Chip put his cup down on the table in front of the couch, then reached for hers and placed it there as well. He took her into his arms again and she went willingly. In the short space of an hour, his arms had become a sanctuary for her.
“It’s okay, sweetheart.” He stroked her hair with such gentle hands. He made her feel safe in a way no man ever had. “Beezus won’t get you. Not ever. I’ll kill him before he ever lays a finger on you. That’s a promise.”
She believed him. Even if his promise wasn’t practical, it was touching. He couldn’t protect her from everything, but she knew in her heart, he’d give it his best try. And Charlemagne’s best was really something. With his strength and his words giving her courage, she was able to calm herself enough to separate out the different thoughts and feelings that had been in Beezus’s blast of hatred and lust.
“He was glad Bjornson had finally given him the go ahead to trap me. I think…” She hesitated, trying to tease out the nuances of thought. “I think maybe one of their group saw me watching the exchange outside the bar and they decided to take no chances. Beezus doesn’t think I’m a threat, but he jumped at any excuse to get his grimy paws on me.”
“Never gonna happen. Not as long as I’m around,” Chip promised in a low, intimate voice.
She looked into his eyes and time stopped. For a moment, she forgot to breathe. She saw… the future, the past, the moment… all wrapped up in his gaze. His head moved closer and then his lips were on hers and time began again in a whirlwind of sound, color and feeling.
The feel of his lips on hers, his tongue seeking entrance to her mouth, which she granted after only a moment’s hesitation. Her head was spinning, her senses engulfed by him. He surrounded her with his power, his aura of calm and the intent she read now in his every move. To have her. To claim her. To make her his own.
Lila took only a split second to negotiate her inner surrender. Reason wondered what would come tomorrow, but her heart said who cares? Her heart and her soul needed this moment. Needed this man. Needed his body inside hers, his soul engulfing hers, protecting her, making them both stronger in the end. She would lean on his strength, take it into herself, girding her for the troubles ahead that they would face together.
It was her gift to know that Chip was serious when he said he’d kill for her. He’d also die for her, but he was very hard to kill. If the split second of vision she’d been granted held true, danger might be closer than either one of them was ready to contemplate.
But the future would come. That was a fact she’d had to learn to accept. Sometimes there was little she could do to change it—even with all her knowledge and foresight. Sometimes she just had to let the currents of time sweep her along, batting her from side to side in its endless march onward.
This was one of those times, but these next few hours also promised to be one of the most pleasurable interludes of her life. She didn’t have to be clairvoyant to know that. Chip’s kiss and the way her senses came alive under his touch told her all she needed to know about his skills as a lover and her response to him. This was going to be fun.
Harnessing the inner fire that had been denied for a very long time, Lila threw caution to the wind and climbed over Chip’s lap until she was straddling him, on her knees on the couch. The new position put her above him, keeping their lips fused as she took control of the kiss and the situation. Her hands tugged at his clothing, pushing fabric down, off his muscular shoulders until she could feel his hot skin beneath her fingers. She heard the tear of fabric, but she didn’t care. She wanted to touch him. To feel his masculine hardness against her body.
She wanted to know his possession and possess him in return. She’d never been so hot for a man. Not even her husband. They’d been young and she’d been inexperienced when he’d seduced her in a gentle, respectful loving. That tone had characterized their entire time together and she’d loved him for the way he’d treated her, as if she was made of spun glass. She’d enjoyed the way he’d cherished her and their children and she’d mourned deeply when he’d gone on without her into the next realm.
It had taken her years to get over his loss but she was ready now. Ready to take the lover fate had told her was coming. The lover who would show her things she never imagined and would dare her to be something more than she had always been. With this man, she would realize her full potential and together they could do great things. If they lived long enough, that is.
Fate was a fickle mistress and not even Lila knew for certain what the outcome of the upcoming trial would be. She was resigned to enjoy the time they had together until their fate was decided by their actions. They would either survive to fight another day, or not. Worrying about it now, while she had the most masculine specimen of manhood she’d ever beheld under her, was a shameful waste and she’d vowed not to allow herself to think too hard about what was yet to be.
Now was the important moment. The here. The now. The man under her thighs whose rough hands were undressing her, caressing her. Oh, yeah. This was the important thing. The important man. And the feelings he inspired in her reawakening body.
Lila squirmed against him, angling her hips so that she could feel the hard length of his cock rubbing against her crotch. Too many layers of fabric lay between them, but she was definitely impressed by the length and girth of him. She wanted that monster inside her and then, after the initial frenzy had worn off, she wanted to learn him with her tongue and discover how to drive him wild.
First things first, though. She was burning up from the inside out and needed relief. She tore her lips from his and sat back on her haunches, wanting her remaining clothing gone. She held his gaze as her fingers went to the fastening of her bra. Chip had already unbuttoned her blouse and it hung loosely from her shoulders. She shrugged out of it and threw it behind her, not caring where it landed. The bra came next and she felt a moment of shyness as the straps slid down her arms.
Chip must have realized her slight discomfort because he leaned forward and kissed her gently as his fingers took control of the fabric and slid it completely away while his mouth distracted her. The next thing she knew was the warmth of his big hands cupping her, his fingers stroking her nipples and playing her body like a master. He knew just how to touch her to make everything all right. More than all right, actually. Flaming hot and ready was how she felt as he stroked her breasts and made love to her mouth with his tongue.
He drew back, breaking the kiss and held her gaze for a moment before deliberately dropping his attention to the heavy mounds he held in his hands. He squeezed her and plucked at her nipples, leaning forward and angling his head downward, licking outward with his talented tongue to play with her hard peaks. When he sucked one tight bud into his mouth and applied his tongue, she surprised herself with an involuntary moan.
He smiled against her skin. She could feel it. Then he redoubled his efforts, wringing another moan of heightened pleasure out of her unresisting body. He was learning what she liked and teaching her things about her body even she hadn’t known.
When his hands dropped to her waist, she was more than eager to be rid of her pants. She wanted his fingers on her, in her. She wanted to know how he would touch her and bring her pleasure. But she also wanted to do the same for him.
Lila cupped his cheeks, drawing backward, separating them so she could stand. Boldly, she removed her pants and underwear, going slow so they could both enjoy the moment of revelation. She liked the way his gaze followed her movements, as if mesmerized by the sway of her hips. When she was naked, she dropped slowly—seductively, she hoped—to her knees in front of him, her hands reaching for his waistband. She wanted him naked.
He didn’t resist. In fact, he scooted his hips forward and spread his knees to facilitate her actions. She was in a hurry, but she also didn’t want to waste this opportunity to learn more about his hard body. She traced her palms up his fabric covered legs, moving along his inner thighs and enjoying the way his muscles tensed as she
moved upward from knee to groin.
She was unsurprised to find him hard and straining against the closure of his pants. His balls were substantial from what she could tell and his cock was just as thick and long as she’d suspected from rubbing against him moments before. She licked her lips as she released the closure, looking up at him only once or twice to gauge his reaction.
Judging by the heat in his gaze and the tension in his muscles, he was enjoying what she was doing, so she kept going. She flicked the closure with her fingernails, deliberately tapping a rhythm against the hard cock straining at the seam. Oh, yeah, he liked that. She could tell by the way his fists clenched and released in time with her motions.
She pulled the fabric away to reveal everything she’d expected… and more. He’d forgone underwear. Suddenly going commando seemed unbearably sexy. She’d wonder now, every time she saw him in the bar, what he was wearing—or not—beneath those soft, worn-in black cargo pants he favored.
“Like what you see?” His voice came to her, a rumble of sound that brought her out of her momentary stillness.
Only then did she realized she’d paused, just looking at him. She met his eyes, feeling the heat in her cheeks, knowing she was blushing a bit, but she’d brazen this out. She wanted to be the kind of woman who could match this amazing man. She wanted to be wild for once. To find the brazen hussy within her that had only recently decided to come out to play.
“Very much,” she said finally, moving closer.
But something in his eyes warned her that he was about to turn the tables. She wasn’t surprised when he reached forward, hooking both of his big, capable hands under her arms and lifting her. He stood, lifting her with him as he faced her, very little space between their bodies. In fact, she could feel the head of his cock brushing against her abdomen. He was so tall compared to her, so massive and strong, but she wasn’t afraid. Instead, she felt utterly safe for the first time in many years.
“Are you sure you want this, Lila?” His arms came around her even as he asked the question and she reached upward, placing her hands around his neck, drawing closer.
“I want you, Charles Quartain. I have since the moment I saw you.”
She didn’t add that she’d first seen him in a vision that had revealed his character but not his face or form. She’d been attracted to the steadfast man of honor she’d come to know through her gift and that attraction had only grown as she’d gotten to know him in the flesh. He was handsome as sin and moved like he knew what to do with a woman. She looked forward to finding out if her suspicions on that score were true.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Chip grinned at her and she could see the very real desire in his eye. They were on the same page at last. He wasn’t holding back anymore and she thanked the goddess for it.
He surprised a gasp out of her when he bent and lifted her into his arms, wrapping her legs around his middle, exposing the excited wetness between. For a split second, she was embarrassed, but then he started moving and each step brought her excited clit in contact with his hard body, fanning the flames to an almost unbearable heat.
He carried her into a bedroom. Alex’s bedroom, no doubt. It had a wide, soft bed covered with black satin sheets. It wasn’t quite to her taste, but it definitely looked sinful enough for what she hoped would come next. All in all, it looked like a room built for seduction and that was definitely on her agenda for the next few hours.
Chip deposited her on her back, on the bed, her legs spread before him her arms placed carefully on either side of her head. “Don’t move them,” he whispered with a light kiss against her lips before he moved lower. His breath teased over her neck, her chest and then her breasts before he nipped gently at her nipples, each in turn.
Lila dutifully kept her hands where he’d placed them, liking the way he’d taken charge. She’d have her turn later, but for now, she liked his mastery and his teasing touches as he worked his way down her body with varying degrees of touch and taste, nip and suckle.
When she was about ready to beg for his lips on her clit, he stood back and just looked at her. He’d driven her so high and made her so desperate with need that she felt not a moment of hesitation as he stared at her, open, ready and willing below him. If anything, she spread her legs wider, wanting him to see how badly she needed him to touch her there, to join with her and relieve the desperate need he had created within her body.
“Don’t go,” she pled with him, whispering in the stillness of the room where all she could hear was the rustle of satin sheets and the ragged breathing they shared.
“Not going anywhere, sweetheart. Just savoring the moment.”
She saw it then. The gleam in his eyes that said so much to her heart. This moment was special to him. She wasn’t just another prize for the conquering warrior. He’d fought too hard against their mutual attraction with those nearly chaste kisses each night as he leaned over her and tucked her into the securecart, sending her on her way, dissatisfied and unfulfilled. No, he wasn’t fighting the attraction anymore. Instead, he was reveling in it as much as she was, marveling at the way they responded to each other, drinking in the experience of two souls aligning for the first time as their bodies would align and join in just a few minutes.
Dear goddess, let it just be a few minutes. She couldn’t take much more of this torture.
She lay bared before him, like some sort of pagan sacrifice. The fire that leapt as he touched her inner thighs with his calloused hands threatened to burn her to cinders. As she had done to him earlier, he worked his way up her thighs from knee to the place that begged for his touch.
Chip moved closer, coming down between her legs oh, so gently, but with unmistakable intent. She lay back on the bed, spreading wider to accommodate him as he stroked long, thick, capable fingers through her sparse, wet curls. Long, sweeping motions brought his fingertips closer to her core, at last lightly grazing the nub that so wanted his full attention.
One hand zeroed in on her clit while at the same time, the index finger of his other hand invaded the dark opening that wept to take him. He pushed in with no apologies, no hesitation, merely claiming what was already his. She watched his face, growing hotter watching him watch his finger slide into her willing body. Oh, yeah. She hadn’t felt like this in far too long.
Maybe she’d never felt exactly like this. Charlemagne was a new kind of man in her experience. A new kind of lover. His touch promised to stretch her boundaries and push her limits. His soul dared her to try new things she had only dreamed of and promised that he would be there to catch her should she stumble on this new path of discovery. He’d vowed to keep her safe. She knew in her heart that promise extended even to this. Perhaps especially to this – the act that made a person as vulnerable to another as it was possible to be. At least to her mind.
“You like that?” Chip’s voice was a rough whisper as his gaze sought hers and held.
His finger began to pulse lightly in and out of her slick channel, while his other hand rubbed repeatedly over her clit in time with the short strokes. All the while, he held her gaze, watching as he possessed her in this small, incredibly intimate way.
“Do you like that, Delilah?” he repeated, using her full name. The sound of it shocked her out of the sensual stupor he’d created.
“I like it,” she whispered. Her breathing was ragged as sensation built in her trembling body.
“How much do you like it?” A tiny lift of one corner of his lips betrayed amusement at the way he was able to play her body so soon into their relationship.
“I love it,” she admitted brokenly. “But I want…” She drifted off, distracted by the increase in his pace and the deeper penetration caused by the addition of another finger. Oh, yeah. He was stretching her now and she wanted so much more.
“What do you want, sweetheart?” His gaze was intense as he dipped lower on the bed, hovering over her while his hands continued their magic between her legs.
“I wan
t you.” The words came out on a low moan as she reached a small peak. But it wasn’t enough.
“You’ve got me, Lila. You’re going to have to be more specific.” The rough growl that accompanied his words made her squirm to get closer to those magic fingers as he added a third, stretching her even more. “What part of me do you want?”
“I want your… cock,” she finally panted, the shocking word making the situation somehow even more hot, more explosive. She’d never used such words while making love. She’d never known how exciting they could be. She was learning all sorts of new things from her soldier. Her King of Clubs. Her Charlemagne.
“Mmm.” He seemed to approve as he withdrew his hands from her pussy and lifted slick fingers to his lips, licking her juices from them. “You taste amazing, Lila, and I’m going to eat you out while you come on my tongue. Later. Right now, I don’t think I can make either one of us wait much longer.”
“Good,” she gasped. She was only capable of the single syllable. He’d taken her too high, too fast. She needed to come. She needed it bad.
“That’s it.” Chip seemed spurred into action. He lowered over her once more, this time aligning his straining cock with her slick opening. He supported himself over her, the giant muscles in his arms flexing attractively as he positioned himself perfectly.
Then he took her. His thick cock slid, inch by inch, into her, claiming her, making her his irrevocably. She welcomed his possession, though it was tough to accept such a large intrusion at first. Her husband had been a civilian, built on a civilian scale. There was nothing similar about this behemoth of a man. This soldier. Biggest and badest of a big, bad cadre of men who protected and defended all the rest.
When he’d worked himself in to the hilt, he paused. His hands moved to either side of her head, grasping hers and intertwining their fingers in what felt like a deeply symbolic motion. His gaze met and held hers as he dipped closer, the movement making her fully aware that she was filled completely by him.
Bianca D'Arc Page 5
