by Lora Leigh
There were two openings in the head of his cock, glistening with a film of slick moisture. If that wasn’t disconcerting enough, beneath the head extended a thick, firm, rippled extension that looked more than menacing. The only problem was, she wanted to touch it. She should be terrified. She should have been scrambling to escape from what was sure to become a nightmare soon enough, but first, she wanted to touch it. Taste it. Suck it into her mouth and see for herself exactly how it felt. And she wanted to do it now.
Lynn ignored the trembling of her body as she moved carefully between Alyx’s thighs. Kneeling before him, her hands reached for the straining flesh rising eagerly to greet her. She couldn’t ignore the need anymore than she could ignore the power. Not any longer.
*
“Sweet Lynn.” Alyx closed his eyes, gritting his teeth as her hands wrapped around his desperate erection.
His fingers tightened in the sheet beneath him, sweat forming on his brow as snaking arcs of sensation attacked his body in prickling chills. Her hands were as soft as satin, her fingers tentative, exploring, moving over the highly sensitive ridges of flesh along his shaft.
He felt her move. Knew what was coming. He breathed in hard and deep, wondering if he would survive it. The excitement alone would burst his heart at this rate. In his many years of life as a Prime Warrior, during all his deepest dreams, he had never imagined anything so sensual.
Her soft hands smoothed over the bulging head, fingers rasping the cock’s crest just beneath it. The ultra-sensitive flesh rippled and tightened at her touch, causing his muscles to flex, his control to nearly evaporate as the pleasure wracked his body.
She hummed in approval as the long, hard ridges along the shaft of his cock throbbed at her touch. Pre-seminal fluid seeped from the dual opening at the tip, lubricating his cock, sensitizing it further.
“It’s so big,” she whispered, glancing up at him as his eyes opened, unable to keep from watching her.
Her delicate face was flushed, her shoulder-length brown hair a cloud of silk about her entranced expression.
“Lynn.” He swallowed tightly. “Baby…” He was terrified of breaking the spell that seemed to wrap around them. Eroticism at its most heated, basic form.
“I want to taste you.” Her voice was soft in the dim light of the room; the husky hunger filling it was like a whiplash of hunger searing him with its depth. “I’ve never done that, you know.” Her hands slid up his cock, embraced the bulging head and crest before gathering his moisture and sliding back down.
His hips arched in reaction. His breath wheezed from his lungs as his balls tightened with the need for release. Hell. She was going to kill him.
“Never?” He fought to stay focused, to remain controlled. He knew he was fighting a losing battle.
“Never.” She bent to him, pursed her lips and blew a gentle breath of air against the purpled head.
Alyx ground his head into the pillow, shaking, fighting the pleasure tearing through his body. Her innocence amazed him. Destroyed him.
“I’m going to suck it.” She licked her lips, looking up at him from over the pulsing head of his cock, her expression devilish, full knowledge of her power over him glittering in her brown eyes.
“Lynn.” He fought to keep his voice from resonating with the power gathering inside him. “Baby. You’re not ready for this.”
But he was. He was so ready to fuck her mouth he was about to come from the excitement of it alone. Despite the knowledge that she had opened her soul to him, he knew she hadn’t fully admitted it to herself. She had given in to the power, nothing more. He would have felt it if it had been more.
She smiled. A second later a small, pink tongue slid between her lips, then tickled exploringly along the crested ridge under his cock head. Sweet mercy. He could feel his body tightening painfully as her hot tongue rode each hill and valley of the crest, licking over it, murmuring in appreciation of the taste she found there. Alyx was ready to scream out in an agony of suspended pleasure.
He could feel the Dar-phantom heating the stone at his chest in anticipation of this first ritual as pleasure seared every cell in his body. The crest was the most sensitive part of his erection, holding millions of live, sexual nerves pulsing under the thinnest shield of skin. It was a test of warrior control to hold back his ejaculation during stimulation of that particular area. He had never failed to last hours against the most practiced touch of the sexual trainers the Dragon Master had found. But now, beneath Lynn’s touch, he was worse than an untried youth.
She came closer then, her lips opening, her tongue moistening the gentle curves. A second later, blistering velvet heat surrounded the tortured head and cock crest, drawing an agonized moan of pleasure from his straining chest. Her mouth was unlike any other sensation he had ever experienced.
She wasn’t shy, either. She watched him, her gaze locked on his as he fought for control and she fought to take it. Her cheeks hollowed, drawing on him, sucking him nearly to her throat as his hoarse growl had her cheeks flushing.
“Lynn. Lynn.” He shook in a wind of lust so forceful he felt his balls trembling with the need to release his seed. “Baby, listen to me, if you do this…” He gritted his teeth, desperate. God, he was such a fool. “If you do this, it changes you forever.” The truth spilled from his lips. “You do this, baby. You change forever…”
His back arched as his hands tore the sheet beneath him, his heels digging into the bed as he fucked her mouth, dying at the thought of her releasing him. Cursing his own honor for needing to warn her.
She hesitated. Licked at the bulging tip and watched him heatedly.
“You’ve already changed me,” she whispered.
The corners of her mouth held a fey little grin. He knew she thought she was aware of what his words meant. Thought he was merely talking about her power. It was power, but more. And he was dying.
Her lips tightened, her suckling intensified and his fears ceased to exist as he felt her tongue flickering quick, destructive little licks over the hyper-sensitive flesh. At the same time, the bulging head nearly touched her throat as the convulsive swallowing motion rippled over the flesh.
His hands moved, gripping her hair, holding her still. For a second, an infinite second, he fought to pull back, to force her from him, to explain… She swallowed again, her tongue stroked like silken lightning and he could no longer hold back.
The clamp of her mouth over his cock dragged as he thrust once, twice, then his victorious shout rocked the room. His semen exploded from the tip, filling her mouth as her eyes widened in sudden surprise.
“All of it,” he cried out as he held her to him. “For mercy’s sake, take it, Lynn. Take it all…” His seed pulsed to her throat and she accepted.
Power surged from his body, wrapping around them both, intense, bordering on pain, as she whimpered around his erection in alarm. But the bond had been met. The first ritual was completed. She had opened the door to her power and there was no closing it. Just as there was now no hiding from the mating of their souls. She had accepted. Knowledge was but the first step.
Chapter Thirteen
“Alyx…” Lynn fought to breathe as she fell away from him, scrambling back on the bed, stumbling from the mattress as her flesh prickled, tightened.
She rubbed at her arms as she stared back at him in near panic. It was as though, suddenly, her body belonged to someone else. She could still taste the dark flavor of his seed in her mouth; feel the hum of his cock as he orgasmed. The sensation had traveled from her lips, her tongue, and now seemed to spread over her entire body.
He moved slowly from the bed. His silvery eyes glowed in the dark room as he moved with careful precision, stalking closer to her.
“Lynn, relax.” His voice was too calm. Too soothing.
Hell. What did he do to her? She shuddered as a wave of sensation moved over her body. And it wasn’t erotic. It was pinching, probing; fingers of power that seemed to dip into every cell and
move under her flesh like a serpent burrowing to the bone. It didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t comfortable, either.
“Relax?” She fought to still the hysteria rising inside her. “You want me to relax?” She trembled convulsively as the snaking trails of heated power began to move through her body. “What did you do to me? Oh God. I knew this would be a bad idea,” she moaned dreadfully. “Dumb, Lynn. Real dumb.”
She didn’t miss the faint grin that tugged at his lips.
“Do you often talk to yourself?” He countered her move to get to the door, crowding her back along the side of the bed.
“Only when I know the morons around me have no intention of helping,” she snapped, her shoulders tightening as some sensation, a tickling pressure, seemed to press against her spine. “What did you do to me? What the hell did that monster spurt down my throat?”
There was no sense blaming him. She clearly remembered his warning. But no. Did she listen? Dumb-ass Lynn had just carried on, sucking his cock like it was her favorite dessert and she couldn’t get enough. Well, it was packing more than calories, that was for damned sure.
Oh hell, why had she just assumed she knew what he was talking about? Why hadn’t she just let him explain?
“Lynn, it’s okay.” There was that tone again. She narrowed her eyes on him as she retreated further.
He was too damned big. Too powerful. And he seemed intent on hemming her in.
“You come one step further and you’ll be snacking on the monster’s jewels.” She pointed her finger at him demandingly, watching as he slowed, stopping at the end of the bed.
“Women always want to go for the balls,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Let me hold you, Lynn. I can help.”
“Help?” She was going to need help? She swallowed tightly. “Why do I need help?”
He tilted his head, the thick silver of his hair flowing over one broad shoulder.
“I can make it less frightening,” he suggested. “It’s merely a joining, baby. A merging…”
She rubbed desperately at her arms. She could feel her skin flexing, protesting whatever was moving beneath it.
“You can do that by making it stop,” she demanded, ignoring any attempt at an explanation. She didn’t want a joining. She wanted it to stop. “Make it stop now, Alyx.” She fought the panic she could hear building in her voice, rising in her body.
This was not happening. She was not going to freak out here. Whatever it was, it was natural. Had to be natural. She was not going to have a breakdown over this. But she knew she had never heard of any of her friends describing such a reaction after giving a really hot blowjob. And they would have told her, too. No, this wasn’t in any way natural. It was as though the power she had released earlier was now finding form, swirling within her body like another, separate entity.
“Lynn, it won’t stop.” Lynn was certain he had somehow moved closer, but she was damned if she had seen him move.
“Oh yes, it better stop.” She stared at him imperiously. “It is going to stop. Make it stop now.”
“It doesn’t work that way, baby.” He shook his head slowly; that grin tilting his lips was too knowing, too smug. Dammit. It was always a bad sign when a man looked smug.
“What is it?” Why did she have a bad feeling she was going to regret asking that question?
“It’s knowledge.” His voice deepened, his eyes darkening.
Knowledge, her ass! Lynn wanted to gape at him but she was too busy trying to fight the sensation of another presence moving through her body.
“I knew I would regret asking.” She felt her stomach tighten in dread. “So what the hell is knowledge?” She jumped as a sharp pinching sensation at the base of her spine preceded a wave of heat streaking up it. “Oh, hell. This isn’t funny, Alyx.” She tried to reach back, to slap at the stinging area, terrified of what she was going to find there.
“Easy, Lynn.” He caught her in his arms before she could stop him.
Pulling her against his chest, his body heat warming her, his hands running up and down her back gently, he whispered at her ear. “It is merely my force. My power. I told you, we are two parts of a whole. Somehow, your unconscious mind, the power you gave freedom to, has accepted this as you accepted my release. It is merely a ritual. A binding…”
Oh, no. This was not happening. She wasn’t bound to anyone, let alone some silver-eyed, wicked-tongued alien. Nope. Not in this lifetime.
Lynn tore herself from his embrace. “No.” She moved across the bed, stumbling, weak, but managing to stay on her feet as she hit the floor and stooped down to grab her clothes. “I acknowledge nothing,” she yelled back at him as she jerked her shirt over her head, struggled with her jeans. “Do you hear me, Alyx? Nothing. So make it stop.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, his expression settling into lines of mockery, the monster standing stiff and erect in front of his body. Oh God, were those eyes watching her? The dual slits in his cock were damned unnerving.
He shrugged as she watched him, fury surging through her body. “I can stop nothing, Lynn. Your soul has acknowledged mine. The release of my seed was merely a catalyst. I cannot undo it. I would not undo it even if it were possible.”
Fury overwhelmed her. Fury at him, at herself. She didn’t want this. Dammit, whatever was happening to her was scaring the hell out of her. It was too freaky. Suddenly her body wasn’t her own. Her psychic power wasn’t strong enough to force the invader out of her and it was doing things to her she couldn’t explain.
“Your own powers will become stronger…”
“Yeah, I needed more of that psychic crap tormenting the living hell out of me,” she snapped as she jerked her jeans over her hips and buttoned them jerkily.
She ignored his surprised look, the hurt that seemed to flash in his eyes.
“It was to protect you,” he said quietly. “It was not to be a burden you had to bear.”
“Well surprise, big boy,” she told him furiously. “If I could rid myself of it, I would. Do you think I like knowing how evil men can be? Do you think I enjoy fighting them? Do you think for one minute it’s been pleasant trying to adjust to things no human should ever have to face alone?”
“Your brothers were there to aid you…” He shook his head as though suddenly uncertain of the choices he had made so long ago.
“Brothers. Oh, they love it,” she snarled. “They get to play tough asses in a way few men can. But let me tell you right now, Alyx. I don’t like it, and I sure as hell don’t want more.”
His shoulders straightened. His expression hardened into lines of cold, hard determination. “You are alive. Do you deny it has saved your life on more than one occasion?”
“Big fucking deal. It was the stupid powers that put me in danger to begin with,” she pointed out loudly. “What the hell good is alive, Alyx, when I can’t enjoy my life?”
“At least you are not dead.” The room seemed to vibrate with his rage, shocking her to silence. “Alive is not lying in a battle field, dying in my arms again. Alive is not taking your last breath as I feel your sorrow that you had not taken the gifts I would have given you. Damn you, Lynn. It’s surviving until I could find you.”
The dreams. Nightmares. They burst through her mind then like a rainbow of shattered glass. Blood and death. Sorrow and rage. And her own foolishness. She was berating him, blaming him, when it was her fault for not accepting. Her fault for hiding for so many years. She had been worse than a child afraid of the monsters under her bed. Afraid, instead, that the monsters were inside her.
She backed away from the bed, moving for the door, fighting the fiendish visions that tore at her skull. Fighting the knowledge that he had once been everything to her. It was there. Like a sharp blinding light, tearing through her consciousness. He had been her heart. Her soul. And once again she was denying him.
“Lynn, wait.” His voice was commanding, harsh, as she reached the door.
She groped for the doorknob, twisti
ng it violently as she jerked the door open. “I can’t think like this. With you,” she cried out desperately. “I can’t stay. I can’t. Just leave me alone, Alyx. For now. Just leave me alone.”
She turned from him and rushed from the room, flinching at the violence of the door slamming, the fury behind the sound. She kicked at the wall, screeching in fury at the unaccustomed pain in her bare feet.
Chapter Fourteen
Okay. She was hysterical. Panic was a forgotten memory. She had passed that phase as she stood before Alyx and heard the shattering pain in his voice as he described her nightmares. Nightmares he had experienced. Nightmares he said had already played out.
She sat on the balcony outside her room, staring into the night, feeling a surge of strength in powers she had finally accustomed herself to. She had become comfortable with the strength of her powers. They rarely fluctuated, and after learning how to harness what she had, they never surged as they had in her youth.
Now, she only wished surges were all she had to deal with. Her flesh was suddenly supersensitive. The slightest breeze was like the firmest caress. She didn’t like this. She was wearing clothes. They shouldn’t feel like a layer of sand scraping over her skin. Her toes shouldn’t feel like they were being singed by the warmth of her sneakers. Yet, barefoot, the lightest step was like pins prickling at them.
“This is not a good thing,” she muttered to herself as she stared up at the clouds marring the black velvet sky. “Lynn, couldn’t you have found another way to get your ass into more trouble?”
She sighed wearily. She hadn’t been nice to Alyx. There was no excuse for it, not really. Just because he had done this creepy thing with the power building through her body didn’t mean she had to be cruel.
It was her own fault, she charged herself mockingly. She hadn’t been asleep when he orgasmed. She had heard his warning. Had felt the sense of impending disaster building in her stomach, but she had been too drugged by the desperate response from Alyx’s body. She had held him spellbound. Her. Quiet little Lynn who had never really held anyone spellbound without cheating, had held this big tough, larger than life alien with only the warmth of her mouth.
