A Kiss of Fire (A Kiss of Magic #2)(54)

“Ah God,” he groaned against her ear. “You’re so hot and so wet. I think about being here,” –he slid a finger inside her body—“all of the time. I’m obsessed with it. I think about hearing you come. Hearing you cry out my name.” His lips brushed the shell of her ear as he whispered into it. “It makes me so hard and I can barely see anything else within my mind.” His finger slid deeper into her and she let out a little cry, her hand going to the wrist of the hand burrowing beneath her skirts. But she wasn't trying to push him away. Just the opposite. She was holding him to herself, riding his hand as his palm rubbed against her clit and a second finger slid into her.

“I won’t come into your room again,” he breathed before kissing her until desire was curling through every inch of her body. “I cannot trust myself. But this…this I can give you.”

His fingers thrust into her again and yet again, all the while he rubbed at her. She began to cry out in little chains of sound. Her foot lifted off the floor, her inner thigh climbing up his outer, opening herself to him completely. He kissed her again as colors danced behind her lids.

“Look at me!”

Her eyes flew open at the command.

“Look and know who gives you this pleasure, Ariana. Who am I?”

“Sin,” she rasped.

“Say it again,” he said fiercely as his hand sent wild pleasure wracking through her.

“Sin! Sin!” She gasped then felt pleasure burst through her like a bag of marbles dropped suddenly upon the floor, scattering everywhere. She felt the spasms rippling through her as his teeth caught at her lower lip. He kissed her again. Then again, each time achingly sweet and sensual. Then, while spasms of pleasure were still shuddering through her, he took his hand away from her and urged her to drop her leg to the floor.

He held her weight entirely in his hands. She was boneless and pliant. But before she knew it, he was setting her weight back onto her feet, making her stand away from him. He took her hand in his and led her back into the corridor. He brought her to her room where the guard, that man Mordol, was waiting outside her door. She blushed as she thought he must have heard her crying out. He unlocked the door for Sin and Sin placed her over the threshold.

He was stepping back and part of her wanted to grab hold of him, to beg him to stay. A very large part of her she realized.

Yet she didn’t. As much as her body was begging for more of him, her mind could not bring herself to give in to him. It was not in her to surrender so easily. But if she ever were going to surrender to someone, it would be Sin.

Sin placed a lingering kiss on the rise of her cheek, then pushed away from her, leaving her on one side of the threshold and himself on the other. Their eyes met and held, his were fierce with unspent desire.

“Lock it,” he said to Mordol without looking away from her once. Not until the door broke their eye contact for him.

As soon as the door was closed, Ariana sank to the floor, her body weak, her mind confused. What was he doing to her? How had he cast this spell over her?

What was she going to do now?

She didn’t know. She didn’t know what to do. She knew what her body wanted to do. It wanted to know more about the dynamic, sexual man who held himself apart from her. Damn him, why couldn’t he just take what he wanted so clearly? Why did it have to be a game of wills? What did it matter who came to whom?

It did matter. He was right about that. It did matter. It made a very big difference if he took her versus if she took him. But she didn’t want to sell her soul for a few moments of pleasure.

And yet she now knew it would be more than a few moments. That was what frightened her. If she willingly crossed the line into his arms, she might never want to cross back out of them. And she couldn’t afford that. Her people couldn’t afford that. They needed her. More than anything. More than her own desires.

Desires which, she realized, were spinning out of her control. Her mind was filled with him, her body somehow sated and achingly empty all at once. She was still on the floor when Mariah came into the room to help her into bed.

She declined a bath, unable to bear the thought of washing her own skin, that was how unbearably on edge her nerves were.

This would not do, she realized. Something was going to give under this tension of wills and desires.

And she was afraid that something was going to be her.





Chapter Fifteen


Gretha descended on the capitol the next day.

Mason Hittite and Jutsin Felone had been expecting her to show up at any time, but they had thought she might have made a semblance of a mourning period before coming forward to claim her position as Ariana’s heir and successor. Ariana was barely gone three weeks. It was far too soon for them to give up on her entirely, but that was what Gretha would have them do.

Gretha was a tall blond with passable good looks and narrow eyes. She positively reeked of thinking she had far more cunning than she actually did. She was certain she had a right to have power over those around her and was frustrated when it was proved she did not. Her sister had proved to be the major source of that frustration. As long as Ariana was alive she had power over Gretha. Now Gretha at last had power over Ariana.

“Gretha, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Jutsin asked as he watched her rise from her chair. They had forced her to wait for them in the common areas, the places where they did business. They had not allowed her into their personal quarters. They would not allow her to feel comfortable in any way.