Geared for Pleasure (19 page)

“He?”

Bodhan leaned his head against the wall. “
He
is our connection, princess. The captain’s and mine. Or I should say, the Khepri is,” he muttered, almost as though he were speaking to himself. “What game is he playing at? He knows how rabidly she fulfills her duty. It’s an admirable quality, until you find yourself in chains.”

The knowledge that he, too, knew this Khepri, that he’d been in communication with him, was an important piece of the puzzle she was forming in her mind. Though not apparently enough of a revelation for her to stop touching him. She was not sure she could. It was getting harder to concentrate, but she had to. This was too important.

“I was told to trust her, but I want to trust you as well, Bodhan. I
have
trusted you.” His jaw clenched at the reference and she shivered with memory, determined to continue before she lost her reason entirely. “The captain was told you have something, some information on a plot against the throne. I believed you when you
spoke of your love for our queen, and it’s one we share. If you tell the captain what you know, she promised to give you safe passage back to the Siren.”

His chains clanked against each other as he reached for her, pulling her close until she lost her balance. Her breasts pressed against his chest. “There is
always
a plot against the queen. The ministry, the nobles. The more they drink, the more they plot. Most merely fantasize, taking their frustrations out in other ways. Ways I allow them for a fee. Any more than that I share with the lovely captain through our mutual friend. What she does with the information after that I leave to your imagination.” His thick lashes fluttered down until his eyes were nearly shielded, and he tightened his grip on her. “You are going to have to give me more, Dare. You haven’t even told me whether or not I’m right. You are Wode, and yet, you’re not. Is your name even Dare?”

“Yes, I’m Wode.” She had no more breath to answer, to tell him all of it. That she’d had no knowledge of the Khepri. That she’d had no idea that all this lay outside of the gates of Queen’s Hill. She could not speak, but she could feel his breath against her lips. Perhaps relief had stolen her air.

There had been no fear in him at being found out. No panic or anger. All she felt inside him was righteous frustration and increasing desire. It convinced her that trusting him as much as she had was the correct decision.

And that he still wanted her.

She parted her lips to answer him, trying desperately to remember the question, to ask more of her own, when his mouth took away her ability to speak entirely.

Yes
. Her body curled into his, knowing what it wanted, recalling what he could do to her. She felt him attempt to lower her to the cot beneath them but he stopped with a jerk, swearing against her
mouth. The chain’s length had hindered him, reminding them both of their current situation.

Dare did not want to be reminded. Not yet. She pressed her hands against his chest and used her strength to push him back against the wall, her lips opening more aggressively over his.

His approval was clear in his low growl, and elation filled her that she could have this sway over him. She had no true skills at seduction, nor Phina’s unique pheromones. All she had was desire. But she hadn’t lied to him. She learned quickly.

She slid her mouth away from his and opened it against his neck, her tongue instinctively testing the flavor of his skin. Salt and heat. As earthy, dark, and alluring as his scent.

She recalled once more the effect Coral had on her noble and guard when she’d kissed their skin. The sound Bodhan had made when she’d asked if he would like to be kissed in that way. Could she bring that type of pleasure to him now?

Dare peppered soft, gentle kisses along his collarbone, stopping to investigate the base of his throat where she could feel the rapid pulse that matched her own. His need matched hers as well, but he hadn’t moved since she started her exploration. Hadn’t told her to stop.

She studied her hands on his chest, her pale against his rich bronze. The smooth skin of his chest let her palm slip lower with ease to the ridges of his muscled stomach, revealing the hard, dark nipple that had heated against her hand to her fascinated gaze.

Would his body react as hers had? Would he feel the same fire and lightning sensations when she sucked the skin between her lips? Bit them gently?

There was only one way to find out.

His hips bucked up instinctively when the sharp, perfect white pearls of her teeth closed over his left nipple. He had not believed it an erogenous zone for a man. When her tongue lashed lightly across the tougher flesh he shuddered, man enough to admit that he’d been wrong.

Could the intense reaction have something to do with his current position, chained and out of control? It was a first for him, being in a situation of this sort. He’d been in rough scrapes before, life-threatening negotiations and brawls where the odds were stacked against him.
This?
It was not a battleground he understood.

He knew of many women who enjoyed being in power. He couldn’t do what he did without understanding those dynamics. But, though he’d never admitted it aloud, Bodhan secretly found the men who craved that sort of role reversal lacking.

He
took control. Women submitted to
him
. He gave them pleasure that left them weak and wound them up so tightly they had to beg or they would shatter. It was what he had been planning to do to Dare, but his need for her that first time had been too great. His feelings too tender. What had passed between them had been beyond simple pleasure or control.

Now he’d woken up chained to a wall, unable to process the changes in their situation, the information she had given him before their lips met.

The last thing he wanted to admit was that he enjoyed this. Dare’s innocent oral exploration. The painful ache in his cock as he waited for her curiosity to take her lower. By the two moons,
lower
.

He bit his lip hard enough to taste the copper of his blood. He would not beg her.

Not yet.

That soft, sweet mouth was on the skin above the top button of his pants, her fingers releasing him buttonhook by agonizing buttonhook.

He relived those moments he had been inside her. He’d seen her reactions when she touched him, her surprise at his size. Would she hesitate now?

No. Not his Dare. His Dare had a need she barely understood but embraced without question. Her passion shook the earth around him, and her courage drew him to her in a way that had left him reeling, stunned.

In an elemental way he chose not to study too closely, he recognized his claim. Whoever she was, whatever her purpose or accident of fate that had brought them together, did not matter. She belonged to him.

And he was her prisoner, in more ways than one.

He hissed at the near explosive reaction he had to her touch. She gripped the base of his erection, her mouth a kiss away, her breath bathing his skin in fire.

“Dare?”
Please, my love. Do not make me beg.

Her voice was a caress on his sensitive flesh. “I do not mean to tease. I’m just not certain how—I couldn’t tell how Coral had—”

He banged the back of his head against the wall, wishing them somewhere else. Wishing his chains away so he could take her now.
“There is no way for you to fail, princess. Not at this. Unless you torture me to my death.”

He caught the quizzical look she sent upward and groaned. “Put your mouth on me, Dare. As if you were kissing my lips, savoring the taste of my skin. Kiss me as I kissed you in the lift.”

The memory of her addictive taste only increased his desire, the agonizing hardness between his legs. Her mouth opened lightly on the head of his cock and he ground his jaw together, holding his hips still with all the willpower he possessed.

“Yes,” he growled. “Taste me. There’s no need to be that gentle. You can take more… take it all.”

His encouragement was all she needed. The silken indigo of her braided hair slid over her shoulder, allowing him to watch her mouth widen to accommodate his thickness.

She would kill him before she was done.

Her cheeks hollowed as she sucked him in deep. Her tongue swirled around his shaft. How did she know he loved that? It seemed she could read his mind, that he no sooner fantasized an action than she mimicked it with her mouth. An intensified arc of pure need traveled along his spine, and he knew he would not last long.

Not like this. He opened his mouth to tell her what he wanted. Her astride him. Her cries of delight joining his. But it was too late. His body defied him, hips lifting off the cot until the head of his cock touched the back of her throat as he found his release.

Dare moaned in surprised delight, swallowing his seed with greedy abandon. He shouted hoarsely, shocked at the intensity of his satisfaction and the depth of emotion that followed. He’d only come this hard once before.

With Dare.

He closed his eyes, lost in the pleasurable aftershocks of her ministrations. His limbs trembled enough to rattle his chains, a vague
reminder of their current situation. A situation he was fast beginning to conclude was the realization of his greatest fear.

Dare lifted her head to kiss him and he caressed her lips tenderly with his own. For her, he would risk being wrong. He would give the captain what she’d asked for. Answers. Hopefully he would get some of his own in return.

A familiar voice rose in irritation on the other side of the door. “Again? Have you no shame? No idea how cruel it is to taunt a Felidae with the scent of fucking and not invite her in?”

Dare pulled her mouth away from his with a gasp, blushing deep pink from the roots of her blue hair to the top button of her jacket.

Bodhan smiled grimly. “A little late, Seraphina. Was there anything else you wanted?”

He could hear her grumbling but she didn’t open the door. “I was being polite by volunteering to come down here. The least you could do is return the favor.” Her tone changed, from petulant to clipped and alert. “Our unexpected passenger pick-up put us behind schedule. Both moons wane tonight. We have to make an emergency landing and set up camp. The captain wanted to leave you in here but I convinced her that Dare would no doubt protest.”

Bodhan felt his entire body tense. It did not occur to him to make a remark regarding the inconvenience of his abduction. Not now. “I appreciate the heads-up, Seraphina.”

Phina’s smile was evident even through the door. “She only agreed once I told her we could keep you in shackles. I’m not sure why… she still has not fallen prey to your charms.”

He studied Dare’s wide, wary gaze until he heard Phina’s footsteps fade away down the hall. “Love, I’m going to need your help cleaning up before they come in to get us.”

She looked down, blushing again and jumping off the cot to soak
another cloth in the warm basin water, returning to gently wipe his stomach and his still-erect cock.

He wanted her again. It would have to wait.

“Something is wrong and you know what it is, don’t you?” Dare’s voice was whisper-soft. “Are we in danger?”

His thoughts were grim. He knew the story too well. It had been passed down through the generations as long as any living being could remember.

When the two moons waned together, when Theorrey was blanketed in shadow, no man or beast dare take to the air… save one. One beast that was not a beast and a man that was not a man. To most it was a story told to keep children inside, safe from the dangerous beasts of the wood and marsh. But Bodhan knew the threat was based in reality. Captain Amaranthe knew it as well.

“Yes.” He snared Dare’s gaze, his own unblinking as he attempted to convey the seriousness of the situation. “Stay close to me once we land, Dare. And keep sharp.”

Dawn could not come soon enough. There would be no rest tonight.

Dare sat on the surprisingly comfortable chairs Freeman had brought out for them, Bodhan beside her, short-chained iron shackles still binding his wrists. She frowned. They had not offered him a shirt, and she could see several small welts had formed on the bronzed skin of his back from the bug bites they’d endured between the ship and camp. He had yet to complain about them.

She would say this—Freeman and the other two male crewmembers had made the small, elevated patch of dry land nearly as livable as the Deviant. A difficult accomplishment in the marsh.

It had to be something frightening indeed to have sent this hardened lot into such a spin. Their landing had been her first clue to
their state. It
was
a landing. The ship was no longer hovering the way it had been at Two Moon Bay.

The lower dodge had been furled against the sides along with the sails and it was bobbing, like an ordinary vessel on a deep pool of marsh water.

They’d released the aether mixture from the cocoon and the fabric had deflated, floating down like an enormous bedsheet to blanket the deck. The captain had shut off the engine and any power routed to the living quarters along with it, which, by the look in Gebby’s eyes, was not something they did without serious cause.

They’d been guided off the ship to a spot where they could remain hidden by the tangled web of vegetation, but were still able to keep an eye on their transport.

Captain Amaranthe appeared edgy, fingering the hilt of her unusual sword as a touchstone and pacing the perimeter made by the sloping hill of their open-air camp, and the repelling device set up near the stove. Just as the immense version had kept sea creatures away from the Siren it surrounded, this smaller version seemed to be keeping the stinging, chirping bugs at bay. But the captain still acted as though she were ready for an attack of some kind.

Phina, too, seemed different. More than just her outfit had changed since Dare had seen her, though the new look was startling. She had changed from her fancy corset and daring skirt, but the Felidae’s clothing was even more provocative. A feat Dare had not believed possible.