Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Lucien awoke alone. It took him a minute to place where he was. The room was very colorful, he was in her bedroom, and it suited her. She was gone, the animals were gone, and he was alone. He was hard. He willed himself under control and slipped from the bed to head for the main part of the cabin.

What he saw when he got there nothing in all of his twenty-six years could have prepared him for. He had seen naked women plenty. Not like this. Not even close. Even the famed statue of Aphrodite rising from the foam had nothing on the vision before him.

She remained motionless in the tub at the same time as water ran down her body. The light from the fire transformed the water on her skin to diamonds and topaz. Her hair was down the middle of her back and ended at the curve of her waist.

Her breasts were full and high. Her stomach flat, muscular. Her legs were toned and firm. He ogled at flawlessness. “Oh my god.” The groan slipped past his lips.

Ciara turned at his voice. Before she could say or do anything, he strode across the cabin. Lucien plucked her out of the tub as if she weighed no more than a feather. Compared to him, she didn’t.

He set her down in front of the fire and picked up the drying cloth. He looked at her, asking the unspoken question. Could he dry her off?

She smiled shyly at him, which gave him the answer he wanted, craved. He worked at a snail’s pace as though to savor every moment. He started at her neck. When the skin was dry, he flicked his tongue in the spots of the water droplets. He stroked down each arm, as he followed the towel with his lips.

“Gorgeous.” He placed little kisses along her belly. Her body shuddered.

He dried off her legs, lifted each foot and kissed the instep on both. When she was dry, she was still shivering. He didn’t believe it was from cold. It had come time for him to make good on his promise. He swept her up in his arms and laid her on the pallet.

“You are so beautiful.” He moved up and inhaled her clean scent. He skimmed his hands along her body, making it tremble where he touched. “So wild, so untamed.”

He ran his calloused hand over her breast and swallowed her gasp as he plundered her mouth with his. Her nipple hardened in his palm. Her reaction was like a jolt to his system.

She arched her back to press herself more and more into him. He lay over her, dressed. Ciara inched her hands under his shirt.

“Off. Take it off, I want to feel you.”

He didn’t know he could get any harder. Lucien reared up and ripped off the shirt, not caring where it landed. “I always thought you were beautiful, even when I first brought you here bleeding. These scars only add to it. You are beautiful.” Her words made him feel like the only man in the world.

He kissed her quiet. She pulled on the waistband of his pants. Her meaning was clear. He shucked off the rest of his clothes. Within seconds he stood before her completely naked and watched her reaction.

Lust. Raw hunger filled her gaze, as she looked him over.

“I want you.”

Those three words hit him and he almost jumped on her right there.

“Slowly. We need to go slow.” Lucien prayed he had the control to go slow.

“No.” She looked up at him. “Now. I have dreamed about this since you arrived.”

“My god, woman,” he groaned as he fell on top of her. His hands were everywhere. They touched. They caressed. He slipped one hand between her legs and dipped his finger, one long finger, between her sable curls.

She was right, she was ready. She was wet. So wet. He almost spilled himself right there. Lucien moved over her and put the tip of his cock at the juncture of her thighs.

Ciara spread wider to accommodate him and she whimpered when he just ran the head along her slit. She raised her legs and wrapped them around his hips.

“God, that’s right, wrap them around my waist, princess.”

Lucien didn’t want to hurt her. Didn’t want to appear like a rutting bastard, but he had just about lost control. Her musky scent filled his nostrils, making him want to plunge deep within her and claim her as his own.

In the end, Ciara made the decision for him. Her legs, strengthened by years of traversing throughout the mountains, yanked him toward her. He slammed inside her to the hilt.

Both of them groaned at the sensation. In the back of his mind, Lucien realized there was no barrier that he broke through. It didn’t matter. She was tight, so tight. She fit him like a velvet glove. She caressed him.

Lucien lost control. Primal feelings, the likes of which he had never felt before, dominated his slim hold on his restraint. With a low growl that would have done Faolan proud, he pounded into her like a man obsessed.

She met each one of his thrusts with undulations of her hips, drawing him in deeper, farther, harder and faster into her soul. Lucien felt her body tighten so he slipped his hand between them and rubbed her core. Her back arched as she let loose a cry of uncontrolled and unrehearsed feeling as her lithe body shook with the aftershocks of her ardent release.

Concurrently, her dampness gripped him, milked him, and he couldn’t hold back any more than he could stop the rise and fall of the tide. The tendons on his neck stood out as he withdrew then plunged into her deeper than he had been. He was one with her as his head fell back, and he roared his fulfillment to the cabin and the mountains that surrounded them as he spent himself deep within her. He couldn’t move. He didn’t want to move. Lucien dropped his face into the softness of her neck as he fought to slow his erratic breathing. He was exhausted. They lay there, limbs entwined, each gasping for breath.

Lucien was mortified. He had had countless women and never before had he lost control like that. Before, he had always maintained a distance from the women. It was only a matter of physical release and that enabled him to always withdraw before he spilled his seed inside them. He had no wish to father any bastards.

He couldn’t have pulled out of Ciara if an army had swarmed the cabin. He had lost all rational thought. His only necessity was to ravage the woman beneath him and fill her to capacity with his seed. For a man who had just acted like a primitive heathen, he wanted to make it up to her.

In his defense he didn’t hear any complaints from her. “Are you all right?”

“Aye. Never better.” When he made to move off, she gripped him and said, “No. Stay. I like the feel of your weight.”

“I’m too heavy. I want to hold you.” He slid out of her, moved behind her and pulled her into his chest, so they rested together like spoons.

Ciara reached to the end of the pallet and swung an extra quilt over them. They fell asleep like that.

* * * *

Ciara awoke later as waves of pleasure throbbed through her. Lucien lay between her spread legs and licked her pussy. Her legs were draped over his broad shoulders to hold her open with his fingers and teased her with his tongue.

She dug her fingers into his scalp grinding herself into him. It was scandalous yet she couldn’t help it. He drove her wild. While his tongue laved attention on her clit, his fingers teased the entrance before they slid within her, right away for she was slick with her own juices. He paid her worship in ways she had never dreamed about.

First only one finger was inside, then that was soon joined by another. He used one muscled forearm to anchor her writhing body in place as he slipped yet another finger deep within her. Her moans were coming louder and more constant in time with him as he moved his fingers in tandem with his tongue. Lucien brought her to the verge of pleasure. He retreated just before she could find that elusive release. He teased her again and again as she writhed above him. She begged, pleaded with her moans, because she couldn’t form any coherent words, for him to allow her to reach the pinnacle she sought.

Ciara arched and screamed as she was allowed to find her release. Lucien stayed with his arm across her hips continuing to pay homage to her as she came harder and harder. While she still quivered with tremors, he rose above her and plunged deep within her in one smooth stroke. He filled her to entirety.

Lucien lowered his mouth and kissed her. Ciara tasted him and her both as he moved within her. She pressed her body closer to him, determined to take whatever it was he was willing to give her. His body responded to hers like brandy and cigars, so his own release arrived moments later as he moaned her name into her mouth.

They lay there for a moment before Ciara pushed onto his shoulder. He picked up his head to glance down at her. He questioned with his eyes as he kissed her again, not able to get enough of her taste. “I have to get up. The fire is going low and the animals are still outside.”

“You don’t have to go anywhere. The animals are fine and personally I think the fire is nowhere near going out.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.

“Arrogant male.”

“Uh-huh. I have every right to be. I earned the right.”

“Aye. That you do and you did. But I really have to get up.” She rolled him off her and rose gracefully from the bed.

She felt his gaze on her as she walked nude to the chair that held her clothes. She hesitated before she headed for her bedroom. She needed to take another bath now before dressing into clean clothes.

She put on her dirty clothes and lugged the tub outside. When she brought it back in and started to warm more water, Lucien got up. “What are you doing?”

“I am going to clean myself and then do some laundry. Why? Did you wish to bathe?”

“Only if you join me.”

“Thanks but I am fine for now.” Her enchanting flush betrayed her true feelings on the matter.

Lucien cleaned himself off along with her. He put on some clean clothes and gathered more snow to melt for water to do laundry. He helped her with the wash, then, when all the clothes were done, spread out on chairs by the fire and hung on a rope he strung up, he dragged the tub outside for her.

While he emptied it, she started to shovel the porch. Lucien came up behind her and made a grab for her. She screeched and ran down the steps while he gave chase. He tackled her to the ground and covered her with kisses.

Faolan and Kosse jumped in to join the fun and before long all four of them were involved in a huge snow fight. The animals would hit them in the knees and run before they could get up. Lucien and Ciara threw snowballs at each other and at the animals.

Tired, cold and wet, they all stomped back into the cabin to get something to eat and dry off. While Ciara made some food, Lucien made a nuisance of himself as he nibbled on her neck and constantly touched her, distracting her.

It was as if that morning had changed their whole friendship and the next month was full of joy and cheer.