His hot dirty words gave Ari a surge of desire…and of confidence as well.
I can do this, she told herself. I can take him—I’m a numalla.
Taking a deep breath, she raised up and took his hot, hard shaft in one hand, loving the way it pulsed in her fingers. Then she fit the broad, flaring crown to the opening of her pussy and bit her lip as she started to push down, feeling herself stretching around him.
“Relax, sweetheart,” Lathe told her urgently, rubbing her hips gently as he watched what she was doing. “Just relax and let me in. You’re wet enough…you can take me.”
To her surprise and delight, Ari found he was absolutely correct. After the broad head breached her entrance, she felt another thick inch slip easily inside her. And then another and another—it was as though her body really was hungry for his—longing for Lathe to fill the aching emptiness inside her with his cock. Though she could feel her inner walls stretching to accommodate him it was a good, pleasurable kind of stretch—there was no pain, just the feeling of being more full inside than she ever had been before.
“Gods, little one, so beautiful,” Lathe groaned as she sank slowly down on him, taking more and more of his thick hard shaft inside her. “So beautiful and so brave to take me all the way inside you…to open your soft little pussy and let me in.”
“I…I want you inside me,” Ari whispered breathlessly. “I need you, Lathe—need to feel you all…the way…in.”
As she spoke the last word, she felt him bottom out inside her, the broad head of his cock pressing hard against the mouth of her womb in a deep and intimate kiss.
“Oh, Goddess, Lathe,” she moaned. “In me…you’re in me so deep.”
“You feel so good around me, little one,” he growled. “I told you, you were wet enough to take me, my sweet numalla.”
“Mmm…it feels even better than I thought it would.” Ari put her hands on the big Kindred’s broad shoulders, steadying herself, trying to get used to having him inside her. She’d never felt like this before—so opened, so completely full. But it was a wonderful sensation—made doubly so by the fact that it was the man she loved who was filling her.
But he doesn’t love me back, she remembered sadly. He’s still just trying to heal me. That’s all.
Well, she couldn’t do anything about that—right now she would have to take what she could get. And if she only had this one chance with Lathe, then she would take it and make the most of it.
“I’m ready,” she told him, looking into his eyes. “Fill me with your seed and heal me, Lathe.”
His eyes were heavy-lidded with desire.
“My pleasure, little one. Just let yourself be open so I can fuck you…so I can make love to your sweet little pussy.”
Ari felt a surge of lust at his hot words and spread her thighs a bit wider, trying to get him even deeper into her pussy. Gods, she loved the feel of him inside her!
“Yes, Lathe,” she murmured and braced herself on his broad shoulders, ready for him. “Make love to me—I want you to.”
Lathe loved how bravely she opened herself for him, how deeply she took him into her tight little pussy. Gods, she fit like a warm velvet glove all around him—squeezing and milking, almost as though her body knew that it needed his seed to heal and was trying to urge him to give it up.
But Lathe intended to make this last. If it was his one and only time with Ari, he didn’t intend to rush an instant of it. Gods, he loved her—he wished they could have more than this once together. But he knew he shouldn’t be greedy. At least the Goddess had granted him one time with her—he wanted to make it count.
“Get ready, little one,” he murmured, looking into her lovely dark eyes. “Going to fuck you now—going to fill you with my cock and come deep in your sweet little pussy.”
“Goddess, Lathe,” she whispered breathlessly. “I love when you talk like that!”
Lathe could tell she meant what she said because he could feel her wet inner walls pulse around him as she spoke—squeezing him even tighter with pleasure.
“You like when I talk dirty to you, little one?” Taking a firm grip on her hips, Lathe pulled almost all the way out of her and then thrust back in, giving the mouth of her womb a hard kiss with the head of his cock. “You like when I tell you what I’m going to do to you?”
“Yes!” Ari’s long eyelashes fluttered almost closed, a moan of pure pleasure drawn from her throat at his deep thrust. “Goddess, that night at BleakHall when you talked to me about how you’d make love to a woman…the things you said…and then when you told me to make myself come…I was so turned on,” she murmured breathlessly.
“Turned me on too,” Lathe admitted in a growl. “Though at the time I couldn’t understand why I’d want to talk so to another male. I told myself it was just your feminine scent driving me crazy.”
As he spoke, he stroked into her…setting up a slow, steady rhythm he knew would drive her wild.
“I…I should have told you then,” Ari confessed, her fingers tightening on his shoulders as he filled her over and over. “Oh, yes! Gods Lathe, I’ve thought about it so often…”
“I don’t know what I might have done if I found out you were a female that night,” Lathe mused, rolling his hips to drive deeper into her. “Probably would have gone down on you right there and lapped your sweet pussy all night.”
“Mmm…I was imagining you doing that—doing all the things you said you liked to do when you made love to a woman,” Ari admitted, rolling her hips to join his rhythm. “I think that was part of the reason I wanted to…to suck you in the Rec Yard,” she admitted. “I told myself it was to prove to everyone we were a couple and prove to you that you should let me stay in your cell but really, I was thinking about all the hot things you said in the back of my head.”
“Gods, I was so conflicted about letting you do that,” Lathe growled and gripped her hips more tightly. “But I couldn’t seem to help myself. Watching your soft pink lips wrap around my cock was just too much.”
Just the thought of it made his balls tighten and he knew he was getting close.
“Ari, sweetheart,” he murmured as he continued to thrust up into her. “Do you think you can come for me one more time? It would help carry my seed and my healing compounds deep inside your body if you could.”
“I think so,” she whispered and then gasped as he thrust deeply into her. “I just…I need a little help, Lathe.”
“With pleasure, little one.”
Finding the tight little bud of her clit between her plump pussy lips, he began to stroke around it with the pad of his thumb, circling the little pink pearl over and over as he continued to drive his cock up into her.
“Lathe…” Ari gasped, gripping his shoulders. “Oh Goddess that feels…feels amazing!”
“You look amazing,” he told her in a low growl. “So ripe and wet, your little pussy all spread open on my cock while I fuck deep inside you and claim what’s mine.”
“Yours?” Ari’s eyes opened wide and she stared at him uncertainly. Lathe knew he should stop himself but he couldn’t—he felt too strongly for her to hold back anymore.
“Yes, mine,” he growled, looking into her eyes. “Mine because I want you, to care for and protect. Mine because I love you, Ari.”
Her breath caught in a moan as she met his gaze.
“Oh, Lathe, do you really mean that? You love me?”
“With everything in me.” He kissed her fiercely, taking her mouth with his as he continued to thrust deeply into her and stroke her clit with his thumb.
When he finally let her go, Ari looked at him with shining eyes.
“I love you too, Lathe,” she moaned as she rode him, working her hips to take him deep inside her soft little pussy. “And I never want to be without you. Tie me to you forever—bite me and bond me.”
Her words galvanized something inside him—shocked him to his very core with possessive desire.
Growling hungrily, he pulled her
down and Ari gladly bared her throat for him. As he thrust up into her one final time, Lathe sank his fangs into the unmarked side of her neck, injecting her with his essence as he spurted inside her and filled her with his come.
Ari cried out, her back arching as she came too. Her pussy clenched around his cock, tight and sweet and wet and exactly what he needed. Lathe found himself coming again, shooting spurt after spurt of seed deep in her swollen pussy, giving her what they both needed so badly, tying her to him forever even as he healed her completely.
“I love you, Ari,” he told her, sending the words through the new link they had formed as he bonded her to him. “I love you so much and I’m never letting you go.”
Epilogue
“So you’re the one who told Lathe I was sick?” Ari laughed at the guilty look on Liv’s face.
“Well, yes—I admit it. But what was I supposed to do—just let the two of you go your separate ways and be miserable the rest of your lives?” Liv’s silver-gray eyes opened wide in protest. “Besides, it was Yipper you made promise not to say anything—not me.”
“I guess that’s technically true. But I wouldn’t have cared one way or the other—Lathe and I are together now and that’s all that matters.” Ari grinned happily. It seemed that lately, ever since she and Lathe had bonded, she had a joy bubbling up inside her that just couldn’t be controlled. It manifested itself in the form of a silly grin that wouldn’t go away, no matter how hard she tried.
“Look at you—you’re glowing, doll.” Kat, Liv’s auburn-haired friend laughed at her. It was her living area they were sitting in, along with Sophie and Lauren and some of the other Kindred brides who Liv had introduced her to. Because Kat was married to Twin Kindred, her suite was slightly larger—and slightly noisier too, with all three of her sons running around.
Not that Ari minded. She secretly hoped that she and Lathe might have a son soon too. They had certainly been trying often enough lately.
“I can’t help myself,” she said in response to Kat’s remark. “I’m just so…happy.”
“We can tell,” Lauren, who was Liv and Sophie’s cousin, said dryly. “If you grin any wider the ends of your mouth will meet in the back and the top of your head will fall off.”
“She’s got the ‘just-bonded’ glow, that’s all,” Liv said, as they all laughed at Lauren’s prediction. “I remember how it is—you just can’t get enough of each other. Isn’t that right, hon?” she asked Ari.
“That’s about right,” Ari agreed, grinning again. “Gods, I’m sorry—it’s like my mouth is stuck this way. I swear my cheeks hurt from smiling so much.”
“That sounds like a good problem to have to me,” Liv said. “But how does your brother, Jak, feel about you staying aboard the Mother Ship with Lathe?”
“Oh, he was a little disappointed but I think he knew I was about ready to get out on my own. I couldn’t stay in Blackthorn Manor all my life.”
“Blackthorn Manor—it sounds like something out of a Jane Austin novel,” Sophia sighed.
“It’s really no big deal,” Ari protested, feeling her cheeks get hot. “I wasn’t exactly a lady out of a historical romance vid. I just spent all my time up in my lab inventing and fiddling.”
“I heard you’re going to be working in the tech division here aboard the Mother Ship,” Liv said. “They’re lucky to have you.”
“I’m lucky to be here,” Ari said seriously. “Honestly if it wasn’t for Lathe, I would still be stuck in BleakHall prison. I’d probably be dead by now,” she added soberly.
“Oh no—there went the smile,” Lauren exclaimed. “Quick, think about your new man and get it back.”
Ari gave a self-deprecating little laugh. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I still have nightmares about that place sometimes. I think I probably will for years to come.”
“It takes time to get over traumatic life events,” Liv said quietly. “But I’m sorry to hear you’re having nightmares.”
“It’s okay.” Ari shrugged. “I wake up and Lathe is beside me, waiting to comfort me. I guess you could say he’s still protecting me from BleakHall, even though we’re long gone from it.”
“What about that other guy you brought back from BleakHall—the big hybrid Kindred with the green and gold eyes?” Sophie asked.
“Oh, you mean The Beast—I mean, Slade?” Ari asked. “I don’t know, actually.”
“Oh, didn’t you hear, doll?” Kat leaned forward confidentially. “He got into some trouble down at the Pairing Puppets house.”
“He what?” Liv, Lauren, and Sophie all said at once.
Ari said, “What is a Pairing Puppet anyway?”
“Pairing puppets are these kind of…android-type things—female robots that the unmated Kindred can use to, uh, blow off steam, if you know what I mean, until they find a mate,” Liv explained.
“So what kind of trouble did he get into?” Lauren asked. “Did he break one of the puppets?”
“Not exactly.” Kat’s blue eyes were dancing with anticipation—clearly she loved a good story. “He actually had sex with a Pairing Puppet that wasn’t a puppet.”
“What?” Liv asked blankly. “What does that even mean?”
“Apparently a couple of the girls on one of the tourist groups that come up from Earth were feeling adventurous,” Kat said. “They decided it might be fun to ‘try out’ a Kindred warrior with no one being the wiser. One of them chickened out but the other girl ended up with the hybrid—with Slade.”
“Oh my God, but didn’t they know the risks?” Sophie asked. “You could get bonded by accident to a complete stranger.”
“I know.” Kat giggled. “Can you imagine? It was lucky for her that hybrid Kindred usually can’t form a bond.”
“Merrick did, though,” Liv said. “He’s another hybrid Kindred we know,” she explained to Ari. “But bond or no bond, I’ve seen that guy—I imagine she got the ride of her life.”
“I know,” Sophie exclaimed. “He’s even bigger than Merrick and Merrick is huge. I can only imagine how sore she was the next day. She’ll probably be walking bow-legged for a week!”
“Anyway, she ran away from the Mother Ship afterwards and now Slade can’t find her.” Kat shrugged. “That’s what I heard, anyway. I think he’s pretty upset over what happened—he was looking for a no-strings-attached night with a Pairing Puppet and he got a real-live girl instead.”
“Speaking of female androids, did Sylvan ever find out about the android me that came after him?” Liv asked.
“What?” asked several voices and Liv had to explain about the attempt on Sylvan’s life by the robot-version of herself which had been paid for by Mistress Hellenix of Yonnie Six.
“I had a heck of a time prying the story out of Baird,” she said. “He and Sylvan were really upset. To be honest, I was too—I don’t know why Mistress Hellenix would pick me to make a killer robot clone of!”
“Maybe because you and Sylvan work together,” Sophie offered. “I’m just glad she didn’t model the assassin robot after me. Poor Sylvan still jumps whenever Liv walks in the room. I would hate it if he had that reaction with me.”
“Now I start every conversation with him, ‘Hi, Sylvan, it’s the real me,’” Liv explained with a little grin. “It doesn’t seem like it was a very good clone though. Sylvan said it looked exactly like me but didn’t act or talk like me at all.”
“Do you think Mistress Hellenix made the robot herself or had someone else make it?” Lauren asked.
“Lathe thinks she had someone make it—someone with connections to Uriel Two,” Ari spoke up. “He said that Malik—the Volt Kindred warrior that Mistress Hellenix keeps as a slave—talked about her having an artifact in her collection that might help him regain control of his home world…which is Uriel Two.”
“But I thought it was completely controlled by AIs now—artificial intelligences?” Sophie asked.
“It is but apparently that’s the reason Malik is hanging around with
Mistress Hellenix. I guess he’s trying to get his hands on that artifact—whatever it is. Or maybe she has ties to Uriel Two because of it? Something like that.” Ari shrugged.
“Well he might not be able to hang around with her much longer,” Kat said. “Isn’t Sylvan going to bring her up on charges before the Sacred Seven—the Yonnie Six version of the High Council?”
“Yes, but the Yonnites think men are lower than dirt,” Liv pointed out. “Who knows how far the case will get since the plaintiff is a male.”
“Sylvan has thought of that,” Sophie said. “He’s hired an excellent female attorney to take the case. She’s thoroughly conversant with human and Kindred law and as soon as she’s had a little time to bone up on Yonnite law, they’re taking the BleakHall Yonnites to court.”
“I hope they can make some changes,” Ari said in a low voice. “There are some terrible things happening in BleakHall and not everyone who’s locked up deserves to be there.”
“Case in point—you and your brother,” Kat said seriously. “But tell us, doll—was it worth going to prison to meet the love of your life?”
“Of course it was,” Ari said, smiling. “It was a terrible time but if I hadn’t gone to BleakHall and gotten trapped there, I never would have met Lathe. All my happiness now is due to the sadness and terror I went through at BleakHall. I wouldn’t trade it for the world—even if I do still have nightmares.”
“Well, like you said, you have Lathe to wake up to and to hold you tight when that happens.” Kat reached over and patted her hand. “The Goddess knew what she was doing when she put the two of you together.”
“Yes.” Ari nodded. “I’m sure she did.”
For she was certain now that it hadn’t been the Goddess of Mercy but rather the Kindred Goddess who had spoken to her and helped her during their escape from BleakHall. She had felt the same, warm feminine presence when she and Lathe had visited the Sacred Grove and a soft voice had whispered in her ear, “Daughter, you are home.”
Imprisoned Page 37