by Lora Leigh
“Not about this,” she informed him fiercely. “I have to decide things, Tarek. This has changed my life, you know it and I know it. There are other things involved than just you and I and this Mating Heat, or whatever you call it.”
Heat? Try inferno. It was killing her.
“Then take care of it on the phone.” There was no give in him. Good Lord, why hadn’t she heeded the warnings of his complete male stubbornness that she had glimpsed over the months? He looked about as immovable as a boulder.
“I need clothes. My laptop …”
“You won’t have time to wear clothes, or to work …” He advanced on her, his eyes lowering over the lust gleaming in his gaze. “You’ll be lucky to have time to eat.”
Her stomach clenched at the growl in his voice as he reached out, taking the gown and robe from her before setting them back on the washer.
“I want to take you in the bed this time.” His fingers tangled in her hair as he dragged her head back, his head lowering as though for a kiss.
As though she were that easy.
She didn’t care how hot she was or how much the arousal was becoming painful. She was not just going to bow down and accept whatever. She might not be a Breed with a clear appreciation of this Mating Heat stuff, but she still had a mind of her own.
Before he could stop her, she twisted away from him, moving through the doorway and stalking through the kitchen to the foyer. She wasn’t going to attempt the back door. But she might have a chance of getting to her own house before he stopped her through the front yard. Icy rain and all.
“Lyra. Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
He moved ahead of her before she could reach the door, staring back at her broodingly as she restrained the urge to kick him.
“To my own house,” she reminded him. “Remember? Clothes? Laptop?”
“No.” The rough growl sent shivers up her spine and spasms attacking her vagina. Damn him. A man should never have a voice so inherently sexy.
“Tarek, you are under the impression this Mating Heat of yours somehow gives you rights you do not have.” She pointed her finger into his chest, pushing back at the stubborn male muscle that wouldn’t budge an inch.
Savage intensity tightened his expression, giving him a dangerous, predatory look.
“You are my mate. It’s my place to protect you.” He fairly snarled the words, lifting his lip to display those wickedly white incisors.
“It’s daylight, Tarek,” she pointed out as though speaking to a young child. Sometimes, men responded to nothing else. “I’m safe, sweetheart. I’m just gonna walk across the lawn.”
“You will not.” He stepped toward her.
And of course, she retreated.
The look on his face assured her that he was done ignoring her arousal and now ready to do something about it. Of course, the erection straining beneath the loose fit of his sweatpants pretty much assured her of that on its own.
“Tarek, these strongman tactics are going to piss me off,” she bit out, irritation surging through her. “I don’t like it.”
“So?” His lips tilting in a mocking smile. “Tell me, mate, how will you stop it?”
Cool male confidence marked his features.
“I’m really going to hurt you,” she muttered, frustration surging through her because she knew there wasn’t really a damned thing she could do.
She could call her brothers.
But that wouldn’t really be fair. Would it?
No, she decided, this one she had to handle on her own.
She backed up again as he moved closer, her eyes narrowing on him.
“I am not ready to have sex with you yet,” she stated imperiously as she tried to escape into the living room.
He smiled. A wicked, sensual smile that had her pussy weeping. Damn him.
“Aren’t you?” He stalked her through the large room, her gaze moving around the heavy furniture, taking in the clean masculine lines and nearly clinical sterility of the room. There wasn’t even a picture.
“No. I’m not.”
Oh but she was. It was beating through her veins and pounding in her chest. Her breasts were tight with the need for it, her pussy clenching in hunger.
He stopped as she edged around the heavy cherrywood coffee table, watching him warily.
“You make me want to smile,” he whispered then, his eyes filled with warmth, with longing. “Even as stubborn as you can be, you make me want to smile.”
Her heart melted. Now, dammit, how was she supposed to stand her ground when he said things like that?
“Now is not the time to be nice, Tarek,” she snapped, infuriated at him.
“But I want to be nice to you.” He used that whiskey-rough voice like a caress, and it was much too effective for Lyra’s peace of mind. “I want to be very nice to you, Lyra. I want to lay you down on that couch, spread your pretty legs, and show you just how nice I can be to you. Wouldn’t you like that, baby?”
The heat in the room jumped a hundred degrees. She could feel perspiration gathering between her breasts and along her forehead, and hunger tearing her apart.
She didn’t run as he made his way around the table. She watched him, wondering what the hell had happened to her willpower, her strength, her determination to not let this man get around her so easily.
But he did. Not with his words. Or his intent. It was the longing in his eyes, the vulnerability, the joy that sparkled there as she faced him.
“I’m really going to get mad at you one of these days,” she warned him as he stepped closer, surrounding her, his hand moving beneath her hair to cup her neck. “And don’t bite me again, either. That’s just too freaky.”
She could feel the wound pulsing, achingly sensitive.
“You complain about the bite, but not the barb?” The casual tone of his voice was not reflected in the tenseness of his body.
“Yeah, well.” She cleared her throat nervously. “The barb I can forgive you for. That bite is going to get your ass kicked if my brothers see it, though. I’d prefer to keep you in one piece.”
He stared down at her thoughtfully.
“I think you enjoyed the barb.” He lowered his head, his tongue rasping over the small wound from his bite. “And I think you liked the bite, too, Lyra.”
She shivered as his tongue rasped over it, sending currents of pleasure whipping through her.
“Maybe,” she gasped in pleasure, standing still, her hands at her sides, curled into fists to keep from touching him, to keep from disturbing the emotion she could feel weaving around her.
“Come here, baby.” He pulled her into his arms, leaving her no other choice but to lift her own, her hands moving to his neck, to his glorious mane of hair. “Let’s see how much you like both.”
His head lowered, his lips covered hers, and she was lost. She knew she was lost. Taken in a firestorm of sensual heat as the delicately flavored hormone began to surge through her already prepared senses.
She moaned into his kiss, her lips parting, accepting his tongue, drawing on it as a savage growl vibrated in his throat.
Her nails bit into his shoulders, scraped the flesh, caressing him in turn as his hands gripped her buttocks and lifted her against his thighs.
She was aware of him moving her, laying her back on the cushions of the overstuffed couch as he moved over her.
He pushed the shirt over her breasts, but neither of them could break the kiss long enough to tear it off. But somehow he had removed his sweats.
She could feel his cock, hard and heavy against her thigh as his hands roved over her sensitized body. They moaned, the sounds of their pleasure mixing, merging as he lifted her to him, the broad crest of his erection pressing against the slick, readied entrance to her spasming pussy.
“Lyra …” His harsh, graveled voice pierced her heart as he tore his lips from hers, raising his head to stare down at her with eyes that seemed to melt with emotion.
Oh God,
she loved him. Everything about him. Every portion of him.
“Now,” she whispered as he paused. “Love me, Tarek … Please …”
He grimaced, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a savage snarl as he stared down at her in surprise.
“Don’t you know, Lyra?” His smile was bittersweet. “Don’t you know just how much I do love you?”
She would have smacked him, or at least yelled at him for saying it with such hopeless pain. But he chose that moment to begin pushing into her, stretching her snug muscles as he worked his cock inside her.
Fiery, agonizing heat filled her. The pleasure was lightning fast, flaring through every portion of her body as he rocked against her.
She felt him, inch by inch, sinking into her, just as he had taken her heart. Bit by bit, forcing her wide, searing her with not just the pleasure, but the sheer gentleness he used.
“I would die for you,” he whispered against her ear, hiding his expression against her neck as she convulsed around him, her hands locking in his hair. “Don’t you know, Lyra, I live for you now. For now and for always.”
He surged through the final depths of her aching sex, pushing in fiercely before retreating with the same agonizing pace he had used to enter her.
“Tarek.” She bit his ear. He was making her wild, setting her heart aflame, sending her body into quaking shudders of pleasure. “Just live for me,” she gasped. “Oh God.” He thrust into her quickly, retreated slowly, stealing her breath, her thoughts.
“Oh baby, I’m not nearly finished with you.” His voice was so dark, so velvet-rough it nearly sent her into climax. Her womb convulsed; her breath caught in her throat as her clit swelled in nearing ecstasy.
He leaned back, his knees pressing into the couch as he draped her legs over his thighs. His hands free, he lifted her against him, holding her to his chest as he stared into her shocked face.
“Take off the shirt.”
His cock throbbed inside her. Her pussy was sucking at him with rapturous greed, and he was worried about her shirt?
“Now.” His voice hardened, his gaze turning stubborn. “I won’t give you what you need, Lyra, until you do.”
Her hands lowered from his neck, gripping the shirt and struggling to jerk it over her head as one hand gripped her buttock and lifted her several inches from the thick wedge of his cock. Then he released her, thrusting hard and deep inside her again as she whimpered in delirious need.
The shirt cleared her head, though she struggled to force it from her arms. Finally it was gone, her hands moving to his shoulders again, her legs tightening around his hips as she fought to force him to move inside her.
“Tarek, I’m going to skin you alive if you keep torturing me.” She knew the pitiful whimper in her voice didn’t exactly carry the threat well. But he should know her well enough to know she would keep her word. Maybe.
He chuckled.
“Hold on. We’re going to the bed.”
“The bed?” Her eyes widened in horror as he moved easily from the couch.
She shuddered as his cock shifted with each movement.
“I heard that last time,” her strangled gasp nearly became a mewl of rapture as his cock began to fuck in and out of her with each step. “Those steps …” She moaned at the sensation of his movements inside her. “Aren’t so comfortable.”
“We’ll make it.” He sounded too confident. Too determined.
Sweet Lord, he was going to kill her.
She swore he would. She knew he would.
“Oh God. Tarek. Tarek, I can’t stand it.” She was screaming his name as he began to take the steps with a heavy, quick stride.
His cock slammed inside her, taking her breath before retreating, rocking in, thrusting forcibly, then rocking inside her again.
Her nails dug into his shoulders, gasping, desperate cries fell from her lips as she tightened her legs around his hips and fought to hang on.
The first orgasm ripped through her on the sixth step. On the twelfth she was shuddering, jerking in his arms as the second stole her breath and her mind.
She was only barely aware of him actually making it to the bed, laying her back, and gripping her hips as he began to fuck her into a third, destructive climax.
She arched, her breath leaving her body in a rush as she felt his release tear through him then. The barb swelled forcibly from beneath the head of his cock, pressing into the delicate bundle of nerves that no man would have reached otherwise. It throbbed, caressed, and sent her flying into an orgasm that had no beginning and no end. It only had Tarek, holding her, his teeth scraping the wound he had left earlier before his teeth locked on it once again and dark oblivion overtook her.
“I love you. Oh God, Tarek, I love you …” Velvet darkness enclosed her as the words whispered free, her heart expanding as her soul seemed to lift, shudder, and open to accept a part of him that she knew even death could never steal.
• CHAPTER 9 •
“… I’m just tired, Dad. I had dinner out with a friend last night, and I have all this work backed up. I just think it would be best if you and the boys come over after all this rain lets up. You know how they mess up my kitchen when it’s wet outside …”
Tarek listened to Lyra spin a song and dance to her father later the next evening that even he wouldn’t have believed from her.
His sensual, sexual little mate was giving her father excuses that even he, who had no experience with parents, would never have tried.
What was it that made her think that delicate, sweet little voice was fooling anyone?
You’re crazy! he mouthed slowly, ignoring her as she waved him away with a graceful little flip of her hand.
After two days of sex that should have killed him, in positions he hadn’t tried in all his sexual lifetime, he was even prone to be fairly prejudiced in her favor. But the sweet, candy-coated innocent tone had him rolling his eyes at her before giving her a fierce frown.
What? she mouthed back, shooting him an irritated glance before turning her attention back to the call she had made to her family.
Considering the fact her brothers were Special Forces, he doubted their father was dimwitted. Yet here was his independent, feisty mate, reclining naked in his bed with nothing but a sheet to cover her, weaving an excuse that had him wincing painfully.
Her silken hair was tangled around her flushed face, her blue eyes gleaming with irritation, and she had the nerve to sit there and attempt to put her father off in such a way.
She was tired. She didn’t feel like cooking. Her brothers made messes …
Give him a break. Hell, give him strength because he had a feeling the full fury of a father plus his sons would arrive on her doorstep, fouling the careful setup Braden had there to catch the Trainer.
“Yes, Dad, I know how irked they get when they have to wait to do things, but my yard looks like a swamp right now, and they couldn’t do anything even if they wanted to. They just want a free meal, and I’m busy.”
She was pouting. Seriously pouting. What happened to the independent “do it my way or no way” woman he knew? He shook his head, pushing his fingers through his hair as he tried to think of ways to fix this before her family became his headache.
There was no stopping her. He sliced his hand across his throat, frowning at her warningly. To no effect. All he got was a glare in return.
That glare effectively hardened his cock. All she had to do was think about opposing him, and that stubborn flesh rose to rigid life. Dammit. She was wearing him out.
But what a way to go.
He would have grinned at the thought if she hadn’t chosen that moment to tell daddy, in that sweet innocent tone, that she was going to work all evening.
It was enough to make him groan silently.
“Yes, Dad, I promise I’m being careful and locking the doors and windows at night.” The promise was made in an almost automatic tone. “I promise, the only wild animals I’ll let in are the four-legged v
ariety. Not that I’ve seen any lately.” She grinned cheekily at her words as she winked at Tarek.
Insane woman! He snarled silently, mouthing the words to her as she rolled her eyes at him. Who did she think was believing this?
“This isn’t bread-baking day,” she yawned after the muted sound of her father’s deep voice stopped speaking. “Besides, I’m busy. They can wait another day or two.” She nestled deeper in the pillows, frowning as he watched her with almost morbid fascination.
She was actually convinced she was pulling this off. He could see it in her face. In her father’s tone of voice, he heard another story. Not that he could hear the words, just the alert tone, the almost military crispness.
She was going to get him killed. His training was excellent, but three Special Forces of the caliber that had helped free the Breeds from the Council Trainers and soldiers wouldn’t be in any way easy to defeat. Especially considering he couldn’t exactly kill his mate’s family.
“Yes, Dad, I promise to rest, and I’ll call you tomorrow,” she answered in a placating tone that was so sickeningly sweet, it had him wondering if his dinner was going to stay down.
He made a note to never be taken in by that tone of voice himself.
When she finally hung up the phone, he glared at her sternly.
“I hope you are not convinced that you pulled that off,” he growled furiously. “We will now have your entire family ripping the neighborhood apart looking for you.”
“Don’t be silly.” She laughed at his prediction. “They’ll come here first. I don’t think they entirely trust you. Something about not being able to find enough background information.” She wiggled her finely arched brows suggestively. “Have you been a bad boy, Tarek? Hiding records and such?”
She shimmied beneath the sheet, bracing her hands on the mattress as she leaned closer to him, her eyes dancing with shimmering lights of amusement as she gave him a suggestive little smile.
“Should I spank you for being bad now?”
His brows snapped into a frown. He was ignoring the ache in his cock. He needed a shower and food or he was going to collapse in exhaustion.
“You, I will spank later.” He pointed his finger at her with determined emphasis. “Someone needs to teach you better than to play such obvious games with men who know you much too well.”
