Calder

by Allyson James

  Calder went very still and Katarina’s chill increased. She knew he was dangerous—he was level three and Braden had told her that he was scarier than even most level threes. But she wasn’t about to let him see her fear or let him use it against her.

  He yanked off the facecloth. Katarina smiled, thinking his face hard and handsome despite the scarring. Both blue eyes pinned her now, and her heart fluttered with something besides fear.

  Katarina reached up toward his cheek but he caught her wrist.

  “The rules are, you don’t touch me,” he grated.

  “Whose rules?”

  “Mine.”

  Katarina smiled a hot smile. “In your place, maybe. This is my place.”

  “This is a Shareem apartment. It used to be Rio’s. It’s got the stink of Shareem pheromones all over it, and don’t tell me you don’t feel it.”

  “Well.” Katarina admitted to herself that she went to sleep every night warm and aroused, especially when thinking about Calder and what he’d done to her in his pleasure palace.

  “It makes you wet,” Calder said. “You’re wet now, aren’t you?”

  Katarina shifted. Her cleft was uncomfortably hot. “How can I help it? You’re here.”

  “Show me.”

  “Pardon?”

  “Put your fingers on your pussy and show me.”

  Katarina stared at him for several heartbeats. A few months ago, she’d have been outraged at such a command—no, a few months ago she’d never dreamed anyone would even give her such a command.

  Now her heart hammered, and she found herself unfastening her leggings and dipping her fingers inside them. She sank fingers into the wetness between her legs then drew her hand out, fingertips sparkling with dew.

  Calder caught her wrist, drew her hand to his mouth, licked her fingertips.

  Katarina dipped her other hand in and held it up. “Look,” she whispered. “I’m still wet.”

  Calder took the offered hand, kissed her palm and closed his mouth over a finger.

  Katarina’s knees weakened. She wanted to melt into a puddle, or maybe fall to her knees and rub her face on the arousal behind his leggings, like she’d done in his lair.

  He licked her fingers from base to tip then kissed her palm again. “I didn’t tell you to touch yourself twice.”

  “I couldn’t help it.”

  “I don’t like disobedience. Take down your pants.”

  Katarina stared at him. “Why?”

  His eyes filled with blue. “You know why.”

  Katarina let go of her loose waistband and her silk leggings pooled around her ankles. Calder wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her the short distance to the bed, sat down and bent her over his knees.

  She still wore underwear, but Calder yanked it down. He lightly caressed her buttocks with his gloved hand then he pulled back and started spanking her.

  Katarina squealed and squirmed. It didn’t hurt exactly, not even as much as when he’d done this in his lair. He rained quick spanks down on her, each one barely stinging but feeling so good. She started to laugh.

  “I’m punishing you,” Calder said. “Stop laughing.”

  Katarina couldn’t. She screamed some more as Calder’s spanking increased, but the fun of it and the joy of having him here made her laugh again.

  Calder lifted her from his lap and deposited her facedown on the bed. “Your ass is red.”

  “It feels like it,” Katarina said, hugging her pillow. “Are you going to make it feel better, like you did before?”

  “No, I’m going to punish you some more.”

  Before she could ask how, Calder seized her ankles and dragged her legs apart. She felt his weight behind her, the warmth of him, the cool of the leather.

  He jerked her hips up then buried his face between her legs.

  Oh gods.

  Calder licked her opening, parting the lips, kissing her there the same way he kissed her mouth. He plunged his tongue into her, a hot, wet, probing, beautiful tongue.

  I want to die like this. Katarina wasn’t sure whether she thought the words or screamed them. Please don’t stop. Ever.

  Calder let his tongue travel over her clit, caressing, stroking, suckling. He ran his tongue around her labia again and plunged back inside her.

  Katarina’s mind whirled with thoughts she never dreamed she’d have. She wanted him to pull out his cock, like he’d done in his apartment. She wanted to see it, touch it, taste it. She wanted it inside her.

  His tongue kept moving, all over her pussy and between her buttocks. She wanted him to wet her then shove his cock in. She wanted him to slap her ass while he rode her, wanted to scream as she found beautiful climax.

  “Calder,” she moaned. “Please. Will you…”

  Calder lifted his head. He rolled her over on the small bed then parted her legs again and pressed his large body between them. “Will I what?”

  He was so strong, so heavy, and yet he didn’t crush her. His hands pinning her wrists were gentle.

  She looked into his face, his eyes, which were blue and enormous. “Will you have intercourse with me?”

  Calder stilled. “Intercourse.”

  “Yes. I’m ready. Please.”

  “You mean fucking.”

  Katarina had grown used to crude speech enough that the well-bred lady inside her flinched only slightly. “Yes. Please.”

  “Say it, then. Ask me to.”

  Katarina longed to touch him but he held her wrists against the mattress. “Please, Calder, will you fuck me?”

  “Why do you want me to?”

  “Because I want to feel it. To feel you.”

  “Feel what?”

  Katarina swallowed. “Your cock. Your hard, long, beautiful cock. Fucking me.”

  “Is that what you truly want, Katarina?”

  “Yes.”

  Calder’s hand went to her clit, massaging, stroking. Katarina rocked with his touch, words dying in her mouth. His thumb teased, his palm soothed—then he inserted two hard fingers into her pussy.

  Katarina groaned. Calder stroked through her cream, his fingers opening her in a way she’d never been opened before. She’d touched herself after she’d met Calder the first time, still did when she thought of him at night, but she’d never put her fingers inside herself.

  She was so wet that Calder’s fingers went all the way in without restraint, and his palm pressed hard against her clit. Katarina arched to rub against his hand, loving the burning friction. After a few minutes, a third finger joined the first two, and the sensations spiraled.

  Calder’s gaze on her was intense. His jaw locked as he stroked her, as though he put every bit of thought into what he did. She smelled his sweat and leather, felt the heat of his body. His groin bumped her thigh, his cock hot and hard though his clothes.

  Calder wanted her as much as Katarina wanted him—his eyes and cock betrayed that. His breath came faster, scalding her cheek. She turned her head to face him as her pussy squeezed his fingers.

  “Calder.”

  Very slowly, he kissed her. The deliberate, leisurely heat of his mouth made her pussy clamp down again. She found herself suckling his tongue, harder, faster, and his fingers moved in response.

  She was still suckling when her climax came. He released her wrists and she latched fingers on to his shoulders, her hips pumping of their own accord. The hot feeling went on and on until Katarina couldn’t see, couldn’t hear and didn’t care. She didn’t know what words she shouted or how hard she clutched him, but she couldn’t stop, couldn’t let go.

  Calder’s eyes had filled entirely with blue, his body temperature now higher than a human could survive. A Shareem fully aroused.

  Katarina lifted to him, catching his lips between hers in little kisses. “Please, fuck me, Calder. Fuck me now. I need you to.”

  Calder drew back a little then he leaned toward her, his satin-smooth lips brushing hers. “No.”

  “Wha…?”

>   Calder smoothed her pussy one more time then slowly withdrew his fingers. Katarina fell back to the bed, gasping and flooded with disappointment. She wanted to weep. “Why not?”

  Calder lifted his fingers to his lips and unhurriedly licked them clean. “Has Braden fucked you?”

  “No.”

  “Has any other Shareem fucked you?”

  “No.” Katrina took a deep breath, trying to gather her wits. Her voice was grating and tired. “I’m not a whore, Calder, thank you very much.” Not that she hadn’t just let him lick her pussy and her ass and bring her off with his fingers.

  “Then I won’t fuck you. If you’ve never been with Shareem, you aren’t ready. I could hurt you. I’m way too big for your pussy. Have you ever even done a human man?”

  “No,” she said, her voice weakening.

  “You shouldn’t start on Shareem. Get yourself a human male and get used to it.”

  Katarina struggled to sit up. Her body burned all over and felt wonderful at the same time. His eyes were still filled with blue, his cock rampant against his leggings. He wanted sex, that was certain. “I don’t want another man, Calder. I want you.”

  “That would be like falling into very deep water before you’d learned to swim.”

  “I don’t want to have sex just for the experience.”

  “No? Why the hell else would you want it?”

  When Calder scowled, it pulled at the scars around his eyes. What would it be like if he smiled? He’d be beautiful then.

  “I want to be with you. Not just for sex. For you.”

  Calder drew back. “So many women want to be with me.”

  In her anger, Katarina reached for words she’d heard Braden use. “You arrogant shit. Go be with them then!”

  “That’s the wrong reaction, kitten. You’re supposed to threaten to scratch their eyes out. Or mine.”

  Katarina folded her arms, trying to make her body calm down and stop wanting him. “You don’t care what I think anyway. Why should I demean myself by being jealous?”

  He studied her as though he wasn’t sure how to respond—and she realized in a flash that Calder didn’t have much experience with women.

  Yes, he’d had plenty of women submitting to his level-three dominance, but no experience with simple conversation. Calder knew exactly what the women who craved him wanted, but he looked at Katarina as though she spoke an alien language.

  “Why did you come here tonight?” she asked him. “Why did you, really?”

  “To tell Braden to leave you the hell alone.”

  “If you don’t want me, why shouldn’t I go to him?”

  Calder’s face went hard. “Because I know him. He’ll use you then forget about you in the space of a day. Shareem sluts know this and accept it, but you…”

  Katarina brushed his scarred cheek with her fingertips and he didn’t jerk away. “You think he’ll hurt me.”

  “You don’t understand Shareem, no matter how much you examine them in your clinic.”

  “The only Shareem who can hurt me is you.”

  Calder regarded her in silence, again probably not knowing how to respond.

  When he spoke, his voice was low and halting. “I can’t hurt you. I can only do as much as you tell me to.”

  “I didn’t mean physically,” she said.

  “Some women weep when I tell them their time is up.”

  Cows. “Because they don’t want the pleasure to stop. That’s different.”

  Calder pulled away. “Don’t make yourself believe you care for me. Don’t confuse obsession with caring.”

  “Don’t confuse caring with pity.”

  They stared at each other. Calder snarled and got off the bed.

  “Wait.” Katarina reached for him. “Don’t go yet. Let’s not argue. I’d rather play, like we were.”

  Calder leaned down, enveloping her with his body. “I don’t want games with you. What I want will be real and raw and more than you can handle.”

  Katarina ran one finger along his jaw. “Try me.”

  “I’m level three. You aren’t even ready for level one.” He jerked to his feet again, pivoted and strode out of the room.

  Katarina scrambled from the bed. “Calder.”

  By the time she got her leggings on again, he’d opened the front door. Hot night air poured into the front room, competing with the faulty cooling system.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “I have things to do.”

  “Wait.” Katarina grabbed his arm. He looked at her hand on the black leather but she didn’t let go. “If you really don’t want me, Calder, I’ll stop. Can’t we at least be friends?”

  “Friends.”

  “You know, say hello to each other when we pass on the street, talk sometimes. Gossip about our other friends.”

  Calder’s face clouded over and he pulled his cloth back into place. “I don’t want to be friends with you.” He turned on his heel and strode off into the night.

  * * * * *

  Braden made sure he was sated to the gills before he ventured back home to d’Enela Street. He liked the apartment he’d bought from Rio when Rio had left Bor Narga to be with his honey, but lately being there drove him crazy.

  He’d thought it a good idea to invite lonely Katarina to share the apartment with him. He’d get to look at a pretty woman every day, for one thing, and it might boot Calder’s ass into gear, for another.

  But living with a woman he didn’t fuck was proving to be difficult. Braden was Shareem, after all. Every day he smelled Katarina’s need, every night he tasted her longing on the air. She was in dire need of sating, and she didn’t want Braden to sate her.

  Damn Calder. If the idiot would get off his ass and screw Katarina senseless, the sizzle in the air would ease and Braden could sleep.

  The only solution was for Braden to go out every night and screw as much as he could. Tonight he’d found two women from Ariel, on shore leave from an orbiting freighter. After hauling cargo all day, they thought they wouldn’t find much fun on backwater Bor Narga. Braden had enjoyed proving them wrong.

  When he walked into the apartment, the scent of Katarina’s heightened arousal struck him. Damn it. His cock, which he’d thought he’d calmed for the night, started to rise again.

  Katarina sat at the kitchen table, her elbows propped on it. A barely touched meal lay in front of her and her eyes looked suspiciously red.

  Braden could run, make his way through the streets searching for more horny females until he couldn’t stand up. Instead he dropped into the chair opposite Katarina. “What’s wrong, honey?”

  She scowled up at him. “I hate them.”

  “Hate who?”

  Katarina threw down her fork. “The women who go to Calder. Women who want him to be The Beast.” She sat back. “I have no business caring. He doesn’t want me and I should let it go.”

  “Calder was here tonight.”

  “Yes, how did you know?”

  Braden tapped his nose. “I smell you all wet, and I smell Shareem on you too. What happened?”

  Katarina told him a heartbreaking story of Calder visiting, pleasuring her and then abruptly leaving. She wasn’t specific about the pleasuring, but Braden had a good imagination.

  “Want me to talk to him?” Braden offered.

  He knew he could never understand all that Calder had gone through, but Braden grew suddenly angry with him. The man tried too hard to push everyone away. He continually tried to push Braden away, and Braden would laugh but give him space for a while. Calder needed friends.

  “No,” Katarina answered. “What I want is to forget about him.”

  Braden reached for her hand. “I’ve offered to help you do that.”

  She shook her head. “As mad as I am at Calder, he’s right about a couple of things. One, I have no business wanting to have intercourse with a Shareem, and two, you flit from woman to woman without thought.”

  “He said that?”
Braden asked, stung, then he had to swallow his pride. “It’s true that I don’t have a history of being a one-woman guy. And if you’re still a virgin, I might hurt you without meaning to. Level threes get rough. We don’t know how not to be.”

  Her blush told him she didn’t find that as frightening as she should. “I never even wanted intercourse with a human. I never wanted to marry.”

  “Never? Highborn women are supposed to pick out men with good genetic histories and make more highborn babies.”

  Pain entered her eyes. “Maybe I mean I never met a man I wanted to marry. I want more than what I see my friends have. Their husbands spend all their money and hang around like lap dogs.”

  Braden had a swift vision of pale, wimpy highborn men in collars curled up on cushions, whining. He burst out laughing.

  “You’d rather have a Shareem on your leash, would you, sweetie?”

  “I shouldn’t have anyone at all. The only reason I’m interested in Shareem is to make sure they’re treated well at the clinic.” Her eyes widened and she glanced at the digital readout on the wall. “Oh crud, I’m supposed to be at the clinic in ten minutes.” She jumped to her feet and rushed to her room for her robes.

  “It’s the middle of the night,” Braden pointed out when she emerged.

  “I have the night shift this week. People get sick around the clock.” She threw on the robes and veil, masking her pretty body and face. “I’ll try not to make too much noise when I come back.”

  Braden got himself out of the chair. “You’re not walking to the clinic by yourself,” he said. “This isn’t the safest neighborhood.”

  She gave him a startled look over her veil but didn’t argue.

  They didn’t speak much as they walked the few blocks to the clinic. Braden gave her a tight hug before he left her at the door then made his way back to Judith’s bar.

  “Rees,” he sang out as he moved through the crowd. “Just the Shareem I want to see.” He slid into the seat opposite Rees and winked at Talan. “You still good at messing up computers, my friend?”

  Rees gave him a nod. “I keep my hand in.”

  At DNAmo, Rees had driven his creators crazy by futzing computers and frying door locks and surveillance equipment, turning the tables on the researchers who tried to contain and monitor him. Sometimes the researchers would find themselves at his mercy, and didn’t that scare the shit out of them?