Shattered Soul (37 page)

But he couldn’t quite bring himself to open that door, his hand hesitating above the handle.

The door swung open and he looked the short distance up to meet Rani’s eyes. His own loneliness and sadness were reflected in the green depths and that drew him to her, but what helped him, what eased the pathway for them both, was that little thread of violet that connected them, intangible to the eye but so tightly intertwined in their souls.

“I don’t want to be alone tonight,” Rani whispered.

The simple words struck him right to the heart. Silently he reached out and took her hand, turning and leading her back to his bed.

He stood to one side and lifted the covers. She looked down into his eyes for several long seconds before she sat on the edge of the bed and slid across into the middle. Still silent, he slid into bed himself, pulling the covers over them both.

Not one word passed their lips as they lay on their backs and gazed up at the shadowed ceiling.

Feeling her warmth beside him, Fredrico closed his eyes. He wanted more but he didn’t know how much comfort she needed or exactly what kind of comfort she was seeking. But she was with him, and if that was all she offered, he would be content. For now.

The mattress shifted and he felt her hand slide tentatively beneath his. The simple, trusting gesture was so welcome that it was with eagerness that he entwined their fingers together and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. In return, Rani rolled onto her side and shifted closer, and now he felt her full breasts press against his arm. Her scent invaded his nostrils and he willingly sucked in a deep breath.

What he didn’t expect was to find her scent such a strong aphrodisiac that heat slammed deep inside him and spread rapidly to his groin. Lust rose, hot and hard, but he kept tight rein over it. God knew how, but he managed it. Just.

With his eyes closed he could imagine her, all soft curves and feminine muscle, woman and warrior, real yet almost mystical. And so very alone and sad.

He should be offering reassuring words, maybe a comforting hug. It would almost kill him to offer comfort and nothing else, he had no doubt, but the urge to console her was as strong as the lust that beat slowly but surely stronger inside him. It was the first time he could ever remember being filled with both a gentle caring and an insistent lust at the same time.

Careful not to show the hunger he felt for her, Fredrico turned his head on the pillow and opened his mouth, but his consoling words remained unspoken on his parted lips when his gaze met her green eyes. Her eyes were sad, but there was a hint of fire within them as well. An awareness of him as a man.

Turning to face her fully, Fredrico came up onto one elbow while still managing to keep her hand in his. The hush in the room was suddenly full of everything unsaid but felt.

“Rani?” he queried softly, hope leaping to life inside him.

“Fredrico,” she whispered.

They looked at each other.

She was really in his room, in his bed beside him, her red and black hair in a loose braid that trailed across the whiteness of the pillow upon which her head rested. Fredrico’s gaze drifted across her face, seeing the sadness and slight hardness of a harsh life in the beautiful features of the full-blooded Reeka warrior. She’d seen and suffered much in her life, and even the peace of death h Sce ly in hiad eluded her.

He’d had a helping hand in that.

Reaching out, he laid his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Everything.”

“As am I.”

His gaze followed his hand as he slowly drew it down her arm, feeling the silky skin beneath his palm. The covers moved down with his movement as his hand came to rest on her waist, and when she offered no protest, he slowly traced the indent of her waist and brushed his thumb along the side of her hip.

Her body was so lithe, curvy yet strong. Warm, so very warm.

His hand stilled on her hip. She was his to touch, to taste, to explore this night. Her nipples beneath the thin silk of her nightgown pebbled against his arm.
Oh, God, yes
.

Lifting his gaze to meet hers, he recognized the answering heat in the green of her eyes.

It was so easy to lean forward, to dip down and close the small distance between them to kiss her gently. Such a soft kiss, a gentle brushing of delicate skin against delicate skin, nothing intense but every bit as passionate.

He didn’t release her hand but simply drew her arm up to press her hand into the pillow. Closer he moved, coming partially over her and coaxing her with his body to roll onto her back, giving him greater access to her body.

Submissive.
The word flitted briefly through his mind but he ignored it, so intent on exploring her mouth with his that any thought of dominance at that second didn’t have any place between them.

A lick at the seam of her lips and she opened for him. Fredrico tasted her, sweet like honey, and he savoured her, licking her lips and a little deeper, revelling in her flavour. He could drink from her forever.

Forever.

Rubbing the base of her throat with the thumb of his free hand, he nibbled the corner of her mouth. With a small murmur of pleasure she arched her neck and he took up the invitation gladly, trailing his lips along her cheek and further down, pressing tiny kisses along the smooth, fragrant skin, breathing in her scent as he moved even lower, trailing the tip of his tongue around the pulse that leaped in her throat.

As he nuzzled her throat, he slid his hand down across her body, moving lower, trailing his fingertips teasingly over her silky skin until he reached the swell of her breasts at the neckline of her nightgown. Dipping his fingertips beneath the lace, he traced the beginning of the valley between her breasts, laughing softly when she shivered and muttered, completely unexpectedly, “Damn...”

With every inch of her body he touched, the fires within him were flickering a little higher. It was heady to know that she was similarly affected, as testified by her arching throat and hand sifting through his hair.

Moving lower, he pressed a sudden kiss to the valley revealed by the nightgown and was rewarded by her sharp catch of breath. Cupping one firm breast in his hand, he teased the little nipple with his thumb, revelling in the sensations of the softness of her rounded flesh and the peaking of the little bud.

The nightgown stopped him viewing her properly, though, and he wanted so much more than just the hints of her delights. He wanted her naked, against him and around him.

Just the thought was enough to give his lust a surge of heat and he had to rein Se him an in his sudden inclination to rip the nightgown down the front and toss it aside. Closing his eyes he took a deep breath, centring himself, focusing on Rani and her needs, and as he did so he felt a calming trickle through him, a violet strand that pulsed through the darker tide to hold it back.

“Fredrico?”

Opening his eyes, he gazed down into Rani’s eyes and saw the uncertainty in her expression.

Passion and uncertainty.

“If you don’t...” She hesitated. “If you don’t want to do this - ”

“Stop.” Seeing the normally confident woman so uncertain brought forth a tenderness he’d thought himself long incapable of, and he smiled down at her. “I do want this. So very much.”

“But you stopped.” Her cheeks pinkened and she started to sit up. “This was a mistake. I forced you to take me into your bed and - ”

There was no way in the universe he was going to allow her to leave. In one smooth motion Fredrico rolled fully atop her, pushing her back onto the mattress and framing her cheeks with his hands.

Looking her directly in the eyes, he said softly, “I brought you to my bed, Rani, because I want you. I want you so badly I ache.”

“So why did you stop?”

“Because the darkest of my lust was threatening to take over.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead, trailed his lips down her fine nose and stopped as his mouth hovered above her soft lips. Looking deeply into her eyes, Fredrico said, “I want our first time together to be special.”

“Special?”

“My lusts are dark, sometimes savage. This isn’t the time for that.” He kissed her lightly.

“Why does it make such a difference to you?” she whispered.

“Because we both need it.” He smoothed a wisp of hair from her forehead. “Because we both need a little tenderness.”

She studied him silently for several seconds before stating, “You’re not easy to understand.”

“I’ve been like that since you arrived.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

Fredrico studied her just as intently, and as he gazed deeply into her green eyes a little flush of warmth went through him to nestle in a corner of his heart that had once been so cold. “It’s a good thing, Rani.”

Rani’s soft lips curved in a smile. “Okay,” she said, and reaching up she cupped the back of his head to bring his head down to her, capturing his mouth in a kiss so sweet it almost wrung his heart.

It certainly didn’t dampen his desire but rather than ignite the darker lust that seemed to bubble so impatiently just beneath the surface whenever he faced a defiant Rani, the desire was tempered with warmth, affection, and a deeper emotion he couldn’t understand intellectually but his soul recognized.

This time it was she who kissed him, who led him, her tongue sweeping into his mouth to taste him in turn. Pulling her hand free of his hold, Rani slid her palm down across his back, her fingers tracing across his muscles, following the curve of his spine to his lower back and further down, leaving a line of flickering sparks in her wake. A line of sparks that filtered through to warm his flesh beneath, to heat his blood and stir flames of ardour.

Enjoying the temporary m Se ted throment of Rani taking charge, Fredrico lost himself in the taste of her, the fragrance that filled his senses. It took mere seconds to slip the tie from her braid and unravel the silken tresses, to spread the red hair across the pillow and marvel at how it was so dark as to be almost black. The lamplight picked out the red highlights and the strands seemed to be almost alive, clinging to his fingers as he drew a thick lock through his fingers.

Silken hair, silken skin, and silken lips that were as soft as gossamer.

Silken fingers that were slipping below the waistband of his underwear to spread across one tight buttock.

Breaking the contact of their lips, Fredrico raised his head enough to look down into green eyes dark with desire. Rani’s lips were full, red, and deliciously damp from their kissing, and combined with the wealth of hair that now lay scattered across the pillows, she looked like a woman who was more than ready to be loved.

Loved?

The fleeting thought was gone as her hand squeezed his buttock gently and his staff jerked in response. Heat spiralled through him, the fires flickering leaping higher with that one movement of her hand and he couldn’t stop the slight thrust of his hips against the juncture of her thighs.

Material barred his way, his underwear and her nightgown, and it was a sweet torture. He wanted to have all that lovely, satiny skin against his, her curves cushioning his harder, leaner muscle.

“I want you naked.” The words were out before he could think, but he didn’t apologize. It was the truth, and in this chamber on this night there were no secrets between them. Looking down into her eyes, he repeated huskily, “I want you naked. Now.”

Keeping their gazes locked, she shifted her hips, and he braced his hands on the bed each side of her and lifted himself off her enough to allow her to slide her nightgown up over her hips and waist. When the material reached just below her breasts, she hesitated only momentarily before sliding the material up, revealing those soft globes to his gaze, the lightly tanned shoulders, and finally the nightgown was over her head and tossed aside.

Reclining back on the mattress, she looked up at him. “In truth, Fredrico, you’ve seen me naked before, there’re no surprises for you.”

She was so beautiful it made his blood pound through his body and swell his staff almost unbearably. True, he’d seen her naked before when she’d been injured, but it had been so different. Different because... “This is us now, Rani. Just you and me.” His gaze slid down her body, over the shapely shoulders to the full breasts that beckoned him so temptingly. “Before it was simply caring for you, but now...” He met her gaze again. “Now it’s sharing ourselves, being together. It’s so very different, sweetheart. So very, very different.”

In truth, it would never be the same again.

Unable to resist the temptation any longer, he dipped down and ran his tongue over one tempting nipple, laving the little bud roughly before sucking it deep into his mouth and playing it with his tongue.

Rani shuddered beneath him, a moan breaking from her, and he caught her hips in his hands as she surged beneath him.

He’d never dreamed she’d be so responsive, but every suck of his mouth, every lave of his tongue on the little bud had her writhing and arching.

It was pure delight and pure torture for him as well when her thighs parted and he found his hard staff Sis very suck pressed against her, the tip of it free of his waistband, the sensitive head rubbing against her belly as she twisted beneath him. The sensation was like fuel to a flame. Carnality wash through him on a tidal wave of pure eroticism.

“Sweet God!” He grated, releasing her nipple unwillingly but knowing if he didn’t do something soon he wasn’t going to last. Already he could feel seed leaking from the tip of his staff.

“Fredrico,” she panted, lifting her head to capture his mouth hungrily. “Please!”

Hunger beat through his body, his heart thundering in his chest as he tried to rein in the passion that flared through him with every torturous, sensual undulation of her body against his. Wet heat from her womanhood was obvious even through his underwear and with a rough curse he lifted his hips, reaching down to push the confining material over his hips and down his thighs, kicking it away to be lost in the bedclothes.

And sweet heaven, he was there! His hips came down on hers, his naked staff hot and hard between them, skin to skin, and the fiery dew from her womanhood was slick against his scrotum as it nestled against her folds.