Highest Bidder: 1 (Mercy)

by Lexxie Couper

  A swift intake of breath lifted her gaze from Dreylan’s cock. He stared down at her, eyes ablaze. The muscles of his jaw bunched, his nostrils flared. And still he stood motionless. Waiting for her next move.

  Naya returned her attention to the solid shaft in her hand, letting her fingers slip up and down its venous length. She traced the distended edge of the cock head with her fingertips. She’d never seen a man’s cock before, not one unadorned by clothing, but she knew the one she now held in her hand was impressive. It filled her palm and stretched her fingers.

  How much will it stretch your sex?

  Her pussy constricted and a soft whimper escaped her lips. Gods, she wanted to feel it inside her. The idea scared her beyond thought, but excited her even more. She wanted to feel it pound into her, a piston of steel propelling her toward a release she’d only ever dreamed possible. Mouth dry, pulse rapid, she smoothed her fisted hand down its length, imagining it sliding into her wet, untried sex.

  Dreylan sucked in another breath.

  The heat in her belly curled, stabbing lower. Her nipples pinched. She took Dreylan’s sac into her hand. Another ripple of lascivious hunger coursed through her at its heavy weight. She moved her fingers over the twin globes, reveling in the silken hair covering them. A tickle of something bold made her slide her middle finger along the smooth stretch of skin behind his sac until it encountered the puckered opening of his anus.

  A shudder rocked Dreylan’s body and his balls rose up. “Gods,” he ground out.

  She had no delusions Dreylan Tarq was as innocent as she, yet her very touch seemed to drive him closer to losing control. The thought turned her already heated blood to molten excitement.

  Returning her fingers to his shaft, she slid them back up its turgid length. A new bead of moisture oozed from the tiny slit in the head and Naya’s mouth suddenly filled with saliva. She wanted to taste him. Just as he’d tasted her. Without hesitation, she dropped her head and touched the tip of her tongue to the glistening drop.

  Salty. And sweet.

  Dreylan’s hips bucked forward once. Savage. Wild. She heard him moan, the sound drawn out and low. Felt a tremble claim his control. She liked it, his response. It was empowering. Powerful.

  Before the tremble left him, before he could regain control, she reached out with her other hand and gripped his ass. Holding him still, she parted her lips and took his cock into her mouth, slowly, slowly lowering down his shaft until his cock head nudged the back of her throat and she could take no more.

  “Oh fuck!”

  The words shattered the air like an eruption. Dreylan’s hips flew forward, pumping his cock deeper into her mouth. She gagged, and then it was as if two pieces of a puzzle came together. She massaged his cock with her tongue and sucked.

  “Gods, Naya. If you don’t stop…”

  The statement ended with a strangled groan and another wild thrust of Dreylan’s hips. He tangled his fists in her hair and, before she could react, pulled his cock from her mouth, forcing her head back to stare into her face.

  “That is not where I want to spill my seed, Naya,” he stated through clenched teeth. “Not the first time with you.” His nostrils flared as he dragged in a sharp breath. “But if that’s what you want…”

  Naya’s heart hammered. Even to her untrained eyes she could see the pure and elemental desire in his smoldering stare. She gave him a soft smile and straightened. “I want you inside me.” She leaned forward and pressed her lips softly to his. “Now.”

  His answering growl sent a shiver over her flesh a second before he flattened her back onto the mattress and covered her body with his.

  His cock stabbed at her swollen folds, nudging her clitoris. He gazed down at her, sweat slicking his forehead, nostrils flaring. “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, Naya Kistari.”

  She smiled at him, curling her arms around his neck and spreading her legs wider, ready to take him—all of him—inside her. “No, Dreylan,” she whispered, warmth and happiness and pleasure roaring through her, emotions so new she could barely breathe. “I am going to become everything you’ve ever wanted. Completely and utterly.”

  She arched her back, pressing her pussy forward.

  And felt him pull back. Away from her.

  He stared at her, eyes wide, horror and pain clear on his face. He shook his head, pushing at the mattress with his palms, creating more space between them. “Gods, I can’t.”

  The words cut into Naya, a blade straight through her soul.

  “I can’t,” he said again, voice tight. “Naya, you are New Earth’s one chance at survival. The Galactic Union may be led by a corrupt fucker who I want dead more than sanity should allow, but inclusion in the GU will protect the planet and its vulnerable people. New Earth is seen as an untapped resource ripe for the taking and the GU will save it, not just from internal strife but from a brutal, savage invasion.” He shook his head, the pain in his eyes turning to agony with each word he spoke. “I can’t put my desires ahead of a whole planet. No matter how much I want to.”

  She frowned at him, an icy numbness spreading through her. “I don’t understand. You bought me. You own me. I’m yours to do with what you will…aren’t I?”

  Untainted desire shimmered in his intense stare. His heart hammered against her breast, his hard cock nudged her sodden sex. “I was sent to buy you, Naya. On orders from your future husband, the GU Premier. You are not mine.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut, his nostrils flaring. “Shit. What was I thinking? One touch of your lips and I forget everything but your sweetness.” He opened his eyes and let out a ragged breath, the exhalation somehow angry and sad at once. “I was a GU peace-keeper, Naya. Every minute of my life was spent protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves.” He shook his head again, a lost expression softening the anger on his face. “I may not be a peace-keeper anymore, I may despise every molecule of Ipari’s corrupt body, but that doesn’t mean I would destroy the one chance a desperate world has for survival.”

  Naya’s throat slammed shut. She couldn’t breathe. Her lungs felt brittle, her mouth dry. Yet her body still burned, and her heart wanted that burn to continue. “You said you would do anything I wanted.” She slid her hands up his arms and fisted them in his hair, holding him still, refusing to let him go. “You said, ‘Tell me what you want me to do, and by the gods, I will do it’.”

  She pulled his hair, forcing his face closer to hers. “I want you to enter me, Dreylan. I want you to make love to me. We will deal with New Earth and the Galactic Union and Premier Ipari later, but you promised you would do what I asked, and I’m asking you to claim me.”

  She stared into his eyes, every fiber of her being wanting him to take possession of her—body and soul.

  “Please, Dreylan,” she whispered. “I want the first man to make love to me to be the man of my dreams.” He remained silent, eyes unreadable, muscles like sculpted rock pressed against her body. “Please.”

  His gaze locked on hers, his hips pushed forward. His shaft pressed harder against the folds of her sex.

  Slowly, slowly, oh so wonderfully slowly, he penetrated her with his cock.

  A blistering burn seared through her sex. Oh gods! It hurts.

  She cried out, arching her body in an attempt to escape the stinging pain…and felt Dreylan’s rough thumb slide against her clitoris.

  Immediately and completely, pleasure beyond comprehension rolled through her, as though a jolt of liquid heat had surged through her being. She cried out again, this time with primitive and pure bliss. “Oh gods.”

  She bucked, and another surge of pleasure tore through her as the swollen nub of her clit ground against Dreylan’s thumb.

  “I will stop,” he said, worry fighting with passion in his eyes. “Just tell me and I—”

  “No.” Naya gasped, pushing her hips to his. “No.”

  Nostrils flaring, Dreylan eased himself into her folds. A burning sensation painted the stretching li
ps of her sex as he sank deeper, the fire licking into her core and up her spine. She hissed in a breath, the pain lessening with every passing moment.

  Had she thought what Dreylan did with his tongue pleasurable?

  This was pleasure. Absolute.

  He moved within her, settling his lower body between her thighs and undulating with slow, gentle thrusts. It drove Naya wild. With every penetration, every deep stroke, his cock possessed her completely.

  And still he kept his stare on hers, his ragged breaths the only sign their union affected him as much as it did her.

  Tight heat squeezed Naya’s heart and a pure happiness she’d never believed possible warmed her soul. Every minute movement Dreylan made was to bring her pleasure. Of that, she had no doubt. Every microsecond was for her. He worshipped her in a way more deeply than the monks ever could.

  He worshipped her because he wanted—

  Me.

  The word slipped through Naya’s head, followed immediately by the complex notion it defined. Me.

  A beat thumped in Naya’s chest and her eyes widened.

  She was still her.

  She hadn’t changed.

  Penile penetration had occurred and yet she hadn’t changed. She should be everything Dreylan Tarq wanted in a mate. Her psychological, philosophical, emotional id should now be that of his ideal mate’s—but she was still herself.

  And if nothing had changed, then wasn’t that proof that her true self, her pure self, was everything Dreylan desired? Nothing different. Nothing else.

  Nothing more.

  A heavy pressure folded around her heart and she bit back a choked sob. Gods, she hadn’t changed.

  “Naya?” Dreylan’s gentle thrusts grew still and he placed his palms on either side of her face, studying her with growing concern. “Shit. I’m sorry, my love. I’m trying so hard not to hurt you.”

  A bubble of sheer happiness enveloped her. She shook her head, lifting her hips to take his massive cock deeper into her sex, reveling in the exquisite wave of pleasure consuming her. “You’re not hurting me.” She pulled his head down and brushed his lips with hers. “It feels wonderful. I feel wonderful.”

  And to show him how wonderful she felt, Naya lifted her legs higher, squeezed them tighter, pulled him impossibly closer, impaling herself on his cock. Electricity surged through her veins. Gave her life. She sank her nails into Dreylan’s shoulders and pulled herself into his quickening thrusts. “Oh gods, Dreylan. Harder.”

  His responding growl vibrated through his body into hers. His penetrating strokes grew faster, more powerful. Less gentle. He curled one hand around her shoulder and grabbed her ass with the other, driving his thick cock into her with such carnal need she felt on fire. A tingle began in the pit of her belly, licked a deliciously rapid path into her core, out to the very tip of her swollen clit and back to her belly again, sending fingers of heat through her until every fiber of her body seemed to quiver in time with Dreylan’s thrusts.

  She cried out, a wall of squirming tension crashing over her. Her nipples were painfully hard where they rubbed against Dreylan’s chest. The wicked friction fed the consuming tension, turned her blood to lava. Gods save her, she was going to come. Not yet. Not yet. This feels too good.

  As if hearing her thoughts, Dreylan pressed his mouth to her ear. “Don’t fight it, Naya. We have a lifetime to take it slow.”

  He raked his hand from her ass to the back of her right thigh. With each penetrating stroke, he pulled her leg higher, pushing deeper into her sex, filling her, possessing her. Completely.

  The fire in her body erupted into an inferno. Spasm after spasm of heat convulsed through her, a throbbing, clenching pulse in perfect harmony with Dreylan’s savage thrusts. She screamed, unable to stop, scraping her nails down his back in a vain attempt to save herself from perishing in the explosion. “Gods, yes! Yes!”

  Dreylan continued to drive into her, each stroke growing wilder, faster than the last until, with a roar that seemed to shake Port Mercy’s very orbit, he came, his seed pumping into her in thick, hot streams.

  He collapsed to the mattress, rolling onto his back and taking her with him, his arms curled around her body, his legs entwined with hers, his cock still buried deep in her cunt. Dragging in a shaky breath, he smiled up at her, his fingers trailing little circles on her back. “I didn’t realize you were so religious.”

  Naya burst out laughing, her cheeks flooding with warmth. “Me either.” She giggled. “The monks would be impressed.”

  Dreylan smoothed his palms up her back, over her shoulders, to tangle his fingers in the tousled mess of her hair. “Oh, I’m sure they were impressed with you long before now.” He tugged her head down, brushing his mouth over her lips in a soft kiss that sent fresh jolts of hunger straight to Naya’s center. “But they can’t have you back, so they’re just going to have to deal with it.”

  He deepened the kiss and Naya willingly accepted it, opening her mouth to his seeking tongue, greeting it with her own. Contented bliss and smoldering desire threaded through her. She’d never felt so completely free, so utterly whole.

  A lifetime being prepared to lose the very essence of who she was had created in her a sense of detachment. Why become emotionally invested in herself when she would lose all she was with one simple act of sex? Yet here she lay, with the man of her dreams, no longer a virgin and still very much the same person she’d always been.

  She smiled into the kiss. Transformed or not, she knew her heart was no longer hers. Dreylan Tarq, the highest bidder, hadn’t bought it. He’d earned it. For that reason alone, she loved him.

  Pulling away from the kiss, she gazed down into his face. Gods. She loved him. A man she’d known for barely six hours. A man she’d dreamt of her whole life.

  She loved him. Utterly. Irreversibly.

  Which made what was to come all the harder.

  Snuggling against his chest, she closed her eyes, breathing in his scent, willing it to permeate her heart forever. The only connection she could take with her.

  She squeezed her eyes tighter, fighting the bitter tears threatening to sting her cheeks. Dreylan had been correct. They couldn’t put their desires ahead of the people of a whole planet. No matter that she had found her one true mate, no matter that she’d never be as happy again, she couldn’t destroy the one chance a desperate race had for survival. New Earth needed her. She had to go to Premier Pretorik Ipari. She had a duty to perform, a position to fulfill. The agreement between New Earth and the GU stipulated her planet would become a member of the union on consummation of her marriage to Ipari.

  She would go to Premier Ipari and pretend Dreylan had never touched her, never entered her. She would give herself over to the GU leader and do everything in her power to make him believe she was what he expected her to be—a virgin riephia.

  If letting him use her body—even if only once before he discovered her deception—saved New Earth, then that’s what had to be done.

  He would most likely kill her on discovery of the truth, but perhaps, if she was persuasive, he would listen to her pleas and not abandon her home planet to the brutal marauders already descending upon it.

  Perhaps, if she offered herself to him as a sexual slave, he would allow New Earth its needed place in the union.

  If she were lucky, however, if the gods truly watched over her and her people—as the monks oft asserted—Ipari would believe she’d become everything he wanted. A lifetime watching the monks temper and contain their emotions had taught her how to do the same. If the gods were on her side, Ipari would never know the woman he believed his perfect mate was actually someone else’s.

  She would do that for her people.

  He could take her body every night, deceived or not, but she would forever belong to Dreylan, her dream lover, her highest bidder.

  She pressed her palm to Dreylan’s heart, feeling its rapid beat slowly return to normal. “My soul is yours,” she said.

  “And mi
ne yours,” he murmured back. “Forever.”

  “Forever,” she repeated on a whisper as two hot, fatalistic tears finally defied her will and slipped from her eyes, branding her cheeks with grim resignation.

  * * * * *

  He walks through long grass, letting the tips of the bowing blades brush his palms. The soil is cool beneath his bare feet, as cool as the gentle breeze lifting his hair from his face. A frown creases his forehead. It has been many solar cycles since his hair reached his eyebrows, his cheeks. And for that matter, the field he walks no longer exists, lost to time and civil war.

  The field of the dream invader, where a lunar cycle of fasting moves a potential adolescent invader into either the dream plane or the dreamless sleep.

  He never sleeps here. Here he destroys enemies, shatters sanities and crushes uprisings.

  Here he grew stronger, stronger, until no other dream invader could best him.

  Here he learned the terrifying power of a nightmare.

  And the terrifying cost.

  The soft grass turns to slicing blades and he lifts his palms, studying the fresh blood seeping from the tiny but deep gashes in his flesh. The pain radiates up his arms, lancing at his heart, and his body turns icy.

  Let me take your pain away.

  Naya forms on the air, soft and delicate, her eyes silver, her lips the color of an Ezilian rose. She takes his bleeding hands in hers and lifts them to her lips, a smile dancing in her gaze.

  A wave of rapture rolls through him and his heart hammers into life. She removes his hands from her lips and shows them to him.

  The blood is gone, replaced by a kiss that shimmers like the new stars on Equox Eve. Because I love you, she says, and her voice comes not from her mouth but from the heavens. It plays over his body like a caress and he pulls in a deep breath, the air sweet and no longer tainted with bitter memories. Because I did not change.

  She gently presses her palms to his jaw and heat melts into his body. She smiles again, the expression sad. But now I have to go.