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Chapter Twenty-two

There were actually two living rooms in the beach house One was smaller and e enough to hold the dining roo area off to one side It was the Great Roo roo roo one was a rooh-peaked ceiling to carpeted floor It was one of the few carpeted areas in the house, so water tracked in here would be a problem, which hy it was isolated from most of the other roo to the beach The long, wide sectional couch made a nearly full square in the room There was only one narrow entrance on one end, and coffee tables built into the furniture at intervals, so you had a place to put your drinks, if the solden wood table that sat to one side, next to a fully stocked bar, wasn&039;t enough to set your drinks down

The couches the in a sea of tan carpet The color scheme was very close to Maeve Reed&039;s olds, and blues - in other parts of the house, but here there was nothing to distract the eye fro expanse of ocean, and if you weren&039;t bothered by heights you could stand near the s and gaze down at sharp rocks that were pounded by the sea

It was both a beautiful room and a cold one It felt like a place created to entertain business associates, not friends We were going to try to add soainst the glass The sea stretched out, and almost oily in its ink-black shine, as it reflected the ripe ray-white by the hostly in the h that it ht moon to ht shadows and our skin reflected the light as if hite water to shine under the glow of the moon

The house was so silent that I could hear the rush and murmur of the sea on the rocks below We hing of the sea

I lass wall, because to call it adidn&039;t do it justice It was a wall of glass so that the sea stretched out forever until it lowed and shi about the play of light made me want to see more of the view, so I passed the couch up and stood at the edge of the glass, where I could have that dizzying gli silver and white in the dark light

Brii began to take off his bows, arrows, and blades, laying the table to the side of the rooun and the sword at his belt He came to me with the body armor vest still in place Most of the rabbed rip and lifteddown for this h to pick round and simply hold me where he wanted me

The towel on ainst our faces He put one arm around my waist to hold me The other hand he wrapped in my wet hair and pulled hard and sharp, so that I cried out for hi else

His voice was harsh and fierce, already going lower as some men&039;s do "The others said you liked pain"

My voice came out breathy, strained with the hold he had on me "Some pain, not a lot"

"But you like this," he said

"Yes, I like this"

"Good, because so do I" He had to let go of ainst his body as his other hand undid the Velcro of his vest Then he flung me to the carpet and jerked his vest over his head in almost the same movement

I lay there, breathless froht note so that I felt passive The willing victi and he&039;d have a fight on his hands The towel that had been covering me had come undone so that I siht and for hi uns, sword, belt, and T-shirt They made a pile around him like petals torn fro s, so that it was almost pain, but not quite I had seen hietting a gli as looking up the line of that same body as it kneels over you, and you know that this ti that body pro and slender Even theand lean, as if no matter what he did he wouldn&039;t bulk up He was built like a long-distance runner, grace and speed th His hair fanned out around hi on its oith no wind but his ownhalo of white, gray, and silver, and the vines that traced that hair glowed htly, as if electric wire had been run to every line of vine and leaf so that they were painted in shades of green The spiral of his eyes had begun to

Whatever he saw in my face, it made him undo his pants, and push them down slender hips so that he revealed that last part of hi and thick, as if his body had decided that the rest of hih and it would ainst the front of his own body, thick and long, and everything you could want in that s, so that he would have to erness He leaned over me, and his hair didn&039;t fall forward, it low and movement of it His hair made a sound like wind in leaves around us

He pinned ainst the floor, and I was completely pinned, but he could not reach me So I was trapped, but to no purpose that I could see

He leaned his face over mine, and whispered, "Don&039;t frown, Meredith That&039;s not the look I want on your face right now"

My voice was breathy, but I ed to ask, "What look do you want on, and then when I was about to cry enough, he changed to a long, deep kiss, as tender and full of care as any I had ever had

He raised his face just enough so I could see his eyes They weren&039;t spirals anyreen as if he would be blind froht "That look," he said "You said in the shower that you&039;d had all the foreplay you needed, so I won&039;t bother tonight, but I want you to know that I aood, too"

"But not tonight," I whispered

He sht, because I&039;ve seen you e of so to affect soto have a place where the decisions are made for you, and choice is not yours, so the princess"

"And be what?" I whispered

"Just this," he said He pinned my wrists with one hand and used the other to push his pants down to the hs Then he s to use theainst le he was using, so he had to use his free hand to move himself until he could slip the tip of hih that even withhis way in with his hips

I raised h that I could watch his body push its way intoabout that first time that a ht of hiht on ood way, in that way that let me know that the moment of decision was truly past I could have said no, protested, but if he didn&039;t want to letabout that moment of surrender that was exactly what I needed

I cried out twiceWe ran into the end of an to pull himself back out, and then the push in, and finally I et enough, and he was ready enough He began to push hi, slow strokes I&039;d expected the sex to be rough to go with the way he&039;d started, but once he was inside iven

He worked that slow, steady stroking until it spilled e and made me scream his name My hands strained under his, and if I could have reached him I&039;d have painted his body withhimself safe while he rode ht, hts reflecting on the white and dark of his hair, and reen to his, so that we lay in a tunnel of light and ic formed of the fall of his own hair

Only after I was a quivering thing, all nerve endings, and fluttering eyes that could focus on nothing, did he start again This tientle about it This time he rode me as if he owned me, and he wanted to make certain that he touched every part of ain with alain, as if every push of his body brought as line of pleasure, untiland I was only dis The world had narrowed down to the pounding of his body and the pleasure of ave one last push, and in that moment I knew he&039;d been ot a real screaled with so much pleasure that it ceased to be pain and just becae of ecstasy

It was only as he began to pull hiwas I couldn&039;t h to see, but when I pulled on my wrists there were ropes, but unlike any rope I&039;d ever touched

He moved fros either More of the ropes were laced around le harder to see, to focus, and to be aware I hated to chase back the edge of so much pleasure, but I wanted to see what he&039;d used to tiehis hands

There were vines around my wrists, vines that led to lass wall, so that the dark lines of the dark It wasn&039;t as dark as it had been e started, but it wasn&039;t dawn either The darkness was fading but there was no true light False dawn pressed against the s, half-hidden by the dark lines of ivy vines

Ivi got to his feet, using the back of the couch to steady himself, and even then he almost fell "I haven&039;t been able to pleasure a wo I haven&039;t been able to call the vines for even longer You are ivy-bound, Princess"

I tried to say that I didn&039;t knohat that lass He was nude, and I could see the ash-white of his skin, not ray-white that no one else in either court could boast His shoulders were broader than Ivi&039;s, and there was raceful with his long yellow braid of hair trailing over one shoulder and down the front of his body so that it half hid the eager length of hirace completely I lay there, bound hand and foot, unable to rise, or move, and there he stood over me nude and ready