“Instead of?” she prodded.
But instead of answering he remembered the story she’d told him. Of what’d happened to her by that detestable male and Alador was ashamed of himself.
“I am sorry, Luminesa, I do not know what’s overcome me—”
Her small hand cupped his right cheek. “I want to know what it is you were about to say.”
He grunted. “But after all that’s happened to you, how could I possibly—”
“Alador,” she interrupted him again, “I dreamt of you last night.”
Her softly spoken words made his soul cry out. “What?”
She nodded. “You kissed me.”
She pressed her finger to the corner of her lip. “Here.”
Blood rushed through his veins, creating a strange buzzing sound in his ears. There’d been many mares in his tribe he’d felt emotions for. What he’d even thought at the time had been strong emotions of affection.
But what he’d felt then compared to the madness he was feeling now was nothing at all the same.
“Did you like it?” he asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
She said nothing for the longest time. And with each second that ticked past his heart beat harder and harder, almost painfully so.
Wiggling forward, she leaned in, and closing her eyes, placed a sweet and oh so tender kiss against the corner of his jaw. But she didn’t stop there. Her lips moved slowly up, next to his cheek, and then finally...finally, to the corner of his mouth.
With a moan that sounded full of pain, he gently cupped the back of her head and moved his mouth just a few inches south so that he could take her lips completely.
Their kissing position was awkward, though he was much more flexible as a centaur than if he shifted shape into a human, he was basically kissing her over his shoulder. Still, nothing on this world could entice him away, even if he did develop a horrible ache in his back from holding this position so long.
Wrapping her arms around his shoulder, she melted into his embrace. So pliant and yielding and lusciously curved, the first human he’d ever kissed, and he knew in his heart this would not be their only kiss. There would be others. Many more kisses.
His muscles spasmed, trembled, and she yelped, pulling away immediately.
Her eyes were wide disks in her face. “What was that?” she asked.
And a grin curved his lips. She’d yelped when his muscle had twitched between her thighs.
“Have you ever been with a man, Luminesa?”
Pulling bee-stung lips between her teeth, she shook her head. “At least not a centaur male. The only male I ever knew was when I was still very human, and I’d been hopelessly young and naïve and all I remember was everything was very sweaty, and painful, and rather disgusting to be honest.”
No mention of Josiah, and he was glad. Because what Josiah had done hadn’t at all been consensual, or even sexual for that matter. It’d been power driven and motivated by a thirst to possess and had nothing at all to do with the purity that happened when two bodies melded for a moment into one.
“Have you been with a centauress before?” she asked sounding nervous.
The convention of mating with only one partner wasn’t the ideal centaur way. Herds grew stronger by spreading their seed wide. But a few of his brethren had chosen to remain loyal to one partner.
Chester had, and to a human no less.
Alador had never understood why his cousin had willingly forgone the freedom of the centaurs, until now...until the thought of another male touching Luminesa as he’d just done made him half mad with jealousy.
Just the thought of it made him want to strike an arrow through another male’s heart. The powerful emotion astonished him; possessiveness was beneath the sensibilities of the average centaur.
Till now Alador had always been staid, placid, able to separate feelings from facts. Facts were spreading seed kept the centaur populations strong. Mares didn’t require fealty so long as her stallion provided for what needs she had. The raising of offspring was a herd effort...that’s simply the way things were.
And before he’d met Luminesa that’s exactly how Alador had pictured his path, but now...now things had changed.
“Yes.” He answered honestly. “I have. Does it bother you?”
She shook her head, feathering her fingers along the ridge of his brow with a tentative, almost shy touch. His flesh quivered wherever she stroked him. Every inch of his body becoming sensitive to her touch, craving her nearness with a breath stealing intensity that sometimes left him unable to stand properly.
The Queen of Ice had cast a spell over Alador. He wasn’t sure when, or how, all he knew was that from the moment he’d met her until now he wanted nothing so much as her.
Goddess she was perfection.
He framed her elfin, heart-shaped face, tracing his thumb gently back and forth across her velvety flesh. Wishing he could strip her bare, lay her down on a pile of warm furs, and languidly take his time caressing and teasing her until she was nothing but a quivering mass of want and need beneath him.
He pressed his thumb into her lower lip, fascinated by the slight blue tinting of it when he did so. How much more of her was blue he wondered. He smiled at the sensual thought.
She grinned back. “Why do you smile?”
Probably best not to tell her that he was imagining their limbs tangled up together as he undulated himself deep inside her and her breathy, whimpery moans spilled off her tongue into his ears.
Instead he said, “You’re so warm now, my queen.”
Her features glowed as she said, “your touch makes me so.”
She licked her lips, poking the tip of her little pink tongue out of the corner of her mouth and a groan rumbled through his chest.
Head dizzy and swimming with an intensity of lust and desire, Alador stopped trying to be so noble and gave himself over to the raging emotions of need he’d never before felt in his life.
Still palming her face, he guided her to him. Luminesa never protested, she simply tossed her arms around his neck, and dove into the kiss with the unrequited passion of a repressed virgin.
Her tongue thrust like a fiery dart between his lips. Helpless to resist her siren’s lure, he opened his mouth fully, and used his tongue in pantomime of what he wished he could to her with his body.
Taking her tongue with his, twining it deeply against his own. She tasted of fresh snow and sugared plums. Each friction inducing caress of hers made him exhale a small jet of frost which she inhaled deeply inside of herself.
Her ice was becoming a part of him. The icy burn ran rampant through his veins, and blood. But it didn’t freeze him, didn’t make him want to die from the cold or sink into shock from the numbing iciness, no...instead he craved more and more.
He devoured her with his mouth, and she did the same to him. Their kiss was so elemental and primal—it was the very essence of desire. Their teeth knocked a couple of times, but neither of them stopped what they were doing.
Alador had believed before this that he’d been well versed in the art of lovemaking. That he’d known all there was to know about the female species.
Goddess, he could not have been more wrong.
With just one kiss she unmanned him.
His knees grew weak, and unable to bear his own weight, he had no choice but to sink into the snow. Somehow though, they managed to keep their lips connected.
Luminesa’s little fingers dug into the back of his scalp, scraping forcefully, causing little trails of sizzling pain to flare beneath her touch. Both icy and blisteringly hot, and gods it was amazing. His skin felt full, tingled, and raged with spasms of electrical sparks.
A part of him worried that he might combust from this level of incendiary passion, but it was a death he’d most willingly tumble headlong into.
Luminesa was pressed as tightly to him as a rider could be.
His fingers dug into thick mounds of packed snow, wishing that it was not i
ce he held but her soft breasts that even now were plastered tight to the side of his chest.
She wrapped her legs tightly around him, exposing several inches of smooth, creamy thigh to his inspection. Her pale luminescent flesh glimmered with a faint blue glow. Crossing her bare feet together at the ankles she began a slow, smooth rocking motion.
Grunting, he fought for some form of control as he felt the first roll of her heated flesh against the base of his spine.
“Luminesa,” he croaked, not knowing what he was asking. Nothing made much sense at the moment other than the madness of wanting her. There was something he needed to remember, but every time the fleeting thought came to him it fluttered away on feathery wings the instant she moved, this time moaning long and loud with ecstasy.
His own body burned with desire, his belly filled with fire. His heart raged in his chest. His pulse raced.
She broke their kiss first, leaning her head against his neck as she continued to swivel her hips with increasing speed and tempo, her grunts became more and more animalistic and now tiny shudders had begun to grip her.
“Alador,” she whimpered after a moment.
He was fixated, unable to rip his eyes off her. Watching as the blood rushed to her smooth cheeks, turning them a beautiful pearlescent pinkish-blue. Her rosebud lips had parted and tiny little murmurs of desire dropped like a prayer off her tongue.
The air between them had begun to rage with fat snowflakes, and pure-white snow bees that buzzed around their Queen’s head with a melodic tune.
“Alador,” she moaned again.
This time he answered, even as his fingers clenched the snow tighter. Rolling waves of energy had begun to flow through his own veins just from watching her, rushing south to his ever-thickening member.
“Luminesa, what do you need?”
She groaned, tilting her head back with her next forceful rub.
“Oh Gods.” The words spilled from his lips without thought.
For the most part centaurs stayed within their kind, but there were a few of his brethren who enjoyed the occasional exotic fare, for them there were well known and underground establishments that catered to the more “outlandish” needs.
Alador had always scorned those who’d used those services, never understanding the appeal of a human woman or a mermaid’s tail...but he did now.
Goddess did he ever.
Watching Luminesa light up for him. Watching as her skin glimmered with her snowy iridescence and her body moved in wave-like motion... she was stunning.
“Walk,” she pleaded brokenly, “walk.”
For a moment he frowned, confused by what she meant. “You want me to walk?”
She didn’t answer, merely wrapped her arms tight around his shoulders and rubbed harder, her grunts were now growing louder, more animalistic. Anyone could hear her.
Anyone—
Gods, the children!
Glancing up, Alador couldn’t believe he’d forgotten all about the children. The colts of his herd were used to the inherent sexual nature of their kind, they thought nothing of seeing a stallion and mare coming together. But humans raised their children differently.
Spotting the faint colors of the children’s jackets way up in the distance, he wanted to shout with joy. They were still playing and safe.
“My queen, create a shield of snow around us so that the children cannot see what we’re about.”
Gulping, she opened dazed, liquid bright eyes back at him, nodded almost drunkenly, and immediately a blast of arctic winds full of snow encapsulated them.
Alador couldn’t help but tremble, and not from need this time, but the impossible cold that invaded his bones. Luminesa however was completely immune to it.
He’d not last long in this chill, but at least it helped to kill the fog of lust in his mind. For now he could help her reach her climax.
Pushing off the ground, he walked in a slow and steady canter. His movements felt stiff and frozen, but Luminesa hadn’t relented in her speed and thrusts.
Alador moved in such a way so that each step caused a jolt of muscle to move between her legs. She gasped, trembling violently.
“Oh, Alador, oh gods,” she muttered incoherently and he grinned, strangely proud that he’d caused her to lose her control in this way.
That pride helped him to pick up his speed just a little, ignore the biting cold, and give intermittent hops to help increase the pressure between her thighs.
After the fourth hop she froze—her arms banding so tight across his windpipe that he couldn’t breathe beneath her crushing power. Her entire body stiffened up.
Twisting, so that he could better look at her, he watched as the orgasm consumed her. Her entire body vibrated as she bit down on her molars. Her fingers dug painfully into his biceps, her nails gouged deep grooves in his frozen flesh.
Her orgasm couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds, but it was as though time stood still for him. He drank her up with his eyes, fascinated by the play of colors rolling across her now lambent skin full of frosty blues and pristine, glittering white.
Gradually her nails digging into his arms relaxed and her stiff body crumpled deeply into him. His lips twitched as he became aware of her own growing awareness.
The way her eyes relaxed first, then her mouth grew lax, her shoulders sagged, her breathing deepened, until finally...she blinked up at him with her soul-deep blue eyes.
“Oh my gods,” she whispered after a tense minute of watching him. “Did I really do what I think I just did?”
Her cheeks blazed scarlet with a slight tint of blue.
And he couldn’t help but chuckle, rubbing his finger along her petal-soft cheek as she buried her face against him.
“Stop laughing,” she squeezed out, even as he heard her own pent-up laughter. “I’m completely mortified, I have no idea what came over me.”
Alador had the most painful erection of his life, he was stiff, aching, but also deliriously happy. The queen—his queen—wanted him as forcefully as he ached for her.
Trembling from the cold, very aware of it now that she’d finished what she’d started, he said, “My love, turn off the cold.”
Immediately the snow ceased. The air warmed by several degrees, comfortable enough for him to begin to thaw out somewhat. He glanced up to where he’d seen the children last, relieved to note that they were still there and appearing to play happily between themselves.
The little snow bees that’d crowned her head now flew around his own, their furry, white bodies rubbing like velvet against the sides of his face, as though they too were now deliriously happy.
“Look at me, Luminesa,” he commanded.
She looked up, her long, frost-tipped black lashes blinked slowly back at him. Alador brushed his thumb along her jaw-line.
“You need never be ashamed of what we’ve done.”
Her cheeks blazed a deeper scarlet. “You must think me a—”
Placing his finger against her lips, he shook his head and said, “I think you’re the most bewitching female I’ve ever met. Centauress or human alike. You fascinate me, woman, and that’s all there is to it.”
The curling of her smile was like the slow rise of the sun on a cool, winter morning.
She kissed the palm of his hand; the touch of it speared him straight through the heart. Goddess what was he doing allowing this madness to continue on with her? Once they left this forgotten realm of ice she’d return to her world and he to his, pairings such as theirs were frowned upon, dalliances only ever allowed in secrecy and even then were highly discouraged.
Chester had been driven from the herd because of the path he’d chosen.
Alador was about to suggest they return back for the children when a scream rent the air, startling birds from trees with squawking cries.
“The children,” Luminesa cried.
“Hang on,” he ordered.
She wrapped her arms around Alador’s shoulders tightly, and he ran. Rea
ching the distant hill in just moments. His heart hammered in his chest at the first sight of crimson blood staining the pristine white of snow.
Baatha’s shrill scream rent the air. Immediately Alador felt the pain of Luminesa’s transformation from flesh to ice.
“Baatha to me,” she cried, holding out her ice-blue arm to him.
The bird landed in seconds, unruffled by Alador’s speed.
But the blood that’d burned like a beacon suddenly vanished, disappeared, along with any other traces of the children. There were no footprints to follow, no trail to track, there had been blood and prints, and now there were none.
Alador stopped running, turning in a circle as he frantically searched for the children.
“Baatha, you’re bleeding!” Luminesa cried, causing Alador to glance back at them.
She was right. The snow-white falcon’s feathers were matted and stained dark red with blood upon his chest. His breathing was heavy and his tawny eyes bright and wide as he nudged his head into her shoulder.
“What has happened to you? Where are the children? Show me,” she said it swiftly.
Alador watched in wonder as Baatha’s normally golden eyes turned mercurial with silver and then began to swirl with colors. Waves of those colors seeped into the air in front of them and began forming pictures then.
Showing the children and he playing. Kai had been kicking at a pile of snow, and Gerda holding up her hands with a look of pure joy upon her face.
Then giant gusts of snow sparkling with flecks of strange silver suddenly poured down upon their heads, sweeping the children up into a funneling cloud. The scene shifted yet again, showing that same funnel dipping down into a fissure.
“The gorge!” Luminesa cried. Without saying another word she dropped from off of Alador’s back and in one fluid motion shifted yet again into a swirling tower of raging ice-crystals.
The tower moved with astonishing speed, quicker than a centaur at a full gallop.
Alador had to pump his fists to keep up with her, turning and twisting around and in between trees, not looking at anything but the tower of ice she’d become.
By the time they arrived to the mile-long gorge he was heaving and panting for breath and covered in sweat.
The Ice Queen Page 13
