The Challenge (32 page)

Hoping if he breathed deeply and ignored his problem that Tessa would release him from the sweet torture, Kahn tried to push forward. But he grew harder, his balls more sensitive, and even if he wanted to break custom and satisfy himself, he couldn’t—not even he could break the hold of the marriage band on his
tavis
.

Groaning, he realized that her own psi frustration was feeding her mental strength. She wouldn’t release her psi hold on him until he went to her for alleviation.

After staggering into a wall, he finally admitted that he couldn’t function like this. He couldn’t train her properly or even run the ship without relief.

He had to go to her.

TESSA POURED every mental thought into her psi. Using the marriage band was different from using her normal psi powers on her suit. This required more control and direction, like narrowing a flashlight beam to create a brighter light. Ever since landing on Zenon Prime, Kahn had used the silver marriage bands to keep those uncomfortable shoes on her, giving her the opportunity to build enough frustration to control her psi.

When he’d left her trapped in this room, she’d struggled to free herself, but couldn’t. However, no way was she allowing Kahn to walk away from her and leave her needing him while his suit kept him comfortable. Not as long as she had breath in her body or an ounce of mental psi to throw at him.

While she’d danced, she’d seen the interest flare in his eyes. He’d wanted her but had used his suit to control himself. Well, no more. Not if she had anything to say about it.

So she’d concentrated on narrowing her focus, directing her psi to the gold band she’d wrapped around his testicles and
tavis
. The energy she expended exhausted her, especially since she had no idea if she was doing it right. When the door opened and Kahn stepped back inside, she could clearly see her efforts had succeeded.

He ungagged her.

She spoke carefully, but in a rush. “I’m sorry for spending the money without talking to you first. I was trying to—”

“Jypeg would like nothing better than to kill you.” Kahn’s arms closed around her, his voice turned tender, his eyes softened. “I couldn’t bear to lose you.”

He couldn’t bear to lose her? Not because of the Challenge. Oh my, stars. His demeanor was personal. The look in his eyes said he cared about her. And Tessa’s spirits lifted with a hope that somehow they could make their crazy marriage work.

So she forgave him for walking out on her. Forgave him for making her wear painful shoes. Forgave him for not explaining what he should have because he’d been worried about her safety. They’d both made mistakes.

Besides, after pouring all that psi energy at him, she remained as needy as the moment he’d left her. When his arms closed around her, she lifted her mouth to his.

His lips came within an inch of hers. “I don’t know what to do with you, woman.”

“Kahn, please let me explain.”

His mouth came closer. “I’m not interested in an explanation right now.”

At his admission, she sighed in relief that her psi had succeeded in making him do what he’d wanted to do anyway, but she tried to keep the triumph out of her tone. “What are you interested in?”

“I’m thinking that you haven’t given me enough pleasure recently.”

As he spoke, his psi washed over her. She had no words to describe the sensation, but the feeling resembled being cocooned in a warm afghan then having its silky threads whipped over her eager, sensitized flesh. Her breasts, her bottom, her back all immediately blazed at the marvelous sensations.

“What would make you happy?” she asked into his mouth, her tone a husky purr.

As he held her, she wound her arms around his neck, and he bombarded her with tiny psi nips, caresses that didn’t let up. “Do you still object to my psi touch?”

“No. Yes. I don’t . . . know.” The part of her suit that stretched her open began to vibrate. “I can’t . . . ah . . . think when you . . . ah . . . oh . . . do that.”

His psi power isolated her breasts, stroking, tingling, plucking the tips in the way he knew drove her straight into a wild frenzy. And she poured her need right back at him, until she was unsure where her psi began and his ended. Along the way their psi had merged into one exotic bubble of wondrous sensation.

And he had yet to kiss her.

“There’s more,” he promised, his voice needy.

“I can’t take much . . . oh . . . my.” He floated her over his head and tilted her until she was almost in a sitting position on air. With her head near the ceiling, she wanted to crane her neck and peer down at him, but he’d locked her into this position. “What are you doing?”

“Relax. I won’t let you fall.” Raising his arm over his head, he inserted a finger between her legs, eased right inside her. “Are you prone to dizziness?”

“Not especially. Why?”

Throughout their conversation, he shot psi tingles and nips and caresses at her in a random pattern that kept her guessing where, how and when he’d touch her next. He slid his finger inside her, then pulled out, and repeated the motion until she was slick and slippery and had long since ceased caring why he’d elevated her right up near the ceiling.

She kept close to her heart his admission of worry about her and let the rest of their differences go. He’d given her words to show he cared, and now he was giving her the same message with his actions. Taking no pleasure for himself yet, he was pleasing her in ways she hadn’t known existed. And oh did the man know how to please.

He placed two fingers inside her, then three. With four fingers she felt a fullness that had her gasping. About to tell him she couldn’t open any further, she bit down on her lip to stifle a protest. The moment he went too far, he would sense it through the psi melding.

When he reached up with his other hand, she figured he meant to touch her right on her nerve center. She ached for that touch, needed him to caress her there.

“We call this spinning.”

“Huh?” She had no idea what he was talking about.

He put his hand on her bottom and turned her, spinning her ever so slowly. The pivot point she spun around was his fingers that remained inside her.

“Oh . . . my . . . stars.”

And suddenly she understood why he hadn’t tried to put all his fingers inside her. Every time she made a full revolution, his free finger slid over her clit. Dizzy, desperate, determined not to beg for mercy, she swallowed down a scream of pleasure. She couldn’t believe he was doing this to her. She couldn’t believe how good he felt.

“Tell me if you become too dizzy.”

And he swatted her bottom, one swat per spin. The slaps were light, playful, designed strictly to keep her rotating but the side effect was to ignite her flesh. With her body spinning about his fingers, his continual psi nips and strokes and teasing all over her neck and breasts and up the insides of her thighs, plus the flick of his fingers tap, tap, tapping her most sensitive nerve endings, every muscle tensed.

“Are you okay?”

“Oh . . . oh . . . oh.” Unable to speak, tiny whimpers came out of her throat, a torrent of psi pleasure from her mind.

He spun her faster. With her bottom hot, her flesh so sensitive from his spinning and his psi, she exploded in pulsing bursts of pleasure. She saw stars and sunbursts, and her psi shattered into a fireworks display that didn’t dim. Each explosion triggered another and another until she mentally writhed.

“Kahn,” she gasped, “please . . . enough . . . you feel too . . . good.”

KAHN CHUCKLED. “There’s no such thing as feeling too good.”

He’d entered this chamber furious and out of control, enraged that she could make his
tavis
dance to her tune. However, the sincerity of her apology had gone a long way toward mending the rift between them.

He no longer resented that he ached for her, not after she’d reached out through her psi to connect with him on a spiritual level that revealed her true nature. Her psi had called out to him, bathed him in emotional overtones of warmth and camaraderie as well as sexual frenzy.

Grabbing her buttocks to stop her spinning, he lowered his arm with his fingers inside her until she faced him.

“Open your eyes.”

“Mmm.”

“Open your eyes,” he demanded, this time flicking his thumb between her cheeks.

Her eyes fluttered open. Unfocused, her green orbs took a moment to finally settle on his face then dropped to his fully aroused
tavis
.

She licked her bottom lip. “What about your pleasure?”

“I’m not done with you yet.” His thumb nudged her again.

Startled, her eyes opened wider. “Let me touch you.”

“No.”

His reply had been automatic, yet he wasn’t as against the idea as much as he’d once been. “Kiss me.” Her words, both earthy request and hot demand, beckoned him. He clasped her hips, then he released his hold on her suit so she had the freedom to move.

Immediately, she flung her arms around his neck, threaded her fingers into his hair, and tugged his head to hers. Slanting his mouth over hers, he took and gave, their psi once again merging, melding them into one.

And when she reached down and her hand closed over his
tavis
and guided him into her, he held back, giving her just one piece of him at a time. Her heat surrounded him, her psi flooded him, and her breasts against his chest made him forget everything except her soft and fresh taste, her silky touch, her womanly scent.

When he couldn’t hold still another instant, he began to move. Her mental gasp of pleasure almost shot him over the edge, but he gritted his teeth and held on.

He might have begun slowly, but soon he thrust into her hard, fast.

Her fingers dug into his back. “Yes.”

Reaching between them, he found her core heat, circled her swollen bud. Immediately she contracted around him, her psi seizing, squeezing, until he spurted with an intensity that rocked him to a place he’d never been. A place of welcome and lust and hot sensuality that shocked and stunned and satisfied him on levels he couldn’t even name.

She held him tight, her cheek pressed against his chest, drawing in ragged lungfuls of air. It took long, tender moments for his heart to once again approach normal speed, for his mind to comprehend what had just happened. And he could hardly believe that he’d shared the most powerful of matings with an Earth woman whose psi matched his so perfectly.

He tilted up her chin, and she smiled a contented grin. “You have pleased me, woman.”

“I’m happy to do so.”

He sensed the truth in her words as she brazenly snuggled against him and softly nipped his neck. He no longer considered her bold actions a transgression against his culture. In truth, he liked her soft breath on his neck, the feel of her hands on his back, enjoyed the tiny circles the pads of her fingers drew up and down his spine.

She pulled back, her voice hesitant, her eyes seeking something in his. “If you will hear me out, I believe my words will make my behavior more understandable.”

After such wondrous love making, he didn’t want to talk. He didn’t want to think about her betrayal and the danger she’d placed herself in. He stiffened and raised a mental barrier as he began to pull away physically.

“Don’t.” She clenched muscles around his
tavis
, locked her legs around his hips. “Please, can we not stay like this while we speak?”