Velvet Haven

by Sophie Renwick

  “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

  “I know what I want.”

  “No, you don’t. Fuck,” he ground out. “Can’t you understand that this cannot go any further?”

  “Why did you go to Suriel, then, and ask him to save me?”

  “Because Annwyn needs that book and I knew you had it.

  Just like I need your friend Rowan and her visions. I saved you because, simply put, you’re useful to me.”

  Mairi felt her lips tremble, his words sinking home. “You said this morning that you didn’t intend to use me.”

  “I lied.”

  In a quiet corner, Mairi sat with Suriel and pored over the book. In a notebook she wrote down phrases, trying to decode the hidden meanings and messages. She wondered if she shouldn’t invite Rowan down to help her.

  “You are not yourself tonight,” Suriel said, as he watched her break yet another pencil tip against the paper. She threw the pencil down and reached for another one.

  “Mairi,” he said gently, “what is going on in that mind of yours?”

  “I’m trying to get this damn book deciphered so I can get the hell out of here.”

  He put his hand over hers. “The raven will never allow you to leave.”

  She snorted. “Yeah, right. He can’t wait for me to be done with this.”

  Squeezing her hand, Suriel forced her gaze to his. “He burns with jealousy because he covets the bond we have.”

  “Ours is spiritual. I told him that. But the stubborn ass has it in his head that we’re together, in the sexual sense,” she clarified.

  “Only because he fears the bond we have is stronger than yours with him. What he doesn’t understand is the mortal heart. Passion, love, it binds much stronger than that of a spirit guide.”

  “Well, it’s not my fault he’s a shape-shifting immortal from the wrong world.”

  Suriel laughed and ran his hand down her hair. “Then it is up to you to show him.”

  She gazed at him, wondering. “What is in this for you?” He glanced at the book. “You might be able to help me find that flame. Other than that, my wishes for you are to find your path and your power. I’m walking the path with you, Mairi, but I cannot continue to lead the way.”

  “Well, we’re on it alone, because Bran isn’t following.”

  “He will,” Suriel murmured, his gaze flickering over her shoulder. Mairi turned to see Bran walk into the bar. His eyes blazed with anger when he saw Suriel’s hand on hers. He turned and left, and suddenly Mairi knew what she needed to do.

  Watching Bran in the shower was an invasion of privacy. Mairi knew she shouldn’t be doing it, but she couldn’t look away. Something drove her to this man—bird—Sidhe.

  Whatever he was, she wanted him.

  He was beautiful, with the water rushing over his naked shoulder and chest muscles, then running in rivulets down his chiseled six-pack. Her gaze lowered, taking in his navel, studying the way the shower water trickled down the fine black hair on his belly, then lower to where his hands cradled his shaft.

  Look away, the modest voice inside her screamed. But the devil lurking inside her lured her on. It wasn’t like there was a shower curtain he was hiding behind, the voice told her. He was standing in the open ceramic tile shower, beneath the spray of water, gloriously naked, just begging to be watched.

  Six feet six and stacked, Bran’s body was model perfect. The sigils that were scattered over his arms and chest were beautiful to her. On the outside he was all rebel bad boy, but on the inside, she’d glimpsed a softness in him. It was that softness, and the promise of another blinding orgasm, that made her take another silent step closer to the shower.

  Bran lifted his face to the spray of water and closed his eyes, his long hair hanging down his back, the cords of his neck exposed. Sexy as hell. Mairi had never seen anyone as sexy as Bran. And if she had any sense at all, she’d strip down naked and join him in the shower, throwing herself at him and not caring what he thought of her being so damn brazen. She closed her eyes and envisioned him pinning her against the tile wall, the spray of the water caressing their bodies as they moved against each other, just like she had the other day when she’d masturbated in the shower. Except it really had been him perched on the windowsill.

  Suddenly Mairi felt herself grabbed and brought up against the shower wall. Her flimsy cotton shirt and shorts were drenched in seconds.

  “Did you actually think I wouldn’t feel you standing there, watching me?”

  “I didn’t know—”

  “You didn’t know my body lights up whenever you look at me?” he growled. His eyes were glowing silver and gold in the sheen of the water as he loomed over her. There was anger in those eyes, hatred maybe. “Did you think now would be a good time?”

  “N-no,” she stuttered, unable to find her voice. “What do you mean? A good time for what?”

  His body was taut, filled with a tension she didn’t understand. “No, I can feel the time has not yet come. I can still do this.”

  He pressed his cock into her belly as he reached for her hands and brought them above her head. His gaze slipped down between their bodies, to her breasts, which were pressing against her shirt. She was braless, and everything she owned was openly displayed for him. His eyes grew darker, the pupils expanding, swallowing up his irises as his gaze fixed on the dark shadow of her nipples.

  She was bowed back, her breasts prominently displayed as he pulled her back a fraction more. Then he circled his erection deeper into her belly. He stroked her with his massive erection, circling her belly as if he were buried deep inside her. “Tell me what you’re doing here.”

  She heard the pain in his voice and couldn’t understand where it came from. She wanted to ask what she had done, but his cock felt so good against her that only a husky moan made its way past her lips.

  “You want me to take you in the shower?” he asked as he pressed his mouth against her ear. “Why, Mairi? Will you wash me away when you’re done?”

  “I—I didn’t mean to disturb you—”

  He laughed, the sound dark, menacing.

  He freed one hand from her wrists and brought it down between their bodies. She followed his hand and watched as he brought it to his cock. Something glinted in the sheen of the water, and she blinked, her lashes heavy with water. Something silver flashed at her.

  “So, do you like it, Mairi? Are the men you bring home for sex always pierced?”

  She looked down and saw the tiny silver ball. Oh, God, his cock was pierced. And covered with the same sigils on his arm and temple. Normally tattoos and piercings would have sent her running, but somehow it suited him. It more than suited him; it completed him. And truth be told, she couldn’t wait to experience just what kind of bone-melting pleasure he and his pierced shaft could give her.

  She looked up at him, blinking through her heavy lashes and her soaked hair. She saw the expression in his eyes, the one he tried so hard to hide behind his tough-guy exterior. And in that moment, she felt far more than just lust coursing through her veins.

  “I’ve never brought a guy back to my apartment for anything, let alone sex. What I want is . . . you.”

  “I can’t seem to get the taste of you out of my head, Mairi, even though I know I shouldn’t be thinking of it, or remembering how damn sexy you looked spread wide for me.”

  “Why shouldn’t you?” she asked as he released her wrists. She ran her hands down over his shoulders and between the muscles of his back. He groaned as she ran her fingertips over the two small bumps beneath his flesh.

  “Do that again, muirnin,” he moaned. She repeated the action and he shuddered against her.

  In a blinding whirl, he had her turned around, facing the tiled wall. Her T-shirt was thrown aside and his hands were suddenly overflowing with her breasts. He kneaded her from behind as he pressed his cock against her bottom, his breathing harsh against her neck.

  “Please,” she pleaded as she pr
essed the side of her face against the warm tiles. From over her shoulder, she watched him, watched the way his palms smoothed down the sides of her breasts to her ribs and down over her belly, where his fingers kneaded her. A rush of arousal seeped out of her, but she was too far gone to care or be embarrassed. He knew how aroused she was, because his gaze flickered up to meet hers, a knowing grin on his lips. He held her steady as his hands slowly caressed her bottom, before ripping off her shorts and gathering the edges of her panties in his fingers.

  Pushing the edges of her panties up, he pressed them up into her crease, as his fingers slowly stroked her swollen and slick sex.

  Never had she been more turned on in her life. It was as if every cell in her body was just waiting for Bran to pounce on her and take her.

  “Bran, I want you so much,” she said, throwing her hips back and rubbing her bottom against him. She was drowning in excitement. If he didn’t quit teasing her, there was no telling what she was going to do.

  “What will you do after I take you, Mairi?” he asked, tracing the shell of her ear with the tip of his tongue as his fingers slid slowly, playfully in her folds.

  Probably die of sheer pleasure.

  His voice was velvety dark against her ear. “No matter what happens, I’m going to remember this forever, the way you feel, the way your energy invades my body. And I’m going to keep those memories for the rest of my days.”

  Mairi closed her eyes and let her head rest against the crook of Bran’s shoulder. He was hard and hot against her back as he fingered her. His free hand skated down her belly and over her hip. His touch was overflowing with that magical essence that seemed to seep out of him. She felt the hum start to travel up her body, along the nerve pathways, heating her skin, filling her blood, filling her core with him and his magic.

  “That’s it. Let the energy build inside you. I can feel it drawing me in. It feels so damn good to be pulled into you. It’s a gentle tugging—no, a sucking,” he rasped. “The same sort of sucking sensation your mouth would give my cock.” He brushed his erection up against the cleft of her bottom, letting her feel how hard he was. “I can imagine it, you know, how’d you look tugging me into your mouth, sucking me into your body.”

  “Bran,” she moaned, feeling her body begin to open to him.

  “You cannot even imagine what it’s like to feel you, to feel all this energy coming into my body. You cannot believe how erotic it is.”

  “Yes, I can.” She arched as his palm rested beneath her breast. “I know what it feels like. I can feel you inside me, too. Your energy. The hum that comes off your body, I can feel it working deep into mine.”

  His breath hissed and she felt his hips press into her backside. He was hard—unbelievably hard. And that special vibration of his worked up her back and down into her sex, where it languished, teasing her with a glimpse of what it would be like to feel him deep inside her.

  “Pull me deeper,” he urged, wrapping his body around hers. “Take me inside, muirnin, and suck me in deep.”

  Pressing in, Bran reached for the delicate lace edging, then tore the white cotton in half, letting her panties fall, sopping wet, to the floor of the shower. She was now naked, the full globes of her ass beckoning his hand to rub them.

  She whimpered as he grabbed for her hips and took them in his palms, angling her back toward him until he had her positioned in just the right way that her pink sex was visible and shimmering with arousal.

  “What are you going to do to me?” she gasped through hurried breaths.

  He lowered himself until he was kneeling behind her and looked up to meet her gaze. “What is it you want me to do to you?”

  He pressed into her, moving his head to the side, so she could see everything as he let his mouth glide down her rounded bottom, until it reached the curved hollow. With a flick of his tongue, he licked an errant drop of water that had dripped onto his lips.

  “C’mon, muirnin, tell me what you want me to do to you.”

  She didn’t answer him, just twisted her body in order to watch him at work. He bit her then, a little lover’s bite, a bite that aroused her—and him.

  “You want my mouth here?” he asked, parting her sex, exposing her. She nodded, as she stood beneath the water raining down from the showerhead, watching him.

  “Bran,” she moaned. “I want your mouth everywhere.”

  Jesus! He loved the sound of her voice and the way the water rushed over her body and along her curves, shaping her, in an erotic rhythm that mesmerized him. Her moans burned in his ears, and the way her ass moved in his hands was more than magic.

  If it was the last thing he did, he was going to lick her until she cried out his name as she came.

  Pressing in, he kissed her there, the pink skin of her pussy, lapping the wetness away from his lips, savoring her taste. Her juices were flowing even more heavily for him than that first night. And the way she was trembling, her fingers scratching at the beige tiles, made him want to stretch this out, made him want her to beg for release.

  So he dipped his head in again and dragged his tongue along her slick flesh and watched as her bottom moved, answering the swipe of his tongue.

  He was flicking her clitoris when he saw her hand slide down the slick tiles. He moved in, sucked her clit between his lips. She tossed back her head and moaned, deep and long, and his blood sang in his veins, mixing with Mairi’s energy.

  He couldn’t look away from her hand cupping her breast and the way her fingers slid over her wet nipple. She began to knead, to cup them both in her hands and press them together, teasing him with glimpses of pink nipples.

  He knew then he had to get in there, between her breasts, to feel her warmth surrounding his pounding cock.

  He stood up, roughly gripped her thigh and hooked it over his. She met his gaze, her lashes wet and heavy with water, her lips full and ready to commit carnal sin. Her breasts were still in her hands, but now she was tugging on her nipples, rolling them as her tongue streaked across her lower lip. He pulled her hips back, her sex already exposed and slick, and slid between her pussy, finding her clitoris with the tip of his erection.

  “This is what a pierced cock feels like, muirnin. Get ready to scream.”

  She gasped as the little metal ball at the top of his cock grazed her clit and slid over the taut bud, rolling along it, sensitizing it with alternate strokes of smooth metal and hot male flesh. She felt so fucking good that Bran forgot about the fact that she was supposed to kill him.

  Oh my God . . . In her mind, that was all Mairi was able to say. Her clit was on fire, her lips stretched wide with the width of Bran’s shaft. The piercing at the end of his cock teased her clitoris, making it hard and erect. She throbbed there, aching for something she didn’t know—harder, softer, she couldn’t say. She just knew she needed something.

  In alternating rhythms he stroked her, metal ball, then his velvety tip . . . metal ball, then tip, until she was mindless and rolling her hips for more of his touch. She was so out of control that she was pulling hard at her nipples, increasing her sensation as she moaned.

  While he pleasured her with his cock, Mairi felt the glide of his fingers down her spine. Up, then down, following the same path over and over. The skin all over her body was intensely sensitized. Her clitoris throbbed between pleasure and pain and the shattering need for release.

  He knew, because this time when he reached the dimples in her back, he did not stop, but went lower, between the crease of her buttocks, and stroked up and down in a teasing line of fire that he kept in time with his cock.

  “You’re ready to burst, aren’t you?” he murmured darkly in her ear. “You’d probably let me in here, wouldn’t you?” Gently he pressed his finger into her. “You gonna let me in, muirnin?”

  Yes, she would let him in. She wanted him in every way.

  He slid his finger into her at the same time he stroked her clitoris with the metal ball at the tip of his cock. She fell apart then, and scr
eamed his name. He held her tight, his fingers pressing hard into her thigh as the vibrations in her body spread out among the pathway of her nerves.

  She absorbed the vibrations of Bran’s body, too, bringing them in deeper. His energy coalesced with hers, making her orgasm even more potent.

  She was nearly done when he pulled away from her. “Don’t leave,” she whispered, reaching for him. But he grasped her and whirled her around so that she was facing him. His cock was huge and purple, the veins distended with need. She wanted his need, wanted to feel the length of him filling her hard as he pinned her to the shower wall with his body. She wanted it . . . but was he going to give her what she wanted?

  Bran thought she had to be the most gorgeous creature her God had ever created. Long hair fell down past her shoulders and her brown eyes had grown darker with passion. Her face was a perfect oval, and her lips were full and ripe. And her body. It was a thing of beauty. Full and lush with heavy pink-tipped breasts and round hips that filled up his palms. A soft little mound of a belly beckoned him, told him she was ready to be taken and explored. And hell, he was ready to take her, even though he knew he should do no such thing. She was his enemy.

  “It’s okay,” she whispered, as if she could sense the turmoil inside him. “Really, I want . . . it’s all right. Please, Bran,” she moaned, as he shifted the shower head to spray directly over her breasts, bathing them with warm water, making them all glossy and wet and slippery. He turned the ring of the shower head, changing the flow of water from a gentle spray to a hard beat, making sure the water hit her nipples. She gasped and arched.

  “Take them in your hands,” he said gruffly.

  She cupped her breasts, then shoved them tight together, letting the pulsing water hit her nipples. He penetrated her with his fingers, stroked her, felt her grow warmer, wetter . . . hotter.

  “You take my breath away, muirnin.” He tried to stem the words, to hide from the strange new feelings bubbling inside him. But he couldn’t. So he said it again with all the desperation he felt.