Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
She saw him coming toward her, a dangerous smile on his face.
Eve felt her body react in a way she had never experienced before.
There was intent in his eyes, and before he even touched her, she knew she was in trouble, in a wonderful way.
She sucked in a breath. So many places on her body wanted attention, she couldn’t keep track of it all.
A quiver ran through her center and down the inside of her thighs, and as he got closer, she wanted his taste and scent to fill her again.
Her statement to Harod had been true. When she had seen Michel fight Ganbold, that monster of a man, she knew one thing: she had chosen the only one who could protect her.
In a second, he was on her. One hand gripped her hair, and one hand landed on her waist. He dragged her to him and claimed her lips against his.
Eve opened her mouth for him. His soft lips were the only things soft about his body.
She tasted his tongue, drawing the essence of him into her.
She threw her arms around his neck, ready to show him not only her gratitude, but also her own acute need to be closer.
Michel kissed her in a way that she understood only because it matched the desperation she felt inside.
She continued to meet his tongue greedily, wanting to please him, but at the same time eager to experience.
Eve had never felt these sweet feelings in her body, the delicious twisting in her stomach, the heat in her center.
She had no frame of reference for these things.
She knew in that moment that she would give him everything.
She no longer felt she had to convince him to keep her. No, now, she just wanted more of him.
She pulled back with a gasp, breaking the kiss. She looked into his eyes, which burned. She bit her lip through a smile. Then she moved, to sink to her knees, to drop to the floor before him. To take him in her mouth the way she had done before.
But just as she moved and her hands grabbed for his waistband, he caught her and pulled back up.
“No,” he said.
“No?” she asked.
He grinned at her, taking another kiss from her lips. “My reward. I decide.”
When he pulled back, she whispered, “I am your servant.”
He groaned as he picked her up, putting his arms around her, under her bottom, moving her to the table where cups of tea still sat.
He set her down, his body covering hers, his feet still on the ground.
She wrapped her arms around him, and his lips were on hers again.
She tasted him with her tongue and felt him grip roughly at the fabric of her dress.
She had never been willing to yield to a man before, but with him, there was no choice. She wanted to submit.
His hands came up her skirts. Past her knees and onto her thighs.
His hands on her bare flesh caused her insides to go wild.
At one point, she had thought to use the promise of sex to keep Michel in line, but he was doing things to her she hadn’t anticipated.
She hadn’t anticipated wanting him this badly.
She hadn’t anticipated losing her own control.
Her belting had disappeared. Her dress was up over her head.
All while his lips were on hers, his hands everywhere, making it impossible for her to track how he undressed her so quickly.
Suddenly, she had nothing on but the undershift.
The thin material clung to her fevered skin.
He pulled it up, and it bunched around her waist so he could settle his body between her legs, and she felt the hard length in his pants.
Then his own shirt was off, and he pressed against her.
A pleasure she’d never felt before shot through her body, causing her head to fall back. “Michel,” she gasped.
“Yes,” he said. “Say my name just like that.”
Then his lips were on hers before she could say it again.
His warm hands moved across her body. He reached into her shift, pulling it down over her shoulders, and gripped her breasts.
The contact caused her to jerk before pressing herself into his hands.
She heard him moan as he trailed kisses down her neck to let his mouth join his hands at her breasts.
She realized this was what it felt like to be wanted, adored, and taken all at once.
He kissed her flesh and then went for her nipple, grazing it with his teeth.
Eve reared back and cried out at the new sensation.
He still pressed into her, between her legs, and her body rocked against him, seeking something more from the contact.
But he shifted his body away, leaving cold air between them. Eve shrieked and tried to pull him back to her, her breasts wanting more, the place lower wanting more.
“Wait, wait,” Michel laughed, trying to appease her.
Before she could protest any more, his hands were gripping her bloomers, pulling them down.
For just a second, she sobered, realizing she was to lose her virginity to him, that his mark would be left on her.
Being a virgin was not something she cherished.
She had always thought of it as both a duty and a burden, something for men to enjoy.
Having been married, albeit briefly, it was no longer expected, but she regretted that Michel did not know.
She regretted that she had to live her life with secrets.
In that instant, she wanted to share the moment with him, for him to understand that this was not something she had ever thought to want, but with him, it was different.
She tried to make a word, to have a thought come out of her mouth, to express to him in some way both her affection and her gratitude for having found him.
But all the words and thoughts jumbled together into a moan as he continued to place kisses down her belly.
Then his tongue circled her navel, and she felt her breath coming out of her in sharp gasps as he continued moving lower.
He settled down on his knees in front of her, his tongue tracing further.
It felt like fire across her skin, but still she watched and wondered what in the world he was doing, and then, Oh! Oh my goodness!
His head was between her legs, his tongue and lips on her.
She looked down in shock at the scene. The muscles flexing in his back.
His wild head of hair moving. His hands gripping her thighs.
She couldn’t believe it, even as the delicious sensations caused her to enjoy her body more than she ever had before.
It was so intimate and so intense. She let the feeling wash over her, as it built toward something she didn’t know.
Cries and moans escaped her lips while Michel explored parts of her unknown until this very moment.
At the center was a point she could feel that wanted his attention, even though he seemed to avoid it.
She wondered why, as the attention to the outer parts made her body scream for more.
She grabbed at his hair. She arched enough to break her back and bucked her hips toward him.
She wanted something. The center of her wanted something from him, but he wouldn’t give it.
“Michel,” she said. “Michel,” she begged.
“Yes, yes,” he whispered against her. “Just like that.”
Hearing his name seemed to double his efforts, and suddenly he was on her, on the spot that wanted him most. She felt his lips and tongue right at her center, and new sensations swept through her.
Her head swam, and she cried out. This powerful man in her service, serving her pleasure.
She had tamed this brutal creature. And now he was down between her legs…
More, she thought, more, more.
Then it hit her.
She had heard, of course, of orgasms. Though she had never focused so much on that part of her body or expected that some man would give her pleasure.
But when she felt it break her open and rip her inside out, she never had thought to have such a thing.
Doubled by the fact that she was riding the mouth of a man who had come into her life when she had been at her most vulnerable.
This pleasure could only exist through him.
The powerful wave left her groaning, gasping, gripping him.
Michel pressed a hand into her belly to hold her down as he continued to suck at her center, causing the sensation to go on and on until it was nearly unbearable.
Then he slowed and was kissing the outsides again, all the sweet spots that still trembled.
Then he was kissing her thighs, then her belly, and back up to her breasts.
She clung to him. She wouldn’t let him go.
As he started kissing her breasts again, it was something inside her body that begged for attention.
It was different—a sweet, deliberate ache that wanted more contact with him.
She urged him forward as he kissed her breasts and came up to her neck.
He fumbled with his pants, and Eve yanked at his shirt.
More, she wanted. Hurry, she urged. She waited impatiently for him to situate himself so she could experience all of him.
Her body was screaming on the inside to be touched and caressed. More, she thought, more, more, more.
Michel had never experienced anything like what had just happened.
She was so wild, so unbridled. He never let a moment take him over, but this…
this he couldn’t control. With her writhing body still beneath him, he struggled to break out of his pants as Eve’s hands were all over him.
Then they went to his cheeks. He stilled enough to look into her eyes.
There were things she wanted to say in those eyes, he knew, but instead of speaking, Eve leaned forward to take his bottom lip between hers and run her tongue across his mouth.
He realized she was tasting herself on him.
The thought took him over again, and he was back to ripping and pulling at his pants, in a frenzy and a panic he had never before felt.
Never had he wanted a woman like he wanted her.
Her body pulled him close. He swore to himself to give her everything he could.
Suddenly, at the entrance to his yurt, he heard his name. Once, he ignored it. Twice, he paused.
“Michel,” the man called a third time.
“What is it?” Michel demanded, turning his head to yell toward the door.
“We need your assistance.”
“Can it wait?”
The voice paused. “No, monsieur, it cannot.”
“Merde,” Michel mumbled to himself.
He leaned in once to press his forehead against Eve’s while he gripped the hair at the back of her head. “Don’t move,” he said through his teeth.
Eve blinked back at him obsequiously, gently repositioning her garments to cover herself.
Still grumbling, Michel fixed himself and tore through the entrance of the tent. “What?” he shouted.
Then it all came into focus. There was a rush at the end of the camp, and the noises of shouting men that he had ignored. He realized they had been calling for him for some time, but he…his focus had been elsewhere.
At the center of camp, there was a cluster of men around someone, all near the fire. When Michel approached, he saw a figure huddled by the fire, wrapped in a blanket. Irritated, he didn’t understand why this couldn’t wait until morning.
“Good sir,” Michel said. “What is it you require?”
The figure turned to face Michel, and when he saw the battered face and the swollen, purple eye, Michel understood. “Terence,” he said.
“Monsieur,” Terence said. “I know you sent me away, but…” he choked on a grimace. “I don’t have any other way to get home,” he swallowed. “The merchant I traveled with was killed. They all were.”
“You were with the party that was attacked?” Michel asked, moving to sit near the boy. Michel looked up to Iman, who was nearby. “Can we get him something to drink?”
Iman nodded and turned to retrieve a cup.
“The man you placed me with, in Bukhara, Monsieur Stefan. We joined a merchant party. They were completing travels and headed back to France. But we were ambushed by a giant.” Iman handed him the cup, and Terence accepted.
“I tried to help,” Terence continued. “I don’t really know how to use a sword, but I am good with a dagger. ”
“How is it that one man took out so many?” Michel asked.
Terence looked at him, wide-eyed. “He is a monster, Monsieur. A nightmare.” He blinked.
“He killed a few before we knew there was someone upon us. Then he took the rest out as they tried to fight him off. He pulled their bones apart like they were chickens.” Terence sat up straighter.
“I-I jumped on his back to try to hold him off, but he caught me and pounded me unconscious.” He swallowed.
“I woke up some time later. Everyone around me was dead.” He looked up at Michel again.
“I have been keeping to the shadows here, hoping to find another group going to France. Then I heard your party was arriving.”
“Have you seen him again?” Michel asked, fearing the man would appear suddenly.
“No,” Terence said, shaking his head. “He disappeared.” He looked at Michel earnestly. “Can I stay with you, Michel? I won’t cause any more trouble, I swear it. I just want to get home. I hate it here.” He groaned and put his head to his knees.
Michel stared at him, grinding his jaw in thought.
He didn’t need any extra considerations right now, but he couldn’t leave the boy like this.
Not with Ganbold coming for them all like a storm.
He did not trust the boy, but he already knew he would concede.
Michel let out a long sigh. “Stay where I can see you, Terence,” Michel said.
“I do not have the energy to babysit you.”
“Yes. I promise,” Terence said, looking up, looking hopeful.
Then Michel continued, “Now I’m going to need you to start from the beginning and tell me everything you can remember about this interaction.”