“You can’t save someone from themselves.” Bren’s fingers brushed over his shoulder.
“No. No, you can’t.” He certainly hadn’t been able to save his father. Or his sister. He wasn’t even going to be able to save Tylara. Another one lost to the Sajans…to love…to the One bond. Everything came back to that, no matter how he might run it around and around in his head. No matter how much he might like and desire Bren, he could never find a way around the simple fact that he would lose his One someday as he had lost everyone else. And he knew he’d never survive it with his sanity intact. He would be as his father had been. Lost, bereft, empty. Nothing.
He heard Bren swallow, sensed her hesitation. “If Sajan didn’t hurt her, how did Cilji die?”
“She killed herself.” His voice went bleak, flat. “He was angry, he went back to the wild, erratic ways of his family and left her behind. He betrayed her with other women, many of them, trying to rip free of the bonds between them.”
Her hand squeezed his arm. “It didn’t work?”
“No, a bonding can never be undone. Only death will free you, if that’s what you want.” He leaned into her touch, some deep, unspeakable part of him craving the comfort she offered.
She stroked her fingers down his bicep, petting him. “So she killed herself to be free of him.”
“Yes, but he couldn’t live without her.” His body reacted predictably to even her most innocent caress and he had to force himself to focus. “They were bonded whether he wanted it or not, no matter what psychic walls he might have built in his mind to defend himself again her.”
“He committed suicide, too?”
His lust died as renewed rage fisted in his belly. “Yes, and he’s lucky he did.”
Her voice was as flat and cold as Farid’s. “You were going to kill him.”
“I wouldn’t have made it the fast, painless exit he ensured for himself.” He snarled, the beast unappeased about the loss of one of its own. “I wanted to see him eaten alive from the inside out the way she had been. Whatever she had done, she didn’t deserve that.”
“I’m sorry.” Both of her hands cupped his cheeks, turning his face toward her. “Jesus, I’m so sorry, Arjun.”
“Call me Farid.” Anun, he needed her now. Snapping his hands around her waist, he pulled her into his lap and brushed his lips over hers.
She caught his shoulders as her legs straddled his, her jeans abrasive against his naked thighs. A dart of excitement shot from her to him, and he could smell how her body readied itself for him. “I don’t think—”
Smothering her protest with his mouth, he kissed her again, hungry for her after that one small taste. His cock hardened at the feel of her soft curves pressed to him. He moved his lips over hers until she moaned, until her fingers dug into his shoulders, until she arched and writhed against him.
He craved the taste of her, the scent of her, the feel of her. It was an ecstasy that went beyond the physical. Touching her was as close to divinity as he’d ever been. He reveled in the carnality of it as much as he did connecting with her psychically. It was the one time she was open to him, and the one time he allowed himself to bury himself within her in every possible way. The feline purred as her hand stroked down his back, hissed against her lips as her nails raked back up his flesh. “Yesss.”
His fingers balled in the back of her T-shirt, jerking it out of her pants. Slipping his hands over her supple skin, he flicked open her bra and ran his palms up and down the length of her spine. She threw her head back and he bit her slim throat. A gasp slid from her, and she rocked her hips against his. The rough friction of her pants on his cock made him snarl, but he arched himself into each of her movements. He tugged on the bottom of her shirt and she helped him take it and her bra off. He brushed a kiss over a dark bruise on her ribs, likely from a collision with a boulder in the river. She sighed, closed her eyes, and bit her lip. Then his hands were on her breasts, cupping them so he could suck the nipples one at a time.
Her breath tangled in her throat when he flicked his tongue over each taut peak in turn, and she sank her fingertips into his shoulders, clutching him closer. “Oh, oh, oh.”
Sweat broke out across his forehead, sliding down his temples. He flicked open the fastening on her pants, gliding his hand inside the coarse denim, inside the soft panties, and inside the slick heat of her pussy. He groaned, delving in to stroke her blooming clit. She jolted, bucking her hips frantically. Her need careened into him through their link, breaking it further open than he’d ever allowed it before. He pulled his hand from her hot slit, and she shook her head in silent protest.
Bracketing her slim hips with his hands, he lifted her to set her on her feet. She swayed, looking dazed as she stared down at him. “Wh—”
Hooking his fingers into her belt loops, he pulled her pants down. Her underwear slid along with the jeans, and he had her back in his lap before she could blink, working the rest of her clothes off. Soon she was as naked as he was. It was the first time they’d been nude together outside of their shared dreams. He groaned, the reality more intense than he could ever have imagined. Lifting her, he set her astride him once more, only this time he faced her away from him. She pulled her braid off her shoulder so it wasn’t pinned between them, tilting her head to give him access to her neck. He gently kissed a scrape on her shoulder, then licked a slow path from her nape to her ear, sucking the lobe into his mouth. She wriggled against him, and he groaned at all that soft, bare skin sliding over his.
She reached between her thighs and wrapped her fingers around his dick to tease both of them by rubbing the flared crest over her wet lips and clit. Gritting his teeth, he felt his fangs elongate, the beast more than willing to take whatever its mate offered and then some. The mate who would never truly belong to it. He grabbed her hand and both of them held his cock, guiding him to her heated channel. He filled her, her walls tight and so slick around him he had to hold on to his control with every ounce of his concentration to keep from coming the moment she’d taken all of him into her pussy.
Palming her breasts as she began to move on him, he rolled her nipples between his fingers and scraped the tight tips with his claws.
“Yes, yes. Oh, my God!” She leaned forward, closed her hands over his bent knees, and shoved her hips back into his upward strokes. Her nails dug into his flesh, her legs squeezing his thighs as she rode him. “Fuck me harder!”
He laughed, he couldn’t help himself. Anun, he liked this woman so much.
Pulling her upright, he dragged his claws up her sides and made her shriek and giggle. He clamped his teeth on the back of her neck to hold her in place, giving her what she asked for and slamming into her sweet depths. She moaned, “Oh, God. You’re—”
He rolled his fingers over her clit, and she gasped and tightened her sex around his cock. He released her nape and snarled, hammered himself inside of her, and drove them both to the brink of madness. His feral nature reveled in the unfettered race for orgasm. She slipped her fingers down his forearms until they both stroked her clit. Her backside spanked against his belly, and the impact of his flesh meeting hers with each thrust was erotic.
She glanced over her shoulder at him, her eyes hazy with passion. Her tongue flicked out to lick her lips, and he followed the motion, then mimicked it as he moved to slide his tongue over her soft, sweet lips. Sweat sealed their bodies together, and she twisted her torso to meet his mouth and his cock. He shuddered. Everything about her made him burn.
Her cries and moans filled his mouth, spurring him on to thrust harder, deeper. It was the headiest aphrodisiac he’d ever known, and he felt her pussy tighten on his cock every time he entered her. She broke away from his mouth to sob for breath, and he could feel through their link how close she was to orgasm.
Their desire raged along their connection, pushing each other higher, further. Their fingers meshed as they rubbed her clit faster and faster. Her head fell back against his shoulder, her body bowing a
s her excitement grew. “I’m going to—”
“Come for me, khalaa.”
She screamed, her sex clenching on his dick. She bucked and writhed like a wild thing, demanding everything he had. The beast answered the call of its mate. His control snapped, and he roared, his fangs erupting from his gums. He drove his cock into her, again and again, as she came apart in his arms. Her sex spasmed around him, and he crashed into his own orgasm full-force. His come jetted into her, and shudders wracked his body, dragging everything out of him until he could do nothing else but drop his forehead to her shoulder with a groan.
This wasn’t what he’d intended when he’d told her why he could never bond with his One. He craved her too deeply. Her hands on his skin and her taste in his mouth could become an addiction if he allowed it. It was dangerous that her lust could drive their link further open than he’d ever intended.
The woman was a nightmare for his restraint.
5
The man was a nightmare for her restraint.
She jerked on her clothes as fast as she could, retreated to her side of the fire, and refused to meet his gaze or speak to him. He seemed just as content not to speak to her, and their connection had narrowed to a thread, for which she was grateful. Her desire for him was a weakness she couldn’t afford. And she’d given him whatever he wanted twice now. Twice. What the hell was wrong with her? As she’d told him, this wasn’t what she’d come to him for.
Still, the look on his face when he’d told her about his family had wrenched at something deep inside her. She couldn’t have denied him anything at that point, and that scared her to death. His loneliness and pain had filtered through to her mind as surely as his pleasure did during sex. She knew those emotions, too, her own past as ugly as his. It was odd that she would have anything in common with an alien nobleman.
Shoving that disturbing thought away, she pulled out her pocketknife and sliced into the rabbit to test if it was done. It was. Tearing off a strip of meat, she blew on it and juggled it back and forth between her hands until it cooled enough to eat. She sighed when it hit her taste buds. God, it was good. Her stomach rumbled as it demanded more. She cut off another chunk, reaching over to give it to Farid. His callused fingers scraped her skin as he accepted the offering. She shivered and jerked back. Moving as quickly as she could, she divided the sizzling meat between them and inhaled it.
“Since I’m the politician and my job is idle small talk, perhaps I should start the conversation this time.” His deep voice slid over her nerves like rough velvet. “I can feel that you’re upset about what we did.”
She flipped her braid over her shoulder. It would be better to rip the bandage off and get this over with. She met his gaze. “What happened just now…That will never happen again.”
His nostrils flared as sudden anger coursed through their slender link. Those green eyes narrowed, and she saw a flash of fangs as his lips moved. “If that is truly your desire.”
“It is.” She nodded for emphasis, her chin firming.
A low hiss jerked from his throat and she watched his hold on his temper slip. “Liar.”
She glared at him, his anger feeding hers, pushing it to irrational levels. Her heart rate elevated, and her breathing sped as she braced for a fight. “Fuck you.”
“We seem to be circling our discussion.” He gave her a cool smile that only pissed her off more.
Her sympathy for his sad past evaporated for the moment. She growled at him, her grip on her knife tightening as she seriously considered skinning his feline hide.
Smirking, he looked her over slowly, staring at her breasts. “That was a noise worthy of a Kith, little Kinswoman.”
“I am not a Kith or a Kin.” She slashed her hand through the air. “I’m human.”
“Call yourself whatever you like, but long before you’d developed dialects of your own, you were Kin.” He dipped one shoulder in a shrug. “You are, perhaps, best labeled as an Earthan Kin. Sueni Kin are much different, culturally, than you are. Biologically, however, you are the same.”
“Thanks for the science lesson. Class is over, so why don’t we finish the food and agree to disagree?” She made her tone overly reasonable, and he hissed at her. She got a perverse satisfaction out of the fact that she could ignite his temper as quickly as he could hers.
In seething silence, they finished their meal. Despite their skirmish, she couldn’t help but enjoy the roasted rabbit. When the last bit of flavor burst over her tongue, she moaned low in her throat and pressed a hand to her belly. It had never felt so good to be full. She folded her knife, stowed it in her pocket, licked her lips, sat back, and glanced at Farid for the first time since they’d stopped arguing.
Heat reflected in his gaze, burning through her. He sprawled with feline grace over the flat rock they’d fucked on, his position emphasizing his naked beauty. His cock rose in a hard curve to just under his navel. You made the same pleasured noise when I slid my cock in you, Bren.
“Lord Arjun.” Her tone was a low warning, just a bit breathier than she would have liked. She jerked to her feet and he rose with her, moving to her side of the fire.
His big hand bracketed her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. Even that simple touch made her muscles shake, and desire battered against her control. He stared at her lips, his pale gaze taking on that intent look men got right before they kissed a woman. “Call me Farid.”
“No.” She swallowed back the sigh that wanted to bubble up, her focus locking on his erection. Heat shot through her, arrowing between her legs until she had to squeeze her thighs together.
“Call me Farid or I’ll fill your mind with all your fantasies of me until you come.” His thumb brushed over her lower lip. “We both know I won’t even have to touch you to make it happen.”
He was right. God, he was right. Standing this close to his naked body, having him touch her, made her want to come on command. He was gorgeous—bigger and more devastating than in her dreams. She jerked her chin from his grasp but couldn’t keep her gaze from traveling over his nude form, and fire whipped through her. The man had a body to die for. A few cuts and bruises from their adventures marred his physical perfection, but nothing could really detract from his gorgeousness. His dark blond hair was short, framing a sharp, angular face, a patrician nose, full, firm lips, and otherworldly emerald eyes that sparked pastel green fireworks. His shoulders were broad, heavy with muscle, tapering to well-defined pecs and rock-hard abs. A slim line of pale hair trailed from just below his navel to his thick, impressive cock. Her fingers twitched, itching to touch him, stroke him.
It was insane. What was she doing? Staring at him, practically inviting him to do whatever he wanted to her with her silence when she’d already decided nothing else would happen between them. A good offense was the best defense, so she narrowed her eyes at him. “Raping my mind is not the way to keep me from killing you.”
He laughed at her, damn him. “What is that saying you Earthan Kin have? Ah, yes. ‘You can’t rape the willing.’ I don’t force you to fantasize about me; I would merely be bringing those fantasies to the fore of your thoughts.”
“Slippery logic at best,” she spat.
“Perhaps.” His lips formed a thoughtful moue as though he considered something weighty. “Then perhaps I’ll just kiss you. I could sense how much you liked it the first time, how you’d been wondering what it would feel like.”
She snarled, angry at him for making her want him so much. It was always that way with him. He confused her, spun her around and around until she didn’t know which way was up or what was right and what was wrong. Flames licked at her flesh, desire spiraling tighter and tighter inside her until she wanted to beg for some relief. She couldn’t do this. She had a mission and it didn’t include being a cold nobleman’s fuck buddy, no matter how painfully heartbreaking his past. She hated that his past even mattered to her because she knew it shouldn’t affect her at all. Her fists clenched at her sides and she glar
ed at him. “I will kick your ass.”
“Some things are worth a little pain.” His gaze scorched her as it passed over her body. Her nipples tightened until they had to be sticking out against her shirt. She couldn’t look. She didn’t want to confirm how quickly he got to her.
His arm snapped out, wrapped around her waist, and yanked her forward until she tumbled against his broad chest. “Damn you, Arjun. I—”
He filled her mouth with his tongue, ending the conversation. This time he wasn’t gentle, but demanding, commanding. It excited her far more than she could ever admit. He held her so tight she had difficulty breathing, and she didn’t care. One hand slid down to cup her backside, lifting her into him as he ground his erection against her. She could feel the heat of his cock through her clothing and wanted nothing between her and it, wanted him inside her, moving hard and fast. His other hand moved to her breast, filling his broad palm with her softer curve. He pinched her nipple, twisting with delicate precision.
A cry caught in her throat, her arms twined around his waist, and she let her tongue slide against his. They nipped, sucked, and bit at each other, low groans spilling from them both. She glided her palms up the muscled planes of his back. Something else that contradicted the cool politician he showed the world. He should have been soft, but instead had steely strength, should have been weak, but instead was just short of feral in her embrace. His flesh was hot under her touch, and she knew he burned with the same heat that threatened to engulf her, made her pussy tighten and dampen.
Rough shudders went through him, and he plundered her mouth, his fangs scraping her lower lip. Her fingers clenched over his shoulders, clutching him closer. God, it inundated her, swept her under until there was nothing left but him. His taste, his scent, his touch on her skin. She wanted, she needed. Now. Right now.
The sweet ecstasy tempted her into losing control, losing everything but this moment in his arms. Her hands threaded through his hair, tugging on the strands as her passion peaked. She bit his lip hard, and he hissed low in his throat, the sound nothing short of animalistic. She pressed herself into his palm, and his thumb stroked in lazy circles around her nipple until she wanted to scream.
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