Never: an erotic retelling of Peter Pan (27 page)

At every order, every message, his muscles tensed with expectation.  But to no avail. 

New orders
.  Pietre's voice.

Xavion touched his ear-comm and glanced obediently at the camera, registering the fact that the boy was panting loudly.  He was close.  If Xavion were to stop them, now was the time.

Take Christophe with you when you deliver her to Josh.  Stay and watch them.  Remember the boy must not be allowed to have her.

Was that Belle's voice he'd heard in the background?  He gritted his teeth.   

A loud groan of satisfaction from Christophe echoed around the cavern, and Xavion was finally able to tear his gaze from the camera.  It was time to implement Pietre's orders. 

He stepped out of the shadows, preparing to use his power over Wendee and the boy, but even as he did he admitted to himself that Belle had a power over him he had no way of controlling. 

                                          
Chapter Fifteen

"But why?"  Christophe looked to Dee for help.

"We've only just got here," she said to Xavion, stating the obvious as she followed him inside the Japanese style temple-on-the-water, Christophe at her side.  A brief glance showed Josh rising from a sunken bed of cushions in the centre of the large room.  Behind him there was no wall, just a vista of blue - ocean swell backed up to the horizon line.  "Can't we at least look around first?"  She held Christophe's hand tightly.  She wasn't finished with him yet.

"You may 'look around' all you choose.  Josh will return you to the cave when you're ready."  Xavion nodded to their host who now stood silently to one side.  "Christophe and I are required elsewhere."

Her eyes narrowed.  "By Peter?" 

"Correct." 

"May I come?"

There was a pause where Xavion's eyes were briefly unfocused, as though the question required deep thought.  Then they cleared and he said, "You'll be safer here," and to Christophe, "Wait for me on the beach."

Dee's fingers tightened but Christophe managed to disengaged his hand from hers and edge backwards, his apologetic expression melting into relief as he slipped through the door.  Pleased to be escaping Josh no doubt.  Dee felt her jaw muscles tighten.  She listened to the creaking wooden planks as he loped along the jetty, then the sound stopped and she turned slowly back to Xavion. 

"Testing my obedience?" she asked.  There was no other reason for Christophe to be suddenly 'required'.  The others were stronger, more capable.   

Xavion shook his head.  "The orders are from Peter."

"Then he is," she accused, feeling the frustration well up inside her.  "He doesn't
require
Christophe - "

"Neither do you," Xavion pointed out, his mantle of leadership suddenly evident.  "You would do well to remember that we are a tribe to be honoured, and not a menu to be chosen from." 

Dee pressed her lips together.  His words were a slap in the face, but they gave her some badly-needed perspective.  "You're right.  I’m sorry."  She looked down at her trembling hands.  "I've acted very badly.  Will you forgive me," she asked humbly.

"You are our Wendee," he replied, and the simple phrase had a talisman effect.  She felt the tensions in the room dissolve.  "You, also, must be honoured.  But Peter's orders have priority."

"I understand."

Xavion nodded, "As do I."  His perceptive gaze raked her body, detecting the subtle twitchiness, the feverish colour.  Without any covering, it was easily read.  "I leave you with Josh who will see to your needs."  He touched her arm briefly and she shivered, fighting down the urge to throw herself at him.  But with Pietre waiting, he would only reject her. 

She hugged her shoulders.  Why was she so desperate?  Christophe was gone two minutes and she suddenly wanted Xavion.  Was she visually aroused by any man within line-of-sight?  Perhaps emotions didn't come into it at all. 

"Protect her."  Xavion ordered, over her head.

"With my life," Josh replied softly and Xavion nodded, as though expecting the vow might need to be honoured.  

He left then and Dee followed him to the door, resting her head against the sun-baked timber frame.  Xavion's progress along the jetty was more sedate that Christophe's had been.  He marched, back straight, stride purposeful, loin cloth shifting with each step.  Muscles rippled across his back in the sunlight and her fingers stroked her own shoulders, remembering the weight of those muscles, the strength of his body against hers and how beautiful his eyes had made her feel.         

She wanted that again. 

Languishing in the doorway, her feverish desire grew.  The already-hot sun stung her skin like the blaze Xavion had laid her beside the first time he'd taken her.  Her breasts throbbed and soon her pubic pelt was on fire.  She squeezed her thighs together, feeling the moistness of her arousal between them. 

Across the narrow expanse of sand she saw Christophe waiting in the shadows of the Pandanus palms that bordered the beach.  While she had been watching Xavion, he had been watching her. 

A hiccup of emotion confused her desire.  The heat wavered and almost faltered, then Xavion stopped next to Christophe.  They spoke.  Dee was too far away to hear the words but she could see their effect.  Christophe's shoulders sagged and he turned away from her. 

Was he being removed from the tribe?  Would she never see him again?  A pang of desolation tightened her chest, but as she watched them disappear into the shadows of the quasi-jungle, the ache faded and all that remained was her feverish arousal, undiminished.

She closed her eyes.  Emotions were transitory, but the need to be touched was a constant.  She had become the addict Roc had thought her to be.

"Shall we begin?" came a voice from behind her.

Josh.  Not Christophe or Xavion, but the mindless throb between her legs was indiscriminate.  He was a man.  A body.  Curiosity tightened her stomach.

"Begin what?" she asked, turning away from the scorching sun to take a step into the shaded interior.  She felt immediately cooler. 

Josh had resumed his cross-legged pose on the bed of cushions in the sunken centre of the room.  His body was so perfect it made her eyes ache.

She wanted to look away, but forced herself to inspect him as thoroughly as she had the others, at the black, tumbled down hair that contrasted so sharply with the smooth musculature of his upper body.  And those soft, thick-lashed eyes.  Too beautiful to be a man's. 

He gestured to the cushions in front of him but she hesitated.  Caution warred with the extremity of her need.  "What exactly are we to do?"  

"Anything you desire."

She laughed, almost embarrassed.  "Well that's interesting.  And surprising."  She went over to where he waited and lowered herself onto the cushions, mimicking his cross-legged pose.  The silk of them was deliciously cool against flesh still stinging from the sun, and she wanted to rub herself on them like a cat.  But Josh's placid gaze inhibited her.  She wasn't sure why.

"Anything I desire," she repeated his offer speculatively, then asked, "What about rape?  Pain?  Humiliation?"

"As you wish." 

Dee looked away from his level gaze.  Her question had been facetious, yet he had insisted on taking her words at face value.  His serenity in the face of her frustration should have been infuriating, but it wasn't.  His stillness-of-being soothed her and she found her shoulders relaxing. 

"How would you use me?" he asked, without a flicker of apprehension.

She shook her head.  It wasn't Josh she wanted to hurt. 

A cushion found its way into her lap.  "I did want something," she admitted, twisting a silky tassel around her finger, wondering if she would tell this beautiful, untouchable man about the fantasy she'd concocted on the way to his retreat.

"What was it?"

She shrugged.  "It's not possible now."

"Would you like to talk about it?"  His gentle eyes encouraged her, and whether out of anger at Pietre or curiosity about Josh, she found herself agreeing.

"All right," she said, taking a breath to settle herself and to align her thoughts.  "But will you answer me something first.  If Christophe was still here and I told you to take him, to... penetrate him..."  She paused, struggling with the explicitness of her words.

"Go on."  His gaze seemed suddenly intense - his eyes not the pools of tranquillity they had been, but engaging, locking on to hers.