Lords of the Sea (16 page)

Her hesitation was just long enough to be pointed, unfortunately, which translated to rude, even though she hadn’t wanted to be.

“Sorry, guy,” David said, appearing abruptly at her elbow and grasping it possessively. “She already promised me this dance.”

He drew her away before she had time to do more than glance at Raen apologetically. “What’s going on?” Cassie asked quietly when he’d danced her far enough from Raen she thought he wouldn’t overhear.

David grinned down at her. “Guerrilla warfare, I think. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed the way they’ve been trying to separate all of us since we got here? I just figured if they had a reason for wanting to, we probably didn’t want them to.”

She had noticed, and it had made her uneasy. “This is a rescue then?” she asked, unable to resist grinning back at him.

“Hey! Don’t tell me I don’t have white knight written all over me!” he said, glancing down at his white robe pointedly.

Cassie chuckled. “You look more like a reject from the KKK.”

He sent her a startled look and then burst out laughing since, although he was clearly more than half white from the lightness of his complexion, he was also, clearly, part black. “I hadn’t thought about that. I knew there was a reason I hated these damned white robes. I thought it was because it made me feel like a choirboy, though.”

“
None
of you look like choirboys, believe me,” Cassie retorted.

He grinned at her suggestively. “Because we ain’t?”

“Exactly my point. I
might
have believed those big, innocent looking green eyes of yours before the tales you told this afternoon, but certainly not now.”

He shrugged, giving her a lopsided smile. “It’s the Irish in me. What can I say?”

Cassie hadn’t realized he was waltzing her determinedly back to the group until they met up with Carl. She took the glass he held out to her as David released her. “I think I’ll make a foray for another glass of whatever-the-hell that is.”

“I think we’ve stayed long enough to look sociable,” Carl commented as he guided her back toward the benches they’d staked claim to and waited until she sat down between Jimmy and Ben. “I’m going to check with the others and see if they’re ready to cut out.”

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Cassie was inclined to agree, especially since Raen obviously didn’t mean to take her rejection earlier to heart. She was way too susceptible to him, and she knew it. She was afraid the only way she was going to be able to resist temptation was to avoid it.

Sipping her drink, she glanced around as casually as she could to see if she could spot him. Unfortunately, the moment she did, their gazes connected. Seeing intent in every line of his body as he started toward her, she drained her glass and surged to her feet abruptly. “You two coming?” she asked quickly, heading toward Carl and the others without waiting to see if either one of the two men were following.

Jimmy settled an arm heavily across her shoulders. “Sure thing, sweet thang!”

She staggered slightly under his weight and struggled to guide him in the right direction. “Jimmy’s tanked,” she announced as she reached the group. “We’re heading back.”

Jimmy grinned at everyone. Without another word, everyone turned to go. Carl, to Cassie’s relief, moved up beside her and dragged Jimmy off of her. “You having problems, buddy? I’ll give you a hand. You’re about to flatten Cassie.”

“I can walk zush fine by myself,” Jimmy disputed.

“Actually, it’s Cassie that’s having a problem,” Carl assured him in a loud whisper.

They’d managed to make it out the door before Raen caught up with them. Cassie had been so certain that he’d diverted when he saw her in retreat that it came as a complete shock to her when someone grasped her arm, and she looked up to discover that it was him. “We need to talk,” he said implacably.

“So—talk,” Mark answered for her as he moved away from the others, who’d stopped in the corridor to watch, and came to halt beside her, bristling at Raen.

Raen ignored him. “Privately,” he said tightly.

Cassie glanced from Mark to Raen when he spoke again, unnerved by the hostility she felt emanating from both men and uncertain of what to do to prevent it from escalating. Unfortunately, the last drink she’d had hadn’t left her brain fully functional.

“I already told Councilor … uh … Councilor thingy I’d talk to him tomorrow.”

Raen shook his head fractionally. “Alone.”

Cassie frowned at him, suddenly certain he wanted to take up their earlier dispute, but as reckless as she was feeling, she didn’t want to argue with him in front of the others, fearful it would bring everyone into the argument and things could get ugly.

Especially when Mark was already feeling antagonistic towards the Atlantean.

She glanced at the group waiting in the hallway and then up at Mark. “It’s OK.

Y’all go ahead. I’ll catch up with you in a few minutes.”

“You don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to,” Mark said stubbornly.

She smiled at Mark with an effort. “I know. I’ll just be a minute. OK?”

Mark looked like he wanted to argue with her about it, but finally shrugged and rejoined the others. “If you aren’t there pretty quick, we’ll come looking for you,” Carl said, giving Raen a challenging look before the party turned and headed down the corridor.

Cassie watched them until they’d moved some distance down the hall and then turned to look at Raen questioningly. She saw that he was watching the group, as well, his expression hard. He glanced down at her after a moment. “Not here,” he said at the questioning look in her eyes, leading her back into the room they’d just left.

92

Surprised, feeling a mixture of both relief and disappointment, Cassie followed him without argument as he threaded his way through the room, deciding he must have intended for her to talk to the councilor after all. It wasn’t until they’d passed through a door on the other side and she discovered they were in an entirely different corridor that it dawned on her that she might have been wrong.

“Where are we going?” she asked abruptly.

He glanced down at her. “There,” he said, pointing down the corridor.

“I thought the councilor said he wanted to talk to me tomorrow?” Cassie said questioningly, thoroughly confused by now.

“He did,” Raen responded, halting before a door that slid open as they stopped in front of it.

“Well then …?” Cassie began as she followed him inside, breaking off when she discovered the room they’d entered was someone’s quarters, not the meeting chamber she’d expected. She glanced at the door in consternation as it slid shut behind them and then up at Raen. “You said you wanted to talk,” she said, realizing abruptly as he shifted closer until he was looming over her that he hadn’t said anything about the councilor.

She’d jumped to that conclusion herself. “I’m confused,” she said finally.

His gaze flickered over her face. “Then we have that, at least, in common.”

93

She was more than a little confused, Raen saw. He hadn’t realized she’d had enough of the
fermentè
to impair her judgment, but he supposed he should have. She would never have agreed to come with him otherwise.

His own judgment was not to be relied upon if it came to that. He’d drank far more than he was accustomed to, than he’d intended to, as he’d watched her flirting with first one and then another of the native men. If his judgment hadn’t been impaired, he would not have had to struggle with the urge to plant his fist in the middle of Mark’s face. He would not have welcomed the possibility that Mark would lose his head and take a swing at him so that he could pound him into mush without running the risk of being imprisoned for provoking the fight.

He would not have interfered when she had chosen to go with Mark and the others.

It was the female’s decision, and she had made hers.

He would not be staring down at her now feeling like a stupid oaf because none of the things he had rehearsed in his mind to say to her sounded nearly as clever, or as sound an argument to him now as it had when he had composed the thoughts.

It was allowable to flirt, encouraged even. It was allowable to display his prowess as a warrior, his cleverness, his strength.

It wasn’t allowable to petition the female or pressure her in any way to choose him above the one she had already settled upon.

If she complained he would be disciplined, very likely confined until she and the others left, but he realized he didn’t give a damn. If he did nothing, it would not matter anyway.

He would at least know if she had rejected him because she felt none of the things he did, or if it was because he was Andromedan.

“You said you wanted to talk,” she prompted after a moment.

He lifted a hand and hooked her jaw in the crook of his thumb and forefinger to keep her from turning her face away as he lowered his head to hers. “I lied,” he murmured a breath away from her lips, realizing only when he said it that he had, and not only to her. This, he thought as he covered her mouth with his own, was what he’d intended all along.

A jolt went through Cassie as she felt the brush of his lips against hers and then heat flooded her as his mouth settled possessively over hers. The vague floating sensation from the wine she’d drank intensified to swirling darkness as his tongue skated along her lips and delved inside her mouth. For a handful of frantic heartbeats, she was suspended by surprise and confusion and reluctance, caught by the certain knowledge that she was lost if she allowed him to kiss her as he had before.

The lure of pleasure was far stronger than her will to resist, however, and even as he invaded her senses with his touch and taste, she lost the battle, curling her fingers into his robe instead of thrusting away from him. As if he sensed that silent yielding, he 94

released his grip on her jaw and drew her closer, caging her with his arms. She uttered a sound of need, of surrender into his mouth as he kissed her more deeply, with more fervor, sucking lightly on her mouth as he stroked her tongue with his own. Weakness flowed through her in the wake of the heat that poured through her veins. She curled her fingers more tightly into his robe, clinging to fight the dizziness as well as the heaviness that settled over her, struggling to breathe when there didn’t seem to be enough air in the world anymore.

And still regret filled her as he broke the contact, lifting his head to study her face.

Panting for breath, she lifted her eyelids with an effort to stare up at his face. A shiver skated through her at the tumultuous fire she saw in his eyes, a quiver of anticipation, hopefulness.

He slipped his hands to her face, settling his palms along her cheeks. “Choose me, Cassie,” he murmured huskily. “I can give you more.”

Drugged by her burning need, utter confusion filled her as she stared up at him.

More? Another shiver went through her. Licking her lips, she lifted them in supplication. Delight filled her with a roaring blaze as he seized upon her offering hungrily, greedily taking what she offered up and demanding more. The feel of his mouth on hers, the heat of it, gave rise to a desperate hunger of her own.

His hands moved her as he explored her mouth with far more possessiveness than before, coaxing her tongue into his mouth to suckle on it and sending jolt after jolt of heady pleasure through her. His hands alternately stroked along her back and pressed her closer as he moved restlessly against her. The chill of the air against her overheated body as he dragged her robe upwards created an eruption of pebbly skin along her bare body.

She shivered as he pulled away long enough to drag it over her head and toss it aside, and then he drew her tightly against him again, dispelling the chill with the heat of his body, his hands, his mouth. She slid her hands up his chest to loop her arms around his neck as he drew her close again, threading her fingers through his dark hair, stroking the silky mane with delight at the cool, sleekness of it against her palms and fingers.

He uttered a groan low in his chest. A shudder rippled through him. Lifting her off her feet, he moved to the bed in three quick strides and tumbled onto the mattress with her. Breaking away from her, he reached back to grasp his robe and hauled it off over his head, stripping it from his arms and flinging it aside. “Where?” he muttered hoarsely as he explored her face and throat with his mouth. “Tell me where to touch you to give you pleasure.”

She was in no state of mind to formulate words and certainly not to give him directions. She’d lost the facility for speech or much above primal thought from the moment he kissed her. “Everywhere,” she gasped dizzily, of far more mind to demand he enter her right then and dispense with any further foreplay.

She changed her mind when he wove his way downward and covered the tip of one breast with his mouth, surging upward to meet his caress when an electric current of pleasure sizzled along every nerve ending and drew her womb into a hard knot. She gasped, shuddering as he teased the turgid tip with his tongue and then sucked on it, clasping his head tightly to her one moment and stroking her hands over his head and along his broad shoulders and back feverishly the next. By the time he’d made his way over to her other breast, she was beyond reason. All she could think about was mounting the engorged flesh surging against her thigh instead of where she needed it. Struggling 95

with his weight until she managed to wrap her thighs around his waist, she groped between them in search of his cock.

She couldn’t reach it, damn it all!

“Raen!” she gasped, planting her palm in the middle of his forehead and shoving him away from her breast. He surged upward, gasping, staring at her uncomprehendingly as she undulated against him in an effort to wiggle downward and impale herself on his shaft. He ground his teeth as she caught hold of his cock at last and stroked it and then guided it along her cleft.

Shifting upward abruptly as he felt the moist heat of her sex close around the head of his cock, he curled his hips to penetrate her. She fell back against the bed, groaning as she felt him surging against her, stretching her—turning her inside out as her flesh refused to yield to him.

“God!” she gasped, reaching between them to stretch her flesh for him, shuddering as she felt his cock slipping between her fingers as he delved her—too shallowly to give her any relief. They struggled against one another, heaving, pressing until sweat slickened their skin and they were slipping against one another one moment and clinging the next.

He stopped after a few moments, quivering all over with the effort of restraint. “I will hurt you if I do not stop,” he gasped hoarsely.

“I will hurt you if you do,” Cassie growled, her heart hammering so hard in her chest from frustrated need that she felt as if she would black out.

He heaved upward abruptly, disengaging their bodies and shoving himself downward. Before she could object, before she’d entirely grasped what he meant to do, he thrust her thighs wide and covered her sex with his mouth. A shockwave of intense sensation rolled over her as she felt the lathe of his tongue along her cleft and then connecting with her clit. She groaned, bucked against him. He caught her hips, holding her for his mouth as he lathed and suckled at her burning flesh until she was sobbing for breath and torn between the urge to make him stop and the equal demand of her body to yield to the explosive climax she felt building inside of her.

She almost wept when he did stop. Lifting away from her, he crawled over her body once more, aligned his shaft with her opening and curled his hips to penetrate her, pressing steadily against her until he’d breached the mouth of her sex. When he withdrew slightly and thrust again, she felt him sinking slowly deeper and deeper inside of her, felt the friction of his passage along her channel in waves of intense pleasure.

“Mmm,” she moaned, lifting her arms and legs and locking them around him to counter his trusts until he’d filled her to capacity, stretched her almost to the point of pain.

Dropping her feet to the mattress as he withdrew, she met his next thrust, focused inwardly as she felt her body rising, tightening, preparing to take the leap into ecstasy.

She gasped in a harsh breath and held it as she reached the precipice and teetered, struggling to hold it off just a few more moments to enjoy the pleasurable glide of his flesh along her channel. She lost her hold on it as he began to thrust faster, slamming into her in jolts that pushed her control beyond her reach, exploding in glorious waves of rapture as her climax hit her with such force that it dragged keen cries from her.

He shuddered as her body began to convulse and then surged into her faster until he found his own quaking release.

96

Gasping for breath, shuddering at the quakes that continued to rip through him, he leaned heavily against her, struggling to catch his breath and gather enough strength to move off of her. Finally, he heaved himself to one side and tipped onto the bed beside her.

That was certainly ‘more’, Cassie thought with an inward smile, more than she’d ever had. She’d thought for several panicked moments, in point of fact, that it was more than she could handle. Nearly comatose in the aftermath, she allowed herself to drift lazily while her heart and breath slowly calmed until she could breathe more easily.

She groaned as he groped her until his hand settled on her shoulder and he dragged her over to face him. Ignoring her protest, he pulled her against him and sought her mouth, kissing her briefly before he released her.

Sighing in repletion, Cassie rolled away again and was just trying to decide whether to get up and seek her own bed or stay where she was when she heard a voice, dimly, in the distance calling her name. A frown creased her brow. The moment the call came again, however, nearer, more distinctly, her brain shot into overdrive. She bolted upright.

“Oh … my … god!” she exclaimed, shooting out of the bed before Raen, who made a grab for her, could stop her.

The robe she dragged over her head wasn’t hers, she discovered when the hem hit the floor and puddled around her. “Shit!” she exclaimed, dragging it off again and diving for the other robe. “I have to go!” she added after a moment’s struggle with the robe, throwing an apologetic glance in Raen’s direction even as she headed for the door.

“Sorry!”

Thankfully, it opened as she rushed toward it, otherwise she would’ve flattened herself against it.

“Cassie!” Raen growled as she darted out the door.

She flicked a quick glance at him. “I have to go,” she said again, frantically combing her wild hair with her fingers as she turned away and rushed down the corridor, trying to remember which door they’d entered the corridor from.

She’d completely forgotten that the celebration was still in full swing when she’d followed Raen out. She found the door and tumbled through it before she realized her mistake, drawing the gazes of around a dozen Atlanteans. Guilty color rushed into her cheeks. With an effort, praying her hair wasn’t standing on end, Cassie nodded politely and headed for the other door where, she discovered, Mark, Carl, Ben, and David were standing—bellowing for her.

Feeling pretty much the same as she’d felt when she was a child that had wandered off when she shouldn’t have, Cassie hurried toward them in the forlorn hope of heading off anything any more embarrassing.

She knew the moment they spied her and looked her over that she didn’t pass muster. Mark bristled instantly, surging forward as if he had every intention of finding Raen and trying to knock him senseless. Fortunately, Carl and David had their wits about them and managed to capture him and escort him out before he could commit folly.

Cassie’s embarrassment deepened as she joined the men in the corridor, but her anger rose as they all gave her chiding looks. Glaring at them, she stalked past them and led the way back. Instead of heading for Linda’s quarters, however, she ducked behind the sheet covering her own door and headed for the shower.

97

She could feel cum slowly sliding down her thighs and knew she didn’t just
look
as if she was fresh fucked. She smelled of sex.

Contrary to all reason, an aftershock of pleasure went through her at the thought.

Dismissing it with an effort, refusing to look in the mirror to see just how bad she looked, she adjusted the shower and climbed in. Someone—Natara she had to suppose—had been thoughtful enough to provide her with soap and cloths, and she felt far more refreshed when she emerged from the shower a short time later than she’d felt before when she’d had nothing to bathe with but water.