His Dark Bond (9 page)

Read His Dark Bond Online

Authors: Anne Marsh

BOOK: His Dark Bond
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“No strings,” she warned, and she put her hand in his. His fingers closed over hers. Strong. Warm. She couldn’t tear her eyes from the fit. The teasing sensation of skin against skin wouldn’t let her forget how rough he was, how masculine, how hard.
Not quite human.
He murmured a command, and the lights dimmed, wrapping them in a dark cocoon. Just the two of them. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
“Come with me.” His voice was a dark promise. “Don’t renege on me now. I’ll make you feel good, baby.”
“This doesn’t mean anything,” she warned again. She almost didn’t recognize her voice. The tone was raw, husky with unfamiliar need.
“Understood. Just pleasure,” he coaxed.
He drew her back to the vidscreens. Settled into the large leather armchair, pulling her down onto his lap.
“Watch,” he breathed against her skin. One hand moved confidently over the bank of controls, punching in codes. The camera zoomed in, and Nael filled the small screen, still wrapped around his blonde.
 
Nessa was stiff in Zer’s arms at first. “Relax, baby,” he breathed against her ear. “We’re just going to figure out what you like.”
Her notes were spread out on the too-delicate little credenza, thick swirls of inky black on the bland white paper the club stocked. Observations. Numbers. His little scientist had an eye for detail that didn’t surprise him. The question was: did she like what she’d seen?
He figured they could try each variant.
He was going to teach her exactly what she liked.
“Pleasure,” he promised. “Only pleasure.”
He drew one of her legs over his thighs and noticed that she’d removed the nylons she’d sported earlier. He made a mental note to order up a new wardrobe for her. She wouldn’t go without, not on his watch.
“Zer,” she said, and he drank in the soft, warm weight of her. Tentative. Tense. God, she was poised to run, as if she truly believed he’d let her out that door now that he had his hands on her.
As if he could.
Burying his face against her neck, he inhaled. Her scent was indescribable, that tormenting sugar-sweet smell of female. The soft strands of her hair clung to his jaw, to him. So much to explore, to learn.
He’d start with her skin, he decided. Learn the taste of her there. He stroked her lightly with his mouth, and her pulse jumped sharply beneath his tongue. She inhaled. Opened her mouth.
“Watch the vidscreen, baby.”
On the screen, Nael’s fingers were busy pulling up the too-short skirt of his companion’s cocktail dress even farther. The fabric bunched, slid, revealing a wicked black lace garter belt.
“You want me to do that?” He growled the words against her skin, his fingers stroking softly over the curve of her thigh. “You want to give me that?”
“Yes,” she said. Uncertain, then more sure. “Yes.” As if she didn’t know what she liked. An experiment.
He’d buy her a garter belt, he decided, removing his mouth from her throat. “You’ll wear one of those for me. Wicked,” he promised. “Little scrap of black silk to frame this pussy of yours. Lick you everywhere the lace doesn’t go. Would you like that?”
“Maybe.” Her eyes didn’t move from the vidscreen.
On the screen, Nael stroked confidently between his companion’s thighs, dark fingers sliding over the silk-covered mound.
Zer knew he couldn’t wait any longer, could feel his beast pushing to get out. “My turn.” Deliberately, he touched her, feeling her jump beneath his fingers. “Here, baby, where you’re wet and swollen.”
God, he was truly damned. He felt the plump, wet folds beneath his fingertips and wanted to rip off her panties and lick his way straight to the core of her. She tensed at the first light brush of his fingertips and then arched into his hand. God, yeah.
He let his hand rest there, drinking her in. Not the soul thirst, not yet, just delicious little tendrils of her psychic aura. Pleasure. Heat. Curiosity. God, that curiosity would be the death of him.
“Move,” she ordered. “I want to know what that feels like.”
Her wish was his command. He stroked softly, gently over the warm heat of her. Her curiosity intrigued him. What he felt from her was more than just sensual pleasure.
Her eyes closed, those dark lashes drifting slowly shut. Her hands fluttered, unsure of where to go, and then settled against his forearms. The light touch had him gritting his teeth. The feel of her was electric.
Deliberately, he drew two fingers gently down her soaking cleft, rubbing the fabric of her panties against her. Tempting her. The catch of her breath rewarded him, her sexy little whimper shockingly loud in the silent room.
“I want this,” he whispered against her ear. “I want you, Nessa. I’m going to convince you to let me do everything you’ve ever wanted to do. You’re going to beg me to.”
“I don’t beg,” she said, but she didn’t sound so sure anymore.
His cock was already impossibly hard, and then she moved gently against his hand.
“Hold still,” he growled, and he touched her. “Hold still for me now, baby, and I’ll make you come.” He slid his fingers deeper into that sweet valley because he couldn’t deny himself that pleasure. Not under her panties, though. Not yet. This was just a tease, a promise of the pleasure he could give her.
He didn’t know if he’d survive.
Her head fell back, baring that smooth throat. “Zer,” she said, and he didn’t know if it was a plea or a warning. Those impossible eyes of hers searched his face.
“Watch the screen, baby.” He paused, moving his hand away from her sweet heat. “Or I stop.”
She whimpered but obeyed, and, Christ, that was hot. Wrapping his big hand in her hair, he held her still as he slid his fingers back where he wanted them to be.
On the vidscreen, Nael slid his partner open. Burying his face deep in her pussy. He was going to do that, too. He was going to have all of her, even though he shouldn’t. “Next time,” Zer promised. “Next time, imagine us doing that together. I’m going to taste every inch of you, Nessa. I’m going to love having you on my tongue.”
He gave her the deep, delicious strokes he knew she craved, his fingers moving faster and deeper as her thighs closed around his wrist.
She came so quietly, the delicious flutters against his fingers soaking the silk of her panties. Quietly letting go.
So he held her in his arms, petting her gently. Wrapping her in himself. He was a goddamn selfish bastard, but he wasn’t done yet. He’d sleep beside her tonight. He was selfish enough to take that much for himself. That, and the sweet, rich scent of her cream on his fingers.
 
“Bond with us,” he whispered, his words soft against her skin as they lay in his bed. His ragged breathing, the impossible heat of him, and all that strength wrapped around her gave her an unfamiliar sense of belonging.
His offer shouldn’t have intrigued her. She’d refused it once, and she had every intention of refusing it now. She wasn’t going to do this. She really wasn’t. And yet those were her feet beating a path toward him, because something about this Fallen intrigued her. He was a puzzle, a conundrum—and she’d never been able to resist a good puzzle. Maybe, that’s all he was. Maybe, if she could figure out what made him tick, she could get back to her life.
“Bond with us, baby,” he repeated, his voice a rasping growl of sound.
His words snapped her back to reality. This wasn’t about her. This was about what
he
wanted. Her soul. And he didn’t even have the decency to pretend that he wanted her soul for himself. “In your dreams, Zer.”
 
She knew
nothing
of his dreams. Or his nightmares.
He had to convince her to do this, and it was killing him that force simply wouldn’t do the trick. This relationship business would have been so much simpler if he could simply order her to do something and she did it. His eyes narrowed.
“Why won’t you do it?” He was genuinely curious, he realized. None of the females downstairs would have considered refusing. They would have begged him for the opportunity. What made her so different? After all, he’d
had
her begging, hadn’t he?
He’d seduced her, had his fingers deep in sweet, wet heat, and she’d
still
refused him.
“I don’t do shortcuts,” she said, as if her words made perfect sense.
She thought he was a shortcut? “Explain,” he snapped. Rolling over onto his side, he stared down at her on his bed. He liked that sight.
“I work for what I want, Zer,” she said sweetly. “Maybe you should try it.”
She believed this was easy? He looked forward to enlightening her. “I work damn hard, baby. This isn’t a game. I need your promise.” Splaying one large hand over her heart, he let his fingers tease the edges of her collarbone.
Of course, she shook her head. “You’re not getting it. I don’t want a Goblin bond. You don’t have anything I need. Go find someone else.”
He had trackers hunting for the three other females on the list, but he simply couldn’t afford to waste this opportunity. She was one-fourth of an already too-puny arsenal, and he wasn’t giving up any advantage in this war. “We need you.”
“You want me,” she countered, “and sexual attraction is nothing more than evolution and biology.” Her lips parted in an indignant huff that undercut the careful logic of her words. “We don’t have an emotional connection, Zer. We have pheromones.”
Right. “You can call it what you want, baby, but you wanted me.”
She shrugged. “I can want you all I want, but that doesn’t mean I have to
take
you.”
He wasn’t prepared for his visceral reaction to the teasing mental image of her
taking
. Him.
“Let me go, Zer.”
“Appealing to my better side? You should know that I don’t have one.” He’d lost any light and goodness he’d possessed millennia ago, not that the Dominions had been known for their warm-and-fuzzy qualities to begin with. No, they’d been bred to be killers. Protectors. And they’d done a damn fine job of it.
He stroked his hands up her arms because he could, his thumbs pressing pleasurably against the tense muscles of her forearms. Stretching her arms up, over her head. Watching the visible struggle on her face—torn between relaxing into his touch and remembering who he was. Where he had her. Yeah, she thought too much.
“Happily-ever-after.” He smiled, and it was a hard, mean smile. “Romance. True love. You females love that shit. You buy it by the truckload. So, what’s not to love about this?”
She stared at him as if he had no clue. “Pheromones.” “Bond with us,” he repeated. “You were watching us on the vidscreen.”
There was a flush of embarrassment—and arousal—on her face. He traced the color with a fingertip, fascinated. He’d never met anyone—human or Fallen—who tried so hard to resist pleasure. What would happen if she let loose? “We’re offering fantasies—all your dark fantasies, coming true. You think about it, baby. Dream of it. Because I’m not letting you go.”
He levered himself smoothly off the bed, putting distance between them, before she could call him on his bluff. He had blood on his leathers, blood and another female’s scent. He’d shower before he slept with her, because he
was
sleeping with her tonight, and he wouldn’t lie with her stinking of another’s perfume.
“Let me go,” she called after him.
“Not a chance. You’re staying right here, where I can keep an eye on you.”
“Don’t trust your jailers?” Her taunt struck closer to home than he liked.
He trusted his brothers with his life, such as it was, but he wasn’t going to make the mistake of underestimating her. He had a sinking feeling that, if she tried, she could wrap him around her slender fingers. All she had to do was give him that heat she had stored away inside. If she burned for him, if she let him in, he was going to end up trapped.
And that made her damn dangerous.
“Stay here,” he growled, just to watch her eyes widen. With feminine pique.
“I’m not a dog,” she began, but he was already pulling his leathers off. Letting the heavy material drop to the floor.
“I’m showering,” he said, “and then I’m sleeping. Next to you.”
Leaving the door open so he had a full-on view of the suite and its occupant, he hit the shower. The hot jets of water burning his skin were a welcome recall to the present. Reaching for the soap, he watched her. He wasn’t stupid. He knew she’d run as soon as his back was turned, so, he wouldn’t give her the chance.
 
Since Zer didn’t close the door, Nessa decided privacy didn’t rate high on his list of priorities. Even as the hot steam fogged up the room, she had a bird’s-eye view of his body. Unconcerned, he’d stripped down right there in front of her, the heavy leathers hitting the floor. His blades, she couldn’t help noticing, stayed close at hand. When he’d placed the pair on the edge of the counter, she’d spotted the dark, inky swirl of a tattoo banding both wrists.

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