TheKingsLady (11 page)

“Fuck, yes like that,” Simon hissed out between clenched teeth, his hips moving in time to Darius’s mouth.

Simon let out a low moan of pleasure as Darius stroked his balls with his other hand while his mouth gained momentum on his cock. Darius knew by the shudder that ran through Simon he was close and wanted nothing more than to bring him to climax, to taste what others tasted. He felt Simon begin to pull away, his breathing a hissing rasp telling him how near he was. Darius dug his fingers into his hips, holding him still as he swallowed Simon’s length. He came with a curse, his back bowing with the intensity of his climax, pouring hot jets of cum down his throat. Salty and sweet, the taste of Simon was a honeyed drug and at that moment, he surrendered to the addiction.

Only after every bit of his friend’s passion was spent did he release him, shifting to his haunches as he grinned. “I have wanted to do that for days now.”

Simon barked out a laugh. “You could have let me know and saved me some frustration.”

Darius turned his attention to Rhea, who watched them both with glazed eyes. “I think we may have worn out our lovely guest.”

A slow seductive smile played on her lips as she looked at Darius. “Not by a long shot.”

With a slow sexy grin, Rhea stood and slowly moved into the bedroom, the sway to her hips an enticing invitation to join her.

Darius and Simon followed her to the bedroom where Rhea lay in the middle of the large sleigh bed dominating the room, a scarlet satin comforter the perfect backdrop to her smooth, pale skin, her dark hair spread out around her. Her stare caught and held Simon’s, a flash of painful longing darkened her eyes, then was gone so fast Darius wondered if he saw it at all.

“I want you still.” Rhea whispered so softly Darius didn’t know if he heard correctly. He slid a glance to Simon, who seemed transfixed by the woman before them, giving no indication of hearing her hushed words.

She held her arms out toward Simon and spread her legs wide to accommodate his body.

Darius couldn’t move, could barely breathe, his eyes riveted on the erotic scene playing out before him. Simon stood over her with one knee resting against the bed, his fingers moving in slow sensuous strokes over Rhea’s bare body. She arched her back, her breasts arching up, begging for attention. A soft moan filled the room as she opened her legs wider, giving Simon’s fingers easier access to her pussy. He bent his dark head and captured one nipple while he pushed one finger slowly into her, his thumb rubbing her clit in time to his thrusts. Rhea moaned louder, her hips moving to meet Simon’s hand as he moved to the other breast.

Darius moved to the other side of the bed and lay next to her, the erotic sight of Simon pleasuring her made his cock throb with desire. Leaning in low, he captured her lips, his tongue stroked against hers, drinking in her sweet taste. He broke the kiss, letting his lips trail across her jaw and down her neck to the hollow at the base of her throat and groaned as he felt her fingers tangle into his hair.

A gasp left his throat as he felt his cock encircled by a large hand, his hips jerked from Simon’s caress. His head thrown back, he closed his eyes and sank into the pure pleasure of Simon’s touch. A warm mouth replaced the hand and looked down to find Rhea taking him deep into her mouth. A low groan poured from his throat at the feel of her tongue stroking his length.

He watched as riveted by the sight of Simon’s positioning Rhea on her knees with one hand on her hip, he guided his cock into her with the other. With one powerful thrust, he buried himself into her wet pussy.

“Gods, you feel good, babe,” Simon groaned out.

Darius closed his eyes and let the sensations streaking through his veins take him. He concentrated on the sound of Simon’s ragged breathing as he picked up the pace of his thrusts. He felt Rhea’s small hands grip him at the base of his cock, pumping him in time to Simon’s thrusts, her tongue stroking the sensitive head as the pressure built in his spine, traveling down his legs and into his balls, making them draw up tight.

Rhea’s whimper grew into full throaty moans of pleasure, pushing him closer to climax. He heard Simon’s hoarse shout of release at the same time the pressure spiked through his cock, and he came in the sweet warm moist depths of her mouth.

“Come for us,” Darius husked, reaching beneath her, fingering her clit and bringing her to her orgasm a moment later.

They collapsed in a sated heap on the bed, their ragged breathing the only sound. The heady scent of sex filled the air, and Darius smiled at the deep-seated contentment he never thought to feel stole over him.

He could get used to this.

Those were his last thoughts before the vision hit, leaving him screaming as the darkness swallowed him whole.

* * * *

Arthur buried his anger as best he could as he led Gwen past Lancelot and Viviane with a slight nod goodnight and through the door leading to the beach. He should have expected her to try to escape, damn well knew better than to trust her to do what he asked.

Hadn’t that always been the problem?

She yanked her arm from his grasp, walking stiffly beside him. He could practically hear her thoughts cranking over in her head. And none of them would be pleasant by any stretch of the imagination.

They walked the small sandy path in silence. The sea air mixed with the scent of pine soothing his mind and cooled his anger. He always loved the sea, the crash of the waves, shifting sand forming the dunes into an ever-changing landscape subject to the whims of a fickle mistress. If he were born a different man without the heavy yoke of responsibility on his shoulders, he would have made his life on the sea. A simple fisherman making his livelihood from the ocean’s bounty, that life would have suited him.

Unfortunately, that was not to be, just as the woman walking beside him could never be his.

Gwen broke through his thoughts as the path leveled out onto the beach. “I am not a very welcomed guest here.”

It was a statement of fact not a question, and still he felt the need to buffer the harsh reaction her appearance brought out on his men.

“The past can be hard to overcome or forget.”

“And you, can you forgive?”

“There is nothing to forgive,” he pushed out of a throat dry as ash.

“Oh, I think you’re wrong there.”

He frowned down at her as she passed him, arms wrapped tightly around her waist. He followed her onto the beach, her words rolling through his head like the sound of the sea meeting land. Didn’t he forgive her? He would always remember her betrayal, kept away from relationships because of it.

He used his job as his armor and shield, keeping him from risking his heart. No he didn’t forgive her, he realized. Worse, he didn’t think he ever could. The thought bothered him more than he cared to admit.

Her voice carried to him on the wind, faint and wistful as a soft breeze. “I would never ask for forgiveness from you. What happened…what I did.”

He heard her ragged sigh as she straightened her shoulders and turned to face him. Her gaze was haunted.

“Those are things, which could never be absolved.”

“Yes, but they also can be learned from so it won’t happen again.” The words left him without a thought. Longing seared his heart, carrying with it an emotion he refused to name.

Gwen turned to face him, eyes wide with surprise. “So you don’t adhere to the old adage of history repeating itself?”

“There are always exceptions to the rule.”

“And am I an exception, Arthur?”

Her gaze threatened to pull him under, he could resist any woman but the one standing in front of him. She would always be the bane of his existence, the weak chink in his impenetrable armor.

He closed the distance between them, crushing her against him so tightly he could feel her rapid heartbeat. “You will always defy the rules, love,” he whispered against her cheek a brief moment before his lips claimed hers in a searing kiss.

And he knew with the clarity of hindsight he was in deep trouble.

Chapter Ten

Gwen’s world tilted under the onslaught of Arthur’s kiss. Her heart thundered in her ears. Her pulse skittered, sending a scalding wash of awareness through her. Helpless against the sheer force of her attraction, she allowed the passion to drive her, admitting, if only to herself, it would be alright to feel without being self-conscious about her many body flaws.

He deepened the kiss, his passion demanding she match his desire with each stroke of his tongue against hers. Passion coursed through her limbs, settling at the apex between her thighs with an almost painful throb. Her fingers speared into his thick hair on their own accord, reveling at the softness of the strands and the heady scent of bergamot and pine filling her lungs, his spicy taste in her mouth as he fed from her.

“I want you, Gwen. I can’t deny the truth or dismiss it any longer,” Arthur rasped out, his voice hoarse with need against her lips.

His words swirled around her, covering her in a flush of warmth before sinking into her brain and turning her into a puddle of goo. How could his admission have such an effect? With all she knew now, why would she even contemplate doing anything with him, the man who took her love and discarded it so ruthlessly? The man who put all others before her…yet, here she stood caught in the same persuasive spell as before. She was held fast by her traitorous body and the only man whose touch could make her forget self-preservation and logic.

“Come, there is a place I want you to see.” Arthur’s warm breath caressed the delicate shell of her ear, and she bit back a whimper as desire spiked through her body at the dark erotic note in his voice.

Goodbye logic and hello insanity.

She should have her head examined because she just got on the crazy train called hurt and devastation. She opened her mouth to tell him no, but words refused to emerge. Instead, she nodded in agreement.

A part of her wanted to kick her own ass, but the bigger part—the one that held her survival instinct’s hostage—urged her on. She knew she shouldn’t give him more weapons against her. He already held enough power over her.

His large hand devoured her much smaller one, calloused fingers threading with hers as he led her away from the beach and toward a thick copse of trees. Gwen could barely see the small trail within the deep inky shadows of the heavy foliage, tall trees blocking out any sign of the night sky overhead. Forced to follow, she did her best not to stumble over rocks, which occasionally littered the way. Arthur seemed to anticipate the rough areas, prepared to stop her fall and put her back on her feet before moving further into the woods.

The scent of evergreens, eucalyptus and rich earth filled the air, carrying with it a sense of peace. Their surroundings so still, as if the world held its breath in expectation. She allowed a questing tendril of her magic out, hesitantly touching the natural world around her.

A small gasp escaped her as the earth caressed her with welcoming energy. Arthur spared her a quizzical glance over his broad shoulder, but she shook her head, urging him to keep moving to…wherever he was so determined to take her.

Her magic faded away as Arthur stepped into a clearing and turned to watch her intently. She blinked in stunned disbelief at the lush beauty before her. Opened to the sky and illuminated by the crescent moon, the glen looked something out of a fairy tale complete with calming sound of rushing water flowing in a sparkling ribbon down a natural waterfall to cascade over pale smooth rocks, then disappeared into the thick foliage. If she strained she could hear the whisper of that water merging with the surging tide of the sea.

The thick grass she stood on caressed the soles of her sandals, soft and cool after the heat of the day. Moonlight touched the blades in shades of silver and deep blue-green. The brush surrounding the glade gave it a feeling of an isolated retreat.

“It’s so beautiful here.”

A soft smile formed on Arthur’s sensuous lips, and her pulse skittered like tires hitting black ice. The man was beyond handsome when he smiled, showing a flash of even white teeth and a dimple by his lush mouth. Those dark eyes flashed with pleasure and warmth she could feel against her skin.

“I come here to think or unwind. It’s a haven for me of sorts,” Arthur admitted.

And he shared this with her? Hope reared up in her and just as quickly she shoved it down again. She wouldn’t repeat the same mistakes from the past, a past which haunted her and destroyed many of those lives.

“I can see how. It’s so…comforting here, like being in a loving embrace, all safe and secure.” She shook her head at the romantic analogy, but it felt exactly that to her. “Why show this place to me?”

“Why not?”

“We don’t have the greatest track record between us. Nothing which would inspire trust or sharing, I guess I’m just curious.”

The smile disappeared from his lips, and she wanted to cry at its passing. Leave it to her to mess up a perfect moment.

“No we don’t,” he agreed. Those dark brown eyes seemed to burn a hole into her as they held her pinned to the spot. “But we are not those same people. We have different experiences, made different choices in our lives.”

Oh damn, hope struggled against the firm hold she had on it. She wanted so badly to be in his arms, pressed tightly against him. It became a palpable energy between them.