UP IN FLAMES

“Oh.” Her thoughts were muddled in a sensual haze. “It was just a dream.”

He pulled her closer and then his mouth was on her breast, licking over the peak and then tugging on it with his teeth. The sharp burst of pleasured pain was instantly soothed with a lap of his tongue. He alternated between the quick nips and licks until her head fell back. She cried out, her body shuddering even as it tightened deliciously.

Alaric suddenly pulled back, and her eyes flew open. She stared at him in disbelief. “You stopped!”

“For now.” He sent her a fleeting grin and then pulled his shirt off over his head.

His body…she hadn’t forgotten how perfect it was. The broad, muscled shoulders, hard pecs, and a stomach that was rippled and chiseled like rock. He was 100 percent male, not an inch of flab on his body. Her gaze found a puckered, circular scar on his shoulder, the skin a darker shade than the rest of his body. She wanted to ask how he got it, because to her, it really looked like a bullet wound.

“Turn around.”

Her brows shot up. “What?”

Holding his shirt between his hands, he spun it until it was stretched long and thin. His eyes met hers and a dark, dangerous allure filled the dark of his eyes. “Turn around, Vanessa.”

Her heart jumped in her chest as a sharp, almost painful lick of pleasure pulsed through her. Her eyes fixed on his shirt, and she couldn’t help but think about what he wanted to do with it and all the things she’d heard about how

Alaric liked to give pleasure. Part of her wanted to be turned off by it, to be disgusted, but she wasn’t.

Every cell in her body swelled. A tiny spark of fear blossomed in her chest, but it wasn’t that she was afraid of him. More like afraid of how she’d respond. But she took a deep breath and did as he asked.

A hand grazed over the curve of her bottom, causing her to jerk. She felt him behind her, standing. The heat from his body warmed hers.

“Alaric?”

“Do you trust me?” he asked, skimming a hand over her hip and then to her arm. He pulled it back behind her. “You have to trust me for this. Do you?”

Her heart pounded in her chest as she swallowed. “Yes.”

“That’s my girl.” He pressed a kiss to her shoulder and then guided her other arm back behind her.

She knew what he was going to do, but it still came as a shock when she felt the cloth draping over her wrists. A dark thrill that should’ve surprised her lit up her blood and scattered her senses. Was he…?

Alaric tightened the makeshift bond, securing her wrists behind her back. So the rumors and the whispered talk about Alaric were dead-on. He turned her around, but she kept her gaze trained on the line between his pecs.

“Hey,” he said, placing the tips of his fingers under her chin and guiding her gaze up. “You have to be okay with this. If not-”

“I’m okay.” She wiggled her fingers and tested the bonds. She could move her hands, but not far. Heat coursed over her cheeks. “I’m just…”

“Fucking stunning?” he supplied, and her lips cracked into a grin. He clasped her cheeks and lowered his mouth to hers.

The kiss was different. Slower. Deeper. He tasted her, drawing her deep within him, and she melted into the touch. With a deep, animalistic groan, he shifted, and the next second she was on her back and he hovered above her. The look in his eyes caused the air to catch in her throat.

“Look at you.” He slid a palm between her breasts, stopping below her navel. “I could stare at you forever.”

“I hope not.”

“Patience,” he murmured, lowering his head.

Patience was not a virtue she appreciated, but Alaric wasn’t going to be sped up. He took his time kissing her lips, and then he ran his mouth along her jaw, down her throat, and between her breasts. He tongued the soft swell of her breast, traveling up and then around the aching point. He came so close, but always skated away at the last second. Her nipples were pouty, hard, and aching by the time his hot mouth covered one.

Her back arched clear off the bed as he suckled deep and nipped, going back and forth between her breasts until her head was spinning. Just when she was about to beg him to stop, for more, he kissed a path down to her navel. His tongue flicked inside and she felt an answering jolt between her thighs.

“Why this?” he asked, tracing the tattoo with his wicked tongue.

Her hands curled helplessly behind her as she closed her eyes. “Because…”

“Because why?”

She didn’t want to answer, because it was rather embarrassing.

Alaric chuckled. “You’ll tell me eventually.”

“No, I won’t.”

“Is that a challenge?” He kissed each of the three withered petals.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

A smile tugged at her lips as the gesture also pulled at her heart. The kisses… They were tender. “Isn’t there something else you could be doing with your mouth besides talking?”

“Oh, listen to you.” Alaric’s lips left her stomach and she opened her eyes in time to see him crawl up her. His eyes were like blue pools. “I have a thing for that mouth.” He dipped his head, kissing her deeply. “That I plan to put to use very soon.”

She drew in a bated breath and the tips of her breasts brushed his chest. The sparse, wiry hairs teased her. “Are you sure? I might fall asleep before then.”

Alaric laughed, dropping his head to nuzzle her neck. He made his way back down her body, nipping and licking until his head was poised between her thighs. Her breathing was coming fast and ragged by then. Men had gone down on her before, and she’d never been a big fan of it, but she knew with Alaric it was going to be different. Sex before had never been like this.

He peered up at her as he rested on his side, one arm hooked under a thigh and his shoulders splitting her legs. He ran a finger around the patch of hair.

“Tell me about the tattoo.”

“No.”