He lowered himself so that he was holding himself slightly above her, their mouths inches apart. “I believe it can. For you see, I am a young man, and that means my second time will last quite a bit longer, as well as the fact I am able to have a second time. And a third. Possibly even a fourth.”
“Indeed. I completely agree with you on how they balance in the end.” Her smile lost the humorous edge and deepened into something more intimate, more loving. She wrapped her arms around his neck again and pushed her mouth up to his.
Their lips were firmer this time, less tentative. He explored the curve of the top lip and the long, thin line of the bottom, little nips and slight suction that brought forth throaty sounds.
Kira returned his actions with her own. His mouth was her territory, and she claimed it however she wished. His lip found itself between her teeth, sucked into her own hot mouth, and the feel of her tongue pressed against him had his body hard and begging in the space of a heartbeat.
Her hands stroked through his hair, sensitizing each strand. He returned the favor and lay his hands on her back, her skin warm through the thin material of her shirt. With slow movements he stroked along the curve of her spine, only to have her make such a needy little mewling noise that the urge to strip her overwhelmed him. He pulled his mouth away from hers. “I want to touch your skin.”
She must have agreed with the sentiment if the speed at which she drew her shirt over her head was any indication. Her red hair lay stark against her naked shoulders and over the bindings across her breasts.
She looked a bit frailer than he imagined. With her strength of both body and will, she loomed larger in his mind’s eye. Seeing her as she truly was brought him up short.
Kira must have sensed his reservations. She took his hand, brought it to her mouth. With gentle nibbles and quick flicks of her tongue, she mesmerized him and a desperate need bloomed in him, one that must be satisfied.
When her mouth was finished, she placed his hand on the edge of her bindings. She smiled, that perfect smile.
This is going to happen.
Yes, it is.
He smiled back.
Chapter Nine
Seth leaned in to kiss her, his fingers wrapped around the corner of her bindings. Kira welcomed the return of his mouth, but this kiss didn’t have the questioning edge of their first or the blinding heat of the second.
This kiss was coming home. This kiss was about fitting together as they always had, two friends on their way to being lovers.
Tears seeped from behind her eyelids and she closed them tighter, forbidding them to fall. No. One night was all she was going to have. She refused to let it be touched by regret. That was later. Now was only the making of the memory.
The bed was soft and the fire warm, but beyond that her senses only knew Seth. His dark hair was so soft under the pads of her fingertips, almost tickling as she swept her hands through.
He broke off the kiss slowly with small kisses to ease away. His gaze left hers to fix on where his hand lay on her chest, and it was only then that she realized his skin was several shades darker than her own, a testament to his love of the outdoors and the fact that she did not share it.
And then his fingers pulled. Around and around, the wrapping came undone. With its constriction gone, her breathing should have gotten easier, but it was still hard to take in air; her chest still fought for oxygen, all because of the reverent, half-lidded look in his eyes.
The strip of cloth fell to the bed. He swallowed, licked his lips. With tentative movements, he cupped her breast in his palm and squeezed the malleable flesh.
His palm was rough, but the resulting friction sent shivers through her, concentrating in a strange, languid sensation between her thighs. “Oh.”
He growled in his throat at her exclamation, a sound she’d never heard before, and brought the other hand to cup her as well. He massaged both of her breasts, flicking his thumb over the nipples, and watched as they firmed into stiff little points. He bent down and drew the right one into his mouth.
The friction was nothing compared to the moist sucking he subjected her breast to, and her slight shivers gradually became arching her back and pushing herself into his mouth in order to get every inch of him she could. Seth responded in kind, pulling her in harder and even beginning to use the light graze of his teeth.
“This is good,” she said, voice breathy. “Very good.”
He released one nipple. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said and went to the other breast to do the same.
She raked her nails down his back, gratified when he released her breast and a small hiss escaped his mouth. She pulled him back up to kiss him hard, demanding he allow her entrance. With his mouth otherwise occupied, she went to his trousers, releasing the material and pushing it down his hips.
Seth jumped from the bed, eager to help her. A quick shove, and his pants were gone, leaving behind only naked flesh and aroused male. He crawled over her, smiling down at her. “What about these?” he asked, pulling at the waistband of her own trousers. “Shouldn’t they go as well?”
“I think you’ll have to help me—” The words weren’t even finished being spoken when his eager fingers unfastened and started pulling.
The giggle burst through, and Kira wriggled her hips to help him. With a long pull, her own pants and underwear were now removed, and she was as naked as he was.
His face lost the smile he’d been wearing as he looked down at her, his eyes taking in her body in long sweeps, his tongue licking his lips while the hard length of his cock became even more prominent.
She reached out and grasped him, encircling him with her hand. He was firm and warm, the skin silky.
“Kira, it feels so good.”
She wanted him then, with no further preliminaries. Letting go of him, she leaned back and held up her arms.
With careful movements he lay on top of her. He knew just what she wanted—of course he did—and he settled between her thighs. He leaned down to kiss her again while his hand reached between their bodies and started touching her. He found a particularly nice spot, and she gasped at the surge of pleasure that rocked her.
He didn’t let go of her mouth. He kept circling his hand, taking her cries as his due as the wetness and heat increased between them. Kira nipped at his lip to get him to release her mouth. “Inside me, now.”
His blue eyes were now black, his ragged breaths matched her own, and Seth used the hand that had been bringing her such pleasure to guide himself into her.
There was no pain, only a sense of being stretched, of forming herself around him to become a perfect fit. Seth’s eyes closed and he dropped his head to her chest, and when they were fully joined he stopped.
Kira waited several moments. When he still didn’t move, she asked, “What’s wrong?”
His smile against her skin brought an answering one to her face, confusion or no. “I may have joked about premature ejaculation earlier, but trust me, no man actually wants that to happen.” She laughed, and he groaned, holding himself slightly apart from her on shaking arms. “Kiiirraa, not helping.”
She nipped his ear and wrapped her legs around his hips, bringing him down against her once again and providing very interesting friction against her body. “Move, you.”
“Fine, but if I can’t hold out, you have no one to blame but yourself.”
Her second laugh turned into a moan as he began with gentle stroke – long, firm, deep, and powerful enough to rock her.
Kira’s legs tightened on him and she kissed his jaw, his cheek, his neck. Seth was inside her, but not close enough, never enough. She rolled her hips to meet his ever-quickening thrusts, bringing him deeper and deeper into her.
The taste of salt and man coated her tongue and his raspy breaths and groans sounded in her ear. “Kira, Kira, Kira,” he chanted, his words a plea and a prayer entangled together. The flesh under her hands was warm and damp and she clawed him closer, their chests pressed togeth
er.
A tingling built through her, a tension toward something just out of her reach. “Seth,” she cried.
“Yes,” he answered, his voice guttural. “I’ve got you, Kira. I’m with you.”
She moved against him harder, stretching the edges of that curious tightness until it snapped and her body tumbled into pleasure. Every muscle tightened and released as she climaxed, and Seth’s answering cry was loud in her ear as her body clenched around him. He kept pushing into her hard, and with only a few more thrusts he found his own pleasure.
He collapsed on her, his warm weight pressing her into the bed. Her arms and legs encompassed him, held him close to her, his weight no consideration at all.
They lay like that for several minutes, wrapped tightly in one another’s arms. After they were both breathing normally ad the sweat was cool on their skin, Seth nuzzled her neck, her cheek, his hands coming to rest in her hair. “I’m too heavy.”
Her legs tightened. “No, stay.” Stay, stay, stay. Stay forever. Stay with me.
She leaned up and began nibbling his ear, and was rewarded with a stirring of life from below. “I believe someone mentioned a round two?”
“Yeah.” He pulled away from her, looking down with a satisfied smirk plastered over that handsome face. “Also three and four, if you’re lucky.”
“Trust me,” she said, twisting her hips against him and making him moan. “I am very lucky indeed.”
Chapter Ten
Kira no longer traveled with him.
The early morning sun rose overhead. The day promised to be sunny and cheerful, with birds flying overhead, singing and twirling their own private joys. It was wrong that not every living thing joined him in his mourning. Why should they sing, when Kira was even now traveling the opposite path?
Was this what a man felt when he lost a limb? When he kept looking to see it, a twitching and tight and pinched appendage, only to discover a blank spot where something so necessary once lay?
Dark thoughts swept through him even as the sun rose higher and the animals began the preparations for their day. Only if a random peasant burst into song could the day become any more nauseatingly cheerful.
When Matthias’s castle loomed before him, he was surprised. He hadn’t realized he had traveled that far. It was though it appeared without warning. Well, not without warning, just without his attention.
Kira would be ashamed of him.
A sob tore at his throat. He held it back, only for another to chase it, and then another, and then another. They poured forth, deep, choking sounds that tore away and were carried on the wind.
The birds no longer sang when Seth finished, but he wouldn’t have minded their song now. The tears were cleansing, freeing. He had a dozen-plus years of keeping his secret and dreading the loss of Kira. They were over, and though the wound was raw and deep and would never heal, not truly, he kept his word. Today, Rosamund would be free, and the nightmares that he would fail her would stop.
No one stopped him as he entered the palace. His feet carried him down a long-forgotten corridor and toward a double door that still made him uneasy. A shove, darkness, and there she was.
She was older now, a young woman with still-delicate features and too-pale skin. “Seth?”
He breathed deep. He was here, and she was here. This was going to work. “Hello, Rosamund.”
Her smile was tremulous, unsure. She took a half-step toward him before she stopped. “Did my father send you?”
“No, I came on my own. I know how we can break the curse.” Her eyes grew brighter, hope building upon each word. Yes, this was the right thing. No matter the consequences, he was glad to be here for her. “I’ve come to set you free.”
She broke out into a teary smile, a choked little laugh her answer. She took two quick steps toward him and wrapped him in her arms. “I knew you would. I knew you’d save me.”
“I promised, didn’t I? I said I would marry you and no other.”
She hung on for a moment longer before she let go. “I know you did. I was afraid and silly, I’m sorry.”
“Let’s get out of here.”
“To go where?”
“To get married.”
Rosamund giggled as Seth led her away. Only instinct guided his steps, instinct that was proven right when moments later they found themselves in the dark room. This time, Seth pushed open the doors and they walked outside, into the light.
Rosamund faltered. Seth turned to see her staring in open-mouthed wonder through the windows at the wooded grove beyond the castle. “They’re so beautiful,” she said, her voice low, reverent. “And the colors. No painting was ever that vibrant.”
“Let’s go now.” Seth reached out to grab her hand, but at the first brush of skin on skin he faltered. Her hand was too small, too cold. Her fingers didn’t thread with his; they were awkward in his grip. Without meaning to, he pulled his hand away.
There was hurt in her eyes as she stared at him, the first crack in the happiness that she expressed since he arrived. In an effort to smooth the hurt away, he motioned with a flick of his fingers. “We need to get married and have our first kiss. That will break the curse. I know where to go, and it’ll be done by the end of the day.”
But Rosamund didn’t follow. She stayed where she was, her eyebrows pulled tight together. “Did you come here alone?”
“What?” The question was unexpected, as was her expression. She was about to be saved, and all her face showed was resigned sadness.
“Did someone help you come here?”
“Yes. My friend Kira came with me. She was my guard throughout the trip.”
Rosamund’s expression got darker. “Where is she now?”
“She stayed in town.”
“Why would she stay in town? Why wouldn’t she protect you until the last minute? Between town and here would still be dangerous. So why didn’t she come with you?” She stared at him, twisting her hands in front of her. He could see the pulse beat in her throat and her bottom lip trembling.
Something was very wrong, and he didn’t know what it was, let alone how to correct it, but he forged ahead. “She thought it was best that we were alone right now. This is a delicate time.”
“Delicate? Delicate for who? Her, of course. And I guess you as well. He told me it would be that way.”
She was visibly agitated now, her pulse hammering in visible staccato. “Rosamund, he who? Please, I don’t understand.”
“I tried telling myself it was my imagination, but I always knew he was real. He couldn’t reach me, but he could talk to me, and he told me all about you and her. He told me you would never keep your promise.”
Everything was splintering around him. In desperation, he tried his trump card. “What’s wrong? You’re safe now.”
“No, I’m not.” She smiled, the trembling lip worsening. “I should have known it was too good to be true.”
She ran back into the castle.
“Rosamund!”
She tore through doors and down hallways until she reached a long, winding flight of stairs. She was quicker than he thought, keeping a good pace in front of him as she ascended the stairway. A dozen steps ahead of him, she crashed against a thick black door that led to the tower room.
And she screamed.
Terror pounded through Seth as he finished those last few steps and entered the room, only to stop dead. A spindle sat in the middle of the room, gleaming dark wood with a bright gold needle sparking in the sunlight streaming from the lone window high above.
Her mouth was twisted into a silent horror. Tears purified and lightened the color of her eyes, a catacomb gray that followed the droplet of blood as it marked its winding path down her finger.
His fingers wrapped around hers, the stain of her blood now marring him, but against the tan of his skin already her own was growing paler, the beginnings of the curse visible.
Her eyes met his, and in his mind she was that pretty little eleven-year-old ag
ain, a sweet spirit he’d wanted more than anything to love and care for, and he did. He did love her.
But he’d failed her. He’d promised her and he’d failed her. All the love within him he felt for her, he could never quite turn it how he’d wanted. He could never turn it from the love for a beloved sister to the love a man felt for his woman. He could never turn it because his desire, his love, his devotion had always belonged to a flame-haired woman who fit him, always at his side and always in the center of his soul.
His love belonged with Kira. His promise to Rosamund had been broken before it had ever been made, because he already had a true love.
The white flash of realization had not yet faded from his vision when he yelled out, “Reina! Reina!”
“No need to shout, love. I was hanging around on stand-by.”
Since she appeared out of nowhere, there was no doubt this woman was a fairy godmother, but this was not the Reina he remembered from that long ago meeting. Her skin was much darker and her hair close-cropped to her head. “Who are you?”
“I’m Laura. Reina got married and switched divisions, so I have taken over all her open cases. Let me tell you, yours was one of the more awesome ones. All the FGs are really excited to see how this turns out. Now, how can I help you?”
She spoke so quickly he almost got lost in the flow of words, but what was relevant penetrated. She was a fairy godmother, and she was here to help him. “I want to cast my wish, the one Reina promised me. I wish to be the one affected by the spell.”
Rosamund’s gasp was loud in his ear, but his focus was on Laura. The fairy godmother’s features became a study of puzzlement, her lips and brows moving in odd ways as she thought on his words. “Clarifying here—you’re saying you don’t want Rosamund to fall asleep. Instead, you want to go into Eternal Slumber?”
He nodded. “Exactly. I know you can’t change the spell and I don’t want a single condition of the spell changed. What I want is to be the one it affects.”
Loving a Prince Charming Page 6
