But did that mean he was a quiet sleeper?
Or he wasn’t asleep?
She debated a few moments more and decided to go with the flow.
She’d worked out a plan, but if she couldn’t implement it …. Well, she would follow his lead.
Tonight, regardless, she was going to end the standoff, stop waltzing around the issues. They were either going to work things out and be together.
Or not.
The door opened to her slightest touch, swung in to the room soundlessly.
She paused to regulate her breath so that she wasn’t panting like a pervert when she arrived at the side of his bed.
The bed was definitely occupied she saw when her eyes had adjusted to the light in the room filtering through the windows.
Resolutely blocking the doubts hammering at the back of her mind, she crossed the room quickly, bounded onto the bed on top of the occupant and seized both wrists.
She’d managed to coil the scarf she’d brought around both of his wrists before he came awake enough to test the scarf.
Holding his wrists, she leaned forward and twisted the loose end of the scarf into the headboard rail.
When she sat back, Galen was watching her.
He didn’t look the least bit drowsy either.
Her heart leapt uncomfortably, but she had managed the most critical part of the plan.
“I thought you might be awake,” she murmured, slipping her hips back so that she could lean forward and explore his jaw and neck with her lips.
He sucked in a harsh breath and held it. “What are you doing?” he murmured when she’d made her way down the center of his belly, exploring his flesh with her lips and tongue.
“Having my way with you.”
He grunted, but she wasn’t sure if that was an acknowledgement or because she’d grasped his cock in one hand and leaned down to cover the head with her mouth.
He held perfectly still for a handful of moments while she explored the sensitive flesh with her tongue and mouth, suckling, stroking. In a few moments, though, he began to quake faintly from the efforts to remain still. Slowly, the quaking got stronger and stronger and his breath became more and more uneven.
“Charlotte,” he croaked a little mindlessly after a few moments.
“Hmmm?” she hummed around the piece of flesh in her mouth.
“Gods!”
She lifted her head. “Yes?”
He bucked her off, tore the scarf from his wrists, and used his body to pin her to the bed. For several moments after he’d manacled her wrists with his hands, he simply stared at her face.
“I have missed you, Charlotte.”
Her lingering doubts were instantly banished by that confession. “I missed you, too, Galen.”
He shifted to cover her mouth with his, filling her with his heat and want and need until she felt the restlessness and tension of approaching climax. She began to urge him to cease to tease her then, to join his body with hers and carry them both into paradise.
He resisted, exploring her until she couldn’t think any more and then he moved between her thighs and found the sweet spot, pressing in to her until they were so connected it felt almost as if they were one.
He set a slow, purposeful rhythm to draw the pleasure out as long as possible. But when he felt himself nearing the pinnacle he broke rhythm and began to strive for a swift completion, driving into her fast and deep until she went rigid and began to convulsive in rapturous waves. Her climax brought his to an explosive eruption that drained him until he sank weakly, heavily down on her.
“You’re squishing me,” she muttered in a die away voice.
He jerked reflexively and then rolled off of her and onto the mattress beside her, running one hand over her before he settled his arm across her. “Feels plenty fluffy to me.”
“Funny!”
He nuzzled his face against the side of her neck. “Stubborn woman! We could’ve been doing this for weeks.”
Charly uttered a bark of a laugh. “I’m stubborn?” she gasped in outrage.
He shook with silent laughter. “That’s what I said. I’m glad you have the grace to agree.”
“I’m too tired to punch you or I would. I’ve been miserable.”
He sobered. “You were not struggling under the belief that I was happy?”
She sighed, lifted a hand to caress his cheek. “No. But you didn’t make it easy.”
He shifted his weight so that he was propped on one elbow beside her, studying her. “I know better than to think we’ve worked out all of the kinks, Charlotte, but that’s what the binding is all about—growing together, learning.”
She frowned at him, but thoughtfully. “You are so very wise,” she murmured after a moment, half serious, half teasing.
He smiled faintly. Instead of responding directly, though, he lifted a hand and skated it down her middle to cup her belly. “Do we have a little one here?”
He sounded so hopeful Charlotte recognized the warmth of love for the first time. “I don’t know yet—for sure,” she responded, unwilling to take the chance that they might be met with disappointment if she claimed her pregnancy too soon.
“The gods willing, we will soon,” he said, grinning abruptly. “I am more than willing to do my part to bring this about.”
The End.
The Barbarians: Stolen Bride Page 10
