by Vonna Harper
“You were pushing it,” he said in that newly deep tone.
“Pushing? I was trying to please you.”
“Why?”
The question struck her as profoundly sad. She didn’t know how to begin to answer someone with no memory of kindness. “I wish things were different for you,” was all she could think to say. Once again a hot river of need ran through her, making concentrating on anything else nearly impossible. It was so dark, maybe he couldn’t see her prominently displayed ass, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t aware of it. In truth, knowing he had easy and total access to that part of her anatomy made her feel even more sexual than she had a few minutes before. He wouldn’t have hauled her over here and positioned her like this if he hadn’t intended to take advantage of the merchandise, would he?
And she couldn’t do a darn thing to stop him, couldn’t do anything except wait and anticipate.
Her arms were starting to burn again, and there was too much blood in her head. A lot of her weight rested on her breasts, and her stretched thighs protested. The sensations stacked one on top of the other to settle into a single unit. Her body, waiting for his.
“A predator sometimes plays with his prey, you know,” he said.
“Yes.”
“For hours, if that’s what the predator decides. Doing what he wants, concerned with nothing except his entertainment.”
“Yes.”
“Dominating. Immobilizing. Pitting strength against weakness.”
His words fed and expanded what she was experiencing. He might have said something like that before; maybe she’d only thought those thoughts where he was concerned.
“How long before the prey stops trying to get free, and accepts what she has no control over? How long?” he demanded.
“I don’t know.”
“Are you there yet, Kai? Maybe you still remember freedom. But maybe, like me, you’ve forgotten everything about your past. Having a life.”
Do you care anything about me as a human being? “Right now that doesn’t matter.”
“What does?”
“You know, damn it!”
“Do I?” he muttered. Before she could decide what, if anything, to say in response, he lightly slapped her right ass cheek. They’d been down this road before. She should have things under control.
Wrong.
Moaning, she struggled, not to escape, but to present even more of her buttocks to him. He rewarded her pathetic efforts by slapping her left cheek. Then it was back to the right, followed by a quick return to the left. Again, again, and yet again, his callused hand connected. What had begun as a teasing contact became sharper. She imagined her skin turning dark pink, then red.
“Ow! That hurts.”
“That’s what I intended.” Slap, slap, slap.
“Stop it!” She tried to shift to the side, but of course he had her exactly where he wanted her. “I’m not—I don’t like—”
“That’s not the point.” Slap, slap.
Then what is the point, she wanted to demand, though maybe she didn’t. Whatever the answer, she couldn’t concentrate for the ever escalating sensations. The pressure on her arms didn’t seem as intense as it had been, thank goodness, but she was still a lifetime away from being able to straighten. Flames licked over her buttocks, up her spine, down to her crack.
That’s where her focus now centered, her crack, and what was beneath and within it. He hadn’t touched her sex, but he didn’t have to because that part of her anatomy felt—everything. Responded to everything.
All right, not pain. Something extraordinary and overwhelming. Wonderful!
“I’m your world, your only existence,” he continued. “Everything you experience comes from me, understand?”
“Yes!” Fight him. Lie there and take it. Either way, the outcome would be the same.
“I’m playing with you, Kai.” Slap. Slap. “Do you understand?”
That deep and not-quite-human tone again. Her nerves shooting off like rockets. And most of all, her cunt river-flowing. “Yes.”
“And you like it. Love it!”
Ah, what was that, an exclamation mark accompanied by the sharpest blow yet? And her response, her cunt about to explode. “Yes!” she screamed. “I love it!”
Suddenly he was no longer holding her arms up. She’d started to let them drop when she felt him separate her ass cheeks. Hard male meat slid into the space he’d created, glided along the narrow valley.
“I’m not going to stop, Kai. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And you want the same thing.”
There it was, his cock resting against the entrance to her pussy, and his energy flowing from him into her until she thought she’d come from this simple and yet unbelievably complex touch. What was it she’d just accused him of, not caring about who and what she was beyond his possession? What the hell did it matter?
“Answer me. You want me to fuck you.”
“Yes. Yes!”
“Fast, hard, no quarter given.”
“None wanted. Damn it, Cougar, none wanted!” Hearing what she’d just said, she froze. Then he roughly rubbed the flesh he’d been tenderizing and she couldn’t think of anything else.
He was growling, not grunting, but growling. And yet his hands belonged to a human, and the cock—pushing into her now—was Hok’ee’s.
There, an inner voice whispered. Deed done.
Only he’d just begun, hadn’t he? Or rather, they’d just started to fuck. She was a repository for his cum, a step above masturbating for him, because except for providing the requisite pussy, she brought nothing to the event.
But she took everything, took his breadth and length, the harsh, quick thrusts. She started to slide along the bed, but he clamped his hands around her hip bones and anchored her in place. Secure and secured, she rocked with him. The bedding abraded her breasts and cheek, even the front of her thighs. No pain, she acknowledged, no wanting anything different. In truth, the friction added to the heat boiling through her.
Her pussy reacted and recorded, sensed him and sent hot messages throughout her body. Had everything melted together? She’d become a hundred-plus pounds of cunt, and precious little else.
She wanted to laugh at the damn insane thought. Instead, she closed her teeth around the top blanket. She started chewing on it, tearing and grinding, growling the way he’d done.
Was there no end to the pounding her body was taking? He could go on and on, holding back his climax until he’d shredded her much as she was doing to the fabric?
The roller-coaster ride that signaled her impending climax had begun its uphill pull when suddenly he stopped. He remained deep and hard inside her, and she sensed a shift in the alignment. Maybe he’d bent his knees, either that or spread his legs so he was coming at her straight-on instead of at a slight angle as before. His hold on her hips tightened as he pushed even farther into her channel. He was everything and everywhere, and she the ultimate prisoner.
Far from wanting to fight, she pushed back in silent welcome. He responded by releasing her, only to rake her reddened buttocks with sturdy nails.
“Oh shit, shit!” she bellowed. The blanket forgotten, she struggled to suck in oxygen. She’d only half-accomplished her goal when he once more anchored her hips and reared back. Then forward.
Hit! Slammed. Hammered.
A river caught her. Tumbling like a small helpless creature, she sensed endless water rushing over her. She was being sucked into a tunnel where water churned and foamed, a place of darkness and sound, and no air. Suddenly the river caught fire, and she blazed with it.
Her pussy spasmed, then relaxed, only to tighten again. There he was, riding the river and her climax with her. She had him, had him! His cock was her pussy’s prisoner, and she’d never let him go.
The darkness grew. She still couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t remember what she’d been trying to do. Heard nothing. Felt everything.
“Oh,
shit, shit. Ah!”
Limp, useless, and worthless was only the half of it, Hok’ee admitted. Still, he found the strength and will to pull what was left of his cock out of her core. Although his legs trembled, he remained on his feet as he untied her hands. Looping an arm around her waist, he drew her upright and toward him. Her sweaty back rested against his equally sweaty chest, and he wasn’t sure which of them shook the most.
Muttering something he didn’t catch, she slid away from him. Then she all but dove onto the bed. He sensed more than saw her curl onto her side and could only guess that she was looking up at him, or trying to.
What could he say, that he’d just fucked her and yet it hadn’t really been him, not wholly. Would she understand Cougar’s role in what had taken place? Even more important, could she accept that he been unable to control Cougar?
Maybe, he acknowledged. Then his knees sent a desperate message to his brain, and he joined her on the bed in the split second before he would have collapsed.
After a few minutes of almost companionable silence, she shifted about. It took all his self-control not to pull her against him. He was utterly exhausted, at least his body was. In contrast, his mind worked in double time. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, little of what he was thinking made sense, and he couldn’t hold on to any of those random thoughts long enough to work with them.
He’d spent the night with a handful of women since his death and damnable rebirth, primarily because it hadn’t been worth the effort to come up with an excuse for leaving. But this was the first time a woman had shared his bed with him. As for the ones that had come before he’d run a motorcycle off the side of the road—
No, he wasn’t going to think about that. It served no purpose, and changed nothing. Neither did he want to replay what she’d told him about the last day of his life, or any other day, he amended. Learning that he was at least partly Navajo hadn’t been that much of a shock. After all, he was on what had once been Navajo land.
Not just the Navajo. What about those who came long before them, the ancients responsible for what you’ve made into your home?
Pulled out of his lethargy by the question, he fought to keep his reaction from Kai, whose breathing was lengthening. He’d heard things from Cougar before, but the concepts had been animal-simple. Cougar needed to sleep or hunt, or fuck.
They’re called Anasazi, The Ancient Ones, he told the other half of his existence. I’ve read about them.
I know. I was there when you were reading that book—and long before.
The and long before caught his attention, but his body was on its way to sleep, and he couldn’t and didn’t want to fight it. Tomorrow he’d insist Cougar tell him what he was talking about, and why, on this night with Kai, Cougar had revealed himself as more than a beast of prey.
Tomorrow.
Tonight was for wondering about the remarkable woman next to him, and then falling asleep next to her.
17
The water was colder than she’d expected. Still, Kai dampened the cloth Hok’ee had given her and ran it over her legs. She’d slept like the proverbial dead and had woken hungry enough to eat a horse. Horse had been in short supply, but Hok’ee had cooked pancakes on a portable gas stove. Suspecting he’d acquired the camp stove via other than legal means, she hadn’t asked about it. She would have liked to have some butter with her pancakes, but the syrup had been delicious, either that or anything edible would have sufficed.
Now she was cleaning up while Hok’ee watched. Going by the amount of sunlight coming into the cave, it was nine or ten in the morning. Having never worn a watch, she’d become accustomed to getting her time orientation from her car dashboard, clocks at home, or her cell phone. Now she had none of those things, just a silent man with his dark eyes steady on her naked body.
She wished they’d had sex this morning. At the same time, she wasn’t sure she was up for a repeat of yesterday’s intensity. He’d said little since they’d woken up. Granted, she hadn’t been any more of a conversationalist, but there was no doubt of who was in command of their relationship. Him.
What was going to happen now? A return to ropes? And if he insisted on that, how long before Garrin called in the troops to look for her?
Garrin, that’s who she should be thinking about. More than thinking, she needed to impress upon Hok’ee how much of a danger her coworker and those who’d be here in a few days presented.
But if/when she did, they’d have to deal with the real world.
For just a little longer, she wanted her existence to revolve around the half man, half predator she’d fucked. To think of nothing and no one else.
“My turn,” Hok’ee said, sliding off the bed where he’d been reclining. He strode naked and tall toward her, drying her throat and causing moisture to bloom in another part of her anatomy. When he reached her, he held out his hand. For a moment she believed he wanted her to place her hand in his. Then she realized he only wanted the cloth. Feeling oddly abandoned, she handed it to him. Needing something to do, she turned her back on him and walked over to where he’d placed her clothes. He didn’t tell her not to, so she dressed, even putting on her boots and retrieving her cell phone, camera, and pistol.
Now what?
Looking at him for the first time since she’d left his side, she found him staring at her. The lighting in here was far from the best, which was good because she couldn’t read his expression.
Say something, she mentally commanded herself. Ask him where we go from here. Instead, she watched him scrub his legs. His hair was damp, making her think he’d started at the top and worked his way down. Why hadn’t she seen him handle his cock?
Speaking of his cock, it was someplace between flaccid and erect, maybe waiting for a signal or move on her part to help finish the job. And then what? More sweaty sex, followed by another one of what her dad had called a spit bath, followed by yet more sex?
Was that going to be her existence? Or would she walk out of here and return to the world she’d left?
“Come here,” he said.
Startled by the unexpected command, if that’s what it was, she squared around so she faced him head-on. If she’d ever been more conflicted, she couldn’t remember. She wanted him and his body with every fiber and nerve of her being. At the same time, she hated that he had the power to change her from everything she’d ever been. She wanted, needed, to be the woman she’d always believed she was. To have the life that maybe didn’t mean anything to him.
“Come here.”
“What do you want, Hok’ee? Or is Cougar talking?”
“Cougar is quiet this morning.”
Which meant she’d only be dealing with the man. How much distance lay between them? Ten feet, maybe? It seemed like a thousand miles and less than two inches at the same time. “What do you want?”
“You.”
How simple everything was for him. With no life beyond the need to keep his body going, he could indulge his body’s desires. She, on the other hand—
“Are you fighting me?”
“I don’t know. Will it come to that?”
She took his silence to mean he wasn’t sure how to answer. But much as she regretted complicating things, it was necessary.
“We can’t go on like this,” she said, because one of them had to speak. Besides, if she didn’t do something other than stare at that magnificently fit body, nothing else would matter. “The people I’m working with will look for me. I have a job, a career, commitments. You remember those, don’t you, commitments?”
“All I know is what you’ve told me.”
Was that what he wanted, not her body so much as the light she could shed on his past? She could do that—couldn’t she?—grant him time and concentration. All it took was Cougar’s cooperation.
Her boots felt strange on her feet as she stepped toward Hok’ee. “If you want me to—” she started.
Before she could finish, a sharp, distant sound stopped her. An
instant later the sound was repeated.
“Rifle,” she and Hok’ee said as one.
Even as he pushed past her on his way to the opening, she had no doubt who was responsible: Garrin. From everything she and Garrin had been able to determine, there wasn’t anyone else around for miles—except for Hok’ee and the other Tocho, that is.
“It’s my coworker, it has to be,” she said to Hok’ee’s back. “He’s shooting to see if I’ll fire back or follow the sound to him. I have—”
“No. He’s shooting at something.”
That hadn’t occurred to her. Surely he wouldn’t fire at another human. But what if it was at something, like a cougar?
Her mouth dry, she joined Hok’ee. Sunlight caressed his shoulders and back. It touched his hair with reddish highlights she longed to stroke. Even with her boots on, he was nearly a foot taller.
He didn’t seem aware of her presence as he stood with his head cocked to the side, his eyes roaming the horizon. Tearing her attention off him, she made note of the starkly beautiful cliffs ahead. The canyon walls were predominantly a light, rich brown, interspersed with grays and golds, but here and there was what her father, and others associated with Canyon De Chelly, called desert varnish. Much darker than the rest of the walls, the varnish ran down the stones, reminding her of water stains. The varnish was what remained of flowing oxide-laden water.
Who were the first humans to see this extraordinary sight?
Then a second shot echoed off the cliffs, and she forgot everything else. Not looking at her, and not seeming to be aware that he was naked and barefoot, Hok’ee started running in the direction the sounds had come from.
Stop, she wanted to scream. Be careful!
But if another Tocho had been shot—
Heart thudding, she bolted after Hok’ee. Thanks to his longer legs and faster pace, he was rapidly disappearing from sight. She forced herself to set a slower pace that would allow her to keep going for a long time. She could only pray Hok’ee wouldn’t run into Garrin.
