Could she relinquish control? Could she allow Ty to put her in a position where she was helpless and at his mercy?
Chapter Three
Ty sensed the change in Awai and knew that she struggled against giving herself to him. She wanted him, of that he was certain. He could see it in her expressive blue eyes, could scent her arousal, could see her erect nipples pushing against her clothing.
It was in his nature to dominate and he was used to submissive women. But Awai was different. From the start, when he had first seen her wounded eyes in the magical playing card, he had known she had deep pain to overcome before she would or could fully trust him. The only way he could break through her barriers would be to dominate her completely, to have her turn her trust and faith and control over to him. Only then could she allow herself to have the love her heart desired…and the pleasure.
He had no doubt that whether or not Awai would admit it, within her very being she craved domination. He sensed it at the deepest level of his soul.
Before she had the chance to refuse his advances, or to regret her own, Ty took Awai’s hand and gently pulled her down the hill toward his palace. It lay far below, its soft-toned walls glowing in the late spring sunlight.
She allowed him to lead her, but as they walked she asked, “Are my nieces here? I want to see them now.”
“They are each in their respective Kingdoms.” He glanced down at her and saw the frustration and disappointment in her expression. “I will send word that you have arrived.”
Ty kept his tone even, hoping she would accept what he had to say next. “Your family members have been expecting you, but it will take them time to prepare for the trip. The Kings and Queens will need to handle matters in their Kingdoms and it will take time to journey here. I am quite certain they will want to bring their children.”
Awai came to an abrupt stop, jerking against Ty’s hand, bringing him to a stop, too. Her head swam with what he had just said. Shit, how could he just pop that one on her as if it was no big deal?
“Children?” Her voice squeaked as she spoke and she could only stare at him with incredulity.
He smiled, but this time she wanted to slug him. “Between the three Queens and Kings, they have many cubs,” he said.
She blinked. “Cubs?”
But Ty was still talking, “Alice and Jarronn have three sets of twins, Alexi and Darronn have triplet boys and a new daughter, and Annie also has an infant female cub.”
Awai released Ty’s hand and dropped to the ground beneath a flowery moss-covered tree. Grass prickled her butt as she buried her face in her hands, her elbows braced on her knees, as she tried to absorb the fact that the girls were now all mothers.
Mothers!
Unless Ty was lying through his teeth.
She raised her head to find that he was now sitting next to her, studying her with a calm expression on his handsome features.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” She pushed her dark hair out of her face and glared at him. “My nieces are some kind of baby factories for your world.”
At that Ty frowned. “Annie, Alexi, and Alice each love their mates. They chose to join with my brothers and they each chose to bear children.”
Awai shook her head, a loose tendril of hair falling back across her face. “Maybe Annie and Alice, but Alexi is too much like me, too career-driven to want to have kids.”
Ty’s frown deepened. “You do not wish to have offspring?”
“Are you kidding?” Awai raised her hands. “Look at me. I’m in my thirties, I’m set in my ways, and I don’t want to have kids that will end up having an old mother when they grow up.”
The corner of Ty’s mouth quirked. “You are but a youngling compared to the people of my world. I am well over two hundred of your Earth years.”
It was all too much. Awai flung herself on her back in the grass, her arms above her. Her head was really spinning now. She stared up at the tree and at the aqua-colored clouds peeking through the lacey leaves. “I can’t take this,” she muttered.
Ty’s groin tightened as he studied his future Queen. When Awai lay back in the grass, her tunic rose up and exposed the plump undersides of her breasts and her skirt hiked to the top of her thighs, almost showing her quim. With her arms above her head, her position was one of complete submission.
She was closer to surrendering herself to him than she realized. Closer than even he had realized.
From the moment he had met Awai, Ty had sensed that her act of dominance over men was simply that—an act.
He reached out with one hand and stroked the undersides of her breasts. Awai audibly caught her breath and her blue gaze turned from the sky to him. Her lips parted, and the scent of her arousal grew stronger. While slowly caressing her, he continued to keep his eyes locked with hers. She visibly swallowed as she arched her back, and her expression told him she could not help her reaction to his touch.
“Ty,” she whispered, even as she was drawn to his touch, “I don’t know if I’m ready for this.”
Lightly he trailed his fingers from her breasts, down her stomach to the silver shooting star at her bellybutton. He wanted to suckle her nipples then lick the path his hand had taken, but he feared to move too fast, feared upsetting her again. “You enjoy the pleasures of men, do you not?” he murmured.
She shivered as his finger circled the star. “Yes…but I never have sex with a man who wants to dominate me.”
“I will dominate you.” His hand continued past the star to the belt that cradled her hips. “With your trust and consent. Only by submitting to me will you truly heal.”
After what she’d been through with Ty—whether it had been hours or minutes—it seemed like a lifetime. She’d experienced one emotion after another: anger, fear, terror, hope, attraction, arousal, the desire to submit…and a feeling of trust that went soul-deep.
Yes, somehow she trusted him, even though she barely knew him. Hell, she’d just met him.
But she wanted him. Desperately.
At what cost, though?
“It must be your choice to submit to me.” Ty’s hand stopped at her belly, just before her mound. His face was serious and his tone solemn as his gaze held hers. “But once you make that choice, you must obey my commands without question. The only occasion you may question me is if you are frightened by what I ask of you. That is also the only time you may refuse me.”
Crap.
Yet everything in her soul was telling her to take this opportunity and run with it. To give it a shot, to see if she was a submissive inside…to see if she really did want to be dominated, but hadn’t been able to admit it out loud.
But jeez. She’d barely met the man, she reminded herself yet again. Although that hadn’t stopped her before at the BDSM clubs in San Francisco. She’d had the birth control implant in her arm so that she couldn’t get pregnant and had always kept a supply of condoms on hand. At the clubs she had taken what she wanted from men, when she wanted.
But submit to Ty?
Go for it, her inner voice urged. You’ll never know if you don’t try.
Everything about him made her feel special and excited. It didn’t make sense how she could feel this way with a man who had something to do with her nieces’ disappearances, a man who she’d just met, a man who had purposely taken her from her own world to his…but he had given her the choice. And even more impressive, he would have stayed in her world if she had not come with him.
Ty’s blond hair moved in the breeze that stirred grass against her cheeks and caressed her belly. She saw the golden hair on his arm move in the light wind and caught the scent of his male musk. His palm was hot through her skirt where his hand rested just above her mound.
Awai’s pussy was wet and her nipples hard and aching beneath her blouse. Her body wanted him, her mind wanted him, and her gut instinct told her he was a good man. And a gorgeous man at that. Blond, blue-eyed, built like a pro body-builder. Damn, she could jump him right this
moment.
But to be dominated…
The ground was as hard as a floor beneath her as she squeezed her eyes tight.
Images of being flat on her back on a hardwood floor filled her mind. Of John Steele standing over her after he’d knocked her down.
Tears burned at the back of Awai’s eyes as she rolled away from Ty and scrambled to her feet. Pain from the memory lanced through her head, but she would not shed one more goddamn tear over that man.
I promised myself. I promised!
Her heels sank into the soft earth and grass as she moved away from Ty. She walked until she was at the highest rise of the hill, overlooking a sweep of white cherry blossoms. She looked down at the rolling terrain from the drop beneath her, to the lake beyond that. She hugged her arms tight to her chest as if that would protect her from the memories of that bastard who had brutalized her until she had finally escaped him.
Ty eased to his feet as he watched Awai walk away. A thousand heart-wounds weighted her soul, so tangible he could feel them in the very air around him.
Damnation. He cursed himself for his stupidity again. For pushing her too hard, too fast. His instincts and senses told him she had much to overcome, yet he had barreled ahead like harline bull in rutting fervor.
Awai stood at the top of the hill, her back to him and rigid with defiance and pain. She was so beautiful, so proud. Ty’s soul ached for her, and he wanted to do whatever he could to make her smile again. To heal the wounds and make her happy.
With the silence and grace of his species, Ty moved up to the rise until he was so close he could feel her body heat, could sense her sadness and anger, could smell her perfume of orchids and musk. When he grasped her shoulders with his large hands, Awai tensed, then relaxed as he pulled her against his chest. He slipped his hands down her arms then around her bare waist and settled his chin on the top of her head.
“I am sorry, tigress, I should not have pushed you so soon.” He breathed in the scent of her hair, felt her shuddering sigh at his words. “Of all that you see before you, I am the ruler, my sweet. As King I never have had to ask for submission. It is simply a part of our lives, something that my people enjoy.”
“I understand.” Awai’s voice was quiet as she spoke. “I don’t like to admit to fear of any kind, but please understand that this is a part of me…to fear submitting to a man.” She gave a soul-deep sigh then continued, “Long ago I was physically abused and almost killed by my ex-husband. I swore I’d never let any man dominate me again.”
Ty stiffened at her words, rage overcoming him like a thunderstorm. How dare any man abuse a woman? And this woman, his tigress… “I will kill the bastard if he still lives,” he growled out, his words nearly a roar. “Once a path opens, you will lead me to him and I will see that he never harms another woman again.”
Awai couldn’t believe the vehemence in Ty’s statement. She turned around in his embrace, placed her palms flat against his bare chest, and tilted her head up to look at him. “John isn’t worth it. I decided long ago that I wouldn’t waste any time or energy on that man again.”
“But look what he has done to you.” Ty pressed her closer to him, his hands now at her lower back. “You fear what you desire most. He still rules your future because of his cruelty in your past. To move forward you must meet head-on your greatest fears.”
“Maybe that promise I made to myself, to not be controlled by any man, has lost its usefulness.” She smiled, the corner of her mouth trembling. “I think that maybe it even gives power to my ex.” She gave a soul-shuddering sigh and shook her head. “But I need time…time to let it all go.”
Ty narrowed his brows as he gave another feral growl. “Once you are healed, once you have all that you desire, I will take care of the bastard.”
Awai shivered at the intensity of Ty’s growl. “How do you do that growling thing? You don’t sound like a man…you sound like a lion, or a tiger.”
He stepped back, his hands slipping away from her waist, the warmth of his chest gone and leaving her cold. “Better now than later,” he said, his expression gentle.
Awai’s head buzzed and she felt as if she’d slipped right into an episode of an old werewolf movie as she stared at Ty—or what had been Ty. He was shifting, his mouth elongating into a muzzle, white and black hair covering his skin, a tail growing from his ass, and his arms turning into legs as he lowered to the ground and crouched on all fours. Whiskers sprouted from his face, and he gave a low roar.
She brought her hand to her chest. “You’re a tiger.”
Weretiger, he corrected in her mind.
Awai stumbled back. “You talked—in my head!” Never mind that she was now speaking with a freaking tiger.
When in weretiger form, we have the ability to thought-speak. He eased toward her, like a predator stalking its prey, and she took another step back. Ty stopped. Do not move Awai, he said, his tone urgent.
Before Awai could ask what he meant, one of her high heels slipped. She was too shocked to scream as her whole body dropped to the ground. In the next second she started to slide down the hillside.
In one bound Ty reached Awai. He snatched her by her blouse with his tiger teeth, and caught her before she fell any further down the hill.
As if she was just a child, he pulled her forward so that she was lying on the grass. For a moment Awai just stayed there, her heart pounding, blood rushing through her veins and throbbing in her head. She was so lucky that he’d caught her. That drop down the hillside could have been deadly.
The tiger lowered himself to the ground beside her and licked her cheek with his rough tongue. I am sorry, tigress. Had I but thought—the cliff—sometimes I am impulsive. It is a fault I work daily to overcome.
“You saved me.” Awai eased up so that she was sitting beside Ty the tiger, her heart still pounding. “Okay, so a weretiger can come in handy now and again.”
He was resting on his side, and on his belly was the pattern of a black club. She reached out and stroked it, and he purred. It was a low, rumbling purr that sent a thrill through her, making her body tingle and her clit throb.
“I’m not ready to give you an answer, Ty.” Awai slid her fingers down his belly then away from him. She clenched her hands in her lap as she said, “The dominance thing…and this.” She gestured to him. “A weretiger? I’d be submitting to and fucking a weretiger?”
His rumbling chuckle filled her thoughts and reverberated through her like a mini-orgasm.
But then he was transforming again. This time from tiger to man with the white and black hair vanishing or in some cases returning to clothing as he shifted and was in a sitting position. His long blond hair again flowed over his shoulders, his rogue’s smile teasing her as he sat close to her with one arm propped on his knee.
“I am as much a man as I am weretiger,” he murmured as he caught a tendril of her dark hair between his thumb and forefinger. “And you will most definitely be fucking this man.”
Chapter Four
After Ty helped Awai brush the dirt, grass, and leaves from her clothing, he scooped up her whip and escorted her to the palace. Unlike the Awai who took the world by storm, she felt out of her element, unsure of what to do or how to act. When they entered the walls and passed the King’s subjects within the sweeping hallways, she and Ty were met by respectful bows and curious glances.
Like Ty, the men mostly wore leather breeches, some with lace-up leather shirts and others bare-chested. The women were dressed in form-fitting robes, and it was obvious by their prominent nipples that they didn’t wear bras. Heck, Awai didn’t see any panty lines, so they probably didn’t wear underwear, either.
The bedroom he led her to was expansive and airy, and absolutely perfect. A circular bed was the centerpiece of the room, and all the furnishings were rounded and curved, and there was even a bookcase hugging one rounded wall. The wood was glossy and brown, like oak, only a much richer color. The room’s covers and furnishings mimicked the sh
ades of the hillside. Cherry blossom white, rich greens, and deep reds. It was as if the room itself was made of spring.
Ty tossed her whip onto the bed and Awai moved to one of the huge windows that led to a balcony. The windows reminded her of her condo in San Francisco, only here there were no skyscrapers in this view. The sun peeked through blue-green clouds, the rolling hills were covered in blossoms, and the bustling village sprawled across the valley below.
She felt Ty’s presence before he spoke. “This is my Kingdom, and it will be yours as well.”
Despite the arrogance in his statement, Awai looked over her shoulder and cocked an eyebrow. “My Queendom, you mean? After all, I am the Domme.”
He gave a low chuckle that came out as a rumble. He kissed the curve of her neck, causing her to sigh. “I will teach you that submitting to me will fulfill your deepest needs and heal your heart and soul. Trust me, tigress. Let me tame you.”
Ty turned her toward him while he pulled at the neck of her blouse and revealed her shoulder. She caught her breath as he licked a path from her neck all the way down the soft skin. “What if I don’t want to be tamed?” she whispered.
He raised his head, a feral look in his blue gaze. “You will be mine, Awai. You will always be allowed to make your own choice…and you will choose to be my Queen.”
“You sure are a cocky SOB,” she said with a tilt of her head. “If I make the choice to submit to you, it’ll be just for sex and nothing more. So you might as well give up on the Queen thing.”
“We shall see, my tigress.” He smiled and in the next moment a woman came through the open doorway bearing a platter filled with food.
“Thank you, sorceress,” Ty said to the woman who set the tray on a table in the corner of the room.
“My pleasure, Majesty,” the woman murmured and gave a low bow. She was gorgeous with black hair and amber eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a form-fitting black robe.
“The sorceress Kalina will attend to your needs and your bath.” Ty caught Awai’s hand and brushed his lips across the back of it in a touch so light it caused her to shiver. “I will return on the morrow.”
Wonderland 4: King Of Clubs Page 3
