"Dai was the adviser, along with Isamu. Isamu is Osamu's brother. They both backed up her opinion and the council dropped it. They refused to send me for training outside the country due to the fact that I might bring disgrace and dishonor down on our riders."
There was no bitterness in her voice, but he could taste it in his own mouth. "I should have followed up, Mariko. I believed them when they told me a family had taken the two of you in because, of course, there was truth in their voices. Still, I should have asked who the family was and insisted on seeing you."
She shook her head, the silky strands of her hair tickling his skin and sending shock waves through him. He'd always had a strong sex drive, but now it seemed doubly so. More, he was utterly aware of her at all times. The way the water lapped at her breasts. How they floated, the pink areolas framing her nipples, drawing his attention. The thatch of curls at the apex of her legs, the curve of her body, so feminine. All of her. Every inch of her.
"How silly, Ricco. You always try to take on too much. What fourteen-year-old boy would ask beyond if we were safe? Especially when he was being threatened. You saved us. What happened after that is not on you. It wasn't all bad. I had a roof over my head and food to eat. I was allowed to train as a rider and I excelled at it – enough that Osamu couldn't stop me or interfere. I had a space that was mine and I could read of faraway places. And I had Ryuu."
Her brother. He kept his worries to himself. "Kiss me."
Her head came up. "What?"
"Kiss me. I need you to kiss me." He ached for her taste.
"If I kiss you, that might lead to other things, and I'm so tired I'd fall asleep and miss it all," she teased.
His eyebrow shot up. "Fall asleep? When I'm making love to you?"
"It could happen."
"It could never happen." He growled and bit her neck.
Laughing, she caught his head between her hands and brought it up. Leaning into him, she brushed kisses over his eyes. "I haven't told you yet … " She kissed his nose and along his rough jaw. "Thank you for my beautiful ring." She kissed the corners of his mouth and then brushed her lips back and forth over his.
It was tantalizing. Sexy. His overactive cock stirred to life. Just at her touch. Her teeth nipped at his lower lips and she shifted position, still in his arms, straddling him, pressing her breasts against his chest as her teeth bit down and drew his lip out and then let go so she could use her tongue over the small sting.
Groaning, he reached between them to grasp his cock in his fist, right at the base, with one hand. With the other, he guided her hips so that he could lodge the broad head in her. With both hands, he gripped her hips and pushed her down while he surged up. There it was … home. He drove through those tight muscles, slick with the two of them, hot as hell, an inferno he welcomed, more, he needed.
Once she was fully seated on him, her sheath pulsing around him, so tight he could count her heartbeats through his shaft, he bunched her hair in his fist and pulled her head back. "You're teasing me."
"I am," she admitted.
He took her mouth. Hard. Dominant. Sweeping her into another level of his world. Sex could be many things and he wanted to show them all to her. Tender, wild, rough, it didn't matter, not as long as she trusted him and she tasted love on his tongue and felt it in everything his body did to hers.
He shouldn't have been surprised when his woman matched him, fire for fire. There was no holding back from her; she kissed him, using her tongue, following his lead, sending flames flickering down his spine and heat rushing through his veins. Of her own accord, without his urging, she began to move, riding him as if she'd been doing it for a hundred years. She was grace and fluidity, undulating her body so that he could feel every ripple, every vibration.
She reached behind her and planted both hands on his thighs so her breasts jutted temptingly, giving him a show as she rode him. Slow at first, and then when he thought he might have to take over, she picked up the pace. Water lapped at his skin, giving him the sensation of tongues on him. He cupped the soft weight of her breasts in his palms, thumbs brushing, watching her skin flush. He tugged at her nipples, gently, watching her reaction.
Those tight inner muscles squeezed him like a vise as scorching heat saturated him. He tugged again, this time harder, a little rough. Her body clamped down on him and she moved faster, obviously close.
She threw back her head. "Again," she demanded.