Silken Rapture: Princes of the Underground, Book 2 Read online

  “Had just accepted the truth of it,” Blaise said under his breath.

  Isi’s eyes sharpened on him. “Yes. It was just like that. He seemed filled with the miracle of the knowledge. Blaise? Are you all right?”

  Blaise blinked and brought the wounded warrior back into focus. “All right?” he asked, his lips feeling numb. It was as if Isi had just asked him the most complex question in the universe.

  How did one answer such a question when he lived and breathed and everything looked the same, but his entire world had just been turned upside-down?

  “Blaise, there’s one other thing that Saint wanted you know…”

  An hour later, he stood to leave Isi’s room and paused as sensation flooded him. He closed his eyes briefly.

  “Blaise? Are you all right?” Isi asked. He glanced at the door, obviously sensing, like Blaise did, who waited for him in the hallway.

  “Yes. Of course. Thank you for all you’ve done, Isi.”

  He walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. She stood against the opposite wall of the corridor. She wore a caramel-colored nightgown and matching robe, the sash tied at her waist. Her hair spilled around her shoulders. His nostrils flared as he inhaled her sublime scent.

  The scent of his mate.

  Their gazes remained locked as she stepped closer. She removed the dark brown glove from her right hand. He held his breath as she unfastened one button on his shirt and slid her naked hand into the opening, caressing his abdomen, skin to skin. He gritted his teeth against a rush of raw emotion and sensation.

  “You should not have avoided me,” she whispered, her stare blazing and fierce. “You should not have made me forget all those times we were together.”

  He started beneath her magical touch.

  “How did you know?” he asked roughly.

  “Usan told me. Not specifically, but he transmitted a lot of information to me with his touch. It didn’t really come to me until now, seeing you standing there. Why?” she asked, anger now flavoring her tone. “How could you have made love to me all those times, and forced me to forget you? It was killing me, to have you ripped away from me time and again.”

  He tightened his muscles against the pain. “One night, you came to me when I hadn’t taken nourishment. You were so powerful…so beautiful. I couldn’t resist you. It was a sheer impossibility, given my nature.”

  “I’m not asking you why you first tasted my blood. I’m not asking you why you first made love to me. I have that part figured out, maybe better than you. I’m asking how you could possibly justify making me forget that we’d been lovers.”

  The silence rang in his ears. She continued to stroke him. His body thrilled to her touch, making it difficult to concentrate.

  “I didn’t want you to be horrified by having lain with me. I didn’t want you to regret, having given yourself to an animal again and again.”

  “You were always a man when you made love to me. And if you refer to your shape-shifting nature, your wolf-self, Royal, was more of a gentleman to me than you were, Blaise.”

  He blinked in shock. “Usan told you about my ability to shift, as well?”

  She arched her brows in a dark challenge. “I am not Elysse.”

  “No. There is no comparison. Not even close,” he admitted quietly, the truth of the words filling him with wonder. He spread his hand over her abdomen. She was so small, his fingers stretched from the top of her mons all the way to just below a thrusting breast. Her heartbeat throbbed into his palm. A feral sense of possession tore through him. The sensation of his incisors elongating coincided with the tug of his cock. “You carry my child. You are my mate.”

  “Do you think you’re telling me something I don’t know?”

  Her nostrils flared at that. His restraint broke. He lifted her against him and seized her mouth, ravishing her, consuming her singular texture and flavor.

  “I have missed you,” he said in a choked voice as he moved his lips over her fragrant neck. “I felt broken, not being able to touch you.”

  “Then there is a simple answer. You should never leave me again.” She raked her nails against his scalp, causing him to shudder in pleasure.

  He swung her lower body into his arms. He didn’t take his eyes off her luminous face once as he stalked through the corridors of Sanctuary, carrying her. He didn’t want to risk her disappearing if he glanced away for a second. She was so beautiful, a breathing miracle.

  She was his.

  The moment Blaise cleared the door to his quarters, Isabel pushed down with her legs, letting him know she wanted to stand. She immediately pressed her body against his and reached for the buttons on his shirt. She tore apart the fabric and pressed her face against smooth, taut skin covering rippling muscle.

  “I don’t…know…why,” she said in between pressing kisses just below his nipple line. “But I always want to feel you fully pressed against me. I wonder if the hunger for it will ever ease?”

  His fingers delved into her hair. He held her scalp against him as she kissed and licked and bit gently—a starved waif let loose in the candy store.

  “I used to restrain myself from embracing you fully,” he said from above, his gruff, accented voice vibrating with feeling. “I would not let you fully hold me either, until that night on the silk.”

  Her head fell back. She met his stare. The memory had come flooding back to her—every graphic, sensual detail—when he’d said the word silk. His hand opened over her jaw and he caressed her.

  “You just now remembered it,” he more stated than asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered, awed by the memories. “I should never forgive you for taking such a moment away from me, Blaise Sevliss.”

  “If you do not forgive me, I will be unable to forgive myself.”

  Even if he had not said the words, she would have forgiven him. She could not stand the anguish in his eyes. What right did she have to judge him, when he’d suffered so greatly for so long?

  She placed her hands on his shoulders. When she pulled downward, he spread his hands over her bottom and lifted her. Isabel locked her legs around his waist and held him as tight as she could while they kissed, deep and hot, as if they’d never get enough of one another. When she licked at one of his extended incisors in a delicate, precise tease, he growled and swatted her bottom.

  “No one has ever dared to do that to me before.” His low, ominous growl as he swept her toward his bedroom thrilled her.

  Isabel laughed when he barged through the door and tossed her on the silken duvet on his large bed. He looked down at her, his teeth bared.

  “No one has ever dared to tease the beast?” she whispered, a smile flickering around her lips. He looked so beautiful to her in that moment—his glossy black hair tousled and wild, his chest partially bared, a dangerous glint in his unique eyes, his arousal blatant. She flicked open her sash and drew off her robe. She sat up and removed her gown. When she sat before him wearing nothing but a smile, she met his stare.

  “I dare,” she assured him, running her hand over the soft skin of her hips. She widened her thighs, beckoning him to her. “I dare to tempt the beast because I trust you, Blaise.”

  His nostrils flared as he targeted her pussy with his gaze. “I don’t know if that’s wise.”

  She dipped her forefinger into her creamy cleft. “Falling in love has nothing to do with wisdom,” she whispered.

  He made a sound she thought she’d always remember, as if he were lost…as if he was found.

  He slid his hands beneath her buttocks and lifted her to him, his movements striking her as frantic and yet shockingly precise at once. His strength awed her.

  A gasp tore out of her throat at the sensation of his mouth on her. Only her shoulders and head lay on the bed. He held her lower body at his mercy, her thighs in his hands spread wide for his ravishment. She watched him through narrowed slits as he feasted. His closed eyelids made him look so peaceful, as if he were in a zone of focu
s.

  And he was, Isabel realized. He was creating magic. His tongue stabbed and agitated her clit then soothed it with firm, delicious strokes. He maintained an eye-crossing suction, not too hard, not too soft, consuming her juices even while he coaxed her to give him more. Her eyes opened wide a moment later when he scraped his incisors against her inner thigh. Pleasure rippled through her. Suddenly, his whole mouth was covering her outer sex and he was sucking gently while his tongue burrowed between her labia.

  He opened his eyes and met her stare as he briskly waggled his tongue over her clit. The tingling burn ignited. She held on to his head as she screamed and exploded. Right at the peak of her climax, she felt him turn his head slightly, causing the top of his incisor to slide across her clit, carefully avoiding contact with the tip. It should have alarmed her, to have something so sharp near such sensitive tissue, but she trusted him.

  She surrendered, giving herself to the rapture as her orgasm notched up to a higher level. She lost herself for a moment in bliss, knowing nothing but pleasure twining with the essence of her lover.

  The next thing she knew she was facedown and Blaise’s hands were at her hips, sliding her across the fluid silk. She heard a sound like a hard object sliding across the floor and sensed Blaise moving behind her.

  “Step on the stool. Your feet don’t reach the floor,” he said, his voice rough with arousal, but also warm with amusement. The sound of his zipper lowering sent an electric tingle through her satiated sex. She whipped her hair out of her face and pushed up with her hands.

  “No. I want to hold you, Blaise,” she protested.

  “It’ll be all right. I will hold you, lovely.” He set her feet upon what felt like a wooden stool. It ideally situated her bottom right at the edge of the bed, and she realized distantly he must have known this. The bed seemed made to match his proportions for making love when he stood next to it. He matter-of-factly spread her thighs wide. She moaned loudly at the sensation of his cock probing her entry.

  She shook like a leaf in a storm as he worked his way into her, challenging, teasing and stroking her flesh the entire time.

  When he was fully sheathed, he slid his hands beneath her body and pressed his chest to her back. He hugged her to him as he began to fuck her. She keened at the sublimity of the embrace. His cock stroked her as he cradled her, one hand holding a breast, the other clasping a shoulder. He moved her with the hand at her shoulder, sliding her along the slippery silk, and up and down on his cock.

  He whispered to her roughly as she shuddered in bliss.

  “You are the most beautiful thing in existence—a treasure. I wish more than anything I had the power to make you happy.”

  “You do,” she moaned through fevered lips. “You have accomplished your goal.”

  He scraped his teeth down the top of her spine and she shuddered. She heard his harsh moan as she held him at the core of her climax. She cried out, stunned, when she felt him press the tip of his finger into her anus. The caress amplified her orgasm. She writhed beneath him, caught in the grip of pleasure. His growl of arousal vibrated into her hot body.

  “No,” she murmured in confusion when he slid out of her a moment later. She could tell he hadn’t yet climaxed, and she loved the sensation of being joined so closely to him.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. She sensed him moving behind her, and again tried to get her hair out of her eyes and turn over on the bed. Again, he placed his hand at the small of her back, stilling her. She gasped when she felt his finger penetrate her anus. It was slick with some sort of slippery substance. She moaned in rising pleasure as he loosened and lubricated her.

  “I must do this, lovely. To show you are mine. Only mine.” She went still, her eyes going wide when he pressed the crown of his cock against her anus. “I will be very gentle.”

  “I’m not afraid,” she whispered. She was a little surprised to know what she’d said was true, for Blaise was large, and she didn’t have experience with this delicate maneuver.

  He held one buttock open as he presented his cock to her body. His fingers caressed her gently. “Try and relax, if you can,” he instructed. “It will help if you push back on me. You must be the one to let me in.”

  Isabel responded immediately, hungry to have him possess her even if there was some discomfort. If Blaise wanted to do this, then she did. Her heart was so full in that moment, she would have done much more to offer him some small measure of the joy he afforded her.

  He grunted when she pushed so firmly that his cockhead slipped into her body.

  “Hold still,” he grated out, his tone a little desperate.

  She held her breath until her lungs burned. She sensed him trying to gather himself behind her. When he grabbed both of her hips with his hands, Isabel determinedly pushed back again. They both gasped raggedly as he slid several more inches into her. It seemed he had lubricated his cock with the slippery, silky substance as well.

  “That is enough,” he barked. She used one hand to sweep her long hair out of her face. She glanced around at him, one cheek still on the silk duvet. He gave her a wild-eyed glance.

  “I don’t want to lose control. You’re so precious to me,” he muttered.

  “I won’t break,” she pleaded in a whisper.

  His groan seemed to be ripped out of him. He flexed his hips and began to fuck her ass rapidly with the first half of his penis. Now that he was in her, all the pain had faded. There was only raw, dark pleasure. The sensation of having his cock in her ass was exciting to her in a forbidden way. Because of his nature, he could evoke unusually strong, rapid responses from a woman. He could make her climax without ever touching her sex. He could make her lost in a dizzying world of sensation and bliss.

  But this…this was for him. A quick half-glance at his rigid, transported expression told her that.

  “Do it harder,” she murmured.

  Every muscle in his body seemed ready to burst from tension. Despite her plea, he continued to be careful of her, fucking her ass with restraint. For some reason, the whole thing made her terribly aroused. She slid her hand beneath her hips and rubbed her hungry clit while she listened to his grunts and growls of satisfaction.

  A moment later he withdrew. She came in a hot, delicious rush to the sensation of him ejaculating on her skin.

  “I’m sorry. I had to do it,” he murmured next to her ear a moment later as he held her close on the bed.

  “I’m not sorry,” she whispered, turning her face and brushing her lips against his. They both lay on their sides, facing one another, his arms surrounding her. “What do you mean, you had to do it?” she asked slowly as she examined his face.

  “I only meant I wanted you to know I could control my base nature. I can control my animal aggression, Isabel. Always. That’s what I learned tonight. And Isabel?”

  “Yes?” she whispered, a little awestruck by his solemn manner.

  “I wanted to prove to you that I have control, because there will come a moment when you must trust me to show even more control than I have tonight.”

  Something reared in her memory…something Usan had transferred to her through their joined hands. The ephemeral thread quickly sank back into the darkness.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Now is not the time for you to understand. It will come, though. Very soon. And when it does, you must make the choice of whether you will trust enough to participate in the ritual or not,” he said, and she realized he’d read her mind. “There is one more thing I must do to claim my soul…to claim you, Isabel. Now I know I can do it, because I could never cause you harm. Never. I care about you too much.” He pushed her head down to his chest and stroked her hair and cheek. A tear leaked from her eye and dropped to his skin, wetting him. His fingertips massaged her scalp, and Isabel felt as if her heart would burst through her chest, it was so full.

  “Even though my need seems boundless, even though it seems as if my hunger for you will never be satisfied, my g
reed is exceeded by something greater,” he said, his voice a rough, lyrical anthem in her ear. “I could never harm you, Isabel. Never. Because you are my very soul. That is what I learned tonight.”

  “Blaise,” she whispered feelingly.

  He rolled her onto her back and came down over her.

  “There is one other thing I must ask of you,” he said.

  “Anything.”

  “I need you to use your gifted hands to help me find Morshiel. My clone has a major part he must act in this play before I can truly vanquish and rule him.”

  Aubrey stood while Morshiel reclined on a velvet couch, the luxurious fabric striking Aubrey as bizarre within the dank, fetid underground tunnel.

  “He has spoken to Isi,” Aubrey said.

  “Why didn’t you finish the bloody American once and for all in the tunnels?” Morshiel asked irritably.

  “I tried to kill him, but as you know, the circumstances were harrowing with Blaise closing in on us. Now I’m glad my attempt was unsuccessful. I was able to read more of Isi’s thoughts while he was wounded and draw my own conclusions on what must be done to vanquish Blaise. It served me—it served us—for Isi to live and impart this information to Blaise. I believe Blaise will seek you out very soon.”

  “And I am to let him find me?” Morshiel asked, sitting forward on the couch, his gaze narrowed.

  “Yes, by all means,” Aubrey murmured, smiling. “I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. Why use my magic to get you into Sanctuary, when the way would open to us eventually. The spirits tell me the end is coming, and Blaise senses it, just as you do. The master of Sanctuary must be the one to invite you within its walls. Only he can do so.”

  “He can. But will he?” Morshiel asked sneeringly.

  “He shall. And you must cooperate with the ritual that will take place. If you do, you will be the one left standing. Blaise will be dead. And you will rule Sanctuary.”

  Morshiel sniffed and took a sip from his goblet. What did he have to lose? If Aubrey, the Immortal Genius lied, Morshiel would not be the loser. Blaise could not kill him with his weapon, for Morshiel was truly immortal. He could not resist the opportunity to step within the bounds of Sanctuary.