by Vonna Harper
“You’re so warm,” he said. “So soft here.”
Did he want or expect a response? Hopefully not because the heated weight slowly sliding over her vulva was the only thing she could concentrate on in the entire world. Barely moving, the weight not possessive so much as connecting, simply connecting. She existed in this one place, this single part of her anatomy. One thumb found her left hip bone while his smallest finger touched the opposite bone firmly enough that she wasn’t being tickled.
“I want to give you warmth tonight, warmth, not fire.”
She didn’t say anything in part because she wasn’t sure what he meant, but mostly because the feel of him completed her. Oh yes, sexual need whispered at her, but she could be patient, could simply experience Nacon’s hand over her mons and her breath holding.
“Bend your knees,” he said. “Open yourself to me.”
She could do that. In truth, she couldn’t do anything else. But when she lay spread and vulnerable and damp, instead of plowing into her, he only slid his hand a few inches lower and curved it so he was sheltering her mons with the base of his hand just touching her labia. Trapped by him, housed by him, owned by him.
“Wonderful,” she admitted. “So wonderful.”
“Do you feel my heat in you?”
“Yes. Yes. It’s as if your fingers are in me.”
“Is that what you want?”
He was asking instead of commanding? “Yes,” she said, but not loud enough that the moon could hear.
More sliding, more promise and anticipation. And then, yes, her inner tissues’ slow and wonderful giving way to accommodate the simple invasion. His entry was so slow that she felt each millimeter of movement. Although she shivered and gasped, she managed to remain still. Once his finger was in her as far as it could go, he ran his free hand under her buttocks and lifted her off the bed.
Being caught between his hands like this briefly took her back to her dream image of them standing at the foot of the temple, but then the unwanted died, and she concentrated. Experienced.
His finger was quiet and relaxed, maybe simply resting inside her, maybe learning things about her she didn’t know herself. She tried to match his patience, but although she managed to remain quiet, her juices flowed and her nipples ached. She could contract her pelvic muscles, needed to tighten them, but she also wanted to turn herself over to him. To trust.
“Are you hungry, Dana?”
“You know the answer to that.”
“Do I? Maybe you’re trying to hide your reactions from me.”
“I wouldn’t do that, I couldn’t.”
Leaning forward, he kissed her belly. Then he straightened, slid his hand out from under her, and spread it over the hip closest to him. The finger inside her retreated inch by inch, gliding over her tissues and causing her head to thrash. “Easy, easy.”
“I can’t help it.”
“I know. My finger’s wet with you, Dana. Relax while I give it back to you.”
Yes, oh yes! She kept rocking her head as he painted the edges of her clitoris with her own moisture. And when he slipped in again to replenish himself, she brought her arms down and gripped his forearm, not to try to stop him, but so she could participate.
“I love the feel of you here,” he said when he was bathing her outer tissues again.
“I love the feel of you, everywhere.”
A low, deep chuckle served as his response, but she lost the sound as his wet and warm finger slid over and around her labia. Although her nipples remained hard and tight, she barely felt them because he’d taken her entire existence down to one thing—his understanding of her and her needs.
Another shift, the dream world blinking out then lighting up again. Now she was on her knees, but her body was bent so far back that she was forced to support it by planting her elbows and forearms on the bed. At least she thought she was on the less-than-ideal mattress. She was looking at the ceiling with her hair falling behind her. Her legs were parted, giving Nacon full and unrestricted access to her sex.
Oh god, his breath on her clit and labial lips, his hands cradling her buttocks and his arms seeming to kiss her outer thighs. He must have positioned her like this; she certainly didn’t remember doing it herself. And how was she going to get out of it without help? But then why would she want to move, to do anything except what she was?
Experiencing. Helpless and vulnerable, loving his warm moist breath on her sex and his hands hard on her ass cheeks.
Ah, more than his breath now. His tongue, his tongue!
Mewling like some lost wild animal, she closed her eyes. Tongue, teeth, lips, his saliva mixing with her juices and nothing, absolutely nothing else mattering. When he parted her labial lips with his knowing tongue, heat streamed over her entire body. And when he entered her and began a fluttering motion, her whimpers turned into cries. Lost cries. On-the-brink cries.
In and out of her core, his tongue sliding over what was swollen and soft and ready, so ready for him. Her shoulders ached and her arms burned, and she couldn’t swallow, and her back protested, but he wanted her like this, accessible to him.
His.
Change. His tongue gone and his lip-covered teeth closed over her labia so he could draw on it.
“Oh god, god, Nacon.”
The drawing sensation increased then became even stronger, not painful, but powerful, pulling her even deeper into his game. Only, this wasn’t a game, was it? He was placing his claim on her, controlling her. And she wanted, wanted with every electric fiber in her.
Ah, release, but not relief. Desperate for his attention, she tried to lift her head, but the effort was too much. The nothing, the waiting, drew out until she nearly screamed, and then he kissed her. Simply kissed what he’d been abusing. Next came a feathery lick, a quick sucking of her clit.
“Ah, ah!”
Another barely perceptible lick was followed by his mouth again closing around her clit. This time he didn’t immediately release her, but held on. Delicious agony tore at her. “Ah, Nacon! Ah!”
Release. Relief. “You don’t want me to do that?” His breath flowed over and maybe into the tissues he’d just branded.
“I can’t—it’s so much.”
“Too much?”
“No! Nacon, please.”
Something slid into her, but with blood rushing into her head, it took several seconds for her to comprehend that he’d filled her opening with not just one finger like before, but two. He started to stroke her using long, slow gliding movements that brought her to the brink of explosion. Before she could follow it all the way, however, he licked her clitoris, stopped, plundered her again, then licked. Once. Deep.
She came, crying like a lost and joyful soul as she did.
But when she woke, instead of finding Nacon beside or in her, there were only her own fingers buried in her core and the remnants of her climax numbing her lips and weakening her muscles.
Chapter Nine
“I’ve never seen him act like this,” Rose told her the next morning as the two women studied Aztec through their binoculars. “He’s always had that don’t-mess-with-me quality which I love, but this aggression is new. I’ve thought of him as remote, lonely maybe, but calm and collected.”
“This just started?”
“His handlers started noticing the change a couple of days ago. It’s getting more and more pronounced to where the other big cats are distancing themselves from him. I hate punishing him for something he can’t help, but I don’t know what else to do.”
The plan for Aztec, as Rose had reluctantly spelled out, called for moving the jaguar to an area inaccessible to the public. They also wanted to isolate him from other animals that were in or might come into heat. Everyone’s conclusion was that Aztec was sexually frustrated and that’s why he’d been pacing almost nonstop while making howling sounds that put Dana in mind of a lost soul.
Right now, hopefully oblivious to the handlers’ plans to tranquilize him so th
ey could load him into a truck and transport him to a far corner of the compound, Aztec all but danced on his claws. His head was up, eyes wide and hot, ears back, mouth open, but not panting. No part of his body was still; energy seemed to be flowing through him as he loped in one direction, spun and loped again.
“He’s beautiful,” Dana muttered. “So incredibly beautiful like that.”
“Isn’t he?” Rose chuckled. “If I were a female jaguar, I’d be all over him.”
“You’d have to fight me for him.”
“Would I? Can’t you see us tearing at each other in hopes of being fucked?” Rose shook her head. “Look, forget I said that, would you? That’s hardly what a professional should be saying.”
“I understand,” Dana said as she clenched her fists to insure she wouldn’t be any more tempted to ram her hands between her legs than she already was. Damn it, last night’s solo session, if that’s what it had been, should have relaxed her. Instead, she was turned on.
No, not simply turned on. Tapped into everything Aztec felt.
Sighing, Rose lowered her binoculars and rubbed her eyes. “Sometimes I hate my job. Yes, we’re saving animals that wouldn’t have a chance otherwise, but this isn’t the life Nature intended for them. If Aztec was where he belonged and there weren’t any damn people around to destroy his turf, he’d have found a mate. They’d have offspring and be teaching those cubs how to hunt. Instead, he’s forced to live in an unnatural environment, essentially alone. No wonder he’s acting the way he is. I don’t know. Maybe it’s too late for him.”
“Don’t say that!” Dana gasped, but even as she did, she couldn’t argue with a thing Rose had said. Maybe, because of man’s interference, Aztec didn’t belong anywhere. “He’s incredible, everything a wild creature should be.”
“I know. That’s why what we’re able to give him will never be enough.”
Tears burned Dana’s eyes. Rose was right. Aztec deserved the life Nature had planned for his kind, only that life no longer existed. “I wish we could take him back in time.”
“If we could, I’d be tempted to go there with him.”
Blinking back tears, Dana nodded. “Simpler. Basic.” Primitive and real.
Watching a tranquilized Aztec being loaded into the back of a pickup for the short ride to his new and isolated “home” had left Dana so upset that she’d been unable to look through a camera lens with the necessary detachment. Although she sensed her decision wasn’t a wise one, she’d returned to the computer and was now looking into the role jaguars played in Aztec life. If she couldn’t give the preserve’s jaguar what he needed to feel fulfilled here, at least she could imagine that he’d gone back in time.
However, what she discovered did little to give her peace of mind. Instead, her new knowledge forced thoughts of Nacon to the front. Jaguars, who’d been revered for their power and courage, were the Jaguar Knights’ totem. Apparently the Jaguar Knights had been considered the aristocrats of Aztec military classes. In order for a man to become one, he had to be recognized as a tequihuah or veteran warrior, which meant he’d taken at least four enemy prisoners in battle, prisoners who were destined for sacrifice.
Once a fighter was initiated as a Jaguar Knight, he became a servant of Tonatiuh, the god of the sun. Benefits included being exempt from taxation and tribute, keeping concubines, eating human flesh, drinking alcoholic octli and dining in the royal palace. On the downside, because the Knights were required to wear distinctive costumes in battle, they stood out. As a consequence, their death rate was high.
That was their problem! How could she possibly feel sorry for a man who’d made it his life’s goal to gather at the cuauhcalli, which were their quarters in the palace at Tenochtitlan. In addition to hosting war councils, they worshipped Tonatiuh and participated in cannibalistic feasts.
Damn it, Nacon! It’s one thing for a jaguar to kill and eat human flesh, but not you. Not you!
So much for thinking she wasn’t in the right mental space for picture taking, Dana acknowledged late that afternoon. Restlessness had sent her outside and curiosity had taken her to where Aztec now resided. The jaguar was wide awake, and although she thought someone should still be keeping an eye on him, apparently experience had taught the staff that the predators needed to be left alone once they were back on their feet.
What else could they do, she acknowledged as she watched the always regal-looking Aztec explore his new turf. Although smaller, this enclosure had even more trees and underbrush than the one he’d been in before, which meant he was frequently out of sight, and she spotted him only fleetingly. She didn’t care because having to be patient was taking over her earlier and, probably, unreasonable anger at Nacon. If he’d truly been a Jaguar warrior, and she had no reason to doubt that based on his tattoo and his habit of hanging around Aztec, he’d been as much a product of his environment as Aztec was. Beast and man were what they were, end of discussion.
So what was the man?
With a shake of the head, Dana let in the thoughts she’d been trying to distance herself from for too many hours. Yes, last night had been a dream, or rather a series of dreams. Was it really that hard to wrap her mind around the differences between the hard and almost savage fucking between her and Nacon in the real world and the way he’d treated her last night, or more specifically how she’d fantasized he was treating her? Last night had been all about her pleasure and his giving her that. At least his spirit or something had.
Either there was a lot more to Nacon than a primitive warrior or she subconsciously needed him to be gentle as well as strong, understanding in addition to commanding.
“You’re making me crazy,” she ground out. “But then maybe I’m telling you something you already know.”
She hadn’t spoken loudly enough for Aztec to hear; at least she didn’t believe the jaguar had come any closer since she’d briefly spotted him effortlessly climbing a tree some ten minutes ago. But she couldn’t deny the feeling that something, or someone, had heard her. Instead of trying to hide from the unsettling sensation, she headed left along the fence line toward a more open area. Since being placed in his new enclosure, Aztec had remained in the vegetation, but if the creature wanted to connect with her, maybe that would change.
Only, when she’d made her way around a large brushy pile stacked against the fence and again had an unobstructed view of the clearing, it wasn’t Aztec who was waiting for her.
Nacon was—still naked, still magnificent and oblivious to the danger inherent in being in an enclosure with a predator. “You made me work for it, didn’t you?” she said. “Nothing as simple as walking up to me and shaking my hand. No, you had to do the mysterious thing.”
“I needed to see if you had the courage for this.”
“For what?” It was getting hard to breathe.
“The next step, Dana.” With his hands at his sides and his cock at rest, he shouldn’t look as imposing as the last time she’d seen him; only tell that to her racing heart.
“What step?”
“This isn’t a game.”
I know, she wanted to say, but did she really? Oh yes, she’d have to be all kinds of a fool if she believed there was nothing to their relationship beyond sex, but the possibility, potential, and danger was more than she wanted or dared consider. “I don’t know what’s happening. Do you?”
“Don’t lie to me, Dana.” He began walking toward her with the same exquisite grace that made the jaguar the incredible creature he was. But raw strength and savage power were part of what made the predator what he was, while Nacon was a man, simply a man. He shouldn’t be capable of unraveling her nerves and boiling her blood.
“Lying? What are you talking about?”
More smooth and measured steps, his form growing. “You don’t care about logic any more than I do. Even if you try to deny it, you’re ready for us to become as one, to mate.”
“Mate? Wait a minute I’m not about to ride off into the sunset with you.�
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“What?”
“That’s right, you’re not up on modern slang, are you?”
Instead of responding, he continued his measured approach.
Her body pinned under his and helpless to his primitive assault? Fire scorching her nerves and turning her back into an animal? “I’m not about to tie myself up with you if that’s what you’re talking about.” Don’t back away. Stand up to him. And don’t forget, the fence is between us.
Only he’d already passed through one so-called barrier.
“This is our destiny, Dana. Why fight the inevitable?”
“Damn it, don’t talk like that! You’re crazy if you think we’re made for each other. My parents—once my parents believed that, but they couldn’t make a go of it. I don’t believe in—”
He leaped, flowing muscles effortlessly leaving the ground. He hadn’t yet landed when she spun on her heels and ran. She didn’t have to look behind her to know he was following her, didn’t have to measure the distance between them to know he was gaining. But she ran for the joy of it, the primal matching of muscles against muscles, because she could.
She’d never raced like this without her lungs starting to burn or her muscles protesting. But for the first time in her life, she was nothing except energy and blood, speed and sure-footedness. With her head held high to capture enough air to feed her tireless lungs, she reveled in how seamlessly every part of her worked. She didn’t have to look down to know when to sidestep or leap over an obstruction, and although she’d never covered so much turf in such a short amount of time, her eyes sent the necessary messages to her brain. Turn left here, twist to the right there, be aware of the gully just ahead.
No, this wasn’t about trying to get away from Nacon, was it? Instead, the creature she’d become did what it had been born and conditioned to do.
And when he overtook her, she didn’t so much as glance at him because their surroundings demanded all of her attention. The preserve was crisscrossed with fencing, but where they were running, there was nothing except unscarred earth, free-growing trees, rain-fed brush, birds, insects and the sun heating their world and bodies.
