by Tana Stone
Even though she drew in a sharp breath and her hands went to his shoulders as if she were bracing herself, her eyes blazed with need. “Do it.”
Rukken hesitated for a moment, before giving in to her demand, pushing into her hard and fast. She cried out, and he pressed his forehead to hers and winced from the tightness. Her hands dug into him, the nails scoring his ridged back as she jerked him closer and took his cock all the way.
He wanted to pound into her, but he held himself deep as her body relaxed slightly.
“I can feel those rings,” she whispered, shifting her hips and letting out a breathy sigh. “I like them.”
Her pleasure pulsed through him like waves, and he tipped his head back with his eyes closed. He’d never felt anything like this in his life, and he didn’t want it to ever end.
“More,” she ordered. “I need more.”
He returned his gaze to her face, stroking in and out slowly and letting her feel each ring as it entered her. It was torture to go so slow, but he loved watching her face each time he bottomed out inside her, her pupils flaring and a small gasp escaping.
“I’ve never been so full,” she whispered, stroking her foot up the back of his leg and holding him to her.
With a slight tilt of his hips, he dragged his lower ridges over her swollen nub.
Her mouth dropped open in surprise, and she let out a throaty moan. “Oh, I really like those.”
He pulled himself out and then drove into her, his ridges stroking her nub again. He did it once more, and her breaths became shallow, and her eyes rolled back in her head. “Harder, Rukken. Fuck me, harder.”
Her words made his movements frenzied, and he reared back, pistoning into her and gripping her hips, his fingers biting into her flesh. Her cries were just as desperate as his thrusts, and soon she was arching her back off the blankets as her body pulsed around his cock. Fire ricocheted through his entire body as he hammered into her, his release building and finally crashing over him. With a final hard thrust, he held himself deep, as he emptied into her, throwing his head back and roaring.
After a moment, he released his grasp on her hips and fell forward, kissing her neck again as his body sagged against hers. He was shaking, the blood rushing in his head so loudly that it took him a few moments for the world to come back into focus and for him to hear what she was saying.
“I can’t believe…” she began, her words uneven.
Even in the haze of euphoria, his stomach tightened. “You regret—?”
“No,” she said quickly. “I don’t. That’s what’s so crazy. I don’t regret it at all.”
He propped himself up with one arm, brushing a damp strand of hair off her forehead. He pressed a kiss above her brow, then to her nose, and finally to her lips. “Because you were meant to be mine.”
She released a shaky breath and gave him a reluctant smile. “I don’t know if I believe in fate, but I do believe in things feeling right. And you do feel really right. And incredibly good. Between those rings and your ridges, I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything so good.”
“I am glad.” His cock was still inside her, and it swelled slightly as she moved her hips. “That is enough for me. For now.”
He was glad he gave her pleasure, because he knew he would be the last male she would ever have. After claiming her, he could never allow any male to touch her again. And he could never let her go. He knew that now more than ever. His instincts had been right. She belonged to him, and she always had. Now she always would.
“Do Dothveks not get soft afterward?” She asked, her eyes flaring as he got harder inside her.
He began moving gently. “Not for a while.”
She wet her lip with her tongue. “So, you can just keep going?”
He nodded, pulling the length of his cock out and then pushing it back in as slowly as he could. “Until you tell me you no longer want it.”
Caro ran her hands down his chest, her fingers dipping beneath the waist of his animal skin and bumping across the ridges below his taut stomach muscles. “I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon.”
Twenty-One
Caro woke, her eyes still heavy from the night before as she rolled over. She’d expected to feel his large form next to her, like it had been when she’d finally fallen asleep, but the other side of the bed was empty. Rubbing her fingers over the woven blankets that were still slightly warm, she sat up. He had not been gone long.
Pulling a blanket around her shoulders, she rose and poked her head out of the flaps of the tent. He was not at the fire, although she could see he’d started it. She walked past the mound of burning kindling toward the pond, and a part of her hoped she might get another glimpse of him bathing.
Ridiculous, she knew, considering what she’d seen the night before. Or more accurately, what she’d done. The light hadn’t been bright enough for her to see as much as she’d felt. But what she’d felt… Her skin tingled at the memory.
The night before returned to her in a rush of dark images. Rukken’s hushed words and expert touch. The heat of his body and the weight of him moving thickly between her legs. The way he’d known what she wanted, what she needed. Her face flamed at the thought of how intimately he’d known her desires.
Caro gazed at the placid water of the pool and her excitement waned. He wasn’t there. Fear fluttered in her chest. Where was he? Spinning on her heel, she almost screamed.
“What is wrong?” He stood in front of her, so close he must have walked up behind her without her noticing.
She pressed a hand to her heart. “Don’t do that. You scared me half to death.”
“Do what?” He closed the remaining distance between them and put his hand over hers. “What is half of death?”
She welcomed the warmth of his hand and the gentle pulse of energy that filled her body from his touch. “Never mind. It’s an expression. Where were you?”
He jerked his head behind him. “On the other side of the tent, preparing.”
“Preparing for what?” She hated to admit that for a moment she’d thought he’d left her alone, and her voice was laced with panic. Panic that made no sense.
“You are coming hunting with me.”
She stared up at him, waiting for him to crack a smile and tell her he was joking, but he did not.
“You want to take me hunting after I pulled a knife on you? You really think it’s a good idea to teach me how to kill?”
Now he grinned, moving the hand covering hers so that he cupped her jaw. “You will not try to kill me again.”
Since her first attempt hadn’t been even remotely successful, she couldn’t blame him for feeling confident that she wouldn’t try again. A little offended maybe, but not surprised. “You seem pretty sure of yourself.”
He dragged his thumb across her cheek and tipped her face up. “It is your feelings I am sure about.”
Her heart thumped, and Caro was sure he could hear it. Why did she suddenly feel shy around him? She hadn’t been shy last night when she’d ordered him to fuck her harder. What had felt right in the darkness of the tent and the stillness of the night seemed shocking in glare of the morning light.
Her gaze dropped, but he lifted her chin, so she had to meet his eyes. “And my own.”
He lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her gently, his beard rasping her cheek as he pulled her closer and his tongue caressed hers. Her shyness evaporated again, as her grip loosened on the blanket and it fell to her feet. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she thrilled at the feel of his hard body against hers. She knew exactly what that body could do, and heat throbbed between her legs.
She pulled back, panting. As she broke contact with him and the tingling faded from her skin, she realized she was naked. She fumbled with the blanket at her feet, circling it unevenly around her chest. “You wouldn’t happen to know where my clothes went, do you?”
He cut his eyes to the water, and she saw them right where she’d left them the da
y before. “I’ll get dressed and then we’ll go hunting?”
His expression was amused, but he nodded. “If you are ready.”
She nodded, probably more enthusiastically than she should have. If she was going to react to him that way every time he touched her, they definitely needed to do something to keep them occupied. The thought of staying in bed with him all day thrilled her way more than it should have. He was still her captor, after all. He might be a captor who fucked like a god, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d abducted her.
Caro walked as calmly as she could to her clothes, pulling them on quickly and not looking to see if he was watching. She didn’t need to. She could feel his gaze on her and sense how much he wanted her.
You can do this, she told herself. You can play it cool.
Forget the fact that she’d never played it cool a single time in her entire life. She’d never been the type of woman who knew how to play games or pretend to be indifferent to a guy. All she could hope for was that she wouldn’t fall all over him and embarrass herself.
She folded the blanket over her arm and walked back to the fire, where Rukken knelt facing her. His eyes never left her, even as she tossed the blanket inside the tent and wiped her hands on the front of her pants.
“What’s for breakfast?” She’d hoped her voice would sound light and breezy, but it didn’t.
Rukken stood and patted a brown pouch he’d slung across his shoulder. “We’ll eat while we hunt. The best time to go is in the morning, before the heat has driven the creatures too deep.” He pointed to the suns cresting the dunes. “We don’t want to wait any longer.”
Instead of walking toward the desert, he crossed to her, coming so close there was hardly a space between their bodies. He pulled a light, pale swath of fabric from the pouch and draped it over her head and across her face like a veil. “So you don’t burn.”
“I usually don’t burn.”
“Your skin is not as tough as mine, and I know you are not accustomed to two suns.”
He was right about that. Even when they’d gone on the desert with the Dothveks, they’d worn cloth over their heads. She decided not to argue. “Thanks.”
He nodded, brushing a hand over her cheeks through the airy cloth. “If your skin burns, I cannot touch you the way I want to. That would be a problem for both of us, I think.”
Before she could tell him he was pretty sure of himself, he took her by the hand and pulled her behind him. They moved slowly up and down several dunes, Rukken keeping her from slipping in the sand that seemed to suck her feet under. Rivulets of sweat trickled down her face and back, and she cringed as they rolled between her breasts.
He stopped, squeezing her hand. Without uttering a word, he pointed to a spot in the sand, crouching noiselessly. She peered at the gold sand, but saw nothing. She didn’t move, however, holding her breath as he unsheathed his blade and hovered over the sand.
After what seemed like an eternity, the sand shifted almost imperceptibly, and Rukken jabbed his blade into the ground. There was a sharp squeal, and then he lifted a flailing creature out of the sand.
Caro recoiled. It was larger than she’d expected, almost the length of her arm, but thicker, with pasty white skin and lots of legs wiggling on both sides of its torso. Rukken did not remove the blade, but placed one hand on its pale belly. The animal stilled, going nearly limp at his touch. Rukken murmured a few rather poetic words of thanks, then whipped out his blade and sliced off the creature’s head.
Caro slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. When she’d steadied her breathing, she lowered her hand. “What the hell was that?”
He tilted his head at her. “That is how Dothveks hunt.”
She glanced around her feet. “Are there more of those things under us?” She’d never considered herself especially squeamish, but the idea of giant insects living under the sand made her look at the desert in an entirely new way.
“Some,” he said. “This is a large one.”
“That’s good.” She hated that she sounded like a skittish girl, but she remembered Holly’s story of the giant sand snake she and T’Kar had fought. No way did she want to come face to face with one of those.
“Here.” He handed her the blade after swiping it clean on a wide leaf he produced from his pouch. “You will try.”
“Me?” She held both palms up. “I’m not so sure.”
“If you are living on this planet, you need to know how to hunt,” he insisted, placing the handle in her hand and closing her fingers around it. “I know you know how to hold a blade.”
She decided not to mention that she was trying not to stay on his planet. However, it also seemed like a moot point, considering there was currently no way off.
He directed her to watch the sand, showing her how the smallest shift indicated something under the surface. Patiently, he guided her until she spotted movement and then he coached her to crouch low and jab the blade into the ground as hard as she could. When she struck something, the blade jerked so hard she almost let go of it. Rukken closed his hand over hers and helped her lift the animal out of the sand.
She gasped as she saw the snake-like creature she’d impaled. “You’re going to have to do your juju magic on it. I definitely don’t have that talent.”
He rested his hand on the underbelly until the animal stopped twitching, reciting the same Dothvek words. Caro looked away before he beheaded the creature.
When she looked back, he was beaming at her. “You made your first kill.”
She didn’t tell him that she’d made plenty of kills flying for the resistance. He looked so pleased for her she didn’t want to spoil the moment. “Does this mean we’re done? Because I would love a dip in the pond right about now.”
Rukken arched an eyebrow. “Then we are done.”
As they headed back, she held his hand again. “I was thinking about your exile. I could explain your side of the story. There’s a chance they’d let you return to the village with me.”
His grip on her hand tightened. “There is no chance.”
“It’s worth a try.”
“There is no chance, because you are never returning to the Dothvek village.” He pulled her behind him so hard she almost stumbled down a long dune. “I thought after last night you understood that.”
She jerked back. “And I thought you knew that I have to return to my crew. I can’t stay out here forever.”
He did not respond, but his grip on her hand tightened.
Twenty-Two
Rukken stomped into the tent pulling Caro behind him. When they got inside, she ripped her hand away from him and rubbed her wrist.
“We’re back. Happy now?” She shot him a murderous look from underneath long lashes. “You almost tore my arm out of its socket, you know.”
It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the dim interior of the tent, then he looked at her pink wrist, regretting how tightly he’d held her and how roughly he’d walked her back to the camp. “I did not mean to hurt you, but you still do not understand.”
Caro backed away from him, her cheeks splotched from the exertion of practically running across the sands.
“No.” She waved a finger at him. “You’re the one who doesn’t understand. Just because we had sex doesn’t mean I’m going to change my life for you. I’m not about to ditch my crew and my friends because of one really amazing fuck.”
“It was more than that.” Anger made his pulse quicken. How did she still not understand their connection? How did she not see they were fated to be mates?
“Fine.” She threw her arms up. “Three great fucks.”
“It was more than mating.” He heard the dark rasp of his voice. “You are my mate. My mind mate.”
She stared at him, unblinking. “I’m sorry. Your what?”
He knew it was probably too soon to tell her, but now it was too late to take it back. The skeptical look on her face told him that she would not be easily convin
ced, but he took a breath and tried to keep his voice level. Yelling at her would not help, although he wanted very much to raise his voice. “Dothveks have one true mind mate. The female who connects to them and can sense their feelings so strongly they are like his own.”
“And you think I’m that for you?” Her expression told him that she did not think this. “But I’m not even Dothvek.”
“I did not think it was possible with an offworlder, either, but you must be unique.”
She gave a snort of laughter. “Trust me. I’m not. Just because I can tell when you’re turned on or angry or whatever, doesn’t mean I’m your mind mate.”
“You do not just know I am aroused or angry, you feel those things when I feel them, don’t you?”
Her brown eyes flared for a moment, as if he’d said something that made sense. Then she shook her head and pushed past him. “Nope. No way. This is crazy.”
He grabbed her arm to stop her. “Where are you going?”
She tried to shake him off. “I’m just going. I need to get away. This is all too much.”
Rukken did not release her arm. “I can’t let you go. You know that.”
Caro lunged toward the tent flaps, but he pulled her back again. She slapped at him, and he captured both hands in his, holding her while she struggled against him. “Let go of me, you big bastard.”
“You will run.”
“You’re fucking right I’ll run.” She kicked at him. “You’re crazy. I’m not your mind mate. I’m just a regular girl who wants to get back to her life. I’m sorry about what happened to you, but I can’t stay here forever just because you’re lonely.”
Her words made him flinch, but he pushed them out of his mind as he dodged her sharp kicks. She was lashing out at him in anger. She didn’t mean it, he told himself. He just needed more time to convince her they were meant to be mates.
