Bassam.
Anthony wasn’t sure what to do about his brother. They hadn’t always gotten along, although certain centuries had been better than others. Perhaps some of the anger stemmed from the fact that Bassam had never been in love. Spending an eternity alone could make the strongest souls resentful.
Bassam coming to live in Wales had been an unforeseen blessing. When he moved into the castle, Cara, as her name had been during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, had mellowed the bitterness in the man. Bassam had taken her death hard. In their shared grief, Bassam had been an anchor for Anthony in the last few centuries. Without his brother, Anthony would have gone mad from sorrow.
Anthony stood at the windows overlooking the rolling, luscious green hills to the east. Without her, he’d wallowed with his morose emotions. Moods were gray like the skies over the cold waters of Caernarfon Bay in the distance.
He closed his eyes. A crisp evening breeze lifted his hair and cooled his heated flesh. After such a long absence from his life, it took all his strength not to slam Selene against the castle wall, fling the studious glasses from her face, tangle her thick, lustrous locks in his fingers and ravage her sweet mouth with ardent kisses. In five thousand years, this was the longest they’d been apart. His immortal life had been hell on earth without her.
A heavy sigh heaved from his lungs. His jaw clenched. In the past century he’d wondered if their time had finally come to an end. The sea nearly took her life. They’d found her pale and unresponsive on the rocky shore. She’d never opened her eyes, but he’d been sure she took a last breath. Damn it, she hadn’t died at sea. But as the years passed and he didn’t find her, he’d wondered if he’d only imagined that final breath. Maybe she had perished in the dark, churning waters. Grief weighted down his heart. How would he exist without her?
Anthony blinked moisture from his eyes. Now that Selene was here he wouldn’t have to. More exposure to him and their possessions would hasten the recollection. If she’d held her emerald phallus for more than a brief moment, he had no doubt all her memories would’ve returned. Once he pleasured her, drove his cock into her heat, no more barriers between their past and the present would exist.
Anthony slid his hands into his front pockets. Part of him hoped Selene took the moments alone to peek through his possessions. Journals in the library chronicled their numerous lives together.
Once her memory returned, he could prove their intertwined past lives. Not only had he been her immortal protector through the millennia, but he had loved her unconditionally. That love transcended time.
Anthony went to the sideboard and poured a drink in an attempt to dull his libidinous thoughts of Selene. Normally, the castle had a full staff. Knowing that Selene would spend the weekend, Anthony allowed only a trusted few to remain. If Selene was his eternal love, he needed privacy for her to discover the secrets of their association. Bassam would insure no one entered the castle and wouldn’t allow Selene to leave until they knew for sure.
An hour passed and darkness cloaked the countryside. Anthony remained at the window sipping his drink until his goblet was empty. Then, taking a deep breath and holding fast to the emotional pull he had to Selene, he went to the library.
Once there, Anthony stood in the shadows of the doorway. Selene sat at his desk. Harsh white light from a small table lamp illuminated her workspace. Several pieces lay on black velvet. Her glasses had slipped down the bridge of her nose. Pencil scratches sounded in the room as she made notations on paper about the intricate details of the jewels.
Disappointment briefly settled in his chest before he pushed the sentiment aside. None of the expected signs revealed she’d remembered anything more about the sensual woman lurking in her memory. If she had recalled their past lives, she was covering well. After the episode on the grounds, he’d hoped she’d experienced a breakthrough. But the haughty erudite persona seemed firmly in place with hair tightly knotted at the nape of her neck, squared shoulders and pursed lips. However, the tank top and flowing skirt gave him reason to hope his queen would gradually emerge.
He cleared his throat and stepped into the room.
“Antony, look at the beauty in this.”
He froze. Yes! He’d heard her correctly. She had called him Antony. The name, although different because of her accent, still held the mellifluous quality of his memories. He stepped up behind her and marveled at the progress she’d made going through the pieces. “You called me Antony.” Not Anthony.
She stilled. The angle revealed the quick rhythm of her breathing in the rise and fall of her chest. “I have a request if you wouldn’t mind,” she said.
“Anything.”
“Will you kiss me?”
The ground could open up and swallow her whole for her brazenness, but she had to know. For the past few hours she’d been thrown back and forth in an erotic history lesson. In each memory the man standing behind her now, kissed, inflamed…bloody well fucked the life out of her. Her drenched panties couldn’t take another orgasm—real or imagined. Exhaling slowly, she shuddered from the physical release, only it had been vivid daydreams wreaking havoc on her libido.
Selene spun the chair so she faced him and stared into the piercing depths of dark desire reflected in his eyes. Heat smoldered beneath the surface.
Anthony gently grazed her cheek with a fingertip then drew his thumb in a sensuous pull along her bottom lip. She licked her lip, inadvertently touching him.
He sucked in a breath. Calloused fingertips moved along her jaw and wrapped around her neck. The tugs on her bun had her hair falling about her shoulders. Anthony combed the locks with his hands, rubbing a few silken strands between his fingers.
“I’ve wanted to see your hair draped down your back since you walked through the castle doors.”
“I haven’t felt like myself since I arrived. I’ve been having these…visions. I don’t know if it’s because of the emeralds. Maybe it’s the castle. Do you know if it’s haunted?”
“Old souls have been known to wander the halls.” His mouth lifted into a gentle smile.
Selene had asked for a kiss and if she didn’t feel those lips on hers soon, she’d lose any grasp she had on her tempestuous desires. She’d imagined too much, sensed too much that now she needed to feel…him. Hard and demanding. First she wanted his mouth and then, heaven help her, she wanted all of him.
Anthony’s fingers trailed over her bare shoulders and a tingle followed. Awareness of her simmering need snaked up her spine. Tracing circular patterns, he touched along her arms. He paused briefly to outline the bracelet banded around her biceps. Then he took her hands and pulled Selene to her feet.
He bent, closing the distance between them. His warm breath held the hint of alcohol. Blooded pounded in her ears. Flutters swarmed her stomach. “Anthony?” She put her hands on his chest and clutched the fabric of his linen shirt. The room started to spin. “Something happens whenever you’re near me. I’ve never felt like this before.”
“Yes you have.” His mouth crashed against hers. Soft yet firm, his lips commanded hers to open. He gripped fistfuls of hair and held her head immobile. She pressed closer, eliciting a long, low moan from Anthony. Hot strokes of his savory tongue swept the soft tissues of her lips then slipped into her mouth.
Selene’s knees weakened. She knew Anthony kissed her, but in her mind she saw him as he appeared in her visions. She whimpered and pushed against his chest, but she didn’t have the strength to resist the sweet intoxication of his kiss. Confusion warred with understanding. Sucking her tongue into his mouth, running his hands over her back and pulling her flush against him gave the perfect alignment to crush the rigid length of his erection into her swollen cleft. Widening her stance, she gave him room to undulate his hips and stimulate her clit through the thin fabric.
He whispered words in a language she didn’t understand. Leaving her mouth, he kissed along her jaw to the soft skin below her ear where her heartbeat rapidly pulse
d.
His thumb grazed her nipple. Beneath her top and the lace of her bra, the crested peak hardened. Intense pleasure traveled from her breast into the center of her sex. “Although delicious, I want more than your kisses,” he whispered against her flesh.
Anthony wasn’t saying anything he hadn’t implied with his hard demanding cock ready to break from his jeans. The friction of his simulated sex against her heat seared through her skirt. She wanted to be flesh to flesh with nothing between them but the raw, carnal hunger sweeping through her. Unfamiliar cravings grew into ardent, dangerous needs.
Selene worked the buttons free on his shirt while he continued to nibble her lips. Demanding strokes of his tongue blazed into her mouth and tantalized the soft tissues of her inner cheek. Finally she had his shirt open. A moan escaped her lips as she touched his smooth muscular torso. Her thumb grazed his beaded nipple, sending quivers over his rippled muscles.
A feral growl rolled from his chest. And in a swift motion, Anthony lifted her into his strong arms and held her close. He moved quickly through the deserted castle corridors. Selene buried her head in his chest. The sound of his beating heart mingled with the echo of his booted footfalls off the walls.
Selene’s tongue traced the shell of his ear. Anthony moaned and angled his head to give her room to kiss and suck the whisker-coarse edge of his jaw. She moved her lips lower, over the smooth column of his neck. He tasted spicy, tangy, and male. Opening her hot mouth over his pulse point, she nipped his warm skin with teeth and lips.
“Hurry,” she said.
“Almost there.”
They reached his room. One hard kick to the door caused it to split from the hinges. He strode to the bed then dropped her to the mattress.
This was what it was like for him, the possessive need to be inside her, the demand for more than simply sharing their bodies.
Anthony shrugged his shirt off and tossed it to the floor. He bent down and removed his boots. Then he stood, pulled on the fly of his pants and lowered the zipper. Shoving his jeans over his hips, he had a thought as they dropped to his ankles. Selene’s passion-clouded eyes widened. His cock strained against the front of his boxers. He was about to strip to the skin, but all she’d asked for was a kiss. Yet he couldn’t stop with a mating of mouths.
Selene scooted into the middle and knelt on the king sized bed.
“You asked for a kiss,” he said. “But I want more.”
“I don’t understand, but something is happening to me. I need you. I just know I need you.” She tugged her tank top from her skirt, grabbed the edge, and rolled it up and off her body. He watched spellbound and she reaching behind her back and unhooked her bra. She slid the straps, one then the other, down her arms and let the lacy bra fall to the bed. She didn’t hide her nudity. The reserved antiques appraiser blatantly offered more than a kiss. Pert rosy nipples sat high on her rounded breasts. The skirt bunched on her thighs. Raking the fabric up her legs, she teased him with a glimpse of her smooth skin. Then her pink tongue darted out of her mouth and moistened her bottom lip.
His chest swelled and so did his cock. She wanted him. Anthony stepped out of his jeans then tucked his thumbs into the waistband of his boxers and shoved them to the floor.
Selene’s eyes closed and she swayed.
Anthony sat on the edge of the bed. “Selene, stay with me.”
Oh hell no. This wasn’t the time for her to have a memory breakthrough. This was where they began making new ones. He climbed onto the mattress on his hands and knees and kissed her. Her lips parted and his tongue ventured into the sweet heat of her mouth. His finger brushed against her nipple, teasing it into a tighter bud.
“Selene, don’t leave me.”
She leaned back, thrust her chest forward, and offered her breasts to him. “Touch me, Vitus,” she whispered.
Anthony nearly wept. “Lift your hips.” She adjusted on the bed and he pulled her skirt down her hips and off her body. There was no question he’d found her. Selene was the reincarnated love of his eternal life. Her slip of the tongue to his given name revealed all.
Relief quickly morphed into demand. Crushing his mouth to hers, thrusting his tongue in frenzied need, he plundered, savored, demanded. Selene snaked her arms around his neck and he slowly lowered her to the bed. Once she was lying on her back, he stretched over her, hovering above her petite body. He pinched her nipples, causing them to tighten further. Then he rolled the hard bud against his palm while he massaged the firm, succulent globes.
Her eyes, heavy with desire, darkened. Spreading her thighs with his knees, he nestled his cock against her panties, feeling the moist heat at the apex of her legs. Her body went taut with unreleased energy and arched off the bed. Anthony bent his head and pulled one crested peak into his greedy mouth and gently bit.
“Yes,” she cried, and gripped his hair, holding him firmly to her jutting nipple. He pressed his tongue to the sweet wrinkled areola. While sucking on her breast, he slid his palm down the softness and curves of her stomach.
“Please,” she begged spreading her thighs wider.
Anthony snapped the string of her panties and tore them off. He sucked in a breath at the sight of her pussy…and her delectable little mole.
“Please…kiss you here.” He inched down her body, placing wet kisses on a trail to her downy thatch of brown hair glistening with her juices. “Here.” He dipped his tongue into her navel, licked, and then blew on the moist skin. He lifted his head and their eyes locked. Then, with a sigh of pleasure, he sank his mouth into soft curls.
Essence of musk, woman, and arousal flared his nostrils and fired his blood. Parting her pussy lips with his thumbs, he savored the first sweet taste of her cream. His tongue slipped downward and licked the length of her.
Selene gasped, rocked her pelvis, and grabbed the bedding in her fists. Gentle rolls of his tongue circled her clit. He sucked and licked, dancing his tongue across her folds then stabbing into her channel. Cream flowed over his tongue and bathed his face.
Anthony eased a finger deep into her hot, slick core, followed by a second. He slid in and out making her wet walls tighten on his fingers. Thrashing on the bed, grinding against his face with each brush of his tongue, she reached for release. He pushed her higher, worked his mouth against her heated flesh, and drove her over the edge. Flicking his blunt fingers back and forth…in and out…harder and deeper, he fucked her with his tongue and hands.
“OhYesOhYesOhYes!” Her thighs locked against the side of his head. Her cries of pleasure spurred his ministrations. Using his thumb, he pressed against her engorged clit, rubbed it with fast little movements then brought his mouth back to her heat and sucked her clit.
Spasms jolted her, nearly jackknifing her off the bed. She shuddered, her back arched and she exploded into his mouth. With tight fists, she grasped Anthony’s hair and pulled, tugging him closer and as she rode her orgasm to the peak. He continued to dart his tongue into her hot center.
Although Selene was sweating and still trembling from her convulsions, Anthony denied her any respite. He pressed kisses to her inner thigh, licked her hip bone, and tickled his lips over each rib as he worked his way back up her body.
Selene spread her thighs, and Anthony settled between them. “I missed you,” he said on a breath. With a slow smooth motion, he eased his hard, thick length into her slick, tight sheath and back into her life.
“Oh.” Selene tensed. Internal muscles clenched then softened, welcoming the rigid length of Anthony’s cock. He burrowed in, plowed deep, and stilled once he was buried balls deep inside her. A shiver rolled across her skin.
Selene wrapped her hands over his shoulders, startled to feel him trembling beneath her fingertips. Tears welled and spilled from her eyes. A raging flood of memories rushed into her mind. Instantly she chronicled their past lives together. The visions she’d had since she’d arrived rang with understanding and perfect clarity. She held him tighter. Kissed his jaw, his neck, his mouth
. The ancient awakening created a maelstrom of acute emotions.
Anthony, no, his birth name was Vitus. He’d changed to adapt to the era and region of her rebirth. He’d adjusted his existence to suit hers.
She placed her hands on his cheeks and held his face. “I remember,” she whispered.
Anthony smiled, kissed her lips, and then drove his hips forward. She felt every inch of his cock stretching and filling her. A dance of entry and retreat in a rapturous rhythm. Pressure built and she squeezed on his next thrust. Yet the throbbing pulse deep within her core wasn’t quenched. Tilting her hips allowed him to slide farther into her heat. Again and again. Harder. Faster. Anthony leveraged up on his arms and pistoned his hips.
Her legs circled him and her heels forced him deeper. Wetness drenched the bed. Her cream flowed hot and trickled along the crack of her ass. Her breath came fast. Panting and sweating, she met each stroke with a thrust of her own. “You feel so good.”
Anthony undulated his hips, hitting her pleasure points from another angle and Selene cried out.
“Do you like that?”
She nodded unable to speak. Her only thoughts were of Anthony and how many times he’d awoken her memories with the exquisite plunge of his heavy, solid penis.
In a flash of blinding light, her orgasm rocketed through her. Tremors racked her body. Violent spasms in her channel gripped his shaft and held him tight. Friction increased. Anthony’s cock swelled and slammed into her. Thrusting, plunging, again and again. Each savage stroke mounted in intensity. With a feral growl, Anthony exploded. Jaw clenched, muscles bunched.
Moments passed. Finally Anthony rested his forehead against hers. Their labored breaths blended. Gentle kisses led to mating tongues. Hot wet licks were followed by sealed lips. She sucked his tongue into her mouth.
Their erotic play slowed. Selene’s heavy rapid panting eased. He slipped from her body then rolled to his side, pulling her close. She sighed and relaxed against his chest. This she knew.
Passion Over Time Page 31
