Page 12 of Denied

“Your mother may have worn one,” he said gently. “Binding rings are common gifts among kin who are to be parted.”

All the emotions she had been keeping in check welled up inside her. “My mother, Dad, and now Tara. In the end everyone leaves me.” She blinked hard before she looked at him. “You’re all I have left now.”

“Come here, love.” Ryan folded her in his arms. “We found each other, just as you said that first night by the campfire. I will never let you go anywhere without me.” He kissed the top of her head. “For there is no place I would be, but at your side.”

“Then we wouldn’t need the rings, and I’m not giving mine back.” She took his hands in hers, and drew him over to the thick rug by the fire. Kneeling down before him, she closed her eyes and thought of herself clad only by the firelight. Her clothes dissolved in a shower of light, leaving her bare to his gaze. “Now stand still, and let me practice my thought magick again.”

Kayla stroked her hands along the outside of his strong thighs, grazing one palm over the thick bulge of his erection, before she slipped her fingers under the edge of his tunic. His flat, hard abdomen contracted under her curious touch, and the fabric covering her hand began to unweave itself. The threads of cloth came alive and snaked away from Ryan, collecting in a pile by Kayla’s side. She glared at them, and they began reweaving themselves into his tunic.

Ryan smiled down at her. “That is an interesting alternative.” He took in a quick breath as her fingers lured his belt from his waist, and made the leather strap bind his wrists behind his back. “You mean to make me your prisoner, love?”

“You have no idea what I want to do with you.” Kayla drew her fingertip along the inseam of his trousers, which unstitched itself in her wake. “But you’re about to.”

His trousers and smalls dropped away from his hips, restitching and folding themselves in a neat stack by his tunic. Kayla dispensed with the magick as she unlaced his boots and tugged them away from his big, shapely feet. She placed a kiss on his instep and felt his calf tighten.

“You should not tempt me,” he muttered, his voice hoarse as he watched her.

“I’m going to kiss you, that’s all.”

Kayla started at his ankles, and worked her way up to his knees. Every part of him fascinated her, from the smooth paleness of his skin to the bulge of tough muscle beneath it. She could sense the big, heavy bones that supported his massive frame.

“Kayla,” Ryan whispered hoarsely. As she ran her hands up the back of his thighs, he groaned. “Release me so I may touch you.”

“Not yet.”

She smiled as she kissed the top of his thigh, and rose to her feet. Brushing her body against his, she moved around him, trailing her fingers across his flat belly. She could feel the heat of him now, and his skin grew damp as she nuzzled his bicep and shoulder.

“You’re too tall, Sheridan,” she said, and put her hands on his shoulders, pressing him down on his knees so that he sat on his ankles. “That’s better.”

Ryan’s long, white-blonde hair tried to twine around her fingers as she stroked the top of his arms, and planted soft kisses against the sides of his taut neck.

“I like this belt,” he muttered. “Do not make me destroy it.”

“Patience is a virtue.”

Delighted that she could drive him to the brink of losing control, she moved in front of him, and caught his handsome face between her palms. Looking at him awed her now as much as the first time she’d seen his mortal guise disappear. So much unearthly beauty, and it was all hers to love. She breathed in his scent, which had gone dark and heady, and brushed her thumb across his lips.

“I could just kiss you for the rest of the night.”

His jewel-blue eyes closed. “I don’t like the belt that much.”

“You asked me to keep you warm.” Kayla brought his head against her breasts, and rubbed one puckered peak against the seam of his lips. “How’s this working for you?”

“You make me hot.” He used his tongue to caress her tight nipple, but when he tried to latch on she shifted and teased his mouth with the other. “And hungry. Very hungry.”

“That’s good,” Kayla said, as she straddled his thighs. She let him feel the soft brush of her damp sex on the tip of his straining shaft. “Because you make me wet. Maybe I can do something about all that heat.”

“You can.”

His arms bunched, and leather ripped. His big hands seized her waist, as his mouth covered hers, kissing her wildly as he lowered her onto her back.

Feeling the weight of him on top of her made Kayla arch up against him, her own self-control disintegrating. “Ryan.”

“I should bind you and kiss you until you beg for me,” he said, his voice strained. His expression turned fierce as he moved between her thighs, and guided his throbbing cockhead to her slick opening. “Only I must have you now. Do you want me, Kayla love? Do you need me inside you?”

She lifted her hips, lodging him just inside her clenching opening.

“What do you think?” She writhed against him as he sank into her, his swollen shaft stretching and filling her. “Ryan,” she moaned.