mythean arcana 06 - master of fate (17 page)

She lifted her leg to step into the tub, something she could have done perfectly well with her back to him, and his gaze snapped to hers. Her golden eyes issued a challenge as she piled her hair on the top of her head while she sank into the water. Her breasts rose with the motion. After she leaned against the back of the tub, she let her hair fall.

Oh fuck
.
There was no way in hell he was going to let his damage get in the way of this. She wanted him. And he wanted her more than he wanted to breathe. 

He strode toward the tub, his gaze tracing her shimmery form below the water.

“Join me?” She smoothed soap over her arms.

The idea of fitting into that tiny space, with all her flesh pressed against him, made a shudder of discomfort and panic race across his skin. Anger followed quickly on its heels. Anger at himself for being half the man he’d been, and anger at fate.

It colored his voice when he spoke. “You’re a damned tease.”

Her gaze widened and her pink lips parted. She raised her calf out of the water and rubbed soap over the golden expanse. Her gaze held his as she did the same to her other leg.

 Gods, he wanted her so bad that every inch of him ached with it. But anger still followed. He couldn’t help it. Fate had been a bastard to them. They’d found each other again after all these years. There should have been joy and tenderness. 

Instead, they were trying to pick up broken pieces of themselves and he couldn’t even let her touch him. 

“Get out of the tub.” His voice was rough, hard, commanding.

“What?”

“If you want what you’re asking for, get out of the tub.” 

She submerged herself to the neck, presumably to remove the soap, then stood and stepped out of the tub. The beast within him purred at her acquiescence. Water rolled down her smooth skin and she shivered.

“A towel,” he said. Even speaking was becoming difficult.

It took her only a second to comprehend him. She conjured a towel and held it out. 

He approached and took it. “Keep your hands at your sides.”

She nodded, her gaze on his. As he rubbed the towel over her skin, gently drying it, some of the anger began to fade. It still simmered beneath the surface, his rage at the injustices of fate, but her beauty distracted him. He dried her arms and legs before swiping the towel over her back, careful to touch her only with the towel. He wanted to work up to full-on contact. The curve of her arse made him linger, his imagination leading him down dark paths. She gasped when he moved the towel to her breasts.

“You like that?” he asked.

She nodded, her eyes heavy-lidded.

“Say it.”

“I like it.” Her voice was breathy.

He nodded and moved the towel lower, drying the gentle curve of her belly before whisking it over the curls at the juncture of her thighs. She whimpered, but he didn’t delve between.

“Go to the bedroom.” He wanted to carry her, but he didn’t think he could bear that much touch so soon. The last thing he wanted to do was send his mind back to the Seer’s dungeon. That would end this night early.

She turned and walked quickly to the bedroom. He liked her loud, bossy side, but this submissiveness made lust shoot through his veins. Apparently there was something she wanted more than being in charge. 

He’d have to see to it that he delivered.

He followed her in, the sway of her arse hypnotizing. At the bed, she turned to face him. He approached, stopping only a foot from her. Too close for comfort, but he forced himself not to retreat. 

He swallowed hard and brushed his fingertips over her cheek. “You canna touch me.”

She nodded, understanding and confusion both in her gaze. Her lips firmed. Magic swelled in the air. He caught sight of movement and lowered his gaze. 

“Here,” she said, holding up several lengths of soft rope.

Lust and shame hit him at the same time. She remembered what he’d said all those years ago about wanting to bind her. Then, it’d been a fantasy. Now, it was necessity.

But it didn’t make it any less hot. He wanted it even as he hated that he had to do it. It’d be better if it were choice rather than necessity, but he couldn’t keep himself from taking the rope. The feel of it in his hands sent a shiver through him.

“You’re sure?” he asked. “This isn’t how I would have had it.”

“But you’ll like it. So will I. And I’ll take you any way I can get you.” She climbed onto the bed and sat on her knees facing him. “Tell me.”

“Lie back. Arms together, above your head.” He watched her lie back, her form curved and golden in the dim light of the sun setting outside the window.

Shite. Sunset. “Stay there.”

He went to the small table against the wall and picked up one of the candles. After lighting it in the fire in the living room he used it to light a dozen candles of varying sizes around the room.

“Thank you.” Her voice sounded behind him.

He turned to see that she’d sat up and was watching him. “Of course. It will be dark soon.”

The memory of her fear cleared his head a bit. He was fighting himself by trying to make this work. The last thing he needed was anger, particularly around her. He joined her on the bed, sitting beside her and aching to touch her. “You’re sure you’re okay with this?”

“I told you. I’ll take you any way I can get you. But when you’re comfortable, I want you to tell me everything that happened to you.”

The idea made blackness creep in at the edges of his vision, but he nodded. “Agreed. For now, I want to worship you.”

“Do you?” Her bemused gaze met his.

“More than you know. I’ve wanted it since first we met. No matter what’s happened to me in the years since, no matter how I’ve been changed, never doubt that I want that. That I want you. You’ve been it for me since that day.” He reached out and cupped her cheek, his palm burning at the touch. “No matter what we’ve got behind us, I want you in my future.”

Surprise and something he couldn’t understand flashed across her features. Before she could respond, he said, “Lie back and put your hands above your head, as before.”

A small smile pulled at her full lips and she obeyed, stretching her arms over her head again. He leaned over her and gently threaded the rope between and around her wrists before securing them to the bedposts. Just the sight of it made his cock painfully hard. It also calmed the last of his tension.

“Take off your shirt,” she said.

He hesitated.

“I want to see you.”

He sucked in a deep breath and ripped the fabric over his head, then glanced down to meet her gaze. Her gaze traced over his chest, over the tattoos and scars. He lay down beside her, then leaned up on an elbow and met her gaze. They were so close that the heat of her body made him shiver.

“I want you so damned badly,” he said.

Aurora squeezed her eyes shut and tried to calm her breathing. She was so excited to be like this that she could go off if he so much as touched her. His breath feathered along the side of her neck, sending shivers down the length of her body. She swore she could even feel the heat of him against her right side, though he hadn’t yet touched her.

Please, Fates, let him touch me. 

She’d fantasized about his big, strong hands. About them running over her skin—light or hard, she didn’t care. She just wanted him to touch her.

Instead, she felt his warm breath skate lower along her skin. The heat dragged over her chest to one of her nipples. A puff of air on the sensitive tip made her shiver. 

She pried her eyes open to see his head bent over her breast. His broad back arched over her and made her thighs tremble. He was so big that he dwarfed her. He could do anything to her and she’d let him.

His silver gaze arced up to meet hers. “If you like something, tell me.”

“That,” she said immediately. “More of that.”

A grin pulled up the corner of his mouth and he bent his head again, blowing on the heated flesh of her nipple until goose bumps rose on her skin.

“You have no idea how long I’ve dreamed of this,” he said. “I thought you were gone forever. If fate hadn’t broken me, thinking I’d lost you did.”

Her heart clutched at his words, a strange combination with the unbearable arousal streaking through her veins. It lent the night an otherworldly quality, as if she were floating through clouds.

“But then you came back,” he said as he dipped his head lower along her belly. His breath continued to heat her skin. He was careful not to touch her, but the direction of his motion made anticipation race across her skin. “And it was like the sun rose again.”

She felt the feather of a touch at the inside of her knee. Immediately, she moved it outward. The touch came again at her other knee and she moved that one as well, until she was spread before him. The air was cool on her hot flesh.

He’d never seen her like this before. The thought sent a shiver of nerves through her and she couldn’t bear to look.

A light touch trailed over the edge of her breast. She gasped. He was actually touching her. The thought made her ache. Whatever had given him his aversion to touch, he was fighting it—for her. 

His fingertips pinched her nipple, retreated, then returned, rolling it between his big fingers as his breath ghosted over her stomach. Her pussy ached to have him closer, to have his breath at the heart of her. His mouth.

She felt him shift until he lay between her thighs, careful not to touch her. But the shadow of his heat against her skin was torture. It taunted her, ratcheting up her desire until a faint sweat broke out upon her chest. She ached for him to touch her, to feel his rough hands against every inch of her flesh.

“And now I have you here.” His voice was rough as sandpaper. 

She felt him shudder and forced her eyes open, glancing down to see him gazing upon the most intimate part of her. She felt unbearably exposed. Her knees wanted to snap together, but desire made her want to lift her hips.

Felix’s breath came hard and fast. The smell and heat of Aurora surrounded him. She was stretched out before him, a long golden column laid out for his pleasure. For
their
pleasure.

The shining pink flesh between her thighs beckoned, drawing his gaze. She was beautiful. He’d dreamed of this so many times as he’d stroked his cock, imagining what she’d look and taste like. 

The closest he’d ever come was the afternoon on the temple in the jungle. The feel of her under his fingertips had been the greatest pleasure he’d ever known. What would the taste of her be like? 

He shuddered.

“I’ve wanted to taste you for so long,” he said. 

“Then do it,” she begged, arching her hips toward him. “Gods, please do it.”

His resistance broke. He dipped his head, groaning at the first taste of her upon his tongue. She was smooth and slick beneath him, the delicate folds of her sex parting beneath his tongue. She was intoxicating, enough to drive the tragic memories from his mind. Nothing in the Seer’s torture dungeon had been like this. This was everything good in the world.

She cried out and arched her hips. Her pussy pressed warm against his lips. He groaned and gripped the full cheeks of her arse, tilting her for better access. He lapped at her wetness, desperate to taste as much of her as he could. To learn her.

When her legs came up and draped over his shoulders, he shuddered hard. His mind edged toward dark memories, but he forced it back to her. He wanted to be normal. Her thighs were smooth on his shoulders and he wanted them to grip his head with her orgasm. He wanted her to lose her mind, to thrust against his face. He wanted to drown in her.

The need sparked an image in his mind that couldn’t be banished. He tore his mouth from her and she cried out in despair.

“Shhh, love. It will get better,” he said as he rose above her and untied her bindings from the bed frame. Quickly, he wound them around her wrists, binding them together. He still couldn’t risk her touching him and throwing him back to the Seer’s prison.

This was a place of light, and the dark of his past was not welcome here.

He pulled her into a sitting position and told her, “You’re going to sit over me. On my mouth.”