To Love a Prince (Knights of Valor Book 1)(67)

The tips of his fingers discovered the angry red scar left by Premal’s blade. Rage threatened to engulf him. He’d failed to protect her and had almost lost her, lost all that was between them. The touch of her lips on his quieted his fear and muted his fury.

“You’re still hurt.”

“Sore, but healing.” She looped her arms around him. “Please be gentle.”

He tried to step back from her, but she kept her arms linked around him.

“Auburn...”

“I’ve missed you.” She kissed him, soft and slow, quieting his objection.

Eli couldn’t resist her invitation, and he eased her out of the rest of her clothes, then stripped out of his.

By the gods, she was beautiful, her milk-pale skin luminescent in the evening light. He drank in the sight of her, soft and flushed, then teased the tips of his fingers over shoulders, across her collarbone, and down the gentle swell of her breast. He paused at her pert nipples, swirling around them before teasing over their tips.

Her head fell back as she gave him full access to her, her skin already flushed and heated under his ministrations. A moan escaped her as he taunted her furled peaks. She arched up to him, filling his hands with her.

He stroked the curve of her breast, then dipped lower, petting down over her belly and the roundness of her hip. His hands trailed lower, over the smooth column of her thighs and then tickling behind her knees.

Easing back up, he parted her as he explored her heated flesh with his fingertips. He brushed over the soft curls at the junction of her thighs, and then continued his upward climb, back over her stomach and pausing again to stroke her swollen breasts. He teased over her collarbone, along her check, and thumbed over her soft pink lips.

She parted them, her tongue darting out to taste and tease him.

Pleasure shivered along Eli’s nerves at her so warm and wanton beneath him, but he held his desires in check as he continued to lavish pleasure on her, to build the same need in her that was winding through him.

He trailed his hands down her again, this time, his lips following behind them. Nibbling along her throat and down her chest, he teased hot kisses over her full breasts. He lingered over the pink peaks before dipping his head and sucking one into his mouth.

Auburn moaned and tangled her fingers in Eli’s hair, her head falling back against the pillow as she tried to absorb the intensity of the feelings he lavished on her.

Eli gave her no mercy as he lifted his head from her first breast only to fix his lips on the second.

Auburn squealed in delight as her body writhed in time to his lips and mouth, moving beneath him and teasing her body against his.

Dipping lower, he pressed tentative kisses to her belly, careful not to cause her pain. Eli moved lower still, teasing his lips along the curve of her hip and then down the outside of her thigh. He laved the back of her knees with his tongue, enjoying her quivering in anticipation beneath him.

He teased kisses up the inside of her thigh, first on one side, then the other, easing a little further toward the sensitive junction at the top with each kiss. When he reached the apex of her thighs, he parted her copper curls and teased kisses along the delicate folds before flicking his tongue over the tender pearl hidden there.

Auburn bucked beneath him and gripped him as if he were an anchor in the maelstrom of feeling.

Eli eased back, let her catch her sensual breath, and then renewed his assault, taunting and teasing her with his lips and tongue.

“Eli,” she begged as she closed her eyes and fell back against the bed, her thighs parted in offering.

Grinning, he swirled the sensitive bud and relished the soft moans that fell from her lips as her body writhed in wanton need beneath him.

Eli released her tender pearl and kissed up along her belly, pausing again at her tender swollen breasts as he eased between her parted thighs.

She reached for him, and he came to her, his lips on hers as his body pressed her into the thick mattress.

Auburn parted her lips, and he surged inside, his mouth taking hers as their tongues danced in an age-old rhythm.

Reaching between them, he slid a finger into her inner-most recesses. She was scorching hot and slick with desire.

As his mouth continued to plunder hers, he positioned himself and slid inside of her.

She held him as her body stretched to accommodate him. Their mouths continued to dance as he moved inside her, softly, gently at first, matching her, meeting her.

The molten desire grew, radiating out from the point where their bodies met until it consumed them. The passion grew with every kiss, building each time he filled her, crashing over and through them with mounting waves of pleasure until it cresendoed, and she lost herself in the golden glow.

With a final thrust, he lost himself in her and joined her over the edge and beyond in the hazy golden clouds of fulfilled desire. He smiled as he collapsed beside her and stroked her cooling body.

He was well and truly home.





Chapter 40





Auburn awoke the next morning to find breakfast laid out and Eli beside her. He brushed a lock of hair from her eyes as he teased a kiss over her lips.

The ship rocked beneath her, and she sucked in a breath.

“We set sail with the tide.” Eli held her close and tucked the blanket around her. “I was going to wake you so you could say goodbye to Qumaref, but Sligo didn’t want either of us on deck.”