Corvan twisted his neck, staring up at her from the corner of his sweat-stung eye. “I left you?” he ground out through clenched teeth, shutting the slicing pain—and unexpected joy at her admission—from his mind. She’d improved since he’d dropped off the radar. A lot. Fri’ac, at this rate he’d need to Call just to stay alive. “Is that why you’re trying to kill me? An emotional reason? Didn’t you learn anything I taught you?”
A haunted emptiness filled Falynn’s eyes and she twisted her heel deeper into his back. “I learned how to kill a man,” she growled. “Isn’t that enough?”
“No.” Corvan shook his head. “It isn’t.”
A shimmer rippled through him. A thrumming of every molecule in his body. Time froze for an infinitesimal moment—before he tore it apart, ripping its very fabric as he Called his dimensional twin.
Two men from different temporal dimensions, now occupying the same temporal plane.
He moved. Both of him. Whipping his arm out, he flipped sideways, smashing his elbow into Falynn’s knee as his “other” grabbed her wrist and flung her against the wall before she could regain her phenomenal balance.
The back of her skull connected with the sheet metal, the den’s array of sex toys and devices rattling in their display units from the shuddering impact. Her palms smacked the wall behind her as she fought the g-force slamming her body backward, her long, thick plait slapping her own cheek, drawing blood.
Corvan charged the short distance between them, realigning time and his dual existence as he did so, until only one man occupied the current plane. The Call terminated.
“What the fuck?” Falynn cried, gibbering at him with shocked confusion. “What the fuck did I just—”
He snared Falynn’s wrists and pinned them to the wall on either side of her head, ramming his body to hers. “Learning how to kill was never the lesson,” he stated, cutting off her incredulous question, his heart pounding, his blood roaring.
“What was the lesson then?” Falynn asked, her normally cool, composed voice husky with anger and bewilderment. Her pulse hammered under his palms, a powerful beat that vibrated all the way down his arms into his chest. “What were you teaching me all those years, if not how to be an emotionless killer? Tell me, because I really need to know.”
He gazed into her face, wanting to take away the pain he saw there. “How to live.”
His mouth took possession of hers. As forceful as ever. His tongue plunged past her lips, tasted her, taunted her. He yanked her arms higher above her head, the action thrusting her breasts harder to his chest as he rolled his tongue over hers. Falynn whimpered, the inaudible sound trapped in her tight throat.
Why was he doing this? She’d been sent to kill him, he knew that, and yet he was kissing her? Was it a ruse? An intoxicating, incredible, fucking soul-searing ruse?
Kiirs, she had to stop him.
Stop him? Why?
Because you have to kill him.
Because you’re not his inferior anymore.
Because you’re over him.
Because there were just two of him—two of him!—and then there wasn’t.
Because he will break your heart again.
The last thought cut like a photon blade, slicing through her confusion and anger. Shearing into her chest and stealing her breath.
No. She couldn’t do this again. He couldn’t do this to her again. She had a job to do.
Thanatos tore his mouth free of her lips, staring into her face with eyes that burned with lust. “You can think about how you’re going to kill me later,” he growled, his fists closing tighter on her wrists, his cock pressed harder to her mons. “After I’ve made you come with my mouth and my fingers and my dick.”
The statement sent a ribbon of concentrated rapture into Falynn’s core. She ignored the base response, squirming in an attempt to escape his hold, the wall behind her cold on her ass, his body a hot brand on her belly. “I know how I’m going to kill you,” she snarled, wishing to all the hells her sex would stop squeezing and fluttering and contracting with pleasure as though Thanatos’ thick, long cock was already there. “Both of you, if the other one makes another appearance.”
Her ex-mentor chuckled, a low, filthy sound as smug as the light in his eyes. “Both of us? Deep space is fucking with your head, I think.” Shifting his weight slightly, he rolled his hips, stroking the bulge of his erection against the curve of her pussy. “And this is your tactic? A standard seduce and terminate? Again, I thought I’d taught you better.”
Falynn bucked, trying to dislodge him.
Really? Sure you aren’t trying to get his cock closer to your clit?
She bared her teeth, traitorous heat pooling between her thighs at the thought. “I’m pretty certain your last lesson was seduce and run away, Thanatos, but I could be wrong. I was also wrong about you being a normal being, it seems. Just as I was wrong about you being dead.”
His lips curled in a small smile, his eyes unreadable as he pressed his body harder to hers. “UZ Agent code name Thanatos did die three years ago, Proserpina.”
“So what do I call you now? Casper?”
His head drew closer to hers, his breath a warm tickle on her cheek. Tugging her hands together, he ensnared both wrists in one inescapable fist, smoothing his free hand down her arm until his fingers skimmed the upward curve of her left breast. “Corvan,” he murmured against her lips. “When you scream with release, that’s the name that should burst from your lips. The name to shake the nine heavens and shatter the stars.”
She stared into his eyes, seeing her tiny reflection captured in their silver depths. Her heart thumped, her pussy lips throbbed. Kiirs, what was she doing?
Kill him. Kill the arrogant SOB. Now. Before there are two of him again.
She coiled her muscles, ready to strike…and jumped up to wrap her legs around his hips, driving his cock to her spread, sodden cunt.
His mouth claimed hers again, their teeth clicking as their tongues fought. His hand squeezed her breast, his knuckles pinching the hard nipple through her suit with ungentle pressure. Scalding pleasure rolled through her and she slammed her hips forward, pressing her locked ankles into his ass to drive his cock harder to her cunt. She tore her mouth free of his kiss, rolling her head to the side to offer him the bowed column of her neck. He took it, his lips and teeth and tongue scoring a line along her jaw, then up to her ear to explore its formation and down to the sensitive dip between her collarbones.
Falynn dragged in a ragged breath, eyes fixed blindly on the den’s ceiling. A wet, potent heat flooded through her and her pussy contracted again, wanting to be filled. Wanting to be stretched and possessed by Corvan’s thick, rigid cock. She bit back a moan, clenching her fists. Damn him. He may be able to dominate her body, but she would not cry out. She would not give him the satisfaction.
Corvan lifted his head from her neck, eyes shimmering. “Tell me you want me to fuck you, Proserpina.” He pushed the steely pole of his erection to her cunt. “Tell me you want to be fucked.”
She glared at him, pulse pounding, breath shallow. “You know I do, you bastard.”
Corvan yanked her arms higher, sliding his hand down her torso between their bodies to cup the curve of her sex. He stroked her swollen pussy lips though the thin material of her suit, the corners of his mouth twitching. “Say it.”
Falynn ground her teeth, meeting his stare with silent, simmering rage. And ravenous, licentious hunger.
His mouth twitching more, Corvan moved his finger to the little bud of her clit, caressing it through her suit. Wicked pleasure shot into the pit of Falynn’s stomach, twisting into an exquisite knot of base need. She choked back a gasp, refusing to break his hypnotic, knowing gaze.
“Say it, Proserpina. Tell me you need to be fucked. Hard and absolute and without mercy. Tell me you need to be fucked and used and dominated.”
Molten, blistering heat consumed her. Not from anger at Corvan’s arrogant command, but at the very truth of his words. She
did want to be fucked. She had no idea what he was anymore, if there really had been two of him or if it had just been her mind messing with her—deep-space sickness could do that to a person, even someone as seasoned as herself—but she wanted him. So fucking much. She wanted him to use her body. She wanted to be dominated and controlled by the only man she’d ever respected. The only living soul she’d ever trusted.
Corvan flicked her clit with his finger before nudging her sex with the bulbous head of his concealed shaft. His lips brushed hers, a taunting, teasing contact. “Say it,” he ordered on a breath.
Falynn swallowed, the lump in her throat as tight as the squirming tension in her cunt. “I need to be fucked,” she whispered back. “I want you to fuck me.”
Corvan’s nostrils flared. “I know.”
He moved. So quickly it appeared once again as if there were two of him. One yanking her to his body, the other standing right beside her, arms raised above his head, eyes shimmering with an iridescent glow. A sharp click filled the room, followed immediately by the icy burn of metal wrapping around Falynn’s wrists.
She jerked her head from the surreal twin vision of her ex-mentor, staring in stunned horror—and exploding excitement—at the handcuffs locked around her wrists. Handcuffs attached by short but solid chains to a thick bar protruding from the ceiling.
Wet heat flooded Falynn’s cunt and she forced away a low whimper, returning her attention to Corvan. Just the one Corvan. Not two, no matter how her eyes played tricks on her. Stared at him, her heart a painful hammering in her chest.
Fuck, he’d done what no other before him had. He’d caught her. “Let me go.”
With a low chuckle, Corvan slid his hand down her torso, moving with unhurried nonchalance to the base of her neck. “You are wearing entirely too many items of clothing.”
The calm statement sent a shiver through Falynn. As did the small gutting blade suddenly appearing in his hand with a flick of his wrist. He pressed the lethally sharp tip of the knife to her chest, teasing her flesh before slicing her flight suit open from neck to navel with slow, languid ease.
“Better.” He spread the ruined garment apart to cup her breasts, rolling each nipple between thumb and forefinger, his gaze locked firmly on her face. She knew he was waiting for a response. Waiting for her to succumb. She returned his unwavering gaze, even as her body thrummed with the agonizing pleasure consuming her.
Her legs were still wrapped around his hips, ankles still crossed to hold him against the junction of her spread thighs. It was a position of power. One she could exploit. With a minute change in her position and a simple twist of her hips, she could snap his spine. But the aching throb in her core, the sodden fire in her cunt, stopped her. Instead, she tightened her muscles, drew her knees up to bring him closer into her hold. The captive imprisoning the captor, as surely as he imprisoned her.
A sudden light ignited in Corvan eyes. His nostrils flared again as he thrust the thick length of his cock harder to her sex. Slowly, slowly, he lowered his head, until, gaze still locked on hers, he closed his lips around one puckered, aching nipple.
Falynn closed her eyes, her lips parting in a silent cry. She arched her back, pushing her cunt forward, feeling her juices flow from its heavy, wanting folds. Closing her fingers around the chains on the cuffs, she levered herself deeper into Corvan’s embrace, wishing she could tangle her fingers in the shaggy mess of his hair. She wanted to hold his head to her breast. She wanted him to suck and bite on its distended tip until she came. Kiirs, how does he do this to me?
Lifting his head slightly, Corvan blew a fine stream of cool breath through his lips onto her wet nipple, his cupping hands holding her breasts together so the wicked stimulation could prepare her other nipple for what was to come. It pinched into an eager tip, and he dragged the pad of his thumb over its puckered form.
Falynn clenched her jaw, stopping the groan of carnal delight from sounding in her throat. She sucked in a ragged breath, struggling to control her response. Corvan’s gaze returned to her face, that knowing light blazing in his eyes once more. He extended his tongue past his lips, touching it gently to her rock-hard nipple, a soft chuckle vibrated in his chest as she bit her lip.
He licked the stiff point of flesh, flicked it with his tongue before closing his mouth over it completely. Suckling on it with such pressure she felt an orgasm building in her toes.
A cry rose in her throat and she choked it back. Clenching her fists around the chains attaching her to the ceiling, she ground her cunt against his cock, the building pulses between her legs stealing her breath. Kiirs, she was going to come.
She bucked, toes curling, eyes closed…
And hissed in rage as Corvan suddenly, abruptly pulled his mouth from her breast.
Silver eyes gleamed with an unreadable expression. “You don’t think it’s going to be that easy, do you?”
Curling his fingers into her thighs, he skimmed his palms along her legs, before reaching to the small of his back to grip her ankles in his hands.
Falynn’s already tight throat grew tighter. She clung to the chains, readying her arms to take her weight. She knew what he was about to do, and her pussy gushed in eager anticipation, even as the tension of her building climax faded to a deliciously denied throb. Three years ago, Thanatos had kept her balanced on the very edge of sexual release. Working her body. Using her in every way imaginable until she could take no more. Until she’d begged for him to let her come, her screams tearing from her throat as orgasm after orgasm claimed her.
It seemed Corvan intended no different.
“Fuck you,” she whispered, hating him and hungering for him. “Fuck me.”
He studied her for a teasing moment before, with indolent ease, he unlocked her ankles and took a step backward, straightening her legs and spreading them wide.
He held her ankles like so, the muscles of his chest and shoulders coiling as he kept her legs apart, supporting their weight.
Falynn’s heart hammered, the weightless sense of being suspended threading through the building arousal of her position. She fixed Corvan with a level stare, her pussy contracting and fluttering, her mouth dry. “What are you going to do?”
He smiled slightly. “This.”
And suddenly there were two of him. Again.
Chapter Five
Falynn’s mouth fell open. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t know what else to do. She stared at her ex-mentor, once the GU’s most feared, successful and mysterious assassin, a man who had disappeared from existence three years ago, after embarking on a hit shrouded in secrecy.
No. She stared at the two of him. It wasn’t her eyes or mind playing tricks on her. There really was two of him. “I don’t…” The words stumbled in her throat and she shook her head. “What the…what is…”
The man between her legs, the original Corvan, smiled, the corners of his mouth curling upward. “I am Phase, Proserpina.”
The other Corvan stepped behind her, his warm breath on her neck as he smoothed one hand down the curve of her back and over the line of her ass to place his fingers on her pussy. “As am I,” he whispered, his intimate touch making her heart thump and her cunt constrict.
Falynn stared at the man before her, the pulse in her neck pounding. Phase? A Dimensional Operative? It wasn’t possible. The Phase were a myth.
The hand between her spread thighs stroked the damp slit of her sex through the thin material of her suit, threatening to destroy any hope she had of comprehending the situation. She sucked in a deep breath, and wished she hadn’t. Corvan’s potent musk was intoxicating enough when there was just one of him, but two? It threaded into her being, more concentrated than ever. So powerful and undeniable she almost came there and then. Kiirs, she needed to get control of her body before it took control of her mind.
“But the Phase are a legend,” she said, struggling to ignore the squirming tension threatening to overwhelm her. “A fabrication. The impossible, insane inven
tion of a deranged deep-space explorer who lived millennia ago. I mean, c’mon, as if any being is capable of moving through different dimensions and time at will. It’s absurd. Too fantastical to be anything but a myth.”
The hot, hard body behind her pressed closer to her suspended form, long fingers she knew so very, very well tracing the throbbing, swollen folds of her cunt.
“Does that feel like a myth, Proserpina?” Corvan studied her from between her legs, eyes ablaze.
Warm lips brushed the side of her neck, nibbled on the soft pad of her earlobe as her right breast was cupped and squeezed by a hand just as familiar as the fingers on her sex. “Does this feel like an invention of insanity?”
The other’s voice was just as low, just as smooth, just as sensual as that of the Corvan before her. A wave of liquid electricity rolled through her, radiating out from every place their bodies touched hers. She suppressed a moan, stare fixed on the Corvan still gripping her ankles, holding her legs spread. “Which is the real you?”
A slight smile played over his lips. “Both.”
Falynn licked her lips, nervous curiosity nibbling on her building arousal in the same way the Corvan behind her nibbled on her earlobe. “Explain,” she ordered on a ragged breath.
“Phase govern the dimensional and temporal tapestry.” Corvan’s eyes became unreadable. “Our Upper Echelon monitors and corrects any abnormalities in the time and space continuum. Specifically, those that occur when any living entity tries to pervert the temporal threads of any parallel dimensions.”
His gaze moved to her chest, watching his other self roll the nipple of her right breast between his knuckles with increasing pressure. “Every living entity creates the possibility of multiple existences based on each decision they make,” he continued with a distracted tone, his attention focused on the hand on her breast. “Those existences form temporal threads, each existing in their own temporal dimension.” His fingers curled harder around her ankles and his jaw bunched. What he saw obviously affected him. “Phase can journey through and into those threads. Exist in them, affect them. Change them if needed.”
Deadly Pleasure: 2 (Mercy) Page 5
