Insatiable (19 page)

With a whisper, the undershirt was gone, followed by her pants. His head spun at the truth in what she said and that she understood it so well.

“Possess me,” she murmured, meaning it. She didn’t want to be used by Daniel, she wanted him to own her, to take her and mark her as his.

He stood, stalking to her, and without any preamble, he grabbed her up and hauled her to his body, covering her mouth with his, taking what he wanted, leaving the honey of desire in his wake.

There was nothing to be done but hold on. Wrap her arms around him, pressing herself tighter as he plundered her mouth. His taste burned into her, indelible. He would be there forever. Until she breathed her last, no matter what came between now and then, she’d know his taste; it would own part of her all her life.

His tongue roved through her mouth, tasting, teasing, seducing hers to tangle, follow. She moaned softly, and he swallowed the sound. When he pulled away, he nipped her bottom lip, pulling it, his gaze locked on hers before finally letting it go.

His expression was one of challenge, and she knew what she did next had better count. He was opening himself up to her, exposing part of his inner life, and she wanted him to understand she wanted it. Wanted him to take her because she trusted him, because the idea of being possessed by him thrilled her to her toes, and she would feel no shame about that desire.

“You’re still dressed.” She licked her lips to taste him anew. He saw it, watched her tongue slide across the curve of her bottom lip where he’d bitten her just moments before.

He paused, but only for a breath as he held a hand out. She took it, and he led her into the bedroom she’d napped in earlier.

“I’m going to make sure everything is secure, because I plan to give you all my attention once we get started in earnest.” Pressing a kiss to her wrist, he stepped back and through the door.

She used the time to freshen up, to brush out her hair and to try to think up some pretty, artful position for when she got into bed. Her brain rushed through that kiss over and over. The way he’d handled her had unknotted something inside her. It rushed out, seeking more.

When she came back into the room, he was there, naked on the bed. He’d made a fire, and the warm light licked over his skin.

She moved straight to him, into his arms, and sighed happily. “You’re very warm.”

“Handy for women on cold evenings, I suppose.”

She felt the curve of his lips at her neck, knew he teased. “I’m quite sure. But you’re here and I’m here and you look so delicious I’m all aflutter with it.” She flapped her hands about until he took them in his own.

“Are you afraid?”

She shook her head. “No. Not of you or what you do to me. I . . . you excite me. Make me feel beautiful and desired in a way I’d never imagined possible. It thrills me, titillates me until my breath shortens and my heart threatens to burst from my body.”

One corner of his mouth lifted. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For that, what you just said. I’m honored you’d trust me. You
are
beautiful, and I do desire you.”

He pushed her back, looming over her with his weight on his elbow. His features were intense as she waited for him to make the first move. She wanted this so much she loathed the idea of messing it up.

“These are beautiful.” He traced his tongue around first one nipple and then the other. “I think about them all the time.”

She smiled, pleased to hear it. When he bit her nipple next, it was just shy of pain. She jolted, but when he swiped his tongue over it, her nipple bloomed not with pain but with pleasure.

As she writhed against him, he showered her nipples with attention. So much attention she wondered if this alone could make her climax. She held his head to her, his hair cool against her fingers. She moved her hips, needing just a bit more to tip over the edge, but it wasn’t enough.

“Shhh. Let me take care of that,” he said against her skin as he kissed the underside of her breast and then over each rib. Lips on her belly, a tongue flicking against her skin just below her belly button.

He was going to love her with his mouth again. She widened her thighs, her fingers grasping the coverlet as he put his tongue deep inside her.

Daniel couldn’t get enough of her taste. Of the way she felt—soft, hot, creamy—against his mouth. Her clit stood up for him as he licked through her pussy, up from her gate. She arched, eagerly showing him what she wanted. She was not shy about her desires, which only made him want her more.

He’d wanted to hold this back for a while, spend more time getting her ready, but the moment he’d sucked her clit between his lips, she’d exploded, coming hard and loud so he’d continued to lick until she’d calmed.

“I’m sorry,” he said, kissing the seam between her leg and her body.

“For what?” she asked, her voice lazy. When she had an orgasm, she went all loose and compliant. He wanted to laugh at that, at the idea of keeping her out of his hair and obeying his commands when they were out in the field by feeding her a steady diet of orgasms. Far more fun than having to scare her or drug her.

“I’d planned to take more time with that.”

She made a dismissive sound. “You never have to apologize for making me have an orgasm. From now on, you can assume that I do want one, yes.”

She’d grown comfortable enough to joke with him far more often. At first she’d been so wide-eyed and serious, but then he began to realize she had a quick and lively sense of humor beneath the cool exterior he’d first seen her wear. She teased his own humor to the surface. Made him happy.

She stretched, and he watched, liking the play in her muscles, the way her breasts heaved up as she arched her back. “Now, I think it’s my turn.”

“Greedy. You just had your turn.”

She got to her knees and pushed him back to the bed. Straddling him again, she kissed down his neck and licked over each nipple. He groaned, arching into her mouth.

“I meant, my turn to love you with my mouth. It’s obviously not eating you, or maybe it is. What is it called?”

He laughed. “Doesn’t matter what it’s called, only that it’s done. You can suck my cock, blow me, go down on me, give me oral pleasure or love with me your mouth. I have no preference for what you call it.”

“Well, you’ll have to help me here.”

“You haven’t peeked at the scullery maid sucking off a guard or some such?” He teased, but truth be told, he found her voyeuristic tendencies quite sexy.

She blushed. “I still need some guidance.”

“I
knew
it. What a naughty girl you are, Carina. Did you make yourself come right as you watched?” His voice lowered as his skin tingled at the thought.

“Sometimes,” she whispered. “But it never felt like what you do to me. Your mouth on me; your hands are not the same as mine. It feels so much better when you touch me.”

How she’d managed to keep alive in that family with such honesty, he wasn’t sure.

She scooted down his body, leaning down over his cock. Her breath slid across the head. “What do you like?” She grasped him, angling him to take him into her mouth. “Licking?” She licked around the crown and over the slit. “You taste very good. I’d wondered what you’d taste like.”

“All just fine.” Really fine. For what seemed like an entire lifetime, he held himself in check, letting her explore him, learn what he liked and didn’t. Her enthusiasm was far more erotic than any perceived expertise would have been.

Effective, too. He put his hands on her shoulders, pushing her back gently, but she didn’t seem to want to go.

“Any longer, and I’m going to come in your mouth. Normally I wouldn’t be bringing this up as a reason to stop, but right now I need to fuck you.”

She pulled back, her eyes widening for a brief moment.

“From behind.”

She nodded eagerly.

“I want you on your hands and knees.” He settled behind her. Gods, what a sight. Nothing he could have done in life should have merited this woman here, now in this bed with him.

Being there with him behind her was so erotic she felt faint because of it. Her pussy ached, her lips tingled from licking and sucking on him for as long as she had. She knew she was totally exposed to him this way and imagined what it must look like from his perspective.

“Put your hands there on the headboard.”

She complied, stretching back to try to make contact with him. One hand held her hip, stilling her movement, while the other reached between her thighs, fingertips sliding through her pussy and up to her clit.

She whimpered, wanting more.

He gave her more. More of what he wanted first, to shoot her into climax again, and as her body still trembled, he began to press into her with the fat, blunt head of his cock. Her fingers tightened on the headboard as he continued to push into her. Shivers ran up and down her body as she parted for him, slid around him as every part he touched within her sent shock waves of sensation through her.

And then he began the inexorable thrust and retreat, building up rhythm as she received his body. His hands were all over her skin, caressing, kneading, teasing her nipples into aching points, a butterfly of a touch over her clit. He controlled everything: the speed, how deep he got, how hard he thrust. He played her body, excited her senses until there was nothing but them, nothing but him over her, building her up until she felt as if she would explode from it.

He was not holding back, not this time. He fucked her hard and fast, keeping her wet and open to him as she danced on the edge of orgasm, his fingers giving just the right amount of pressure to entice and not oversensitize.

When she broke apart, his gasp against her shoulder and the hard, last dig into her pussy told her he’d joined her.

“Wow.”

He pulled out carefully and left the bed, coming back shortly with a wet cloth for her to clean up with.

“Did I hurt you?” his question was quiet there in the dark. She heard the concern there, the worry that he’d frightened her with the raw way he’d taken her.

Carina snuggled up to him, pulling the blankets atop where they lay. “That was amazing. I’ve never felt anything like it. You didn’t hurt me at all, Daniel. You gave me pleasure.” And made her feel safe, cherished, worth something.

He didn’t speak again as they slid into sleep, and for once, she didn’t dream of disappearing.

D
aniel eased his way through the streets of a town some distance from the place where Carina slept deeply and safely. Andrei had shown up as deep of night broke toward early morning. They’d exchanged a nod, Andrei gave him an address and Daniel slipped into the darkness.

There it was. The night still lived as he crept up three flights of stairs and into the flat at the end of the hall. The place was a mess, but not so bad he couldn’t find what he needed to. A dermal patch the size of his fingernail would do the trick. Those who knew the man, who hated him in secret or in public, would shake their heads and murmur about what a shame it was to be struck down so young by a random heart ailment no one knew he’d had. And then they’d go about their business, and no one would remember the dead in a week.

Daniel would remember the dead. His operative, a woman named Leal who did her job with honor and skill, had been here to clear the way for him and Carina. She’d trusted this piece of trash who’d been her source on previous occasions, and then he’d turned on her, selling her out and getting her tortured and killed by Imperial soldiers.

He could not turn back time and bring her back. But he could be sure that source never killed another soul. Daniel had been responsible for Leal. She’d done her job and had died because of that. That the person who did that to her still lived was not something Daniel was prepared to suffer.

On his way back to Carina, Daniel had worked to slough off the darkness, to put it away deep inside himself. She was something far too precious to taint with that. He couldn’t always shield her from what he did, but he would when he could.

The sun had begun to rise, and when he opened the door, the warmth hit him first, welcoming him back, and then he scented kava and something so delicious his mouth watered.

Carina looked up from the table where she chatted animatedly to Andrei when he entered the main room.

“We were wondering when you’d return.” She smiled, narrowing her eyes momentarily, but refrained from asking more. Though, if he knew her, she’d already tried getting her answer through Andrei and failed.

“Now sounds good.” He hung his coat and hat on a peg, left his boots in the entry.

“Hmpf. Come and sit then. I’ve baked some biscuits and made some sausages. Andrei brought eggs, too.” She smiled in Andrei’s direction, and he waved it away.

“You’re the one who made them. My part was easy.”

“I’ll be back shortly. I just need to clean up.” He slipped past them, nodding once at Andrei. He wanted to go to her, gather her up and kiss her, keep her against his body until he remembered all of himself again. Instead, he kept moving. He needed to wash up first, needed to cleanse the death from his skin before he touched her.

Bent over the basin, splashing water on his face, he wasn’t surprised to hear the door open and close. Her scent would have given her away even if he hadn’t felt her presence before he smelled her and that night-blooming floral scent she bore.

“You weren’t in bed when I woke up,” she said quietly, handing him a cloth to dry his face and neck when he straightened. “I thought you’d left me.”

Without meaning to, he pulled her to him, hugging her. “I had some business to attend to. I wouldn’t leave you. Andrei was here the whole time I was gone.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she said into his chest.

He held her away so he could see her face. “Do you think so little of me?”