Mesmerized

  “Please. Gods, Andrei, please.” She moved her head from side to side, hissing when he scraped his teeth over her collarbone, right at the place where it met the hollow of her throat.

  “Please what?”

  Oh he was so arrogant! With reason, no doubt about it. He used every part of himself against her. His weight to pin her hips in place, his hands, fingers digging into the muscle of her thighs and ass to hold her up. His cock fucking into her pussy, driving her mad with desire.

  “I need to come. I want you to come in me.”

  “You first.” He adjusted his hold, the tips of his fingers brushing against her labia, only adding more friction. He pushed her together, sealing her around his cock, and it was only a breath until the first tendrils of climax had begun to latch on, dragging her hip deep into it.

  His openmouthed kisses were hot and sensual, the heat of his mouth a brand against her skin.

  “Go on.” She panted. “Bite me. You know you want to, and I’m offering myself.”

  His groan was laced with anguish, threaded with desire and need. And his teeth played against her shoulder, where they met her skin. Anticipation flooded her, sent her reeling headlong into climax. And then he bit, his teeth sinking into the muscle, and still she felt the fine tremble as he kept himself in check.

  She rode it, let it take over, sing through her veins as she came around his cock, knowing he felt it. Knowing it only made the experience better for him. “Yes. Gods. Yes.”

  She didn’t care how loud she was. Didn’t care about anything but how he felt. How he was, naked to her right then as he lifted his head and locked gazes with her. In that moment he was vulnerable, and it made her feel like she could do anything for that trust. Anything to see him this way again. Unguarded and open. Something she knew he rarely, if ever showed anyone else.

  She wanted to writhe. Wanted to swivel, but he held her exactly how he wanted as he fucked into her body. Held her in place as he thrust over and over again. He bent his knees, digging into her body in fierce, deep presses until his head fell forward onto her shoulder and he came with a groan.

  A groan of her name.

  He slid to the ground, keeping her on top as he lay on the floor. When she sat upright, she looked down on him and sighed happily. He opened his eyes, a smirk on his lips.

  “You look awfully satisfied with yourself.” She shouldn’t let him get away with his outrageous behavior. But, to be honest with herself, she loved it. Loved the way he acted. Perhaps it was those moments when he eased up and let her in, gave her a few words or a smile. Whatever it was, she was utterly charmed by it.

  “I was about to say it was you who sounded satisfied.” He lazily traced the outline of the bite mark. That sensation shot straight to her clit. “Did I hurt you?”

  The arrogance slid away, worry in his gaze. She couldn’t help but laugh; this tough man worried a love bite had harmed her. A man who’d taken out an entire squad of Skorpios. She found it wildly flattering.

  She dipped her head, kissing his mouth and then his chin. “Yes, it hurt a little. At first. Then”—she licked her lips, trying to find the right words for him—“then the pain melts away and there’s this white-hot wash of pleasure. I loved it.” She touched the one on her inner thigh. “This one, too. I like it that you’ve marked me.” Glad for the way her skin color hid blushes, she ducked her face, and he caught it, easing her back to face him.

  “I like that, too.”

  She grinned. “Oh. Well, good.” Tipping her chin, she indicated the other rooms beyond her closed door. “I think, perhaps, our cover is blown.” She was loud enough to have let the entire household know they were fucking. Thank the heavens the children were all still in school.

  When he moved to stand, she watched, as always, awed by his grace and the strength of his bunched muscles. She took the hand he held for her and let him haul her to stand next to him. “Are you concerned? I don’t wish to cause you difficulty.”

  A laugh bubbled through her as she hugged him. “The only difficulty is that nearly every woman in the compound and a few men want what I’ve got. And they can’t have it, because I don’t share.”

  “I guessed that about you. I have to clean up the launcher and get some things in place for my work later this evening.”

  She cocked her head, narrowing her gaze at him.

  “Fine. Our work. But it still has to be done.”

  “The basin is right behind you. Clean up a little and go on out. The evening meal is cooking. Lune’s stew is one of my favorites. Don’t be late, or you’ll have to eat bread and fruit while everyone else has second helpings.”

  She made no secret of looking at his backside as he washed his face and hands before skirting next door to get his clothes on, robe clutched around himself.

  “Well, then.” Taryn looked her up and down when she sidled up to the counter and began to clean the vegetables they’d serve with dinner. Taryn made a delicious sauce to go with them. Pungent and tart with herbs and oils.

  “Well then what?” She tried not to smile at Lune, but the other woman’s wink did her in.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Taryn, he didn’t break me. He’d never hurt me. It’s not like that.”

  Her brother snorted a laugh. “That falls into the far more information than a brother needs to know category. I meant the outing. Kenner told me there’d been a spot of trouble.”

  She put her hands over her face momentarily, feeling the heat of her embarrassment against her palms. “Yes, there was. He handled it. Pretty much single-handedly. Everything is fine. Well, not the big picture everything. That is not fine at all. But today, here and now, everything is fine.”

  Taryn sighed. “Piper . . . don’t get attached again. He’s got a job to do. He won’t be staying. Even if he wanted to, things are dire, and he has big responsibilities.”

  At least she knew Kenner hadn’t run to him to tell Taryn all about their earlier conversation. Quickly, and very briefly, she told him the same thing she’d said to Kenner.

  She could fight it and make grand statements about how she knew it was short-lived and she was just having great sex with an old lover. But it was more. She knew it, and it seemed disrespectful of them both to claim otherwise.

  He listened, patiently, as he worked and finally hugged her, onearmed, before turning back to what he was doing. “All right. I just want you to be happy.”

  “I love you, Taryn. Have I told you that lately?” She looked up, and up some more. Her older brother had been her father since their own father had died shortly after their first winter on Asphodel. He favored their father. His skin nearly ebony, his eyes big and brown, hair in the short knots like their father had worn.

  “But butt out? Was that the next part?” he teased.

  “Not at all. Thank you for taking over after Dai was gone. For struggling to keep us fed and clothed. For being the father of us all here. There’s nothing here, no one who hasn’t been touched by something you’ve done for them. I admire you. I’m proud of you. I don’t say it enough. I appreciate your concern about my heart. But the truth of it is I love him. Never stopped most likely, and here he is as an adult and I am, too, and he’s even more than he was then. If he leaves, I will still love him, because that’s who I am, and how can I regret even a week or two with him when before I had nothing but far-off memories?”

  He blinked his eyes a few times, bending to haul some more vegetables to the table where she worked. “Thank you for that.”

  “He doesn’t think he’s a good man.”

  “What do you think?”

  “I know he is. He’s back here and protecting us all. Today, you should have seen him. Fierce. There was no way those Imperial soldiers were going to get away with being here and trying to harm us. He simply was not going to let that happen. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “I can’t lie and tell you it doesn’t concern me. That I don’t worry for your safety. But he protec
ts you. I’ve seen it. I can be happy with that.”

  She needed more than his body between hers and danger. But she could certainly appreciate that nonetheless. It was his mind and his heart she was more interested in. Wanted more.

  “I think he’s a good man, too.” And with that, Taryn left the kitchen, whistling, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

  Chapter 10

  They hiked from the place where they’d left the zipper. He hadn’t wanted to risk being discovered or the zipper being damaged. So she’d left it on the edge of the Wastelands in the shadow of the cliffs, and they were currently moving at a fast clip toward the mine.

  Andrei was impressed with the way she easily kept up with him as they took a fairly brutal pace.

  They couldn’t speak and risk being detected by any possible portable listening stations. The constant wind meant their footfalls would not be heard. She’d done everything he asked, except stay back at the compound. He’d tried again, telling her to wait with the zipper, and she’d ignored him totally, swinging out of the zipper’s cockpit and sliding her goggles and the sand mask into place over her nose and mouth.

  Good thing he already wore his so she wouldn’t see his annoyance.

  He fell into the run, his footsteps pounding the sand below. They had a few hours, maximum, before a storm came up, and that didn’t take into account the very real fact that random storms happened all the time out here, which was why it was pretty much deserted. Still, there had been a smattering of the low, curved abodes the settlers had lived in out this way. They dug into the rock foundation below the sand, keeping the abode in place in heavy winds. Still, it had to be a fairly hair-raising experience with the winds and sand trying to get inside to slice a body to pieces.

  As they ran he planned his trip to Mirage. It would be better to just go without word. Cleaner. He’d come back most likely, at least to be sure they were all safe. But he thought of her face as she’d told him how it had felt when he’d gone without a word eleven years before, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it to her again. It wouldn’t be right. Her whole family had been good to him. Had helped him with this mission, and it wouldn’t be fair.

  So he’d tell them all right before he left for the Portal. That would work.

  She tapped on his door, impatient, but set on her goals.

  “We don’t need to leave for some time yet,” he murmured when he answered.

  “I know. Come with me.” She held out a hand. “Bring everything we’ll need for the run. We’ll leave directly from where I’m taking you.”

  He narrowed his gaze a moment.

  “Trust me.”

  He snorted but reached down to grab his duffel with his free hand. The other remained in hers.

  Expertly, she flew past the closer canyons and toward the caldera. When she reached the spot, she landed on an outcropping she’d have been nervous about only a few years before.

  “Nice flying.”

  She didn’t hide her smile at his compliment. “Thanks. Took me about a thousand tries to get it right. But it’s worth it. Follow me, and watch your step.”

  The blast of heat wore away as she drew him through the narrow, sloped passage. And the dry was replaced by moist air. She broke some glow sticks and tossed them near the water to reflect the light.

  “Pools?”

  So very glad she’d brought him, she nodded. “Fed by underground springs. The saline is high here, so it’s easy to float. The dark blue ones just beyond”—she indicated three small pools to the southern end of the cavernous space—“are cool.”

  She began to strip, leaving her things in a neat, folded pile. “Brought some drying cloths. These here”—she dipped a toe into the nearest pool—“are warm. Not too warm. Just right.”

  When she turned to face him, she found him partially unclothed, his gaze snagged on her body.

  Flattered, she smiled and moved to him, making quick work of getting him all the way naked.

  Andrei couldn’t say why, not totally, but emotion flooded him when he saw the space. Water bubbled slowly up, seeping into the pools, lending a tranquil air. All his worries ebbed, and he grasped this moment. Just the two of them.

  He watched her as she stepped into the largest pool. Everything in his body tightened at her groan of delight. Even more when her breasts floated so prettily.

  “I’m liking the high saline in the water right about now,” he murmured as he swam lazily toward her.

  Her laugh was easy as she came to him, her arms around him, lips pressed against his throat.

  “Do you like the pools?”

  He ducked under the water, kissing a trail up her belly and neck. “Yes.”

  Laughing, she swam away, flipping to her back in a most alluring fashion. “I’m glad. I found this place a few years ago. Got caught out in a storm, and I needed the cover of the canyon. It’s my secret place.”

  He smiled, swimming after her like a predator. “Thank you for sharing it with me.”

  She splashed him, scooting just out of his reach, teasing. “There’s a story. About your hair. You said something about not cutting it unless you had to. Your face says more to me than you do with words. There’s something there. I want to know it. Will you share it with me?”

  He paused, and she moved past him, a phantom touch of her fingertips against his shoulder. “I want to know you. Fill in those spaces in my head.”

  What else could he do but give her what she’d asked for so honestly? “In my first year, during training for Phantom Corps, I got into a lot of fights. Stupid, insignificant stuff I wouldn’t blink at today. But I wasn’t the same then.”

  He’d been nearly feral. Away from everything he knew. At first he trusted no one. Then slowly he’d built a kinship with Daniel. A bond he felt to that very day.

  “All of us, all the operatives in Phantom Corps come from tumultuous backgrounds. We lacked discipline. Lacked self-respect.” He did a backstroke, trying to pretend it wasn’t a problem to tell this story.

  “I got into one too many brawls.” An understatement. He’d nearly killed another trainee. The boy, now one of the few people Andrei could always count on to get his back, had nearly lost an eye.

  She never said a word, just treaded water, moving her gaze with him as he continued to swim.

  “My punishment was to tend to the soldier I’d wounded.” He’d gone to his barracks every day, three times a day, to help administer medications and to change the bandages. Had seen, firsthand, just how much damage could be done with his fists. Every day, over and over, he was confronted with the hurt he’d caused.

  “Ellis had been off-’Verse at the time. He called me to his office.” His gut clenched at the memory of Wilhelm’s face, so full of disappointment. That had shaken Andrei more than anything else. He wanted Ellis’s respect, and he’d only earned his disdain.

  “He said I had too much pride for all the wrong reasons.” Said Andrei had no self-respect or understanding of how teamwork could save a life. “My hair was part of it. So he had it shaved off.”

  She gasped, unable to stop herself. She knew he didn’t want pity, but it was there in her belly. What would it have been like for him so far from everything he knew? Cutting all his glorious hair would have left him utterly exposed, body and sprit.

  “Don’t. I deserved it.” He flipped to his back, cradling her against him as he swam them to the ledge.

  “And you grew it all back to prove you could have both.” And, she’d wager, the first step he’d taken to controlling his anger.

  The hands he’d had roving all over her body paused a brief moment. His way of agreeing with what she said, she imagined.

  “Love me,” she murmured as she turned to face him.

  He swam them over to the shallows, his palms sliding over every part of her he could reach. The silk of the water created delicious friction. Weightless and caressed, she let him carry her, gave herself to him, willingly going wherever he wanted.

&nb
sp; Slow and sexy, he glided around to face her once her feet touched the smooth rocks. He kissed each eyelid, over the bridge of her nose, across her cheeks. Feather-light touches that echoed through her like an earthquake.

  He devastated with tenderness, surprising her when she’d expected ferocity. He had a way of doing that. Of sneaking past her expectations and touching her when she least anticipated it.

  The pad of her thumb brushed over his lips, against the soft bristle of the scruff on his face. “What a glorious sight you are, your hair slicked back away from your face.” He turned his face into her hand, first kissing and then catching her thumb between his teeth, licking and then sucking.

  An echo tugged at her nipples, around her clit, and she took a deep breath, relaxing in the warmth around them, letting herself give over fully to this moment between them.

  He dipped just a bit, licking across her collarbone. “I just had you a few hours ago.”

  Her head fell back as she let herself float, boneless. “I’m always happy to be had again, you know.”

  Instead of speaking, he let his hands and mouth do the work. A tug of teeth on a nipple peeking just above the waterline. The tease of fingertips along the seam of her labia and then a tickle against her clit.

  He drew her to the farthest end of the shallows, so that she rested on her back, reclining on rocks warmed by the water. Only her calves and fingertips remained immersed.

  Taking her foot in his hands, he kneaded her instep, giving a hot, openmouthed kiss at her arch and then just behind her anklebone. So tender it brought a strangled sigh from her lips. Gentle, but firm hands continued to massage up each leg, his thumbs sliding along the place where thigh met body.

  Such a tease.

  She loved every moment of it. Every bit of time they could steal, just the two of them like this, sharing and growing, was a gift. A secret side of him she was thrilled to be shown. Made her feel special to be part of it.