She smiled at him quite wickedly. “I don’t know about you, babe, but I’m really enjoying myself. In fact, the next time I challenge you, I’m going to have to try much harder to win, now that I’ve had a taste of the power that comes with it.”
She ignored the frown that got her, and leaned over until her cheek rested against his chest. She brought her hand down next to her face and began to play with the nipple in front of her, watching it get as hard as hers already were. When he groaned she left off there and began to torment the rest of his skin, using both hands now, spreading her fingers wide to reach more of his chest, feeling the muscles jerk and ripple under her fingertips, hearing his heart pound beneath her ear.
“Stars, touching you is such pleasure, babe.”
She hadn’t meant to say that thought aloud or with such feeling, but she wasn’t sorry that it slipped out when she heard his much louder groan. She turned her head to place a kiss in the center of his chest, then looked up at him as she licked the same spot. He wasn’t having an easy time of it. His face was shades darker with a reddish hue. Beads of sweat had appeared on his brow, and his arms had bulged half again in size, indicating his hands were locked together behind his head and straining to stay that way. She had to give him credit. He didn’t close his eyes this time, but gazed back at her with such intensity, she had to look away herself or end it right now.
She wasn’t ready to do that, even if her body was all for the idea. No, she wanted him to have at least a little taste of what she’d gone through last night. But not to the point where he would hurt with need or beg for release. She couldn’t do that to a man like him, didn’t even want to. But she would make him worry a bit more.
“After last night,” she said as she began kissing her way down his chest to his belly, “I’ve discovered just how long I can delay the inevitable, even that I won’t perish if it doesn’t come to pass.”
“Woman—”
“No!” she cut in sharply, then bit his lower abdomen to emphasize her displeasure at his presumption. She knew he’d been warning her off the direction she’d taken, but she wasn’t going to be warned off. “You aren’t to speak, warrior. Didn’t I mention that before? This is my time to play with you, and Tedra wants to play … withallof you.”
She tried sucking on the spot where she’d left her mark, but the skin was so tightly drawn there she had to settle for licking to take the sting out of the bite. And licking on his lower abdomen really got him nervous. She heard a half groan, half growl, and smiled to herself. Was he doubting he could take much more? He’d have to.
“Don’t worry, babe,” she said as she licked her way closer to the most sensitive part of him. “I’m not going to do anything to you that you haven’t done to me.”
She knew very well that that wouldnotreassure him. In fact, the sounds coming out of him now sounded suspiciously like choking. She would have laughed if her own breath wasn’t suspended with what she was about to do. She delayed it, running one hand down his leg, moving to the inside of his thigh, coming up gently with her nails. She felt him tremble where she rested across his stomach. Her own body answered with a spread of gooseflesh.
She cupped him where he was soft. She leaned over what was so hard and throbbing. Her barbarian had become very still. She guessed he was holding his breath. After all, she’d given him enough clues about her intention.
It fascinated her, this part of him that could give her such pleasure. Big and long and full of power like the rest of him, it usually responded only to his will. Tonight it responded to hers, and it responded so well.
“I love this body of yours, Challen,” she felt compelled to admit. “I love its strength, its gentleness. It amazes me that you’ve never hurt me with it, even unintentionally. I know you could … you know you could. But you’re very careful when you’re with a woman, aren’t you? The only time you’re not exactly gentle is when you make love, and then it’s deliberate. It scares me sometimes, how—ungentle—you can be. But it excites the hell out of me, too. And I think you know that. I think that’s why you do it …”
That was all the warning he got before she bent and raked her teeth slowly down the length of him, just as he had done to her breasts on several occasions. But it wasn’t an exact imitation, since she couldn’t have covered as much ground if she’d taken him into her mouth to scrape him as he’d done to her breasts. And she stopped short at biting the tip a bit harder as he had done to her nipples—not that she could have with the way he reared up, nearly unseating her.
“Easy, babe,” she chuckled. “You ought to know by now that I’m not done yet.”
And still giving him back some of his own, she followed the path her teeth had taken, but this time with her tongue. His moan was more a shout. His body went from stiff to trembling to stiff again. But his reactions, those same reactions she had demanded he give her, were having an unwanted side effect—on her. Driving him wild was driving her wild, and she had less endurance than he did. In fact, she couldn’t stand another minute of it.
She rose to her knees, faced him, and reached the unpleasant realization that she didn’t want to impale herself on his ready flesh, she wanted tobeimpaled. She could command him to make love to her, but she was afraid that wouldn’t do it either. She wanted his arms around her becausehewanted them around her, not because she ordered them there. The plain truth was, she had become addicted to his special brand of domination. The helplessness it engendered was what took her outside herself and joined her to him, making her feel totally possessed … making her feel—loved.
That was what she wanted, but she’d backed herself into a corner where she wasn’t going to get it, unless …
“I—I think I’ve played enough, Challen. I thank you for obliging me, but I now give you back your challenge win, my challenge loss. You can—”
She didn’t get to finish, he came up onto his knees so fast and immediately dragged her against him, locking her in the vise of his arms.
“Have you forgiven me, woman?” he demanded.
“Yes,” she gasped, gasping because he was already thrusting into her.
“Place your hands behind your head.”
She didn’t even hesitate.
“You will now drop back,” he told her.
Would she? His thighs were spread wide to support her buttocks, hers clasping his hips. He was deep inside her, and the exquisite sensation of that almost made her miss the feel of his hands gripping her waist. If she dropped back, she wouldn’t drop far.
She dropped, and instantly realized why he’d wanted her to. The vulnerable position thrust her breasts up at him, and he swiftly bent to capture one. He didn’t bite, but he sucked so hard she thought he meant to swallow her. She cried out. He surged into her, and she exploded, dissolved, exploded, ah, Stars, the incredible beauty of it, the incredible ecstasy.
It left her so dazed, she wasn’t even aware of being gently laid down on the bed a while later, or of giving him the good-night kiss that had become a ritual between them. And only he noted that she first curled her limbs against him before she gave herself up to sleep.
Chapter Thirty-two
