In the Flesh (27 page)

“Never forget that.”

In the simulated torchlight, her dark eyes glittered up at him. “You captured me,” she purred. “Stole me. Naked.”

“I’d do it again.” He continued the measured plunge and retreat, working her with his stiff cock, rubbing the spots inside her that would arouse her again.

“You locked me away and took my body.” Her lower lip stuck out in a pout. “You are a wicked prince who forced pleasure on me.”

Wulf’s smile was feral. Drunk on endorphins, his consort wanted to play. In his present mood, burning with lust and on the knife’s edge of control, he was more than willing to play the role of pillaging conqueror. “You flaunted yourself before me.”

“You tempted me to do it.”

“I’ll tempt you again, captive,” he growled. “Before I’m through with you, you’ll beg to sate my lust.”

“Never,” she cried, her arms crossing her breasts to cover them. “I’ll never beg. I’ll never give in to you. You’ll have to
take
what you want.”

The sight of her shielding herself demurely while daring him with her eyes fired his blood. She was
strong and skilled, able to fight him to the death if she chose. He loved that about her. Loved how it added a layer to the game they played. Loved that she used sex to bring them closer together in more ways than just the physical. Raging with lust and possessiveness, he thrust harder into her than he intended. She gasped.

“Please,” she begged, digging her heels into the earth and pushing back from him. She slipped free of his dick and his lungs heaved.

“Katie.” Wulf fought the primal urge to fall on his mate and fuck her until the churning need inside him quieted. “Did I hurt you?”

Her dark gaze was riveted on his ruddy cock, gleaming from her climax and straining upward. He was so hard, the ropy veins stood out in harsh relief, throbbing. It was brutal even to his eyes and he’d just rammed it into her without finesse.

She rolled over and began to crawl away from him, her beautifully pink pussy a nearly irresistible lure. Looking over her shoulder, she winked.

A reassurance…and a blatant challenge to come and get her.

With a growl, he lunged for her. Katie slipped away in a rush of satin limbs. He caught her ankle and she squealed, a sound that would have been more effective if she hadn’t been laughing, too.

“You need to be taught a lesson in subservience,” he said gruffly, tugging her back. “I am the master. Your sole purpose is to keep me sated.”

“But you’re never sated!”

Wulf climbed over her, his chest to her back. He nipped her earlobe. “Try harder.”

Cheek pressed to hers, he caught her hips and hefted them, angling her to take him again. He notched his cockhead at the tiny entrance of her silken cunt and yanked her onto him, stealing her balance and hitting the end of her.

Her moan drifted on the night zephyr.

He straightened. Pulling back, he thrust again, groaning in pleasure. In this position she was tilted in a way that let him go deep. Deep to where she narrowed into a plush, suctioning fist. His cock was so enamored with that part of her, it filled her with small spurts of semen he couldn’t hold back.

“Please,” Katie’s voice came slurred with pleasure. “No more.”

“But you’re mine,” he growled. “By your own admission. Why shouldn’t I do whatever I want to you?”

“Because…you’ll make me come.”

A rough, edgy sound escaped him. “Damn right.”

There was nothing like the feeling of her climaxing on his dick, the tiny muscles shivering around him, squeezing him so tight he thought his head would explode with the pleasure of it.

Holding her hips aloft, he pulled free in an agonizingly slow glide. Wulf paused at the cusp, the broad of his cock spreading open the clutching mouth of her sweet pussy. The expectation was both torture and the keenest of pleasures. The feel of her trembling, the breathless pleas.

Katie pushed back with her hands, trying to reclaim him. Although she was strong, he held her at bay, his lust tempered by admiration for the power of her body. There was nothing about her that he didn’t love to distraction.

Biting back a groan, he thrust into her.

“Umm…” Her cheek was on the blanket, her eyes closed, her hands fisted beside her shoulders.

Too far away.

His hands slid up her flanks and pushed beneath her breasts. She wriggled her ass against his loins and complained, “Don’t stop.”

“But you wanted me to stop,” he drawled, catching her close and straightening until he was upright and kneeling. “You begged me to stop.”

She whimpered when he settled her in his lap, her legs tucked behind her on either side of his knees. His hand moved up to wrap around her throat. The other slid between her legs, his fingers splaying around where they were joined. He mantled her, covering her from behind while the lushness of her front and the carnality of his claiming were bared to the night sky. Wulf pictured how they must look—her ripe courtesan’s body dominated by his larger warrior’s frame. His skin so much darker and hair roughened. Her legs spread to show how her snug little hole stretched tremulously around the thick, heavy cock shoved deep inside her.

Katie reached behind her and cupped the back of his head, her fingers threading through his hair. Leaning back, her mouth sought his and he gave her the kiss she wanted, his tongue gliding into her mouth while his fingertips teased her tender clitoris.

“Wulf,” she breathed into his mouth, undulating against him in an effort to find the friction she needed. “Have mercy.”

He nudged into her, the crest of his cock stroking
the spot inside her that caused her to tremble. As he worked her body from head to toe, she began to writhe. His focus was on making her insensate with desire, creating a scorching need in her that only he could quench.

“No mercy, Katie.” His voice was hoarse from the effort he exerted to stave off his rising orgasm. “I want all of you. Everything.”

“You have it. You always have.”

“Are you sure?” He rolled his hips, stirring into the thick juices that bathed his cock. “Show me.”

She whimpered, grinding onto him but having no leverage. He knew what he was doing to her, what it meant to her to have no control at all. For Katie, pleasure had always been work. Something that took concentration and focus. After that first night in her bed, he’d determined to strip her control every time he had her. To take her beyond reason until only sensation and he existed. Sex was a means to that end; a journey, not the destination. Their connection to each other was the eye of the storm they’d face. It had to be stronger than blood, more valuable than water, and rooted deeper than skin.

“Do you know how you feel to me?” he murmured darkly, his lips to her ear. “How slick and tight? How hot? You burn me, Katie. Destroy me. When I saw you from the healing chamber—rubbing against the glass, your eyes eating me alive—I pictured you like this. Hungry. Helpless. Mine. All mine.”

“Y-yours…”

“I wanted to live for you. So I could give you what you were asking for. So I could feel you pressed against me without the glass between us.”

Panting, she offered kiss-swollen lips to him. “Nothing between us…”

“I needed to feel your hands on me. Healing me—”

“Karisem.”
My love.

“Katie…”

With his tongue in her mouth, his cock in her cunt, and his fingers deftly rubbing between her legs, she climaxed with a broken cry. Quaking violently. Sobbing. Milking him with rippling pulses. He growled in pure male satisfaction, his arms tightening around her.

Lightning tore down his spine and fisted his balls. Semen churned and boiled until it shot along his aching erection and erupted in a ferocious flood. He turned his head and set his teeth to her shoulder, groaning against her skin as the orgasm tore through him, ripped from a place inside him that she had created. A place that she replenished until it overflowed and drowned him.

Wulf took her down, blanketing her, pumping fast and shallow. Her knees slipped out from under her and he followed, rutting in her with a primitive need to mark her, mate with her, join with her. His fingers linked with hers. He stretched her arms over her head so that he covered her from fingertip to toe. The sand gave way beneath her, cushioning her as he fucked her like an animal, wild in his need. Katie was right there with him, coming and coming, moaning his name with every plunge into her.

“Katie.”

As the fisted grip of his climax eased, Wulf felt
the bite of her ring band digging into his finger.
She belonged to him.

“Mine,” she gasped, as if she’d read his mind. “You’re mine, too.”

He nuzzled his sweat-slicked forehead against her temple. “Yours,” he vowed. “Always.”

Beyond the golden circle of torchlight, the black of the desert night swallowed the world, creating a tiny paradise for the two sated lovers on the shore.

Wulf’s fingertips drew patterns on the bare flesh of Sapphire’s thigh. “What are you thinking?”

“That it’s a good thing you pursued me, because the sex is unbelievable.”

She giggled when he growled and tugged her beneath him.

“You bonded with me for the
sex
?”

Blinking innocently, she asked, “That’s not a good reason?”

Wulf nipped her bottom lip with a love bite. “If only it was that simple. Then I’d have some hope that it would burn itself out. Become more bearable.”

“Promise me that it’ll never burn out.”

“I’ve made several promises to you and I intend to keep every one of them, including that one. I love you too damn much. Even if it were halved, it would still be excessive.”

She brushed back a stray lock of raven hair from his forehead. “You promised to care for me.”

He arched a brow. “Don’t I?”

“You haven’t fed me since lunch.” Her mouth
made a moue. “Then you drained me with your ravenous lovemaking.”

The second dark brow rose to join the first. “
My
ravenous lovemaking? If I remember correctly, I was the one who was ravished first tonight.”

She tapped her chin, feigning deep thought. “I don’t remember that.”

He pinned her down and tickled her. He wouldn’t cease even when tears streamed from her eyes and she pleaded with him to stop.

“Remember now?”

“Wulf!” she gasped. “Let me go…I’ll do anything…”

He paused. “Anything?”

She nodded, knowing she’d love whatever he came up with.

“I can’t resist that,” he said, freeing her with a wicked smile.

She scrambled to her feet. “Horrid husband, abusing me to get your way.”

He reclined on the blankets and tucked his hands beneath his head. Deepening his voice, he said, “Wife, fetch some food.”

Her hands went to her hips and he laughed. “Please,” he added with a wink.

For that arrogant comment, Sapphire swayed her bare hips seductively as she moved away, tossing him a mock glare over her shoulder before she entered the white tent.

Inside, she gathered sealed bio-packs of provisions and a large flagon of wine. She’d taken a few steps out of the tent before she realized they were no longer alone.

Wulf caught up one of the blankets and crossed over to her, covering her nude body. She noted that he made no effort to hide his own state of undress. He stepped aside, revealing their visitor—a soldier she recognized from the palace.

The young officer bowed to her. “Forgive my intrusion, Your Highness.”

“Has something happened, Lieutenant?”

Wulf set his arm around her shoulders. “Remember I told you I was making overtures to Sari in an effort to stabilize relations between our countries?”

She nodded. “Of course I remember.”

“The lieutenant has come with news from the palace. An emissary from Sari arrived unannounced this evening with a message from the king. It appears Gunther is willing to meet with me. But it must be tomorrow and it must be at the coordinates he specified.”

“Is that normally how such matters are arranged?”

“No. Summits take months to prepare for. The king has declined to meet with me these last six weeks. Now, he’s had a change of heart and wants to see me immediately.”

Sapphire turned under his arm to face him fully. “I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel right. I don’t want you to go.”

His thumb circled soothingly against her neck. “I promised you to do my best to resolve this rift. The king is hot tempered and rash. He’s already shown his willingness to go to war over matters that could easily have been mediated. If I don’t go, I could exacerbate an already combustible situation.”

“Then, I’m going with you.”

“No.” His gaze narrowed. “I won’t have you anywhere near him.”

“Wulfric. You and I are bound. What can he do?”

“I don’t want to find out.”

“I’m coming with you, or you’re not going.”

A reluctant smile tugged at his lips. “Is that so?”

“That is.”

Wulf looked at the lieutenant. “You heard the Princess Consort. Go to the palace. I’ll rely on you to gather our formal attire and accoutrements. Return in the morning with everything we need to progress from here to the location specified for the summit. Sabine will assist you. And send a battalion to the coordinates to ready the site for our arrival.”

The lieutenant bowed. “I’ll see to it, Your Highness.”

“Excellent. Good night, Lieutenant.”

“We’re staying?” she asked as the officer departed.

Wulf’s gaze was both tender and filled with seductive promise. “The king’s not ruining my binding night.”

“Good, because I’m famished.”

“For me?”

She hefted the bio-packs and flagon. “First food. Then Wulf.”

“They warned me about marriage,” he grumbled.

Sapphire huffed back to the blankets, allowing the one draped over her shoulders to fall to the ground. She heard him whistle appreciatively and she tossed a smile over her shoulder. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

Chapter 20

Raising the field-sight lenses to her eyes, Sapphire scanned the profusion of blue domes only a few kilometers away and the large force of troops just beyond them. She pivoted slowly, moving the lenses in a wide semicircle, studying the terrain while mentally mapping vulnerabilities and strengths. She knew her father was responsible for determining the location; the tactical advantages were overwhelmingly in the Sarian camp’s favor.