Nicole Jordan (36 page)

Her senses on fire, Aurora wrapped her legs around his hips and arched up in welcome. He wasn’t gentle, but she didn’t want gentle. The incredible, exquisite, painful hunger was building, until her arousal was as intense as his own. They were man and woman, filled with primal need. She could not get close enough.

He plunged into her, driving her to a place of wanton delight, filled with bright, hot pleasure. She wanted to weep with the beauty of it.

Their coupling grew rough, wilder, till the fiery, clawing need became unbearable. They strained together, insatiable, in a mating of raw, animal passion. He demanded her surrender, demanded abandon, and she gave him both. She writhed beneath him. Her fingernails raked his back as he took her, her soft cries goading him to greater wildness.

Her frenzy at last ripped the last shred of restraint from Nicholas. His rasping breath choked words against her mouth as he drove into her. He shook with the pounding need to pleasure her, to possess her, to brand her with his passion….

The inferno broke over them in a tumult that made them both cry out. Aurora sobbed as her body erupted in a white-hot climax, while Nicholas groaned, a harsh, raw sound. Crushing her savagely close, he shattered in a searing explosion of emotion that had her name at the end of it.

In the heated aftermath, he collapsed against her. For a long moment, he lay there, trembling from the force of his thundering heart, the only movement his fingers clenching and unclenching in her hair.

Their bonding had been fierce and primal, like nothing he had ever felt before. He wanted to throw back his head and howl in triumph….

He had won this time. He had conquered Aurora’s rigid control for the moment, making her surrender to overwhelming passion. But now came the far harder task: binding her to him in love.

And he had only two short weeks in which to succeed.

That night was the first of many such passionate moments together.

Despite her many qualms, Aurora found her time with Nicholas pure enchantment, a magical interlude in her life like nothing she had ever experienced. As he’d asked, they had no past, no future, no nationality. They were simply man and woman, lovers in a paradise of desire.

The opulent secluded mansion offered sinful enticements Aurora could never even have imagined, but it was Nicholas who made their time together pure bliss.

He showed her pleasure beyond her dreams, leading her into a realm of the flesh and of the senses. They spent long hours exploring the boundaries of erotic ecstasy. He taught her to please him and to openly express what pleased her. At his impetus, she cast away all inhibition or awkwardness, shedding the stifling codes of proper society with wild abandon, willingly surrendering to his tantalizing touch and the fire in his seductive eyes.

Nicholas made her feel utterly wanted and desired. And yet he challenged her spirit and her mind as well as her body. His intelligence and wit were a constant delight, while the rapier-sharp edge of his sensual charm made mincemeat of her usual reserve.

He made her laugh, and he made her yearn. She had never felt so cherished. She had never felt so free. Here she could be as wild and wanton as she wished.

It disturbed her, however, to discern his purpose. Nicholas was not only mirroring certain carnal elements of the journal; he was wooing her as the Turkish prince had wooed Desiree.

Aurora herself gave him an opening to discuss their courtship one afternoon when he surprised her reading the journal. Coming up behind her unaware as she sat in the garden, Nicholas bent to press a delicate kiss on her nape.

Aurora gave a start at the erotic sensation and glanced up.

“What holds you so fascinated that you didn’t even notice me?”

“This.”

She flushed as he took the jeweled volume from her and studied the page.
“My lover and I are as one,”
he murmured, quoting a sensual passage.
“All reserve between us, all
secrets, gone.”
Nicholas eyed her thoughtfully. “That is precisely what I want for us, Aurora.”

“My reserve is diminishing,” she replied in her own defense. “You have seen to that.”

“True, but you still have a long way to go.” He returned the journal to her, but continued to regard her. “You are very much like Desiree was in the beginning—afraid of her own desire.”

More alike than she cared to admit, Aurora thought unwillingly. Desiree had been a sheltered young innocent awakened to stunning passion by a man who became her obsession…. “She had good reason to be afraid, Nicholas. As a concubine, she was completely powerless, totally at the mercy of a savage ruler.”

“He proved not to be so savage. And eventually she came to wield a great deal of power over him.” Moving around the bench, Nicholas sat beside her. “That’s something else you have in common. You have no notion of your own power.” He smiled tenderly. “I think you could rule me with very little effort.”

When she made no response, Nicholas bent toward her. His mouth caught her earlobe, and she shivered again, violently.

“And another similarity,” he breathed in her ear. “Desiree thought she wanted liberty, but she discovered something she valued more. Passion. She chose that over freedom.”

Uneasily Aurora edged away from his tormenting attention. “You forget that her tale ended unhappily. That her passion resulted in misery.”

“Our story won’t end like that, Aurora.” His lips found her neck again, moving softly on her skin, each caress spinning pleasure about them like some silken, invisible web. “You can have all the incredible passion Desiree found without the heartache….”

“Nicholas, please…” She shook her head. “You said we wouldn’t think about our future.”

“So I did.” His eyelids drooped sensually as he gazed at her. “Then kiss me, sweetheart, and make me forget….”

Gratefully, Aurora moved into his arms and raised her mouth to his, giving herself over to his sensual passion.

To her relief Nicholas did not mention the journal again, allowing her to slip back into their fantasy.

They took long lingering walks together, wandering the grounds, absorbed in each other. The gardens were a delight, boasting elegant, erotic statuary and even a giant maze sculpted from topiary yews, while the surrounding woods were intriguing. The dense, green-gladed beechwood offered an enchanted world all its own, full of quiet paths and running streams with mossy banks, dappled with blinks of golden sunlight and cool shadow.

They rode as well as walked. Here in this secluded hideaway, Aurora could indulge her secret vice to her heart’s content. One of her greatest pleasures was enjoying a wild gallop through a morning meadow with the wind in her face and Nicholas close on her heels.

Mostly, however, they made love. Nothing was forbidden, no place or time off limits. Nicholas was determined to shatter every last measure of her reserve. They made love in the bath, and at the supper table, and beside the reflecting pool, sheltered by the high courtyard walls. They fed each other honey-drenched sweetmeats and delicious fruits, and then drank from each other’s lips. They made love on a bed of rose petals, whose fragrant perfume was almost dizzying, just as in the journal.

The journal guided Aurora in certain instruments of delight as well. Her favorite novelty was a pair of smooth silver balls, meant to be inserted deep between a woman’s thighs and designed to titillate and arouse.

The first time Aurora wore them was a shock; she had never felt such awareness of her body, or of Nicholas’s. The delicious sensations filled her with such excitement, she could scarcely keep her hands off him.

They explored the maze during an afternoon warm and lazy and golden with sunlight. Nicholas made the venture an exercise in eroticism, showering her with hot, slow kisses as he led her deeper into the winding labyrinth.

When they reached the very heart of the maze, Aurora was unsurprised to find a life-size marble statue of two lovers in the throes of passion, displayed like a shrine in a grassy, open-air temple. She had no trouble divining Nicholas’s intent when he spread a quilt on the grass and tugged off his cravat. But when he reached for her, she tensed. The high yew hedges offered all the privacy she could wish for, yet she still wasn’t completely comfortable at such licentiousness.

At her hesitation, Nicholas gave her a look that was a challenge. “No one can see us, sweeting, but if it really troubles you…”

“No,” she replied, remembering all the wonderful pleasures she had discovered at his wanton urging. “It doesn’t trouble me.”

“I’m glad. I want you naked, love, with only hot skin between us. Come here.”

He drew her into his embrace, his soft, persuasive lips caressing her face. Aurora responded helplessly, swaying closer to the solid strength of him.

She melted to his touch as he freed her warm skin to the sun and to his hands; she could feel her body softening, turning to warm, sweet honey.

When she finally stood nude before him, his eyes devoured her with a boldness that alone aroused her. The mere feel of his heated eyes on her naked breasts made them quiver with sensation. Her nipples were peeking out from beneath the burnished strands of her hair, and his index finger leisurely traced an aureole. Aurora caught her breath as he plucked it to a taut peak.

Hearing the soft sound, he raised both his hands to cover her lush breasts. “You have the most responsive nipples. One touch and they harden.”

His warm palms rubbing the crested points, he watched her start and shiver under his touch.

“Nicholas…”

At her husky plea, he made a sympathetic sound. “Easy, sweet.”

He kissed her mouth, not roughly but possessively, as if he meant to make her his, then slowly bore her down to the coverlet. He was still clothed, while she was completely naked, Aurora realized.

She stared up at him with a sharp sense of awareness. He returned her gaze boldly as he knelt above her, his hot eyes roaming over her. Aurora felt her breath catch in her throat. She lay completely exposed to the sun and to his heated gaze, and when he looked at her with such raw hunger, she felt deliciously sinful and desirable.

She reached for him, but he shook his head. “No. Just let me touch you.”

She closed her eyes, feeling an erotic heat spread through her body that had nothing to do with the warmth of the sun. His hands were moving over her flesh, creating a sensation so piercing and sweet, she felt weak. Then he bent his head, his lips lowering to lovingly attend her breasts.

The heat within her intensified; every sensation was vividly magnified as his tongue worshiped her breasts with slow, languid strokes upon their throbbing peaks. Restlessly, Aurora clutched the coverlet with her fingers. When he blew on the nipple that was still glistening from his mouth, she moaned.

“Nicholas…” she exclaimed hoarsely, “I want you….”

He drew back; his eyes caressed her bare breasts. “Yes, I know.”

The tender half smile playing on his lips promised even greater delights as his hand moved down her body to slip between her thighs to cover her hot, pulsing feminine mound. She gasped aloud, and then gasped again at the luscious slide of his thumb against the moist and aching focus of sensation.

“You are already wet for me,” he said in husky approval. “Maybe we should see if we can make you wetter.”

Easing himself between her parted, shivering thighs, he bent down to taste her. Excitement pierced Aurora like a lightning bolt as she realized his brazen intent.

Holding her hips with his strong hands, Nicholas brushed a probing kiss against her feminine cleft. Aurora gave a strangled moan at the intimate caress. “Ohhhh.”

“Yes, love, let me hear you….” His lips faintly upturned in the quiet certainty of his power, he bent to her again.

A delicious shock flared through her body as he explored the yielding, warm folds of flesh with his erotic mouth. Shuddering uncontrollably, she gave herself over to his lavish sensuality.

Her head fell back in surrender as he savored her with his caressing lips and tongue. When she arched against him, he clasped her buttocks, giving her no opportunity to evade him. With exquisite skill he lapped at her slowly, thoroughly, his hot, rasping tongue stroking her in heated pulses, delighting the quivering, throbbing bud that was the center of her pleasure.

Her hands rose to his hair, desperately clutching. His mouth with its lazy suckling was driving her wild. “God…Nicholas…please.”

“Oh, yes,” he murmured against her hot flesh. “I will please you in every possible way.”

He held her to him more firmly, his face pressed against her, his tongue delving inside her swollen cleft, sweetly ravishing.

Fire leapt from his mouth into her flesh, dragging a wrenching shudder from her. Her whole body was a hot screaming mass of desire. She writhed beneath him, whimpering mindlessly, until finally a shriek tore from her.

She climaxed again and again, a wild, rippling, seemingly never-ending series. Mercilessly he drew every last drop of excruciating pleasure from her quivering flesh, until she fell back, limp and helpless with exhaustion.

Satisfied, he stretched out beside her. After a long moment, he pressed a kiss against her temple. “You cannot fall asleep just yet,” he murmured warmly against her ear. “We have only begun to obliterate your inhibitions.”

Aurora stirred against him languorously, not wanting to move. It was scandalous, what he had done, but she couldn’t bring herself to lament her wanton behavior. Instead she wanted more.

“I am not about to fall asleep,” she returned in a voice still husky with passion. “I am simply being patient, waiting for you to undress. You have far too many clothes on.”

His smile was so sensual, it made her heart turn over. “Your wish is my command, angel.”

He started to undress, but Aurora took over. It was her turn to torment him.

Kneeling over him, she took off his garments, one by one, drawing out the moment. When he was nude, she sat back on her heels, marveling at his hard-muscled glory. His skin was golden in the sunlight, except for the paler flesh at his groin and upper thighs. He was brazen, naked male, all corded muscle and lithe strength. And he was boldly aroused.