Authors: Eve Langlais
The closest he’d gotten to the sexy Louisa was by watching her on the video screens that monitored their captives. He liked what he saw and heard though, which made him decide to brave the antics of the halflings who guarded her.
“So where are we going?” asked one of the girls for the fourth time.
“Somewhere.”
“Where’s somewhere? Are there going to be any boys?” queried another.
“No.”
“Do you have a younger brother?”
“No.”
“Cousin?”
Did these creatures ever stop with their questions? Over the course of the last few rotations, he’d made several attempts to penetrate their barrier to get closer to the female who haunted his sleep. Didn’t happen. Although, he did now know the little she-devils by name. He also knew they were a step above wild animals, had a way with words to embarrass the most stalwart and had more mischief in one little finger than a tribe of imps from the lost galaxies. In other words, he kind of liked them. But he also wanted to throttle them for not letting him breach their ranks. “I wish to speak with your Louisa.” Who once again hid in the cleansing chamber. It occurred to him to charge in there and demand she speak with him, but he somehow doubted that would go over well.
“Yeah, but she doesn’t want to talk to you,” giggled a female with pale curls. “You must have really annoyed her. It’s been like what, three days since she told you to piss off?”
His translation of her words made no sense. “I did not urinate on her.”
Shrieks of laughter met his response.
“No, dum-dum, I mean you made her mad. What did you say to her?”
“Brax and I told her she must choose one of us.”
“Choose you for what?”
He tried to think of a delicate way of putting it since these were after all young, innocent females. “We requested she select the partner she would like to become better acquainted with.” Pleased with his polite phrasing, he sat back and smiled.
Sudden silence greeted his announcement and he fidgeted at the number of judgmental eyes that caught him in their sights.
“What? Why do you gaze upon me with such shock?”
“First off purple dude, you don’t ask a girl you just met for sex. What are you a pig?”
“But I never used the word sex,” he protested.
The one known as Josie rolled her eyes. “Oh, please we’re not stupid. Intimate equals sex. Naked crewing. Horizontal tango. Smooshing.”
Snickers and grins all around let him know that all the odd terms meant the same thing.
“Very well. Since you prefer I be blunt. My brother in arms and I asked her to choose a sexual partner.”
Clarabelle, the freckled one made a clicking sound. “Dude, what is wrong with you? Didn’t no one ever tell you to not talk about that kind of shit in front of kids?”
They’d done it to him again. Tripped him with his own words. He clamped his lips tight as the girls exchanged sage nods.
“Lucky thing for you,” Angelic said with a sweet smile that hid her devilish nature, “we’re not really kids any more. So we can tell you what you did wrong.”
He leaned forward at their urging, his shoulders bunching so he fit within the huddle of little heads.
“First off, you need to romance her.”
Perpetrate a gesture showing affection?
“I saved her from captivity.”
“You did that before you knew her so it doesn’t count.”
“Gave her food?”
“Oh, so you’re going to count basic necessities.” Anne made a wet noise in his direction. “No wonder you struck out. Haven’t you done anything nice? You know, something to show her you like her.”
“Well, I did kiss her.”
“Oooh.”
Their collective murmur encouraged him to go on. “And I’m sure I did it better than my sword brother.” Stunned faces met that announcement.
“Hold on, Mr. X,” freckled Clarabelle said. “Rewind a second. What do you mean you did it better than your buddy? He kissed her too?”
“When I came upon them lip locked, I plucked her from his grasp and proceeded to show her my admittedly better technique.”
Snickers met his boast. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Oh boy, you really are one big clueless ox. You mean you guys took turns kissing her and passing her around. No wonder she’s pissed. Listen up, ‘cause we’re gonna help you. If you want to win her, you gotta —”
“Do nothing because it won’t happen,” answered Louisa in a firm, no-nonsense voice having finally emerged from her hiding place.
Caught, Xarn smiled at her sheepishly. “Hello.”
Louisa glared at him—looking more delicious in person than he recalled—as she tapped a foot and pointed in a direction that sent the girls scurrying away. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Reconnoitering?” He raised a hopeful brow.
“Unless you’re here to tell me you’re taking us home, then I have no interest in speaking with you.”
“But how can you convince me if you ignore me?” he taunted.
Her lips tightened. “Would paying you attention work?”
“No, but I am willing to let you ply your wiles in an attempt to change my mind.”
“Not happening.”
“A male can try,” he said with a dramatic sigh. “But seriously, have you given any thought to our question?”
“I thought I said
no
.”
“Your kiss sounded more like a maybe. I think you just need more convincing.”
“I do not.” She said it quickly, but he took note of how her cheeks flushed a pink color and the points of her nipples suddenly protruded through her gown. He’d been around the galaxy enough times to know what those signs meant.
“How will you know if you do not give me a chance? This is the first time you’ve spoken to me in several revolutions.”
“And if you hadn’t been bringing up totally inappropriate subject matter with my girls, I would have gone several more.”
“But how am I supposed to change your mind if you keep avoiding me?”
“You don’t.”
“You know I’m bigger than you, right?”
“Are you threatening me?” She towered over him, her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes flashing with ire. By all the deities in the universe, he wanted her.
“Why are you being so stubborn? I can tell you want me.”
The color in her cheeks got brighter. “I do not,” she sputtered. “You need to leave.”
“We’re not done talking. I can smell your desire you know.”
“I am not discussing this in front of my girls,” she hissed in a low voice.
“Fine. Then we will go somewhere else to do so.”
Manacling her wrist with one hand, he dragged her from the room, tossing a casual, “She’ll be back in a moment,” to the watching crowd. When Louisa tried to dig her heels in to stop him, he just picked her up, trying not to grin when the demon spawn started to cheer and laugh.
Once in the hall, he slapped the control to slide the door shut, and locked it for good measure. He set her down on her feet.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded. “How dare you just think you can walk in there and manhandle me like-like—”
“Like a male who desires a female,” he supplied.
“No, like a caveman with no idea how to treat a woman.”
Bracketing an arm on either side of her body, his palms against the wall by her head, he leaned in close. “In my culture, what I did would be considered romancing you.”
“How is yanking me from a room and then pinning me against a wall romantic?”
“Because I wanted to be alone with you.” He’d never spoken truer words.
“Why? It won’t change anything.” The breathlessly said words whispered across his lips.
Forget explaining, he showed her, pressing his mouth to hers like he’d dreamed of doing since the first time. Her lips tasted sweet, the flavor of the juice she’d recently imbibed still clinging to them. Before he could go any further, she pushed at him.
“No. We can’t do this. Not here. The girls are right on the other side of this wall. Hell, knowing them they’re probably listening with their ears pressed against it.”
If the location was the problem and not the kiss itself, he had a simple solution. He picked her up and carted her down the hall and around a corner before letting her slide down the length of his body. The curviness of her frame made him hard as he imagined her lushness, pressed naked against him.
“Is this more suitable?”
The smile that curled her lips and the mirth dancing in her eyes hit him like a low blow to the gut. “You really don’t like the word
no
, do you?”
“Your mouth was saying
yes
. Shall I prove it?” He resumed their embrace, hungrier than ever for a taste of her. And this time she did not protest or halt him. Actually, she leaned into the kiss, her breathing emerging in fast pants. He sucked at her tender lower lip, coaxing her mouth to open and groaned when she did. More encouraging, her hands crept up to cling at this neck, pulling him closer and he obliged, wanting, needing to feel more of her against him.
Slipping his tongue past the barrier of her lips, he ran it over her dull teeth before sliding it further. Her tongue came to greet his, the moist twining of their flesh fueling his hunger for more.
Imbued with urgency, he moved the hands lightly clasping her waist to her buttocks, grasping the full flesh, kneading it. The fabric of the gown impeded his search, prevented him from testing the softness of her skin. He lifted up the offending barrier and caressed her smooth skin, distinctly feeling her shiver, hearing her delighted gasp. Palming her cheeks, he hoisted her, giving her better access to his mouth which she took full advantage of, devouring his lips with a passion not feigned or contrived. The heady knowledge that she desired him spurred him on.
Bracing her back against the wall, with one arm anchored around her waist, he used his free hand to delve between their bodies, finding her moist sex with his digits, and he shuddered at the blatant evidence of her desire.
Wet, so wet for me.
He explored her cleft, learning its delicate shape. She mewled against his lips when he rubbed the protrusion at the top of her sex, a pleasure nubbin it seemed, that he stroked over and over as her cries quickened in desperation. A desperate need he also felt, even if his own sex remained still hidden in his pants.
“Still want to say no?” he murmured, following up his soft taunt with a nuzzle of her throat.
She arched into his embrace, a husky chuckle slipping from her. “You just don’t know how to quit when you’re ahead do you?”
He thrust a finger into her, the hot, damp walls of her channel clamping around it tight. Oh by the galaxies, he couldn’t wait to sheath his cock into her welcoming heat. To pound her sweet welcoming flesh. To hear her crying out his name. “I never quit when I want something.”
He raised his eyes to see her regarding him, her expression languorous and inviting. “And if I were to say no right now, you’d do what?”
“Make you scream yes,” he growled. Oh he’d make her swallow her words, and maybe later his cock. She didn’t fight him, on the contrary her body welcomed his touch, but at the same time her words teased him for more. And he’d give it to her. He wanted to bring her to climax, watch her as she got swept away by pleasure, a tantalizing precursor to his claiming. Then, he’d bring her to the edge again, and have her beg him to take her.
He slid in a second finger, and she clutched at his shoulders, her nails digging into him in a delightfully painful way that spoke of her excitement. He pumped her with his digits, in and out, savoring the suction of her muscles as they clung to him. His mouth watered at the feel of her increasing moisture, a nectar he could not wait to taste.
Her cries, of “Yes! Yes!” grew more frantic, her body tightening around his fingers as he continued to thrust into her. When she bit his lower lip and her body bowed into an arc, he grunted in tortured pleasure. His own hips gyrated forward, his cock full and about to burst.
Before he could ease it free and sink it into her, feel her glorious flesh all around him, he felt a tap on the shoulder.
“What?” he snapped, turning his head to the side just in time for his face to meet his sword brother’s fist.
*
Coming across his best friend coupling wasn’t unusual, but who he chose to copulate with irritated Brax. Actually, more than irritated, it filled him with a jealous rage. Right after he stopped watching, that was.
When he’d first seen them, Louisa’s legs wrapped loosely around Xarn’s waist, kissing him with wild abandon while Xarn pleasured her with his hand, he stopped and stared. How could he not? The sight was mesmerizing and erotic beyond belief. His cock grew hard, aching to be a part of the unfolding sensual feast of the senses. He panted along with Louisa as her pleasure mounted, and his cock jerked when she came.
Then, anger set in that Xarn dared to seduce the female he wanted as mate behind his back. Never mind, she’d not officially chosen him, or that he only recently decided he wanted her for something more permanent than just a copulation partner. Since the moment he’d seen Louisa, he wanted her.
And I will have her.
Ire that his brother in arms thought to steal her from him made him act. He tapped Xarn on the shoulder, and when he turned to snarl “What?” he punched him. As his closest companion reeled from the surprise attack, he scooped a limp Louisa into his arms. Still in the throes of pleasure, eyes closed, she didn’t seem to notice the change in partners until he kissed her, unable to resist the swollen invitation of her lips.
Her eyes flew open, and they stared at each other, their lips still clinging.
“What the hell?” she gasped.
A tap on his shoulder arrived before he could answer. Brax sighed against her mouth before he put her down. “Just give me a moment while I take care of this.”
He turned to face Xarn who glowered, but that was okay, because Brax was bloody simmering.
“What the frukx are you doing interrupting me like that?” Xarn growled.
“What the frukx were you thinking seducing her like that?” he snarled back.
“Can I help it, she chose me?” boasted his sword brother.