Mists of Velvet

growled. “Because I thought I could wait until . . . after Rowan was gone. I can’t . . . I couldn’t be with the goddess before that. Even knowing it was Cailleach’s wish, I knew I couldn’t obey. Not until . . .” He swallowed and dropped the thought. “After, I planned to share her—with you. I thought it would work until”—Keir met his gaze—“until I realized you felt more for her than desire.”
    Rhys felt his body stiffen. The thought of Keir with Bronwnn made him crazed. The thought of sharing her . . . He couldn’t even go there.
    “I won’t take her from you, Rhys, I promise. She isn’t my mate.”
    Suddenly, Keir was at the door, holding it open. “We’re wasting time. Cailleach’s oidhche will be here in a matter of hours, checking on you. Go,” Keir ordered.
    “Cailleach will kill you if she discovers your deception.”
    Keir shrugged. “I’m halfway there.”
    Rhys sent him a hard glare. “No, you’re not. And I won’t let anything happen to you. Got it?”
    Keir nodded, but Rhys realized, too late, that the wraith wasn’t looking him in his eye. For the second time in their long association, Rhys could not hear or feel what the wraith was thinking.

    The ugly gray chemise tore easily in Rhys’ hands, and, without thought or guilt, he ripped it up the center, revealing Bronwnn’s pale body in the moonlight. Breasts, round and full, rose and fell with deep breaths as she stirred in her sleep. Hungrily his gaze raked over her voluptuous curves, drinking in everything he had longed to see. There was enough moonlight to illuminate her body and the V between her thighs as she spread them for him. She was wet, glistening, and he wanted to taste her; to finger her.
    Cupping her breast, he stroked her nipple, watching as it puckered beneath his thumb. Already aroused, he felt himself swell further, and to relieve some of the ache in his groin, he brushed his cock along her milky white thigh. None of his suffering was abated, however, and he stroked himself along her smooth skin over and over, watching the tantalizing visual of his cock rubbing her leg.
    God, he wanted her. She was his, regardless of whatever she had offered Cailleach. They were fated to be together.
    She stirred and sighed huskily, still slumbering dreamily while he fondled her breasts. His gaze slipped to her face, and he watched her lips part when he pressed her breasts together. Damn but he needed to feel those lips on his cock.
    Raising himself to his knees, he nudged her thighs wider and kneeled between them, resting his weight on his hands. Pressing forward, he trailed his mouth between her breasts, then down her belly where he circled her navel with his tongue. Gooseflesh erupted on her skin, fanning out along her midriff. She stretched, then reached for him, clutching his hair in her fingers.
    “Rhys, I feared you wouldn’t come to me.”
    “Of course I came. Bran’s not much of a jailer.”
    She sighed, and he looked up along her gorgeous body to her face. “Talk to me, Bronwnn,” he whispered, “I love your voice. The way it moves along my body. Say something . . . Tell me something.”
    “I ache to have you inside me,” she said, catching his gaze. “I desire you like no other man. I want your cock pushing inside me, filling me.”
    “Keep going,” he murmured. “You’ve made me rock hard.” Just to prove it to her, he pressed his cock against her, and she reached for him, but he evaded her touch.
    “This is for you, mo bandia . Just lie back and let me hear those little cries of yours.”
    Tonguing her belly again, he listened for her sighs and felt her hips shift on the bed as he lowered his mouth to the damp curls. Spreading the soft folds, he raked his tongue up her length, arousing her with his mouth. She was wet and writhing, her fingers curling in his hair while her hips moved in an intoxicating, erotic rhythm against his probing tongue.
    “Rhys.” She sighed, rubbing her sex against him. Her voice in the quiet turned him on. The way she said his name lit him on fire. “Please,” she said with a keening cry as she tensed and tightened, but he stopped just before she came. He wanted her wild for him.
    Sliding along her body, he licked the valley of her breasts and slid his now-rampant erection between them. He showed her how to press her breasts together to increase his pleasure, and he groaned, watching his cock slide between her breasts.
    “Suck me,” he demanded. He