In the Flesh (20 page)

A growl left Wulf’s throat. “Who were these men?”

“Employees of Braeden’s Auction House.”

Wulf stilled. It was Trinaday.

He immediately registered the import of the day. A woman as beautiful as Katie would be difficult for Braeden to pass up. Nearly naked, she would be irresistible. With an oath, he strode toward the hanger and the transfer pad inside. “Round up your men, Lieutenant.”

Within moments he was standing in the foyer of Braeden’s prosperous and well-appointed auction house. Familiar with the establishment from past
patronage, he headed straight toward the back parlor.

He presented an intimidating sight, he knew, as he strode into the room, blood-red royal robes billowing behind him and a full complement of royal guards fanning outward to encircle the occupants. As the surprised men sank to the floor in obeisance, he waited impatiently. He said nothing, giving them no permission to rise, forcing them to remain at his feet.

“Your Highness,” Braeden murmured slickly. “I was unaware you planned to attend the auction today. I’m afraid the bidding is over, but I’m certain—”

“Where is she?” The dark threat threading Wulf’s voice caused the proprietor to frown in confusion.

“I beg your pardon,” Braeden stalled. “I don’t know who—”

Wulf yanked him roughly to his feet. “You accosted a woman claiming my protection in the transfer center today. Where is she?”

The auctioneer paled. “Your Highness, I assure you, I had no idea she spoke the truth. Her attire was—”

“One more time,” Wulf repeated with ominous softness. “Where is she?”

Braeden jerked his chin toward the staircase. “In the pleasure room at the top of the stairs.”

As Wulf struggled to control a near-murderous rage, the arm that held Braeden shook. “Has anyone touched her?”

“I—I don’t b-believe so.” The auctioneer swallowed hard. “The winning bidder just went up.”

Wulf tossed a glance over his shoulder and a guard quickly separated from the group and ran up the stairs. “Has she been harmed in any way?”

“I administered a small cocktail,” Braeden admitted. “A combination of mild sedatives and an aphrodisiac that I use occasionally with skittish females.” His voice rose. “She was wild, Your Highness! She injured five of my men!”

Wulf shoved him away. His voice was harsh when he spoke. “For your abuse of a person who claimed my protection, I am confiscating your business.”

Braeden began to plead.

“Silence! For illegally abducting a woman and attempting to sell her favors against her will, you are to be taken forthwith to the nearest jail, where you will remain until you are tried for your crimes.

“You had best pray I find her untouched, Braeden. If I don’t, I will castrate you myself.”

“Then I’ll have a go at you,” the lieutenant added coldly. A murmur of agreement rippled through the ranks of his men.

Wulf reassessed the events of the long day, events he had been too distraught to notice earlier. He thought about how Sabine had attempted to intercede with Duncan, and how the other concubines had readily offered their services in lieu of Katie. He considered the way his own men had held off his brother’s guards so that she could escape. He remembered his discussion with the captain who so obviously admired her. And the lieutenant and the men under his command who were expressing their desire to avenge her, if necessary.

In her short time with him, Katie had won the
respect of his subjects. Even his father’s distress, when taken in the proper context, revealed the monarch’s fear of her growing power in the palace.

Katie was his perfect counterpart. A warrior like himself, a voluptuary, strong and supportive, a woman to admire and respect. A lover he could cherish. His heart ached at what he had almost lost—a prime consort for D’Ashier, the ideal companion for him.

He turned toward the staircase, filled with renewed purpose. He would bind her to him, so they would never be separated again.

Sapphire heard the door slide open even through the buzzing in her ears. Her thoughts were fogged, everything murky and disoriented.

Lifting her head, she strained to see through the filmy curtain that surrounded the bed. She spotted the broad, muscled back of a man as he disrobed, and she squeezed her eyes shut and dropped her head back onto the pillow with a moan.

She supposed she could turn her back to him—the muscle relaxant she’d been given made her languid, not immobile—but the aphrodisiac was driving her crazy. She forced herself to remain as still as possible, because the slightest movement caused a prickling sensation to burn across her skin, heating her flesh and laboring her breathing. She was completely naked, but she didn’t reach for the silk sheet that she’d kicked off earlier. The feel of the fabric against her overly sensitized skin had
been too much to bear and her modesty was not worth the torture of it.

“If I were you,” she managed in a drug-slurred voice. “I would turn around and run for my life.”

She heard a seductive chuckle that drifted across her body like smoke, inflaming every nerve ending. She gritted her teeth as the buzzing sound worsened.

“Crown Prince Wulfric will come for me soon.” She hoped that was true. “He’s a very possessive man. If you touch me, he might kill you.”

“Do you belong to him?” The man’s rich, deep voice echoed through her mind.

Sapphire meant to say one thing, but what came out was the truth. “Yes.”

Through the maddening noise in her head, she thought she heard bare footsteps approach.

“From what I can see,” he murmured, “a few moments in your arms would be worth the threat of death.”

“Don’t do this,” she pleaded softly, her chest too tight to speak any louder. “I—I love him. I couldn’t bear to be touched…”

She sensed his sudden stillness and the tension that radiated from his frame.

When he spoke again, his voice was deeply husky. “The prince? Is that who you love?”

She sighed, filled with deep longing. Rolling her body away from him, she moaned with the pain of unnaturally evoked desire. “He’ll come…It’s not too late…to go…”

The filmy drapes parted and the mattress dipped with the man’s weight. He was so close, she could feel the heat of his skin, but he didn’t touch her.

“Does he love you in return?”

Sapphire groaned against a wave of lust brought on by his close proximity and the evocative scent of his skin. “Go,” she gasped.

“Does he love you?” he repeated.

“No…but he wants me…he’ll fight for me.”

“He’s a fool, then. To have your love and not return it.”

His hot, open mouth pressed against her shoulder, sending sensations radiating outward in a flaring sweep across her flesh. She pressed into the kiss against her will, her body anxious for relief from its drug-induced torment. As her heart pumped blood rapidly through her veins, the buzzing in her ears worsened. His tongue flicked across the side of her throat. “I want to love you,” he whispered.

Sapphire laughed with soft mockery. “I’m certain you do or you wouldn’t be in this bed. Eager to die.”

The crisp hair on his chest brushed her back, making her breath seize in her lungs. “I want to make love to you.” His tone was ardent, despite being muffled against her shoulder. “From the moment I first saw you, I had to have you. I’ll take you slowly, deeply. I’ll cherish you. Pleasure you until the sun comes up.”

“W-what?” She arched into the aroused length of his body, feeling the heat and hardness of his erection against her buttocks.

“You’re in pain. Let me help you.”

Raised voices outside the door penetrated her dazed mind and sent her into a panic. “Please go,” she urged. “I—I’m drugged. I don’t want this.”

His breath fanned across her cheek. “Just imagine that I am the man you love. Give yourself to me
as if I were. I’ll make you forget about the prince who doesn’t deserve you. I’ll wipe him from your memory so that all you can think of is me—a man whose only desire is to service you.”

His tongue traced the shell of her ear and she purred with forbidden pleasure. “I need you.” The voice was achingly familiar now that it was so close. “I need you like I need to breathe.”

Her heart stopped.

How she had dreamed of having her passionate Wulfric back, the one who had hidden in the obsidian darkness of her bedroom in her home and taken her breath away with the totality of his possession.

With a hushed cry of surrender, Sapphire turned in his arms and pulled him against her.

“Wulf.”

Wulf groaned, a low, deep sound of welcome and relief as Katie rolled into his embrace. How marvelous she felt, tucked close to him after the day’s tormented search and worry for her.

She loved him
. He couldn’t help but squeeze her tightly and vow never to let her go.

Tonight he would share his affection with every press of his lips, every caress of his hand. He would promise her the world and spend the rest of his life striving to give it to her. His life, once an endless stretch of duty-filled days, and nights of meaningless sex, would become a life augmented by joy and love and sweet, breathtaking passion.

His mouth descended to hers and he pulled her tighter against him, until the ripe softness of her
breasts was crushed against his chest and her lithe thigh was thrown over his. From somewhere deep inside, Wulf could feel the connection between them. From the beginning, he’d felt the link and had followed his passion for her into forbidden, frightening territory. He didn’t regret it, regardless of the many difficulties ahead.

Katie struggled against him. Her flesh was so hot and sensitive from the aphrodisiac that she was trying to crawl out of her skin.

“Please.” She rubbed her pussy against his thigh and left a slick trail of moisture behind. It had been days since he’d had her. To feel her melting was an irresistible lure, swelling his cock painfully.

“Wulf, I need you inside me.”

“Easy.” Rolling, he tucked her beneath him and spread her legs. “I’ll give you what you need.”

With a quick thrust, he was deep inside her and she was coming, her back arching off the mattress, the slick walls of her pussy rippling greedily up and down his length, her throaty cry of relief filling the room. Filling his mind. Heating his blood with the knowledge that he could do things to her body that no other man could, take it places she hadn’t known it could go.

“That’s it,” he crooned, gritting his teeth against the devastating pleasure. He withdrew and she gripped his hips with steely fingers and yanked him back into her. She was scorching, dripping, and he groaned at the unbelievable sensation of her sweet pussy eagerly suckling his cock.

At her desperate pleading, Wulf began to pump between her thighs, riding her gently at first, then
faster, more furiously as she begged for more, always more.

The drugs drew out her orgasms. He’d never felt anything like it in his life, her body milking his cock as he shafted her hard and deep.

“Katie.” He gasped as his balls tightened up, his cock throbbing violently. He needed this. To be joined with her, to be deep inside her.

“Yes,” she sobbed, her hips rising to meet his every thrust. “That feels so good…so good…”

Throwing his head back with a fierce roar of pleasure, he spurted thick and hot, his climax prolonged by hers, the convulsions of her delicious cunt coming one after another around him. He clung to her, pressing grateful open-mouthed kisses against her shoulder and tearstained cheeks, finding a joy in lovemaking he never knew existed. Until he’d found her.

Sapphire moaned as Wulf’s cock withdrew from the trembling depths of her pussy. “Don’t leave me.”

“Never.” He stretched out alongside her, the fingers of one hand pushing into the sweat-dampened roots of her tangled hair. His hand caressed her hip, sliding down in a callused glide.

She spread her legs wantonly, her hot face pressing into his neck where the spicy scent of his skin was so strong. She breathed him in with desperate gulps of air, her raging hunger only mildly appeased by the orgasms he’d wrung so skillfully from her tormented body.

“You’re here,” she whispered, her hand pressing against his chest. “So glad you’re here.”

“Shh…I’ll take care of you.”

Her spine arched as his fingers parted the bare lips of her pussy. He cared so much for her pleasure and needs. He made her feel as if she was the only person in his world, a woman he treasured and worshipped.

His thumb brushed over her clitoris and she gasped. Without the aphrodisiac, his touch was electric. With it, it was nearly painful, the rush of sensation overloading already tender nerves. His fingertips glided over the spasming opening of her pussy, teasing her.

“More,” she begged. “I need you.”

His head lowered to her breast, his tongue curling around an erect nipple.

“Yes.” Sapphire lifted onto her shoulders, pushing the straining tip into the haven of his talented mouth. “Suck me.”

With a soothing murmur, Wulf pushed two long, thick fingers into her. She whimpered, her hands fisting in the sheets. Every pulling draw on her nipple echoed in her pussy, her tissues clenching tight around the welcome intrusion.

His head lifted. As his fingers thrust inside her, he eyed her with a possessive glimmer. “You’re drenched with my come. Filled with it.”

Sapphire licked her parched lower lip, her throat working as he finger-fucked her slow and easy. “I love it when you finish in m-me. You get thick and hard, you push so d-deep.”

Wulf growled, the rough sound rumbling through the room.

“You lose c-control.” She gasped, her hips grinding into his hand. “You pound into me until I think I c-can’t take any more. The sounds you make…as if it feels too good—”

“It does.” His tongue thrust into her ear, making her cry out. “I wonder if I’ll survive it. Then I wonder how quickly I can do it again, experience it again.”

“I feel it when you come. So hot. Thick. Endless. I love it.” Sapphire climaxed at the memory, coming around his fingers.

“You destroy me.” He pushed three digits inside her, in and out, his tongue fucking her ear as he kept her taut and breathless in orgasm. “Tear me apart. I can’t get enough.”