“My job is at the Academy. I run the place. I will not quit.”
I heard his heavy footsteps, knew he was now on the hunt. For me.
It was like Hide and Seek and he’d given me a count of one hundred before he started his search.
“I can live anywhere, female. Anywhere you are.”
His words pleased me and a smile came to my face without permission. Damn him for being so charming. I came to an intersection of two corridors. I went left. My pace quickened. “Stop trying to charm me, Hunter.”
“I saw your hard nipples. I know you are aroused. Run, mate. Hide. I will find you.”
The testing came back to me and I imagined I was in a forest, the wind in my hair, my body on fire as the male I needed got closer and closer. As he caught me, whipped me around, filled me with his…
I whimpered. Quinn laughed.
That sound had me pushing on. He might be able to track me, but I wasn’t going to make it easy. Two Prillon warriors came out of a room and I slid in past them, the door closing behind me. I looked around. Mechanicals of some kind. The room was lit by a blue glow, the rows of components covered everything from floor to ceiling. It reminded me of a library—the non-fiction section. Here, there were no books, but units of data storage that made the battleship run. A forest of machines.
At first glance, this was nothing like the testing dream, the one where the female was chased through the forest. But in every way that mattered, it was identical. She’d enjoyed the pursuit, reveled in it. Had wanted to be caught.
Did I?
Shit. I knew the answer. Yes. Yes, I did.
He knew it, too.
“Do you know what I’m going to do to you when I find you?” Quinn asked, his steps even. He wasn’t rushing, but taking his time and enjoying this. The taunt. The play.
I licked my lips. I wanted to know.
“I’m going to watch your face as I open the front of your uniform shirt. As my fingers brush over the swells of your breasts. Hear the pace of your heartrate increase. Ah, mate, I hear it now.”
I took a deep breath, let it out. Tried to calm my heart, which had started to race. It seemed I liked dirty talk, and he wasn’t even in the room. God, what was I going to turn into when he was before me?
Oh, yeah, a pile of goo.
“I can scent your arousal from here. With each step closer, you get wetter.”
I did.
The almost-silent slide of the room’s door had me sucking in a breath. Holding it.
He was here.
“Mate,” he said. This time, the voice was from the far side of the room. “Breathe.”
I exhaled.
“Good girl.”
I should have been pissed off by the endearment, but I wasn’t. It was… reassuring. Gentle. I actually liked the praise.
What was wrong with me?
Oh, yeah. I no longer had control of my pussy.
And there he was. He stepped to the end of the row of components, set his hands on his hips and looked at me. Studied me. Waited.
So big. So… male. I could smell him. Pine forest and dark male. I had no idea why I thought that. I felt like a silly commercial for men’s cologne on Earth. There was no dark male scent. But there was, and Quinn had it.
“You should find your marked mate,” I told him.
He shook his head, but otherwise didn’t move. “We are matched. You are mine.”
“I’m not.”
He laughed then. “Not yet.”
“I’m a vice admiral. I wear the pants in this relationship.”
I watched as his gaze dropped to my legs. I held still all the while I wanted to squirm.
“You state the obvious. I see you in pants.”
I rolled my eyes. The Earth slang had been lost on him.
“I won’t let you control me,” I said next, hoping to clarify.
“Yes, you will,” he countered so confidently. He crooked a finger at me, beckoning me to him.
I remained still and stared. I had no exit, not without taking him out in the process. I didn’t want that. I wanted to climb him like a horny monkey.
He didn’t do anything but continue to curl that finger to beckon me.
As if he were tugging a string, I stepped toward him.
The look on his face didn’t change. He didn’t gloat. He didn’t laugh. He just wanted me in front of him.
And so my pussy-led body went where it wanted to go. To him.
His Hunter’s arm moved so quickly, I didn’t even gasp. It was banded about my waist, and I felt every hard inch of him pressing into me. His head lowered and he kissed me.
I wasn’t startled. I knew it was coming. I was no dummy. I was just surprised. Not by being kissed. I was surprised by the kiss.
Holy hell.
Holy. Fucking. Hell.
Soft and gentle, not like I expected. His lips brushed mine, back and forth as if learning the feel of them. When he kissed the corner of my lips, his tongue flicked out. Licked that spot.
I gasped. He plundered. It went from mild to wild in a second. He wasn’t just kissing me, I was kissing him. My hands were tangled in his long hair, the silky strands wrapped around my fingers.
He tasted of mint and man, hot and delectable. I couldn’t get enough.
I wasn’t a virgin. I’d been with a few men. But being in charge of the Academy kept me at a distance from males. I couldn’t have a fling with a cadet. I wouldn’t have a fling with staff. The only time I’d gotten a space one-night-stand in was after an I.C. mission.
It had never felt like this. Never. And this was just a kiss.
My uniform shirt was open in a flash, and I felt the cool air on my skin before I realized he’d actually undone the fastenings.
He lifted his head. Stepped back far enough to look me over. My bra was plain white and simple. No lace. No satin. No peekaboo styling. And yet, the way he was looking at my breasts, it was as if I were in the fanciest, sheerest of lingerie.
“Take the shirt off.” It was a command.
My hands lifted to obey before I considered the bossy request.
It took a second to shrug the durable fabric off my shoulders and down my arms. It fell to the floor behind me.
He stepped toward me. I stepped back. He did it again and I retreated until I bumped into the far wall. His body pressed into mine, and I felt his hard length against my belly. I wasn’t the only one eager to take this to the next level. Our breaths mingled, my nipples bumped his chest with every inhale.
I held still as he undid my pants, pushed them over my hips along with my underwear. His fingers found my center.
I gasped, then moaned.
“Mate,” he growled. Lifting his fingers, I could see my glossy arousal on them and I watched as he licked them clean.
My needy scent filled the air. All noise, all sounds fell away except what was in this empty room and between us.
He spun me about and my hands went to the cool wall to brace myself. Stepping into me, he bent his knees, stroked his pant-covered cock over my pussy and the cleft of my ass.
I had no purchase on the wall, nothing to grip or hold on to. And that prompted me to my control, which I’d left on the floor beside my uniform shirt.
Spinning back around to face him, I said, “I’m a vice admiral of the Coalition fleet.”
His jaw was clenched tight, the muscles in his neck taut. The hand on my hip was firm, but gentle. He would not hurt me.
Slowly, he shook his head. “Here, with me, you’re my mate. Nothing more. You might be in control out there.” He tipped his head to the side, in the direction of the room’s door. “With me, you submit.”
It was my turn to shake my head. “I don’t want that.”
His hand was back between my thighs, sliding over my swollen lips, dipping into my pussy once, which had me going up onto my toes, then away. He painted my essence on my lips. “You do. Taste.”
My tongue flicked out.
“Y
ou want this. Submit here. For me. Only me.”
He opened his pants, reached in and pulled out his cock. Oh crap. It was big. Long. Thick. Pre-cum beaded at the tip and he gripped the base, stroked it. “Only this.”
I whimpered. I never whimpered.
With his free hand, he spun me back about, my hands slapping the walls again. This time, I was the one who tipped my ass up, pushed it out.
I wanted that cock inside me. Needed it.
“Good. Just like that, mate.”
He didn’t wait. We’d only kissed. I was still wearing my bra. We were barely uncovered except the important parts. Yet the foreplay had begun the moment he woke from the ReGen pod in medical.
I was wet. I was eager. I wanted him.
He took me, filling me in one slow slide of his cock deep into my pussy. The hand on my hip tightened, held me still when I wanted to move away. He was big and he stretched me wide, filled me so much that it was almost too much.
He growled. Took me hard. Flesh slapped. Breaths got labored. The need grew. Bloomed. Exploded.
Then a hand came down on my ass, spanked me. Hard. I startled, clenched down on him.
“That’s for drugging me, mate. Forcing me into that ReGen pod.”
It was too much. This was too much. Taken, used as a male wanted. It was not an even exchange. He was taking me. Fucking me. Working his cock into me as he needed to seek his pleasure. Spanking me in punishment.
I came. I was the one who orgasmed. Who practically screamed with pleasure in a mechanical room of a battleship. Who clenched down on his hard cock because the spanking had actually been hot as fuck. My pussy gripped him so hard it made Quinn grunt, made him thrust one last time and come.
It was only when my head cleared enough to process thoughts that I realized he hadn’t used me. Not at all. He’d given me pleasure, assured that I’d come first. Only when I had been satisfied had he found his release.
He’d taken care of me when I’d been vulnerable.
Tears swelled in my eyes as he leaned his body into me, holding me in place against the wall in a full body press. He nibbled on my shoulders, his hands stroking up and down my curves with a gentleness I never could have imagined just a few moments ago. I felt like a glass doll, something breakable. Precious. Fragile.
Shit. There went the tears, scalding my cheeks as aftershocks of need jolted me on the inside, my pussy still swollen, achy. Full.
His caresses left me shattered and vulnerable, more than the chase or the fucking or the orgasm, because it was real. Gentle. Safe.
It felt like love, and fuck me if I knew what that was supposed to feel like. All I knew at the moment was that it hurt somewhere deep inside, somewhere deep and dark and buried. My chest hurt and my eyes were leaking. Leaking. These were not tears. Not. Tears.
“Gods you are beautiful, Niobe. Let’s find a bed. I want to do that again. And the next time, I’ll watch your face as you give yourself to me, as you submit.”
6
Quinn, Battleship Karter, Officer’s Quarters
* * *
“We need food,” I said, entering the guest quarters we’d been assigned. Karter had sent a comm with the location while we’d been… busy in engineering. The small private chamber was comprised of two rooms, a main room with a bed large enough for two Prillons and their mate—plenty large enough for what I had planned for Niobe—and a bathing room. A table and chairs and an S-Gen machine were everything else in the quarters. Besides the view of space provided by a window the length of the room, the room was basic, plain, but all I cared about was the locking door and the bed.
We would only be here for the five-plus hours remaining until Zan awoke. Once Zan was debriefed and battle plans were finalized, we would not be returning. We’d head directly from the meeting to transport and then to Latiri 4. After that… well, I’d be with Niobe. I knew that. Where we’d live had yet to be determined.
And now wasn’t the time for the conversation. Now was the time for touching. Learning one another. Making her mine.
I began to shed my new clothes, letting them fall to the floor. I wasn’t modest. Not with Niobe. My body belonged to her now. I would not hide it.
After I toed off my boots and began to peel my pants over my hips, I paused. She was still in the entry. Staring.
I grinned. “Like what you see? I hope so.”
“I thought you said we needed food,” she replied. Her voice was even. She sounded efficient, not curt.
I grinned. “We do. But if we only have a few hours, we’ll eat naked.”
Her mouth fell open. Good. I’d surprised her. She didn’t seem to be surprised by much of anything. She’d transported to meet a mate, but ended up at a Hive-controlled prison. She hadn’t panicked, had barely broken a sweat before singlehandedly saving six fighters—including me—with her skill and know-how regarding the transport system.
“I need a shower,” she said and walked right into the bathing room, eyeing my body the whole way. My cock hadn’t gone soft after claiming her in the engineering room. She’d barely seen it before I crammed her full. I wasn’t small. I had plenty to keep her happy.
“Come back out naked, mate.”
The door slid shut behind her and I chuckled, walking over to the the S-Gen machine. What would she like to eat? What were her favorites? I had no idea. I made a few selections, guessing as to what she might enjoy. I’d just set them on the small table when the door opened.
She came out wrapped in the bathing towel. Droplets of water fell from the long ends of her hair. I looked her over, from her small feet, shapely calves, toned thighs.
“Lose the towel, mate.”
She’d intentionally defied me, but I saw the wariness in her eyes. I was standing before her, bare and ready to fuck. I might have hunted her down and claimed her, but we were still strangers. The connection was there, but we were… new.
She lowered the towel until it was dangling from her fingers at her side.
“Fuck, mate. You’re lovely.”
Every pale inch of her was perfection. I’d seen most of her earlier, but now, the blind haze of need wasn’t blurring my vision. I stared at her defiant eyes, the tipped chin, her delicate shoulders, lush breasts with rosy-tipped nipples. Then my gaze moved lower over her curved waist, wide hips… and then fuck, the pussy that ruled my world.
I grabbed the towel from her fingers.
“Quinn,” she said, reaching for it, as if to cover herself.
I laid it over one of the chairs and sat down on top of the fabric. No way was she getting it back now, and I owed it to whomever stayed in these quarters next not to have my bare ass and balls directly on the chair.
Leaning forward, I took her hand, pulled her so she sat upon my lap. I groaned, the soft feel of her on my thighs… torture. Her drying hair was right there and I nuzzled into it, then kissed her neck, the curve of her shoulder.
“Eat,” I said, trying to remain focused on the task at hand, feeding her, caring for her, learning about her, instead of fucking. But it took every ounce of will I possessed not to lay her flat on the table and take her again. “We must eat.”
My words were truth. We’d be out on a mission soon. Going weak, hungry, would be stupid and irrational. Sleep deprived because we’d been busy fucking? Well, there were sacrifices I was not prepared to make… and those I were.
Reaching out, I grabbed a spoon and scooped up an Everian dish of seasoned meat and vegetables. Lifted it to her lips.
She opened her mouth and took what was offered, that delicate tongue flicking over the bottom of the spoon.
“Good?” I asked, watching her chew, then swallow.
She nodded. “I can feed myself, you know.”
“This is more fun.” I scooped some more of the dish, took a bite of my own. “You are Everian,” I stated. She’d told me so earlier.
“Half,” she replied, then took another bite.
“Human, I’m guessing.”
She nodded as she chewed.
“Did you transport directly from the Brides Testing Center on Earth?”
“No.”
I grabbed a piece of the green vegetable for myself.
With the skills she’d shown in the prison, I doubted she’d come from Earth. “Everis, then?” I fed her a bit of a savory tart. She frowned, then scrunched up her face as she chewed, then swallowed.
“Not good?”
“Not my favorite.”
“What is your favorite?” I asked.
She listed off a few Everian dishes, then leaned and reached for a piece of cut fruit. Lifting it with her fingers, she brought it to her mouth, but the sticky juices dripped onto her upturned breast.
“By the gods,” I whispered, watching the droplet slide down the curve and toward her nipple. Without thinking, I shifted to lick it up, then glanced up at her face.
She was watching me, her eyes now soft and a little hazy.
“Sweet,” I murmured, then took her nipple into my mouth.
“Quinn,” she said, her voice breathless.
“I know,” I groaned. I’d made it my mission to get to know her. To talk. Not fuck. I sat back up, turned her so I wasn’t tempted by her breasts. Only to be enticed by the feel of her ass against my cock, knowing if I shifted her a few inches I’d be deep inside her. “So, human, not from Earth. Not Everis. Explain.”
She laughed then, knowing I was close to the edge. “I grew up on Earth.”
“Didn’t you feel out of place?”
She stared at me. “How did you know that?”
I shrugged. “Humans are simple creatures. Far from advanced. They’re… fragile. I’d think you’d have been faster than your friends, even early on. You could probably hear better. See better. Hell, do everything better.”
She nodded once. “I could. I felt like a freak.”
I didn’t know what a freak was, but I guessed.
“When I was fourteen, a group of Hunters came to Earth on a mission. Heard about me. I broke records for running races through the school program.”
Ah.
“They came to see me and knew. The mark on my palm was the ultimate proof for them.” She grabbed another piece of fruit—which seemed to be her favorite of the foods on the table—and took a bite. “I wasn’t allowed to stay on Earth. No aliens allowed, especially ones who stood out. I had to go with them to Everis.”
Hunted Page 6
