by Brianna West
Trembling, I dared to touch his face, startling him. “You are the only one, of course.”
The soft blush to my pale skin intensified after I’d uttered the words, humiliation settling into my stomach as my gaze flickered away from the intense one fixed to me. It wasn’t that I was naïve to what was occurring between us, but even with the comprehension of it, I was still reacting as if I didn’t understand it at all.
It made me feel…girly—something in which I never realized I had the desire to feel until I met Bernie. The giddy feeling spread throughout every available space inside and made my heart react by pounding even harder than before. If I were honest, it was addicting. I was eager for more. Eager to discover what else Bernie’s words, his actions and reactions, every little part of being in his company, would inevitably do to me.
Would I continue to unearth parts of myself I didn’t know were there? Would I continue to feel more like the Nyla I’d always yearned to be?
Bernie’s face softened as he exhaled a deep, relieved sigh. He pressed our foreheads together before he stole a quick kiss. “Thank heavens,” he said as he pulled away.
I giggled softly, unable to contain how truly adorable I found him. “Do you think so little of me that I would freely give myself to another despite being the only inheriting princess of my kind? Do you truly wish for me to hit you?”
Bernie laughed happily, entwining fingers through my loose, pink-yellow hair. “You made a funny, princess! I feel like I’m dreaming, and I can’t wrap my head around it. But I’ll tell you something, Nyla. Now I ain’t ever going to let you go.”
I finally understood the meaning of his words from earlier, because now they resided inside of me as well—I was in real trouble.
His hand took hold of the back of my neck and brought our mouths together again, tasting my lips with a hungry, heady groan that reverberated between us as his hot flesh melded into mine.
I wasn’t quite sure when the shift between laughing and sweet to hot and smoldering had happened, but by the time I realized it had, I was moaning and moving against him. Our bodies pressed into each other, seeking to feel more and create delicious friction as our mouths clashed again and again, greedily tasting each other.
My hands stroked over hard muscle, reaching behind the large man and holding him around as much of his back as I could reach. Fingers traced the side of my body and along the outside of my thigh as I desperately held onto Bernie, responding to every kiss and groan with a few of my own. My breathing grew labored as Bernie’s mouth butterflied across my collarbone, his fingers slipping underneath the strap of my bra. Tugging gently, he slipped it off my shoulder, following it with his mouth as he kissed around the curve and down the length of my arm.
“Every part of you is so beautiful, princess. Your skin is so smooth and white, it just makes me wanna kiss you all over and leave none of it untouched by my mouth and hands,” Bernie said gruffly, panting as he lifted his head and captured my shy stare.
Oh god, I didn’t know what to say or how to react when he attacked me with his words. I was so inexperienced. Suffering even more because it was unbelievable for me to be here at all.
It had never been my intention to give myself to anyone, let alone someone I’d never see again after this. And even though I had promised myself just for the night, I still wasn’t able to truly comprehend my own actions up to this point.
I wasn’t like the other women at court. I couldn’t easily disregard sex like they did. No matter how I tried, tonight would always mean something to me.
Intimacy shared between a man and woman, I’d always believe it would be with Anric. That it would be something that lacked passion and would be weighted by the responsibility to bear an heir to the family name. So being here, under a man whom I felt uncontrollable desire to do such things with, was beyond my scope of understanding. I simply couldn’t figure out how I should act, because anything I said or did would be very unlike who I was raised to be.
What had I allowed myself to be lured into? How did I even manage to get here?
The strength had left my body. Coherent, comprehensive thought was hopeless. I was at the will of a self-proclaimed cowboy and there was very little of me that could deny him anymore.
What he desired, I desired too.
My chest heaved, drawing his eyes to the large mounds decorated with thin, delicately embroidered lace. Bernie cupped my breast, kissing the flesh pushing out from beyond the line of black lace. His other hand slipped down between our bodies, fingering the matching lace panties I wore.
Thank god I was still in my own lingerie. Wearing someone else’s undergarments during such an intimate act would be beyond awkward.
My breathing had shallowed and grown uneven as I quaked underneath his confident touch, unable to ignore what it meant to let him go further. My chest heaved again, my body visibly trembling as Bernie’s gaze held mine. He was seeking my permission to do more, and I couldn’t help that that simple kind gesture renewed my desire to give the Guardian whatever he asked for.
Pulse thudding in my ears, I returned his stare with all the strength and confidence I could muster, never having felt so weak and helpless in my life. I wished desperately that he would let me remain silent. Because, if I was forced to speak right now, I was sure that my voice would betray the hard-fought command I usually carried. The emotion was so great that I might even be overcome by it and cry for the first time since my mother’s death.
Bernie smiled affectionately, kissing me softly on the lips, as if he understood the unspoken consent in my eyes, and glided his hand beneath my lace panties. His fingers pressed lightly between my legs, touching me where I’d grown wet from his passionate kisses. A groan rumbled between us as Bernie’s fingers teased me, sliding over the wetness that had collected. I gasped sharply, hips jerking with surprise when pleasure flooded my lower half and forced my heart to skip over its hard, powerful beat.
Bernie drew away, groaning once more, and then his fingers were grazing over the place where everything felt infinitely more pleasurable, making my body curve upwards when it was almost too much to handle.
“How’s a man supposed to keep it together when you’re this wet, darling? I’m barely holding it together here.”
He actually said it!
Covering my face as I breathed a moan of mortification, I felt Bernie’s finger prod me and then slide inside. My thighs were quaking, left open and being straddled by the very man giving me sensations I couldn’t describe with words alone. Breathing had never been so difficult, and my hips were no longer moving under my command. Something of which I realized belatedly when they were rolling into Bernie’s expert touch, seeking to intensify the pleasure he was giving me.
Oh god, how could I?! It was so vulgar!
Bernie pulled my hand away from my face, pressing his lips to mine in a rough kiss as he added another finger and swallowed the cry that left my throat when he sheathed them fully inside. “Don’t cry so sweetly, darling. Otherwise, I won’t last much longer.”
My spine arched when a violent wash of pleasure flooded my body and left me shaking fiercely.
I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. My body was moving and reacting of its own volition, and it almost felt like too much. I was overwhelmed and out of control. It was a feeling I didn’t know how to adequately deal with.
Where the bloody hell did I put my hands?
Bernie unhooked the button of his pants and slid the zipper down. As I watched, knowing just what came next and wanting it so desperately that I was very close to begging for it, I was overwhelmed by a nervous coiling in my stomach. My hands clutched the bedding in a vice-grip as I fought my trembling form, determined to appear less affected than I truly was.
Could I really do this? Could I let him take what I had guarded for so long? Not my body, not even my mind, but the very heart of me. Because once we were joined, I knew without an iota of doubt that the very act of it would solidify these feelin
gs I had for him.
So, could I really do something that would entirely alter who I was for the rest of my life?
Bernie cradled my face with his large hand and our eyes met in a brief, quiet moment where nothing moved. Our hot breath mingled between us, our bodies perspiring with our naked flesh exposed, but our gazes remained locked. Bernie’s face was cast mostly in shadow, but I could just barely make out the hesitation in his expression. I knew in that moment he was the only man whom I could possibly share this with.
He was everything I could ever want.
My feelings for him were beyond the scope of infatuation or gross interest. What I felt for him was profound and unmoving. No matter where we went from here or what we faced in the future, this moment would always be ours. Forever.
So, just for tonight.
I lifted the opposite hand to Bernie, cradling his face in the same way he did mine. Naturally, our mouths found each other. Bernie’s body weighed down my lower half, and then he was pushing inside of me, thrusting the length of his hot heat until his hips connected with mine. Something deep within, the final piece, the one space left untouched, clicked into place and I felt whole.
Bernie’s mouth sealed mine in a rush as his hips connected over and over with mine, the loud sound echoing in my ears, as the very action of what we were doing spurred on a craze that neither of us was prepared for.
It was as though something profound and life-altering had taken place, and in the moments I managed to focus on anything other than Bernie and the way he felt moving inside of me, I noticed the dancing magic that was weaving and combining in the air above us. Gold, grey, orange, and blue spirited from one area to the next, glittering prettily in a great vision of color. But as the magic paired, it slowly disappeared, and then the pleasure Bernie was giving me stole my focus back to what we were doing.
My arms were pinned down to the mattress as my legs wrapped around the Guardian’s strong waist and locked our bodies together. Gasping, I pushed down onto the heat filling me, seeking it out with an eagerness I didn’t think I was capable of.
“Not…so…fast,” Bernie pleaded as I twisted my hips and fought the hold he had on my arms, “Hey, whoa there! Gentle, princess.” He huffed a laugh. “I want this to be a tender lovin.’ Slow and sweet.”
Growling, I used all of my renewed strength to roll our bodies so that I was saddled on top of him. I pinned Bernie down by the chest, hands splayed over strong pectorals as his own hands shot out quickly and took hold of my hips. His eyes had gone wide, obviously flabbergasted by the switch. But I didn’t pay it any mind. Instead, I swiveled my hips to reignite the previous pleasure with the friction, undulating and making the Guardian’s hands clutch harder where they held me.
This was what Brother spoke of so nonchalantly? This sort of mindless pleasure that quite literally swept over my entire body and tickled a deep, dormant part that encouraged me to seek out the next sensation and do what was necessary to get what was rightfully mine to have.
It was quite literally the most intoxicating feeling I’d ever been overcome by.
Something overtook my earlier hesitation, as if I was always meant to do this. It was loosely suggested that our kind was inherently more sexual in nature, but I hadn’t believed it until this moment. It was as though I was always meant to feel this sort of pleasure. As if the very pleasure I was feeling had been an integrated part of who I was.
So, this was why those vixens in court actively pursued the joining of bodies the way they did. Even I could emphasize that the pleasure was infinitely more incredible than I’d ever thought it might be.
Rolling my hips again, I watched with rapture as Bernie’s face contorted with the pleasure I gave him. I might just become addicted to what it did to my Guardian as well.
I’d only felt this sort of power when training the new recruits. It was a power accessed when you controlled the very action of another, and that very authority was addictive to me.
“Wait, princess,” Bernie begged, his abdominals tensing as he tried to sit up. I pushed him back down, his voice coming out in a soft ‘oof’ as I hovered over him, experimentally sliding over his hard length again. “Holy smokes! Easy there, boy, easy.”
I exhaled shakily as the amazing sensations from before flushed through my thighs. “Bernie, just who are you talking to?”
“My little man down there,” Bernie said, his face reddening slightly. “Darling,” he entreated huskily, rolling our bodies over again and pinning me back to the mattress with surprising agility, “You’re not playing fair. Where did you learn how to do all that? I ain’t a teenager, and this ain’t my first time with a woman, but you do that again and I’ll sure act like it is.”
I was barely listening as I panted and tried desperately to get him to move. I’d never felt so out of control and enjoyed it, but the feeling was overtaking rational thought as I moaned and arched up into my Guardian.
“Bernie, stop talking,” I commanded in a low, breathy voice.
Bernie’s eyes flashed as his jaw ground down. His entire expression drained of play, and in an instant, I was on his lap with him driving up into me with determined force. One of his arms held me around the waist as his hand grappled my neck so that his lips could ravage mine. Hot, devastating pleasure echoed from each sound thrust, causing me to lose control of my voice as Bernie kept pace and never slowed.
Oh god, so bloody good.
By the time I realized I was on the edge of something, it was too late to slow our pace. An explosion of pleasure took hold of me, almost painful in its degree, forcing my body to stiffen and arc back as Bernie’s body shuddered against mine. Liquid heat filled the space where we were connected seconds after my own peak had been reached. I was shaking horribly when Bernie breathed out a deep sigh, embracing me strongly against his body.
Drawing away unsteadily, I tried to climb off of his lap in an effort of keeping what little bit of pride I had left, but I was numbed all the way through my legs, so I faltered and almost took a face-dive into the bedding.
“Whoopsies!” Bernie said, chuckling as he saved me from the face-plant. He lifted my naked body from the bed, scoring his eyes over it before yelping when I yanked his ear with all my strength. “Just making sure you didn’t have any injuries or anything!”
I was so mortified that I couldn’t find anything to say as the numb pleasure of our joining left my body and complete, irrepressible shame quickly took its place. I didn’t know where to look, realizing as we walked, Bernie had his pants around his ankles and was scooting us along without pulling them up.
Before I could catch myself, I was giggling uncontrollably. He looked downright ridiculous. I couldn’t fathom the stretch of difference between the unbelievably preposterous man hobbling us forward with his pants around his ankles and the serious, exceptionally unhinged beast I’d seen a few times before this.
“I’m in some serious trouble, don’t laugh. Ah heck, what am I saying? I was in trouble the first time I set my tiger eyes on you.”
Chapter Fourteen
~***~
I sat on the bed, holding tightly to a large towel Bernie had wrapped around my body. It had earned him a sound smack, since I was still barely fighting through the embarrassment of what we had done in the shower.
Bernie was diving into a large oak dresser near the bed, his face surprisingly serious and his backside unsurprisingly naked. I bit my lower lip, trying rather unsuccessfully to keep from laughing at the sight he made. He looked like a mad man as he mumbled and searched through the drawer, gloriously naked with his hair matted down by water.
“Found it!” he yelped happily, shocking me most that I’d once again become enamored with his naked beauty for what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour.
I tightened the hold I had on the towel covering my own nakedness as Bernie shuffled my direction, hopping from one leg to the next and finally putting on a pair of boxer-briefs. It had spared me another deep red blu
sh, but then he was quickly bustling over to where I sat and taking a knee in front of me. Cheeks flaming hot, my body was already reacting to his close proximity.
And to think, my heart had only just barely recovered. Not that it mattered when it seemed that tonight it would be actively racing with every little word from the man knelt before me.
Bernie’s amber eyes sparkled as he beckoned me closer with a finger and devilish grin. I swallowed, chastising the shudder that struck me as the fragrant soap from his wet hair and body wafted up and into my nose from where he knelt.
“Perhaps I should sleep in another room,” I suggested, voice shaking.
Bernie’s lower lip pushed out as he pouted at me, grabbing hold of my arm and tugging just enough that I leaned forward like he wanted me to. “What a mean thing to say! You’re just going to have your way with me and then leave me all on my lonesome in this huge bed?”
The two of us, in this bed? Oh god.
I was doing my best to keep my wits about me, but statements like those would very quickly be my undoing. Knocking him on the head—a move I’d learned from his sister—I took my arm back and re-wrapped the towel that had loosened around my bust. Then, I peered at the expanse of bedding.
“This bed is adequately sized.”
Bernie’s pout intensified. “Now you’re just being plain rude, princess.”
Bloody hell, this man was utterly adorable.
Shuffling forward on his knee, Bernie’s eyes glittered as he stole the towel right from my body with a speed I was ashamed to say my eyes didn’t follow. Then, with an impish smile, he dressed me in an oversized shirt that he had retrieved from the dresser. The smell was enough to make my body respond in his favor and betray me, recognizing the scent infused indefinitely inside the fabric as his.
