Warrior's Moon

He would show her that while the bond drew them together, it was only the beginning, not the boundaries of their joining.

He pushed her shift farther up, uncovering glistening silky curls. “So pretty.”

“Pretty is not a word I think of when I see your nakedness,” she teased.

“Naturally not. I am a warrior, not a maid.”

The grin of mischief should have warned him what was coming.

“Now that I think on it, one part of your anatomy is very prettily shaped.” She looked toward the hard sex jutting from his body.

Laughter and the joy only she could bring bubbled up inside him. “You think my cock is pretty?” he asked with a shake of his head.

“Oh, yes.”

He spread his thighs wider so she had an unobstructed view. “It does not feel pretty right now. It aches.”

“Does it?”

“Aye.” And well she knew it, for all her sexy mockery.

“Mayhap I can help with that.”

He wanted her to, but he had plans and they did not include his sex being within touching distance of her small, feminine hands at the moment. “Later.”

“Caelis?”

“Let me have my way with you, Shona. ’Tis what I crave most right now.” And despite his voracious hunger to bury himself inside her, the words were nothing but truth.

And meant he was sure in a different way than she would take them, but she would see.

She leaned up on one arm and tugged her shift all the way off before falling back to her elbows, the pose pressing her generous breasts forward, the invitation unmistakable. “Yes.”

He could feel the smile curving his mouth and made no effort to stop it. “Your beauty is breathtaking.”

She blushed, her embarrassment a spicy scent between them, making him laugh.

“You will reveal your nakedness to me, but you turn berry-red at a compliment?” he mocked gently.

“You are the only one who has ever considered me beautiful.”

“Nay.” He was sure she was wrong. “But I am the one intelligent enough to tell you.”

She shook her head, long red silken strands rippling over her shoulders and against the mating fur he’d tanned and prepared six years ago for a mating ceremony that had never taken place. “Stubborn man.”

Though the ceremony had not happened, they had used the fur. Not that he expected her to remember.

“I have been called worse.” He ruffled the pretty triangle of hair at the apex of her thighs. “Are you blushing in other places, I wonder?”

She let her thighs fall wide with such trust that he wanted to shout his victory. Shona had said she did not trust him, but then she had agreed to marry him. He could infer her trust from that, but the truth of her heart showed in her actions. Whatever reservations she might still hold, she trusted him completely with her body. Six years ago, her doing so had cost her dearly. That she would offer him this gift again made his wolf howl with delight.

He carefully pressed her legs up and apart, to give himself an unhindered view of the flushed and swollen folds of her sex. Slick with moisture, her body begged silently for his possession.

It was a sight unparalled. “You are beautiful, even here.”

“You should not say such things.”

“Why not? If they are true.” He leaned down and pressed a tender kiss to her feminine nether lips.

Soft flesh gave against his own, the scent of her arousal such a strong aphrodisiac to him and his beast that a measure of ejaculate spurted from his aching cock. If he let himself even brush against the fur, he would come like an untried boy. Needing to taste, he flicked his tongue out and lapped at the fragrant juices. Sweet with the pungent flavor of her desire, the taste called to both his man and wolf on a primal level.

He moaned his pleasure against the swollen flesh and continued to taste, licking, laving and sucking with no thought but to share with her the pleasure he received at her submission to him.

She grabbed his hair, her fingers curled tightly around his warrior’s braids. “That is…what are you…you must…Oh, Caelis.”

His name ended on a wail as his tongue flicked her clitoris. Satisfaction burned through him. He would show her that she was safe with him now, in every way.

He knew the importance of his mate.

She writhed on the furs, her body pressing against his mouth, sounds of ecstasy falling from her lips with the steady cadence of spring rain. He drank every one in with the thirst only a man who had gone six years in the desert could feel.

Sliding a single finger inside her, his sense of victory increased as her body clung to the digit, her inner muscles gripping him with surprising strength. She wanted him inside her mayhap even as much as he craved being there.

Soon they would consummate their mating and marriage, but only when he had proven himself worthy of the honor. Not like six years before, when he’d taken prematurely that which he’d then proven he had no right to because he had not honored her gift, as was right.

Moving in and out of her with his finger, he licked and suckled at her nether lips and clitoris until she was rigid with the need to come. She babbled her need while her body jerked against his mouth with both demand and supplication. It would take so little to bring her to that point of ecstasy she so clearly wanted, but that would not be enough.

Not enough to erase old memories. Not enough to supplant them firmly and irrevocably with new ones. Not enough to show her how very much he esteemed the gift of her body.

He backed off, sitting back on his heels as he mentally planned her further ravishment.

“No,” she cried out, reaching for him.

“Shh,” he soothed, his hand caressing her thigh and his wolf crooning in his chest. “I will give you what you desire, in time.”

“Now,” she demanded.

He grinned loving this show of confidence. “Soon.”

He returned to her body, tracing those slim silver lines she had been so worried about with his tongue. She squirmed, making soft whimpering noises. He would show her just how enticing he found these marks of womanhood. He caressed her breasts as well, showing with his touch and mouth how much he enjoyed their curves and the hard berry-sweet tips.

She writhed against him, but he did not give into the urge to finish what he had begun.

He would bring her to the brink of climax, but she would only go over that precipice when he’d fed her a surfeit of pleasure. When he had created a new memory for her body that would supersede all others.

Shona responded to his every touch with a passion so beautiful, it took all of Caelis’s self-control not to come himself while he took his beautiful mate right to the edge of the pinnacle time after time.

When he finally brought her to climax, she screamed out her pleasure and the convulsions around his fingers lasted minutes not seconds.

Her body finally collapsed back to the fur, boneless, her eyes half-mast, shallow panting breaths coming from between her parted lips.

“That was amazing,” she gasped out between breaths. “How did you…Why did you…” She seemed unable to complete a thought.

That pleased him unutterably. “You are amazing.” And he was so hard he hurt.

“No. You…you are the incredible one. You took nothing for yourself.” The confusion in her tone and eyes was sweet to be sure.

“Giving you pleasure is a privilege I will never again take for granted.”

Her eyes glistened again, but this time the sight did not hurt him. “I want you inside me.”

“Soon.” When vows had been spoken between them before witnesses.