Killing Time (31 page)

The cabin’s main room had a well-worn sofa and two recliners, a coffee table with rings on its surface from damp bottles and a whole wall of shelves filled with books. Directly across from the sofa and recliners was a stone fireplace, framed by closed doors that I guessed led to bedrooms.

A kitchenette filled the room’s far corner, along with a small Formica table and four chairs. There was an old refrigerator and a gas stove, and the door was ajar on a small pantry. My stomach rumbled to see the shelves full of boxed and canned food.

“This place has electricity?” I asked, dropping my backpack on the kitchen table and rummaging through the pantry.

“A generator.”

A garish box caught my eye since bright colors usually meant sugary food. Backing out of the small space, I held up my find.

“Fruity Pebbles.” Koda saw my noncomprehension and clarified. “Cereal.”

Opening the box, I tore a hole in the inner bag and sniffed. “It smells sweet.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “Pure sugar. You should love it.”

I tried a few pieces and grinned. Taking another handful, I said, “Want some?”

He shook his head. “What I want is for you to answer my question.”

“Question?” I mumbled vaguely, wandering through the living room and eating from the box.

He made an impatient noise. “I asked what happened with Onas.”

“Oh.” I stuffed a handful of Fruity Pebbles in my mouth and made a show of chewing as I thought furiously. Koda watched me with a mix of amusement and irritation on his face. I tried to drag out my full mouth, but he gave every sign of intending to wait forever. Finally, I had to swallow. “Um, well, he was following protocol.”

“Protocol requires him to have sex with you?” Koda’s eyes were livid.

I winced at his bluntness. “After battles for rank, yes.”

“But you kicked his ass days ago.”

“That’s not all I kicked,” I muttered.

It was Koda’s turn to wince at the memory. “I see. So I take it he’s recovered?”

I nodded.

“Sex symbolizes his subservience?”

I nodded again, looking everywhere but at Koda. “Assuming the loser survives the fight.”

He barked a laugh. “It’s reassuring to know bitterns have some limitations after all.” At my scowl, he said, “Rape is acceptable, but at least your kind draws the line at necrophilia.”

Unwillingly, I admitted, “I don’t know that word.” When Koda told me its meaning, I flinched and turned on him. “That’s disgusting. As for your accusation, it isn’t rape if the person submits willingly.”

A muscle leaped in his jaw. “So did you submit willingly after you became Second? Did Onas press his rights on you?”

My cheeks flamed with hurt, embarrassment and not a little anger. “It was a different male who was First in my stable. And when I was defeated, yes, protocol was correctly followed.” Lifting my chin, I glared at him. “Is that a problem, Koda?”

“Yes, it’s a problem! Dammit, what you’re talking about, the expectation of sexual submission, it’s the same as rape! It’s just prettied up behind ritual!”

Rigid with anger, I snapped, “Ours is a warrior culture. Yes, it’s hard, brutal and unforgiving, but it is
ours!
”

“I, too, descend from warriors. But my people believe in family, in love and in the bonds of friendship. When we earn a higher standing among our people, we don’t copulate like animals in heat!”

That Ahanu had made a similar reference stung me to the quick. Stricken, I took a step back and stared at Koda. I could feel how bloodless my face had become.

“Sephti, I’m sorry,” he stammered. “Dammit, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—”

Feeling like the words were grinding their way through a throat clogged with glass slivers, I demanded, “Is that how you see us, Koda? Is that how you see me?”

“No, not you! Look, I’ve told you, you’re different from them. Different from bitterns. I mean, there was that time when we ate dinner…but…Shit, that’s not…We talked about that and…You’re becoming less like your kind. No! That’s not what I’m…You don’t have to change for me to…I mean, see…the others are so…and you’re so…”

Cursing, I turned to leave. I’d feared all along that he harbored such thoughts about me, but to have them confirmed, even as he clumsily tried to deny them…it felt like my heart was a shriveled thing inside my chest.

Catching me by the upper arms and giving me a gentle shake to make me look up, Koda said in a low, strained voice, “Words and intent can be misunderstood. With me, this is especially true—I have too damn many languages in my head to always say the right thing. To say what I really mean, the way I mean it. Please, Sephti. Please consider my actions instead.”

“Koda—”

He spoke as if he hadn’t heard me. “Understand one thing, Sephti. I kneel to no one.” Putting me back a little from him, Koda went to his knees, keeping his dark eyes locked on mine.

I stood frozen and silent, afraid I’d squeak if I tried to talk.

He caught his sweater by the hem, and in one fluid move, pulled it off over his head.

If the sight of his kneeling hadn’t been enough to stop me in my tracks, the sight of his bare torso sure as hell was. He was breathtaking. The most magnificent male I’d ever seen and I’d seen plenty, courtesy of the ethereally lovely fae for whom clothing was optional. Perfect they might be, but they could not compare to Koda.

His pulse beat visibly at his throat, drawing my eyes there before my attention traveled south across the expanse of smooth skin. His shoulders were broad and his deep chest was muscular without being muscle-bound. His biceps were well-defined, as were his corded forearms and strong wrists, which I’d only caught glimpses of when he’d rolled his shirt sleeves. Drawn by Koda’s increasingly rapid breathing, my gaze moved back up again, drifting across his gorgeous chest to the flat, ridged belly and narrow waist. Nowhere on him did I see hair. Nowhere but a faint dusting that began at his navel and appeared to thicken as it went south.

My mouth became parched at the thought of following that trail.

“Sephti,” he whispered, drawing my gaze to his enticing lips. Clearing his throat, he tried again. “Am I following correct protocol? I do not know your people’s ways.”

I made a sound of protest, drawing a tender smile from him. “You don’t…this isn’t…”

“Tell me how to do this your way. Everything is so new to you, Sephti. I want our first time to be a comfort to you, not a shock.”

I started to protest but the words died on my lips as he lifted his fists so the knuckles met under his chin, dipped his proud head and held the warrior’s salute.

While Onas’s offer had left me cold, seeing Koda present himself to me ignited my blood. Horrifyingly, my feral nature came violently awake, instincts raging. Everything in me demanded I take the next step and accept his offer by fighting him with all my strength and skill.

“This isn’t wise. Starting like this,” I stammered. Resisting the sensually charged urge to attack was all but impossible. Wrapping my arms around myself, I clung to the last shred of intellect. “You don’t know what mating entails.”

His deep, velvet chuckle almost undid me and I swayed against the all-consuming drive to leap on him. “I have a pretty good idea, Sephti.”

In a strangled voice, I rasped, “Not for bitterns.”

“I want you,” he said simply. As if it was all that mattered.

With a cry, I rocked back on my heels, trying to force myself to leave the cabin—now, before I did something insane like attack Koda. But my instincts surged to the forefront and the best I managed was to stalk a circle around him, my hands fisting and relaxing, fisting and relaxing.

Letting my fevered gaze wander over his muscular chest and its rapid rise and fall, I bared my teeth. “Stand up, Koda. Move away from me. Now,” I growled in a low, sensuous voice. “I cannot stop this myself.”

He lifted his face to smile up at me. “I don’t want to stop.”

I groaned, equal parts despair and raging hunger. Panting as my feet paced faster, I tried again, while I was capable of coherent thought. “When my kind couple, it is about strength and cunning. Our instincts demand it.”

“Couple?” Tilting his head, he met my hot-eyed stare. “We will make love, Sephti—”

“I do not know those words.” My lip curled. What little control I still maintained was rapidly being subsumed by my rising need to fight Koda and to mate.

“No?” He flashed a wicked grin. “Then I’ll be more clear. I want to taste every inch of your skin. To know your body as well as I know my own. I want to bury myself inside you and catch your passionate cries in my mouth. I want to—”

I whirled and lunged, sweeping his legs out from beneath him and following him down to the floor. Before I could pin him, Koda was on his feet, a fierce smile stretching his lips. I snarled and danced aside as he charged, spinning to clip his ribs a hard blow when he sailed past. He muttered a curse and I evaded his outstretched arms as he tried to catch me.

Koda disengaged to stand a few feet away, and the way his obsidian eyes blazed with anger and lust stirred my blood. Heat and need ran swift and wild in my veins. The last of my intellect faded under the primal drive to see if he had the strength and skill to take me.

With my instincts fully roused, I arched my back, purposely taunting and provoking the male as his hungry gaze traveled over my breasts. While he was distracted, I attacked, closing the distance between us effortlessly. A hard blow to the jaw staggered him and I mercilessly followed up with an elbow to his belly. Even as he doubled over, he reached to grab me, but I danced clear, energy and heady desire pumping through my body.

The male growled with fury, standing straight and glaring at me. My lips curled back and I turned sideways to him, letting my body undulate seductively. He made a choked sound, his muscles tensing. Holding my hard gaze, the strong muscles in his chest flexed as he crouched. I stalked around the male, my lip curled as I hissed, taunting him again. Muscle flowed beneath his velvet skin and he moved with a grace to rival my own as he turned to face me.

The male feinted toward my flank before reversing, moving fast. Before he could pin me, I launched a series of blows toward his torso and jaw, intrigued that he blocked each smoothly and with little apparent effort.

He caught me on the next breath, his hands hard on my body, his eyes hot and hungry. He spun me around, pressing my back against his chest and holding my arms tight against my sides. He was bigger than me and used his greater strength to easily contain me even as I thrashed against his hold. That I couldn’t free myself excited me in a new way.

I made my body go soft against his and undulated against his hardness, enticing his wildness, driving him to a frenzy. The male growled near my ear, his near-madness making him tremble as his hips took up my sultry movement. He stared down at me from over my shoulder, his eyes dark and flashing, before moving backward with me still held tight against him. It felt for a second like we were falling, but I couldn’t get my arms out to catch myself. Then I realized the male had sat down on a chair with me in his lap.

Incensed, I pressed my feet against the floor, straining to get enough leverage to tip us over backward. A growl shook his chest as he pressed his knees up between my own, hooking his calves over my shins and spreading his legs wide as he also spread mine. With just one arm, he kept mine pinned to my sides. Rage shuddered through me and I writhed uselessly for several minutes, doing nothing more than exhausting myself against his implacable hold.

The male’s lips found my throat and the feel of him mouthing my flesh made me go rigid. His arousal pressed against my butt as his free hand moved across my chest to slip through the neckline of my too-big borrowed sweater. Panting with anger at the restraint, I tried again to free myself, but I didn’t even budge him. A masculine, needful sound rumbled in his chest and then his warm palm found my breast. Heat exploded through me as my body reacted on its own, arching to press itself into his caress. My head tilted back and my eyes half-shut as he alternated light, barely-there brushes with almost rough kneading.

Moving to my other breast, his touch was demanding as he held me captive against his hard, muscular body. He withdrew his hand and moved it down my belly, below my restrained arms. Everything in me clenched with anticipation when he found the hem of the sweater and reached underneath. His fingers traveled lower, agonizing inch by slow, agonizing inch, as my body tensed, waiting…yearning.

The male spoke then and a few words filtered through the fog in my mind. “Sephti…want this?…Tell…understand?”

A raw sound escaped my throat and I undulated against his arousal, his answering groan setting my pulse pounding. Spread wide like this to his touch, held immobile against his all-male body, my own hunger threatened to consume me as desire did battle with the quickly fading urge to fight.

The male’s hand completed its slow trip past the inside of my waistband and he touched me for the first time, wringing another cry from me as I pressed into his sensual caress. He murmured against my neck, alternating kisses and nips as his magical fingers danced. My hips began to move helplessly, keeping time with his touch.

“Yes, like that,” he murmured. His having outmaneuvered and contained me gave my intellect time to reassert itself and I could now make sense of the male’s…of
Koda’s
words. “Let me gentle you with my touch, Sephti. Focus on what I’m doing, on what your body is feeling. There is no need to fight, not when we can be doing this with one another.”

He plunged two fingers deep inside me, his arms tightening around me as I jerked wildly to meet the thrust. Heat and hunger spiraled through my senses as his hand moved faster and faster. I ached to grab hold of him, to cling to him, to taste and explore his body, but he held me immobile against him.

“Making love is about reveling in one another and giving pleasure,” he murmured, his voice deep and rough by my ear. “Let go, Sephti. Let me please you.”

I ground myself against his busy hand, wordless cries tearing from my throat as something wild built higher and higher within me. Koda spread his knees wider, forcing mine further open and laying me completely bare and vulnerable to his decadent fingers. As I writhed uncontrollably in his iron grip, he made a noise that was pure hunger. Then I was on my back on the smooth wood floor, Koda rearing up over me. On the next instant, my sweater was gone, along with the rest of my clothes.