“More.” The word was a sob, but I couldn’t hold it inside. It burst from my throat, tearing part of my soul with it. “More.” I needed to let go, to break. I was so tired, exhausted from holding everything inside, locked away in an emotional prison. I couldn’t let it out. I’d forgotten how. “Please.”
“Mine. My mate.” His gentle touch was in stark contrast to the sharp sting of the strap as he worked it over my bare bottom. The sting faded and he put it aside, using his hand once more.
“Spread your legs.”
I shook my head, unable to speak but that was not the answer he wanted and his hand landed with a sharp sting on my bottom.
“Spread your legs.” His voice was deep, dominant, and my body moved as if it had a mind of its own. He had twisted the leather into some sort of braid and he worked it in and out of my pussy as his hand landed on my bottom. Over and over he spanked me, worked me with the leather, played with my clit until I broke.
An orgasm roared through me without warning or mercy and I screamed as I lost control, thrashing over his lap. When it faded, I couldn’t regain control. I was a sobbing, needy mess. My entire body tingled, every nerve on high alert. The simple act of drawing air into my lungs had become too much for my overly sensitized body.
“Please! I want you. Please.” I was begging, but I didn’t care. I needed and only Hunter could give me release.
“You are difficult, mate.” He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and cupped my breasts, lifting me up so that my back rested against his chest. My legs were splayed open over his straining cock, my bent knees resting on the bed on either side of his thighs as he plucked and teased my nipples.
I wasn’t his mate, but a small, traitorous part of me wanted to be, wanted nothing more than to belong to him. To have his touch, his dominance, his strength forever.
Lowering his hands to my hips, he positioned me over his cock and pulled me down onto his hard length, the thick head spreading me open with a stinging pain at his size. The slight discomfort added to every other sensation and I threw my head back with a moan, trying to take him deeper. “Do it. Please. Fuck me.”
“You don’t give the orders. I do.” His fist tangled in my hair and pulled my head back to expose my neck. His other hand moved to my thighs, pulling my legs wider, opening me farther so that I sank down another inch. Two. “Who’s in charge?”
A garbled sound left my throat as he used the fist in my hair to hold me in place as his cock slid deep, opening me up. When his hard head hit my womb my entire body shuddered and he pulled back on my hair, twisting my head on my neck and angling my face up and back to meet his. The top half of my body was twisted, the bottom half impaled on his hard cock.
I needed to move. More. I needed more.
“Look at me.”
I hadn’t realized I’d closed my eyes until his command forced me to open them. As I stared into his blue eyes, fighting for breath, the hand on my thigh rose higher to stroke my clit in a slow, languid glide through my wet folds. I was filled, stuffed to the breaking point, ready to shatter, yet he held me captive, owned my body, my pleasure.
“Who’s in charge?”
I knew the answer. Felt it in the way his cock spread me open, the way his rough hand fisted in my hair. The burning pain on my bottom and thighs. “You are.”
“You’re mine. Do you understand?”
There were no words in my mind, only base instinct as he lowered his face toward me, his lips hovering just out of reach. I wanted that mouth. I wanted him to pump into me with his cock and fuck my mouth with his tongue. I wanted to break. To scream. To give in.
“Say yes, Mira.”
One. Simple. Word. “Yes.”
Surrender. I saw the light of conquest in his gaze in the moment before his lips crushed mine. Rocking his hips, he moved inside me, never leaving my body as his fingers rubbed my clit at a shattering pace.
I exploded in seconds, but he didn’t stop, simply buried my scream in his kiss and pushed me to another release, my pussy pulsing and spasming around his huge cock in endless pleasure as he worked my body like a master.
I was still shivering, my body quivering with aftershocks when he lifted me off his lap and scooted deeper into the pillows to lie on his back on the bed.
“Ride me, mate. I want to watch your breasts bounce as you come.”
The suggestion was radical, blasphemous, treason. Being conquered, fucked, was bad enough. But if I did this, climbed onto him, skin on skin, naked writhing bodies. I would have no excuse for my weakness, no lies I could tell myself later.
This was my choice.
None of it mattered. His cock was slick and wet from my juices. My ass burned from the spanking, my body was on fire. For him.
More. I wanted more. More skin. More of his cock filling me. More pleasure. I was greedy. I wanted more, and that’s all I could think of. Coherent thought seemed to have gone up in smoke when he set my body on fire. Nothing mattered but filling the painful emptiness inside me.
Tired of fighting myself, I gave in and followed him down on the bed. With shaking fingers I straddled his hips. I couldn’t deny the commanding set of his jaw, nor could I allow myself permission to admit he’d conquered me so completely. So I closed my eyes as I positioned myself over him. Tormenting myself I sank down, just a sample, no more, then stopped and opened my eyes.
“Take it all. Now.” Hunter’s hands glided over my thighs, my hips, and rested in the curve of my waist, burned into my flesh with the same intensity his gaze burned into mine, hungry and dominant.
My chest was tight. He lifted his hips, stretched me a little more as I gasped. Every jolt of movement sent a stinging reminder of the spanking through my body, made my pussy clench with need.
“I won’t stop, Mira. You’re mine now. Forever.”
Forever. Power pulsed behind the word, squeezed my heart and clenched my deepest core as I slammed my hips down to take all of him. I didn’t want to stop. But despite our personal desires, I had my orders, my duty, and he had his. For two sweet days we would both pretend otherwise.
Aye, I’d burn in hell’s fire for this.
And I didn’t care. I leaned over, driving my clit into the hard muscles of his abdomen as I rocked my hips on his cock. Crushing my breasts to his bare chest, I lifted my arms and buried my fingers in his hair to pull him closer. “Kiss me.”
Chapter Six
Hunter
I didn’t need a second invitation. Tongue thrusting deep, I pulled her down hard. She tasted like honey, and wildflowers, and something else, elusive and perfect I couldn’t define.
Gently at first, I pulled her legs wider, lifted my hips up from the bed and drove myself inside. Her pleasure filled my mind and every secret desire was laid bare before the power of my gift. Uppermost in her thoughts was the need to be dominated, ridden, thrown down and pumped into with reckless abandon.
Her visions, her need, pushed me over the edge. I rolled her onto her back and rammed home in one powerful lunge. Free now to roam and explore, I tore my mouth from hers and nibbled a path of soft bites to her left breast. Mira dug her fingers into my hair, pulled me to her, and arched, thrusting the hard peak up toward my lips, silently pleading with me to feast there. I teased her, flicked and swirled my tongue on the mound until she whimpered beneath me, until the delicate hands buried in my hair turned frantic.
Then I sucked her nipple into my mouth, deep and strong. Instinctively, her hips tilted toward me, pulled me deeper. Mira stopped breathing for a moment, then moaned when I placed a hand on each knee and spread her legs so wide they nearly touched the bed on either side of her. Drowning in her scent, in her taste, I released her nipple, then pulled it back into my mouth. Rhythmic and demanding, my tongue and my body stroked her with a matching beat. I wanted to play, to taste, to learn every secret curve. I wanted her begging for release, screaming when I took her. I wanted everything…
Once again claiming her mouth with my own,
I slid one hand beneath her to lift her, and ground my hips in a slow-moving pattern that made her crazy. A sudden burst of power hummed into the air, invaded my body like a thousand tickling fingertips of magic. With every shift of her hips, every soft whisper of her hair on the sheets, her soul called to mine, a siren luring her mate.
“Hunter! Please!” Mira’s head thrashed from side to side.
She needed more, and so did I. Still deep inside, I stroked, slid in and out, over and over. She shivered, her hips rose in invitation and I blew a hot kiss of air over her, wandered a path of bliss along the side of her neck with my tongue.
Mira arched her back, locked her legs behind my thighs and surged up to meet me, pulled me deeper. Relentless, I whispered my fantasies into her ear, told her all the different ways I wanted to have her and taste her as I eased one hand between our joined bodies. Flicked over her once, just once, with my finger. She shivered. Again. And again.
She tasted like fire, passion, and power. Addicting and sweet.
Unable to stop, I pumped into her until she screamed and her inner muscles went into spasm around me.
Impatient to lose myself in her, I rose to my knees and lifted her hips off the bed. I pulled her toward me until she lay sprawled like a sacrificial offering to the gods.
Still shadowing her thoughts, logic was overruled by my body as I claimed her, ruthlessly determined that she would never forget my taste, my body over hers, my need. I wanted to possess her forever. Pound into her until she begged me to let her come. She was so hot, so tight. Spreading her legs wider, I held onto her hips and pulled her body onto my cock.
I thrust deep and stayed. Small circular movements were all I allowed. Mira whimpered. Her pussy clamped down on me and wouldn’t let go. I pulled out a fraction, pushed again. Harder. With every movement the wet heat of her rippled around me, her psychic power flared and mine answered until she screamed. Her entire body shook and quaked as she came, the fluttering movements of her pussy tried to milk me dry, stealing every ounce of my seed, and my soul, as I followed her over the edge.
I collapsed onto her and rested my forehead in the hollow of her neck. Fool that I was, when our time here was over, I knew she would resist my claim. She would resist me, try to return to her old life. She was honorable and driven. A warrior and a priestess. She would never choose me over her duty to her people.
I’d bargained for two days to try to claim her heart. It wouldn’t be enough. The situation was impossible. She was my Fated Mate. Mine.
Pulling my cock free, I collapsed onto the bed and drew her close, tucking her in next to me. I lifted the cover over us both and stared at the ceiling as my heart settled and we both fought for breath.
* * *
Mira
Pain ripped through my abdomen in a wave and I reached down to find the source, to massage away the cramping.
But my body was huge, much too large. And something was trying to come out of me, something bad. Something terrifying. Forbidden. I wasn’t ready.
I would never be ready.
The next wave of cramping made my belly ripple and I whimpered like a tortured animal, too scared to scream, afraid someone outside this room, this small room, would hear. I clenched my teeth and tossed my head back until the movement was stopped by a warm, soft shoulder. A man’s shoulder.
He was mine. Behind me, his soft voice whispered, “It will be all right, love. I promise. We’ll run away.”
Liar! The thought flooded me, but I was still lost in the dream, pulled along in the current.
His voice was familiar and love welled within me. I drew courage from his touch and comfort in knowing the arms that held me would not falter as the pain rose again. I leaned back against his warm chest and looked down to find a woman I did not recognize kneeling at my feet on the bed. She smiled up at me, her dark hair pulled back and both her hands and her face lined with age.
“Soon, Mira. It’s almost time.”
Power woke me, little electric shocks that jumped between my naked body and Hunter’s. I struggled to hold onto the dream, sure I was about to make an important discovery, but like a fierce wind rattling a rusty door, sneaking in around the edges, Hunter’s energy surged and receded within him and jumped to me. I knew his body was combating the chemicals still circulating in his blood. I ignored the little bursts of power. Just as I ignored the word that shimmered in my mind when Hunter touched me. Mine. Mine. Mine. I didn’t know why my heart was so insistent, but I instinctively knew what that one word would do.
Steal my freedom… bind us together so tightly I’d lose my very soul.
“You’re awake.” Hunter’s deep voice rumbled through his chest and into my ear. We’d eaten a quiet dinner, bathed, and then he’d taken me again before we slept.
Lifting my cheek to look up at him, I smiled. “I’m exhausted.” And sore. And deliciously happy. The thoughts escaped before I could censor them, and I was grateful that his empathic abilities were hampered. As difficult as it would be for me to return to my people, I would. There was no alternative. I served the throne and no other. I protected the High Priestess from killers and thieves, from political intrigue and assassins. I had duties, responsibilities. This detour to rescue Octavia was taking a bit longer than I’d planned, but the thought of never returning to Zatari, of abandoning my duty was unthinkable. No matter how much Hunter’s warmth soothed me, or how mind-blowing the orgasms might be.
Before I’d begun this mission, I’d been so determined, telling myself I was willing to defy my queen and betray my people for answers. But the truth was more complicated. For my entire life I’d been loyal to the High Priestess, to my mother and the other elders, believed that I served the greater good, that the people of Zatari needed me.
Without that purpose, what was I? A puppet? A fool? A well-trained animal suddenly off its leash? Without my honor, my purpose, I was nothing. And in the deepest part of my heart, I’d believed I would find Octavia and bring her home.
But now? Doubt crept in like fog over a river and I was losing my sense of direction, my sense of self. And then there was my new lover, the feelings he stirred within me, the need. I was not supposed to want a man for my own. Needing him? Depending on him? Trusting him? Blasphemous. Forbidden.
Yet I found myself struggling against all of those desires and more. Since leaving Zatari I’d become weak. Needy. I’d submitted to the enemy and reveled in the freedom that made me feel. I’d welcomed the feeling of being protected and cherished. Desired for myself and not for what I could do. Hunter knew nothing about me, and yet he touched me as if I were delicate as spun glass, as if I were precious and perfect. Beautiful.
Almost absently, Hunter’s hand glided over the flesh of my arm, caressing. Arousing. I wanted him again. And this time, I wanted to be on top. I wanted to come all over his cock as I ground down on his hips, taking him deep, watching his face as I took what was mine.
Mine. That was such a dangerous word, but it was the only one I could think of as I rose from the bed and crawled over his large frame. His cock was hard and ready and I swirled my tongue around his nipple as I straddled his hips, I let my hands relearn the planes of his chest. Hunter moaned beneath me, but his fingers dug into my hips and held me still. His telepathic gifts might be hampered, but mine were not. I read his intentions clearly, his need to negotiate, to plan, to ask me questions I wouldn’t answer. “Mira, we have to talk.”
“No. We don’t.” Talking, thinking, planning… all were things I didn’t want to do at the moment. All I wanted was to take him, ride him, clench him with my pussy until he bucked beneath me and begged for more.
Devious, I shifted and lowered myself onto his hard length. The bliss that filled me was dangerous territory.
“We need to talk now.” The strength in his hands, which held me still, suddenly shifted to pull my torso toward his as he pumped up into me with his hard length once more.
Still struggling for control, I rested my forehead on hi
s shoulder and absorbed the moment. Full. Sated. And caressed by Hunter’s hands that slid up and down my back as he fucked me.
His deep laughter called to the playful side of my nature, and I hid my smile at his words. “Is this what you wanted?” He pressed on my lower back, grinding my hips onto him, my clit onto his hard stomach. I moaned.
“Yes.” I lifted my head and kissed him with every pent-up emotion I could never admit to, could never surrender to the keeping of any male. When I pulled my lips from his, he was swelling inside me, close to his own release.
“Say you’re mine.”
I shook my head and his hand landed with a sharp swat to my bottom.
“Mira, do I need to take you over my knee?”
The erotic image his question conjured made my pussy clamp down on his cock like a fist. He groaned beneath me. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? My hot hand on your naked ass.”
“No.” Lie. I was a terrible liar. He grinned and pumped into me, neither of us in the mood for teasing. When I shattered, he filled me with his seed and held me cradled to his chest, his cock still inside me.
“Aye, a man could get used to waking up this way.”
The joy within me faded. “Aye.” I crawled from his lap, unable to meet his gaze. I had one more day to live for myself. Then we would have to leave this room, this fantasy life. Reality would be waiting and I would belong to my people once again.
I headed for the small door in the corner of the room. As much as I needed a shower, I needed escape from his probing eyes even more. Males weren’t supposed to be like him. And I knew him well, had glimpsed his soul with my mind. He was strong. Intelligent. Honorable.
“Mira.”
Ruthless.
Silent as a ghost, he rose from the bed behind me and closed the distance. The heat from his body swamped me. If I leaned back, I’d meet hot, hard male flesh. Hand resting on the door scanner, I couldn’t move.
Conquering His Mate (Mates of Zatari Book 2) Page 6
