Destined Desires
Talaenian Fae 2

An instant later, his dream woman dropped her basket with a thud and rushed from the store. Bryce’s heart plummeted to his feet. Mindy stared at him through narrowed eyes, but the accusatory gaze did little to stop him from sprinting after the woman. He pushed through two customers as they exited the store, earning a few gasps and crude remarks. He burst into the frigid air, glancing around desperately until he spotted her, shuffling through her purse, brisk steps bordering a power walk and a jog carrying her farther away.

“Wait! Wait!” he called. He somehow maneuvered his way in front of the woman as she rounded the back of a dark blue Jag. The woman—oh, God, Rihanna—came up short of barreling into him. To his dismay, she took a stumble back. Damn! She was just as breathtaking as he remembered. She seemed so much more glamorous than the night at the club, which he thought impossible. He couldn’t stop staring at her, finding it difficult to do much more. Her exquisite beauty enveloped his mind in star-struck awe but the sadness in her hued eyes overwhelmed him.

“Hi,” Bryce said. He mentally slapped himself. Why was it always easier to talk to a backside than a frontside? He added quickly, “Rihanna, right?”

The woman just stared at him, wisps of ebony hair brushing across the soft, defined curves of her face. Her luscious lips separated ever so slightly. Bryce found his eyes wandering rapidly over every possible inch of her face, burning her to memory. He erased any lingering doubts of her being nothing more than a figment of his imagination. There was no room left for doubt, not an ounce, right down to the same, unusual tapering points of her ears hidden beneath the thick cape of hair. When the breeze blew just right, he saw one point poke out from the midnight curtain, studded with diamonds and reflecting prisms of light from the lamps in the parking lot.

Bryce’s fingers curled. Oh, hell. He ran after her still holding a pill bottle in his hand. Hoping no one noticed his carelessness and assumed he planned to sell the scripts, he shoved the bottle deep into the pocket of his lab coat and shifted beneath her stunned gaze.

“You left something inside,” he continued. How pathetic! God, how stupid could one man sound under the intense scrutiny of a beautiful woman? Apparently quite a bit as he quickly proved.

“Do you chase all customers who leave without a purchase?” Her voice was soft and delicate, musical and mystical, merely enhancing her magical appearance. The shape of her body was perfect, slender, voluptuous and lean in all the right places. Ahh, the knee-length leather jacket and beige tunic didn’t hide the curves of her body. Her dark blue jeans hugged her long, slender legs. The delicacy of her neck and the prominent cut of her collarbone extended an invitation to both his eyes and his mouth. He wanted to taste the hollow of her neck unlike anything he ever wanted before. He wanted to taste her mouth, her breasts, her palms. Her.

Bryce cleared his throat and smiled in spite of himself.

“No. Only the customer who bolted when she saw me.” Bryce shot a quick glance up to the store window. Mindy’s attention flew around the counter, quickly ringing the last of the customers up and focusing on him. He would be bombarded with questions when he went back inside, no doubt about that.

And he didn’t care.

Upon returning his gaze to Rihanna, her inviting mouth curled at the corners, producing a surprisingly serene grin. “I’ve often wondered what happened to you the night at the club. You took off in such a hurry I didn’t know what to make of it. I haven’t seen you since.”

“Clubs can prove an ideal meeting ground for strangers never to cross paths again.”

Bryce shrugged, unsatisfied with her response. He couldn’t stop looking at her. I’ve dreamt of you for years, and here you are. Oh, how he wanted to proclaim this secret to her. Instead, he asked, “What do you say when strangers meet again? Under different circumstances and on different grounds?”

“I’m not at liberty to assume anything.” Rihanna shot a curious glance toward the store. “Best you return before you‘re reprimanded.”

“Don’t vanish on me this time,” Bryce heard himself say. He bit down on his cheek. Rihanna reached for his hand. To his utter surprise, her fingers lightly traced the unusual mark across his palm without turning his hand over to see it. Warmth trickled through him.

“’Tis from a time long passed, still you remember,” she said quietly. She pulled her hand away with such force he believed she felt something that disgusted her. Something new glistened in those emotionally flooded eyes. “You are another woman’s pride. Not mine.”

“Why don’t we grab a cup of coffee? I’m off here in a few—”

“’Twould be kind, but not feasible. Good eve.” Rihanna climbed into the Jag and pulled the door shut. Bryce knocked on the window in a desperate attempt to stall her. He was losing her again, and the damage it caused his heart bordered on tragic.

“Don’t do this. Please. You’ve haunted me since boyhood. I’ve seen you in my dreams.” Did he hear himself right? Was he really promoting lunacy as a thread of his personality? He wanted her to stay. Needed her to stay. His words would frighten off any woman! “I want to talk to you.”

The window cracked open enough for him to see her eyes, but not enough for him to slip a hand inside.

“I involve myself not with a man who is already claimed by another. ’Tis wrong to do so. Good eve,” she said firmly.

ADULT EXCERPT

The gold shimmer faded. Bryce forgot about their bloodied hands and whipped her off the sofa, carrying her into his bedroom. He barely had her on the bed before she tugged at the collar of his shirt and the buttons ripped open. Her hands coursed over his bare flesh, tracing each curve and contour. Bryce looked at her, desire-laden and love-adorned, as her gaze soaked in what her fingers molded over. Her hands lowered to his pants, leading him onto the bed. She pulled her legs beneath her, kneeling up to meet him. Her eyes, the color of amethyst, darkened with hunger.

Bryce tried to swallow against his swelling desire. He left his shirt hanging open as he focused on Rihanna’s fingers, lifting her sweater over her head. Her long cape of hair rained down around her shoulders, teasing him as mercilessly as the lace contraption restraining her breasts did. Bryce reached out for her, but she held up a hand and smiled, timid for the woman he’d come to know.

“I know not how to approach you. There’s not a being I want more than you, Bryce, and still, I’m frightened by the prospect of having you.”

“I shouldn’t be that intimidating, Rihanna. I would never hurt you.” Bryce made for her again, this time weaving his arm around her waist and pulling her against him. The feel of her warm flesh against his own shocked his blood with electricity. His cock twitched in protest to its constraints. Caressing the smooth, flawless skin of her cheek, he tilted her chin and whispered, “And I’m not about to let you keep me away. Not this time.”

* * * *

Rihanna moaned against his kiss. His lips seared her, hot and skillful. His tongue swept against hers while leisurely exploring the inside of her mouth. The taste of him, a mix of man and mint, ignited a craving for more of him. Pleasure swelled inside her, pooling in the pit of her stomach. What began as a slight itch erupted into an immense burn in her most intimate place. With each deepening kiss, her body ached furiously. His hard erection pressed against her hip. She rocked against him in a vain effort to ease the pressure pulsing between her legs.

Emotions overwhelmed her. She wanted her Bryce more than the world she walked. She wanted him with every molecule that created her. She wanted him now. A century of waiting brought them to his bed. She had been patient long enough. Her hands slid along the solid planes of his chest, her fingers tracing every delectable dip and curve, from between his pecs to the defined ridges of his stomach. Her fingertips barely skimmed the inside of his pants, brushing over the tip of his moist shaft, but he growled a sound so primal her flesh tingled.

His hand slid up along her belly until he held her left breast in the palm of his hand. His fingers kneaded her lace bra into her sensitive skin, her nipples hardening. He yanked down her bra and cupped her, rolling her nipple between pinched fingers. Pleasure zinged through her from nipples to toes and settling against her already thrumming core. She tore her mouth from his, her head falling back with a desperate whimper. He merely chuckled, a rich throaty rumble that teased her on his tantalizing decent. He unhooked her bra and cast it aside as he took her breast into his mouth. His tongue drew rough circles around her areola before sucking her nipple and tugging it to a peak.

“Bryce, I can’t take this much longer,” she whispered. Desperate need brought her to melt away their pants, leaving them naked with only the air between them. She leaned back, her gaze scouring down his beautiful, well-muscled body and settling on his thick manhood. She swallowed at the sight of him for the first time. The tip of him glistened with desire’s nectar. Lust coursed through the length of his engorgement. He twitched. Her jaw tightened. Sweet goddess, she wanted to taste him but the feral glow in his green eyes silently whispered his own intentions.

“Rihanna,” he groaned, grabbing her hand and curling her fingers around his cock. She squeezed his hot, velvety penis, riding her fist from shaft to base. “Christ, woman, keep pumping me like that and you’ll have me come in your hand.”

Warmth touched her face. “Should you not wish to come in my hand, mayhap you should do something to stop it.”