by Lara Adrian
moved over her, parting her thighs
until she was opened to him like an
exotic flower.
One he couldn’t wait to taste.
He lowered his head between
her legs, groaning in a mix of agony
and ecstasy as his tongue met her
nectar-sweet, hot, wet flesh. His
fangs were already fully extended,
but at the first swallow of
Seraphina’s juices, the sharp points
grew even larger.
The urge to bite—to draw
blood and make her his in the most
powerful way he knew how—rose
up on him without warning.
No.
He tamped the impulse down
hard, blindsided by the force of it.
Losing
himself
to
carnal
pleasure was one thing. Binding
Seraphina to him for eternity was
another. And it was a line he
wouldn’t cross.
He had no room in his life for
a mate, and if she woke up in the
morning with regrets, he sure as
hell didn’t want one of them to be
irrevocable.
Tonight, he wanted to give her
pleasure.
Selfishly, he wanted to give
her the kind of pleasure that would
ensure that every other male who’d
ever touched her was obliterated
from her memory.
Tonight, Seraphina was his—
not
because
some
ridiculous
agreement said she should be, but
because she wanted to be.
Because she felt the same
undeniable desire that he did.
“Come for me,” he rasped
against her tender flesh. “I want to
hear you, Seraphina.”
“Oh God,” she gasped in
reply, arching up to meet his mouth
as he kissed and sucked and teased
with his lips and tongue. When she
writhed and mewled in rising
pleasure, he gave her more, sliding
a finger through her juices and into
the tight entrance of her body. She
cried out as he added another,
thrusting in tempo with his tongue’s
deep strokes.
He glanced up the length of her
twisting body. “Open your eyes,
beauty. I want to see you come for
me.”
She obeyed, lifting heavy lids,
her gaze drunk with pleasure.
“Jehan, please...”
Her hands tangled and fisted in
his hair as he coaxed her higher,
desperate for her pleasure—for her
release—before he would let
himself inside.
Ah, fuck. He’d never seen
anything as erotic as Seraphina
caught at the crest of orgasm. The
sexy
sounds
she
made.
The
unbridled response of her body. The
tight, hot vise of her sheath,
clamping down around his fingers
as he flicked his tongue over her
clit and drove her relentlessly
toward a shattering release.
She held his gaze in the dark,
and when she crashed apart a
moment later, it was with his name
on her lips.
Jehan
couldn’t
curb
his
satisfied grin.
He rose over her, pressing her
knees to her chest as he guided his
cock between the slick folds of her
sex. Her eyes were locked on his,
her
body
still
flushed
and
shuddering with the aftershocks of
her release. He tested her tight
entrance with a small thrust of his
hips, groaning as her little muscular
walls enveloped the head of his
shaft.
He grasped for control and
found he had none.
Not where this woman was
concerned.
And why that didn’t scare the
hell out of him, he didn’t know.
Right now, with Seraphina wet
and ready for him, the question
damn well didn’t matter.
With a harsh curse, he flexed
his pelvis and seated himself to the
root.
CHAPTER 11
She gasped Jehan’s name as he
took her in one deep, breath-
stealing thrust.
His wicked mouth and fingers
had left her nerve endings vibrating
and numb with sensation, her body
slick and hot from release. But each
rolling push of Jehan’s hips stoked
her arousal to life once more. His
cock stretched her, filled her so
completely
she
could
barely
accommodate all of his length and
girth. She closed her eyes against
the staggering ecstasy that built as
he moved inside her, his powerful
strokes and relentless tempo driving
her to the edge of her sanity.
She’d never felt anything as
intoxicating as the naked strength of
Jehan’s magnificent body. That all
of his passion—all of his immense
control—was concentrated on her
pleasure was a drug she could
easily become addicted to. Maybe
she already was because her hunger
for him was only growing more
consuming with every hard crash of
his body against hers.
Reaching up between them, he
drew one of her legs down from
where it lay bent against her chest
and wrapped it around his waist as
he shifted into an even more intense
angle. The new position gave her
access to his glyph-covered pecs
and muscled abdomen, which she
explored with questing fingers and
scoring nails. She lifted her head
and watched him pound into her,
mesmerized by the violent, erotic
beauty of their need.
Jehan made an approving
noise in the back of his throat. “Do
you like the way we look, Sera?
Your legs spread open so wide for
me, my cock buried in your heat?”
“Yes.” Oh, God. Had she
thought she was already at the brink
of combusting? His dark voice
inflamed her even more. She tore
her gaze away from their joining
only to meet the crackling fire that
blazed down at her from his
transformed eyes. “Jehan...I didn’t
know it could be like this. Watching
you push inside me like you can’t
get deep enough. I love seeing us
together like this. I love the way we
feel.”
“Mm,” he responded, more
growl than reply. “Then let me give
you even more.”
He set a new pace that
destroyed her already slipping
control. Another orgasm mounted
and twisted inside her, sweeping
her into a dizzying sp
iral of
pleasure. She caught her lip
between her teeth on a strangled
moan as the climax swelled,
nearing its breaking point.
Jehan’s rhythm showed no
mercy. He rode her harder, deeper,
his hips pistoning furiously.
She arched beneath him,
unable to hold on any longer.
Turning her head into her pillow,
she let go of a scream as her release
broke over her in wave after wave
of bliss.
Jehan pumped furiously as she
came, then a rough curse ripped out
of him. He tensed, his muscles
hardening like granite beneath her
fingertips as she clung to him. His
amber-lit eyes blazed hot, locked
on her.
He hissed her name, torment
and
pleasure
etched
in
his
handsome, savage face. Then a roar
boiled past his teeth and fangs. His
hips thrust viciously, then he
plunged deep on a curse as the
sudden, scorching flow of his seed
erupted inside her.
She’d never felt so sated. So
deliciously fucked.
She caressed Jehan as his
body relaxed and his orgasm ebbed.
But his cock had lost little of its
stiffness inside her. And as he
murmured rumbling praises for the
way she felt, his strong fingers
petting her hair and cheeks and
breasts, that lingering stiffness had
returned to steel again.
She
couldn’t
control
her
body’s response to him, nor could
she curb her shaky sigh of pleasure
as his shaft swelled to capacity and
the walls of her sex clenched to
hold him. She moved beneath him,
creating a slick friction.
“Holy fuck, Sera.” He closed
his eyes for a moment, head tipped
back on his shoulders as she invited
him to take her again. When his
gaze came back to hers, the fire that
had been there before flared even
hotter. “I should’ve walked away.
Now, it’s too late. It’s too fucking
late for both of us.”
She nodded, knowing he was
right. They should have resisted this
heat that lived between them.
They should have refused the
handfast and all that came with it.
They
both
should
have
realized that giving in to this desire
would only spark a greater need.
For Sera, what she felt for
Jehan went beyond physical need or
even a passing affection. Tonight,
she’d seen a new side of him. Not
the arrogant Breed male who strode
through life as if he owned the
world. Not the Order warrior who
dealt in ruthless justice and death.
Tonight, at the camp, she’d
witnessed a different side of him.
Jehan
was
a
kind
man,
a
compassionate
man.
She’d
glimpsed the honor inside him, and
now that she had seen those things,
she would never be able to regard
him in any lesser light.
So, yes. It was much too late
for her to walk away from anything
that happened between them tonight.
And if she should regret that
fact, she never would.
Not when Jehan was looking at
her the way he was now, with fever
in his eyes and desire riding the
furious arcs and swirls of his
multicolored dermaglyphs. And not
when his amazing cock was making
her yearn to be taken all over again.
“On your knees this time,” he
commanded her, his deep voice
husky and raw.
Her eyes widened in surprise,
but she eagerly scrambled out from
under him to obey. He loomed
behind her, the heat of his presence
scalding her backside. His fingers
waded through their combined
juices, wringing a desperate mewl
from her throat as the wet sounds of
his caresses joined the dry howl of
the sandstorm still raging outside
the tent.
She felt the thick length of his
cock between her swollen folds.
Then he grasped her hips in his
hands and slowly impaled her on
him, inch by glorious inch.
They set a less frantic pace
now, somehow finding the will to
savor the pleasure, making it last as
long as they could hold out. After
they had both climaxed again, they
dropped into a lazy sprawl on her
blanket-strewn pallet.
For a long while, there were
no words between them. They lay
together in the dark, listening to the
hiss of swirling sand as the storm
continued to sweep through the
camp.
Sera was stretched alongside
him, one arm resting on his chest.
She traced the pattern of glyphs that
spread over his smooth skin,
memorizing
the
Breed
skin
markings that were unique to him
alone. They were beautiful. And so
was he.
“I need to thank you for
tonight, Jehan.”
He grunted. “No need, trust
me.” His strong arm tightened
around her, bringing her closer
against him. “I should be the one
thanking you.”
She rose up to look at his face.
“No, I mean for what you did
tonight. For helping me bring the
supplies here. For going out into the
storm to find Yasmin and make sure
she got the care she needed for her
injured leg.”
He shrugged mildly. “Again,
there’s no need for thanks. I did
what anyone would do.”
“Not anyone,” she said. “And I
never would’ve expected it from
you. I misjudged you when we met,
and for that, I also owe you an
apology.”
He cupped her nape and
brought her down to him for a
tender kiss. “Maybe we both were
too quick to judge. When you told
me you only agreed to the handfast
to collect the trust from your father,
I assumed you were willing to take
his bribe because you wanted the
money for yourself. And not that it
should matter why you wanted it,
but it did. Tonight at the checkpoint,
I know what you did. I realized
what you’ve been doing all along—
using your personal funds to buy
clearance for camp supplies.”
She frowned. “It’s only money.
How can I keep it when those
supplies mean life or death to the
“Your work obviously means a
lot to you.” There was a soberness
in his eyes as he studied her in the
darkened tent. “You told me that
night we walked in the garden that
your work is a calling.”
“I did say that, yes.” It
surprised her that he remembered
the offhand remark.
“What
did
you
mean,
Seraphina?”
She glanced down at her hand
where it rested on his chest. “When
I was eighteen, I volunteered one
winter at an orphanage about an
hour away from our Darkhaven. My
parents encouraged it, since I was
orphaned as an infant too.”
Jehan made an acknowledging
sound. “A lot of Breedmates find
their way into Breed households as
abandoned and orphaned babies or
young girls.”
She nodded. She and her sister
were both adopted by the Sanhajas
in such a way. “I was lucky.
Someone saw my birthmark and
recognized that I was different.
There was a place for me because
of that. But there were no
Breedmates in the orphanage I went
to that year. Only human children.
Many of them were refugees whose
parents had been killed in wars or
died of famine and disease.” She
curled her fingers into a tight ball.
“There was so much pain in that
place. I felt it every time I held a
crying baby or embraced one of
those sweet, terrified kids.”
“You felt it,” Jehan murmured,
understanding
fully
now.
He
reached up to take her hand,
bringing her knuckles to his lips.
“You felt their emotional pain,
because, like me, you’re an
empath.”
Every Breedmate, like every
Breed male, was born with a unique
extrasensory ability. Some were
blessings, others were less of a gift.
Where
Jehan
could
register
physical injuries, hers was the
ability to feel emotional pain with a
touch.
“I thought I could handle it,”
she said. “But everything I felt
stayed with me. Until my time
working at the orphanage that
winter, I didn’t know how to help.
Now I do what I can.”
He’d gone quiet as she spoke,
and Sera knew he understood.
Given his own ability, Jehan
probably understood her better than
anyone else could.
“You’re an incredible woman,
Seraphina.” He shook his head, his
thumb stroking idly over her
jawline. “I think I recognized that
the minute we met, but I was too
busy looking for reasons to dislike
you. I wanted to find hidden flaws,
