Marked 2: Marked for Desire (9 page)

Finally they reached an atrium, lit by natural light that poured through a hole several feet above them. He stared at the small room. The hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up. Something ancient lived here. Something dormant but powerful.

And judging by the determined expression on the princess’s face, she was about to wake it up.

Chapter Six

Attack her planet, would they? Try and blow her out of the sky, would they?

Sera lifted her arms and rolled up the sleeves of her flight suit. Bastards. She’d send them to hell. A raging river of electricity flowed through her, over her. Fire burned in her belly. This was her home, her heritage, and they were invaders, strangers.
Make them pay. Make them leave.

The words tumbled from her lips. The old Placido language, beautiful and mysterious, filled the room and echoed against the stone walls. The atrium glowed. Power washed through her, and she struggled not to drown. It was always like this. Many of her predecessors had foolishly let the power take them. As her mother had. It was an ocean, a riptide that pulled at her, tore at her. Ruthlessly she bound it, forced it to do her will.

Light exploded from her and surrounded her. The electricity ripped through her body, and her hair crackled. Her thoughts, the planet’s thoughts, were one.
Yes! Get them. Desecraters. Aliens. Stop them.

A huge roar rang in her ears, and the planet growled underneath her feet. Her vision doubled. She saw both the cavern where she hid and the fighters in the air outside. Her vision showed her the fighters spinning to the surface. She watched with satisfaction as her planet awoke and slaughtered the invaders.

She screamed, an inhuman sound. Connected to the planet, she could feel the scars the lasers had left. Pain, need, connection.
Kill, kill, kill
. Violence and blood were all she could feel, all she wanted. Part of her recoiled, horrified by the sadistic joy at killing another person. Sera tried to withdraw, to separate her mind from the conscious energy that flowed through her.

No! Let me go
. Sera struggled, her silent scream echoed against the vicious voice demanding violence.

The power swirled through her. It wouldn’t release its hold. It was going to consume her, devour her. She tried to regain her sense of self, but the planet struck back, sizzling through her like a current of electricity. It burned away her resistance.

As she’d always known it would.

Suddenly a firm grip on her shoulders jerked her away from the whirlpool of power.

“Princess!” It was the dominant. The man who’d kissed her and owned her with his touch.

Her attention whipped to his face; the energy still swept through her body.
Breathe
. It flowed, and she was lost.

His lips slammed into hers. Oh God, he was hot, demanding. She opened to him, needing him; her fingers tightened around his biceps. His hands cupped her breasts. Her nipples beaded, and they ached. She moaned, the sound echoing in the chamber.

“Let it go, Princess. Now.” His command snapped in her ear, and she obeyed. Her grip on the power relaxed, and the flood receded slowly.

She blinked. What the fuck had just happened? Oh shit! She’d lost control. In her anger, she had allowed the power to swamp her, and if it hadn’t been for Dom Boy—

Her lips tightened, and she twisted out of his arms. Fool. She’d always known she was too weak to wield the power on Placido. Hadn’t her mother told her that? Her arms wrapped around her waist gave her little comfort, but she couldn’t get warm, could barely breathe.

Strong arms surrounded her. “Princess,” Leo whispered. “You did it. The lasers have stopped.”

“Wonderful,” she said bitterly. He had no idea what she’d done. She’d aligned herself with the planet and ripped those fighters into small pieces. She hadn’t just shot them out of the sky. She’d decimated them, shredded them. In her anger, she’d killed those men. All her life she’d kept that anger under control. Hadn’t she seen the results of fully joining with the planet’s power? Her mother’s death was enough of a warning, yet she seemed unable to stop history from repeating itself. She shuddered. Her planet was stronger than she was, and it was going to take her.

“Why are you afraid?” Leo demanded. He held her by her shoulders and forced her to meet his gaze.

Her lip quivered. “I’m a freak, doomed to be devoured by this planet, by its power.” How could she make him understand? “Why do you think our people are scattered all over the universe? Because the planet drains us, takes life from us.” She gazed around the room. She loved Placido, and yet she hated it as well.

Leo nodded. “I saw you change.”

Shame. Guilt. The change wasn’t pretty. She’d seen her mother, overcome by the power, change into a monster before her eyes. Her mother had screamed in terror and had died, giving herself over to the planet’s rage. Hadn’t she always known what would happen if she came here? Her mother had trained her, filled her mind with prophecy and mysticism. When her mother had died, sucked completely dry by the power of Placido, Sera had already rejected the power dormant under the surface. She had run away and stayed away. Until now.

She wasn’t going to cry. She was Princess Sera Placido and had always known her fate. Fuck feeling sorry for herself. Her teeth ground together. She wasn’t going to go down easy.
Do you hear me, you fucking planet? I’m not going to give up fighting what you do to me.

Something vibrated around them, and Leo’s gaze narrowed. “It wants you.” His fingers clenched around her shoulders. “We need to get the fuck off this planet.”

“No shit, Dom Boy,” she snapped. Drained and tired, she slumped against the rock wall. But Leo wouldn’t let her slide to the ground. Instead he wrapped his arms around her, pressing her head into his shoulder.

It calmed her, nurtured her, soothed the pain of the power. His hands stroked her back, and she almost purred. God, he felt so good, so warm, so strong. Yet there was no demand, just acceptance from him. In contrast to the violence of the planet’s joining, it felt like the calm within a hurricane. Tears clogged her throat. No one had shown her compassion in the aftermath of her use of power. Most were afraid of her and what she could do. And here? She was too close to the source, the beginning of her power.

When the touch changed, roughened, she didn’t know. But her response was instant. She buried her face in his neck and kissed the junction where it met his shoulder. His hands slid down and cupped her ass to press her closer. She used her teeth on him, spurring him, urging him. He growled, a low, feral sound that rumbled through her. Her heartbeat quickened, and she gasped.

He gripped her neck with his fingers and shoved her down until she was on her knees.
Yes
. She reached up to undo his pants, desperate, needy.

“Stop.” One word from Leo and she froze.

Why had he stopped her? Did he find the monster too much to deal with? She tipped her head and stared at him. His blue eyes were a dark indigo shining in the sunlight streaming through the ceiling. “Please,” she begged him. She needed this. Wanted this. His cock in her mouth, his cum down her throat.

“No,” he said softly.

She scrambled away from him. He didn’t want her. Humiliating. Her lungs hurt. She tried to breathe but gasped and choked. She would not cry, damn it. Strong hands gripped her arms and lifted her to her feet.

Leo’s hand captured her chin. “Don’t get me wrong, Princess. I want you.” His eyes glowed with an eerie color, bright and glittering. “But you’re not yourself right now, and you’d regret it later.”

Arrogant bastard. She hated that he made decisions for her. Even worse that he might be right. She glared at him. “A random fuck is no big deal, Dom Boy.”

His smile spread over his face slowly. “When we fuck, Princess—and we will—you won’t be relegating me into the ‘random fuck’ category.”

She blinked. When? He’d said
when
they fucked. Her lips tightened. Somehow, when he said
fuck
, it didn’t mean the same thing. He was going to try and own her. The thought caused a shiver to ripple along her spine. Fear? Or something else.
Snap out of it, Sera
. She gritted her teeth. “Typical Nyral dominant. You think all women will fall at your feet.” She tried to jerk away from him.

He held her still, his hand still gripping her chin. “You will,” he whispered; the dark promise in his voice made her shiver. Her mind whirled with visions of their bodies twined together, his wicked mouth on her clit, on her breasts.

The only way to deal with this prick was to take the control away from him. She reached out a hand and stroked his cock through the material of his pants. “Why not now?”

He held her chin in a crushing grip. “Because we don’t know if any of those fighters’ pilots bailed out. And you’ve just been sucked dry by this fucking planet. I know you think I’m an asshole, Princess, but I’m not that kind of asshole.”

Tears pricked her eyes. Empty. She felt hollow. He could fill her, make her whole. The reality of the situation hit her like a splash of cold water. He was a
Nyral dominant
. And she was throwing herself at him. What was she thinking?

Leo’s hands cupped her face, and he kissed her cheek gently. “What am I going to do with you?” he said softly.

Fuck me. Take me to oblivion. Don’t leave me wanting
. She couldn’t say the words. The power wiped away her strength, and fucking Leo would bring her back. At least that’s what her whirling mind kept thinking. But he wasn’t going to fuck her.

He
was
touching her, though.

His fingers traveled over her face, down her neck, to the buttons of her flight suit. Her mind drifted. All she felt was his firm touch, his hot breath, the heat from his body that swamped hers. She relaxed, floated.

A curse exploded from him in some language she didn’t know. His mouth descended and possessed hers. She moaned with relief. It was as if she’d been waiting for him to claim her forever. And when he kissed her, as before, she slipped under the surface and into a warm pool of sensation. She was lost in him, in them, in the way he touched her. Little fires erupted on her skin where his fingers stroked her. The burning, so different from the destructive force of her planet’s demands, swept along her nerves and shook her with its desire. He remade her.

She opened her lips and let him in. She surrendered. All the way.

Chapter Seven

Keeping his fucking hands off her had become impossible. She
needed
this. The desperate longing in her clouded blue eyes and the way her mouth quivered showed him how vulnerable she felt. He wanted to be a better man and walk away. But she stared at him with that expression of helplessness, and he was lost. A perfect submissive for him, yielding, wanting, needing only him. How could he resist her? He’d kissed her to discipline her, kissed her to yank her back from the edge of being consumed, and now…why was he kissing her now?

It didn’t matter. She softened against him, her breasts pressed to his chest.
Mine
! The inappropriate thought shot through his mind. The buttons of her flight suit were between his fingers before he knew it, and he flicked them open. Possessive, demanding, his hand closed over one breast and squeezed. His cock, iron hard, straining, rubbed along her core through his pants.

She moaned, the sound captured by his mouth and vibrated to his dick. She tested his control, his very soul. His hands shoved the flight suit off her shoulders and yanked her bra straps down. He filled his hands with her breasts as his mouth pummeled hers. Her back arched, her nipples hard from his ministrations.

When he tore his mouth from hers, she whimpered. But he wasn’t going to stop this time. For weeks, he’d kept his distance, kept his desire under control. Whatever reasons he’d had for resisting her were not strong enough to still his hands or stop his raging need now. He nipped her skin, traveling down her neck, her shoulder, and finally, filling his mouth with one perfect nipple. She tasted so sweet, so good.

Her cries were like water for his thirsty soul, and he drank them in.

He shoved her clothes to the floor, sliding his hands down to cup her ass, and then moved to her slick pussy, reveling in her gasp as he rubbed her clit. The smell of her arousal, the way her body heated, the harsh moans from her throat all spurred him. His teeth caught her nipple, and he sucked hard. Fresh cream washed over his fingers, and he groaned. He paid attention to her other breast, wanting her panting and wet when he took her.

She was his. He branded her with his mouth, his fingers, his hard cock pressed along her thigh. Her head thrashed back and forth when he slid two fingers inside her pussy. He controlled the pace, his mouth and hand working together. He lifted his head and stared into her face, his fingers still thrusting inside her hot tunnel. Her red hair was free and wild; color dusted her cheeks and her chest. Her breath was ragged and fast. She was close, so close.

Her gasp was his signal. He pulled his fingers out. She screamed, “No!” She glared at him. He was so hot for her, needed her so much.

He teased her clit. “Beg me, Princess. Now.”

“Leo,” she sobbed. His name on her lips almost undid him.

“Beg me, Princess,” he whispered in her ear.

Her eyes flew open. Clouded and glazed, her gaze met his. “Please, Leo. Please fuck me.”

He ripped his flight suit open and pressed his cock at her entrance. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. “When I take you, come for me.”

As he slid his dick inside her slippery channel, she exploded around him. Her walls clenched around him, squeezing every thought from his brain. He gritted his teeth, hanging on by a thread. She was so soft, so hot, so fucking sweet. The smell of her cum was on his fingers, and the scent just made him crazier.

Electricity flowed through him. He slammed deeper inside her, and she shouted, her arms around his neck. He lifted her higher, her back against the stone wall, his cock buried to the hilt in her pussy. She arched and thrust her hips to take all of him.