Rituals of Passion (19 page)

His huge cock poised there, at the point of  entry, and she couldn’t help  herself—shebegan pushing against it. “Now, please,” she murmured.

“Yes, now,” he breathed over her, then thrust  deep inside.

She cried out at the impact, shocked and amazed. And recovering from a brief burst of pain, too, but that was over already, replaced by the sensation of utter fullness. “So big,” she moaned.

His voice wafted down over her. “Big for
 
you
.”

92

Rituals of Passion

“Are we fucking now?” She looked up into  his  blue, blue  eyes, only inches  away

from hers.

He began to move in and out of her, sliding the incredible shaft back and forth in her passage. “
Now
 
we are fucking, Maven,” he said in a deep growl, and with that his movements turned into driving thrusts, each  digging deeper into  her core, making her cry out at the power and pleasure they delivered.

She lay basking in the weakening pleasure  for…oh Ares,  she didn’t know how long, wondering how much  more of the hot pummeling she could take, but at the same timehoping it never ended. Together they groaned when he squeezed himself deeper still in her warmth, and she’d nearly forgotten the  concept of orgasm altogether when hesuddenly pulled his cock out of her and said, “You’re going to come now.”

“What?” It had caught her off guard, but already he had released his tight hold onher and was moving down, kissing her breasts, kissing her stomach through the snug leather, pushing her short skirt higher up onto  her waist as he peered down at her cunt.

“I’ve been wanting to taste your pussy, wanting to feel the smooth flesh around my mouth.”

Oh, so he was going to do what Kells had done earlier, what she’d learned about during her Orientation. Only—dear Ares!—the moment his tongue  met her clit it wasunlike anything she could have imagined.  Whereas Kells’ licks had been smooth and pleasure-filled, Dane’s were so sensuous and  hot that they put Kells’ efforts to  shame.

He reached up to part her wider, making her feel  all the more stretched and swollen, before his mouth came again—his  tongue licking and laving as if she were some delightful delicacy, his lips closing over her clit even as he kept licking it. Heworked at her with a passion she’d never witnessed.

And then it  hit, like a  storm out of nowhere—the orgasm struck  so hard and fast that she was screaming out, pumping her hips  at his mouth as streaming echoes of the deepest pleasure lifted  her up and out of the bed, took her to some other world entirely, and then dropped her  gently back in  place, albeit dizzy and spent.

“Oh…” she  sighed afterward, in the midst of recovery.

She watched her husband deliver one final lick to her pink  folds as he cast her a

wicked smile. “How was that, wife?”

She could barely speak, barely even breathe. “Heaven,” was all she could force out.

He groaned at her response, then  wasted no time repositioning  himself over her once more, smoothly sliding his cock back inside her.

“Oh Ares!”  she cried at the welcome intrusion.

He leaned down near her ear again, his voice hovering somewhere between playful

and heated. “You’re a virgin no more.”

She’d never been more aware of anything in her life. “Thank Ares.”

He pulled back with a soft, slight grin. “You disliked being a virgin?”

“I
 
like
 
fucking.”

93

Lacey Alexander

He laughed softly, burying his face in  her hair—another element that brought her new status home to her. The feel  of her loose locks on her shoulders, the sense of him

nuzzling in the hair at her nape.  “I like fucking, too,” he told her.

“Can you…do it like  before? Harder?”

He pulled back to look  at her, and she instantly sensed  that he liked the request.  “Oh yes, wife, I can do it harder. And when I do, I’m going to come in you.”

Her thoughts flew back to Orientation,  to  the exciting moment when all three boys  had shot their juices onto Lavonia’s stomach and breasts. “Where your cock will spew  white on me?”

He tilted his head, looking excited and amused. “
On
 
you? Perhaps sometimes, yes. But tonight,
 
in
 
you, bride. Deep  inside your pussy. Leaving part of me inside you.  Bonding us in a way nothing else can.”

Even as he  began to  drive his mighty shaft inside her in that wonderfully hard,deep rhythm, she understood what he was saying—he was talking about staking aclaim, a territory, a prize. He was reminding her one more time that she belonged to him now and that there was nothing she could do about it.

But had she not given up fighting that a little while ago? And had it not brought herthe glorious cock that filled her and fucked her phenomenally well at this very moment? She grunted and moaned  with the deep thrusts.

Yes, she couldn’t think about that aspect  of things right now. For now, her mindonly held room for awareness of  his pounding rod, the sensations that started in her pussy but spread in an instant all through her,  to the tips  of her fingers and toes, up intoher head. It all made her feel light and airy, as well as happily fucked by a man who knew what he was doing.

Yes, yes, yes, her cunt  welcomed his deep plunges,  filling her with a satisfaction unknown up to now. More—she never wanted  the thrusts to stop, wanted to spend herwhole life fucking Dane.

“Ah, now,
 
now
,” he said on a groan. “I’m coming.  I’m coming in you. Deep inside you!” His last moves were filled with a  new depth of force, nearly rocking the foundations of her body, but the knowledge that she’d brought him to orgasm and that he was depositing his lovely white fluid inside her left her replete, deepening the sense of satisfaction she’d experienced just a moment before to something far more profound.

“Oh Ares,” she sighed as he collapsed against her, flesh against flesh.

Without thought, her  arms came around him, hugging his large frame to  her asmuch as she could reach, and even  as warm as she felt, even as
 
safe
 
as she surprisingly felt, her satisfaction became marred with  the return of sanity—and the knowledge that she’d done what she’d sworn she never would. She’d begged him. For sex. For his cock.  She’d admitted to craving him.

She’d as good as admitted to belonging to him.

94

Rituals of Passion

Chapter Twelve

She awoke the next morning when sun shone through the window. At first, she forgot where she was,  but one look at the naked man in  bed next to her brought back the unbelievable and life-changing events of the previous evening.

She vaguely recalled that after sex, she’d watched Dane peel off his boots and pantsbefore he’d rolled her onto her side in the  bed to unhook her leather garment. He’dremoved her boots as well, and they’d silently retreated beneath the covers.

She’d been  too aroused to really take in  the  luxurious chamber last night, but she was taking it in now. Much larger than the  room she’d been staying in and even larger than Dane’s quarters, which she’d visited on  the first floor yesterday, the sizable roomwas filled with finely crafted furniture and rich silk fabrics. It reminded her of her parents’ chamber back home in Myrtell, boasting cabinets for clothing, a wash stand and a large  hearth which likely kept the place cozy in winter.

The lavishness of her  surroundings, though, were of no consequence when, once again, she recalled how she’d betrayed herself with Dane in this very bed.

Oh, how she’d begged him! She’d totally lost  herself to desire, reaching a point where she thought she’d have done
 
anything
 
to make  him sink  his cock into her. Not that she could imagine a much worse  sacrifice than the one she’d made.

In the harsh daylight,  her actions seemed  unthinkable, no matter  how lustful she’dbeen. To beg him had been to admit to…needing him,  wanting him, wanting to be his wife—and wanting to be his
 
possession
. They both knew it—she knew that was the reason he’d wanted her to beg in the first place. To demean herself.  To submit to him in every way.

Oh Ares, what had she done?
 
Bolting upright, she grabbed the coverlet they lay beneath and darted away from the bed, wrapping the blue and gold brocade around her nudity.

Of course, that left him  naked. And waking.

Standing by the window, covered with the  silk from her chest down, she couldn’thelp watching him. His cock was not nearly  so large as it had been last night, but  Lavonia had explained to her about erections, and  she couldn’t deny it still looked sizable even in its relaxed state.

“What in Ares name are you doing?” he asked, rising on one elbow. His voice was  dry, scolding—as if she were an  unruly child and he had tired of dealing with her bad  behavior. Worse than that, he looked no  less than godlike lounging on  the bed so casually, his hair mussed, his face unshaven, his muscles spanning the whole length of  him, and his cock falling waywardly to one  side—still arousing to  her even without an

95

Lacey Alexander

erection. She could have easily believed he  was the embodiment of Ares himself, and  even as she despised him, she still wanted him.

“Well?” he asked, his  voice dripping arrogance. “Just  couldn’t wait to get another  glimpse of my rod?”

“Hardly,” she said, although the glimpse of his rod was all too enjoyable.

“What then, bride?”

“I can’t bear to be in the same bed with you,” she spat.

“You bore it well enough last night.” He  let out a tired sigh. “And here I thought  we’d put that silliness behind us  and could behave like a normal husband and wife  now.”

“The problem with that is your definition of ‘normal’. You think I
 
belong
 
to you.”

He raised his voice slightly. “You
 
do
 
belong to me. It’s a fact. And that is normal for

all of Caralon.”

“Not for my parents.”

He rolled his eyes. “Remind me to thank Enrick for raising you without any  understanding of how society works outside the royal fortress.”

She stood a little straighter, determined to  be much stronger than she’d been the  previous evening. “I’m thankful my father raised me to respect myself, not to see myself  as some man’s plaything.”

He blinked, again looking wearied by her. “Maven, it’s not as if I’m trying to subject  you to some terrible fate no one else in the  domain suffers. I just expect you to behave  like a wife.”

“There is more than one kind of  wife. My  mother is a wonderful wife and my father  treats her with the utmost respect. They are friends as well as lovers.”

He tilted his head, looking doubtful. “Don’t  take this the wrong way, my bride, but  though you and I are husband and wife, and  definitely now lovers, I don’t see a warm friendship growing between us anytime soon.”

“So what am I to do?” She narrowed her gaze on him. “Simply warm your bed and  do your bidding, all so you can rule Caralon someday?”

He widened his eyes as if to drive a point home. “It would be a pleasant start.” He patted the bed next to  him. “Now  come back to bed like a good wife.”

As incensed as ever, maybe more so after last night, she looked around the room,  feeling out of sorts in numerous ways, finally asking him, “Where  are we, anyway? This  isn’t the chamber where I watched you bathe yesterday.”

“This is the fortress’ master chamber,  where you and I shall reside together.”

“And…why didn’t you reside here before now?” she asked, her voice softening  with curiosity.

“It once belonged to my parents. I thought  it appropriate not to move into it myself  until I took a wife.”

96

Rituals of Passion

His parents. Odd, as much  as she’d thought of her
 
own
 
parents lately—missing them, being angry with them, wishing her marriage to Dane could somehow mirror theirs—she’d never even thought of
 
him
 
having parents. Another way in which heseemed  godlike to her—it was as  if he’d always existed and always would. He was somuch a man that it was difficult to believe  he’d ever been a child. “Where are they, yourparents?” she asked, taking a step  closer to the bed.

“Dead.”

The word seemed to hang in the air with a  hideous finality. Despite herself, she felt badly for him. “What happened to them?”

His eyes grew a bit distant as he spoke. “Virgs from the north attacked. My father was a peaceful man with a farming estate—he’d never bothered to protect it much.  They were killed in the battle. I escaped.”

Without quite thinking, she lowered herself onto the edge of  the bed, instantly caught up in the horrible  drama. “What happened then?”

“The Virgs had control of the fortress for a few days, but I gathered men—some from the nearest village, eager to  defend my  good father’s estate, others to whom I promised employ after we regained the  fortress. They were my first army. Werecaptured the estate within a week, and it  has been fortified, and my borders guarded, ever since.”