by Honor James
“And I’m sure that her inspection will end up with him naked, too. I think that perhaps you should get naked as well. After all, I need to make sure that each and every part of your beautiful body is working, darling.”
Snorting at that, he eyed her up and down. “That sounds like a ploy if I ever heard one,” he said, shaking his head. “I think you need to convince me that you aren’t planning on ravaging my poor helpless self once I’m naked.”
“Well you will enjoy it, darling,” she teased him. “And I fully intend on ravaging your body, honey. I need you and I know that you need me as well.” She began to pull open his shirt and brushed her lips down the column of his neck and ran her hands over his heavily muscled chest. “Tell me you don’t need me every bit as much as I need you.”
“That would be a lie,” he said honestly to her, “and I cannot lie to my woman.” Watching her, he tipped his head. “I think you are doing really well at undressing me for inspection. I’m thinking I should just sit here all nice and relaxed while you do whatever is needed.”
“Or…” She pulled back and grinned down at him. “Or I could start the fire and strip for you before the flames?” she offered to him happily. “Because I really, really would love to be able to strip for you, darling mine.”
Laighean shot his eyebrows up and stared at her. “All right,” he agreed. Because honestly he’d be a fool not to agree to that. “Do you want me to start the fire for you?” he asked softly. She could do it, but he always worried she’d get hurt. Silly, he knew.
“Oh no, I will do it.” She winked at him. “That way you get a nice lovely view of my rump when I turn around. That way you will know just what you will be viewing as soon as I get naked,” she teased him. Pulling away from him, she moved to the fireplace and turned on the gas and then tossed the match on the gas logs to get it started. Turning, she braced her hands on the mantel and began to grin and twisted and turned her hips, swaying to a song only she could hear.
Shifting, Laighean watched her intently, smiling at her movements as she danced for him. Leaning his head back, he slouched down on the sofa and sprawled his legs out. She moved like pure poetry, smooth and elegant. He loved watching her move.
Turning after peeling out of her shirt, she tossed it toward him. “Pants, Laighean,” she demanded and undid the snap on her bra, bracing her hand on the mantel and letting the straps slide down her shoulders as she did so. “Come on, baby, pants.”
Licking his lips, he got rid of his shirt and then his pants before leaning back to watch again. “Keep going,” he breathed out in need, his cock already straining for her. He kept his hands at his sides. He wasn’t going to touch himself while he waited. He wanted her as needy as he was.
Tossing him the bra, she turned and weaved. Dropping to the ground and shaking her hips as she rose up from her crouch, she began to peel off her pants, kicking them his way and turning once more, leaning down and wiggling as she began to peel out of the thong.
Catching her jeans, he dropped them over his head and the back of the sofa. She was killing him, in the same little increments she was working that too small scrap of lace down. “Charisma,” he rumbled softly at her in warning.
“I love it when you say my full name,” she shot over her shoulder and slid the thong down her legs, catching it with one foot and then grabbing it. Stalking toward him, she wrapped the thong around his hard cock and rubbed it gently. “Did you need something?” she teased.
“You,” he growled up at her, keeping his hands on the sofa out of sheer determination. “You are incredibly sexy and amazing, you know that, right?” Laighean asked, letting his gaze move over her body in a slow stroke.
She grinned. “Yeah, I know.” She did, too, with him. She had complete and total confidence where he was concerned. “And do you know just how sexy you are sitting there trying not to grab me?” Her thong continued to caress his cock, her fingertip moving to slide over the head of it and then off just as quickly.
“It’s a battle,” he said honestly. “I want to grab you and slam you down on my throbbing cock,” he added, lifting his eyes to her face. “Are you planning on torturing me for long?” he asked curiously even as he forced his body to remain still.
“Not long at all. I just want you to tell me what you want.” He had done it to her before. He had asked her to tell him exactly in detail everything she wanted from him, and now all she wanted was for him to give her a command, a desire.
“Payback?” he asked her softly as he watched her. He could play that game. “I want you to stroke me, rub your hand up and down my cock. I want you on your knees and your tongue stroking over me. I want to watch you as you take me into your pretty mouth and suck me deep.”
“Then that is what you will get.” She moved so that she was settled between his knees and reached out to touch him. “I love sucking your cock, darling,” she whispered and leaned in, her tongue stroking the head of his shaft and hands moving down the thick of him. Then, with a little growl from him, she took him into her mouth and began to suck him.
Jolting, he groaned softly and forced himself to relax back into the sofa cushions. Watching her, Laighean reached out to brush her hair back. “Use your tongue and teeth.” He growled at her quietly. He loved that little hint of pain, nothing truly painful, but enough to shock his system and make his cock leap for her.
Smiling, she did just that. With teeth only she scraped gently up his cock and then bit his cock head gently. “Like that?” she whispered and tongued the hole at the head of his cock as she did so. “I know I like it.” She growled, and using her teeth, teased him all the more.
“Hell yeah,” he moaned in absolute pleasure, only realizing after a moment he had his hand buried in her hair, the strands knotted around his fist. He wouldn’t force her into anything. He would only hold her hair, or so he kept telling himself.
“I love that,” she told him as she braced her hands on his thighs. “Tug my hair. Make me do what you want.” It was really a first for them, and she really, really wanted more. “Please, more,” she all but begged him. “Because it feels so very good.”
His toes were curling at her words, and he tightened his hand. “Put your mouth on my cock,” he ordered, his words nearly impossible to distinguish. When she took him back in, he pushed and pulled her around a little, being very careful of her.
Sliding one hand down, she reached between her legs and began to play with her clit. He could see her strokes were timed with each time that he had her moving up and down on his cock. Using teeth and tongue, she smiled around his cock at him.
She was killing him, his balls tightening up between his legs and the pressure becoming nearly unbearable. “More,” he rumbled as he used his hold to move her a little faster and slightly deeper, the tightness at the head of his cock having him panting hard.
Controlling her breathing, she swallowed to take him deeper, was determined to take him flying with her, and moaned as she rubbed her fingers over her clit faster and faster, slipping them into her sopping pussy from time to time as well.
Growling, he came with a shout. His hold on her hair was a little painful. He was crushing the strands for a small pinch of pain at her scalp that had her moaning. His hand loosened and then dropped so she could pull back a bit to breathe as he spilled down her throat.
She came as she gulped him down, moving her hand from her pussy to hold his cock. She drank down every drop that he gave her and then sat back on her heels, licking her lips as she did so. Smiling at him, she whispered, “That was spectacular, darling.”
Watching her with a hot look, he grabbed her hands and tugged her up into his lap. He was still semi-hard and hardening by the minute against her thigh, her pussy throbbing with need. Holding his cock, he pushed her down over him to take him in. “More,” he demanded as she took his hard cock into her wet, slick pussy.
Bracing her hands on his shoulders, she began to rock on him. Smiling, she looked down at him, leanin
g in and brushing her lips to his. “Always.” She would always give him everything. She loved this man, and she was only complete when they were connected like this.
Licking his lips to capture her taste, he put his hands on her hips and helped her to move. Leaning in, Laighean caught one of her nipples with his teeth and lightly rolled it before sucking it into his mouth. Suckling, he kept his eyes up on her face so he could watch the range of emotions she felt flickering there.
Rocking on him, she whimpered when he took her nipple into his mouth and rocked back harder on him. Her hands braced on his shoulders, she moved with him. “Harder,” she demanded as she rocked harder, faster on him. “Please.”
“You’re the one in control,” he pointed out to her, moving to her other breast. Suckling hard, he helped her to move faster, dropping her down onto him each time she moved up. Scraping his teeth to her flesh, he flicked the tight bud with his tongue.
“So good.” God, she loved when he let her be in control. It wasn’t often, but when he did, it was heavenly. “Bite me harder,” she whimpered. “Because I’m so, so close.” She rode him harder and faster.
Flicking his tongue to her skin, he moved his mouth up the curve of her breast and bit her harder, pressing down. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her down over him as he came. Her inner muscles tightened around and milked him.
Rimi’s scream tore through the room. Pleasure ricocheted inside of her body so hard that she was sure that he could feel it as well. Whimpering as she came down from the pleasure, she sighed and collapsed against him, smiling against his sweaty skin and simply feeling whole once more.
Shifting them so he was lying on the sofa with her draped over him, Laighean stroked her hair. “We’ve likely just scared the kittens off again,” he murmured softly. Poor little things still weren’t used to how vocal their owners were.
“True, but they will come running when we open their t-r-e-a-t-s bag.” She didn’t even dare say that word aloud or they would come running. Yawning, she relaxed against him, the heat of the fire keeping them pleasantly warm. “I love you, honey, so very much,” she whispered softly, honestly to him.
“That is true,” he agreed quietly with her. Tugging the blanket off the back of the sofa, he draped it over her. Stroking her hair lightly, Laighean pressed a light kiss to her hair. “We will rest for a time before we go and crack a bag.”
“Sounds good to me.” She yawned sleepily and relaxed into him. “I love you, Laighean. We are now and forever one. Just as we were meant to be.” Rimi’s eyes didn’t remain open, instead they slid closed and she was sound asleep.
Chapter Thirteen
Reading through the report, Laighean frowned. He didn’t like what the interrogators had gotten from the humans. But it did support what Quincy had found, though why they were coming after women already mated was another story. They’d had orders to come for Rimi and to get her at all costs, killing as many of those surrounding her as possible.
Rimi walked into the room and took a seat opposite of Lee’s chair and leaned back in the seat. “Talk to me, honey. You have that look on your face. You know the one that I’m talking about,” she murmured. “Talk to me, honey, please?”
Setting the data pad down, he looked at her. “They were humans, sent here to get you before, and I quote, ‘it was too late,’ and kill anyone that was in the way or anyone that they felt the need to take out of the equation.”
Rimi’s eyes were wide. “Oh lord,” she whispered. “Humans. But how in the world would they know that we were supposed to be together? I hadn’t even known you before I came here, well other than my dreams, but I’m the only one who knew about those.”
“Remember what Quincy was telling us about the lineages? Apparently they know you are related to someone down the line and therefore a likely candidate for a mating to one of us,” he told her quietly. “They are covering all their bases and grabbing anyone that could potentially be a mate or has obviously mated. They had orders to take Katherine, too, if they had a chance of success.”
“Heaven’s sakes,” she whispered. “So they had to have been working on these lineages for a great long time. That means that…” She tapped her finger to her lip and then sat back. “I know that this will sound totally goofy, but has Quincy tapped into Ancestry.com to see if maybe he can find a thread back to these humans?”
“He’s working on it and has a bunch of hackers working, too,” he murmured, whatever that meant. “But he’s also in charge of all operations for the Teams, which is his primary job. He’s working and overseeing everything else, but it’s a lot right now, even for him.”
“This is very true,” she told him with a sigh. “That poor man really does have a lot on his plate. I hope that Talon pays him well.” Sighing, she rubbed her temples. “I don’t even know half of my family history past grandparents, so I can’t even come close to imagining how hard and long these people had to work.”
“Quincy’s team also has resources we could only dream of,” he pointed out. “As well as full access to government records and computers. Not entirely sure if it’s actually legal or permitted, but he seems to be using them often.”
“And is Quincy looking into the potential government interference as well?” She knew that they likely had covered every possible way around everything, but she still had to ask. This was her life that some asshole was deciding to play with, her life and the life of the man she loved, and that seriously pissed her off in all kinds of different ways.
“He’s got programs on top of programs running and searching and doing Goddess knows what else.” Laighean shook his head. “He started going on about parameters and programs that do something or other and my eyes rolled back in my head, so I left.”
“Oh lord, it would make my head hurt to listen to that.” Rimi was a painter. She was so not a technical type of person at all. When someone began to talk techie stuff, it made her head hurt and she felt so very, very stupid.
“It definitely makes my head hurt. At least you would be able to understand the words and have references for everything. Unfortunately I’m still lagging just a little behind the curve on everything,” he said quietly.
“Well, honey, I might understand some of the words, but I have to be honest, I can’t figure out about ninety percent of what he is talking about at any given time, which is fine of course, because as long as others understand, that’s really all that matters, right?”
“That is true,” he agreed, leaning over to scoop up one of the kittens. Letting the little ball of fur loose on the desktop, he rolled a pen across the surface to give him something to attack. “I’m feeling cooped up. Feel like going for a walk with me?” he asked her curiously.
“I would love to go for a walk. Think that we can have a swim while we are out there?” She just wanted time in nature with her bond-mate. She needed that time with him. “I know you need it as much as I do, honey. I really do.”
“Absolutely,” he told her honestly, standing up and lifting the kitten from the desk. “But we should wear suits. The guard rotations are a lot tighter since the incident,” he said with a sigh. “I really don’t want to reroute them. It might not be safe.”
“Oh yeah. All right. We will wear suits so that they don’t see you and get even more jealous of you then they already are,” she teased. “After all, you have me,” she shot back with a snicker. “I’m more concerned about ensuring you are covered so they can all keep their lives,” he told her in a soft and smooth tone as he followed her. Letting the kitten down when the little fur ball wiggled, having spotted his friends, he smiled at his mate when she looked his way.
“I think that you adore the kittens just as much as they do you,” she said with a grin. “That makes me all kinds of happy, too, you know, to know that they love you as much as I love them.” Moving closer to him, she smiled. “Now then, let’s go and find us a couple of suits so that we can go for that walk and then swim.”
“I like
all animals,” he told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Not all animals like me, though, so I’m always very cautious.” Leading her up the stairs, he guided her to their bedroom. “There should be a couple of choices for you in the dresser. Katherine purchased them, so whatever they are, they are all on her.”
“Sounds good to me.” Katherine had marvelous taste in clothing. She always had. “Hopefully she didn’t give me any of the very skimpy ones that she seems to think that I should wear all the freaking time,” she grumbled.
Laighean kept his face absolutely blank. “I wouldn’t know. She stopped by yesterday with a bag, went to the drawer and after dumping the contents told me to stay out of it until you had a chance to look.” Like that had stopped him, please. Oh he’d looked, and he had a feeling she wouldn’t be pleased with what little was in there.
She pulled open the drawer and sighed. Pulling out the stringy things, she shook her head. “Seriously? Why even wear these when it leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination?” The suit was white, so it wouldn’t even leave her nipple color to the imagination.
“There are colors in there.” He pointed to the drawer as he caught her worry. “And if those don’t work for you, I did pick something up that is likely a lot more modest, next drawer down,” he told her with a faint smile.
“You are a savior,” she whispered to him and smiled. “I think that I would rather wear yours, darling, than Katherine’s.” Lee seemed to know just what she wanted and needed at all times, without her consciously knowing.
“You are my mate,” he pointed out honestly. “I’m supposed to know and anticipate.” Laighean smiled faintly. “But you had better look at it first before you say I’m a savior. I was going for a bit of modesty, but I’m not sure if I did well enough.”
Pulling out the one-piece suit, she smiled. “This is perfect.” Well, it still had the back cut out and the sides, but it covered far more than Katherine’s idea of a suit. Peeling out of her clothes, she pulled on the suit that he got her and smiled. “See, covered. Perfect.”