Wicked Wind (Solsti Prophecy #1) (20 page)

Gunnar sat next to Larissa, who chattered amiably while steaming bowls of soup were brought to them. As course after course was set on their table, he couldn’t help but notice the female nymphs that stood just beyond the empty space next to him. A similar group of males stood on Nicole’s side of the table.

“You know, Gunnar, you may partake of anything you like here at Rivkin.” Larissa’s eyes flicked to the females. “Truly.”

He polished off his second braised turkey leg and glanced at Nicole who listened attentively, eating as Taszim spoke to her. Gunnar was only interested in the leggy blonde at the other end of their table, but he smiled and placed his hand over Larissa’s. “Your hospitality is unparalleled, my lady.”

“As is the radiance of your female. Have you known her very long? The return of the Solsti is wondrous, but I must admit it is also a little unsettling.”

“You and I are in agreement again, Larissa. The Solsti are said to exist when there is a great need for their help. Right now, I don’t know what we may be up against.” He smiled as he glanced over at Nicole, listening intently to something Taszim was saying. “And I haven’t known her long. You could say I just...found her.”

“Aren’t you the lucky one, then. If you don’t mind, I’m going to whisk her across the room for a moment. I want to show her some of the treasures we have here in the great hall before my husband bores her straight to sleep.” She turned to Taszim, wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him close to kiss him, effectively ending his conversation with Nicole. “Darling, I’m going to borrow Nicole for a bit. I’ve been dying to show her how talented our weavers are. They are masters, and not just with moss.” She winked at Nicole.

Nicole caught Gunnar’s eye and shrugged. “I’d love to see them, Larissa.”

The nymph took Nicole’s hand and led her toward one of the beautiful tapestries that hung along the walls of the banquet room. It wasn’t long before the two were surrounded by a bevy of males, who didn’t seem the least bit bothered that they had to look up into Nicole’s face to speak with her. Gunnar gritted his teeth, noting that most of them weren’t looking at her face; rather, they let their gazes drop to ogle her lush, nearly naked body in that damn moss dress. He struggled to remind himself that they would be doing the same to any visiting female. And their own females, for that matter.

Speaking of female nymphs, Diantha appeared in front of the table. She had lost the few leaves that covered the tips of her breasts and the neat curls at the juncture of her thighs, so with only vines wrapped around her body, she stood practically naked before him. Given her earlier reaction to Diantha, Nicole would probably unleash a tornado if she looked their way right now. He kept his eyes on her face as she murmured, “I came to make sure you were enjoying your evening, my lord.”

She was pretty, Gunnar had to admit. And before Nicole had come into his life, he would have accepted Diantha’s offer without hesitation. But there was only one female on his mind now. He purposely gentled his words. “You honor me, nymph. But I must decline.”

Diantha pouted. “I see. Let me know if you change your mind.” She turned to join a group of males, taking one on each arm and walking to the other end of the room.

“Lovely girl.” Taszim eyed Diantha’s virtually bare backside. “As is your Nicole.”

Gunnar nodded as he watched Nicole across the room. She chatted comfortably with the many nymphs surrounding her. Her eyes shifted over the bevy of brown-haired creatures, then sought him out. She winked like she’d expected him to be looking at her.
Damn
. His chest clenched at her loveliness. Her hair shimmered like a golden halo, and her smile exuded a sunburst of warmth.

At that moment the music changed to a pulsing, sultry beat. The mood in the great hall changed. Gunnar stood up to go to Nicole, but she was already making her way through the nymphs to join him. She pressed up against his side, whispering, “What’s going on?”

“I think this is the entertainment,” he replied in her ear, wrapping his arm around her waist.

They sat down at their table and looked toward the center of the room. Several female nymphs came forward and began to dance. They had abandoned their leafy attire and swayed slowly, completely naked but for the shimmery veils they twisted and twirled around their own bodies and each other’s. Their limbs intertwined languidly as they came together in the middle of the floor. With one quick flash of silk, they drifted apart, each wrapped in another’s veil. Their sensual movements of together and apart, covered and bare, continued in perfect rhythm to their primal music.

After a few moments they were joined by a number of males who were also nude. Gunnar knew where this “dance” was headed, but he was fairly certain it would be a first for Nicole. He glanced down to see her watching, wide-eyed, as the males each took a female and tied a veil over her eyes. Still moving to the sultry beat, the men held the women in their arms and began to dip them, lift them, and bend them into various graceful but blatantly sexual poses. Some of the females untied their veils and used them to caress their partners, or to give them a turn at being blindfolded.

Nicole watched raptly. He couldn’t resist tracing the back of his hand down her side, deliberately brushing his knuckles along her breast. She gave a small gasp and turned to him, emerald eyes huge. “Are they going to…have sex? Right there?”

He nodded.

She sucked in a small breath. “Are we supposed to stay and watch?”

He nodded again.

She went on in a barely audible whisper, “Are we supposed to join them?”

This time he couldn’t suppress a smile. “We certainly can if we want to. But we don’t have to.”

“Oh.” She looked back at the dancers. “This is a new one for me.” The nymphs’ movements grew bolder, their hands and mouths moving over their partners’ bodies. Nicole rested her hand on his thigh, sending a delicious warmth straight to his groin. She squeezed his leg as the nymphs abandoned the concept of partners and began to kiss and caress the skin of any others they could reach.

All of the males were visibly hard as they suckled at the taut nipples of whichever female was before them. Around the edges of the room, other nymphs had found partners and continued the activity of the dancers. Nicole tilted her head as she stared at the center of the room. A female nymph–he realized it was the friendly Diantha–was on all fours as she took one male into her mouth, a second male below her suckled her breasts, and a third male entered her from behind. It looked like Diantha’s passion would be slaked tonight, despite Gunnar’s rebuff.

Oh, he loved that his Solsti was curious. Still staring at the foursome, she tilted her head the other way and shifted in her seat. The scent of her arousal pierced his nostrils, making his mind go fuzzy.
Spicy, sweet, and utterly intoxicating
. Moving his hand up from where it rested at the curve of her waist, he cupped her breast. Her entire body jerked as she tore her gaze away from the nymphs and looked at him.

Pleased by her responsiveness, he drew her tiny earlobe between his teeth and released it, making her shiver. He traced the tops of her breasts just above the neckline of her dress. The pulse at the base of her neck beat a frantic tempo. With his lips a bare fraction away from hers, he whispered, “So what do you think of your first live sex show?”

Her eyes widened and her breath came faster as she watched him, her green gaze full of a raw sexual hunger that drew him like a magnet. His tongue flicked out to trace her lower lip and he dragged his fingers up her thigh. Her bare skin was soft as silk, and from the glimpse of her perky ass he had gotten earlier, she wasn’t wearing anything under the dress. She grunted sweetly on a sharp exhale and swiftly pressed her lips to his. As her tongue darted into his mouth, he pulled her onto his lap and covered her breast again, his thumb teasing her nipple to a hard peak.

Her dress had ridden up, and he cupped her bare bottom with his hand. With her fingertip, she slowly traced a line down the center of his bare chest. She kept going when she got to his trousers, lightly skimming his hard length. He groaned, remembering the attention she had given him earlier with those hands and with her sinful mouth.

Urgency flowed through her kiss. She tangled her tongue with his, one soft hand on his jaw. Dragging his fingers along her bare ass, the thought of her damp heat made his cock swell even more.

She squirmed on his lap, her breathing uneven. “Can we go somewhere else? They won’t mind?”

He glanced to the other end of the table. Taszim had unwrapped most of the vines and leaves from his wife’s body, save for one that he used to bind her wrists behind her. Sitting on her husband’s lap, Larissa’s head was thrown back as Taszim pleasured her breasts with his mouth.

“They won’t even notice.” Gunnar picked Nicole up and carried her from the banquet hall. “Your place or mine?”

“Mine has a really big bed,” she murmured, her mouth licking and tantalizing his neck. “But I don’t remember how to get back there.”

“I do.” He had made a point to know where she was at all times, and he knew exactly which room she had been given. His long strides ate up the ground quickly, her silky hair brushing his shoulder, her arms wound around his nape. After a swift basket ride, they were alone in her room. He raised his eyebrows at the enormous bed. “You weren’t kidding.”

Still holding her, he started to walk toward it, but she stopped him with a tug of her arms. Eyes dark with desire, she whispered, “Right here.”

With a growl, he turned and pressed her against the heavy door. He hardened even more with the knowledge that she wanted him this very second. One swift tug of his hands and the flimsy dress disintegrated in downward swirls of moss.

She rubbed her bare breasts across his chest and circled her hips against his, her spicy-sweet scent filling the air. Her wild need shredded his control. They would have time to go slow later; now, he just needed to be inside her. He quickly freed himself from his pants and lifted her by her hips, then lowered her onto his raging erection with one deep thrust.

He cursed softly at the sensation of her sweetly hot sheath surrounding him.
Fucking
amazing
. She moaned and rocked her hips, snaking one naughty hand between them to flutter against herself.
Again with those fingers.
Through his haze of lust, he made a mental note to make sure she couldn’t use her hands on herself next time.

He bent his head to her breasts, taking one puckered pink tip into his mouth, and that was all it took. Her body bucked wildly against him with the force of her release. He raised his head to watch the ecstasy on her face as she shrieked his name. Her body squeezed him, flooding him with more of her delicious warmth, and then he came apart with her, pounding into her, pushing her even harder against the door.

C
HAPTER
13

T
HE
AFTERSHOCKS
COURSING
through Nicole’s sated body were the only things keeping her from turning into a puddle of goo. She couldn’t have lifted her head if she wanted to. The smooth wood at her back dimly registered. But her front…
mmm, yes.
Her front was all wrapped up in Gunnar’s heat.

“Now will you let me take you to bed?” he murmured in her ear.

“Sure,” she sighed, as Gunnar shifted their positions to cradle her against his chest. As if she weighed nothing, he carried her across the room to the huge tree-poster bed. He lowered himself down on top of her, leaning his weight on his strong arms, gazing at her.

“I think…” His grin radiated sex. “That I should take you to nymph shows more often.”

“You’ll kill me.” She smiled in lazy satisfaction.

“It’ll take a lot more than this to kill you.”

“Then I guess we’ll have to watch another one.” She gazed up at the visual feast that was his body. Smooth skin covered rock-hard muscles everywhere. The solid wall of his bare chest, with its light dusting of dark hair, had tempted her all night. Every time she glanced at him she’d wanted to kiss her way across those thick slabs of muscle.

Apparently, so had others. Nicole took complete feminine satisfaction that he barely glanced at the pretty, curvy nymphs flitting around his elbows all night. She hadn’t known what to expect here at the colony, with all the females being so willing and eager, but she needn’t have worried.

Watching the nymphs have sex had been unexpectedly arousing. When she first realized what was going to take place, she wanted to leave the great hall. But once they started, she couldn’t look away.
When did I turn into a voyeur?
Maybe it was just being here on Torth, literally a different world, which made her so interested. Or maybe it was just being among the touchy-feely, hyper-sexualized nymphs. Either way, she wasn’t complaining. Gunnar certainly hadn’t minded her reaction.

She looked up now in appreciation at his biceps, sculpted by years of fighting. He was long and lean. Not one spare ounce of flesh graced his powerful body. Her gaze trailed down his long torso to the hard ridges that made up his abdomen, and she couldn’t resist reaching her finger up to trace them lightly. His muscles clenched at the contact, but he let her explore. A shiver of awareness shot through her as she paused at the top of the line of fine hair that trailed down lower, to his magnificent, thick penis, which was still semi-hard. For her.

As she stared, it twitched and grew. She looked up at him with wide eyes.

“That’s what you do to me, Nicole.” He leaned down to kiss her, his lips slowly exploring hers. The rough stubble on his cheek teased her when he broke away to nuzzle the sensitive skin between her breasts. He licked the soft undersides, then drew achingly close to one pebbled nipple.

“You have a bad habit,” he whispered.

“I do?” she practically squeaked.
What is he talking about? And why is he talking at all?

“Mmm-hmm.” A quick flick of his tongue.

She jerked. “What’s my bad habit?”

“Touching that sweet little clit of yours.” He took her other nipple between his thumb and forefinger and then simply held his hand still. She shifted, trying to create the friction she needed. He nipped her shoulder and she shuddered.