by Moira Rogers
“Hard and fast,” she promised, her lips already brushing his aching cock again.
This time, there was no teasing in the way she sucked him, and nothing hesitant about the way his body reacted. He couldn’t have conjured the truth of her in any fantasy, couldn’t have painted this picture of her blazing tongue and wicked mouth and the way he’d pant and twist beneath her, torn between commanding and begging.
In the end, he didn’t have to do either. The perfection of her touch gathered quick heat at the base of his spine, a perfect pleasure that exploded as he clenched his fingers tight in her damnable ponytail and came with a shout.
When she finally sat up, her chest rising and falling with each panting breath, she smiled. “I could get used to that too.”
“Yeah?” It came out as a growl, and he didn’t try to curb the urge to flip her over. She landed on her stomach on the mats, and Zel braced one arm beside her head as he traced a path down her spine and over her ass. “You ready for what I’m going to do to you?”
“Depends.” She arched under his hands as she echoed his words, pressing her body close to his. “What are you going to do?”
He slid his fingers between her legs and almost groaned at the heat he could feel even through her workout clothes. “I’m going to play with you, sweetheart.”
She drew in a hitching breath and released it on a laugh. “How soundproof is this room?”
“In case you missed it while you were sucking me halfway to insanity, I just made a whole lot of noise and no one’s banging down the doors.” The pants were a barrier he didn’t want to deal with, so he slid his hand back to the waistband and dragged them down. “You can be noisy. With as hard as I plan to take you, I’d be insulted if you weren’t.”
Devi twisted, making it easier for him to pull off her pants. “Right here, on the floor?”
“Right here.” He got the fabric to her knees and left it, dragging his fingers back up her thighs until he could touch the slick, enticing flesh he ached to taste. “On the floor.”
She exhaled shakily and rocked back. “Good. I’m not sure I could make it all the way back to your room.”
His laugh rasped out of his throat as he worked two fingers into her, reveling in how good it felt to drive reactions from her, to listen to her unsteady breathing and quiet noises. He wanted to learn her, to know every spot that made her shake, made her tremble.
Made her scream.
The back of her head hit his shoulder, and her nails scratched furrows into the training mat. “Deeper, Zel. Right…there. Fuck.”
It was too soon for his cock to stir, but he hadn’t counted on the way she’d sound as she begged. He matched the rhythm of her hips with his hand and lowered his mouth to her ear. “Keep talking. Tell me what you need. Let me hear it.”
Her voice was husky, maddening. “I want your mouth on me. Your tongue.”
In the next second, he had her on her back and was thanking any gods that might exist that they were both barefoot. He tore her pants down and off before urging her thighs apart, so hungry for a taste that he felt half-mad as lowered his mouth and let the breath from his words stir over her. “Fast and hot? Or should I fuck you with my tongue for hours?”
She reached down, her nails pricking his shoulders. “If you want to see me lose control, do both.”
He could do that. With every sense filled with nothing but her and arousal singing in his veins, making him wild… Oh, he could do that.
Zel ate pussy like his life, his entire being, depended on it. He caressed every inch of her with his lips and tongue, soft and slow and rough and quick, everything in between. Not for a moment was it dainty or careful. Every lick and suck was firm, determined. Insistent.
Devi tried to hold still but squirmed anyway, her body reacting without conscious thought to the sensual onslaught. “Christ, Zel. Don’t stop.”
He didn’t. Large hands curled around her thighs, holding her open and helpless as he worked her with his mouth. He seemed to know exactly what she needed, when to delve deep and when to back off, pushing her ruthlessly toward release and then easing her back so she trembled on the edge.
She’d challenged him to do it, to make her lose control, but she hadn’t realized how easily he could. Something beyond desire and pleasure drove her to writhe under him, almost thrashing as he coaxed her to the brink of orgasm, only to deny her once again.
Devi groaned and clenched her fingers in his hair, pulling hard. “Dominic, please.”
His name on her lips turned him wild. He lifted his head and surged up her body. Strong fingers locked around her wrists as he slammed her hands to the mat on either side of her head, pinning her upper body as surely as the hard press of his hips pinned the rest of her.
For an endless moment his gaze roamed her face, hungry and savage, but in spite of the unyielding grip of his hands and the insistent press of his cock, grinding down against her, his voice held an endless gentleness as he whispered one word. “Now?”
“Yes.” She tried to move her hands, but he held them fast, and an illicit pulse of pleasure rocked her. “Please—God, yes.”
He’d taken her carefully before, clearly driven by some instinct to exercise caution while she was injured. Whatever had held him back was gone. His hips lifted, and he pushed into her with one long, claiming thrust.
Devi had hovered near release for an eternity, and that single thrust pushed her past the edge of reason. She screamed, shaking with the force of her orgasm…and desperate for more.
He gave her more, angling his hips so every plunge sank him deep as he growled his pleasure against her lips. His skin was hot on hers, his body solid and strong, and she opened her mouth to his.
He set a driving pace and she matched it, arching to meet each thrust. Never before had passion gripped her this fiercely, as if her need for him was just that—need.
“Devi.” Her name, laced with an emotion that transcended need into something base and wild. His teeth scored her lips as he shifted from hard thrusts to an unforgiving rock, one that centered delicious friction on her clit. “Come again, around my cock. Let me feel it.”
The words fell somewhere between a plea and a command, and she couldn’t deny him.
Devi clenched her hands around his and tried to tell him how good it was, but she didn’t have the breath. She couldn’t even scream, so she held on to him and gasped his name as the rest of the world slipped away, lost somewhere in the maelstrom of white-hot pleasure he’d created.
His hips drove against her one last time, pressing her down against the practice mats as he threw back his head with a rasping groan. His body pulsed inside hers, and she watched his face, rapt.
He stayed frozen above her until his arms began to tremble. Only then did he ease to the side, releasing her wrists in favor of grasping her hips and dragging her with him as he rolled onto his back. “Sweet Devi, you could make a man sin and a demon pray.”
She couldn’t resist one teasing nip at the hollow of his throat. “Pray for what?”
Low, intimate laughter curled around her as he thrust his fingers into her tousled hair. “To be good enough to have you again.”
The words filled her with an entirely different kind of warm pleasure. “You can have me. You can have me lots.”
“Yeah?” His other hand settled on her back. “Then maybe I’ll take you. Lots.”
Before she could reply, the locked door rattled from the force of someone pounding on the other side. “Zel! Zel, open it up. We’ve got a situation.”
Zel issued a string of curses that ended with a growled, “Fucking hell,” and eased her to the mat before coming to his feet in one graceful movement. “There had better be skins at the damn door,” he shouted as he yanked up his pants.
Devi scrambled for her clothes as terror displaced lazy, lingering pleasure. “You don’t think something happened to the crew, do you?”
“We’ll find out.” He strode to the edge of the room and w
aited until she’d dragged her shirt over her head before slapping his hand to the sensor, triggering the lock. The smooth metal door whooshed open and Lorenzo stood there, looking worried.
“It’s Hailey,” he said quickly. “The baby’s coming.”
Relief painted Zel’s features for a few seconds, then worry returned. “Complications?”
“I don’t think it’s going smoothly.”
“Where is she?”
“In Medical. Your mom and Clara are with her.”
Devi straightened her ponytail and turned to Zel. “How much experience do they have with delivery?”
“Enough,” Zel replied, striding into the hallway. “We’ve got babies popping out damn near every day. But it gets trickier with complications. All the medical equipment in the world doesn’t replace someone with the right training…and we don’t have anyone.”
Juliet had been a midwife’s assistant in Paseo Boricua before leaving Humboldt Park to become a hauler, but she hadn’t returned from the run. “Juliet is due back tomorrow morning. If Hailey’s still in labor then, she might be able to help. She has experience.”
“That’d be useful and make her really damn popular. Make sure she knows she can charge and trade for her services, or she’ll be up to her elbows in newborns inside a week.”
“I’ll remember that.”
They hurried to Medical, with Devi wishing she hadn’t spent enough time there already to know its location. People milled around just outside the secured doors, their faces somber and worried.
Closest to the door was Drake, a scowl curling his lips and his obvious anger keeping everyone a good foot away. Devi hadn’t seen him since the challenge in the ring, but time hadn’t mellowed the disapproval that filled his eyes when he fixed his gaze on her.
Zel eased in front of her with a soft snarl, but Devi laid a hand on his arm. “Is there any news, Drake?”
“I don’t know.” He bit every word off, his voice trembling with rage. “Your damn mother won’t let me in there.”
“Is there anyone with Hailey? Just…with her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop it!” Zel raised his voice. “Everyone needs to clear out. Go to one of the waiting rooms, if you want to stay, and we’ll keep people updated. But this—” His gesture took in the whole hallway. “This isn’t going to help anything.”
People grumbled, but they followed his command—except for Drake. “I’m not leaving.”
Zel’s arm tensed under Devi’s hand, but after a moment he nodded. “Her husband was one of your men, and she’s my second. But fighting isn’t going to do her any good. I’m willing to compromise if you are.”
The man almost shook with restraint. “What do you want?”
“If my mother tells you to leave, you leave. But I’ll tell her to let you stay unless Hailey needs the quiet.”
Finally, Drake nodded. “I can do that.”
Zel pressed his palm to the sensor and opened the door. “Ma, Drake can stay as long as Hailey wants him to. I’ll be in there in a second.” Then he curled his fingers around Devi’s arm and coaxed her back down the hallway, safely out of earshot. “Are you comfortable being in a room with him?”
“Sure, as long as he doesn’t try to hit me again.” But that had upset Zel more than her in the first place. She slid her hand into his. “What about you?”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “He’ll be hovering over Hailey. If he stays away from you, I’ll be fine.”
Except she’d be hovering over Hailey too. “We’ll deal with it.”
“Thanks, Dev.” His smile looked a little wan. “Smart bet’s that my mother will have kicked us both out inside an hour. You and Lorenzo will get to stay, but warrior halfbloods aren’t very good with women in labor.”
She imagined the sheer amount of pain and distress involved precluded the possibility. “I’ll make sure Hailey’s not alone. I can’t help her otherwise, but maybe I can keep her occupied.”
Zel nodded and started back toward the door. “There’s another reason I don’t want anyone who’s known her for a while in there. She picks up on feelings, and I don’t want her surrounded by people still grieving for her husband.”
“Got it.”
Inside the room, they found Hailey tight-lipped and pale, with Zel’s mother standing next to her. Clara worked busily at a console of monitors and equipment, and Drake paced nearby.
Devi slid onto a rolling stool beside the bed and reached for Hailey’s hand. “Hey. I heard this kid might be as stubborn as his mom.”
“Maybe even more.” Pain laced the words, and Hailey’s delicate fingers clenched around Devi’s hand, hard enough to bruise. “I told Drake he’s got fifteen minutes of hovering, tops, before I start throwing things at him.”
“Might do him some good.”
“Might run out of things to throw too fast.” Hailey managed a strained smile. “Unless you’ll be my accomplice and get more.”
It didn’t take an expert in obstetrics to see that Hailey was weakening fast. Devi held her hand more tightly and smiled. “Bricks or knives?”
“Br-bricks—” The word disappeared in a hiss as her hand spasmed. Pain distorted her features, and one long, helpless moan of agony escaped her.
Drake started forward, but drew up short. “Should it hurt this much?”
Clara snorted. “Do you really want to discuss the mechanics involved here, Drake?”
Sora laid a gentle hand on Hailey’s head and turned to Zel, her eyes worried. “It’s time to fetch Rosa. And Lorenzo, if he’s willing. She’s used to working with him.”
Devi closed her eyes. The last time anyone had called for Rosa and Lorenzo, someone had lain dying.
Chapter Seventeen
Nothing in the world made Zel feel quite so helpless as women giving birth.
Blood and pain and fear may have been as natural as breathing to him, but only in the context of dealing death, not giving life. That the latter made him more nervous than the former was an irony he’d long ago learned to appreciate; people had a lot of babies in Rochester.
Drake paced the length of the room. “This is taking too long.”
“It takes as long as it takes.” Even though he’d heard the words a hundred times, they sounded hollow.
The other man’s answer was succinct and harsh. “Bullshit.”
Zel tensed. Hours had passed since his mother had thrown them from the room to pace out their worry, but Zel had honestly expected Drake’s guilt-driven concern to abate after a while. The fact that it hadn’t made him wonder if guilt and loyalty to a fallen comrade had less to do with the halfblood’s worry than something far more personal.
Drake dropped to a chair and rubbed his hands over his face. “Hailey needs this kid.”
It wasn’t what he’d been expecting. “I know she does.”
“She cannot lose all she has left of Rasul.”
“Hailey’s tougher than that.” Zel leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. “But it doesn’t matter. Rosa can keep her strong.” He put more force than necessary behind the words, maybe to convince himself. Rosa still desperately needed training, and Lorenzo—Lorenzo could only give so much. She’d all but drained him twice recently, first saving Cache and then fighting for Trip.
“Yeah. Rosa can do it.” The capitulation was unexpected, as was the almost desperate enthusiasm behind it. “Rosa hasn’t let us down.”
If he didn’t know better, he’d think Drake, the biggest thorn in his side, was a little bit in love with his second-in-command. Commenting on it with tension running so high would mean a brawl in the hallway, so Zel focused on the one thing that might sway his erstwhile enemy. “She hasn’t. And we’re going to get her training soon too. Now that we’ve got those rigs, we can get her safely up north.”
Drake stared at him for several long moments before shaking his head. “You should have just told us that’s how you were playing it. We al
l thought you’d lost your fucking mind.”
It took Zel a second too long to understand the words or the tone, but his instincts had already reacted. He caught himself halfway across the hall, body shaking with the need to finish his charge, to smash his enemy into the wall until the man learned respect. “You had better tread lightly.”
The other man lowered his gaze. “Right.”
“I mean it, Drake. From one crazy halfblood to another who’s acting like a damn fool himself.”
“It’s not the same thing, Zel.”
“Isn’t it?”
Something almost protective flashed in Drake’s eyes. “Hailey’s not a stranger.”
Hailey had been Zel’s friend since childhood, the girl whose summoner blood made her vulnerable. Protecting her had always been second nature, to the point where even her husband’s interest had roused something dark inside Zel at first. He should be feeling that same stirring now, the drive to protect a friend from another halfblood, one who could strip her will from her with a twist of magic.
He should be. Angry protectiveness already churned inside him, but it had found its focus in Devi. A human. A stranger.
A woman he couldn’t stop needing.
“What?” Drake asked darkly. “You’re not going to argue with me over that too, are you?”
Zel didn’t have to. “We were all strangers once. You wouldn’t be here if my stepfather hadn’t taken your mother in. I won’t argue that they brought trouble with them, but trouble was coming anyway, and they’ve more than made up for it.”
“Maybe.” Drake stood and turned away. “Or maybe it’s all just starting.”
The ominous words chilled Zel. “What do you mean?”
Drake glanced back at him. “You really think Nicollet was running a little light reconnaissance, Zel? They sent a spy here. Even if it had nothing to do with that hauler and her crew, this is only the beginning.”
There was no way Drake could know how right he was—or how bad it was going to get. From the outside it probably looked as if Zel was oblivious, distracted by petty town disputes and pretty, truck-driving strangers. Zel had kept his inner circle tight because of the town’s unrest, but now he had to wonder if his unwillingness to confide in anyone other than Trip, Hailey and Lorenzo had brought its own brand of trouble.
