“Oh…” The tiniest of moans escaped my mouth, followed by a symphony of gasps as I climaxed, my pussy clenching and grasping at his thick fingers. He kept his mouth against me, constantly in motion so my orgasm seemed to roll out over and over in a series of waves as he lapped up my juices like a cat.
As I lay back, recovering from the impossible high to which Taka had taken me, he gently removed my skirt and placed it to one side. My eyes were drawn down to the bulge in his pants, as prominent as ever, straining against the coarse material.
There seemed to be hesitation in Taka now. He had brought me to orgasm and, despite his own obvious need for relief, the lull that had followed seemed to have given his concerns time to resurface.
“We don’t have to…” he began, but before he could finish the sentence, I was sitting upright to kiss him, shedding my top and revealing my breasts. I pulled back from the kiss to allow Taka to look at me, and based on his wide eyes, he liked what he saw. I closed in on him, kissing his lips again, my hands now fiddling with the drawstring of his pants. As they came down, I sat back to stare at the organ that I so desired. Taka’s manhood reminded me of the man himself – a working man’s cock, strong, thick. It might not boast the scars of his torso, but I was sure it had seen just as much action.
I recalled how he had fought back the bear earlier with his spear, and wondered if he handled this weapon with as much skill. I reached out to touch, feeling it move under my fingers, the skin almost too hot to touch, seeming to exude power.
Gently, Taka kissed me, working his way down my neck and upper chest to my breasts, pecking at my aroused nipples with sweet, butterfly kisses. But, even though I had only just come, I knew what I wanted. My fingers became bolder, closing around the thick shaft, tugging on it desperately.
“Please,” I murmured, and Taka did not need to be asked twice.
Shifting his weight, he moved on top of me, kissing me on the mouth while I guided his throbbing cock to the warm haven between my thighs. Pressing the plump head against my fuzzy lips, I whispered into his mouth again, “Please.”
Taka arched his strong hips forward and I whimpered as his cock plunged into my wetness, throbbing strongly in my tight tunnel.
I always loved that moment of first penetration, when two become one, stretching, setting nerves deliciously jangling. But that moment with Taka was like no other I had ever experienced before. It was not just that he was bigger than any boy I had been with in my village, filling me and making my body sing with pleasure. Somehow, he felt more a part of me than any man before, the missing piece of my body.
Taka pulled back a little, then pushed on in, enjoying the slickness of my pussy as he forged deeper than any man had ever been. I wrapped my legs about his hips, drawing him down to the absolute limit, until I felt his hard hips flat against mine. We held in that position for a long time, kissing and enjoying the feel of each other’s bodies, one atop the other. Even in this unmoving state, a rainbow of pulsing sensations fizzed through my body, Taka seeming to give me pleasure by his presence alone.
“Please,” I whispered again, more because it seemed the only word I still had power to say. “Please, please, please…”
Administering a last, light kiss to my lips, Taka set out to please my body as it had never been pleased before. As his hips began to move in a firm, steady rhythm, I caught my breath, as I trembled through what felt like a series of mini-orgasms. I clutched at him but, as when he had been spanking me, nothing would throw him off his rhythm. I rolled my hips as he slicked in and out of my willing body, his muscular torso poised above me, flexing in time with his strong thrusts.
“Oh yes,” I gasped through pleasure. “Oh yes, oh yes, oh gods yes…”
That afternoon with Taka was the most incredible sex of my life, so far, in almost every way. His size and strength obviously trumped my previous partners, as did his experience, but he was also their better in his gentleness and generosity. Boys of twenty-one are not known for their consideration towards their partners, preferring to bang away until they’ve reached their goal, passively hoping you got there, too, somewhere along the way.
I wouldn’t have expected a soldier – a mercenary, at that – like Taka to have the slightest consideration for the woman he was with, but he surprised me. His hands were always on the move, stroking and caressing, making me feel loved; he kissed me sweetly throughout; and he took me to the pinnacles of pleasure over and over before allowing himself anywhere near.
But for all that, what I most took away was the intensity of the encounter – his and mine. When our eyes met as we moved against each other, there was a connection that far surpassed that of two people who had only gotten together because a spanking had gotten out of hand. We shared in every moment, and every tweak of pleasure, every hot breath, every pounding heartbeat was a moment between us.
I hugged him tight as I felt my insides tighten once more.
“Now…”
Taka kissed me again and his thrusts became firmer, burying his long cock inside me. I rocked as uncontrollable spasms took hold of my body, and dug my fingers into my lover, needing him to share in this, too, needing us to come as one as we had shared everything else.
I looked him in the eyes as I went over the edge once more. Taka thrust forward and I felt his powerful cock pulse and jerk inside of me as he groaned. The feel of him exploding deep into my body multiplied my orgasm and I clung tighter still, gasping, “Yes! Yes!” working myself against his still hard organ as I dissolved.
As both of our climaxes began to subside, we collapsed to the ground, and Taka rolled over so I was on top of him and not on the hard rock. I laid my head on his chest and listened to the pounding of his heart. Part of me, deep down, had wanted this since I had seen him in the chain gang.
And now that I’d had it, I didn’t want to let it go.
Chapter 6
I could have lain in Taka’s arms for the rest of the day, his strong, solid body against me, his heartbeat in time with my own. For the first time since this spiraling nightmare had started, I felt safe and secure, comfortable and protected. But Taka instantly seemed to pull away from me, mentally, as well as physically. Rolling me aside, he stood up, pulling his tunic back over his head. His seemed unable to look at me and there was a gruffness about his face that seemed alien to the Taka I had so far gotten to know.
I decided to try and lighten the mood, to recapture something of what had passed between us. “Aren’t you going to say sorry?”
Taka looked back at me with a frown. “For what?”
I rolled over on his cloak to show my still glowing backside.
Taka shrugged. “No. You deserved it.”
“I was kidding, I was…”
“You think this is a joke?” Taka said, his voice raw with emotion. “You could have died back there. Would it still have been funny then? Get your clothes back on. And in the name of the gods, do as you’re told or next time I won’t go so easy on you.”
I dressed in silence and confusion. To me, something wonderful had happened, and although it had had an unconventional start, that hardly mattered because of where it had ended up. I had just assumed that Taka had felt something similar, that it had meant more to him than just sex. But from his attitude, I was no longer sure he had even enjoyed it on that level.
“Come on,” said Taka, when I was ready, and led the way back through the rocks.
“How did you find me?” I asked, somewhat timidly.
“I’ve tracked men who’ve wanted to be found a lot less than you.”
It felt like an answer designed to shut down further conversation.
“I’m sorry for wandering off,” I said, after a few more minutes of silence. “That is… not wandering off – I’m sorry for trying to escape.”
Taka’s face regained a little of its habitual composure. “I’d have done the same in your place. Obviously, I’d have done it better but… A captive wants to be free. It’s natural. To
be honest, if you hadn’t tried to escape I’d have respected you less.”
“Are you going to tell the others?” I asked. “About any of it.”
“I don’t think that would be a good idea.” He was thinking of Luca.
“Do you mind if I ask something?” I ventured.
“Could I stop you?”
“You just said, a captive wants to be free. Seems to me you could have left the chain gang anytime you wanted. Especially if Luca and the others were hanging around to help you.”
“I was there for a reason.”
I had surmised as much from their conversation the night before. “Hob?”
Taka nodded. He was silent a moment and then seemed to come to a decision. “General Hob Soro was planning to spend a few days with his family. He was on his way home, spending a night in a town when that town was hit by the forces of Lord Vulpus. If they’d known who he was, they’d have executed him and sent his head to Lord Krius – Hob’s boss. So, he pretended to be a peasant, hoping they’d pass over him. Unfortunately, they were also looking for people to help build their road and the general was conscripted. Somehow, word of what had happened got to Lord Krius.”
“Why didn’t Lord Krius attack?” I asked. “I mean – he must have an army.”
“He does. But when an entire army attacks a chain gang, then what you get are a lot of dead people. Krius needed people who are a bit more surgical.”
“Like you.”
Taka inclined his head. “We’ve all served in one army or another; Luca, Kai, Rex and I. Fate brought us together and now we’re on no one’s side in this war but our own. And as long as we’re good at what we do, then the warlords tolerate us and tolerate the fact that we work for the highest bidder.”
“So, you got yourself arrested and put onto the chain gang?” I guessed.
“We didn’t know what the general looked like,” Taka explained. “I had to make contact with him and let him know what was going on. As well as learning the guards patterns and security precautions.”
“What about the other people who were taken from the town where Hob was?” I asked.
Taka didn’t meet my gaze. “No doubt, some got away after we set the stables on fire and killed half the guards.”
I didn’t say anything for a while. It wasn’t my world, I didn’t understand it, and this man had just saved my life.
But, as ever, I could only hold my tongue for so long. “It doesn’t seem fair.”
“War isn’t fair.”
“But you could have helped them?”
“Maybe. But the more we try to get out, the less likely anyone gets out. Can’t have a heart in this business. And it is a business. We’re in this to make money.”
“And after you’ve gotten rid of me then you’re off to make more.”
Taka had presumably picked up on my judgmental tone. “Everyone’s got to make a living somehow. I’d rather fight to fill my own pockets than those of some damn warlord.”
“Why fight anyone?”
“You should always do what you’re best at.”
I shook my head. “Can I be honest with you?”
“I don’t know why you ask these questions. You’re just going to say what you want. I could stop right here and take my belt to you - give you the hiding of a lifetime - and I think you’d just pick up with the questions before I’d gotten my belt back on.”
I felt a shiver that combined fear and excitement tremble across my body at the thought. Did I want him to do that?
“I just don’t understand how someone who protected me from the convicts back at the camp and from his own comrades, someone who wouldn’t hurt a bear that was trying to kill him because it was just defending its cubs – I don’t understand how that same person can be so mercenary.”
I had been fully prepared for Taka to carry out his threat there and then – perhaps part of me had even been hoping for it – but instead, he gave a little half smile, something that was very Taka, and shrugged. “When you figure it out, then you let me know.”
We arrived back at the campsite and I went back to where I had been sleeping. Meekly, I held out my hands for Taka to tie me back up, but he dismissed the gesture with a wave.
“If you run, you run. I’ll take the heat from the guys. It’s your ass on the line. Literally.”
“Thank you,” I said, and meant it.
He just grunted, reverting to the gruffness that had characterized his demeanor after we had made love.
“I just don’t understand why you fight,” I said, almost too quietly to be heard.
Taka eyeballed me sternly, closing the subject. “Because I never want to be poor again.”
The guys returned from their hunting expedition with a decent haul of game, along with goats’ milk and some foraged roots and herbs.
“We’ll move on and find somewhere safer to spend the night,” said Taka.
“Why isn’t she tied up?” asked Luca.
“She knows the score,” replied Taka.
Luca didn’t look particularly happy about this but let the subject drop without further argument.
Getting back into the saddle with my ass still smarting was not comfortable, but I tried to act normal and not wriggle too much as we rode up higher into the mountains. The journey was slow, the horses forced to pick their way up the narrow, steep paths, made dangerous by loose rock beneath and the threat of avalanche from above, but it gave me my first real opportunity to have a proper look at my captors. Or, perhaps, it was the first time I felt inclined to do so. The afternoon with Taka had changed the way I looked at, not just him, but all of them. I no longer feared them in the same way, even Luca. Up to now, I think I had purposely avoided looking at Luca for fear that he saw me looking and took offense. Now, I was brave enough to look him in the face, what I saw surprised me.
I think I had developed a picture of Luca in my mind, but the face I saw when I looked at him by the light of the waning afternoon sun, was far from the weasel I had imagined. His hair was sandy blond, his complexion an almost golden tan, and his eyes sky blue. At moments like this, there was a quality to his expression that I could only call ‘kindness’, which seemed to vanish as soon as he became conscious of it. There was something self-aware about how Luca held himself, like a man who had been bitten once and was now unwilling to let his guard down. Physically, he was not as thick set as Taka, though they were about the same height, and I would have placed him at a few years younger. He had a swimmer’s physique – long, smoothly muscled limbs – and wore a long sword strapped across his back.
Kai and Rex I would have guessed were about the same age, in their early twenties and they seemed close friends, riding together, sharing jokes – or, at least, Kai telling jokes and Rex laughing in his booming tones. But any similarity ended with their age. Kai was the shortest of the quartet – though still around six foot – and the least built, his muscles rangy and compact in his slight form as befits an archer who has to be quick on his feet.
By contrast, Rex looked like he had been hewn out of a mountain. He towered over his friend, and the double-headed axe he carried probably didn’t weigh that much less than me. His chest was broad, a muscular acreage that threatened to burst out of his tunic at any time. His arms were massive and when he flexed a huge bicep, it looked about the size of my waist. Rex’s hair was thick and jet-black while Kai’s was light brown; Rex had a beard while Kai was clean shaven; Kai’s eyes were green while Rex’s were dark brown. In manner, too, the pair differed.
Kai was quick-witted and chatty, keeping the company’s spirits up as we climbed higher. Rex was good-natured but preferred to laugh at Kai’s jokes than make ones of his own. He spoke in a slower more considered fashion. They were both, I found myself thinking – and somewhat admonishing myself for doing so – very good-looking, though, again, in different and contrasting ways. There was something safe and protective about Rex, for all his size, he no longer struck me as frightening, there was a sw
eetness that showed in the shy smile that peeped from behind his beard and twinkled in his dark eyes. He seemed to me, now, a gentle giant, but one with an edge of danger that would flare into life if those he loved needed his protection. Kai’s attractiveness was more obvious, I supposed, he was youthful, energetic and bright, an enthusiasm infusing everything he did. His smile was quick and, like his eyes, full of mischief – the type of boy I would have loved to get into trouble with when I was a kid, and I found myself eager to get into trouble with him again now.
As we found a secluded and easily defensible spot in which to spend the night, I found myself looking at all my companions in a different way. A way that made me feel uncomfortably warm and flushed. That couldn’t be right, could it? They were my captors. But then again, they had also rescued me from my captors, in a way. Unlike when I had been with the chain gang, I did not feel like a captive. More pointedly, there had been this afternoon’s encounter with Taka. Although it had started in the heat of the moment, for me, at least, it had turned into something more.
But how could I say that about Taka whilst simultaneously assessing the attractiveness of his comrades in arms? There were some questionable spots in my romantic past but I had never been that sort of girl – it was something I was very proud of. The problem was that, right now, looking at those four guys and not knowing which way to look, I found myself really, really wanting to be that sort of girl.
Part of the problem was that – call me crazy, but I was sure they were starting to look back at me in a similar way. When my horse struggled to clamber up a steep slope, Kai came back to take my reins and guide me up. His hand brushed against mine, we both glanced up, and our eyes met and I saw a heat entirely uncharacteristic of the light-hearted, happy-go-lucky, Kai. He looked away on the instant, tugging hard on the reins to encourage my steed up the incline.
Her Mercenary Harem Page 5