by Aubrey Ross
He’d brought chaos to her door with Pim Noctar. Now it was his responsibility to meet her needs.
Slowly tugging on her belt, he freed it from the loops. “I have another proposition. I’ll trade answers for your obedience. You follow my directives, without question, and I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
Her eyes narrowed and her lips pressed into a grim line.
Trust would not come easily to Cayenne, but he could be patient. And stubborn. She must learn that he would never hurt her, that from this day on he would put her safety before his, her pleasure before his, her happiness before his. It was the way of bonded mates.
“All right.”
He smiled. She sounded as if each word had pained her. “Open your robe.”
She parted the material, allowing it to frame her naked body. Moonlight gilded her skin, hiding the true color of her nipples and the crimson highlights in her hair. Her crossed legs protected her feminine secrets, but he wouldn’t push her, yet.
“How did you get here? Have you ever visited this dimension before?”
“There’s an energy barrier we call the Veil separating our dimension from countless others.” As he spoke, he placed her hands on the padded arms of the chair. “The Sacred Order of the Veil is so named because its members are born with the innate ability to perceive what transpires beyond the Veil.” He paused, raising his gaze to her face. “I’ve never been to Earth before. Uncross your legs.”
She complied, but kept her legs pressed together from ankle to thigh. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. She was stubborn, this mate of his.
“Then someone from this Order brought you here? You can’t come through the Veil alone?”
“Only Veil Keepers can manipulate the Veil. They’re the most powerful of all the Keepers. Well, Time Keepers are very powerful as well, but they work in sets of three: a Past Keeper, Present Keeper, and Future Keeper. This assures the balance of each set. Now relax and don’t move your hands.”
He stroked her kneecaps with his fingertips, watching her expression closely. Her eyes widened, then she hid the reaction. Dipping his thumbs inward, he eased her legs apart and caressed the soft skin of her inner thighs. He moved higher, closer to her feminine curls.
“No more questions?” he teased, a gentle reminder that she still had much to learn.
“How many Keepers are there on Earth?”
“Put your feet up here on the seat of my chair.” After a moment’s hesitation, she put one foot on either side of his hips. Her thighs opened exposing her folds, then her folds parted presenting her cunt. His cock bucked against his pants and he had to shake the chill off his fingers before he touched her. “I don’t honestly know. We can ask Jax tomorrow. I have to touch you. Now!”
He combed through her pubic curls, groaning at the moisture gathered there. Heat radiated off her flesh, intensifying the closer he got to her entrance. She was so still, so quiet. He looked at her face. Her head rested against the back of the chair and her eyes were closed. She’d caught her bottom lip between her teeth, her hands clutching the arms of the chair.
Before the night was over he would hear her cries echo in the balmy night.
Rubbing two fingers up and down between her folds, he watched her essence gather on his skin. Her scent rose all around him, stimulating, elemental. He wanted to devour her, to bury his face between her legs and fill his mouth with her taste.
He pushed his fingers slowly into her wet pussy and felt her muscles ripple.
“Will I want you this badly tomorrow?”
The plaintive cry in her question tore through him. He wanted to comfort her. Yet the possessive instinct to stake his claim, to ensure he was the only man she would ever want, drove rational thought from his mind.
“I don’t know,” he said, a subtle menace in his tone. “How badly do you want me now?”
Malik slowly withdrew his fingers only to shove them harder, deeper. Cayenne cried out, trembling.
With his fingers deep inside her cunt, he leaned forward and closed his lips around her swollen clit. She arched violently, nearly toppling her chair. He caught her hip with his free hand, while he carefully suckled, licked, and circled the sensitive little nub.
Her pussy clutched his fingers, the temperature escalating in a sudden burst of heat. Forcing Frost iede into his hand, he counteracted the burn. He had to train her fast or she could do some serious damage.
He tried to pull his fingers out, but her inner muscles contracted so tightly he couldn’t move. Startled, he raised his head and watched her skin sparkle, creating a scarlet aura in the moonlight. She shook and moaned, her passage rhythmically squeezing his fingers.
Flame iede shot up his arm, knocking him back against his chair. Heat and pleasure pulsed through his body, leaving him panting and shaken.
“Did I do that?” She sounded worried.
“This could get interesting. Your mystic levels are intensified by Pim Noctar, but you have no control. Do you feel better or worse?”
She fidgeted, her hands absently stroking the outer swell of her breasts. “Hot. I’m so hot.”
He pulled her to her feet and cupped her breast. As he feared, her flesh seared his palm, her nipple poker hot. Urgently, he pulled her toward the glass-topped patio table. She didn’t resist, but stumbled along behind him. Exhaling frosty breath over the entire surface, he said, “Lean over the table.”
She touched the glistening substance, distrust obvious in her expression. The situation was more pressing than she realized. He didn’t have time to argue with her. Pulling the robe from her shoulders, he lifted her to the table and spread her out on her stomach.
“It’s really cold!”
“It’s what you need. Let your body absorb my iede.”
He quickly retrieved her belt from the grass, knowing she would start struggling as soon as she felt the tingle. Working quickly while she was still soothed by the chill, he bound her wrists together and tied them to the wrought iron trellis beside the table.
Her breathing stabilized and she looked back at him over her shoulder. “This isn’t funny.”
“I assure you, I’m not laughing.”
“Whatever you breathed on this table is stinging the hell out of my skin.”
“Then I must stimulate your iede. I overestimated your need.”
“What is iede?” She nearly shouted the question.
“Iede is the basic element of our mystic power. I possess Frost iede. You possess Flame iede. The ways in which it can be controlled and manipulated are different for each type of iede.”
“Untie my hands.”
“Not yet.” Malik lifted her hips. “Pull your legs up under you.”
Cayenne kicked out at him once, then did as he said, folding her body into a delightfully submissive pose. Her smooth round ass gleamed in the moonlight, beckoning the firm smack of his hand. Too soon! He must gentle her before he taught her the pleasures found on the razor’s edge between pleasure and pain.
“Open wide, rijnna mi. We have no time left for false modesty.”
With a little wiggle, she moved her knees apart. Not nearly far enough. He took her thighs and repositioned her, adjusting the arch of her back to more fully expose her luscious pussy.
“Try not to scream too loudly.”
Cayenne trembled uncontrollably. Her breasts tingled as her skin absorbed the Frost iede he’d breathed across the table. Raw and tender, her nipples felt as if he’d suckled and scraped too roughly against them. His cool hands caressed her hips, her back, her up-tilted ass.
Why had he chosen such an obscene position? Why didn’t he take her back into the --
His teeth nipped her bottom and she yelped. The sensation stopped just short of pain. Still her smoldering pussy flared with pulses of heat. He shifted, stirring a balmy current of air. His spiky hair brushed against her inflamed folds. She wiggled and moaned. He nipped and licked, nipped and licked, from one cheek to the other, from her sp
ine to the tops of her thighs.
“Malik! Enough. I’m burning up…”
The blissful coolness of his breath wafted over her skin, soothing the burn and leaving prickly sensitivity in its wake.
Her breath escaped in a ragged hiss.
“I want all of you, rijnna mi. Deny me nothing.”
As if she had a choice!
Even without the silk binding her wrists, her body enslaved her to his whims as securely as chains.
He pulled her hips toward him, leaving only her knees and her forearms on the table. Hot cream escaped her core and ran down her inner thigh. His cool fingers captured the rivulet and traced the wet trail back up to her pussy, teasing her engorged flesh with feather-light strokes.
Capturing her clit between his thumb and forefinger, he gently rolled it, gradually increasing the pressure and the cold. Her cunt convulsed hollowly and hot juices filled his palm.
“Anything!” she rasped out. “Take anything.”
“I don’t need your permission to take.” He shoved two fingers deep into her aching pussy, working her hard. “Invite me inside. Beg me.”
His command stirred the darkest reaches of Cayenne’s soul, unleashing a passion that made her wild. She arched her back. Her keening cry filled the night. “All of me. Take all of me!”
He spread her ass wide and circled her tightly puckered hole with his tongue. Icy Frost iede coated her, prepared her. She clutched the silk binding her wrists, fear insinuating itself into the tingling heat. He was huge. If he put his cock up her ass…
His middle finger pushed inside, interrupting her desperate thoughts. “Not while you’re still afraid. I can take you here without pain, but I will wait until you trust me before I show you.”
Rubbing the cool head of his cock up and down within her folds, he lubricated himself thoroughly. She held perfectly still while he pushed his thick length into her aching cunt. Her walls stretched, eagerly accommodating his fullness. On and on he drove until finally she felt his thighs press against hers and his balls nestled against her mons.
“Don’t move,” he whispered. “You are so hot. I’m afraid you’ll burn me if you come.”
She whimpered. Having his throbbing cock impale her was what she’d been waiting for, longing for. All she had to do was squeeze her inner muscles and she knew she’d go off like a rocket.
“Relax.”
“You drive me to the brink of madness, but I can’t enjoy it?” Her laugh ended on a sob.
The finger in her ass pushed deeper. She cried out. Before he’d touched her there she’d sworn she wasn’t into this, but someone needed to explain that to her body. Her anal passage rippled and throbbed in time with her pussy. Cold seeped through the churning heat, increasing her awareness of the dual penetration.
His finger twisted, spreading the icy sensation, while his cock pulled back almost out of her. He thrust into her pussy and pulled out of her ass, in and out, in opposite directions.
She grasped the edge of the table and braced for each counterattack.
Hot. Cold.
In. Out.
His balls slapped against her wet folds at the apex of each thrust, stimulating her clit. The warm breeze dancing across her naked flesh and playing through her hair bore his scent. There was no part of her body not attuned to their joining.
He moved faster, penetrated deeper. “Say my name,” he demanded.
His arm banded her hips, pulling her up off the table as his cold seed exploded within her hot cunt. Buried to the hilt, his cock jerked and bumped against her cervix, and his hand splayed against her ass.
Held motionless in her mate’s firm embrace, Cayenne surrendered to the powerful spasms of pleasure. “Malik, rijnna mi.”
Chapter Four
Midsummer sun beat down on Malik, warming his face and making the Frost iede in the tips of his hair tingle. Cayenne’s fingers felt hot against his cool skin, but it was a natural contrast, not the uncontrollable burning of Pim Noctar. They had successfully completed their bonding.
“This is Jackson Square.” She made a sweeping gesture toward the open area across the street from where they stood. The square was bisected by perpendicular paths. Trees lined the perimeter, and displayed at the intersection of the paths was the statue of a man mounted on a horse.
“Is that Jackson?”
“Yes. Andrew Jackson, a Civil War hero. The church on the other side of the square is St. Louis Cathedral.”
He smiled. She had turned into a chatty little tour guide as soon as they hopped on the dark green trolley not far from her house. He was more interested in watching the sunlight play across her delicate features than in the Victorian architecture and the university where she graduated some years before, but he smiled and nodded attentively.
“Café Du Monde has stores all over the city now,” she said. “This is the original and it never closes.”
“Jax said he’d buy the beignets.”
“Good. They’re wonderful.”
Jax was nowhere in sight when they arrived. Shadow Keepers could be tricky. Just because Jax wasn’t visible didn’t mean he wasn’t there. Malik didn’t share this information with Cayenne however. They went to an open table in one corner of the bustling room, brushed powdered sugar off the chairs, and sat.
“Who is this Jax person anyway?”
“An old friend. I’m hoping he can help us find out what happened to your parents.”
Her lips pressed together and she glanced away. “Why is it so important? I’ve had almost twenty years to deal --”
“Eighteen years. Your parents were killed the year you should have been returned to Dimension 290-2 for training. A Keeper is given eighteen years to master their skills. Eighteen years of training with a variety of mentors and teachers. You were intentionally deprived of that opportunity. We need to know why.”
“It will take you eighteen years to train me?”
He chuckled at her devastated expression. “As bonded mates I am able to transmit information in ways that conventional training doesn’t allow.”
She laughed. “I would certainly hope not. Either that or teaching would become the most popular profession in any dimension.”
“Undoubtedly. Ah, here comes Jax.”
Dressed all in black, as was his wont, Jax Severn moved through the crowded restaurant like a wraith. His angular features and jet black eyes should have commanded attention, but somehow he managed to blend into the mass, flowing with the current of humanity.
“He’s only noticed when he wants to be, isn’t he?”
“That’s the nature of a Shadow Keeper and Jax is one of the best.”
“Good morning,” Jax greeted them as he reached the table. “What, no beignets? No café mocha? I’m going back to bed.”
“You were supposed to be hosting this excursion,” Malik reminded him.
Jax pulled a twenty out of his wallet and stopped a passing employee. She informed him that he needed to wait in line and he handed her another twenty for her inconvenience. With a beaming smile, she went to fill his order.
“Still playing by the rules, I see.” Malik chuckled.
Ignoring the comment, he proffered his hand toward Cayenne. “Jax Severn.”
“Cayenne Dover.”
“You’re a Flame Keeper? Why haven’t I heard of you?”
“Exactly what we need you to find out. Until I arrived Cayenne had no idea who, or should I say what, she is.”
Cayenne’s gaze moved between the two men. “How did Jax know what I am?”
“Your hair,” Malik said. “Everyone with Flame iede has hair like yours.”
The young woman arrived with their food and departed just as quickly. Jax set two baskets of powdered sugar covered confections in the middle of the table and handed them each a paper cup of steaming chicory-flavored coffee. They explained what Cayenne believed about her past and Malik’s approval by Matriarch Flame while they enjoyed the morning treat.
“This
is the part I don’t understand,” Cayenne said tersely. “If Matriarch Flame is my grandmother, how could she have not known her daughter was dead? I’ve lived in that house since before I lost my parents, but it seems unlikely that she knew nothing about the accident. Why weren’t you warned? Is there no communication between the dimensions?”
“It’s a bit more complicated than dialing a cell phone, but messages are sent back and forth all the time.” Jax took a sip of his coffee. “I’ll summon a Veil Keeper and ask Matriarch Flame those very questions, but it will take a day or two to hear back. In the meantime, I’ll start digging into your parents’ accident.”
“It was no accident and we all know it.” Malik crossed his arms over his chest, staring at Cayenne thoughtfully. Was she in danger even now? Probably not. So, who had benefited from her parents’ death? “What is the name of your guardian? Where is she now?”
“Rachel Forsyth. There is no way she was involved in any of this. She moved to a retirement community in Florida about six years ago and she never made a penny off her kindness to me.”
Malik shot Jax a silent directive with his gaze.
The Shadow Keeper nodded.
* * *
Cayenne was quiet on the way back to her house. All the talk of death and mystery had left her depressed and frustrated.
“Do you have a job?” Malik asked, fidgeting beside her on the hard wooden seat of the trolley.
“Not in the conventional sense. My parents left me a sizable trust fund, so employment has always been optional. After I graduated from Tulane --”
“What did you study?”
“History and literature.” She laughed. “Rachel used to say I could either work in a museum or a library. But I met Julie when I was a senior and she moved in with us. Rachel moved out the following summer and I took in two additional boarders. I’ve had Tulane students living with me ever since.”
“How do you spend your time?”
She shrugged. “However I like. I’ve kept in touch with some of my professors and they send me struggling students from time to time. I enjoy tutoring. I also offer research services. They give me a subject and I give them organized, verifiable information, even outlines -- for a fee.”