Prince of Dragons (22 page)

Kaden leaned against the thick, dark wood, a speculative smile cutting his mouth. Soft lamplight carved gold over his smooth features, and his amber eyes gleamed. His shadow pulsed hot and heavy in the short corridor leading to the sitting room, and I backed away from him. My heels caught in the thick, pale carpet, and I kicked the bloody shoes free. My toes thanked me. Again.

“Changing your mind?”

The walk from the club had been quick, silent. He’d gripped my hand and the strength, the promise of his touch had kept the fire sparking under my veins. In the wide, steel-lined lift, our reflections had bounced back at us, and I’d wanted to push him up against the cold metal and find his mouth…but the red light of security cameras glared balefully from the lift’s ceiling. And now I stood on the edge of the long sitting room and my nerve failed me.

“No, not changing my mind.” He pushed himself away from the door, and my feet, of their own volition, backed farther into the room. Kaden was beautiful, powerful. I wanted him, I did, but…it, he, the moment, made everything real. My gut clenched, the sudden pain making me bite at my lip. I would sleep with Kaden and then the First Dragon’s envoy would escort me to his superior. At which point my life would be over. The man in front of me was my last dose of freedom. “I only have a short time,” I said, watching Kaden move towards me with liquid grace. “This time I have…”

“It’s running too fast.” His head tilted, and the smile lurking on his mouth forced my heart to beat hard. He stood close again. His fingers brushed my jaw, and I sucked in a quick breath. Something about Kaden, the man, his shadow stealing over mine, made my body ache. “This room was another promise to yourself?”

“Yes.”

He glanced behind me, no doubt seeing the mess of my clothes thrown over the corner couch and the papers spread out over one end of the long dining table. “How long have you been here?”

“Two nights.” I willed myself to step towards him, to press my body against his lean hardness. My palm skirted over his chest, teasing, playing with the smooth material of his shirt. “I wanted luxury before…”

“What?” Kaden threaded his fingers through my loose hair and turned my face up to his. His lips brushed mine, soft, tender, and it stopped my breath. “What’s taking you away?”

I couldn’t answer, didn’t want to. I only wanted more of his mouth, for him to deepen the kiss into something molten, wild, and for me to forget for the few hours I had left. I bit at his lip, and he growled, a low, primitive sound, and it pushed me hard against him.

Kaden murmured something. His shadow wrapped around me in a dark, enveloping wave and I arched into him. Whatever he was, whatever ancient mythoi rode in his blood, it sank into my core. I couldn’t wait. My mouth took his, my tongue, teeth, lips battling, wanting more of him.

Kaden groaned, his hands shifting until he could snake his arms across my back. He tugged at my skirt, yanking it up my thigh. A hot palm and fingers caressed my backside. He squeezed, urging me up, and I obeyed, lifting my legs. With an all too easy strength he held me, and I wrapped my thighs around his waist, my arms linking behind his head. Our shadows merged, shifted, unsure at the closeness, at the need burning up through us, but wanting it, wanting it as much as we did. And that wasn’t right. Mythoi didn’t cross species—

“Who are you?” The question escaped after I dragged needed air into my lungs. My hand framed the hardness of his smooth jaw. His eyes had darkened and something sparked in their depths, a fire than made me want to strip him and fuck him. “
What
are you?”

“What you need.”

A chair clattered to the floor behind me, and my backside hit the cool mahogany table. “That’s not an answer.”

He smiled, brief, hard, and need for him tightened low in my belly. “Do you want to say why you want me here? Why you want to fuck a stranger?” His smile grew, and something must’ve reflected in my eyes as he said, “I thought not.” He brushed tangled hair back from my forehead, and the unexpected tenderness hurt my chest. I breathed past it. “So, till the morning, we’ll both have our secrets. Agreed?”

My throat ached and I couldn’t speak. I nodded instead.

“Good.”

He tugged at my clinging top, pulling it over my head. Cool air brushed my bare skin. The top slid from his fingers, dropped in a golden puddle on the carpet, and Kaden let out a slow breath. My nipples hardened under his intense gaze, and everything in me ached for his warm lips, his tongue to find my skin and lick—

“Here on the table?” he asked.

“You want to eat instead?”

The smile he turned on me, wicked, possessive, squeezed my heart. “Later. I promise.” He leaned over me, his lips close to mine. “Right now, I want you.”

I resisted the urge to cover his mouth with mine. If
I
was getting naked, then I wanted to run my fingers and tongue over the smooth muscles hinted at under his shirt. “Then you have too many clothes.”

His fingers moved and the shirt joined mine on the floor. My own hands, nervous, eager, reached for him, and Kaden shivered under the first touch of my fingertips over the rippled hardness of his stomach. His breath warmed my cheek. “Better?”

“Almost.”

“You want more?”

“I want all of you.”

Kaden grinned. “I can do that.” His smile turned evil, and he traced a languid, shuddering path over my ribs to the thin-banded edge of my skirt. He made quick work of the zip. I wriggled and the skirt and my underwear joined the growing pile on the floor. “Though you first.”

“So it seems.” His hands were already moving to his trousers, and my fingers covered his, joining him in pushing the heavy fabric away from his hot, smooth skin. I traced my fingers along his cock, my thumb teasing over the sensitive head. Kaden hissed. “Ready?”

He laughed and gripped my hips. “Isn’t that obvious?”

My thighs held him, my calves sliding over the hard, hot muscle of his legs, tugging him closer. This first time would be fast, fierce, and my blood pounded at the thought. I guided him, teasing his cock over my wet flesh, little sparks of need firing under my skin as I made both of us ache for more.

“Jaime…”

My name was a soft growl, and his shadow thickened around him, encasing us, vast wings cocooning my own shadow, melting over it. The feeling was…bliss, deepening at the first push of his hips, of the slow,
slow
tease of him into my body.

Kaden’s ragged breaths rushed warmth over my mouth, and his darkened eyes held me. “We need to fuck you. Right now. Hard.”

“We?”

“My…” He sucked in a breath, and I had to have imagined his pause, before he rolled his hips. The sensation of him hard and deep within my body rioted in my flesh and I groaned. “My shadow. It wants yours.”

I blinked. The idea seemed forbidden…and delicious. “We…” He distracted me with a palm sliding up my spine, pressing me hard to his chest. His mouth brushed my jaw, my chin. He nibbled at my bottom lip, and the urge to deepen the kiss, to find a fast and furious release, warred with my need to question him. The question won. “How? I’ve never…”

“I
know
.” The satisfaction thickening his voice pushed me against him. He groaned, and his teeth sank, hard, sharp. The sudden pleasure-pain forced me to grab at him, pull him tight against my body. “Let us share both of you.”

How do you choose between freedom and love?

Her Master’s Pleasure

© 2009 Kassie Burns

When Jalil first wakes up after her ship crashes, she thinks she’s having some kind of head injury-induced hallucination. She’s a starship pilot, not a sex slave, but she finds herself tied naked to a rack and examined by her new master. It doesn’t matter that Zand of Teymour, is hot enough to melt an ice queen. The last place she belongs is in a harem.

Zand is fascinated by the first outsider to stumble upon his planet in thousands of years. His people hide themselves from the rest of the galaxy by choice—therefore, Jalil can never be allowed to leave. But Jalil refuses to submit, and if he can’t find a way to tame her, life on Teymour will be its own kind of torture.

Soon Jalil learns that Teymour possesses priceless, First-Civilization technology long thought lost. If she can distract Zand with her body and escape back to the Federation with what she knows, she’ll be rich. But with each passing night in her master’s embrace, she discovers the dark pleasures of passion.

In the end, gaining her freedom may cost her only chance for love.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Her Master’s Pleasure:

Straining with all her senses to compensate for the engulfing blackness, Jalil heard her retreating footsteps and the sound of a door opening and shutting.

Alarmed, she pulled against her cuffs. They refused to give. Warning pains shot down her arms and up her legs. A gust of wind blew in through the open doors, lifting the silky fabric and exposing her even more. Not that the gown hid a damn thing. She might as well be hanging naked.

An almost inaudible click told her the door had opened again. Jalil’s throat went dry. Her heart began to pound. Despite her blindfold, she felt a powerful presence in the room. Zand?

Footsteps crossed the room. Only one person, as far as she could tell.

“You are lovely. I thought you would be once you were cleaned up.” The deep male baritone rumbled somewhere near her ear. With a start, she realized Zand had halted next to the rack. Damn, she could picture him standing there and staring at her.

The thought made her traitorous nipples grow harder. She squirmed in her cuffs and swore at him, but only a muffled grunt emerged from the gag.

“You’re a woman of spirit, I see.” Zand’s breath tickled her ear. He possessed a cultured voice and something warm and playful in his tone eased a little of her fear. At least he didn’t sound like an insane despot.

Without warning, a finger touched her chin. She jerked back. Zand chuckled and pressed his hand into the soft flesh of her breast. His palm brushed over her taut nipple. A zing of electricity rushed down her nerve endings to curl her toes. Outraged and mortified, she writhed in her constraints.

“Relax, my beauty. This is the seraglio. There is no escape. You’ll submit to whatever I desire.”

Footsteps circled the rack. Jalil imagined him staring at her body through the flimsy silk, at her back, at her buttocks.

As if he’d read her mind, Zand cupped the bottom of her butt with his strong hands. Jalil gave a muffled cry of surprise. She stiffened with anger and glared into the blackness.

His hands moved upward, kneading her ass, caressing her skin through the silky garment. She tried to hold onto her anger, but his hands were deft and skilled, massaging her buttocks with a firm but pleasing touch, creating little rivulets of pleasure that prickled over her skin and roused a surprising heat deep in her core.

His fingers slid into the crack of her butt cheeks, spreading them. This time she stayed motionless, refusing to give him the satisfaction of a reaction.

He chuckled again and encircled her waist with both hands, his fingers playing with her navel.

She cursed her ticklish skin, cursed the heat that uncoiled in her belly, cursed the wiggle she could not control. For a moment her butt pressed against him. Something long and hard dug into her rear. He had an erection.

She froze, not daring to breathe. He laughed and kissed the back of her neck. His lips were warm and soft and full. They lingered a long moment on her skin, tasting her. He lifted her hair and swept his tongue along her hairline.

“Yes, I like you, and I’ll have you soon, very soon.”

She yelled a protest through the gag, but the only sound that came out was another helpless grunt. Laughing, he lightly slapped both her ass cheeks.

Blood pounded in her temples, but she could still hear him walking around her again. He stopped and faced her. Her breasts rose and fell with her quickened breathing. With maddening deliberation, he continued her sensual torture.

His hands touched her thighs where the hem of the gown fell. He pushed the silk upward, and a cool breeze teased the suddenly smoldering flesh between her legs.

“The pathway to your womanly core is marked with gold.” She heard surprise and delight in his voice. His hand stroked the soft patch of hair between her thighs. The tips of his fingers brushed over the place where her clitoris lay hidden beneath the folds of her pussy. It hardened, swelling upward, and she squirmed in mortification.

“Ah, what’s this? You like my touch.” His finger circled the thickening flesh, rubbing it. The pressure made her pussy throb with need. Little bursts of pleasure shot through her body. Her inner flesh grew damp and tightened with anguished need.

Jalil stiffened, her breath caught in her throat. She stared into the darkness behind the blindfold. What next? Was he going to finger-fuck her, rape her before she’d even so much as seen his face?

Instead, the man gave a low growl of approval and withdrew his touch from her intimate flesh. “You are indeed a prize, one to be savored, not rushed. I hear your eyes are the color of the sea and the sky. I want to see them, and I want to hear your voice. Sepella warns me, though, that you’ve not yet learned obedience. So I tell you this: If you act against me, you’ll be punished, and the punishment will be severe. Do you believe me?”

Jalil pressed her lips together. She wanted nothing more than to spit in his face the moment he removed the gag. But that wouldn’t get her back to the
Gypsy
. Forcing down her anger, she nodded.

“Good. Act with wisdom and I’ll treat you with respect.” He sounded amused. “Attempt to revolt and you’ll find yourself back on this rack, bound, gagged and blindfolded. And I won’t be so gentle a second time.”

His fingers plucked at the knot behind her head, and the gag loosened. He pulled it out of her mouth. Breathing hard, she bit back a curse. She hated yielding to him, even in the smallest thing, but she needed to regain some measure of freedom so she could figure out how to escape from this tyrant.

When she’d stayed silent a few moments, he untied her blindfold and it fell away. Jalil blinked and saw the handsome man who had leaned over her in the wreck. He was standing a few feet away from her, regarding her with calm possessiveness.