Shadow Warrior

by Feehan, Christine

  Ever since their discussion on what his preferences were on her blowing him, she’d insisted on practicing each day. She wasn’t shy about it, either. The lessons on swallowing him down scared her, but she wanted them, and he always obliged. He would have stopped if he’d been the only one getting pleasure out of them, but her body was always slick with need after one of their more erotic endeavors.

  The jewelry slithered over her skin and hung down on the side, pulling at her nipples, sending little streaks of fire racing to her clit. He knew because he could see her body jerk with every movement. He’d done that deliberately to distract her just enough to ease his way deeper into her mouth. Her lips stretched around him, sexy as hell, and he thrust gently with his hips. There was no way for her to breathe, although she tried to draw air through her nose for him. He held her there and when she looked as if she might start to fight, he reached down and tugged at the chain between her breasts.

  Another jolt went through her body. She gasped. He slid deeper and held for another couple of heartbeats before pulling back to give her a breath. “That’s my girl. You’re almost there,” he praised her. That was another thing he found she liked. She wanted him to talk to her. Dirty sometimes, and he never minded obliging. Gently other times, and he found so many things he could tell her because he meant every word he said to her. Mostly, when she was trying newer things, she liked the compelling note in his voice when he provided instructions or encouragement and he gave her that as well.

  He pushed deep again. “Swallow me down, gattina.” He bent over her, pushing deeper and this time, he let go to push her thighs farther apart. He licked at the slick heat on her inner thighs and then circled and flicked her clit with his tongue. By bending over her, his cock pushed deeper into her mouth, her throat constricting him until he thought his head might explode from sheer pleasure. At the same time, he used his mouth, teeth and tongue to devour her, eating her like the dessert he always called her.

  She squirmed under him, her hands suddenly coming to his chest, reminding him she couldn’t breathe. He knew better. He knew exactly how long she could take him before she had to come up for air, so he took his time straightening, before slowly pulling out of her mouth.

  His arm was a bar behind her back, lifting her into a sitting position. “On all fours, Grace.” There was nothing sexier than his woman crawling onto the bed on her hands and knees, presenting her beautiful and very sensual bottom to him. Her breasts fell toward the mattress and the weight of the chains and diamonds had her breath hissing out in a rush.

  “Feel good, gattina?” He rubbed her bottom, his fingers kneading. “Tell me what it feels like.”

  “On fire. Streaks go straight from my nipples to my clit.” She arched her back and wiggled her hips at him to entice him.

  With one hand he caressed her clit, his fingers finding her slick entrance. With the other hand he smacked her bottom and then watched the red print come up on her fair skin. She jolted forward, and her breasts swayed, the heavy diamonds along with the triple chain swinging. She cried out and a fresh flood of liquid heat coated his fingers.

  “You like that.” He made it a statement. Before she could answer, he put his mouth where his fingers had been.

  Grace moaned and pushed back, asking for more. He took his mouth away and, kneeling up, pressed his cock home. He took his time, going slow, letting the fire consume both of them. She was so tight, her scorching hot sheath gripping him in what felt like a fist of pure silk.

  “Vittorio.” She gave him his name in her most demanding tone.

  He laughed. “You’re so demanding.”

  Reaching around her he caught at the silver and gold chain and tugged. Her breath did the little hissing thing he loved, and he smacked her as he surged forward, forcing her tight muscles to give way. The moment he was fully engulfed, bumping her cervix, he withdrew and began to pick up speed. Throwing his head back, he gave in to need, letting himself lose control and drive hard and deep over and over while the flames felt as if they were rising from his toes to completely consume his entire body.

  He could tell by her breathing and the way her body clamped down like a vise on his that she was spinning out of control right along with him. “You close, bella?”

  She was. Her breath came in frantic pants. Her hips pushed back at him equally as hard as he surged into her. The rhythm was perfect. He didn’t want it to end for either of them.

  “Yes. Yes.” She whispered it to him, gasping her surrender.

  He reached one last time for the chain and tugged. His smack, spreading the fire across her nerve endings, sent her over the edge. Her body clamped down so tightly on his he thought his cock would never survive. Her muscles grasped with sheets of fire, kneading and milking every last drop of his seed from him. He felt the release like a vicious explosion, brutal but beautiful, perfection itself.

  She collapsed down on her elbows, her entire body shuddering with pleasure. He let himself fall over top of her but kept his weight from crushing her to the mattress. When he could breathe again, her stroked caresses over her buttocks. “Roll over, gattina, let me get those clamps off of you.”

  He helped her, his hands at her waist, rolling her under him. He bent his head to capture her mouth. “It will feel like fire, Grace, but I’ve got you.” Very gently he took the clamp from her right nipple and replaced it with his mouth, soothing the burn with his tongue.

  She caught at him, her pulse pounding, her gaze clinging to his as if he could get her through anything. Her sheath rippled with a huge aftershock, grasping and milking his spent cock. The feeling was unbelievable.

  “Bad?” he asked, needing to know. It hadn’t felt like it. Fresh hot liquid had bathed his cock, scalding him.

  She shook her head. “Once your mouth was there, and combined with the very shocking effects, I’d have to say no.”

  He didn’t hesitate, but removed the other clamp, using his mouth to ease the burning ache. The same thing happened, the hot explosion around his cock, her body clamping down in waves, reacting to the fire around her nipples.

  He kissed his way up to her mouth and settled there. “I’m so in love with you, Grace.” The emotion, at times, was overwhelming. Every time she touched him, kissed him, gave herself to him, she did so with complete surrender. She trusted him enough to talk to him about anything. He needed that from her and she gave it to him.

  He liked doing for her, but she didn’t just take from him. She saw to his every need, making sure he had everything he wanted in his home just right. He wasn’t certain how she managed when some days she worked late to plan other people’s weddings and parties. They weren’t small parties. KB Events planned major functions. Once it was known that Grace was his fiancée and a partner, they were flooded with far more work than they could handle.

  He cleaned them both carefully and put the jewelry back in its case. She rolled over onto her side, propping up her head. “Is that thing real? As in diamonds and gold?”

  “Would I get you anything less?” He put the case in a cupboard where he had a small selection of toys and jewelry he wanted to try with her in time.

  “I wore it for fifteen minutes or less. You can’t spend that kind of money for something I’m going to wear for a super short period of time.”

  “You’ll wear it longer.”

  Her eyebrow shot up, but he was rewarded with the full body flush that told him she was interested.

  “Do you like the idea?”

  “It feels very sexy. I like the way your eyes light up,” she conceded.

  That was his Grace, honest all the way. “It is sexy,” he said. “It’s sexy because I ask you to try something for me and you do it. Then you lie there, diamonds and gold dripping off you and I want to eat you alive.” He handed her a bottle of cold water. “Drink. You need to stay hydrated.”

  He told her that often. She meditated with him. She worked out. She ran now, although she definitely didn’t enjoy running yet, it wa
s her least favorite activity. They swam together. And they often had sex several times a day. She never complained. Most of the time she looked excited or eager to partner him on his workouts. He was teaching her to drive both offensively and defensively. She especially liked those lessons, although more often than not, they ended up in the back seat together.

  “I’ll be very happy to hear about our wedding plans in the morning, bella.” He slid onto the bed and she rolled over to drape her chest and head over his lap. Her silky hair slid over his naked thighs and he stroked a caress over the back of her head.

  “I’ll be very happy to tell you all about them, Vittorio. I want to make certain you’re in agreement with everything and feel comfortable.” She traced little circles on his belly, her chin on his lap as she looked up at him with her green eyes.

  His heart jumped as he took a long, leisurely drink of water and indicated for her to do the same. She lifted up slightly and tilted her head back to take the water down her throat. The action lifted her breasts and he couldn’t help but take the weight on his palms and slide his thumb over her nipples. She jumped, and he could see the ripple of pleasure through her body, over her buttocks to the back of her thighs.

  “Does that hurt?”

  She shook her head. “It felt amazing.” She handed him her water bottle and laid her head back in his lap. Both hands slid up and down his left hip.

  “I never thought I would ever feel like this, Vittorio. Safe and cared for.”

  “Loved, Grace. Thoroughly loved,” he corrected.

  Her hands tracing those circles were driving him crazy, but he indulged her because she found it soothing to lie across him and run her hands over him. She told him it made her feel as if he really did belong to her. She was getting bolder in the ways she touched him, without him urging her to do so. Like now. He jumped when her tongue licked at his thigh and then up the shaft of his cock.

  “What does that feel like?”

  “Like a kitten licking at me with a velvety tongue,” he teased.

  “Good?”

  “Very good. But if you keep it up, you’d better be ready to take the consequences.”

  “Mmm.” She hummed her musings over his shaft, breathing warm air over the head. “What would be my consequences?”

  He rubbed her back and swept his hand lower to knead her cheeks. She spread her legs apart and licked up his shaft again, this time curling her tongue and then flicking at the little vee beneath the broad head.

  “If you insist on arousing the monster, you’re going to have to appease it. I’m going to have you swallow every single drop. All the way down this time.”

  She squirmed again, her hips bucking a little. “I don’t know, Vittorio. That isn’t much of a threat since I really love to try.”

  He took another drink of water, his eyes on hers. “No, gattina. I said you will do it, not try. If you don’t succeed, this time there will be consequences.”

  Her eyes widened, and she propped herself up on her elbow. His threat of retaliation was new. He could see the immediate interest and his entire body, in spite of the way he’d just come, reacted. His cock stirred. She liked games.

  “What would that be?”

  “I get to devour you for as long as I want without giving you a release. It’s up to me whether or not I give you one.” It was a good threat. She had no idea that he would ever do that to her. He’d spend time building and building, but before she went to sleep, she would have an explosion to end all explosions.

  She turned back over, her head down, mouth already on his shaft. “I think that’s a fair challenge.”

  He sat back, the water bottle to his lips. She was going to kill him, but he’d go happily. It wasn’t even all the fantastic sex. Or the games. It was all Grace. She gave him everything he could ever want, and he vowed to make certain he never took anything she did for him for granted. She looked up at him with pure love in her eyes, and he wanted that to stay there forever.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from

  the next Carpathian novel by Christine Feehan

  DARK ILLUSION

  Coming September 2019 from Piatkus

  Julija Brennan linked her fingers behind her head and gazed up at her unimpeded view of the stars. With the absence of light from cities and the lack of pollution from industry, the sky over the Sierra Mountains was absolutely clear, giving her an unparalleled view of the Milky Way that, despite all her travels, she hadn’t seen before.

  She barely noticed that she was shivering in the night air. It was cool in the Sierras at night and with winter coming on, the temperatures promised snow in the next few days. She’d hoped her errand would have been completed before the first snowfall, but that didn’t look like it was going to happen. Any other time, finding herself under the night sky would have been just perfect.

  She didn’t mind being in a beautiful mountain range far from everyone else. She liked solitude. She even craved it. Unfortunately, she was in the race of a lifetime. She’d been out in front and now she’d stalled. She had no idea where to go or what to do to get back on track. The range was four hundred miles long and seventy miles wide. To find anything as small as a book in it with no idea of where it was located was impossible. Impossible, but it was a matter of life or death, although she hated drama and the last thing she wanted to do was be dramatic, even to herself. Still, it was a fact she couldn’t avoid. She had to find the book before anyone else did, and there were several looking.

  Strange how such a small thing like a book could have the power to destroy lives. Corrupt them. Twist otherwise good people into monsters. Power corrupted. She stared up at the constellations, wishing she could ride on those stars or slide down the comets instead of trying to find traces of a book no one should ever see or know existed. Riding stars and sliding on constellations might prove far easier than hunting in four hundred miles of wilderness for a mythical book.

  She preferred the places in the world closest to the stars with the least amount of people around her. She loved these mountains. The Sierras. Who knew they would rival the Carpathian Mountains for her affection? She was a nomad with no home and she’d accepted that she was a castaway. A traitor. In her world, a criminal. It had taken some time to come to that place of acceptance. Places like this one had helped her get there.

  Julija didn’t believe she would ever have a home or family. Her one friendship had been formed solely out of desperation. She had seen what no one else could—Elisabeta. A woman held prisoner, beaten into submission, so afraid, after lifetimes of captivity, to be free. In all those years she’d been caged, no one had ever managed to see through the layers of illusion her ruthless captor had surrounded her with until Julija’s sight had penetrated through the shields to find her.

  Julija had reached out to her in spite of Elisabeta’s fears and tried to instill hope. There was no giving the woman anything but that one thought.

  Sighing, she closed her eyes to block out the millions of flickering lights overhead. Sometimes, having gifts was more of a curse than a blessing. Finding a friend had been the blessing; leaving her to her fate once she was safe had been a curse. Elisabeta needed her desperately, but she had to complete her mission. She had to. She could only hope that Elisabeta would understand and forgive her.

  Julija stared overhead, grateful for the clear night, although clear meant the temperature had dropped. She shivered a little and snuggled deeper into the sleeping bag. It would be nice to be able to regulate her body temperature in the way she knew Carpathians did. There were things she could almost do in the way the Carpathians could, but unfortunately, regulating temperature was not one of them.

  Carpathians were a species of people, nearly immortal, who fed on the blood of others but could not kill while feeding or they would become vampire. They slept in the rejuvenating soil and could not be out during the day, but they had tremendous gifts, powers that allowed them to shift shape and become what they willed.

  Elisa
beta was fully Carpathian and she came from a very powerful bloodline, yet she had been taken at a young age, given up for dead, and lived her life at the whim of her captor. That just proved to Julija that she had to be more careful than ever. If someone as strong as a Carpathian could be overcome, then so could she.

  She didn’t live in a cage in the way Elisabeta had, but in a sense, she was just as much a prisoner as her friend had been—and would probably always be. One couldn’t take centuries of conditioning and throw it away because they were free. It didn’t work that way. Julija had broken away from her family and friends because what they were planning—and doing—was wrong. She knew it was wrong in every way, but so did they. They just didn’t care. Now she had no one and nowhere to go, just like Elisabeta. Freedom didn’t always mean free.

  A star shot across the sky and fell toward earth, glowing as it raced in a spectacular explosion of glory. The beauty of nature always took her breath, but no matter how stunning or amazing her surroundings, she was still alone with no one to share them with. No matter how right she was, morally or otherwise, she was still alone. Elisabeta had been left with strangers, but at least they would all look out for her. It wouldn’t be the same as having someone she loved close, but there were people who cared.

  Elisabeta had a brother she hadn’t seen since she was a young woman and wouldn’t recognize after all the years, but at least he would want to take care of her. Julija had two brothers, but they wanted to kill her. More, they would come after her. Most likely, they were already on her trail. They would kill her if they caught up with her—and they weren’t alone.

  She closed her eyes on the stunning sight overhead, trying to force herself to fall asleep. She loved the night and spent most of it awake as a rule. That is until she’d found Elisabeta and eventually was surrounded by Carpathians.

  She sighed and turned on her side restlessly. Clearly, word hadn’t yet filtered down to those living in the United States that she was an enemy of the Carpathian people. She had desperately wanted to help Elisabeta through the coming months, when she would most need a friend. But she’d run across her while searching for the book, and although she’d been instrumental in freeing her, she couldn’t stay. She knew sooner or later word would reach the Carpathians in the United States that she was an enemy. She didn’t want to be taken prisoner herself—and the Carpathians were powerful, probably every bit as powerful as she was.