Hers to Claim (11 page)

Adonia’s frustration at the lack of
tangible information grew apace with her fatigue until she simply folded her arms in front of her, laid her head on the table and closed her eyes. “I can’t do this anymore,” she mumbled. She heard Hel stand and then felt his arms lift her up and cradle her. Adonia wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled into his chest. She never opened her eyes. She simply didn’t care what he did with her.

“There is a bed in the other room.
I am taking it,” Hel stated. “We are safe with A’rken. He has some sort of unnatural protection. No need to keep a guard. Rest well. It will be the last time we are safe until we reach Nyth Uchel. We leave at mid-day.”

“Should we do something about the old man?”
Adonia registered Steffania’s voice, but lost track of any answer as words became incomprehensible sounds.

The next thing she was aware of was lying on a bed, fully clothed
while Hel removed her boots and socks and then pulled off her damp trousers. She heard his muttered, “This is wet, too,” and felt her tunic being lifted over her head. In only her half-shift and underpants, she shivered and curled into herself. He lay next to her then covered them both with a quantity of blankets. She turned and sought his warmth and he pulled her into him. His bare skin warmed her better than a hot fire. She tucked her frozen feet against his calves.
Goddess the warmth!
Wrapped in his embrace, warm, dry, fed, she knew no more.

~~~

A gentle hand sliding under her shift roused her from sleep.
No! I don’t want to wake up. I am warm and this bed is comfortable.
She cracked open her eyes. In the dim light, she made out Hel’s intent gaze mere inches from her face. His hand cupped her breast and massaged while his thumb passed repeatedly over the tip of her left nipple. Her back arched involuntarily and she drew a sharp breath. His sober expression remained but his eyes flared with satisfaction at her response. Hel leaned forward and placed warm nibbles and lingering kisses behind her jaw, her ear and the side of her neck while his talented fingers tickled and tweaked her nipple into thrumming sensitivity. She lay as one dead, too relaxed and contented to move. As if borne by her bloodstream, bubbles of sensation flowed throughout her and popped with bursts of exquisite pleasure. A low moan of gratification escaped her parted lips. The stubble on his cheek scratched as he nuzzled into the space where her shoulder met her neck—even that felt good.

The windowless room they occupied gave no clue as to the hour.
“Mmm, must we rise?”

At her whisper
, Hel stopped nibbling. “No, it’s still early.” His low voice vibrated in her chest and his hot breath tickled her ear. He resumed his kisses. His hand left her breast to attack the buttons on the placket of her shift. In no more than an instant, he had them undone.

How does he do that? His skill with fastenings is un
natural.
Adonia was too sleep-drugged to move. Hel pulled her shift open and slid down to cover a nipple with his hot mouth while his hand resumed its previous play. She sank her fingers into his thick hair and grabbed.

“
Ah!” Adonia bit her lower lip to stifle her cry before it reached full strength.

“
Hush,” he murmured. “The others still sleep.”

His
tongue swept over her nipple. His lip-covered teeth gently rolled it and then he sucked with a low groan of enjoyment. His right hand continued its teasing of her other breast, and she arched greedily into the feeling. The fingers kneading his scalp became more frantic as sensation piled upon sensation. She blamed the days of teasing denial for the speed with which Hel aroused her.

“Mmm,” she
choked. “Good, good.”

With a last strong pull, he came off her breast and captured her mouth.
His lips seduced and inflamed with feather-light glances. As he slid half of his heavy body on top of her, Adonia could feel the hard press of his erection against her thigh. She opened her mouth to welcome him and his tongue met hers in an aggressive invasion. A warm cushion of mobile lips pressed against hers in a firm surge and retreat of light nips and sucks.

His left arm swept
behind her, and he cupped the back of her head in his broad hand while his right played a tickle of touch down her bare abdomen. Her skin shivered like a horse shaking off a fly. Wide-splayed fingers raked through the glossy black curls on her pubic mound. Four fingers curved over to play between her legs, then cupped her. He trapped her clit between two long fingers and began a gentle circling press. Had he moved down another inch, he would have found her ready for more than fingers.

Goddess, this man
knows his way around women.
Adonia moaned into his mouth. Steffania called it when she said Verdantian noblemen trained for proficiency in sexual arousal. Adonia would gladly be his practice partner if he would let her come occasionally.

The hand cupping her head twisted and
trapped her hair, tugging her scalp just short of painful, anchoring her head to the bed, preventing any evasive movement. His kisses deepened. The hand working below her waist circled, stoking the fire burning in her inner core. The flesh between her legs grew fatter, and she could hear the liquid click as Hel worked her. The hand circling stopped for a brief moment, and two fingers ran down the center of her lower lips to the entrance of her pussy. The fingers cupped, capturing the lubrication her body produced and stroked up in a feathering circle. Meanwhile, the assault on her mouth never stopped.

She groaned into Hel’s mouth and then arched into him as the fingering of her clit brought her
closer and closer to that long-denied orgasm.

Hel pulled away from her mouth just long enough to center himself between her legs.
Both hands reached for her panties and made short work of pulling them off. He flipped her left leg over his hip, then returned to kisses that consumed her soul. The heavy weight of his thick shaft slid between her lower lips, slipping through her folds to her clit. He settled into place, bearing most of his weight on his elbows and began a circling motion with his narrow hips. His hands captured her wrists and hair. Adonia rocked her pelvis back and forth, trying to capture the head of his elusive organ with the entrance of her channel. She didn’t realize she did so until Hel’s weighty hand on her hip stopped her.

His mouth left hers for a brief moment.
“No.”

His kisses
resumed. The pelvis-to-pelvis massage continued. He stopped and threw his head back with a low curse. He reached down and took himself in hand, centered on her opening and pulsed gently, entering her in tiny increments before pulling away. Each pulse sent him further and further into her but never more than an inch or two with each thrust. The opening to her inner sheath convulsed around him as if lips on a mouth closing to retain a favored treat. She knew better than to try to deepen his penetration, no matter how she craved it. He would simply stop her. The tight pull on her hair allowed her head no movement, and she melted into the sensations assaulting her. She’d never had a lover who controlled her so completely. With another insight into parts of her she’d never known, Adonia realized that she reveled in the feeling.

Hel surged into her and she
whimpered at the painful stretch. He stilled, fully hilted. She felt overfull, stuffed beyond comfort, but the painful bite promised to morph into pleasure beyond her experience.

Hel groaned as if in pain
, and his tortured gaze found hers. “Do. I. Hurt. You?”

“No.
” Yes, he did hurt her, but she would say nothing that might make him stop. A sudden thought burst through her flaring arousal. “The crystals. We need the crystals.”

His breathing labored
, and he hung his head almost touching, forehead to forehead. “No crystals. This time—for you.” His breath hit her face in bursts as he spoke. He half groaned and half laughed. “And me.” Then his mouth descended on hers once more, preventing speech, preventing thought.

He lay on her fully
and propped his upper torso on his elbows. Again, his hands captured her wrists and held them over her head, catching her hair into his grasp. The hurtful stretch in her hot core morphed to impossible sensitivity. As he slid in and out slowly, Hel contracted his abdomen and rolled his hips, stroking her clit with his thick shaft each time he drove in and pulled out. Adonia had never felt anything approaching these sensations.

“Your legs,” Hel grunted. “Around my waist.”

She promptly obeyed and found the stimulation to her clit increased, as did the pace Hel set for his sliding penetration. She whimpered at the mounting pressure within.

“Close?” Hel gasped.

She managed a nod.
Oh, Goddess, if he stops now...

A low animal growl came from deep in his throat and his
rhythmic breach of her lost cadence. The bed shook as he pounded into her. That was all it took. Her keens became a hoarse scream that echoed off the stone walls of the room as ecstasy detonated within her core. Her climax swept through her body in ever-expanding ripples. When she ran out of air, her cry died—but her mouth gaped in a silent scream for long moments. Her back arched into Hel. The impossible sensations stiffened her fingers into rigid spikes, straightened her legs and pointed her toes. She couldn’t say how much time elapsed before the ecstasy released her. Awareness returned when she sucked in a gasp of air and crumpled into the bedding.

Hel collapsed on her, partially su
pporting himself. His forehead rested on hers. His hot gasps washed her face. He stayed there until his breathing became normal. Adonia felt the warm slide of fluid from her pussy and then the retreat of his cock. His hands unclasped their tight grip on her wrists and hair. He opened his eyes and smiled.

“Good?”

The relaxed glory of his features silenced her. He gazed at her with such emotion, such warmth, as if she was more to him than just a “healer.” She examined him with wonder. “I…I…I...” She stopped and shook her head. She lacked words. His smile stretched to a grin and pleased amusement shone from his eyes. Her smile turned brilliant and warm laughter rolled from her spontaneously. “Beyond good,” she whispered. Hel favored her with another smile and a kiss then rolled to his side and pulled her to him.

“Go back to sleep, Nia. I’ll wake you when we need to rise.”

She glowed inwardly with happiness, snugged herself into Hel’s big body—and passed out.

~~~

Hel listened to Nia’s breathing become deep and regular. He felt her body relax against his. When he had penetrated her hot depths, the stunning explosion of pleasure ambushed him, and banished his exhaustion. His brain would not stop reliving the tight grip of her pussy—so tight he wondered for an instant if he had just taken a virgin. But, that couldn’t be true. At her age—he put her in her mid to late twenties—Adonia would have had lovers, wouldn’t she?
One more mystery to add to the pile.

Initially, he had roused Nia to satisfy his desire
s, yes, but more to give
her
pleasure. The beast attack had probably erased his words from her mind, but the night before he had said he’d make it up to her when he’d teased her and left her frustrated—again. He hadn’t planned on the experience overwhelming
him
, however.
That
hadn’t happened in…well…he’d been very young. He’d count the minutes until he could take her again.

Somehow,
Nia lifted the bleak sense of mindless duty off his shoulders. He could lose himself in her. She lightened him. For the first time in what seemed forever, he imagined another life for himself with a different wife—not the frozen, formal submission of the marital partner he’d had before—and please, Goddess, children. Nia’s warm surrender was the furthest thing from the frigid duty Athena performed for protection and procreation. But standing in the way of his longing for her warmth was the evil that plagued his beloved Great Mother.

He’d thought the corruption contained on his mountain. The spread of the dark
pestilence disturbed and horrified him, and his growing sense of unease gnawed at his gut. Nia stirred and with a kitten-like purr, rooted into him.
Ah, Nia.
Hel banished his troublesome thoughts and allowed the pleasure of holding his woman to carry him into sleep.