The Warlord

by Gena Showalter

  She understood his astonishment. Though she’d never witnessed a turning firsthand, she’d read varying accounts from those who had. Erebus ingested some or half or most of the other person’s soul, then used his fangs to inject a special death toxin into their vein; what remained of their soul supposedly rotted out of their body, leaving a husk capable of mighty feats, controlled by he who carried what remained of the soul.

  Rather than supply an answer to Roc, Taliyah asked another question. “What makes you hate Erebus so much? What has he done to you guys?”

  “Many things,” he said, sounding distracted.

  She glanced at him over her shoulder, intending to chide him. When she caught him rubbing the bare spot over his heart, she stayed quiet. She’d clocked this action before. A tell of some kind. One linked to a specific memory, judging by the tightening of his features.

  “Such as?” she finally prompted, reaching for the soap dispenser. Yes, she’d already soaped up. As long as she washed, she had an excuse to prolong the conversation and learn more about her ruthless companion before he changed his mind. “Pro tip and subtle hint—girls like examples.”

  He sighed before admitting, “He turned several Astra into phantoms, forcing us to murder our own.”

  Ouch. “That’s tough. I’m sorry,” she said, and she meant it. Losing fellow soldiers sucked, but it sucked more when you had to oversee the deed.

  He bowed up, as if to accuse her of more trickery, then settled down and nodded. “Yes. It was tough.”

  “You know I had nothing to do with any of that, right?” she asked, just in case he needed a reminder.

  “I know. In that, you are innocent. I...” His voice trailed off, and he gulped, watching as suds sluiced between her breasts. His pupils contracted, glittering like dying stars.

  Layer by layer, his calm veneer stripped away, revealing a harsher, rawer, expression. He exuded such intense heat, she trembled.

  He sat up straighter, his heels remaining planted on the floor, his hands white-knuckling his knees. Had he grown even harder?

  She gulped. Ribbons of thicker steam curled around him, turning him, this moment, into a midnight reverie. Had he ever looked sexier? Water darkened his hair, droplets clinging to his lashes and beard.

  When he rubbed his palms together, she suspected he’d produced more stardust—and she wanted it. As his gravita, she deserved every speck. Not real? Try again, Astra.

  “I want to do bad things to you.” The gruffness of his voice made everything better and worse.

  She’d thought to curtail this part of their...relationship. His mid-and post-coital glow sucked. But, as she breathed him in, she couldn’t stop herself from rasping, “Yes.”

  He required no other permission. He lunged for her, clamping her waist, then settling in his seat, pulling Taliyah between his legs. The firmness of his grip suggested the Big Bad Wolf had his Red Riding Hood at long last, and he wouldn’t be letting her go anytime soon. But...he did nothing else. He simply held her in place as tension thrummed from him anew.

  Trying to talk himself out of this? Too bad. What he started, he finished. Commanders weren’t quitters.

  Taliyah suspected she knew a way past his defenses. A risky gamble. Dangerous, even. If it backfired...

  Whatever. She was going to attempt it anyway. Though Roc was Commander now, he’d once been a soldier, expected to obey the dictates of another. Hadn’t his own brother mentioned being his boss in the beginning? What if she told Roc what to do to her? Things he already wanted to do?

  Had any other female dared? Probably not. Why would they? They’d held no sway over his emotions. But she did. Despite her origins.

  Taliyah placed one knee outside his lap, then the other, straddling him. Slooowly she sank down, gliding her wet sex over his. He uttered no protests. No, he tightened his grip, his gaze rapt on her lucky, lucky nipple piercing.

  Emboldened, she pinched his chin and forced his attention up. Again, he allowed her command of his body without protest. “I want your hands on my breasts. Touch me there.”

  He searched her gaze, anger clearly rising. But still he peeled his fingers from her waist and dragged his hands to her breasts. As commanded, he cupped and kneaded her. With his thumbs, he teased the piercing.

  Satisfaction beckoned, within her reach once more. This big, strong brute of a man had just acquiesced to a phantom’s command. How he must be castigating himself right now! And yet he never stopped kneading and teasing with a reverent touch.

  Did he secretly want her to take control?

  Such a heady thought. Something she planned to explore further.

  “That feels so good,” she said, offering praise. “You’re making me ache.” She gyrated against him and cried out. The pleasure! “Don’t stop.”

  “Won’t.” He kneaded her breasts with greater force. “Can’t.”

  “I’ll make you feel good, too.” She grazed the tip of her nose over the tip of his, about to claim his lips in a hungry kiss. His lips were parted for her, ready. At the last second, she rerouted and pressed her cheek against his. What if she couldn’t curb her hunger? Even though Roc possessed a block, preventing her from feeding, she might try. He would absolutely know, and he would absolutely rage.

  His hatred for phantoms spanned centuries. He’d known Taliyah for a matter of days. Maybe in time...

  Inner shake. She drew his earlobe between her teeth. “Put your biceps to good use, baby, and turn me around.” Lifting her face, she grazed the tip of his nose again. “Your gravita has a craving.”

  “Does she, then?” he asked, then growled. He popped his jaw, a telling sign. He’d realized she’d been issuing orders.

  In a flash of insight, Taliyah realized he’d never hand over the reins of control without a fight. He might enjoy her leadings, but he didn’t believe he must obey—yet. If she wanted control...and she did...she would have to wrest it from him.

  The thought of winning such a powerful man...did things to her.

  “Turn me around,” she repeated, rubbing against him, “so you can get your fingers in nice and deep.”

  He nipped at her bottom lip, roguish but fierce.

  “Turn me, and I’ll let you touch me anywhere you wish.” She let her voice drop. “However you wish...”

  With a snarl, he lifted and spun her. His chest seared her spine, his heartbeat suddenly thumping between her shoulder blades. Fast. Faster. He lightly gripped her throat, his arm draped over her chest. With her legs slung over his, her thighs remained parted.

  Wings flattened and of no use to her at the moment, she gripped the edges of his thighs. Cool, damp air teased her aching core as he drew his knees farther apart, forcing her legs to spread wider.

  “I’ll touch you anywhere I wish,” he rumbled into her ear, applying pressure to draw her head to the hollow of his shoulder.

  Goose bumps only he could rouse spread over her in seconds. “Touch me, then.”

  With his free hand, he palmed her breast, kneading it with more pressure than before.

  A moan escaped. No stopping it. Taliyah rocked her hips, grinding her backside against the white-hot, steel-hard length cradled there. His inhalations sharpened with every brush of contact.

  A snakeshifter wielding her charms, she asked, “Do you like touching me, Roc?”

  He didn’t try to deny it. “Yes.” A snarl. “You know I do.”

  She didn’t stop. Rocking, rocking. “You want more of me. You want me to make you come.”

  “Yesss,” he hissed, sliding the hand at her throat to her breast. He trapped the nipples between his knuckles and tugged and gently twisted.

  She swallowed a cry born from razor-sharp pleasure. “Put your fingers inside me,” she commanded, unable to filter out her neediness, “or I stop moving.” Could she stop? Roll. Roll... She must. Stop.


  Taliyah could do anything she needed to do. She always got the job done.

  He hissed once again before running her earlobe between his teeth, sending shafts of greater arousal careening through her. His cheek pressed against hers. “Still trying to manipulate me, harpy? You want control, and you seek to drive me mad to get it. But I can wait you out. Move your body against mine, like before, or I won’t give you my fingers.” He traced his fingertips down her belly. “Do it, and I’ll sink them deeper than before.”

  “Put your fingers inside me,” she repeated, nearly choking on her need. Not enough. More, more. “I’ll make you come so hard.”

  “Move against me, and I’ll ensure you come first.” He combed through her tuft of curls and tapped her clit, making her gasp.

  More! No, no. Must. Resist. Never accept a picture of defeat. “Put your fingers inside me,” she croaked, reaching up and behind to grip his hair. The new position thrust her breasts forward.

  “I want your fingers. I need them. Mmm. You’ll stretch me so good. I’ll moan so loud. All my aches will go away.” She scraped her nails over his scalp. “Make my aches go away, baby...or I’ll do it myself. Do you want to watch me? Hmm?”

  “Your pleasure is mine!” He thrust two fingers into her, robbing her of breath, of thought. “Can’t get enough of you,” he confessed against her flesh. His husky voice vibrated through her bones, raising new goose bumps on her limbs. As he thrust his fingers in and out, he stroked her little bundle of nerves with his thumb.

  Her inner walls clenched to hold him inside. She moved with him, chasing her orgasm. “Already so close.”

  When he stopped and withdrew his fingers from her, Taliyah nearly threw fists of fury. He’d given her a taste, then taken her drug away. Payback was going to suck for him. Except, his power play never came.

  He ran his tongue up both fingers, his eyes closing. “The sweetness of you.” The noise he released then...unfathomable need. He dropped his chin to her shoulder, telling her, “I want more—straight from the tap. Give it to me.”

  His voice had changed. He sounded like a man possessed.

  “Yes,” she rasped.

  The next thing she knew, they were standing. Once again, she faced him. He towered over her, panting. Strain etched each of his features. He looked harsh and battle-ready, his muscles like rocks.

  “If you want more,” she told him, noting her voice had changed, as well, “get on your knees and take it.”

  Their gazes clashed.

  “You wish me to kneel before you.” He gritted out the words.

  “No,” she said, and he flinched with disappointment because he wanted to kneel. He could have flashed her flat on her back in bed. He hadn’t. He’d flashed her to her feet. “I expect you to kneel before me.”

  Would he do it?

  She lifted her chin, adding, “You’ll get what you want no other way.”

  A single minute stretched into eternity. His breaths grew more laborious. Then...

  Inch by agonizing inch, he lowered to his knees, settling between her parted thighs. She gaped down at him, astonished, amazed, baffled, confident, vulnerable, unsure, dazed and so aroused she wondered if she might be forever altered.

  He licked his lips. Awaiting permission?

  “Do it,” she commanded.

  24

  Roc dragged his tongue through his wife’s honey, rapturous. The taste of this woman! Nothing compared to her. She was a wonder without equal, and he feared he might crave this—her—for years, decades...centuries to come.

  A fear he would dissect and destroy later. For now, he wished only to enjoy. He was Commander of the Astra Planeta, and if he wanted to bed his phantom, he would bed his phantom.

  He had earned the right.

  As he feasted, greedy for every drop of arousal she ceded, he ran his hands up her legs...higher, squeezing and kneading firm muscle. Every soft mewl and ragged moan made him burn hotter.

  She writhed against his mouth, so sexy he feared he would come far too soon. Must savor.

  He wouldn’t be satisfied until she’d fallen apart in his arms. Licking... Laving... Addicted.

  Hadn’t she once promised to maneuver him to this point? To make him mad with desires he couldn’t control? Where everyone else had failed, she had succeeded. In record time. But soon she would realize her victory came with a cost.

  For the rest of the month, Roc intended to glut himself on her. Whatever happened with Erebus, whatever happened with the sacrifice, Roc would have her. To the best of his ability, he would endeavor to forget her origins. For the rest of the month, he would allow pleasure to matter more than duty. He wouldn’t steal her virginity, but he would take her in every other way.

  His control frayed when she pricked the tips of her claws into his scalp. A silent command to pleasure her faster. How could he not oblige her? She was his greatest temptation. His temporary queen of passion and ice. A symbol of unbreakable strength and power. And his. Even now, his palms sizzled with stardust.

  He struggled to convince himself of the truth...of the lie. He was beginning to suspect the stardust was...real. What if his gravita was a phantom?

  “Yes! Right there,” she praised. “Just like that.”

  Releasing a sound of animalistic aggression, he tongued on her swollen clit. As she rocked against his face, he gripped the backs of her knees and forced her legs wider. He plunged two fingers into the tight clasp of her feminine sheath.

  A broken cry left her, her body bowing. Roc luxuriated in her sweetness. In every new sound and sight. Her breasts were thrust forward, her nipples tight little buds. His heat painted her damp flesh with a rosy undertone.

  She was the picture of carnality, her image forever burned into his memory and the measure with which he judged every other.

  For a reward such as this, he would willingly go to his knees every day for the rest of etern—The next twenty-seven days. Only twenty-seven days before the ceremony and life returned to normal. The blessing. Their predetermined outcome. He wouldn’t...pine for his phantom gravita. Not for a phantom, period.

  Taliyah pressed her claws deeper and applied pressure, forcing his face to angle upward. Those ocean-water blues glittered down at him.

  I might pine for a phantom gravita.

  “Am I interrupting reflection hour?” she asked with a dry tone. “Should I leave you alone with your thoughts?”

  Leave him with this throbbing erection? No! Gaze tangled up with hers, he dragged his tongue up her sex once again and plunged two fingers into her opening.

  As a cry of surrender left her, thoughts fled. Pleasure awaited.

  Roc set in, a man dominated by need, swiftly losing himself in the act.

  “It’s good, baby. It’s so good,” she gasped out. “I’m so close. Don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop.”

  Never. He scissored his fingers, stretching her, and Taliyah screamed, a climax ripping through her. Those slick inner walls clenched and unclenched, tension dissipating from her body. Satisfaction pulsed from her.

  He wanted more...more. Refusing to relinquish his prize, he continued tonguing her even as he wrapped a hand around his length and stroked up. Passion boiled in his blood, her pleasure his fuel. His cells buzzed with life. Pressure built. Pressure so sharp it shredded any remaining threads of his control. His testicles drew up, his seed at the ready.

  Taliyah shocked him. She gripped his hair and drew him to his feet. He let her, offering no resistance. What did she plan to do?

  When she gripped the base of his shaft, he couldn’t stop the escape of his next word. “Please.”

  Heartbeat...heartbeat... A moment suspended by anticipation...

  Would she do it?

  Their gazes met in a haze of sultry awareness and...she stroked him. A hoarse shout burst from him. He coiled his arms around her
, gathering her hair, fisting the strands. “Nice and tight, Taya.”

  She stroked again and again, her grip unyielding, and nothing else mattered. This pleasure. This woman. The feminine power she exerted so easily as she pumped his length... She enjoyed driving him to the brink.

  Had he ever experienced such pleasure from another’s touch? Curses bubbled up. Thoughts burned away. Muscles bunched. This...this... He was going to—

  She stopped, and Roc grunted.

  He planted his palms against the stall walls behind her, caging her in. Voice rougher than sandpaper, he snarled, “Woman?”

  The hottest, coldest seductress looked at him through a thick shield of lashes. Her pupils were the size of dimes, her irises glazed. Enveloped by steam, appearing both satisfied and hungry, she was his wildest fantasy come to stunning life.

  “I just want you to know...” She grazed her thumb over his slit, collecting a bead of moisture. Moisture she sucked into her mouth, her eyelids hooding. “I like your taste, too.”

  His chest heaved, things inside him cracking. “Finish me,” he commanded. A prophetic statement? Did this woman mark his end?

  When she pumped him harder, faster, he couldn’t bring himself to care. He fed a finger into her mouth, undone as she sucked. His mind wiped clean. Anything he’d hoped to say got lost as he panted. The rightness of this. Of having Taliyah attend to him, after being attended to by him. He was...he was... Yes, yes!

  “Just like that, Taya. That’s the way.”

  Pumping up and down. Sucking. Pumping and sucking. Biting. Roc existed in a world of pure sensation, his blood like fire, his every nerve ending humming a siren’s song. He hovered between utter bliss and torturous hell. The two remained at war, locked in a final battle to the death.

  He rocked his hips in time to her strokes, pressure continuing to build. Too much... He pulled his fingers from her mouth and slapped his palm against the wall. Rocked. A wonderful madness took hold. If Erebus himself had dared to ghost into the stall, Roc wasn’t sure he’d galvanize the will to fight. Nothing mattered but release.