Lion Conquers All by Krystal Shannan
30
CONNIE
The ride to her house was a blur. He does want me. Even after she’d lost her shit and he’d had to tear his way into her bedroom through the wall. Even after he’d seen her scars. He was probably the only man alive that knew almost everything about her.
He parked the patrol car in her driveway. Walked around to her door, opened it, and lifted her into his arms again. Obviously walking wasn’t something he was going to allow, but at least he didn’t throw her over his shoulder again like a cave man barbarian. Although, she hadn’t been scared. Something deep down inside her trusted Aarav. Completely.
He carried her into her house. Closed and locked the front door behind him, then let her feet slide to the floor. But he kept one arm wrapped securely around her shoulders, pinning her to his chest.
He cupped her face with his free hand and tipped her chin, so they were staring at each other. The intensity in his gaze was intimidating and comforting at the same time. There were so many emotions in his eyes, she didn’t know where to begin.
“I need you to make the choices. I’ll freeze. I may freeze anyway.”
“I don’t want to push you into anything.” His voice was pitched low and deep, and it made everything inside her melty and warm.
“You won’t. I trust you, Aarav.” She did. He listened to everything she said, watched every muscle that moved. He would miss nothing. He would be more aware of her body than she would be.
Eventually she would be better.
Maybe.
She could hope.
He kissed her. Hard. The calm ferocity was intoxicating. She melted into his chest and his tongue in her mouth stole her breath away.
Connie pulled at his shoulders, she wanted to be closer, higher. He was so much taller. He was bent over to kiss her and that moved his chest away from hers. She wanted more contact and that surprised her.
He walked her backward until he had her pressed against the front door. His hands went to her ass, and he cupped and lifted her from the floor, guiding her legs to wrap around his waist.
His hardness pressed against her and she ached to feel more. To take him inside her. She couldn’t remember ever feeling aroused around a man before Aarav. But she was now, and her body knew exactly what it wanted.
More.
His mouth was at her ear now. He nipped and licked and bit his way down her neck to her collarbone.
One of his hands strayed to a breast and kneaded and pinched at a nipple until it was hard and aching like her insides. Then he switched hands and woke the other breast right through her shirt and bra. The fabric rubbed at her sensitive flesh, and she wanted it gone. She wanted to feel his skin against hers.
“Aarav, please.”
“I won’t move too fast. I won’t hurt you.” He spoke against her skin.
“I know.”
He growled. A low sound that started in his chest and vibrated up and out of him and through her. He gently removed her legs from his waist and let her feet slide to the ground.
Her muscles were like jelly, and it took a moment for them to remember how to hold her weight. She leaned against the door and watched him in the dim light of her home.
He yanked his shirt off and she swallowed hard. The pure maleness and power made her pulse skyrocket. He was beautiful and deadly and the hungry look in his eyes made her body weep with need.
Aarav dropped to his knees in front of her. His fingers made swift work of the button and zipper on her jeans.
She held her breath.
He looked up and held her gaze. Waiting. And watching—like he could see her every thought as it passed through her mind.
“Everything inside me aches for you, Aarav. Please.”
He pulled down her jeans and panties and the cool surrounding air rushed over her dampness, making her shiver. Anticipation and a little fear skittered over her skin, raising gooseflesh everywhere.
She stepped out of the pants.
He tossed them to the side and then he gazed at her, as if her naked body was a beautiful sculpture to be appreciated.
Aarav ran his hands up her calves, along the curve of her thighs, all the way to her butt. His touch was slow and tender and careful. He wasn’t asking for permission, but she knew he was giving her time to adjust to his touch in new places.
He leaned forward and kissed a long white line that wrapped around her left thigh like a snake. Pain flashed through her mind. The memory of the whip and the voice of the man who went with it threatened to pull her out of the moment.
Her heart sped up.
Then a familiar vibration coursed through her body. The vibrating purr reached her ears next. The pain and the bad memories faded to the background, replaced by the pleasure of Aarav’s mouth on her skin. His hands stroked her ass and the back of her thighs. The warmth of his breath flowed over her mound.
“Are you back with me, shuarra?”
“Yes.”
He rumbled again and then brushed his lips over her sex. “I need to taste you.” Then he buried his face and tongue between her folds. Everything came to life at once. She yelped at the unfamiliar, but very pleasant sensation of his tongue flicking over her clit, and then diving into her vagina.
Over and over.
He repeated the sensation like he couldn’t get enough of her. Like she was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted.
That thought alone was so heady it brought her right to the edge of a climax almost instantly. He liked what he was doing. His pleased groans and the way his hands kneaded into her ass, pulling her closer, said everything.
She screamed.
Her insides detonated and fire curled in her belly. Her head swam in the dizzy feel of flying. Her whole body shook and then tightened, and the pressure released again, this time sending her even higher.
And still his tongue worked at her like he knew there was more. Like he thought she was hiding something he had to find. He pushed and pushed until she didn’t have anything left. Tremors shook her body until she crumpled down over his shoulder.
He stood, lifted her limp form and carried her from the living room into her bedroom. He laid her on the bed, stripped off the rest of his clothes, pulled her shirt and bra off like they were nothing, and crawled over her, using his weight to press her body deep into the mattress.
Connie bravely let her hands wander down over his bare hips and ass. He felt good. His strength felt good. His closeness. The sounds he made encouraged her to explore more. He liked it. He liked her touch.
She looked up into his fierce hungry gaze gold glittering gaze. His beast was showing, and it didn’t frighten her. His lion was part of him. His lion had dug a hole in her wall because he cared about her. His lion had held her all night so that she wouldn’t wake up on top of Aarav and be scared because he was a man. She loved his lion too.
He reached beneath her, wrapping one arm behind her neck and buried his fingers in her hair. He pulled hard enough to bare her neck so he could kiss and lick all the most sensitive places.
The tip of his cock nudged at her entrance. He was so big. So hard.
She tensed, fear mingling with her excitement. Her only memory of sex walked hand in hand with pain and humiliation. She didn’t want that anymore. She wanted it to be beautiful like he was. She wanted to be how she saw herself reflected in his gaze.
“Make me feel good, Aarav. Please.”
He breathed warm air over her throat, licking and dragging his teeth gently over her skin. He closed his mouth over one breast and tugged at the nipple with his lips until she was whimpering and unable to focus on anything but the tugging sensation between her breast and her sex.
He pushed forward, sinking inside her an inch or two, stretching her body.
Then his mouth moved to the other breast. The soft tender nipple hardened and ached like the first and an invisible string tugged through her center.
His hips pushed against hers and he went a little deeper, still slow, still giving her body time to adjust. His cock throbbed inside her, syncing with her pulse.
He went a little further and a little further. Her body stretched and burned with the invasion, but then he distracted her, whispering words in a language she didn’t understand, But the tone, the tone was universal, conveying worship and adoration. He fed her soul and she arched into him, craving more.
Her body desired him. She desired him. That was new and exciting and a little scary.
His hips rocked against hers. Deeper and deeper until he was all inside.
He pressed his forehead to hers and said something that sounded like a prayer.
Her body quivered and her sex clamped down hard, holding him close.
He pulled back and she whined at the loss, but he returned, more forcefully this time.
This was nothing like what she’d expected sex to be with someone she cared about. She’d only ever experienced pain and forced intercourse. This dance between them was intoxicating and freeing. Aarav was like the sun in a new universe and everything in her past and all the ugly memories were being burned away by his brightness.
Her body welcomed his rhythm. Rose to meet it with one of her own.
She gasped through the strokes and clung to his arms. This is what it was like to love someone so completely. To be one with them. To give over a piece of your soul.
Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes. Not tears of sadness, but tears of joy.
Ecstasy burst through her body again. She came. And came again.
His powerful body shuddered and shook like a volcano building pressure. Then groaned out her name and filled her with himself.
His mouth slashed over hers and he kissed her like he worried she’d never let him kiss her again. Then his mouth moved to her shoulder and for a split second there was pain. Sharp like a knife pain.
Connie’s fingers curled into his biceps, nails digging deep from overwhelm. She gasped for breath, but couldn’t find any air.
The pain had started off a small pinch, but now burned through her like fire had ignited in her veins.
“Aarav.” She moaned against his neck, her face mostly buried by his long hair.
The pain morphed to pleasure, and she found herself flying again, seeing stars, and feeling like this was a turning point in her life.
Everything changed in that moment.
She would never be alone again.
She was forever connected to this man who loved her with his whole soul. She could feel the connection. She knew it so deep in her heart that none of the darkness from her past would ever dare question the truth again.
The tension in her body faded and her muscles relaxed beneath his massive form, but he wasn’t finished. He kept moving and thrusting. He’d come, but his body was still hard. She could still feel every beat of his pulse through his cock.
He released her shoulder and licked over the bite.
She was so relaxed the sting didn’t phase her at all.
His beast had bitten her. Marked her. But unlike her other scars, marks that represented her past pain and survival, his marks she would treasure. His marks were the promise of a wonderful future with him at her side.
He licked over and over the place until there was no pain at all. Then rolled to the side, all the while keeping her locked against his body and his cock buried deep inside her. He wrapped a leg around the back of her thigh and slid his other arm behind her back, palming her ass. She wasn’t quite on top of him, but she wasn’t quite lying on the mattress either.
“Shuarra, I—”
“No regrets, Aarav. None.” She whispered out the words to calm the worry in his tone then sunk into the embrace, happy to use his chest as a pillow. She was warm and content and wrapped in his arms. And she couldn’t imagine there being a better place in the entire world.
She was safe.
She was his.
She was possessed by this man and his beast. A beast that had made a feral promise of commitment and protection she would never take for granted.
He had given her something special. That bite had done something, locked something between them. But there was more even than the connection he’d created, she could still feel the faint burn in her blood, but exhaustion and contentment shut off her brain and she fell asleep to the soft thumpthump of his heart.