by Stacy Jones
She shook her head. “No, I know you wouldn’t lie to me. It’s not that. I—It’s just… I’m not… soft. I never have been. I’m stubborn, and I don’t back down just to make other people feel better about themselves. I’ve never been one for mushy shit, and I’ve got a temper.”
His lids went hooded and his eyes swirled a little faster. “Mmm, yes, you are quite fierce, my beauty.”
“I’m serious, Tirox. What happens when you get sick of that and decide you want a mate who’s sweet and loving and gentle? What happens when you and Kix realize I’m none of those things?”
His smile slowly disappeared. Cocking his head, he narrowed his eyes at her. Confusion gradually turned into disbelief before anger briefly flashed across his face. Lifting her higher still, until their faces were inches apart, he pinned her with his stare.
As though he found her insecurities personally offensive, a growl edged into his voice. “You are loving. Do you think I doubt your love for me? Do you think Kix does? I assure you, we do not. I do not want or need a soft, gentle mate who will temper herself to feed my vanity. I need you. Your fire, your passion, your endless need to fight for honor and protect those weaker than yourself. I will never tire of you, Aria. Never. And I—”
“You’re angry?” she stuttered, thrown completely off guard by his reaction.
“Of course I am angry! To doubt yourself you must also doubt me. Us,” he clipped, jerking his chin back at Kix but never taking his eyes off of her. “You let old fears cloud your mind when neither of us has given you reason to think we want you as anything other than you are. You are my heart and I will not—”
She didn’t let him finish. Twisting herself around to wrap her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, she cut him off mid-sentence and kissed him.
Chapter 19
Aria slid her fingers into Tirox’s long, silky hair and put everything she felt into the kiss: love so intense it almost hurt, worry, relief, anger, longing, gratitude, and lust. So much lust it felt as if it had been built up over years—years of wanting him and being unable to have him.
Tirox didn’t take her kiss passively as he had the first time but returned it with matching urgency. He groaned, cupped her ass with one hand, and fisted her hair with the other.
It was harsh, hungry, and beautiful, full of teeth and clenching hands trying to pull each other closer.
Need flooded her, sending goosebumps cascading down her arms and legs, tightening her nipples, and slicking her thighs. His taste was intoxicating: strange and exotic, like spiced honey and smoke. She was instantly hooked. He felt like home, like comfort and safety.
With a sharp nip and a low, strained growl he broke away suddenly. She tried to follow his retreat and reclaim his lips, but he fisted his hand tighter in her hair and held her back.
Prying her lids open, she gasped, “What… ”
“My heart,” he rasped breathlessly. “The gods know how I want you, but I would not have our first joining be colored with anger and sadness.”
He stared down at her like he wanted nothing more than to throw her on the ground and sate both of their needs, yet he held himself still, his eyes flicking back and forth between hers, searching for a sign that she wasn’t just doing this because she needed comfort.
She was too raw and loved him too much to lie.
“I need this,” she whispered.
When his expression began to close off, she shook her head and leaned in to bite his bottom lip then sucked the sting away. His eyelids fluttered and a deep growl vibrated from his chest into hers.
Keeping her eyes on his, she whispered against his mouth, “I want you. I need this, now, but I want you always.”
Gently tugging his hand out of her hair, she guided it to her chest. His eyes widened and his breathing deepened as she settled his hand over her breast. Almost as though he couldn’t help himself, his thumb flicked over her nipple.
Her breath hitching on a moan, she pleaded, demanded, “Touch me. Fuck me. Make me scream.”
His golden eyes darkened to bronze, swirling so fast it made her dizzy to look at them. Without warning, he slammed his lips against hers and dropped to his knees.
He laid her back on the moss-covered ground and forced her lips apart with his tongue, sweeping in to taste her before he ripped his mouth away and dove at her throat. A thrill shot through her as he lightly set his sharp teeth into the tender skin of her neck, bowing her back.
He laved the spot with his tongue then trailed it over her collar bone, down to her breast. He gave each of her tight nipples a hard suck, but before she could hold him there, he kept going, licking and nipping his way down her body.
Aria was panting and her heart was pounding in her chest. Anticipation and shock shot through her as she watched his descent. She’d thought that, despite his size, Tirox would be a slow, sweet lover. She’d been wrong. He was rough, hungry, urgent. She loved it.
With a growl, he shoved her legs apart and slid his huge hands beneath her hips. He lifted her bottom half off the ground, holding her splayed open and on display like a meal he wanted to devour.
“What a pretty little si’ilka—‘cunt’—you have been hiding from me, my beauty,” he groaned lowly.
Settling himself between her thighs, he leisurely dragged his tongue over her, dipping it into her opening before flicking it over her clit. Aria’s sharp moan when he passed over that sensitive ball of nerves was answered by a darkly pleased chuckle.
“Ah. Is that the spot that made you clench so prettily in the forest?”
Without giving her time to answer, he bent and sealed his lips around her clit, sucking and flicking it ruthlessly.
Her worry in the mountain cave, what seemed like years ago, about having his fangs so close to her pussy was the last thing on her mind. Squeezing her eyes shut at the shock of pleasure that blazed through her, she reached for him blindly and clutched at his horns, pulling him closer. Every breath ended on a moan. Fire licked at her nerve endings. She felt an orgasm building, too swiftly to fight.
Tingles started in her fingers and toes, traveling up her arms and legs before they coalesced in her center. Aria went rigid, her muscles flexing so hard she felt like something would snap. Her breath seizing in her lungs as she hovered on the precipice.
With a final flick of his tongue, she came. The pressure released in wave after wave of sharp-edged ecstasy. His grip on her hips remained unyielding as she shuddered and moaned, her only anchor while she came apart beneath him.
Before she’d even stopped trembling, she felt him lower her hips to the ground and crawl up her body. Pushing her thighs apart wider, he settled over her.
Forcing her eyes open, Aria tipped her head back against the moss beneath her, trailing her gaze up his blood-splattered chest, his thick neck, to his face. The expression there had her sucking in a shaky breath.
Her playful barbarian looked fierce, untamed. Ravenous.
Eyes narrowed, lip pulled back in a grimace of need showing off the tips of sharp, white fangs, he held her gaze with his and slowly dragged his hand down her stomach.
He seemed even more massive like this, propped up on an elbow and looming over her, his head a full foot above hers. The impossibly wide expanse of his muscular chest blocked out everything else. Aria felt… sheltered, safe. It was a feeling she wasn’t accustomed to, one that had her heart beating faster and made her feel breathless.
In that moment, they felt like the only two people in the world. All she could see was him. All she could hear was the low, continuous rumble of his purr. All she could smell was his cinnamon and smoke scent, edged with the tang of dried blood still coating his skin.
It was a visceral reminder of the world in which they lived but only served to reinforce how much they needed this.
Fisting his cock, he rubbed the wide head over her, slicking it with her wetness before he notched himself in her opening. Instead of thrusting inside her, mischievousness flashed acros
s his face and a smirk curled his lips as something soft brushed against her still throbbing clit.
Aria choked on a scream and her eyes went wide as that something latched on just as Tirox began pushing inside her.
Sensations, almost too intense to bear, had spots dancing in her eyes. Her overly sensitive skin, arousal, and anticipation combined to magnify every feeling until her body felt like one giant nerve ending. The gentle sucking of his second cock on her clit, the stretch as he slowly pressed deeper and deeper, his chest brushing her hard nipples, it was too overwhelming, too much sensation to bear, and, yet, she wanted—needed—more.
They stared at each other, their eyes wide in twin expressions of urgency and desire. Aria clutched at him as he pressed ever deeper, little panting whimpers spilling from her lips, answered by choked groans from him, telling her she wasn’t the only one drowning in pleasure.
She didn’t remember ever having sex in this body, and the stretch as he pushed his thick cock inside her almost bordered on uncomfortable, but that only heightened her senses further and made it all the more electrifying.
He retreated slightly, spreading her wetness over his shaft, only to go deeper still. Just when she thought she couldn’t fit much more, he thrust forward hard and bottomed out.
He stayed there, buried to the hilt, and squeezed his eyes shut for a second.
“Rwy’n la. My rwy’n la. You are perfect,” he growled.
Panting through the incredible fullness between her legs, Aria breathed, “I love you, Red.”
His eyes flashed open. Before he could answer, she retaliated against his earlier mischievousness and smiled slightly as she clenched her walls around him. He made a strangled sound and a hard shudder tracked down his spine.
“Vicious female!”
She started to snicker, but it very quickly changed to a sharp cry when he withdrew then slammed himself forward. Her eyes rolled back and his hands tightened on her shoulders. He didn’t stop there but pulled back again and drove into her so hard her body slid upward on the moss.
“Oh, god, yes. Fuck me, Red,” she demanded on a moan.
Speech was reduced to wordless sounds of pleasure after that. They lost themselves in each other. Slipping one arm out from under her shoulder, he reached down and clutched her hip, holding her still as he began fucking her in earnest.
Over and over he pounded into her, filling the cave with the sound of skin slapping against skin, her cries, and his hoarse growls. Coiling her legs around his hips, she canted her hips up to meet every hammering thrust, chasing a second, rapidly building orgasm.
It hit her without warning. Mouth falling open in a silent scream, Aria sank her nails into his sides and writhed beneath him. White hot bliss consumed her, blinding her to anything but the feeling of his cock slamming in and out of her and the steady pull of his second shaft on her clit.
Still in the grips of mind-numbing pleasure, she was barely aware enough to notice when he reared upward and sat back on his heels. Gripping her hips tightly so her back was bowed off the ground, he held her still as he fucked her faster, pounding his thick cock into her harder.
One orgasm bled into another until she felt like she was being unraveled, pulled apart at the seams.
She was on the edge of a fourth when his rhythmic grunts changed to a long, broken groan and his thrusts slowed. Her eyes, glazed with pleasure, popped open as she felt him start to withdraw. Tightening her thighs, she halted his retreat.
Voice hoarse from her screams, she demanded breathlessly, “Don’t you dare stop, or I really will break your snout.”
A shudder traveled down his spine at her words, and his golden eyes flashed white.
“Gods around us, I love when you threaten me.”
With that, he slammed into her so hard her entire body shook at the impact.
Aria couldn’t retort. The orgasm hit her just then, and she shattered beneath him. Again and again he slammed into her, slow and hard, so fucking hard she jolted every time he bottomed out.
Even through the pleasure, she felt his cock swell inside her, becoming impossibly thicker. It felt like he was rubbing over every nerve ending, sending fresh shudders through her even as the distant worry that he’d grow too big to fit anymore flickered through the back of her mind.
Tirox groaned so lowly she felt the vibration through his shaft buried inside her and tensed suddenly, the huge muscles of his chest and arms flexing so hard he looked carved from stone. Shoving himself to the hilt, he ground his hips into hers and came.
The feel of him filling her to overflowing with jet after jet of cum, combined with his second cock intensifying its sucking on her clit and the sight of his pleasure threw her into another release.
Aria screamed.
Blackness was crowding in on the edge of her vision by the time her convulsions stopped. The breath sawed in and out of her lungs and her heart was racing as she went limp.
Chapter 20
When Aria felt Tirox lower her hips to the ground and settle back over her, she kept her eyes closed but reached up with an arm that felt as substantial as jelly and weakly stroked her hand down his face in praise.
She expected him to roll off or at least stop fucking her now that he’d come, but he continued pushing his big cock in an out of her, almost lazily, like he wasn’t quite ready to be finished. His movement prolonged her post-orgasm aftershocks, keeping her walls clenching rhythmically around him.
Cracking open an eye, she gazed up at him blearily.
“Are… are you still coming?” she croaked.
He smirked down at her. “No. But, I am not ready to leave your tight cunt. I am enjoying the feel of you stuffed full of my seed.” A flash of hunger brightened his eyes as he added, “Besides, I wonder if I might coax you to clench for me once more.”
A flash of arousal shot through her even as she snorted with amusement.
“Doubtful. I’m all clenched out.”
His expression turned predatory, and a smile wide enough to bare his fangs stretched his lips. “Is that a challenge, my little female?”
Aria sputtered, and her eyes went wide. “No!”
Chuckling, he rolled them over until he was flat on his back with her splayed across his chest. He still didn’t pull out, but he did stop thrusting.
Deciding that was good enough, Aria sighed blissfully, enjoying the soft brush of his fingertips as he traced the line of her spine.
She felt relaxed for the first time in, well, who the hell knew how long, her mind quiet and calm as she listened to Tirox’s heartbeat thudding reassuringly under her ear.
Aria was drifting on the edge of sleep when Tirox shifted under her.
“Beds aren’t supposed to move, ya know,” she slurred, keeping her eyes closed.
He chuckled but ignored her less-than-subtle demand he be still. Wrapping his arms around her, he sat up with a groan and pushed to his feet. Assuming he was going to where Kix lay and determined to recapture that peaceful lassitude before sleep, she stayed limp and let him carry her.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t his destination.
The second she heard the splash of his feet hitting the water, her eyes flew open.
Instantly wide awake, Aria climbed him like a tree until she had her legs wrapped around his pecs and was clutching his head to her chest.
“Hey, hey, whoa! We don’t know what kind of people-eating monsters are swimming in that water!”
His voice came out muffled by her breasts, but she could still hear the amusement in it. “My fearsome, lethal mate cannot possibly be worried about some harmless fish.”
Snorting, she leaned over to eye the water in which he was standing.
“Harmless, my ass! If we’ve got alligators in the sewers of New York, there’s no telling what kind of creatures are waiting in the depths down there. And you’re covered in blood! You’d be ringing the fucking dinner bell!”
He wasn’t even trying to hide his laughter by the time she
finished. Grabbing his horns, she pulled his head out of her boobs and glared down at him.
He made at least a passing effort to choke back his amusement at the expression on her face and stroked his big hand down her spine soothingly.
“I would feel the ripples if there was anything big hiding down there, but if it eases your mind, I shall only go deep enough to bathe us.”
Aria opened her mouth to insist they didn’t need a bath that badly, but a trickle of cum slid down her thigh just then.
Hunching her shoulders, she grumbled under her breath about alligators and alien river monsters, but very slowly, very carefully climbed down his body and dipped a single toe in the water. When nothing jumped out and tried to eat her, she lowered herself until she was standing in the shin deep current.
Gazing back up at him she asked, “You’re sure it’s fresh water?”
“I am.”
Still wary, but at least slightly reassured, she took a very quick bath, splashing water on herself to clean off the blood and sex, but she never stopped scanning for surprise visitors.
By the time she finished and bounded out, Tirox had only managed to clean his legs.
Safe on the bank, she turned back and stood guard for him while wiping off the droplets clinging to her. The cold air in the cave against her wet skin made a shiver track down her spine and had goosebumps rising on her arms, but her body adjusted before she could bemoan the complete lack of available clothes or blankets. Within seconds, she was warm and comfortable.
At least one of the modifications Zhrovni did to us was useful for more than just killing people.
Her gaze flicked to Tirox standing naked and wet in the river, his muscles flexing as he scrubbed the blood off his skin. A flash of his mouth between her legs and how incredible it felt had her breath hitching.
Okay, so the hypersensitive skin isn’t so bad either.
When he finally joined her on the bank, fatigue was pulling at her. She didn’t protest when he scooped her up into his arms that time, just relaxed against him and let him carry her to where Kix was lying.