“You sure?”
“How about I show you?”
Her expression grows uncertain.
“Or are you all talk?”
“I’m not all talk, but I’m guessing you are.”
I chuckle, and my laugh comes out low and aroused. Turning her around, I push her forward into the water, not caring that the water still has a lingering chill beneath the shadows of the forest.
When the water covers her chest, and she shivers in front of me, I stop. One of my hands stays on her hips, and my other hand slides down her belly. I feel her stomach muscles clench, and then I keep going down. Slipping my hand beneath the silky material of her underwear, I let my fingers run over her smooth mound, and love the way she shivers.
I watch her breathing grow more rapid, and her head falls back against me in a way that has my blood boiling.
Parting her folds, I use one finger to work the softness of her body, learning what she likes, and what she likes more. This woman might think I’m arrogant, but I’m not. I’m confident, because if there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s please a woman.
I use all my fingers to stroke her, to touch her, lightly, and I know by the way she jerks that her body wants more. That she wants me to move faster. But if there’s one thing a woman needs, it’s her desire built up. She needs to be wound up so tightly that when she finally comes, it’s like an earthquake.
And so, I touch her, my own cock hard as I picture replacing my fingers with my cock. As it bounces against her ass, longing for more.
At last, I push one of my fingers into her channel, and she gasps. I ease it into her slick body until I’m deep, then slowly draw back out. Over and over again until her entire body is shaking.
She doesn’t need to tell me to add another finger. I do. And I slide my hand from her hips to her breasts. Drawing the material off, I pull her breasts free and glory in the sight of them just below the water. I was right. She’s perfect. Her breasts are fucking full.
When I pinch one of her nipples, her knees almost buckle. I tug her ass back against my hard cock, then return to her breasts. I fondle them as my fingers continue to ease in and out of her, claiming the woman as my own. I long to flip her around and taste her breasts, but I tell myself that all good things come to those who wait.
Taking my hand from her breasts, I slide my fingers into the back of her underwear and continue to watch her breasts bounce as I add another finger into that tight pussy of hers. I feel her tense as I tease her from behind, then gently push one finger into her ass.
She’s breathing hard. Those gorgeous breasts of hers seem to swell with each breath.
Kissing my way down her throat, I suck on the junction between her throat and shoulders and love the way she shudders. Four fingers move in and out of her pussy with slow, deliberate movements, and I manage to slide one finger all the way into her ass. A moan slips past her lips, and I smile against her throat.
Drawing my finger out, I add another one and work her ass, preparing it for my cock. Listening to the signs her body gives, pushing harder when she needs it, going softer when she needs it. By the time I have four fingers in her ass and four in her pussy, she’s wrapped her arm around one of mine, keeping herself from falling.
Finally, she groans, “Drake, please.”
I bite her throat lightly. “Please what?”
“Come on.” She wiggles against me, shuddering.
“What?”
“Fuck my ass,” she begs, her request a rush of breath.
My control nearly snaps, and it’s my turn to shudder. I pull my fingers out of her ass, tug her underwear and my boxers down. Keeping one hand buried in her pussy, I use the other one to part her from behind and slowly ease inside of her.
I’m big, and she’s fucking tight, but I’ve prepared her sweet ass perfectly. Going slowly, I keep going until I reach my hilt, and then we’re both breathing hard together.
Grasping her hip with one hand, and keeping my other hand in her pussy, I slowly begin to fuck her from behind. Usually this is the time when I listen to a woman’s pleasure, and wait for my own, like waiting for a steak to cook. But this fucking with Kiera is nothing like that. It’s my own body that screams for release. It’s every nerve in my cock that feels every inch of her body.
My vision wavers, and I start to fuck her harder. She wraps her hands around my wrist and rubs against my hand as I take her, lost to my desire. Lost to the pleasure of this moment between my mate and I.
When she starts to chant my name, I almost come undone. But I manage to keep control long enough to work us both into a frenzy, and then she crashes over the edge, her scream tearing into the silence of the lake. Seconds later, I come too, filling her sweet ass with my hot cum.
I don’t stop until we’ve both finished riding the waves of our pleasure, and then I finally calm. My heart is racing. Normally, this is when I’d pull away from a woman, find my clothes, and be gone. But I don’t do that now. I keep my cock deep inside her, and my fingers buried in her, and I love the way our hearts seem to beat as one.
This woman…she’s mine, whether she’s accepted it or not.
She tugs my hand out of her, and then slides forward until my cock comes out. When she turns around, I’m spellbound by her.
I cross the space between us and kiss her harder. I kiss her until I have to stop to draw in a breath.
She sags against me, gasping for breath. “That was…”
“Good?”
She laughs, her laugh husky. “Better than good. Much better.”
I stroke her hair and kiss her head. “I’m glad.”
I didn’t care that students could’ve been walking through the woods, or that the lake wasn’t entirely secluded. I wanted to hold her forever. I wanted this moment to last forever.
But she eventually pulls back. “We have class soon.”
“I don’t give a fuck.”
She laughs. “I know, but we can’t just stay here.”
“Can’t we?” And I hate that I desperately want her to say yes.
She wraps me in her arms and kisses my chin. “If it helps, you lived up to all my expectations and more.”
My chest seems to swell. “Did I?”
She kisses my lips lightly. “All of them.”
When she fixes her bra and heads back for shore, I watch her with longing. There was a time when Kiera would be like a dragon queen. She would rule over my family’s lands, with me at her side. She would have anything and everything she ever wanted.
It killed me that she was little more than a prisoner. That we both were. And that our only hope of getting free was to depend on a berserker I wasn’t even sure I trusted.
That’s the moment it hits me. Staring at her as she leaves me. I need…I need to try to fly again. I didn’t want to test my wings. I didn’t want to know if they could never work again. I didn’t want any of the students here to see me fail.
But for Kiera…for Kiera I’ll swallow my pride and my fear.
For Kiera, I would give anything. Even this.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kiera
Cora, the school psychiatrist, sits across from me, reading a file in her lap. I know it has to be the notes from our last three sessions, and I know that soon her careful questions will begin again. The woman with the strawberry blonde hair wears an expensive red suit that’s oddly elegant, and stunning red high-heels. If I didn’t dislike her so much, I might envy her sense of fashion.
But the truth was that I didn’t just not like her, I also didn’t trust her, which was sort of a requirement of a good psychiatrist. Something about her made me feel uneasy. Maybe it was because, after surviving the flesh eaters a couple weeks ago, I’d been required to come here. Or maybe it was just because I’m sensing more and more other students at the school watching me too closely, and it’s kind of fried my nerves.
At last, that too-sweet smile of hers appears, and she sets the file down in her lap, those b
ig hazel eyes of hers drinking me in. “Well, Kiera, it seems since the episode with your teacher, things have gone fairly well for you at the school.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Fighting, gardening, history, math, English, and your special subjects…none of your teachers have had a single complaint about you. Which, you have to imagine, is unusual for a berserker.”
I’m surprised. “It is?”
She nods. “Most of you…go berserk eventually. You see, what happened with your Fighting teacher, that’s a bit of a grey zone. He forced you to lose control, he was hurt as a result, and you survived your punishment. In the eyes of the dean and the staff, your slate is…washed clean. But most berserkers lose control at inopportune moments. People get hurt, and they prove exactly why they were sent here.”
My heart beats far too quickly. I’d heard stories about other berserkers losing it. Apparently, the detention centers had different kinds of punishments in them, depending on the crime. And witches used their powers to switch the types of punishment. So one day building number one had flesh eaters and a deep staircase, and the next a room full of water with sheer sides. Students spent days trying to keep their heads above water. Sometimes they lived. Sometimes they died. And then the next week? A new punishment might take place in the same building.
Some of the berserkers disappeared for a few days and reappeared looking exhausted. Some looked terrified. Others acted as if they might only be holding onto their sanity by a thread.
And then there were the berserkers that never came back.
“I want to graduate,” I say.
Her lips curl into a smile I don’t like for a second before it fades. “Well, there’s a first time for everything.”
“Berserkers never graduate?” Were they right? Do I not even have a chance?
“I usually don’t say never…but no, I don’t believe any have. If we catch them losing control, even if they do well the rest of their time here, they’re usually executed at graduation.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Fair?” She lifts a brow. “What’s not fair is that most of you had to do some pretty horrible shit to end up here, Kiera, and for some reason society deems it necessary to give most of the youth another chance. Even though, let’s be frank, most of you don’t deserve it.”
“That’s a great attitude for a counselor here.”
She leans back in her chair, her red suit no longer as elegant as I first thought when I entered the room. Instead, it reminds me of the kind of outfit a devil-woman might wear. “I got an interesting call the other day. From a Lord Maxen. Any idea what he wanted?”
Shit. That takes me by surprise, but I try to recover quickly. “Me as his bride.”
She smiles. “You surprise me, Kiera. You’re smart for a berserker. Yes, he wanted to enlist my help to break you free.”
I let the not-so-subtle insult about my people’s intelligence go. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I didn’t take his deal. I’m a bit above his pay grade, but I bet there are others here on his payroll.”
I think of the dead berserkers and clench my teeth together. The school blamed the flesh eaters for their deaths; the last thing I wanted was to put any suspicion on me and the guys. So, I say nothing.
She lifts a brow. “Nothing to say? Okay then, how about we talk about Emory?”
Again, I’m surprised. How does she know about Emory and I? Yeah, we’ve continued to eat together with Adam and Drake. And yes, he tended to stand near me in the classes we had together, but no, I wouldn’t think the counselor would know anything about him and I.
“He’s Lord Maxen’s brother, right? The bastard?”
I draw myself up taller, and glance at the little waterfall on the table next to her. I’m disliking this room and this woman more with each second that passes. “I don’t really have anything to say about him.”
“No? Well, it just seems strange to me that you had a get out of jail free card from Lord Maxen, that you refused, and yet you’ve allowed his little minion to get so close to you.”
“You don’t understand,” I say, glaring at that damned fountain.
“Oh? Did the big, sexy berserker give you some sob story? Emory isn’t the first of Lord Maxen’s men to arrive here. Far more berserkers come from his house than all the houses combined. But do you know what I’ve learned about them after all this time?”
I hate that I want to know. “What?”
“He has those bastards so fucking brainwashed that they’ll lay out their neck on the chopping block for him. I don’t know how the hell anyone can create that type of loyalty. I’ve done some…experiments myself, and it seems it takes years.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
There’s a smile in her eyes. “Because, Kiera, I like you. And I don’t like many students. Berserkers especially. But I’ve read your story…about the vampires and your best friend. I actually think you could return to the real world and maybe not be a stain on society. The only thing that makes me doubt you is how stupid you are to trust one of Maxen’s men.”
“He’s not like them.”
She lifts a brow.
I clench my hands together, and I hate that I feel a ripple under my skin. Taking deep breaths, I will that side of me to calm. I will the beast within to remember that we can’t just lose our shit every time something upsets us.
When I can breathe easily again, I try to explain, without saying too much. “I trust him. We…have a history together.”
“And you believe this history is enough to undo the years spent breaking him down and building him into the perfect soldier by a twisted leader?” She laughs. “You’re either stupid, Kiera, or too cocky for your own good.”
“I trust him,” I say again, but we can both hear the doubt in my voice.
She opens her mouth to say more, but the phone by her damned water fountain rings. Frowning, she picks it up, “I’m in session you mindless, clay piece of…what? Alright then.”
Her gaze is filled with hatred as she sets down her phone. “Well, it seems our session will have to end early today. You’re wanted in the library.”
“Wanted? By who?”
Her teeth clench together for a second. “I believe that whore librarian, Ms. Farah herself.”
I stand in one smooth motion. I’ve never been in the library, nor have I met the librarian. But I’m pretty sure I’d rather be anywhere than here, having this woman shine a light on the dark fears in my heart.
“Thank you,” I say.
She smiles, opens her file, and begins to write.
I head for the door, but her voice stops me. “See, most berserkers are beasts without manners. You, Kiera, are something else altogether. And I intend to figure you out before graduation.”
I shiver. For some reason, her words sound like a threat.
Leaving her office, I headout of the building and step into the main courtyard of the reform school. For some reason, my legs are shaking. I take a second to sit down on the edge of the fountain, taking deep breaths. The counselor was a colossal bitch, but could she be right about Emory? Or was Drake right when he said there was something more between Emory and I?
Emory seemed to care for me, but he was so damned hard to read. Maybe he was just sticking around out of guilt. He was the one that brought those vampire beasts to our area. But at the same time, didn’t it make more sense that his brother had asked him to stay close to me?
I sigh. But then, he killed the other berserkers. Why would he do that if he was working for Maxen?
Frustrated, I ran my hands lazily through the fountain, my thoughts drifting. My gaze moves over the few students that walk through the courtyard. A couple shifters, females, that seem like they might be bird shifters, laugh together. A vampire holds his head high, even though he wears a dark robe that protects his delicate skin from the sun, until he walks out of view. I stiffen when a nephilim steps out of a building. I can al
ways pick out the angels. They’re beautiful, but not the normal kind of beautiful. They seem to glow. And something about them makes me feel like my eyes are tricking me into thinking they’re more beautiful than they actually are.
“Ouch!”
Yanking my hand out of the water, I turn and spot a small hippocampus in the water. The horse’s pale white body glimmers with blue and purple, and its horse-like head dips through the water like it’s racing. And yet, it seems to be lingering around where I sit.
“What’d I ever do to you?” I ask it, frowning.
They’re just jerks.
I jump a little as the voice enters my mind. Heart racing, I glance around the courtyard. A phoenix male gives me a cocky wink just before entering a building, but there’s no one around that I can imagine capable of putting words into my mind.
Up here.
“Up where?”
The tree by the psychologist’s window.
My gaze slides to the tree not twenty feet from me. For a minute I don’t see anything, and then I spot the mangy cat. Truly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cat look as wild as this one. His fur was every shade all at once, brown, orange, white, and grey, the colors merging together in the strangest way. And yet, I had to admit, I had a soft spot for cats. Even the one currently studying me, his tail twitching behind him.
“You must be the cat that Adam doesn’t own.”
His voice comes begrudgingly in my mind. I am called Princess.
“It’s nice to meet you.”
Be careful, berserker. You’re being followed.
I stiffen and look around the courtyard again, but see no one.
“Who?”
You’re being watched. Best to get going. Then the cat leaps gracefully down the branches and trots off.
I stand and try to look casual as I head for the library, but every nerve in my body is singing. Over the last couple of weeks, Adam and I have continued to get closer. He’s spent most of his nights in my bed, except the nights Drake manages to claim it first. He didn’t speak often of Princess, but when he did, I got the sense that he trusted the cat completely.
Untamed- House of Berserkers Page 14
