Blackthorne, Fiona - Moonstruck [Blue Moon 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (10 page)

She kissed him desperately now, hungry and hard, and he still held back somewhat, instinctively knowing that she had to be the one to give the signals. It was the sweetest torment, though, to feel her little fingers undoing each button until she finally pulled his shirt off him. He wore a T-shirt underneath, and he broke their kiss to strip it off. He needed the sensation of her hands upon his skin, and oh, the amazing connection he felt when she finally touched him, running her hands over his smooth chest.

His need to be inside her was burning him like a fever, making him delirious and loosening his control over himself. He wanted that ultimate sensation, to be as close to her as a man and woman could ever be. With a growl, he ran his hands up under her T-shirt, pulling it up and off her. The last bit of rational thought he had determined that as soon as he could, he would get rid of all of her ugly, utilitarian bras and replace them with lacy, little things that showed off her soft mounds and let her nipples peek through the sheerness.

He had to touch her, to tease her with his mouth and hands. Without waiting, he deftly unhooked her bra and stripped it off her, leaving her bare from the waist up. He heard her gasp, but it held equal measures of desire and surprise. Careful of his strength so as not to hurt her, he pulled her up on him so that he could suckle and tease her breasts. Oh, they were soft and perfect! Round with just a little weight to them, enough to fit in his hands, and with delicate little pink nipples and aureoles.

He flicked his tongue against one nipple, his cock flexing painfully at her groan of pleasure. With his hand, he began to flick, pinch, and tease the other nipple as he suckled her. Her little gasps and cries instinctively told him as she was approaching her climax, and he stopped. She wasn’t going to get off so easily. Literally. He vowed that every time he touched her, he would bring her to the most amazing orgasm he could. Nothing quick or halfhearted for her. Ava deserved the best he could give her, every time. Someday, she’d be able to take everything he could give her, the awakening of a darker, deeper side of her sexuality.

She was so light in his hands as he picked her up and laid her back against the sofa. He looked into her eyes to see them heavy with desire, her kiss-swollen lips parted slightly. God, she was beautiful! She was his. Whether she knew it yet or not, she belonged to him, and to his brothers, forever now.

The thought filled him with a fierce happiness and desire he had never known before. Desire he had known plenty, seeking pleasure for all his needs with girls who liked it rough, who liked it kinky and getting submissive. This was different because this was Ava.

He pulled off her jeans and socks, and instantly in his eyes, she went from half-naked graduate student to a bare, beautiful wood nymph with dark hair and eyes that promised mystery and pleasure.

“Oh, love,” he breathed, “you are so beautiful.”

She didn’t say anything, but a small, sweet smile played on her lips. He picked her up and laid her upon the bearskin rug where there would be room for them both. He got rid of the rest of his clothes and gently covered her body with his.

Every inch of his skin seemed electrified by contact with her. His cock was hard and swollen now, demanding her, needing her. He kissed her lips and pressed his body to hers, careful not to crush her. He growled, unable to control himself when she writhed against him, her breasts rubbing against his chest, and her hips bucking up against him.

He held himself up, propped on one elbow as he used his other hand to part her folds and find her nub. She gasped and arched her back as he began to gently stroke it. He marveled at how such a tiny, soft little point that he could roll between his fingers could produce so much pleasure. Ava’s wild movements and cries called forth the animal inside him, and he finally let himself thrust into her.

He thought he would explode in that moment. She was so tight, so hot, so wet. Her pussy was clenching around him, pulling him in, making demands. His mind blanked, and all he knew was that she was wrapping her soft, slender legs around his hips as he began to thrust in and out of her. Her arms came around his torso, and the feeling of her hands running down his back was a sweet madness he could hardly bear. Her fingertips were soft against his skin. She was soft against his skin. She was everything.

All he could do now was continue to stroke her as he feasted on her lips and her nipples, thrusting into her over and over, feeling the waves of pressure building toward his own release. Her gasps and cries grew tighter and more insistent, and he knew she was near. He pressed his fingers down in a firm, long, slow stroke over her clit, and she exploded under him, bucking and arching as her pleasure consumed her. He kept stroking her to keep the climax going until her cries became almost painful.

Finally, her desire-addled eyes focused on him, and he drowned inside her.

“Robert,” she whispered breathlessly, reaching up to touch his face.

His heart exploded in joy as he came, heartbeats and thrusts in time as he filled her, his climax rocking him and shaking him for longer than he had ever experienced before.

“My Ava,” he gasped, reaching down to kiss her fiercely, feeling her soft lips yield to his insistence. “My love.”

She pulled him down onto her, inviting him to drop his weight onto her entirely, and for a blessed moment of relief, he did. Her arms grew soft and tender as she loosened her legs from around his waist and let them side down his own legs so that they were still tangled.

Everything. She was everything now. He knew it. She was the key to the legend, but more than that. She was the woman he loved.

* * * *

Ava was awakened by coffee and kisses. She stretched out under the covers, savoring the smell of the coffee before opening her eyes to see a fully dressed Robert bending over her and smiling down into her eyes.

“Good morning,” she mumbled contentedly. She glanced around the room, glad to see that everything seemed to be behaving itself and looking completely normal in the gray daylight. Last night…no, she pushed the thought to the side. She needed coffee and a shower before she would tackle thinking about last night, about
all
of last night.

“Good morning, love,” Robert replied. “I made you coffee. Cream and sugar. I hope that's okay.”

“Perfect. Wow, it's early. It's only seven.”

Robert chuckled. “Some of us have to work, despite the fact that it's a Tuesday morning.”

“Editing a dissertation is work,” she replied mock indignantly, sitting up and holding the sheet around her as she reached for the coffee. “So, tell me what your job is.”

“I'm a civil engineer,” Robert replied. “I focus mainly on coastal engineering and water management. And, before you ask, Declan is the harbor master for Blue Moon Harbor, and Sean owns an auto repair shop. However, we work because we choose to, not because we need to.”

“You don't need to work?” Ava repeated, confused.

“No,” Robert replied with a rueful smile. “There is a hefty family fortune that has been several centuries in the making and could sustain the family for several more centuries.”

She laughed bemusedly. “You all are like you just stepped out of a gothic romance. Three mysterious brothers in a mansion by the sea, an old family fortune, a town haunted by ghosts and demons.”

“Truth is stranger than fiction,” he replied, his smile vanishing, and something much harder taking its place. “I want you to move into the mansion with us. You’re not safe here.”

Damn! Why did he have to bring all that stuff up before she was ready? She stifled the irritation she felt, like when a student asked her a question she wasn’t quite prepped for. Deliberately, she sipped her coffee, forcing herself to savor the heat, the sweet and bitter mixed flavors, the sensation of it going down her throat.

“I am not going to move anywhere except back to Boston in a month,” she said calmly. The words sounded weird to her, but she pushed that aside and continued. “I agree that something happened here last night, something that was not good. However, I am going to handle this my way—and before you object,” she said, raising her hand to cut off the words that she knew were on his lips. “Even if my dissertation topic didn’t involve extensive research into demonology, I’ve seen enough horror movies to know what to do and what not to do.”

She managed a wry smile up at Robert, trying to hide the fact that deep inside her, she felt an insistent need to be near him and with him. Moving to the mansion with him and Declan and Sean appealed to her in a way she couldn’t articulate because it was so primal and fundamentally right.

“I’m not going to use any Ouija boards,” she said. “I’m going to wear my crucifix around my neck and say the Lord’s Prayer several times a day. I’m going to take several other precautionary measures. I don’t necessarily believe in demons, but I’m not going to deny that something happened here last night. That’s mistake number one in every bad horror movie. In the end, if it gets too bad, I will simply leave Blue Moon.”

“You can’t leave!” Robert exclaimed, balling his hands into fists.

That was certainly not the response she had expected. She had thought he’d continue to press her to move in with him, to object to her staying here in the cottage. Leaving was never an item that was up for discussion.

“I have to leave,” she said quietly. “December 18 at the latest.”

The look of sudden anguish on Robert’s face was almost her undoing. Her heart tugged painfully toward him, and she couldn’t help but set down her coffee, and holding the sheet around her, get up on her knees to press herself against him and hug him.

“Look,” she whispered, trying to smile. “I decided last night that what we were doing was actually okay. Even with your brothers. It is all okay. It’s good for me, a connection I haven’t had in a very, very long time. It’s not like this was ever going to be more than just a…a fling or an affair for a few weeks. So, let’s just enjoy the time we have together.”

Robert wrapped his arms around her, pinning her to him so tightly she felt the air slowly being squeezed out of her lungs. Her realization last night as she was drifting off to sleep had been so easy, so natural, and so right, that she knew that she was in one of those moments where the universe had arranged everything to happen for a reason. A month of pleasure while she was editing her dissertation seemed right to her, a combination that celebrated the ending of one phase of her life and the start of a new one. Robert’s needing more from her unnerved her and upset her perfect line of reasoning, but she knew her limits, and December 18 was her limit.

“I won’t lose you,” Robert growled. Growled? Huh…now that it was daylight, and she was awake and only mildly riddled with desire for this man instead of drowning in it, she realized that Robert growled a lot. His growls were real things in the back of his throat. She pulled away as much as the iron cage of his arms would let her.

“I can’t breathe.” She gasped, and finally, he relented slightly.

“I can’t breathe without you,” Robert said fiercely, forcing her to look into his eyes but loosening his arms around her. What she saw there echoed uncomfortably in her heart. She set her jaw and tried to stay calm, but her body was coming alive with desire for him, and her heart yearned toward his, just as her lips yearned to speak those words back to him.

Suddenly, he released her, and she fell back onto the bed, startled and confused.

“Be careful today, Ava,” Robert said gruffly, turning and striding purposefully out of the bedroom.

She heard the front door open and close and sat there, staring at the wall and wondering what the hell had just happened.

Chapter 10

Ava sat at her kitchen table, staring out at the water and letting her coffee go cold. Around her neck, she now wore her mother’s small gold crucifix, a family heirloom from a family she knew nothing about.

The rain continued to pound the ground outside, and the tall pines swayed with the fierce winds. When she had finally gotten out of bed, she found that Robert had made a fire for her so that the cottage was warm and cozy.

She sighed and let her mind wander. Being with Robert had been so good, mind-blowingly good. What was really weird was that she not only wanted to see him again, but she felt this deep urge to see Declan and Sean, too. She smiled a little as she thought that maybe some of the nineteenth century avant-garde doctors had been right in diagnosing female “hysteria” as the result of a lack of sex, or rather “connexion.” She didn’t feel the slightest bit hysterical this morning. She felt good, better than she had in years…or maybe ever.