by Moira Rogers
Strong hands closed on her waist and jerked her from her feet. The world spun and she ended up in his lap with her back tucked tight against his bare chest. He tugged on her legs until her knees rested on either side of his, spreading her open.
She felt his breath against the back of her neck as he nuzzled her hair aside. “You have a mirror on your dresser,” he whispered, stroking his hands up the inside of her thighs and easing them farther apart. “We can both watch you come.”
She was completely exposed to his sight and touch. His cock was hard, and Zahra arched her back, grinding her ass down against the full length of his erection through his pants. “Then will I feel you inside me?”
His fingers continued up her thigh until they brushed her cunt. He teased a finger over her and dipped it just inside. “You can have my fingers for now.” His gaze locked on hers in the mirror and he jerked her legs wider with a feral smile. “Touch yourself. Make yourself come.”
She moved slowly, her gaze still fixed on his. As soon as her fingertips touched her cunt, slipping a little over her wet flesh, Jarek growled and closed his teeth hard on the back of her shoulder. Zahra cried out and went rigid from the sheer sensual shock of it. Only her hips moved, bucking against her hand and then back against him.
“Too slow.” The words ripped free of him as he rose with her in his arms. He whipped her body around as if she weighed nothing, dropping her in the middle of the bed on her hands and knees. His hands rubbed over her ass a second before she felt his breath against the backs of her thighs. “Spread your legs.”
Her knees slid too far over the slippery satin sheets, and he had to haul her back up a little. She couldn’t breathe, anticipation tightening to a hard knot in her midsection. “Your mouth?” she asked. She knew Jarek would understand.
He touched her with his fingers first, slicked them against her cunt before rubbing her clit with maddening gentleness. He bit the back of her thigh and higher, closing his teeth on the curve of her ass. Then she felt his mouth, hot and wet and determined, and he groaned as he dragged his tongue over her.
He licked her eagerly, and Zahra moaned. The tension in her belly went beyond anticipation now, all the way to something painfully like need. “Fuck.” His tongue circled her clit and she cursed again. “Oh, fuck —”
Another growl vibrated against her as he thrust his tongue into her cunt. Rough fingers landed on her clit, rubbing in a quick, jerky circle before he caught it between his thumb and forefinger.
Pleasure rose up and crashed over her in a sudden wave, startling a scream from her. It happened again and again, each rush of sensation more intense than the last. She shook under Jarek’s hands and mouth, and her hands slipped from under her. She wound up with her chest and cheek against the smooth satin, crying out through the last shocks of orgasm wracking her.
Jarek wasn’t talking anymore. The feral energy inside him curled around her, overpowering and demanding submission. He stroked her until she quieted, then rose and slid his hands up her back and over her shoulders. His fingers closed around her wrists and tugged, urging her to shift toward the head of the bed, toward the delicate, bespelled chains designed to clip on to the cuffs around her wrists.
Zahra was shaking, and she could barely hold her arms steady while he fastened the chains to her wrists. The pale green jewels set into the leather glinted in the low light, and she had to lick her lips to speak. “Jarek?”
“Zahra?”
She looked up at him, aching. Empty. “I want you.”
His eyes glinted icy blue. He traced the line of her spine with one hand, following it down to graze her ass. Then he reached for the drawstring on his pants.
He disrobed in silence, letting the linen fall to the floor as he wrapped a hand around his cock and stroked it, his gaze still locked on her face. “I want to take you.”
Her cunt spasmed again as she looked at him standing there by the bed, tall and strong and solid. “Please,” she whimpered. “I’m ready. I’m so ready.”
The surge of magic was the only warning before he moved. His hands hit the bed on either side of her arms and his chest pressed down against her back, covering her. He rubbed his cock against her cunt but didn’t take her. Instead he bit the back of her shoulder again and growled. “Say it again.”
“I want you. I’m ready.” His breath blew across her neck and back, hot and fast. “Jarek.”
This time his growl made his chest rumble against her back. She felt his hand curl in her hair a second before he tugged her head back. “Again.”
“I want you. I’m —” The words died in her throat, replaced by a hoarse shriek as he drove into her. It was fast and rough and too good for words. Zahra moaned and rocked as much as she could, the delicate chains clinking against her cuffs.
“Zahra.” He whispered her name against the back of her shoulder, his voice shaking. His entire body shook, the muscled arm braced next to her head tensing as he withdrew inch by torturous inch.
“Jarek.” She was trembling just as much as he was, and she turned her face to his. “Please.”
His next thrust was even rougher. A desperate growl worked up out of him, and she felt the sting of his teeth against her jaw.
She thought she was ready, but nothing could have prepared her for the overload of sensation that flooded her, leaving her breathless and panting as he pounded into her. It was rutting, pure and simple, the feral magic inside him sparking over her skin as each driving thrust fed the hungry need inside him.
And he was hungry. His free hand flowed over her skin, never stopping, as if he wanted to touch all of her at once, and the only way to come close was to keep moving. He kissed and bit her neck and shoulder, every wet caress leaving her shuddering as much as the hard pressure of his cock inside her.
His fingers lingered finally on her breast, molding the flesh before his fingers caught her nipple and tugged at it while his mouth moved to her ear. “Too hard?”
Zahra needed more, but she couldn’t speak at first, so she shook her head. Finally, she managed to whisper, “Harder.”
He pinched her nipple harder and bit her earlobe with a low laugh. His next thrust slammed their hips together and he groaned. “Your cunt is so hot. Be hotter when you come around me.”
She tried to answer, but all that came out was a rough moan. Pleasure had built too quickly for her to have anything but a hard, quick orgasm, and she wanted it desperately. It made her dizzy, the thought of clamping tight around his cock, of drawing the same sort of pleasure from him.
Zahra could barely move, but she caught the chains that held her and wrapped them around her hands. She used the leverage to stretch her back and lower her upper body to the bed. It shifted her hips, changing the angle of their coupling, and his next thrust made her scream.
He reared up with a satisfied snarl, and his hands landed on her hips. He rode her through the pleasure, stroking deep and hard with rough, panting growls that accompanied flares in his power. He didn’t stop, not when she came again, or even when her body began to clench a third time. An open hand landed on her ass in a stinging slap. “Keep coming.”
It was far from the quick peak she’d expected. Even if she’d wanted to stop, he kept driving her higher. Zahra bucked under him, moving to meet his cock even as he drove into her, and she was vaguely aware of speaking, but she had no idea what she was saying. She only knew she needed it to go on forever, the maddening twist of ecstasy that Jarek brought with every touch.
He pulled from her without warning and tore at the chain holding her right wrist. The magic in the chain didn’t extend to the headboard, and iron snapped as he ripped it free. In the next second, Zahra landed on her back with her left hand still restrained and her calves on Jarek’s shoulders. He slammed into her again and watched her face as he worked his cock deeper. “Touch yourself. Now.”
The chain draped across her body, cool and tingling with magic, as she reached down to obey him. She was shaking so hard the
chain rattled, and she jerked against him when she touched her clit.
“Good.” His gaze stayed fixed on her face as he gripped her legs and resumed his hard, demanding thrusts. His blue eyes were wild, but under the surface she could feel his beast gathering. “Mine.”
Zahra was beyond the rise and fall of pleasure, and she didn’t trust her voice. So she nodded, squeezed her eyes shut and dug her head back into the soft pillows. All that existed was the way Jarek touched her, the way he fucked her, and she could only hold on and wait for him to join her in the maelstrom of neverending bliss they’d created.
She felt his breath against her calf a moment before the power swelled to dangerous levels. He bit her and the world shattered, the explosion of magic accompanied by a low, ragged growl.
As quickly as it had swelled, the magic retreated. She could feel it inside him, shattered pieces of it locking into place, reordering what had been broken, and the room calmed. They were silent except for their short, panting breaths, and Zahra lay under Jarek, trying to calm her own heart and mind.
Finally, he lifted his head. Cool blue eyes studied her, the wildness receding as intelligence returned. He drew in a slow, careful breath and withdrew from her with heart-stopping gentleness. When she was settled back on the bed he dropped to his side next to her and reached for the cuff around her wrist. “Are you all right?”
“You didn’t hurt me.” She raised her unbound hand to stroke his cheek. “What about you? Are you… better?”
He freed her and sank back to the bed, his eyes drifting closed. “I know who I am,” he said finally, his voice still ragged. “But I don’t know how I got to the Temple. Or what happened to push me over the edge.”
He was barely conscious, and Zahra’s chest ached. “Sleep. It will wait.”
But he didn’t drift off, even though his weariness was tangible. His arm lifted, then hesitated. “Will you stay with me?”
He needed her, now perhaps even more than before. She curled against his side and rested her cheek on the hard wall of his chest. “I’ll stay with you.”
His arm settled across her waist. His fingers rubbed slow circles against her lower back as the tense muscles in his body began to relax. “Thank you, Zahra.”
She smiled in spite of herself. “You remember my name now too, I see.”
Jarek’s chuckle sounded rusty. “I seem to remember it being one of the few things I could say today.”
“You said enough to get your point across.” It came out all wrong, and Zahra blushed, her cheeks hot. “Get some rest, Jarek.”
His hand stilled on her back, fingers spread possessively over her skin. His breathing slowed and he sighed quietly. “Good night.”
Zahra closed her eyes and listened to his soft breathing and the steady beat of his heart. She’d forgotten, too — the way she’d felt years ago when Jarek had looked at her with those bright blue eyes of his. The thrill of excitement and the promise of pleasure, the butterflies in the pit of her stomach. And now…
Later, Zahra. She’d think about it later.
Chapter Two
Jarek settled his feet on the floor and stared at himself in the mirror on Zahra’s dresser. He caught a glimpse of her in the reflection, of her smooth, dark skin hidden in shadows as she slept. She was every bit as beautiful as the student he remembered, but time had refined her features, turned a soft, gorgeous girl into a striking woman.
He forced his attention back to his own reflection and winced at what he saw. Wild, unshaven, he looked like his patients sometimes did after a hard month on the front lines. He recognized the brittleness in his own eyes as the result of trauma.
As for what that trauma was… His memory held a frightening gap that made his heart hammer even though he knew the medical explanation. They’d co-opted the humans’ term for it, but post-traumatic stress seemed a poor description of what happened to a wolf when his beast tried to protect him from something his mind couldn’t handle. Madness was more like it.
Something had happened. Something so terrible it had shattered his mind and let the wolf inside him take control. It was rare for someone who wasn’t a warrior, but not unheard of. Provisions would have been in place to bring him to the Temple and assign him to a senior priestess, one trained in handling feral men.
And none of it explained how he’d ended up curled around Zahra, a healer whose skills were rarely plied in the bedchamber. But he had, and she was the only memory he had of the past few days. Her scent, her skin, the way she tasted and the way she came for him…
His cock stirred, and he swore and closed his eyes. No.
The bed moved, and she spoke, her voice husky from sleep. “Jarek?”
He hardened so fast he had to bite back a groan. “Yes?”
One soft hand skimmed over his back, and he felt her lips on the back of his shoulder. “Do you need anything?”
She’d be able to see him in the mirror, everything from his clenched jaw to his closed eyes to the erection that probably wouldn’t subside as long as she was in the room with him. “My beast isn’t in control anymore, but it’s not quiet yet.”
Satin rustled as Zahra climbed from the bed. He heard her kneel in front of him even before she rested her hands on his thighs. “I trust your beast more than most men. You were very gentle.”
He’d seen the marks of his teeth along her shoulders and back. He’d seen the bruises on his hand, the ones that meant he’d closed his hand around her wrist or ankle hard enough to grind the jeweled cuffs into his skin. He opened his eyes and touched her cheek. “Didn’t seem that way to me.”
She looked debauched. Her dark hair fell in disheveled waves around her bare shoulders, and an amused smile curved lush lips still swollen from his kisses. “Don’t I get to be the judge of your relative tenderness?”
He moved his fingers to her lips because he couldn’t stop himself. “I hate the idea of hurting you. And I’m scared that I could have. Why did you take that risk, Zahra?”
Doubt flashed in her eyes, and she looked away. “When they told me you were here, I went to see you. They were ready to send you to another priestess, one with silver robes, but you said you wanted me.”
“Of course I did.” No point pretending surprise, not when his hazy memories included marking her with words as well as his body. He smoothed his fingers over the loose strands of her hair and sighed. “I wanted you. I still want you. But it would have killed me to hurt you by mistake.”
“I think you might have hurt another priestess. You —” She bit her lip. “You attacked a Temple guard who tried to get between us. He’s fine, but you were… insistent.”
Another memory blessedly out of reach. Jarek reached for her. “Come up here so I can hold you. Please.”
“Is that what you need?” Her fingertips feathered over his erection as she spoke.
Jarek fisted the blankets in his free hand as his body tensed. With Zahra on her knees in front of him, it was impossible to banish the fantasy, the image of her lips around his cock. But in his fantasy she hadn’t been a priestess tending to a warrior, just a woman who needed him as desperately as he needed her.
He slid his fingers through her hair again, this time wrapping the strands around his hand. “Who’s asking? A priestess or a woman?”
She stared up at him, desire etched on her delicate features. “A woman,” she whispered, her hand closing around his shaft, “finishing what began a long time ago.”
Jarek moaned and grasped her wrist, holding her hand still. “A long time ago, I was a man with fifteen years of service ahead of me. And you were too precious to become one of the brides of silence.”
“I would have taken that chance.” Her eyes grew bright with tears. “I could easily have loved you then. Maybe I did.”
And the king wouldn’t have been pleased to find his cousin had promised to wait for a healer of no lineage — one who might not ever return — when every rich warrior freshly released from the army dreamt of wooing
her. It hadn’t stopped him from wanting her, or from kissing her the week before he’d been sent to the front lines. It had been a foolish, reckless decision, one that had branded the taste of her lips on his goddamn psyche and left him wanting her for years.
“Fuck.” He curled his hand around the back of her neck and leaned down, kissing her with all the hard desperation that had built inside him since that day.
She released his cock and slipped her arms around his waist as she rose to meet his kiss, her own ardor evident in the way she bit his lip and moaned into his mouth. The wildness inside him stirred, attracted by her pleasure and the need to possess her.
He pulled back just enough to bite her lower lip with a soft growl. “I may want the woman, but something inside me still needs the priestess.”
“I’ll give you everything,” she whispered against his mouth. “Everything you need.”
It was what he feared — Zahra losing herself in a man so broken he couldn’t even remember the tragedy that had shattered his mind.
And, damn him for a selfish bastard, he couldn’t turn down what she offered.
Jarek lifted his hands and curled them in her hair, using the grip to tilt her head back. “I want to play with you. Discover all the things that make you scream.”
She smiled and relaxed into his touch, baring even more of the soft line of her throat. “We have time for a little exploration, as long as I get my turn.”
He indulged himself and kissed the smooth skin over her pulse. “And what would you like to do with your turn?”
Her pulse sped under his lips, and a blush darkened her cheeks. “I want your cock in my mouth. I want to taste you. Make you come.”
A few more hot, open-mouthed kisses along her neck got his lips to her ear. “Maybe we should try that first.”
She laughed. “That was the plan before you distracted me, Jarek.”
He straightened, leaving one hand wrapped in her hair and dropping the other to the bed behind him. “Stupid of me. Take me in your mouth.” But he had too many plans to let her drive him over the edge quickly.
