But it was Sage he wanted to explore, to lose himself in. Not just her luscious little body, either. Her sharp questioning mind helped him see beyond the stray thoughts of others, to focus on the task at hand.
And she wanted nothing to do with him. He wanted to howl, to run through the barren wilderness rending his flesh from his miserable bones until there was nothing left.
“Berrick?” Her voice, clear as the darkened sky.
He turned, and frowned when he saw her standing barefoot at the mouth of the cave. “That’s a good way to lose a toe to frostbite.”
She looked away, but he heard her thought as clear as if she’d spoken directly in his ear. Heard the shame.
She couldn’t get warm enough.
At once he moved to her side, chastising himself for making her come out to him. He scooped her into his arms and carried her back into the cave, around the bend to the heated spring.
“Your clothes,” she protested as he carried her directly into the warm water. “You don’t have to come in with me. If I’d known this was here….”Her teeth sank into her lower lip.
If she’d known about it, she wouldn’t have come to him for help. He tried to ignore the reminder that she wanted nothing from him, not even his shared body heat if there was another alternative. “I’m warmer than the water. As for my clothes, these are ruined and I have another set in the bag. You should leave the blanket here so you have something to dry yourself with though.”
“I can manage by myself,” she protested again.
He couldn’t help it. He growled at her. “Do you really think I’ll force myself on you when you’re half frozen and entirely unwilling?”
His hand was on her bare leg so he couldn’t hear her thoughts but he could guess the answer when she wouldn’t meet his gaze.
He deflated. “Sage, I can’t hear your thoughts when I touch your skin. So if you want privacy, this is the best way to get it.”
Her lips parted and she blinked at him. Then, she released her white knuckled grip on the blanket.
Dayen kept his eyes on hers as he set the cloth aside before he strode into the water. He sat as he had earlier, with her on his lap, covered up to the tops of her decadent breasts, her modesty preserved. He couldn’t help his reaction to her nearness, but he did his level best to keep her far enough away from his aching shaft so she wouldn’t be distressed by it. She sat stiffly for a moment but the hydrotherapy gradually eased her back against his chest.
“Is it like this for you with everyone?” She asked, her voice soft. “Touch takes away your mind reading ability?”
He shook his head even as he stole another whiff of her decadent scent. “Usually it’s the exact opposite. I touch someone and their thoughts drown out my own. I usually avoid contact with others.”
“Why?” Her brows drew down , forming a deep V over her tiny nose.
“It’s painful for me.” Dayen cringed at how pathetic he sounded. He hadn’t meant to whine.
She made a sort of humming sound that he took for understanding compassion.
“I’m different though? Is it because I’m Born?”
It’s because you are made for me, mein Schatzi. But he simply shook his head.
It was completely different, holding her while she was awake. She moved against him now, not quiet squirming but minor adjustments as she sought a more comfortable perch. His unruly cock throbbed in time to her sinuous movements. “Be still,” he growled.
She froze. “I’m sorry. Am I hurting you?”
“No. You’re killing me,” he rasped and before he thought better of it he put her hand on his erection.
She gasped, and he expected her to leap up off him and run away. What the hell had he been thinking? Other than he wanted to feel her hand wrapped around the stiff length?
Which—much to his surprise—was still on him. Cool hands and warm water seeped through the cloth and into his ridged flesh. He dared to look at her face and was relieved to see no disgust or fear on her face. Only curiosity.
The hand moved, experimentally. He bucked, nearly knocking her off him into the water. He steadied her and her free hand clung to his shoulder for purchase. Blue eyes flicked up to his face. He couldn’t read her expression, she was damn good at hiding what she was on her mind and he was unaccustomed to having to dig for information.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he commanded.
Her eyebrows drew down and she shook her head. “I’m not, not really. I just want to touch you.”
His Sage was inquisitive about his body? Perhaps even as drawn to his flesh as he was to hers? He’d been afraid to hope, but the way she held him….
He rose abruptly from the pool, pausing only long enough to retrieve her blanket and drape it over her.
“What are you doing?” She asked as he set her down before the fire and stripped his wet clothes from his body.
He shooed Lily from the pallet he’d made earlier and lay flat on his back, folding his arms behind his head in a non-threatening manner before meeting her startled gaze.
“I’m yours to explore.”
****
Sage stared down at his massive body in awe. Did he mean what he’d said? That he wanted her to touch him? To explore him?
Did she dare take him up on it?
“Of course I mean it,” he answered her unspoken questions. “And remember, if you’re not touching my bare flesh, I can hear you.”
She frowned down on him. “That sounds suspiciously like blackmail.”
He shook his head, his green eyes locked on hers. “Just our unfortunate reality,”
Needing a minute of mental privacy to consider her options, she pressed her bare foot against his calf. He didn’t complain at the chill in her toes. He had more than enough heat for them both. It radiated from him like the sun on the light side of the world—unyieldingly hot, relentlessly burning. His lids slid down and he made a sound of acute pleasure at the minor contact.
Just because she craved his heat, didn’t mean she wanted to touch him. Her gaze slid over his hard body. He was masculine perfection, all lean muscle, a naturally bronzed skin tone, so different than her pasty pale self. She skimmed down over the thickly bulging muscles of his arms and shoulders to the wide expanse of his chest, the drum tight stomach. She skipped past his sex, trying not to recall the feel of him hard and wet in her hand and moved down to his long legs, sprinkled with hair as dark as that on his head.
Then slowly, as if pulled by a magnet, her stare returned to his cock. Thick as her wrist at the base and almost as long as her forearm—the epitome of masculinity.
She swallowed hard. Her hands clenched into fists. Much to her surprise, she wanted to touch him, no matter how often she told herself she was playing a dangerous game. He’d nearly lost it after a few heated kisses and seeing her bare breasts. Would he be able to control himself—and she couldn’t forget that beast that lurked inside him—if she needed to stop?
What about her future mate? She recalled what Uncle Rand had said after he’d seen to her rapist. He’d looked her over with disgust on his face and grumbled, “Pray the cyborg still wants you after this, for we have nothing else to barter.”
Those words hollowed her out like he’d plucked her organs from her body.
She didn’t know if Dayen would want her, but Berrick definitely did. He wasn’t even trying to hide his physical response and the look in his green eyes begged her to lay her hands on him. Maybe because she was he only woman he’d been able to touch pain-free. Her heart still hurt from hearing his confession. Outwardly they couldn’t be more different, but he understood what it was like to shy away from others, even as deep down, the body craved physical contact. He accepted her ghosts because he carried his own.
Sage believed everything happened for a reason. Some called it fate or predetermination but whatever term was used, she thought that her being sequestered in this cave with this man at this exact moment in her life was ordained. She was he
re with him for a reason. Maybe to relieve him of his virginity and reclaim her sexuality.
Whoa there, who said anything about sex? He’d offered to let her touch, to sate her curiosity, so why was she imagining using anything on him but her hands?
She looked him over again, her gaze hot and hungry.
That body was made for sex and some cruel twist of fate denied him what should have been his birthright. Sage could relate.
So why not take it back?
“Mein Schatzi, I can feel your eyes on me.” He sat up. One hand wrapped around her ankle, gently massaged the calf muscle and lulled her into complacence. There was nothing manipulative about it though when he breathed a simple, “Please.”
“You’ll control yourself?” If that beast came out while she was touching him, she’d die on the spot.
His eyes showed only sincerity. “If you say stop, I’ll stop, no matter what.”
Decision made. Keeping the blanket wrapped around her, she sank on the makeshift pallet next to him. He released his grip on her leg and folded his arms behind him once more, biceps bulging enticingly.
She started there, on the underside of his arm, her gaze slipping back to his face. His skin was so smooth, his muscles more unyielding than even the walls of the cave. He brought new meaning to the term rock solid.
From there her hands moved in to his chest. Running her fingers through the springy dark hair that covered his pecks and trailed down over an eight pack stomach, she reveled in the coarse texture. His back arched as she scraped her thumbnail over a tightly puckered male nipple and he begged her, “Do that again,”
She repeated the gesture on the other nipple, watching his lips part on a gasp. Green eyes fixed on her face and he hissed, “Is that how you like to be touched?”
She didn’t know how to answer, wasn’t sure that she should give him any information about the best way to seduce her. This was supposed to be about exploring him, not him touching her. Was she even ready for that? Instead of replying, she bent her head to the nearest nipple and circled it with her tongue.
He made an inarticulate sound and she lifted up to ask, “Do you like that?”
“Yes,” he panted and she felt his fingers slip into her hair. The wet ends fell forward onto his chest but she was too preoccupied with her work to pay much attention. The tight peak throbbed as she flicked it again and again.
She toyed with him for a while, alternating sucking and biting with licks and sweeps of her fingertips, steadily working her way down his long, lean torso. A small pool of precum beaded on his belly, just to the left of his naval. She lapped it up, savoring the saltiness of him. He made a hoarse sound as her breath fell on the damp head of his cock. Answering wetness gathered between her own thighs in response.
“Do you like how I taste?” he asked, utterly shameless.
She scooted back so she could meet his unblinking stare even as she wrapped her fingers around his enormous cock. “I do,”
“Will you,” he had to clear his throat. “I mean, would you take me in your mouth?”
He looked so hopeful that she had to smile even as she explored the sizable appendage. “I want to, but I’m not sure how much I can take in. I’ve never done this before.”
That steady hand still stroked through her hair as though he wanted to memorize the texture of each individual strand. “Don’t worry about taking all of me. I only want to know the feel of your mouth.”
And really, how could she not try after that?
She leaned back a little and tilted her head as she decided the best way to proceed. “Spread your legs for me and bend your knees up.”
He did at once. The position was lewd and raunchy as hell, with his legs spread and his cock jutting up, balls hanging down to the shadowy cleft of his buttocks. All male animal, ready and eager for sex, needing it almost desperately. She crawled between his spread thighs, savored being surrounded by his heat, his scent.
She took him in one hand, holding him in place. Starting at the root, she licked her way up along the pulsing vein to the leaking crown. On impulse, she dabbed her tongue against the slit, lapping up his essence.
“Sage,” he hissed her name, hips rocking up, encouraging her to take more of him. The sound of it emboldened her as did the shaking in his thighs as she licked her way down the other side. Such power she had over him. It amazed her that he opened himself up to her, was eager, even greedy for her to do whatever she would. He lay there all open and exposed, wanting her, craving her. Never had she felt so desired.
Her hesitation only a distant memory, she rubbed her face against the jutting length. “You like this?”
She didn’t wait to hear his reply as she closed her lips over as much of him as she could take inside her mouth. He sat up, his fingers spearing through her hair until he held her in place. She stilled, and looked up at him, afraid he was about to lose it. His eyes were like emerald fire as he watched her suckle his length, both hands wrapped around the portions she couldn’t fit inside her mouth.
“Please,” he rasped. “Don’t stop.”
She had no intention of stopping. With him clamped between her lips, she swirled her tongue around the head, savoring his cock like a decadent treat. She pulled back, then pushed down, further this time, taking more of him inside. Her sex tingled, as though wanting its turn to have his hard hot shaft impaled within.
He spoke again, in a language she couldn’t understand, soft, urgent words which she took as encouragement. The world around them which had always felt too big shrank down, encompassing just the two of them in this moment.
He won’t hurt me. Sage wasn’t sure what finally drove that point home. Maybe it was the way his muscle shook in restraint, or the devoted expression he wore but she believed it. He didn’t try to direct her, didn’t buck or move more than to lie back in surrender, simply watched with hooded eyes, lips parted as he sucked in one breath, then the next.
Sage had seen plenty of sex in her life. Borns had given up discretion generations before. She’d seen women do many things to their lovers during oral sex, things the men seemed to go wild for. Would Berrick respond the same way?
Only one way to find out.
Chapter Seven
Dayen was in an agony of pleasure. He’d been unable to believe his luck when she said she’d take him into her mouth. The sight alone of his length moving in and out of her pink lips had his balls drawn up tight, ready to spend. Then the feel of wetness, her tongue swirling over him until the room spun and he thought he might pass out.
She was just as aroused. He scented her feminine fragrance growing stronger with every lick. His instincts rode him hard to buck deeper into Sage’s sweet mouth, or to pin her beneath him and drive himself between her thighs so he could rid himself of all his excess seed. But she didn’t want that. No, she wanted to take her time and slowly drive him insane.
One hand slipped off his shaft and slid down to massage his aching balls. He froze as she took another inch into him, then slipped back to suckle the head. Her eyes were closed now, short spikey lashes fanning over hallowing cheeks. Was there ever a more erotic sight?
Dayen’s head thrashed as that rogue hand slid even further down to press on a spot beneath his tightened sac. Every language he’d studied abandoned him and he was reduced to communicating through gasps and grunts like an animal. He couldn’t take his gaze from her and for the first time in his life he wanted to know what someone else was thinking. She looked to be enjoying herself as she fought to take more and more of him inside. Her arousal made him growl in agony as he imagined sating her.
Just when he was sure he’d lost the battle and was about to spend, her mouth released him. He shouted in agony, needing to come so badly he could taste it.
She said something, words that were drowned out beneath the roaring of blood in his ears.
“Don’t stop,” he was reduced to begging and didn’t care. Pride meant nothing next to the agony of unfulfilled lust.
Dayen grabbed for his cock, but she batted him away. He reached forward again but her hand closed on him lightly. Not what he wanted but he bucked into her grip, driven solely by the need for release uncaring of how it was delivered. His eyes closed and he rocked in time with her twisting strokes, almost frantic.
Then he felt her unexpectedly slick finger pressing against his rear opening. His breath abandoned him as she prodded against the tiny aperture, easing her way inside him. His mind couldn’t process the sensation, especially not wen her wicked tongue slid over his scrotum and back up his twitching length in a sensual promise.
The finger moved slowly, almost tenderly in him and he relaxed into it as her mouth surrounded his cock again, the head now hitting the back of her throat. It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation precisely but what had driven her to touch him there…?
Thoughts scattered as she found a spot hidden in his channel and pressed firmly into it. Climax roared through him, unexpected and more intense than he’d ever imagined. He had no chance to warn her, no breath or words or even awareness beyond blinding pleasure. Seed was pushed and pulled from his body and she took it all, one swallow at a time.
It went on and on and on. He lost himself in it, the release so different from anything he’d ever experienced before. His body was a distant thing, his mind free floating and totally at peace. He drifted, content to simply be.
Sage was his anchor through it all. The soft feel of her breath on his skin, her heady fragrance, the smooth texture of her skin where she still touched him, it surrounded and invaded him.
He came back to himself slowly, like dust settling after a powerful storm. The one thing he noticed first was that she was now as warm as he was. Though his arms seemed to be totally without strength, he fought to reach for her and tug her toward him. She resisted until he managed to say, “I want to hold you.” Then she came, willingly to drape across him.
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