by Donya Lynne
“Did you…?” she said, flinching through another tiny spasm, catching her breath and moaning. Once she stilled, she tried again. “Did you come?” The tips of her fingers danced down his back then up to his shoulders.
“No.” He feared pressing himself against her. If he did, he was sure to climax, and he didn’t want this to be about his pleasure. Right now, everything was about Miriam. “But damn, I want to.”
“Do it.” She pushed him to his back, excitement glinting in her eyes as she licked her lips, straddled him, and slapped her hands down on his chest.
She rose and swiveled her hips against him, moaning as she quivered through an aftershock of her own. Then a devilish smile broke across her face as she churned her hips again. The shock of her unexpected assault blew Io’s mind. Sweet, docile Miriam had been replaced with wanton, sex goddess Miriam, and Io couldn’t have been happier.
“Fuck.” He gritted his teeth and gripped her hips, lifting his own off the bed to strengthen the physical connection between them.
“Can I make you come like this?” Miriam thrust forward, her breasts bobbing as he dry-fucked her.
He growled then purred in response, locking his gaze to hers. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me.”
She rode him forward and back, massaging his hardened length with her body, and she laughed—a deep, throaty, sexy sound that curled his toes. She looked and sounded like a female who was only just beginning to realize her sexual prowess, both bashful and daring, wanting to push further to see just how far she could go. Everything about Miriam was designed to give him pleasure. Her body, her mind, the way she moved, her voice…even her sultry laugh turned him on.
“I want you to come,” she said. “I want to know what you look like when you do.” Her hips swiveled against him. Yes, most definitely she was discovering herself, and she was doing it in his arms. God love her. “I want to know what you feel like.” Her eyes sparkled, and she bit her lip.
Holy shit! She was driving him wild. Through clenched teeth, and with his fingers sinking more harshly into the firm flesh of her thighs, he said, “You keep doing that, and you’ll get your wish.” He thrust against her. If she wanted to play, he would play.
A self-satisfied smile spread across her face and she leaned down so her incredible nipples brushed over his chest as she rotated her hips around on him again. “I hope so.”
“Something tells me you know more about pleasing a male than you’ve let on.” Io slid his hands around to her ass and squeezed, pulling her against him as he pushed his hips up. “Or are you just a natural vixen?” He grinned against her mouth.
“If I am to be prepared for my future mate,” she said, taking a dramatically proper air, “I need to know such things, don’t you think?” Through her long lashes, she gazed at him, nibbling her bottom lip once more. Clearly, she was teasing him.
Io narrowed his eyes and growled. He didn’t like the idea of anyone else with her but him. He was her future mate, but something told him he wasn’t exactly what daddy had had in mind for a son-in-law.
Too bad. She was his, and it was time he made that perfectly clear.
Io flipped her to her back. She yelped as he rolled on top of her, held down her arms, and pinned her hips to the bed with his before shoving her long legs open with his knees. “Then I’m thankful you’ve prepared to please me.”
A momentary flash of fear skirted through her eyes, and then she licked her lips, her gaze turning hot as she moaned and pressed her hips upward, rubbing herself against him.
“You like being manhandled, don’t you?” What a thrill for her to react to him that way.
She nodded once, her lips curling into a shallow, mischievous smile.
“The king’s daughter likes it rough?” Io let go of her arms and gripped her thighs to yank her closer.
Her breasts bobbed enticingly and her arms slapped down to the pillow on either side of her head as she stared up at him.
“You do, don’t you?”
She panted for him, nodding again. “It seems I do.”
Io purred low in his chest, beyond ready to show her what he looked like as he came. She had wanted to see, and now he would show her.
“Give me your hand.”
She swung one arm toward him and he grabbed her wrist with one hand as he shoved his sweats down with the other. Her gaze dropped as her eyes opened wide. She sucked in her breath as he smacked her palm around his shaft and closed his fist over hers.
With maddening, harsh strokes, he forced her hand up and down on his cock, and Miriam watched in fascination, her lips parted and her nipples puckering as her breasts bounced with the force and speed of his stroking.
He wanted so badly to be inside her, to be staking his claim on her now. To let everyone know who she belonged to. She was his mate and no one else’s. To hell with her father. To hell with the law. Miriam belonged to him and he would have her or die.
He glanced down to see that Miriam had dipped her free hand beneath the waistband of her sweats—his sweats. How sexy. She was masturbating, wearing his clothes, putting her heavenly scent on them, moaning with each breath, her eyes glazed with hunger to come again.
“That’s it, baby. Come with me.” He bent over her, supporting himself on his free arm, his spine tingling and his torso tightening along with his scrotum.
“Io…oh God…Io….” Miriam’s chest rose and fell heavily, and her head thrashed side-to-side as if trying to break free the mounting pleasure restrained within her. The flesh of her breasts jiggled as she neared another glorious release.
Just watching her lose herself yet again was enough to send him over.
“I’m about to come, baby. Fuck. Yes. Oh fuck!”
Just as his abdomen clenched and his cock pulsed in their combined grasp, Miriam grunted and cried out, her body arching violently beneath him as she exploded with another powerful release.
“God, yes…fuck, but you’re beautiful!” Io gasped and ruptured, shooting his release over her breasts and stomach, his entire body gripping and releasing so that he actually swayed forward and back through each orgasmic wave.
He hadn’t intended for this to happen tonight. Io had planned on being good.
Really, he had been ready to remain chaste and proper. But then she had gone into withdrawal, and when she fell into the trademark shame that all addicts carried, his heart had gone out to her. He had wanted only to comfort her, soothe her, make her see that what she was going through was okay and normal, but her beauty when she had looked over her shoulder with eyes glistening with tears had captivated him. What had been meant only to be a gentle peck had, in an instant, morphed into a passionate declaration. From there, things had spiraled out of control, taking on a life of their own.
He had thought about her for two weeks. What he would do or say if he saw her again. How he would sweep her away and make her his. But he hadn’t imagined just how powerful the pull she had over him was until she was actually here. What had been only fantasies suddenly became more real than any reality he had ever experienced. He hadn’t been able to stop himself, especially after hearing he affected her the same way that she did him, and now she lay beneath him, his release streaked across her abdomen, smelling of him, wearing his clothes, and breathing against his neck, looking like an angel.
The reality was better than the dream.
She looked up at him through the strands of tangled hair strewn across her face. They were both breathing heavily, and Io collapsed down on top of her as her arms wrapped around his back. He didn’t even care that his semen still lay like an offering over the altar of her torso.
He couldn’t speak. No words came to him. He was in the presence of his mate, the one chosen by Fate just for him. If someone would have told him a month ago his mate was waiting just around the corner and that she was the king’s daughter, no less, he would have laughed in their face. He had been a ladies man, unbound by commitment and happy to live that way. But now,
he was a lady’s man—singular. Io belonged to just one lady, and he couldn’t imagine going back to his old ways now that he had met and sampled a small taste of Miriam. She had already captured his soul and his heart, and no other female would ever be good enough to replace her. Io was now a kept male, utterly enraptured and owned by the female who sighed beneath him and shifted her embrace to hold him just a little more tightly.
“I don’t want to leave,” she said quietly against his shoulder.
“Then don’t.” Io burrowed his face into the side of her neck and whispered softly. If he spoke any louder, he feared he would destroy the moment. “Don’t leave. Stay with me, Miriam. I don’t think I can survive without you.”
She turned her face into his and their lips met in a tender caress that deepened as she pulled him closer.
He couldn’t wait to tell Arion the good news.
Oh wait…that’s right. He and Ari weren’t talking to each other, anymore.
Suddenly, he missed his best friend more than ever. The most wonderful thing that had ever happened to him, and he had no one to share it with. Now he knew how Ari had felt.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Tristan was in the shower when Josie knocked on the door and poked her head inside.
“Yeah?” Tristan shook the water out of his hair.
“You’ve got an urgent phone call,” Josie said.
“Who is it?”
“Gregos.”
Gregos? What did he want? Tristan frowned. Gregos was Arion’s father, but surely this didn’t have anything to do with Ari or the fact that Ari had quit the team two weeks ago after Sev’s incident with Gina. Maybe this had to do with the king. Gregos was one of King Bain’s liaisons, but he rarely called Tristan at home to share official news. Shit, he hoped this wasn’t royal business.
Ever since the king’s daughter had been brought to the compound after overdosing on cobalt, AKM had been in a mini-uproar of gossip and excitement. Especially where Io was concerned. Io had touched Miriam, for God’s sake. No one was allowed to touch the king’s daughter, but Io had sat on her bed and brushed her hair. Io had fucking touched her and had spent time with her. And it had been clear Miriam had been taken by his charms. God, he hoped those two hadn’t found a way to meet outside AKM or that the king hadn’t found out what had happened. Tristan had done his best to keep the incident under wraps, but the rumors about Io and the princess had started almost immediately.
“Tell him I’ll be right there,” Tristan said.
“Okay.” Josie closed the door.
Tristan didn’t need any royal interference right now. He was still trying to recover from losing Arion when he had already needed to add more members to his team to begin with. But AKM was King Bain’s law enforcement agency. It wasn’t called All the King’s Men for nothing. King Bain had instituted the agency to enforce the truce between the vampires and their distant cousin race, the drecks. Drecks had always resented being inferior to the vampires. The fact that vampire blood, venom, and genes always superseded that of drecks gave the illusion that vampires were stronger, and in many ways they were. But drecks had ways of closing the gap between the two races so they appeared more equal.
Nowadays, AKM not only enforced the truce and maintained the peace between the races, they also battled mutants—mixed-blood vampires whose powers overtook them and changed them into rogues—and even got involved in certain human affairs.
With cobalt abuse severely on the rise, AKM was short-staffed and needed more enforcers, which meant the last thing Tristan needed was to deal with royal red tape.
He shut off the water and wrapped his towel around his waist then hurried out of the bathroom to the phone.
“Gregos? Hi. Sorry, I was in the shower.”
“Sorry to interrupt you, but we have a situation.”
“What kind of situation?” Here we go.
“The king’s daughter has gone missing.”
Tristan’s gaze immediately flew to the windows. The blinds and drapes were still closed, so he knew it was daytime. Not good that the king’s full-blooded vampire daughter was out in the world when the sun was out. “Shit.”
“Yeah. Well, we tracked her.”
The hair on the back of Tristan’s neck prickled. He had a bad feeling about this. “Where is she?” I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know.
Gregos took a deep breath and cleared his throat. “The king’s security staff traced the GPS in her phone to an address in the burbs. A check on the address showed it was a home registered to Iobates Liatos.”
“Fuck.” Tristan took a deep breath and blew it out, running his hand over his water-beaded face.
“That’s right, Tristan. Io.”
Shit, Tristan had been afraid of this.
“Yeah, I know. He’s on my team.” Tristan’s voice snapped with anger.
“Is there something going on we need to know about, Tristan?”
The mere implication that he knew something and kept it a secret pissed Tristan off. As if he wasn’t already angry enough hearing that one of his team members had the royal daughter in his home right now, doing God knew what to her. Because, he had to face facts, Io was the team’s biggest playboy. He had fucked more women than a mortal porn star.
“What are you saying, Gregos? That I knew about this?” Tristan didn’t care that he was yelling into the phone, at a liaison to the king, no less.
“Did you?”
“Fuck no! Look, I’m just as surprised and pissed off about this as you are.”
Josie hustled into the room, rubbing her palm over her baby bump, her eyes filled with questions at why he was so angry. He shook his head and waved his hand then held up his index finger. One minute, he mouthed.
“Okay, Tristan. Fine. But I have to warn you. The king is livid. He knows Io’s reputation.”
Tristan had a feeling livid didn’t even begin to describe just how angry the king was.
“What happens now?” Tristan paced in frustration, worried. He slicked his hand over his wet, blond hair.
“It all depends what we find when we get there.”
In other words, if Io had fucked the princess, he was going to lose his head. Both of them.
“Fuck.”
“No kidding. And I thought I had it bad with Arion.”
Not that Tristan talked to Gregos much, but in two weeks and three other conversations, this was the first time Gregos had mentioned his broken relationship with his son. Gregos hadn’t been pleased to find out Arion was gay and was quitting his job as an enforcer, and he had disowned him. Now it sounded like Gregos might actually be rethinking his actions.
“How bad could this get, Gregos?” Tristan said.
“Bad. You know how the king is about his daughter. He will kill Io if he finds he has been improper with Miriam.”
“Isn’t that a bit extreme, Gregos?” Tristan had to try to reason and negotiate a better outcome. It was his duty as Io’s commander. “We don’t live in the Middle Ages, anymore. Things are different today. The world is more lenient and humane.”
“I’m not sure the king will be swayed, Tristan.”
“Come on, Gregos. Work with me here. I can’t lose another member of my team. I can punish him. I can file a reprimand, but—”
“Tristan, it’s not my call.”
“Goddamn it, Gregos! The king needs to get out more. He’s quarantined himself in his fucking home for over a century. Things have changed. You don’t just kill people because they touched someone!”
The line was silent and Tristan suddenly realized what he had done. He looked up to see Josie staring wide-eyed at him, her fingers over her gaping mouth. Criticizing the king was strictly taboo. And you never spoke profanely when talking about the king. It was an unwritten rule.
Gregos cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I will present your plea to the king, but don’t hold your breath, Tristan.”
“Please, forgive me. I didn’t mean to speak so candidly. I�
��m…I just—”
“I know,” Gregos said. “I understand.”
Did he?
“It’s just hard hearing I could lose him.” Despite Io’s misgivings when it came to females, he was the best hacker at AKM, and he was one of the best in the field, too. Io was a cocky cuss, but he got the job done.
“It’s hard for all of us right now, Tristan.”
“Understood.” Tristan huffed and looked down, feeling defeated.
“The king has sent his personal security to retrieve his daughter and arrest Io. I’ll let you know what they find.”
“Thanks.”
Tristan disconnected and hung his head.
“What’s going on?” Josie said, touching his arm.
He hadn’t even heard her walk toward him. “Io’s in deep shit. The king’s daughter is at his house right now.”
“What?” Josie’s eyebrows popped up in surprise.
“Yeah. Exactly.” Tristan grabbed the phone again and dialed. He needed to find out what happened on Io’s shift last night before he did anything else.
“Yeah?” Sev’s voice broke on the other end of the line. Tristan had obviously awakened him.
“Sev, it’s Tristan.”
Muffled noises came from Sev’s end. He was probably getting out of bed. “Hold on a sec,” he said quietly. He probably didn’t want to wake up Ari. The two were still newly mated, so Tristan was glad he hadn’t interrupted something more intimate between them than sleep. After several seconds passed, Sev spoke more normally. “Okay, what’s up?”
“What went on last night?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, how the hell did the king’s daughter end up at Io’s house?”
Sev didn’t say anything. Either he was confused or guilty. Tristan would bet on the latter, or maybe both.
“Look, Sev, I know you were on patrol with him last night. Miriam went missing, and the king’s security team traced her to Io’s.”
“Her phone. Damn it.” Sev heaved a loud sigh. “Look, Tristan. I wanted to say something, but she was in bad shape and Io took her to his place. He said he knew how to take care of her, and I believed him.”