by Mary Auclair
“Obey me, Tamsin, and lie on the bed for me.” Jareth drew his lips into a tight line. “I want to see you.”
“No.” She heard the answer coming out of her mouth, her voice steady and defying. No matter how angry or scared she was, she couldn’t bring herself to cower like a lap dog. “I will never submit.”
The effect was immediate and in the next second Jareth was on her, his fingers closing around her waist, pinning her nakedness to his bare chest. Every available inch of her skin was touching him. His long, stone-hard cock was so hot, pressed against her stomach, that she could barely breathe. Her mind swirled as he picked her up, pinning her across his chest. Her arms were trapped inside his strength and there was nothing she could do against him. With a firm hand, he lifted her and pushed her on the bed until she was lying across the mattress.
Tamsin lay sprawled on the bed, atop the covers, bare and completely vulnerable. Jareth’s gaze raked her body and with a fast jerk, he ripped his pants free and stood over her. Her gaze fastened on his erection and she choked back a cry. His cock was thick and long, standing upward, bare of any pubic hair. It looked similar to a human male’s but with a bulbous tip, round and more pronounced. She had seen her fair share of cocks in Merino’s brothels but nothing that compared with the size of Jareth’s member. The idea of the huge shaft thrusting inside her soft pussy made her stomach lurch with fear. Another, more unsettling, feeling began to stir in her lower belly, something akin to a warm storm brewing where all her deepest desires resided. His smooth, hairless balls looked impossibly big and round under his shaft and Tamsin’s swirling mind wondered how they would feel held in her palm.
“Do not move,” Jareth ordered, climbing over her onto the bed. “Spread your legs.”
When she didn’t obey, large hands grabbed her thighs and pulled them apart, gently, but firmly. A dark gaze locked on her pussy and she squealed when his fingers touched her folds, prying them open so he could see the softness inside. Jareth slid a finger up and down her lips, spreading the soft juices. His index finger lingered on her clit, forcing her to inhale sharply. Jareth looked up at her face then returned his attention to her splayed-open pussy. He touched a finger to her nub while his thumb rubbed her folds in slow, circular motions. Tamsin moaned, blindsided by a violent desire to feel his finger enter her, stretch her, fill her.
When warm lips touched the soft skin at the inside of her thigh, she jerked her head and arched her back against the mattress. All her resolve melted away as Jareth kissed the sensitive skin again, his mouth approaching her core. In an instant of scorching heat, his mouth kissed her soft, waiting folds, giving her scant seconds to process that sensation before his probing tongue reached inside. A wave of electric current raged through her most intimate parts, centering in the throbbing knot of her clit. His tongue circled around it, then latched on to it, sucking greedily at her juices. Tamsin cried out and jerked her hips, only to have Jareth’s strong hands pin them down on the mattress. His mouth sucked with more heat and more strength on her swelling bud and she was powerless to stifle a cry of protestation when he released it. She didn’t have time to protest as his thumb brushed over her clit again, sending a flash of sensation up every nerve in her body. A rush of slippery wetness met him at her entrance now when he slid his tongue inside, her hips jerking wildly against his hands.
“You taste so good,” he said, lifting his head. “I’ve never tasted anybody so sweet before.”
When she groaned in frustration, he merely smiled and dove back into her pussy. His tongue stroked inside her and his thumb rubbed tiny, frustrating circles against her clit. Tamsin arched her back, demanding more, more heat, more contact, frustrated that his tongue wasn’t filling her completely. He understood her need and raised his mouth, his tongue now lashing hard against her nub and a large, blunt finger probing her entrance. She was panting, her desire so violent it washed away any rational thoughts as he slowly and deliberately slid one thick finger inside her. His invading finger pressed against her slick walls, locating the exact point inside her core that drove her crazy. He stroked, then abraded it, all the time sucking fiercely on her clit, attacking from every side. Pleasure exploded and her battered body shook through the waves of a powerful orgasm. She was forced to ride the tide again and again as Jareth suckled her distended nub and finger-fucked her spread-wide cunt mercilessly, leaving her flattened on the bed, her pleasure exhausted.
Panting, dazed by the power of her orgasm, Tamsin stared at the ceiling. Jareth’s face appeared over hers and he smiled.
“Now,” he said. “Now, I claim what’s mine.”
He didn’t wait for an answer, instead pinning her mouth under his own. Her nostrils filled with his scent and when his tongue entered her mouth, the salty, tangy taste of her own fluids spread on her tongue. His mouth trailed down, covering her neck and collarbone with kisses. Her breath came fast again and when he cupped her pussy with his ruthless hands, she squealed in pleasure. Shame inflamed her cheeks but she couldn’t control the movement of her hips. Lips pinched the erect nipple of her left breast and Jareth’s hand grabbed her other breast. He pinched her nipple between his index finger and his thumb at the same time as he suckled, and she lost herself in the moment.
His face came to rest over hers and she felt a hard bulge press against her. Their gazes held, his face tense with desire as his cock pushed, testing and stretching her entrance.
“Do you know what you’re doing to me?” Jareth growled. “I’m losing my mind for you, my sweet Tamsin.”
“I’m scared,” she admitted, surprised at how small her voice sounded. “You’re so big. You will hurt me.”
“I have prepared you. You will not be hurt.” Jareth kissed her lips, long and soft, then let go and stared deep into her eyes. “I can never hurt you.”
Her chest heaved before she buried her face in his shoulder. A large hand lifted her chin as he forced her to look into his eyes.
“I want to see your eyes for this.”
Without further warning, Jareth moved his hips until his body was held right over hers. He let gravity push him down, to penetrate her in one long, slow, smooth motion. He didn’t pause, not even when she would have flinched, just kept pushing until there was no more of him to come. Tamsin felt every inch of his invasion stretching her walls to the limit, hitting every one of her nerves. She gasped but as he stayed perfectly still, she relaxed. He began moving again, pulling back only a few inches from her silken grip, then forcing back in, reshaping her, filling her until there was no more void inside her but a hurricane of sensations. Jareth groaned and she knew he wanted nothing more than to thrust and thrust until they both screamed out in pleasure, but he didn’t. He cared about her, didn’t want to hurt her by releasing his passion. He was putting her needs before his desires. A pang of longing filled her heart at the idea of spending the rest of her days with a man like him.
The long, slow thrust of Jareth’s cock ignited a spark of sensation deep in her body. She moved and moaned with pleasure, angling her hips up, forcing him deeper inside her. Jareth continued his torturously slow motion, creating a crescendo of pleasure at the slightest movement. She was about to burst open, split in the middle by a nuclear explosion of ecstasy.
Jareth’s breath became jagged and his hands gripped her hips, forcing her still. She growled in frustration and tried to move against him but he was too strong.
“Fuck me,” she whispered in his ear. “Fuck me like you want to.”
He brought his face over her, his blue eyes almost black with desire, and withdrew his cock almost entirely, then slammed it back as deeply as he could in one slow and long motion. He maintained his measured, deep thrusts for a long time, controlling the movement. Tamsin was delirious with desire, just inches away from a second release. Without thinking, she bit his shoulder, hard.
Jareth roared and pistoned his hips harder, the blow mixing pain with pleasure as she felt his cock grow even harder inside her. He grabbed h
er hair and pulled it back, forcing her throat up into a completely submissive position, then bore into her with frenzied, deep thrusts. She exploded in an orgasm so deep she could feel it in every inch of her body. The wave of electric pleasure continued while Jareth released his seed inside her. Each spill of hot semen filled her depths, and her vaginal walls convulsed around his cock until her pleasure sent her into a blessed oblivion.
Finally Jareth collapsed on her, his pleasure spent too. He held his weight on his elbows and she breathed. She was flushed, her cheeks flaming from passion. This was way more than anything she ever imagined.
“You are my Ajena, the center of my life.” Jareth nuzzled into her neck in a heartbreaking embrace. “My beautiful Tamsin.”
She closed her eyes and wished she had the strength to fight the tears that came. What was worse, they weren’t tears of sadness. She was still quietly weeping when Jareth pulled her into himself and curled around her, cradling her body into his heat as she let exhaustion lure her into sleep.
Chapter Five
Tamsin woke and blinked a few times before remembering where she was and who held her so close. She turned her head to stare into the gorgeous eyes of Jareth, who watched her with a faint smile. She let her gaze stray from his eyes to the golden skin of his face, marred by the black marks on one side. The tattoos were strangely harmonious, as if they grew on and around his features instead of being foreign to him. The marks had scared her at first, making him appear savage and violent, but they didn’t alarm her now. His smooth, golden skin shone softly under the low light, the grain fine and flawless.
“What do they mean?” Tamsin asked, touching his marked cheek with the tip of her finger.
“The marks of the king.” Jareth leaned his face against her hand and she cupped his face. “They relate the story of my family, of all the kings who reigned on Havlan before me.”
Tamsin swallowed, the meaning of the marks and the weight of their responsibility now clear. Jareth smiled and warm fingers traced her neck up to her cheek. The air from the ocean flowed inside the room, its cold caress like a hand over her skin, making the heat from Jareth’s body even more comforting. She reveled in the contrast with Jareth’s heat and snuggled closer. His hands ran over her stomach and lower and she felt his body responding. Jareth kissed the nape of her neck and pressed his erection on her back, rubbing the soft tip of his cock against her flesh. Desire ignited in Tamsin’s lower belly and she moaned in pleasure, but he stopped his exploration of her body and lay still. She struggled between relief and frustration, a mixture she was not sure how to handle.
“Come, my Tamsin, I want to bathe with you.”
Without waiting for her answer, Jareth got up from the bed and stood in front of her. The man was beautiful, with chiseled abs and muscular thighs, stunning right down to his impressive and very aroused cock. He smiled when he saw her gaze flicker down his body and his cock jerked when she gave it her full attention. He held out his hand and Tamsin took it without glancing away from his body. An unknown feeling inhabited her mind and body, warm and calm, unknown but somehow vaguely familiar, like something long forgotten. She brooded on it as she followed Jareth through the long room with the view of the coast and into another, smaller room, only then recognizing it for what it was. Happiness. She was feeling happiness for the first time in years. Her lips curled into a smile and her steps became lighter.
Yes, she thought, she was happy.
As she entered the room, her gaze caught on a golden reflection dancing around the surface of a large round basin. Tamsin stopped and stared, wide-eyed, as her gaze settled on the golden pool at the center of a large bathing room. As in a dream, she walked up to it and stared inside at the shifting liquid. So much water, you can use it to wash your body, she thought. It made her head spin. She could walk inside that pool and let the water surround her whole being. She had never taken a bath and the idea of it was enough to send butterflies fluttering inside her brain. Before she could think about it, she knelt beside the large round basin and immersed both her hands in the water.
As soon as her hands came into view, her euphoria at the water was lost in a surge of confusion and anger. Her wrists were covered in strange, swirling, dark marks that looked suspiciously like tattoos. She brought her wrists closer to her face and examined the complex pattern spreading like a bracelet around her tiny wrists. As she did so, she glimpsed her reflection in the water and bent over. Her whole neck was covered in the same marks, like some kind of large tattooed necklace. She tried to swallow but her throat closed shut.
Tamsin was branded.
She stared again at the marks on her wrists then tried to rub them clean in the water, but it was no use. She knew the pattern wasn’t going to leave her skin but she rubbed until it hurt anyway. Her heart raced at the concept. How did this happen?
“The Sikosh’s female family marks. So beautiful, so refined.” Jareth’s voice came from behind, warm and full of a heart-wrenching affection. “Do you like them?”
Tamsin couldn’t tear her gaze from her reflection moving in the water. She was still completely naked but even the distant feeling of the ocean’s icy fingers on her skin couldn’t quell the burning anger deep in her guts. It boiled and rose like lava as she stared harder at the marks. Warm hands cupped her shoulders, so big the fingers wrapped around the curve of the articulation and almost touched the tip of her small breasts. A light kiss landed on the symbols at the nape of her neck and she shivered. His mouth was warm and the gesture so tender it made her want to scream. Jareth’s face appeared beside hers on the water’s surface and his face froze when he saw her expression.
“What are those things?” she demanded.
His reflection met her eyes, blurred by the water’s movement.
“Tattoos?” she pressed.
“Not tattoos.” Jareth frowned and his hands crisped on her shoulders. He didn’t take them away but she felt the tension traveling from his skin to hers. “Family marks. When a female mates with a Tellurian male, she receives the family marks. The marks are the same, from father to son, passed from generation to generation. It means she was claimed as an Ajena, that her life and body’s gifts now belong to him.”
“Is that why you wanted so bad to fuck me?” Tamsin spat the words, barely containing her rage. “So you could brand me?”
“A female receives the family marks after her first mating with a male. The female cannot have another Tellurian’s marks. It would be great shame.” Jareth straightened and his face turned serious. “The marks are as permanent as the bond between us.”
“So I’m marked for life? Like livestock?” Tamsin’s voice shook with anger and she felt the lava boil up to her throat, about to spill. “I don’t have a say in that?”
Jareth’s hand firmed, then released her shoulders. A cold breeze brushed her skin where his hands had been and some small part of her mind wished he still held her. She smothered the regret and turned around, staring straight into his brazen blue gaze. He held her stare, shoving her anger back at her. Everything about his immobility told her he was listening very carefully to what she was going to say next. This made her pause and she swallowed the next scorching words that flew through her mind. Instead, she shook her head, spreading her hair on her shoulders. Jareth’s eyes followed the movement and she saw a flicker of desire pass over his face but it was lost in the intensity of his stare. She kept quiet and after a while, he sighed.
“The mark is permanent, as is the union between an Ajena and Ajeno.” Jareth took in a deep breath. “You are not an animal, my Tamsin. You are my Ajena. You bear the mark of the Sikosh clan, the royal family of Havlan. It is a great honor, one that would have been coveted by thousands in the days before the Great Plague.”
“Why didn’t you give the honor to a Tellurian female, then?”
“You have stellar fertility ratings and your attractiveness is an appreciated plus.” He broke eye contact, looking away from her. The meaning of his wor
ds penetrated her body and goose bumps covered her skin but not from the cold wind coming from the window. Even the ocean quieted down and listened to Jareth’s next words. “If I took a Tellurian female, the probability is that our progeny would be entirely male, and few. I need a male progeny to ensure continuity of the bloodline but I also need female progeny to cement alliances with other noble families.”
Jareth stopped, letting the words percolate. Tamsin breathed hard but it was no good. Her lower lip trembled and it took time before she gathered the strength to speak. She was more hurt than she wanted to admit and far more than she was prepared to let him know.
“So I’m what? A breeder?” The words burned her lips. “I’ll die before I let you use me that way.”
Jareth stayed unmoving, his tall, muscular body tensed with emotions she couldn’t decipher. Her vision blurred with tears as she walked back to the bed. She didn’t want to be naked anymore, not with Jareth in the same room. So much for her thoughts about an alien Prince Charming. She was a reproduction tool, not a wife. Not a cherished life partner, just a biological vessel for his bloodline. She lay down in the bed, gathered all the blankets around her, then rolled away. Jareth could freeze tonight.
Somewhere in the distance Jareth moved. Tamsin entertained the crazy hope that he would go sleep in another room, but a heavy weight settled on the mattress beside her.
She kept her eyes closed as she felt his body turning. He didn’t say a word and soon his breathing settled into a steady rhythm.
* * * * *
Tamsin’s eyes jerked open. She must’ve slept. She shouldn’t have. From the bed she could see a sliver of the sky from the windows in the other room. It was changing color, turning from black to a dark blue. The night would not last more than three or four hours, then dawn would break and her time would run out.
Her first sexual experience with Jareth had been completely mind-blowing and she couldn’t deny it changed her feelings about him. Jareth was nothing like the savage brute she’d expected him to be. He put her pleasure at the forefront and turned a potentially painful ordeal into a whirlwind of erotic pleasure. She was grateful for this experience. Back on Earth, a girl expected violence to enter her life sooner or later and it was only a miracle she hadn’t been raped before. She felt so safe in his arms she feared she would never want to crawl out of them again.
