Lacey's Warriors (Bondmates #6) - Ann Mayburn Page 0,22

progress to the next step in her seduction. Giving into an urge he’d had from the moment he saw her, he brushed his fingers through the spiraling blonde curls that had escaped her braid near her temple.

He had to swallow back a moan at the sensation of her soft strands beneath his touch. The pale gold color was entrancing, and sliding his fingers through it sent waves of pleasure through both his body and soul. Despite Lacey’s best efforts, a bond was forming between them. He could feel her hesitant, almost guilty pleasure as he slowly brushed his hand down the strong, feminine muscles of her back to the lean curve of her waist.

The heat from her skin hidden beneath the thin material seemed to soak into his soul as he slowly ran his hand down the curve of her lower back, right to the top of her pert buttocks. Her rear end—or ass, as she liked to call it—was a heart-shaped wonder. He’d never seen such a perfect ass in all his travels, and he could not wait for the day when he could properly worship it.

His fingers trailed down to the top of the curve, his whole palm covering her right buttock as he slowly caressed her.

“Gwarnon,” she said in a soft voice with a slight tremble, “What are you doing?”

“Just cleaning you off,” he murmured, trailing his fingers closer to the sweet crack of her bottom.

She arched back slightly into his touch. “Really? Cause it feels like you’re copping a feel, and you guys promised when we started training that you wouldn’t do that.”

“No,” he smiled at her narrowed gaze, filled with both heat and suspicion, “Chel, the good man that he is, promised not to grope you. I did no such thing.”

Cursing at him, but hiding a smile, she tried to smack his hands away and almost ended up falling again. He nearly choked on his repressed laughter as she latched onto him like a Clothian leech. Her scowl, when she looked up at him, was somehow both intimidating and adorable. Secure, but vulnerable in a way that tugged at his heart. There were times when he’d catch a glimpse of an infinite sadness in her gaze that made him wish she would share her burdens with him so he could fix them for her.

“I swear, if you grab my ass like that again, I’ll grab your balls on the way down the next time I fall. And don’t think I don’t notice that enormous hardon you’ve got going on. I know I’m impossible to resist, but control yourself.”

The self-deprecating way she said that dug at Gwarnon, and he ignored her grunt of protest as he placed his hand on the back of her neck and made her look at him. “You are beautiful, my alyah. I know you hate it when I say it, and I do not understand why, but I will tell you every day of our lives together until you believe me. Until you say thank you and mean it because you know I am sincere when I say you are beautiful.”

“You just have to say that because you think I’m your bride,” she whispered. Her long, pale lashes flickered while she studied his face, and he willed her to feel the truth.

“Does this feel like a lie?” He pushed his pelvis against her, his achingly hard erection straining against her firm body. “I will want you with the same ferocity no matter how many times I pleasure you. Though you may argue, we are fated mates, my alyah. We were made for each other. Can you not feel it, the heat, the need to have me buried deep inside you?”

“I…” Her voice faded to a whisper as he remembered Lord Rell’s advice and slid his thigh between her legs, making sure he pressed the hard muscle against her clit. “Gwarnon, what are you doing to me?”

“Trust me, alyah. Let me give you pleasure. That is all I want, to watch you have your release. Allow me to give you this gift.”

“I shouldn’t…” Her gaze grew more luminous somehow as her passion heated her blood and she rubbed herself against him. “It feels so good…how can anything feel this good?”

A faint echo of feminine desire teased at his senses, toying with his cock like stroking fingertips. He unconsciously opened himself more to that sensation and realized that while Lacey had been keeping her end of the bond with him closed off, he’d