He’d pinned her so tightly against him he’d almost crushed her. As a result, the honey of her arousal slicked his thigh, taunting him to taste her. He grinned. And so he would.
Scooping Kyme up, he carried her to the bed. He laid her carefully on the mattress and strode back to the desk where he snatched up his breeches.
She sat up on her elbows. “What are you—?”
“Brace yourself, Amazone.” He hauled on his breeches. “Now I shall tame your body to my touch.”
Her eyes widened, darkening until they were no longer blue. He strode back to the bed and claimed her lips. With satisfaction, he unbound her heavy braid and twisted his fingers into her chestnut curls. She moaned and sank into the mattress. He draped his weight above her, nudged her thighs apart, and settled in between them.
His lips trailed to her breasts, where his tongue flicked across each of her tight peaks, but his mouth had a different destination.
He unbuttoned the rest of her shirt and kissed his way down until his lips secured his ambrosia. That fragrance at the center of her, which no mortal man was ever meant to sample. He teased her swollen bud, savoring her low moans, the way she gasped at this new sensation. As he determined how she liked to be suckled, he lost himself in her plush sex.
He cupped her bottom in his hands and lifted her body to his mouth to feast on her. Kyme’s fingers dug through the sheets, crept across to his hair, and burrowed in his locks, urging him on. Just like her panting whimpers. He shifted his tongue lower, ravenous to claim more of her.
She arched her back and tilted her hips. “Oh yes, please, Arsenius.”
His tongue circled her entrance. She gasped and bucked against him, as frantic as he was to fill her. He couldn’t resist, couldn’t deny. With extreme caution, he lowered his hand and dipped his finger inside her sweet sex.
He groaned into her thigh at how sleek, tight, needy she was.
“More,” her sultry voice pleaded.
Ever so gently, he returned his finger, thrust a little deeper, careful not to break that which was priceless to them both.
Sweat beaded his forehead. His cock throbbed rebelliously inside his breeches, demanding to be released, to replace his finger. Yet too much was at stake to renounce her virginity in a blind moment of passion. Besides, his control was so far gone he’d release before he made it even halfway inside her.
He’d crossed the edge of his restraint. Finding her nub, in earnest, he drank her in. His finger delved inside her until her sheath convulsed around him and she cried out in rapture. He clenched his jaw as she cradled his head to her abdomen, until he could bear it no longer.
The scent of her on his tongue was too much. The sight of her lying nude on the mattress, ready for him to claim, was a temptation he wasn’t prepared to face. He grunted as he retreated from her sweet warmth and paced at the base of the bed.
“I need some air. I’ll return later.” Halfway through the door, he stole one last glimpse of Kyme.
This shared physical pleasure, it had to be enough.
He shook his head.
It would never be enough.
***
Kyme sighed as she sank into the sheets. She’d never believed her sisters when they’d recounted the ecstasy to be shared with a male.
One taste hadn’t been enough, and she feared the more she indulged, the greater her addiction would grow.
When would Arsenius return? The way he’d growled with masculine arrogance had sent shivers through her body. He was a magnificent lover who exploited his talent. His masterful skill interpreted and fulfilled her desires. His touch avenged her one hundred and forty-three years of abstinence. No ordinary man would measure up to him. She was sure of it. In the same way she understood he’d never take, only give. He would not hurt her. No, he’d been wounded too many times to ever inflict such pain on another.
Everything in her life thus far was predictable, safe. Just this once, she could wish for something for herself. To place her own aspirations above those of her sisters. She’d been living a life of self-denial for so long, she hadn’t even realized she had such needs. Until she’d met Arsenius.
The tenderness she felt for him terrified her. She shook off those foolish musings. I’m an Amazon. What she experienced was passion.
It would never be anything more. This was as much as she had to give. She wouldn’t relinquish her gift. Or her life. She wasn’t a fool. No male would be satisfied forever with kissing and caressing.
Would there never be more?
Perhaps Arsenius didn’t intend to take things any further. He might revoke his word and hand her over to his buyer, permanently. They hadn’t worked out a plan yet, and… He’d spent years searching for a way to free his sister.
As he’d told her, she was his sister’s only hope.
What if he wasn’t so eager to take her virtue, after all?
***
Arsenius removed his shirt and eased onto the bed beside Kyme. Gods, she was lovely. A lone candle burned and its glow was more than enough for his sharp eyes to discern her delicate features, every sensuous curve of her body. She was exactly like something that walked in a man’s dreams, not while he was awake.
Her chestnut curls fanned the pillow and he couldn’t resist wrapping one tendril around his finger. Releasing it, he stroked her forehead, his other hand rubbing slow circles on her back. She moaned in her sleep and curled closer to him, pushing her bottom into his groin. His cock shot to life. Suppressing a growl, he firmly told that member of his anatomy to recede. It was not making another appearance tonight.
It’d been a long time indeed since he’d held a female. Not since his baby sister had been a sleep-troubled child. The memory of rocking her to sleep in his arms still brought a sting to his eyes.
He clutched Kyme tighter to his chest. He would not choose between them.
By the gods, he would not.
***
Arsenius stretched out in his bed and his senses fired. A small weight rested beside him. With his left hand, he clasped the handle of a dagger he stowed under his pillow. Rolling over, he raised the blade, preparing to sink it into whoever had ventured into his chamber. His eyes flew open just as he was about to plunge the knife.
Kyme. He used his right hand to clutch his left and steady it. Then his breathing. Deep, heavy gasps. I might have killed her. All of these years he’d trained not to let down his guard, to be prepared to attack.
Hell, he didn’t risk sleeping with anyone because dozens of men, and women, had attempted to slit his throat while he slept. He always killed them first.
As he watched Kyme sleep, long-abandoned emotions invaded his chest. His heart. He yearned to protect her. Which was foolish. She was more than capable of handling herself. Yet, he’d been the first to touch her, to introduce her to carnal pleasure. He’d made her feel safe, and in turn, her trust had made him powerful.
Her softness, her warmth beside him felt right. As though she was meant to always sleep beside him. Her chest gently rose and fell with each sweetly-scented breath. If he wasn’t careful, he would soon be completely lost.
To her.
Arsenius watched Kyme for hours as she slept. Though he’d only climaxed once, he’d never been so sated. He hadn’t even been inside her. Rather than linger on what a full claiming would be like, he focused on what he had. Right here, lying beside Kyme, he could spend his life with her. The notion caused the weight in his chest pull at him even harder.
“I wanted you to hate me.” Arsenius ground his jaw.
Kyme blinked at him. He hadn’t realized she was awake, so he rushed to explain. “That night on Limnos. I wanted you to hate me.”
Understanding softened her features. “I know, and I know why.”
He gave his head a slight shake. “I tried everything to rid myself of you, Kyme. Yet somehow, here you are.” He brushed the hair back from her face.
She tensed in his arms.
Right. He braced his reso
lve. What the hell was he doing, confessing his emotions to an Amazon? Damn, the word love almost slipped out. If Amazons did fear anything, it was that word uttered by a male.
By the gods, did he want her. Her essence, her purity. Not just her innocence, but a measure of virtue he’d concluded didn’t exist in this world. He hadn’t perceived it since…
“Tell me about Lena.”
His gaze shot to hers and he ignored the lump in his throat, the stinging of his eyes.
With tenderness, she trailed a finger along his cheek. Leaning into him, she pressed her lips to his. As she pulled back, she cupped his face in her hands. “Will you tell me about her?”
His eyes grew misty as the image of a delicate, blonde-haired, blue-eyed angel flashed across his vision. “Our mother died giving birth to her. Only, well, she wasn’t precisely Lena’s mother. A surrogate mother is more accurate. Lena is the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. The other gods on Olympus disapproved of their relationship, so Zeus eventually forbade them from having more children.”
He spread his fingers across hers, which caressed his cheek. “They discovered another way. If a mortal woman bears their child, the child will not be immortal or possess enough gifts to make the other gods jealous. My mother, though, was not strong enough…” He drifted off for a moment.
Kyme squeezed his hand. “How old were you?”
“Twelve.” He pushed back to sit. “Our mother understood the risk. It was her choice.” A smiled tugged at his lips as the memory fluttered in his mind. “Gods, I fell in love the moment I gazed upon Lena’s sweet face. As much as I sought someone to blame for my mother’s death, it could not be Lena.” His grin deepened. “Not a soul who looked upon her was not enamored.”
A reciprocating smile played on her lips. “How old is she now?”
His heart clenched. If she were alive. “She would be four and twenty.”
“Arsenius, why did her parents not intervene? Surely if she had been beloved by them—”
The images in his mind frosted over. “Think not so highly of the gods. In the end, they will only seek to please themselves and their fair words will come to naught.”
“How can you speak such things? Do you not fear their wrath?” The shock in her parted lips was far too genuine.
“Nay, I don’t. I’ve been punished by them in every way. There is nothing else they can seize from me. I’m a man who’s lost everything, Kyme. Believe me, the gods sense that’s the most dangerous kind.”
She pursed her lips. “Who abducted her and why?”
“I know not who took her from me, only that I was too weak to stop them.” He hung his head in shame and a wry laugh escaped him. “I prayed to Ares every day to permit me the morphos. To make me into the warrior I am today.” He lifted an eyebrow at her. “The bastard declared, ‘Someday, my son, you will be a great warrior. A hero without equal. But you are not ready yet.’”
“Why not?” Her brows drew together.
Arsenius shrugged. “That’s what I asked him as well. He said, ‘If all you have known is strength, you will never fathom weakness. Without this understanding, you cannot defeat your enemy.’”
He scoffed. “I had no idea then just how weak he intended to make me. Our lives are but a game to them. They set up their pieces on the chessboard, then sit back and watch us destroy each other. What honor is there in that, I ask you? None. When they stole my sister—”
Every muscle in his body tensed. He’d hoped to tell Kyme his story without too much emotion clouding it, but his fury was impossible to hide. He unclenched his fists and grimaced. This was why it was better for Thereus to tell her.
“Though my sister was innocent, he wouldn’t do it. Ares refused to give me the means to save her. That, Kyme, is why I hate the gods.”
***
Kyme ached for Arsenius’s suffering. And for his sister’s. Though few women belonged to their race, Amazons considered all females to be their sisters, and they would fight to defend any woman.
Perhaps the Fates were steering her path in a different direction. Together with Arsenius, they could discover where Lena was and save her from any cruel fate she might be suffering. If her aid also eased Arsenius’s pain, it would be worth every effort.
As he bared his past, her curiosity grew. She craved to learn every small detail about this enigmatic male. “Is Lena why you became a slaver?”
“Aye. After I freed myself, I had nowhere to go. My life in the aristocracy was dead. My estate and wealth gone. Besides, in order to locate her, I had to be on the inside. Despite the backbiting, it is a tightly knit world. Slavers won’t offer client names to anyone who isn’t legitimate. I began as crew on board a pyrate ship and worked my way up. It didn’t take me long to establish myself…”
Rising on her knees, she pressed her palm against his chest, above his heart and finished his sentence. “As a mercenary. You are not like the other slavers, Arsenius.”
He removed her hand, his brows furrowing. “I am a slaver, Kyme. Do not forget that. I would do, and have done, whatever is necessary to find her.”
She didn’t doubt he’d committed horrendous acts, but she didn’t believe he was the cruel person he claimed. “Have you encountered any sign of her?”
“No.” The pain in that word was so tangible, she longed to enclose it in a bottle and hurl it into the depths of the ocean where it wouldn’t hurt him anymore.
“I’ve developed contacts in every port on the Middle Sea and beyond. Searched every brothel, questioned every slaver I’ve encountered. The reason in me states there are thousands of slaves, most of whom will forever remain nameless. Those whose families are not contacted for ransom…” His shoulders deflated. “Still, sometimes I hope. My sister was a rare beauty, the kind of woman who would draw attention. People would remember her. Except, no one does.”
He rolled his massive shoulders and for the first time, Kyme detected weariness in his voice.
“I have no idea what to conclude and that’s what truly kills me. The uncertainty.” His fists clenched and the anger returned to his eyes. “I would rather she be dead than suffer what I have.”
How hard this must be for him. She’d lost many sisters in battle. They had died the glorious deaths of warriors and were remembered with honor. But to never learn whether the one she loved was alive or dead, or how they had passed? How terrible his enslavement must have been that he wished Lena dead to spare her from such torment.
Her heart fortified, Kyme tilted his face toward hers and stared into those grey depths. “Arsenius, though I have never met your sister, she is one of mine, whom I am sworn to protect. I vow to you I will aid you in your cause. We will not stop until we have discovered her.”
Hope replaced the anguish in his drawn brows, until his eyes darkened with something deeper. A yearning she dared not name.
A romantic attachment to this male was not only unwise, it was forbidden. No, this was a mission, the same as any other. Emotions were far more lethal than any enemy. Cloud one’s judgment with them and one might as well stab a dagger through one’s own heart.
He shook his head. “Why? Why would you do this? I have been more than cruel to you.”
“Not in the past few hours.” She winked to lighten his mood, but hardness continued to mask his features.
“Will you at least tell me what is at stake?”
“What do you mean?” She fingered the hem of the sheet, hedging.
“I am neither blind nor a fool. I’ve experienced how the gods work. What has Artemis given you in exchange for your chastity?”
She froze. Though he’d revealed so much of his past to her, she wasn’t certain about reciprocating. She’d never told an outsider. Well, except right before she killed them. If she shared a little, she might not have to tell him everything.
“I was thirteen the day my fate was determined.” As she spoke the words, her mind flashed to that fateful day.
Her godmother drew her aside, the warmt
h of her hand on Kyme’s shoulder bolstering her confidence. “This day will be the most important of your life, my daughter. Today, you will either join our ranks or be cast out forever.”
Kyme scanned her comrades and her heart filled with confidence. None of the other initiates had the fire she did. Nor the talent. She had been preparing for this moment since her birth. She spent hours every day training, mastering knives, the axe, the bow. Daggers were her favorite. Small, like her, yet so very deadly.
Their commander gave the war cry, and the five girls raced into the woods. The first part of the initiation was provision. Since Amazons didn’t belong to, and rarely interacted with, any traditional societies, it was paramount for every member to carry her weight. Their task was to hunt an animal and bring the kill back to their village.
A deer was an admirable kill for an individual. The carcass often weighed upward of two hundred pounds. For a girl who weighed half that, carrying the meat home was a strenuous task. Not to mention, a fresh kill would attract predators.
She wasn’t going to return with a deer, even though she was capable of the feat. No, she had something far more impressive in mind. The distinction between predator and prey was a curious thing. While her sisters tracked rabbit and deer, she would hunt the ones stalking them.
Kyme perched high in a tree and stilled until she was no more than a marble statue, then waited. The mother wolf didn’t sense her.
She leapt from her perch onto the wolf’s back. The wolf didn’t have a chance to slice those deep claws into Kyme’s vulnerable flesh before Kyme’s dagger severed hers. In one fluid slash, she slit the wolf’s throat.
As the animal gave up its life force, she issued a prayer to Artemis to speed the animal’s spirit on its journey. She cleaned her weapon on the dewy grass and constructed a sled to carry the carcass. The village was two miles north, across rough terrain, and the dead wolf weighed nearly one hundred pounds. She ought to remove only the wolf’s head, as her village wouldn’t eat its meat, but she sought the pelt, and the pride of delivering the entire animal herself.
Moon Borne (Halcyon Romance Series Book 1) Page 12
