Bahre growled.
“Do you like them?”
His head whipped up so he looked at me. Pierced me with his stare. “Like? Mate, I can barely hold myself back.”
I frowned. “Why would you want to do that?”
“After what just happened—”
“After what just happened, I need to know you’re with me. I feel the safest when I can feel the hard press of your body.”
“I will always shield you. While you are with me, no harm will ever come to you.” He looked away. “You were taken because I didn’t remain at your side. We can remedy that by being together always.”
I had to laugh at his intent. He was being serious.
“When you have my cuffs about your wrists, being apart will be impossible.”
He was becoming upset, angry at himself for what had happened. I needed to distract him once more. While I was definitely not the aggressor when it came to sex, Bahre seemed to crave validation, my consent that I wanted his touch as much as he probably needed to offer it.
I slid the other bra strap from my shoulder. My breasts were bare now, only the band around my torso keeping the bra on me.
“Do you like it better on or off?” I sounded coy, and my question probably would have been laughable except Bahre wasn’t human.
His response wasn’t in words but in action. He lifted me up and dropped me onto my back. His knees nudged mine apart, and he settled between my ankles so that when he leaned forward, he took my nipple into his mouth.
I arched my back again, my fingers tangling in his hair. I called out his name. He growled. Sucked. Licked.
“Yes!” I cried when he moved to the other. Only after I was all but squirming beneath him did he lift his head and kiss me.
His scent, the feel of him, his taste settled around me. This was what I’d longed for. Needed.
I was desired. Craved. Protected. I’d never felt safer. More whole.
This was a kiss. Lips and tongue, teeth and… perfection.
“Bahre,” I breathed against his lips.
“I will explore every inch of your body with my hands and mouth to ensure you are unharmed.”
Oh God.
I squirmed beneath him, close to coming from nipple play and kissing alone. Perhaps it was the crazy events that had gotten us here, the fact that only Bahre could have saved me. That he was the one I craved. Needed.
“Can you… can you start here?” I slid my hand down over my belly and between my parted legs.
He sat back on his heels and studied at me. I could only imagine what I looked like. My breasts bare; my fingers in my wet panties; my legs splayed wide.
The silk didn’t stand a chance. One yank and the dainty material shredded in Bahre’s hand. He met my gaze, then glanced at my pussy before dropping to the floor and onto his knees. After grabbing my ankles, he tugged me down so my butt was at the edge. He placed my knees over his shoulders, and his mouth and tongue were exactly… where… I… wanted… him.
“Here?” he asked before licking up my center, flicking my clit.
“Yes!”
“Whatever my mate needs, I will give.”
Give me an orgasm! I thought.
Maybe I said it aloud, because he settled in to his task. Like the night before, he was voracious, thorough, and when he slipped a finger inside me, ruthlessly talented. He built me up so quickly I was stunned. I came on a harsh gasp, my fingers yanking on his hair.
When he lifted his head, I was a sweaty heap, naked except for my bra about my middle. I undid the front clasp to get it off.
Bahre gave a grunt as he watched. I had to assume this was the first Earth bra that he’d encountered. I wasn’t going to question if he’d ever been with another human female before. I did not care. He was mine now.
“As I said, I will not be far from you again. Wear my cuffs. I want to claim you as my own. I… I will not be able to endure if my mating cuffs are not about our wrists for all to see, to know you belong to me.”
I didn’t like the sound of that, belonging to him. That was how Jeff Randall thought of me. As his property. His possession. But then Bahre continued.
“Because I already belong to you. I have since the first moment I saw you. When you were on your broadcast in front of the green wall and I knelt at your feet. I am yours, Quinn, if you will accept me. And perhaps you will someday explain to me what you were doing.”
I couldn’t help but smile knowing my job must have seemed odd for him.
“I was honored then to kneel before you before everyone on Earth, all of your people. I was proud to offer myself to you, mate. Pleased with the knowledge that I had found you. When I learned the comm of my pledge had been shown throughout the Coalition planets, I was honored once more, proud that such a worthy female would honor me by accepting my claim before the entire Interplanetary Coalition. Everyone who might see us here on Zenith will know that I am yours. You own me, Quinn. I am yours, and I am honored to care for you, protect you, and love you.” His serious gaze turned playful. Needy. “I am honored now to have your taste on my tongue.”
When he put it that way…
I cupped his cheek. He was who I wanted. He’d saved me from a fate I couldn’t even imagine, in a strange place I barely knew anything about. With an alien who would have kept me as his slave. He’d saved me, but I was free now. I could go down to one of those transport things and demand they send me home.
But I had no desire to leave the alien kneeling at my feet. These feelings I had for Bahre weren’t out of thanks. They were out of love.
I’d fallen for him almost as fast as he had for me.
“I didn’t even know you existed. Was it yesterday?” So much had happened. We were in space. “I knew you’d come for me. It was what kept me calm. Kept me sane. I knew.”
His jaw clenched beneath my palm.
“I don’t know much about the claiming thing, but I know I want you. I want to be yours. More importantly, I want you to be mine. But…”
“What is it?”
“I don’t like outer space. Seriously, it sucks out here. Can we live on Earth?”
He smiled then, brilliantly. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen anything like it. This scarred warlord, who’d seen so much, was happy. I’d made him that way, and I would ensure he remained so the rest of his life. “You are my home, Quinn. I do not care where we live as long as I am at your side. I am sure Warden Egara will find a role for me at the Brides Program center.”
“Okay, then. Yes. I accept your mating cuffs.”
While I was bare, he was fully clothed. Leaning his weight on one hand, he reached back and unclipped something from his belt. He pushed back and knelt above me and held up two sets of metallic cuffs.
The Atlan mating cuffs. He’d brought them with him. No, he’d always had them with him. He’d gone to Earth on order, but the cuffs had shown he’d hoped there would be a mate for him.
I watched as he unhooked them, set the small ones on the bed beside my hip. He fastened one of the large ones about one wrist, then the other. When done, he held his bent arms up between us so that we could both admire the cuffs. No, he wasn’t showing me the beautiful scrollwork. He was showing me that they were on him. That he belonged to me.
Fierce pride flared in my chest. I wasn’t sure how most Atlan couples did this, if I was supposed to be naked during such a ritual, but I didn’t care. I didn’t ask. I would remember this moment forever.
With his eyes on me, he picked up one of the cuffs meant for his mate.
For me.
I raised my arm, held it out so he could affix the one cuff about my right wrist. The cuff opened like a regular bracelet, but when he closed the two ends together, it bonded somehow, sealed closed. Narrowed so it fit me perfectly. The metal was cool at first but quickly warmed to my skin. I’d thought the wide band would be heavy, but it was light as air. When the second one was on, I looked at them both. They felt like Wonder Woman bracelets. I doubted
they could deflect bullets, but I felt… invincible. With Bahre by my side, I would be. Always.
I glanced from the cuffs to Bahre. The look on his face was amazement. Joy. Pride. Love. I saw everything there. Everything I wanted but never knew I needed.
He climbed from the bed and I frowned, wondering why he was leaving me, but he began to take off his clothes. His gaze remained on me as he stripped himself bare. He didn’t say a word. When he was done, he stood before me, naked but for the gleaming cuffs on his wrists and a cock that was rock-hard, huge, and all for me.
He crawled back up and between my thighs—I’d never brought them back together—and settled one hand on the bed near my head, then the other. His huge frame loomed over me, his fierce face right there.
I felt like growling up at him, like a beast myself. I wanted him inside me. Now.
He was all mine.
* * *
Bahre
“Forever, mate,” I said, then slid into my mate with one deep, hard thrust. Fuck, this was it. This was everything. She was safe. Beneath me. Mine. I felt the cuffs about my wrists, and my cock swelled deep within her wet pussy.
I’d ensured she was soft and pliant, dripping wet and ready for the solid length of my cock when I claimed her for the first time with my mating cuffs on our wrists.
There was no turning back, no chance I might lose her. The mating cuffs were recognized by every legal entity, every law on every planet in the Coalition. If anyone touched her, hurt her, tried to take her from me now, I could legally challenge and eliminate the threat.
And I would. Even on Earth, laws or no laws. Quinn was mine now, mine to love and fuck and protect.
My cock pulsed, buried deep in her hot core. I didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to leave this moment. She felt so fucking good. Her pussy was my home. My heaven. I never wanted to leave.
The glint of the cuffs on her wrists made me growl, reminded me we were not done.
“Put your legs about my waist.”
She did so immediately but couldn’t cross her ankles. I was too big. I slipped a hand behind her back, cupped her ass, and lifted her with me as I climbed from the bed.
Quinn laughed as I walked across the room and pressed her against the nearest wall.
“What are you—”
I pulled back, thrust deep.
“Bahre,” she breathed as I began to fuck her. It was easy to hold her up. My cock was buried deep. She wasn’t to come off it until the claiming was done. Until my seed filled her. With my hips pinning hers to the wall, I could easily grab her hands and raise them over her head. I secured them there, my grip holding her cuffs in place.
“I claimed you, mate,” I said, meeting her green eyes. “It is my beast’s turn.”
We’d never spoken of how a traditional Atlan claiming occurred. There hadn’t been time before, and now I didn’t want to waste any time to explain.
She didn’t need it. She was right here with me.
Licking her lips, she nodded, only shifted her legs so her knees squeezed me higher on my torso.
Yes. Fuck, yes. For the first time ever, I let my beast completely free. I’d killed before, let my beast rule me so that I was a killing machine. I’d plucked Lukabo’s head from his shoulders as if he were a Hive Nexus Unit. Lukabo would not be a danger to Quinn or anyone again.
But now? This? My beast was out. Taking. Giving. Fucking.
I felt my bones shift, my muscles stretch. I knew I grew to full beast size. My cock swelled and grew, buried deep in Quinn.
Burying my face in her lithe neck, I held her and took her. Thrust deep and made her mine as well as my beast’s.
She rolled her hips, although she couldn’t move much with my cock filling her and my beast pinning her to the wall.
Sweat bloomed on her skin, and I licked the salty essence from her neck. Her breaths were ragged, came in pants, in moans in sync with my thrusts.
Her breasts swayed. Her heels dug into my back.
“You. Mine,” I growled, unable to form a complete sentence. There was no need.
“Yes,” she cried.
She felt so good, my balls ached to fill her. My cock was drenched in her arousal, the sensations elicited by her pussy, the tight squeeze, the slide, pushed me to the edge swiftly.
She was mine. That had me gripping her ass with my free hand, and I rolled her hips into me, ensuring her clit rubbed against me. She would come before me. It was my job to see her satisfied. I would only finally claim her when she screamed my name. I held back until she did, sweat dripping down my brow, my muscles tense. My hips driving up and into her.
Within seconds I felt her walls begin to milk me. Her body clenched around me. Her muscles tightened, and her head fell back against the wall with a thud. She didn’t scream, but a low, rolling moan came from her lips. From deep in her body.
It was the sound my beast recognized. Knew. Reveled in. He was finally satisfied. Finally connected to our mate.
My pleasure burst forth, overwhelming me. Blinding me as my seed spurted deeply. Hotly. Filled my mate. Made her mine. Ours.
We were one. My beast was finally soothed. I was finally worthy, accepted, claimed.
The female in my hold, the one who had taken me into her body and, I believed, her heart, was permanently mine.
Nothing… nothing would tear us apart.
12
Bahre
I claimed my female again. Bathed her. Fed her. Held her as she slept. When my beast demanded his freedom, she would laugh, open her arms, and squeal with joy as my beast pushed her up against the wall and fucked her over and over.
We were well pleased. I had used the S-Gen machine in the corner of the room to request a vibrant green Atlan-style gown for Quinn. Once I’d shown her how to scan her body proportions and use the controls, she had quickly figured out how to order anything and everything imaginable. Items for her hair. Strange brushes and other lotions and colorants to put on her face. She had created a pair of green shoes, with the sexy-as-fuck high heels, to go with the dress. I would never look at those sharp points as anything but weapons again. Fierce pride coursed through me as I remembered how she’d attacked Lukabo with them.
Dressed and adorned, she looked like a beautiful, ethereal goddess. My goddess. The mating cuffs on her wrists gave me no small amount of satisfaction. I had never been so content. Not when I destroyed Hive outposts or took down entire criminal factions. Once I’d torn apart a shuttle with my bare hands to reach the scum inside. That had been satisfying in the extreme.
But this? Quinn? This was my heart and soul and life no longer empty. She had filled a chasm within me that I had not been aware of until she stepped into the space.
If anything ever happened to her, I would wreak havoc on man and beast, and then I would follow her into the next life. I knew how close I’d come to losing her, how time had been on my side to keep her from Cerberus. I owed much to Warden Egara. I hadn’t even considered my past and the enemy list that had grown long when Quinn had disappeared. I’d been an idiot, and I would somehow get past that weakness.
There was no life for me without her in it. Not anymore.
My beast agreed. We’d been fighting and alone for long enough. Become too hardened and focused on the wrong things.
“What are you staring at? You’re supposed to be eating.” Quinn was on my lap. I sat on the couch with her body tucked snuggly into mine. She held an oddly shaped oval fruit against my lips.
“What is this?”
“It’s called a grape,” she replied. “They’re good.”
“You taste better.” I leaned down and kissed her, my cock hardening again when she wrapped her hands around my neck, stemmed grapes and all, and kissed me back like I was her air.
She was mine.
“Bahre. Seriously?” She gasped, squirming and feeling my thick length. “It’s only been an hour. I just finished getting dressed. You made me this pretty dress.”
“You look exqu
isite, mate. However I like you bare best.” I stroked a finger down her soft cheek. “How can you blame me for wanting you again?”
My words pleased her. I knew by the soft pink flush of her cheeks. “Behave. For five minutes.”
I smiled but my beast was enjoying being able to play. He took over, growing large, muscles expanding as Quinn’s eyes widened. Her scent was different now. Just as sweet as the first whiff I’d followed down to her news program. She was aroused, but the musk of our claiming only enhanced her smell. My beast recognized it. Craved it. “Bahre. I said, behave.”
“Mine.” The deep voice that answered her belonged to my beast.
“You are so naughty.” She chastised me, but she set the grapes aside. Turning, she settled herself facing me, knees at my hips. “Okay, but this time, I’m leaving my shoes on.”
“Fuck.” My beast agreed, the idea of her naked except for those delicate weapons eliciting a deep growl. She lifted her lips to mine and claimed me for her own. This was heaven, pure and simple.
Until a loud pounding noise came from the door.
Quinn froze and I felt her tense in my arms. It would take time to ease her of her fear. To get her to know that when she was with me, in my arms, no harm would come to her.
“You. Safe.” My beast reassured her at once, and she kissed me lightly on the lips before removing herself from my lap. She took a seat on the chair across from me, which I did not like one bit. Thankfully I had yet to rip the dress from her body. No one would see her bare but me.
I clenched my jaw, eyed the closed door. I would open it, find out who was foolish enough to interrupt us, and resume our much more pleasant activities.
Irritation building, I ditched the lounging pants and donned my armor with years of practiced speed.
The comm buzzed as I put the last piece in place.
“Bahre. Open the fucking door.”
Helion. That fucking bastard. What was he doing here? He’d offered me the suite. Made the deal that I would be able to keep her safe and away from the plan to capture Cerberus. I took a deep breath, willed my beast back.
Beauty and the Beast: Interstellar Brides® Program: The Beasts - 3 Page 10
