by Mina Carter
Laarn didn’t stop until they were standing next to the canopied bed, still holding her in his arms as he looked directly into her eyes.
“A better man would give you a choice here,” he said, his deep voice low. “A chance to change your mind about my claim and leave if you prefer Sa…” He paused on the name, his lip curling slightly. “A chance to leave and find the warrior I bested. But I am not that man,” he snarled, his grip tightening. “You’re mine now, Jess, and I’ll never let you go. I ache to claim you, to finally make you mine, in every sense of the word.”
A thrill shot through her body at his words, arousal and anticipation working their seductive spell. He bent down, placing her on her feet carefully. Too carefully, his entire frame solid with tension.
Standing straight, he looked down at her, his expression unreadable.
“Take the gown off, or by all the gods, I’ll fucking tear it off.”
She hardly recognized his voice, harsh and guttural. The sudden look on his face, hard and feral, sent a wave of fear through her. Instinctively, she backed up a step, nerves setting in.
Instantly, fury flared across his features and within a second he was on her, his big hand capturing the back of her neck in an iron grip. His eyes glittered.
“Oh no, sweetheart. You don’t get to run. Not now. Not after this.”
A cry escaped her as he yanked her toward him, his free hand catching on the front of her gown. With a savage yank, he tore it clean down the middle, baring her naked body beneath to his gaze. Frozen, she looked up at him as his eyes slid down her, the hard look in them dissolving into heat as they paused on the swell of her breasts.
He stopped dead, his hand still on the back of her neck as he made a slow perusal of her body. She bit her lip, worry filling her. She’d pushed him to claim her, but what did he think now that he saw her body for the first time? Did he like what he saw… she wasn’t model thin, nor toned and fit like Jane or Kenna. She was just… average.
He looked down further, over the stomach she tried to suck in, those last few pounds she could never get rid of no matter how long she spent on the treadmill or how many sit-ups she tortured herself with showing there. The hard look on his face dissolved into heat as his gaze swept down her bare legs and then back up to settle at the juncture to her thighs. She resisted the urge… the need… to press her legs together as she remembered his clever fingers on her clit, in her pussy, as she’d ridden him to orgasm. She’d been able to tell he was a surgeon then, his hands dexterous and agile.
He released her and nodded toward the bed.
“On there. On your back… legs spread.”
His voice was still unrecognizable—a rough growl. Instinctively, she moved toward him, craving something… anything. Some sort of softness or tenderness to reassure her that she hadn’t made a horrible mistake.
“Do it, Jessica,” he snapped, his hands tearing at his weapons belt and jacket. “I’m too close to the edge for you to fight me, little one.”
His voice broke on the last word and her eyes widened, sudden understanding filling her as she glimpsed past his implacable mask and saw the stark fear and need there. She’d scared him, badly.
Stepping back, she let the remnants of her dress slip from her shoulders. He watched her like a hawk, his hands stilling for a moment on his belt as he undid it, like he couldn’t bear to look away. Like she was the only thing in the universe for him as she moved. Heat flared in his gaze again, and his hand shook as he tore at his buckle.
A surge of power filled her as soon as she saw it. Feminine pride and the knowledge that he was hers, that the sight of her naked body held him enthralled, rolled through her as she stepped back. Her movements were as seductive as she could make them as she slid backward onto the bed. Lying back, she kept her knees together for a moment, arching her back and body to show it off to best advantage as she slid her hands through her hair.
Settling back, she caught his gaze and then parted her thighs for him.
He was still watching her, his eyes narrowed but at his side, his jaw clenched and unclenched, the knuckles showing white.
“Touch yourself,” he ordered, shoving his pants down off his hips. “I want to see how you pleasure yourself. What you like. Make yourself wet for me.”
She nodded, unable to speak, and slid her hand down the front of her body to dip between her legs. As her fingers grazed her clit, his cock popped free, arching tall and proud up toward his flat, muscled stomach. A small gasp left her lips. He was huge and thick, far bigger than she’d thought.
Fisting his cock, he stroked. The broad, flushed head slick with precum played peek-a-boo with his hand as he stepped out of his pants and boots, but his eyes never left her, riveted to her fingers between her legs.
She played with her clit, using her other hand to part her pussy lips as she circled and stroked. She teased the small bud into a hard little nubbin and then rolled her fingertip over the beaded pearl. Her breathing shortened, her hips rocking as she remembered how he’d touched her. How much she’d liked it. How he’d made her come, hard and fast.
“Stop,” he ordered when she was almost there, her body straining for release. She did, instantly, locking her gaze with his as he moved to kneel on the bed—one knee, then the other, his cock still in his hand. He knelt between her parted thighs, stroking his cock as he looked down on her with a possessive gaze.
“Hands up, above your head.” His chest heaved, breathing short, and each word had a little growl on the end. Wordlessly, she obeyed, putting her hands either side of her head and watching him. Waiting for his next move.
With a growl, he braced himself over her, cock in hand and she tensed, anticipating the press of his hot flesh into hers. He moved, and she jumped as his fingers swept through her folds. His lips grazed over hers. Would he take her hard and fast, claiming her in one thrust? Was that why he’d had her pleasure herself, make herself wet for him?
“Mine.”
The word was growled against her lips and then he was gone, sliding down her body. She whimpered as he parted her thighs roughly, wedging his broad shoulders between them. His breath washed over her pussy lips and she tensed. His tongue rasped over her, warm and wet. Her hips jerked off the bed, a soft keen falling from her lips. It was met by a deep growl and his hands closing around her thighs, holding her still as he licked her again. Found her clit.
Sucked.
Hard.
Her head thrashed on the bed as he set about driving her out of her mind. Forget clever fingers, the man had a gifted tongue. She writhed, or tried to, as he took her with his mouth. Licking and suckling at her clit like a man starved before thrusting his tongue deep within to collect every drop of her arousal. Moans slipped from her lips as he brought her near the edge quickly and ruthlessly, her hands moving down so she could slide her fingers through his long hair.
He reacted instantly, tearing from her in an explosion of movement. Grabbing her hands, he surged over her, slamming them back into the bed above her head and holding them there.
“I said, hands up,” he growled, flicking his hair to one side, over his shoulder as he transferred both her wrists to one hand. She nodded, breath coming in short pants as he kept her thighs apart with a hard knee. She’d do whatever he wanted, if he didn’t stop touching her. He wouldn’t hurt her, she knew that without thinking, but this rough, near ruthless side of him, a side she hadn’t expected, turned her on like nothing else.
Reaching between them, he brought the thick head of his cock to bear against the entrance to her pussy. She bit her lip, sucking in a hard breath as he pushed, breaching her in one hard movement and seating himself to the hilt.
“Oh, shit…” she moaned, her back arched as she was filled suddenly, his thick cock stretching her inner walls to capacity. It burned. But felt so good. “Yes, please, yes.”
He groaned, his eyes half closed and his lips parted as his cock throbbed within her, but then he pulled back. Thrust again. H
ard and fast. Their moans mingled in the air as he did it again, setting up a hard and fast rhythm.
She gave herself up to pleasure and him, arching her back and rocking her hips to match each of his thrusts. There was no finesse about his love-making now, just raw power as he claimed her. Each rock of his hips drove his cock deep inside her, each grind of his pelvis against hers trapping her clit between them and sending waves of pleasure through her.
“Laarn,” she gasped, pulling on her wrists in his hold. “Please… I want…”
He nodded, his hair brushing her cheeks as he leaned down to claim her lips in a torrid kiss. His tongue thrust into her mouth in concert with his cock in her cunt, but he let go of her hands. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back as he took her. He claimed her in hard thrusts, each one a declaration that she belonged to him, and only him.
Then it was all too much. The tension in her body, in her pussy clenched tightly around him, was all too much. Her movements faltered, hips jerking as she came, crying out into his mouth as he claimed her pleasure as well as her body.
Wave after wave of bliss drenched her body like the waves of the ocean. She whimpered and clung to him, her eyes pressed shut as he sped up, the near-frantic pace of his hard strokes driving her higher.
Then he broke from her lips with a groan, slammed into her a last time and stiffened. She moaned as she felt him come, hard and hot, deep inside her. She held him tightly, hand in his hair at the back of his neck. If she hadn’t already been pregnant, there was no way she wouldn’t have been now.
She was his.
14
J ess was incredible. Utterly amazing. Her hot little body clenched tightly around his cock as he’d taken her over and over was everything Laarn had dreamed it would be and more. Much more.
But as hot as the sex was, lying next to her as she slept, feeling her pliant and trusting in his arms… That had been the stuff his deepest, darkest, wouldn’t admit to anyone on pain of death fantasies had been.
Lying there with her sleeping in his arms, he’d held her close, sliding a hand over her still flat stomach. Wonder still filled him that she carried his child safely within her and that moment, that memory of holding her, would forever be etched in his memory.
The knowledge that he wouldn’t be alone as he lived out his life… the fact he had a female by his side as his partner, to bear his children, had finally sunk in and had he been standing, would have brought him to his knees.
She was his, his mate, his life… An intelligent female, not a near animal like the oonat some of his brothers had settled for, but a real woman with wit and intelligence who he could have a conversation with.
He re-entered his, no their quarters with an excitement rolling through his veins he hadn’t felt for years coming through those doors because he knew she waited for him within.
His cock, semi-hard all day, flared to life and pressed uncomfortably against the front of his leathers. He was as stiff as a flagpole, even though he’d had her more times than he could count last night and then again before he’d left this morning. Leaving her all sleepy and sated in his bed, her lips plump from his kisses, had been the hardest thing he’d ever done.
But now he was back, and the hours he’d spent in the lab were too many away from her and the haven of her sweet body.
“Jess?” he called out, not finding her in the cool shade of the main rooms. Like most Latharian summers, the day was hot enough to burn flesh from bones, the heat only just starting to dissipate as the sun neared the horizon.
“Jessica?” He looked into the bedroom, not finding her sleeping either.
A pang of disappointment hit him. One of his favorite parts from last night had been rousing her from sleep so he could take her again. She’d seemed to particularly like his tongue against her clit, her little toes curling as she came back to wakefulness with a feline stretch that quickly turned into a hoarse scream as she came.
Panic replaced the disappointment, though, as he couldn’t find her in the facilities either, but then the soft splash of water from outside got his attention. The bathing pool. A groan whispered from his lips at the thought of her naked in the silky water.
“Draanth…” he breathed, his cock jerking savagely. He had to have her again.
Striding out onto the veranda, he stopped short at the side before him. In this, one of the older parts of the Imperial palace, the quarters were larger and more ornate, which extended outside as well. His bathing pool ran the length of the veranda, the cool water reflecting the blue tiles beneath invitingly. But no water could be as inviting as the woman floating on her back in the middle, as naked as the day she’d been born. Her eyes closed, she hadn’t seen him yet, a look of such serene relaxation on her face she looked like one of the goddesses themselves, come down to grace the mortal realm with her presence.
She must have sensed his presence or his gaze on her because she opened her eyes and looked right at him. “Laarn!”
A beautiful smile spread over her features, stealing his breath away as she swam toward him. Need and lust raised their heads and roared within him, and in the space between one second and the next, he tore at his clothing, stalking toward her.
His jacket hit the tiles behind him, and he walked out of his boots as he wrenched his pants open, his cock leaping free as he bent to shove them off his hips and down his legs. They were off in seconds, his gaze never leaving hers.
Her cheeks flushed, her eyes darkening as she read the intent on his face, but rather than coming to the steps toward him, she swam backward away from him. His lip curled, a warning growl in the back of his throat, but she just smiled as he waded down the steps into the water.
No words were spoken between them. None were needed. He wanted her, and he was going to have her. The water moved around him as he walked, no, stalked her across the pool.
She watched him, the light of mischief in her eyes, a light made brighter the more he growled, acting like the savage warrior he knew humans had dubbed his kind. But his little Jess seemed to like him like this, her cries of pleasure loud when he held her firmly and took what he wanted…what they both wanted.
Before he reached her, she darted to the left, trying to slide past him in the water, but he was ready for her tricks. Throwing himself to the side, it was the work of a couple of powerful kicks and he had his arms around her, hauling her up against his broad chest before she could go under.
She wriggled as if trying to escape, but not too hard. Her delighted gasps were punctuated by the splashes of water around them as he carried her toward the shallower end of the pool. Turning, he sat on one of the inbuilt loungers, the curved tiled “seats” allowing a bather to recline in comfort under the cool water.
It was the work of a moment to set her astride him. She gasped in pleasure as his hard cock slid the length of her pussy lips under the surface, the additives in the water to care for their skin making the ride silky.
Reaching up, he fastened his hand around the nape of her neck, a pang of protectiveness warring with the sheer lust surging through him at how delicate the bones there felt. How delicate she felt. Every time he touched her, he felt like a brute… but he couldn’t stop. She was his, his mate… and fire for her burned in his veins.
Pulling her down, he claimed her mouth. Their lips locked and then parted before returning in hot, open-mouthed caresses that drove the need in his body higher. Breaking away for a second, he ran his thumb over her cheek, catching sight of the marks around his wrist. Both Karryl and Tarrick had commed to congratulate him and warn him that if he thought his need for her was slacked now he’d had her, to think again… The lust that burned within for her would only get worse, as would hers for him.
This fact was proved as she wriggled to get closer, taking over their kiss by thrusting her tongue into his mouth in demand. He groaned at the feeling as she teased it along his, rocking her hips to grind her pussy against his thick shaft. That was nothing to the feeling when
she slid her hand between them, wrapping her small fingers around his cock and stroking.
“That’s it, little human,” he broke away to rumble against her lips. “Take it, take what you want from me. It’s the Lathar way, and you’re mine… so you’re Lathar now.”
Letting go of her neck, he lay back in the water, spreading his arms in silent invitation. Her gaze shot to his, and then she smiled. The hot look in her eyes had him ready to come then and there. She pumped his cock again, firmer this time, and he groaned as her finger slid over the crown. Every instinct he had urged him to rise up, flip her over and bury himself balls deep in her welcoming softness but he held off. This was for her. For her to take her pleasure from him.
She teased him with her hand, pumping in slow strokes as she reached out with the other. Grabbing his wrist, she brought his hand to her breast in unspoken command. He did as he was bade, cupping and caressing the soft weight of the luscious mound in his hand. She was tiny compared to him, but her breasts more than enough to fill his hands.
He held her, stroking his thumb along the underside before sliding it across the swell of her breast, watching her face as he found her nipple and rubbed it. She bit her lip, eyes closed and head thrown back, a look of erotic concentration on her face. Trying to ignore her siren’s touch on his cock, he played with her nipples, stroking and circling, rubbing and tweaking them until they stood out proud, all but begging for his lips and tongue.
Sliding his hand up her back, he urged her to lean forward. A soft swipe of his tongue made her gasp and wriggle, the fingers of the hand on his shoulder turning to claws against his flesh as he teased her anew. Her hand on his cock faltered and she released him for a second to guide the hand he had on her hip between her thighs. Against her breast, his lips curled into a smile at the invite. He didn’t need to be asked twice, easing combat-callused fingertips between her slick pussy lips to find her clit.