The Hellion (The Lady Knights of Barony Book One ) (11 page)

The smell of flowers lingered in the room from whatever she’d bathed with and aside from his rapid breath, there wasn’t a sound to be heard. Julian could feel her anticipation, knew that she was waiting for him to take advantage of what she was offering. She had no idea he’d come here expressly for this purpose. He hadn’t realized it until just then. Oh, he’d known it was a possibility, maybe even an inevitability, but until he’d seen her waiting for him on the bed, he hadn’t been sure. Now he was more sure of this than he’d ever been about anything else.

“Ava,” he choked as he took another step into the room. He swallowed past the lump in his throat and tried not to say anything stupid. “I was hoping that we could talk.”

“We will,” she promised as she scooted toward the edge of the bed. Julian found that he was unable to move as she inched toward him, the sheet still clutched protectively over her body. “But there’s something else Julian; something I need you to do for me.”

Anything,
he wanted to tell her. Whatever she wanted could be hers right then if only she’d ask it of him.

“Yes?” he asked instead. He was acutely aware of the throbbing of his pulse, moving throughout his body in a thrilling sensation that ended at his fingertips.

“I’ve never done this before,” she said, her eyes wide with honesty at her revelation. “I never really wanted to…until I met you.”

Her words both stunned and pleased him. That he would be the first to ever touch her sent a surge of primitive satisfaction through him. This way, at least for one night, he could pretend she was really and truly his.

“Ava,” he said again. It was all he was capable of.

She shook her head. “No,” she said, her voice wavering slightly as she dropped the bed sheet to the floor. “No words now. After.”

Hunger knifed through him and struck his core with a deadly blow. She was just as he’d imagined her, every inch of sun-kissed skin stretched over soft feminine curves and lean muscle. The sculpted shoulders and arms told of her skill with an axe and bow, while the rounded globes of her breasts and tapered waist oozed feminine sexuality. The powerful contours of her thighs beneath the soft flare of hips created the sculpture that was her body, fulfilling his every expectation and reaching far beyond. But it was her eyes, the turbulent mix of seduction and uncertainty coupled with the imperious tilt to her chin that struck him the hardest.

Blood surged through his body and he regained control of his limbs. He used them to cross the room and pull her nude body up against him.

This time his voice was steady and sure, a deep guttural cry as he lowered his head to kiss her and groaned, “Ava.”

Ava felt the last shred of uncertainty falling away as Julian swept her up into his arms. She expected to feel crushed, suffocated by his embrace, yet the massive arms that came around her were anything but confining. He held her firmly, yet with a laxness that told her it was all right to change her mind if she wanted to. As he kissed her his lips were soft and undemanding, telling her that she had every right to push him away if she so wished.

She pulled her mouth from his and stared up into eyes that burned brightly with desire. She lifted her hands and gripped his face gently, cupping his strong jaw tenderly.

“I need this,” she told him, urging him to believe her and cast away all doubt. She
hungered him fully, without reservations and she didn’t want either of them to regret it. She begged him with her eyes to know that this was what she truly desired. “Please Julian.”

He nodded, his eyes never leaving hers as he reached down to take her in his arms again. Julian scooped her up against his chest and walked over to the narrow bed, laying her down onto the remaining sheet.

“Don’t move,” he said. He turned away from the bed to retrieve the candle he’d dropped on his way in. After few seconds of fumbling, he replaced the old candle stump and flooded the room with a pale yellow glow. He smiled, genuinely and without a trace of sarcasm for the first time since they’d met and paused at the foot of the bed.

Julian stood there a moment, his eyes roaming over the hills and valleys of her form. As terrified as she’d been of his scrutiny that night by the pond, she was now without fear. As he watched her, she felt genuinely at one with her own body for the first time in her life. Her awareness of herself was stronger now than ever before. It seemed that every nerve ending was tingling with sensation and he hadn’t even touched her yet.

She watched with wide eyes as he removed his boots before pulling his half-buttoned shirt over his head. Fully clothed, Julian was both intimidating and thrilling to look at; unclothed, he was a work of art. Her eyes traced the ripples and lines of his impossibly wide chest and bulging arms shamelessly. They raked over the contours of his flat and defined stomach greedily.

He approached the bed that was almost too narrow to accommodate his large frame and lowered himself over her with ease. As his body made contact with hers, she sighed and closed her eyes, delighting in the feel of his hot skin against hers. His lips brushed over her forehead, down over her eyelids and cheekbones before finding her mouth, sending a rush of longing spreading across her skin. Her hands came up to tangle in his hair as he lifted her chin for a taste of her throat. As his fingers began their exploration, they paused at a small, puckered white scar on her collarbone.

He tore his lips away from her throat and gazed down at the scar marring her skin. “A knife wound?”

She nodded, tracing her fingertip over his as he caressed the scar just inches above her left breast. “I took a dagger to the shoulder in a skirmish with some rebels during the war.”

He pressed his lips to the scar before caressing it with his velvety tongue. “I hope you killed the bastard.”

She smiled. “His dagger found my shoulder, my sword found his belly.”

Julian smiled against her skin and kissed the scar again. “My little hellcat.”

He lifted his head to look at her, gifting her with another one of his charming smiles. Now she was beginning to see the Julian Vincent that drew the ladies like bees to honey. The man’s smile was the epitome of the word magnetic. She reached up to run her finger over the small white scar marring his perfectly shaped upper lip.

“Is there a story behind this one?”

He took her slender finger into the warm recesses of his mouth and swirled his tongue around it seductively before answering. Ava was so delirious with pleasure she almost didn’t hear his answer.

“Life for a young boy with no one to care for him is full of dangers,” he said with a chuckle. “Surprisingly one of the greatest dangers is other young boys with no one to care for them. One of them did this to me in a fight over bread.”

“You poor things, you must have been so hungry.”

Julian shrugged. “It’s all in the past Ava. I’m much more interested in the present,” he said with a sigh as he lowered his head to the valley between her breasts.

Then he really began to love her. Ava gave herself over to him, surrendering to the heat of his mouth and his hands on her body. He touched her, cupping her breasts and teasing their aching tips, running his hands along her ribs and waist before sliding over the flare of her hips and curves of her legs. Then there were his lips. They seemed to be everywhere at once, going where his hands had been and beyond. When his tongue caressed the underside of one breast, she gasped in delight. When it swirled over the hardening peak, she cried out in uncontrollable abandon.

All the while, the friction of his body against hers tormented. The aching slide of skin over skin, flesh against flesh, caused the ache in her to grow. The quivering need blossomed and unfurled within her until it had consumed her completely.

She touched him unrestrained, tracing her fingertips over the tightly corded muscles in his back as he moved over her, placing her hands against the smooth width of his chest. He groaned when she kissed him and exulted when her lips opened to taste his skin. Julian stroked her hair as she explored him, urging her on with `q

words that set her ears on fire and brought a rush of heat to her loins. When her fingers came to rest on the button at the front of his trousers, he grasped her wrist gently and shook his head.

“Not yet,” he said gently.

He captured both her hands in one of his large ones and lifted them over her head, leaving her completely at his mercy. He traced a path over one breast and down over her stomach before coming to rest there. His thigh nudged her legs apart as his free hand found its way between them. She couldn’t help but lower her gaze to watch, following the path of his fingers until they were parting the delicate folds of her most intimate place. The glide of his fingertips over her sensitized flesh elicited shivers up and down her spine that intensified into full-fledged tremors as he stroked and dipped his finger into her slickened channel.

Her gasp of pleasure was trapped between their lips as he bent to kiss her, never ceasing the exquisite torment of stroking fingers over wet, trembling flesh. She squirmed and writhed against his hold, begging him for more wordlessly, mindless with pleasure and starving
for the rest. His grip only tightened, keeping her at his mercy as he dragged out his torture, bringing her to the quivering spasms of completion with only the touch his hand. Ava crested the edge and soared on wings of euphoria as the thundering climax rushed through her like a great crashing wave.

Her limbs went limp as Julian released her hands. He stroked damp tendrils of hair back from her face and kissed her forehead as he waited for her to come out of her languid trance. When her heart slowed and her thoughts cleared, she opened her eyes to find him watching her intently, the corners of his mouth turned up into a small smile.

“Is my captor amused?” she teased with a grin.

“Merely wondering why I didn’t use that method to subdue you in the first place,” he said with a chuckle.
“Would have saved me the trouble of tying you up.”

Ava tried to fix her face into a stern mask of disapproval but failed. Her lips split into a wide grin as she gave up the effort. “I...”

Before she could speak another word, Julian’s lips were on hers again, stirring the embers of her yearning until she was enveloped in flames once more. Her eyes widened as she looked up at him, amazed that he was able to invoke such a heated response from her mere moments after her explosive ending.

He smiled as his hands roamed her body once more. “Oh you and I have hardly even begun,” he said, his voice still raspy and thick with need.

Julian came over her again, this time allowing her to unbutton his trousers and free the rest of his body to her view. Between powerful thighs, the impossibly thick root of his masculinity rose proudly, filling her with both trepidation and need.

Never one to let fear possess her for long, Ava pushed aside her concerns over his size and the impending pain and reached out to touch him. Her hands wrapped around him and she closed her eyes, memorizing the feel of both his power and his vulnerability resting in her palm. Soft skin covered steel and the promise of pleasure beyond what she’d already experienced.

Her name rolled from his lips as her hands glided over him, stroking, cupping, learning his every inch. Then she was grasping his hips and pulling him forward, guiding him toward her entrance and demanding the completion she so desperately wanted. His earlier ministrations had left her ready for the oncoming entrance, although she knew that the pain was unavoidable.

As he filled her slowly, she buried her face in his neck and held on to his shoulders for dear life.

“Open for me and try to relax sweetheart,” he whispered against her ear, rustling the soft strands of hair at the nape of her neck. Julian cradled her in his arms as if she were the most precious thing in the world and kissed her shoulder. He gently nudged her legs apart further. “I’ll try to make this as easy for you as possible.”

Julian’s voice was so heavy with intensity and control that Ava knew she couldn’t make him wait a second later. He was paused at the barrier of her virginity, his breath caught in his lungs, his every muscle taut and straining as he fought to keep from tearing her in two.

“I’m a warrior, Julian,” she said with false confidence as she forced away the tension in her legs and back. She felt herself stretching to accommodate him with every slow breath she took. Ava flexed her hips against his in encouragement. “I can take the pain. Just please…make love to me.”

And he did.

He went slowly, allowing her to grow accustomed to his invasion of her body. An invasion it truly was, Ava realized as pain melted away into crashing waves of pleasure beyond everything that had come before it. His possession of her moved beyond that of the physical and as she pressed her lips to his, feeling the movement of him within the far reaches of her body, it passed over into the realm of the spiritual. Their connection became visceral, until she could feel him in every crevice of her body. As he threw back his head and cried out in his final release, she felt him as deeply as the darkest corners of her heart.

It was then that she knew she would never be the same again.

Julian glanced down at Ava’s sleeping form and brushed a stray lock of wavy hair back from her face. Her lips were still slightly swollen and tinged pink from his kisses and her skin held the glow of a woman very recently and thoroughly loved. He stroked her cheek with his knuckles and kissed her before forcing himself from the bed.