by Liz K. Lorde
Ana
It takes forever for the elevator doors to ping open.
When they do, Cas and I all but tumble through them, laughing as he launches me against the glass wall of the elevator and kisses me, hard. I run my fingers through his hair—his hands are on my thighs, my hips, my chest.
Our heads are swimming with tequila and an aching desire for each other.
“I want you so bad,” Cas moans into my ear, panting heavily.
I fling my arms around him.
“Then make me yours.”
Cas kisses me hungrily before easily bundling me up into his arms and carrying me out of the elevator as soon as the doors open onto the honeymoon suite.
I’m unbuttoning his shirt even as he puts me back on my feet, but he breaks away.
I pout at him, but Cas merely laughs.
He walks over to an ice bucket sitting on a lacquered table, and pulls out a bottle of champagne.
“Would my lady care for a drink first?”
“After all this time, you’re going to make me wait, Caspian?”
His eyes wander around the room.
“We should at least appreciate this completely over-the top room first, you know.”
Cas is right—the suite is decidedly over-the-top, but it’s decadently gorgeous at the same time. Think four-poster bed with silk sheets. Think floor-to-ceiling windows opening onto a marble balcony. Think steam shower big enough for two, and a hot tub to boot. Think fruit basket.
I must be in heaven.
I hear the pop of a cork and the gentle fizz of champagne, and then Cas hands me a delicate glass flute almost overflowing with the stuff.
“Shall we take this to the balcony, Miss Rachmanoff?” Cas asks as he pours himself a glass.
I happily oblige, allowing him to lead me by the hand over to the balcony.
The view is outstanding—all glittering lights and opulent buildings.
The Vegas strip really is the best.
We clink glasses.
“To the star-crossed lovers,” I toast, smiling.
“And may they be star-crossed no longer,” Cas adds.
I wrinkle my nose slightly.
“That was way too corny.”
“Doesn’t make the sentiment any less true, cuore mio.”
It feels like it took us ages to finish the champagne, but I finish it nonetheless. It’s as if Cas has directed a challenge at me: can I resist my carnal desire for him for the duration of one drink?
When he’s finished his own, he sighs satisfyingly.
“That was delicious,” Cas remarks. He motions to the bottle with a hand. “Another—”
I knock the glass right out of his hand, sending it skittering across the marble in a dozen pieces.
“Don’t you fucking dare.”
Cas’ mouth is on mine once more, directing me safely away from the balcony and the shattered glass towards the gorgeous four-poster bed.
He turns me around, tossing my hair over my shoulder in order to undo the zip of my dress.
He takes his fucking time.
“Tell me you want me,” he whispers into my ear, one hand sneaking over my exposed skin as his other hand slips my dress from my shoulders.
God, it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say. I honestly don’t think I can handle much more of Caspian Andreas at his most intense and wanton.
I let my dress fall to my feet and kneel on the bed, beckoning for Cas to stand in front of me. I finish unbuttoning his shirt as slowly as he unzips my dress.
His eyes never leave mine as my hands find their way down to his belt. It feels like it’s been forever when I was toying with it in the burlesque bar.
“You know I want you,” I murmur as I brush my fingers past the fabric of his pants, giving his cock the very slightest of strokes through the material before unbuckling his belt.
Cas audibly gasps, and he involuntarily bucks closer to me.
I run my fingers up his perfect, golden skin back up to his face.
“I want you so much I can’t stand it.”
Suddenly, Cas has his arms around my waist as he throws me onto the bed.
I love the weight of him on top of me.
He fingers the strap of my little, lace bra before reaching his fingers around my back to undo the fastening.
Cas runs soft kisses from the hollow of my neck all the way down to my navel as his right hand reaches underneath the cups to fondle my breasts, keeping his fingers gentle and teasing.
I let out a moan.
“Cas…”
I can tell he’s enjoying himself, but I’ve grown so wet with desire that his slow deliberateness is almost painful.
He looks up at me from his position at my navel; his breathing hard.
“I just need to make sure you truly want this, Ana. Because once I’ve started—”
He brings his hand down from my breast to pull away at my panties.
“—I’m not gonna be able to stop.”
He returns to head height to finish pulling off my bra, and I look at him intently.
“Don’t stop, then,” I let out in an almost breathless whisper.
Cas’ mouth is on mine, then, and his fingers find my clit, and all I can feel is pleasure.
“Cas, please, please, I need you in me,” I beg against his hot, ravenous mouth.
My hands rove down to his pants—how could it be that I removed his belt and still hadn’t taken off his pants? In my desperation, I struggle to pull them away, but Cas steps in and all but rips them, as well as his underwear, clean away.
There’s a moment of stunned silence as my eyes wander down to his throbbing cock. He was never that big back when we were eighteen, when everything was all hands and mouths.
“You really had a growth spurt after eighteen, didn’t you?” I say, both admiringly and somewhat apprehensively.
This might hurt a bit.
Cas grazes his teeth over my lips as his fingers return to teasing my clit, and waves of pleasure begin to hit my brain again.
“I’ll be gentle, I swear. Just trust me.”
And how could I not trust Caspian Andreas?
I pull his mouth back to mine and kiss him ferociously as I run my hands through his beautiful hair.
I bite his lip in shock as he enters me.
It definitely hurts a bit.
“Ana?” Cas mumbles against my lips, concern coloring his voice even through his achingly obvious desire.
I bury my head against his shoulder.
“It’s okay, Cas. I love you. I love you.”
He softly pulls my head back on to the pillow so he can look me in the eyes.
“Gentle. I’ll be gentle. I love you, too.”
Even as he says the words, the initial shock and pain melts away, and all I’m left with is pleasure, and the overwhelming feeling of being filled by Cas—being made whole by Cas.
I wish I hadn’t waited so long for this moment.
Chapter 19
Cas
Ana clenches around my cock, tight like a vice. If she wasn’t so soaked right now, I wouldn’t be able to move inside her at all.
A virgin. My Ana was a virgin, even after all these years. The thought of what she had to do to save herself for me still fucking hurts.
She must have gotten hurt to keep herself from Yuri and his unworthy fucking desires.
And as I move inside her, I can tell she’s still hurting.
“Cuore mio—” I begin, but Ana stops me with a hard kiss pressed against my lips.
“No, Cas,” she says. “I want this. Make love to me, please.”
I can’t deny her anything—and certainly not this. But if she insists…
“Arch your back for me, baby,” I whisper against her lips as I slip my fingers between us. They smooth down her stomach until they find the swollen, throbbing bud of her clit. “If you’re going to take me, I’m going to make you enjoy every inch.”
It would be easier o
n her, I imagine, if I wasn’t so fucking big. That’s one thing I can thank the Andreas family genes for, I guess—but right now, it feels like a double-edged sword.
It takes every modicum of restraint not to just take this woman. To bend her to my will, mark her, own her body, and make my big, thick cock fit.
But doing so would make me just as bad as Yuri.
No. It would make me worse.
Ana has put her trust in me, and as much as I want her…
I need to make sure she’s safe even more.
I take her clit in the slow, sensual motions that I know she responds to. We might have been saving ourselves for marriage all those years ago, but we were far from saints.
I’ve replayed every moment of sin I had with Ana over and over again in my mind a hundred thousand times since I lost her.
I haven’t forgotten how to please my woman.
And there’s never been anyone else for me to learn, either.
She’s eager to give into me. I can feel it in her every little movement—the way her lips part as I roll her clit beneath my thumb, the way she moans and rocks her hips against mine as I enter her, inch by fucking inch.
Her body is an orchestra, and I’m Duke fucking Ellington.
But then, she moans something that I wasn’t expecting.
“Harder, Cas,” she gasps. “More.”
It’s all I can do not to sink the rest of my rod into her then and there.
More, she tells me.
She doesn’t even realize what a dangerous thing that is to ask of me.
Giving Ana more right now would mean fucking her so hard into this mattress that I might as well be fucking her into the floor.
Still, I slide another inch of my cock into her. It’s only a matter of time before I bottom out in the pink velvet heat of her cunt, and there’s so much more of me left to fill her with.
Ana gasps like a fish out of water with every pressing inch. In between those gasps, her moans have become mantras.
“Please, I love you. More. More.”
She’s close. I can feel it. Her cunt is throbbing around me, begging to be pushed over the edge.
I can feel her heartbeat through her clit beneath my thumb. I can see the desperation in her eyes.
“Kiss me,” she gasps as I give her another inch. “Please, Cas. Kiss me—kiss me. I’m so close…”
“Not until you come for me, cuore mio. I’ll kiss you when you come.”
It’s like that little bit of incentive was all she needed. Almost instantly, Ana’s back goes rigid with pleasure, and her pussy throbs like nothing I’ve ever felt before.
I’m her first, I think to myself as our lips meet in passionate fucking harmony. But she doesn’t need to know that she’s mine, too.
The kiss is intense. It’s brutal, gentle, loving, and cruel all at once. A kiss like that could make a man launch a thousand warships, conquer kingdoms, risk his life.
When Ana’s lips meet mine, I know then and there that I would burn this entire city to the ground if at the end of it, I could lay my smoking gun before her as I kneel at her feet.
The kiss changes something in me, something in both of us.
Once we kiss like that, there’s no turning back.
There’s a beast inside me—something raw, crude and primitive—that’s been begging to be unleashed.
And Ana’s kiss? It’s the key to open the cage.
When Ana kisses me like that, I can’t help myself anymore.
I need her too fucking badly…and that kiss tells me that she needs me, too.
I pick up the fucking pace. Before, I was giving her an inch at a time—now, I make her feel the entire goddamn thing. My cock thrusts into Ana until it bottoms out, and I only push it further.
“God,” Ana moans against my lips. “Cas…Cas, baby, you’re so big—”
“That’s right, cuore mio,” I growl back. “Big and hard and made to fill you up.”
My hand wraps around her throat, squeezing gently. Possessively.
My body feels like it was made to do this. With Ana—only Ana.
Any other woman and this wouldn’t feel so powerful, so raw, so goddamn fucking good.
But Ana isn’t just any woman.
She’s my entire fucking soul.
The beating of my heart and the blood rushing to my cock.
The stars in the night sky and the wine-dark waves of the ocean.
My wife.
The laws of god and man no longer apply—not now.
As I thrust my cock inside Ana’s perfect, slick pussy as deeply as it can go, I know it’s fucking true.
In every way that matters to my body right now, Ana Rachmanoff is my mate and my wife.
She shifts beneath me, meeting my pace with her own hips. We’re moving together as one now—one body, one spirit, and one fucking soul.
I can see it in her eyes that she can feel the change, too.
The pain is gone from her ice-blue gaze and in its place is pure, unbridled pleasure. It’s taking her over like ink dropped in water, seeping into her muscles, her bones, her every cell.
I can see it in her, and I can feel it in myself.
Drunk with pleasure. With lust. With love.
On each other.
I dip my mouth between her breasts as she gasps and moans for me and lick the sweat from her skin.
She tastes fucking divine, like heaven. If there’s a god, I think I’ve found him between Ana’s tits.
My mouth claims one of her nipples. I suck it between my lips, then my teeth. Ana only arches her back harder to accommodate me.
Our bodies are in a motion that can’t be stopped, and everything else—the moaning, kissing, and the way I hold her in my arms—only serve to further our ultimate goal.
I want it. I know I do.
But Ana isn’t the same sweet, innocent little thing she was when we last met.
Ana gets to it first.
“Cas,” she begs, her voice dark and rich. “Come inside me. Please, Cas. Come inside me!”
“Get pregnant, then,” I find myself growling back at her. My cock throbs at the suggestion, pressing even harder against her G-spot. “Get pregnant for me, Ana!”
“Give it to me, Cas! Give me your cum—oh, god—”
She spasms around me, and her eyes roll back in her head. This orgasm hits even harder than the last, and it leaves me breathless.
Her cunt is so hot, tight and slick. And the way it throbs around me, it’s like she’s milking me of my cum…
“Ana!” I growl as I sow my seed deep inside her. “Ana—Ana!”
“Cas!” she gasps back at me—and then I conquer her lips again so neither of us can say anything.
The silence as we hold each other in the darkness of the suite, limbs entangled and bodies pressed close is definitely a whole lot better than any word.
Chapter 20
Ana
For a moment, I truly believe I’m asleep—that I must be dreaming.
But I’m not. Still drunk, yes, but most definitely not asleep.
I turn my head to the right and stare at Cas. He’s already looking at me.
There are fireworks outside. Along with the flashing, neon lights of the Vegas strip, our room is engulfed in colors that sing and dance in Cas’ eyes.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man quite as beautiful as Caspian Andreas in all my life.
He’s looking at me, and he loves me. I can’t wish for anything more.
However, even thinking such a thing causes me to pause. There is something more that I wish for.
My moment of dissatisfaction must show on my face because Cas frowns.
He runs a gentle hand through my hair.
“Did I hurt you, cuore mio?”
I smile as I shake my head.
“No. No, you didn’t. It was perfect. It’s just...”
I hesitate, looking up at the sheer hangings of the four-poster bed. How could I possibly still want more a
fter the experience we’ve both shared together?
“What is it, Ana?”
I glance back at Cas.
“I can’t help but think about the life we could have had if our wedding hadn’t been destroyed three years ago. The life we should have had.”
He smiles sadly, then cups my face in his hands.
“I know, Ana. Trust me, I feel the same way. I thought about it all the time, when I was looking for you. Imagining what our life could have been...it got me through some dark times.”
I lean in and kiss him softly.
“Tell me what you imagined,” I say, nestling in against his shoulder when he puts an arm around me.
Cas kisses the top of my head.
“Only if you tell me where my imagination seems to have run wild and where it’s hits the mark.”
“Ha! I’m pretty sure I can do that.”
My insides squirm pleasantly as I feel Cas begin absent-mindedly running his fingers up and down my body, drawing invisible circles and nonsensical shapes against my skin.
“So...where to start?” Cas draws in a breath. “I guess it all starts with me not being shot three times.”
I bite his shoulder in outrage; hearing him laugh in response.
“Well, it was easiest to start with the most obvious point first. Your father and his men don’t show up. Yuri doesn’t shoot me. You get to finish speaking your vows, and the minister pronounces us man and wife. I kiss you, and it’s the happiest moment of my life.”
“So far, I hope. The happiest moment of your imagined life so far.”
Cas glances at me and smiles.
“Yeah. So far. And as much as I want to stay in Vegas after the ceremony, we both know that’s too risky, so we hop straight back into my old Spider, and we drive out of there as fast as we fucking can. We can barely keep our hands off each other even as I’m trying to drive.”
“So, a lot like us earlier this evening then?” I chime in.
“Yes but decidedly more sober than we were today. We were still little eighteen-year-old-babies, after all.”
“Little babies who were old enough to get married and fuck each other senseless,” I say, smirking at Cas as my eyes cast downward to where his hand is—firmly between my thighs. “I hope you’re getting to the part where we finally get it on, Mister Storyteller.”
