Dark Obsession

by Aja James

  It was like cutting off the Hydra’s head only to find two more had grown in its place.

  Noticing his frown and wanting to ease it, Ariel rolled onto her stomach and undulated her tail from side to side.

  Then, in the blink of an eye, she shifted into her human form, lying on her belly with her hands propping up her chin, her legs bent at the knees, ankles crossed behind her.

  “Now can we forget Medusa and her minions for a few hours and fuck each other senseless before we convene to debrief with the rest of the Chosen?”

  She eyed his sex and licked her lips.

  “I think you need a good, hard sucking to get warmed up. It’s what my mouth is made for.”

  He stared at her a moment, amusement and passion igniting his eyes. Then, he came over to stand at the edge of the bed and shoved that beautiful cock right into her face.

  “Then put your mouth where it belongs, female,” he growled low, grabbing a fistful of her choppy short hair.

  “Ooohhh,” she hummed, “I love it when you go all beastly on me.”

  Without further ado, she locked her lips in a tight, wet suction around his glans and began to eat his cock like a starving animal.

  Which was actually the truth.

  She was an animal, and she was starving for her Mate.

  “Easy,” he grunted, when, within minutes, he was dangerously close to his limit, about to release a flood down her throat.

  Let go, she communicated, staring up at him with those golden green eyes. Let go and come. I want your cream to fill my mouth, I want it thick in my throat. I want you to come so hard, for so long, that you fill all my senses with your essence, until I always taste you on my tongue, until you infuse every particle of the air I breathe.

  Dark Goddess! The things she said and did to him!

  Maximus bared his teeth and picked up the pace, shoving himself harder and deeper and faster into her throat.

  Her eyes teared as he made her gag, as he fucked her throat raw, but her lips curved in a triumphant smile around his cock.

  Because he was about to lose it.

  He was about to go wild.

  And she was the only one who could do this to him.

  He drew tight as a bow and arched his back as he thrust one last time, and released on a hoarse shout the flood she’d worked so hard for, until his seed overflowed her mouth, dripping down her chin and neck.

  Still she sucked him, swallowed and devoured some more.

  He was raw too, from the relentless pressure of her mouth, the possessive scrapes from her teeth, the tight squeeze of her hands.

  When he was reduced to mindless tingling flesh, gusty breaths and deafening heartbeats, she released some of the pressure around his well-used cock and vibrated with a full-bodied purr, lapping up the juices on his lower stomach, inner thighs, and back to the still tumid column of his sex.

  Taste soooo gooood, she purred and shivered with pleasure. I want more. Give me more.

  Enough.

  He pulled away and flipped her onto her stomach, reversing her direction in a move so fast, she barely had time to gasp before he thrust into her from behind.

  “Uhn,” was all she was able to get out before her body zeroed in on nothing else but the stroke of his hard cock insider of her.

  He blanketed her back with his hot, muscled chest, the fine hairs covering his pecs abrading her skin in the most delicious way.

  She raised her ass and arched her back to help him punch deeper, so that she could feel every inch of his satiny flesh tunneling into her, stretching her until it hurt, and then even more until the hurt became pleasure, and pleasure built into euphoria.

  Until she was coming so hard she would have shaken loose of her bones if he hadn’t grounded her with his weight, anchored her with the unyielding brace of his arms and the lock of his mouth on the nape of her neck.

  And as she came, he sank his fangs into her, gorging on her blood while her pussy devoured his cock, pulling and clenching and demanding the Nourishment of his seed.

  He gave it to her. He always would.

  His body was hers and hers alone to command.

  When they finally scratched their itch, in the lull before the next wave of “feline in heat” neediness hit her, they lay tangled together face to face, still intimately joined, staring in wordless wonder into each other’s eyes.

  “My beautiful Dark obsession,” Ariel murmured, caressing his sharp cheekbone and laser-cut jaw.

  “My gladness and joy,” he answered low, smoothing his large, calloused hand up and down her naked back.

  “And pain in the ass,” he teased and squeezed her posterior with emphasis.

  She grinned a brilliant, feral grin.

  “Thank you for igniting my soul, Mad Max.”

  He brushed her mouth in a light, chaste kiss that nevertheless communicated the depth of his love.

  “Thank you for setting me free, Ariel Kyles.”

  Not to be outdone, she took his mouth in a much more carnal expression of her love for him.

  One thing led to another, and they didn’t come back up for air until they’d spent another hour loving the bejesus out of each other.

  Debriefing would have to wait. They weren’t getting out of their chambers for at least another twenty-four hours.

  But there was only so long they could put off the reality of the ongoing war with Medusa.

  “Have you heard from Luka, Roark and Goya?” Ariel asked when they settled into a cuddle to recharge for a bit before the next bout of intense lovemaking.

  Maximus frowned again, and Ariel physically smoothed his brow with her massaging fingers.

  She couldn’t massage away his worry, however.

  “No, I have not,” he growled. “Not from Goya anyway. Luka and Roark reported that they’d reached the Catskills safely and had found a safe temporary shelter for all of the animals. But they haven’t heard from Goya either. He’d held off a squadron led by the turned Paladin so that Roark and Luka could escape with the rest of the animals.”

  Ariel raised up on one elbow in alarm, now just as worried as he was.

  “Is Goya injured? Captured? Is he—”

  Maximus shook his head.

  “I don’t know. I just know that he’s alive. I can sense him in my blood.”

  “He’s alive,” Maximus repeated fiercely, as if he was coaching himself to focus on that fact, not to extrapolate to worst case scenarios.

  “But I don’t know where he is. I don’t know what happened. I should have stayed to make sure—”

  “Maximus, you can’t blame yourself; we didn’t know,” Ariel said, perhaps to convince herself of the same thing, because she also wished they’d stayed together longer, with twenty-twenty hindsight.

  She hugged him tightly with all of her body, clenching her core around the maleness of him as well, reminding him of their Bond in the most physically intimate way.

  “Whatever may come, we will face it together,” she vowed with determination.

  He looked into her eyes and realized the truth of it.

  After two millennia of being alive, he was finally no longer alone. And Dark Goddess willing, he never will be again.

  They would always have each other.

  “Yes,” he rumbled in his deep, husky voice and touched his forehead to hers, closing his eyes.

  “My Mate. My love.”

  “We will conquer it all together.”

  Epilogue

  My back healed more slowly than it should have, even with the superhuman abilities of my Pure One skin.

  Perhaps I am getting too old. I am down to my last life, after all.

  My last skin.

  Or perhaps the claws of an animal spirit inflict more lasting damage than other weapons, both natural and invented by man.

  This is why I need to study them in depth. But my research is destroyed; my animal experiments, along with the animal spirits themselves, gone.

  At least I still have my ot
her facilities in Boston and D.C. I’ve saved some samples in those locations, but I don’t deceive myself. I have decades’ worth of work to make up for.

  This teaches me to heed my instincts and stick to the plan. It was an unbelievably stupid mistake to make after millennia of existing.

  Surviving.

  Living on my wits alone.

  When I get Ariel Kyles back in my possession, I’ll be sure to dissect her first to see what possessed her to override her program. It’s inconceivable.

  This means that the other members of Medusa’s mind-controlled army who weren’t turned the old fashioned way by Medusa herself can also potentially overcome their programming.

  I think I’ll keep this little tidbit to myself for a while until I can figure out a solution. A more effective serum.

  Wouldn’t want Medusa to flay me alive in a fit of rage if she should find out.

  She’s so unpredictable these days.

  Unstable.

  If I didn’t know better, I might even call her unhinged.

  I’ll have to increase her dosage as well.

  But the first priority has to be finding the Tiger King.

  The discovery of Circe’s journals was what led me to him. What made me realize the primordial power he holds within him.

  He may be the only Beast left in this world. And if so, the only one who holds the answers to so many questions.

  He is older than Medusa, older than me. Older, perhaps, than Queen Ashlu as well. Which puts him at over seven millennia. He might even have been companion to the Goddesses themselves.

  I need to know.

  I need to find him before anyone else does.

  Perhaps it was the prolonged submersion in the river, but the GPS in the insert the Paladin shot him with is malfunctioning. Our tech expert is trying to resolve the situation remotely, but if it’s a hardware issue, there’s not much he can do.

  The Tiger King is a needle in a haystack now. All traces of him erased from our radar.

  But I have no doubt we will find a way to track him down.

  After all, he cannot speak, he cannot read or write or in any way communicate to his own Kind or others. He is in a weakling human form.

  Vulnerable. Powerless.

  He has distinctive looks and stature that he can’t disguise.

  It’s only a matter of time before some stupid human reveals his location or we narrow down and triangulate his whereabouts on the description of him alone.

  I am very patient.

  All good things come to those who wait.

  And when I find him, I will take his powers and make them mine.

  Other Books in the Pure/ Dark Ones series:

  Book 1, Pure Healing

  Book 2, Dark Longing

  Book 3, Dark Desires

  Book 4, Dark Pleasures

  Book 5, Pure Rapture

  Book 6, Dark Redemption

  Book 6.5, Pure Awakening

  Book 7, Pure Ecstasy

  Excerpt from Book 2, Dark Longing

  *** *** *** ***

  Gabriel slid into the studio soundlessly just as the first rays of dawn filtered through the crack in the window drapes.

  Benji slept peacefully in the bed, his breathing even and deep, a small warm mound under the covers topped by unruly pale blond curls.

  Gabriel paused over his son’s innocent form and gently smoothed a thumb down one plump cheek.

  Though he was solidly into his boyhood, Benji retained the cherubic sweetness of his toddler days. Perhaps it was the riotous blond curls. Perhaps the rosy cheeks and mouth. Just looking upon his little angel made Gabriel smile, though it was followed almost immediately by a grimace as his split lip split even deeper.

  He straightened and, in one smooth motion, pulled the bloodied hoodie over his head, shucking his torn joggers a second later, and made his way, naked, to the tiny bathroom with an even tinier shower stall.

  At least the water pressure in the apartment was blessedly strong.

  As the blast of hot water drenched him from head to toe, Gabriel closed his eyes and raised his face into the cleansing deluge.

  After two gruesome hours in Hell’s belly, and six matches later, he was ten grand richer. Enough to pay off three months of over-due rent, which Mrs. Sergeyev had been kind enough to forgive thus far without interest or eviction, plus one month advance, as well as Olivia’s hospice bills. He even had a nice little cushion left over for food and emergencies.

  And all it took was three bruised ribs, bloody knuckles, a few nasty scratches, a split lip and let’s not forget—beating six men into unconscious putty with his bare hands and feet.

  His shifu would be appalled.

  Gabriel clenched his jaw.

  He did what he had to do. He would do everything in his power to protect those he loved. As long as he could live with his conscience afterwards.

  He’d made sure those men were merely unconscious, a few broken bones and concussions, perhaps, but no debilitating injuries for the long term. They would recover quickly enough to fight another day.

  In truth, it didn’t have to take as long as it did to dispatch his opponents. A few well-placed jabs and kicks would have knocked them out faster. But he needed to play to the spectators. He had to look like he was struggling, on the verge of losing for a while so that the bets were stacked against him, so that his winnings in the end would be that much greater.

  Dragging a fight out to look like he was weaker, taking hits without taking proportional damage, was a tricky tightrope Gabriel had to balance upon. He wondered whether he should have allowed a black eye or two and a bloodied nose to appeal more to the audience’s bloodlust. But he had to weigh that against the blood and swollen flesh disorienting his vision, which would have made the fights more dangerous, less predictable.

  He couldn’t afford to lose his matches.

  Absent-mindedly, Gabriel ran the bar of Dial soap over his bruised skin and aching muscles, diligently ignoring his cock stand as he quickly scrubbed the coarse hair around and the heavy sacs beneath. He must be still too pumped full of adrenaline from the fights, he reasoned, his body was simply reacting to the testosterone overload.

  Never mind that it had been a long, long time since he’d had an erection this hard, this insistent.

  Maybe never.

  Twenty-six year-old male virgins in today’s society were as rare as dragons. Probably even more mythical.

  Married virgins were likely nonexistent.

  Gabriel didn’t choose this path intentionally; it simply was.

  His boyhood upbringing by the Shaolin monks on Song Mountain in Henan Province, China, after his missionary parents had died in the Great Earthquake, taught him abstinence, self-control and discipline. Since his grandparents found him and brought him back to the States to live with them, he’d only ever felt a deep connection to one girl.

  Olivia.

  And despite that she never truly reciprocated his feelings, not even in the end, he’d been intensely faithful. He’d never so much as sought release by his own hand since Olivia’s illness. There was something inherently wrong with him seeking his own pleasure while his wife was wasting away in pain.

  It was as if the carnal side of his nature had never truly awakened.

  Now he looked upon the jutting staff as if it were separate from his body, something of an oddity, something he didn’t know quite what to do with.

  Of its own volition, one large, long-fingered hand smoothed down his pecs to his tight abdomen, stopping near his navel, where the head of his engorged member bobbed insistently. He stared at it for long moments before carefully, loosely cradling the steely length within his wide palm.

  He gasped at the startling sensation, and his penis jumped in reaction. Mind blank of coherent thoughts, eyes closed against the shower that had long since turned cold, Gabriel wrapped his hand tighter around the hot, velvety column, testing himself with a gentle squeeze.

  And groaned deeply in resp
onse, the shocks of pleasure shooting through his body like lightning rods, making him physically stagger off balance.

  Leaning his back against the stall wall, his long, muscular legs braced apart, slightly bent at the knees, he pushed himself further with a few tentative fist pumps.

  But it was too much.

  He felt too much.

  His chest heaving with shortened breath, his jaw clenched tightly against the animalistic sounds that threatened to escape, his penis throbbing, his testicles hurting, Gabriel stood helpless as his long-revered control began to unwind like the fibers of a rope stretched too taut.

  Until finally it snapped.

  On a sharp intake of breath, Gabriel’s eyes flew open.

  Someone was watching him.

  Dear reader:

  Thank you for reading Dark Obsession. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

  Please be sure to leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads and any other social book sharing site of your choice (a short one sentence of what you enjoyed about it will do, but feel free to expound!) I read every single one of my reader's reviews, and I endeavor to take your feedback to heart as I continue developing the series.

  Would you like to join my trusted reader list? Read my next book before it publishes for Free! All you have to do is Mail to Aja James (megami771@yahoo.com), and I’ll add you to the list of readers who are notified about upcoming books, excerpts, giveaways and promotions! And if you have burning questions about the Pure/ Dark Ones series, well, I just might answer them :)

  Give me a shout! And happy reading!

  Aja James

  Glossary of Characters

  Alend Ramses: The reigning Dark King of the New England vampire hive, formerly one of the Chosen. Gift(s): unknown. Weapon of choice: scimitar.

  The Chosen: The Dark King’s personal guards and advisors.

  Maximus Justus Copernicus: The Commander. Leader of the Chosen. Known Gift(s): ability to transform into a giant white tiger.