Consort

by Cyndi Friberg

  “Now it’s your turn.” He reached behind her and untied the stockings without removing them from her wrists. He lifted her to the bed then climbed onto the firm surface, staying on his knees as he urged her over onto her back. He positioned her arms above her head then tied the stockings to the headboard, spreading her arms wide. “This is another image that has haunted me for cycles.”

  Not in bed with him. Tied to his bed, a willing captive to his pleasure. Before she could decide how she felt about the realization, he began to touch her. He only used his hands, exploring her thoroughly, as if he’d never touched her before.

  His fingers slid down her upraised arms and she squirmed as he skimmed over her ribs. “Ticklish?”

  “Very!” He reversed direction and she wiggled, instinctively twisting away from his provocative touch.

  “Relax and accept the sensation. The tickle reflex is rather like pain.” His tone grew dark, almost smoky. “You can control it and turn the sensation into something else.” He slowed the motion of his hand, his fingers caressing each individual ridge before he moved on to the next.

  She stared into his eyes and absorbed the impulse rather than struggling against it as her body was urging her to do. Tension gathered then released, sending tingles skittering across her skin. Her nipples pebbled and she shivered, releasing her breath in a soft sigh.

  His gaze shifted to her body, focusing on her breasts. He bent and sucked one sensitive nipple into his mouth. His lips held her firmly as his tongue flicked against the tip. The sensation spiked precariously close to pain and she arched her back. He released her, leaving her nipple tightly drawn and wet as he switched to the other side.

  He kept his hands on the bed, supporting his weight so only his mouth touched her. Using one razor-sharp sensation at a time, he taught her body how to respond in ways it had never done before. A touch of teeth, the warm swirl of his tongue, he used each with stunning efficiency. She was breathing so hard her breasts quivered and still he focused on her nipples.

  Show me. Let me feel what you’re feeling.

  For a nanosecond she thought about parting her shields so he could form a proper link, allowing sensations to flow freely into and out of her mind. That’s what he really wanted. It was how Bilarrians experienced sex. For them it was every bit as much a mental exchange as a joining of bodies. But as soon as he touched her mind, he’d know she wasn’t Ontarian. It was surprising that he hadn’t noticed the subtle difference in her energy’s resonance the first time she pushed a thought into his mind.

  He raised his head and looked at her, his expression tense yet inscrutable. “I’ll stay out of your mind as you asked, but I need to share your pleasure.” She let him feel her smoldering need and the uncertainty threading through the hunger. He pressed his hand against the side of her face and kissed her tenderly. “I will never take more than you offer.”

  “I know. That’s not why I’m upset.”

  “Then why are you still unsure?”

  “I want a true joining as much as you do. I want our emotions to flow back and forth as they were meant to flow.”

  He shook his head and kissed her again. “Not as long as you’re afraid. I’ll welcome you into my mind and savor each emotion you share with me. If we do that often enough, hopefully you’ll learn to trust me.”

  “I do trust you, Indric. This has nothing to do with you.”

  “I know that too, which is why I won’t pressure you to overcome your fear. I’m more than willing to help you when you’re ready, but it must be something you crave, something you’re determined to overcome permanently.”

  She felt as if she’d failed him and failed herself as he kissed his way down her neck. Why did she have to be such a coward? She should just tell him about the Mystic’s origin and allow him to form the link while she was too distracted to think about anything at all.

  “Indric, I—”

  He nipped her shoulder hard enough to make her gasp. “We have the rest of our lives to work through this. We’re not going to attempt it tonight.”

  The rest of our lives? The phrase echoed through her mind with stunning implications. He’d spend the rest of his life with his mate not his mistress. Did he really want her with him for the rest of his life? He blazed a trail between her breasts and across her tense belly, but she couldn’t seem to move beyond his casual statement.

  He parted her legs, bending her knees so there was plenty of room for him to kneel between her thighs. “You’re distracted.” He covered her mound with his hand and waited until she looked at him. “I want you in the moment, entirely here with me.”

  “Sorry.” She chased away the last of her confusion and brought her mind back into focus. “I’m here now.”

  “Good. Now let’s see if you enjoyed pleasuring me.” He gently traced her cleft, teasing her folds without parting them. “You’re already wet.” His fingers eased between her folds and his eyes narrowed. “Very wet. I think you liked having me in your mouth.”

  “It made me—”

  “Don’t tell me, show me.”

  She gathered the vivid memory of how excited she’d been and pushed it into his mind.

  “Oh yes.” He closed his eyes for a moment as the sensations washed over him then he pushed his finger into her aching core. He looked like a pagan god kneeling there naked, hair flowing past his shoulders as he boldly explored her body. “Is this what you want, love?”

  “More.”

  He chuckled and inserted a second finger alongside the first. “Better?” His fingers slid smoothly in her cream, providing the motion but not the fullness.

  “No,” she whimpered. “I want you inside me.”

  “I am inside you.” He grinned, maintaining the slow shuttle with his hand.

  “You know what I want.”

  “Yes. I do.” He leaned down and circled her clit with his tongue. His fingers angled, dragging the front wall of her passage until he found a particularly sensitive spot and she startled. “There we go.” He caressed the spot while his tongue rubbed and flicked her sensitive nub. Let go, Cinarra. I want to feel you come.

  She obeyed without hesitation, clasping his fingers with firm pulsations as pleasure buffeted her entire body. His clever tongue prolonged the spasms until she shook violently as each new spasm hit. She shared the sensations with him, wanting him to understand how amazing she found him.

  Before the last tremor passed, he pulled his fingers free of her clingy heat and surged up along her body. He easily found her opening, and pushed just barely inside. Her folds stretched around him and she gasped for breath.

  “Look at me.”

  She brought her gaze back to his face and a tingling aftershock made her moan. His gaze burned with possessive desire, warming her skin and reigniting the need to join with him body and soul. He pushed deeper and she angled her hips, making his advance easier. But he wouldn’t be rushed, seemed determined for her to feel every new millimeter he conquered.

  His gaze drilled into hers as he drove deeper into her snug heat. Hoping to challenge his control, she drew her legs up along his sides and squeezed him with her internal muscles.

  He gasped then groaned and finally smiled. “You think to command me?” He rocked back onto his knees, making room for his hand between their bodies. “Now you’ll get no more until you come again.”

  His thumb rubbed her ultrasensitive clit and she bucked her hips. “I can’t. Not like this.”

  “You can and you will.” His tone was stern, his expression challenging, and his touch… Oh gods, the things he was doing with his thumb. Sensations rippled along her core and deep into her abdomen. Even her nipples echoed each purposeful caress. She tossed her head and tried in vain to push her body farther onto his shaft. He easily countered her movements and never stopped the cruel circling of his thumb. “Stop fighting me. Let the intensity take you. As soon as you surrender, I’ll give you what we both want.”

  Although every nerve and muscle in her
body urged her to thrash and buck, she relaxed and let the sensations wash over her. Her body took on the rhythm of his touch, tension building with each rotation. She arched as her core grew tighter and tighter around the tip of his cock. Tingles shot down her inner thighs and the tension released in a blast of pleasure. She cried out sharply, blinded by the flashes of light exploding behind her eyes.

  He moved both hands to her hips and lifted as he drove steadily into her. The sudden fullness kept the spasms going and she screamed again. He thrust into her fast and hard, giving her no time to recover from one staggering climax before he pushed her toward the next.

  It was savage and demanding, and she responded without reserve, sharing her feelings every step of the way. Never had she felt so free to abandon inhibitions and meld with a lover. His chest grazed her breasts, the hairs teasing her nipples. His hips pounded out a sharp tempo, his shaft filling her completely with each urgent drive.

  She was racing toward another climax, but she fought against the familiar pressure, wanting them to come together this time. Shoving her desperate need into his mind, she arched into his next thrust. He growled and shifted the angle of his lower body as his knees fought for purchase on the bedding.

  “Now.” He gasped. “Come now!”

  Then his lips covered hers and his tongue filled her mouth as he thrust his full length into her. She wrapped her legs around his hips and gripped him tightly, accentuating the subtle pulse of his shaft as his seed burst deep inside her.

  They floated together in a tranquil haze as breath-stealing pleasure gave way to sleepy tingles. His arms held her as snugly as her legs wrapped around him. Relaxed and content, yet dizzy from the prolonged pleasure, she angled her head and returned his kiss.

  His tongue moved against and around hers as she flowed through his mind. He accepted her with tender warmth and she relaxed her mental shields. Without fully realizing what she was doing, she drew him with her as she returned to her own mind.

  He tore his mouth from hers and glared, disbelief contorting his handsome features. “What the hell? You feel like a Rodyte!”

  Chapter Nine

  Shocked beyond words, Indric separated his body from Cinarra’s and untied her hands from the headboard. All the while one thought eclipsed all others; the love of his life was a Rodyte spy.

  Currents of Air swirled around the bed, chilling his sweat-soaked body. He crawled off the bed and pulled on his pants, still too angry to speak. She’d deceived him. Pictures slapped against the walls and the windows rattled within their frames. He took a deep breath and drew energy into his body, soothing his emotions and calming the room.

  She knelt in the middle of the twisted bedding, sheet drawn up to cover her nudity. “I tried to tell you, more than once, but you wouldn’t let me explain.”

  “This can’t be explained away,” he snapped. “You are a Rodyte. Our worlds are at war.”

  “I am Ontarian. The Mystic was Rodyte.”

  Turning away from the bed, he ran both hands through his hair. She was too distracting, with her flushed cheeks and tear-bright eyes. “It doesn’t matter. If Eagin finds out my mistress is Rodyte, he’ll petition the elder council to have me declared unfit. I’ve clearly been compromised, my judgment hopelessly impaired.”

  “So we steal his thunder.” The hope in her tone sent another flash of pain stabbing into his heart. “You can tell the elder council who I really am and how I ended up in a Rodyte body. Lord Drakkin will back you up and—”

  “What was a Rodyte doing among the Ontarian Mystics?” He spun back around, steeling himself against her physical appeal. Regardless of how eager the man inside him was to dismiss the details as unimportant, this was a decision for Indric the king. “You always refer to her as the Mystic. I thought it was a coping mechanism, a way to distance yourself from the sacrifice she’d made. But that’s not it at all. You don’t even know her name.”

  Her lips trembled and she lowered her gaze as she admitted, “Charlotte and Drakkin have both tried to find out who she was, but she’s a phantom, a ghost.”

  “A spy.” He let the word resonate for a moment then he squared his shoulders and reinforced the point. “My lover is a Rodyte spy.”

  “Your lover is Krystabel dar Aune, sister to the High Queen of Ontariese.” She looked at him again, anger creeping into her expression.

  He shook his head as his chest ached with loss. He had been a hairsbreadth away from telling her he loved her and insisting that he would never be satisfied with a causal relationship. All the while she’d known their love was doomed, any sort of long-term relationship impossible.

  “My enemies won’t see it that way and neither will the elder council.” Using anger to fuel his determination, he grasped her upper arm and pulled her across the bed. “You need to leave.”

  Hurt flashed through her gaze and tears escaped the corners of her eyes, but he couldn’t let it matter. He needed to think, not feel. And thinking was impossible while she was in the same room with him. A king must be willing to put the safety and wellbeing of his people above his personal happiness. It was a fundamental truth his father had drilled into his head since childhood.

  She didn’t resist as he pulled her from the bed and led her toward the connecting door. “You should have told me.”

  “I tried. You wouldn’t—”

  He placed his fingers against her lips and shook his head. “I had a right to know. You should have made me listen.”

  Her lips tensed beneath his fingertips then she turned and walked into her bedroom, head held high.

  He closed the door and leaned against it, pain throbbing in his temples. He wasn’t overreacting to a minor omission. A Rodyte. No other secret would have been more damning, nothing harder to overcome. His anger was justified. By keeping this from him, she had given his enemies ammunition to use against him and his position was precarious already.

  Drakkin pinged Indric’s mind, asking permission to enter the room. Indric pushed away from the door and snatched his tunic off the floor. Drakkin had an uncanny ability to appear whenever things spiraled out of control. Indric wasn’t really in the mood to talk, but Drakkin was part of this, had been from the beginning. Indric created a small opening in the shields surrounding the palace and allowed his friend to enter.

  “You knew about this.” It wasn’t a question. Drakkin had repaired the Mystic’s body. He had to have known her planet of origin. Indric pulled on his tunic as he waited for Drakkin’s reply.

  Drakkin shrugged. “It was Cinarra’s secret to keep or share. Did she finally tell you or was the truth revealed some other way?”

  “The details are irrelevant.” Anger surged through him anew as he realized how long he’d been deceived. “She’s a Rodyte, for gods’ sake, a fucking spy!”

  Without so much as a flinch at Indric’s angry outburst, Drakkin said, “No, she resides in the body of a Rodyte spy. There is a difference.”

  “I should have been told. When you asked permission to bring her to my region, I should have been told then.”

  “Perhaps.” Drakkin strolled toward him, gaze intense and perceptive. “Would it have made a difference? Would you have refused to protect her and the boy if you’d have known from the start?”

  “I don’t know.” He exhaled his frustration as longing crept back in. He’d wanted Cinarra for so long and making love to her had only compounded his hunger. But it was impossible now. How could he make a Rodyte his consort? No one would trust her. They would always wonder if some portion of the Mystic remained, lingering in the background, subtly influencing Cinarra’s behavior.

  “Do you love her?” There was more than a little challenge in Drakkin’s tone.

  “That’s irrelevant now.” He made the statement as much to remind himself as to convince his friend.

  “Love is never irrelevant. You have waited a very long time for the keeper of your soul.”

  Indric snorted at the archaic term. No one believed in such t
hings anymore. “She attracts me greatly, but the ‘keeper of my soul’? We have both lived too long to believe in fables.”

  “It took a good friend’s intervention to bring Aria into my life. I was attempting a similar kindness.” Drakkin motioned toward the door connecting Indric’s room with Cinarra’s. “If you love her, there is no obstacle you can’t overcome. Have you forgotten Aria’s parentage?”

  Not only was Drakkin’s mate of Ontarian and Rodyte heritage, she descended from the same bloodline as Cinarra. “How did your elders learn to accept Aria?”

  Drakkin laughed. “I left them no other choice.”

  Thunder shook the room and Indric’s gaze shot back to the connecting door. Though many in his region could summon gusts of Air, few could create lighting and thunder.

  “That would be Head Master Tal,” Drakkin predicted. “If you want her now, you’ll have to fight for her.”

  Indric raced across the room. The thought of losing her sent fiery purpose racing through his body. He threw open the door and blinked as colorful light momentarily blinded him. As Drakkin predicted, Tal dar Aune stood beside the vortex, Mystic’s robes whipping about his tall body. He maintained the portal as he waited for Cinarra to step through.

  “Cinarra!” Indric started forward and Tal raised his hand, creating an energy field to hamper Indric’s progress. Indric lunged through the field, assisted by a blast of Air. Cinarra, adorned now in a simple day dress, hesitated as she heard her name, but she didn’t turn around. After the briefest pause, she stepped into the vortex and was swallowed by the spinning light.

  Tal shot him a furious look then followed her into the conduit, closing the portal behind him with a sharp hand gesture.

  Indric stared at the wall where the conduit had been, feeling utterly empty.

  “Go after her,” Drakkin urged from the doorway.

  “Not yet.” Indric crossed his arms over his chest as ruthless calculation narrowed his eyes. “I’ve been given a second chance to court her and I intend to do it right this time.”