He started to nod before he realized even that would hurt her. “Well in that case, I hate to criticize but you didn’t do a very good job…of saving yourself. A quick stab and immediate retreat might have done the job. As it was, the dragon almost crushed you. You should know there’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal,” he lectured. “Shani and the others had to drag you out of the way—at great risk to themselves. And then there was all the trouble of getting the fire put out, carrying you back here and tending to your wounds. You should have heard them complaining.”
“After I saved their lives?” she said, her voice full of hurt.
He looked down on her with neon eyes. “After you saved their lives,” he said, softly, “and thank you.”
Chapter Ten
She spent the next several days sleeping for the most part. She saw Jarrk every evening. He checked on her just before he disappeared to hunt for the night. He must have been pleased with her, Chiarra decided, because for the first time she could remember, his ruff wasn’t up when he was in her presence. Well, not so often, anyway.
She continued to have the visions. She didn’t mind all of them. Some of them she quite looked forward to.
Jarrk shoving her wrap up to her waist, reeling her in tight against his groin.
Jarrk lifting her, hands gripping her bottom, thumbs splayed beneath her cheeks and every one of his fingers, from both hands, sliding into her pussy.
Her hands tied above her head while Jarrk’s hands swept over her body. Every inch of her body.
Others were not so pleasant.
Grat’s hard fingers digging into her arms as he dragged her from the edge of the chasm.
Jarrk’s words, “I’d have killed him, if I’d known about this.”
As harbingers of the future, these last two visions seemed to lead to a chilling conclusion. But there was no reason to believe they were prophecies. As yet, she’d seen none of these visions fulfilled.
When she felt up to it one morning, she limped across the lodge to help Akela. The woman was preparing a marinade for the boar skin that lay stretched and scraped on the table.
Chiarra pulled up a stool and pitched in. And only stopped when she saw the phosphorescent tears on Akela’s cheeks. “Akela,” she started fearfully, thinking immediately of Jarrk. “What is it?”
Akela struggled with her response for several moments. All at once, the dam burst. “I don’t know what he sees in you,” she finally sobbed. “You’re all lumps!”
“Sees in me! Who?” It took her a few moments to come to the obvious conclusion. “Jarrk? He can’t stand me. He…his hackles—his ruff—is up whenever he’s near me.”
Akela stopped stirring and gave her a look of horrified pity. “You are so slow, Chiarra. He doesn’t rise because he’s angry! He rises for you because he wants you.”
“Wants me! Wants me to what?” Chiarra stared at Akela. “No! I’ve seen him mating with you…and…and Shani. His ruff isn’t up when he takes you.”
“Don’t remind me,” she minced out between clenched teeth.
Chiarra frowned at the Gryffin, trying to understand.
“He doesn’t want me—or Shani. He only took us into his fold out of kindness.” Her eyes spilled more tears. “Have you never wondered why Jarrk has no childings? We can’t bring him to sleep! Did you not notice that little fact—when you watched us?”
Chiarra shook her head, completely confused. “Bring him to sleep?”
“Bring him to sleep! The mating sleep.”
“You…sleep after mating? But why? Why do you…”
“The males sleep. How can they not?” She stopped. “Don’t humans?”
Chiarra shook her head then smiled with a reluctant nod. “Well, I mean, not necessarily. Not always.”
“But it’s exhausting. I mean, your heart rate doubles—” She looked at Chiarra then corrected herself. “Our heart rate doubles.”
Chiarra nodded with sudden understanding. “It’s exhausting for you.”
“It’s especially exhausting for the male. His arousal lasts much longer than the female’s.”
“He falls asleep afterward.”
“I can’t…we can’t satisfy him. He wants you.” Akela dropped the bowl on the table and covered her face. “Gali Nigita, I love him. I love him. We all love him and he wants only you.”
Chiarra watched Akela’s shoulders as they shuddered. It broke her heart to see Akela cry. Akela was so strong!
“That’s why he disappears every night. Because he knows we’ll ask him for what he can’t give anymore. His desire for you is tearing our family apart and you…you don’t even care about him.”
Chiarra stood and slammed across the room.
“What do you have to be angry about?”
“I’m angry with myself. I…get…angry when I’ve made a mistake.”
“Then you must be angry a lot.”
The two women stared at each other then burst into laughter. “I’m sorry, Akela,” Chiarra confessed with regret. “You’ve been so helpful and tried so hard to get along with me, even when I was difficult.” Her arm went around the woman’s shoulders. “Thank you for taking care of me. Tending to my injuries. This last week.”
Akela shook her head. “It was Jarrk who tended you, Chiarra—I mean—we would have. But it was Jarrk.”
The two women looked up as Jarrk ducked through the door and stopped. His usually serious eyes softened and Chiarra watched his ruff as it slowly began to lift. She groaned.
* * * * *
Chiarra slept late the next morning. It was long past dawn before enough light worked its way into the lodge to wake her. She found herself alone at the edge of the sleeping pit. The women, absent on some chore, hadn’t been waking her since her injury.
It was a good day to leave, she thought, as she stared at the leafy roof. According to lodge gossip, the maelstrom winds had begun to abate two days ago. It was time to move on, out of the reach of the yellow uniforms. Chiarra frowned. Shani had questioned Jarrk yesterday at dinner about the winds. Jarrk’s eyes had flicked to connect with her own.
He hadn’t answered Shani.
She stretched on her back and thought of Jarrk, let the idea of Jarrk trickle in from every point of her body to pool at a point just below her belly button. Chiarra sighed. The more the pool filled, the emptier she felt. She rolled onto her knees and rummaged for her clothes.
And jumped when she heard her name.
At least she thought it was her name. But Jarrk lay asleep in the center of the pit, on his stomach, his handsome, rugged ass face up. That empty spot responded with a twinge, followed by a lurch, as her lips curled around a ragged bit of breath and she allowed her hungry eyes to feed on Jarrk’s long, clean lines.
Gryffin males had nice bodies, without anything spare, saggy or sloppy about them. And this silver Gryffin in particular was all hard, compact male, she thought as her eyes slid down the length of Jarrk’s legs. She stood and turned to pull on her wrap but dropped it when she heard her name again. When she turned back, Jarrk had rolled onto his back.
And there was a sight for sore eyes.
He was erect. Straight up erect. His cock didn’t slouch lazily against his belly but rose purposefully, with promise, straight out of his groin. Splayed out in the center of the pit, Jarrk looked like a man with a lot of promise. Chiarra took a few tiny steps toward him, wondering just how asleep he was. She stopped, holding her breath, as he moaned. Did the man suffer nightmares? Falling to her knees beside him, she checked his face carefully then returned her eyes to his long, throbbing erection. Oh Tar, yes, she could actually see him pulsing. But, at this point, Jarrk’s erection wasn’t the only thing in the lodge that was throbbing.
Pure, female instinct took over. Chiarra’s lusting body decided it was mating season and her legs shifted apart. Moist lips between her thighs parted as her legs opened for the man. Her cunt gulped with a surging, tidal wave of wet response. Pulsing warmth climb
ed her channel and was replaced by prickling heat as her vagina wept to hold the man, to lick the man, to suck the man to his finish.
Reaching out cautiously, she put a hand on Jarrk’s forehead. When he didn’t wake, she moved quickly—before she could change her mind—and closed her hand tightly around his shaft. His dick was taut and tight inside her hand as he filled his skin entirely. Her fingers met her thumb for an instant, until a strong surge thickened his erection and forced them to part. Mesmerized, she watched his cock as the pulses came harder and faster. At the same time, the fringed scales that surrounded his penis expanded in a ruffled display then settled again. Chiarra watched the scales lift with increasing frequency that matched the accelerating pulse throbbing inside her fist. Concerned, she laid her other hand on his chest and felt his heart galloping at a brutal pace. Something cool slid down her hand.
Tar! He was coming. Her eyes widened on the thick head of his cock, her hand beneath it, where a stream of iridescent silver crept over her fingers.
“Chiarra,” he whispered again.
And Chiarra realized. He was coming for her.
Quickly, she straddled one of his legs and covered his cock with her mouth, pushing her lips down his shaft to take in as much as possible—just as he shot into her mouth. She swallowed and swallowed again as he kept coming—long past the legal limit of male ejaculation. With pure female stubbornness, she stayed with him through the last spurt, drank him off and pulled her tongue up his length as she leaned back, looking for his eyes.
They were open and on her.
He blinked several times—disoriented—as though he doubted his eyes. Then his lids dropped to close his neon gaze.
She swallowed and licked her lips. Tar and Breeza! She’d never tasted anything like that before! Like icy fire, it slid down her throat. Like strong spirit, she could feel it working its way through her system, filling her with prickling life, warm energy. It hit her solar plexus like a wakeup call and if she didn’t want him before, she had to have him now.
The man was asleep. She regarded him tentatively. According to Akela, Jarrk wouldn’t wake for at least twenty minutes. She bit her lip and cut a look at his erection, still semi-rigid and largely upright then cut a look at his sleeping face. She didn’t have much time, if she was going to get away before he woke. Spreading her legs, she lowered hot, wet lips onto Jarrk’s cool, hard thigh and accepted the rush of pleasure that accompanied the act. Slowly, she ground against his smooth flesh. Tar, she was hot for him.
With a barely contained whimper, she reached between her legs with both hands and pulled her lips apart to put her clitoris firm against the cool skin of his thigh and rubbed her hot clit against the cool touch of him, rubbed herself until his leg was slick with her moisture and she slipped against him easily, rubbed herself to within an inch of orgasm. Then she mounted him and fucked herself into a short, hard climax.
She threw her head back and strangled his name in her throat.
Bringing her head back down, she gazed sadly at her stiffened nipples and sighed. She dressed quickly and stopped a last time to look at him. “I’m sorry if I caused trouble in your home,” she told the sleeping man.
Chapter Eleven
Chiarra stood alone, poised on the edge of the maelstrom, thoroughly unhappy and entirely determined. A long rope whipped in a circle over her head. At the end of the rope, was a forked antler to serve as a grappling hook. The hook shot across the maelstrom channel and almost gained the other side.
But not quite.
The winds kicked up. Grappling hook and rope were sucked into the channel as Chiarra, refusing to sacrifice her tool, lurched toward the chasm, a toy on the end of a string. She dug in her heels as she was tugged inexorably toward the bluff.
A strong arm circled her waist and jerked her backward. The rope was torn from her grip.
“I’ve heard human women orgasm for an eternity.”
She dug in her heels and bolted.
He caught her quickly, his hands like grappling hooks at her waist. As they fell to their knees, she scrabbled away from him. She felt her wrap tear as he shoved it up to her waist. His hands fought to win her flanks and own her lower body. Reeling her in tight against his groin, he got his hands firmly positioned on her hips. She felt his cock, hard and cool, thrust between her cheeks.
With a cry of frustration, she twisted and clawed at the ground as his shaft ground between her lips and searched for entrance. Missing the mark, she felt him withdraw and slide through her folds again.
Jarrk cursed. “I know you want me,” he growled. “I saw you with my cock in your mouth. I’m going to take you, Chiarra and I’d rather not hurt you.”
Desire spiked in her cruelly and she stilled, aching for the punishing discipline of his rod.
He caught her hair high on her head, groping for the ruff she didn’t have. Clutching her hair between his fingers, he pulled her head back. “Where in Tar’s Pit did you think you were going?”
She gasped. “You told me I could leave, Jarrk. You told me.”
She felt his finger run into her slit, probing for her opening. “That was before you branded my cock with your lips. Now I’ve a taste for the rest of you. You’re my female, Chiarra. When I’m done with you, you’re going to know you’re my female.” His finger stopped at her opening.
“That’s it?” he panted with surprise. Sliding his finger inside her, he withdrew it suddenly. “You’re wet!”
With a jerk, he was on his feet as he took a step backward. He pulled up the edge of his pants.
Chiarra got to her feet slowly and faced him, rubbing her arm.
“You’re crying! Your body’s crying.” His expression was a combination of barely contained heat and tearing angst. “What am I doing wrong? Why is your body crying?”
She approached him slowly as though sucked into the maelstrom of his desire. She nodded at him and held his neon eyes with hers. “It’s crying for you, Jarrk.”
He gave her a look of disbelief. “I thought…you’ve…said nothing.”
She shook her head. “I thought you were angry with me. Every time your ruff went up, I thought you were angry with me.”
His hand went into his ruff. “Tar, no.”
Her chest was against his by then and she reached for his lips. Almost as soon as their lips touched, he was crushing her in his arms. He opened her mouth with his and drove the thick chisel-tip of his tongue between her teeth. His tongue was smooth as it moved into her mouth. She heard him groan and felt his heart hammering at the door to her heart, felt his cock jump into the space between her legs. He pulled away suddenly. “Tar! Are you wet everywhere?” She tried to return her lips to his and he caught her head in his hands, angling her head harshly before he delivered his lips again to hers. “Tar help me,” he whispered into her mouth as his fingers dug into her scalp and contained her head between hard hands that demanded complete submittal from mouth and tongue.
Not that she had plans to argue at that point.
He broke away from her—wild, thick lust surging in him fast, and hard enough to choke him. The kiss wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. He had to have more, more of her, all of her. And he had to have her now.
He looked down their bodies, pressed close together. “Is it true,” he sucked at a breath. “Is it true, what I’ve heard about human nipples—that they raise like a Gryffin’s ruff?”
As she pulled her body away from his, he caught the edge of her jerkin and hurried it over her head. Jarrk stared at her breasts in rapt wonder. “It’s true,” he whispered.
One of his hands traveled quickly from around her back, hesitating just an instant before he brushed a knuckle across the peach tip. He stared, amazed when it poked its head out a little further. With his fingers, he plucked at it carefully and was stunned when Chiarra closed her eyes and arched her breasts forward. Then both his hands were cupping the breasts he’d longed to claim, to hold, to cage in his hands. “Tar!” he rasped. “You hav
e so much of everything.” He watched her closed eyes as his hands slid into the curves of her waist then down to cup the swelling globes of her bottom.
Turning her suddenly, he felt between her legs and again found her opening. Reaching into his pants, and with his hand on his dick, he spread his legs and flexed his knees as he guided the tip of his cock through her crease. But the human was built differently than Gryffin females. And his penis was set further back than a human male’s. “Help me, Chiarra,” he breathed. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
She pulled away and turned to face him. Taking his hands, she drew them behind her and placed them beneath the curves of her bottom. “Lift me,” she told him.
He did as he was told, not quite understanding her intent but very anxious to comply. She opened her legs for him and he moved quickly to support her thighs with his forearms.
“Help me find your tip.”
He stilled an instant. “You do it like this? Face-to-face? But how does that work?”
She moaned. “Help me find your tip and I’ll show you.”
A few steps put her back against the smooth bark of a wide chestnut. Moving his hands beneath her, he pulled her cheeks apart and found her opening again, with every one of his fingers, from both hands, sliding into her pussy.
She was whimpering as he relinquished his hold on her cheeks and got his pants pushed out of the way. Palming his dick forward to meet her, he nudged his thick cock-head into her notch and, with a blasted breath of relief, pulled her down on him. Then stopped as they pulled away from each other, regarded each other with stunned shock.
“Tar! You’re so hot and so…so wet. So incredibly wet.”
She moaned. Jarrk’s cool sex inside her hot cunt was as perfect as iced drinks on a summer day. She tried to kiss him.
“Not yet,” he rasped.
And then she discovered how Shani and Akela, without moving, were able to orgasm on Jarrk. Without any action on his part, Jarrk’s dick surged inside her in pulsing waves that increased in strength and frequency. His cock was manually massaging her cunt toward climax as it stretched her cruelly wide one instant to follow with the kindest relenting.
Gryffin Strain: His Female Page 5