Waking Eden (The Eden Series Book 3) (12 page)

She nodded, the movement as jerky and awkward as the rhythm of her heart.

“I want to hear it. Tell me you understand.”

“I get it,” she said quickly, trailing her fingertips up and over the defined ridges at his abdomen. “I’m not afraid.”
Liar.
“Teach me.”

He rested his forehead against hers. Their chests rose and fell in the same heavy rhythm for three or four breaths. And then he pulled away. A pillow levitated off her bed and plunked to the floor in front of her. “Get on your knees.”

Oh, boy. She’d never seen a man look that way, let alone aim such a hungry gaze at her. A cold shiver worked its way from her head to her toes. Her breasts grew heavy and tight, and her nipples ached. The sweetest flutter centered between her legs.

“Now, Trinity.” He stared her down, his muscled shoulders pushed back in a daunting pose, his erection a demanding presence behind his faded jeans.

She swallowed and kneeled.

“If you want to pleasure me, Sunshine, you’ll have to touch me.”

Right. Touch. That tiny detail she’d gone most of her life without. Damned if she wasn’t making up for it now.

The top button popped free and Trinity jerked back with a gasp. Dear Lord in heaven, didn’t the man own underwear?

Ramsay’s chuckle wrapped around her even as he stroked the back of her head. “Got a few more to go, and my cock would feel a whole lot better if you’d give it a little wiggle room.”

No blaming him on that count. She pulled the other buttons loose and his staff sprang free, hard and more than a little angry looking. She tugged the sides of his jeans, mindlessly shoving the fabric as he stepped out and kicked them away.

No hair. Wasn’t he supposed to have hair? Was that a Myren grooming thing or did they come that way? And what must he think of her? She wasn’t Rapunzel by any stretch, quite the opposite with what she called her landing strip, but he had nothing.

She looked up to find his silver gaze locked onto hers, tension making his cheeks and jawline more pronounced. “What do I do?”

His lips crooked in a ragged smile. “You touch me. How ever you want.”

Funny, it didn’t look up close like she’d thought it would. Hard, yes, but soft too. Carefully, she traced the stark ridge below the head.

His cock jerked and Ramsay hissed.

Trinity tried to snatch her hand back, but Ramsay caught it at the wrist.

“Sorry,” she said.

“Nothing to be sorry for. Best damn one-second touch of my life.” He guided her hand back to the base of his cock. “Wrap your hand around me.”

Wow. It really was soft. Sort of. In a pillow-topped concrete kind of way.

She squeezed and Ramsay flexed into her palm with a moan.

“I can feel your breath.” His gaze was locked on her, his eyelids languid and sexy while every other muscle in his torso seemed ready to snap. “It’s fucking hot as hell, and all I can think about is how much hotter it’ll feel when my cock’s inside your mouth.”

A tremor rattled through her, and her muscles did the most amazing Kegel demonstration of her life. Damn, but the man had a filthy mouth, and there wasn’t a single nerve in her body that didn’t approve. The realization knocked something loose in her psyche. Like her reservations had lost a foothold and another part of her stepped out of a cold dank cell into the bright sunshine for the first time.

She leaned in, never breaking eye contact, and flicked her tongue against his length.

He fisted her hair. “Fuck, yes. Scorching.” He nudged her closer, his free hand angling his cock toward her lips. “More.”

She closed her eyes and gave in, sliding her mouth along his shaft and licking the raised veins from base to tip until her tongue swiped through a bead of moisture at the head. Salty, but not unpleasant. Her eyes snapped open.

Power.

She was the one on her knees, Ramsay towering over her, but Trinity was the one in control. The one making the muscle at his jaw tick in an unsteady pattern. The one causing his hand to fist her hair and his quads to clench harder than steel.

And she wanted more.

She took him in her mouth in one swift move, her lips stretched in a pleasant discomfort around his girth, yet nowhere near taking all of it. Over and over she worked him, stroking the base of his cock while her tongue played along the hard ridge beneath his head.

Ramsay moaned, his muttered curses and ragged encouragements floating around her. His hips flexed into each bob of her head.

“Trinity.” He tugged her hair, his grip locked up tight at the roots. “Sunshine. You gotta stop. It’s your first time.”

She kept going, standing taller on her knees and angling to take more of him.

“Fuck.” No muttering that curse.

Good. She wanted him half as crazy as she felt. Half as undone. Out of control.

A low, feral growl radiated from him and out along her skin. “You want my cum, Trinity? You want me to lose control and spill in your mouth?”

Oh. My. God. Yes.
That was exactly what she wanted.

She moaned around his staff and hollowed her checks on an upstroke, sucking harder.

“You want that, then you’re going to come for me while you do it.” He gripped his cock at the base and pulled free of her mouth. “Sit back on your heels, knees wide. You want to use those pretty hands, then cup my balls.”

His gravelly voice vibrated across her skin, and she’d swear a cool gust of air rushed down her back and around her butt. She did as he asked, cupping the tight sack in one hand and bracing with the other at his hip.

“Smart call, hanging on.” He slicked his wet cockhead along her lower lip, coaxing her mouth open before sliding in. “If you thought undressing you with my mind was good, wait until you see what I can do with the elements.”

Another rush of air met her skin, this one finer than what she’d sensed seconds before and swirling around her spread thighs in a deliciously unnatural way. Her gaze snapped to his.

“Oh, yeah.” His wicked grin fired an urgent pulse between her legs, need knocked aside for something closer to primal demand. “Myren gifts have their benefits. Air isn’t an element to be discounted, is it?”

A sharp stream slipped between her wet folds and her whole body shuddered. Her hands at his hips and sack tightened.

Ramsay hissed. “Maybe you need something else. Something more tangible.”

Invisible fingers cupped her breasts, kneading the sensitive mounds and plucking her hard nipples. She moaned around his cock and took him deep, urging him on with a faster, frantic rhythm.

“My girl wants more.”

More. Yes. She didn’t dare stop, the need to take him as far as he’d catapulted her driving every hard pull against his flesh. She met his eyes instead, willing him to give her more. Begging without a word.

“Oh, Trinity.” He caressed her cheek. “Been alive six times as long as you, and I’ve never seen anything sexier than you right now.” A teasing touch brushed her mound. “Going to be even better when you come screaming around my dick.”

Contact. Slick, decadent contact. Invisible fingers sliding through her wetness. Circling her entrance, and playing with her clit.

He tugged her head back. “Look at me.”

Bright eyes bore down on her. Bold silver surrounded by an almost neon white. A wild animal sighting its prey. “You gonna get there with me?”

She tongued his shaft’s sensitive ridge in lieu of a nod and stroked the velvety underside of his balls with her fingers.

“Sweet. Fucking. Sunshine.” His hips surged forward and his cock jerked inside her mouth. Cum, warm and salty coated her tongue, and his nearly triumphant shout rang in her ears.

A sensation every bit as real as his fingers plunged inside her, hitting that perfect spot with a tantalizing scrape. Pressure pinched her swollen clit.

And she was gone.

Floating.

Riding each veiled thrust and bobbing her head to match the undulations of his hips. She was lost. Dazedly coasting down from the most erotic event of her life.

Ramsay’s big hand cupped the side of her face, pulling himself free of her swollen lips. “The Great One help me.” Strong arms wrapped around her, holding her nearly boneless body tight against warm hard muscle.

Safe. And so damned relaxed.

Her body jostled in his arms and the rustle of sheets and blankets screamed through the quiet. The dim light of her nightstand lamp disappeared from behind her closed eyes.

“I see my girl’s got a thing for catnaps after she gets off.”

Oh, shit. Her eyes snapped open, thirty pounds heavier than normal and damned hard to keep focused. “We didn’t finish.” She pushed against his chest and tried to sit up. “You were going to teach me—”

“I am teaching you.” He tugged the sheets up to cover her and rolled her on her side, facing away from him. “It’s not about a man getting his dick in you. It’s about feeling good and not being sorry about how that happens.” He curled in tight behind her. “Now let those pretty eyes of your close and go to sleep.”

So warm. Powerful and yet gentle at the same time. A girl could get comfortable with a long-term arrangement like this in short order. “Will you be here in the morning?”

Quiet settled in the darkness. His exotic, manly scent covered every inch of her, the taste of his climax still vaguely on her tongue. Sleep pulled her down, reality fading to ether.

“Yeah, Sunshine,” he said, his voice grated, yet strangely peaceful. “I’m not going anywhere.”

S
erena crept
down the servants’ staircase at the back of her family estate, the narrow passage dark save for the pale shaft of moonlight from the kitchen at the landing below.

Of all the nights for her father’s staff to be doggedly efficient. Normally they’d meander to their rooms or private homes within hours of cleaning up the evening meal. The one night she tried to sneak out, they up and decide to linger until nearly midnight. Another hour and she’d have had to delay her secret trip. She’d barely make it to Uther’s home in the Underlands and back before sunrise as it was, and she damned sure wanted time to read Uther the riot act for leaving her high and dry after her arrest.

Moonlight glowed pearlescent off the black stone countertops and lingering coals smoldered a warm orange in the wide fire oven along the far wall. She cut around the massive island at the center, headed toward the back door.

Sharp pain fired from her pinkie toe and all the way up her spine. Damn it all! She held her breath and mashed her lips together to stifle a scream. Stupid shadows. This was why she needed warriors. Someone better equipped to handle stealth and dirty deeds. The right skills and specialized training. Planning she could more than tackle. Masking and creeping around in the middle of the night, no.

She hobbled to the tall window overlooking the back gardens. No guards near the doors and none by the garden edge. At least Eryx’s henchmen hadn’t lingered with the same fortitude as her father’s servants.

The iron door latch snitched beneath her hand.

Her father’s voice cut through the darkness. “I’d thought you were smarter than that.”

Serena whirled and plastered her back against the door, her heart lodged squarely in her throat. “Father, you startled me.” Just what she needed. Another complication. “Smarter than what?”

Reginald stalked from the shadows of the main hallway, the one closest to his study. “Don’t play false with me, daughter. Your claims of innocent love might resonate with weaker minds prone to such folly, but I know you better than to buy it.”

The son of a bitch. He was bluffing. In all her one hundred and thirty years, he’d not so much as given her the time of day, treating her as little more than an empty-headed sheep. No way would he suddenly believe she held enough wits to mastermind all she’d managed thus far.

“Play false?” She paired her innocent retort with puppy dog eyes and a fluttering hand at her chest. “I don’t understand. I merely couldn’t sleep and thought to walk through the gardens. All this talk of prophecy and changes for our race has me frightened. I worry for Eryx.”

His lips twisted in a wry smirk. “Well presented. Still not buying it, but well presented, nonetheless.” He pulled out a stool tucked beneath the island counter and nodded at the back door. “Don’t be deceived by the lack of guards. They’re there. More than double since the malran left this afternoon.”

Damn it.

Reginald chuckled. “Yes, I know he was here. Your mother met your brother and me at the back door this evening, breathless with news of his visit. I’ve encouraged her to spread further tales of his arrival, perhaps adding a bit of fanciful elaboration on what may or may not have occurred during his stay.”

She had to give it to her father. Tacking any kind of falsity to the malran’s visit was a sizable risk if it ever tied back to their family, but it would be markedly good for business. Still probably not in her best interest to let on she was onto his schemes. “While my heart would be overjoyed with any romantic inclination on the malran’s part, he showed me no such affection. Why would you represent him otherwise?”

Her father’s eyes narrowed. “Because your newfound popularity benefits our family and our profits. I’d be a fool not to bolster your reputation further.” He glanced at the door then back to her. “I’m even wise enough to ensure you don’t ruin it with ill-planned actions.”

“You misunderstood. I don’t—”

“Leave off, Serena. I know you. I also know about the gifts you think you’ve kept so well hidden. Do you honestly think I could live under the same roof with you for all these years and not be keen to the fact you’re a natural influencer?”

Everything inside Serena locked up tight. Her mind, her breath, even her heart stuttered. How could he know? She’d never once shared knowledge of her gift with anyone, not even Maxis. Histus, it had taken her years after her awakening to even realize what her gift truly was.

“I see I’ve struck a nerve.” Her father traced a slow pattern against the black stone countertop. An absent-minded gesture, as though he were clueless to the way he’d upended the most cherished aspect to her life. “I know your gifts, Serena, because they’re my own. It’s why I’m a merchant. What better way to ensure our wares and vendors find their way home with people than to manipulate their feelings? I felt it in you only days after your awakening. Revealing my knowledge would have shown my hand. Better to let you gallivant unaware. Ignorant people show the hands they’ve been dealt too quickly.”

All this time. All those years brushing her off. Ignoring her. A slow, sizzling burn fired in her belly, and a furious shout knotted in her throat to the point she could barely breathe.

Reginald sat taller on his stool and crossed his arms. “The malran’s reported to the council someone is spiriting humans to Evad for a little sightseeing. No one can describe the one bringing them here, though they uniformly comment on a distinctive scent being present the entire time. One not unlike an expensive perfume.” He tilted his head, more indirect accusation than curiosity. “I assume this was the true nature of the malran’s visit?”

The muscles in her forearms ached from the constant pressure of her fisted hands, and her feet itched to pace. She nodded instead.

“And your near-disastrous stroll through the gardens tonight was what?” he said. “Another outing to Evad to stir further trouble for the malran?”

“It wasn’t me.”

He raised a pompous eyebrow.

“It wasn’t. The malran’s somo checked my memories. There was nothing.”

“Nothing to prove you were there, but nothing to prove you weren’t, either. The black of delta sleep gives you not a leg to stand on. In fact, the malran could argue you were blocking the time you were away.”

“I wasn’t.” Despite the cool room, a bead of sweat slid from her nape and between her shoulder blades, and a fine sheen of moisture built along her brow. She should have waited for Thyrus.

Reginald stood and ambled to the window. “I know it wasn’t you.”

What? Surely he hadn’t just defended her.

With a look over his shoulder, he raked her with a loathsome gaze then returned to his study of the gardens beyond. “Your stealth leaves something to be desired. Not surprising. You’re a woman and not trained in such matters.”

“My sex holds no bearing on my skills, and I’ll be damned if I abide one more person relegating my capacity because of it.” The sexist bastard. All men were. He’d bleed like anyone else, and she’d prove it once more if she had a dagger in her palm.

“This errand,” he said. “I suppose it serves to find the individual laying suspicion on our doorstep?”

Our
doorstep. Years of neglect and now he wanted to make it about
them
?

“I won’t be framed for this,” she said. “There is someone I can speak with who can determine the truth and protect me. Someone loyal.”

Reginald crossed his arms, one hand raised as he rubbed his chin. A classic picture of thoughtful consideration hiding the shrewd cutthroat within. He faced her, eyes narrowed and lips pursed in a way that had boded all manner of childhood scolding. “You’d best hope they’re loyal, Serena. You may not enjoy the life you lead with this family, but you’d find the life of a powerless human even worse. Particularly one of their homeless.”

He studied her attire, the black leggings and tunic grossly outside her usual fare, but displaying her assets quite well. “Though I doubt you’d be without a protector long. You do have a way with men.” A snide chuckle shook his chest and his lips twisted in a cruel smile. “All except for the malran, of course.”

With a dismissive lift of his chin, he strode toward the hallway and his study beyond. “Tomorrow. Prepare to leave at seven a.m. Your mother has a daylong event volunteering at Sanctuary. Such a trip is protected under house arrest. Tell her you’re consumed with worry over the latest developments and wish to pray to The Great One that the prophecy brought on us by the mating of your beloved doesn’t spell the worst for our race.”

He stopped before the shadowed hallway and looked back. “Make no mistake, daughter. Your usefulness to the family is the only reason for my assistance. I’m not without my own means of distancing us from you just as quickly.” He turned away, his last words nearly swallowed by the darkness. “I suggest you make your venture count.”