harm her in any way.

He would love her and protect her always, and she would do the same for him.

Ty pressed his length along hers, rubbing his leather-clad cock against her hip. Slowly he pushed aside one of the straps binding her breasts, freeing it. He leaned down and flicked his tongue over the nipple and the club charm, and then he gently blew air upon it.

Awai gasped and arched toward him, but he moved to her other breast. He pulled aside the leather strap and released her breast from its confines. This time he suckled her nipple before blowing air over it and the heat between her thighs grew more intense than ever before.

“Fuck me, Ty,” she begged. “I need you to thrust so deep I feel it in the back of my throat.”

Ty shook his head. “Ask me to make love to you. After we make love, then I will fuck you.”

“You’re not making sense.” Awai placed her hands on his muscled chest. “No matter how we do it, I want you and you want me.”

“If you don’t know the difference, my little tigress, I have been lax in my teachings.” Ty brought his hand to Awai’s face and rubbed his thumb in a whisper caress over her lips. “This is not about driving my cock into your core.” He skimmed his fingers along her jaw and smiled. “It is about showing you my love in how I touch you, feel you.”

Awai trembled in response to Ty’s touch and her heart ached at his words. To truly be loved was something she’d never expected to happen. Even though he had told her, now he was showing her what he’d meant.

Ty gently undressed her, easing the straps of her dress from her shoulders and down to her waist. He rose from the bed and slid the leather outfit from her hips, down her legs and feet and then tossed it aside. Every move he made was slow and sensuous.

When Ty finished undressing Awai, he looked at her and sucked in his breath. His woman was so beautiful she caused his heart to ache and made it hard to breathe. For a moment he simply swept his gaze over her body. From her dark chestnut hair to her full, beautiful breasts, to her hairless mound, and shapely legs, then back to her blue eyes. She wore nothing but his collar and nipple rings and the star charm at her navel.

“Words cannot be said to express how beautiful you are, my love.” Ty held out his hands in a helpless gesture. “From your heart to your soul to your body, you are beautiful.”

Awai bit her lower lip, afraid she was going to cry. The moment was so precious with Ty’s love so clearly expressed. “How did I get so lucky by finding you, Ty?”

He smiled. “I found you.”

She returned his smile and started to get up, to go to him, but he shook his head and said, “No, stay there where I might watch you as I undress.”

Instead of spelling away his clothes with his magic as he had so many times before, Ty removed them himself. He flexed his broad, naked chest then raised his foot to the bed and unlaced one boot as he watched her intently. When it was undone he brought up his other foot and unlaced his boot. He stood and kicked both boots away so that he was standing on his bare feet.

The entire time Ty kept his gaze focused on Awai. Wetness seeped between her thighs and she ached to hold him, to love him. But his movements were slow and purposeful as if to make this moment last an eternity.

It surprised her how much she wanted this. How much she wanted to hold this moment in her mind’s eye, to remember every word, every movement, every touch.

“I am going to taste every bit of your body,” Ty promised as he undid his breeches. “I intend to lick the salt from your skin, to taste the cream from between your thighs. To show you my love in every possible way.”

Awai squeezed her thighs together, trying to ease the ache that his words caused. But he shook his head.

“No,” he said. “I want your legs splayed wide so that I might view all of you.”

She spread her thighs, showing him her swollen folds and her clit that ached for his hands, his tongue, his cock.

A rumbling rose up in Ty’s chest and she sensed that he was on the fine edge of control.

Awai lowered her eyelids. “Let me see all of
you
.”

He widened the opening of his leather pants and his cock sprung free. Awai ran her tongue along her lower lip, wanting to taste him. But he took his time sliding his pants down over his tapered hips, muscled thighs, and powerful calves, until he was naked.

She sighed. What a beautiful man, inside and out. He stood there watching her, his head high and proud, his white-blond hair flowing past his shoulders, his muscles straining with the force it took to hold himself back. She could see that restraint in his eyes, could sense it in his very presence.

“Come to me,” she murmured, beckoning him with her hand and her eyes. “I want to make love to you.”

Ty had never wanted Awai more. Knowing that he had won her love was a powerful aphrodisiac that made his fine rein of control tenuous at best. He forced himself to move closer to the bed. She made to reach for his cock but he shook his head. This was her turn to be pleasured in every way that he could.

He eased onto the bed so that they were lying face to face, their bodies inches apart but the heat of her body melding into his own. He brought his hand to her cheek, her skin so soft beneath his callused fingertips. Gently he slid his hand to her lips and she parted them and flicked her tongue over his index finger.

Ty’s breath hissed as she sucked on his finger and he imagined her going down on his cock. But he continued his movements, trailing his wet finger over her chin, down to the hollow of her throat, and between her breasts where he could feel her heart beating a rapid rhythm.

“I scent your arousal,” he said as he explored her breasts, feeling the weight of one in his hand and then the other. “I can hear your heart beating for me.” He squeezed her nipples, feeling the taut nubs tighten even more beneath his touch.

“I can’t wait.” Awai brought her hand to his stubbled cheek that felt coarse as sandpaper against the soft pads of her fingers. “I need you now.”

With a shake of his head, Ty refused her. “This is about making love, Awai. Not fucking. When I take you tonight, you will know that you are mine and I am yours.”

“I understand that now.” A moan escaped her throat as Ty dipped his head and licked the nipple he was still squeezing. “But you’re driving me crazy.”

Ty raised his head and gave a soft laugh. “I have only just begun.”

Chapter Thirteen

Ty cupped his palm and to Awai’s surprise, a handful of cherry blossoms appeared. He sprinkled the blossoms over her hair and down her shoulder to the curve at her waist and hip. When he had a single bloom left, he brought it to her face and feathered it across her cheek.

“The petal smells wonderful and is so soft.” She sighed at the erotic feel of the bloom. “Yet your touch leaves a path of fire behind.”

“Your skin is silkier and fairer than this blossom.” Ty slid the petals from her cheek, over her lips. “And your scent is far more beautiful.”

Awai trembled at the sensual teasing as he trailed the bloom along her jaw line to her ear. The ache between her thighs grew and she could smell her own arousal mixed with cherry blossoms and Ty’s scent—the smell of a clean breeze on a spring morning blended with an intoxicating musk of man and weretiger. They were still both on their sides, facing one another, and she longed to reach out to him, to touch him the way he was touching her.

Candleflame and shadow flickered over Awai’s features and Ty smiled at the beauty of it. She reached for his cock, as if to stroke it, but he shook his head. “Not yet.” He brought the bloom to the hollow of her throat and let it rest there for a moment. Cherry blossoms were white and pink jewels against her dark hair and her dark lashes made crescents against her skin as she surrendered to him.

She tilted her head back, closing her eyes and fully exposing her throat to him. Whether or not she realized it, in his species that was a sign of total submission and complete trust.

He lowered and kissed her throat below her black collar, lightly flicking his tongue over her pulse point and tasting her skin. When he drew away, he brought the bloom over the curve of her breast then teased her nipple into an even tighter peak. He loved seeing his sign of ownership upon his mate—the collar and the nipple charms.

“Lay upon your back,” he murmured as he gently guided her.

When she was on her back, she opened her eyes and gazed at him. He called forth more cherry blossoms and sprinkled them over her full breasts and flat belly, and onto her mons. Awai’s lips parted and her chest rose and fell as she took a deep, shuddering breath. Blooms slid down her breasts and onto the bed cover.

Ty picked up two blooms that had fallen to the bed and brushed the twin blossoms over one of Awai’s nipples as he dipped his head and tasted the nipple closest to him. He flicked his tongue over the taut nub and the dangling club charm.

Awai gave a whimper. “I didn’t know men like you existed.”

A growl rose up in Ty’s throat at the thought of any other man being with his woman. “For you I am the only man who exists.”

“Only you,” Awai said as she reached out to brush his hair away from his face. “You’re my man as much as I’m your woman.”

Ty purred, a low rumble that permeated her being. He shifted position so that he could lick her other nipple and she moaned at the feel of his rough tongue against her nub and his long white-blond hair trailing over her skin. When he rose back up, he focused on trailing the twin cherry blooms down the line of her belly to the star charm at her navel. He circled it, his face a mask of concentration as he teased and tantalized her.