Midnight Star

by Ophelia Bell

  “I’ve got you where I want you now. Time to lose the panties.” He hooked his fingers into the narrow bands that crisscrossed her hips and pulled the skimpy garment down her legs. His stiff dick jerked in appreciation of the sight of her bare, glistening pussy.

  “Please touch me.”

  “Soon. Let’s finish these up and then I’ll do whatever the fuck you want.”

  He gave her another shot, this one closer to her core, and lingered with his hand near her pussy, letting his knuckles brush across the bare lips.

  Astra shivered and arched toward him.

  After the next shot he gave her a little more attention, grazing his fingertips down over her folds and back up. He came away with a coating of her juices on his fingers and raised them to his nose, inhaling while she watched.

  “Lick them off. I want you to taste me,” she murmured.

  He obeyed, sucking each finger and savoring the tangy flavor of her. She whimpered and spread her legs wider, hips tilting up in eager need for more.

  “Done.” He tossed the injector aside after speeding through the last few shots and settling back between her legs. “I’m all yours now.”

  Her eyes were dark pools staring up at him, her cheeks flushed pink. “I want your mouth on me, Simon,” she rasped.

  He swallowed and closed his eyes, her words music to his ears. “Are you sure?”

  “You promise not to bite?”

  Simon could only nod, his throat too constricted with the groan of need that had welled up. He started to lower himself between her legs, but she halted him with a word.

  “Wait.” He paused, glancing up at her face.

  She looked above herself at the scarves that bound her wrists, then shifted up and grabbed hold of the fabric. She leveraged herself up to a kneeling position, shoving the pillows aside with her legs.

  “Start with my nipples,” she said. “Hands, mouth, whatever you want. Just no biting, got it? And . . .” She paused, her gaze gliding down his torso to his crotch, where his aching cock strained against his pants. She licked her lips. “I want you naked when I sit on your face.”

  13

  Astra

  Simon’s expression of eager wonder was a glorious sight. Yet he still took his sweet time climbing off the bed to shed his pants before crawling back on and coming toward her, practically panting with need.

  Astra’s heart pounded, her gaze fixed on the long, thick shaft between his thighs. She shouldn’t fuck him, but she wanted to more than anything. He’d teased the hell out of her, drawing out her treatment, punctuating each painful shot with tormenting touches between her thighs until she was numb to the pain, too overwhelmed with need for more contact to feel anything but the throbbing ache between her thighs.

  She had her hands braced on the headboard behind her, legs spread as he closed the distance. His broad torso loomed in front of her, golden skin glistening with a light sheen of sweat. It wasn’t particularly warm in her third-floor bedroom, nor had they exerted themselves much, but she felt just as hot as he was and her temperature only rose when he drifted his lips across her cheek and found her mouth.

  But before he kissed her, he pulled back, looking into her eyes. “Kissing’s okay, right?”

  At the same moment, he raised his hands to cup her breasts, swirling his thumbs over her nipples, and she barely managed to moan her assent before closing the distance and clasping her lips over his in a ravenous kiss.

  Simon groaned into her mouth, parting and opening up, granting her entry as if acknowledging her dominance over him. She wished she could touch him again, but he’d pointed out the true weakness between them. She didn’t trust herself, or her dragon, not to lose it in the midst of pleasure. She’d heard too many stories of dragons accidentally marking their mates without realizing it.

  Yet somehow she trusted him not to bite, and despite the desperate kiss he gave her in return, he was careful with his teeth. He pulled away with a rumbled comment. “I’d kiss you all fucking night, but you need more, don’t you, Midnight?”

  A shiver coursed through her at her arena name and she nodded. “Don’t stop.”

  “Not until you tell me to.” His gaze drifted down to her breasts still cupped in his palms. He lowered his head, pressed a kiss to her neck, then grazed his lips down her chest to capture one nipple. He sucked each for a few seconds before dropping to the bed.

  His broad shoulders took some leveraging to fit between her legs and she had to shift positions until he lay comfortably on his back, her knees resting between his thick arms and his chest. He grasped her hips with both big hands and rose up, pulling her down to meet his mouth.

  She gasped when his tongue flicked across the underside of her clit just once before he dropped back to the bed.

  “Holy fuck, your pussy is beautiful from this angle. From any angle really, but especially this angle. Get down here. Use my mouth, Midnight. Fuck yourself on my tongue.”

  She was too turned on to argue, to make him work for it, and she widened her stance and dropped her hips, lowering herself over his mouth. With a low growl, his lips captured her pussy in a rough, hungry kiss and he plunged his tongue deep, making her cry out in surprised pleasure.

  “Oh fuck yes!” She held tight to the headboard behind her, using it to leverage herself atop him, to grind her pelvis over his mouth. He rumbled in approval as she began to move. Yet despite her desperate movements he kept up with her, suckling her clit and teasing her opening with his tongue with every tilt back and forth.

  He had his legs bent, knees splayed wide, his thick cock jutting at an angle toward his navel and weeping at the tip. Astra’s mouth watered, his musky scent surrounding her. If her hands weren’t bound to the headboard, she’d happily suck him off. This really wasn’t fair, even though he was eagerly driving her to the brink with his tongue.

  “Touch yourself,” she commanded, retreating from his mouth slightly to be sure he heard. He halted his hungry licks for just a second, then dropped a hand to his dick, fisting it hard.

  “Like that?” he asked, his mouth brushing against her core.

  She stared at his cock and swallowed. “Yeah. Make yourself come while you eat me.”

  “Fucking hell,” he groaned. “I don’t know if I can focus on both.”

  “I want you to come when I come,” she panted. “So either jerk off or fuck me.”

  His hand stilled on his shaft and the other hand squeezing her hip relaxed and slid down her thigh. A zing of pleasure and awareness shot through her at what she’d just offered.

  “I didn’t know that was an option. Are you sure about that, Midnight?”

  Now was her chance to take it back, to come to her senses and tell him that she was sure it was the worst idea. But the aching pulse between her thighs said different.

  “Yes,” she said, her voice a hoarse whisper. “Fuck me, Simon.”

  He squeezed her hip, giving her pussy one more lingering lick before rolling out from beneath her and coming up to kneel in front of her. He reached for her hands to untie her and she shook her head.

  “Leave me tied, please,” she said, hoping the quaver in her voice wasn’t noticeable. She was genuinely starting to like Simon, and if her dragon felt anything deeper, she didn’t trust herself not to subconsciously mate him just to fix her issue.

  Simon’s brows twitched the tiniest bit but he didn’t comment. He merely nodded and dipped his head to kiss her. She arched into him, sighing against his mouth and reveling in the hard bulges of his muscles. Her attraction to him was an anomaly. She usually went for leaner men but then it hit her that what she usually went for were men who resembled Javin.

  Simon was nothing like Javin. The revelation made her kiss him with increased fervor.

  He slid his hands down her sides, cupping her ass and pulling her against him. He was far bigger than her so his cock pressed against her belly, nowhere close to where she needed. He pulled away and looked down at her.

  “Do yo
u trust me?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Let go of the headboard.”

  She did as he suggested, bringing her arms back over her head and relaxing them in front of her.

  “Good.” He reached behind her and unwrapped the scarf from the finial, tossing the loose end over his shoulder so it trailed from her hands. “Now clasp your hands together.” He gripped her wrists and held her hands up in front of her face. She entwined her fingers, then looked up at him.

  “Don’t let go and you’ll be fine. No risk of marking me accidentally.”

  He slid his hands down her arms and lifted them up, hooking her hands behind his head. Then he settled on his haunches and cupped her ass, squeezing. “It’s all you now, Midnight,” he said with a hungry look.

  Astra remained kneeling in front of him for a second, her knees bracketed by his. He regarded her with intense hazel eyes, his hands now at her back, stroking in gentle caresses she realized were meant to calm, to comfort, more than they were meant to arouse. But she wanted pleasure more than anything, and to return the pleasure to him too.

  Leveraging her forearms against his shoulders, she lifted up and straddled him. His hands returned to her ass and he held on, guiding her down onto his thick cock. Her eyelids fluttered closed, her mouth falling open with the delicious stretch as he filled her. He dropped his forehead to her shoulder and groaned. “Fuck, Midnight. You feel amazing.”

  “You too,” she breathed as she began to rock her hips on top of him.

  “Kiss me,” he said through ragged breaths. “I don’t want to bite you. Need to keep my mouth busy.”

  She tilted her head, seizing his offered mouth and groaning when he plunged his tongue in to tangle with hers, giving her a good dose of her own flavor. His fingers tightened on her ass, his grip guiding her with increasing speed on his cock, and he thrust up into her, meeting every buck of her hips. The sweet friction of his thick length pistoning in and out of her sent her into a frenzy of rough, needy pleas and she tore away from their kiss to beg him for more.

  “Fuck me harder, Simon.”

  He growled, his eyes turning gold in the dim lamplight and she was sure his animal had just risen to the surface. Her palms itched almost painfully and she was suddenly aware of that deeper consciousness within her watching, wanting, craving a bond with this man, but she’d craved a bond with another and that hadn’t exactly worked out for her. She knew better than to let her dragon follow through.

  Simon slid a hand up her side and gripped the back of her elbow, lifting her arms off his shoulders. Then he pressed a hand to the center of her back and tilted her.

  Astra relaxed against his supporting hold, gaze fixed on his face as he lay her back, then gripped her hips, holding her tight against his pelvis as he slammed into her with fevered thrusts, the new angle pushing his cockhead straight against the magical bundle within her channel.

  She let out an incoherent cry of pleasure, grasping the edge of the mattress above her head. She wanted to tell him more, but he already seemed to grasp what she needed, his pounding becoming frenzied. Yet somehow he still had the presence of mind to seek out her clit with his thumb. A fresh surge of molten heat flooded between her thighs. Simon grunted but kept teasing, kept fucking, their movements making lewd, wet smacking sounds, filling the room with the aroma of sex.

  All of it sent Astra spinning higher until she cried out, “I’m coming! Oh fuck yes!”

  She arched and bucked her hips against him, the ecstasy blasting through her in a sudden explosive wave. Simon let out a hitching groan when her core spasmed around him, clamping hard and releasing. His cock erupted inside her and he grabbed both her hips to hold her tight against him as he came. They stilled, panting hard with their exertion, and he held her tight against him, both their bodies still trembling with the pleasure for several more minutes.

  His hard cock still stretched her, the orgasm having done nothing to quell his arousal. When the spasms finally subsided, he pulled back and pushed in slowly once more.

  “Fuck, I think I could go again right now,” he said, his wide-eyed gaze fixed on where they were joined.

  Astra tightened her thighs around him and sat up, slinging her hands behind his head again and seating herself solidly on his dick. She sighed and smiled. “Me too, but we’re probably playing with fire if we keep going. Not to mention how pissed our babysitter’s going to be when he finds out.”

  Simon sighed and hugged her close, burying his face against her neck. His lips grazed the juncture of her shoulder, a zing of fresh desire shooting between her thighs.

  Sex had never felt so good before, but she didn’t want to examine that fact too closely. It had been a really long time since she’d had a fuck buddy. She’d probably just forgotten what it felt like. Not to mention they were both a little desperate for tenderness.

  When his teeth grazed her skin, she pulled away. “Simon.”

  “Sorry.” He dropped his gaze and lifted her arms off his shoulders again, then, with a regret-filled sigh, he lifted her off him and scooted away.

  Without looking at her, he stood and retrieved his clothes, slipping into them in silence. He was frowning but Astra didn’t dare ask what was bothering him. She already knew.

  “We probably shouldn’t do this again,” he finally said, and it was as if a spike plunged into her gut.

  Swallowing, she nodded. “Too risky. But for what it’s worth, it was wonderful?” She didn’t intend the words to come out as a question, but they had, and Simon’s gaze shot to her face.

  “Beyond wonderful. No regrets, all right?”

  She chewed on her lip, suppressing her urge to blurt out every single one of her long list of regrets and the fact that he’d just been added to the end. Not regret that she’d shared this with him, but regret that her motives for doing it hadn’t exactly been about him at all.

  With a fierce look, he climbed onto the bed and cupped her cheek with one hand. “No regrets, Astra. I’m serious.”

  He took her hands in his and squeezed, then disentangled her wrists from the knotted scarves, freeing her hands. She clenched her fists and nodded. “Right,” she said through a forced smile. “Do you think it worked?”

  “I suppose we’ll find out soon.”

  14

  Simon

  It had never physically hurt to leave a woman’s bed before, but as Simon descended the stairs, hot pain radiated through his chest in waves. He just wanted to shower and sleep and block out the acute ache of longing that had begun drilling a hole through his heart the second he closed the door behind him.

  He didn’t think he’d imagined the same look of longing in her eyes, but he didn’t know whether it was meant for him or if she was still pining for Javin and regretted fucking him after all. But what he did know was that in the heat of passion, her dragon had been front and center, and his hyena had been fixated on Astra’s animal the entire time.

  He’d been so disconnected from the creature for so long that it was hard to miss when it woke up, and it was all he could do not to let it do what it wished. Because what it wished was to bury its teeth in Astra’s flesh and mark her. It didn’t matter that she was a dragon, that by shifter hierarchy she should do the initial marking in any union with a lower shifter. His mark might not fix her, but hers would most certainly fix him.

  Not that he cared whether he was fixed now, because he’d had a taste of her and there was no going back from that. He didn’t think he’d ever want anyone else as much as he wanted her. Without her, what did any of it matter?

  He pushed into his room and flipped on the light switch, stopping short at the sight of a haggard-looking Javin seated on the end of his bed, head in his hands.

  Javin looked up, his eyes haunted. His nostrils flared and agony washed through his expression, so potent Simon could scent the emotion over the cloud of sex that still surrounded him.

  “Please tell me you didn’t . . .” Javin said.

  “D
idn’t what? Didn’t fuck Astra? Because I think you know the answer to that already.” He shut the door behind him and stood in front of it, crossing his arms.

  Javin stood and strode toward him, chest heaving as he breathed in what had to be a whole cocktail of scents clinging to Simon’s skin. Javin could be a scary motherfucker when he was pissed, but right now he just looked terrified. When he reached Simon he grabbed him by the jaw and squeezed, forcing his mouth open. Simon’s brow furrowed in confusion as Javin inspected his teeth, then it dawned on him what the other man was looking for.

  “I didn’t mark her. But I thought that’s what you wanted for her to begin with.”

  Javin dropped his hand and scowled. He still gulped in deep breaths, dipping his head to Simon’s neck and inhaling like he was starved for air.

  Simon jerked back, his ass connecting with the door. “Am I not good enough to be Astra’s mate?”

  “Not even fucking close,” Javin sneered. “You don’t deserve an ounce of what you got. How are you covered so completely in her scent?”

  Simon shrugged. “Guess she just couldn’t keep her hands off me. Or her sweet pussy. She came all over me and we would’ve done it again, but that might have been overkill.”

  Javin’s eyes flashed yellow and he growled. He slammed his hands against the door on either side of Simon’s head. “Strip,” he commanded.

  “Fuck you. I don’t need any more pity fucks from you, asshole.”

  Baring his teeth, Javin leaned in. “That’s not what I’m after. Strip so I can make sure she didn’t mark you.”

  “She didn’t. We were careful.” He reached for the doorknob. “Now you can get the fuck out of my room.”

  Javin slammed a hand against the knob before Simon could grab it. He flipped the lock, then clamped a hand at Simon’s throat, pinning him to the door. He raked clawed fingers down the front of Simon’s shirt, shredding the fabric in one sweep.