by Lora Leigh
Contents
01. Barak's Bargain
02. Winged Sex
Barak’s Bargain
Lora Leigh
A coming sequel to the
Breed Series.
To see other breed series check out
Wolfe's Hope
Jacob's Faith
Tempting The Beast
at www.ellorascave.com/LL.htm
“I say we just get medieval on their asses and have done with it. My daddy still has all those swords. And there’s a right beautiful axe that would cleave one in two.” Lady Pam Beaumont whispered with a decidedly bloodthirsty tone to her voice.
Her brown eyes were dark with anger, and a shadow of fear. Her café au lait complexion was flushed with anger though, and the narrowed intent of her gaze could cause nervousness in the strongest man. Mary knew it could, she had seen it happen.
“I say we just wait them out. Who the bloody hell do they think they are, ordering us in this manner? Perhaps its no more than a bluff.” Lady Lisa Kensington hissed furiously.
Her deep blue eyes sparkled with her own fury as she flipped back a thick strand of dark brown hair over her shoulder. She was pale though, an indication that she was more worried than she wanted to admit to.
Lady Mary Rhodes watched her dear dearest friends silently as they argued the matter out between them. At this point, she feared they really didn’t have a choice in the situation facing them.
“Money grubbing bastards,” Pam’s voice vibrated with the depth of her anger. “You would think the stinking rats would consider themselves well off by now.”
But they didn’t. The ‘bastards’ in question were always striving for more, always taking what they considered due them, whether such ‘due’ made sense or not. In this case, it made little sense to the three titled ladies faced with acquisition.
Acquisition. Mary barely restrained her shudder of distaste, they were being acquired, rather than courted. As ‘Ladies’ of wealth, a new title bestowed in just the last decade to designate women of pure human blood, unpolluted by the Breeds that roamed among them.
“Why should it matter what our grandfather’s did?” Lisa said softly, knowing well that it mattered whether it made sense or not.
“Because they’ve gained power. And because they must find some way to wreak vengeance. Justice,” Mary sighed regretfully as she came to her feet and walked to the high, narrow window of her bedroom.
She stared out over the city, seeing the flicker of lights below, imagining the horrors of the after-light life. There were those who roamed the city when darkness fell, that had little mercy for those weaker than themselves. Dark, diseased beings, filled with rage and loathing for those who lived above them.
It was the way of the world now. So much had changed in the past decades, even since her own birth. Only the strong survived now. Only those who managed to gain a foothold in the upper crust of society could make their way comfortably. And falling from that lofty stature was a terrifying thought. Their families could well fall, if they didn’t act.
“Violence will not achieve our ends,” Lisa finally sighed behind her. “And neither will ignoring them I know. What else is left, Mary?”
Mary clenched her fists. She fought to hold onto her control despite the fury and sense of betrayal that filled her.
“We steal the files.” She turned back to her friends, watching them carefully as she gave voice to the idea that had formed over the past days. “They can do nothing without proof. We steal back the proof they have gathered.”
Lisa’s eyes widened in concern, though Pam’s seemed to glitter with excitement.
“Their leader, Barak, forced the acquisition of the maternal estate from father. It’s a place we all know well. As Enforcers, they will be out working the night. Tomorrow night, we slip in, steal back the files, and return here. Then we can get medieval on their asses.” She grinned in triumph as her friends watched her with surprise.
It was a plan she was greatly looking forward to. Barak had dared to try to blackmail her into a relationship that she would have fully embraced had he but asked her.
“It will be exceedingly dangerous,” Lisa said slowly. “How will we get there?”
“We’ll leave before dark, and wait behind the estate until they leave. The safe has a fail catch that few are aware of. I can access it, no matter the change of the combination. He would of course keep such valuable papers protected.”
It would be so simple, she thought. The bastards would never know they were there.
“Excellent,” Pam breathed. “I’m in. We’ll beat them at their own game.”
“Too bad,” Lisa sighed, glancing at each of them then. “I rather liked Tallan. It would have been no hardship to have been courted by him.”
“Derrick as well.” Pam shrugged. “He seemed quiet nice, even for such a merciless breed. I think I could have handled him though.” She gave them a saucy grin, though it was tingled with regret.
Mary said nothing. She had thought she and Barak had been forming a rather close friendship over the past months. She had not expected such deception from him. She felt betrayed, furious that he would attempt to blackmail her in this way.
“We’re agreed on our course of action then?” She asked the other two.
“Agreed.” They nodded as they spoke simultaneously.
“Excellent. Tomorrow then. And then we’ll see whose squirming when they no longer have the leverage needed to acquire us. Perhaps then, they’ll see we aren’t as weak as they would believe.”
Smug satisfaction filled her. She would show him she wasn’t as easy to defeat as he believed she would be. Acquire her would he? As though she were a piece of real estate, something to be bartered for. The new laws that governed the breeding of full blood humans and breeds now were ridiculous. As though one were better than the other. The world was a place of madness anymore.
It wasn’t a problem she could fix though. She had to concentrate on Barak, as much as she hated the thought of it. Damn him. He didn’t have to make such a move. Didn’t have to try to force what would have been willingly given. And yet, it was exactly what he had tried to do.
She ignored the need that clawed through her body like talons of greedy sensation. His touch made her burn, the few gentle kisses he had bestowed had given her hope. A hope he had destroyed in one senseless, cruel move.
She was fucked. Figuratively and Mary assumed, soon, literally. Pam and Lisa had been dragged from the room by the other two Enforcers, and now she faced their leader, the most merciless of breed males, as frowned he at her darkly.
That look should have frightened her. Rather it sent her blood pulsing in anticipation through her body to echo in the tight, clenching muscles of her cunt. Her breasts became swollen, sensitive, and she knew her nipples were poking against the clothe of her shirt in pleading need. He could fire her arousal as nothing, or no one else ever had. Making her need his touch, his taste.
He was slouched back in the large chair leather chair that had once been her grandfather’s, his auburn brows drawn together between his thickly lashed silver gray eyes. One foot was propped on an opened drawer at the side of the desk, and in his hands he held the pictures and documentation that could well destroy her father. Proof that her grandfather, and her great-grandfather had been part of the murderous organization known as the Genetics Council.
“It was actually an exceptional plan,” Barak commented with cool admiration. “You’re to be commended for it.”
His voice sent a tremor of longing echoing through her body. How the hell was she supposed to deny him when all she wanted to have him fuck her silly.
Mary shrugged, feeling the shirt rasp her sensitive nipples. She really didn’t anything
to arouse her further. “Commendations are good only for those plans that succeed.”
Lips, sensual and yet cruel in appearance quirked in acceptance. She wondered what those lips would feel like, hard and hungry on hers rather than the soft, carefully controlled kisses he had given her before.
“You would have succeeded. Unfortunately, you neglected to take into consideration the fact that I would have you watched. A fatal weakness, Lady Mary, underestimating your enemy.”
Mary straightened her shoulders and stared back at him coldly. They had failed. It didn’t matter the reason. And she might be horny as hell for him, but she would be damned if she would let him think she was defeated.
“Was an association with me so distasteful to you?” He finally asked her, and though his voice was unconcerned, something flashed in those silvery eyes which came close to terrifying her.
“I find blackmail distasteful,” she bit out. “I have no wish to be acquired, Barak. You were aware of this.”
She remembered the fragile friendship she had believed was forming between them and wanted to rail at him for his arrogance. His presumption that he could so autocratically achieve his ends this way did nothing but piss her off. Yet, the sheer arrogance he displayed made her eager to test herself against him. Both physically and mentally.
“Acquisition should have been preferable to the disgrace of a public auction,” he bit out, fury tinting his voice. “Do you think I am the only one aware of exactly how your family came into such wealth? You were damned lucky it was I who found the proof and not someone who preferred to break your family instead.”
“Had you any honor you would informed my father of the information you found, and destroyed it,” she yelled back at him, trembling in fear and the same unnamed sensation of need that attacked her body each time she was near him. “You would have cared more for me, and the friendship we had developed…”
“Friendship?” He snarled as he came to his feet with a surge of strength that had her backing away from him in fear and excitement. “Do you honestly believe I wanted no more from you than such a weak relationship? Do you think I wasted my time, my energy on such niceties? I have no need for friends, woman. I have a need for a mate. When I kiss your ass it’s going to be literally, not figuratively.”
Mary felt her face flush as her own anger began to rage out of control. The tempestuous emotions he always brought out in her surged to the surface.
“Then breed with your own kind,” she bit out. “I have no desire to mate with a species outside my own, if you don’t care.”
He snorted in disgust. “Do you take me for a fool?” He bit out, moving closer to her then, his powerful body tense and prepared for any move she might make as he stalked toward her.
Mary backed away, trepidation rising inside her as he came slowly near her.
“Indeed,” she assured him breathlessly. “If you think you can force me into such a match, then you are a fool.”
“Force you?” He questioned her silkily, his eyes narrowing as she felt the blood begin to thunder through her veins.
Damn him, damn her. What made her body react to his aggressions in such a way? Unfortunately, there was no place to run this time. And her body was more than reluctant to run. Her pussy was weeping in a wet plea that she stay still and allow him to ravish her in whatever manner he deemed appropriate.
“What else would you call it?” She came to a halt, her back against the wall as her lungs fought to drag in the oxygen she now required.
“I can smell the sweet, hot scent of your pussy,” he growled, stopping within a breath of her heaving breasts. “You’re wet and wild for me, Mary, just as you always have been.”
Mary breathed in deeply. Her body trembled, though not in fear. Excitement, hot and filled with anticipation surged through her. Her cunt clenched with it, her breasts throbbed, her nipples hardening further than they had been already.
“Breeds have an utter lack of tact,” she accused him, despite the heat curling through her cunt.
“And you pure blood debutantes think your too precious and clean be touched by what you consider to be little more than animal,” he snarled softly. “What’s wrong Lady Mary, you think that sweet pussy of yours is too clean and precious to be knotted by a Coyote Breed.”
Mary’s knees went weak as her womb spasmed with a hard convulsion of lust. She barely managed to restrain her whimper of arousal, but she had a feeling he was more than aware of her reaction.
“That only happens during mating,” she reminded him breathlessly. “Coyotes don’t do that.” She had researched the sexuality of the breed well. But they were known to have thick, broad cocks that weren’t overly long. The old saying ‘wider is better’ flitted through her mind as she felt her face flush in embarrassment and arousal.
“I may not mate you, but I will own you,” he told her bitterly, leaning closer, his gaze capturing hers as his chest pressed against her breasts.
Mary shook her head weakly. “Never.” She tried to sound offended, but her voice was too weak, too thready with anticipation for the tone to come off correctly.
She was stronger than this, she assured herself as her eyes widened, her lips parting to drag in air as his head began to lower. She assured herself that just a kiss wouldn’t hurt. She had dreamed of his kiss. Needed his kiss for month now. Hell, she had stopped fooling herself weeks ago, she wanted to fuck him until he howled with pleasure.
“This is insanity,” she whispered, her hands bracing against his chest.
Once her palms felt the heat and corded strength through the silk of his shirt, she was goner. He was so hard, dangerous and exciting. Hadn’t she chafed at the restrictions placed on her by her father? Wouldn’t a Coyote breed, known well for their lack of bonding, be a fit mate for a woman who craved her independence? Sensual and lusty, wild and intensely sexual, he could fire her passions and yet would lack the possessiveness that pure blood human men displayed.
She smoothed her hands over his chest, tested the strength of his shoulders, then whimpered as his lips covered her. Her body jolted with the electrically charged lust that suddenly shimmered between them. She jerked against him, her lips opening as his tongue surged inside. He tasted hot and sweet, like coffee and chocolate, and he overwhelmed her senses.
His lips slanted over hers, his tongue, just slightly rough, heated and voracious swept through her mouth to tangle to with hers. He groaned against her lips, pressing her against the wall as his legs bent, the thick erection beneath his pants pressing between her thighs and rubbing against her covered clit in a sensual promise.
She expected him to be rough. Expected him to want a fast, lustful joining. The slower pace confused her. His lips caressed hers, his tongue stroked hers, as though he savored her taste, as though he needed more. His hands pulled the light shirt from her jeans as her fingernails bit into his shoulders.
Hands, calloused and warm smoothed over her waist beneath the clothe of her shirt, his fingers stroking over her skin and leaving whispering trails of achy need in their wake. His hands were warm and possessive, his fingers rasping over her as she whispered a moan of pleasure.
As his tongue tangled with hers again, it felt hotter, swollen, throbbing in her mouth in time to the harsh beat of her own heart. An intriguing, spicy taste teased her senses then. Some distant part of her mind wailed a warning, but she was helpless to stop herself from drawing more of the taste into her mouth. She sucked teasingly at his tongue, then moaned at the sharp burst of vanilla and nutmeg tinged tastes that filled her senses.
As though the taste lit a fuse in her body, she began to burn. Her cunt sizzled with heated need, her body suddenly sensitized, her skin tingling, demanding his touch.
Mary tore her mouth from his as she struggled with the buttons of his shirt, overwhelmed with the compulsion to feel his skin against hers. His weren’t still either. They loosened the buttons of her own shirt, pushing it back from her shoulders as she did the same with his
.
“Oh God.” She almost screamed out in pleasure as his chest rasped against her nipples then.
The sensitive tips were engorged and sensitive, and each brush of his chest against them had her pussy spasming in near ecstasy. His knee fitted itself between her thighs then, lifting her, forcing her to ride the hard muscled thigh as she sought relief for her burning clit.
Breeds weren’t supposed to have body hair, but there was a light downy sprinkling of it over his chest that stroked her nipples with a rasping, teasing sensation that had her pressing against him harder, needing more. Always more.
Barak maintained only a little more control than Mary. His hands were desperate though, his mouth ravenous as it stroked over her neck, her collar bone, arrowing down to her peaked breasts.
As his mouth covered her distended nipple, his fingers worked at the buttons of her jeans. Mary’s hands were less coordinated, less effective, but she managed to unbutton his well, her hands smoothing the flaps apart as he pushed her jeans over her hips, his thigh shifting from between hers so he could work the material down.
Mary was trembling with the wash of sensations that traveled over her body as he stared into her eyes. His gaze was filled with sexual promise, with dark male intent.
The jeans skimmed down her legs as he lowered himself before her. Excitement rose around them, the pulsing, blood throbbing exhilaration of sexual intensity filled the air around him.
He made quick work of removing her sneakers, then she could only whimper again as he removed her jeans, pulling them from her with slow, careful movements.
He knelt before her, his head level with her abdomen, his face just inches from the short, silky curls between her thighs. His hands gripped her thighs, holding her in place, keeping her still as he paused before her.
“Your scent weakens me,” he whispered, his voice rough, throbbing with power and with passion. “There is nothing I crave more, Mary, than to taste this sweetness.”
The grip in her thighs tightened, forcing her to open her legs further, to give him the access he needed to taste her. Her breathing shuddered from her body now, small, tight whimpers of sexual arousal escaping her throat. Her body was burning for him, her cunt weeping in a demand she couldn’t hide or deny any longer. The slick excess of that demand could be felt, cooling against her heated thigh as he spread her.
