by Lucian Bane
He clenched his eyes shut. “Please wake up,” he whispered, pressing his lips to her forehead. He slid them over the soft skin, focusing on his other hand gliding along her backside again. Then over the perfect curve of her hip.
It was so very subtle but he felt it. A small gasp against his neck. God, God, please, yes. Afraid to scare her off, he resumed his same pace, stroking only with his fingers now. He began to place soft kisses on her forehead wondering if she was awake and hiding. In fear.
Solomon paused on her butt and cupped it softly then pulled her. His cock pressed into her hip and he shuddered, letting his arousal come. Her hot breath warmed him more and hope surged through him.
“Beautiful,” he whispered, hoping she could hear him. “I need you.” It was entirely true. He did, in so many ways. He closed his eyes and pushed her face with his until he had access with his mouth. Getting up on his elbow, he lowered to her lips and began placing the softest kisses all along them.
****
Chaos wasn’t sure how long she could hide from him. At first she didn’t want to come out of her safe place until she realized who it was that called her. And then when she tried, she found she was too far in. But he’d reached deep inside her mind and set an anchor that Chaos held tight to. His voice. His touch. Both warmed her like a small flame even though it was still far away. She reached for it, wishing she could understand the words he said and the touch she felt. There was something to know about it, something curious about it that made her need to feel it more, hear it clearer.
It was becoming easier with each passing second, each soft sound. When she was finally at a distance that she heard and felt what it was she sought to understand, the warm fire ignited into a hungry flame.
Fear pushed her back inside, remembering the pain he’d given her and could still give . She couldn’t have any pain right now. She couldn’t allow herself to… be fooled... by his touch. His words. But why couldn’t she? She wasn’t sure.
“Come on Beautiful,” he called softly. “Come back to me. Don’t leave me like this.”
The ache in his beautiful voice tugged hard in her chest. But the fear said if she moved, if she came out, she would find it was all just a dream.
As though sensing her fear, his fingers caressed along her upper thigh. She became aware of her breaths and how fast they were. Then it hit her… it was real. Not a dream.
The fire inside her became a series of explosions, lighting her up like never before.
****
Solomon’s fingers trembled along her skin. She was responding. He needed to keep going, that’s what he told himself even though he didn’t need to be told. Part of him said he needed to pull back, it was done. But what if she saw it as more rejection?
He studied her body’s responses even with his eyes closed. It said please, don’t stop. Go very slow but don’t stop, pull me out of this place.
Solomon could do that. He could go so very slow and not stop. Not until she was out of that dark place. He fixed his eyes on her face, allowing himself to marvel again that she didn’t know she was beautiful. He leaned and placed his lips on her forehead, closing his eyes at hearing her breath hitch. He didn’t press into the skin but allowed his lips to feel her. He slid them along her forehead, his own breaths shallow against the soft silk. Sweet silk.
He avoided the burns on her temple, moving to her cheeks, sliding his lips just enough to feel. “Beautiful,” he whispered again. “Come back to me.” He moved his fingers carefully along the other side of her face, closing his eyes with the need to give her everything she’d ever needed. He kissed her along her shoulder, moving so he could continue all the way down to the very tips of her fingers. He kissed each one and then every inch of her palm before making his way along the delicate skin of her forearm.
His need to kiss her the way she deserved turned into a journey of tasting what he had to have. At the top of her shoulder, he angled his head for his first sample of her neck and she gave him something that lit up his hammering heart. A tiny moan.
His body shuddered in response to that one beautiful sound. “That’s it.” The soft encouragement came as he opened his lips more, allowing his tongue to lick her as he kissed. “Wake up for me.” He grazed the tips of his fingers along the column of her neck, listening to her rapid breaths and the need straining at the edges. Solomon’s own desperation to meet them had his muscles locked as he roamed her neck with his lips, completely lost to anything but doing more of the same along her jaw and chin.
“So very beautiful,” he whispered finally next to her mouth, his fingers back to stroking the curve at her shoulder before tracing along her face.
She gasped several times and her mouth moved like she would speak. “Shhhhh.” He slid his thumb across her lips. “Except to stop me,” he whispered. Otherwise, Solomon knew exactly what he needed to do. No, not needed to do. Wanted. Desired. Craved. To resurrect the woman in her body that she’d never been before. And he wouldn't stop until both of them were more alive than they’d ever been.
Chapter Eighteen
Chaos had to find a way to tell him. With all she had, with all her strength, it finally came on a gasp, “Never stop!” The words fluttered from her lips over and over, “Never stop, never stop.”
“Never,” he agreed. His lips and breath were hot along her face now. Chaos lay there with her eyes wide open, but she was seeing from a distance, seeing her and him in the bed. She wanted to come all the way back, but there was something there still, stopping her from making the complete connection. And then his beautiful lips were on hers. Kissing her. Oh God, he was kissing her.
The barrier shattered and Chaos took in a gasp of air, her hands sinking into his hair to grip tight. Then she worried she’d hurt him, scare him away. But his hands weren’t fearful, they were firm as they held her face, his lips and tongue answering her hunger with an equal ferocity. It stole her breath and then she forgot how to breathe.
His own hot gasps flooded her mouth, safe and warm. “I’ll never stop,” he whispered as he nibbled and sucked her lips, his kisses going from breathtaking to gentle. But the tremble in his body said he was using great restraint.
“Don’t stop,” were the only words she seemed to know with him as her own body woke with such a hunger. Her every pore seemed starved for something that only he could give. “Don’t stop.”
“Are you awake?” he asked, kissing at her upper neck. “I need to hear you say it.”
She arched her neck, straining for his lips and tongue there. She wanted him to devour every part of her. “I’m here, I’m here.”
He was back at her lips stealing her breath with a strong kiss, making her entire body squirm from it. “Good.” The word blasted in her mouth before he bit at her chin. “I’m going to show you,” he whispered, moving to her neck until she bowed off the bed for more. “I’m going to show you what love is.”
Show her love? Her heart hammered in her chest in fear and excitement. “Show me,” she whispered, watching him now. He knelt next to her and stared not at her body but deep into her eyes. It was always the eyes with him, deep in the eyes.
She saw his nakedness and gasped at realizing. “So beautiful,” she couldn’t keep from whispering. She lowered her eyes eagerly to the white underwear and her breath left in a rush. His manhood strained so eager there. Why did the sight of it make her feel so different? She never hungered for anything like this.
“Not yet,” he whispered, as though sensing her need to devour that very part of him. Crawling slowly over her body, his arms and strong shoulders rippled with muscle as he came toward her. His skin reminded her of Grandmother’s coffee. She took two creams. She wanted to drink him all up, lick him even. She tore her gaze from the sight of his manhood so very close to her body as he approached. She swallowed when their eyes locked. The intensity that smoldered in the blue depths spoke things to her she didn’t understand but wanted to, very much.
Never had she seen a gaze
with such heat and it made her breaths come faster when it stopped directly above hers. Oh God, he was looking deep into her. As his lips lowered, his body did too until both pressed into her. So hot. He was so hot. She liked this hot, wanted it, craved more. “I’m going to kiss and adore you with my lips first,” he said, hungry on her mouth. “Tell me you want it.”
“I want it,” she cried quickly. “So much.”
He stroked her face in that way again, so carefully, so softly. She had to feel him. One glide of her fingers along his warm sides produced something she’d never had before. She froze, worried at why his eyes clenched tight. “I’m sorry,” she hurried.
“No,” he said harshly, covering her lips quickly with his. “I’m dying to feel your touch. All over me.”
The idea that he liked her touch this much sent her fingers exploring over the hot silky muscles with a dire urgency.
“Yes,” he shuddered, biting softly at her lips, making shards of heat tingle between her legs. She’d never felt that sensation there before. She roamed her hands down his back, suddenly delirious with hunger. She stroked over his butt and he gasped right in her mouth, pushing his manhood into her leg.
“I want to pleasure you,” she begged.
“You first,” he strained, moving so he lay alongside her.
Alarm shot through her. “I… I don’t think I… can.” Before she could finish the sentence, his warm hand covered her breast. She gasped at the sensation, how such a simple thing could feel so good.
“Are you sure you can’t?” She stared into his eyes as he perched on his elbow next to her, his fingers caressing the entire mound like a warm wave. “Tell me what you feel,” he whispered then drew his finger over the tip, making her breath suck in. “Do you like this?” The hot words matched the slow stroke of his finger again over the tip.
Her back arched. “It’s hot,” she panted, concerned.
“That’s perfect, Beautiful. Can I kiss you here?”
He flicked the tip again with his finger and she granted him permission with a moan and a “Yes.”
He lowered his lips to hers and nipped softly, making their noses rub. “Thank you,” he breathed against her mouth just before his lips glided off of hers and lowered. Chaos lifted her head to see what he would do and shock froze her breath at what he called kissing her there. His mouth opened wide and covered the entire top. She watched in awe and sweet agony, giving a sharp moan when he sucked it. Her chest heaved as the tip popped softly from his perfect lips. It glistened and hardened even more in the absence of his attention. She clutched the covers tighter as his tongue then flicked and licked her there. She couldn’t stop her cries of ecstasy and instead of him finding them repulsive as she feared, he grabbed the breast with his hand and forced the tip up, groaning while scraping it with his teeth.
“Oh God,” she gasped. “It’s… so hot.” Between her legs she wanted to say. But he wasn’t even touching her there and only pain was ever had for her there. Her body began to move with this heat. She closed her eyes, feeling it, seeking to understand. What was it, what did it want? It wanted something from her, she could feel it and her body understood, even if she didn’t. Solomon understood it, he was the cause of it, the instigator. The Master of it.
What was this magic? This power?
Her fingers latched in his hair and she arched her back, eyes closed as he moved to repeat the glorious torture on the other breast. Her hips moved in odd ways from this heat. Was it wrong? It didn’t feel wrong, it felt so good.
His mouth suddenly covered hers again, consuming, his leg now between hers, pushing ever so softly against that part on fire.
“Yes,” he whispered in her mouth, moving his leg against her. He knew. He knew very well what she was feeling, what this was doing.
“I’m… I’ve never…”
“Felt pleasure,” he whispered, biting at her lips and chin and along her jaw. “But you will now,” he promised.
Pleasure. How could she? She wasn’t able to, she wasn’t made to. Her head spun with so many thoughts. Was she breaking some kind of law or code in the order with this? It felt forbidden. And yet it felt like she must have it with him. She gave a moan as she remembered. The sacrifice. Yes. For the sacrifice, that’s what she’d been created for. For him.
She couldn’t think beyond that. Being made for him. To do this, whatever it was with him. He called it the pleasure between a man and a woman. In love. She’d not been trained in this or for this.
The heat became unbearable as she moved her hips, forcing that hot spot against his thigh. “Solomon,” she whispered, scared at what she felt coming.
“Not yet,” he said, removing the pressure from between her legs, making her suck in a breath. “Not like that.”
Not like that? She panted, completely confused now as he again kissed her until she couldn’t think of anything but his warm full lips, his tongue. God his tongue… like his fingers, it glided so firmly and expertly in her mouth! Along hers! Gentle, yet more powerful than anything she’d ever experienced. It was all… terrifying. Nobody had kissed her before.
She pushed at his chest and he pulled back, looking at her. The anger she expected to see in his beautiful gaze wasn’t there. “Talk to me,” he whispered softly, “tell me what you want.”
What she wanted? Her mouth opened to speak and he lowered and kissed along the edge. “You’ve never had anything like this before, Beautiful? At all?”
She only shook her head. Never.
“You’ve not felt pleasure in sex, not once?”
Again she shook her head, not as firmly because she wasn’t sure anymore if that was good or bad. Everything she thought was good didn’t seem to be with him and everything she thought was bad, seemed to be good.
Judging by the look on his face, not ever having pleasure in sexual things was very bad.
“I didn’t… I never knew…”
“Shhhh,” his warm lips covered hers. “I’m not angry with you.”
“Why… are you angry at all? I-I told you I wasn’t made…”
Again his mouth was on hers, this time in that commanding, breathtaking way. “Let me love you, Chaos,” he whispered on her lips. “Let me show you what it means for a man to love a woman.”
She pushed at his chest again, searching his gaze. “But you said you’d never…”
He closed his eyes briefly before hanging his head a little. “I know I did. I was scared.”
He was scared? Him? “Of what?” she whispered, wanting to know what in the world could cause such a powerful man like him to fear and it was also doing something else odd to her. It made her want to remove that threat.
His handsome brows came together as he looked into her eyes. She held her breath as he shook his head barely. “I was scared to love you.”
She still didn’t understand.
He smiled at her, stroking along her face and kissing her nose. “You are so beautiful and you don’t even realize just how much. Inside and out. If I loved you and then lost you somehow… I don’t think I could live through that.”
Chaos’s chest suddenly became so hot that she couldn’t breathe. She shoved him off of her at feeling it, gasping for air.
“What?” he asked behind her.
“You… are saying…”
“That I want to love you.”
She looked over her shoulder a little. “Want?”
“Yes. Loving somebody isn’t a onetime thing, it’s an everyday thing. Something you do to them, with them, for them. Because of them. Every day, all day. And night.”
The soft and night part sent that heat between her legs, making her breaths shallow again. He wanted this? With her?
“And… how long… does this last?” she double checked.
“Till death parts us,” he said. “Hopefully when we’re a hundred.”
A hundred? They only had days. “Why so long?” she finally said through the suffocating dread.
He gave a chuckle t
hat tickled her stomach and even that spot between her legs. How odd. “Because I want to love you a lot. I want to adore you and take care of you. Give you pleasure over and over, every day in many ways. For a long, long, time. Don’t you want that?”
She gasped at the question, at those words again-- do you want. She tried to remember ever being asked that in any capacity. And the things he offered were… unthinkable for her. “What I want doesn’t matter,” she strained, angling her head toward him to see if her answer was right or wrong.
“It matters to me.”
“Why should it?” She didn’t understand but his words made her happier than she’d ever felt in her life.
“Why shouldn’t it matter?”
“Because I’m…”
“A pawn? A sacrifice?”
She swallowed, afraid to answer, trying to remember what he knew. Memories flooded back, the ones just before Master took her to the Fourth Floor. He’d said… she’d be desecrated with him now. Because she’d failed in getting him… to love her. She suddenly wanted to tell Solomon all about it. Ask him what to do, what was right or wrong.
But… he’d just said he loved her. Would that change her fate?
Chaos realized it might. But then… what purpose would there be to live? If he were not in the world living with her?
Absolutely none.
“I want you… to love me,” she whispered.
He was at her shoulder again, kissing it softly. “And do you want to love me?”
Tears blurred her vision as emotion overwhelmed her and she nodded.
He stroked the hair away from her face, kissing her neck. “I want to hear you say it. I need to hear it.”
She closed her eyes, fighting back the avalanche of need in her. “I want… to love you.” The words came on a sob and he pulled her back into his arms, cradling her so tight. “I want to love you,” she cried. “Teach me how to love you.”
