by Brianna West
Smirking, I rolled my hips down into the sensual hardness between my legs. “Are you going to take me to the bedroom, or do I need to take care of this myself without your help?”
Bernie’s eyes widened before he was lifting me bodily with my legs wrapped around his waist. He took the stairs two at a time, making me giggle all the way up as he mumbled to himself about how I ‘wasn’t playing fair’ and I ‘better not have said those words to anyone but him.’
Chapter Twenty-Two
~***~
“Now hang on just a second, darling!” Bernie cried out, flat on his back, laid out on the bed with my open thighs straddling his waist. “This ain’t how it was supposed to go.”
My hands were planted on the taut muscle below, reveling in the feel of it beneath my sensitive palms. It was only seconds after he had whisked me away upstairs that the internal switch from controlled princess to powerful woman charged with her own sexuality had been flipped. Almost as if shedding away all that kept my carnal needs tightly locked away, I embraced my desire to pin Bernie down to the bed and seek out our combined pleasure.
My body moved without my know-so, pushing and grinding over Bernie’s trapped form beneath, and giving the Guardian more reason to groan in protest. His hands took hold of my hips, stopping them briefly before he rolled our bodies and pinned me down underneath him. My arms were instantly pushed into the soft bed, held down by Bernie’s hands as he panted.
“Any more of that and I ain’t going to last long tonight, princess. Can’t you just let me treat you? Why you gotta climb right onto me, then ride me like we haven’t got any time for the full course?” Bernie’s raspy voice and hot breath ignited my body further, encouraging me to wrap my legs around his waist and bring him down firmly into me.
“Holy smokes!”
I lifted my face and sucked along the column of his neck. “I’m more curious as to the reason you insist on denying me, Bernie.”
Bernie’s body shuddered against mine. “Your words are just as lethal as your body is, darling. Give a man a chance to recover here. You’ve gotten me all riled up when all I wanted to do was to treat you gently tonight.”
I breathed heat over Bernie’s ear, desperate for him to start acting rather than reacting. “I would much rather be treated roughly, though.”
“For all that is good and holy…” Bernie groaned, hips thrusting unintentionally into mine, “—you’re going to be the right death of me, princess. I ain’t kidding. I’m your willing servant.”
Tiger eyes fixed to my face as Bernie drew away sharply, his body already showing signs of transformation. The strength he had put into holding me down was waning; the hold on my wrists growing weaker the longer I moved against him, coaxing him as best I could with limited movement into action.
I celebrated silently when he started to give into my persistence, but I was already taking advantage of the waver in his strength by sliding my arms out of the hold and wrapping them around his back in order to draw him back to me.
Bernie’s eyes glowed brightly before our mouths met, tongues entwining as I moaned with relief, the overpowering urge that nagged me the entire time he kept my advances at bay somewhat satisfied. It was as if something inside of me had come loose, my entire body coming alive with his kiss as we drew away and rejoined at different angles. Desperate. Seeking. Indefinitely unsatisfied with the pace.
Bernie’s fingers scraped down the sides of my ribs, tracing the curved line of my upper body. The pleasure overwhelmed my already sensitized body, intensifying the yearning that was building in my lower abdomen with the passion of our intense kiss.
I let my hands slide from his tense shoulder blades, sensing every deviation of muscle as it played across my palms, to the small inward curve of his lower back. Slipping underneath the fabric of his shirt, I smoothed over the petal-soft flesh with my eager palms and truly let myself feel the magnificence of Bernie’s body.
I was enchanted and fully engaged by searching out every patch of soft flesh, identifying when the skin was scarred by the glossy feel beneath my hands. It startled me when I realized that more often than not, each patch I touched was more glossy than it was soft and unblemished.
Every scar and blemish of his skin was worshipped and loved by my touch, caressing each one and wishing to heal any pain that still remained, be it physical or emotional.
I didn’t realize right away that I’d come out of the kiss and had instead been looking where my hands traced up along the sides of his torso, until Bernie was touching my face and turning it back to his.
“What’s on your mind, princess?” he asked gently, swiping away a runaway tear I hadn’t realized I’d shed during my silent mission to find his every scar.
Startled, my eyes widened as I searched his face, unsure the reason why I thought it might hold some sort of answer as to why I was crying.
“I…the scars…” I attempted to form a coherent response, but nothing was forthcoming.
Why did my chest burn?
Bernie’s smile was affectionate as he bent to kiss my lips chastely. “You’re unbelievably adorable. Are you crying for me, darling? These were from a long time ago.”
“How?”
Bernie shook his head, kissing my forehead. “I know it might be hard to believe of this sweet, incredibly powerful cowboy, but at one time, I was young and pretty gosh-darn stupid. Always looking for trouble in all the wrong places.”
I smirked against another onset of tears. “You, stupid? That is quite unbelievable.”
Bernie grinned impishly, laying a soft kiss to where my shirt had dipped and exposed my chest. Right where my heart thudded violently. “Yeah, sort of hard to imagine, but I was a rebellious young thing once upon a time. It was my daddy who set me straight, though. Even gave me my first real whoopin’.”
“You mean to say, by a man and not a woman?”
Bernie chuckled, slipping his hands over my abdomen and reigniting the pleasurable sensations from before. “Don’t know why the women in my life insist on beating up this sweet cowboy, but it’s not like I really mind anyway. That brother of yours, I feel like he’d give me a pretty good beat down if I’d made him angry for stealing his little sister right from under his nose.”
Closing my eyes at the electric sparks of his touch as he smoothed down my stomach with his rough hand, I breathed out my response. “I doubt you would have survived if he sought to injure you.”
“Guess we’ll call me lucky then,” Bernie remarked as he kissed the small protrusion of my hipbone, and then trailed his lips over the skin and along the waistline of my pants. “I was more surprised he let you leave without any sort of celebratory party of farewell. Isn’t it normal for royals to party over every occasion?”
I nibbled my lower lip as the ticklish pleasure exploded with every brush of his lips, just as his fingers drew the waistline of my pants down and away from the skin. “While my brother is king, very few in court acknowledge me as much more than sister to my brother and overseer of the army. To be quite honest, I am regarded more as an eyesore than a princess. My absence will hardly be missed.”
Bernie’s touch disappeared as he rose up, drawing my eyes down to where his face hovered between my legs. His tiger eyes swirled with surprising fury as his fanged mouth opened into a small growl. Then, his face was directly above me, gaze seeking something in mine.
“They don’t deserve you,” he finally said through a tight jaw, “Not one bit. Say you’ll stay with me, princess. Don’t go back there, not when I need you here. I want you. I…” His palm cradled my cheek as his eyes held mine, “—I love you.”
The statement was one he had said before; one I’d grown accustomed to brushing aside as something said in play, and never one with much meaning behind it. But when Bernie looked at me with his face imparting the true depth of feeling those words carried, even I couldn’t deny their meaning and ignore them like I had before.
“I know you and I, we’ve sort of ha
d this thing that’s been going on between us backwards from the start,” Bernie went on, thumb tracing my cheek absently, “But I want you to know just how much I feel for you. I want you. I love you. I need you in my life. I’ll follow you anywhere you go. To your realm. To ours. It doesn’t matter, princess. I’ll go where you go.”
“But please,” his voice came out in an unnaturally pained whisper, “just say you love me too, and I’ll do whatever you want.”
This was our moment. I knew it better than anyone. This was the moment I couldn’t let slide past with sarcasm or nonchalance. This was the time I gave him what he so desperately needed.
What I so desperately needed.
“I love you,” I said, reaching up and mirroring his gesture with my own hand to his soft cheek. “It went against everything I was supposed to be, supposed to do, to fall in love with you. But I still did, Bernie. I know I can’t run from it now, so I will stay here, with you, if you’ll have me.”
Bernie’s lips lifted upwards before he was bending down and scooping me up into a tight hug that had us falling heavily into each other on top of the bed. “Hoo-wee! I did it! You said it! We’re official. It’s love!”
Giggling, I let him hug me tightly and kiss all over my face until he was satisfied. I didn’t deny him, nor did I push him away. Even I couldn’t ignore how absolutely amazing it felt to finally say it out loud. To utter the words that had echoed inside my heart every day since meeting him, even when I didn’t understand what the words meant.
Bernie had me on my back, his massive body hovering over me as he rested his hips against mine. The happiness beaming from his face was heart-stopping and breathtakingly beautiful. For once, I didn’t feel the slightest bit of shame over my love for Bernie.
The guilt-free moment passed, and then the happy face that had been beaming at me ebbed away and transitioned into overt, unhinged desire. The shift happened too quickly for me to fully comprehend before my pants were being yanked right from my body, hands slipping up and over my knees before he was spreading my thighs with roughened palms. Bernie’s tiger eyes trailed from my face to where his hands stroked my thighs, kneading the pliant flesh and sending sparks of pleasure straight to the place where everything had grown hot during our earlier exchange.
“It’s funny,” he said hoarsely, triggering my gaze to fall to where his eyes fixed to the lace underwear I wore, “I’m actually more nervous now than I was the first time I touched you.” His gaze flickered upwards, stealing the air from my lungs with the intensity of it.
My throat was suddenly dry with the heat overtaking me. “Nervous?”
Bernie kissed the inside of my thigh, causing me to inhale sharply. “Can’t you feel me shaking, darling? I’ve never been so eager and scared at the same time in my entire life. Not like this. I can’t get my body to stop shaking.”
After hearing him say so, I felt the way his hands were trembling and the subtle quaking and tensing of his body as he continued to press kisses to wherever he could reach. My breathing quickened as his hands caressed closer to where the heat and moisture had collected with his ongoing attention. And after letting my head fall back into a soft moan as his fingers traced where my upper thighs connected, I realized I was shaking violently myself.
So, this was what sex between loved ones was meant to feel like. This was what my kind never truly grasped, or at least didn’t talk about where ears could hear.
Bernie slipped his fingers beneath the lace and traced the wetness that had my spine arching away from the bed with the pleasure that ripped through my lower half. My hands grasped the bedding as my Guardian’s mouth tasted me after he had gently slipped the lace to the side. I didn’t have time to gather myself before another onset of hot sensation flooded my body, forcing my head to angle back and body to convulse sharply, everything in total chaos.
Strong, yet gentle hands held my legs apart, neither letting me escape the ongoing pleasure nor holding me entirely captive to it. Although it was almost scary the intensity of pleasure that took hold of my body, nearly painful in its degree, I didn’t wish to escape it. The opposite, actually. I yearned for more of it. Enough to move my hips in order to seek more friction.
The peak of my pleasure hit suddenly and without warning, claiming my mind and body simultaneously as I writhed and arced, riding out the overpowering waves of ecstasy until there was nothing left but to fall limply onto the bed, numb and beyond comprehensive thought.
Bernie’s face was above mine, his fingers brushing aside my pink-blonde hair before he lifted my leg and hitched it over his arm. His encapsulating eyes trapped mine before he penetrated me and reignited the pleasure within my already oversensitive body. I reached up between us, holding Bernie’s wide shoulders desperately as he thrust into me without slowing. Our bodies moved in perfect sync. Though, I’d admit, my mind was completely stunned by the intense orgasm I’d experienced just minutes before. So a lot of what I did was reactive rather than proactive.
Our mouths met and I held onto my Guardian as the friction of our bodies brought me closer to another peak. I never understood how the heart could affect such things, but the last time we had coupled hadn’t even come close to this intense. My experiences were limited to the two other times I’d been with Bernie, but it was never so stimulating. I was out of control, and better for it. It was completely spellbinding to be at the will of one’s body.
So, this was what love did. This was how love overcame even the most diligent and responsible of individuals. They couldn’t help themselves. It was too intoxicating, too overpowering, and wholly out of their control.
I shuddered, body numbing with another crashing orgasm. “Bernie!”
Bernie’s harsh breathing reached my ears as he curled around me, succumbing to his own peak. “I love you, Nyla. God strike me down right here and now, but I do.”
When I finally managed to get my mind clear enough to move, I was cradled against Bernie’s chest with his fingers weaving leisurely through my hair. The moisture against my face was warm, his heartbeat echoing its loud thump, thump, thump into my ear as I exhaled deeply. My body was comfortably heavy as I laid on top of the man that had taught me how to embrace my pleasure—my love.
“If I were to die tonight, princess, I’d die a happy man,” Bernie said with a shaky breath.
I lifted my gaze to his, an eyebrow raised. “Is that a threat or a challenge?”
Bernie’s eyes widened briefly before he was laughing and embracing me tightly, chuckling bodily. “I’m afraid of just how to answer that one, princess. Either way, it sounds painful.”
So cute!
Smiling to myself, I let him hold me, tracing the line from his abdominals to his navel. “You haven’t asked me about my ability,” I mentioned faintly, eyes following my finger as I retraced the line upwards until it reached the space between his pectorals.
Amber glowed when I finally looked at my Guardian, who was openly questioning me with his stare. “I figured you’d tell me when you were good and ready.”
“It is a secret that most of my kind are not even aware exists,” I started, resting my chin on my joined hands as they came together beneath me, “An ability even my father feared.”
Bernie’s expression wavered before he smiled absently. “That’s got to be some kind of superpower, darling.”
He had no idea.
I nodded, letting my gaze falter. “I was never trained on how to use it. Not that there are many who would know how. The last person to harbor such an ability was…” My gaze met his again, throat constricting as I tried to remember her face, “—my mother.”
The muscle beneath my hands grew rigid before Bernie’s hand touched my face, wiping away the tear that had escaped. Though I was sure I’d never felt sadness over her loss, it would appear that I’d merely locked it away like everything else.
He smiled sadly, keeping a hold on my face. “What can you do, princess? Why would it scare even a king?”
; Sighing, I collected myself and regained control of my wayward emotions. “I can possess someone entirely, in body and spirit. It is an ability that comes with a great cost to myself, but it would, as you can probably imagine, end a battle well before it had begun.”
“What do you mean you can possess them?” Bernie’s expression had grown stiff, clearly wishing to know whatever I was willing to tell him.
“I can kill them, or I can possess their power. I can turn them against their own kind. Inhabit them completely in a way that no other would be able to detect their being possessed by another.”
Bernie’s expression was etched with the gravity of my admission as he sighed. “Anyone?”
“Anyone,” I admitted.
“Demons?”
“Yes.”
“Angels?”
I swallowed, nodding. “Yes.”
“Holy cow,” Bernie breathed in obvious awe.
“But I was never taught how to use it, so I’d be useless if ever expected to.”
Bernie nodded, his thoughts clearly elsewhere. “But if you were captured, you’d be able to take out your captor easily, right?”
I hesitated, not sure how to explain it. “The power, as I understand it, robs my original body of energy entirely. When I would finally return to my original body, I’d fall unconscious for days, maybe even weeks. Though, I have only read of it in others.”
“Like your ma?” Bernie asked.
“Yes,” I admitted slowly, “Father chose to marry her for that reason.”
Bernie sighed again, absently holding me tighter. “We’ll talk to the Chief tomorrow.” His expression was grave as he regarded me, not an iota of humor remaining in his face. “If that sort of thing gets out, who knows what’ll come a-knockin’.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
~***~
“May I introduce my specialty team of Guardians,” Simon started, gesturing to a small creature, very obviously a troll, and then to the three standing beside him. “This is Vedric, the team leader, and the other three are Myra, Zane, and Bastian.”
