Mesmerized

  Her taste shocked him. Memories rushed back, memories of the way she’d been, juxtaposed with the Piper of today. Bold. Sexually aggressive. Hot and sweet. Creamy and juicy. Her fingers wove through his hair and tugged, holding him in place.

  He groaned again, his mouth open against her, his tongue flicking over her clit. Backing up, he pulled her with him, tugging her hips to bring her to the edge of the bed. On his knees there he could get to her better, brace himself as he pushed his face into her cunt, brushing his lips from side to side until her thighs began to tremble.

  She was everything he tasted, smelled, saw, felt. In that moment she was utterly his, and that exploded through him, shaking him, cracking his resolve to keep his distance. Each time he had to make a hard choice, he found himself doing it with her in mind. How could he let himself touch her? See her? How could he let himself kiss her? And here he was, mouth on her cunt, submerged in her as much as he could be.

  Knowing this was over the line. Knowing he should stop after he made her come. Knowing he should draw a halt to all this right then without another breath of her. But he wouldn’t.

  There were no excuses he could make to himself to allow for this with her. None. Nothing more than that he wanted it with a ferocity that caused him pain to resist. She was his greatest weakness and his greatest joy. He could not refuse her.

  Wouldn’t.

  His fingers dug deep into the muscles of her hips. Above him she writhed, keeping as quiet as she could because others slept nearby. Knowing she wanted to scream out instead shook Andrei, sharpened the sensuality of what they shared just then.

  And then his nails abraded her skin as he moved down to push her thighs open, exposing her totally to his gaze. So beautiful, he gentled, taking long licks through her, paying homage.

  Teasing, he slid his fingertip around her gate over and over, getting a little deeper each time. She couldn’t hold back her gasp when he added a second finger, curling his wrist to catch her sweet spot on each stroke.

  Her fingers against his skull, urging and cradling all at once, he allowed her to move him upward again where he flicked that sensitive spot just beneath her clit as he sucked it in between his lips.

  Her muscles tightened as her hips rocked. She whispered his name hoarsely as she came. And then he gave in and bit. Right on her thigh. High enough no one would have cause to see it unless she was naked.

  A cry escaped her as his teeth sank into her skin. He pushed her right to the limit where pleasure had flowed into pain, but she held on through that burn, and it bloomed into a bone-deep nearorgasmic sensation.

  She sighed through it, soaking it in as it flowed into her climax, extending it and leaving her a warm heap of satisfied woman.

  He laved over the bite and picked her up gently, settling them both in his bed, beneath the blankets. Relief flooded her that he was making no attempt to leave or start making excuses for leaving or not doing this a few thousand times more.

  “You still have your clothes on.” She frowned once she had full control of her muscles again. Leaning on her elbow, she shook her head. “Rectify that at once, or I shall be very vexed.”

  The serious look on his face wisped away as his mouth curved up at the corner. Not wanting to resist, Piper dipped her head to draw the tip of her tongue there.

  He turned his head then, meeting her lips with his own, and she rolled atop him, taking her time as she explored him. He tasted of her, but mixed with him, which made it alluring and taboo.

  His lips called to be licked and nibbled so she did, while he caressed every part of her he could reach. Kneading, scoring lightly with his blunt nails, a tug and pinch of her left nipple.

  Piper had been warm and relaxed after that orgasm, and now she began to burn for him again. She rolled off, trying to catch her breath. “Go on then.” She winked and laughed when he snorted his response.

  But he got up from the bed anyway and pulled his long-sleeved shirt from his body, exposing a torso that made her purr with delight. Lean muscle lay flat across his shoulders and down his arms. His chest was lightly dusted with inky-dark hair. He’d only had a little body hair before. A boy only barely entering manhood.

  His belly was magnificent. She moved to sit so she could get a better look at him. Flat. Row after row of ridged muscle. And in the center, at his navel, a dark line of hair trailing down to where she knew his cock was.

  “Wow.” She looked him up and down, and every part of her sprang to life.

  “A fine compliment, milady.” He bowed theatrically, and it nearly made her swoon. More than that mind-altering climax he’d given her with his mouth, the way he’d just shown her a moment of whimsy was ridiculously flattering. As if he’d given her a compliment, which, she supposed, he had.

  “What else have you got hiding in those trousers?” She looked at him, mock-stern.

  His bark of laughter was rusty, as if he rarely did it. “Am I to worry over my virtue then?”

  “Oh yes. Most assuredly.” She nodded.

  He shoved his pants down, along with his underwear, and it was a very close thing that Piper did not clap.

  “Andrei Solace, what lovely treats you bring to my party.”

  Like the rest of him, his legs were long and lean, tightly muscled with thicker thighs, again with a light dusting of hair, and hard calves.

  Piper moved from the bed, walking around him as he stood there, allowing it. Unable to resist, she unbound his hair, letting it wash over his shoulders and back and down to what had to be one of the finest asses in all of existence.

  “You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.” She trailed around him again, taking his hand and drawing him back to bed.

  “Such flattery to draw my pants away.” He smiled at her, and she soaked it in.

  “It worked.” She laughed and scrambled astride his body, rubbing herself over his cock.

  “Indeed.” He rolled them so that he was on top, teasing her with his cock as he pinned her. And again, she found her hands over her head as he held them tight in a firm but gentle grip. This time there was no hesitation in him when she struggled.

  Piper found herself outrageously wet as he teased her with his cock. He nibbled down the line of her neck and across her collarbone, pausing to lick and kiss the hollow of her throat. His free hand moved to her nipple, where he worked some sort of magic with the way he rolled it between his thumb and forefinger, twisting and pulling it just exactly right. Keeping that edge.

  “What is it you said you wanted?” he murmured, kissing the underside of her jaw, still teasing her with the head of his cock. Just barely entering her before sliding it up and over her clit and then back to her gate again.

  “You know what I want.” She managed not to pant, but it was a close thing.

  “Yes. Do you know what I want?”

  Oh. Gods, she nearly came when he brushed his cock against her again, just from the realization. He wanted her to beg for it, meant to tease her and then make her beg. It shouldn’t make her hot. It shouldn’t make her whimper.

  But it did.

  “Please put your cock inside me. Please fuck me.”

  And he was slowly pushing into her as he let go of her wrists and angled himself to his haunches. He grabbed her ankles and pushed them up and then slid that iron grip up to her knees to spread her wide, her ass resting on his thighs as he began to thrust.

  Her position allowed for little movement; he controlled the entire process, and she couldn’t seem to get enough. He was overwhelmingly sexy this way. Dominant and aggressive. Taking what he wanted from her. And yet the way he touched her, looked at her, only made her feel beautiful and sensual.

  “I want to see your fingers on your clit,” he murmured, though it was quite clearly an order.

  She walked them down her belly, impressed with the way he’d changed his strokes to add a swivel of his hips. Each time he pressed all the way inside he hit all new bundles of nerves, lighting her up in an entirely differen
t and no less effective way.

  All the while he looked at her, looked at her body as if she was something altogether precious and mesmerizing. No one but he had ever looked at her that way. There was a sense, right then as she slid a fingertip around her clit and he watched with hungry eyes, of coming home, of completing some long quest and having this as her reward for all her struggles.

  “Not yet.” He spoke as she began to grasp hold of the edges of another orgasm. She backed off a little and tightened herself around him, earning herself a raised brow. But he sped a little, thrusting harder so that the frame of the bed began a small groan on every third thrust.

  “Please.”

  He leaned down to kiss her quickly and kept his pace, bent over her a little more so that he restrained her with his body. What should have felt, what would have felt claustrophobic with another man, felt only exciting with him.

  There was only pleasure and anticipation as he took her closer and closer, as his breathing began to lose its steady rhythm and she knew he was getting close.

  “Now.”

  It only took two circles around her clit before she exploded into orgasm. He snarled a curse, and deep inside her, she felt the jerk of his cock as he came as well. She arched with a too-loud moan when he bit the side of her breast and again, that edge, hurtling toward pain, wading in and the bloom of velvet pleasure when she came out the other side.

  He rolled to the side to keep from crushing her.

  “There’s a lot to be said about whatever you’ve been up to that has trained you for this.”

  He snorted again, and she kissed his chin.

  “I hope you don’t think I’m going back to my room now. I’m sure half the house heard the bed groaning anyway. I’m here for the night.”

  “As if there was any doubt you’d do what you wanted anyway.”

  “I’m glad to know you still understand me so well.” She snuggled into him.

  Chapter 8

  “After we finish this run I need to make a quick transmission.”

  Piper didn’t take her gaze from the screen in front of her as she flew low and fast to avoid detection. “Where do I need to take you?”

  “I can go alone.”

  “I’m sure you can. But I’m right here and we’ll be out already, so why do triple the work unless you think I’m going to eavesdrop and tattle.”

  He heaved a heavy sigh. Piper was unmanageable. She did not stay put when he told her to, and she didn’t mind him at all.

  “I know you’re over there thinking about how I never obey you.”

  He groaned under his breath, and she laughed.

  “I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that when it is important, I do obey you. Didn’t I let you punch that idiot Targon in the face when he grabbed my ass back there?”

  He had, and while he should feel bad for the lapse in his self-control, he did not. The man had no business touching Piper anywhere at any time.

  “I think let is not exactly the correct term. In any case, the less you know about what I’m up to, the safer you are. Period. You may take me to the transmission spot, but I will make the transmission without an audience, and not because I think you’ll tattle.”

  She hit the reverse thrusters hard, yanking them to a stop and then carefully lifted the zipper from the canyon floor near the mercenary portal they’d used to run the cargo.

  “Uh-oh,” she mumbled, right as Andrei saw them. A conveyance with far too many men in it. “Are those Imperialist soldiers?” Andrei liked the outrage in her voice.

  “Yes. Stay out of range and set down on that plateau to the south. I’d like to keep the upper hand here.”

  “I think I’ve kept out of sight a few times. I may be able to manage it.”

  He nearly grinned at her, instead taking her comm pad and fiddling, finding their channel and inside he went utterly cold at what he heard.

  They spoke the language native to Caelinus. Skorpios. There in a Federation ’Verse. They spoke openly on an unsecured channel. A boast that they could do whatever they wanted.

  She set the zipper down with ease and utter silence. He barely had the chance to be impressed though, as he picked up bits and pieces.

  He took his field glasses and the comm, recording the conversation, which he also transmitted back to his people. Vincenz would decode it quickly enough.

  Why out there so far? Nowhere near any portals he knew about, private and the sanctioned one in town. The conveyance easily seated a dozen men, and they carried some sort of cargo. Probably the liberiam they’d mined.

  “Do you know what they’re saying? I haven’t heard this language before.”

  He didn’t startle, not entirely surprised that she’d crept up behind the place in the rocky outcropping where he’d set up a watch on the action below.

  They couldn’t be allowed to move that cargo.

  He went back to the zipper and pulled a panel free to get at the bag just beyond.

  “I want you to take the zipper and get back to the compound immediately.” He didn’t take his attention from the plas-rocket launcher he put together, piece by piece, from the bag.

  “Let me call for backup. You can’t handle them all on your own.”

  He simply looked at her until she snorted. “Not even you can do that!”

  “I can do all sorts of things. If I’m not back by moonrise, dial this contact.” He handed the comm back. “I used it to send the conversation, but I’ve downloaded the data to my comm now as well.”

  “You’re out of your mind!”

  “Piper, those men down there have a substance that could power the machine I told you about. I cannot allow that to happen. They’re no ordinary troops, they’re Skorpios. Fardelle’s private shock troops. And they have no reason to be here.”

  “I’m not arguing with your response. I’m saying you need me to watch your back, and I’m going to. I know how to load one of these. Don’t ask.” She grinned when he sent a questioning glance her way. “Let me help you. Do you think I want them here either? This is my home.”

  By the time he put the plas-rocket launcher together and set it to charge, the answer had come back from Daniel to Andrei’s request to neutralize the threat. You are go.

  He wanted very much for her to leave, but he knew she wouldn’t. At least if he kept her close he might be able to shield her pretty ass in case things went upside down.

  “If you get hurt, I will let your brothers kick your ass, because they’re not blaming me for your inability to know what is best.”

  “Well, thank the gods for that. Being a silly woman and all, however would I know what to do unless one of you told me?” She clicked the barrel into place after it charged fully. It shouldn’t make him want to take her to the dirt and fuck her, but the easy way she had with whatever task was before her really turned him on.

  “When I fire, use the confusion to take out as many as you can. They will regroup. We need to kill as many of them as we can with the first strike.” He examined her features carefully, gauging her response, but she nodded, checking her weapon over and moving into a better position.

  He didn’t use the finder to lock the target. He had better aim if he followed his gut, which he did. A long breath out, emptying his head of everything but the target and the slow squeeze of the trigger.

  Below them, chaos broke out as the plas-burst hit the conveyance, sending shards of glass and metal into the air.

  While he waited for it to charge again, he reached for his sniper rifle and began to target those who were left.

  Piper tried to remain focused on the scene in the basin, but it was a close thing, given how ridiculously sexy Andrei was just then. Protective. Fierce as he concentrated on targeting. The burst hit the mark perfectly, and she began to shoot. Squeeze after squeeze, like he’d shown her just the day before.

  It only took them a short period of time before the remaining soldiers had taken cover behind the burned-out hulk of the conv
eyance and had begun to return fire.

  “Hold a moment.”

  She took cover as he messed with his comm pad. “I’m going to hit them again from over there.” He indicated another outcropping precariously higher than they were.

  She wanted so badly to tell him he was totally out of his mind. But he knew his job, obviously, so she tried not to appear anything less than 100 percent in support of his ridiculous plan.

  “I need suppressive fire. Can you do that?”

  She nodded, picking her weapon up again. “I’ll head over there.” She pointed in the opposite direction and scrambled over, careful not to kick up any dust to identify their position.

  Below them was bloody, smoking chaos, and she aimed at it and fired over and over, hoping the diversion would help him get into position.

  Her question about his situation was answered as another plas-rocket hit the group below. She kept shooting, trying to think of her people as she did. Trying to think of the people who needed her to be strong and steadfast in this war. They were on her turf, her ’Verse, and they wanted to destroy it.

  Within minutes, they were all gone. Andrei came down from his perch, very carefully, she happily noted.

  “Are you all right?” He looked her over carefully, his face set in that inscrutable mask of his.

  “Better than they are. Shall I fly us down there to be sure they’re all dead?”

  “I’ll handle that part. Keep the zipper up here. We don’t need the connection between you and them in any way. Go back to the compound. I’ll join you when I finish.”

  “This again? I’m good enough to shoot at them, but not to help you with the rest?”

  He took her upper arms, hauling her to his chest. The mask was gone, replaced with so much depth of emotion it rocked her into stunned silence. “Have I ever given you a reason to believe that?”

  She shook her head because words wouldn’t come.

  “You need no part of that down there. I will do it.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and let go as if burned, only to head down into the bloody, smoky mess below.

  It hit her then, as she stood watch through the scope on the weapon, protecting him, that he was doing the same. Protecting her.