Bound by Shadow (19 page)

A warning?

An invitation?

She let go of the bars and tossed the keys into the cell. They landed on the cot beside Creed. He wanted to say something, but he didn’t dare speak and break whatever spell she had fallen under.

Maybe she’s putting the spell on me.

Do I care?

This time, when Riana turned and walked away from him, her meaning was clear enough.

Now or never, big man.

Creed got up without the sheet and moved faster than he ever remembered moving. Respecting her tense silence, he followed Riana out of her lab.

15

Dear Goddess, what am I doing?

With every step, Riana’s heart pounded harder.

Cynda and Merilee would probably be back soon. They would
not
be okay with this. But her body was on fire. Her nipples throbbed as they rubbed against her silk robe, and she was so aroused she was sure Creed would catch the scent each time she moved her legs.

She had tried to go to her room and lie down. She had tried showering, then relieving herself in the shower. It didn’t help. With every passing minute, she had just grown more miserable.

Riana actually ached for Creed. She needed him in a way she didn’t think she had ever needed any man, and she didn’t know why, or why him.

At the moment, she didn’t even want to figure it out.

She just wanted him in her life, in her room, inside her head, inside her body.

Now.

She pushed open the door to her bedroom, sensing him behind her, barely holding herself together until she heard the door shut behind them.

All the candles in her room flickered from the breeze.

A faint
click
told her Creed had turned the door’s lock.

She saw herself in the mirror on the wall by the foot of her bed, almost naked, nipples jutting against the thin fabric of her robe. Her expression was half-hungry, half-desperate.

Creed moved behind her, a hulking dark shadow, rough where she was smooth, huge where she was delicate. He looked like a mountain, a powerhouse. He could snap her in half, but she knew he wouldn’t. In the reflection, she saw his hands grip her waist even as she felt a jolt of pleasure from his touch. His head lowered, and she felt his hot breath on her neck, then the press of his lips and the sensual bite that made her moan with need. He moved against her, naked, his erection already tight and hot against the small of her back. He would take her hard, make her crazy, make her scream, and oh, damn, she wanted to scream.

Pleasure washed over her just from being so close to him, from letting him take control of her and give her what she wanted so much. She couldn’t close her eyes because the scene in the mirror transfixed her. Creed kissed her neck, her ear. She felt it. She saw it. His big hands took hold of the sash on her robe and pulled it free.

Her robe fell open, baring her breasts and the dark triangle of hair below for her view and his, and he was looking even as he kissed her shoulder.

“Incredible,” he said against her ear, keeping his eyes on her reflection. “I want to memorize every curve.”

His hand passed over the bruise on her side, gently, carefully, and he kissed her ear again. “You take a lot of chances, honey.”

Don’t I know it.

At least the healing had begun, and she wasn’t sore anymore.

Riana wanted to tell Creed how delicious it felt to have his hands on her, but she couldn’t speak. She could only watch those hands move up, up, until he cupped her bare breasts, thrusting her hard, tight nipples forward.

Riana gasped, barely able to stand the anticipation building like a force of nature inside her.

“I knew your nipples would be dark,” he said, his voice so low and deep she could feel it right between her legs.

Then he pinched her nipples and she almost lost her mind. She sagged back against him, finally closing her eyes, submerging in the delicious shocks of ecstasy. Each time he rolled the sensitive nubs between his thumb and forefinger, she almost came. Chills broke out across her body, and her damp hair and the excitement made her shiver.

He turned her around, slid her robe over her shoulders, and let it drop. She felt the silk whisper over her ass, and then his hands were there, squeezing her, pulling her tight against him as he found her mouth with his.

Riana moaned into the kiss, wishing she could somehow get closer. She had never tasted anything better than the heady tang of Creed’s mouth. His tongue met hers with a rumble of desire. She smelled the lavender rinse from her shower mingled with Creed’s cedar and mandarin musk, and she wanted to cry from relief. Joined. Together. This was how it was supposed to be, her body mingling with his. No division. No place where she stopped and he began. Her sensitive nipples rubbed against the hard muscle of his chest, and her right hand found the scar on his arm and traced it to his elbow.

Battle scars. Wounds from combat. He had seen his share of battles, this man. She just knew it. The warrior part of him excited her even more. When she pulled back from their kiss, he bit her bottom lip just as he had done the first time he kissed her. Upstairs on the table, just before she jerked off his ring and nearly blew up the whole world.

Riana shivered harder.

Unfinished business. I should have done what I wanted to then, right in front of the Goddess and anybody else who wanted to watch.

She wrapped her fingers around the velvet iron of Creed’s cock just as she had done upstairs, only this time, she didn’t let go. She stroked him from balls to tip and back again, at the same time guiding his cock downward and pushing herself up on her toes, rubbing her whole body against him.

He groaned. “Damn. Do you know what you do to me?”

Unfinished business.

She sank to her knees, still holding on to him, and licked her lips at the sight of his erection.

Yes, it was her turn. She hadn’t gotten to taste him back at the cell. But she’d taste him now, and make sure he never forgot it.

Gazing up at him, keeping her eyes fixed on his, Riana took Creed’s cock in her mouth.

His head snapped back, and he said her name over and over, and she loved hearing it. She adored the uncontrolled sound of his voice.

His skin was so hot, and he tasted salty and light at the same time. Good. Too good. She gripped him at the base and pulled his pulsing shaft deeper into her mouth, farther back, half swallowing him until her lips met her own hand.

“Riana,” he said again, more a gasp than a real word. She hummed against the sensitive skin, and his cock bucked in her mouth. He grabbed her hair in both fists and pulled, forcing her face down until he caught hold of himself and relaxed his grip. His hips seemed to move against his will, pumping, showing her how he’d take her, with long, smooth strokes. Every inch of her vibrated at the thought, and from the feel of his cock pushing into her mouth over and over. She swallowed him deep again, and he jolted to a stop.

“Honey, I can’t take much more of that. Just looking at you is about to get me there.”

Riana eased up on his cock and let him slip out of her mouth just enough to think he was escaping. Then she ran her tongue along the soft underside, tracing the vein until he tugged her away.

The strained look on his face let her know she had tortured him—and that he had never felt anything better.

She smiled at him and started to get up, but he grabbed her by both arms and almost yanked her to her feet and into a kiss. His palms pressed against her arms as he pushed his tongue into her mouth, and she more than welcomed him as he rubbed his damp cock against her belly.

“I want you inside me,” she said against his mouth, kissing him again, and then pulled back. “Don’t make me wait any longer.”

Creed’s growl of assent sent ripples of heat from her neck to that throbbing spot between her legs. She let go of his cock, put her hands against his chest, and pushed him backward toward her bed. She felt hollow, needy, waiting to be filled up and finally, finally satisfied.

In the dim reaches of her mind, Riana realized Creed was speaking, asking her something.

“Have something…some protection?”

“I’m a Sibyl,” she said breathlessly. “I know how to keep myself from getting pregnant—and I know how to kill diseases if you have any. Which you better not.”

He answered her by sweeping her into his arms and cradling her against his chest. She kissed him, hungry, ravenous, shaking with excitement as he placed her tenderly on the bed and immediately stretched himself over her, bracing himself just above her with his powerful arms. His lips crushed hers as he pushed her legs apart. So ready. So open for him. She felt the tip of his cock rubbing against her slick, swollen folds and almost came again.

“Now,” she whispered into the kiss. “Please!”

The look he gave her was utterly feral and possessive.
Once I take you, I’ll never let you go.

She couldn’t breathe. Didn’t know if she still needed air.

Creed held her still with the force of his gaze as he thrust deep inside her channel in one smooth, mind-blowing stroke.

Goddess!
She drew a long, ecstatic breath. Her walls stretched to hold him, and she lifted her hips to meet the perfect sensation. So good. So right. She moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck, then clamped her legs against his thighs.

“You feel perfect,” he said, his voice ragged.

“Perfect,” she echoed, then moaned again.

His arms rubbed against hers as he kissed her and rocked her, moving his cock in and out of her aching center, slow at first, almost gentle, then picking up speed.

Riana couldn’t stop making noise. The sounds wound out of her chest, from somewhere deep in her soul. Her mind unraveled, and her eyes pasted themselves shut. He was taking her someplace new, someplace unique and wonderful and all their own.

“Open your eyes,” Creed demanded. “Let me see how much you want me.”

Riana didn’t think she could do it, but her eyes sprang open as if her body wanted to obey him. He pushed himself deeper inside her channel, moving her in the bed with each thrust. His eyes seemed to pin her to the bed beneath him, claiming her, marking her. He really was memorizing her. He really did want to know every line, every expression, every inch. Riana clenched around him, loving the sensation, wanting Creed to stay a part of her body forever.

“Deeper.” She barely got the word out, but she forced her eyes to stay open. “I want you deeper.”

Creed’s dark eyes blazed as he thrust harder, faster, deeper. Her nipples scrubbed against his chest, doubling her bliss and driving her closer to the edge. Chills gave way to burning heat and then sweat. She could hear their skin sliding together, smell the musk of their sex thick in the air. When Creed kissed her, she held him even tighter. When he let her breathe, she couldn’t stop the moans rippling out of her throat.

“Yeah, honey,” he murmured, riding her, stretching her, bringing her to that unbearable blend of pleasure and pain. “Scream for me. I like you crazy. I
love
you crazy.”

Riana’s ears rang. She gasped for breath against his next kiss. Her vision started to swim, and she tingled all over. Goddess, the mother of all orgasms. Now. Right now!

And she did scream, loud and long and endlessly, letting every bit of feeling and emotion drain out of her. She couldn’t stop moving, couldn’t stop lifting her hips to meet his strokes. She dug her nails into his back, holding on, clinging tight, and still he rocked her, rocked her, and didn’t stop. He stretched out her sensation, kept it going forever, until she thought she might come apart from the overwhelming flood of emotions.

He wanted her crazy.

He got his wish.

As Creed came, groaning but still pinning her with those dark, dark eyes, Riana heard herself hit a new note of delight as she writhed beneath him.

So perfect. Goddess, had she ever felt anything so perfect, so good?

And it stayed perfect, too, until somebody hammered on her bedroom door, then kicked the thing right off its hinges. Wood splintered and sprayed as the door fell heavily to the floor and Cynda and Merilee spilled into the room, weapons at the ready.

Creed froze on top of her.

His stricken expression told her he didn’t know whether to pull out, keep her covered with his body, or prepare to die.

The third option seemed probable, for both of them.

“Oh, for Chrissake,” said Andy from somewhere in the hallway. “I
told
you he wasn’t hurting her. I so don’t need to see this. I’m hiding my eyes. Shit, shit, shit!”

Riana felt herself turning nine shades of red as she twisted her head to get a better look at her triad sisters.

“Going to put your clothes in the jail cell, Creed,” Andy said loudly. “Like you’ll need clothes.”

Creed rolled off Riana gently, letting his cock slip free and somehow managing to pull part of the bedspread over both of them. He propped himself beside her, draped his arm over her half-covered belly, and bravely faced the firing squad—or the sword-and-arrow-squad—with her.

Merilee actually looked amused, almost pleased to find Riana okay and getting a little relief from the horrible weight of the previous night.

Cynda did not look amused. Anything but. The fire Sibyl was red-faced, furious, and her eyes communicated disgust and betrayal.

“You owe me money,” Merilee said. “I said they’d do the deed before the week was out. Fifty bucks. Pay me now.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Cynda snarled.

Andy came back toward the bedroom singing at full volume, something Springsteen. “Ooooohhh, I’m on fiiiiiiiire.” Hands over her eyes, she marched past the door, heading for the steps.

Cynda cranked up, ranting about Riana having no sense of reality, no respect for the dead, and putting everything in the world before her duty as a Sibyl.

Riana didn’t fight back, and she kept a hand on Creed’s arm, hoping he wouldn’t defend her. His fingers dug into the bed, but he didn’t say anything. Maybe he knew it wouldn’t have done any good, not when Cynda’s sword and bodysuit were already smoking. Riana could tell her triad sister was tired to the point of exhaustion, sad, rattled, and a little bit—maybe a lot—right, anyway.