Chapter 9 The Storm #2
“You think I am insufferable?” he questioned. “You are fucking intolerable. Everywhere I go, you are there. Every time I want some peace, my thoughts always have to revolve around you.”
Xander’s resentment matched her own now.
They had both advanced on another, ready to pounce, to fight at any moment, standing less than a foot apart.
He had forgotten why he’d been pushing her limits and fallen straight into his own anger at her insults.
The hold she had over him, it made him want to hate her, to resent her.
“No wonder you are not the Lady of your house,” he snidely remarked, his voice rising above the heavy rain and howling winds.
“I cannot imagine your father would entrust you with running the home with your outbursts. Or perhaps your temper is a result of your lack of suitors and lovers? Maybe the fact your bed is cold every night gives you cause to make me feel as lonely as you?”
“I have no interest in any men when all love is to them is to get between a woman’s thighs. I have no use for men, I do not need them, and I do not need you.”
“No? Not even your stable boy? Is he really that disappointing?” Xander gave her a wicked grin as he leant down to whisper in her ear. He knew he shouldn’t have said it, he knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t help himself. “Perhaps I should show you how a lover is meant to make you feel.”
She screamed out in frustration. The sky lit up with a flash of bright lightning and the sound of thunder crashed so loudly she held her hands over her ears. He hadn’t expected this, hadn’t expected either of them to react so strongly to one another.
Taking her hands away from her face, he held them tightly and bent at the waist to reach her eye level. “Adriana, you need to stop, you need to calm down. Listen to me, you need to stop this before you hurt yourself.”
The noise of the thunderstorm and the ringing in her ears at releasing so much power all at once echoed in his own mind as he connected with hers. She began to shake, her body swaying on the spot as her magic continued to run wild.
I’m sorry, he spoke into her mind. I did not mean for this to happen. Please, hear me.
He tried to pull her mind back to reality, back to him, but he couldn’t reach her through the storm that brewed within her, its power matching the one above them.
Unsure of what else to do, he picked her up and ran through the rain to the barn, cradling her to his chest as her body shook.
He kicked the door open and called for help, setting her down gently on a pile of hay, but no one was in the stables.
As he moved to pull away to find her a blanket, her hands reached out to grab his wet shirt. With a sharp shake of her head, he understood. She didn’t want him to leave, she didn’t want him to let go of her.
I am here, he said, using the link to her mind once again to ensure she would hear him. I am with you, and I am not going anywhere. Just come back to me.
Adriana
His words were distant, and she tried to focus on them, to focus on him, but her power was so loud. The drumming in her ears matched the sound of the hailstones raining down on the roof of the barn, her own voice screamed inside her head to accompany the wailing of the wind.
Xander pushed her wet hair off her face as he kneeled in front of her.
She stared at him, noticing the small green flecks around the edges of his warm brown eyes.
His long, dark lashes framed them perfectly.
His dark clothes, completely soaked through, clung to his body just like her dress clung to hers. So beautiful…
“Kiss me,” she stuttered. His head tilted away from her slightly as she felt his Manipuli power reach towards her again, trying to read her mind through the chaos of her magic to see if this was what she truly wanted. She knew it was. She knew she needed him.
“Kiss me,” she said again, clearer this time. “Or I will wait for Jonathon to come back and let him—”
His hands fisted in her hair before she had even finished speaking, and his lips slammed onto hers.
Xander’s kiss was filled with the same wanting and passion as the first time, matching everything she felt towards him. His lips attacked hers with such ferocity she knew they’d be sore and swollen later. She hadn’t realised just how much she had missed him, how much she had needed this.
One of his hands drifted down, dragging over her neck and across her chest, landing on the side of her ribs with his thumb brushing against her breast through the thin cotton of her dress.
She brought her own hands up to the back of his head, tugging on his dark curls as she bit down on his bottom lip.
A low moan escaped him before he pulled her head back by her hair and trailed his lips along her jaw. Her legs parted for him of their own accord as he leant over her and she felt the evidence of just how much he needed her, too.
“I cannot get enough of you,” he whispered, his teeth nipping softly at her earlobe. “I cannot pretend any longer that I do not want you.”
Every word he muttered resonated within her, bringing her back to reality and out of her mind. She craved him, she craved more with him.
“Took you long enough,” she breathed out.
Xander pulled back slightly, his eyes searching hers. She raised her brow, silently challenging him to do something about her smug remark, as she pushed herself forward to kiss him.
The moment her lips brushed his, Xander’s hand moved from her hair and wrapped around the front of her neck. Every time she tried to lean closer, to kiss him properly again, he held her neck tighter in place.
“Tell me what you want, Adriana. Tell me what you want me to do.”
His voice was firm yet gentle at the same time. She realised that he would not continue without her permission, he would not take it any further unless she told him to.
An unexpected shyness came over her. Here she was in her family’s stable barn, her wet clothes doing nothing to hide her body, with a man kneeling between her legs, holding her in a possessive grip and asking her what she wanted him to do to her.
She’d had sex plenty of times before, never being one to accept the irrational views of pre-marital relations, and not once had she felt nervous.
But right in that moment with Xander, she was terrified.
Not of him, never of him, but of how much she longed for him.
“Tell me, Adriana, or I will stop. I will not do anything unless you tell me to.”
“Kiss me,” she whispered for the third time.
Xander’s serious expression twisted into his familiar playful smile. The glint in his eye told her he would not make this easy on her, she would have to tell him exactly what she wanted.
“Where would you like me to kiss you?”
Adriana couldn’t find the words to speak. The barn sounded eerily quiet now that the storm had eased to a light rain, the wind no longer howling through the trees. She was certain he could hear how loud and fast her heart was hammering, even without his heightened senses.
With a slight tremor of anticipation, she traced her hand over her lips, over his hand that was still wrapped around her throat, and along her chest. He tracked every movement, his attention fixed on the path she drew.
Her fingers danced across her breasts, brushing around her nipples, before going down to her inner thigh and slowly crept up.
He grabbed her wrist before she could touch herself properly and the hand around her neck slowly pushed her to lay back against the hay.
His body moved with hers, their eyes locked in an unspoken battle, as he leant over her again.
She gave a small nod, her silent plea clear in her eyes and thoughts.
His lips descended on hers again, slower this time. He was devouring her before, but this time he was savouring her, savouring every part of her. And she met every kiss. Every brush of his tongue she welcomed with her own, for every squeeze of her neck she pulled his hair in return.
He kissed along her jaw and down her throat, his fingers expertly undoing the top few buttons on the front of her sundress and pushing the front of her underlying camisole down, exposing her breasts to the cool air.
Warm lips met the sweet spot between her neck and shoulder, his breath hot against her skin as she moaned and shifted her hips to writhe against him.
Xander held her still with his hands on her waist as his voice rang out in her mind. Keep moving like that and I won’t be able to spend my time with you. Let me play with you, Adriana.
His lips trailed down to one of her breasts while his hand kneaded the other.
She let out a low hum of satisfaction as he took one of her peaked nipples into his mouth, teasing her perfectly with his tongue.
As he detached his lips and blew softly against her, she had to stifle a cry with the back of her hand, the coolness of his breath an exquisite contrast to his hot mouth.
Do not hide from me. I want to find what it takes to make you sing with need. I want to do every terrible, wicked thing imaginable to you, to find out what makes you scream in ecstasy.
He licked between the valley of her breasts, before his mouth diverted its attention to her other nipple.
He swirled his tongue over and pulled it between his teeth, tugging slightly, his fingers pinching the other.
She arched her back, blissful at the sharp pain that sent a wave of pleasure straight through her, her lips parting in a breathy moan.
Xander removed his mouth to sit back on his heels between her legs. Shooting him a frustrated look, Adriana propped herself up on her elbows, desperate for him to be close again, to feel his body against hers.