Braving Fate (The Mythean Arcana Series Book 1)

by Hall, Linsey

  Take me in your mouth. He wanted to see his cock slide between her pink lips.

  She hovered just over his shaft, her face all but glowing in the candlelight. She knelt on all fours with her head bent down to his cock and the curve of her ass rising above her head. Her eyes burned into his and there was nothing but desire in them.

  “I’ve been wanting this for a long time.” She licked her lips and looked down with heat in her gaze.

  He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was a vision of innocence and sin. Her pink tongue sneaked out of her mouth and licked the bottom of his crown. He groaned low in his throat, and when she opened her mouth and enveloped him, he jerked as the heat and softness closed around him. She sucked once, lightly, then took him deeper inside of her mouth.

  His hips jerked. She began to work her hand up and down his shaft in time with her mouth. He wasn’t going to last. His body tightened and tension coiled within him.

  So close. He was so bloody close he was shaking with it.

  She raised her head and licked her lips, then crawled back up his body and kissed him full on the mouth. “That was fun. But if I do too much of that now, we might be moving a bit fast for my end goal.”

  End goal? Gods, he wanted to be her end goal.

  This had to stop. He wouldn’t make it through tonight, and his brain was getting whiplash from his conflicting desires.

  “Diana, you have to let me go.” Please listen to me, I canna last through this. “This won’t work—it’s dangerous. What if someone breaks in?”

  She just looked down at him, knowledge and power and determination in her eyes.

  “I’ll release you if someone breaks in.” Then she smiled. “Or I’ll just kill them myself.” She kissed him again, and then sat back up on his stomach. She reached up and caressed her breasts. “I think I should take this off. What do you think?”

  The sight of her stroking herself made his cock twitch. He wanted her to slip a hand beneath her panties while she fondled her breasts. He glanced down at them, unable to resist. She was hot and wet on his stomach where she sat, and when he looked down, she laughed. “Those too. Eventually.”

  Diana reached behind her and unclasped her bra. She slowly peeled it from her shoulders and tossed it aside. Her breasts were small and perfect, topped with pink nipples that his tongue ached to caress.

  “Would you like to taste?”

  Aye, please. He should jerk his head to the side, away from her, but he’d rather die than look away.

  She smiled and leaned over him, running one nipple over his closed lips. He tried to resist, but the feel of her soft flesh running across his lips was torture. He could hear her breath above his head, heavy and wanting. His woman wanted, and he ached to provide.

  He broke, opening his lips so that his tongue could lave her nipple. She moaned and began to tremble.

  “Untie me, lassie. I’ll make it good for you.” He honestly didn’t know if he’d pin her to the bed and fuck her senseless or if he’d have the honor to walk away. He could control himself if he really tried. He’d give her pleasure, and aye, take his own, but he’d have the control not to take it all the way.

  She dragged herself away from him. “Not unless you’re ready to tell me what I want to know.”

  He shook his head.

  “Fine. I’m not nearly done with you anyway.”

  But this time she turned away from him, rising on all fours so that her knees were placed on either side of his head and she hovered above him.

  Christ, no’ this. Anything but this.

  Her sex, glistening and pink behind the transparent lace of her panties, hovered just over his mouth. He stared, riveted, and strained harder at his bonds. Cadan inhaled deeply of her scent and felt his cock throb. She smelled of woman and sex and happiness.

  The bonds cutting into his wrists didn’t register. So close. His fantasy was so close that he could have reached up and peeled the lace away from her body with his teeth if he hadn’t been tied up. He wanted to lick her, taste her, feel her come against his mouth—and yet she hovered, just out of reach.

  “Please.” He groaned. She had to stop this. He ached. His tongue ached to taste her, his mind ached from resisting, and his cock ached for her to take him into her mouth and put him out of his misery.

  Then her breathing changed. His own caught in his throat as he felt the heat of her against his cock. He shouted as his shaft sank into her hot mouth.

  The pleasure. Excruciating.

  Her hand closed over his balls, caressing them as she worked her mouth over his shaft. Just a bit more. It would take almost nothing for him to come like this. Just a bit more.

  But she stopped, as if she knew how close he was.

  He gasped as she slowly withdrew her mouth from his cock. “Ah, be a good lassie and finish what you started.”

  Diana gave his balls one last light squeeze before she removed her hand and straddled him once again.

  “Maybe…if you’ve changed your mind about telling me what I want to know.” She looked down at him, her eyes almost hypnotic.

  His cock begged him to tell her.

  “Nay.” He had barely a thought left in his head, but this was something he couldn’t do. No matter how much he wanted her.

  “As I feared.” But she didn’t look disappointed. “Tell me, Cadan, is it true what I read in the library? That your kind are impervious to illness? And you don’t carry it?” She drifted a hand down her stomach and slipped it into her panties. He couldn’t tear his eyes away as he answered.

  “Aye.” He didn’t care why she asked. He just had to keep his eyes on her hand slowly stroking herself. She was moving her hand more quickly now, her breath coming in shallow gasps. He wanted to see her come, to see pleasure wash over her. Already her pale skin was pinkening, her cheeks flushed and her eyes wild.

  “Good, I’m clean too. And I’m on birth control. So I suppose that I don’t need these.” She slipped her hand out of her panties and snapped her thumb in the waistband. His brain fought a battle.

  Please, take them off.

  No, doona, I canna take it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Diana crawled off Cadan and stood beside the bed in nothing but her panties. God, she felt powerful. This, without a doubt, was the best thing she’d ever done. From the moment he’d awakened and seen her, the desire and want in his eyes made her feel like a goddess. All her nerves, her fear, had disappeared. She could do anything, as long as he looked at her like that.

  It had helped to suppress the fear that he might be the man from her dreams. Though it lingered under the surface, she couldn’t help but continue. She wanted answers. She wanted him. The fear only added an edge.

  He lay sprawled on the bed now, arms and legs splayed and fixed to the bedposts. Every muscle was taut as he strained at the bonds, desperate to get to her. He was magnificent. All tense muscle and hot male.

  Her gaze fell on his shaft again. She couldn’t stop looking at it. It was beautiful, more so than she’d ever imagined. It thrust upward from his rippled abdomen, veined, with a red crown topped by a shining pearl of fluid.

  Diana looked back at his face and smiled, then turned around. She looked over her shoulder as she inched her panties down, teasing him. His gaze followed their movement, and when they’d finally reached her ankles, she straightened and turned to face him.

  “Beautiful.”

  She could barely hear him, but saw his mouth form the word. She felt a smile stretch across her face and climbed back on top of him.

  Diana aligned her body with his once more, with her face directly over his and her knees on either side of his hips. She held his eyes as she positioned his shaft so that it rested against her sex. She gasped at the feel of him, hot and hard against her.

  Cadan was staring at her with the strangest expression of tenderness and something she couldn’t recognize. Was this more than just sex to him? Was it more to her?

  There was no tim
e to think about that now, so she shook the thought off. “What about now, Cadan? Who was I?”

  He shook his head and tried to pull his right arm out of the bindings. “Release me, Diana.”

  Excited fear rippled down her spine. Even though she knew he’d throw her to the bed and be inside her within moments, she wanted to release him.

  “Would you be gentle with me?”

  “Aye, lassie. At first. Then you’d beg me no’ to be. I’ll fuck you until you scream my name.”

  A moan escaped her throat before she could cut it off. If she didn’t stay in control, she’d never get the answers she wanted. She had to retake the reins, so she gripped the thin silver chain that he wore around his neck. She’d never noticed it before because he wore it inside his shirt, but it worked well for her purposes.

  “Tell me,” she whispered as she tugged on the chain.

  He moaned, but didn’t answer, so she began to slowly work her hips up and down so that his shaft slid along her pussy. She’d have to be careful that he didn’t come, but it was so hard to still her motions. While trying to make him desperate enough to reveal her identity, she was doing the same to herself. Diana leaned down to Cadan’s ear and gently bit the lobe.

  “I want you inside me,” she whispered. His hips jerked uncontrollably upward at the words and she smiled. “I want to feel you moving inside me, first slow and gentle, so that I feel every inch of you, and then hard and fast. I want to come around your shaft, to feel you every time my muscles tighten.”

  She’d never imagined such words would flow so easily from her mouth, but he made it easy. The sounds he made, hot and desperate, made power streak through her veins.

  Soon they were both sweating, slick and hot as she writhed on top of him. The feel of his shaft between the lips of her sex had her on the verge of orgasm. She wanted so badly to come with him between her legs, wanted to feel his orgasm splash upon her.

  But if she was close, likely so was he.

  She tore herself away from him, once again over his stomach but kneeling so that she didn’t touch him. When she looked down at his face, she realized that she’d done the right thing. His breath was short and hard; he strained at the bindings until his muscles stood out in powerful relief.

  Wild warrior. My wild warrior.

  “Tell me,” she demanded. “And I will untie you. You can do whatever you want with me.”

  “Nay.” He groaned. “I will no’ bend in this.”

  Damn it! She wanted to scream with frustration. She’d used up all her best tricks and he hadn’t broken. “Tell me who I was. I need you, Cadan.”

  He jerked his head.

  She made a wordless noise of frustration. She’d never been so turned on before, and literally, right between her legs, was the sexiest man she’d ever seen and she couldn’t do a thing about it. She hadn’t expected this night to be as torturous for her as it was for him.

  She glared down at him. “Damn you, Cadan.”

  She’d have to regroup and rethink, and to do so, she’d have to take care of some of this dreadful desire.

  Every inch of Cadan’s body ached with lust, his cock a rod of agony and pleasure. Diana’s body rose above him, her pale skin shining in the candlelight. Her honey red hair was wild around her head, her lips swollen from kisses and her eyes heavy with lust. She was like nothing he’d ever seen. A pagan goddess intent on pleasure, her only thought to achieve her ends by any means necessary.

  He’d never felt such desire before; it was almost pain. He strained against the bonds, desperate to reach her, to feel her skin on his again.

  He wanted to sink into her soft flesh. To hold her hips and pound into her until he felt her pussy clenching around his shaft. He wanted to tie her up and kiss her and lick her until she came on his tongue over and over and she begged him to stop.

  Thoughts of duty slipped further from his mind, and when she drifted a hand between her legs, he had to bite his tongue to keep from asking her to let him have a taste. She began to rub slow circles on the glistening pink flesh. What he wouldn’t give to have his mouth there.

  She circled her fingers faster, her breath coming more quickly as her breasts rose and fell. He glanced at her face, the look of pained concentration indicating that she was close. Gods, she was going to make herself come right above him so that he could watch every expression on her face, every motion of her hand.

  “Put two fingers inside yourself.” Do it. So that I can imagine it’s me.

  She obeyed, slipping two fingers inside her pussy. She reached down with her other hand to rub her clitoris. He looked up at her face to find her watching him, eyes locked on his.

  “Pretend they’re me.”

  At his words, she gasped and her head dropped back. Diana collapsed on top of him, still sitting upright but no longer on her knees. Her fingers began moving faster on her clit. Her back arched and she clenched her shaking thighs around his chest as her orgasm hit. She was silent as she came, as though consumed in a vacuum of pleasure that allowed for nothing but feeling.

  “I will fuck you one day, Diana, so hard that this orgasm will feel like nothing in comparison. I will make you come so long and so hard that you won’t remember any that came before me.”

  She cried out then, quietly as another orgasm wracked her body and she arched above him in the candlelight, the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

  Finally, she collapsed on top of him, resting her head against his chest. She hummed happily, but when she began to toy with the chain about his neck, he stiffened.

  “I’m not finished with you yet,” she said as she ran the chain between her fingers. “What’s this?”

  Her words made his heart stutter. He couldn’t see her face, but he knew she was inspecting the key he kept strung on the chain.

  “I didn’t realize there was anything on this chain,” she said. “It slipped behind your neck.”

  “It’s nothing.”

  She leaned up and searched his eyes. “It’s not nothing. Why would you wear something that is nothing?”

  “Because I like it.” But he could hear the half-truth in his voice.

  And so could she.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Diana stumbled down the hallway to her room several hours later. She was exhausted and sweaty and sore and it had been the best night of her life.

  But he hadn’t said a word about her past. Damn, he was determined. She sighed and stared at the key in her hand. He’d acted nonchalant as she’d unclasped the chain, but his eyes had told a different story. This key wasn’t nothing.

  He might not have talked, but her seduction hadn’t been useless. She now had a key that might lead to clues. And an angry, painfully aroused male tied up across the hall. That part made her nervous. She’d have to free him eventually, but he was royally pissed off now so it would be best to wait.

  She forced him out of her mind and stared hard at the key, willing it to reveal its secrets. Considering that signs pointed to his being the man from her dreams, it could be important to her. But what did it fit? The doors in the house didn’t have locks. A chest or armoire, perhaps?

  She mulled over possible hiding places while she showered and quickly dressed, then began her search. The two main floors of the house revealed no matches for the key. But then she found a door that led to an attic at the end of the hall. It would be up there. It had to be.

  The attic was a museum. The old armor, paintings, sculptures, and trinkets made her fingertips itch to explore. But no chest.

  Then she spied a crumpled tapestry that looked like it was draped over something, and with nowhere else to look, she pulled at it. Dust billowed. Her coughing turned to a gasp.

  There it was. The chest was big and old, made of dark and beautifully carved wood. It was much older than the lock that had been fitted to it. She knelt reverently next to the chest, goose bumps pricking on her arms as she laid her hands on the cool wood that covered the top.

  A l
ow buzz sounded in her head. What was in here could change everything. It could be nothing more than an illegal collection of antiquities or his family’s old hunting rifles, but she doubted it. Her hand shook as she fitted the key to the lock. It caught slightly, but finally opened with a snick.

  Her breath came short and hard, dragging into her lungs but not filling them as she lifted the lid. With sweaty palms, she reached in and clasped the hilt of a sword. The moment she gripped the smooth handle, an unseen force punched her in the chest.

  She tumbled onto her back, and the little air she had rushed out of her lungs as she hit the floor. The vacuum that stole her breath took her vision and hearing as well. The real world faded away.

  Memories assailed her, one after another jumbling into her mind and fighting for supremacy. A woman clothed in a plain brown dress stood over a fire built into the middle of a roundhouse, smiling at her and beckoning her closer. Mother.

  Warmth billowed from the fire and the smoke stung her eyes. A baby wailed in a crib near the wall and the woman turned from her to hurry over. I had a brother.

  Diana lay helpless as the scene changed. She stood outside in a glen, dressed in a fine wool cloak fastened with a straight bronze pin, looking up at the man who would be her husband. He smiled down at her, his eyes crinkling at the corners and mist gathering in his hair as he encouraged her to step forward. She didn’t love him, was too young to love such an old man, but he would make her queen of her people. And she wanted to lead. Oh, how her young heart yearned to be a good queen to her people, the Iceni.

  She was Boudica.

  Time shifted forward and she sat on a grassy knoll, watching two girls of perhaps twelve playing in a stream. Her daughters. The bright sun warmed her face, but she and her husband, now a truly old man, spoke furtively of the future as their daughters splashed in the water. The world was closing in on them.

  “It will never succeed, Prasutagus,” she hissed to her husband. “We must fight them! The Romans will never honor your will.”