Kisri: ... and the Beast, Book 2 (3 page)

He was the wrong man to ask. Plenty of soldiers had mates waiting for them to return from the battlefields now that the war was over, but Ennon had never even flirted with the idea. “I don’t know. The right man?”

Her eyes lit. “You don’t want a mate. You don’t need my fortune.”

“No.” The only thing he desired was to take her, make her cry out as he pleasured her with his tongue.

She fisted her hands and rested them on her thighs. “Perhaps we could come to an arrangement. If you found me appealing enough to bed, that is. I could…satisfy my curiosity about men. And you would be free to go your own way once you delivered me to my cousin.”

Malrion would murder him, pure and simple, and the knowledge didn’t stop him from considering her offer. “It’s a dangerous game to play, Kisri. If we were found out…”

“Then I’d be like every other noble woman who dared to take her pleasure into her own hands. I’d be no less valuable than I am now. It’s not my body that brings them to my door, touched or untouched.”

A convenient truth, one that made it too easy to step closer. What harm could it do? As she said, she would be fine, no worse for the wear. And Ennon could take care of himself, even if he had to brave Mal’s wrath. “Are you certain?”

She rocked to her feet. Her shift fluttered around her thighs, leaving her long, lean legs bare. “How can I be certain when I barely understand my own needs? I’m asking you to let me learn with you. Is it so different than any other type of sparring?”

She deserved the truth. “It could be exactly like that, and you should know how that can end.”

“With mating?” She tilted her head and studied him. “I’m aware of the risks. But I understand if you find them sufficient deterrent.”

“You’re the one who’s worried about her freedom. I can’t think of a worse hell than being mated to someone I could not have.”

She flinched a little, drawing in on herself. Backing away. “I don’t need you to fret over my heart or be gentle with my ego. If you don’t wish to bed me, for whatever reason, simply say so.”

The words startled him. “You think I’m talking about
you
?”

“I don’t know
what
you’re doing.” It was very close to a snarl, the anger not strong enough to hide the sting of rejection in her eyes. “I’m practically naked in front of you and all you care to do is talk. Even a virgin can tell that you don’t want to touch me. At least be man enough to admit it.”

“You’re mistaken.” Ennon kept a tight leash on his temper, and he gave her plenty of time to escape before dragging her close to his body, to his arousal. “Say it once more—that I don’t want to touch you. Say it with my cock pressed against your belly.”

Her breath came in short little hitches, and her head fell back, her eyes fluttering shut. “Your body wants me. It makes me float. I want to know how high I can fly.”

So many years at war had given him a highly developed sense for danger, and that’s exactly what she was. “I accept your proposition.”

Small but strong fingers curled around his arms. She stroked him, exploring, and eased her hands up. Her nails pricked his skin, and a sleepy smile curved her lips. “Play with me, Ennon. I don’t know the rules, but I’ve always been a most attentive student.”

“I believe it.” She might fumble, but she was eager, and that was the most pleasurable thing of all. “Would you like to kiss me?”

She was fast, limber. One hop and she had those legs wrapped around his hips, her arms around his neck. Her lips found his chin first, fluttering tiny little kisses along his jaw, her nose nuzzling his cheek. Then she licked the corner of his mouth and all but purred. “I like how you taste.”

Or perhaps she wouldn’t fumble at all. His cock throbbed as he wrapped his fingers around her bare thighs and captured her mouth, urging her lips apart.
Heaven.
He sipped her and hungered for more, insane when his mouth had not yet left hers.

Eager though her body was, her kiss was awkward. Curious. She licked at his tongue and shivered, a reaction impossible to miss with her body pressed to his. So easy to read her responses in her unashamed moans and eager squirming—easier when her shift rode up and her naked cunt pressed to his abdomen.

He groaned. She was wet already, and his head spun. He wanted to spill her to the ground, but he hadn’t laid out bedrolls or even started a fire. “Kisri.”

This time her nails dug into his shoulders. “What?”

He marveled at how calm he managed to sound. “We need to set up camp before we do this.”

Dark eyes studied him, the slightest hint of suspicion there, as if she anticipated a trick. “And then you will take me?”

If he tried to walk away, his traitorous body would root him to the spot. “Yes, I will take you.
My
way.”

“Your way?”

“My way.” He set her down and turned to his packs. She’d never known a man’s touch, much less the sweet way one could lose control. She would spit and scratch, fight the pleasure until she was ready to give in.

The thought weakened his knees, and he moved faster, hurriedly readying their camp.

Chapter Three

By the time Ennon had built a fire and smoothed out their bedrolls, Kisri was sure she would break under the heavy weight of anticipation that made every moment last twice as long as the one before.

She felt edgy. Hungry. She was not so innocent that she did not know her own body and what touches could give it pleasure, but the memory of her own fingers seemed to pale when compared to Ennon’s mouth over hers.

If he walked away now, she might weep from the throbbing frustration.

He stared down at the fire long after it had caught. “Are you hungry?”

“Yes.” Not for food, and he was a fool if he believed she was. “I’m starving. I’m
hurting
.”

Ennon rose to his full height and held out his hand. “Come here.”

If she’d moved any faster, she might have tumbled to the ground in a graceless heap. Her fingers closed around his, and even that touch felt like holding her hand too close to a flame.

He placed her hand on his chest and slipped one arm around her waist. “We start with more kissing.”

Impatience bubbled up, and she curled her fingers, scoring his chest lightly in warning. “You won’t stop again, will you?”

“No.” A simple denial, echoed by the hot shadows in his eyes. “I won’t stop this time, not until you’ve found your pleasure.”

Not his pleasure, she noticed, but there was time enough to convince him otherwise. To satisfy her curiosity about the heavy erection that had pressed against her stomach, hard and unyielding. “Should I kiss you?”

He tilted her head back. “Open your mouth.” As soon as she obeyed, he pressed his parted lips to hers. His tongue glided over hers, hot and wicked.

This was what she wanted. Needed, even. She spread her fingers wide on his chest and appreciated the way he was built. Strong. Solid. He would be a fitting tutor in the arts of pleasure, because she would never need to be less than she was with him.

His hand dropped to the curve of her ass, and he squeezed gently. “Take it off. The shift.”

She could number the times she’d been naked in front of a grown man on one hand. Her hands shook as she eased the flimsy fabric up, over her head, and let it fall to the ground.

Ennon groaned. “You’re a vision, Kisri. Beautiful.”

“Thank you.” A soft breeze tickled her skin and stirred her hair. Her nipples were painfully tight, aching in a way that would be soothed by nothing except him. “Will you touch me?”

He made a quiet noise and took her hands, tugged her down to the wide bed he’d laid near the fire. “Lie back and let me look at you.”

Slow. Deliberate. She’d expected passion and hasty touches, something so wild she could lose herself. Stretching out before him felt like an offering, one she had to choose.

She did, leaning back on her elbows with her fingers fisted around the blanket. Pressing her legs together didn’t help relieve the ache, but it gave her the tiniest shred of modesty. “I think I should be able to look at you too.”

Ennon knelt beside her and drew one finger slowly down her middle, from the hollow of her throat to her navel. “You wish me naked, do you?”

“Of course.” The heat from her cheeks wasn’t from the fire. “Or are you so well-endowed you fear my virgin nerves will shatter and I’ll flee into the woods?”

He laughed. “If you fled, I would have to chase you.” He drew his tunic over his head before reaching for her again, this time to stroke the pad of his thumb over her hipbone.

His broad chest was strongly muscled, which she’d known well enough from being crushed against it. The knowledge didn’t make studying the wide set of his shoulders and the spattering of scars any less arousing.

Not as arousing as the thought of being chased. She arched a little, then rolled to her hands and knees. “Maybe I will run, if you plan to tease me endlessly.”

He moved quickly, his hands steely strong as he flipped her onto her back once more. One hand snuck beneath her to soften her fall to the bedroll, and Ennon leaned over her. “We do this my way, Kisri. And my way is slow.”

She sucked in a breath and curled her hands around his shoulders. Hot skin, and a tension that reassured her, oddly. He desired her. Holding himself apart was a challenge. It made it easier to agree. “Slowly, then.”

“Yes.” His teeth scraped her collarbone, and his mouth brushed the curve of her breast, just above her nipple. Her body jerked without her permission, and she arched up and clenched her hands in his hair.

Ennon whispered a pleased noise and slid his mouth, wet and hungry, down to cover her nipple. His hand tickled over the tops of her thighs, parted them and eased between.

She twisted and gasped in a breath as instinct tried to drive her legs together again. Only the need to feel him kept her from squirming away. She moaned and pulled at his hair. “Ennon…”

His fingers parted her, and one teased inside her. “Yes?”

It felt good but passive. She didn’t want to lie quietly—she wanted to explore him. “When can I touch you?”

He exhaled a shaky breath. “That depends. What do you want to do?”

“Everything.” She relaxed one hand, slipped it down his chest and pressed her fingers against the hard length of his erection.

His teeth ground together as he thrust against her touch. “If you rush me, I’ll have no choice but to drive you mad quickly.” His finger pressed deeper and curled, rubbing inside her.

It was good at first, and then it was incredible, lights behind her eyes and fire in her veins, but no release. Just sparking pleasure that lifted her hips and made her moan and clutch at him, willing to do anything if only he wouldn’t stop.

He didn’t, but his mouth dropped close to her ear. “I will take you once you’ve let go, Kisri. Once you come for me.”

Oh, how she wanted to. She fairly trembled with the need, but the closer she got, the more the lioness inside scratched and snarled.
Too easy,
the wildness whispered as Kisri dragged her nails down his back with a frustrated moan.
He should fight for us.

His snarl echoed the one inside her. “You’re holding back.”

Kisri hissed out a breath, and the lioness overtook her for a moment. Wild instinct made her twist away from Ennon, though the last thing she wanted to do was escape. She ended up on her knees, trembling with indecision—and mortification. “I don’t know how to do this,” she whispered, hiding her face with her hands. “I’m an ignorant, foolish girl.”

“No.” He touched her back in slow, soothing strokes. “Instinct is pushing you to tease me. To make me work hard for the reward of your pleasure.”

It seemed distinctly self-defeating when pleasure would be
her
reward too, but it echoed the wariness inside her. Even now, when the callused fingers tracing her spine made her want to arch into him, that voice urged her to rock to her feet and run, to see if he’d give chase.

She didn’t have to obey, but she couldn’t quite relax, either. “Will it stop?”

“Do you want it to, or do you want to give in?”

“Both.” Rubbing her thighs together only accentuated the throbbing ache. She’d been so close to bliss—to relief—and now she felt feverish and unsettled. “I want to run. But I need you so badly…and I’m afraid you won’t want to catch me.”

She felt the sudden scrape of teeth across her lower back. “Run, Kisri. Set her free and see what happens.”

Glee. She came to her feet as a human and stayed that way. He’d found a beautiful clearing to camp in, one of the many fields of wild, soft grass that separated the border between plains and forest. The ground was soft enough under her bare feet, and she wanted to feel his skin when he caught her.

If he caught her.

A tiny thread of doubt lingered, even with his confident challenge in her ears. She launched herself toward the distant tree line and wondered if he was still by the fire, laughing at her for thinking she was worth the trouble of the hunt. A clumsy girl who wouldn’t know how to please him, whose cousin would be furious—

Ennon’s hands closed on her hips, and they tumbled to the ground. She landed on his chest and barely had time to take a breath before he claimed her mouth, took it for his own.

This wasn’t the gentle kiss of before, or even the hungry one. Ennon was a warrior—the First Warlord of the plains—and he knew how to stake his claim. His teeth bit into her lip and his tongue stroked at hers until she moaned and squirmed.

After several dizzying seconds, he dropped her to her knees on the soft grass. “Will you accept me, Kisri?”

She was panting, and every breath she dragged in brought with it the heady scent of him, of leather and lion and sweat. He was so aroused that his erection strained his trousers, and a wicked urge seized her. So she leaned forward and nuzzled her cheek against the hard ridge of flesh. “If you can handle me.”

Ennon wound his hands into her unbound hair and held her in place for just a heartbeat. “You like to tease.”

“Yes,” she admitted readily. “How will you know where the boundaries lie if you never test them?”

“Some of us simply know.” His fingers tightened. “I know how far I can push you. Where the line between pleasure and pain lies.”