Blood Oath (11 page)

The time difference wasn’t the only thing
causing her to be alert, she realized. The blankets had been pushed aside, and
there was a chill in the air. She noticed that right before she realized Demi’s
mouth was at her neck, sucking softly on her skin. His fingers were stroking
her pussy.

She tilted her head to look at him, but his
face at her neck kept her from moving far. “Demi?” Her voice still held traces
of sleep.

He moved his mouth away from her neck
slightly. “I couldn’t sleep with you curled so temptingly in my arms. I’m sorry
if I woke you.”

“It’s okay,” she said in a dreamy voice,
parting her legs so he could reach her clit more easily. He fumbled a moment
before finding it, and then his thumb and forefinger were tracing light circles
around the nub. She sighed and started to turn onto her back, but he stopped
her by putting his mouth against her throat again.

Anca focused her gaze on a tapestry on the
gray stone wall as Demi caressed her clit and sucked on her neck. She locked
her thighs around his arm as he slid a finger inside her pussy. She circled her
hips as she moaned.

Demi’s other arm was pinned under her waist,
but he repositioned her slightly so he could stroke her nipples. “I want to
make love to you. Will you accept me?”

She stifled the urge to giggle at his formal
request. Most men would have assumed they could proceed if they had their hands
between their partner’s thighs. She swallowed to suppress the laughter. “Yes.”

She heard him move away from the bed. When
he came into her line of sight, she watched him pad across the floor to lift
his pants. He rummaged through the pockets until he found what he sought. She
turned her head to watch him come back to the bed, and she saw he held a
condom. He moved behind her, and she heard him opening the wrapper seconds
before the bed dipped under his weight.

To her surprise, Demi didn’t turn her onto
her back, and he made no move to straddle her once he was back in bed. Instead,
he stretched out behind her and lifted her thigh with his hand. He shifted her
gently until she was angled with her head barely on the pillows, and her feet
pointing toward the opposite corner of the bed.

Anca shivered as Demi positioned his leg
across her thighs. His other leg pushed under hers to lift it. He nudged the
leg he held a little higher in the air. His cock brushed against her buttocks
as he scooted forward another inch. She bit her lip as she waited for him.
Within seconds, the head of his cock was pushing against the wet entrance of
her pussy.

He eased into her with a slow thrust, moving
so slowly she thought she might pass out. A twinge of discomfort accompanied
his total possession, and she stiffened. She immediately forced herself to
relax.

Demi stopped moving. He cleared his throat.
“You are a…virgin, Anca?”

She shook her head. “No. It’s just been a
long time.”

“I see.” He sounded disappointed. “Do you
wish to continue?”

“Oh, yes. It didn’t really hurt. I was just
surprised…” She trailed off with a sigh. “I do want you.”

He didn’t speak as he withdrew carefully and
thrust into her again. Each movement was slow and careful, as though he thought
she was made of glass and might break.

It was disconcerting to be making love to
him without seeing his expression. She could feel his body’s reaction to her,
and could hear his ragged breathing, but she couldn’t see how he felt. She
wanted to look into his eyes.

When he withdrew again, Anca pulled away
from him. She pulled her legs away from his and rolled over onto her other
side, so she was facing him. He was frowning.

“Is something wrong?”

She smoothed her fingers over his furrowed
brow. “No. I wanted to see you...to look into your eyes as we make love.” She
moved closer to him, until her breasts touched his chest. Anca put her thigh
over his legs, exposing her pussy.

Demi thrust forward, and his cock pushed
against her clit. She scooted up a bit, and he entered her pussy again. Once
inside her, he stopped moving, and their eyes locked.

Anca stared into his dark eyes, and a
sensation of rightness swept through her. The physical presence of his body
joined with hers wasn’t as intense as the emotions flashing through his eyes,
transmitting themselves to her. She felt loneliness sweep over her, followed by
longing. His eyes reflected the image of her face, and when she saw herself in
them, contentment washed over her.

She felt connected to Demi on a level she
had never experienced with another man. As he moved away from her, and then
surged back inside her with a powerful thrust, her heart raced. Perspiration
formed on her brow, and she struggled to get closer to him.

“What do you see in my eyes?” Demi asked, as
he draped his arm over her waist and squeezed her buttocks.

Anca struggled to focus on his question as
he rocked his hips, while pressing her closer still. He filled her completely
when his cock pushed into her pussy. Her eyes were starting to water, but she
didn’t want to blink and risk missing the play of emotions in his eyes. “Uh…”

He thrust into her more forcefully. “You
wanted to look. Tell me what you see.”

“You. Me.” She couldn’t think, couldn’t
breathe. How was she supposed to answer his question when she couldn’t
concentrate on anything but the whirling vortex of his eyes and the way they
fit together perfectly?

Demi released her bottom and trailed his
hand over her hip, across her belly, and down to her pussy. He slipped his
fingers between her smooth lips and circled her clit with small strokes. “Do
you know what I see in your eyes?”

“Uh…” she said again, unable to form
coherent thoughts.

“Pleasure, confusion, longing. More than
that…”

She closed her eyes as the sensations
overwhelmed her. He thrust into her again and continued caressing her clit in
time with each tilt of their hips.

“Open your eyes,” he said forcefully. His
voice had previously been a rough whisper.

Anca’s eyes popped open, and she looked up
at him, barely able to focus on his face, because she was so close to coming.

“You wanted to watch me while we made love.”
He pushed his cock deep inside her and stopped moving. “Tell me.”

There was a strange sense of desperation
about him, as though he
needed
her answer. She blinked, struggling to
speak as he resumed moving inside her. She swallowed and forced her eyes open
and into focus as her gaze locked with his.

Previously, she had let the emotions blur
together, but now she tried to separate them. Tenderness, that was easy to
spot. Pleasure, of course. His eyes were expressive, but more than that, she
seemed to know what he was feeling as he felt it.

Were the emotions really in his eyes, or was
she sensing them directly from him? The experience was similar to a vision, but
different too. The emotions were more specific, and less open to
interpretation. Rather than
seeing
, she was
feeling
. Or was she?
Was it all in her mind?

“Anca?” His eyes pleaded with her as his
muscles quivered. “Now, please, tell me if you can see what I’m feeling. I
can’t wait…”

Her orgasm swept over her as his body
stiffened and his cock spasmed. Anca put her hand on his shoulder and dug her
nails into his skin. The answer suddenly crystallized in her mind, and she
wondered why she hadn’t realized earlier. It seemed so obvious. “Love,” she
forced out through gritted teeth as convulsions swept through her body.

Demi sagged against her, and his relief was
palpable. “Yes,” he whispered against her neck. His lips tickled her skin. He
whispered something, but the words were indistinct. It sounded like he said,
“Joined,” but she couldn’t be certain.

Tiredness swept over Anca as the pleasure
from her orgasm slowly faded away. A feeling of being protected accompanied the
languorous afterglow of making love, and she curled closer to Demi. Questions
flickered through her mind, but she didn’t voice them. She was too tired to
talk…if only she was too tired to think.

She should ask why Demi thought he loved
her. She should tell him their lovemaking didn’t change anything. She was still
returning home at the end of the week. She should make it clear what they had
done tonight was a mistake and wouldn’t—couldn’t—happen again.

The only problem was, it didn’t feel like a
mistake. For the first time in her life, Anca wasn’t haunted by the
ever-present, phantom sensation that something was missing. Sex had never
filled that ache before, so why did it now?

She didn’t want to examine it too closely,
because a shadowy answer had already formed in her mind. Being with Demi had
been more than sex, but she refused to allow herself to define exactly what
else it had been. Such thoughts would be dangerous to her future, and they
threatened to upset the life she was accustomed to.

His arm draped her waist again, and he
turned his head so his mouth was against her ear. “I have to leave you soon.”

Her sleep-heavy eyelids had started to
close, but she opened them quickly. “What? Why?” She frowned. “Is it illegal or
something to make love if you aren’t married?”

He laughed, and his chest rumbled against
hers. “No, though it would probably be better not to have rumors circulating
about your sex life during your first week here.” He eased away and propped his
chin on his hand. “I have a duty to perform, and I must leave around daybreak.”

“Where are you going?”

“Ylenia is staying at Necheau, a village
high in the mountains. Her niece married into the pa…one of the groups who live
there. She left to visit her weeks ago, before your father sent me to find
you.” His lips curved into a small smile. “Though I doubt she didn’t know he
would send for you. Little escapes Ylenia.”

The name was familiar. “Who’s Ylenia again?”

“She’s our spiritual leader, and she will
want to meet you immediately.” His expression darkened. “She will have much to
tell you, and not all of it will be pleasant.”

A hint of foreboding overshadowed the
contentment of lying in his arms. Anca wasn’t anxious to meet this woman. A
shiver raced down her spine, and she bit back the urge to beg him not to fetch
the woman. She sensed the meeting was unavoidable, though she didn’t know how
she knew that.

“When will you be back?” She tried to force
herself to sound cheery, to hide her reluctance to meet Ylenia, and her
reluctance to be parted from him. Unfortunately, her voice emerged more as a
croaky chirp.

“Late tonight or early tomorrow. I’ll take a
Land Rover to get into the mountains, but Ylenia will insist on returning on
horseback. She gets violently carsick.”

“What will I do with myself?”

“You are free to do anything you wish.” He
touched her cheek and smoothed his fingers over her supple skin. “Don’t go
anywhere alone though. It may not be safe.” He seemed reluctant to divulge that
last bit of information. “Take Starr. She has agreed to be your companion while
you’re here.”

Anca’s brow quirked. “She
agreed
? How
does one get a wolf to agree to anything?”

He seemed to be going out of his way to be
obtuse. “Carefully, and with much persuasion.” He grinned at her.

“But—“

“You will be safe with her.”

She shivered, imagining having the wolf
shadowing her every move. She would rather take her chances alone.

“Anca, promise me something.” He spoke in a
low voice, and his expression was somber.

“What?”

“Promise me you won’t try to leave while I’m
gone. I know you’re frightened of what everyone expects from you, but please
promise me you’ll be here when I get back.”

She frowned when she realized the thought of
leaving while he wasn’t there to stop her hadn’t even entered her mind. “I’ll
stay until the end of the week, as I agreed to.”

He
nodded, not looking satisfied, but no longer looking fearful. “I’ll return
soon.” He cupped her face in his hand. “I find the thought of leaving you
painful, now that we have joined.”

“I’ll miss you,” she said again and snuggled
closer to him. A hint of worry lingered as he pulled the blankets over them and
relaxed. Even as his soft snores filled the chamber a few minutes later, she
remained on edge. She didn’t know which she dreaded more—being alone in the
castle for the day with a wolf companion; meeting Ylenia and hearing what she
had to say; or telling Demi she had to go back to her real life.

An ache near her heart caused her to catch
her breath, and it answered her question. What she dreaded most was leaving
Demi, though she wasn’t certain how such a turn of events had happened so
quickly. All she knew was she wanted to be with him, though they had known each
other only a few days. It felt like she had always known him, and she had
simply been waiting for him.

Yet, how could she stay? She wasn’t meant to
be a queen, even if she had wanted that kind of life. She’d had no training,
breeding, or warning about her expected role in Corsova.