Ancient Ties (25 page)

Could he see how fast her pulse beat? How wet and swollen she was?

Janney watched it coming. Saw his finger dip in the honey, then travel to the tip of her breast. Even though she could see it happening, her moan surprised her. Warm, thick, soft, the honey just perched there until he leaned over and lightly licked.

Before she could think about it, he dipped his finger and smoothed honey on her lips.

“Don’t lick it off. That’s my job.” Marek brushed his cheek against hers and whispered in her ear, “I’m going to make you wild tonight.” His teeth delicately nipped her earlobe. “And I’m going to have fun.”

Janney moaned and just as her lips opened, he swooped down and thrust the honey and his tongue into her mouth. The sweetness of the flavor and of his kiss started all her muscles and

nerve endings to trembling. He pulled his tongue out, licked her lips, smacked his, and reached again for the honey. He grinned.

He was doing a lot of that, and didn’t he look gorgeous.

Two dips, two nipples. One had to sit unattended while he thoroughly, meticulously suckled the other clean. Then he attacked the unattended one. He alternated again and again, until he cupped both breasts and held them as closely together as possible to clean them with long sweeps of his tongue.

Janney tried not to writhe too much. Purposely holding herself so still just inflamed her more. She panted, growled deep in her throat. She threw her arms above her head needing to stretch out her taut stomach muscles.

“Stay like that, my love. I like the idea of your hands being inaccessible.”

Janney’s face flamed at the idea that brought. She hadn’t thought she would ever go in for bondage but if this would be the result, it might not be half bad.

Marek didn’t give Janney time to blink. He dipped and covered her nipples again. Licked them with wide long swipes of his tongue. Nibbling, muttering something about having to clean them up.

Janney didn’t know if her whole body was quaking or if it was just her insides. The warm, gooey honey, his rough tongue, the sometimes sharp bites, sent shocks right down to her toes.

Her shrieks, sobs, whimpers—she heard every one of them—

didn’t embarrass her as much as they would have a few centuries from now. Oh, God, he was trailing drips down to her stomach.

He sucked one out of her belly button. Her hips thrust up into his face. “Marek!”

“I can’t wait either,” Marek growled suddenly and smeared large dollops of the honey over her soft, passion-soaked tissues.

At the first touch of his lips on her clitoris, Janney moaned and fell back. “Oh, God, yes.” He nibbled, his tongue speared inside her. The things he was doing with his mouth. She writhed and shook her head, not knowing if she could stand it. “Nooo,”

she groaned.

“Mm hum.” He lifted his mouth. “Don’t you like this?” he purred.

“Yes,” she rasped.

“Then just enjoy it!”

“Unh.”

He suckled.

She shimmied.

He gripped her hips, held her steady. Wouldn’t let her go.

Oh, God, the first touch of his lips was like spikes to her brain.

Then he settled into a slow rhythm.

She gasped for breath. Dug her heels in. Her head rolled from side to side. She threw herself at his face.

He never varied his rhythm, damn him.

Her keening cries started low, stayed low, soft. Janney slid her fingers through the hair on his head.

Good God, he’s not going anywhere until I let him!

Then she felt the vibration. He was groaning, the hum adding to her pleasure. Janney jerked and writhed. Screamed God’s name. Screamed Marek’s name. The keening became louder, higher pitched.

Marek removed one hand from her hip and slid it up her body to grasp a nipple. Squeezed it, rolled it. Increased his rhythmic suckling.

“I’m gonna die! God, help me!”

He suckled hard. Pinched her nipple at the same time and used his masculine strength to hold her hips still with only one hand. Janney’s resulting shriek echoed around the room. She bucked and sobbed, grabbing for breath with burning lungs.

Marek rode her out. He didn’t want to let go. She didn’t need the honey to tempt him to her body. To have given her this pleasure satisfied him on so many levels. He had one more thing to do. He slid up her body, took her lips. They were sweet and salty, and lovely. Then he thrust into her passage. She was all soft and open. Lush and flooded with feminine cream. He knew

she could barely respond she was still weak and satisfied from her orgasm. So it was all for him, and it didn’t take him long to climax deep, deep inside her. “Gods…I love you.”

“You must have had a lot of practice to be so knowledgeable about women’s bodies,” she teased.

Appearing embarrassed, Marek seriously answered, “I traveled a lot. There would be women. Sometimes we would camp in one place for a while. I always tried to be kind. At times, I grew to care for a woman, but the army always moved on. It was what I wanted then. I’m sorry, Janney, that there have been so many.”

Janney caressed his face, studying it thoughtfully. “I can just imagine women watching you ride by and wanting you. I did the minute I saw you coming through that doorway. I thought you were a tour guide in costume, and even though I didn’t know what in the hell was going on, I wanted you. I still do.” Her hands smoothed over his body. She wanted to feel him on her palms, the textures, the wiry hairs of his legs, the smooth hardness of the muscles in his chest and shoulders, his smooth, firm butt. Everything. Everywhere on his body.

“You’ve been so brave, my love.”

The change of subject surprised her. “What do you mean?”

“You haven’t talked about your mother for a long time.

What’s her name?” He snuggled her against him, brushing his fingers along her arm.

“Oh.” That was the last thing she expected him to say. She had really tried not to think about her other life. Of course, she felt guilty about her mother, guilty that for long periods of time she forgot all about her.

Marek nudged. “Tell me about her.”

Janney took a shaky breath. She didn’t want to go down this path, but he cared enough to ask the questions. He deserved the answers. “Her name is Georgia.”

“What’s she like? Did you have a happy childhood?”

“Um…well…I suppose so.”

“You don’t sound so sure. What happened, sweetheart?” He kissed the top of her head in encouragement.

She didn’t want to go through this now but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad lying here safe and warm in his arms. Where should she start? “My father…um, died when I was twelve.” She rested her hand over his heart. Let the gentle rise and fall of his chest comfort her. “He was killed in a war.”

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“I’ve never wanted to know another soldier.” She kissed his side, then the floodgates opened. “He promised he’d be back, and he didn’t come back. It destroyed my mother. She was never the same.”

Marek tightened his arms around her, rocked her gently.

“She never moved on. Nothing could touch her, not even me.”

He lifted her clenched fist from his chest and entwined her fingers with his. “What did you do?”

“What could I do? I just kept going. Made my own life.” She felt her heart fluttering in her breast. These memories hurt.

Now she really had another life. One she never could have imagined. One she never would have wanted to miss.

“You said she’d be worried about you.”

“She worries about everything, yes, she’s probably frantic.

Who knows, though, if the same amount of time is passing in my world as is passing here.”

“I’m sorry about your father.”

“I loved him. When he was gone, I knew that nothing could ever be for certain. I made a mistake when I thought my marriage would last.”

“You hoped it would last. That’s not a mistake.”

Janney sighed.

“I’ll love you all my life, sweetheart.” He kept hold of her hand and brought it with as he tipped up her chin. “You believe that, don’t you?”

She felt like she was shivering from the inside out. Enclosed in his arms, she’d never been so safe, had never belonged to another person so completely. His eyes brimmed with love.

Marek looked down his nose at her, his lips slightly pursed.

“You do, don’t you?”

She searched his eyes and saw nothing but sincerity. “Yes, I do.”

Very late one night, after making sure that all the servants were asleep in their beds, Marek swept Janney into his arms and headed for the baths. He settled her waist deep into the warm water; her back snuggled up against his chest and between his knees as he sat behind her on a step.

It was a dreamscape, the air above them steamy. Soft candlelight threw flickering shadows. She’d had just enough wine to feel relaxed, loose. Janney never questioned Marek when it came to these sensual amusements. He always knew exactly what he was doing, and she always received the maximum pleasure from them. Sighing and purring like a cat, she stretched back arching her neck. His fingers caressed her, teasing and rolling her nipples as he brushed his lips over her neck and shoulder. With the combination of his hot breath bathing her skin and the water gently lapping around her body, she felt as if she was going further and further under in a trance.

A wonderful trance that made her feel safe and cared for—and loved. Ever since she’d fallen from her horse in the village, Marek had cosseted her, protected her. Responded to her every sexual whim and desire. It was wonderful to be the object of someone’s attention. Janney knew she loved this man and would do anything for him.

From her position lying back against his chest, in a hypnotized state, eyes narrowed, breathing shallow, she watched his hands slipping over and around her breasts. Her lips opened, tongue scraped her upper teeth. Janney hadn’t known before how much pleasure there could be in watching him squeeze and play with her. My God, he was the quintessential fantasy—

Richard Burton, Russell Crowe, Johnny Depp—in the flesh. She moaned and arched up into his hands. Even well acquainted with Marek’s lovemaking, she still marveled at what he could do to her body. Uncontrollably she stretched again; offering even more of herself, her arms crawled up and back to clutch the nape of his neck. “Ahhh, God.”

“Janney,” he ground out, his hot, wet tongue flicking into her ear.

The torture was delicious.

Marek slid a hand down her body. She cried out at the loss of pressure to her nipple, her head rolled from side to side in protest, then stopped when his fingers pressed between her legs.

“Ahh, God, yes.” She rocked her hips up and agreeably parted her thighs, settling back even further, if it was possible, into his embrace. A low, strangulated growl escaped her.
God, yes.
She had no shame where he was concerned. No games, no shyness.

Just out and out desire and need. How did he know so absolutely what pleased her?

Under the water, he fondled her, stroked her, sliding his fingers along both sides of her now swollen and vibrating nub, and circling around the entrance to her body. She had to bite her lower lip to keep her cries low, her throat aching with the frustration of holding them in. She was sure she didn’t want an audience.

“Let it go, Janney. I want to hear you,” he rumbled in her ear, his warm tongue spearing inside.

“Some…one…” she gasped, her scalp prickling in ecstasy.

“No one will come,” he assured her. “Except you.” He gently thrust his finger inside her.

Janney groaned then, loud and long.

Again and again. Over and over. Shivering and sobbing. Her squirming hips drew his fingers farther inside, and her body clasped him tightly. She felt his thick rigid erection pressed against her backside become harder every time she squirmed against him and hotter still at her every moan. Janney didn’t

think she could survive it one more minute and pulled away from him.

“What?” he complained.

“Marek.” Her sob became a growl. “I want you inside me.”

He blinked, his eyes glittering briefly before lowering his lids again with pleasure. Marek stepped down into the pool and lifted her up, his hands under her bottom. “Put your legs around me.”

The solid length of him slid inside, filling her up. Every long, thick inch. Her hot, slick muscles grabbed him, pulled him in, pulsated around him. Held him. Janney whimpered, her chin resting on his shoulder, mouth open in ecstasy. She tightened her legs around his waist. The water, warm and womblike, swirled gently around then. Their bodies were joined beneath the surface, and it was like their lower halves were invisible to the eye but not the touch.

Marek nudged her, began to withdraw, preparing to thrust.

“No,” she said thickly. “Don’t move.” Janney slid her arms over his shoulders, her breasts pressed flat to his chest, and pushed her fingers up into his hair. She bit into his shoulder, and forced her hips to be still. “I just want to feel you inside me. Feel the beat of your heart.” They couldn’t be closer. Their skin, their chests, their bellies slammed together. Their arms around each other. His body filling hers. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Oh, Marek. I love you.” Then she began moving, gently swaying against him.

He responded.

“No. Let me,” she whispered.

Janney perfected a slow, restrained rhythm grinding into him, grinding against the hair at the base of his penis. She gasped at the sensations—sensations of being open so completely to him, of feeling his body hair against her sensitive tissues, of being stretched so fully by him. She was lost in some private world.

Small movements, she wanted small movements. Inside she could feel her own pulsing, throbbing in tandem with his pulsing and throbbing.

His fingers flowed over her, around the connection of their bodies. So open to him, there was nothing that didn’t belong to him, no part of her that wasn’t owned by him.

Oh, yes.
He pressed and pulsated and tested everywhere.