Wicked Edge (21 page)

“Yeah, well, there’re different kinds of power. Sparkle hits below the belt. Literally. Right now, I can’t focus enough to stop anyone.” He flung open another door. “Besides, what happens if I
do
stop her? I free a roomful of people from her compulsion, and they come out of it to find that, wow, they’re naked and having sex with a stranger in the middle of the great hall. That’ll be good for business.”

Passion’s steps were flagging. She just wanted to stop and…She shook her head. Couldn’t think about that,
wouldn’t
think about it. But her mind seemed to have absorbed Sparkle’s humming, the tune repeating and repeating on an endless reel. She tried out a mental scream to drown out the sound.

For the first time, she noticed where they were. “A chapel? I didn’t know the castle had one.”

“Sparkle rents it out for weddings.”

“Wait. Why aren’t we going down to the dungeon or up to one of our rooms?”

“Too many crazy people and too easy to get trapped. We need to get out of the castle.”

Passion had just about reached her limit. “Can’t we stop for a minute?”

“Not unless you want to make love in front of God and anyone else who wanders through. The way I see it, we’ll still be here when the next bride and groom walk down the aisle. They’ll have to step over us on the way to the altar.” He kept on going.

After a few more turns down hallways Passion didn’t recognize, he pushed open a final door and they were outside. But before she could even sigh her relief, he’d pulled her into what looked like a small greenhouse.

“Weren’t we safe outside?”

“You didn’t take a good look. The courtyard’s contaminated.”

Contaminated? Passion decided that was one way of describing what Sparkle was doing. But the word sounded sort of cold, and she was burning up with her need for Edge.

“Why here?” Plants, some that looked a little strange, filled the room. There was a table in the middle of the greenhouse with even more plants.

“It’s private.”

Passion stopped her mental screaming long enough to really look at Edge. He practically thrummed with tension, and his eyes were dark with a hunger she recognized. “We’re in trouble.”

“Oh, yes.” He smiled.

That smile burned along the same sensual path as her own. It looked as though they’d finish this trip together. Somehow the realization didn’t horrify her. Not now, at least. Later, when Sparkle’s humming wasn’t coating her with its sexual compulsion, she might rethink things.

Passion dropped her gaze to judge the exact strength of his…contamination. Even a hazmat suit wouldn’t help him now. And she didn’t believe for a minute she’d ever do any rethinking.

She clenched her hands into fists to keep from ripping away his clothes. Passion didn’t feel very virginal. But then, she’d visited the minds of a few virgins, and lust crossed all boundaries.

Where, where,
where
could they lie down? She raked her fingers through her hair. Her pounding heart felt as though it would explode through her chest at any moment. She glanced down at the floor. “The floor looks comfy. Nice soft dirt.”

His gaze skimmed the room, passing over the table with its plants.

“How about the table? We could move the plants.” Not one at a time either. They’d be gone with one desperate sweep of her arm.

Edge shook his head. “Wouldn’t be very comfortable.”

Comfortable? He was kidding, right? She was so hot for him that…“Hey, the wall seems pretty sturdy, we could—”

“No.” He pointed. “Over there. Cinn keeps a cot here for the times when her plants need her.”

These were Cinn’s plants? And she slept with them? Okay, that discussion could wait for another time.

He frowned. “The cot’s narrow. You won’t be—”

She spoke through gritted teeth, because if she didn’t keep her teeth under control she’d bite him. “Comfortable. I know. And. I. Don’t. Care.” Passion could still hear Sparkle’s humming in her head. Mental screams weren’t doing any good.

Edge placed his hands on either side of her face, forcing her to look at him. “Can you control what you’re feeling? Can you stop this?”

“No.” Why would she want to stop it?

He dropped his hands. “Too bad. Because I can’t either.”

What glowed in his eyes should have scared her. It was so sexual, so primal it made her shiver, but not with fear. She’d bet her eyes looked the same as his.

He started to speak, but she put her finger over his lips. “Don’t. I can’t wait any longer.”

Passion followed him to the cot. With single-minded intensity, she began stripping. Before he could offer to help, she was finished. The black bra and panties Sparkle had given her went last.

She turned to find he hadn’t offered to help because he was busy getting rid of his own clothes.

She’d seen naked men in the minds of those she visited, but
she’d always kept an emotional separation. Before, it hadn’t been her life or her fantasy. But this was hers, and he was…amazing.

There might be a moment in the future—if they had a future—when she’d be able to absorb the wonder of his body at her leisure. Sure, she’d seen him when he came out of the shower. But like now, there hadn’t been enough time to truly appreciate all of him: the smooth flow of muscle beneath warm flesh, the shape of him—wide shoulders, hard thighs, and everything in between.

Right now? All she wanted to do was to
feel
him through every one of her starved senses.

Before she could spend any time trying to figure out what came next, he scooped her up and laid her gently on the cot. Then he knelt on the dirt floor beside her.

“If you’ve spent your life under Archangel Ted’s thumb, I assume that this is—”

“My first time.” She met his gaze. “Do
not
say the ‘v’ word. I’m not afraid—of you, of the pain, of anything. The only thing that scares me is the thought you might slow everything down so you can try to be gentle.
I’m
not feeling gentle.”

Heat flared in his eyes. “Tell me what you want.”

His expression along with—she glanced down—
everything
shouted, “Hurry, hurry, hurry.”

She reached out to run her fingers along his clenched jaw. “I want you under me. I want my hands, my mouth on you. I want you inside me.”

“Got it.”

He nudged in beside her while she shifted so she was kneeling on the cot, straddling those lean hips. Her on–top position wasn’t about control, it was about access to every inch of his body.

Edge lay quietly while she tried to slow her breathing, recapture a heartbeat that was running free. Couldn’t do it. And so she stopped trying. She’d go with what her body was urging.

She reached down to slide her fingers over his smooth, warm chest, his male nipples, his ridged stomach, and then along the thick hard length of his…cock. She’d heard the word so often in the minds of the women she’d visited, but never understood the surge of hunger and emotion attached to it. She did now.

Her exploration drew a groan from him. And when he spoke, his words came in short gasps. “I can’t give you slow and gentle for your first time, but I
can
give you control.” He added in a harsh whisper, “Even if it kills me.”

Passion grinned. “You won’t have to suffer long. I’d like more time to touch…” She reached between her spread thighs to cup his sac. “To taste you.” She leaned down to glide her tongue across one nipple and felt his whole body shudder. “But I can’t wait any longer.” Every moment since Ted had kicked her down here seemed to have been leading to this moment, and she wanted to savor it, but she couldn’t stop her mad dash to the finish line of this particular race. Sparkle had a lot to answer for.

She started to scoot forward so she could plant herself on top of him. Surprised, Passion realized she was shaking. Nerves, eagerness? She didn’t know.

“Wait.”

Even through the full-symphony volume of Sparkle’s humming in her mind, she heard him and paused. “I thought
I
was in control.” Stupid, stupid thought. Her body had ripped control from her brain a long time ago.

“I’m just taking you on a little side trip to a scenic overlook. Trust me.” His eyes glowed with wicked intent.

The promise in his eyes would always get her. And somewhere in the heat and desire of the moment, she realized her admission had closed the door to her past. “This had better be worth the risk.”

“Risk?” He raised one brow.

“Of me dying from frustration.”
Of me never being able to return to Ted’s world.
When had she stopped calling it home?

His laugh was low and sensual. “Come here.” He beckoned.

She slid up his body until he signaled for her to stop. Then he nudged her thighs farther apart and put his mouth on her.

Her world exploded with sensual overload. She tangled her fingers in his thick hair to anchor herself, but it didn’t do much good. Bits of her flew off to disappear into the cosmos.

He slid his tongue back and forth across the nub of flesh that right now held all the secrets of her sexual universe. With each stroke of his magic tongue everything became
more
. The scent of him, a blend of dangerous dark places and aroused male. The sound of his breathing, harsh with need. And above all else, the feel of each stroke—swirling, touching her whole body with just the tip of that tongue, driving her closer and closer to the edge of his scenic overlook where the air was almost too thin to breathe and just thinking about plunging off the cliff made her close her eyes and lick her lips.

Edge’s sensual side trip ended here. Who knew she had a compulsion to jump from high places? She opened her eyes to stare down into the endless spiral of longing, lust, and—no, that last “l” word would remain only a possibility for now.

She hurled herself into the unknown.

Rising above him, she lowered herself onto his cock. Slowly, relishing the friction, the sense of being filled completely, she pushed past the brief pain—too far into her free fall to stop. Sexual hunger she’d never imagined feeling drove her toward that final impact. If she’d known falling would be so awesome, she would have jumped sooner.
But only with Edge.

She stilled for a moment, her eyes closed, imprinting the glory of him deep inside her, making sure she’d never forget no matter where the rest of her life took her.

Then she began to move. She rose until only the head of his cock remained inside her before easing back down again. The heaviness built, strengthened, pushing toward…

Thought vanished and sensation took over as need twisted her into the shape of desire. She rose and fell, driving him deeper and deeper and deeper.

Somewhere along the journey, Edge joined her. He put his hands on each side of her hips and then drove up into her. And each time flesh met flesh, she thought it couldn’t get better.

Closer, closer, closer. His groan blended with her small eager sounds. And suddenly, she was
there
.

Her orgasm took her even as Sparkle’s song spun magic around them. Passion screamed Edge’s name. He answered with one final thrust and a shout of triumph.

She held her breath as spasms of pleasure washed over her.

Never stop, never stop, never stop.
But they did, the spasms growing weaker and weaker. And when stillness finally lay around her, she realized that she’d
never
regret closing the door to Ted’s world and her past. This—even if it was all she’d ever have—had been worth it.

Passion felt Edge gently push the hair away from her face. She opened her eyes. For just a moment, his unguarded expression caught at her heart. But then it was gone, and he was once again what he’d always been—the cosmic troublemaker in charge of death.

“That was…”

Edge placed his finger over her lips. “Don’t. Let it be what it was. We don’t need words for it.”

She nodded, and then slid off him. With her back to him, she quickly dressed. As her euphoria faded, reality set in. She was sore. She just hoped the hurt didn’t spread to her heart.

Edge frowned. Did she regret making love with him? Damn.
This was one time he wished he could slip into her mind.
No, you don’t.
He wouldn’t take it well if he found that what they’d shared hadn’t meant as much to her as it had to him.

More slowly, he rose and dressed. She still had her back to him. Someone had better say something, because without Sparkle’s humming in his head, the silence was deadly. He needed words, any words, to drown out his uncertainties. His doubts made him uneasy. He hadn’t had many during his long existence.

“Are you okay?”
Right. How to be cool. Next you’ll ask her if it was as good for her as it was for you.
He already knew the answer to that one. It didn’t get any better.

Passion nodded and turned to face him. “I need a shower.” She sounded distracted as she carefully avoided his gaze.

Oh, no, she wasn’t going to get away with this. “Look at me, Passion.”

Taking a deep breath, she raised her gaze to meet his.

“What’s wrong?”

She shrugged. “Nothing, I guess.” Then she pressed those sexy lips together. “Fine, so that’s a lie. I was just wondering if what we felt…Well, was it real? I mean, with Sparkle spinning her ‘Light My Fire’ craziness everywhere.”

He tucked his emotions deep inside him where she couldn’t see them. Sometimes, pride was all he had. “Do
you
think it was real?”

She studied him from those pale green eyes. “Yes, I do. For me.” Uncertainty seemed to touch her. “I don’t know about you.”

“Couldn’t get more real for me. Believe it.” Intense relief almost made him weak. He didn’t know where any of this would take them, but at least they had a chance. He pushed her hair aside and whispered his secret into her ear. “I’ve wanted to make love with you from the first moment I looked through the bars of that cage and saw you.” Surprised, he realized it was true.

Before she could reply, someone flung the door open. Dacian
and Cinn stumbled in. As soon as Dacian saw him, he peeled his lip back to show fang. Both of them had the same hungry look that Edge figured he and Passion had worn.