Mastered By Love (19 page)

She reached out and touched
the very surface of his locks. They felt as silky as they looked,
and he didn’t react. Her fingers sifted hesitantly through the
ebony strands. He really was an extraordinarily beautiful man. If
he’d been born in Concordia ...

He’d have been crushed.
His spirit broken.

She blinked. She’d never
thought of her country’s traditions that way before. Was it true?
Were they breaking men’s spirits in Concordia?

They do it to women here.
Do you think the men are that different from us?

Yes, she had. Until Dario,
she’d always thought men were fundamentally different from women.
But talking to Dario was so much like talking to one of her female
friends that she couldn’t continue to think like a Concordian
anymore.

She stroked the backs of her fingers
across his cheek. His lashes fluttered and she snatched her hand
back, face burning. He opened his eyes.

“
Good morning.”

She couldn’t stop blushing.
“Good morning.”

“
What were you
doing?”

“
Nothing.”

“
Nothing, huh? Then why is
your face so pink?”

“
Is it?” She raised her
hands to her cheeks. They were hot.

He grinned. “I felt you
touching me.”

His arms came around her, gathering
her to him as he captured her mouth.

***

Dario moaned
against Tariza’s lips as she plunged her tongue
into him. God, she was so hot and eager despite her background and
the way he’d captured her. He was achingly hard and ready for her,
his cock twitching in its drive to get inside her.

She rolled to her side,
slinging a leg over him as they kissed. Her boldness excited him
unbearably. He tightened his grip on her, ravaging her mouth,
biting and licking. She was just as savage, as if she wanted to
devour him, as if she couldn’t get enough of him.

He found her breast, cupped
the soft mound, rubbed his thumb across the hard peak of her
nipple, absorbing her gasp into his mouth. He’d already discovered
she was exquisitely sensitive there and he toyed with her, brushing
her lightly with his palm, massaging, pulling and releasing the
pearled pink of her nipple until she was arching beneath him, her
gasping moans like music.

He’d never wanted any woman
as much as he wanted Tariza. He was intoxicated with
her.

He released her breast to slide his
hand over her rib cage and the extravagant dip and swell of her
waist, her rounded hip, then inward to the vee of her thighs. She
gasped again, shuddering when he touched her there. He groaned. She
was so wet already. She hardly needed any preparation.

His finger slid into her with no
resistance. She gave a loud ecstatic cry as he crooked that finger
against the front wall of her vagina. Her scent drifted to his
nose, musky, full of female desire.

Dario’s breath came in
rough pants now. He needed her, needed her so badly. He rolled her
beneath him. She winced and he pulled back, frowning,
dismayed.

“
What is it?”

Tariza bit her lip. “I’m
still sore. It hurts to lay on my back.”

God, how could he have
forgotten? His heart pinched with guilt. “I’m sorry.”

He spanned her waist with
his hands, lifting her as he rolled so she ended on top of him.
“Ride me.”

She gaped at him.
“What?”

Her moist pussy rubbed
enticingly over his cock and he groaned loudly. She was killing
him. “Ride me,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“
Are you sure?” she said,
looking worried.

“
God, yes. Do
it.”

She grasped his cock and
positioned it at the entrance to her body. The sight of her guiding
him into her cunt almost made him come. He bit his lip, fighting to
hold back, to hold on long enough to give her an orgasm. Tariza’s
lips parted on a long, low moan as she sank onto his cock. And God!
So hot and wet and tight, so good ... his eyes rolled back in his
head and he groaned again.

He cupped her breasts. She
braced herself on his chest and began to rise and fall, working
herself back and forth on his cock, whimpering with pleasure. Her
gaze locked on his and he couldn’t look away, didn’t want to look
away. He wanted to fall into her and lose his soul in hers the way
he was losing his body to the ecstasy of her cunt.

Dario slipped his hand down to the
place where their bodies joined. He found her clitoris and circled
gently, gently, and she threw her head back with a shout as release
rocked through her.

He growled, his hands gripping her
waist again, lifting her up and shoving her down hard on his
rampant cock as he thrust his hips up to meet her. The delicious
pleasure spiraled higher. His balls tightened and everything
exploded. He fell apart, his whole body shaking with the force of
it, jets of come shooting from him into her.

“
Tariza!”

She screamed through a second climax
of her own.

Dario’s body continued to
shudder and quake in the aftermath. He lay, spent and panting,
beneath her. She rested her head on his chest, her arms holding
him, and she kissed him, kissed his neck and collarbones. He
wrapped his arms around her and sighed.

She kissed me. With no
instruction or coaxing from me.
The thought
made him feel strangely warm inside.

Then he remembered her
reluctance to ride him. “Why didn’t you want to get on top of
me?”

She didn’t answer. Dario
lifted his head and studied her, but she resolutely avoided looking
at him.

“
Tariza?”

“
I’d rather not say,” she
whispered.

That sent a cold spike of
unease through him. “Tell me.”

She swallowed. “Promise you
won’t be angry with me.”

What? Why would he be
angry? “Just say it, Tariza.”

She turned her face into
his chest, hiding her expression. “It’s the only way we take slaves
in Concordia.”

“
The only way you ... do
you mean you’d never had sex in any other position until
me?”

She cleared her throat.
“Yes. The men – they’re always chained so they can’t
touch.”

How bizarre. She’d never
been under a man, never had a man behind her, never had a man’s
arms around her. What would sex be like without the holding and
touching? It sounded cold, impersonal.

Dario frowned. He was still
missing something. “Why would you think that would anger me? All
that’s in the past for you.”

“
I thought you Saturnians
wouldn’t want a woman on top, that it might offend you.”

He smiled. “Sweetheart,
there’s no sexual position that would offend me. I loved having you
on top. I could see your beautiful body. I could touch your
breasts.”

She lifted her head –
finally – and looked at him. “Really?”

Dario stroked her cheek.
“Really. I’ll take you in any position I can get you.”

She smiled and it stole his
breath. What he felt for her – he didn’t know its name. She meant
more to him than any woman ever had and her smile gave him a sliver
of hope that she might feel the same. That she might be coming to
care for him.

Something had changed between them since last
night. She’d taken the king’s punishment very hard, but Dario’s
defense of her, his tending of her seemed to have won her trust. A
flood of tenderness came over him. He stroked her hair and back.
There was so much he wanted to show her – all the good things
Saturnios could offer – and so many things he wanted to do with
her. And he would do them, because she was his and they had the
rest of their lives together.

The knock
on Dario’s door came early in the morning – too
early for Tariza. She groaned, burrowing under the covers. It was
far too soon to face more Saturnians.

“
Come,” Dario
called.

A servant dressed in livery
entered the room and bowed. “Your Highness, Prince Mateo has
returned and invites you to breakfast with him. He awaits you in
his quarters.”

“
Thank you,” Dario
said.

The servant bowed again and
left.

Dario sat up in bed. She
lay nervously beneath the covers as he got up and began pulling
clothes from his wardrobe. She’d met Mateo briefly at the
Bellerenic embassy, but hadn’t spoken to him. Was he more like
Dario or did he resemble Grasos?

The two city-states of
Concordia and Saturnios had never had easy relations, considering
their opposite values and way of life, but this open animosity was
relatively new. Once they had cooperated in the manufacturing and
trade of fine textiles for which their world, Argelia, was famous.
Now it seemed Saturnios was no longer content with their portion of
the trade; they wanted to control everything. And Concordia wasn’t
prepared to allow them to do it.

Her capture might change
that. She cringed inwardly. If her mother was wise – and she was
known as one of the wisest rulers Concordia had ever had – she
would ignore her daughter’s enslavement and continue with her
plans. Tariza was only one person. For the good of Concordia, her
capture could not be allowed to interfere with other matters of
state.

But, oh, how she wanted to be
rescued.

You’re a Concordian woman.
Rescue yourself.

How was she to do that when
she was naked and harnessed, surrounded by people who hated her?
She’d already fulfilled her duty to attempt escape. Yet perhaps
there would be another chance. She must have faith that an
opportunity would eventually present itself to her.

Dario had finished dressing. He took
her hand, pulling her out of the bed and toward the door. Did he
mean for her to appear before the prince naked? She hung back, her
reluctance dragging at him.

“
Don’t fight me, Tariza.
You’ll only suffer for it.”

“
I have nothing to
wear.”

“
Good.” He smiled smugly at
her. “That’s the way I want you.”

She pressed her lips
together. He’d been kind, even tender, last night, and now he was
doing everything in his considerable power to humiliate
her.

“
Come along,” he said,
tugging at her hand again.

Fighting him would only bring another
chastisement. Her shoulders sagged as she followed him out of his
quarters.

The thick carpets on the floors were
warm and soft on the soles of her feet. Saturnios House certainly
had beautiful interiors, filled with finely carved wooden furniture
and the lovely hand-woven carpets for which Argelia was famous
throughout the galaxy. Real paintings hung on the walls, the brush
strokes showing clearly and announcing to all viewers that these
pieces had been painted by hand in the ancient manner. They must
have cost a fortune.

They passed a number of women, all of
whom wore collars of one sort or another and were lead on leashes
held by men. Their clothes mostly consisted of filmy draperies that
revealed more than they hid, or artistic arrangements of straps and
jewelry designed to display and enhance the sexual attractiveness
of their nudity. Although they gave her sidelong glances as they
passed, all of them had downcast eyes, their movements graceful,
designed to allure.

One, a brunette with a red
patent-leather harness and collar, looked directly into her eyes,
her face tense with loathing. Tariza blinked. That woman hated her,
and they’d never even met. Did she know Tariza was Concordian and
hate her for it?

Apparently, Lola wasn’t the
only Saturnian woman ready to despise her.

Dario led her down the corridor a
short distance to the next door. He opened it without ceremony,
revealing quarters that closely matched his in size and
proportions. A tall, dark-haired man stood in the center of the
room, talking with another who looked to be a servant, judging by
his livery.

The dark-haired man turned
and grinned at Dario. “I heard you have a new
acquisition.”

“
Mateo! How was your
journey?”

Mateo shrugged. “The usual.
Tell me about your new slave.”

Dario pulled her forward.
“This is Tariza.”

Mateo whistled. “Yes, it
is. You’re a lucky man, brother.”

“
Luck had nothing to do
with it,” Dario said.

Mateo stalked toward her,
took her chin in his hand and forced her head up. She glared right
into his icy blue eyes. “You lack the proper respect, Tariza. I
hope Dario doesn’t continue to tolerate that kind of look on your
face.”

“
We’re still working on
behavior,” Dario said. “Give her a little time.”

The prince released her.
“She needs intensive training; that much is obvious.”

“
I already started. She’s
made vast improvements in the time I’ve had her.”

“
Yes, I see she’s wearing
that new collar of yours.” Mateo ran his hands over her back, all
the way to her naked ass.