by Jeya Jenson
He closed his eyes as she started to stroke his length, up and down, bringing him to full hardness. His breathing grew ragged. A tiny drop of semen leaked from its head, glistening in the firelight. His cock pulsed in her hand, warm and velvety to her touch. It was truly a magnificent length, all heat and velvet-encased steel. Dipping her head, she began to flick her tongue over the swollen head. Using the perfect pressure, she stroked his cock in a steady motion. She was eager to please him and her pink tongue flicked out of her mouth to touch the tip. The salty taste excited her, and she moaned softly, taking him inch by inch into her mouth, sucking ever so slowly to build his tension.
Ardan moaned, too, taking her head and guiding it lower. His breathing grew harsh, labored. His fingers delved into her tangled hair. Strange words tumbled from his lips as she pleasured him.
Dria kept rubbing his slick penis harder, giving him no respite. The friction on his erection grew heated.
“Give yourself to me,” he pleaded raggedly, pulling her body against his. “Let me take you as my own.” Teeth gritted, he gasped, struggling to bring his breathing back to a normal level.
Instinctively, she drew back, hesitating to offer herself fully. “I’ve never known a man before,” she whispered.
His hand cupped her face, stroking her cheekbone with his thumb. “I only want to please you and make you mine.” His erection pressed against her leg, allowing her to feel its hard demand. “I will not hurt you.” He shaped a nipple with his fingers. “You don’t have to die tomorrow. I seek a mate, and my word will see you spared.”
She sucked in a breath, reality returning with an unpleasant force. “You ask me to betray my god, deny the teachings I have known all my life.”
His thumb circled the pink aureole in a persuasive manner. The tip hardened under his touch, growing instantly erect.
“Have you never doubted the teachings of the Dragon?” He bent his head and began to trace the taut, straining peak with the tip of his tongue. “Give me a chance to show you the truth, to open your eyes where before you have been blind.”
Dria couldn’t help but be drawn back to the morning when she’d still been a captive in the cell beneath Xavier’s sanctuary. Though she had subjected herself willingly to confinement, others who shared the prison below ground had not. Even now, she could hear their voices, rising in the back of her mind.
“How do you know the truth when you have only known one life?” the words were repeated in her mind. “Can you make a correct choice when you have witnessed only one side? Your eyes will be opened if only you will listen.”
She made a sudden decision. “I want to see the truth,” she pleaded in a strangled voice. “Show me, please, so that I may understand.”
“I will show you many things,” he promised. “But for tonight, it will only be the pleasure between a man and a woman.”
He lowered his head and kissed her breast, circling his tongue closer to her thrusting nipple. When his mouth covered the nipple and suckled, she almost exploded from the pleasure. Against her sensitive peak, his tongue felt like warm satin, sucking gently then harder. After a moment, he moved to her other breast and slicked the tip of his tongue over it. He took it greedily, brazenly into his mouth, suckling hard.
Dria could feel the ache between her legs intensify; could feel herself grow slicker and wetter. He was touching her with hands that knew her body, and she had no defense against that. Her desire was as much of a bond, as much so as if he had tied her down.
Ardan began kissing his way over her rib cage and belly, his every touch bringing a new surge of excitement. Moving his body lower, he parted her legs. His fingers burrowed through the moist curls between her thighs to gently probe her tender bud. Her clit was intensely swollen, and she had to control herself from coming right on the spot as he began to probe her moist depths. She barely held back a whimper as he brushed his fingers through the moist silken folds. She thrust her hips upward, and he immediately leaned forward until her open pussy was pressed hard against his mouth. His tongue started to move in long strokes, tasting her sweetness as he slid it back and forth. He licked and nibbled at the pulsing button until it was hard and protruding.
Dria made a soft hungry sound when he slipped two fingers inside her. He began to finger her, faster and harder, his hand slapping against her dripping pussy. There was a little pain, but that soon passed. She bit her lip when her body started to tremble uncontrollably. A new and incredibly fierce pleasure shot through her surrendering body as her climax washed over her, an uncontrollable tide that swept her away. When it was over, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the soft furs, her bare breasts rising and falling. Ardan continued to rub her pussy until her body went limp.
“I need you,” she said in a raw whisper, breath rasping over dry lips. Even as he was preparing her body to receive him, she wondered how she would accommodate his size without suffering further agony. She had no desire to feel more pain in her nether regions.
But he was in no hurry to end the sweet torment. Rising to his knees, he took his penis in one hand and began to stroke it, bringing his fist up to the large purple head, then back down. The wanting, the needing was driving Dria wild, yet he was holding back, making her wait. His heavy-lidded eyes cast a spell on her even as they held hers captive.
His very control was nearly her undoing. She was almost willing to beg, plead even, to get him to take her entirely and make her his woman.
“I can’t take much more,” she gasped.
He shifted his body, and he moved over her, resting his weight on elbows and forearms, his hips between her parted legs, his pulsing cock resting against the soft nest of her belly. She could feel its length, its hardness. He lowered his mouth to hers, allowing her to taste the spicy musk of her juices. His kiss was like a possession, sweeping her up in its force. Again and again, his mouth captured hers, his tongue snaking between her lips. She took his kiss greedily.
“Please,” she demanded in a breathy voice. “I can’t wait any longer.”
Ardan’s mouth moved from hers to her cheek, then her jaw to her ear. He nipped at the soft base of her throat, tasting her.
“Should I make you beg for it?” he mused, his own voice shaking with need. He rubbed the tip of his cock against her swollen lips but did not allow himself to enter her.
“Claim me,” she whimpered. “I need you inside me.” Her hands were on his shoulders, her nails digging into his skin.
Immediately, he responded to it. Fully erect with arousal, he thrust forward, hard and fast, driving himself inside her. She cried out as his cock moved deep, stretching her. She moaned, feeling her pussy muscles clench his length.
“You’re so damn tight,” he breathed, chuckling in delight. He pulled back, holding her hips and moving his in a swift in-out motion. His eyes showed every emotion that he was feeling, and Dria knew the warrior was on fire with true passion. She could feel his cock pulsing. Her vaginal muscles clenched around it, making it harder for him to pull out of her depth. Her clit was swollen and poking between her lips and she could feel it rub against him. Her legs tightened around his waist. A tiny spark of sensation coiled through her, an ache she welcomed. The deeper he pushed, the more she could feel him throbbing inside her. A cry escaped her lips when he rammed his hips against hers, his erection slamming the walls of her vagina with incredible force.
“I have dreamt of this night, sweet one,” he murmured hoarsely in her ear. Eyes focused on her face, he watched her tilt her head back. One hand moved to her breast, squeezing, teasing the dusky nipple into an erect peak. His head dipped, and he began to tease the sensitive little tip, circling it with his tongue. He slowed his rhythm, pumping into her slowly, steadily, letting the tension between them build.
Dria shuddered violently, her lips pressed tightly together as she struggled to make the sensations last just a moment longer. Her hands came up, clasping the back of his head, her body arching in fierce response.
Gasping for air, the intensely musky smell of their sex filled Dria’s nostrils. Her hands clenched tightly at his back, dragging trenches into his vulnerable skin. The time for gentleness had gone between them, and only the primal need of an animal lust drove them on. Instinctively, she moved her hips in rhythm with his, her breath coming in quick feverish gasps underlain with a continuous pleading moan of sheer pleasure.
The motion of their joined bodies increased by degrees until they were rising and falling with a fury bordering on violence. Dria’s final release was so intense that she screamed out in the soul wrenching throes of her passion, her hands clasping at the corded muscles of his ass.
Ardan was still moving inside her, still plunging deeply into her pussy with an intensity that said he intended to extract every last bit of his pleasure from her body.
Grinding her hips against his, Dria felt his cock being squeezed tightly inside her as her muscles constricted around his length. He caught his breath and began to thrust with new strength. Hips locked together, their bodies became one as he held himself against her. His hard frame stiffened, and his organ surged. His whole body jerked as he released his seed into her waiting womb. Grunting, he gave one final weak jab.
Neither said a word as their bodies broke apart.
Theirs was a fierce coming together, a powerful explosion of sensations that left her feeling weak and dizzy, clinging to the Raider warrior while her body shook with the aftermath of her third glorious orgasm. She smiled weakly, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.
Chapter Twelve
When at last Ardan slept, Dria carefully slipped out of his arms and silently padded across the chamber. The fire in the hearth had burned down to embers that cast long shadows on the walls. Her own form was stealthy and elongated when she reached the door. She tried not to think of the man she’d just left when she reached out and wrapped her hand around the hilt of Ardan’s dagger, biting her lip as she drew it from its sheath, trying to make nary a sound as she did so.
Weapon in hand, she crept back to the bedside of the sleeping warrior. With tired, red-rimmed eyes, she visually swept over his sleeping form burrowed under warm layers of fur blankets. She closed her eyes, willing herself not to harbor any feelings for the Raider, not to need him, but the effort was almost a hopeless one. It was all she could do to keep herself from casting the weapon away and crawling back into his bed so he could ravish her all over again.
A tiny muscle in her jaw twitched as she clenched her teeth tightly. Her spirit writhed inside her, straining for resolution. She was still reeling emotionally from the violent feelings he’d awakened inside her soul, feelings she’d spent her whole life trying to strip away in her quest to lose her human traits.
I was born to serve Ouroborous. To fail my god is to fail the survival of my kind.
Going to her knees beside the narrow cot, she pressed the sharp cold blade of the dagger to his warm throat just under his left ear, over his vulnerable jugular vein. All she had to do was cut fast and hard and the blade would slide through his skin. Blood would gush and he would be dead within minutes. Right now, his breathing was deep and steady, eyelashes fanning gently across his cheeks. He slept the sleep of a man who’d had a good meal and better lovemaking. The falling of the skies would probably not awaken him.
She hesitated, though, unable or unwilling to complete the act. Her free hand drifted down over her stomach. She’d let this man have sex with her. Let him plant his seed in her womb. She had neither protested nor tried to fight off his advances, had simply let him take her to his bed and do with her as he wanted. Tonight, they had mated, and possibly conceived a child. He was a man who’d chosen not to assume his legacy. She was a woman who had yet to claim hers. There was a very real possibility that they had created a child between them.
The child that could bring me into my own immortality, she thought. Sacrifice her baby and she would become a Dorcha, the Dark Priestess.
“I will become Anam-myngh,” she breathed. A thief of souls, mistress of life…and death.
If she took this man’s life, his would be the first of many souls she would be destined to take in the war.
We choose our sides and fight the battle.
Which side should she choose?
As if the decision had been made for her, Ardan opened his eyes. At first confusion filled his eyes, then recognition and relief as sleep left his brain and a sense of danger set in. Instead of trying to sit up and knock the blade from her hand, he did not move, his gaze settling on her face. He stared a moment, eyes gradually narrowing. A small ironic smile played on his sensuous lips. His face showed neither anger nor trouble.
“I wondered if you would betray me.”
Dria pressed the blade harder, but did not break the skin. A grim smile stretched across her lips. “Yet you left your blade where you knew I could reach it. Surely that is not the move of a man who wants to live long.” Heart pounding against her ribcage, she tensed, waiting for him to attack her and try to wrest the knife from her hand.
He did nothing.
“I have no wish to die.” His voice dropped, sorrowful and confiding. “Yet neither do I have much to live for. You see this place; it is empty without a woman to tend my needs and children to warm themselves at the hearth. I can fight and die for hate of an enemy, but I would rather die fighting for family…for love.”
She lifted a hand over her trembling mouth. For the first time, she began to realize that all the things she’d been taught to stifle inside her soul were the things she should find most precious. To embrace the Dragon was to become a cold, unfeeling thing—a shell harboring no emotion except that of hate. This man was desperately trying to offer her life, hope and love. More than an investment in blood, he was making one in a spiritual currency that would enrich and enhance.
Throat tightening, she had to ask, “And you’ve chosen me? To love…to fight for?” She wanted to weep, because it seemed as though her very soul had been wrenched away from her and reformed into something new, then put back inside her.
Face starkly austere in the pallid fire’s light, he curled his fingers around her wrist, drawing the blade away. “Yes. I have chosen you.”
As though in a trance, she let go of the dagger. Her hand drifted lower, brushing the matted curls covering her Venus mound, then delving deeper to feel the moist heat between her legs. She could still smell the scent of his perspiration clinging to her skin, feel the stickiness of his semen mingling with her own creamy juices. She had never been pregnant, but she could imagine her belly swollen and heavy with child. Would she have a daughter, a little girl with blonde hair and her own blue eyes? Or would she carry a son, a little boy with hair the color of sun-bleached straw and eyes the shade of a jewel, resembling his father? A sensation of fierce protection rose up inside her.
Ouroborous was darkness…devouring…death.
Xavier, a prophet preaching doom even as he tried to lead his people toward a gaping maw of destruction and extinction.
It was time to embrace the light.
It was time to try embracing life.
Her eyes began to sting, vision growing blurry. A single tear trekked down her cheek.
“You are asking me to change a lifetime of beliefs in a single day.”
“I am asking for a lifetime to try and change those beliefs,” he countered softly. “Give me that chance.”
“You ask a lot, Ardan.”
“Perhaps I ask because I feel I have chosen rightly,” he said. “Because I know you will be a strong mate.”
“I don’t feel very strong right now,” she sniffed. “I feel weak, foolish, every bit a woman.”
His gaze ranged over her, skimming her breasts. “And I have need of my wom
an.”
She laughed and wiped away her tears. She could not see his face clearly, but she sensed that he was smiling. When he lifted the fur blankets and drew her under their softness, she crept in beside him willingly, curling close to him. She was warm. Safe. Cherished by a man who had loved her from afar, never forgotten her, even when he was cast out to die among the savages. There were women she knew, too. Jai and Mai and the others taken. What would they look like with their bellies bulging, heavy with child? Would they even be able to conceive at all, or would they be stricken by the disease of barrenness? She did not know.
But she wanted to find out.
He held her and caressed her, murmuring softly into her ear, “The battle we face is a long one, far from ended. But sides are being chosen—those who have left will come back to fight again. Our world, people can survive if the legion falls.”
Even as his hands began to explore and excite her body, her own wandered over his abdomen, finding the crux of his thighs. She spread her fingers around his cock, feeling it bloom all over again in her hand.
Our kind will not cease, she thought. I, too, shall join the battle…
Because she had life and hope.
And, now, love.
About the Author
Jeya Jenson lives in the scenic Southwest, though she has called several other states her home. She is a fan of dark gothic literature, and reads tons of books on history and biographies. She especially enjoys reading books on Hollywood before the 1960’s. She’s now divorced, and happily so! She lives with her six cats and works full time. Luckily her job gives her lots of time to write and pays the bills at the same time. As Caitlyn McKenna, she also writes the “Keepers of Eternity” series, which ties into this story. She is currently at work on several more erotic stories.
