He rolled her back over on her back. This time, their chests sealed in a perfect seamless cocktail of heat and bliss. Bishop mouthed down her neck to suck her nipples into his mouth. She raked her fingers through his hair and writhed under his dominating treatment, but she wouldn’t pull away. He filled her to the breaking point with his presence.
She dug her fingernails into his back and squeezed his hips down between her legs, but he pried himself free to rise above her on his knees. With a few expert flicks, he unbuckled her gun belts, untied her pants, and slid them down her legs. Her boots and socks disappeared along with her pants into the cosmic brew glowing in his eyes.
His burning hands landed on her knees, and she couldn’t keep them together. He laid them open, and his steaming mouth closed around her most sensitive tissues. Raleigh lay back on the moss. Her arms extended above her head, and the most delightful bliss spread all over her.
Boiling volcanic heat flowed up her skin to fill her body. Her mind drifted in the stars far above. No friction, no danger, no unpleasantness of any kind touched her here. Bishop’s shoulders supported her hips and lifted her cunt to his mouth. His saliva infused her quivering mound with intoxicating pleasure. That pleasure exploded through her mind to drive all her fear and apprehension away.
She turned her head this way and that, but nothing filled her world but beauty, divine pleasure, and oneness with Bishop and everything around her. Nothing could be more right than this single moment set apart in time. No matter what else happened, she could carry this experience close to her heart forever.
Nothing could take this away from her. The Universe out there didn’t want to take it away from her. It wanted to fill her with bliss. It sent Bishop to her to satisfy her deepest longings, to teach her life is a beautiful experience. She didn’t have to defend herself against it. She could accept it.
Bishop dug deeper into her sodden pussy to release the hidden pockets of desire waiting to burst to life. He devoured her in greedy mouthfuls until her juices coated his cheeks and flowed off his chin. He forked her petals aside to expose her raw clit, and he worried it with his tongue until she couldn’t stand it anymore.
His fingers glided down the dark furrow to her insides, and when he buried them to the hilt against her heaving bones, she exploded in rapturous climax. She kicked her hips against his face and shrieked to the almighty stars, but he wouldn’t let her go until she rocked off the floor on tempestuous peaks.
She never closed her eyes through that convulsive orgasmic tide. The pinpricks of light above held her hypnotized. She gazed into the Universe’s all-seeing eye in that dark firmament while incredible spasms ripped her world apart.
When the last spike shot through her, she couldn’t look anymore. Her body contracted sideways, and she tore her body away from Bishop’s mouth. She curled onto her side and hugged her arms over her stomach.
The next thing she knew, Bishop’s long lean form curled around behind her. He covered her back with his heat to drive away the night chill. The warmth of her climax faded, but he kept her warm from behind.
She snuggled into him, but her addled mind didn’t register the bare skin stroking down her ass and hips and legs until something sharp buried its point into her swollen pussy. Her wetness guided it in, and she shrieked aloud when it popped inside.
She tensed to pull away, but Bishop’s powerful arms clenched her against his chest. His bicep flexed against her stomach to hold her hips in place, and he plummeted into her on powerful strokes.
Her first startled reaction made her tug and thrash in his arms, but the moment he set up a steady rhythm, she eased into another slow-building crescendo of blissful passion. She leaned back into his protective embrace, and he crushed her in his might grip to thrust his manhood home.
Her already excited pussy swallowed him, and her lips squished all around his bulging shaft. He pumped her full of himself. She couldn’t go anywhere but back into him. He scooped one big hand up under her chin and pried her head back to rest on his shoulder.
He sank his teeth into her neck and growled into her ear. Those noises worked on her heart and soul, and she caved to the incessant demands of his body on hers. He would have her. He would drive her to one peak after another. He would take her to infinity and beyond. He would never leave her cold and abandoned in this vacuum beyond the stars.
His hips struck harder against her ass. Wet slaps stuck them together and peeled away. Every penetration touched her deepest recesses. She wanted him deep and deeper. She hurled herself back against him to take him to the hilt, but he already had her. He already filled her full of the most immaculate rapture she ever experienced.
His arms crushed the air from her lungs. His thumping rhythm rocked her off her moorings, and his hot ejaculation gushed through her to burn away her last aching hurt.
Chapter 18
Raleigh took hold of the blanket’s corners and heaved Dax out of bed. He hit the floor and came to his feet swearing. His sandy hair surrounded his angular face to give him an animalistic mane. He bared his teeth at her. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Out of bed, lazybones!” she cried. “The sun’s up, and you’re late for training.”
He blinked. “What training?”
“What do you mean, what training?” she shot back. “Is this what you’ve been doing all the time we’ve been away—sleeping late and feeling sorry for yourself? Don’t tell me you didn’t even practice while we were gone.”
He combed his hair back with his fingers. His shoulders cut a perfect triangle of bare muscle down to his trim waist where his pajama pants covered his hips. “I practiced.”
“Then come on and show me what you can do. Now that I’m back, you’re training again.”
“I thought…”
Raleigh headed for the stairs. “I know what you thought, but you were wrong. We’re going back to Hinterland in a few days, and you’re coming with us this time. You’ll need every ounce of training I can give you between now and then, and even so, you’ll probably get killed. So get dressed and get down to the yard. You’re not slacking anymore as long as I’m around.”
She trotted down the stairs, out of the carriage house, and into the backyard where she sharpened her new throwing blade while she waited for him.
Since coming back from Hinterland, she grieved the loss of her homemade crossbow more than anything. She cajoled Bishop to order a new one of her from the blacksmith in Perdue, since none of the bows in the armory fit her.
The blade was easier to replace. She modified an ancient weapon she found in the basement. With a few strokes of the blacksmith’s hammer and a lot of sharpening, she turned it into a weapon she could handle as well as her old blade.
Dax appeared in a few seconds. He wore his old leather work pants, but no shirt. He’d dunked his head in a bucket of water and combed back his hair, and he carried his shirt, boots, and all his gear in both hands. He dumped his helmet, his armor plate, and his swords by the gate and picked up his shirt. “I’m really sorry. I thought…”
“Don’t waste my time telling me what you thought, and don’t bother putting that on. Just come as you are.”
His head shot up. “What?”
“Don’t bother getting dressed, and don’t bother putting your shoes on, either. We’re going at it skin on skin.”
His mouth fell open, but no sound came out.
Raleigh nodded at him. “No more Mrs. Nice Guy. You’ve had your training. Now it’s time for you to do your best to defeat me without all those props. No one in Hinterland will give you any consideration, so I don’t have to, either.”
He gulped. “Are you gonna fight me…you know, skin on skin, too?”
Raleigh blushed. “I guess I’ll keep my clothes on, if you don’t mind, but we’ll leave the armor aside. If you really want me to, I’ll fight you barefoot, just so you know I’m not taking any advantages.”
He stared at her fo
r another long moment. Then he braced his shoulders and a grin broke over his face. “All right. You wanna fight me? Come on. I’ll take you.”
He picked up a sword and strode into the yard on his bare feet. He gave the sword two swings over his right and left shoulders, and all the muscle popped on his chest and back. He rounded on Raleigh with that determined grimace she came to recognize over the weeks of teaching him all she knew about combat.
Raleigh bared her teeth in a vicious snarl. “You want me? Come on and take me.”
She kicked off her boots and stepped out of her socks. She sloughed off her leather vest and faced him with nothing but her blade in her hand.
Now that they confronted each other all but barehanded, the real claws came out. Dax couldn’t hide behind his mask, and Raleigh couldn’t pretend some monster was coming at her. Neither of them could hide from the other now. She was facing Dax McDermott in all his power, and she better bring her best if she hoped to defeat him.
On his side, he faced her with his bare skin. If she cut him, he would bleed as never before. He had to rise to the occasion if he hoped to get out of this.
Raleigh locked her eyes on his face. A stubble of reddish beard sprang out over his cheeks, and a dark arrow of hair plunged from his chest into his waistband. He wasn’t a boy anymore, and the arm swinging that sword was a lot stronger than hers.
Dax circled to his right. His bare feet discovered the best balancing points in the grass. His knees flexed, and his thighs supported him in springy steps. Raleigh circled the other way. She measured every fiber twitch to anticipate his first move.
His eyes flashed over her once. He measured her the same way, even though he couldn’t see through her clothes. He watched her foot conform to the soft ground. He watched her knees bend and her fingers clench around her blade handle.
He launched himself at her so fast she didn’t have time to see it coming. Faster than lightning, he swept his sword in an arc to cleave her head in. Raleigh danced aside just in time. She brought her blade down to clang against his weapon, and she deflected it to one side.
He was on her in a flash. His sword flickered all around her head. He parried and thrust and dodged away to strike again. Raleigh struggled to the utmost to keep up with him. Every time she knocked his sword away, he came at her from a different direction.
He drove her back, step by step, into a corner of the garden. Taking his armor and helmet away didn’t make him vulnerable. They made him more powerful and more deadly than ever. He fought harder than she ever saw him fight before. The danger fed his inner desire for combat. The monster lurking in his blood reared its head and catapulted at her harder than she ever thought possible.
What was he? How long would he remain in this human form before his hidden nature broke free for all the world to see? How long could she and Bishop keep him in the dark?
She had no time to think about that. She could only hope and pray he didn’t discover his true nature during this battle with her. She hated to think what he would turn into. His mother was a shapeshifter. Heaven only knew what his father was. He could turn into a thundering Endavor the size of a mountain. He could turn into a snake or a dragon or…. or anything.
Her hind foot struck the fence. She couldn’t retreat any farther. She had to pull something out of the hat if she wanted to get out of this with her life. The same realization crossed Dax’s face. He had her on the defensive. He was winning, and that knowledge gave him a sudden surge of power.
He shot forward. He smashed her blade aside and swung his sword around for the killing stroke. Raleigh took advantage of that moment’s interval to dive forward. She somersaulted between his legs and came up behind him. She thrust with her blade and would have cleaved his ribs in half if he hadn’t spun around to block her.
Their blades met in a deafening clang, but Raleigh didn’t stand around to tussle with him. She leaped back into a handspring. She flipped and cartwheeled back to the center of the yard, and not a moment too soon before Dax rushed to attack her again.
What was she thinking, baiting him like that? She invited him to take her, and that’s exactly what he did. Maybe he played nice with her all these weeks so she would think he was ready to take on the next stage of his training. Had he been letting her win, letting her live in a fantasy world where she was stronger and faster and better trained, when all along he could crush her like a bug?
He was another version of Yafik, only older. He knew his own strength, and he pitied these weaklings who thought they could push him around. He held himself in reserve against the day he had to smash them under his heel.
The fraction of a second she stood in the center of the yard before he rocketed toward her to join the assault, she made up her mind. She had to stop this fight now or she was lost. The longer he fought, the stronger he got. Raving madness burned in his eyes. He wanted to fight the whole world. Every stroke fed his inner hunger for battle.
All doubt vanished from her mind at the first blow of his sword against her blade. She couldn’t defend herself against those hits much longer. Her shoulders and elbows already ached. He didn’t pull his punches, either. If he landed even one of those blows, she was finished.
He kept flying at her so fast she couldn’t formulate a decent strategy for how to defeat him. He whirled his sword one way and then the other. He demanded all her attention just to deflect his rapid-fire strokes.
Then she understood. He was beyond fast, and much stronger than she was. The one key element she had that he didn’t was experience. She used her ingenious mind to defeat creatures ten times stronger than him. She did it by guile, and she knew every piece of training Dax ever received. She could exploit that to defeat him now.
She shrank back under a particularly withering barrage of moves. She let him press forward. He sensed her weakening. His face twitched. He was trying to decide how to end this without chopping her head off. The madness of combat seized him. He couldn’t think of anything besides cutting and thrusting and destroying.
Raleigh danced off her back foot. Dax swept his sword right for a backward cross cut when she darted forward. She tossed her blade aside and tackled him around the middle. She hooked one arm around his waist, yanked him off the ground, and slammed him down with all her might on the grass.
She moved so fast, and the maneuver caught him so much by surprise, he couldn’t think of one thing to do to counter it. He hit the dirt, and the surprised shock in his eyes blasted all his confidence away.
Raleigh dove on top of him. She straddled his chest and planted her knees in the dewy grass. She seized his wrist and wrestled his sword up in front of her. She made no move to get his fingers off the grip. She forced the sword down so the cutting edge dug into the skin of his neck. One quick twist of her arm and she would slash his throat.
At that moment, she caught a flash of purple in the iris of his eye. The blue fibers radiating away from his pupil parted to reveal an underlayer of bright lavender. A second later, the window closed, and his eye appeared as blue as ever.
That fleeting glimpse of whatever lay buried below the surface diffused all her burning fury. She couldn’t kill him. She never intended to. She won. That’s all she had to do. The moment she saw that purple, she saw the rest of his face. He stared up at her out of eyes wide with fear. He really thought she was going to slaughter him.
She sank down to sit on his chest, but her grip on his sword arm relaxed to let him go. She was just as much a raving demon as he was when it came to a battle to the death.
Both of them wheezed for breath through parted lips, but the heat of battle died away to nothing. Raleigh collapsed aside on the grass to catch her breath. Dax’s sword arm fell the other way, and he sat up. He coughed when he tried to speak. “You’re still the best. I can’t beat you.”
Raleigh patted his shoulder. “I had to do it, or you would have killed me.”
He glanced up from under the bangs fallen into hi
s eyes. “Did you mean what you said about me coming with you this time?”
Raleigh snorted and got to her feet. She hung her blade at her belt. “We’re attacking a building too strong for the two of us alone. We’ll need you and maybe fifty more men if we want to win. We’ll have to bring you. Now I just have to convince Bishop.”
Dax stood up. He wiped his forehead against his shoulder. “Then it’s truly hopeless. He’ll never let me come.”
Raleigh smiled at him. “Go get yourself cleaned up, and don’t worry about him. Your training’s over. You’re ready.”
His eyes snapped to her face, but he didn’t say anything. Hearing those words worked a transformation on him. They struck to his deepest core, and he knew beyond doubt they were true. She couldn’t teach him anymore. Whatever else he learned, he would learn in combat. He would fight and he would learn and grow. He would become a soldier and a slayer, just like Bishop.
He picked up his gear and went back to the carriage house. Raleigh collected her boots and socks and started for the kitchen door, but before she passed through the gate, she caught sight of Bishop standing at the upstairs window. He looked down on the yard. He must have seen the whole fight.
Chapter 19
Raleigh went about her business, but tension hung thick over the house. She waited for the storm to break when Bishop would confront her over Dax, but he didn’t show himself.
Breakfast ended. The blacksmith’s apprentice delivered her new crossbow, and she devoted the rest of the morning to tuning it and honing it in the backyard. She shot countless bolts at fenceposts and pumpkins, made microscopic adjustments to the sight, the string tension, the trigger mount, and shaved tiny curls of wood off the stock before Mrs. Mitchell called for lunch.
Halfway through the morning, Dax appeared to lead the horse to the water trough. He spotted Raleigh bent over her work. “Can I watch?”
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