She whispered her need in his ear, told him how he made her feel, pressed against him so that he could feel her liquid need for him.
Muttering something like a growl, he grabbed her leg beneath her knee and thrust upward, sinking the head of his cock into the mouth of her passage. Gasping, she gripped his shoulders tightly as he rolled her onto her back and thrust again. She felt her body stretching to accommodate his engorged member and a thrill of excitement went through her. Despite the juices her body had produced, her muscles clenched at his intrusion, clinging to his cock, impeding his efforts.
Claire felt herself climbing toward climax even as he entered her, felt her body tensing on the edge of release. A cascade of ecstasy erupted inside of her as he sank deeply inside of her at last, her passage convulsing around his cock.
She groaned as the pleasure washed through her in a hot tide and then the tension began to build again as he began to move in and out of her, thrusting again and again, his face contorted with the effort to hold his own passion at bay. Dizzily, she stroked her hands over his body in a restless caress, along his back and then his sides, touching his chest and stroking her hands along the hard, bulging muscles of his upper arms.
Wrapping her legs around his waist, she held herself tightly to him, raising up so that she could touch and taste the flesh of his throat and upper chest with her lips and tongue. He gasped hoarsely, thrusting harder and faster. Ecstasy exploded inside of her again, harder, far stronger than the first time, forcing little cries from her she was barely even aware of.
He stiffened suddenly, shuddering as his own release caught him and took him over the edge of bliss. Breathing harshly, he lowered himself until he was resting heavily against her. Claire tightened her arms around him, listening to her pulse pounding in her ears, his harsh breathing, relishing the heat of their bodies, the essence of their love making.
Barely aware of anything beyond the feeling of being completely sated and relaxed, she stroked his body lovingly, felt a sense of belonging steal over her that was unlike anything she had ever felt before.
She felt warm, safe—loved as she never had before and she was reluctant to let go of that sense of well-being. Despite her best efforts to cling to it, however, it began to fade as their bodies cooled.
Eros lifted his head, easing off of her and settling beside her. Immediately, coolness wafted across her skin, sending a shiver through her. He caught her shoulder, pulling her close, sliding one hand along her spine to cup her bottom, and then up again.
He said nothing and after a few moments Claire realized that she didn’t want him to. They’d said all that needed to be said—that should be said between them—with their bodies, their lips, their hands. Words would only be an intrusion, might break the spell of contentment and she couldn’t bear to let it go just then. She wanted to hold it for a while, even if it was just a little while—even if it was only an illusion.
She was still drifting in a haze of sated bliss when she felt the tickle on her nose. She wiggled it and Eros chuckled.
It took an effort to open her eyes to glare at him.
He leaned toward her, kissed her lightly on the lips, a mere clinging that melded their lips and released. "I have wanted you since the first moment I saw you," he murmured lazily.
Claire smiled faintly. "Me too. You were such a handsome dolphin."
Chuckling, he nuzzled his way down her throat and sucked one nipple into his mouth, nudging the distended tip with his tongue.
"Mmmm," Claire murmured. "Do that some more."
He nipped her with the edge of his teeth and moved to the other nipple.
"That does it," Claire said decisively when he released it at long last. Sitting up, she pushed him onto his back and straddled him. He was already hard and ready for her. She slid backwards down his belly, feeling his cock slip in the juices that still bathed her cleft from their previous lovemaking. Aligning their bodies, she pressed down, slowly engulfing him, moaning with pleasure as she felt him sink to her depths.
Pushing herself upright, she rotated her hips, finding the spot that throbbed for his touch. She studied his face as she moved on top of him, lifting, allowing his cock to slide slowly out, and then pressing down again.
His eyes slipped half closed as he let out a groan of pleasure. He caught her waist, holding her as he thrust up to meet her, guiding her into a rhythm that pleased them both.
Sated only moments before, Claire felt her body come alive once more, felt the tension building again as pleasurable tremors became hard shafts of delight.
She caught his hand, lifting it, sucking one long finger into her mouth. He gasped, groaned as she curled her tongue around it, sucking harder as she felt the muscles in her passage clench tightly around him in an echoing spasm of need.
He arched his head back, pulling his hand away and gripping her hips tightly, urging her to increase the tempo. Abruptly, he jerked upright, wrapping his arms tightly around her, lifting her, thrusting upward as his pleasure escalated toward climax. His urgency sent a reverberation of intense need through her. Without warning, she reached her crisis, felt blinding, dizzying ecstasy grip her as her body convulsed around him.
He gasped hoarsely as his own body followed swiftly in thundering culmination, his cock jerking convulsively as he pumped his hot seed into her womb.
As the shudders slowed and finally stopped, he flopped backwards on the bed, carrying her with him.
Claire shivered as her body cooled, lying limply atop him, too exhausted to consider trying to crawl under the blanket.
Eros caught the blanket, wrestled with it for a few moments and finally, gripping her tightly, climbed out of the bed, ripped the blanket loose and lowered her to the bed. She scooted to the edge as he climbed in beside her, placing her back against the wall. Grabbing her, he rolled her over so that her back was to him, tucked her tightly against him and settled the covers.
Claire sighed blissfully. "Good thing this is against the wall," she murmured sleepily. His arms tightened, but he merely grunted and Claire, her body still thudding with release, fell into a chasm of sated bliss.
* * * *
Irritation surged through Eros when he woke abruptly. He had meant only to wait for Claire to sleep and had ended falling asleep himself in the aftermath of their lovemaking. He lay still for several minutes, listening to the slow, even breaths that assured him she was deeply asleep. Slowly, carefully, he disentangled himself from her and rose. Striding across the room, he knelt and retrieved the band he’d dropped there, studying it thoughtfully.
He could see nothing greatly different than any other band he’d seen before, but he knew there must be a difference. Claire had been told that it worked like any other telepath band, but it was possible, indeed likely, that they’d lied to her and it didn’t perform that function at all—perhaps just the opposite. Perhaps it magnified her brain impulses so that they could watch her more closely?
He dismissed that thought. Angry or not, he was certain he would have noticed that immediately.
What confused him was that he had heard her together with Mercury and yet she had been wearing the band when he arrived. Had she told him the truth? He had assumed that she had either decided to seduce Mercury for reasons of her own, or that she had succumbed to an attraction to him. She had seemed to believe only that the device would block telepathic speech. She had looked completely confused when he had pointed out that the band prevented manipulation by any but the strongest among them—Mercury would certainly not have been able to penetrate the band and seize hold of her mind--unless as she claimed, he’d removed it. But then, why replace it? Only to make it seem that she could not be trusted?
He would have thought it was a trap, but he could think of nothing that had been achieved except to arouse his jealousy and make him doubt Claire, and he could conceive of no gain for them in that, no gain for Mercury at all.
He shook the thoughts off, realizing that his jealousy was such that he
could not trust his judgment. It was more important to discover what he could about the band. It was almost certainly the key he had been searching for.
Rising, he turned to study Claire for a moment, disturbed by his reluctance to leave her. He could do nothing else, though, he knew. He was certain that she would be safe until his return. They needed her. She would come to no harm.
Finally, he strode to the door and eased it open. Glancing up and down the passage, he frowned, focusing his mind to seek out others who were awake like himself, pinpointing their locations. Satisfied that no one was nearby, he closed the door carefully behind him and strode down the corridor.
The compound was eerily silent as he made his way down one long corridor after another, through empty rooms, bypassing the barracks where the common soldiers slept. He paused at the door to the infirmary, listening intently with both his mind and his ears for any sounds that would indicate that anyone was about besides himself at this end of the compound.
Finally satisfied, he opened the door and moved inside, heading for the door at the opposite end. He’d almost reached it when Mercury stepped from the shadows of the bunk nearest the door.
Eros halted abruptly, tamping the rage that immediately rose up to consume him at the sight of the man who’d tried to force himself on Claire.
"Going somewhere?"
"I do not answer to you," Eros responded coldly.
"No. You answer to Thor, do you not?" said another voice.
Eros’ head whipped toward the voice, a sickening sense of defeat washing over him as he saw Zeus and Diana step from the shadows.
Diana smirked. "You were right, Zeus. The band was just too much temptation."
Chapter Ten
The battle was, unfortunately, a short one. Eros whipped his sword from the scabbard at his side as he heard Zeus’ voice, knew he’d been discovered with the evidence on him and no amount of talk would free him. Even as he launched himself at Mercury, however, he heard the outer door to the infirmary slam open and the pounding of many feet behind him and knew that half the garrison was on his heels.
He’d walked right in to their trap.
Using his mind as shield, he flew at Mercury, hammering away at the sword that met each parry. The scrape of metal against metal alerted him to the fact that both Zeus and Diana had drawn their swords. Breaking off contact with Mercury abruptly, he launched himself over Mercury’s head, landing in a dive and roll several yards behind his opponent. Coming to his feet once more, he whirled as Mercury, Zeus and Diana charged forward, beating them back one at the time and turning to face the next as one dropped back.
The maneuver had only succeeded in keeping the three from surrounding him, however. Even as he launched a furious assault in an attempt to maneuver into a position to protect his back once more, he heard the guard behind him.
A blade bit into his back, sending fiery agony through him, breaking his concentration. He whirled to face his attacker, hacking the man’s arm off at the shoulder. As he turned to face that attack, a blade sliced into his thigh, sending another burning tide of pain through him.
For what seemed like hours but could not have been more than minutes, he struggled toward his goal, fought to keep the pack at bay. Blood oozed from a dozen wounds on his body, making the floor slippery.
In the end it was his own blood that brought about his down fall, for as he slipped to the floor on one knee, his enemies overwhelmed him and darkness swept the pain from him.
* * * *
Claire thought the pounding was part of her dream to begin with. Sluggishly, her mind swam toward consciousness, but she wasn’t given the luxury of a slow awakening. Her hair was seized and nearly ripped from her scalp as she was dragged from the bed.
Instinct kicked in and she fought, swinging blindly at her captor.
With a snarl of rage, Diana clubbed her on the side of her head with the hilt of the sword she held and Claire felt her knees buckle as pain exploded in her jaw. The taste of blood filled her mouth. "What are you doing?" she gasped. "What’s happened?"
"Silence, outworlder, or I will cut out your tongue and feed it to the fish!"
Blinded by pain, disoriented from being dragged from her bed, Claire could barely grasp the words and they made little sense to her. The threat of violence needed no mental calisthenics, however.
She struggled to get to her feet as Diana gave her a shove in the direction of the door. The shove overbalanced her and she fell to her hands and knees. Grabbing a handful of hair, Diana jerked her up again and gave her another shove. Claire fell against the doorjamb, sending jarring pain through her shoulder.
She had no more than a glimpse of the room as she was pushed outside, but it was enough to see that Eros was no where in sight. She was caught by a guard as she stumbled from the room, her arms jerked behind her back. She didn’t try to ask any more questions. It was obvious they were not in any frame of mind to answer.
Fear filled her, making rational thought impossible, but she felt the violence of their attitude was somehow connected to Eros’ disappearance from the room. She stumbled ahead of the man who held her, concentrating on trying to keep her feet beneath her, wondering if she would meet death around the next corner—or the one after that.
She realized after a while that they were dragging her in the direction of the room that held the cell. She couldn’t imagine why they would take her in the middle of the night and throw her into the cell again, but as they moved on, she became more and more convinced that that was where they were heading.
She didn’t know whether to be relieved or more terrified when they stopped before the door and shoved her inside. Zeus and Mercury stood in front of the cell, their faces grim. Looking beyond them, she saw a bloodied mass on the floor. She stared at it as they shoved her closer, taking in the tangled black hair, now matted with blood, the wounds covering the body.
"Eros?" she said through lips that felt stiff and uncooperative.
The guard gave her a last push as they reached the door. She fell inside, landing on top of a warm, yielding mass of flesh. Horror filled her as she scrambled off of him.
Distantly, she heard sobbing, but it was several moments before she realized the tearing at her throat was the sobs she heard.
She touched his face, searching for some sign that life still lingered in his mutilated body. His flesh was warm, but cooling. Faintly, she found a feeble pulse. Gathering his head into her lap, she looked up at Zeus, Mercury, Diana and the guard who’d escorted her, all of whom stood just outside the bars. "Why?"
No one spoke and after a moment, she gathered her wits and touched him, ran her hands lightly over his wounds. Her heart failed her. He was too badly wounded. She knew she couldn’t save him.
A sense of crushing sorrow descended. Her chest ached with the pain of it until she could barely breathe. She tightened her arms around his head, holding him close. "Eros," she whispered. "Please don’t die. Stay with me. Stay."
Closing her eyes, she summoned her healing, desperate to try even though she knew it was useless. Heat traveled down her arms and warmed her palms. She focused every part of her being upon him, sought the worst of his wounds. He was bleeding internally. She focused on the wound, pictured it in her mind and slowly forced it closed, sealing it with the heat radiating from her hands. She worked outward from that point, sealing the flesh together, one layer of tissue after another.
She was panting with exertion by the time she had closed the wound in his abdomen, but a sense of triumph had begun to take hold, and hope. Closing her mind to the vast amount of blood that had seeped onto the floor around her, she searched each wound on his body until she found the wound that was deepest, most life threatening, and again she focused her entire mind upon it, visualizing it as she fused blood vessels together, and then began melding the flesh.
She was so weak by the time she’d closed the wound that she could not even lift her head. She sat slumped over Eros, her head resting atop his.
"I have seen enough," Zeus said abruptly.
Her head lolling weakly, Claire glanced toward the bars as the group turned almost as one and marched out, closing the door behind them, but she didn’t have the energy even to consider what their departure might mean.
With an effort, she lifted her head, straightened her shoulders and then searched Eros’ wounds. She had closed the two that were worst. He had dozens more, but she thought that he might have some chance of recovery if she could only heal the wound in his thigh that had sliced through to the bone. Dragging herself over to his thigh, she pressed a hand on either side of the wound, pushing it closed, focusing once more on dredging up enough energy to close it.
She had only managed to fuse the artery and begun to knit his flesh, however, when blackness overcame her. She didn’t even feel the stone floor when she crashed into it.
* * * *
A splash of icy water brought Claire awake, but only barely. She found she was so weak she couldn’t even lift her head.
"Still alive, I see."
Coughing, Claire rolled her head to one side and forced her eyes open. Diana stood just outside the bars, a smug look on her face. Anger sparked, but died quickly, for Claire found she didn’t even have enough energy for that.
Ignoring the taunting remark, Claire stared up at the bars overhead, trying to recall where she was and how she’d come to be there. Panic seized her when the memory flooded back, and she tried to rise. Finding she was too weak to get up, she felt around and found Eros’ leg. To her relief, he was warm. Peace settled over her. He was alive.
Struggling, she managed to roll over to face him. He was sleeping—or unconscious—barely breathing. She touched him, trying to decide if he would live.
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