Right now, he was about to find out how much more.
He pulled the furs back and told her to lie down on her stomach but to spread her legs wide.
She crawled over the stiff mattress.
“I want you spread eagle.” He pushed the pillows out of the way.
The bed was small. Sleeping might be problematic, but he loved how her pale body filled the space over the black silk sheets. Henry had great staff and it showed.
He watched her breathing, the quick nervous rise and fall of her back, and his thighs tensed, his cock growing hard. He liked her in this state, the confident woman laid out, vulnerable, at his mercy.
He stretched out behind her, planting his hands on either side of her hips. What man didn’t love the sight of woman’s shapely ass and Batya’s was about perfect.
He kissed her, soft slow kisses moving from one side to the other, then dragging his wet tongue over her skin, lapping at times. Even her skin tasted of her tropical flower scent. He got lost in the sensation, nipping at her, then biting hard so that she cried out. Her pelvis rolled and she moaned, but he held her down.
Just feel me, feel what I’m doing, but don’t move.
Her breathing grew ragged, even rough. He watched her fingers clutch, then release the sheet repeatedly. But he wouldn’t let her hips rise and fall.
He shifted backwards, inching his mouth lower, to the soft flesh of her inner thighs, working his way to the center, lapping, nipping, sucking. He lifted her hips and put a pillow under them to raise them up to reach her better. He wanted to do more French kissing between her thighs.
Once he got the right position, he used his hands to massage her bottom as he kissed her the way he wanted to, swirling his tongue in and out, sucking at times, plucking at her lower lips, always massaging.
Her breathing had turned to a soft pant. Quinlan, I need to move.
Stay put. He pressed her hips down.
She cried out in frustration, but he continued lapping at her, savoring the taste of her that flowed over his tongue, her scent rich, his cock hard.
He opened up his vibration, focusing solely on his tongue. He plunged inside and let the vibrations flow. She tensed, but she was right on the edge. He added more vibration and thrust faster. She let out a long cry and he could feel by her inner pulses that she was coming. But he held her flat as he punched his tongue inside her, thrusting hard, sending wave after wave of vibration into her and through her.
After a good long minute of writhing and crying out, her body finally fell lax. Oh, sweet Goddess, that was amazing, and what you can do with a vibration and your tongue—
He slapped her bottom. No talking unless I give you permission.
She moaned and her fingers once more squeezed the sheets.
“I want you on your hands and knees.”
* * * * * * * * *
Batya struggled to rise up because the orgasm had sent her to the moon and she’d still not quite come back to earth. What Quinlan could do to her with his tongue and just a little vibration.
Now he wanted her on her hands and knees.
She finally found her balance and looked back at him, the thick, damp mass of her hair falling over her right shoulder.
His fingers still played with her ass and she loved it. She loved his fingers on her, his tongue, his lips, even his teeth when he nipped her.
He positioned his cock behind her and began to push inside, holding onto her hips, easing into her. She watched his eyes close as he penetrated her depths.
She was so wet for him and he was so big. He pulled back almost the full length of her except his tip, then shoved back inside letting her feel his thick stalk the entire distance.
She could feel his body revving up and she gasped knowing what would come. The vibration through his cock came as a soft tingle then a rumbling as she pushed back against him.
“Be still.” He slapped her ass again.
The sensation startled her. The sting remained, combining with the vibration and the thrust of his cock, to create something new, something electric, something she wanted more of.
She pushed back again.
Once more he slapped her, then leaned over her and bit down on the back of her neck, hard and not with his fangs. You will obey me, Batya.
She didn’t understand what was happening to her, or why a strange vibration started up in her own body. She could hardly breathe.
That’s it. I’m feeling it now, your mating vibration is accepting me. He rolled his hips, thrusting. Damn that feels good.
Batya couldn’t help herself as she purposefully shoved her hips back hard.
No moving.
He bit down harder on her neck and reached around to pinch a nipple. He pumped in quick thrusts, grinding his teeth in to her neck and pinching her breast at the same time.
She cried out, wanting to tell him to stop because it hurt, yet not wanting him to stop.
She grew very still after which he eased up on the bite and the pinch, but increased the vibration deep inside. She moaned.
He rubbed her breasts now and licked the back of her neck, sucking in turns. He had big, fleshy hands and his touch sent a thrill through her. He added vibration to his fingertips and moved in slow circles as he thrust in and out.
Moving his lips to the side of her neck, he began to lick over her vein. She groaned, needing him to sink his fangs, to drink from her.
Do it.
He eased back and stopped the sensual thrust inside her.
She’d made a mistake. She’d commanded him and everything stopped.
Her body ached so deep inside for movement and vibration that she gave a groan. I’m sorry mastyr.
Say it again, but look at me.
She shifted once more to look back at him. His expression was hard, commanding and her breathing hitched all over again. He looked dangerous, lethal, like he could tear her apart with a thought.
Her whole body quivered. I’m sorry, mastyr. I humbly beg your pardon.
He wrapped the long, thick length of her hair around his forearm, and pulled so that she felt caught. Once more, desire rushed through her, of being pinned by Quinlan, held fast, unable to escape.
Much better.
Holding her gaze, he thrust into her again and once more let the vibrations flow through her breasts through his fingers and between her legs.
She moaned heavily, her own vibration seeking his and swirling over him. But he didn’t seem to complain about that. If anything, his realm vibration moved with hers, a kind of dance that echoed the heavy pounding of the drums.
She realized that their joined vibrations had synched with the drums, another erotic layer that had her well squeezing and released his stalk.
I’m going to take your blood, Cha, and you’re going to give it up for me. I’m going to drink until I’ve had my fill.
Yes, mastyr. She’d learned her lesson.
He released her hair to slide his arm around her waist. He held her tight against him in order to keep the upper part of her still while he continued to push in and out of her with his cock. She could have come but she held back, knowing that the slide to ecstasy was a mere thought away. She wanted to wait. She wanted the drums at the brigade circle rising to a crescendo, she wanted Quinlan sucking hard at her neck and his hips moving vampire fast. She wanted his vibration filling every inch of her body, then she’d release.
She’d never allowed a man to take her in this position before, not once. Now here she was letting the big hulk of a warrior vampire ride her hard, command her, and soon he’d drink, taking, as he said, his fill.
At the same time, and with great practice, his fangs sliced into her vein, then he began to suck. He sent another vibration through his lips on her neck so that chills rained down her side and over her breasts. He pumped his hips hard.
Mine, cha. His deep voice rumbling through her head, his body draping over hers, his mouth sucking down her life-force, his hips working her hard—all brought
her mating frequency forward in a way it had never been before.
He had all of her, something no man had ever taken before.
And it felt so damn good.
His movements became brisk, even rough. She wanted to move.
Let me move, please, mastyr.
You’ve asked nicely. Move with me now.
She pushed against him, her hips rocking. The drums in the distance fed the rhythm. Ecstasy built as a wave pulsed through her, then another and another, catching her up as Quinlan thrust hard into her, fast now, the beat of the drums quickening, his vibration at full-bore. He was so hard and her body gripped him. She cried out as pleasure streaked through her well, her abdomen, and rushed upward, filling her chest, her heart.
Suddenly he released her neck, rising up behind her, grabbing her hips hard as he thrust quicker still, then shouted into the open air. Her screams joined him as the rhythm of the drums pulsed, finally stopping just as her own cries eased down and Quinlan’s hips pushed in slower, final thrusts.
Her arms crumpled and she half-fell, half-tried to ease herself down onto the bed, her face pushed into the mattress, but she didn’t care. She felt so damn good.
Quinlan followed her and because he was so big, he managed to remain inside her, his hands catching her hips so that he lay on top of her. He spread his arms out on top of hers, breathing hard.
In the distance, a new drum rhythm began and the lyre played the prettiest melody. Batya couldn’t imagine anything more perfect.
She’d forgotten the difference in the realm-world and for a moment, a very brief moment, she thought she could live here forever.
Chapter Seven
Something felt very wrong to Quinlan, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what rubbed his instincts the wrong way. With his blood needs satisfied for a brief period and so many feel-good chemicals tripping through his veins, he should have been at ease.
Instead, as he rose almost groggily from on top of Batya, he secured the overhead protective sun-shield with a nagging sense of something critical left undone. He brought Batya a hand towel for cleaning and glanced around.
Finally, he slipped his leathers back on, as well as his boots, then stepped outside. He walked the entire perimeter of the tent.
The brigade’s music had ended at last and most of the men headed toward their tents.
His vampire vibration, peculiar to his species, sent a warning straight up his spine and a shot of pain into his head.
He turned to the east. The horizon, even through a dense forest, showed gray. Dawn was coming.
If he stayed out here much longer, the pain would intensify, but he had to have one last look around. His body seemed to know exactly where Batya was and not just because she lay on the tent bed. A powerful call within his gut, demanding he protect this woman, seemed fixed on her like the needle of a compass always aiming true north.
He wondered if it was her faeness, or that she’d come from Davido’s powerful troll stock. He didn’t know. But she had a call on him that both energized and irritated him.
He tried to imagine the moment, after they succeeded in delivering Lorelei to the Ferrenden Peace, when he said his farewells to the woman. But the idea of parting seemed impossible, which also grated on his bachelor proclivities. What was it about this woman that called to him as though she was the moon and he the tides, that he’d always respond to her, always turn in her direction, always say yes?
When the sun broke through the forest skyline, his head throbbed and his shoulder blistered, he finally left his vigil, unsatisfied at having failed to draw even one conclusion, and reentered the tent, securing the flap behind him.
He lit up his vision, seeking out a tear in any part of the dense canvas, and at last satisfied, he drew close to the side of the bed.
Batya lay as he’d left her, on her stomach, naked, her arms and legs spread. She was already asleep, her back rising and falling. He got rid of his boots then his pants, but took a long moment to stare down at her.
He’d loved commanding her, savored how her fae vibrations had flowed over and around his, how she’d taken to his slaps and bites, his domination of her body, the intensity of her response.
His cock responded appropriately, despite how much he’d already left of himself inside her. He took his shaft in his hand. He fondled what had been pocketed between her legs, her strong nest that had pulled on him. He let the memory play out in his mind and somewhere in all of that, his vibration began to hum.
That’s when he realized he was still joined to her, vibration to vibration. She awoke and turned her head in his direction. Her gaze fell to his cock and his hand rubbing up and down.
“I wasn’t enough?” But she smiled.
His lips curved. “I’m just remembering.”
She stretched and slowly rolled onto her back, her arms over head, her large breasts rocking as she turned. His gaze drifted the length of her.
She looked around. “It’s dawn.”
He nodded and took his time stretching out beside her. “We’ll be stuck in here all day.”
“And we won’t have to think twice about the she-devil out there.”
He shook his head, his fist still busy as he leaned over her body and drew a nipple into his mouth.
She made an encouraging sound, using a string of m’s.
Then he was torn. Should he leave his cock so he could touch her breasts, or keep fondling what was hard and ready once more.
Her breasts won out and for the next several minutes he gave all his attention to both breasts until Batya was writhing and begging for more.
He made love to her again, taking her to the heights, falling back to earth. He dozed and she sprawled.
Once, he took a hard slap to his face as the woman turned in her sleep, so he woke her up and punished her with his mouth between her legs for a good long time.
When at last he woke up, with the sun waning in the west, he lay on his side, spooning Batya, his arm wrapped tightly over her chest.
And in that soft moment before coming fully awake, he felt her vibration laying over his. They’d never completely separated, not in all this time, something he’d never done with another woman. Ever.
But because he wasn’t fully awake, he did something unexpected. He left the entwined vibrations alone, sinking into them and exploring all along their curved ridges.
He sent a heavier vibration along the joined frequencies and Batya moaned, grinding her hips against him.
“That’s nice,” drawled from her lips. “Do it again.”
But he didn’t because he came fully awake as shouts from the camp, of a desperate nature, brought him sitting bolt upright.
At the same time, he disconnected from Batya and it was a sudden painful moment that had her crying out as well.
“Sorry, but something’s going on.”
He jumped from bed and dressed fast. Batya wasn’t far behind him.
The problem was he couldn’t leave the tent, not yet. The sun hadn’t set behind the horizon.
But Batya pulled her enthrallment shield close around her as she slipped beneath the flap. “I’ll see what’s going on.”
She returned shortly. “Henry’s coming. I’m going to bathe in the stream—a minute only.”
He felt the strength of her shield, that she’d wrapped herself in a force as powerful as what had kept Margetta out the night before, so he nodded.
Just as he secured the belt over his shoulder, buckling it in place at his left hip, Henry begged entrance.
“Come.”
Quinlan could feel the scowl on his own forehead and had his fears confirmed at the sight of Henry’s three ridges drawn tightly together, a look of dismay in his eyes. “We lost a scout and the other has come in bloodied and half-dead. I’ve sent the healers on the trail to the northeast, carrying him out. Invictus wraith-pairs attacked them at the ten-mile western-most outpost. The survivor said there were twenty pairs, that one of the bound fae bragged t
hat Margetta had brought a hundred with her, that she’d catch us in the Dead Forest, if not in the meadow.”
Quinlan glanced skyward then folded back the upper flap. He squinted against the fading light. He had just a handful of minutes before he could safely leave the tent. He’d have to stay behind with Batya, but he trusted her enthrallment shield would get them to safety.
Glancing back at Henry, he frowned all over again. “How’s Lorelei?”
“Good and she has all my men doing her bidding. One of them had just brought a bouquet of late-blooming wild roses to her, when the scout returned. We’ve rigged a harness that two trolls wear and she sits between them as they fly. We’ll carry her at the front with several Guardsmen in the lead.”
“I can always rely on you.”
“Hell, yeah, you can.”
Batya returned, naked, unbeknownst to Henry. Quinlan could easily see through her enthrallment shield now, maybe because of their recent connection. When she started to dress, even though she was invisible to Henry, he stepped between his brigade commander and all her female beauty.
“Where’s Batya?”
Henry glanced around, his gaze skating past her. “She’s bathing, cloaked with enthrallment.”
“Oh, okay. That’s right. She made it possible for the three of you to escape from Lebanon.”
“Yes, she did.”
“She’s special, Quinlan. I can’t put my finger on it, but she’s got something”
“I would agree with you.”
“No, I mean she’s got something. Maybe it’s her power or a layer to her faeness that hasn’t revealed itself, but something’s there, hidden maybe even from her.”
He felt Batya go very still behind him.
Several more shouts from the direction of the camp set Henry hurrying back outside, but he called over his shoulder, “We’ll be ready to fly in three.”
“I’ve got a couple more after that inside. Set your men on the trail at will.”
“Yes, mastyr.”
Once, he was gone, Batya lost her shield and now, finished packing her satchel. “What do you think he meant, about me having another layer of power?” She glanced up at the open sky. A thin stream of clouds overhead caught the last pink-violet and quite deadly rays of the sun.