Aurora's Promise (22 page)

When she straightened away from him, the absence of her
mouth on his skin left him with a sharp, yearning ache.

She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “My, my. You are
showing some nice restraint here, Mr. Kilth.” With the edge of her fingernail,
she traced a line from the center of his sternum to the top of his pants. “It’s
making me a little hot.”

“Are you done playing?” he asked. The words ground out of
him like boulders being pushed through a strainer.

Her laugh sparkled around him like falling diamonds as she
unwound another strip of material from her gown. “Where would you ever get a
silly idea like that?” She swiveled her hips in an erotic rhythm as the panel
fell from her hand in a silky pile near her feet before she began untying
another one.

Lust pounded through his veins as his eyes devoured her.
Hungry to see more. To touch her. To fuck her. And the slow, piece by piece
removal of her gown only goaded the animalistic desire already mercilessly
riding him. His muscles hardened with the need to touch her as another panel
fell to the floor. Both of her nipples could now be seen through the sheer
fabric as her breasts swayed with her movements and the material draped from
her waist flowed around her legs revealing brief peeks of creamy skin along her
thighs and hips.

Not for a moment did he believe she’d gotten the urge to be
playful tonight
just because.
But neither did it feel as if she were
intent on repaying him for some unknown offense. Her teasing didn’t have that
tart edge of punishment, even when she’d occasionally allow her nails to leave
pale red marks behind as she dragged her fingers across a portion of his chest.

He searched her face as she moved around him, her hands bold
in their exploration of his upper body. They pressed over his torso, following
the lines of muscle that defined his stomach, chest and arms. With each artful
sweep of her fingers, she wound his desire higher and hotter.

Aurora was his mate and if she wished to lead in their
lovemaking from time to time, he’d gladly indulge her. But there was more to
this game she was playing of not letting him touch her. Something she was
keeping from him.

Desire was there in her dark eyes as she watched the
progress of her hands, but she was also using it to mask something just below
the surface. Something that glinted quickly but repeatedly through her eyes. A
vulnerability, a fear that she hadn’t shared. He’d seen it more than once
despite the effort she was making to keep it hidden. Tonight, she was using
this sexual game of hers to keep her distance.

The knowledge that she was purposefully isolating even a
small part of herself from him raged inside him. It prodded him to ignore his
promise, turn the game back on her and force her to trust him enough to tell
him her secrets.

Inwardly he cringed at his own thoughts. Many things could
be forced, duty and even desire. But trust, genuine trust, could never be
coerced. And his mate would trust him. She must trust him.

Aurora leaned against his side to kiss his shoulder, her
breasts cushioning either side of his arm. He shifted to press against the
softness and, with quick reprisal, she bit his shoulder hard enough to leave a
mark. When his breath hissed out she smiled up at him and he knew she’d guessed
that it was because her bite had nearly unchained his control.

Her hands slid down his back and front simultaneously until
one cupped his ass and the other his cock. Slowly, she dragged her hands off
him, her nails lightly scraping over the tough fabric along the bulge at the
front of his pants. Though thicker than the material covering her, his clothes
did little to reduce the electric kick that hit him at her final touch.

He was barely breathing when she stepped away from him. “Time
for you to get naked,” she said.

Reaching far into the reserves of his self-control, without
a word he bent to remove his boots and groaned when his pants didn’t give quite
enough to accommodate his hardened cock. When he straightened back to unfasten
his pants he saw that Aurora had moved to stand in front of the bed.

In the process of removing another strip of material from
the lower front of her gown, she smiled at him. A smile that might have been
sweet if not for the wicked gleam shining too brightly in her eyes. Soon the
shimmering panel she had chosen slid to the floor, leaving a single thin veil
covering the thatch of dark hair between her legs.

A large stack of pillows had been piled in the middle of the
coverlet and she sat down on the bed, scooting backward until she was leaning
against them. After spreading her hair out around her shoulders, she rested her
arms on the pile of cushions and stretched her legs indolently out in front of
her, bent slightly at the knees and crossed at the ankles, a pose that looked
both regal and offering.

The bedclothes were a rich red, the same color of the stones
that represented his house. Black and gold trimmed out the suite and the excess
of deep hues could have made the space feel closed and dark if the room hadn’t
been so large. He’d always been proud of his family’s crest, the colors
representing all he held dear, and worn it with a pride born in his bones.
Aurora, poised majestically and laid out on his colors, had no idea the beast
she was shaking awake to play her game.

She adjusted her position slightly under his penetrating
gaze and several panels of her dress parted as a result, a smooth slide of
shimmering silk over soft skin that revealed her legs from ankle to thigh. Only
three sheer strips kept her breasts and mound from being bared to his sight as
well. The fact that they completely covered her, but were sheer enough to cover
nothing had his mouth going dry and his breath solidifying in his lungs.

At the very least they were moving in the right direction.
She was finally, fucking
finally,
on the bed. He rolled his shoulders
back and forced his breath to ease out.

With another maddeningly teasing smile she said, “Don’t act
so relieved. You’re not getting in bed with me.”

Her eyebrows were rising again in that arrogant affront. He
frowned in return, feeling the crease between his eyes deepen as she lifted one
hand and made a circle in the air with her index finger.

“Well?” she asked. “What are you waiting on?”

His hands fisted around the waistband of his pants. “Apparently,
I’m waiting on a command from you.”

With a mock frown she
tsk-tsked
at him. “But I’ve
already given it.” Her finger did that annoying circling thing again. “You.
Naked. Now.”

The tyranny of strength so elemental to his nature made it
close to impossible for him to act on her demand simply because it
was
a
demand. Added that the haughty command had come from someone much weaker and
under his protection, his
mate
even, and the inner war he was fighting
to remain calm was nearly over before it began. It must have shown on his face
because the same vulnerability he’d seen earlier flashed in her eyes and her
smile froze slightly.

Fuck.
Taking a deep breath, he popped three buttons
off the fly of his pants when he jerked it open. Once he’d finished stripping,
he stood fully erect on all counts and waited for her next order, wondering if
she was going to have him perform in some way. He’d appreciated her imaginative
streak in the bedroom before, but now the infinite number of possibilities she
could be mulling through for her next command made him halfway wish for a more
sedate lover in his mate.

After taking a deep breath that pressed her nipples harder
against the thin gauze of the gown, Aurora let it back out on a hum of approval
as she raked her eyes hungrily over him. Blatantly stopping in her visual
examination just below his waist, she licked her lips suggestively.

“Do you know,” she asked, her voice a slow purr that turned
every word into a temptation, “what it does to me to see you standing naked and
ready before me?” Before he could gather enough thought to put together words
that had even the slightest chance of being articulate, she continued.

She tilted her head to the side and lightly laid the fingers
of her right hand just below her ear. “You don’t even have to touch me and my
breath still starts to rush and my skin tingles.” She traced a line down to the
neckline of her gown above her breast. Looking down at her hand, she watched as
her fingers pulled the sheer material to the side, completely baring her breast
to his sight.

Sliding her hand underneath the soft weight, she lifted it,
squeezed it gently. “My nipples have been tight since you walked in. Ready to
be touched. Like this.” She held her nipple between her index finger and thumb.
Pinched it.

“Or like this.” She twisted the tightened peak and the
corners of her lips lifted in pleasure. “Damn,” she murmured, “I love having my
nipples twisted.” Looking back up at him she said, “But you already knew that.”

Instinctively Connyn knew that this new level of teasing had
just begun, though his body insistently responded to her every taunt as if
climax was a breath away. For sanity’s sake, he tried to balance what his brain
was telling him with his body’s commands. He attempted to control his breathing
and relax his muscles using the same mental techniques Jordyn had taught him as
a young man in the face of terrible stress and pain. If you allowed the enemy
to remove your focus, you handed him the victory before he’d even fought for
it.

Aurora tugged the other side of her neckline out of the way
so she could plump up both breasts, one in each hand. When she bent to lick
first one nipple and then the other, a knuckle on Connyn’s right hand popped
and he realized that he was holding his hands fisted tight enough to crack
bones. So much for battlefield composure techniques.

At the sound, Aurora looked up and smiled. He was starting
to hate that smile.

She rose up on her knees, still holding her breasts, the
nipples now a beautiful glistening pink aimed directly at him. “I bet your cock
would feel wonderful sliding back and forth right here.” She ran her tongue
along the line formed between her breasts when she pushed them up and together
and then licked her nipple again in quick, hard flicks that pushed the tip away
only to snap back for another lash with her tongue. Moving on to her other
nipple, she sucked it into her mouth. Connyn’s blood roared in his veins as
Aurora closed her eyes and moaned when she tilted her head back. Her lips
parted and her breast pulled free through her teeth.

Another knuckle popped. His cock throbbed and a shudder ran
down his spine. Without realizing it, Connyn had moved forward, the need to
touch his mate overriding his memory of the game or her rules. Her eyes flew
open and she stared at him accusingly when his knee came down on the bed,
causing the mattress to dip toward him.

“No touching,” she said.

He froze, half on half off the bed, cursing the size of the
bed. He’d have been on her before her eyes opened if his were a normal bed. He
was close enough now to see the pebbling on her skin caused by her arousal, the
shaded pinks of her nipples starting with a lighter pink at the areola and
darkening to a deep rose at the peaks. He could see the individual curls of her
mound through the single sheer panel that fell down between her legs and the
tiny shadowed oval of her navel.

Aurora slid her hands down over her stomach and onto her
thighs. “But you can watch.”

Lust hammered hard in Connyn’s chest. The urge to lunge was
barely restrained. The need so intense his gaze was branded by its fiery demand
and for a moment, Aurora appeared engulfed by flames before him. His cock
jutted out almost painfully before him and the one thought crushing all others
was how fast he could thrust himself inside her body and how deep he could go.

He glanced at her face, saw determination and desire mixed
in her expression. She lifted her chin. “Well?” she purred, curling the ells of
the word up at the end with a teasing little lilt.

“I’d rather touch.” His voice grated over the words like raw
flesh over salted sand.

Her laugh was charmed seduction as her fingers slid between
her legs, pushing the thin material tight over her mound. “You’ll have to leave
the touching to me. Tonight.” Aurora shifted so her knees parted and her
fingers pushed in deeper between her thighs. “Agreed?”

He nodded. Once. Sharply.

Aurora’s head dropped back on a soft moan as she stroked her
pussy. “Good, because taunting you like this has me so fucking turned on I feel
like I could come right now.” With her head dropped back, her breasts thrust
out high and proud as she continued to touch herself. “God, my clit is so
sensitive right now that even this thin material almost feels too rough
pressing against it.”

Slowly she lifted her head. “But you can’t see very well,
can you?” She tugged the material from between her legs and held it out. There
was a wet spot in the middle of it. “We’ll have to fix that. But first,” she
said as she leaned forward, bracing her weight on one hand, “there’s something
else I want to touch.”

She glanced up at him, her mouth a breath away from his
cock. Combing her fingers through her hair, she pulled it to one side. “So you
can see,” she said. When she let go of the thick twist, it fell in a cool sweep
against his thigh. Like a cool brush of heaven against his hot skin, the
strands caught in his leg hair for a second before its own weight pulled it
down.

Heaven gave way to ecstasy the moment her hot tongue swiped
up the side of his cock. It bobbed away from her mouth and then back against
her lips. Wrapping her fingers around it to keep it in place, she swirled the
flat of her tongue in a circle over the head of his cock. She kept her head
tilted to the side so he could see her tongue’s progress as she licked up,
around and back down.