Marked 2: Marked for Desire (13 page)

A feral noise rumbled from Shaun. He glared at Leo but struggled out of the coveralls until he was naked. Leo wasn’t finished with him. “Now me.”

Shaun’s gaze shot to Leo’s face. The assassin’s nostrils flared, and a muscle moved in his cheek. Leo gave him no room for argument. “Do it!”

Sera couldn’t look away as Shaun flicked the buttons of her mate’s flight suit and yanked them down. It was stunning, brutal, fascinating. Her mate’s mark on his hip glowed bright, and his cock sprang free. The evidence of his desire made her breath catch.

“Princess, lie down on your clothes, propped up on your elbows, legs apart.” Leo’s blue eyes glittered. “Your punishment is you can’t close your eyes. If you do, I’ll get you hot and never let you come.”

She laid her coveralls on the stone floor, obeying his commands. Shaun strained against Leo’s hold, but her mate held him down. The assassin was on his knees just beyond her, facing her naked body, her legs open for him to see.

Leo pressed his cock into Shaun’s back. “You’re going to suck her cunt. But it’s my cunt, Shaun. Mine. This will be your only chance to taste it, smell it. It’s all mine. You’re going to lick it for me.” His voice, insistent and dark, made Sera shudder. Yes, he would let Shaun touch her, but it would be
Leo’s
command. “While you’re sucking my cunt, traitor, I’ll be taking your ass.” Sera’s heart jumped. Leo’s words painted an erotic picture that caused her head to spin. Just the thought of Leo fucking Shaun made her pussy wet.

Shaun growled and reared back, his teeth snapping at Leo’s arm. Leo’s other hand gripped Shaun’s hair, then jerked the kneeling man’s head to face him. “Would you rather take the council’s punishment? They’ll give you to the Mistresses, who will use a strap-on dildo over and over until you’re begging for it, submissive to
their
needs. They’ll rob you of your dominance. But if I tell them
I
punished you, if I tell them your slate is clean, they’ll allow you to go free.”

That made the man stop struggling. He stared up at Leo’s face. Leo nodded. “But to go free, you must submit to me. And to her.” Leo’s hand clenched in Shaun’s hair. “She is beyond you forever. When you see her, when your eyes catch a glimpse of her, you will remember that
she
is your mistress. She is over you. You will lick her like a servant licks a master’s boots. And you’d better make her come, Shaun.”

Throughout the entire exchange, Sera’s pulse pounded. Her pussy heated, and she started to pant. Her mate was weaving words, fantasies, that made her hot, made her want him. Leo released Shaun’s hair and pressed him forward until the assassin’s mouth hovered over her clit.

Shaun’s ass was in the air, and Leo met her gaze while his fingers rimmed the man’s tight hole. Propped up on her elbows, she stared at the way Shaun’s skin changed color, a heated flush spreading over his face. His breath was hot on her slit. She resisted the urge to arch into his mouth.

Leo stared at her, only her. “Play with your tits, Princess. Make those beautiful nipples hard. God, you smell so good.”

To follow his command, she had to lie back. She moaned. Leo’s voice, his stare, his erect cock all flooded her senses. She plucked at her nipples, rolled them between her fingers, molten lava careening through her veins. But she obeyed him and kept her eyes open. And what a feast Leo had laid before her. Two gorgeous, dominant men, worshiping her, fucking her.

Leo’s blue eyes glowed. “Push his face into my cunt, Princess.” She reached up and gripped Shaun’s hair, pressing his head down into her pussy lips.

The first scrape of Shaun’s tongue made her groan and shift restlessly. She kept the grip on Shaun’s head, grinding into his mouth, demanding his service, his tongue. Higher, hotter, needier, she kept her gaze on her mate’s face as the waves of pleasure hit her. She was close. So close.

“Stop!” Leo commanded, and his fingers slid out of Shaun’s ass. Both she and Shaun groaned in protest. Shaun was panting, his hazel eyes clouded, focused on her pussy. Leo’s gaze, hard and controlled, met hers. “Watch me. Watch us, Princess. Watch what you started by denying you’ve become a Nyral mate. He is submissive to you, so you’d better master him. The rage of my possession of him was caused by you. It’s time you understood what it means to be mine.”

Fascinated, she was riveted. Leo jammed his dick inside Shaun’s ass, stretching him. Shaun made a keening sound, his breath hot on her clit. Suddenly he raised his face, now contorted, but Sera couldn’t tell if he was in pain or in the throes of pleasure. Leo began to move inside him, hard and fast. “Princess, we’re going to fuck Shaun together. First, he’s going to make you come with his mouth. Then you’re going to fuck him with that sweet pussy of yours.”

Shaun’s eyes were wild, his nostrils flared, his skin hot. Taken. She knew how that felt. It was amazing and frightening.

Leo slammed hard into Shaun’s ass, which shoved the man’s face into her pussy. She arched, so damn close that it only took one suck, one moment of Shaun’s mouth clamped on her clit to send her into oblivion. She screamed, her arm burning, her back arched, her muscles strained while the pleasure ripped through her. “Leo!” she shouted.

Both men growled, one with his face between her legs.

“Don’t you dare come, Shaun.” Leo’s voice was harsh.

Shaun thrashed beneath Leo, his tongue still lashing her clit, bringing her closer to the brink again. Leo gripped Shaun’s hair and yanked his head back. Then Leo bent over him and grabbed Sera’s calf. Her mate’s insistent fingers dug into her skin, and he pulled her closer to him, closer.

Shaun froze.

It was Leo who positioned her, Shaun’s dick right at the entrance of her pussy. Leo flexed his hips and drove into Shaun, pushing him into Sera. Shaun speared her, driven deep by Leo’s powerful thrusts. The sight of her mate buried inside Shaun only increased her tension, her muscles clenching. She arched upward, Shaun’s hot breath on her breasts, her gaze locked with Leo’s hot, passionate one.

“Do you want to come again, Princess?” Leo’s tone was gritty.

“Yes yes yes,” she said in time with his thrusts.

“My pussy. Say it.”

“It’s your pussy,” she said breathlessly.

“Come for me. Now.”

When Leo reached out and gripped her marked arm and yanked it to his mouth, she exploded, her pussy clenching around Shaun’s dick. Her hips were out of control, the waves washing her away, floating, needing an anchor. “Leo.” His name escaping from her lips made him groan against her arm, causing another earthquake to shatter through her.

Leo tore his mouth away from her arm and made an animalistic sound that thrilled her. He pounded into Shaun’s ass, sending the man’s dick deeper into her pussy. Deeper. Harder. It was all in Leo’s control. She shattered into a million pieces like a new star born, hot, explosive, bright. She kept her gaze on Leo and watched his face contort with pleasure as he shot cum into Shaun’s ass. “Come, Shaun, now!” he commanded.

Shaun shouted as he came inside her, his knees buckling, and he collapsed on top of her. Another wave of intense pleasure swamped her. Her mate mark sizzled, the burning almost unbearable. She rolled into pleasure, dark edges around her vision. Her breath stopped; her body bent like a bow. It was too much, too intense. Desire. Possession. Need.

Leo had mastered her, her planet, and this assassin.

“Leo,” she whispered as her body shuddered. And when she said it she meant
Master
.

He’d said she would call him “Master.” In every way that mattered, she had.

Chapter Nine

To have them both submit beneath him was intoxicating, and Leo had to catch his breath. The dragon burned still, even after being pressed against Shaun’s skin. He wanted to hold his mate, to reassure her. She had participated in something very few outside of his culture experienced and had submitted to his every command. His first instinct was to touch her, give her some tenderness, but he had to deal with the man he’d just dominated. On shaky legs, he stood and pulled Shaun to his knees. “We are bonded as Dominant and submissive. You will be submissive to me and to my mate until we die.”

“Yes, Master,” the man whispered.

“Now, get up!” The sharp command worked, and Shaun scrambled to his feet. Leo turned him and inspected the man’s ass. Sure enough, a faint impression of the dragon had burned onto one of his taut cheeks. “You wear my mark, Shaun Fenway. Your slate is clean.”

The man didn’t turn around, didn’t move, his head bent. When his princess moved toward Shaun, her hand outstretched, he shook his head sharply. Leo knew Shaun would have to come to terms with his new status. He was still a Nyral dominant, but he would be Leo’s submissive always, forever. It was better than the psychological scars the Mistresses left. Shaun could still dominate. The Mistresses took that from a man.

Shaun took a deep breath and turned around, his hazel eyes dark. His mouth was a tight line. “I accept your mark, Master.”

Leo stepped closer and placed his hand on Shaun’s shoulder. Surprisingly, Shaun allowed the touch. “You do not have to call me ‘Master’ again. I will never speak of this, and neither will the princess.”

Shaun’s nostrils flared, and he nodded once. “What now?”

“We try and save your sister.”

* * *

It was going to be tricky. Leo paced the com room. Once Shaun contacted the Brotherhood, they would definitely have company.

Shaun pressed the channel to send the vid call. Leo and the princess stayed out of range, out of sight. A moment later, a masked figure answered.

“Shaun Fenway, we are aware of your situation. Please hold for Father Pestori.”

Leo noted Shaun’s face lost all color. Whoever this Father Pestori might be, he scared Shaun shitless.

The screen blanked for a moment, and then a robed and hooded man appeared, holding in front of him a woman, young, with dark hair and wide, frightened brown eyes. “Mira,” Shaun said in a low tone.

The woman’s lips shook, her helpless fear communicating through the vid stream. Leo’s hands clenched. His princess put an arm around his waist, her warmth comforting him. There wasn’t much to see on the screen. Darkness shrouded the background behind the two figures, and yet Leo had no doubt several men surrounded the leader and the helpless woman.

“Shaun Fenway, you have failed in your assignment.” The figure’s voice was distorted. Even with their own men, the leaders of the Brotherhood wouldn’t show themselves. Leo ground his teeth together. The cowards.

“No, Father. I am stranded, but I can complete my assignment.” Shaun’s voice sounded two octaves higher.

“We know all. You are captured. Do you think we don’t know what you’ve done?”

Shaun’s hands shook by his sides. “Father—”

“The cause is in jeopardy because you have failed to kill the princess. What price should you pay?”

“Take my life, please, Father. My sister is innocent.” Shaun’s jaw clenched when his sister’s eyes closed briefly.

“Punishment is swift.” The figure tore the clothes from the helpless woman in his arms. “Mira Fenway will service the Brotherhood until you return with the blood of the princess.”

“No, Father, please!”

Leo had no doubt they were all going to have to watch as Mira was raped on the vid stream. But Mira acted before Shaun could fall to his knees and beg. She twisted in the priest’s grip, and the flash of a knife appeared. With a bloodcurdling scream, she plunged the knife into his chest over and over. Shouts sounded, and explosions from blasters crackled over the com.

A laser gun cut through her, blood spattering everywhere. She coughed and gazed into the vid stream. “Tell Mother…” and she died, her body sliced in two.

The transmission went dark.

“Arrgh!” A heartbreaking cry from Shaun ripped through Leo’s very soul. He’d promised to save the man’s sister. And failed.

It was like losing Shanie all over again. It didn’t matter that he’d had no control. Another woman sacrificed to the Brotherhood and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was responsible. Leo gritted his teeth. Of all people, he understood Shaun’s loss, his misery.

Shaun collapsed to his knees, the agony on his face tightening his features and making him seem old. Leo and the princess rushed to him, to hold him, to provide pointless comfort. He and his mate folded Shaun in their arms and rocked him, letting the storm blow through all three of them. But Leo knew firsthand how worthless comfort was in the face of loss.

* * *

“He won’t cry,” Sera whispered. Shaun had finally fallen into an exhausted sleep, his whole body slumped with grief and anguish. If only he would cry or scream. But after that first gut-wrenching cry, Shaun had been silent.

“He’s beyond numb.” Leo’s face was grim, dark circles underneath his eyes. He seemed so sad, as if he shared Shaun’s pain.

“Was it like that when your mate died?” She didn’t want to ask the question. His mate was dead, yet Sera resented her very existence. Leo belonged to her, but once he’d marked another woman. On purpose. Not by accident. Sera hated the woman because Leo had loved her.

“Yes.” Leo stroked the scar on his face. “We’d known each other all our lives, grew up together, but then one night…” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I loved her. We were family before I mate-marked her.”

Okay, she’d asked for this, but Sera wished it didn’t rip her into tiny little shreds. He’d loved her. Probably loved her still.

He went on. “But I don’t know if I loved her the way a marked mate should be loved.”

What
? “What do you mean?” Sera held her breath.

“She was my friend, my lover, but our passion was…quiet, sweet.” He shifted, turned away from her. “Not like—” He cleared his throat. “When she died, I went crazy. I killed. I attacked at random.” He touched the scar on his face. “I was left with this and a room full of blood. And I still don’t know why they killed her.” A humorless laugh grated on her ears. “Perhaps if I’d loved her more, I could have stopped them. Instead, they’re more powerful than ever.”

“Bullshit.”