Velvet Haven (15 page)

Their gazes collided and he felt his body being pulled into her shamed expression.

“Please don’t ask,” she murmured, her lips quivering.

Mairi had secrets. Fascinating secrets for one whose aura was supposedly in perfect balance. He should let her keep them. He had his own secrets to worry about. But for some damn reason he couldn’t let her move away from him.

She started to tremble, and he stepped closer, his nose nuzzling the soft patch of skin behind her ear. She smelled good—
familiar
—he thought as he breathed deeply of her skin. The animal in him wanted to suckle that soft flesh, and he let that part guide him. When he brushed her throat with his lips he heard the rush of breath whisper past her partially opened mouth. When he began to suck her, he felt her fingers curl into a claw before they threaded through his and squeezed tight.

Their bodies brushed together in an enticing undulation and her aroma wafted between them, the scent of the wetness he knew was trickling between her thighs. Inhaling, he imagined what it would be like to taste her, to feel her essence on his tongue.

She whimpered in a mixture of fear and desire. She didn’t know what to make of her longing. She was not a woman who slept around indiscriminately. He knew that. Couldn’t help but be turned on by that and this new, secret side to Mairi.

“I won’t hurt you, Mairi,” he murmured, licking the tiny bruise he’d given her. He trailed the fingertips of his free hand, the one with his Sidhe sigils, down her throat and into the valley of her breasts.

He inhaled her skin again, drunk on her smell. She smelled so damn good to him.

She arched against him as his fingers found the hem of her shirt. Beneath the fabric her skin was warm and silken. Her harsh rasping breaths aroused him, and he pressed his pelvis into hers, making her feel how hard he was for her.

“I wanted you from the moment I first saw you, Mairi. And I want you now. Feel how much.”

In a slow, sensual circle he ground his cock against her. Her eyes went round and her tongue came out once more, but he caught it with his lips and sucked at its tip. She fell into him and he let go of her wrist, wanting her hands on his shoulders, his back, clutching at his hair.

As if she knew what he desired, she pulled him close, rubbing her breasts against his chest as his tongue crept between her lips, tasting her. Beneath her shirt, his palm slid up over her ribs to the edge of her bra. He could have pushed the satin cup up, revealing her breast, but he pulled it down, allowing her breast to spill out over her bra into his hand. She was big and full, her nipple hard, scraping against his palm. He tugged at it, and she moaned into his mouth as she raked her nails through his hair.

It was Mairi who deepened the kiss, taking his tongue against hers as she rubbed the front of her jeans against his cock. It was her sexual perfume that clouded the air, and his thoughts. She wanted him. And he wanted her tasting his passion, feeding her pleasure.

Tearing his mouth from hers, he kissed a path along her throat and neck over to her ear. She shivered, her nipples hard stabbing points that he could feel through his clothes. “I want to feel you tremble like that when I thrust into you.”

He realized how big he was compared to her, standing short and small against him. He didn’t want her desire mixing with fear. He wanted her free, uninhibited to take what she wanted from him.

Sliding down the wall, he reached for her, taking her with him. She balked, but he held her hand in his until she was sitting on his lap and they were looking into each other’s eyes. He was her size now, and the wariness in her eyes slowly ebbed.

“Do not fear me.”

“How did you know?”

“I could smell when your arousal turned to fear.”

She looked at him oddly, and he knew then he had slipped up. No mortal man could sense, let alone smell, such a thing.

She moved as if she were trying to get away. “I don’t want you to go without tasting you.” Cupping her cheeks, he kissed her, felt her come into him as their tongues tangled, their mouths angling and moving against each other.

Mairi wiggled on his lap and Bran gritted his teeth. He was hard. He didn’t understand it, but he actually
wanted
this woman. It was more than the Legacy Curse. He wanted to touch her. To strip her naked and look at her. He wanted her breasts in his hands, his mouth. He wanted to taste her, to feel the silk of her pussy on his tongue. And after, he wanted to lie with her and watch her sleeping in his arms. He wanted to kiss her awake and talk with her. Learn everything about her, in and out of bed.

He grew longer and thicker as she shifted her weight, aware of his cock, which was growing against the cleft of her sex. He wanted to tie her up and keep her with him all night long. He wanted those chocolate brown eyes on him as he went down on her, and he wanted her nails in his shoulders and her screams in his ear.

He wanted her awakened to him and the kind of pleasure he could give her.

Closing his eyes, Bran eased his body against hers. He wouldn’t mind sliding into her this way, with his face in her hair, the long silky strands cocooning him as he slowly thrust his cock into her. He’d enjoy the slow slide as he whispered sex words and took her with his hard body. He imagined it, sliding his thick length into her, opening the petals of her sex as he thrust in. He’d fill his big hands with her breasts and watch as her lips parted on a moan.

He imagined the sounds she’d make as he shoved up into her; the way her breath would escape as she shuddered atop him. He saw her head thrown back as she let herself go, let herself be taken by him, and the image had him in knots—and leaking. The tip of his cock was wet and a drop of pre- come dribbled down his shaft.

“Are you wet, Mairi?” She gulped, and he slid his finger down the column of her throat. “Are you thinking of us together?”

She blinked rapidly, but didn’t answer.

“Are you thinking of my fingers inside you? My tongue?”

“I know I shouldn’t,” she murmured even as he watched her nipples bead beneath her top.

“But can you resist? Can you leave tonight not knowing what it is like to be pleasured by me? To be fucked by me?”

She gasped as his palms slid up her thighs to the zipper of her jeans, where he brushed his fingers over the metal in an unmistakable invitation.

“We may still be strangers, Mairi, but we won’t be when we’re done. We’ll be as intimate as any man and woman could be. Let me be the first stranger you have, Mairi.”

He saw the struggle in her eyes, the will to deny what she was feeling. Brushing his fingers along her denim-clad sex, he said, “Tell me you don’t want me. That you’re not already wet and aching, and I’ll leave you.”

“I wish I could. But the truth is . . . I want to feel you inside me.
Deep inside
.”

“Is that a yes, Mairi?”

She smiled and ran her fingers through his hair. “That’s a you’d-better-hurry-up-before-I-change-my-mind yes.”

They stood before a mirror. The room Bran had taken her to was dark, lit only with black candles. In the reflection of the glass, Bran stood behind her, watching her, his gaze skating over her body. She couldn’t believe she was here with him, prepared to have sex with him. It was so out of character for her, but she could not have denied him for anything. She was simply dying to feel him naked on top of her, his cock in her hand and between her thighs.

It might bring disaster, but right now nothing in the world seemed more right than to be here with Bran, giving in to the sexual fantasy that had ruled her dreams for weeks. With him she had forgotten about the voice from last night and the fear that had overwhelmed her. She’d forgotten about seeing Suriel again tonight. With the first touch of his hands on her she had felt healed. Safe.

“Is it still yes, Mairi?”

Her gaze flew to his in the mirror. He was asking her, giving her another chance. With a nod, she answered him.

She watched the descent of his stare in the mirror, saw his hand leave his side as he reached for her hair and pushed it back over her shoulder. God, she had never felt this hot, this reckless before. She was literally trembling and he hadn’t even touched her yet.

Her eyes closed as his fingers trailed along her neck. The hum she felt when he touched her made her skin hot and tight.

His finger left her throat and trailed down her shirt, where it traced the darkened circle of her areola. The nipple puckered, begging for his touch.

The hum in his body took over hers. She couldn’t stand it any longer. She wanted him touching her, his hands all over her skin. She wanted him above her, taking her hard. She should be afraid of this, of these foreign emotions inside her, yet somehow she knew that Bran would not hurt her.

“I want to make you feel pleasure,
bliss
,” he whispered as he brushed his lips along her collarbone.

He pulled her shirt and bra up and over her head, dropping them on the floor. Then he cupped her breasts as he stood behind her. Pressing them together, he kneaded, watching her expression in the mirror. He knew she liked it, and he teased her by skimming his fingertips over her nipples, making them harder. She wanted to beg for his mouth on them, but then he released her and moved his hand down between the valley of her breasts, his skin so dark against hers. His palm slipped lower, to the buttons of her jeans. Deftly he undid them and pulled them down, along with her panties. She stood before him completely naked, watching in the mirror as he looked her over, and yearned for his hands to travel along her body.

Without a word he hooked her thigh up over his, exposing her fully to the reflection of the mirror. Her breasts bounced and he caught one in his hand. Sliding the flat of his palm along her nipple, he teased her until she was arching up and digging her nails into his leather- clad thighs. With his other hand, he spread her sex. Wetness glistened between the pink folds, reminding her of the orchids. And suddenly, she knew exactly what he had meant by them.

“You’re beautiful, Mairi. And I want you. Everything that’s begging for release inside you, I want it.”

Mairi suddenly found herself lying on the bed. Above her was Bran, his long, dark hair cocooning them, and his mismatched eyes glowing in the dim candlelight. A five- o’clock shadow crested his chin and upper lip, making him look dangerous . . . and desirable. Her gaze strayed lower, from his full, hard lips, down his neck and the thick cording of his throat, to the twining lines tattooed there, gold and pewter with touches of green. She traced them to where they disappeared beneath his shirt.

He overwhelmed her a bit with his intensity, with his hard body, with the tattoos and leather. Yet she had never been more turned on. She wanted him, and in ways that she had never wanted her other boyfriends. But most important, she trusted him.

He traced her mouth with the tip of his calloused finger, the roughness arousing. Mairi watched as his gaze followed the path of his finger down her body. His eyes, fathomless in their depths, left no part of her unstudied. She squirmed beneath that gaze, fearing every aspect of her was being scrutinized and judged.

“Easy,” he whispered, his thumb brushing her bottom lip in a fluttery sweep. “Let me commit you to memory.”

“Why?” she asked breathlessly.

“Because I want to remember you this way for eternity.” God, he was perfect. Not even her dreams were this hot. She could actually feel the moist heat growing thick between her legs.

“It would be a beautiful thing to see the moonlight illuminate your body as you lie naked beside me. You’d look so right in the forest, beneath the trees . . .”

Mairi was completely undone by what she saw shining in his eyes.

“Let me give to you. Take from you,” he whispered darkly. His mouth covered hers and he kissed her, nipping at her lips as his hand cupped the side of her neck. Gently he eased her back against the pillow and slipped his tongue inside her mouth, licking, caressing, teasing, but his desire was banked. Mairi felt the tension in him as she slid her hands up his arms and over his back. The black cotton of his shirt shifted and stretched over the thick muscles. She felt their shifting beneath her palms and found herself wishing she could be caged by him and his strength. She wanted him to let go, to unleash all that raw power she sensed in him. Instead, he was holding back.

He continued to kiss her until she could no longer think. Over and over his mouth moved atop hers as his hand slowly slid down her neck, till his palm came to rest against her heart. Lower still, sliding over the crest of her breast until it lay flat over her nipple. She caught her breath as the heat from his hand swamped her. The vibration in his body hummed, pitching higher and higher, and she arched into his hand, her nipple tightening as he ran his thumb over it. He plucked at it, taking it between his thumb and forefinger, alternating between rolling it and pulling it. She moaned, and he swallowed the sound, growling, the vibration in him getting stronger as he stole her breath.