Ties That Bind: The Bellum Sisters 3 (paranormal erotic romance) (21 page)

Lily caught his expression and smiled, knowingly. “Yeah, you like it.” She crossed her arms with a satisfied expression.

He sighed. “I do.”

She came up beside him, a little smirk on her face. “Now you just need to learn to ride so I can go with you.”

“How would we fit on there?” A part of him was surprised he'd even asked. But then he remembered his plan had been foiled; there really was no reason to push her away anymore. Besides, not that he'd ever admit it to her, but he wanted her again. He hadn't touched her nearly enough since their first time. He had so much more to explore with her. Plus, he'd had a lingering hangover at the time and hadn't been able to etch into memory everything like he wanted to.

She moved to stand in front of him and he had to crane his neck down to look at her. Her eyes were warm and inviting. Or maybe he just saw what he wanted to see?

“By me holding real tight to you.” The image flashed in his mind. Him driving her on a dark night, the wind flying past them, the vibrations of the roaring bike rocking between them. She’d wrap her dainty arms around him, squeezing him tight with her legs pressed against the back of his.

Suddenly, he was grabbing her hand and hauling her back through the lobby.

“Hey, what're you doing?” She sounded breathless and he wanted to roar. She wanted him. He made for the elevator then thought better of it and practically ran down the hallway to the stairs. Once inside the stairs he tugged her up about two flights before he stopped and pushed her back against the wall, his body crashing down on hers.

“Telal?”

Her wide eyes were beautiful. He'd hated her when he first saw her. She had lush, dark curling hair, a ripe young body, and eyes the color amber and golden brown around a black pupil. The way she'd pursued him without qualm to his history, his demonic ancestry had surprised him, and angered him. He'd taken out his anger by calling her on her foolish actions. He could still remember the night she'd slapped him in front of Lyonis Keelan's cabin. So he'd been late. He still managed to save Lyonis' life.

“Where did you go?” she asked softly.

He blinked and remembered he had her plastered against the wall in the stairwell.

He looked down at her supple body in that flowing pink dress and all of his instincts flared to life.

“Nowhere.”

And then he kissed her.

* * *

Lily moaned at Telal's kiss. If this was how he thanked her for buying him gifts, then she'd remember to buy him one for every day of the week.

His kiss awakened need deep in her belly. Her core ached and grew wet as his tongue slid along hers.. She felt a desperate urgency in his strong hands, in the hard bite of his kiss.

He pulled back. “Are you sore?”

She did feel something lingering inside her. It didn't quite hurt but it felt like she had just learned how to use a muscle that had been inactive all her life. She shook her head and then his mouth crashed back down on hers.

Urgent hands gripped the bottom of her dress, pushing it up roughly to her waist. The cool air on her did nothing to cool the rampant fire burning inside her. His hands fingered the lacy material of her panties then tugged them down with ruthless pulls. Her pulsed raced, roaring in her ears drowning out all other sound. Her skin pulled tight at his touch, awaiting his next caress as if she were made for him.

“Step out of them,” he said, his voice husky and deep. She shivered as she obeyed, kicking the panties away.

His mouth came back on hers but only for a second before diving down to cover her breast over the dress. Her hard nipple easily poked through the material and he found it, teeth tugging on it, sending needy spikes of pleasure straight to her sex. He made her wet, made her squirm, with just the smallest of touches.

“I hope you don't care about this dress,” he said.

“Why?” she asked, her hands spearing into his hair.

He answered her by grabbing the collar of her dress and ripping it nearly down to her waist. Her braless breasts spilled free and he groaned a deep, feral sound like an animal's.

“Beautiful,” he groaned then licked her nipple before sucking the hard tip into his mouth.

She shivered at the raw sensation, her hips starting a rocking rhythm. One hand came up to mold her other breast, to hold it, then his mouth devoured that nipple in a sucking rhythmic fashion that made her legs tremble.

“Telal,” she moaned.

The sound of a door opening brought them both to a standstill. They both looked up at the staircase that wrapped up to the upper floors. They listened to the footsteps going up another floor and then the door opening and slamming closed.

Telal wasted no time going back to her breast. When a long low moan escaped her, he tore himself away, and kissed her hard. “I could stay there forever. You have perfect tits.”

Her eyes could only widen at the words 'tits'. She didn't recall that term ever being used to her before, but then her shock faded as his hands latched onto her bare ass and he lifted her against the wall.

“No more waiting.”

He pressed his hips against hers to keep her upright and she held on to his shoulders for leverage as he heatedly ripped opened his button and zipper. His beautiful cock sprang free, strikingly hard and a deeper more golden color with his excitement. She licked her lips and knew she wanted him in her mouth. To taste and feel him sliding between her lips.

“Telal.”

He looked at her as his pants slid to the floor and his hands once against captured her cheeks. “Soon,” he said in reply as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, and then his cock nudged her wet entrance and pushed inside.

Their choked moans rang out in the stairwell, echoing back at them. Her tight muscles made him work to fit all the way in and he did, pushing, and rocking in and out until he buried himself all the way in. And then he did it again until he had a pounding hard rhythm inside her.

“Fuck,” she moaned, her eyes unable to stay open at the exquisite, erotic sensations he touched inside her. Each thrust hit her clitoris, making the little bundle of nerves tingle and tighten the muscles in her body.

“Exactly.”

His lips found her swaying breasts and he didn't stop taking her for a second. And that's exactly what he was doing—pounding, hammering into her with hungry, hard thrusts.

She managed to keep her mouth shut for all of five seconds before the pleasure was too much for her. Her jaw fell open and cries, moans, desperate sounds escaped, escalating higher and higher as he moved faster, harder until her ass bounced off the wall.

She held on tight to him, pushing more of her breast into his hungry mouth. He groaned and the sound vibrated over her sensitive nipple down to her sex that he worked in hungry thrusts.

The hot need inside her curled in a tight ball of pleasure. He sucked hard on her breast and landed deep, and that was all it took. She choked on a scream, some sound between a moan and his name. Crashing waves pounded inside her. She shook wildly, her hips rocking against him, her nails biting into his scalp as erotic, pulsing pulls trembled raged inside her like a storm.

Telal was right there with her. Burying his face in her neck, he shoved through her milking muscles and then growled, the sound so deep and sensual, her body pulled tight. With a hard thrust, he held himself deep and jetted how and wet inside her.

Breathing hard, they slowly fell to the ground together, him still buried deeply inside her. Using her weak hands, she pulled his face up from her neck and kissed him slowly, gently. He didn't respond at first, still struggling with his labored breathing but when his lips claimed hers, her heart pulled so tight she thought she might cry.

His strong arms banded around her and then he rocked his hips. She felt his cock move inside her, still semi-erect. She moaned, it felt good. He was softer now, the touch more of a tease. He did it again. And again. Until he grew hard and long inside her, making her muscles quiver.

He took her like that. With her knees spread atop his thighs as he slowly thrust in, with their mouths fused together.

When her body climaxed, he kept his mouth fused to hers, letting no sound escape. Her body needed to release all that incredible pleasure somehow and so it gripped his cock furiously, kneading it until he groaned deep in his chest and spilled white-hot inside her.

The moment touched her unlike anything had before. Her heart felt soft and tender and her brain struggled to regain control of herself.
He wasn't ready for anything more than this
, she told herself.

She looked into his beautiful golden brown eyes and wondered if he ever would be. And could she ever deal with that?

CHAPTER 27

“Send for her.”

“Right away, your highness.”

Alrik listened to the fading footsteps of the steward but his eyes were glued to the painting on the wall. It was a massive work, one of the largest in the castle; his father had it commissioned when he'd just been a boy of twelve. He used to study the painting many times during the Great War when he'd been relegated to the castle for protection. While the armies clashed outside the very walls he slept within.

The painting showed his father sitting on his throne wearing his royal grandeur--the long robed gown, the royal blue cape with gold trim. Next to him sat his mother in her finest royal gown made of hundreds of sparkling diamonds. But none of that interested him. It was the two boys sitting below the king and queen on the steps of the dais. He and Telal looked so young and innocent on the surface. But the painter had captured the hard look in their eyes quite well. Telal's dark golden eyes looked stern and unforgiving, much like their father’s, while his own younger gaze looked fresh with its violet hue.

It had been so long since he looked like that—golden skinned, reddish hair, and violet eyes—that he started to forget that he’d changed, morphed. The changes to his physical body had happened over a time, slowly. At first, he hadn't noticed it. Really he didn't notice it at all until one day after a bath. Just another ordinary day, but on that day he looked at himself in the mirror and saw his dark skin. He remembered feeling surprised by it; he'd touched his arm, watching his reflection in the mirror, to see if it was some kind of magic trick, a spell. Even then he hadn’t questioned it. Instead he’d welcomed it as if someone had told him he’d be having coffee today instead of tea. Now he wondered as he looked at that painting, why hadn’t he cared?

Many things could drive a person to change so drastically. He knew that, understood it, and had taken that as an answer to why he'd changed. Then he didn't think of it no more. Now his eyes had changed back. Why now? After all these years? Only two answers seemed possible. It could be finally having Arianna or seeing his brother. His mind felt scrambled with wild thoughts. He couldn't seem to keep his mind clear and steady any more.

What did it mean that they'd turned back to their old color? Would his skin change as well? Would the searing hate in his heart vanish too? Hate at his brother who'd caused it all?

Alrik roared at the painting. Screamed all of his venomous rage at Telal until his voice dried and shriveled to a croak. He was caught in another place, a place where emotion controlled him. All that he heard was his own harsh breathing and the sound of metal cutting and cutting.

 When his voice stopped and the echoing shout faded, it still wasn't enough. His arms shook, his breathing sounded harsh. Alrik grabbed a sword from the table and slashed at the painting in hard sweeping cuts. The sounds of tearing paper, the ripping of cloth and snapping of the wooden frame cooled the hatred inside of him, if only a little.

His brother's body turned into slashes on the canvas like bears had ravaged it with their claws. The canvas folded in half, then dropped to the floor in tatters.

“Sir?” a hesitant voice said.

Alrik stared at the shredded painting, at the place where his brother used to be. His heart squeezed tight and his eyes watered.
What had he done?
Getting down on his knees, his hands trembled as he lifted the shredded remains of his brother's face.

“Sir?”

Alrik turned to the voice, and knew his eyes were glowing with simmering hatred. The steward took several steps back, his hand flying to his heart. As if that would save him.

The steward swallowed hard. The stench of his fear clung to air. “She, Lady Arianna, says she is ill and cannot receive you right now.”

A cold deadening feeling settled over him, starting in his heart and spread all the way to his fingers and toes. Alrik stood and stared down at the pieces of the canvas. Something snapped inside him.

He stormed into his study. The vial his mother had given him still sat on his desk. He grabbed it, uncorked it, and drank the entire contents. In a gradual rush his anger lessened, the trembling in his arms stopped, and his mind calmed. Taking a deep breath, he threw the empty vial into the fire and watched it blacken then shatter under the flames.

In the next second, he stalked out the door and up the stairs to Arianna's room. Sick or not, she wouldn't ignore him. She was his now. And she'd learn her place if he had to make her.

He didn't bother knocking but turned the handle and found it locked. Though his anger had lessened, it still simmered inside him. His mother's concoction allowed him to have better control of it. Bracing himself, he slammed his foot forward and kicked in the door. It burst open, the wood cracking along the frame. A feminine cry sounded from inside.

Alrik entered, finding Arianna sitting at her desk writing in a small notebook. Her eyes were wide and scared, and when she saw him, she immediately stood and backed up.

Good, he thought.
You should be scared.

* * *

Arianna couldn't stop her heart from trying to beat out of her chest. Alrik looked more fearsome than ever. His chest rose and fell in great heaves; his hands were held stiffly at his sides as if ready to strike in a moment's notice, and his eyes... She gasped; his eyes had turned black again. The longer she stared the more she realized they swirled like black snakes coiling amongst themselves in a pit. What had happened to him since she last saw him?

He took a step into the room and kicked the door closed behind him. The realization that she was alone with him with no means of escape aside from her window that led to a forty-foot drop sent apologetic words falling from her.

“King Alrik, what are you doing here? I'm so sorry I couldn't make your request today. I'm-I'm really not feeling well, truly. I hope you understand.”

He didn't say a word but slowly took one step then another and another towards her. She felt like a weak animal being stalked by one much stronger than she was. When he got within a few feet of her, she screamed and darted to the side. His hard footsteps sounded after her.

She reached the bed and tried to climb over it, to get to the other side and to the door. She reached the edge of the other side of the bed, her hand curling around it as she frantically scurried across it, when a strong hand grabbed her ankle and tugged. She fell onto her stomach, sliding back towards him. She cried out again, tears forming in her eyes.
He's going to kill me
.

Strong hands grabbed her waist and flipped her over. She slapped at him, tears falling uselessly from her eyes, but he only grabbed her wrists and planted them on either side of her head. He leaned down over her, those dark terrifying eyes boring into hers.

“Why did you ignore my summons?” Even his voice sounded deeper, almost garbled.

“I-I told you. I do not feel well. Please let me go,” she said softly.

Those swirling eyes cut to her desk, then back to her. “Yet here you are writing with a little smile on your face.” His eyes traced over her face then down her body. “You seem well enough, Arianna. Did you lie to me?” he asked slowly.

Her mouth open and closed. Then some kind of resolution came over her and she stifled her tears and steadied her breathing. Softly she said, “Yes, I did lie and I'm sorry. I was just busy and didn't want to stop yet. I swear I was planning to come see you once I was finished. I swear. I swear.” She squeezed her eyes shut.

It was the truth. She'd been in the middle of writing in her journal.
About him
. She hadn't wanted to stop, because she'd been trying to analyze her own feelings towards him. Especially since she last saw him, when they'd shared each other's bodies. She had to stop and try to figure out how to feel about it, and she always did that best by writing.

“Look at me,” he commanded.

She popped her eyes open and almost flinched at his dark eyes. But she kept her gaze locked on him.

“Do not ever lie to me again, Arianna. I don't think I could stand it.” She froze, feeling an odd truth in his words. Had her lie really mattered that much to him? But why? He only wanted her body.

He stood and turned to stare out at the bright sky through her window. Arianna slowly sat up, rubbing her wrists though they didn't actually hurt. Embarrassment crept in that she'd overreacted, but no. She was justified in her reaction. She'd been certain he was going to kill her by the look in his eyes, by the furious energy radiating off him. Anyone would have thought the same.

After a moment, he walked to her desk and sat at it. An all-new fear fired inside her. She ran for the desk but as she reached to grab her precious journal, he cut her a hard look that had her stumbling to a stop.

“This is what you were doing when you ignored me...” He proceeded to flip through the pages of her journal, ignoring the many earlier entries in favor of the newer ones.

Arianna found it difficult to breath. She could only stare in horror as he flipped directly to the page about when she'd first been invited to dinner. He settled down over the journal, his elbows on either side like a dog protecting his bone.

Arianna wanted to go bang her head into a wood plank a few dozen times. Either he read slowly or he was re-reading passages because he took forever on just the first two opened pages. When the crinkling sound of paper came indicating he'd turned to the next, a furious blush came over her face. Now he was reading about the other night.

She knew the words on the page by heart. Because she'd written them from her heart, by her own hand. Good thing he hadn't come by tomorrow to read her journal, because what she had to write after he left was not going to be pretty.

His eyes lifted from the page and landed on hers. Her knees suddenly felt weak and she collapsed into a chair by the fireplace. She buried her face in her hands to hide her mortification. She knew exactly what he was reading.

Alrik appears to have many different façades than I could ever have imagined. Not only is he far more intimidating in person and alone, but he appears so conflicted at times that I just want to sit down and talk with him. Find out why he's become the man he has and simply ask him: do you like who you are? I have a feeling he's never asked himself this question. It's as though as the years have passed, he's merely accepted his position, the darkening of his soul. The harbingers of pain to the
prolitare
. The answer to the prayers of the royal. I can still remember sitting with him and Telal when we were all ripe, and see his eyes shine with admiration at Telal. While Telal's betrayal cut us all deeply, I still cannot believe he hasn't accepted it, at least in some part, and grown to do what was right.

Tonight, this changed Alrik, the one who sits high on his throne and rules with a dark fist, ordered me to come to him. I knew now what he'd expect, at least as much as a virgin could. The experience was...well you know how it was. Horrible, exciting, odd, and incredible. I almost want to start calling him the man with so many faces, because that's who he is.

At one end, he'd so cruelly punish a prisoner whom I'm sure he knows was wrongfully imprisoned, and on the other he can look at me as though I'm the only person in the world he cares about. It isn't the first time I've seen the man-with-so-many-faces glance at me so. In fact, I’ve steadfastly ignored his gazes for a long, long time, not knowing what to make of it, and terrified to find out because something in my gut would seize so tightly and hold me captive.

It had to be fear that I'd felt—or so I thought. I learned my lesson tonight in the dining room during my private audience with Alrik. He touched me... how could this man's touch, this man of many faces, create such a stirring of passion inside me? He'd made me do debasing, sexual things that even now as I write this, stirs something needful inside me. He didn't take my body as I thought he would. But what he did instead, how he touched me, and made me touch him, felt more...erotic...than I can ever imagine sex being.

So the question now, journal, is what do I make of this man? Why even now am I still thinking about him? How I wish he were different, like his old self, then I don't believe I'd have any problems caring for him. But what happens when I begin to care for a monster?

The tension in the room escalated to nearly suffocating levels. Arianna gripped the armrests with a white-knuckled fist as Alrik slowly lifted his head from her journal. He'd read her most private words, entered her most secret world that no one knew of. No one now but him. She had no idea how to prepare herself, because she had no idea how he'd react.

“Do you believe you can fix me?”

“No,” she answered. How could someone fix something when they weren't sure what was broken? She didn't even know if she'd want to anyway.

Alrik stood, his hand curling around the journal and taking it with him. Arianna tensed as he headed for the door.

“Where are you going?”

He stopped at the door. “What do you care?”

“You have my journal.”

He looked down at it. “So I do.”

She stood and marched up to him, extending her hand. “You can't have it.”

“I can have anything I want, Arianna. Anything,” he said, his face leaning into hers.