Koori cried out as bolts of pleasure surged over her and nestled deep in her sex. She instinctively spread her legs to quiet the aching, but the movement only made it grow more intense.
As he sucked at her breast, Darien moved his hand down her body to her leg. He gathered her skirt and pushed it up, revealing her long legs. Slowly, he trailed his fingers up the smooth line of her skin and circled them over the soft, sensitive flesh of her inner thigh.
Shivering with desire, she pushed her h*ps up, inviting him in, to touch, to feel how she ached for him. He didn’t need any more encouragement as his fingers found her wet and open for his touch. He growled low in his throat and she felt his jaw clench at her breast as he continued to lick her creamy flesh.
“You feel like heaven in my hand.”
As he gently stroked her, Koori could feel her desire building deep within her belly. No man had excited her as Darien had. There was something about his quiet manner that drove her mad. She moaned as his fingers pressed into her.
“Darien!” she cried. “Take me now. I need you inside me.”
He let his hand slide out from between her legs, and quickly shed his thermal shirt and pants. With one mighty yank, he pulled her kimono down her body and tossed it to their feet. He leaned over her, gazing at her, as if drinking in his fill of her na**d form.
“You are the most enchanting woman I have ever known, Koori, my ice maiden.”
She smiled up at him and let her gaze travel over his body. She took in his tousled golden hair, the dark of his eyes, the hard rippling muscles of his chest, down to the full length of his cock. He was perfect in every way to her.
Wrapping her hands around his neck, she rolled him over her, wrapping her legs around his waist, inviting him in.
He nestled between her legs and kissed her hard. As he moved his mouth over hers, Koori could feel the rigidness of his sex pressing against her. She pushed toward him as he inched himself into her slowly. She felt every glorious inch of him as he went deep within her, filling her up. They fit perfectly, she thought, like two pieces of the same sculpture.
Pushed up on his elbows, Darien stared down into her face while he cradled her head in his hands. She could feel him pulsing inside her like a second heartbeat. She moved against him, but he stilled her. She felt the thud of his heart against her chest. It was hard and fast and strong, and made her feel more alive than anything before.
His intensity scared her as well as filled her with passion. When he looked at her, it was as if he were staring through her and into her soul. She wondered what he saw there. Was it as black as Junzo had told her it was? Or was it as wholesome and pure as she hoped it to be?
Whatever he saw must’ve pleased him because he pressed his lips to hers and started to move inside her.
With each thrust of his hard length, Koori held on to him. She wrapped her arms around him and whimpered as he drove her up a massive rise then cried out with her as they tumbled down the other side in an explosion of need and pleasure. Koori felt it deep within the place inside her that had solidified into ice so long ago.
Sweat trickled down his forehead as he moved inside her with a relentless rhythm. He took her up, and then back down again and again, until all she could do was feel. Every nerve ending in her body fired at once, and she was bombarded with a kaleidoscope of sensory overload. She could no longer discern where she started and Darien ended. It was as if they had fused into one entity from the heat burning up both of them.
Wrapping his hands around her head, he buried his face in her neck and drove himself deep into her. She dug her nails into his back and held on as she spiraled out of control. A deep violent vibration exploded inside her belly and radiated out to every part of her body. She even felt it in the tips of her fingers and toes.
With one final moan, Darien came, crying out in his pleasure. “Koori.”
When their bodies quieted, Darien rolled off her and snuggled her into his body from behind, curling around her. He kissed the back of her neck with a sigh. His whiskers tickled her skin, and she squirmed against him, finding a perfect groove to snuggle into.
Koori felt sore, tired and completely blissful as Darien wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips to the back of her neck again. His heat warmed her, drugging her like too much sake. Soon, her eyes felt heavy, and she started to drift on the edge of sleep.
Darien stroked his thumbs over the hollow of her belly and whispered into her ear. “I think I’m falling in love with you.”
But Koori pretended not to hear. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to hope for that. It had been so long she wasn’t sure she even knew how to love or how to accept it. For now, it was enough to know that Darien really cared and that she did, too.
To expect any more was a fool’s journey.
Chapter 13
I t was the shrieking howl of the wind that woke Darien from his idyllic dreamsleep. Blinking to adjust to the gloom in the tent, he finally focused on where he was. Face-to-face, legs tangled, with a still-sleeping Koori, he smiled to himself. At first he’d thought he’d been dreaming of her, but now he realized that she was by his side, she was a reality.
He watched her sleep, the gentle rise and fall of her chest, the way her lips pursed together in a perfect cupid bow. She was extraordinary in every way.
A sudden blast of wind startled him from his reverie. He rolled onto his back and stared up at the flapping roof of the tent. The gravity of the situation smothered him in a sudden rush. They had escaped the palace but were now outside in a blizzard with no idea at all where to go. He had a compass, but he had a distinct feeling it wasn’t going to help him in the least. He didn’t think knowing north from south was going to aid him here in this place. Because it was quite possible that this place wasn’t even real.
The thought had crossed his mind on several occasions as they made their way down impossible walls of ice of an impossibly structured castle that had no business being four stories high. Again, the notion that he was dreaming crossed his mind.
I could very well be going nuts.
Koori stirred beside him. With a small satisfied sigh, she ran her hand over his chest. He glanced down and realized that he was still na**d. Surprisingly he wasn’t in the least bit cold.
She nuzzled along his side, the feel of her body stirring more than just his mind. She stretched and yawned. “Is it morning?”
“I think so.”
Yawning again, she laid her head on him and pressed a kiss to his chest. “I’ve not slept so well in more years than I care to consider.”
“Me, either.” He wrapped an arm around her and held her close, nuzzling his face into her hair. She smelled like fresh clean rain. It was one of his favorite scents.
“Do you think it wrong if we just stayed here, like this forever?”
He smiled. He had just been thinking the same thing, except in his version they were doing more than just lying there. “No, but I think eventually we’d run out of food. I only have enough food bars to last a week.”
He had said it in jest, but the seriousness of the situation hung in the air like a rancid odor. They had to get moving, or one or both of them would die. And his big money was definitely on his own demise. Koori was immune to the cold, but he wasn’t. Already he could feel the bitter wind beginning to seep in through the zipper and flaps of the tent tainting the air with ice.
“We should get moving.”
“Yes.” She rolled off him and reached for her kimono that he had earlier tore off her and thrown into the corner.
While she dressed, he, too, busied himself with clothing. He pulled on his thermals, then his sweatshirt and khaki pants. Next came his wool socks and boots, then his jacket.
Before he slipped on his gloves and wool hat, he rolled up the sleeping bags and thin insulated mat and shoved them into his pack. He handed Koori the canteen of water and an energy bar.
She took it without comment. He hated that the business of getting to safety ruined the magic brimming between them. But if he didn’t get them out of here, they’d never have another magical moment together again.
“I’m going to go check things outside.” He unzipped the tent and crawled out. He also had a bursting bladder to take care of.
The harsh wind hit him full-on in the face before he had a chance to put up the fur hood on his jacket. It stung his cheeks instantly. Gazing around at the surroundings, Darien could make out a few things in the gray haze of blowing snow. There did seem to be a path, or what should’ve been a path, between some barren trees running alongside the palace. Maybe it led to the road. Or maybe it led to absolutely nowhere. Regardless, they had to find out. They couldn’t stay where they were and survive.
After finishing his business, he crawled back into the tent. Koori was busy chewing on the food bar.
“I think I see a path through some trees. It goes to the east. Does that sound familiar?”
She shook her head. “I take a different path just about every time I’m required to return to the road. At least it never seems like the same way.” She shrugged. “I’m sorry that I’m of no help.”
“That’s okay.” He smiled at her, but the defeated look on her face compelled him to lean into her and brush his lips against hers. He cupped her face with his hands and kissed her again. “We will get out.”
She gave him a small smile, and a nod, but he didn’t think she was too convinced of his declaration. Truth be told, he wasn’t much, either.
After about an hour of walking through the barren craggy trees, it became evident to Darien that it wasn’t leading them to a road. In fact, he felt like they’d somehow been going in circles. His compass wasn’t working worth a damn.
What he wouldn’t give for a gas station nearby so he could ask directions.
Stopping, he glanced over at Koori. “Does any of this look familiar?”
“Maybe,” she said looking around at the surroundings. “But it all looks the same. Everywhere there are trees and snow and gray sky. That’s all there ever is.”
Darien could hear the panic in her voice. He wrapped an arm around her and squeezed her close. She shivered under his embrace.