His Dark Bond

by Anne Marsh

  Wrapped in Zer’s arms, she knew he was 100 percent large, hard, domineering alpha. He was making short work of getting her back to his room and the bed she’d imagined the two of them in.

  Zer wasn’t hurting her, but there was no mistaking his steely determination. She’d intended to push his buttons, push him—and she’d gotten her wish. His desire. For her. The thick outline of his cock strained visibly against the front of his leather pants, and all she could think about was getting her hands on him.

  Just sex. That’s all it is. Hormones and pheromones and little-used nerve-endings firing. God, she was a liar.

  Zer didn’t break the kiss once as the elevator shot silently upward. The ride was so smooth, all she could concentrate on was the male who had her backed up against the mirrored panels, devouring her like a starving man.

  As if he couldn’t possibly get enough of her. His mouth moved like a dream, exploring the sensitive skin of her cheek, her neck, the curve beneath her jaw, before covering her lips. The sweet ache was there between her legs already, and he hadn’t even really touched her yet.

  The elevator glided to a stop, but Zer didn’t. Nael’s hand was on his shoulder, as if he’d pour himself into his damn king if he could. Or as if he thought maybe only one of them would be leaving the suite tonight. Could be, he was right. This was reckless and stupid and shortsighted, but she was doing it, and it was too late now. All she could do was hang on and enjoy the ride.

  The elevator doors parted silently, and Zer lifted his head, staring down at her with hot, needy eyes. His hands cupped her jaw, his thumbs stroking a sensual pattern along the sensitized flesh. God, she couldn’t wait for those strong hands to touch her elsewhere.

  Those hands promised a pleasure she wanted. As if he could read her mind—and she knew he couldn’t, not yet—he drawled, “I’m going to make you come undone. We’re going to figure out everything you like.”

  “Everything?” She licked dry lips.

  His eyes slid over her body, as if he was cataloging that everything. “Yeah,” he said, his voice a sexy drawl. “Everything. You can count on that. You’re going to enjoy what happens here tonight. That’s my promise to you.”

  He sounded as if there might be some doubt she would enjoy what happened between them. God. He had no idea. She was about to combust on the spot. Any more aroused and she’d be flinging him to the ground. And damned if she didn’t actually consider the idea for a moment.

  “You think I wouldn’t enjoy this?” Wrapping her hands around his, she savored the contrast between his larger, darker fingers and hers. He was so damn big. She wished this was more than a one-night stand, but, just for tonight, she was taking what she could get.

  And she wanted this male.

  He shot her a look. “Because I’m Fallen, baby. “

  “And that makes you some sort of sexual deviant?” Maybe it did, but that didn’t explain the new surge of heat between her legs.

  “There’s nothing I haven’t done. Wouldn’t do.” His hands slid away from her face, and she let him go. “Three thousand years of experience. I’ve done things you couldn’t begin to imagine.”

  “But you won’t hurt me.”

  “No.” He turned toward the open door. “I’d never hurt you.” He flashed that dark, masculine smile at her. “Not unless that was what you wanted.”

  God. His words had her fantasizing about his stretching her out across his lap. His hand taking down her panties and descending on her bare ass.

  “Then we’re good.” Was that throaty whisper her voice? “It’s all good, Zer.” She didn’t know what she was giving him permission to do, but she knew she wanted him. Wanted this night. He was too dangerous, too hard for more than that, but she could have this. One night, and she’d still be able to walk away when it was over, when she’d gotten whatever “favor” he gave her.

  She hoped.

  Zer merely nodded and strode toward the suite. “Bring her.” He tossed the words over his shoulder to Nael.

  He was handing her off yet again. Refusing to deal with her. She stiffened as Nael’s arms closed around her, guiding her forward. Those familiar dark eyes stared down at her, looking for some answer in her face. “Cut him some slack, Nessa. He’s fighting for control.”

  Was that a good thing? Maybe. She was strangely off balance herself, her heels sinking into the thick carpeting of his room as she followed him inside.

  Zer moved toward the bed. He wasn’t going to pretend this wasn’t going to happen. Behind her, the door clicked softly shut behind Nael, locking the three of them into a room set up for a seduction. Although the lights had been dimmed, she could still see plenty. There were candles everywhere. The sweet, smoky scents of the burning wax had her inhaling deeply, even as her gaze caught and held on the bed.

  And the large male sprawled there.

  Waiting for her.

  He leaned back against the black padded headboard like a military commander at his post, his impossibly large body dominating the room. Like he wanted to dominate her.

  God. As if he knew her secret fantasies, the steamy daydreams of being borne off to bed by a male capable of dominating her. Of making sure that she got every pleasure she needed. Her fantasy male had laid her down on his bed and made love to her with no holds barred, hadn’t let her keep back a single reaction.

  God, the reality was so much better than the fantasy. A blast of pure, liquid heat left her trembling.

  Needing.

  “Don’t,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest, watching her with that level gaze of his.

  “Don’t what?” He’d dropped his booted feet on the velvet counterpane. He looked large, male. Sexy. He was in control. Her body flushed, and she knew it wasn’t with embarrassment. She wanted him.

  “Don’t mistake me for someone else.” His eyes examined her face. “I’m no poet,” he warned, and she didn’t have the faintest idea what he meant. But that was nothing new. “So, strip.” His words, however, were a shock. As was the hard rush of wet heat.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me.” He crossed one leg over the other. “Strip for me, baby.”

  With Nael looking on? Automatically, she opened her mouth to refuse the order. And closed it. She was going to do every damn thing she’d ever fantasized about. She flicked open the first button.

  The hunger was a freight train roaring through his head, the beast demanding out. Which was just too bad. He didn’t particularly like letting his rogue out to play, and he sure as hell wasn’t inviting that kind of kink into bed with him when he finally had Nessa St. James in his arms.

  She was the sexiest damn sight he’d ever laid eyes on.

  Now that she’d started, she didn’t hesitate. She unbuttoned the corset one wicked button at a time until the satin slipped open, framing the soft, rounded mound of her stomach and those breasts. The hard pink nipples begging for his touch.

  “Show me what you like, baby.” He’d make this fantasy good. It was the least he could do for her.

  She was so damn gorgeous, and those breasts of hers were going to kill him. He dragged the sweet scent of her deep inside him as her hands stroked slowly down the soft curves of skin. Not tentatively, as if she was shy, but as if she were considering his question. Exploring possible answers. Christ, that was sexy.

  “This,” she decided. “I like this.”

  She cupped the weight of her breasts in her own hands, her fingertips caressing. Rubbing those hard little nipples. Lust ripped through him, stronger, harder than anything he’d ever felt before. His cock pulsed, demanding he get inside her. Now.

  “What do you like?” she asked.

  Her straight-on gaze unmanned him, shocked him down to his core. This was her night. Tonight was about her fantasies, not his.

  “You,” he growled, wrapping a hand around her wrist and tugging her down onto the bed as he swept back the covers with one arm. She let him guide, settling onto the sheets beside him. “H
ot. Wet. Coming on my fingers for me. Against my mouth. The taste of you is candy-sweet, baby, and we’ve got all night. Lie down for me.” The smoky rasp of his voice lit new fires inside her. “Do it.”

  She lay back, but her face broadcast her disappointment when he didn’t follow her down. Instead, he was bending over her, and he knew he was too large. Too male. All her feminine instincts were rioting in protest, screaming for her to run. “Relax, baby,” he whispered, his voice a silky promise as he stripped off the red satin, tossing it away to land on the floor behind them in soft whisper of sound. The dress fell away from her like a cocoon, leaving her only the wicked garter belt and shoes.

  “Take them off, too,” she whispered.

  “You sure?” He was asking about more than just her heels. When she nodded, he slid his fingers down her calf, pulling off the stilettos and discarding them but leaving her the garter belt he’d secured for her.

  “Yes.” Tonight, she was taking what she wanted. Tomorrow, she could go back to her old life. Do the responsible thing. Tonight was her one chance. “Yes, Zer.” Leaning up into his hard chest, she reached for the buttons of his shirt. Wanting to undo him the way he’d undone her.

  She undid buttons, fascinated by the thickly muscled male chest framed by the sides of the shirt. Pulling off the shirt, she wanted to lick him all over. The deep golden color of his skin, the earthy scent of him, were an open invitation to touch. To taste.

  When she gave in to the temptation and ran a hand over that dusky skin, he groaned. “Be sure, baby.” He inhaled deeply, as if he wanted her inside and out. “Be very sure. Last chance.”

  “Bond with me.”

  His primitive growl of satisfaction was all the warning he gave, and then his large hand was gently pressing her forward. She went. Wrapping her legs around him, rocking her garter-belt-framed pussy against that delicious strength.

  The candles flickered dimly; Nael was just a shadow beside them.

  A thousand wicked fantasies boiled through her mind. Zer would do what he wanted; she knew that. And she would enjoy it. Would enjoy every dark taste. His touch. After tonight, he’d know her better than anyone. She was okay with that, she decided.

  He helped her settle back against his sheets until the decadent fabric slid against her stocking-clad legs. “We’re doing this my way,” he warned. “You’re going to give it up to me, Nessa. Every bit of pleasure. I’m going to be watching you. You’re not hiding from me tonight. You’re going to come for me.”

  Nessa St. James was not an easy woman, and Zer knew she didn’t open up for just anyone. But now she was spread deliciously wide beneath him and not just in the sexual sense. Her cream teased him, but not half as much as her soul. The sweet, hot heat of her essence was flooding him.

  Unable to resist, he allowed himself the smallest sip of her soul. Her aura reflected heated shock, feminine curiosity and—God—arousal. Pure, sweet arousal.

  She wasn’t afraid of him—or this.

  She wanted this.

  Deliberately, he wrapped her hands around the frame of the headboard, bending his head toward hers. “I need to tie you there, baby, or will you stay put?” Those sweet brown eyes of hers widened. Hesitated. Then she nodded, and a dark lick of pleasure shot through him. She’d play this game with him, would give every bit as good as she got.

  When he slid his fingers from hers, sure enough, she stayed put. “Now we’re going to get you wet for me, baby.”

  Moving down her body, he stripped away her garter belt and hose, uncovering those last few inches of soft flesh.

  Damned if he couldn’t stop staring at her. She was beautiful. Not an airbrushed, lingerie-catalog kind of beauty, but something else. Her body was blatantly feminine, the soft lines drawing him downward. In. The dimpled curve of her belly was an invitation he couldn’t resist, so he ran an exploring finger over that soft skin, watching as she stilled. The lush heat of her warmed some part of him he hadn’t realized was cold.

  He ran his knuckles down her jaw, along the line of her throat. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered hoarsely. “Let me show you.”

  Losing this battle wasn’t an option, so he planned his attack as he moved down. Pressing hot kisses down the length of her.

  Her hands flexed on the headboard.

  “Don’t let go,” he warned, and he turned his attention to her breasts. He had to touch her. As he drew his knuckles along the smooth curve of skin, her nipples pebbled before he’d even touched her with his mouth. He couldn’t hold back the rumble of pleasure welling up inside him. The sweet scent of her skin, the slide of the satin sheets beneath them threatened his control.

  “Hell,” he muttered. She was coming apart in his arms, coming without his really touching her, and he was coming undone right alongside her.

  “Open up for me.” He deliberately put a hand on her thigh. She’d do this for him. He wouldn’t force her. “Let me taste you.”

  She hesitated, her gaze sliding to Nael. Maybe she was shy, after all. “He won’t watch you, baby. Not unless you want him to.”

  “Who’s he watching, then?” Her voice was a husky whisper of sound in the room. He wasn’t sure Nael was still breathing. Christ, he was holding his own damn breath. Who would have believed that one small female could be so damn powerful?

  “Me.” He shrugged his shoulders. “No one. Whatever pleases you.” Pausing a beat, he slid a finger down her side, loving the way her wary gaze followed. “Decision time, baby. What do you want?”

  His hard mouth bent toward her, blazing a heated trail over the sensitive skin behind her ear, his hands sweeping the loose hair away from the vulnerable nape of her neck. A shiver she would feel straight down to her pussy.

  She’d watched Nael, after all. She’d seen Zer’s brother take the woman in the club. Slipping out of the shadows, Nael pressed a small kiss against her fingers. “I’ll be right over there, love, unless you want me.” His dark eyes promised only sweet, sinful pleasure.

  Her hands tightened deliberately on the headboard, her thighs parting as she whispered, “He can watch us.”

  Zer’s control snapped.

  God. She’d never known that a ménage à trois—even this bare hint of a threesome—would make her so needy and aching for his touch. It was strangely, intensely seductive, this pleasure of being watched rather than watching.

  He pulled her up and over him, smoothly reversing their positions, so that she straddled him, her legs parting around the delicious ridges of his belly. His cock was thick and hard, a delicious heat that pressed against the sensitive flesh of her pussy.

  His fingers wrapped hers around the headboard once again; then he was sliding down her body, promising unspeakable pleasures. Pleasures she’d only dreamed about. She wanted to touch him, but instead her fingers flexed against the smooth wood. The gardenia-and-jasmine scent of the candles swirled around them, fragrant evocations of long nights and lovers.

  Behind them, half-hidden once again in the shadows, Nael shifted. Stilled.

  Beneath his gaze, she felt every inch of her nakedness. She’d never felt so intensely desirable, so feminine.

  The knowledge of his watching, of that dark gaze exploring her, enjoying her, added a new dimension to her pleasure. Nael thought she was beautiful. He hungered for her. Suddenly, she felt beautiful, swept away in the heat of the moment.

  Anticipation had her pussy tightening as Zer raised her higher, sliding his head lower. His hands stroked softly along her thighs. Opening her farther. The contrast of his dark face, his head between her thighs, was shockingly explicit. Pleasure. Wet heat. She was going up in flames.

  “Wait,” she breathed, fighting for control. Losing the battle.

  “No.” The gruff command warned her, the rough words an erotic shock reinforced by the short, hard tap his hand delivered on her ass.

  Pulling her over him, he buried his face in her sex and dragged his tongue briefly over her clit. A muffled squeak of surprise escaped her bef
ore she could choke back the shocked protest. Another sharp tap landed on her rear, and the blazing pleasure jolted her forward onto his wicked tongue. God, she could feel the orgasm coiling tighter and tighter. She couldn’t hold back. Not when he touched her like this.

  “I’m going to really kiss you now, baby.” His voice warned her that he was telling, not asking. He was taking what he wanted tonight. Sure enough, his next kiss was not delicate. But sure. Bold. Parting her first with his fingers and then the thick, luscious glide of his tongue. Oh, God. She knew her eyes were drifting shut, but the pleasure—she’d never imagined pleasure like this.

  He drew back. Waited.

  They were locked in an elemental battle she’d never imagined. She was fighting to keep from coming against his mouth so quickly. Letting him know just how badly he’d undermined her defenses.

  Wet and tight, the pleasure coiled fast and hard inside her.

  “More.” She gave him the words he demanded, ripping her hands from the headboard to wrap them around his wrists as sensation rocketed through her. “Give me more.”

  “No.” Dark eyes watched her from that devilishly cold face, but there was nothing cold about his eyes, not anymore. Those black eyes were pure, liquid heat as they moved over her face.

  The sensual smack on the curve of her ass shocked her, the sharp sting fading to a heated burn that shot straight from her pinkened flesh to her weeping pussy. God. All she wanted was to beg for more. For him to touch her harder, deeper. She’d never felt such total pleasure before, the liquid jolts of sensation tearing her apart.

  Wordlessly, she stared at him.

  “I told you to do something.” She heard the sensual threat in his voice, the promise of heated punishment. His fingers moved, stroking lazy circles so near where she wept to be touched. Her fingers slid away from his wrists as she scrambled to make sense of his words.

  Another sensual tap followed, and she moaned helplessly.

  “I told you not to let go.”

  Would she? Wouldn’t she? She weighed the savage challenge of his eyes with her desperate need to come. God, he was hot. Deliberately, she wrapped her hands around the headboard again.