by Anthology
“What’s the matter, honey?” he asked against her lips.
“You feel like you have a fever.”
“I’m fine.” His mouth moved to her earlobe. “You know how to warm a man’s blood.” The tip of his tongue traced the outer curve of her ear.
Pure magic sizzled from his touch as he teased her nipples, drawing them tight beneath the rough lace of her bra. He palmed her breasts, and she leaned into his broad hands, her knees weak.
“Let’s lie down,” she whispered between gasps of breath.
He swung her around and they fell to the bed in a jumble of entangled limbs. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she ground against the rough denim of his fly. Wet and horny, she writhed beneath his weight, her nerve endings on fire. God, it’s been too long since I got laid. The spicy musk of his cologne filled her lungs as the warmth of his body enveloped her. He found her slick folds beneath the silky G-string and parted her lips with two fingers, teasing her in an unreasonable, wonderful way.
Always one to drive me to madness for sport….
The errant thought drew her from the moment. Frustrated, Ashley muttered please until he massaged her clit, dispelling the unsettling voice in her mind. The room spun out of control as choked sobs escaped her throat.
“I know you like this, honey,” he said in a ragged whisper against her neck. “Relax for me.”
Despite the incredible pleasure he wrung from her, sharing her body with a total stranger left her tense. Yet, there seemed more to it than just a lack of knowing one another that made her muscles bunch, even as she wanted to melt into a wanton puddle. “You’re still so lovely, breathtaking.”
Still? Along with the odd word usage, the whiskey drawl disappeared behind a stronger, more pronounced accent. She sucked in air and before she could puzzle over the switch, Justin slid a finger deep within her. He pressed against her G-spot and her concerns drowned in the new sensations flooding her body. She opened wider to him, and he moved down her body until his hot mouth found the juncture of her thighs. Pushing aside her panties, his tongue slid over her clit, and she bucked against him. He held her hips firm with his free hand while waves of ecstasy washed through her, building deep within as he devoured her pussy. Everything that she’d ever wished a man would do during oral sex, he did, without any direction. He pushed a second finger inside her, testing her tightness.
Dizzy, she couldn’t catch her breath. The world swirled until at last the pleasure crested. Dazzling lights exploded behind her closed eyelids as she screamed his name. How could an orgasm like this have escaped me for my entire life? As she drifted in bliss, a vision expanded before her closed eyelids of green rolling hills blurring into bright blue skies in the distance. Sod buildings dotted the landscape and sheep grazed the lush pastures. A crisp breeze stirred the hair around her shoulders, long, dark locks and not the reddish blonde she’d always possessed.
How weird. She fingered the silken, wavy tresses. Something pressed against her ankle and when she looked down, she met the wide-eyed gaze of a black cat. Her eyebrows drew together as the feline dashed away. She wanted to follow, but her feet wouldn’t move, and a horrible sense of foreboding gripped her.
“No!” She sucked in a breath, her eyes popping open as she reached out.
Justin grasped her hand. “What’s wrong?” He placed kisses on her palm as he stretched out beside her. His gaze bore into hers and sent hot prickles over her flesh.
“Nothing.” She kissed his neck, hiding her eyes. The recurring and disturbing dream had never come to her while awake, and she shook herself free of the niggling fear. It was silly, and she’d invested so much cash and time into this evening, she wouldn’t let anything ruin it. “I want you naked.”
Chapter Three
He moved above her, his dark eyes full of lustful purpose as she clawed at his clothing. “Ah, lass, you know how to drive a man mad,” he whispered against her lips.
Her lust-muddled thoughts picked up on the switch in accent again and she pulled back. “Your voice has changed.”
He fumbled with the zipper on the side of her skirt. “What, honey?” he asked in a perfect Kentucky drawl.
“Nothing.” She pushed him on his back and straddled his hips, not sure what was up with her nutty mind tonight. Jetlag, maybe? “I think I need to return the favor, now, and really drive you mad.” Yanking the knitted top over her head, she pitched it aside. His growl of appreciation did wonders for her confidence and her self-esteem swelled. A wanton wickedness took over. She dismounted and stood next to the bed. He propped up on an elbow, looking a bit put out at her abandonment.
Ideas flowed to her. “I think I know what you’d like.” She peered at him through her lashes and shimmied her shoulders in a bellydance-type move. “I’ll put on a little show for you.” Her hips swayed, drawing slow figure eights in the air, the seductive movements familiar to her as she smoothed her hands over the mounds of her breasts, down the soft curve of her stomach, until they rested at the waistband of her skirt.
She wiggled her hips as a temptress within her took over. “Would you like to see more?”
“Mmm, yes.” Justin stretched out onto his stomach.
The game drew her in more. “Yes, what?”
His lip quirked at the corner. “Yes, my Mistress.”
The title set fire to her already heated libido. The zipper of the skirt gave way between her fingers, before it dropped to her feet. The lace bra soon joined the skirt.
She stood bare to the world, but without self-consciousness—if anything, his lusting eyes liberated her.
I haven’t forgotten you, what you desire from a man in your bed. This time the voice in her head belonged to Justin.
She’d worked long hours before this impromptu vacation and had too little sleep in the last few days. Jetlag, it’s jetlag and not sudden schizophrenia. He sat up, waiting, and with a steadying breath she unrolled first one stocking, then the other.
She slid the silky material through one hand and leveled her gaze on him. “Take off your clothes.”
He pulled the T-shirt over his head, pushed off the bed, and kicked out of his boots and jeans. She eyed the boxer briefs and quirked a brow. His eyes flashed before he shoved the white cotton knit down his hips, leaving him as exposed as she was. She approached with slow, measured steps—he remained still, watchful. When they were but inches apart, she stopped and stared at him through her lashes, his thick cock brushing her belly. His dark eyes branded her, and in that moment she knew she’d never be the same after tonight. It was as certain as the sun rising in the east in the morning. Inside of her, feelings ebbed and flowed—confusion, desire, and something deep within her psyche that didn’t have a name.
“Do you want me?” The words slipped from her lips, her voice carrying a foreign inflection. She swallowed as his dark gaze penetrated her.
“Aye, more than breath,” he answered, his voice a rough brogue. Desire welled up, powerful, taking a life of its own, and swept away the questions she wanted to voice. His nostrils flared as she traced a finger down the center of his chest. His pectorals were developed in a way that spoke of physical labor and not weight lifting, absolutely perfect. When she reached his navel, she slid both palms over the ripped planes of his abs until she grasped his wrists in a tight hold.
“Will you submit?”
He drew his bottom lip between his teeth and looked down at her through heavy-lidded eyes. It took a span of several heartbeats for him to answer, his voice low, barely audible. “If you give good reason.”
She wound the silk stocking around Justin’s wrist. Knotting it, she drew his wrists together behind his back, binding him. Never had she explored bondage of any kind, and this new territory thrilled her. She placed a kiss over his pounding heart before running her tongue over his flat nipple. He sucked air through his teeth as she trailed the tip of her tongue lower, sinking down until she was on her knees. Her lips teased the tip of his cock before she licked the salty mo
isture from its tip. She blew a breath over his glans and raked her nails teasingly down his thighs.
He growled and tested his bonds. “What would you have of me tonight, Mistress?”
Ashley grinned. “Hmm, that sounded too much like a command.”
She shoved him back to the bed, and crawled onto his lap. He leaned back on his hands as she let his tip toy at her entrance. This new bondage twist could be taken much further, she knew it as she locked gazes with him, but the fear of the unknown held her back. Opening the door to a much kinkier, albeit satisfying, sex game was one thing, stepping through it with someone she barely knew, another. Though not entirely true, she did know this man in a deep, intimate way, and she feared exploring it as she did BDSM.
She wanted sex with a stranger this evening, and she didn’t want to know Justin better. She didn’t care that his Kentucky drawl had been replaced by a Scottish brogue. It added to his intrigue, nothing more. And she certainly wouldn’t admit that she craved the Scottish inflection, the natural cadence of his voice, because how could she possibly know that?
She reached for him and wrapped her fingers around his girth in determination. On instinct, she stroked with a firm hand near the base and was rewarded with his sharp intake of air. She fell to her knees once more before him and took his head in her mouth, sucking as she massaged his balls. His hand wound into her hair, somehow freed from the stocking, as she ran her teeth lightly down his steely flesh.
“Aye, Mistress—you have not forgotten.”
The room grew hazy as uninhibited lust consumed her. She raked her nails down the solid muscles of his thighs. He grasped her upper arms and pulled her to her feet.
“You’ve always been one to taunt the wolf in his den.” He pushed her back on the bed then covered her body, pinning her hands above her head.
“Yes, when that wolf happens to be you.” She drew in his energy—it filled her like floodwaters—and lost herself to the woman within her she didn’t recognize. He tried to press his hips between her thighs, but she crossed her feet at the ankles in defiance.
“’Tis a game you have never won, lass.” He rolled her to her stomach. “For I’ll simply take you from behind.”
He slapped her ass, before his cock pressed between her butt cheeks. She arched, ready for him, needing him more than air. He slid his hands beneath her body, grabbing her breasts, squeezing her nipples between his thumbs and fingers as the tip of his cock teased the inner folds. They needed protection—it nagged at the back of her mind. He pulled back, her skin cooled at his absence, but he quickly returned wearing the latex barrier he’d pulled from his back pocket. His thickness broached her entrance, her body stretched, and the discomfort mixed with hot shudders of pleasure as he eased his way in. Nonsensical words spilled from her lips as she balled the comforter in her hands. Sensations were wrought from every cell in her body. In slow strokes, he sent wave after wave of electricity through her, knowing just how to hit the spots that drove her crazy.
How could a stranger know her so intimately? But Justin couldn’t be a stranger when he’d become a part of every atom in her being. His solid body pressed her into the soft bedclothes, sweat coated their skin—they were one and the same. He an extension of her, and she of him.
“That’s right, love. We are one.”
He’d read her mind, but it didn’t shock her as distracting images of a kilted warrior filled her mind’s eye, one of a princess warned away from by her elders, but who had paid no heed, for he alone fed her power. Pleasure built to a crescendo, pulled her from the thoughts, and she crashed beneath it as the climax sucked her under. Her scream mingled with his guttural cry in the most primitive of connections. They drifted weightless in an ethereal world. With eyes closed, she imagined she floated higher and higher, Justin’s weight gone.
Her eyes opened and she gasped. Below her was the strong plane of Justin’s back, and under him a woman—her. She flailed her arms as she brushed the ceiling of the hotel room.
“Easy now, you’re okay.” An opaque mist hovered near that had Justin’s voice.
“What’s happening? Am I hallucinating?” She squeezed her eyes shut, willing the moment away.
He chuckled. “Nah, love, you are fine. Calm yourself, feel me with you.”
She had lost her mind, no doubt about it, or had been drugged. “You’re crazy. I’m crazy. Oh, my God.” The ceiling pressed into her back.
“Trust me, Ashley.”
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes in hopes she’d wake from the insane bout of lucid dreaming. Feel me, his voice echoed in her ears as his presence wrapped around her like a warm cloak. They descended.
Chapter Four
“Open your eyes, love.”
Ashley kept her eyelids squeezed tight, fearing what she’d see if she opened them. Her heart beat ninety miles an hour. Justin’s lips teased her cheek, and she bravely opened one eye. The pillow fluffed around the side of her face, and she opened the other eyelid to find the comforter surrounding her like a cloud. She was firmly grounded to the bed.
With that, she kicked out, and when Justin rolled away, she scrambled backward until her feet hit the floor. Backing away from the bed, she searched the room for her clothes. She had to get the hell out of the hotel and find a psychiatrist or a stiff drink—probably both.
Justin sat up and reached for her, his eyes wide. “Wait—”
Ashley threw up her hands. “Stay back or I’ll…I’ll….” She grabbed a vase of roses off the bureau and drew back. Justin pushed off the bed and stepped toward her. She threw the vase, but he clapped his hands and as he did so, a surge sucked the air from her lungs. Impossibly, the vase stopped and hung suspended between them. Her legs trembled from the rush of energy that passed through her.
“What is this?” She braced her hands on her knees.
“’Tis your power I draw from that holds the vase still. I fear it pales compared to what you’re capable of.” He gave her a coaxing grin, but she wanted none of his explanations.
“Just stay away from me, you’re crazy,” she warned again, though the threat weak.
“Your dreams of the black cat and green rolling hills—tell me of them.”
She gasped. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She stared at the thick carpeting, her voice small with the lie.
Flashes of the dream took over her mind, the black feline staring at her from the rich, emerald grass. A mist collected around the cat, reforming it, until it was not an animal, but Justin who peered at her.
No, not Justin—Alasdair. She ground her teeth and tears pricked her eyes. What is wrong with me? Justin kept back, his wary gaze trained on her face.
“You must accept who you are, who you’ve always been, Princess.”
She dared a look into his eyes and saw what she’d feared most, the eyes of a man she’d always known. Emotions tumbled over one another—fear, sadness, anger—but none of them belonged to Ashley. She shook her head, desperate to rid herself of the swirl of feelings.
“They’re nothing but dreams,” she said, more to reassure herself than Justin. “Stupid dreams.”
“No, not dreams.” Justin stepped sideways, and the vase dropped to the floor, the delicate crystal cracking and wetting the carpet as roses spilled out. The draw on Ashley’s energy released and she slumped, ready to join the flowers scattered about. Justin’s hands found her shoulders, keeping her upright. “I’ve searched for you, prayed that Providence would help me find you.”
Her vision blurred and hot tears streamed down her cheeks.
His thumbs stroked them away as he cupped her face. “Coincidence led me to the 1NightStand, and the moment I saw your beautiful blue eyes, I knew who you must be.”
“The black cat is you?” She already knew the answer. Her life as a Manhattan stylist faded, replaced by the opulent living of a Russian of royal blood. It didn’t seem as loony as it should have, and she let the feelings flow. “They never understood me.�
��
Justin placed a kiss to her forehead. “Your family was of the old Russian way, and feared what they couldn’t understand. Your powers were a sin to them.”
“I hadn’t asked to be different.” She met his gaze as sorrow and anger mixed with emerging memories. “And the moment they saw us together they damned us, so they had you killed and shipped me off to the America.”
“I was a common man, a warrior, of foreign stock, and I drew out your magick. They could see it. They believed me the devil.”
Ashley shook her head. “What does all of this mean? How am I here if I was someone else long ago?”
Justin’s face softened. “You simply moved into the next life after death.”
“And what, you followed me, like in reincarnation?”
He shook his head. “No, death is not an option for my kind when parted from the one we’ve centered to. I’ve searched for you for a century.”
She pursed her lips at his vague explanation. He brushed the hair over her shoulder and smoothed it down her back. “You have it wrong—they never ordered my death. They had me sent to prison, and by the time I escaped and tracked you down to the United States, you were already gone from this world.”
She brushed off his touch and backed away, doubt at his explanation returning. “No, none of this is real. I’ve had a mental breakdown of some sort.”
Justin grabbed her hand, and held firm as she pulled back. “You are of sound mind, and I know how hard this must be to accept—”
Her jaw set. “You’ve no idea what I’m thinking, now let me go. I’m leaving.”
He pulled her to him. “Not until you believe me.”
“How can I believe you? This kind of stuff doesn’t happen in real life, only in movies. For all I know, you drugged me.”
His brows shot up and a smile curled his lips. “How, with a kiss?”
They stared at one another in deadlock.
“Give me one chance to prove what I say, just one. If you still don’t believe then you are free to go live life as you please.”
