Highest Bidder: 1 (Mercy) (5 page)

He dragged his mouth from Naya’s sex, blew a fine stream of cool air on the swollen folds and then dropped his head to her belly to explore her navel with his lips. He wanted to fill her, enter her completely and fully, but he wouldn’t. Not yet.

Naya had spent a lifetime in a monastery being fawned over by men without genitalia, men who’d removed their cocks for fear of what they would do with the organ if it remained between their thighs. Ironically, the monks on New Earth had reduced her to a sexual object, to be used by her future husband in any way he saw fit, without understanding the pleasure of the act to befall her. She had been enslaved by the Mentuans and sold against her will to the highest bidder, to be someone else’s object of gratification. A life of perverted worship followed by heinous initiation. She had no understanding of the pleasure of true sex. How could she? When all she’d ever known was sexual imprisonment and objectification?

He
would show her what it was to truly be worshipped.

Nibbling on the flat plane of her belly, he charted a path up her rib cage to the underswell of her breasts. He kissed one, enjoying the heavy softness before moving to the other, feathering her tight nipple with his tongue.

Naya sucked in a swift breath, the action pushing her breast closer to his face. Her nipple pressed to his lips and fire erupted in his groin.
Shit
. She didn’t know what she did to him.

Raking his hands up her body, following the same path his mouth had just traversed, he cupped her breasts, capturing one nipple with his fingers, the other with his lips.

“Oh.” The simple sound burst from Naya the second Dreylan drew deeper on the puckered tip. She arched beneath him, her free hand tangling in his hair. Painfully hard. Erotically innocent.

His cock throbbed, eager for the wet heat of her sex. Eager for release.

Not yet. Not yet…

He suckled harder on her breast, pinching and twisting her other nipple as he did so. Naya whimpered, rolling her hips upward to stroke her pussy lips along the turgid length of his shaft. Her incredible heat finally permeated his trousers and he dragged a ragged breath in through his nose. The heady muskiness of her desire filled his being and, almost at his breaking point, he tore his mouth from her breast and stared down at her. “I won’t be able to stop.”

Naya’s eyes seemed to smolder with gray fire. “I know.”

The simple declaration sent another surge of potent pleasure through Dreylan. He crushed her mouth with his, biting her lower lip, sucking at her tongue. She whimpered and returned the kiss with equal force. Her tongue lashed at his teeth, her unschooled play making him burn with primitive pleasure. He tangled his fists in the tousled mane of her hair and another surge of exquisite heat shot through his body into his groin upon feeling the cool, silken texture of each strand.

Tearing his mouth from her sweet lips, he gazed down at her face, his breaths shallow and hot. She stared back, eyes wide. Hesitation threaded through the passion smoldering in their depths before, with an aggression that took him by surprise, she grabbed a fistful of his hair with her unbound hand and pushed his head down to her breasts.

Wild rapture erupted in Dreylan at the unspoken order. He captured the tight, puckered tip of her left breast with his teeth and bit down with ungentle greed.

“Oh yes!” Naya cried out. She bucked, slamming her sodden cunt to his shaft. “Oh fuck, yes.”

Raw electricity shot through him. Gods, he couldn’t hold on any longer.

Yes. You can.

He turned the savage attention to her nipple into a soft and gentle kiss. He traced the outline of her areola with the tip of his tongue, smiling slightly at Naya’s soft intake of breath. Her flesh rippled into tiny bumps of pleasure and she moaned, the honest sound tickling Dreylan’s senses as surely as her sensuality stroked his desire. He chartered a lazy path over the swell of her breast, along the line of her collarbone to claim her other nipple, closing his lips around it with infinite tenderness. The tight nub of flesh pinched tighter and Naya moaned again, the fist in his hair clenching with painful pressure.

She arched into him, thrusting her breast to his face, his mouth. He suckled harder, cupping and squeezing her other breast. She felt so good, soft, firm and warm. His cock ached, a solid rod of hunger. How he denied it, he didn’t know. The desire, the longing burning through him was unlike any temptation he’d ever experienced.

And yet, at the same time…

Mab’noc
…

Dream memory…

He lifted his head, gazing into Naya’s face. She stared back at him, eyelids lowered, eyes like smoke from a smoldering inferno. “How do I know you?”

She shook her head. “You don’t.” The whisper caressed him, the lie in her words like ice on his fevered flesh. It stole his breath, twisted his gut. He would never lose his heart to a woman again, not after Aimyl’s betrayal, but nor would he sleep with one with deception in her soul.

He pulled away, needing to distance himself from her sensual heat before demanding the truth.

And then Naya tugged his head down to hers and whispered against his lips, “But I’ve dreamt about you almost every night of my life.”

Her tongue slipped into his mouth and she kissed him. Deeply. A whirlwind of color, taste and sound tore through his mind. Powerful. Impossible to ignore. Limbs entwined, fingers threaded, bodies moving as one.

The Ancient Ezilians claimed a dream invader’s soul would seek out its true twin, its
mab’syr
,
during repose. Today’s Ezilians, however, considered the mysterious phenomenon a myth, a romantic notion created by spiritual zealots.

Dreylan himself considered the notion bullshit. Yet here, now, feeling Naya’s heart beat next to his, her heat seeping into his body…

Mab’noc
.

Dream memory.

Mab’syr
.

Soul mate.

Disbelief twisted through his passion, confusion through his resolve. Yet he couldn’t stop himself. He kissed her back. In his psyche, Dreylan held the power to manipulate dreams, to direct and contort them, but that power meant nothing compared to the consuming desire for Naya that controlled him at that very moment.
Mab’syr
or no, this fragile yet oh so strong Terran called to him. He couldn’t deny her.

Or himself.

Smoothing his hand up her arm, he felt the subtle warmth of the io-cuff shackling her to the bed. He broke their kiss, Naya’s breath hot on his lips. “Release,” he murmured.

The voice-imprinted locking mechanism instantly disengaged, freeing Naya from the energy band circling her wrist.

She drew in a swift breath. Surprise flared in her eyes before, with a soft noise that sent hot chills straight to Dreylan’s core, she tangled
both
hands in his hair and kissed him again.

Her tongue delved deeper, more confident, purposeful. She nipped his lip, the playfully painful action stirring Dreylan’s turgid cock. She was getting cheeky. A chuckle vibrated low in his chest and he broke the kiss, dragging his mouth up to her ear to nibble on her earlobe.

“Tell me how I touch you in your dreams,” he whispered. Naya stilled beneath him and he lifted his head to gaze down into her face. “Tell me how I touch you in your dreams, Naya, and I will touch you the very same way now.”

She stared at him for a still moment, uncertainty shining in her eyes. “I…” She paused, pulling on her bottom lip with her teeth, her cheeks growing a faint pink. “You kiss my neck.”

Dreylan smiled, at the shyness in her words and the innocent contact she chose to share. He dropped his head, lips brushing the delicate curve where her neck became her shoulder. “Like this?”

A shiver rippled through her body. “Y-yes.”

He placed another kiss higher on her neck, this time letting the tip of his tongue tickle her flesh. “And this?”

Naya’s breath hitched and she nodded. Once.

With languid care, he peppered a line of soft kisses up the column of her neck to just below her jaw, increasing the pressure of each kiss until he caught her earlobe with his teeth.

“Oh.”

Naya’s shaky exclamation sent a surge of electricity to his groin. He nibbled a path back down her neck, across her collarbone and up to her other ear, tracing the inner shell with his tongue. “Did I do this in your dreams, Naya?”

Her ragged intake of breath preceded an even more ragged, “No.”

Dreylan chuckled softly and nipped her earlobe again. “Better stop then.”

Naya’s fists tightened in his hair and the muscles in her arms tensed, holding him fast. “No!”

Happiness swelled through Dreylan. Not just because she wanted him to keep kissing her, but because of how vehemently she’d said the single word. He returned his lips to her neck, tasting, varying the pressure of his bites as he charted a path down to the curve of her shoulder. Reaching up, he removed her hands from his hair and pressed her wrists to the mattress beside her head.

Naya tensed, and for a quick second Dreylan saw a glimmer of fear in her face. He pulled in a deep breath and loosened his grip on her wrists. He had to remember what she was, a virgin captured and sold by Mentuan slavers. Despite her shy bravado, she’d been torn from everything she knew, from the safe surety of her existence. “I will not do anything you don’t want me to, Naya,” he murmured.

She studied him, the pulse in her neck a fluttering beat that echoed the pounding hammer of his heart. “You kiss my shoulder,” she whispered. “In my dreams, you kiss my shoulder.” Her cheeks turned pink again. “And the inside of my elbows.”

Dreylan lowered his head until his lips feathered over the top of her shoulder, down her biceps to the delicate softness of her inner elbow.

Naya sighed, undulating under his body. “Yes.” The word left her in a contented breath. “Just like that.”

He explored the slight dip of her elbow with his lips, tongue and teeth, nipping here, sucking there. Naya moaned and shifted beneath him, lifting her hips to press her sex to the aching bulge of his erection. Exquisite heat flooded through him at the insistent contact and he groaned. Control wavered.
Shit
. He wanted to be inside her. He wanted to feel her sex contract around his shaft more than he wanted air in his lungs.

A blur of images tore through his head, another
mab’noc
. Heavy breathing, sweat-slicked skin, flesh on flesh…

He closed his eyes, letting the dream memory wash over him. He’d been with Naya before. Of that, he now had no doubt. Her taste, her smell, all too familiar to deny. Yet despite the power of the
mab’noc
, he knew that even in Naya’s dreams, he’d not penetrated her.

His cock throbbed, hungry for that denied pleasure.

Not yet. Not until Naya asks.

And if she didn’t?

Dreylan forced the numbing thought away.
His
release was not important. Only hers. Working his way along her arm with his mouth, he found her palm, drawing a tiny circle in its center with his tongue. Naya moaned and pressed her pussy to his hungry shaft again. He smiled against her arm, positive she didn’t know what she was doing. Her innocent responses fed the fire in his body more than any Slessorian Master Pleasurer’s touch.

Sliding his hand over hers, he kneaded the center of her palm with his thumb as he kissed and nibbled the length of each finger. Taking her middle finger into his mouth, he sucked gently.

“I don’t remember you doing that,” Naya murmured. “But I’m so happy you are now.”

Dreylan withdrew her finger and gave her a slow smile. “What else did I do, Naya?”

“You pushed my breasts together and sucked both my nipples at once.”

Naya’s bold statement sent wicked lust straight to Dreylan’s groin. She stared at him, not a hint of pink in her cheeks.

His grin continued to play with the corner of his mouth. “I can do that.”

Slowly, never breaking eye contact, he smoothed his hands down her arms and over her breasts. Naya hissed in anticipation when his thumbs dragged over her tightly puckered nipples, and then frowned as he continued to slide his hands down her rib cage. Dreylan chuckled. Her passion and pleasure were growing with every second. Awakened by his touch. Dream to reality.

Shifting his hips, he aligned his rigid shaft more snugly with her cunt. The heat of her desire seeped through his trousers even more, making his head spin and his blood roar. With infinite patience, he slid his hands down her waist and over the curve of her hips, reveling in the silken texture of her skin and the open hunger in her eyes before skimming his hands back up to cup the heavy swells of both breasts.

Naya’s nostrils flared. She watched him, lips parted slightly, as he gently but firmly pressed her breasts up and together and lowered his head to claim both nipples with his mouth.

He scraped his teeth over their hard forms, exerting just enough pressure to cause Naya to gasp. Immediately he suckled, and Naya’s gasp turned into a low moan. She arched into him, lifting her legs and wrapping them around his hips. Pressing her heels into the small of his back, she ground her cunt to his cock and dug her nails into his shoulders. “Gods, Dreylan, that feels so good.”