More Than Life (Arcane Crossbreeds) (18 page)

His rumble of pleasure filled the space between them as he moved his hands to her hips and pulled her to the edge of the bed. The drag of the silky comforter at her back was cool and smooth, and she rolled her head in pleasure, bracing her feet on the mattress.

His large hands smoothed over her belly, so warm, roaming down into the spot where her legs joined her hips. A pressure swirled deep inside her as his gaze strayed over her body laid out before him, until he stared intently down at the aching flesh between his hands. His thumbs parted her, and he rocked the velvety tip of his cock over her exposed clit again.

“Raife.” His name was a demand, a plea.

“So beautiful.” He watched with heated intent as he stroked her with his cock again. She couldn’t look away from his face, shadowed in the dim room, deeply lined with harsh desire. It made it so much more intimate, so raw. As though in anticipation, her muscles spasmed around the aching emptiness in her.

“Do you feel empty, Katya? Needy?”

Her chest tightened, her breasts feeling fuller; she could only nod.

“Only I can fix that for you, baby. Only I can give you what you need.” The crest of his cock pressed just inside her opening, and her hips lifted as a gasp escaped her parted lips. His head fell back with a thick groan, and she admired the tendons in his neck with fascination, drawn to the frantic flickering of his pulse. She wanted to feel his pleasure, to taste it, wanted it buffeting hers, filling her.

She was starved for it, and it terrified her.

“God, Kat, you’re so hot. You’re scalding me.” He pressed in another inch before stopping, his forehead dropping to her breastbone. His damp hair felt cool against the heated skin of her breasts, almost erotic in the contrast.

It was excruciating, this wait, when her body was screaming for him to burn her with his possession. Sliding her hands up to his shoulders, she flexed her nails against the damp skin, and his hips jerked, his breath fanning hot against the peak of her breast.

“Please, Raife.”

“No.” His tongue darted out to touch the tip. “Slow. We are going to do this nice and slow. You are not alone. You
are
cherished, baby. And before I let you sleep, you will know it.”

Katya closed her eyes against the sting of tears and tried to roll her hips into his, to force a deeper penetration, but he shifted his grip to hold her in place. His tongue circled one nipple as his shaft pressed in another scalding inch. Sensation streaked from the turgid peak to her pussy and back again, so subtle. It wasn’t enough. The pleasure danced just on the edge of her awareness, taunting her. Barely a promise.

With a mewling whimper, she arched to nip at the raised tendon in his neck and licked the salty taste of him from her lips. His tongue circled her other nipple as he sank just a fraction deeper into her, his hands holding her back. Crying out in frustration, she drew the flesh of his neck tautly between her lips, running her tongue over it, grazing it with her teeth.

God, she could practically taste the pulse beating frantically beneath her lips. It was as tantalizing as the thick, burning intrusion that barely breached her. She turned her head away with a hungry cry.

His hips pushed against her, and she squirmed in satisfaction as he pressed another inch deeper with the movement. She released his flesh with a small cry as he sucked her nipple into the heat of his mouth, his hips pushing, filling her slowly. Burning her with pressure. The fiery sensation streaked through her even as he withdrew until just of the tip of him was lodged inside her body.

She contracted around him, her body trying to draw him in.

“You like that, kitten?”

A moan escaped, and she pressed her small nails into his shoulder. “Raife.”

“More?”

“Please.” She squirmed in his grip; the hollowness spread. It was an ache, a craving that left her writhing on the bed beneath him.

His hips flexed, and he thrust shallowly in her several times before pressing so deep that he touched the edge of that aching emptiness inside her. He kept that pace, several shallow thrusts followed by one deep thrust. The pressure hovered just out of her grasp, teasing her. Her entire body was throbbing. Her heart even hammered in her lips, in her gums.

Panting, pleading incoherently, Katya clawed at his back, but he continued that relentless pace. Shallow. Shallow. Shallow. Deep. A desperate sound clawed its way from her throat, and sweat dampened her forehead.

He drew her legs up around his hips and stroked his hands up her sides to her wrists, pulling them away from his back, pressing them into the bed above her head.

Anchoring her heels against the slow flex of his ass, she tried to pull him down to her. His chest pressed against her aching breasts.

“You feel so hot, so tight. Breathe deeply, draw it out.”

Breathe deep? She couldn’t even breathe at all. The hunger filled her, pulsed heavily in her lips. With a growl, she leaned up and pulled the flesh at the base of his throat into her mouth, sucking hard, scoring it with her teeth in frustration. His body jerked over hers, the deep thrust of his hips a little harder than the last.

Encouraged, she tugged at her wrists and nipped at his throat again, pulling that sensitive flesh between his neck and shoulder into her mouth. He tasted so good, like sunshine and moonlight combined.

Pleasure streaked up through her, and she bit harder than she intended. Electricity touched her tongue, spreading over it, and she felt her fangs slide into her mouth with a delicious burn. Her body shuddered through a tiny orgasm as the taste of him coursed through her body.

She pressed her fangs into him, careful to not break the skin, savoring the anticipation of his taste. His big body trembled, and those golden eyes glowed down at her. A growl rumbled through his body that sounded more animal than human.

“I don’t think so, kitten. That’s cheating.”

Withdrawing completely from her body, he flipped her and positioned her on her belly to thrust into her. One hand splayed over her back and anchored her chest to the bed as he continued to slowly plunge inside her. His hips slapped against the fleshy globes of her ass. The glide and rub of his cock in this position created a friction that sent sensation sweeping mercilessly through her.

Katya cried out and clenched her fists in the comforter, her burning cheek pressed to the bed as he slammed into her. She panted around the throbbing ache of her fangs and writhed as the pressure grew, that relentless pleasure building until she was mindless with it. He slid a hand down her stomach until one calloused fingertip pressed over her clit, circling it.

Her body exploded, the muscles of her vagina clamping down hard. Raife lingered as her orgasm began, slowly stroking through the rippling muscles and sending unbearable currents of pleasure through her until the hard tremors eased.

“That’s it, kitten.”
He stroked a leisurely path over her back. Her heart was hammering, and she heard his uneven breaths, felt him throbbing, still hard, inside her. He pressed his chest to her back as those large fingers began to circle her sensitive clit again.

His mind stroked the edge of hers, always near, feeding her desire with his. Her heart still pounded, and a little spark of passion was growing into a full burn low in her belly again. The need for his blood was building. In the parking garage, she had bled him again. It had felt right, a natural part of the passion she felt in his arms. She shouldn’t
need
his blood, yet she craved it with an intensity that was frightening.

There was something wrong.

“You’re thinking. I must not be working hard enough.”

Raife lifted her to her knees, pulling her back tighter against his chest without separating them. Her treasonous body fluttered around his cock as a tiny shiver of anticipation tingled over her flesh. He held her hips against him with one large hand as the other stroked down over her breasts and belly. He sought out her lips with his, tongue darting in to touch her fangs. A tiny orgasm racked her body from the stroke over her sensitive canines, and she jerked her head away with a gasp. She could smell blood where it stained his neck from her glancing bite, felt the resulting pulse of her desire in her mouth.

Pressing her down on his cock, he angled his hips up for a deeper penetration and gripped her chin to gently pull her face to his again. His choppy breath fanned her lips, and she could feel the length of her fangs throb in hunger. She gripped his wrist where his fingers were stroking over her clit, holding him to her, and rotated her hips against his firm touch. The feel of his cock pressing deep inside her made her cry out as little streaks of sensation spiraled up through her. His lips brushed her damp cheek.

“Damn, Katya. I crave your bite, baby.”
He put gentle pressure on her chin to turn her face into the crook of his neck. His hips moved unhurriedly against hers. The feel of his straining cock rubbing against the swollen walls of her vagina sent a rush of pleasure through her.

God, he smelled so good, and the hunger was growing sharper, insistent. She could feel his throbbing pulse against her lips and she stroked her tongue tauntingly over it. The spike of anticipation that shot through her was nearly painful, and she realized it wasn’t all hers.

His hips snapped harder, and a growl rumbled against her back. Katya spasmed around him with a cry.

“Make me burn, kitten.”
His demand brushed through her mind.
“Now.”

Her fingers burrowed into his thick hair, holding him to her as she sank her fangs into his warm, salty flesh. His arms wrapped around her tightly, and his cock powered up into her. The edges of her vision flickered to hues of heat as she came again, the sound of his roar ringing in her ears and the electric taste of him bursting over her tongue.

Chapter Thirteen

“Let’s go over it again.” Raife tossed his empty take-out container on the conference table and rocked back in his chair, tucking his hands behind his head. “There’s something missing.”

“What in the hell could possibly be missing? Unmated Drachon go missing, most likely ending up at this facility.” Kel motioned to the screen with her chopsticks. She was kicked back in a chair with one booted foot braced against the edge of the table. An image of North America filled the translucent SMART board. The research facility was a large pulsating red spot on the West Coast. “We know where it’s at. Tag got a little look into the security system. Kat here’s got a pretty good idea of the layout. Let’s just take the damn place.”

“As oozing with strategy as that is,” Raife said drily, “I think maybe Forestor might want to know whose toes we’d be stepping on exactly.”

“And we’ve got so many toes to choose from,” Tag mused around a mouthful of food. “Katya’s a popular lady. So far it looks as if the Rebels are interested in her. The Triumvirate is trying to retrieve her. Not to mention her own House wants her something fierce.”

They stared at the board for a long moment.

“We’ve only been looking at this from one angle – who is responsible. Maybe we should take a closer look at who is being targeted. We were hired to find the unmated Drachon that were disappearing. It’s nearly impossible to track them with exception to the rare few who keep contact with family once they enter their final heats.” Raife cast a covert glance at Brim. He was the liaison from the Drakes, and much of Drachon culture was secretly guarded. He would have to be careful what he said. “We can’t guarantee they were all going to this facility.”

“That’s where they took you.” Kel pushed away from the table and launched to her feet to pace the room restlessly.

“Yes, but we already established that the purpose for Raife’s abduction may have not been random at all. Maybe we need to focus on the others who are there.” Gideon turned his gaze on Katya. “What can you tell us of the others, achoti?”

Raife prickled at the easy affection Gideon had for Katya, especially since she had an affinity for him. Consciously, he knew the man wasn’t a threat to his claim on her, but his reaction was hard to curb all the same. She was working with the mysterious crossbreed on a daily basis to strengthen her Elemental abilities. And Katya was so at ease with Gideon.

More so than she was with him.

He was trying real damn hard not to be jealous about that.

“There were a lot of them. I could hear them through the walls.” She paused, and Raife wrapped her mind in his, not so overwhelming that he interfered with her memories, but enough that she would feel his strength. For a moment, he shared them with her. He could practically taste the scent of fear and pain and despair before a dark shadow settled over her thoughts, obscuring them.

It happened often when she was thinking of her months at that research facility. He didn’t know if she was protecting herself or him, but she couldn’t hide the fear and panic that would tint her thoughts. It never failed to make him furious and that much more determined to find the person responsible. It would ease his soul and satisfy his dragon only if he felt the man break apart in his own hands.

When she fixed those pale blue eyes on him, he was there for her, swamping her with warmth and strength. She never let him too deep, but she didn’t completely reject him either. She inhaled and continued, “After a couple months, I started becoming resistant to their sedatives, but I pretended to still be out. Sometimes I overheard conversations. The doctor referred to us in experimental groups. I heard him refer to human and nonhuman groups.”

“Tracking the missing Arcane will be damned hard.” Tag shook his head. “It’s not like they can go to the local police and file a missing persons report. And most of them choose not to go to the Triumvirate.”

Katya frowned at Tag. “Why not? If the Triumvirate get their power from Arcane, wouldn’t they want to protect them?”

“The Triumvirate can be high-handed. And they sometimes use a request for help as a means to get control over a community, Kat. Not only that, but their idea of conflict resolution tends to end up on the let-God-sort-them-out side,” Raife explained as he watched her work to assimilate the information.