“As I love you.” It felt right to hear him say that now. As right as his finger entering her there, pushing past her natural resistance, lubricating her receptive flesh while opening a well of desire she’d never known she had.
“I want you.”
She knew what he meant. Knew why. He needed her submission, this proof that she accepted him in all ways. His dominance was as much a part of him as his honor. She bit her lip, closed her eyes, and arched her back, taking a leap of faith as she echoed the words he so often used with her. “Then take from me what you need.”
The links rustled again. His hands on her hips moved her forward. He reached between her legs. There was a tug on her ring, a steady pressure, and then a soft click. She opened her eyes and looked between her legs. A chain of brushed gold glittered from the top of her pussy, to fall over the edge of the mattress. She shuddered as the reality of what he’d done licked over her skin. “You chained me to the bed.”
His cock aligned with her anus, nuzzling in as softly as his kiss on her ear. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“For your pleasure and mine.”
She glanced again at the glittering chain and then over her shoulder, catching only a fraction of his expression. His power surrounded her, bore down on her, demanded her compliance. Deuce was a good man, a strong man, but he was entirely too used to getting his way. “I don’t think so.”
She reached between her legs and unhooked the chain, the arch of her spine pressing his cock harder against her, tempting her to relax. To let it go. Just this once.
He caught her hand in his. “It is my wish.”
Of that she had no doubt. It was his nature to dominate everything around him, and if she let him, he’d dominate her. With the best of intentions, but with the worst of results.
She opened her fingers. The delicate chain dropped to the bed, clinking lightly before slithering to the floor with a metallic hiss. “But not mine.”
Deuce didn’t move for a minute, but she felt his power build, bear down on her. He was not happy. She turned in his embrace, falling backward onto the bed. He was going to have to adjust. The mattress bounced as he propped himself on his elbows above her.
“You will explain.”
More power reached out to her, subtly probing her resolve. His brows drew low over his eyes, red lights swirled in the black depths. He wanted her. Wanted this. She put her hands on his shoulders. His skin was hot and hard beneath her fingers, his scent a potent lure, the throb of his cock against the inside of her thigh a metronome for her own desire to the point that she wasn’t fighting just him, but herself. Sometimes he was too incredibly masculine for either of their good. “It can’t be like that between us, Deuce.”
His frown deepened. “Is it because you fear to be taken that way?”
She closed her eyes, shook her head, counted to three and then opened them.
He traced the blush on her chest, dragged his finger up over her breast, and flicked the hard nub cresting the tip before wandering over her collarbone to settle against the pulse in the hollow of her throat. “I would understand.”
She wrapped her legs around his hips and linked her ankles, straining to keep her breathing even as her core pulsed a welcome to his. “I’ll love you, wear your ring, submit to you any way you need, but I won’t be chained like a dog or otherwise treated with disrespect.”
He frowned. “There is no disrespect. It is common for Chosen to love their mates this way. Chosen women enjoy the feeling of helplessness.”
“I have enough areas of my life where I’m helpless.” She touched the frown between his brows, smoothing it with a stroke, hoping he’d understand and whispered, “I just don’t want to feel that way with you.”
He caught her hand in his. His frown disappeared to be replaced by an intensity that drew her in. She couldn’t look away from his gaze as he brought their linked hands to the bed beside her head. “Then you will not.”
She couldn’t believe it. “Just like that?”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Just like that.”
A featherlight brush of his lips over hers kick-started her arousal.
“You don’t…need that?”
Intensity faded to gentleness. “I need you.”
The second brush of his lips closed her right eye. The third, her left. “If you raise your legs, I would love you now. As you wish. No chains. No restraints. Just the pleasure of my body joining with yours.”
“Uhm, about that…”
He worked his arm under her thigh and raised her ankle to his shoulder. “You will like it, Edie mine.”
“I’m prepared to.”
“But?”
“I think you’re being very optimistic about the fit,” she pointed out as he lifted her other ankle to his shoulder as he stood straight, his height pulling her hips off the bed, the width of his shoulders stretching her inner thighs.
He leaned forward again, letting her legs slide down his arms until they hung up at his elbows. His hands came down over hers, his fingers threading through hers, locking them together. “I will bring you great joy.”
She squeezed her fingers around his as he brought his shaft into alignment with a shift of his hips. “I’m holding you to that.”
Her body had none of her mind’s caution, rejoicing in the dark possession, fighting at first, and then accepting the foreign invasion. Deuce pushed and she surrendered, her body gradually opening under the insistence of his. She shook her head. It was too fast. Too much. She pushed at his hands, using the resistance to steady her panic.
“Slow down.” She needed time to adjust. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, her breath rasped in her lungs, stealing her voice. She closed her eyes as he pierced her that first inch. Pain and pleasure blossomed together.
“Open your eyes, Edie mine.”
It was incredibly hard to do so.
“Look at me.”
His “I wish to see you as you accept my cock this time” sent a shot of white-hot desire straight to her womb. Her muscles clamped down hard on his shaft, squeezing and releasing, milking tiny spurts of pleasure from his thick length. He moaned and she clamped down harder holding him so tightly she could feel the echo of his heartbeat, slower than hers, but harder. Much harder.
“Relax.”
His voice joined the wild rhythm strumming through her body, the burning ache in her rear transcending pain to something more primitive, more elemental, threading between her caution and her need, creating a quilt of desire so complex that she couldn’t sort passion from pain, desire from fear. She just knew she needed him to feel whole. All of him. As much as he could give her for as long as he could.
“Love me, Deuce.”
“I do.” The burn dissipated to an ache as her body adjusted to his size. “Better?”
“Yes.”
With a squeeze of his fingers, he freed his hand and bent over her, his cock inching deeper as he did. “Good.”
Moist and hot, his tongue traced the whorl of her ear, sending shivers down her spine. Shivers that promptly shattered into long, streaking sparkles of delight. Sparkles that exploded like the Fourth of July as he slipped his finger inside the hoop and tugged. She lunged upward as her muscles surrendered in defeat and his cock head shot into her ass, yanking to a stop as his knuckle pressed down into her engorged clit, the tension prolonging the sharp stab of sensation, holding it centered on her core, giving her time to get past the surprise, to the delight. Above her, Deuce continued his assault, pressing steadily inward, not giving her time to adjust or protest, keeping her in an agony of suspense, filling her with his passion until she couldn’t tell where his left off and hers began.
“Push out, Edie.”
She did, but only because the strain on her clit was too much. “Oh God, Deuce.” She wrapped her fingers around his wrist, digging her nails in as the ring heated and vibrated. “I can’t take this.”
It hurt so much, but it wasn’t enough.
None of it was enough. She leaned forward as he pulled back, finding the searing bite of the hoop instead of respite. She twisted against him as her womb clenched and her pussy grasped at air. She was helpless, a prisoner to her own needs and the desire he raised in her so effortlessly. He forged back in. Too fast. Too hard. She couldn’t control it. She curled away into the mattress. He didn’t back off, just kept coming, tugging the hoop, stroking her clitoris, keeping her pressed between reality and threat. No matter what she did, she couldn’t escape the desire winding tighter, coiling deeper. She held on, waiting for a reprieve, needing it. When it came, it wasn’t what she expected. Deuce’s withdrawal didn’t give her pleasure, just left her aching and empty with nowhere to go with the emotion surging inside. She needed Deuce. His direction. His passion. His power.
“Oh God, Deuce, I need you.”
He growled into her ear, “Where?”
She leaned forward into the ring, the symbolism in the piercing catching on her passion and dragging it out into the open as she answered, “In my ass. My pussy. Just you. Wherever you want.”
He released the ring. The mattress dipped as he shifted his weight to the other side. “You hunger.”
“Yes.” She did. So desperately. For him. His fingers untangled from hers, trailing steadily up her arm, down over her breasts and belly, following her curves until he came to the top of her mound. There he lingered, playing in her damp curls, sliding his fingers between the hoop and her flesh, cupping her intimately. Protectively.
“I have you.”
She needed more than his protection. She needed his possession.
“I don’t want you to have me. I need you to take me. Make me so much yours that I can’t see myself as anything else but yours.”
Against her cheek, she felt his smile. In her mind, she felt his surprise and satisfaction. In her body, the hard thrust of his cock as he gave her what she asked for. All of him, all the way, until there was nothing between them except the strength of their love.
Chapter Twenty-One
Deuce awoke for the first time in his six-hundred-fifty-eight years with a sense of pleasure. Exhausted from his demands, Edie sprawled over him, her moist breath caressing his skin, one thigh thrown over his, her arm stretched across his chest. As if she feared he would disappear. In time, she would lose that fear. Until then, he would hold her as close as she needed, for as long as she needed.
One of her wild curls tickled his chin. He caught it between his fingers, rubbing the thick silken strands against each other. She was doing better, responding properly to the rituals. Her cheeks were flushed and a small smile curved the fullness of her lips. Beneath the fan of her lashes, faint dark circles marred the perfection of her face. Those were his fault.
He’d meant to be easier with her, but she made it very difficult to remember her frailty. As difficult as she made it for him to take care of her properly. He could feel the soreness in her muscles, the rawness between her legs. Everything in him demanded he soothe her pain, but he could not. His little mate forbade it, claiming she liked the physical reminder of what was between them.
He carefully pulled her into his shoulder, kissing the top of her head. There was so little he could give her right now that he was unable to deny her request, no matter how illogical. He eased her down onto the pillows. The little smile that accompanied her sigh of satisfaction tugged an answering one from within.
The Chosen were not prone to high emotion, but Edie made him want to laugh and cry and roar with the pure male satisfaction of having her in his arms, his bed. She snuggled her face into the palm of his hand in a purely unconscious gesture. If this were any other time, he’d slide back into bed and hold her while she slept, cherishing the peace she brought, but tonight there was no time. Bohdan had risen, and the enemy was near.
* * * * *
He found Bohdan near the pass, a dark shadow in a darker night. His energy was not what it should be, but not as erratic as when he’d first risen. “It is good to see you.”
Bohdan glanced up from the young man he was feeding from. He closed the wounds on his prey’s neck before letting him drop unceremoniously into the snow. He inclined his head. “And to see you. Eden survived intact?”
“Yes.”
“You are mated?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
It was very good. Deuce motioned to the man sprawled in the snow. “He was not to your liking?”
Bohdan didn’t spare the man a glance. “He is one of them.”
Deuce had known Bohdan was going to say that. The compound was too remote for tourists and the winter too severe for recreational skiers. “Did you get anything from him?”
His brother shook his head. “What he knows is the story they have concocted.”
“Which is?”
“You kidnapped the woman and child. Lavery is simply trying to get her back since the police have bungled the recovery. He has been hired to accomplish that goal.”
“He is what they call a mercenary?”
“Yes.”
Deuce glanced at the man. He was not one of the men from Eden’s memories. “I would not say a very good one.”
“Lavery would not want someone too smart involved. They might ask questions.”
“I did not think mercenaries asked questions.”
Bohdan stepped away. “It would be a mistake to think all humans lack honor.”
He knew that, but lately, it had been getting hard to remember. “I know.”
Bohdan walked around the camp. “This pass is one of the few alternate routes off the mountain.”
Deuce crossed to the small orange tent. He sliced through the side and looked within. Supplies were meager. Only enough for a couple of days.
“He was not planning on staying long.” Cold prickled up his spine as he looked across the barren, snow-covered land. “One man could not hope to block the pass.”
Bohdan motioned to the crushed communications device attached to the man’s shoulder. “But he could serve as an alert.”
“In case a human woman and child chose to leave,” Deuce finished the thought. A gust of wind blew Bohdan’s hair across his face. Deuce reached in his pocket and handed his brother a leather tie.
“Thank you.” With the efficiency that marked everything Bohdan did, he tied his hair back, the severe style highlighting the strain of his ordeal. “Is your mate still planning on leaving?”
“I have convinced her of the benefits of staying.”
Bohdan raised a brow, the doubt in his expression a reflection of what he’d felt previously in Eden. “You are sure?”
Deuce heard again Edie’s sweet cries, felt again her body’s demands on his. She might be scared and uncertain, but she was trying. “Yes.”
“If they are not planning on her leaving voluntarily,” Bohdan said as he leaned down to check the pulse of the human he’d fed on, “they have something else in mind.”
If they were, they were doomed to failure. “They will not breach the compound.”
Bohdan straightened. “You have given the alert?”
“Yes. Others and Chosen are prepared.”
Bohdan brushed off his hands and frowned. “It does not make sense that they would try and take her from the compound. It is too heavily guarded.”
“That occurred to me.” Deuce stepped back from the tent, restraining the urge to deliver a death blow to the unconscious human lying outside it. The Chosen did not kill without reason. “The Coalition is devious and cunning, but never stupid.”
“Then they must have something else in mind.”
“But what?” The feeling of unease increased. Even with their abilities, they were a good fifteen minutes from the compound. Edie, you are well?
He had to wait for her response, and when it came, it was a clumsy endeavor, but that she tried soothed him, considering how sensitive she was about sharing thoughts.
Yes. Marlika and I are having coffee.
C
offee is not good for you.
Her Don’t even think of messing with my caffeine shook a smile past his worry.
It is not your place to give orders.
Another awkward pause and another staccato effort. I’m giving this one.
You are being disrespectful.
Deal with it. The lack of concern with his displeasure in the stuttering reply twitched the corner of his lips. His little human was very bold, courting his discipline. He would have to deal with her when he got back. His body hummed pleasurably at the thought. In the interim, he needed her to be alert.
Be careful.
Is something wrong? Worry shrouded her laughter.
Yes.
What?
I do not know, but do not take chances.
I never do.
For once, I would like that to be the truth.
Her love touched him with a soothing stroke. If she uttered an apology it was lost in her efforts to communicate. But he took the light touch as one, anyway.
I will accept your tribute later.
Her Fat chance! spurred a chuckle past his control.
“She is well?” Bohdan asked.
Deuce ran his palm over his hair as he faced his brother. He should not be smiling, but she did amuse him with her natural independence. “She is having coffee with Marlika.”
“Coffee is not good for her.”
Deuce dropped his hand to his side, shrugged and tried to wipe the smile off his face. “So I told her.”
Bohdan’s weary expression lifted with his own amusement. “She was not impressed?”
“No.” She was neither impressed with the fact that he was her Chosen mate, nor with the laws he laid down. It was irritating and intriguing at the same time.
“It is good that a human mate brings so many other pleasures, because I have not found obedience to be one of their strong points.”
“The Maker knows it is not one of Edie’s.” Deuce agreed, noting the thread of nostalgia trailing behind Bohdan’s words. “Your mate did not obey well, either?”
CONCEPTION (The Others) Page 30
