Authors: Lauren Dane

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Erotic fiction, #General, #Adult, #Erotica, #Mercenary troops

Mesmerized (13 page)

BOOK: Mesmerized

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“You know what I want.” She managed not to pant, but it was a close thing.

“Yes. Do you know what I want?”

Oh. Gods, she nearly came when he brushed his cock against her again, just from the realization. He wanted her to beg for it, meant to tease her and then make her beg. It shouldn’t make her hot. It shouldn’t make her whimper.

But it did.

“Please put your cock inside me. Please fuck me.”

And he was slowly pushing into her as he let go of her wrists and angled himself to his haunches. He grabbed her ankles and pushed them up and then slid that iron grip up to her knees to spread her wide, her ass resting on his thighs as he began to thrust.

Her position allowed for little movement; he controlled the entire process, and she couldn’t seem to get enough. He was overwhelmingly sexy this way. Dominant and aggressive. Taking what he wanted from her. And yet the way he touched her, looked at her, only made her feel beautiful and sensual.

“I want to see your fingers on your clit,” he murmured, though it was quite clearly an order.

She walked them down her belly, impressed with the way he’d changed his strokes to add a swivel of his hips. Each time he pressed all the way inside he hit all new bundles of nerves, lighting her up in an entirely different and no less effective way.

All the while he looked at her, looked at her body as if she was something altogether precious and mesmerizing. No one but he had ever looked at her that way. There was a sense, right then as she slid a fingertip around her clit and he watched with hungry eyes, of coming home, of completing some long quest and having this as her reward for all her struggles.

“Not yet.” He spoke as she began to grasp hold of the edges of another orgasm. She backed off a little and tightened herself around him, earning herself a raised brow. But he sped a little, thrusting harder so that the frame of the bed began a small groan on every third thrust.

“Please.”

He leaned down to kiss her quickly and kept his pace, bent over her a little more so that he restrained her with his body. What should have felt, what
would
have felt claustrophobic with another man, felt only exciting with him.

There was only pleasure and anticipation as he took her closer and closer, as his breathing began to lose its steady rhythm and she knew he was getting close.

“Now.”

It only took two circles around her clit before she exploded into orgasm. He snarled a curse, and deep inside her, she felt the jerk of his cock as he came as well. She arched with a too-loud moan when he bit the side of her breast and again, that edge, hurtling toward pain, wading in and the bloom of velvet pleasure when she came out the other side.

He rolled to the side to keep from crushing her.

“There’s a lot to be said about whatever you’ve been up to that has trained you for this.”

He snorted again, and she kissed his chin.

“I hope you don’t think I’m going back to my room now. I’m sure half the house heard the bed groaning anyway. I’m here for the night.”

“As if there was any doubt you’d do what you wanted anyway.”

“I’m glad to know you still understand me so well.” She snuggled into him.

Chapter 8

“
A
fter we finish this run I need to make a quick transmission.”

Piper didn’t take her gaze from the screen in front of her as she flew low and fast to avoid detection. “Where do I need to take you?”

“I can go alone.”

“I’m sure you can. But I’m right here and we’ll be out already, so why do triple the work unless you think I’m going to eavesdrop and tattle.”

He heaved a heavy sigh. Piper was unmanageable. She did not stay put when he told her to, and she didn’t mind him at all.

“I know you’re over there thinking about how I never obey you.”

He groaned under his breath, and she laughed.

“I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that when it is important, I do obey you. Didn’t I let you punch that idiot Targon in the face when he grabbed my ass back there?”

He had, and while he should feel bad for the lapse in his self-control, he did not. The man had no business touching Piper anywhere at any time.

“I think
let
is not exactly the correct term. In any case, the less you know about what I’m up to, the safer you are. Period. You may take me to the transmission spot, but I will make the transmission without an audience, and not because I think you’ll tattle.”

She hit the reverse thrusters hard, yanking them to a stop and then carefully lifted the zipper from the canyon floor near the mercenary portal they’d used to run the cargo.

“Uh-oh,” she mumbled, right as Andrei saw them. A conveyance with far too many men in it. “Are those Imperialist soldiers?” Andrei liked the outrage in her voice.

“Yes. Stay out of range and set down on that plateau to the south. I’d like to keep the upper hand here.”

“I think I’ve kept out of sight a few times. I may be able to manage it.”

He nearly grinned at her, instead taking her comm pad and fiddling, finding their channel and inside he went utterly cold at what he heard.

They spoke the language native to Caelinus. Skorpios. There in a Federation ’Verse. They spoke openly on an unsecured channel. A boast that they could do whatever they wanted.

She set the zipper down with ease and utter silence. He barely had the chance to be impressed though, as he picked up bits and pieces.

He took his field glasses and the comm, recording the conversation, which he also transmitted back to his people. Vincenz would decode it quickly enough.

Why out there so far? Nowhere near any portals he knew about, private and the sanctioned one in town. The conveyance easily seated a dozen men, and they carried some sort of cargo. Probably the liberiam they’d mined.

“Do you know what they’re saying? I haven’t heard this language before.”

He didn’t startle, not entirely surprised that she’d crept up behind the place in the rocky outcropping where he’d set up a watch on the action below.

They couldn’t be allowed to move that cargo.

He went back to the zipper and pulled a panel free to get at the bag just beyond.

“I want you to take the zipper and get back to the compound immediately.” He didn’t take his attention from the plas-rocket launcher he put together, piece by piece, from the bag.

“Let me call for backup. You can’t handle them all on your own.”

He simply looked at her until she snorted. “Not even you can do that!”

“I can do all sorts of things. If I’m not back by moonrise, dial this contact.” He handed the comm back. “I used it to send the conversation, but I’ve downloaded the data to my comm now as well.”

“You’re out of your mind!”

“Piper, those men down there have a substance that could power the machine I told you about. I cannot allow that to happen. They’re no ordinary troops, they’re Skorpios. Fardelle’s private shock troops. And they have no reason to be here.”

“I’m not arguing with your response. I’m saying you need me to watch your back, and I’m going to. I know how to load one of these. Don’t ask.” She grinned when he sent a questioning glance her way. “Let me help you. Do you think I want them here either? This is my home.”

By the time he put the plas-rocket launcher together and set it to charge, the answer had come back from Daniel to Andrei’s request to neutralize the threat.
You are go.

He wanted very much for her to leave, but he knew she wouldn’t. At least if he kept her close he might be able to shield her pretty ass in case things went upside down.

“If you get hurt, I will let your brothers kick your ass, because they’re not blaming me for your inability to know what is best.”

“Well, thank the gods for that. Being a silly woman and all, however would I know what to do unless one of you told me?” She clicked the barrel into place after it charged fully. It shouldn’t make him want to take her to the dirt and fuck her, but the easy way she had with whatever task was before her really turned him on.

“When I fire, use the confusion to take out as many as you can. They
will
regroup. We need to kill as many of them as we can with the first strike.” He examined her features carefully, gauging her response, but she nodded, checking her weapon over and moving into a better position.

He didn’t use the finder to lock the target. He had better aim if he followed his gut, which he did. A long breath out, emptying his head of everything but the target and the slow squeeze of the trigger.

Below them, chaos broke out as the plas-burst hit the conveyance, sending shards of glass and metal into the air.

While he waited for it to charge again, he reached for his sniper rifle and began to target those who were left.

Piper tried to remain focused on the scene in the basin, but it was a close thing, given how ridiculously sexy Andrei was just then. Protective. Fierce as he concentrated on targeting. The burst hit the mark perfectly, and she began to shoot. Squeeze after squeeze, like he’d shown her just the day before.

It only took them a short period of time before the remaining soldiers had taken cover behind the burned-out hulk of the conveyance and had begun to return fire.

“Hold a moment.”

She took cover as he messed with his comm pad. “I’m going to hit them again from over there.” He indicated another outcropping precariously higher than they were.

She wanted so badly to tell him he was totally out of his mind. But he knew his job, obviously, so she tried not to appear anything less than 100 percent in support of his ridiculous plan.

“I need suppressive fire. Can you do that?”

She nodded, picking her weapon up again. “I’ll head over there.” She pointed in the opposite direction and scrambled over, careful not to kick up any dust to identify their position.

Below them was bloody, smoking chaos, and she aimed at it and fired over and over, hoping the diversion would help him get into position.

Her question about his situation was answered as another plas-rocket hit the group below. She kept shooting, trying to think of her people as she did. Trying to think of the people who needed her to be strong and steadfast in this war. They were on her turf, her ’Verse, and they wanted to destroy it.

Within minutes, they were all gone. Andrei came down from his perch, very carefully, she happily noted.

“Are you all right?” He looked her over carefully, his face set in that inscrutable mask of his.

“Better than they are. Shall I fly us down there to be sure they’re all dead?”

“I’ll handle that part. Keep the zipper up here. We don’t need the connection between you and them in any way. Go back to the compound. I’ll join you when I finish.”

“This again? I’m good enough to shoot at them, but not to help you with the rest?”

He took her upper arms, hauling her to his chest. The mask was gone, replaced with so much depth of emotion it rocked her into stunned silence. “Have I ever given you a reason to believe that?”

She shook her head because words wouldn’t come.

“You need no part of that down there. I will do it.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and let go as if burned, only to head down into the bloody, smoky mess below.

It hit her then, as she stood watch through the scope on the weapon, protecting him, that he was doing the same. Protecting her.

He counted each one. Made sure they were dead, those who weren’t would be within a breath. If they hadn’t caught them by surprise, he was sure their victory would have been a far closer thing.

Andrei dispassionately recorded the scene, or what was left of it. Daniel spoke from the mic in Andrei’s ear as he relayed the data via his comm. “A dozen Skorpios. On our soil. Bold, isn’t it?”

Andrei thought the same. “Shows a certain . . . confidence on their part. Now, why is that, do you think?”

“Dispose of that garbage. Get me some samples and let’s see what Vincenz can make of them.”

“The run we made earlier had more body armor. I used the slowacting powder.” The powder was a little something Benni had brought him only the day before. When used in a closed container, it would eat away at the contents, leaving nothing behind but dust.

“Andrei,” Daniel hesitated a moment, “things are rapidly declining. What else do they have there?”

Andrei managed to dig the comm chip from the melted console. “Chip looks moderately damaged but salvageable.”

“Vincenz can crack it in no time. I want you to take care of this mine. Can you do that?”

“Yes. I’ll get the chip to Vincenz.”

“Take it personally. I don’t trust anyone else to do it.”

BOOK: Mesmerized

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