Savage Lessons (Temple of Luna #3) Read online

  His hand rose again, strong, blunt fingers catching her chin and tilting her head back. He caught her gaze, his eyes dark. "This first time is play. I like to learn a woman, learn her limits and her body. Because I need to know before I let the beast free."

  It sounded like heaven, and this time Lexa didn't try to calculate what would earn her the most intense reaction. She just bit her lip and untied his pants. "Play with me. I want to know too."

  "You will." He caught both of her wrists, something dangerous flashing behind that dark gaze. "Finish undressing yourself first."

  Instinct almost drove her to refuse. The silks worn under a priestess's robes were meant to be torn, ripped away in a symbolic claim. She'd presented herself to him already. Now it was his turn to take her.

  Except he isn't claiming you, she reminded herself as she reached for the high hem of her diaphanous slip. She could still see him as she drew the chemise over her head, and she watched his face while it fluttered to the floor.

  The corner of his mouth curved up, as if he could read her thoughts. But then his gaze dropped from hers, sliding down her body. His smile faded, replaced with a flattering heat. "Stunning."

  "And naked." She stood, bare except for the leather cuffs around her wrists and ankles. "Now what will you have me do?"

  He raised his gaze to hers again and held it as he loosened his pants and let them fall to the ground. "Give me your wrists."

  It didn't occur to her not to obey. The small metal circlets on the cuffs clinked as she held out her arms.

  His fingers encircled them easily, wrapping around her wrists and the cuffs alike. He held them in front of her and smiled. "If you truly enjoy a man's pleasure... take mine."

  He held her wrists as she knelt on the pillows. He stood at attention, hard and thick, and she licked her lips. She stroked her tongue slowly along his shaft and then sucked the head of his cock between her lips.

  He rewarded her at once with a low, rumbling moan. "You like to tease, don't you?"

  "Mmm." Lexa released him and traced the tip of her tongue over him in small circles, enjoying the texture of velvet skin over his rigid length. "You're not going to let me make you come right now anyway, so I might as well."

  He pulled her wrists together and caught them both in one hand. His freed hand fell to her hair. "You don't know what I'll do, sweetheart."

  She didn't, and the realization intensified the wet ache in her cunt. She stared up at him in challenge and opened her mouth. This time, she kept her lips slowly sliding down his cock until he bumped the back of her throat. His fingers tightened in her hair, and he hissed out a breath. "You have been practicing."

  She moaned and sucked hard as she pulled back slowly. "Again?"

  "You decide, kitten." His rough voice cut through her careful submission, sending a pulse of raw pleasure through her. "You said you like a man's pleasure. If you want me to come, make it so hot I can't help myself."

  He was too composed, and Lexa was already shaking in his grasp. It made her angry to feel so vulnerable, and she growled softly. He might be jaded as hell, but he'd never had her before. "As you wish," she whispered, and lowered her mouth to him again.

  She took her time, slicking her tongue over every inch of him before giving him her mouth again. It was impossible to hide her excitement, so she didn't try, just moaned around him when his grip in her hair tightened and he groaned, long and low.

  His hips jerked, just a tiny bit, and he controlled the movement so quickly she knew he hadn't intended it. He wasn't as unaffected as he liked to pretend, and the knowledge sent another spiral of satisfied arousal shooting through her. More than that, it bolstered her confidence, and she looked up at him and intensified her efforts.

  She kept it slow, gradual, but moved faster and longer until she was fucking him with her mouth. His gorgeous hazel eyes stayed fixed on her face as his breathing sped until he was panting harshly.

  He growled the next time she took him, his fingers clenching for a heartbeat, and he came with a roar that sounded pleased and shocked at the same time.

  Lexa kept him deep in her mouth while she eased him through his orgasm, then finally pulled away to lick her lips once more. "You don't know what I'll do either, Dejan."

  "I suppose not." He released her wrists and smiled down at her, slow and lazy. "Get on the bed."

  Her knees were weak, but she forced herself to her feet anyway. She reached it in steady steps, crawled onto it on her hands and knees and stopped to look back at him. "On my back?"

  His eyes flared, and he crossed the space between them in two long strides. His large hands landed on her hips, his grip harsh. "Do you know what you do to a warrior when you taunt him like this? What you invite him to do to you?"

  "Yes." Rough. Wild. Her breath caught, and she arched under his touch. "I know."

  "You've never had a feral man take you." His fingertips trailed down her ass to graze her cunt. "Don't taunt a man unless you already ache for him."

  Lexa almost rocked back against his hand, anything to ease the need. Instead, she rolled to her back and parted her legs. "I'll remember that."

  His eyebrows climbed nearly to his hairline, the look in his eyes wild. "And you think this is less tempting?"

  The expression made her bold, and she teased her toes up his thigh. "When did we establish not tempting you as a goal?"

  He moved fast, snatching her ankle and flipping her over. She landed on her stomach, his body stretched out over hers. "If that's how you'd like to play..."

  It was what she wanted, and the realization shocked Lexa too much for her to hide it. "I want to arouse you so much you can only think of me."

  His lips brushed her ear. "Lift your hands above your head."

  She stretched her arms out on the bed and clenched her fingers in the soft coverlet. "I wasn't taunting you. Well, maybe a little."

  "A little is all it takes." His teeth closed on her earlobe, hard enough to warn, to show dominance and danger.

  It sent pleasure shivering through her, and she arched up against him. "Warriors don't taunt. They take, don't they?"

  "They're not mutually exclusive." His mouth jumped to the back of her shoulder to deliver another bite, a quick sting of teeth followed by a leisurely exploration with his tongue. "Any taunt you deliver to a warrior you'll get back a dozen times. They'll play with your body, learn what makes you beg and glut themselves on your pleasure."

  His tongue on her skin made speaking difficult, and his earlier words came back to her. This first time is play.

  She could fight it, try to keep the upper hand and control him... or she could give in. Let him show her. Let him have his play, learn her body, and see how far beyond the edge her pleasure would take him.

  Lexa shuddered and relaxed. "I'm at your mercy, warrior."

  The words almost undid him. Dejan hissed in a breath and dug his fingers into the covers, his entire body tense and trembling. And hard -- Goddess, he was so hard. Unacceptable, even for a man with his incredible stamina. He wasn't a youth anymore, wasn't a twenty-year-old who would thrust into the heat of a woman's body and spend himself before she realized he was there.

  Except he had. She'd nearly made a fool of him with her mouth and here he was, hard again and ready to sate himself in fast, furious fucking just because she whispered the words that unleashed the wildness inside him.

  He bit her shoulder again, hard this time. "Don't say that again. Those words have power, and I'm not ready to give in to them. You're not ready, either."

  She stiffened under him. "You chastise me when I act, yet you do the same when I give in. What do you want from me?"

  Fuck. Pull it together. He kissed her ravaged skin. "I'm sorry. That's something I should have told you at the beginning. My fault, kitten, not yours."

  Lexa wiggled under him, her hip rubbing his cock as she rolled to her back again. Then she stared up at him, eyes soft, lips parted. "Tell me what to do."

  "Give in,"
he whispered. His hips were cradled against hers, so perfect, so easy. He could slide into her and find paradise. "Everything but those words."

  Her hands skated down his sides to clutch his back, and she moved until the head of his cock just nudged her entrance. "Take me."

  He couldn't. He hadn't pushed her, hadn't learned her limits or tested her reactions. He hadn't done his job, and taking her now would be a selfishness that could hurt her later on.

  He couldn't take her... but he could pleasure her. He bit the side of her jaw and growled softly. "Put your hands above your head, novice, or I'll chain them there."

  Again, she raised her arms to rest above her head.

  A smile curved his lips, and he ground down against her and claimed her mouth in a deep, hot kiss, savoring the taste of her lips before he drove between them to find her tongue.

  Lexa met him with the same enthusiasm she'd shown earlier, her hips arching off the bed as she opened to his kiss -- hungry, not a hint of calculation. She was good like this, magical and fucking intoxicating, and in that moment he knew she'd be the best. Even Celine had never completely let go, holding back part of her the way all strong women had to. But when Lexa gave in...

  If he could teach her to fuck with the same freedom he tasted in her kiss, men would crawl over broken glass to have her. And he'd want to kill every one of them.

  He dragged his mouth from hers and kissed her cheek, then dropped a line of kisses down the slender curve of her throat. "You're magnificent."

  She moaned. "That's what I was thinking."

  "You thought right." He skipped to her breast and caught the tip of her nipple between his teeth, giving it just enough of a teasing tug to gauge her reaction.

  "Fuck." Her back arched, and she almost rose off the bed. She blinked, her gaze hazy and unfocused. "I lied earlier."

  Dejan lifted his head. "About what?"

  "I listened to the initiates gossip. The older priestesses, too. None of them even came close to describing you."

  A nice boost for his ego, but he didn't need it with the scent of her desire thick in the air. "Perhaps you inspire me."

  She smiled slowly. "Flatterer."

  He bit her nipple again. She cried out and dropped her hands to his shoulders, then snatched them away quickly. "You'll have to chain me. I can't not touch you."

  It took only moments to urge her hands up. Chains dangled from the headboard already, and he smoothed a hand along her skin as he fastened them to the silver loops on her cuffs. As he chained her.

  Her skin flushed, and her breathing quickened. "What are you going to do?"

  "Learn you." He retreated to her breast again. "Learn how hard I need to bite before you squirm... and how hard I have to bite before you scream."

  Lexa choked back a moan. "Does this process involve orgasms?"

  So many she'd sleep for a day. "Without a doubt."

  "Bite me," she whispered, her eyes glazed. "Please."

  He licked her instead, dragging his tongue over the tight bud of her nipple before sucking it between his lips. Only when she was writhing under him did he shift his mouth to the swell of her breast and close his teeth on it in a sharp, slow bite.

  She began to pant. "None of the other trainers are nearly this evil."

  He didn't like the thought of other trainers, and certainly didn't like her bringing them up. The beast inside him snarled, and he fought a quick, dirty battle to keep from allowing it to rise to the surface and claim her. Instead he slid lower, nipping at her stomach. "None of the other trainers is me."

  "The understatement of an age." Her legs parted again, and her hips bucked up. "I've never had quite so much faith in a man's promises to make me scream."

  "Too much talk of other men." He closed his hands around her thighs and pushed them wide before staring up at her face. "Never do that in bed with a warrior. A trainer can accept it --" Or he should be able to. "-- but a warrior will turn viciously possessive."

  "I know that." She stared back at him. "But you're not claiming me. This is training. A test."

  He didn't want to hear logic, so he silenced her by sweeping his thumb across her cunt, hiding a groan at the slick heat of her. "I'll claim you soon enough, and in ways you can barely imagine."

  Lexa laughed, low and husky. "Try me, Dejan."

  "Later. For now..." He slicked his thumb through her folds, teasing over her clit with the barest of touches. "I want to see you come."

  She shuddered, and her entire body strained toward his touch. "Harder."

  For once he obeyed, more interested in watching her pleasure rise than reasserting dominance. He stroked her more firmly. "That's right."

  "Yes." She rocked up, finding a smooth, maddening rhythm despite the chains that bound her. It was intoxicating, the way her body moved, bound yet so free.

  His beast craved, wanted her pleasure. Wanted to claim her. The latter would have to wait, but the former... He slid two fingers inside her and fucked her with them, his breath coming in panting growls as she writhed for him.

  She cursed and clenched tight around him, gripping his fingers, and the slow flush of orgasm stole up her chest. "More, don't -- don't stop --" Her words dissolved into a scream, and she shivered and shook under his hands.

  By the Goddess, she was beautiful when she came.

  Dejan coaxed her to the peak of pleasure, then eased a third finger into her as she trembled with the aftershocks. Before they could fade completely, he crooked his fingers, searching for the spot that would send her wild again.

  She shrieked when he found it, her hips coming off the bed. The chains rattled furiously, nearly obscuring the soft, desperate whimpers that followed her screams -- demands, pleas.

  His name.

  She came with utter abandon, and his cock ached from watching. He wanted to bury himself in her body and ride her, to feel that clenching heat around something other than his fingers.

  But he had to test her. Push her. See how many times her body would rise to climax before she shook with exhaustion.

  But Lexa shivered and twisted her body away from his hands. "It's my turn again."

  A challenge, and as quickly as that the beast snapped the leash.

  Lexa gasped as Dejan surged over her, but she didn't get a chance to speak before he wound a hand in her hair and kissed her. She tried to kiss him back, but he plundered her mouth, seemingly intent on dominating her. Owning her.

  It almost made her come again.

  Power thundered through the room, an overwhelming press of wild, feral magic. When he lifted his head, something dangerous glinted in his dark eyes. "You don't get a turn."

  "Don't I?" The challenging words were useless. His power had awakened something primal inside her, and even as she spoke she relaxed and bared her throat.

  He took it this time, closed his teeth over her pulse with a loud growl and marked her.

  Her head was swimming, and her skin throbbed with his mark. She'd never been this wanton or out of control, and she expected it to frighten her. Instead, she found herself whispering Dejan's name in a quiet plea. "Take me."

  Another growl, and he leaned up and pulled at the chains, dragging her hands toward the center of the bed but keeping them bound. A soft click, and he reared back and closed his hands on her hips before flipping her body. She landed on her stomach, the cuffs holding her wrists crossed above her head.

  His breath fell hot against her ear. "Say it again."

  She knew that, once she spoke the words again, he would take her -- hard, fast. Rough. Lexa barely managed to stifle a whimper. "Take me."

  He thrust into her with one powerful movement, driving into her body and snarling his satisfaction against her ear.

  The remnants of pleasure still simmering in her flared, and she jerked under him. "Dejan! Goddess..."

  Large hands dragged down her shoulders and back as he rose to his knees behind her. He grasped her hips and dragged her up, but he didn't give her a chance to settle her
knees on the bed. Instead he held her where she had no leverage to move and began a slow, taunting grind.

  It was exactly why she'd wanted him as her teacher. No other trainer in the recent history of the Temple had the same reputation for satisfaction and instruction. It explained how he could command her body so easily, draw such exhaustive pleasure from her.

  What it didn't explain was why she wanted him to mark her again, and why she wanted to press her own teeth to the strong, tanned column of his throat.

  "That's right..." His voice was a rough, rasping whisper in the silence of the room. "I can feel it when you give in, feel the power of submission."

  "I'm --" She bit her lip to stop the traditional words. Give in, he'd said. Everything but those words. "I'm glad."

  "And obedient." One powerful thrust, a tease of what was yet to come, and he resumed the torturous rocking. "It's too late, novice. You're at my mercy now."

  It felt heavenly, better than bringing any of the other trainers to their knees. "What are you going to do with me?"

  His fingers dug into her hips, hard enough to leave bruises. "What do you think?"

  He'd ride her to exhaustion, make her come until she begged him to stop... and she wanted him to say it. "I don't know. Tell me."

  "No." A sharp jerk, yanking her to her knees to free his hands. One rubbed over her ass, rough fingers first then the bite of nails. "No warning for you, little novice. No control." He slapped her ass with his open hand.

  She cried out as the sudden, stinging contact shook her. There was nowhere to go, no way to escape, even if she'd wanted to, which she didn't. "No control," she repeated in a whisper.

  A pleased rumble, and the wet heat of his mouth against her shoulder. Fingers tangled in her hair, pulled her head back. "You're hot around me. Wet. So eager."

  "Don't make me wait." She tried to put force behind the words, turn them into a demand, but they came out as a hoarse plea. Fuck it. Give in. "Please. Please."

  He traced his hands over her, molding her body with strong fingers, tweaking her nipples and caressing her hips. He touched her everywhere, stroked and teased and demanded, all the while working into her with tight, short thrusts, fucking her like he wanted it to last forever.