Tame the Storm: 2 (Cinder Mated)

Ella Drake

Book 2 of Cinder Mated series.

Storm mage Griffin rescues a para-talent after a mission goes very wrong. His urge to protect her is overpowered by his need to claim her. Astrid is a siphon, someone he can’t have, no matter how much he wants her. Even one fingertip trailing down his body could strip him of his powers forever.

Astrid intends to betray the Cinder Task Force. If the storm mage has the hots for her, it’s that much easier. Except, she starts to like him. Want him. Badly. As much as she desires him, their lust will ruin her plans, not to mention hurt them both. Yet her needs can’t be denied.

But then the storm breaks, and all that’s left is to touch, to mate—even if it kills them.

A Romantica®
paranormal erotic romance
from Ellora’s Cave

“Dangerous?” the banshee shrilled.

Griff
in Cinder stumbled on the stairs.

“Daisy,” he forced through his grinding teeth. The banshee—an aural mage, his co-agent in the Cinder Task Force (CTF) and his adopted niece—was losing control. Searching the finished basement where Daisy Cinder lived, he clamped his hands over his ears and knelt. Her handler, Sean Twenty, shuddered. The telepath wore an intense expression of concentration—he’d reached out mentally to communicate to the banshee.

It didn’t help.

Daisy screeched and the air trembled. Glass shattered. The pain finally reached Griffin, the only one in CTF who could handle her aural rage for any length of time—except for Sean, deaf due to his powers. If his best friend didn’t act soon, Griffin’s head would split open and Sean would be less one friend.

The room spun. The floor lurched. His knees buckled and he crashed onto the top step.

The air swirled in building anticipation. As a weather mage, he could take the sound vibrations better than most. He could divert them by channeling the energy into a vortex, but with an out-of-control aural mage and Griffin’s own ability going crazy if he lost a hold on his emotions, it was a danger to everyone within three states.

A super storm could kill and cause widespread destruction before it blew out, or he could contain it.

The sound stopped.

Breathing loudly enough it echoed in his head, Griffin glanced down the stairs. Sean had flattened Daisy to the floor and they writhed together in a tangle of limbs. A silent connection formed between the two that even a blind man could see and feel.

“Shit.”

Those two had taken their time, and they’d finally joined, but he didn’t want to see it.

Thick waves of sexual frustration rolled through the basement and the pain that had tightened his body turned into a throbbing pulse. A shudder rocked the room and he shut his mind from the intimate partnership forming between the two mages on the floor. But it was too late.

Tingles of premonition, of rightness, of connection trembled through the room as the para-talent couple formed a partnership for life. Daisy and Sean had married with a touch, an opening of the mind, with the force of their powers clinging together.

Struggling up, Griffin stumbled toward the door. The pounding in his head and the focus of keeping his mind closed off from the lust dripping in the air clouded his vision.

Hands gripped him and helped him up the stairs. Daisy—still connected to Sean.

His mind reeled from the contact and he yanked away. Her platonic touch opened his storm senses and sent them completely free, unfettered, uncontrolled, for the first time since he was a young man. There was something going on. Daisy and Sean needed his help, but he couldn’t think, and the urgency of whatever it was paled in comparison to getting relief. His powers spun out far. He should pull them back in, but not yet. Not quite yet. He needed, just to see, just a taste.

His weather broadened, hovering wide over the mansion, clouds and fog blowing outward over the land, rumbling over North Georgia, spreading, covering all.

But his body stayed in the house, shuddering and aching. Making his way through the mansion, he staggered into his room as his cock filled. Sweat ran down his brow and he panted. Falling onto his bed, he yanked open his pants and fisted his cock.

And stroked.

His mind went free, traveling the paths of his storm as his lungs labored in the air that thickened with steam. The thick rod in his pumping hand ached. Unrelieved hunger coursed through him. The tension was unbearable, stronger than any lust he’d ever felt. Unable to stop himself, he threw himself into his powers, seeking for that para-talent connection that he’d glimpsed a hint of between Sean and Daisy. His woman was out there. Somewhere. His storm rode the winds, eager. Famished. Hungry.

Another mind brushed against his and lingered.

A woman.

Her body pulsed from miles away.

“Come to me, sugar,” he murmured. “Let me taste all that sweetness.”

A cloud coalesced along the ceiling and a figure formed out of the vapor. He blinked but it was still there.

An ethereal, nude blonde stood with her back turned. The room disappeared and there was nothing but the glow of her skin, her just-right curves, the heaviness of his desire and the throbbing of his cock.

“That’s it,” he growled. “You’re mine. Show me how you want me.”

She dropped silently to her knees. On all fours, her ass high in the air, she wiggled. The pink of her pussy lured him forward. He lunged from the bed and gripped her soft, warm flesh. Spread before him, she was so real. So hot. So eager, he could scent her readiness even while in the back of his mind he knew she was a vision, a figment of his dreams if not his imagination.

The head of his cock slid back and forth along her wet slit. Groaning, he sensed her answering moan, but all he could hear was the hiss of steam filling his head. Unable to wait longer, he slid inside in one long push. He thrust slow and easy as the globes of her ass heated his fingers. She shuddered and pushed back.

“Ah, fuck.” He grunted and his hips bucked against her, driving himself fully inside her depths. Setting a punishing pace, he claimed the woman who was his para-talent partner. Her mind was sweet, welcoming, bidding him enter her body, but her powers remained hidden. Their connection held promise. Promise he wanted to claim if only he could find her.

“What’s your name?” His question thundered into the fog surrounding them.

Still frustratingly silent, she shook her head. He needed her. How could he claim her if he didn’t know her name, her face? His cock worked in and out, his balls tightened and rose, and he was ready to burst, but he needed to know her name.

“What is it?” he growled, demanding as his hips shoved. “I need deeper inside. Let me in. More, sugar. More.”

He bent over her arched back. Gripping the silken strands of her blonde hair, he held her down as he plunged harder and faster. The heat banding around his balls coalesced and built. His heart raced. Rain poured from the ceiling and coated their skin. But the sheath gripping his cock took everything else away.

His heart thundered so loud and fast his chest barely contained it. His balls drew up tight and the bottom of his spine tingled.

“Ungh.”

Bliss surrounded him and his dick pulsed. Pleasure swam through his body and he sucked air into his lungs as he rode the wave. The roaring in his ears quieted and the room buzzed with silence.

He groaned and blinked. It’d been a long time since he’d been with a woman, but he hadn’t forgotten how it worked. That had been one hell of a ride, unlike any other.

Bright light peeked beneath his lids.

Instead of buried deep inside a woman on all fours, he was back on the bed, his hand around his spent cock and no mate in sight. Frowning, he tried to piece it together. He had a partner. And she was blonde. The rest would come.

Loud pounding on the door jerked him out of a light doze.

“Daisy’s gone, tracking that rogue para-talent camp, and Sean went after her,” his brother Ray shouted through the wood.

“Ah, shit,” he grumbled and righted his pants. While he’d been jacking off, two CTF agents had gone out into the field and he was supposed to be covering their backs. “What the hell is Sean doing?”

* * * * *

Astrid Collins woke with a groan and her hand between her legs, working her clit furiously. She was hot, achy and horny as hell. In her tent, alone in her sleeping bag, she couldn’t help feeling as if someone had just been with her, but she’d never been with anyone. Ever. So that was impossible.

Her nipples hardened inside her self-designed silk bra. Her finger stroked over her swollen bud and she bit her lip. She was so wet and needy. Shivers ran over her skin. Her breathing grew loud. The muscles in her thighs tightened and pressure built in her pussy.

She gasped.

Tension broke and her insides quaked. The peak of pleasure took her off guard and she forgot how to breathe. She gulped in air and tasted rain.

Sluggish, she lay in stupor and tried to fall back into what had been one hell of a wet dream.

But it was gone.

Recreating that bliss again would be impossible, and probably for the best.

“Astrid, are you okay? Thought I heard something,” called Neil Nelson from outside her tent.

“I’m fine,” she croaked.

She’d had erotic dreams before, but none where she woke up touching herself. Outside of dreams, she’d never had a passionate response to a man. If she had, she’d have made love with Neil, instead of making him sleep in his own tent. Neil, the man her mother wanted her to marry and son of the leader of this group of para-talents. Neil had claimed to want to marry and join talents. But instead of following through on the business-like promises, they’d spent the past year not quite committing.

Dragging after several sleepless nights, she’d taken advantage of a strange weather front and climbed into her tent. The appearance of rain clouds darkening the sky had been the perfect excuse to hide in her vulnerable little sanctuary.

“Time to get going.” Neil brushed against the flap of her tent.

“Wait!” Astrid yanked her pants closed. “I’ll come out. Just a sec.”

“Got the word the CTF banshee took the bait. She’s on her way so we need to get you settled.”

“I’m hurrying. Be right out after I pack my backpack.” With hard, scrubbing jabs, she wiped her hand on a small towel. She packed her things, including the silky undies she’d made but hadn’t gotten the nerve to wear for Neil, and then climbed out of the tent.

An electro mage, Neil waited with his hands on slim hips and blew his black hair out of his eyes. Her almost-fiancé was good-looking, but something about him never appealed. She’d never had a wet dream starring Neil. He peered at her and she willed herself not to blush.

“Leave your pack for now. Come on.”

He didn’t touch her. Instead of talking to her as a lover might, he treated her as if she were his annoying kid sister, which was how she felt around him. Strange since she was an only child and he was going to be her husband, lover and para-talent partner.

Neil went down a path and stopped at the location he’d scoped earlier.

“Hide under there.” Staring down at her with a sternly etched face, Neil pointed to a large bush. His electricity crackled and she dropped into a crouch. The forest grew eerie and threatening behind his looming figure.

“How long?” It pissed her off that she sounded so frightened, but this camp wasn’t quite what she’d expected. The middle of the Appalachians didn’t seem like the place to confront the Cinders for what they did—taking powers from other para-talents—but she’d signed up for this plan so long in the making. After she’d finished college, she’d gone back to living at home. Her mother had joined and prodded her into participating in a group formed by Vince Nelson to help others like her, people with special abilities. Astrid wrapped her arms around her middle. She had to do as planned. It was the right thing to do.

For days, she’d tried to talk with a couple dozen other close-mouthed talents but, she hadn’t found a way to fit in with the others as she fought bugs and picked at the food. Her skin itched. She wanted to go home and wash the grubby off her, but she’d had no choice but wait for signs of the Cinder Task Force or its leader, Ray Cinder.

It had finally come together.

The spy they’d sent to get caught had given away their position and lured the banshee into reach. The plan was to ask Daisy to join them and then work at taking CTF down from the inside.

“You stay here as long as it takes.” Neil pulled a black hood over his head and tromped back down the path. She stared at his ass in his dark jeans and still didn’t feel a twinge of attraction.

“Nothing.” She should, but wishing for it didn’t make it happen. They’d finally marry once this was over. And that meant sex. They’d join. A sick feeling swamped her and she shuddered.

She needed to get a grip and not be a scaredy-cat. Earlier, immersed in the heat, she hadn’t been uneasy or worried. Her pussy had been swollen and eager all from a dream. She’d had ones like it before. Dreams of a dark man with power that made her sizzle from one stroke of his finger.

Neil had never inspired that kind of desire. Perhaps after they were married her disinterest would fade—if they ever got around to kissing and getting their clothes off. It had to. He’d be the only mage she’d ever be able to touch for any length of time, much less fuck. The only way she could risk touching another para-talent was to merge with him and become full partners. After searching for years, her mother had finally concluded Astrid’s only option, her only potential mate, was Neil. Astrid had finally agreed. Now she had to come to terms with it and stop trying to avoid it.

Scratching her arms, she got on her knees and grimaced at the moldy leaf junk on the ground. Best get under there. She held her breath and crawled beneath the bush the size of a minivan. There was plenty of room, but it smelled wet and musty, not exactly cozy. Still, after days of sleeping on the ground and the relative darkness of being deeper in the forest, she settled and within minutes, couldn’t stop the droop of her eyelids. She sought but couldn’t find the dark man of her dreams.