Embrace Me at Dawn

Page 20

Bloody hell, why was she fighting herself? No more. She refused to keep on. Consequences be damned.

Anka took those last two steps, peeling the tank top off her body and throwing it across the room. Lucan took in her lacy bra and all her pale skin with hot eyes. He sucked in a breath, then wrapped an arm around her, yanking her against him. She hissed as their bare skin met with an electric tingle that shuddered down her spine.

Tossing her head back, she stared into those blue eyes of his, always so expressive and tender—except now. Desire pounded her from that gaze, unrelenting. An answering hunger consumed her and made everything between her legs throb.

He tugged on her braid until he positioned her face directly under his, her lips inches away. “Last chance. You want to stop?”

Did she want to let Lucan go? Did she want to keep giving Mathias power over her life?

“No.”

She raised up on her toes again and slammed her lips over his. With a groan, he opened and took her mouth once more, eating at her like a starving man. He wound her braid around his fist with one hand. The other cupped her cheek. Both hands kept her exactly where he wanted her with no room to back away. As she curled her tongue around his in a frantic push, she assured him that she wasn’t going anywhere.

That’s all it took before he clawed her bra off, leaving her heavy breasts free, before he curled desperate fingers into the waistband of her pants and shoved. The leather was skin tight, unmoving. He growled into her mouth and snapped his fingers. Her pants were gone. So were his clothes.

He heaved her up and carried her to the thick mat across the room, then shoved her on her back, settling between her spread legs. He broke the kiss to stare into her eyes again. Checking on her? Wanting confirmation? She curled her fingers, rubbing her knuckles against his cheek. It felt good, like something she’d done a million times in her past life. But she wasn’t that woman anymore, and she didn’t want him gently now. She wanted him to take her. She wanted to close her eyes and pretend that she still belonged to him, that he was claiming her in the rough, primal way of a man in love, determined to possess his woman in every sense possible.

Anka gripped his shoulders and dug her nails into his skin until he stiffened. His eyes narrowed before a little smile floated across his mouth. Then he snapped again, and her arms were magically pinned to the mat above her head. She couldn’t move, couldn’t stop her breath from hitching as Lucan loomed closer, closer…

His lips met her neck, his tongue laving her collarbone, then his teeth nipped down to her breast. She arched up to him, and her nipple slid into his mouth. Even though he only sucked in the hard tip of her breast, it was like his hot embrace encompassed her entire body. Her breath caught, and she yanked against the invisible bonds, trying to pull her hands from the mat and slide them into his hair.

Lucan didn’t heed her struggles. Instead, he merely worked the nipple deep and slow, sucking, biting gently, and sending a million tingles scattering through her body, along with her logic.

His fingertips traced a line down her ribs, over her waist, down to her hip. She stiffened. Would he notice the edges of the scars there? Would he feel them?

“What’s wrong, love? You’ve gone tense.”

“Faster,” she demanded. She needed it. Her body burned for it. She didn’t want to deal with what he might find on her body now, only with the pleasure he drizzled over her like warm syrup with every single touch. “More.”

“It seems like I’ve waited a lifetime for this. I want to relish this and explore you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

He was going to treat her like a china doll again? Of course he was. That’s what he wanted. That’s what he’d always want.

“Let me up. Now!”

“Anka… Love, I simply want to be careful with you. You’ve been hurt.”

“And I’ve healed. I’m a woman, not a breakable trinket.”

He shook his head, jaw clenched. Was he beating himself up? Frustrated with her lack of ladylike behavior? Whatever. He released her with a sigh.

She was done trying to do and be someone she wasn’t. Now he was going to see the real her.

The moment her hands were free, she shoved at his shoulders, pushed him to his back, and straddled him, her thighs around his abdomen. She gripped his wrists and held them to the mat, then slid her hips down. Her wet folds spread down his abdomen until the thick jut of his cock speared her. Then his wide, blunt tip pierced her. His eyes widened as she shifted lower, lower, lower until she seated him completely inside her. She threw back her head and moaned at the blinding ecstasy of feeling Lucan filling her again.

He raised his hips to her with a deep groan. “Anka… God, yes!” His eyes drifted shut for a long moment, then flashed open as he gripped her tight. “Just like this. I’ve wanted you so badly.”

“I need this. Give it to me.”

With wild, almost frantic gyrations, she speared his hard cock inside her over and over, no rhythm, no technique, just feeling him as deep inside her as she could. He held back, passively allowing her this feral mating. He stretched her so perfectly. She’d been made for him. Having him deep inside her was like being home again. Sun and warmth and the sense of belonging she’d missed stole over her, and if she closed her eyes, she could almost believe that nothing terrible had ever happened between them.

As Lucan wrenched his hands free and wrapped them around her hips, he took control of her thrusts, his fingers pressing again over the scars that hadn’t been there before. The truth all came flooding back to her. But he didn’t stop or question or pause. Lucan simply spread his legs apart and pressed his hips up, pounding into her with sure, deep thrusts. His fingers bit into her skin as he controlled her body. She might have started this and she might be on top, but he took over so effortlessly and gave her every bit of his passion.

“You look incredible.” His gaze caressed her mouth, her tingling hard nipples, the long line of her torso and her bare folds. “Like every dream I’ve had for months.”

And with words like that, he was going to work his way back into her heart. If he’d ever left it. She couldn’t stand to be near him and yet sometimes she simply wanted to hear his voice so badly she wept… Nothing made sense anymore. The hurricane her emotions had become swept away her logic altogether.

Now, Lucan was her only anchor.

“Stop. Don’t say anything more.” Because if he did, she would only cry.

Lucan pulled her down until her chest rested against his and held her tight as he filled her in deep, sure strokes, slowly taking her apart as pleasure filled her with a glorious, tight tingle.