Aurora's Promise (10 page)

Carefully, she pushed the blanket down Connyn’s body until
she could see his cock. It was semi-hard already and resting against his thigh.
Gently and very slowly, she wrapped her hand around it but stopped as Connyn
stirred beneath her. She didn’t want him waking and trying to take control just
yet. Listening to his heart beat under her ear, she waited until it had slowed
before continuing.

Shadows fell thickly over the bed and made it difficult to
see more than rough outlines and shapes. Aurora wasn’t satisfied just to
feel—she wanted to see as well. Lifting her head from Connyn’s chest, she
turned to study his face, being careful not to increase the pressure on his
cock. His features were relaxed and his breathing even. Glancing at the lamp
that had so concerned Connyn last night, she reached out with her magic,
smiling as it clicked on.

Connyn’s head jerked off the pillow, his eyes open and
instantly alert. When Aurora turned to look at him, his gaze was darting from
the lamp to the window and door. She squeezed his cock to get his mind back to
where she wanted it to be. His eyes narrowed on her.

“What are you doing?”

She dragged the tip of her tongue along her top lip as the
corners of her mouth tilted upward. “Guess.” Heat flared in his eyes and his
cock throbbed and hardened in her hand. Turning back to her original intent,
she propped herself higher on one arm to be able to reach his cock with her
mouth. “But I have to warn you,” she said, “I’ll be very disappointed,” she
paused to run her tongue around the head of his cock, “if you guess wrong.”

Satisfaction rose through Aurora on a slow, warming tide at
the look on Connyn’s face as she hovered over his cock. With light, quick
licks, she teased the sensitive skin around the small slit at its head until
one of Connyn’s hands slid into her hair and the other skimmed over her waist
to settle on her hip. His fingers flexed and tightened on her skin. “Aurora.”

The sound of her name riding that deep sexy voice of his
dispelled any remaining desire to prolong her teasing. He could make her name
sound all at once like a prayer, a wish and a command.

Sliding her hand down his cock, she followed it with her
mouth, taking him in to the back of her throat in one smooth motion before
pulling back and pressing her tongue firmly along the shaft as she lifted up.
Connyn let out a low hiss and twisted his fingers in her hair.

She experimented with different types of licks, strokes and
pressures until she found the combination that generated the reaction she
wanted from Connyn. Tugging gently down on his balls as she swirled her tongue
around the head of his cock had him gripping her hip hard and whispering her
name. She shifted her position to free up her other hand and began sliding it
up and down his shaft, keeping up the friction there as her mouth continued to
work the head.

Again and again she ran her tongue in circles as she moved
her mouth and hand up and down his erection, sliding and squeezing and sucking
so that his entire cock was continually either in her hand or mouth.

She knew that a lot of men wanted a woman to moan while
blowing them. They’d say they liked it because it was easier to come and lose
yourself in the moment if the woman was enjoying it too, but she’d had enough
men admit that it also sent an amazing extra buzzing sensation through their
cock that helped them come faster and harder. Both reasons were fine, but she’d
never been one to fake anything during sex including a phony moan to pacify or
please a partner. When Connyn groaned and arched his back, pushing his cock
deeper, her moan had nothing to do with trying to get him off faster and
everything to do with the pleasure of driving Connyn to the edge of his
control.

“Aurora?”

The rasp and need in his voice sent a heated thrill through
her. She could feel him struggle to hold himself back from his orgasm. But she
wanted his release, his surrender. With an encouraging “mmm” that hummed around
his cock, she concentrated on keeping the rhythm of licking and stroking and
tugging constant, finally pushing him past his control.

With a low growl, Connyn’s hands flexed on her and his body
tensed to a whipcord tightness. She tilted her head, took him in deeper and
sucked gently as cum shot to the back of her throat in hot, streaming pulses.
The musky tang, an earthy, deeply sensual taste, filled her mouth as she
swallowed. As his grip loosened on her head and hip, she tenderly ran her
tongue around his cock, licking him clean and letting his taste and scent
settle into her senses.

The same sensation as when she’d first agreed to mate him
swelled through her. It swirled around her, wrapping her in a profound
awareness of destiny drawing her, enticing her past her fears and into her
future. Closing her eyes, she pulled back and let his cock slip free from
between her lips, enjoying the truly carnal pleasure of the thick slide of
heated flesh from her mouth.

Connyn’s hand moved from the back of her head to cradle her
jaw. He turned her to face him. With languid ease, she opened her eyes and allowed
a small smile to ghost over her lips at the sated heat simmering in his gaze.

“So…” she purred, “did you correctly interpret my intent?”

Connyn’s lashes lowered but did nothing to dim the scorching
intensity of his look as his gaze dropped to her lips. “Come here,” he said.

The command was potently laced with such erotic intimation
that Aurora’s stomach quivered. As she made her way up his body, his hands
skimmed down her sides and guided her into a kiss that instantly consumed her,
igniting in her a sudden and intensely visceral need. Not just for the pleasure
each caress of his released, but for the blinding ecstasy and shattering
fulfillment her soul now craved at his touch.

Connyn held his
vystra
to him, feeling the softness
of her curves ride against the much harder planes of his muscled body. Every
sense focused on her as he listened to her soft gasp as his fingers swept up
the back of her thigh and dipped slightly to graze the swelling nub of her
clit. He inhaled the mingled scent of her arousal and his release, and watched
the long waves of her hair fall like silky waves of midnight across her soft
ivory shoulders.

This woman was more important than air to his existence at
this point. Probably always had been, but until she was actually in his arms
and finally in his world, the idea of
mate
had been an ideal, not a
reality. She’d been nothing more than a vision and a hope, not a flesh and
blood woman who could argue and love and laugh and drive him out of his mind
with a look that set his soul and body on fire before he could blink. And he
wanted her. All of her, not just her body or her spoken vow or her willingness
to return to her homeland. There was something more that she was holding back
from him, but if pressed, he wouldn’t be able to say exactly what. She’d given
him all he’d demanded but yet…

His hands held her loosely to him while he stroked her body
and kissed her deeply. As Aurora responded to his caresses with a passion that
was at once aggressive and yielding, he wondered if what he craved from his
mate couldn’t be commanded but had to be given freely and without compunction.

The thought shook loose a fear deep inside him, and to
counter it, he forced all his energies toward their mental connection,
something that should be a given since they had exchanged vows. Once again, he
came flat against a shimmering wall that kept him from her thoughts and
feelings. It was unlike anything he’d ever encountered. Every other mind block
he’d ever experienced was rigid and cold, a solid force of will set
purposefully in place either by habit or choice.

He pushed in harder, more forcefully with his mind. And
again there was nothing he could feel, no thought he could read, no feeling he
could grasp.

It was as if he had been wrapped in a heavy golden mist too
insubstantial to grasp and remove yet too thick to see past. No matter the
tactic he employed to reach Aurora’s mind, each was as futile as the rest.

Withdrawing from the kiss, he brushed the back of his
fingers over her cheek. A slight frown pulled her beautiful face into a sexy
pout as her gaze fixed on his mouth, desire still flaming hot in her eyes. He
swept his thumb over her bottom lip, swollen and red from their kisses.

“Are you blocking me on purpose, Aurora?”

Her frown deepened and she glanced down at her body sprawled
over the top of his. “What?”

“Your mind. Are you blocking me from your mind?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She shifted and
the soft fullness of her breasts lifted briefly and then settled back on his
chest, distracting him for a moment. “Are you telepathic?” she asked. “I was
told that was rare in Ilyria.”

His gaze returned to her face. The last traces of passion
had cleared from her expression and she started to push herself off him. He
slid an arm around her waist to pin her back in place.

“Full telepathic ability is rare, though it runs more
strongly in the Royal bloodlines than in others. I’m not a true telepath, but
all Ilyrians have the ability to connect at some level to others in certain
relationships such as along family bloodlines for one.” Though he held her
tightly to him, her body was stiff in his embrace. He could feel fear spread
like ice under her skin.

“And between mates?” Her voice had lost its previous sensual
purr and the sharpened edges of her words sliced into the intimacy of the
moment.

He gently finger-combed through the thick, midnight mass of
hair at the base of her nape, instinctively wanting to soothe her worries. “It
is the strongest bond in our world. All Ilyrian mates form a mental connection
once the Mating Rite has been completed—”

“But I can’t read your mind.”

“I’d have been more surprised if you could. You’ve lived
nearly all your life away from your homeworld, so your training is expected to
be lacking in certain areas.” He tucked a strand of hair that had fallen
forward back behind her ear. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. We can always hire
you a tutor.”

Aurora’s eyes narrowed and the frisson of heat that raced to
replace the coolness in her body wasn’t from passion. “Do you think I’m
lacking?” Her question was asked calmly, but in her eyes he could see anger
flash like a streak of sun glinting off a newly honed blade.

His hand dropped to her shoulder where tension strained her
muscles into tight cords. “You’re my mate.”

“That’s not an answer to my question.”

Caution aligned itself with his growing irritation, but he
ignored it. “It’s a foolish question.”

Aurora pushed off him so suddenly he didn’t have a chance to
stop her. Wrapping the sheet around her as she sat up, she glared down at him. “I’m
lacking
and
foolish?”

Connyn sighed, regret mingling with resignation as he
repositioned himself to sit up as well, his back against the headboard. Since
she had jerked the sheet away, he stretched out on the bed fully exposed to her
sight. Lacing his fingers together behind his head, he looked at his woman who
for some unfathomable reason seemed to harbor a need to challenge him on every
little thing. Temper had her cheeks flushed and her hair streamed over her
shoulders in wild dark ribbons of disarray. The twisted sheet she was holding
in place spurred rather than hindered his imagination since it left her legs
and one hip bare and was thin enough for her nipples to be seen through. The
sight had his cock growing hard again, an effect he did nothing to hide.

“I never said you were foolish, only your question. A
question which I did answer.”

The line along her jaw grew tighter as she lifted her chin a
fraction. “No, you said I was your mate. That isn’t what I asked.”

Connyn sat up straighter and crossed his arms over his
chest. Shaking his head at her stubborn unwillingness to understand he said
flatly, “That is your answer. To everything. No matter what, you are my mate.
No matter what you may or may not be lacking, or needing, or wanting. You are
my mate and it is my responsibility to guard and keep you.”

“That’s a little medieval-lock-a-damsel-in-a-tower-ish to
work in the real world.”

“It does and will work. It has worked for centuries. You
will learn to obey and trust me for your own good.”

Aurora’s jaw dropped and her eyes rounded in shock. Her
entire body tensed and she tightened the sheet about her, the mounds of her
breasts pressing tightly against the top edge as she took a deep breath and
narrowed her eyes to mere slits of fury. “If you think for one fucking minute
that you—”

Something snapped inside Connyn’s brain. Without thinking,
he reached for her, took her by her arms and dragged her to him. With the way
she had twisted the sheet around herself and had been holding it with her arms
folded together, it left her trussed up securely and unable to push away from
him. She writhed and kicked, further entangling her legs in the covers.

She hissed at him and he kissed her hard on the mouth before
loosening his hold enough to look into her face. “I don’t think—I know. And I
will not allow the contravention of my orders when it comes to your safety.”

Aurora opened her mouth. Closed it. Blinked. “Safety? Those
chauvinist caveman comments were about my safety?”

Connyn didn’t try to mask the growl that couched his answer.
“What else?”

Aurora’s slight shrug slid the sheet down her chest until
the edge was just above her nipples. “Everything else.” She wiggled, making his
pulse kick, but he didn’t let her go.

“Like what?”

“Like what I wear—”

“It wasn’t practical for our trip.”

“Who I talk to on my own phone—”

“An undeniable safety issue since you are unaware of all the
threats.”

“You walked out on me during an argument and left—”

“You were drawing unwanted attention. It was time to move
the discussion to a safer place.”

“That’s just it!” Her voice had been rising until now she
was practically yelling. “You don’t discuss! You just make a statement and then
poof!
That’s it. No more questions, no more discussion.”

“Why discuss something that’s decided?”

“Decided by whom?” Aurora’s eyes snapped out an angry, dark
fire.

“It’s irrelevant if it’s right.”

“So just because you say it, that’s supposed to be the end
of it?”

He suddenly remembered seeing the expressions of both Wyc
and Rordyc at different times after having an argument with their mates and
thinking that his cousins simply needed to gain better control of their women.
Trying to make sense out of Aurora’s angry retorts had about drawn him to the
end of his patience. It made him wonder if what he saw in his cousins’ faces
hadn’t been anger as much as the same frustration he was feeling now. “The end
of what? Your statements aren’t reasonable.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the look on her
face informed him that he had just made a misstep in the conversation.

“
Reasonable?
” Her struggle began again with renewed
vigor. “Oh my god! You are the most—” she jerked on her arms, trying to pull
them out of the confining sheet, “Most—oh my god! I don’t even have the words
to—let go of me!”

He readjusted his arms to make her more comfortable, but
held her just as tightly. “No.” Rolling to his side, he halted her thrashing by
throwing his leg over her thighs and then propped himself up on one elbow to
look down at her. “We’re having a discussion.”