Part 28 (1/2)
”Hmm?” she asked dreamily, grinding her hips against the mattress with pure desire for him.
He halted his explorations and kept her pinned beneath him, panting against her back breathlessly. ”Time... to let me... see,” he cried, moaning softly as his fingers pulled at the skin he'd been showering with kisses one moment before.
A thrill shot through her center. She got it now. Jared was crazily turned on by the presence of his royal emblem on her-and that it was in precisely the place she'd longed to have it.
”How do you, well, see it? The royal mark?” she asked, turning her head sideways so that her cheek rested against the mattress. She studied him through her lashes. He hadn't even stripped out of his
uniform. A black-clad soldier had her facedown on his mattress and was licking her to pieces.
He stood there at the mattress edge gazing down at her, cupping her bottom in both his hands. ”You amaze me, Kelsey,” he whispered in a wondrous voice.
”Is the mark showing already?”
”Always so curious. One of many things I love about you, wife.” He laughed.
”Well, is it?” she persisted, and he pressed one knee into the mattress, never relinquis.h.i.+ng his hold on her
hips.
”Not until I bring it to light,” he purred in a voice electric with promise. ”It wasn't revealed during the ceremony-only placed on your body. But it's been there ever since, simply waiting for me to reveal it.”
”Then do that,” she urged him breathlessly, aching for him to proceed. ”Go on, Jared. Please.” She didn't
care that she was practically begging the man; he was her husband, after all. Surely a little bedroom
begging was a given in any marriage.
His fingertips trailed down her backbone, touching her with fire. Carefully, painstaking in his slowness, he stroked her bare skin. ”I thought I was fulfilling your fantasy.”
She squirmed as he bent low, pressing his full, warm lips against the small of her back. She felt the rough
texture of his tongue flick against her body yet again.”The first part of my fantasy was for you to lick it, kiss it, and whatever-else it.” She gasped, squirmingbeneath him. ”The second part was to know exactly how it affected you.”
A low, rumbling growl erupted from his chest, and she felt his heat sweep over her bare skin as he cupped his palm over her lower back. The growling became a piercing howl, and then all she heard was his harsh breathing as he pinned her, facedown against the mattress again. ”It is true,” he rumbled in her ear, lapping at her cheek with his tongue. ”You are all mine now. No one shall ever take you from me.
Mine. Mine. Mine.”
Oh, how he loved to possess her-she'd known that from the very first time they made love.
”I can't pretend anymore, Kelsey,” he continued, kissing her behind her ear, slipping both of his palms beneath her hips and holding fast. ”I love this belonging. It makes me half-crazy; truly it does.”
She smiled to herself. He had no idea yet, did he? Her smile broadened as she wondered how long it
would take her husband to recognize the beautiful change that had begun in him not even twenty-four hours ago.
”I love it too,” she agreed huskily.
”I don't love this uniform,” he complained, easing off of her.
”Hey, I have a question,” she said. It was something she'd wondered about in the midst of their ceremony. ”What would you have worn if we'd gotten married on Refaria?”
She heard the low rumble of s.e.xy laughter. ”Not a military uniform; that's for sure.”
”Then what? Tell me.”
”No,” he said in a slow, seductive voice, ”I believe I'll show you.”
When she rolled onto her back to get a better look at him, she gasped. Jared stood before her clad in skintight leather pants that outlined his muscled thighs like a second skin. As he moved toward her, the black pants hugged every ridge and furrow and dip in his very masculine body. A white s.h.i.+rt was laced from his navel to the middle of his chest, where it fell open to expose the golden-brown skin there, hinting at the dark peaks of his nipples, just visible through the thin white cotton of the fabric.
”Th-that's your traditional wedding outfit?”
One dark eyebrow shot upward in question. ”Would you have preferred a tuxedo?”
She stretched on her back languidly, watching him step closer. ”Not on your life.”
He laughed softly. ”Perhaps I should have worn this and not the uniform?”
”I would have expired during the ceremony. Besides, I could never have competed with”-she paused, swoos.h.i.+ng her hand in the air-”well, with that.”
”No, love, you would have held the room in your hand, just as you did today,” he said. ”Now roll over.”
”That sounded like a command.”
”It was.”
She sniffed, but grinned wickedly to herself as she flipped over onto her stomach again. She felt his warm hand against the skin of her back, his fingers roaming and exploring-almost as if he were searching for something. His leather-clad legs pressed between hers, parting her thighs as he climbed onto the bed, all the while his fingertips were caressing and stroking the small of her back until he made a soft cry of exultation. ”There it is,” he said, his voice full of hushed amazement. ”Oh, G.o.ds, you're beautiful.”
The skin beneath his hand began to burn, an explosion of fevered fireworks all along her skin. The sensation was at once erotic and wicked as much as it was majestic. She was marked forever as a D'Aravni.
Brus.h.i.+ng his lips against her spine he breathed, ”Mine. Incredible.”
”I want to see.”
”Later. But right now...” he paused, swallowing audibly. ”I-I just want to look. Besides, I still have that gift for you.”
”And I still wonder what it is.” She felt something warm and solid press into her back, right where she'd been sealed with his royal mark, almost like a heavy, warm stone or coin. ”Is that your strake stone? I already know-”