Prince of Ice, page 3
She pursed her lips and then nodded. “True.” She stood, stretching with her hands behind her back, emphasizing her breasts in a way that made Luka’s mouth dry, even though he turned away as soon as he noticed. “Let’s do this.”
Luka grinned as he picked up his ball to wait for his turn. Everything was normal again, and he wasn’t going to think about that “mate” thing that had thrown him off guard.
Clearly, he hadn’t been thinking straight. It had been a wild hare, nothing more. It was the term used by most dragons to describe their women, and right now, Iris felt like his.
But she wasn’t, and she didn’t want that, and Luka had always known that he probably would never be mated. It just wasn’t in the cards.
So he forced himself to focus because she might not be destined to mate him, but he still really wanted that kiss.
* * *
“What the…? How the…?” Iris was ruffling her curls as she paced in front of the scoreboard, a deep blush on her cheeks as she stared at the lane and then their scores. “It’s not possible. You didn’t even know how to bowl!”
Luka just shrugged, feeling pleased with himself. He’d been right. His dragon strength had been a huge asset in bowling once he’d figured out how to make it look more normal. It was cheating, a bit, but no more cheating than it was for Iris to have way more experience.
“I mean, some of those angles shouldn’t even have been possible,” she said, eyes widening slightly as he stood up to walk over to her. “You didn’t even… hit the right places for a strike, but they all went down.”
He brushed an errant curl behind one ear. “I’m strong, I guess.”
She pouted, folding her arms. “It still shouldn’t be possible.” Then she looked up at him, and her eyes darkened with some unknown emotion. Her gaze fell to his lips, and her tongue wet her lower lip in anticipation. “Still, it’s not all bad. Too bad for you, I actually wanted this prize.”
His core tightened at the way she looked at him. He tried not to stare at her still-glistening lower lip. “Oh yeah? I thought you didn’t want commitment.”
She put a hand on his chest tentatively. “Commitment has nothing to do with it. I still like to have fun.”
He sucked his lower lip in, imagining all the things that could be “fun” with her. “I get it.”
She looked up at him nervously and let out a little sigh. “Well, okay then. Claim your prize.”
And then it was like there was only the two of them in the whole world. Like no one else in the bowling alley existed. Just Iris, with her hand on his chest, looking up expectantly.
He wasn’t sure he could have gone through with it if she didn’t seem just as into it as well, so he was glad she had wanted his prize, too.
She was attracted to him, as he was to her. Damn, they were well-suited.
He cupped the back of her head, feeling soft curls, and dipped his head to kiss her.
Her lips were softer and fuller than he’d ever imagined, and his whole body tightened in response to the warm wetness of her mouth as she opened it slightly, inviting him in.
He went, tentatively, lightly tasting her lower lip before slipping his tongue in to stroke lightly against hers. She let out a muffled moan, and her hands gripped his shirtfront, keeping him close, locked in the kiss.
As her tongue pressed against his, greedily twisting and playing, inviting him to take the dominant role, to go ever more deeply inside, he felt the dragon inside him stir and wake up.
As he kissed her until she couldn’t stand straight and he had to hold her around the waist to keep her safe in his arms, he felt wings unfurl in his soul.
Finally, he pulled back, wanting to see her, wanting to reassure himself that it could really be Iris reacting this way in his arms.
What he saw was beyond even his imagination. Gorgeous Iris, looking up at him like he was everything, her lips swollen from kisses, her eyes wide with need. He helped her as she slowly regained her balance, standing on shaky legs and moving her dress back into place.
“Oh my God,” she said, touching her lips gently. “That was amazing.”
He smiled down at her, trying not to let the thoughts inside him tumble out. “I’m glad.”
“I want to do that again,” she said, wetting her lips quickly, staring at his mouth. “I know it’s crazy, given everything happening, but that was incredibly good, right?”
He didn’t really have anything to compare it to. He couldn’t remember if he’d ever kissed anyone before. He’d been so focused on Alek, on duty… Now his world was upside down because he was getting the feeling that something he’d never contemplated was not only possible, but important to every part of his soul.
She was his mate. He was now sure of it. And as much as she wanted to kiss him, he wanted to kiss her, too.
But still…
“Where is this going?” Luka asked tentatively, resting his hands on her arms. “If we do more, if we…”
She pressed a hand to his chest again, feeling his heartbeat, then looked up at him with a warm expression. “I like what we’re doing. I just don’t know if I can get really deep…”
“Deep?”
“I mean too serious too quickly. I can’t make any promises. I’m not looking for a commitment right now, but… I won’t always be working on tenure.”
It wasn’t a promise, but it was enough for him. He dipped his head again to kiss her, but she put a hand up, blocking it.
“As much as I want to, we should probably take this somewhere else.”
“Where?” Luka asked somewhat impatiently, wanting to touch and be close to his mate again. “I don’t want Chelle and Dmitri around.”
Iris brightened. “My place. I live alone there. We can have all the privacy we want.”
Luka nodded, feeling like he’d never wanted anything more in his life than to go to her house at that moment.
He hurried to take off his stupid bowling shoes.
Chapter 4
The short walk back to her apartment had never felt longer for Iris. Despite the cold, late-winter chill outside, her body felt incredibly warm from head to toe, with the intense memory of Luka’s lips on hers and the promise of much more buzzing in her brain.
Somewhere along the way, Luka had taken her hand. And she’d held on tight, leading the way for them both across the campus, toward a huddled row of small brick buildings.
By the time they were at her door, she could barely stand the anticipation, fumbling with her keys, trying to find the right one.
“Can I help?” Luka offered. Just glancing up at him made her knees feel slightly wobbly.
“I got it.” The key clicked in, and the door swung open. Luka followed in behind her, and once she’d shut and locked the door, she turned to face him. “But as for helping…” She gave him a long once-over, still hungry for more of his kisses.
“I get it.” He closed the few feet of distance between them with a single step, and he was towering over her, piercing light-blue eyes shimmering in the relative dim of her lamp-lit place. She felt his hand on her hip, pulling her closer into her, and her body shuddered slightly at the intensity of it, the sheer directness of the action. “And yes, I would love to help.”
Before Iris could reconsider her own attempt at innuendo, Luka’s mouth crashed over hers in a powerful kiss. She melted instantly into the feel of it, parting her lips and letting him claim her with his tongue.
He was shockingly deft, swiping inside and making little sparks of arousal course along her skin. For a split second, her legs buckled, but then suddenly, she felt lifted off the ground by Luka’s hands on her thighs.
She’d never felt so light before, so easily lifted, as Luka’s kisses became more ravenous, matching her own incredible need for more. He placed her back to the door, pushing himself against her, and Iris wrapped her legs around the small of his back, liking the way she could feel thick muscles against her skin.
By now, he was kissing feverishly at her ear, then down her neck. Each touch was like a little fire that kept burning brighter the longer his lips lingered. And when he stroked her earlobe lightly between his teeth, it made her entire body tense from how wonderful it felt.
She pressed herself into Luka harder, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and coiling into him, wanting to be closer. His firm pecs were a stark contrast to her breasts pressing against him, his tight core and steel-strong arms surrounding her with so much masculine strength it was overwhelming.
Then he was kissing lower, burying his head at the base of her neck while he carried her toward her modest couch in the living room. She glanced around, suddenly worried she might have left something out, not expecting company. But by the time he plopped her down on the couch, not breaking the contact of his lips down her clavicle, she couldn’t care about how her place looked.
She just didn’t want him to stop what they were doing.
Iris played with the hem of the fitted T-shirt he’d worn for their “date,” letting her fingers course over shockingly sculpted abdominals. As his kisses teased along the upper ridge of her chest and sternum, Iris’s body practically screamed at her for more, unable to stop the collision course that had started so simple and yet felt impossible to deviate from now.
Iris pulled down a shoulder of her sweater dress, and Luka moved with an almost primitive ferocity to devour the newly available skin with kisses. He was so close to her breast now, licking along the edge of her bra, making her wet and wanting from the touch.
She wanted him to touch her everywhere. Wanted him to mark her all over with those full lips and dexterous tongue.
But when she tried to undo the buckle of her belt at her waist, she fumbled with the clasp. Suddenly, his hands were on hers, helping her undo it, and it fell to the side.
And as it did, their fingers entwined, the sensation of his huge palms wrapped around hers almost sweet as they paused for a moment. Iris looked at Luka’s face, and his icy-blue eyes were awash with emotion and want that matched everything she felt inside.
Yet beneath the passion, she could sense he was in complete control, both of himself and the moment. Somehow, she’d never felt safer with anyone in her life than she did with him.
Luka came in to kiss her again, and she pulled his hands lower, down her body so they could pull her dress up and get it out of the way. But just the feel of his hands in hers as they drifted down, so close to her center, made her body go tight with the inability to wait any longer.
So she took one of his hands and pulled it lower, hoping he was as impatient as she was.
And without a word, he closed the last inch, cupping her sex with his hand, then stroking a finger directly over her clit, the thin material of her panties practically nonexistent against his firm touch.
“Oh God,” she gasped out, the sudden leap from sensual foreplay into erotic action almost too much to hold on to. But Luka didn’t hold back from her, letting his hand do all the talking as he kept his lips locked onto her neck, then her ear.
He was like a storm that began simply as a cloud on the horizon. Yes, Iris had seen just how incredibly attractive, how alluring he was. But behind the veneer of his logic and curiosity and coolheaded nature, Luka had somehow hidden an insatiable beast of a lover that blew away all her preconceived notions of who and what he was.
Iris didn’t even try to hold on, knowing her release was about to break free seconds before it even happened. His finger moving with just the perfect combination of roughness and speed was just too much.
“Luka.” His name on her lips was strained as her entire body spasmed as she came. Her fingers dug into his sides, and Luka went completely still, just watching and waiting for her as incredible waves of pleasure rolled over and through her.
Iris wasn’t sure she’d ever come that fast in her life, ever. Which only meant the chemistry between them really was as amazing as she’d suspected it was back at the bowling alley.
The dress she’d worn felt all too hot and stuffy, and Luka helped her hoist it over her shoulders. A moment later, her bra fell away, too, and Luka’s hands on her breasts felt like heaven, kneading and squeezing the soft skin in a way that made her back arch with pleasure.
A small voice at the back of her head wondered what the hell they were doing on her couch and not in her bedroom. But Luka’s mouth sucking on one nipple as he pressed his thumb lightly into the other made that thought disappear into much simpler, pleasurable sensations.
She felt trapped against his body in the most sensual of ways. Surrounded by masculinity, with no escape from her own pleasure that he seemed utterly insistent on giving. Thankfully, when she pulled up his shirt, he relented for a moment and threw it off for her, letting her soak in his absolutely mouthwatering body even as he inundated her with more of his kisses.
The ridges of his abs were so defined they were like a statue’s. His pecs, so firm and square, seemed brutish, almost in defiance of his intellectual nature. She could make out each thickly corded layer of muscle fiber running down his shoulders to his biceps and forearms. Watching him move over her, touching and arousing her, was almost like being in some sort of dream world.
But her perusal didn’t last long as he pulled aside the yielding material of her panties, letting his finger come directly over her clit. It took only the slightest brush of the tip of his digit to almost make her come again, but this time, Iris held her breath, trying to fight back the intense tightness that signaled her body coming close to the edge.
For what felt like a good while, she held on to Luka, held on to the couch, held on to whatever she could within her as he stroked her again and again. Each time, such incredible, heated desire burned her insides that she felt like it would be the last second before she came, riding along the line of pleasure and pain. But Luka didn’t get impatient, didn’t push her faster, just continued to methodically and expertly do what he was doing to her in such a way that she couldn’t hold on any longer.
Then with what felt like a blast of energy, Iris orgasmed again. It was so extreme that she couldn’t help but call out Luka’s name over and over, thankful for a split second that her apartment had fairly thick walls. But even that notion was obliterated by sheer, unfiltered pleasure pulsating its way through her veins.
Just who was this man? And how the hell had he shown up right in her life from seemingly nowhere?
She heaved a sigh of relief as the last few aftershocks tickled her toes and fingers, lying back against the couch. When Luka’s eyes met hers, there was that quiet intensity again in his unnaturally light-blue irises, watching her, then coursing over her body and making the tiny hairs on her skin stand on edge.
“You’re so beautiful. I’m not sure if I mentioned that earlier.” His voice was husky, deeper. Unlike his normally casual tone.
“Honestly, it doesn’t take saying it out loud when you’re doing things like that to me.” Her gaze wanted to go lower down his body, past his torso to the thick bulge at his jeans.
Damn, sex sounded amazing right now.
Then again, she didn’t think either of them had intended to go as far as they had tonight. But that was in no way a bad thing. Just maybe she’d wait a little longer to see how things played out before going all the way.
Still, that didn’t mean they had to stop there.
“If you’re still interested, I can think of something else you might like as well,” Luka said. Slowly, with his palms on her thighs, he spread her legs slightly, increasing the angle of them as he came to his knees.
He could suggest standing upside down and listening to polka music, and she’d still probably find it sexy somehow. But this… this was overwhelmingly awesome.
“I mean, what about y—”
“If you were about to suggest something along the lines of reciprocation, don’t bother.” His eyes were pinned on her even as his face, his lips, his mouth came closer to her center, making her entire body tense with anticipation. “Believe me when I say I find this perfectly… stimulating.”
He paused, waiting for her silent approval. Somewhere between wanting to say that she, in fact, would also enjoy doing something to him and feeling suddenly out of air from suspense, her body mustered a quick, eager nod.
That was all he needed, and his fingers hooked around her panties, dragging them off her hips and onto the floor. Before she could even reconsider their positioning, his mouth met her slit, kissing her deeply. Iris’s vision blurred momentarily, the heat of his breath and the feel of his lips so delicious it made reality distort around her.
And then his tongue licked up against her clit, slick and intent, and she practically forgot where she was or even what her own name was.
Thankfully, he didn’t stop. Didn’t tease her. Didn’t hold back. Just gave her so much pleasure that she didn’t know what to do with it. So she just lay back into the firm material of her couch, closing her eyes, unable to even process what they would be seeing right now anyway.
And when she came, he waited patiently for her, letting her ride out every second of incredible pleasure as it turned everything upside down and inside out. Then he continued right where he left off, alternating the motions he made with his tongue, using the base of it, then the tip, then giving her kisses in between and starting all over again.
She was far past counting orgasms when, beyond what Iris herself thought was capable, she realized she had as much as she could take.
Thankfully, without needing to say a word, Luka seemed to have reached the same consensus himself, sitting up, his hands still on her legs, and practically licking his lips. She felt her skin flush at the forwardness of it, his absolute, unabashed expression as he helped her gather her clothes up from the floor.
“That… that was really something else.” Her legs felt like noodles, her feet almost numb from so much pleasure. Her arms didn’t want to cooperate as she put her underwear back on but tossed her dress aside since she’d probably be changing into her pajamas soon.
“Hopefully, it exceeded expectations.” Luka had never seemed more pleased with himself. And for good reason, too.
