Still he didn’t move. Didn’t answer.
Desperation sparked to life inside me, strengthening all of my desires. My body screamed for completion. I needed it, would disintegrate without it. I twined my legs around his waist; I gripped his ass and tried to force him to move.
“What are you waiting for?” I growled softly. “Finish this.”
One of his rough hands coasted over the sheet, then covered my knee and gently caressed upward. That was the only movement he made. “You’re impatient, competitive, spoiled, and so damn hot I think about you all the time.”
If he wouldn’t move, I sure the hell would. I arched my back, rolled my hips. Ah, there. Yes, just like that. I did it again. My eyes closed of their own accord, and I ran my tongue over my lips.
I heard him drag in a tortured breath. He gripped both my hips to still me. “Always determined to go it alone I see.”
“Fuck me, Lucius, or I’ll fuck you. Either way, we’re both going to come.”
Fire exploded in his ice-blue eyes. “Some of us are going to come more than others,” he muttered darkly, but he slowly withdrew, then surged forward.
I gasped. “I bet I win.”
“I bet you do, too. I liked it when you talked dirty. Do it again.”
“Again?” The word emerged as a blissful moan.
“Again.” Once more, he withdrew.
“Fuck me.”
His lips edged in a wicked grin as he slid forward. “My pleasure.” He clamped both of my knees and pushed them apart, wider and wider, sending him so deep inside me that I felt him everywhere. Not one inch of me was untouched by him.
That was all I needed to send me over the edge.
I shattered completely, and a scream of fulfillment burst from my throat. Spasms consumed my body, and I clenched him tightly to me. Luc barked.
“Shh, girl,” I said, still flying through the stars.
Lucius chuckled, and the sound emerged strained. “Told you,” he said. He stilled again with a muttered curse. “Damn it. Do you think we’ll have to do damage control?” He pulled out of me and rolled one of my nipples through his fingers. A drop of sweat trickled down his temple and onto my cheek.
I expected the pitter-patter of feet, and waited several moments. When I heard nothing, I said, “I think we’re good to go.” I bit back a blissful moan as Lucius replaced his fingers with his mouth, sucking hard on my nipple. “I’ll be careful next time.”
He moved his attention upward and licked my collarbone. I closed my eyes for a moment as I savored the silkiness of his tongue. Reaching up, I traced my hands over the ropes of muscles that comprised his stomach. God, he felt good. Like velvet over iron.
He bit my earlobe, and I gasped. “Want more?” he rumbled menacingly. “Cause I’m dying here.”
“More, more, more.”
Once more Lucius pounded into me. Yes. Yes! As I met him stroke for stroke, arching into him, I would have sworn a blood oath at that moment that I’d never felt anything so right. My pleasure was already building steadily again, preparing me for another mind-shattering orgasm.
Surely I had experienced such pleasure with someone else. Surely Lucius did not mean more to me than any other. I tried to close my eyes, to resurrect a face that had given me comparable pleasure.
“Don’t you fucking dare look away,” he uttered gutturally, having realized my intent. “Watch me. See me. Know me. ”
I almost experienced my second orgasm right then because, as he spoke, he stroked in and out of me with determination, slipping and sliding, our bodies slick with sweat and desire. The scent of cinnamon and honey intensified. My knees squeezed his waist.
“Can you handle a harder ride?” he demanded.
“Harder. Rougher.”
That was all the encouragement he needed. He rocked into me deep, deeper still, harder still. Rougher still. As he did, he bit down on the sensitive cord in my neck. I came right then. My body shuddered with the force of it, and I silenced another scream that demanded release.
Lucius meshed our lips in a brutal kiss of warring tongues. He continued to hammer into me, riding the waves of my orgasm. Then his body stiffened, bowed, and spasmed, and I swallowed his roar of satisfaction.
A long while of shallow breathing passed. When both of our heartbeats at last calmed, he collapsed on top of me. I didn’t mind his weight; I welcomed it. We stayed like we were, weak in the aftermath, every ounce of our bodies sated, afraid to shatter the lethargic spell.
“I told you,” he breathed against my ear.
“What?” I barely had the strength to get that one word out.
“That you’d come more than me.”
I smiled into his chest. “That means I won.”
“Competitive,” he tsked.
We settled into a comfortable silence for several minutes. “Speaking of competitions,” I said, “have you learned anything about solar flares?”
“Not much. You?”
“No.” Colin hadn’t contacted me, and I hadn’t had time to do the research I wanted.
“Guess we’ll have to wait to crown the winner, hmm. I will beat you.” He paused and pushed out a breath. “You’re not the spoiled princess I thought you were,” he said. “Not at all.”
Another admission from him. Two in one day. This one weakened me as much as the other. “I was at one time,” I admitted. I traced my finger around his nipple. “Michael spoiled me rotten. Whatever I wanted, he bought me. If he didn’t buy it fast enough, I threw a tantrum the likes of which you’ve never seen.”
His breath fanned my cheek as he chuckled. “What about your parents? Do you remember them?”
“Not really.” Maybe I should keep my past to myself, but he’d shared with me. And for the first time, I had someone I could talk to about my parents, people I had loved and still missed. I couldn’t with Michael. “I have a vague image of my mother’s face, pretty and golden, but that’s all. Sometimes, in the quiet of the night, I can still hear her voice singing me to sleep.”
“She sounds like a good mom.”
“She was. I wish I had a memento of her, something, anything, but the day after she and my dad died, our house was burned to the ground, destroying everything inside. Michael had moved me to a hotel, so I wasn’t hurt at least.”
“Why did they leave Raka and come here?”
“They wanted something better, I think. To escape the dictator who ruled them. I’ve always wanted to ask them, but…”
Lucius kissed the top of my head. I realized, then, that this kind of bonding was propelling us into another realm of awareness. A dangerous realm. We both knew the drawbacks of becoming sexually involved with an agent. But emotionally…did we have any clue about the ramifications?
I forced myself to get back to business. Keep it light; keep it casual. “Tell me what you and Parker argued about at the party, after I left.”
He rolled off me, then off the bed entirely. Cool air immediately ghosted over me. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he began strapping his weapons onto his bronze chest and thighs.
“Lucius?” As I watched him, I noticed the bite marks and scratches I’d left all over him. I liked it. I liked seeing my brand on him.
“Jonathan wants me to leave you alone for a while,” he said, the words rough and raw, “to give you a chance to settle in before I pursue you.”
What was wrong with him? “Why does he even care? I highly doubt he’s afraid of Claudia’s wrath.”
His shrugged, the action stiff. “Why else? I told you it might happen. He got a good look at you, and he wanted to fuck you himself.” Lucius ran his tongue over his teeth, his eyes glinting like pressurized steel, but he said nothing more on the subject.