“You are so soft, Ari,” he said, sounding pleased.

He called her Ari, the little nickname he used to. Her heart panged in her chest.

Before she could voice, or try to, some kind of response, the hands on her hips tightened and he rocked himself against her. A strangle cry escaped her. Her hands flew to his shoulders and held tight. More, more of that, she wanted to say, but her tongue had long abandoned her. He rocked against her again and this time she concentrated on the feeling. He was hard, rigid, and long as he pushed against her. That one touch eased the empty hole inside her and brought forth a new feeling. This one she was familiar with. She'd pleasured herself before, but none of those times were nearly as exciting as this was.

Hot lips trailed down her collar bone, kissing, licking, then down further to the edge of her bodice. Yes, yes! Her breasts were tight and full. They needed to be squeezed to alleviate the pain inside them.

Her hands bunched and squeezed at his shoulders in an unending kneading rhythm. “So eager.” His deep voice had gone husky with passion. The sound made her tremble.

She thought she nodded but couldn't be sure. Everything around her was happening too fast and too slow. Tentatively, she pushed her hips against him and moaned deliriously. She pushed against him again and another moan escaped. It felt so good. It pushed the neediest part of her against him and brought forth those intense clenching feelings in her womb, the ones that would send her shuddering with hot bursting sensations in her belly and flying outward.

“Fuck,” he cursed. And then something happened. Something was let loose inside him.

Alrik pushed her back against the table, following her down. Her heart jumped then started racing in an erratic pattern.

He reached behind her, gripped the back of her dress and tugged. She gasped as small pearly buttons shattered across the table. He was ruthless like a conqueror, pulling her dress down to uncover her breasts.

He kissed her lips hard then made his way down to the slope of one breast, pressing kisses around the rim of it. She trembled as her nipple pulled even tighter in response.

“Hold on to me,” he said between clenched lips, and she did, gripping the fabric at his shoulders in tight fists.

His tongue flicked out, tracing a path around her puckered tip over and over again. She squirmed beneath him, chest rising and falling in great heaves. Unable to contain herself, she lifted her chest, her nipple, to his mouth. His lips parted and she thought he was finally going to take the bud between his lips, but then his eyes trailed up to meet hers.

What she saw there made her gasp, made her hips pump up and meet his hard cock. Possession, burning need, barely leashed. She wondered at the look. Did her eyes reflect the same, because she surely felt the same simmering passion inside her right now? Then he closed his eyes and sucked her nipple between his lips.

“Aaah!”

The first touch felt heavenly and awful all at the same time. It brought relief to her aching breast as he pulled it between his lips, but made the empty ache in her belly her grow much much bigger.

They became wrapped up in each other as a sensual fog clouded over them. A primitive rhythm between man and woman locked them together, blocking out the world around them.

He worked her breast until she cried out, then he pulled away and molded it with his hand, squeezing and shaping until she craved his mouth on her again. But he didn't return. Instead he switched to her other breast, making her realize just how much she needed him there.

“Alrik.” She sounded like a completely different woman. Husky and sensual, so not like the usual polite person she was.

“I can't wait anymore.”

Her eyes flew open. What did that mean?

He reached down to grasp the end of her dress then shoved it up to her waist. While her stomach sucked in and her legs naturally closed at being bared to a man, her heart did a rapid thump thump.

Pulling back, he stood between her legs, his hands clasping her inner thighs in a possessive hold. He looked so...raw towering over her. His eyes were wild and dark, his breathing fast and heavy. And it was her he gazed down at with such passion. She had to admit, he was sexy when he was like this. He made her feel powerful, even though logically she knew she was anything but, especially compared to the king.

“Beautiful Ari,” he said, stroking his strong hands up and down her legs. With each pass, she gasped as he went higher and higher. Moving closer to the needy center of her.

The place between her legs begged to be touched in some way, and when one of his hands reached up to grasp her linen underwear, she lifted her hips easily so he could pull them off. Strangely, she found herself captivated by him. With one arm crossed across her chest in a form of half-modesty, she watched him look at her with growing hunger.

Her sex bared to him, he groaned, a shuttered look crossing his face. His tongue darted to wet his lips and then he leaned down and rubbed his cheek across her thigh, up to her hip. He pressed his lips against the bone there and she whimpered, her legs kicking. He'd caused this fire inside of her and now she needed him to do something about it.

“Please.” It was all she could say. But in that one word she voiced everything she was feeling inside, all the raw erotic energy twirling in her body.

His smooth cheek rubbed against her as he made his way back to the center of her legs. Hard, demanding hands pressed against the inside of her thighs and pushed. She resisted, startled, and clenched her thighs. A more useless effort had never been made. He easily overpowered her and pushed her thighs apart, opening her to him in one powerful move.

A surge of embarrassment came over her. She turned her head to the side, squeezing her eyes shut, hands curling into fists. A stream of cool air came over her heated, wet flesh. She gasped, hips jerked. She wanted to know what it was, what he was doing but couldn't, no, wouldn't, open her eyes to see. Having sex, dare she say, making love, was one thing, but this...this was complete debauchery. Men and women did not do this.

A finger passed over her, starting at the top of her hair then trailing over her wet lips. The touch was so light it could have been a feather he trailed. She knew it wasn't though. It was him and his hands touching her.

“Very, very beautiful, Arianna. I've wondered for years what you looked like, smelled like...tasted like.”

Her stomach muscles clenched hard. Tasted?

Suddenly, something very soft and fluttery passed over her lips in a gentle caress. She wanted to look, wanted to know, but not that badly. Whatever he was doing was wicked and wrong.

Something wet and firm passed over her, twirling around her flesh, sliding between it. A deep, groan reverberated out from his chest and she swore it made her body tremble.

His tongue. She knew it. It flattened, passed up her sex from the needy, empty part of her until a faint tremble began in her stomach, and shook out from to her thighs. His tongue stiffened, then thrust between her folds and found the magical spot she'd played with many times before.

Her gargled cry echoed in the massive room around them. The cries wouldn't stop because he didn't. Twirling, circular sensations stirred at the touch of his tongue against her spot, teasing and teasing. In a rush, her breasts pulled tight, nipples puckering, and her entire body trembled on the verge of something she desperately wanted to feel. A burning fire smoldered inside her, making her lungs burn with each panting breath. Her head swished side to side, her face drawing tight as he brought her closer and closer.

She finally reached the precipice, trembling on the edge of a crumbling cliff when he pulled away. Staggered, shocked and shaking, she looked up at him panting. He had a pained look in his eyes, and for some reason it turned her on even more.