LustingtheEnemy (2 page)

The royal lineage had access to records and knowledge few
others did. Even without such information he knew exactly how the nearly
extinct shifter—a
larakyte—
would look in human form. Hair and irises
hued with silver, body tall, slender and graceful. Hell, even the way they
carried themselves with an almost unworldly inherent grace and poise revealed
their true ancestry.

She’d managed the almost impossible feat of hiding her
true-self from the jealous, all-seeing eyes of the women in the holding yard.
And with luck she would continue the façade—at least until he’d decided what
was to be done with her.

Though she’d done a brilliant job so far of keeping her
inner beast at bay, he couldn’t risk her staying for more than a night or two
at most. She was young, inexperienced at the art of shielding. He had little
choice but to escort her back to her people before anyone discovered her
identity and hurt her…or worse.

His jaw tightened. She couldn’t stay, no matter how much he
might wish otherwise. The vast majority of his people were hell bent on seeing
all shifters dead. Worse were those in his ranks who pretended to be
sympathizers, mortals who’d risk their own lives to kill a
larakyte—
any
shifter—to free the world from a species who were a rung above humans.

He shook his head, shoulders growing tight with anger and
frustration.

Fools.

* * * * *

Akeisha’s senses went into overdrive the moment Judas
entered the huge room. She didn’t need to catch a glimpse of him beyond the
light of the candles, not when her every cell buzzed with adrenaline, her
larakyte
needs shifting into high gear at his close proximity.

Damn. What was wrong with her? She could understand it if a
potential mate had come within range and heightened her mating instincts, but
the king was no
larakyte.
He was human royalty, a
Zaneean,
born
and bred.

Yes, but he’s all male.

Though his sandaled footsteps barely whispered across the
marble floor, she knew exactly where he was even before he emerged between the
throng of candles either side, the background music somehow heightening his
magnificence.

God, he truly was charismatic and…dangerous. And so tall and
honed she wondered that he could move with such fluidity and grace.

He was every inch a king.

She swallowed, feeling dwarfed and even a little inadequate
sitting cross-legged on the bed of large, feather-stuffed and tasseled
cushions. She’d been dressed by the
cotesh
servants in the traditional
rakkia
cloth of loose fitting pants and shimmering bra-top favored by many of the
more modern
Zaneean
women.

Inclining her head just a fraction, she murmured huskily,
“Your Majesty.”

His fierce expression didn’t relent one bit with the stark
need etched into every crevice of his face. All the anxieties and needs she
felt pulsing within only increased tenfold when he toed off his sandals,
dropped his sword and double fighting rods to the floor, followed closely by
his
rakkia
robe.

Sweet mother have mercy.

Lust hit deep in her womb and flashed as if la heat wave
through her veins. The king’s body could have been sculpted by the finest
artist. His was a lean and broad-shouldered warrior’s body, all hard angles and
rippling planes. And his cock…

The tip of her tongue edged out and slid along her lower
lip. Judas’ eyes followed the movement and his stare burned hotter still before
he stepped toward her, wholly, shamelessly naked and aroused.

He sank to his knees as though he was about to worship her.
In reality any maiden would have been on their knees, worshipping him. He
reached out a hand and cupped her chin, his lashes sweeping half-mast over his
eyes. “I’ve never seen such flawless beauty as yours,” he murmured throatily.

Somehow his voice, as much as his words, left her shivering
with yearning, akin to the drizzling of warmed brandy over beaten cream,
decadent and a little harmful, but it left one craving for so much more.
“I…thank you, Your Majesty.”

His brow furrowed. “I ask that you call me Judas.”

“As you wish,” she whispered hoarsely. Damn, where had all
her fire and courage gone? Now she was alone with him, anticipating his
undoubtedly skilled seduction, she was all adolescent shy. Her chin kicked up
and he released his clasp. She’d not come all this way, gone to all the trouble
of being selected by his royal finders, to back down now!

“Oh, I do wish,” he said hoarsely. “And what is it I call
you?”

“Akeisha.”

“Akeisha,” he repeated softly, “my real-life angel.”

As he moved over her on all fours, she reclined beneath him
with a sharp intake of breath, part passionate need and part fright.

“Do not fear me, Akeisha, I’ll make sure you want me as much
as I want you.”

Dear lord, I already do!

Her breath rasped in and out of her lungs, trapping his
exotic, dark-spiced scent deep inside and making her desire him all the more.

What is wrong with me? I’ve never been attracted to a
human before
.

Then again, none of the males she’d encountered had
possessed anywhere near this man’s natural charisma. Had Judas not been king
she’d still be drawn to him, aroused by his presence.

Judas moved up and she gasped, aware of every inch of his
hard body as it scraped along her feminine softness. His mouth closed over hers
and any self-doubts died, as if a flame snuffed. Except she was growing hotter
and hotter as his tongue delved past her lips and tangled with hers, a slow
dance that allowed her to explore and taste even as he explored and tasted.

He groaned against her lips, his cock thick and insistent
between them. In an imitation of the act itself he deliberately ground his
arousal between her thighs, her pants a gossamer-thin barrier.

Oh god.
Penetration wasn’t necessary for her to all
but convulse with pleasure beneath him and gasp into his mouth with a need to
be owned. Because that was what this man, this king, would do. An alpha male,
he’d possess her, make her his own. And damn it, right then that was just what
she wanted.

All she wanted.

To the point she was able to control her inner beast, push
it into the recesses of her mind, her body.

She’d deal with the fallout…later.

His mouth left hers as he went south, pressing kisses along
her jaw, her throat, his lips soft, warm. And utterly relentless. When he
suckled through the
rakkia
cloth concealing the tip of one breast, she
arched upward with a moan.

The king was a stranger and yet he created sensations within
she’d never felt with any other lover, sensations that left her body humming
with urgent need.

His stare glittered, knowing and bold as he turned his
attention to her other aching breast, his tongue swirling and mouth pulling
until her nipples puckered rock-hard, her nerve endings flaring into sensitized
life.

She was panting when he reared back, his dark eyes probing.
“I want you, angel.” With deft hands he removed her bra top. Her breasts
spilled free and she arched higher still. Wanton. Eager. Desperate.

His smile ruthless and his eyes alight with shameless lust,
he drew first one breast into his mouth, then the other.

She clutched at his head, pulling him down, holding him
close, keeping him still. The pressure of his mouth and sweeping tongue was
almost too much to bear, yet not enough, not nearly enough. Her fingers dug
into his scalp as he delighted her with his carnal skill. “Judas…I can’t
take…much…more of this.”

He released her heavy, aching flesh and she withheld a
whimper of denial, a need to shamelessly beg for more.

“You want me to speed things up?” he asked, honey-smooth
voice aroused and amused all at once.

She nodded, every stimulated cell dancing with life, with
shameless want. “Yes. Please…yes.”

His lips pulling into a wicked smile, he kissed between her
breasts, his tongue a seductive slide along her skin as he slowly worked his
way downward. When he reached her navel and licked the outer rim of the indent,
she shivered violently. “Please,” she whimpered.

“Please, what?” he asked hoarsely.

She was beyond self-respect now. “Please…end this torment.”

His stare flashed. “Angel, the torment has only just begun.”

Chapter Two

In one smooth motion he hooked the waistband of her pants
and pulled them down. Throwing them aside, he pushed her thighs wide and dipped
his head. His opened mouth covered her exposed flesh and the tip of his tongue
slithered up and down.

Oh. Fuck. Yes!

She cried out as stark bolts of pleasure shot thorough her
body. When he licked around her clit in ever-quickening circles before swiping
hard across the nub, then harder still, she moaned restlessly, helplessly.
Ecstasy was just out of reach.

Staring over her pussy to watch the play of delight that
undoubtedly flashed across her face as though it was an open book, he pulled
the hypersensitive flesh into his mouth before he suckled hard. She fell apart
with a scream, the explosion fierce, intense.

He lapped at her essence, an act that had her inner beast
abruptly pushing to the fore, inwardly roaring for its own release while her
contractions continued on and on. Endless, glorious spasms of bliss.

Judas moved over her, and she looked up at his face with
half-closed eyes. Her stare widened. Right then he looked like the predator she
kept within.

“It’s not over yet, angel.”

Taking hold of one of her thighs, he pushed back until her
leg rested along his hard torso, exposing her pink sex to his glittering stare.
“This time when you scream,” he rasped, “it’ll be my name leaving your pretty
lips.”

She didn’t even try to formulate an answer as he clasped his
shaft with a hand and aligned the head of his cock to her slick cunt. A muscle
jumped in his jaw as he paused, his glittering stare holding hers. Then his
hips propelled forward and he filled her to the hilt, forcing the breath right
from her lungs.

“So tight,” he ground out.

“I’m. No. Virgin.”

“I never imagined you were.”

Her eyes narrowed and she wondered if her pupils had become
cat’s slits. “It’s in my nature to fuck,” she said, wanting to push him to the
edge in a far different way. “From what I’ve heard I’ll need that trait to keep
up with my king.”

He pulled back, his cock sliding from the involuntary
clenching of her muscles until he was almost free. His eyes blazed, an
unearthly, possessive light that turned her on almost as much as the act
itself. “Angel, I’m not complaining.”

He thrust back inside her with brutal force. She mewled, her
animal side rejoicing in the savagery, the stunning virility of the man above
her. Words were no longer necessary. And when he rocked back and forward with
long, hard strokes that gained momentum, deeper, harder, faster, he pushed her
right back to the cataclysmic edge of nirvana.

He stilled, jaw set. Then he cupped her ass and sat back on
his knees, tugging her right along with him. Lifting her other leg high and
wide, he plunged into her again, once, twice.

The angle pushed her right over the edge. And beyond.

She let go, crying out his name as an orgasm crashed through
her womb and blasted her high, then higher still.

Goddess above, is this how true ecstasy feels?

Only when she drifted slowly back to earth did she
comprehend Judas had climaxed right after her, his groan loud and long, his
eyes squeezing closed as he shuddered with a rapture that shot his seed deep.

She shut her own eyes on a sigh. No male had ever made her
feel so replete, definitely none human. A mortal wasn’t meant to make her feel
this satisfied…this…good.

At least as a shifter she couldn’t catch a human disease.
Nor would she fall pregnant. It was genetically impossible for her kind to
conceive with a mortal. That honor would fall to a shifter male. A
larakyte—
panther
and human all rolled into one, just like her.

So why did she immediately think of a boy with long black
hair and an intelligent stare? A girl with silver hair but dark eyes?

Her inner beast stirred again at the thought of procreation.
She squeezed her eyes shut all the harder, concealing her true identity from
Judas. The windows to the soul could reveal much, and he couldn’t learn the
truth. Not ever.

Too many lives depended on it.

“Don’t hide from me Akeisha,” he murmured huskily. “I want
to see your every emotion, know you inside and out.”

Her gut clenched.
That’s never going to happen
.

She bit into her lower lip. “Is that an order, Majesty?”

His lips were warm and surprisingly soft as he pressed a
kiss to first one eyelid, then the other. And on a sigh, her lids flickered
open to find his dark stare searching hers, hot and amused. “I don’t force
orders when the coaxing is so much sweeter.”

He clasped her hands and stretched her arms behind her head,
his mouth covering hers and almost lazily sampling.

She squirmed. His cock was already thickening and growing
inside her, throbbing and hot.

So the rumors—weren’t rumors. Judas was insatiable.

She kept her groan all on the inside. If he’d not been human
he’d have been her perfect mate in every way. She swallowed. If she wasn’t
careful he’d wear her defenses down to a nub, exposing her secret.

But then he was stroking inside her again, a slow, long
rhythm that doused any doubts as it re-stoked the fire within.

His smile was all molten heat when he rasped, “Perhaps I’ll
have my
cotesh
servants tie you to my bed and touch you in the places
they weren’t allowed to before?” At her indrawn breath, he added, “Maybe I’ll
even allow them to use their mouths, their tongues.”

He knew the thought would bring her to the precipice that much
faster. Words were a weapon when one knew how to wield them. And Judas’ arsenal
was huge.

His eyes glinted. Dark. Dangerous. “And afterward, perhaps
my eunuch guard will be allowed to pleasure you with the many piercings he
has…below—I’ve been told the ecstasy far outweighs the pain.”

She tossed beneath him as though buffeted by a stormy, angry
sea. “You’d want that?” she gasped.

His strokes plowed harder, faster. His stare glowed with
possessive intent. “No, angel. You’re right. You’re mine. All mine.”

If the words of before had pushed her to the edge, the
latter toppled her right over.

Her inner beast roaring for some respite, her hands broke
free from Judas’ clasp, her fingers spearing into claws behind his shoulders.
And as a climax hurtled her into a realm of shameless pleasure, she dug deep,
raking a bloodied path down the king’s back.

Judas sucked in a startled breath. Head thrown back, jaw
clenched, he roared his pleasure, releasing into her with great shuddering
spurts even as she used force of will to retract her claws and retain her human
hands.

Oh. My. God.

She’d marked him! Given into her beast instincts.

She took a steadying breath. She could only hope he’d assume
her fingernails had cut him deep. Please god, let him think that.

Judas moved onto his side and tugged her close. Still
joined, their breaths merged until they were kissing, slowly, tenderly, coming
down from the delicious aftershocks of their lovemaking.

She stared into his heavy-lidded eyes. Shifters had lusty
appetites and she was no exception. She’d had many men, but not once had she
experienced such bliss, such connection. “I don’t want anyone else but you,”
she whispered.

Her heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t a lie in the desperate
hope he’d fall for her. It wasn’t even something she’d said for the sake of the
larakytes.

It was the truth.

He paused, then smiled. “I’m glad. Because sharing you isn’t
an option, despite what I said earlier to heighten your pleasure.”

She leaned forward, kissing him in a slow, lingering merge
of lips and tongue that unconsciously sealed the deal. “I’m holding you to
that.”

His smile widened, languid and hot. And as his cock hardened
yet again inside her, he reluctantly pulled free. “I think you’ve had enough of
me for now.”

No. Not enough. Never enough.

She wanted to be his everything, his every thought and every
care. Then maybe she could make him understand the urgency of the
larakytes’
situation.

If most of Judas’ people had their way, her race wouldn’t
just be on the knife edge of extinction. They’d be no more. Period.

I can’t let that happen. I can’t…

Tiredness pulled at her in relentless waves and she closed
her eyes with a contented sigh. The lilting and seductive music was the last
thing she heard before sleep at last claimed her.

* * * * *

“We’re running from the humans again?”

Akeisha’s father looked up at her shocked outrage, his
silver eyebrows drawn together and his forehead deeply furrowed. And suddenly
she saw beyond the long-lived man who’d once been a mighty king of a thriving
shifter race.

Right then he looked old, tired and overburdened. Her chest
tightened. She’d imagined her father to be around for…forever. Perhaps that was
the foolish hope of being an only child born late in her parents’ life—so late
the terrible ordeal of a shifter birth had killed her mother—the queen of the
larakytes.

Her father stepped toward her, his eyes as they roamed over
her face both sad and despairing.

She hid a surge of too-familiar guilt. He thought he
concealed the anguish that flashed in his eyes every time he looked at his
daughter and was reminded of the wife he’d lost…and still mourned deeply.

“Akeisha, our species grows more fragile every day that we
linger here. The humans have secretly killed our kind for two decades now and I
fear an open revolt soon, despite their king’s orders to leave us alone.” His
hand cupped her chin, his expression yielding to his undisclosed grief. “When
that happens, they’ll come after the heart of the
larakytes—
you, my
princess. And they’ll kill you.”

She shook her head, refusing to admit defeat. Not this time.
The
larakytes
would leave the
Scantia
forest over her dead body.
She knew as well as her father that the desert would wipe out all but the
strongest shifters. But he’d been pushed into a corner with the latest round of
attacks.

The humans had recently been sending their bravest warriors
into the forest fringes, destroying anyone—anything—they came across, including
the once prolific black panthers who were clearly not shifters, not
larakyte
.

She tilted her chin higher in his hand. “Then what better
way to hide from the humans than amongst them?”

As her dad’s eyes flared with shock, she added, “I can get
the king’s attention, coax him into changing his beliefs to fully protect our
people.”

Her father’s hands curled into fists. “Not. A. Chance.” But
when he stood, moisture sparkled from the corners of his once-vibrant eyes. “He
eats little girls like you for breakfast.”

“I’m the last chance for the
larakytes
survival,” she
said softly. “Our only chance.”

* * * * *

She woke with the reality of her dream sitting heavy on her
shoulders, and Judas wrapped around her as though he’d never let her go.

Her eyelids jerked apart, guilt pushing aside any lingering
pleasure.

She’d yet to broach the subject of the
larakytes
to
the king, had yet to have any impact at all on saving her own kind. Her lips
compressed. She’d been too busy fulfilling the primal needs of her inner cat to
consider the freedom and rights of her own kind.

She’d been selfish and weak—traits she despised in others.

“Mm. You’re awake,” Judas murmured huskily.

She swallowed back a further attack of morals. If self
doubts caused her to withdraw from him now, Judas might well lose interest.
He’d chosen her in the holding yard for one reason and one reason only.

She stretched in his hold, deliberately brushing against
him. His cock jerked against her spine, evidence once again of his healthy
appetite. His want.

“Good morning,” she said hoarsely as heat flushed her face
and bloomed below. Ready. Willing. Able.

His husky laugh sounded a little pained. “See what you do to
me, angel?” Air touched her bare skin as he released her and pushed to his
feet. “How does a bath sound?”

She rolled over and accepted his outstretched hand, “Utterly
divine.” She forced her stare away from his straining shaft, the heavy sac
beneath as he pulled her onto her feet.

Oh god.

Wake-up guilt didn’t stop her from imagining his amazing
cock poised between her spread thighs before he plunged deep…

He turned.
Shit.
The deep, bloodied scratches on his
back were all too evident as he led her out of his
mandeolo.
He hadn’t
mentioned her…aggression, she could only hope it’d stay that way.

Her stare gravitated south and she resisted a primal, all
too human urge to touch and explore the silky, unmarked skin of his delectable
butt. She needed to refrain, lest he be reminded of his wounds a little higher
on his back.

Her mind immediately projected an image of his cock,
standing to attention out front. A grin split her face. She knew ways to make
him forget his every scratch…

Two guards stood either side of the arched doorway to the
bathing room. Akeisha pressed her grin into a straight line, pretending a
normalcy she certainly didn’t feel. But she had to give the humans credit.
Their eyes didn’t betray their thoughts at the approach of their naked and
obviously aroused king, along with his equally naked—and aroused—mistress.

Judas didn’t break stride as he ordered the guards
elsewhere. They all but scurried away as Judas brought her into the
steaming-hot room, the same room in which the
cotesh
servants had washed
her earlier. He moved down the steps and she followed him with an appreciative
sigh.

The warm water felt glorious lapping at her chafed skin, the
still-swollen flesh of her pussy. Seemed the king really did know when too much
sex wasn’t a good thing for her. When he turned back to her she smiled. His
self-restraint was…nice. As much as his body could obviously go another round
or four, he’d been considerate of her wellbeing.