Ultimate Passage: New Beginnings: Box Set ( Books 1-4) (39 page)

T
aya yawned
. Her eyes burned from fatigue, but Barz had not yet return to the dwelling. She laid on a far edge of the bed. Corzine sat on the other edge, working on his weapons.

“You are tired.” Corzine did not ask.

“It is that obvious?”

“Yes. Understandable. You do not need to worry. You will be safe. I will not let anything happen to you. I will be right here, on the other side.”

“I know.” She smiled at him. She was embarrassed about her earlier thoughts. Of course she could trust Corzine. He’d always been very trustworthy. Both brothers had proven themselves honorable.

He dimmed a lantern on the table. “We will rise early tomorrow. Get rest. Half a dozen men from this village will be accompanying us on our search for Cinia.”

She sighed with relief. Maybe they could find Cinia. Then Taya could go back to the camp, and get away from the proximity to Barz that this situation was forcing on her. And maybe get away from her feelings for him.

T
aya leaned
into the warmth behind her. Like a long length of granite in the sunshine, it radiated a heat that dissipated the cold air from the Farlands. She should have worn more than this lightweight shift to bed, but had no idea it would get this chilly even indoors.

She scooched back even more, wriggling to get every part of her to touch the solidness of the solid, granite dream behind her. A warm gust of air blew over the back of her neck. This was better than any dream she’d ever had when she was cold. In a moment she would roll over so the front of her was as warm as her back. She sighed.

A soft touch ran over her side, skimming her hip, going up her ribcage. Even if she was in a dreamlike state, she still could enjoy it. She moaned low, so tempted to reach between her legs to get the release she hadn’t had in so very long. The touch stopped when it reached the side of her breast, pausing then turned downward, cupping her curve, while it skimmed over a nipple that reacted, peaking immediately while shooting pangs of desire down to her core.

The phantom touch moved, leaving her breasts craving, her body aching, and her breathing strained. She caught her breath when the touch traveled over her hip, making a very definite journey toward.

Oh!
She trembled.

The sensation knew exactly where it was going, resting at the top of her slit, right where her core thrummed a beat.

Taya arched her back, raised one of her hands from her waist to feel the area where the touch had caressed her breast, teased her nipple with gentle rolling. She pulled on her nipple, her body pushing backward.

Reaching down, she lowered her hand to move the touch out of the way so that she could give herself release, knowing she’d have to leave the dream-like state and awaken in order to do this.

Her eyes flew open!

She gasped.

It was a hand. A very large hand. She didn’t want to raise any alarms, not if it meant whoever was behind her would do anything to hurt her.

She tried to clear her sleep-fogged mind. She’d gone to bed, laying there, while Corzine did some arranging. Then she’d—

Corzine? Would he be doing this? Why? She hadn’t led him on, had she?

Hoping not to cause alarm, she turned slowly, keeping her eyes closed, pretending she wasn’t fully awake, though she wondered if her heart beat could be heard, because she certainly heard it, at least in her head.

Once her head had made the turn, she realized what the warm breeze was as soon as it hit her cheek. A warm breath.

Her eyes flew open.

Barz.

Dark yellow eyes glowed in the dimness, heavy lidded, lust behind them. He didn’t say a word. Just watched her. His eyes on hers. Nervous, she ran her tongue over her lower lip. His gaze followed her tongue. She pulled it back, self-conscious.

Her first thought was that she wished he hadn’t stopped. Then she was shocked at herself for feeling that. Then she went back to wishing for it. Her final thought was Corzine. Oh, curses. Was he here? She tried to rise, but was blocked by a wall of solid chest.

“Barz,” she whispered. “Corzine.”

His eyes narrowed. “You are saying you want Corzine here?”

“What! No!” Her exclamation was louder than she’d planned.

“Then what?” He trailed a finger from her lower lip, toward her cheekbone, then her temple, then tangled it in her hair. “What are you saying, little shimmer-skin?”

“I thought—” She stumbled around in her brain trying to find the right words. “I thought he might see . . .” And then she couldn’t finish her sentence.

“See what?” He prompted her.

She shook her head gently, not wanting to say, her breath trapped in her lungs. Her pulse racing faster than a tiny rabbit being chased by a jungle cat.

“See this?” His tone was low, sexy. His hand traveled to her breast, caressing her nipple under the fabric. “Or this?” He pulled on her nipple, tweaking it. “Or that?” Flicking it.

She gasped as surges of electricity traveled along her limbs, down to her fingertips and toes, then back up and landed in the core of the place where she was throbbing.

“You do not want him to see me do that to you?”

She shook her head. She wanted to say: That he shouldn’t be doing this. She wanted to say that Corzine shouldn’t see it because Barz shouldn’t do it, but all she did was wish that he would do more.

She closed her eyes.
Curses, let this be a dream.
But it wasn’t a dream. His hand traveled lower, and lower, and so did he, until finally he was poised a few hands’ lengths above her very center.

“You do not want him to see me or you do not want me to do it?” He moved her shift upward. Cool air struck her where moisture was already building deep inside. “Open your eyes.”

She opened them, he was watching her face. Concentrating on her with a ferocity that made her nervous.

“Answer me. If you tell me to stop, I will.”

She tried to clear her throat, but it was as if she was in the grip of a force. She couldn’t speak. Or didn’t want to. She did not want him to stop, though she didn’t have any idea exactly what he was going to do.

“Do you want me to stop?” Hs breath struck her folds, penetrating through the undergarment.

She shook her head, slightly.

He was still for so long she wondered if he saw. If he thought she didn’t answer. If he thought she wanted him to stop.

And then he lowered his head. And everything froze.

He pushed her undergarment aside, his breath warm on her folds. She had no resistance to give when he pushed her thighs apart, just the tiniest bit.

His head went lower. The tip of his tongue touched her clit. She shuddered. She’d never had that done before. Saraz took. He never gave. And with so many women . . .

Saraz did not matter. She wouldn’t have wanted him to be the one that did the things . . . she pushed the thoughts away.

Actually, the feeling of Barz’s tongue flicking on that sensitive area that only she had ever tended to before pushed the thoughts away. Her thighs moved, opening more. A small moan slipped from her lips.

Then it hit her. Corzine. Oh no, what if he heard?

“Barz?” She reached for his head. Her hands touching his spiky knobs.

His tongue stilled. He raised up a notch, looked at her.

“What about Corzine. Don’t wake him.”

He looked at her as if she had lost her mind. “He’s outside the door, standing guard. Just in case.”

“Oh.” Then what? What was she supposed to do? Tell him to
Carry on?
She froze, uncomfortable at the predicament. His face just above her moist, overheated, aching body.

“You smell delicious. I want to feast on you. To make you quiver and flow in my mouth.”

Her body was on fire.
I want you to feast on me.
But she couldn’t say that. She couldn’t say what she wanted.

He stared at her, unmoving. Then finally, keeping those predator eyes of his focused on her face, lowered his head. Every muscle below her navel tensed. She held on to the covers, fisting them, holding in the anticipation for what she knew was to come, even though she didn’t really know.

His tongue landed on her hooded clit. Fingers on each side of her folds, he spread her lips. His hot tongue licked from her clit down, lower, and lower, skimming, barely dipping into her, it lightly alit on her other hole. She held her breath. When she was with Saraz one of the girls had told her stories about that, but Taya had never experienced it. She didn’t have to wonder long, Barz traveled his tongue back over the path it had just been on.

He dropped his hands under her ass, raising her up, a hand cupping each of her cheeks, lifting her higher, closer to his mouth. His tongue flicked her clit, faster, more intensely than she’d ever been able to do with her own hands.

Suddenly, he pulled her close, his face completely buried in her, he thrust his tongue deep in. It was so deep she would have sworn that it was Saraz’s member. So very long. She bucked as it passed in her, following the trail of her slickness. Then he began to pump her faster, faster, his tongue in and out. Taya squirmed, his hands beneath her pulled her even closer to him, his tongue flicked at her clit furiously.

A wave passed over her, pulling her along, her body shaking, she erupted into a series of spasms, raising up, grabbing his head, digging her fingers into his fleshy spikes, while she came on his face.

Panting she relished in his tongue going in her slowly still, while it flicked her clit, his hands kneading her ass.

Then it hit her. She catapulted to a sit. “Barz.”

He raised his head slightly, yellow eyes glowing, a content look on his face. “Taya.”

It hit her that this was the first time he’d ever said her name. As overwhelming as this was emotionally, she had something else that stunned her more. “How could your tongue be in me, so deep, and at the same time flicking so quickly?”

He rose, lifted her shift over her breasts. She looked down, watching him, her skin a predominantly rosy colored rainbow. His eyes glued to hers, took a breast in each hand and pulled their heavy weight a little closer together. He opened his mouth, two tongues slipped out. Each tongue encircling one of her nipples, teasing the hard buds, flicking.

“You have two tongues?” She bit her lip at the pleasure that his tongues was pulling out of her nipples. “Do all Kormic?”

“No, only those of my tribe.” He pushed her back, his head lowering between her legs again. Inside, Taya fought against what she was doing. This man. This thing. What she was doing. All wrong. Completely wrong. They didn’t even like one another. They were not even cordial. His tongue—one of them—flicked one side of her folds, while the other one flicked the other side, both tongues dragging and licking from the top to the bottom, applying pressure, pushing her clit out, making it swell, wanting to explode.

What was she doing? What was she thinking? But the sheer sexual chemistry between them was her only answer, and with every passing second, every passing touch from one of his thick and talented tongues pushed her further and further away from resistance, and into a state of complete submission to the pleasure.

He stopped suddenly. She gasped from the enormity of missing his touch. A shift in the balance and weight on the bed made her open her eyes. He was on top of her, but not touching her body. His face in front of hers. She could smell her sex on his lips, chin, entire face, and it made her want to lick him, suck on his tongue—both of them, and have him deep within her.

His yellow eyes looked deep within her blue ones. “I do not share.”

Confused, still in a sexual daze, she didn’t know what to say, how to answer that. All she wanted was to feel his arms around her, his body taking hers. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes to try to lessen his hold on her.

Just as suddenly, his weight was off of her and he was standing in front of the door, opening it. The moonlight glow behind him making his silhouette a statue. One with a very large indicator of how much he wanted her.

She sucked a breath in, wanting to call him back, and at the same time, wanting to throw something at him for making her feel anything at all for him and even worse, for leaving her wanting him.

A
fter a restless night
of wondering what Barz was doing, Taya was tired. She didn’t need to look into a mirror to know she looked like hell. She could feel it in the grit behind her eyelids.

Sometime during the night Corzine came in. She could tell from his slightly smaller silhouette. He sat on the bench by the wall and shortly snoring announced that he was asleep. She was curious if Barz had talked to him and if so, what was said.

The next morning, a crisp and clean Barz opened the door to find her with dark shadows under her eyes, sexually frustrated and quite ready to jump down his throat for confusing her. Corzine was gone. He must have left while she actually managed to close her eyes.

Without so much as a good morning to her, Barz announced, “It is time to go look for your friend. Six warriors have been assembled, all excellent trackers, proficient in scent-seeking. If she is in the vicinity, she will be found.

Taya stumbled out of the bed. It wasn’t until she noticed Barz staring that she realized her shift was tucked into her undergarment, giving him much more of a view than she felt comfortable with. A tiny smile played on his lips, threatening to emerge. Irritated with her resulting accelerated heart rate and the moisture it drew from her, she bit on her tongue to keep from snapping at him. This man tested her to no end. She jerked her shift down.

“Give me a moment to dress,” she said as she turned her face away. He could see her embarrassment on her skin elsewhere, but at least she could hide her face.

“Understood,” he said.

She shuffled through her clothing on the small table by the bed, then turned back to sit down and put them on.

“Barz.” She jumped.

He was still here. And he was closer, and he was staring at her in a way that made her nervous.

“A moment alone to dress. Alone.” She stressed the word. What was he thinking? She did not want to dress in front of him. She held her clothes up to cover her breasts, fearful that her hard peaks would show him her interest.
As if my face does not show it enough.

Barz nodded. That hint of a smile still playing on his lips.

She threw her clothes on the bed in exasperation at her body’s reaction to his raw sexuality.

B
arz closed
the door behind him. This Asazi woman was exasperating. As much as he was trying to work through his feelings for her, so many feelings to work through. Feelings to want her, feelings to NOT share her. Too many feelings and too strong.

Corzine stood nearby. He nodded at Barz. Barz made his face voice of emotion. He was not comfortable discussing his emotions. Yet another thing he did not want to share, his emotions.

“She’s getting ready,” he told Corzine.

“And you?” Corzine looked at him hard.

Barz shrugged. He was not going to discuss this. Corzine had not been at the door when Barz left Taya last night. He’d just returned.

Corzine’s nose wrinkled, as if he were checking scents. It did not escape Barz that not only was Corzine a good tracker, he also was excellent at scenting. He looked down, knowing that Corzine could smell her on him.

He could see Corzine’s shadow on his boot as he moved slowly away. “I’ll be waiting. Join me when she is ready.” Corzine took off for the entrance.