I'm sorry for taking so long to submit this chapter. Life happens and then too, something I call writer's fear. I must have written and rewritten this particular chapter a thousand times. I'm still unsure, but I hope you enjoy it and that I've done these amazing characters justice. No, the next update will not take so long for me to share. Promise. Thanks so much for hanging in there. ~ABG
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If the heat that consumed them was from fire, then it could be said that what covering she did wear merely disintegrated from the intensity.
Kieren needed skin. He needed to feel her as close to him as possible. He needed the warmth that only Iona could provide. His body needed to touch hers, not just on the surface but on the inside. As his lips devoured hers mercilessly, Iona surrendered completely to the searching of his tongue and he reveled in what he found. To Kieren there was nothing sweeter than the taste of her, nothing more satisfying than the feel of her softness against his strength. This is what he had waited so long for. He felt her body answer the heart of the question that thundered within him.
"Are you mine?"
Iona's very being susurrated, "Yes."
Kieren could feel the hum of it sing to him as he laid her across the bed, his lips hungrily gliding down the column of her neck.
Iona had yearned for so long to feel the weight of his body atop hers. She had dreamt of it, visualized and imagined every possible scenario. And now, he was in her arms, the heat of him against the palms of her wondering hands. The shifting of sinew and honed muscle was now beneath her touch. Nothing she had ever foreseen could possibly compare to the actuality of what was happening. She knew from the first moment she encountered him that Kieren was like no other man. Yet, everything she thought she knew was still so little. On this night, Iona would bury her self within him, absorb all she could and emerge a new woman.
She drew her hands over the strength of his upper arms and the curve of his shoulders, feeling the grooves and the definition of his body. The tips of her fingers had just barely grazed the edge of the corded skin at his back when, with one swift movement, Iona found both of her curious hands held roughly above her head—pinned to the thick wood of the headboard by the vice-like grip of his own.
The wild blue of Kieren's eyes, the most heated portion of any flame, flashed.
Iona had no fear. She did not recoil from his threat. There was no part of him that she was not ready for. What she did not know, she was ready to learn. She had not forgotten about the markings on his back or her words. She had not forgotten about the anger that she had caused him. She knew that there would now be time to melt away anything that dared come between them. To this she was most dedicated.
However, if he thought the binding of her hands a deterrent, he was most mistaken. Her smile was wicked and laced with lust as she raised her face to his. She ran her cheek alongside the collection of fine hairs that spread from the line of his jaw upward. Instead of sharing a tender kiss of submission, her lips stopped short, barely touching his and Iona whispered, "You grew shabby while away from me."
Kieren raised an eyebrow, a look that she so loved. The look in her eyes was as dangerous as the look in his.
His cock twitched and grew harder.
"Thoughts of your displeasure make a man weary and careless with himself," he returned, placing his hands back where they belonged, on her body.
"Be not..." Her tongue reached out to taste his lips and she let the tip follow its line, "weary of me."
As she kissed him, Iona lost more than just her fingers in the thickness of his hair. Grabbing a section close to the root, she pulled. Accompanying the unexpected jerk of his head was now a bite to his bottom lip and the sexiest of purrs from her chest.
A primitive surge of ownership coursed through Kieren. He shifted his weight and slid his hand up over her rib cage. He felt the underswell of her breast and did not stop until its fullness rested in his palm. Then, he squeezed.
Iona moaned and arched her back.
Kieren smiled devilishly as he avoided her need for his lips and let his kisses fall back down her neck, then across her collar bone. His lips covered the peak of her breast after teasing it with his tongue. Pulling from it, he let her feel the threatening touch of his teeth.
Iona released a deep tortured moan, the sound of which hit Kieren's senses--sending another shocking alert down his spine and to the tip of his cock.
His returned growl, thick with frustration, was the only sign of how difficult it was for Kieren to suppress the wildness of his nature. This woman and the lushness of her bronzed body provoked him in the greatest of ways. But in the haze of his strong need, he knew that this was just a beginning, a door that he must ease open and they must step through together. The harshness of before must be erased from her mind. He wanted nothing to recall the memory of him that did not involve the joy of his touch, the pleasure of his nearness. This calmed and slowed him as he spread her legs wider with his own.
Kieren moved down her body skillfully. Each movement, touch, lick and bite was designed to heighten her desire. He was sensitive to her every response--no matter how small, and fed off them.
The feel of his tongue across her torso caused Iona to tighten and quiver uncontrollably. Just when she thought she might recover, she discovered that sensation was nothing compared to the feel of the next one. Running his tongue up her weeping slit and teasing her swollen lips was only a beginning. With his face between her thighs and the resting of her legs over broad shoulders, she was enraptured. Iona gasped for air when he dragged the texture of his tongue across her throbbing bud. When he sucked it in, her lips formed a perfect O and released a rush of air. When he flicked at it, the sensation was so overwhelming that she found remembering to breathe hard.
It was too much; she attempted to escape his delicious assault.
Kieren growled once again, hooked his strong hands firmly around her upper thighs to hold her steady, and increased his exploration. Finding her body's rhythm and recognizing the spots that guided her to the heights of pleasure gave him pleasure. Just when he felt her entire body constrict, on the cusp of climax, he pulled back—each time enjoying the control. Her sounds were intoxicating.
Iona felt as if she could die now, life could become no better. Even the graze of his teeth at her flesh, produced a unique panic that left her gripped by her own carnality. Just as she felt that she could no longer survive this over powering of the senses, when she could feel the oncoming fissures before the completeness of shattering, he would retreat—leaving her entire body pulsating in small waves that were infuriating promises that he was not finished.
"Please Kieren..."
Her mewling had made her voice weak but thick with passion, "I...I can bare this no longer."
Kieren laughed quietly.
"You would be amazed at what the body can bare." His voice was a rumble in his chest, low and promising.
"Kieren," she sighed.
"I love the sound of my name falling from your lips," he crooned before letting his tongue dive inside her.
When he looked up, Iona's eyes were tightly closed as she grabbed at the bedding. He could feel the beating of her heart with his tongue, her walls grasping and pulsating against it. He could taste this new sweetness as she came.
With deliberate gentleness he worked his way up her body, finally sucking and teasing each breast. This was done with great difficulty considering how her trembling affected him.
"What do you want Iona," he whispered, finally looking down into her glazed eyes.
She did not hesitate. Iona ground herself against his inflexible solidness.
