“You mean because you hadn’t before?” he asked.
I could only nod, my heart suddenly pained to know that Maddox would not see a child of his own.
“Why do you think that is?” he asked, his words soft, coaxing.
“Because I’m… I’m barren. Broken.”
He shook his head. “No,” he said vehemently. “Because Charles wasn’t your marked mate. You said fucking was never like this. Our connection, our bond, is powerful. You were waiting for me, and so was your body. Marked mates on Everis produce many of the children born. Many couples who choose to bond for life without the mark never conceive.”
A trickle of hope broke through the wall of disappointment I’d carried for years. I hadn’t thought about a child of my own for so long, but it was something I’d always wanted.
“You risked your life, and the life of our unborn child.”
“I’m not pregnant yet.”
His eyes softened. “Then I’d best remedy that.”
I didn’t dare respond, for he was so hopeful. I wanted to share in that hope, but I’d had years to adjust to the futility of it. But perhaps he was right. Only time would tell.
“We shall just have to wait and see,” he said, his thoughts mimicking mine. “In the meantime, you will be punished so you don’t risk yourself again.”
“Punished how?” I countered, my body stiffening. “You don’t intend to beat me?”
Maddox sighed, his look shifting from intense to tender in a heartbeat. “Beat you? Cassie, I’d never hurt you. No one will touch you, let alone harm you. Don’t you see? All I want to do is keep you safe.”
“Then what will you do?” I whispered.
“I’m going to spank you, although the way you like it, I doubt it will be much of a punishment.”
My mouth fell open and my nipples tightened at the idea of Maddox’s palm smacking my bottom.
“Yes, I can tell by the look on your face that it is no punishment at all.”
Maddox dropped onto the edge of the bed, then patted his thigh. “Come. Let us get this over with so I can fuck you.” His eyebrow went up. “You want my cock inside you, don’t you, Cassie?”
I licked my lips and nodded, for I did. I wanted his cock so very much. He patted his thigh again. Taking the few steps, I moved to stand between his parted knees, let the blanket fall to the floor.
His gaze heated immediately as it raked over my body. His knuckles grazed the curve of my breast. “You are so beautiful,” he replied, his words reverent.
Wrapping a hand about my waist, he pulled me over his lap. As I let out a surprised squeak, he settled me so my upper body was on the bed beside him, my bottom angled up so my toes couldn’t touch the floor. He hooked one leg over my calves, securing me in place.
A hand stroked over my bottom and I could feel his mark, the heat of it, the connection we shared making a trail of desire in its wake. Then it was gone, but only for a second, before it came down with a loud crack that rent the air. I heard it before I felt the sting of it. It made me gasp in pleasure, not pain. Somehow, his mark made my arousal climb with each and every spanking. He let them rain down one after the other, covering a new place on my bottom each time until all of it was heated and most likely glowing red.
I wasn’t wiggling to free myself, but instead to rub my aching clit against his hard thigh to try to gain relief.
“Maddox!” I cried out.
His palm landed with more intensity by the minute.
“You’re going to come, aren’t you?” he asked, his hand stilling.
I shuddered then at the idea. “Yes, please!” I begged. “More.”
His leg moved, releasing my own so my thighs parted just enough for his fingers to dip between. I moaned then, for his touch on my wet pussy was so gentle that I feared I imagined it.
“So wet,” he said, bringing his fingers to his mouth. I heard him lick them, suck on them and I whimpered. Against my hip, I felt his cock, hard and thick. He was as eager for me as I was for him.
“I will have to devise a new punishment for you. Perhaps I will not allow you to come.”
I shot up then and his hands came about my waist, pulling me down so that I faced him, straddling his lap. Pushing my hair out of my face, I looked at his bemused expression. “What?” I asked. “You can’t do that!”
I was so close, so needy, that I shifted my hips, trying to rub myself against him. With his hand on my hip, he tugged me forward so my clit bumped into his cock. We both hissed at the feel of it.
“Not this time, but fair warning, Cassie. Your safety is crucial. I’m a possessive, protective man. Once you come to understand that, you’ll know I’m serious. I will deny you your pleasure if you risk your life again. Hell, if you risk getting a broken fingernail.”
His words were softened by the gentle way he tucked my hair behind my ear.
Putting his hands back on my hips, he lifted me up, shifted me so his cock nudged at my entrance.
“Now it’s time to fuck you.”
He pushed me down onto him, slowly, yet forcefully. My body stretched and opened for him.
I cried out as he filled me completely, my inner walls milking him as I came. I’d been so ready, so eager that his cock deep inside was all I needed to tip me over the edge.
Maddox whispered to me, dark and carnal words as the pleasure consumed me.
“Such a good girl. So eager for my cock. You need it, don’t you? Filling you? My seed marking you as mine. Yes, ride my cock. Like that. I love seeing your breasts bounce, your little nipples tighten.”
Catching my breath, I put my forehead against his sweaty chest, breathed him in. His familiar scent soothed me. I’d thought that the boarding house was my home, but I’d been wrong. Home wasn’t a place, or even a planet. It was a person. For me, it was Maddox. Wherever he was, I wanted to be. I didn’t care if it was on Earth or Everis or even the moon. When I was with him, when he was deep inside me, I was exactly where I wanted to be.
“We’re not done, Cassie.” With an ease that showed his strength and power, he rolled me onto my back as he loomed over me. He hoisted me up, once, twice so my head rested on the pillow. I was too replete to fight him, and knowing that he had yet to come, that he would fuck me more, had me a docile participant.
Taking my hands, he lifted them above my head.
“I have you just where I want you.”
Maddox
* * *
I never imagined I’d find my marked mate. Never thought I’d be lucky enough to do so. But my mark flared to life when I least expected it, on a planet I barely knew existed. And my life changed from one second to the next. The frantic need for her, the need to claim her and protect her and possess her drove my every action. I’d put Neron aside to find her. I’d made her mine, claiming her with our marks touching and my cock spilling my seed deep into her.
But I’d never expected to feel so possessive and so fucking protective. I’d thought she would be safe on the ship, but she was not a woman to sit by idly. When Neron had fallen dead and I saw her approach, I’d been equal parts relieved and petrified. She’d risked herself and I couldn’t stand the fear that caused me. It was like a knife digging into me, jagged and sharp. I would protect her, I would keep her safe. But it seemed the only time I knew she was out of harm’s way and free of danger was when she was beneath me. When I held her in my arms and fucked her, I drove hard and deep so I could hear her pleasure, so she’d never think of another. But that didn’t seem to be enough for me. I needed to know she could not escape, I needed to know she was here, and safe, and could not leave me.
The idea of tying her to the bed, restraining her wrists so she couldn’t go anywhere soothed something deep inside. When I lost my head with the need to come, when my cock did the thinking for me, I knew she wasn’t going to disappear on me.
And so I restrained her, reached above her head and fastened her to the bed with the restraints normally reserved for bringing in c
riminals. They tightened automatically around her wrists, holding her firmly but not causing pain.
She gasped as the device closed around her and tugged at the bond, testing it. She tugged once, twice as I watched, my cock still buried balls deep in her pussy.
“You’re at my mercy, mate.”
She closed her eyes on a moan as her core clamped down like a fist around my hard cock.
I was enjoying this use for the restraints and could not see them about the wrists of a criminal in the same way again.
“You like that, don’t you?” I used the newfound freedom of my hands to explore her body as I shifted my hips, plunging deep, pulled free. Fucking her with different angles of my cock until I found the one that made her eyes go wide with shock and her body shudder.
She liked it rough, my wild little mate, and it was my great pleasure to give her what she needed. I’d punished her—albeit in a way that made her on the brink of coming—in a way that was no punishment at all. Then I rode her hard. My breath came in hard pants, sweat slid down my temple.
“Do you want to come?”
“Yes.” She tossed her hair from side to side, her tongue licking her lips as she tried to lock her legs around my hips and force me to her.
My claiming was as savage as her need. We’d faced death today, and now, I knew exactly what she wanted, not to think or remember or wonder if she’d done the right thing today, but to feel.
Later, she would be soft and pliant. Now, I gave her what she needed, what I needed, to soothe not only my body, but those fucking inner demons that feared she’d be ripped from me forever. She was beneath me, tied to the bed and at my mercy.
“Maddox!” she cried, tugging at the restraints when I did not allow her to come, but watched her beautiful flushed face as she begged. I’d never seen anything so lovely. Her bonds wouldn’t give, not until I released her.
I grinned at her and began kissing my way down her body, stopping to lick and lave one nipple, then the other, until they were red and shiny and hard.
Moving lower, my cock slipped free, then I nudged her thighs open with my shoulders and settled between. Her pussy was perfect. Pale blond curls, so soft against my fingertips framed her pink pussy. Her folds were swollen and slick and my cock pulsed against the bed, angry at the loss of being settled deep inside her, then pulled free. But I wanted her at my mercy. I wanted to hear her beg, hear her scream, as I tasted her. I wanted her to writhe and shift her hips, press herself against me. I wanted to hold her pussy lips wide and watch her inner walls pulse and spasm as she found release.
I worked her with my mouth, sucking and rubbing her with my tongue, fucking her with my fingers until she was on the edge. It was then that I pulled away and used my thumbs to spread the pink folds of her pussy wide. I pulled a bit, stretching her open and flicked her clit over and over until she screamed for release.
The sight of her dark pink core rippling with pleasure was like lava in my blood, heating me to the point of explosion. I could wait no longer and came up over her. Her eyes slowly opened to look up at me. So perfect. And when I came over her and pushed into her again, stretching her open, her pussy wet and hot and so eager for me, I knew that this was where I wanted to be. On her. In her. Over her.
She was mine.
I started to move then, to let my cock rule me. I wasn’t gentle, but Cassie didn’t want that. She was as wild as I. Perhaps she liked being pinned to the bed as much as I loved seeing her that way. She could relinquish all control, all her worries, all her needs to me.
Her marked mate.
“You’re mine,” I growled, thrusting hard.
“Yes, yours,” she whispered back, arching her neck and moaning as I shifted my hips.
I took note of what she liked, did it again. And again.
“Maddox!” she cried. It was the sweetest sound in the entire universe.
I lowered to my forearms and kissed her then, swallowed her sounds of pleasure as she found release. Her inner walls milked my cock as if her body were eager to pull my seed deeper inside her, to create life.
A baby.
The very idea had my balls tightening, my orgasm bursting forth and shooting from me with a guttural groan. The sheer bliss of her body was blinding.
Her orgasm rode her hard, her body continuing to pulse and writhe as I filled her. I was lost, and yet, with Cassie, I’d been found. I was home.
Epilogue
Cassie
* * *
Maddox and I were curled up in bed watching actors, not on a stage, but somehow recorded and placed on the screen in our chambers. The story we watched was about a brave young man who’d been orphaned and rose to the highest ranks of elite warriors on Everis, falling in love with a beautiful marked mate along the way.
It was exhilarating, a mix of adventure and romance and Maddox pointed out the scenery and explained to me what I was seeing. His world. Everis. The sky was a beautiful pale hue that shifted from purple to blue; according to Maddox, the color shifted with the temperature or the season. The trees were huge, much like I imagined the giant redwoods of California I’d heard about. I couldn’t wait to see his world with my own eyes.
Beep-beep-beep.
Maddox sighed and rose from our bed to answer the communication coming through to the ship. We hadn’t heard from the other hunters since Maddox had told them about Neron.
“Maddox.”
“By the Divine, Maddox. I have a problem.”
“Thorn?” Maddox frowned and I sat up, pulling the sheet over my breasts to cover my nakedness. Thorn did not sound like himself. I’d only heard him once or twice, but he’d been so calm and controlled. Now, he sounded frazzled, frantic.
“Yes. I have to abandon my hunt.”
“Why? Are you injured? Do you need assistance?”
Thorn sighed, the sound long and tortured. “Not with this. My mark, Mad. I can’t believe it, but…”
Maddox’s frown changed to a knowing grin and I tilted my head, puzzled by his amusement at his friend’s obvious upset. “Let me guess? Your mark is on fire and you’ve been dreaming about a tall, beautiful woman with hair the color of dark red berries and brown eyes.”
Thorn cursed. “Yes. How did you know? Have you seen her? Where is she?”
Now I was smiling, too. Elizabeth. Maddox was talking about the woman we’d rescued from Neron, the woman who knew what she was, what Maddox had been. Alien.
Maddox grinned. “Her name is Elizabeth. She took my horse and rode east from the cabin where I confronted Neron. That’s all I can tell you, my friend.”
“Why can’t I find her? It’s as if she knows I’m coming.”
Laughing now, I couldn’t resist teasing the fierce warrior. “That’s because she does. She knows what she is, Thorn. She knows about the marks.”
“And wants nothing to do with you,” Maddox added.
“She’s my mate! If she knows about the marks, if hers truly has awakened, then she should be running to me, not away.”
“Neron didn’t exactly give her a good first impression of Everian males.”
“She can’t compare me to Neron. He was a psychopath. Fuck!” Thorn’s curse made us both grin.
“She’s denying the truth,” Maddox added.
“She can deny all she wants,” Thorn grumbled. “But she’s mine.”
I recognized the same possessive tone that Maddox used when he spoke of me.
“So, she’s hiding from me?” Thorn sounded forlorn and frustrated. I was quickly learning marked men of Everis were irrational until they claimed their mate. Maddox had been and Thorn certainly had the same signs.
I laughed. “I’m sorry, Thorn,” I said, sympathizing. I hadn’t made it easy for Maddox, either. “But, yes. She must be running from you. That would be my guess.”
Maddox couldn’t resist adding one more caution. “She took off on that horse with Neron’s ion blaster. Not only is she hiding, she’s armed.”
“My marked mat
e is armed and running from me,” Thorn growled. “When I find her, which do you think she'll want to do first? Fuck me or shoot me?”
Find Your Match!
YOUR mate is out there. Take the test today and discover your perfect match. Are you ready for a sexy alien mate (or two)?
* * *
VOLUNTEER NOW!
interstellarbridesprogram.com
WANT MORE?
Sign up for Grace’s VIP Reader list at http://freescifiromance.com
* * *
Love Historical Romance? Read the first chapter of THEIR CONQUERED BRIDE by Grace Goodwin. One woman. Two cowboys. Let the fun begin!
* * *
Elizabeth
* * *
I leaned my elbows on the dried wood railing on the small balcony of our second floor hotel room and sighed. The dark night did nothing to hide a woman’s cries coming from the room next door. I should have been sound asleep hours ago, blissfully unaware at this time of night, except I was restless and worried. Soon I would no longer be Miss Elizabeth Lewis. No, in two short days I would meet my new husband, Mr. Samuel Jenkins, and pray that he looked upon me with favor. A bit of desire would be nice as well.
When a woman’s soft calls reached my ears, I tossed back the tangled covers and followed the noises outside to peek into the next room, worried that the cries she made were caused by pain. As my bare feet pressed to the wooden planks under me, the unmistakable sounds of carnal pleasure reached my ears.
She wasn’t in pain, at least not the kind she might want to escape.
I would not look.
I would not look.
Damn it. I looked, and clenched my legs together at the scene playing out. This woman was most definitely not being harmed. With their balcony door wide open to take in the warm night air and the candles lit on the small nightstand, I could easily see into their room.
The Alien's Mate Page 15
