The Marked Ones (25 page)

‘Damn straight I am.’ Tristan’s face lifted to hers, his expression primal.‘And you’re going to thank me when I succeed.’ He grabbed the cuff of her faded denim shorts and dropped to tug them down her legs. When he straightened, he grabbed her leg, hooked it over his hip, and rammed his hardness against her, pinning her to the wall with it, rolling his hips into her, making her grunt when her nerve endings burst heatedly in response. A moan escaped her as the pleasure overwhelmed her. It was so raw, so intimate, and unlike anything she’d ever experienced.

‘That’s it princess.’ Tristan ran his tongue against her lower lip before darting it possessively into her mouth in a move so wild and erotic that she could have blacked out from the violence of her answering desire. ‘You know what you want me to do to you.’ He pulled back, cupping her jaw, forcing her to look into his lustful eyes. ‘You gave him your heart-and it’ll take time for me to earn that if we’re not together. But give me your body now, and I will fuck him out of your mind.’

Ivyanne squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to sob as her emotions got the better of her. She did care for Tristan, and she wanted him desperately-but she’d safeguarded her body for Lincoln all of these years and the acknowledgement that someone else might claim it was only just sinking in.

‘You have to let me in Ivyanne. Forget the traditions. Forget the rules. The best thing you can do for your people is to surrender your grip on him and reach for me.’ Tristan’s eyes pleaded with her, his vulnerability etched on every part of his handsome face.

In that moment, Ivyanne knew that if one tear trickled down her face for Lincoln Grey-Tristan would leave and never come back. He was asking her to not only open a door for him, but to lock one on Lincoln- forever.

‘I want to! But I don’t know if I’m ready!’ She confessed, though she grunted when his hand slipped between their bodies and glanced off the source of her agony.

‘Then let’s find out.’ Tristan’s fingers eased down the front of her sex, and then curled up, penetrating her. He groaned and Ivyanne gasped, clenching her muscles around the invasion stilling his movement but not releasing it.

‘Mmm...you are ready.’ Tristan breathed. ‘Can you feel how slick you are? Can you feel yourself opening for me?’

‘Oh..god!’ Ivyanne cried out. She wanted to force her thighs closed around his hand but the hip locked around his waist prevented that. Before she could cry out that she needed more, his fingers slipped free of her and pressed against the apex of her sex and rubbed her in soft, sensual circles.

‘You’re so soft, so delicate.’ Tristan was practically panting, his pupils dilating. His fingers slipped inside her again. ‘And so damn wet.’  When she buried her face in his shoulder and moaned Tristan’s chin nudged her cheek. ‘Don’t look away. Kiss me while I explore you. I need to know that you’re in this moment with me.’

Ivyanne glanced up at his slightly parted,
perfect lips, and something inside her boiled over. Lincoln was her past, but Tristan was begging to be her future, and her remaining reservations were evaporating at his skillful hands. She wanted the escape he offered desperately.

‘I’m
with you Tristan,’ she breathed, before pressing her lips to his forcefully and sliding her tongue into his mouth, mimicking the slow but deliberate way he was penetrating her. He moaned into her mouth and returned the kiss hungrily. Emboldened by his reaction to her, Ivyanne slid her hand down his thigh and sought out the erection straining against his briefs. Her hand closed around him and she squeezed. ‘Feel me with you.’

A shudder ran through Tristan and his fingers flexed, deepening his gentle assault. Ivyanne moaned as her body spasmed in response to his touch, tightening her grip on his considerable girth and feeling a thrill when he thickened against her palm. She wanted to make him lose control, the way he was railroading her, but it was hard to focus when he was exciting her so. She didn’t think her body would have reacted to the internal stimulation like this, but once again, he was proving that his gift for bringing women pleasure was a lot more than hearsay. Instead of granting her release with every caress, like when she’d ground herself against his hips, he was
building the tension within her, making her throb and ache in a way that was both physically frustrating and heavenly. Every stroke sent the pleasure echoing through her like a shockwave. Her skin tingled, craving his caress, her breasts felt heavy and tense, and her lips slanted hungrily against his, needing just more.

Tristan’s breathing grew heavier, and his returning kiss became frenzied. His body was tight with tension, and Ivyanne’s heartbeat quickened to know that
her body was the source of his excitement. She moved her hand to slip into the waistband of his briefs but he growled lightly and shifted his grip to her backside, hoisting her feet from the ground. He whirled around, distracting her with a kiss so expertly that she didn’t realize they were falling back until she was sinking into the bedspread beneath him. His hips locked against hers and ground against her, striking her exterior point of pleasure expertly, time and time again. One of his arms had looped around her to cushion her fall, but the other hand slipped into her bathing suit and cupped her buttocks greedily, holding her in place.

‘I could easily take you right now,’ Tristan’s Californian drawl was composed as he suckled on her earlobe. ‘But if this my only shot, I better prove myself more than
once, huh?’

And then, as if the friction of him against her pelvis wasn’t enough, Ivyanne felt the hand cupping her backside shift, until one of his long fingers curled around and breached her sex from beneath. As he rocked against her, he forced her down on his hand, stimulating her in the same place from two different angles, simultaneously. Her body jerked like a marionette being worked by a master.

‘Ah! Tristan…!’ There was no time for a climax to build-her body tensed, pleasure rolled over her and the next thing she knew, she was a passenger inside her own convulsing body. ‘Oh...god!’ She caught two fistfuls of her own hair and dragged it down over her face, needing something to muffle her cries.

‘And that’s just the start,’ Tristan sounded smug, satisfied and awed all at once. His hand slipped out of her bikini and caught her thigh, twisting her over onto her stomach in one fluid motion. Her sudden vulnerability snapped her back to reality and she tensed to push herself back up, but then his hands were at her hip again and she yelped when she felt him tug hard on the waistband of her skimpy bathers. There was a tearing sound and then the ruined fabric was ripped free of her. Her heart skipped a terrified beat.

‘Damn that’s a nice angle.’ Tristan’s hot hand cupped her pulsing sex and then trailed up to her ass. ‘But I’ll save that for later. I need you to be looking into my eyes when I take you the first time.’

Ivyanne’s muscles tensed in apprehension but then he caught her off guard by flipping her onto her back again. She was fighting for breath and half out of her wits when her eyes locked on his, and his hungry gaze from the foot of the bed unnerved her further. He looked like a wild animal about to devour startled prey. Feeling exposed, both by her orgasm and her nakedness, one of her hands dropped to cover her eyes, while the other slanted across her breasts. She rested her hand at the base of her throat and gasped for breath as she lifted her knees and squeezed them together. What had she agreed to? What was to become of her?

‘Don’t you dare cover that delicious body.’ Tristan’s voice was low, and commanding. ‘I want to map out what I’m going to do to you before I’m too hard to think straight.’

His words made her flush, and being told what she had to do made it that much easier to go through with it. Ivyanne swallowed and hesitantly uncovered her eyes, deciding he was right-she did need to look him in the eye when he took her-she’d been waiting a lifetime for the chance for someone to purge Lincoln Grey from her mind, and the way her heart was pounding told her that this was the
only one she was going to get.

25.

After she let the arm shielding her face fall back on the bedspread, above her head, Ivyanne paused to get her mind around what she was about to do. She drank in the sight of Tristan in the muted light, feeling her breath catch at his beauty, and even though her body was still trembling in the afterglow of her orgasm, she was aware that her skin continued to hum with the need to be caressed.

Curiosity peaked by this discovery, she took her time removing her other arm, trailing her fingertips across her nipples, which hardened responsively. Tristan watched her, clearly transfixed, and when she lifted the second arm above her head to rest on the blanket of her hair, he inhaled sharply, his gaze coming back to hers, burning with more intensity then the sunset filtering through the windows.

‘Beautiful. Perfect.’ Tristan’s hands reached forward, cupped her upraised knees, and slowly, purposefully, spread them open. ‘You need me to be the first man to make love to you Ivyanne.No man on this planet would have lasted beyond this point.’ He stroked her intimately. ‘If I make it ten seconds I’ll be stunned.’

Ivyanne’s breathing hitched. His unabashed stare directly into the most guarded part of her made her face flush with embarrassment. ‘Tristan…’ she whimpered, not actually sure what she was pleading for. There was more honesty in his intimate appraisal then other men would dare admit to, and as humiliating as it was, her heart was racing because of it. Every man she’d ever met had tried to put her on a pedestal, whereas Tristan’s intention was to bend her over it. And after twenty eight years of enforced celibacy, his blatant sexuality was slicing through her reservations and provoking the siren at her core.

He looked up, smiling knowingly, and closed her knees. ‘Don’t fret, my sweet, modest princess…’ He stepped back, hooking his thumbs under the waistband of his black briefs and winking at her. ‘I’ll be just as vulnerable in a moment.’ He stepped back and turned to the side slightly, and for a brief moment, Ivyanne saw him hesitate. Then he bent, shoving his briefs down.

The sight of flawless, naked back had Ivyanne rising to attention. When he bent to kick the briefs free with one powerful, golden leg, his backside flexed and Ivyanne’s instant excitement was translated through her body by the seizing of every, delicious muscle in her centre. But when Tristan turned to face her, smiling shyly, cupping himself with one hand, the breath left Ivyanne’s lungs in a rush.

‘That is not going to….’ She spluttered, skittering back on the bed, gaping at his erection in a mixture of horror and fascination. It was twice the size she’d imagined! ‘It couldn’t possibly…’

‘Well…not at
first....’ Smiling at her distress, Tristan caught her left ankle with his free hand and yanked her back into position on the edge of the bed. He removed his hand from his shaft and pressed the pad of his thumb to her clitoris, circling it again, but Ivyanne was so distracted by the sight of him springing free that she felt numb to his touch. ‘But you’ll be surprised by how accommodating your body will become to mine.’ He slipped his finger between her legs again. ‘You’re already on your way.’

Ivyanne moaned and her head fell back as Tristan stoked the coals of the fire he’d left simmering. Then his lips were on her neck and quickly descending towards her breasts and Ivyanne was so captivated by the sensation that she didn’t realize how he’d manipulated himself between her upraised knees until she felt his erection nudge her in place of his hand. She gasped and tried to sit up, to hold him off until she’d prepared herself, but her actions inadvertently caused her to push again him.

‘Oh!’ She cried, surprised by how soft and warm he felt against her.

Tristan’s breath hissed out between his teeth, and his head snapped up. ‘That is
not the way to escape, Ivyanne,’ he reprimanded her, curving his hand around the back of her neck and forcing her to meet his gaze. ‘And I don’t think you really want to, do you?’

Ivyanne bit her lip, staring at him. His eyes were alight, and
she’d done that to him. Could she really extinguish it, because she was scared to take a step that was inevitable anyway?

‘What are you afraid of beautiful?’ He whispered, his previously carnal expression softened with concern. ‘The pain? I’ll be fleeting, I swear that to you.’

She was afraid of the pain-it took a lot to hurt a mermaid, but this was one scenario where she knew that her own strength would work against her. But it wasn’t the main problem. Ivyanne shook her head, feeling tears well in her eyes. This was such a momentous moment in her life...she needed to know that he was aware of that.

‘Hey.’

Ivyanne looked up timidly, afraid her sentimentality was going to leech the heat out of the moment.

‘It’s my first time too, in a way.’ Tristan whispered, his eyes shining. ‘I’ve never done this with someone I’ve loved before. I’ve never
been in love before. Until now.’

Ivyanne felt herself melt, partly because he’d read her mind and sensed her need to seek his sentimentality in a river of lust, and partly because his declaration made her heart flutter. But she retained enough skepticism to raise an eyebrow. He laughed a low, throaty laugh, shaking his head.

‘Don’t even act like that’s a line.’ He teased. ‘This Casanova has never had to extend his silver tongue beyond the word hi to get women under him before.’ He shoved her down lightly, and slid until his face was looming over hers, clasping her jaw in his hands. ‘I said I love you, and I fucking meant it.’ He brushed his lips against hers, ‘but if you don’t let me inside you soon I am going to stroke out and you’ll have to start your husband campaign all over again.’

Ivyanne was filled with a warmth that bubbled out of her in a laugh and had a soothing effect on the rest of her body. She hooked one leg around his waist, then reached down to caress his backside: ‘Well we can’t have
that. Bane and Ardhi don’t have an ass like this, and that’s really all I’m looking for in a king.’

‘Then hang onto me while I fill the position.’ With those words, Tristan’s ass flexed under her hand and he thrust his hips forward.

The pain was as startling as the crack of a whip. Ivyanne threw back her head to cry out but Tristan’s mouth captured her exclamation. He stilled, kissing her ardently, his hands catching hers as she lifted it to push him free, weaving his fingers between hers and slamming it down back on the bed as he grunted and thrust into her again.

Ivyanne’s entire body stiffened, and she was very aware that he was pinning her with all of his strength, his heart pounding against hers, his lips whispering soothing words she couldn’t make out against her own. The ache inside her was gone, replaced with a searing pain, and she felt a hot tear leak out of the corner of her eye.

Oh god this is too much! It felt like Tristan had invaded her, claiming so much space that there was no room left for her. Ivyanne was beside herself, straining to wriggle free long enough to gather her wits, but Tristan moved again and his moan of agony actually penetrated her hysteria.

She stilled, shocked when he tore his lips from hers, thrust his face into the bedspread beside her head and cursed a wicked exclamation. She felt power flutter inside her chest again and her body instinctively relaxed-for once, Tristan seemed more shocked than she! And then he moved again, but this time, he rolled his hips in a circular motion, and to Ivyanne’s surprise, the pain was less.

‘Oh god you feel incredible!’ Tristan yanked his head back up, staring down at her reverently ‘Are you okay?’

Ivyanne swallowed. ‘I couldn’t honestly tell you,’ she confessed, breathless, fascinated by his ragged breathing and enraptured expression. ‘It’s-it’s not like before. It hurts...I’m sorry.’

‘Oh, hon….you’ll adjust to me soon, and it’ll be better than before. I promise. In fact, I’ll get right on it….’ Tristan bent his head and suckled on one of her nipples briefly, and Ivyanne moaned. Then, he palmed the breast with his hand, catching the aureole between the base of two fingers and tugging gently. The action made her writhe, and when he dropped his lips to attend to the other breast while he continued to toy with the first, it send a ripple of energy down her body, making her sex clench around him.

‘Ugh,’ Tristan grunted and moved his hips again, only this time he retreated afterwards, granting her a brief reprieve, before thrusting into her twice more, the first shallow, the second deep. Ivyanne gasped and this time, the pleasure swept upwards, but before she could get a handle on it, Tristan shifted his weight, pushing up her knees and thrust forward again. Once, twice-the third stroke sliding in so deeply that Ivyanne inhaled sharply while Tristan let out a triumphant cry: ‘Yes! Oh
hell yes!’

His exclamation made her shiver with satisfaction. The pain of his possession was dissipating rapidly and she shifted her weight the next time he delved into her, meeting his thrust, and was rewarded with a jerk of pleasure deep inside her.

‘Oh..damn!’ Tristan pushed himself to a straddle position, cupped her buttocks and then pulled her hips against him, rocking into her, shortening his thrusts so that there was no retreat, only a pulse. Ivyanne saw his abdomen flex and release, rippling with his every movement and suddenly, she was all too aware that the sweet tension she’d thought he’d already dealt with was awakening inside her once more. She reached out, stroking the muscles that held her captivated, and Tristan grinned down at her.

‘Warming up to me baby?’ He panted, gaze lustful and knowing.

Heating up was more like it, but instead of answering with words, she let her legs fall open more and swiveled her hips, curious to see if the place inside her making her breathless was something he could hit directly. Tristan groaned, pinning her down with one hand on the plane of her chest, his eyes dark.

‘Easy sweetheart,’ he whispered, not slowing his pace. ‘You don’t want me to give more than you can take yet.’

Ivyanne’s alarm was instantaneous. ‘You’re not all the way…?’ When he shook his head, a shudder ran through Ivyanne, and she couldn’t help but glance down. To her shock, she saw that his fist was clenched around his shaft, preventing his entire length from slipping into he as he rhythmically rocked.

‘Oh my god!’ And yet even as the exclamation left her, the sight of him impaling her made the pulse between her legs a throb. He was just so
hot. And his movements were coaxing her pleasure steadily to the surface once more. She wanted to please him, but how could she when he was sparing her? She threw her head back, covered her eyes and whispered: ‘Do it. Go deeper!’

Tristan’s momentum slowed. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes…’ His stillness was frustrating to her, so she circled her hips again, eliciting a groan from him. ‘Please Tristan…’ the plea was surprising to even her own ears. ‘You keep getting so close but-’

‘Mmm….’ Tristan chuckled, moving her hand so that she could see him grinning down at her. ‘I know what’s troubling you... I can’t believe you’re there already though!’

Ivyanne cocked her hips against his and smiled. ‘And here I was thinking you knew the effect you have on women.’ She reached out and stroked his lower lip. ‘Apparently, you don’t know the half of it.’

‘No,
you only know half of it.’ He suckled on her finger before grinning. ‘But if you say you’re ready for the other half…’ He released himself, pushed one of her knees down so that it was flat against the mattress, and then rocked slightly, slowly shifting the angle of his entry. He connected with some wall inside her, and the hiss of satisfaction that escaped her was drowned out by his guttural moan. When he repeated the action, Ivyanne’s fingers clenched around the bedspread.

‘That’s it!’ She panted, lifting her hips to meet his, seeing stars in her vision. ‘There. Oh god
there!’

‘
Here?’ Tristan grunted, striking again, and Ivyanne’s muscles relaxed instead of clenching, welcoming the sensation.

‘Yes!’ She grasped his backside and steered him back, faster, growing frustrated again as what had been too much became not enough. ‘More!
Harder!’

Tristan growled and thrust so deeply that Ivyanne almost levitated off the bed. ‘Damn you’re getting so wet again. My beautiful, soon to be
very satisfied siren…’ Tristan’s hands swept over her breasts, more violently this time, and it was a pain she welcomed, as it only stirred her more.

‘Tristan!’ Ivyanne raked her nails up his back, arching into him, and he clutched her shoulder blades, supporting her weight so he could feed himself into her, never once missing the mark. She closed her eyes and took what he was giving until the desire to impale herself further had her rocking up into a sitting position. There was wonder in his syrup-colored eyes when she met his gaze and looped her arms around his shoulders.

‘You’re amazing,’ he gasped, running his hands down her waist.

‘And
you’re underrated.’ Ivyanne whispered, before catching his mouth in a frenzied kiss.

⁓

Tristan had never been so out of his mind with excitement with a woman as he was with Ivyanne. And not just once. Every time she moaned, every time her slick, tight sex quivered around him, it felt like the first time. Sex, he realized, had been nothing without intimacy. Her trust in him, her descent into the depths of insatiability under his guiding hands was the hottest thing he’d ever experienced. And sliding in between her delicate folds had damn near undone him. Only her cry of pain had anchored him, reminded him of what he had to prove. She’d given him something significant, and he had to make it the best decision of her life.