Battling Rapture (15 page)

“That isn’t exactly what I said, but if you want me to suck
your dick, bring it over here.”

She tried to raise her chest off the bed and he pushed her
back down. He wasn’t as gentle this time.

“I said I should make you suck my dick, but I find I’m a
little impatient to fuck your pussy tonight. You look so sweet like this. But
we both know you have to be conquered to be this still.”

“Nobody likes a bully,” she said.

“Have I bullied you?” His hands travelled to the ties on her
wrists.

“No,” she said quickly.

He pulled the globes of her ass apart and stared at her
puckered hole and cunt just below. She was all his. He’d bought himself some
time to convince her of the fact. She was the type of woman you had to show
things. You couldn’t just tell her.

She made an impatient noise and he squeezed the flesh in his
hands.

And then he entered her sopping wet pussy in one push. She
gasped and he paused to get his control back. The position tightened an already
impossibly tight pussy and he almost disgraced himself. He widened her knees
slightly before pulling out and slamming back into her. His hips slapped
against her ass and her pussy made wet noises as he fucked her the way she was
currently screaming for him to do. Harder and faster were apparently her two
favorite words.

He placed one knee on the bed beside her thighs. He still
held her ass cheeks wide and her puckered hole enticed him. He let go of one of
her cheeks and moistened his thumb in the juices slowly coating his cock and
running down her legs. Then he pressed his thumb to her anal opening and
massaged. She started moaning in earnest and he pressed harder with his thumb
until he was inside. She wiggled her ass a little as if getting used to the
feeling, but he never let up.

He worked her ass as forcefully as he did her pussy. She
moved her legs closer together. He assumed she was applying pressure to her
clit with her thighs. Her pussy and asshole quivered for a moment before she
squeezed him unmercifully in ever tightening contractions as she climaxed. She
screamed her pleasure, letting him know how good it felt.

Rhine gritted his teeth through it, refusing to stop. She was
capable of climaxing over and over again for minutes at a time and he pushed
her. He brought the hand still holding her ass around her body and between her
legs. He pushed his way between her legs and worried her clit. She immediately
started cursing him. He’d never heard some of those words strung together in
phrases before.

She came over and over again and he gave her everything he
had. Her voice was starting to give out and so was his control. The pressure in
his balls was tremendous and finally he couldn’t hold back any longer. He
roared her name with his release. His cock jerked with each spurt of his seed.

He remained upright through sheer determination. He didn’t
want to crush her by falling on her and he couldn’t bring himself to pull out
of her warm pussy. Not yet.

He caught his breath, then slowly slid his thumb from her
body. She groaned. He untied her wrists and massaged her arms. He slid from her
pussy as slowly as possible before untying her ankles. She pulled herself flat
on the bed and he rolled her unresisting body over before climbing on top of
her, but holding his full weight from her with his forearms and knees.

Her eyes were heavy lidded and she smiled up at him. He
sipped at her smiling lips until she demanded greater pressure. He sincerely
suspected he loved the woman. His every thought was for her. He watched her
constantly, looking for ways to please her. The thought of her leaving him or
her with another man was enough to make him want to destroy something.

He pulled her knees up and kept them in the crooks of his
arms. He slid back into her body. He continued to kiss her as he slowly rocked
in, and out of her pussy. He maintained the steady thrust until she gave him a
quiet climax. He allowed his own release right after. She sighed against his
mouth and he felt it all the way to his toes.

* * * * *

Niki felt a little more relaxed at the breakfast table the
next morning. Rhine sat close to her. The weight of his leg felt familiar, if
heavy, pressed against hers under the table. The bargain she’d made with him
was strange. She’d suspected at first it was purely a sexual relationship he
wanted. She would be his mistress and the peace would be kept in the castle.
Until he flipped her world on its ear by suggesting she didn’t have to have sex
with him unless she wanted to. Suddenly she’d become a…girlfriend. No, that was
too tame a word for anyone associated with the captain. She was his woman. Even
if it was through blackmail.

She hadn’t felt there was any reason to haggle over the
terms of their bargain. She’d planned on staying anyway to keep an eye on Cam
and Venn. She already had some clue that if she stayed, she would probably end
up in Rhine’s bed more nights than not.

The dining room door opened and an older Ordanian woman
walked in. She was blonde, svelte and showed how Bronwyn would look in thirty
years. Well, she hoped Bronwyn wouldn’t walk around with that “What is that
smell” look on her face.

“Mother, why are you here?” Venn asked.

Niki guessed there was no love lost there.

“I’m visiting my children, even if they would rather be here
with her.” The woman stared hard at Camryn. “And when I arrive, I find two more
slaves at the Huntu table. Her twin and a Rarian.” The sides of the woman’s
mouth turned down and she stared at them through narrowed lids.

She was going to have serious wrinkles if her face always
looked that way.

“Lady Helsa, this is my sister Niki,” Camryn said.

“I suppose since Sir Rhine is salivating over her
overexposed breasts, she belongs to him,” Lady Helsa said.

Niki started laughing. The woman was absolutely horrible.
She was also bold and direct, which Niki admired.

Rhine grabbed the back of her neck gently. “Be quiet,
hellion.” He pressed a closed mouth kiss to her lips, but she still felt it
everywhere it counted.

Venn’s mother made a disgusted noise in her throat and
walked to an empty seat. She waited while one of the servants pulled it out for
her.

“Are you breeding yet,” she asked Camryn.

Niki started laughing all over again. Camryn turned to Niki
and threw a cloth napkin at her.

“Would you stop it,” Cam said.

Niki could see Cam was holding in a smile of her own. At
first Cam had looked shell-shocked, as though she’d been blindsided by the
woman’s words. There was a story there and Niki would get to the bottom of it
later.

“I don’t want to talk about reproduction at the breakfast
table,” Camryn said.

Lady Helsa waved her hand as if pushing the comment away.
“Nonsense, we are all family here, except for the Rarian. It is your duty to
produce sons and daughters. Though they will probably be scrawny, since their
mother is so small. Hans, have you been studying under your brother. Your
nephews will likely be too small to lead.”

Venn stood. His heavy chair scraped across the floor. “Get
out. Don’t think I haven’t forgotten what you’ve done. If you make any more
trouble, I will—”

“No, Venn.” Camryn tugged mightily on his arm.

Bronwyn frowned at Lady Helsa. “Mother, why are you being so
difficult? Isn’t being banished to the dowager holding bad enough?”

Niki observed that the boy, Hans, said nothing. He looked to
his brother as if for guidance, and Niki noticed, even though he was physically
big, he seemed wary of his mother.

Lady Helsa picked up her fork. “My own daughter has turned
against me.”

“She has to go,” Venn was saying to Camryn.

“Venn, she’s your mother,” Camryn responded softly.

“If she’s a threat to my sister, she does have to go,” Niki
said. “Amusing or not.”

“Did this slave just give me direction?” Lady Helsa said.

Niki leaned her arm across the back of her chair. “I’m only
a slave on paper until my man gets finished eating and the lawyers get here.
But I do take my family’s safety very seriously, and guess what?” She jerked
her thumb toward Camryn. “She’s the only family I’ve had since I was five.”

“You guard her as if you are a
hundrivarg
.” Lady
Helsa said.

“Why do I get the feeling she called me a bitch?”

Camryn whispered, “Because she did.”

“Okay, don’t think of me as any regular bitch, though. Think
of me as the super-supreme bitch of the galaxy. I’m just waiting for my
copyright to clear before I start wearing it on all my shirts,” Niki said.

“Ooh, don’t forget the matching jackets. You could put SSBG
for short. I want one in pink,” Camryn said.

They both started snickering. “We could have a social club.
I know Bronwyn would want to join,” Niki said.

“A
hundrivarg
social club,” Bronwyn asked dubiously.

Niki and Camryn roared with laughter.

“What is happening here? I don’t understand what they are
saying,” Lady Helsa complained.

“Yes, what is happening here?” Venn said. His voice was soft
as he rubbed the back of his giggling wife.

“Hellion, behave yourself,” Rhine said. He reached for her
hand and held it in his lap. She decided to let it go, since she was in a good
mood.

“Oh you already know I don’t behave. No money in it.”

Camryn sighed. “I am so glad you’re here.”

Niki winked at her. If you wanted pandemonium at the
breakfast table, she was your girl.

A teenaged boy ran into the room. His chest heaved and his
eyes looked a little wild. “Lord Huntu, there’s a problem at the stables.”

Venn looked down at his wife. “Stay here.”

She nodded. Niki’s left eyebrow raised.

Rhine squeezed her hand before getting up with the men.
Bronwyn stood.

“Not this time, little one,” he said as he passed her.

Bronwyn sat back down, a little dejectedly.

She could almost see the thoughts moving through Cam’s head.
She waited. Finally, Cam looked at her. Niki nodded. They both stood and headed
for the door. They’d watched their mothers take too many orders as kids and
weren’t too good at it themselves. Niki beckoned to Bronwyn, who shot up and
followed quickly.

“Bronwyn, come back here. Sir Rhine told you to stay here,”
Lady Helsa said.

Bronwyn walked a little faster.

The stable was bigger than her entire apartment building on
Earth. Inside, it looked as she expected. Stalls lined each wall and hay was
scattered around. She hadn’t expected the big black horns on the horses. She
poked her head over one of the stall doors and almost had it snapped off by
giant horse teeth.

“They’re
hastut
,” Camryn whispered.

They were bigger than any horses she’d ever seen. They had a
repeating striped and zigzag patterns on their manes and tails and legs. The
one which tried to bite her was gray with black stripes and zigzags, but there
were others in brown, white and black with gray, brown, black and white
stripes.

“I hear something this way,” Bronwyn said. She pointed to a
corridor to the right.

They followed it to an open door, which led to a corral in
the rear of the stables. The Huntu and several men she’d never seen before
stood around a mound on the ground. From where she stood, it looked and smelled
as if it was a dead animal.

“Oh no. That’s terrible,” Camryn whispered.

Another of the creatures lay on its belly, with its long
snout resting on its front paws. Its teeth weren’t contained in its mouth. They
were long and sharp. So were the wicked sharp black claws extended from its
four paws. This one was reddish brown with a coarse shock of black fur, which
stood straight out from its body, starting at the top of its head between
pointy jackal ears to the base of its bushy tail, as though it had a super long
Mohawk. It was hideous, with massive shoulders and breastbone.

“That’s a
hundrivarg
,” Camryn whispered.

It was scary as hell and completely awesome. “Definitely the
club mascot.”

The men turned as one and glared at them. Niki walked
forward. She observed the dead animal. It appeared to be an animal attack. She
knelt next to the body. The
hundrivarg
growled low. Niki faced it,
squaring her shoulders.

“Niki,” Rhine said.

She held her hand up in Rhine’s direction to stop whatever
he was about to do. The
hundrivarg
regarded her for a moment and put its
head back down on its paws. She turned back to the body.

“It’s supposed to look as if it were an animal attack, but
it appears to me as if it was attacked with some sort of serrated knife,” she
said.

She looked up at Rhine and Venn.

“Yes, we could determine that through scent,” Venn said.

“Hey, I don’t have a bionic nose. I have to get to the facts
in other ways. So I assume whoever did this knew you could sniff out the facts,
Scooby, yet didn’t care or they weren’t familiar with your abilities,” she
replied. She shook her head. “These types of gifts usually signal an unstable
mind.”

“Yes. We believe this also. It also has to be someone
strong. It is very hard to kill a
hundrivarg
,” Rhine said.

She stood. “Can you smell if they poisoned it first? That
would make it easier to kill.”

“We will have it tested. No matter the outcome, we know one
thing,” Venn said.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Whoever it is has had access to the holding since at least
last night and they could still be here now.”

The men searched the area, looking for clues to the identity
or whereabouts of the intruder. Niki felt sturdy bristles against her palm. She
looked down to see the
hundrivarg
pressing its head against her hand.
She rubbed it behind the ears. It raised its head and she changed her rubbing
spot since its head now reached her shoulder. She touched its mane. It wasn’t
sharp exactly. It felt similar to a brand-new scrub brush.