Raven (Kindred #1) (9 page)

Something was rubbing her arm. Her sleep was so good that she didn’t want to wake from it. Zara had been dreaming that Raven would come to her, that he would protect her. But that wasn’t why she was so determined to remain in slumber. The dream took her back to their kiss. In her dream, instead of running away from her, he’d stayed and touched her, kissed her, taken her to her room, and proved his skills extended beyond combat.

“Raven,” she breathed out as she let her eyes open to slits. “Raven?”

A hand on her arm made her reach out. When her fingers curled around the thickness of his upper arm, his identity became clear. The force of memory made her eyes and mouth open in a snap.

Pouncing up into a seated position, she dug her fingers deep into him and snatched his other bicep when she saw he was crouched beside her couch.

“Raven! Oh my God, you came. You actually came!” Throwing her arms around him, she squeezed him for a second before easing back. “Thank you, God, what made you come?”

He was glaring, but she sensed his expression was one of surprise not concern. “The light in the window,” he said. “I took it as a sign you wanted to talk.”

Zara didn’t like to confess her vulnerabilities to anyone, so she averted her eyes. “I got scared,” she confessed in a whisper.

Irritation erased every confusion from his attitude. “You think that gives you the fucking right to summon me?”

Her fleeting smile probably suggested her appreciation. “You’re still watching me.” She sighed at the comfort that came with that knowledge. He hadn’t abandoned her, even though she’d said he would get nothing from her. Impressed by the strength of his character, she was astonished that he valued her safety. No man from her past had put her before personal gain.

His stoic form barely moved but she registered the increasing heat in his gaze and that hunger cleared her earlier turmoil and replaced it with a completely new priority. Raven was here. She was safe. She could relax. No one would be able to hurt her now. Emotion shifted to explore the lust he examined her with and Zara was ready to do whatever it took to quench her own desire.

Raven was her deepest, darkest fantasy. A man so powerful and proficient, it wasn’t just his prowess that made her heart beat faster and her core swell. Staring into him, she parted her lips and begged without words for an explanation as to why he was still stalking her.

“Not for the mission,” he said.

Squeezing her grip, she tested the strength of his unyielding muscles with her delicate fingers. “If it’s not for the job, then why are you watching me?”

His eyes narrowed further and in the oppression of this night, a frisson of fervor stoked her gut and made her breasts grow heavy. “You know damn well why,” he snapped.

The force of his kiss thrust her head back, but that harsh passion made her feel desirable, like he was starving for her and unable to control himself. Making a man like Raven lose control gave her power. He was her guard and her savior. Somehow, he managed to lift her up, and made her feel significant—able to take on the world.

He scooped a hand under her skull to compel her mouth to his, giving him leave to direct her head and her mouth to where he wanted them. The size of his hand encompassed all of her skull and with every move, his fingers tangled deeper in her locks. The sting of snagged strands and the mesh of matted hair were contrasted by the scorching desperation of his mouth and the assuredness of his tongue.

Balling his hand into a fist, he used his grip on her hair and the arm he clamped around her ribs to haul her onto her feet. Without breaking their kiss, he dipped down to snag her thigh with one hand and while hooking it high over his hip, he kept the momentum of their kiss going.

Caught up in the passion of their oral joining, she only knew they were in the bedroom when he sat on the bed, then lay down, urging her body forward to double it over his.

Kissing him was the most overwhelming experience of her life. The bulk of his tongue was in proportion to the girth of his body. Yet, as bold as he was, there was something consoling about his assertive mouth tasting hers.

The heady merging of their saliva was like swopping a reefer mid-draw or using the same coke straw. Without combining the drugs they each possessed, they couldn’t reach the optimum high. For the first time, they experienced the right dosage for maximum impact and she felt like she’d been sucker punched by Venus.

Spanking her ass with a loud thwack, he yanked his hand out of her hair. “Grab a rubber,” he said, nodding toward the nightstand without breaking eye contact.

God, he was arrogant. A couple of kisses and he thought they were going to have sex. But that steadfast confidence heightened her desire until she felt overwhelmed by his testosterone, which dragged her further under his spell. As she looked through the night into his fathomless eyes, she knew she was going to do it. This man was thrilling. He was dangerous and mysterious, and completely wrong for her in every way. But, damn, he made her feel good.

This was a man who a woman wouldn’t get a chance with often. He was so capable and skilled in arts that before him, she had no idea were out there. Raven lived life on the edge, in the night, and she had a sense that he needed the light in her as much as she desired his darkness. Throwing reason and rationale out of their bed, she sat up to straddle him and leaned back to reach the nightstand. It was further away than she’d realized but his long fingers came around her hips and he steadied her weight, which let her push further.

If he let her go now, she would fall and probably break her neck, but being in his grip gave her stability. Opening the drawer, she reached beyond her vibrator for the box of condoms. Flicking open the top, she shook them out and grabbed the first one that came to hand.

When she whirled around and held it up in triumph, the first thing he did was whip her top up over her head and while she was still static and upright, he took the peak of one breast into his mouth. The sensation of his warm, wet tongue made her belly spasm and a whimper of ecstasy accompanied her weak arm falling across his shoulders.

His vast mouth could pamper a lot of her flesh. He breathed her into him while massaging her other breast with a rough hand and little finesse. Splaying his fingers, he spanned more of her and squeezed tighter.

Sucking her breast, he flickered his tongue over the apex then withdrew, making a pop sound when his mouth left her skin. Blowing on the damp mound he’d just tasted, barbs of aching awareness further stimulated her nipple and the direct link it had to the center of her.

He was doing all the work and she had no control here. But when she tried to regain her senses to be more active in their union, she failed. Raven enclosed her in his embrace and flipped her onto her back so that he could spoil her other breast with the same treatment as the first, and she was lost to a hedonistic oblivion of bliss.

Raven pulled back, and she basked in the anticipation of his next maneuver. Her expectation was excited further when she heard the rattle of his belt buckle. When it quieted, he made no effort to remove her skirt and she was about to question whether she should shed it when he knelt up between her thighs and peeled off his tee shirt. Eager to view his impressive body, she scarcely noticed him snagging the condom from her limp fingers and thoughts of her own clothes evaporated.

Much to her disappointment, it was too dark in the room for her to pick out the specifics of his form beyond the odd ridge of a muscle. Her curious fingers extended en-route to his abs, but he got hold of them and pushed them to the headboard when he stretched out over her.

Swooping down to kiss her again, he sucked her bottom lip then sent his mouth on an expedition across her jaw to her neck. The tightness in her electrified abdomen made her body curl up around his. She couldn’t open her eyes, couldn’t breathe, because his mouth moved so slowly, yet it managed to enliven all of her at the same time.

His hand took all of her breast at once, and he sucked her opposite nipple. His caresses ceased to be at all gentle and he pulled back to clasp each of her knees. Pushing them down, she whimpered at the burn in her thighs, and was mortified to see him fixate on what he’d exposed beneath her skirt.

With extreme control, he lowered himself at this new angle. Just before he disappeared beneath her skirt, he glanced up at her and winked, and then his mouth was on her. She still wore her panties, but that meant nothing to him. He rubbed his tongue the length of her, and fingered aside her underwear to suck the flesh he’d exposed.

With a flick of his tongue, she experienced the first frisson of orgasm. “Don’t,” she managed to say, fumbling her fingers into his hair.

But he didn’t stop. He flicked her again and again, increasing his pace until she slammed the soles of her feet to the bed and bucked up into his mouth. Her dream had aroused her fantasy into reality, and try as she might, she couldn’t stop herself from falling into a second climax when his tongue kept sliding over her, awakening each new crevice it found.

“Raven,” she murmured.

Clenching her fingers in his hair, she closed her thighs around his head, but he got hold of her limbs, pried them apart enough to surge up, and looked her in the eye. “You know that’s not my real name, right?” he asked, lowering his attention to her mouth as she nodded. “You still want to do this?”

Names seemed irrelevant when the prospect of annihilation hung on the horizon. Her thoughts were obscured by the hormones deluging her brain, but she managed to nod.

Kissing the corner of her mouth, he closed his forearms around her head. She was grateful of their support so she let the weight of her cheek rest against one before he sought out her mouth.

After fondling each breast, his hand slid down the center of her belly. He unzipped her skirt and gave it a shove. Complying with the unspoken request, she wriggled out of the garment and was about to reach for her panty elastic when he got there first. With one hand, he tore the delicate fabric away from her skin and flung it aside.

Shocked by this primal act, she pulled her head aside to break their kiss, but he wasn’t perturbed by her surprise. “I destroy anything that gets in the way of what I want,” he said and because he had one forearm still coiled around her head, he used his fingertips on her cheekbone to push her face and bring their mouths back together.

A man as bold as this was redoubtable and with that knowledge came heightened arousal. Arcing her spine, she pushed upward to flatten her torso on his. In return, he overpowered her with his magnificent weight, dropping it onto her and pressing her into the mattress. That was when she first felt the thick length of his dick forcing itself against the center of her body. Compelled against the soft, damp cushion she offered, it bedded its imposing length in her folds.

Tilting her pelvis to rub him deeper against her, she coated his silken rod with her natural lubricant. And because she was still sensitive from his oral gift, she whimpered and mewed each time she wriggled and accelerated her body’s production of the slick juice that would ease his awaited invasion.

When he elevated his hips, she tried to object to the disentanglement. But he once again pressured the pads of his fingers onto her cheekbone and rolled her head to welcome his kiss. He loved to kiss. She could tell that by how long he spent trailing his tongue through each moist nook of her mouth. He pressed his tongue past her lips to let it massage its way forward only to retreat in a game of chase that made her tongue dart out to beckon him back inside.

His hips came down and she understood where he’d been when the latex encasing his member edged forward to seek her opening. He was leading with the pinnacle of his own pleasure and keen to meet his effort, she pushed up to welcome him. Her mouth opened in a desperate gasp when he slid himself all the way home with one sure jolting thrust.

In her previous experience of this initial moment of penetration with a man it had never occurred to her how delighted she was with her decision to be intimate with him. Right now, gratification was all she could feel. The intensity of her raw nerve-endings kept her wriggling, bucking, and gasping around the size of him conquering her.

Dragging his delectable member back, he plunged forward and seemed pleased with how she arched up to meet him. “You’re a naughty girl, aren’t you?” he said with a wry twist to his lips.

Her mouth opened wide when he thrust into her again. He kept on moving, making her gasp in every breath and meet every thrust. He remained above her, high enough that he could stare down and observe every subtlety of her expression as he moved inside her.

Extending her fingers on his pec, she curled her nails into him and he slowed to grab one of her hands and pull it up to his mouth. Smacking a kiss onto her palm, he pushed her hand back to his chest.

“You keep on doing that, baby,” he said and began to charge back into her again, picking up the speed of his incursion. He dipped to suck her lower lip and when he rose, she was gratified to see the darkness in his eyes fixated on her again. “You leave your mark.”

As if what he was doing wasn’t enough, the snarl in his voice pushed her into a fierce climax that made her stab all of her nails into his shoulders and scream out. She had never screamed with such wild abandon during sex before. This was an outlet for the powerful force exploding in her gut, in her heart and in her head. All of her atoms wanted more of this, more of him, and when he kept pushing into her, she hauled her legs higher until they locked around his torso.