CarnalPromise (17 page)

Jinn’s lips touched his neck. The soft stroke of her tongue
on his skin caused his penis to perk in anticipation, forcing his other
thoughts to flee for the time. “Jinn, I need you so.” He enveloped her small
frame within his embrace.

“As I need you,” she whispered against his chin then gazed
into his face. She touched her lips to his.

She admitted she needed him yet her actions would speak a
different truth. He knew she did not lie but the contrast between her words and
her behavior confused him.

He closed his eyes a moment to dispel his thoughts. Jinn
needed him in this moment. His mate needed his body. That was what mattered
right now. He would give her all that he could in this, because when he did, he
knew the tie of something more grew stronger, brought her closer to him. He
felt she knew it, too, and Drakkar wondered how deep this bond could go.

Her lips meandered across his shoulder. Her teeth nipped the
skin with every other peck. On these times, she used her tongue to caress him.
The varying sensations drove his need to conjoin with her body. He felt the
blood surge into his cock.

Drakkar groaned as desire flooded him but that desire
encompassed more than sex. It harbored a craving, a deep ancestral drive to
claim his mate, to complete oneself with another human being—the mating of two
to become something greater than oneself. And yet he could feel in Jinn that
there was more. Hunger for another, a thirst for a body that would comfort when
times were dark.

Drakkar understood that feeling only too well. There had
been many of those in the days past. And in some ways, when these dire times
were shared with passion for another, the experience would hold the individual
players together, make them stronger by some knowing that the two, as different
people, were not alone, that there was more than the dim view of the life
ahead.

Jinn moved her mouth down his pec, teasing him with tender
bites. Her lips reached his nipple. She laved it with her tongue then took the
tip between her teeth and sucked. The tender but firm movement roused him, made
his craving for her deepen.

“Jinn,” he whispered, not knowing what to say to ease her
troubled brow. Instead of speaking, he buried his head into her golden locks
and ran his hands through her tresses as he pulled her face into his. He kissed
her then, against her neck, her cheek and captured her lips. He would please
her, drive the unease away—at least as much as he could.

Her lush lips parted. A soft moan escaped. She needed him.
And somehow, he would make her see how much.

Jinn couldn’t resist him. And for now, she dare not try. As
overbearing as Drakkar was, he had a compassionate side. For now, she believed
he truly cared for her well-being, even if it was based on his own political
reasons. She looked at him a moment, stared into his forest-green eyes. Yes, he
was one of the few people in the galaxy she could say that treasured her as a
woman and meant it.

But for the moment, none of that mattered. To be honest with
herself, she had to have his tenderness right now to sustain her. She reminded
herself that it would be a long time before she would find this again and if
things went the way she wished, she might never have it anymore, not if
Craddock found her first.

Drakkar bent to her, kissed her again and teethed her bottom
lip. She sighed, relishing the heady feel this man gave her. He worked his
magic down her neck and nipped her shoulder, laving the skin he took in his
mouth. He would seduce her again, she knew. With their driven need, he couldn’t
help himself and neither could she.

His mouth eased to her upper torso. He kissed the top of her
breast and circled a path with his tongue around her breast, tightening the
loop to approach her nipple. He sucked the nipple in his mouth, held it gently
with his teeth then licked it and used the edge of his teeth to tease the
nerves within the bud.

She moaned and lifted her chest against him. When she did,
he ran his hand up her ribcage to the underside of her other breast and let his
fingers roll against her skin to the tip. When he reached the top, he pinched
her nub, twisted it with enough pressure to send her soaring.

She couldn’t withhold anything from him. Somehow she could
sense his relief that she conceded in this. She ran her hands through his dark
locks and lifted her mons to rub against his body. Her cunt grew warm. She
could feel it moisten. The deep rumble of Drakker’s breaths hummed against her,
titillated her nipple and the areola around it.

She whimpered, the need surging hard into her. “Take me
Drakkar.” She moved her thigh over his hardened penis.

He groaned, the warm breath from him heating her more. “As
you wish, Beloved.”

He slid his sinew-ripped body against her, reached her sex
and plunged into her with abandon.

She cried aloud from the intoxicating sensation and tried to
lift her hips to meet him.

Sensing she needed more, he grasped her to him and flipped
onto his back, taking her with him. “Work yourself on me, Beloved. Come for me.
I know you’re good for a few. I’ll stay on my back so I don’t come too soon.
Please, Jinn, do this for me.”

She almost laughed as sincere as he was but he was right. He
knew her body too well, even in the short time they’d been together. And she
seemed to know his, knew what he wanted almost before he knew it himself. Jinn
surmised this was another lesson in the bonding that she had ignored—and
regretted. There was so much in her connection with Drakkar that she didn’t
understand.

But she would learn. Drakkar would teach her. Not with
words, as she would never admit she had ignored the lessons, but with his body.

And God what a body his was. And it was all hers.

She smiled at that. Another thing in which she couldn’t help
herself. The corners of Drakkar’s lips lifted, only a little. Her enjoyment
pleased him and there was something about his pleasure that made a piece of her
soul fly. Grinning more broadly, she rotated her hips over his, forcing her
clit over his pubic bone. Her breaths hastened, the sensitivity in her clit
surged. There was nothing that felt this good. Nothing. Drakkar lifted his hips
against her, causing the tingling sensations to deepen and flood the nerve
endings of her sex.

“By the ancestors.” She heard the huskiness in her voice,
knew the blinding light that would come. She closed her eyes, aware only of
Drakkar’s body kneading hers, the sensation of the clash of their sex that
drove her higher.

Drakkar soared too. She could tell. But he was true to his
word. He held back for her. She came, blinded for a moment by the effect then
collapsed on Drakkar’s hard torso to catch her breath. Drakkar pumped her a few
times, slowly. “I know there is more, Beloved.”

He let her catch her breath before he pushed her again.
Grasping her hips with his hands, he lifted her enough to grind her on top of
him, moving his hips in the opposite direction in sequence, enough to rekindle
her sex drive.

She moaned against him. Putting her palms on the bed, she
held herself aloft and took his nipple in her mouth.

It was his turn to groan. “In all that’s holy, Jinn. I’ll
never last if you keep that up.”

She chuckled. “Maybe I don’t want you to. Maybe I want you
to come—hard and fast—then stir you again so you can take me. Make me know how
much you want me.” She pulled back to look at him, a more serious mien taking
her. “We have the time.” Her voice broke within the whisper.

He eyed her, the depth of his gaze assessing her. “As you
wish.”

A wicked gleam glinted in his gaze. He slapped her ass. Not
hard. Just enough for her to feel the pressure. The sting drove her libido,
surged it to a higher level once more. “Oh, God.” She nearly collapsed on him.

His low chuckle exposed her deeper need of him yet she
didn’t feel ashamed. Not in this. She moved against him again. He grabbed her
rear cheeks, his firm grip pulling them apart. His fingers moved along her
crevice then teased the skin of her perineum. She moved harder and he pulled
and released her cheeks, causing the cooler air of the cabin to caress those
sensitive spots in her.

Her body tensed, surged forward to sexual bliss. Drakkar
slid his fingers deeper, rimming her anus with his fingertips, letting the tip
of one of them enter her there.

“God’s teeth.” She rubbed her breasts against his chest as
she wiggled her hips harder against him. He moved the finger within her. “Oh,
my God.” The blindness took her again. Her climax peaked, surged into her with
renewed abandon. Her mouth parted. Her breathy moans echoed against the walls,
loudly, reflecting her pleasure. She couldn’t stop them even if she desired to
do so.

When her sexual peak eased, she collapsed against him again
but Drakkar wasn’t done with her yet. Releasing her ass, he grasped her to him
and rolled her so that he could be on top. He pumped into her. Hard. Her pussy
drenched him. She could feel it as the wanton erotic sensation took her once
more. She lifted her hips to meet his strokes and used her freed hands to grab
her nipples. She squeezed them, pulled them hard. God how she needed this man.

Her shriek of satisfaction wrenched the air.

Drakkar’s coarse groans of pleasure weren’t far behind. He
came hard and fast. Sweat beaded his brow. He panted to catch his breath. “Ah,
Jinn, I need you so.”

She bit her lips to damper her smile. “I know, Beloved,” she
grasped the sides of his face and pulled his mouth to hers. “I know exactly
what you mean,” she whispered against his lips before she captured them with
her mouth, ready to take him on again.

They had time before they reached Vulgaria. She wanted to
savor every bit.

* * * * *

“Well?” Craddock confronted Cassius as soon as he opened the
door.

He stepped into the hovel and shut the portal against the
weather. “Drakkar is taking her to Vulgaria. They should arrive shortly.”

“Vulgaria?” The former headmaster stomped away. “Dammit.
That planet is dangerous to our friends.” He tapped his chin. “We still have a
few loyalists to our cause there, even though they’ve gone into deep cover.
Perhaps we could still get her away.” He turned and stared at Cassius. “Where
on Vulgaria?”

Cassius shrugged. “I do not know where they’ll land.
Probably near his family’s estate. I would imagine he would take a mate there.
However, when the trials of the Warrior’s Way start, your niece will be in the
Ketarian Wilderness.”

“What?” The former headmaster strode toward him and planted
his hands on his hips. “Why?” The tone in his voice demanded a true
explanation.

Cassius lips thinned. He’d preferred to keep this
information back but in reality he knew he had no choice, not if he wanted to
save himself from another of Craddock’s punishments. “She is to go through the
trials herself.”

“Nooo.” The appalled look on Craddock’s face spoke for
itself. His lighter brows arched in anger. “Explain.”

Cassius straightened and forced his face to remain
impassive. “Jinn has insisted on keeping her warrior status. Drakkar does not
accept this as he has pledged his life to protect hers but as a compromise he
has asked that Jinn test herself in the trials. If she passes, he will allow
her to remain a warrior. If not, she becomes a passive member of his family and
a traditional bondsmate for him.”

Craddock glanced away a moment and chuckled as he shook his
head. “Jinn will never submit to the bastard.” He snapped his head up. His eyes
narrowed with his cold blue stare. “Why would Drakkar do this? If he didn’t
want her to be a warrior, he could just force her to submit. Besides, no woman
has ever passed the trials so why bother?”

Cassius cleared his throat. “I believe it was the only way
Jinn would agree to the prenuptials. Even though your niece was trapped in the
temple, she refused to formally bond with Drakkar. She has earned her warrior
status. She wants to keep it. Besides, I do not think your nephew would allow a
forced mating.”

“Rurik, bah.” Craddock sputtered and his brow knitted. “Feeble
nitwit. Yet how could she refuse? The need would drive her.” The man’s voice
lowered, more as if he spoke to himself.

Cassius continued, hoping the trivial information would
placate the man. “Drakkar found a match to the infusions she has been using to prevent
her scent. He took them himself in order to find her. She cannot scent him now.
It was how the Vulgarian was able to get close to Jinn without her aware.
However, the other result is that it has dampened her drive and the need to
mate, thus she refused his formal bonding plea, the one that would bind the
peace agreement.”

“Good girl,” Craddock uttered under his breath.

“You should know, Master, that Rurik forced the pact. He
pushed hard to get your niece to sign the agreement to formally bond with the
Vulgarian in a manner that will be based on the results of the trial. Sophos
saw to it.”

“That bitch,” the older man hissed.

“The Nyphosian negotiator wants the peace agreement
finalized.” Cassius spoke in softer tones, hoping to assuage the man’s hate for
the moment. “I understand Jinn does not appreciate being a token peace symbol.
She is opposed to all this, although I believe she felt there was no other way
around her submission. Rurik even threatened to bring her up on charges. She
held out for the best she could get. To be a warrior on her own terms.”

“Smart girl. She at least knows where her loyalties lie.”
Craddock looked at Cassius again, this time with more concern. “This confirms
it. She was trying to get away from him and we let her down.” He swallowed.
Sadness deepened the lines on his face. “We must save her,” Craddock whispered.
“We cannot fail in this.”

With the pain showing in his face, Cassius almost felt sorry
for his tormentor. Almost. He knew Craddock’s passion changed as quickly and as
strongly as the Telrusian winds. He cleared his throat, hoping to distract
Craddock’s train of thought. “There is something else, Master.”