Storm Born. Richelle Mead
anymore. Dominance and power ruled my days; it would with sex too. I moved my hands from his back to his upper arms and shoulders. Relying on the element of surprise, I rolled him over, using my legs to pin him down, wrapping them around his hips. Pleased surprise poured over his face. He hadn’t expected me to be so strong. He shifted as though he might try to throw me, and I shoved him down. It turned into a rougher motion than I intended, but he didn’t mind. If anything, it made the passion on his face grow.
“You submit now,” I growled, pressing my palms down onto his chest.
A smile twisted at his lips. “Sure.”
I guided him back into me, exultant that I was the one in control now. I moved my hips up and down, leaning over so I could watch him slide in and out of me. My hair, long since freed from its ponytail, hung over him, grazing his skin. I have hair the color of cinnamon, a tawny russet not dark enough to be auburn, nor light enough to be strawberry. In this lighting, however, it was only a dark veil between us. He brushed it aside and rested his hands gently under my breasts so he could feel their movement as I rode him. Looking up through my hair, I watched his face now that I was the one controlling him. It was exquisite. I moved faster and harder, bringing him all the way into me, watching and adjusting as I did. I wanted to see him come so badly, see the look on his face when he lost control.
I knew we were close when his hands dropped from my breasts to grip my waist and hips. His fingers clenched tightly into my skin, just as mine had earlier. He kept his gaze on me, bold and unafraid of me seeing him in climax. I moved more fiercely, urging him on, and then I heard a soft, ecstatic sound issue forth. His eyes never left mine, and his hands slid to the backs my shoulders, suddenly raking down my flesh as his body released itself into mine.
I yelled out in surprise at the pain from where he’d scratched me. How sharp were his nails? Did he have talons? I’d dug into him too but nothing like what he’d just accomplished on me. When he’d recovered, and his frantic gasps had returned to normal, he seemed to realize what he’d done.
“Oh my God, I’m sorry,” he said, his breathing still heavy. He pulled me to him, putting his arms around me, careful to avoid the places he’d gouged. I laid my cheek against the warm, sweaty skin of his chest. “Did I hurt you?”
I didn’t know which part of sex he referred to—probably that last bit of scratching—but really, it didn’t matter. “No,” I lied. “Of course not.”
When we’d both sort of come back to ourselves, we ransacked the shopping bag again and produced the cheap wine we’d purchased along with the condoms. It had seemed hilarious at the time, considering our earlier conversation on courtship gifts. We sat naked and cross-legged in bed, drinking from the glasses that had already been in the room. We talked a little, and though the conversation was a bit less substantive than in the bar, it still felt comfortable. It was hard to be eloquent after the wild, animal experience we’d just had.
I went to the bathroom at one point and peered at my back in the mirror. He’d missed my tattoos but definitely drawn blood and torn skin. It was startling. I wet a washcloth and cleaned my stinging back as best I could, then pulled on one of the plush white robes hanging on the back of the door. Kiyo still sat on the bed, watching me, but I left him there and took my wine outside to the balcony.
It was a gorgeous night. The cacti and other desert plants stood painted in shadows and moonlight cast from a full silver moon. Selene was out tonight, and I guessed she’d come through for me just now. Crystalline stars adorned the blackness. I had a telescope at home and mused that it would have been a good night to study the heavens.
Except that it looked like the weather would turn on us soon. This surprised me, considering how clear it had been most of the day. Rain was rare this time of year. But dark clouds were tumbling quickly across the sky, blotting out the stars they passed. On the horizon the clouds came from, I saw a faint flicker of lightning. A wind picked up, the kind of wind that rises and falls like one’s breath. The air was warm and alive, building up tension and power. It wouldn’t be a dismal, glowering storm; it would be the kind of storm that left you awestruck about the power of life and nature.
I felt alive too in that moment, as restless and wild as the tempest about to come. I felt pretty confident I had never opened myself up to anyone as much as I had to Kiyo just now. I had let myself go. It was frightening and thrilling at the same time.
I heard him step out onto the balcony a few minutes later and then I felt his arms slide around my waist and his chest press against my back. He rested his chin on my shoulder. All was quiet around us. We were far from the highway, and no one else seemed to be awake. There was only the sound of the wind blowing around us and thunder growing louder.
Kiyo’s hands slipped to my waist and loosened the ties. He then reached up and tugged at the robe so that it fell off, leaving me naked to the elements. I started to turn away, shy, but he held me where I was.
“No one’s out,” he murmured, running his hands over my body, grazing my breasts as he moved farther down. “And even if they were, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You’re beautiful, Eugenie. You are so amazingly beautiful.”
He buried his face against my neck, and I leaned into him as he kissed me. His hand slid down between my legs and stroked me as the wind caressed my skin. When I whimpered out of desire, he released me for a moment, and I heard a slight rustling. He’d brought a condom outside with him. Presumptuous bastard.
He had it on in seconds and then returned his hands to me, positioning me so that I bent over, my hands holding on to the railing. He pressed up behind me, and then that hard thickness was inside me again, once more claiming possession. I was almost rubbed raw from our last round, but as he kept moving into me, I eventually grew wet again, allowing the line between pleasure and pain to blur once more.
It seemed crazy, having sex out here in public like this, but it was the kind of crazy that felt pretty damned good. Apparently he had an exhibitionist streak. But no one was out here. It was just us and the desert and the storm.
I hadn’t thought I could come any more tonight, but he proved me wrong just as the first warm drops of rain began to fall. Thunder and lightning occurred together around us now; the storm had reached us, screaming its own ecstasy to the earth. Still Kiyo moved into me, oblivious of the weather, intent only on me and him. At last, when we were in a full downpour, I felt him shudder and give a few last hard strokes before pulling out.
Then he turned me around and drew me to him again. I could hear his heart beating in his chest almost as loudly as the thunder around us. The desert flickered and flared to life in the lightning, and the pounding rain threatened to drown us.
But neither of us noticed.
I fell asleep pretty quickly after that, lying under the covers in his arms once we’d both toweled off. No insomnia tonight.
Yet, I woke up a couple hours later, not entirely certain why. Then I knew. Kiyo’s hand was pressed against my mouth, making it hard to breathe. The storm had stopped; all was silent in the dark room.
I started to struggle, and then his mouth was by my ear, his voice barely audible.
“Shh. Something’s in here.”
I nodded my understanding, and a moment later, he released his hold. We both lay perfectly still, and I thought about his choice of words. Something, not someone.
Literal and figurative chills suddenly crept over me. Following Kiyo’s gaze, I looked up at the wrought-iron headboard and saw ice crystals spreading along it like fine white lace. Our breath came out in small clouds, and my bare skin shivered with the cold.
A shape moved into my field of vision, shining in the returned moonlight. I had known what it was before seeing it. An ice elemental. A creature vaguely anthropomorphic and composed of sharp, glittering ice crystals.
Technically, however, it was just one of the gentry. Some of them could not pass physically into our world, just as some shamans could not cross physically into theirs. Gentry not wanting to come in spirit but lacking the strength to come over with bodies intact