Her eyes fell, the lashes lying like fans on her cheek.
“I thought I felt something.” He gave her a gentle shake. “You tried to cut the torque off, didn’t you?”
Her mouth compressed into a stubborn line.
“Didn’t you?”
She glared. “What did you expect?”
“Don’t try it again.” Brin unbuckled the clasp of his saddlebag and fished out his small medical kit. “Put your head up.” Carefully he dabbed the shallow cuts with the liquid from a small vial.
Anje inhaled sharply. “What the Mother is that? It stings like a bitch.”
“Serves you right,” he said without sympathy. “It’s a cleansing potion.”
He released her and returned the vial to the kit. As he did so, he caught sight of a jar of soothing balm. Everything within him went still and hungry. Slowly, he drew it out and placed it on the table near the heat of the lamp so it would warm.
Anje’s eyes shifted to it. Gradually, her pupils dilated and she paled beneath her honey gold tan. The wicked desire inside Brin danced with glee and anticipation.
Blandly, he said, “We should eat.”
There was something darkly addictive about wide eyes and trembling lips.
“It’s ready.” Trey emerged from the passage with a bowl of steaming stew in each hand. “We’ve only got two bowls, Anje. Sorry.”
“She can share with me. Trey, douse the fire and bring the hot water.” He waited a beat and added, “And that shirt.”
Trey’s eyes glittered. “Right.” As he placed the bowls on the table, he noticed the jar of balm. He stood motionless, his throat moving as he swallowed. Then he turned and darted out of the cave.
Brin didn’t speak. The silence dragged out. He watched Anje’s eyes flick away from his. Her breasts rose and fell, quivering with the rapidity of her breathing. He smiled inwardly when her gaze snagged on the deep heap of fragrant bracken with their bedding spread over it. Now she knew she wasn’t sleeping alone tonight.
“You wanted my attention, didn’t you, scout?” he asked silkily. “And you had no problem persuading Trey to help you out.” His mouth quirked. “Now you have it. Tell me what you want.”
Her violet eyes fixed on his. To him, her face was so expressive, he could watch as she drew anger around her like armor. When she made her decision, she used it to fuel her courage.
Her jaw firmed and she set her hands on her hips. “You know what I want.”
Brin folded his legs and dropped to the bedding. He leaned back against the wall and propped one elbow on his bent knee. “No,” he said, “I won’t know unless you tell me.”
A spark flared in her amethyst stare. “I want to leave you. Tomorrow. But tonight, I want…” She swallowed and Brin raised a gentle brow.
“I want you…” Her breath huffed out as Trey skidded to a halt, a large stoppered gourd in one hand, a bunch of fabric wadded in the other.
“Go on.” It was the softest whisper he could produce, the one he used to coax nervous vranee.
“Both of you… What we did last night…” The words trailed off into a tingling silence.
“Are you sure, Anje? Both of us?”
She stood her ground, Lufra bless her. “I just said so, didn’t I?”
Ruthlessly, he quelled the tenderness. There was no time for that now. Instead, he stared deeply into her eyes and showed her the roar of his hunger, the depth of his greed. “One at a time? Or together?”
Trey set the heavy gourd down with a thunk. “Stop it, Brin.” His voice was steady and cold. “Leave her be.”
Never in all their years together had he heard that tone from Trey. Brin covered his reaction by resting his head against the wall and studying his young friend through half-closed eyes. He supposed he should be hurt, jealous even. Trey had slipped his arm around Anje’s waist and they stood shoulder-to-shoulder, shining with youth and defiance. But instead, he had to fight an almost overpowering urge to leap his feet and pull them into his arms and babble Lufra knew what nonsense. That he never wanted them to leave him, that he’d do anything, anything if they’d stay, if they’d warm his bed forever.
He inhaled deeply. “You want me to torture you in her place?”
Trey’s gaze was level. “If that’s what it takes.”
Brin had to let his lashes fall, lest the other man see the goddess flame blazing in his eyes. After a moment’s struggle, he had himself under control. “I’ll take care of her, Trey. I promise on my honor, no more than she can take.”
Trey stared so hard, Brin felt the back of his skull sizzle. Finally, the younger man gave a curt nod and stepped back.
Brin wanted to sag with relief. Instead, he patted the space next to him. “We should eat. Come and sit, scout.”
Warily, she picked her way across the cave and sank down next to him. Brin held out a hand and Trey slipped a tie into it.
In a single, swift move, he grasped both her wrists and bound them together.
An outraged gasp and she was twisting in his grip, bucking like a wild vran. “Take her—Lufra!—feet, Trey!”
After a brisk five minutes, Brin had her sitting sideways in his lap, rigid with fury. Trey leaned panting against the wall, rubbing his thigh and grinning.
“What is it with you?” she hissed. “Arrogant, stupid—”
“I know.” Brin ran his forefinger down her neck and over the thunder of her pulse. He pressed his lips to the spot. “But I can smell you, scout. Those trews must be soaked through. Shall we check?”
“No!”
Trey handed him a bowl and a fork. Brin went on, “I know what you asked for, scout. But Lufra, in Her love and generosity, provides an infinite variety of ways to fuck. They are all delightful. And we’re going to try them all.”
For all her length and lithe muscularity, she wasn’t heavy. Her spine was stiff, but the hair drifting free of her braid tickled his cheek and his nostrils were full of her scent—cool and clean from her wash in the stream, but warmed through with the feminine honey of arousal. He remembered her taste. She’d been delicious, tangy and musky on his tongue. His mouth watered.
“I’m hungry,” he said. Lufra knew that was no more than the truth. The sulky droop of her cushiony lower lip was so tempting, the drool was practically dripping off his chin. “Aren’t you?”
She scowled. “You know I am.”
Gratefully, he inhaled her fragrance and popped a small forkful between her lips. “Eat for me, my beautiful slave. You’re going to need your strength.”
Chapter Thirteen
Loincloths, 3
Sarongs, 2
Blanket, 1
Inexpensive oil, suitable for massage, 1 bottle
Cockring (please ensure correct fit) and small bells
Soft leather straps, one inch wide, 6
Soap and towel
Hymnal
“Shamanic training: what to bring”, from “Feolin Temple Instruction 24”, revised 10339 ATF
Brin’s lap was surprisingly comfortable, despite the fact that Anje refused to lean into his chest the way her body urged her to do. Because she was seated side-on to him, his access to her was unsettlingly complete. His thighs felt hard and warm beneath her, but he kept her steady with a hand in the small of her back. Its casual presence burned through her shirt like a brand. Between bites of stew, he’d stroke her cheek or her hair, as if she was a pet.
He’d bound her wrists in front of her, in such a way that she had about six inches of free play.
He took scrupulous care of her, ensuring each forkful was the right size, wiping the occasional droplet from her lip with a broad thumb. Trey brewed her a cup of roberry and doled it out in measured sips, grinning.
“Traitor!” she hissed, but the grin only widened and he swooped down to kiss her eyebrow, cheerfully unrepentant.
“Quiet!” ordered Brin.
Something had shifted in him since they’d arrived at the cave. She’d never seen the shaman look
so stern, so full of brutal purpose. She pressed her thighs together, shamed and furious. The harder the expression in his midnight eyes, the more her sex glowed with happy expectation.
The Mother only knew what he’d done to her. She must be insane!
As the level in the bowl they shared dropped, her apprehension grew. By the time the last scraps disappeared, she could no longer keep the words between her teeth. “What are you going to do?”
She’d meant it to sound like a challenge, but it came out all wrong, cracked and desperate.
“Did I give you permission to speak?”
Anje opened her mouth and saw the gleam in his eye. No one had ever called her stupid. She shut it with a click and shook her head.
Brin gave a predatory smile that chilled her blood. “We’re going to take you to your limits, scout. And on the way there, I’ll be settling my score with you.” His eye fell on Trey. “Both of you.”
Trey scowled, but his lips quivered on a suppressed smile. As he shifted to ease the bulge in his trews, Anje smirked. Serves him right, she thought, with a shudder of anticipation.
“Don’t look so pleased.” The shaman set aside the bowl, put a finger to her cheek and turned her to face him. “We’ve been gentle with you, scout. Positively restrained. Think of it, we could have taken turns with you for hours, days.”
He shook his head in mock sorrow and a lock of shining sable hair flopped into his eyes. She only realized she’d raised a hand to smooth it away when the bindings brought her up short. Swearing inwardly, she bit her lip.
“And so much of you is virgin, scout. Your gorgeous ass. Your mouth…” He nibbled at her lower lip, slicked his tongue over it. “You haven’t even swallowed yet.” His palms produced a wave of shivers down her spine and over the upper slopes of her buttocks. “You have the sweetest dimples. Just here.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“Fuck your ass?” He took her cheeks between his palms and stared into her eyes. Deep in the midnight of his pupils, the goddess fire blazed. “Of course I would. I will. So will Trey.”
“It takes a little getting used to.” Trey drew off one of her boots as he spoke. “But you’ll like it.”
“Mother of Mercy, you’re perverts, both of you!”
Her eyes narrowed in sudden suspicion. “Trey, how would you know what it feels like?” she demanded.
He flushed a brilliant scarlet. Ducking his head, he busied himself with the second boot.
“Sweet Lufra!” The shaman’s long fingers clamped on to his shoulder, dug in. “Who?”
The high color ebbed from Trey’s face. He tilted his chin and gave Brin a steady look. “Why do you want to know?”
As the silence stretched, Anje stole a glance at Brin. His face was impassive, but under the bronzed skin of his throat, a pulse ticked to a wild rhythm. The fire of the goddess was a conflagration in his dark pupils. At last, he said, so slowly it was as if the words were dragged out of him, “I just want to know he cared.”
“He was…kind.”
Beneath her, Brin relaxed, one muscle at a time. His exhalation whispered past her ear. She’d be willing to bet her best blade Trey’s lover had been tall and broad and dark-haired. She opened her mouth and shut it again. It wasn’t her secret to tell.
“Get the trews off her,” said the shaman. When she writhed in protest, Brin took her face in his hands, bent his dark head and plundered her mouth. She tried to hold firm, but his tongue was so persuasive, so cajoling, her complaints turned to a gurgle of delight. Ah Mother, there was nothing better than a man who loved to kiss. And she had two of them! Her bound hands flailed about until they found a fold of his shirt and clutched.
She barely registered the leggings being removed, only gasping into Brin’s mouth when she felt Trey’s warm hands slide up her calves and over her thighs.
The shaman pulled his lips away and she moaned.
“Not yet, Trey,” he growled. “Strip. And stand where we can see you.”
Grumbling, Trey did as he was bid. When he was bare, Brin rumbled, “How’s the view, scout? See anything you fancy?”
Resting against the hard wall of Brin’s chest, she drank Trey in, from the cheeky grin, now a trifle shaky, to the whorls of silky hair on his chest and the intriguing dip of his navel. He was spike hard, rearing, his balls drawn up tight to his body. Anje sighed in appreciation. “Make him turn,” she whispered.
“You heard.”
With a glare, Trey shuffled around. The warm, gentle light of the lamp caressed the high, proud curve of his ass, shadows pooled lovingly in the cleft. Anje’s mouth parched.
“Trey?” she whispered.
“Yes, love?”
“Move your feet further apart.”
He threw her a startled look over his shoulder. Slowly, he widened his stance until she could see the furry pouch of his testicles, as tight and tempting as ripe gaeta fruit.
His thighs were corded with tension, quivering. He slid both hands down the front of his body in a luxurious stroke.
“Don’t touch!”
Anje and Brin exchanged a startled glance. They’d spoken together.
Trey laughed. He turned. “You see, Brin? I told you. Your match.”
“You think?” Brin considered her for a chilling moment. He gripped the front of the shirt that was all she was wearing and jerked hard.
It ripped down the middle and Trey groaned. “Have a heart, man! I only have so many shirts.”
Brin ignored him. “Bring me the cream from the table.”
Anje’s guts turned over. “No, no!” She raised her bound wrists in a defensive gesture.
“Sshh.” Brin wrapped them in one big fist and licked between each knuckle in turn. He was leisurely about it and very thorough. All the while, his fiery, onyx gaze caressed her bared breasts, the dark nipples already so distended they ached. Anje didn’t think it possible, but her breast flesh engorged, rising further under his stare. It felt as if some mad magician had swapped her nipples for heated stones.
She writhed, unconsciously arching her spine, offering herself.
The shaman smiled, not his usual charming half-smile, but a satisfied curl of the lip. Without warning, he bent his dark head and engulfed her breast in the hot cavern of his mouth. Simultaneously, he thrust one broad finger straight into her dripping sex.
Anje screamed.
Her spine arched, as tense as the strongest hunting bow. The orgasm burst over her like a summer storm, painful in its intensity. She rode it out, bucking on Brin’s hand, gasping for breath.
“Magnificent.” Trey’s whisper was awestruck. Anje’s eyes fluttered open. He crouched beside them, the jar lying forgotten in the bedding. With his fingertips, he stroked her trembling thigh. He leaned his shoulder into Brin’s. “Both of you.”
Brin released a long breath. “Goddess-sent.” Then he grinned, the dimple flashing in his stubbled cheek. It was the last thing she saw before he flipped her over his knees.
She reared back, swearing, but Trey caught her shoulders and held her immobile. Brin murmured, “You’re glorious, scout.” His massive erection pressed into her stomach and his rough, warm hands ran up under her shirt and down the length of her spine. They curved over her buttocks in a proprietorial way that made her grit her teeth.
The next instant, he’d delivered a ringing slap that jerked a shriek out of her. Before she had time to recover, he’d dealt with the other cheek the same way.
Her flesh stinging, Anje snarled, “What the hell are you doing?”
His fingertips moved soothingly over the skin he’d abused. “Payback time, scout. I told you not to push.”
“But I thought— Shit!” The crisp sound of flesh on flesh echoed off the walls. By the Mother, he had a heavy hand! She pressed her lips together. It wasn’t so bad. They wouldn’t hear her whimper. Another blow made the breath clog in her throat.
“You thought I was going to fuck your sweet ass?” He nudged her thighs open and ran
a fingertip over the succulent folds of her vulva. “Look at you, scout. The very idea makes you so wet, your pretty little cunt is swimming.”
“No.”
“Yes.” He cupped her mons firmly, tucking a broad thumb into her vagina and bracketing her clit with two fingers. Anje squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on her breathing. The prickling heat in her bottom was spreading. Now her sex glowed and throbbed like a tight fist of fire.
“I hate to see a woman in suspense.” Brin’s deep chuckle was full of relish. “So I’ll tell you what we’re going to do.” He waited, but she remained stubbornly silent.
Unperturbed, he went on, “You’re going to get the beating we both deserve, Anje. The day we found you, you stood there with fire in your eyes and defied me. I made myself a promise then. Guess what it was?” His breath washed hot over her ear and she squeezed her eyes shut.
“No?” He chuckled darkly. “I swore I’d smack your gorgeous ass ‘til it was as pink as your pussy. But I’m a generous soul. No suffering without reward.” He flexed his thumb, hitting a sweet spot that made her swallow hard.
“Brin?” said Trey. “You promised me.”
Anje tried to lift her head, but the pressure on her shoulders meant that all she achieved was an eyeful of stiff cock, bobbing hopefully out of a nest of glossy reddish curls. The perspective sent her cross-eyed, but gods, it was tempting! Her nose was full of the musky scent of aroused male.
She felt the shaman’s thighs shift beneath her. Finally, his deep voice said slowly, “I remember. No more than she can take. Trust me, I’ll know.”
They must be staring at each other over her prone body. The air crackled with tension. Mother, how she wished she could see their faces!
Trey said, “And what about me?”
“I know how much you can take too.” It was a velvet rumble and Trey sucked in a sharp, startled breath. His fist appeared in her vision, gripping his cock so hard it surely must hurt.
“Brin, I—”
The shaman cut him off. “Don’t— Just don’t.” She felt the muscles of his belly move against her with the force of his sigh. “Step through her arms and get her hands behind you. That’s it. Anje, now’s as good a time as any to learn the right way to suck a cock. Open your mouth.”
Gift of the Goddess Page 12
