It wasn’t like the first time and only now did she realize the control he had exerted even then. A control he had lost this time.
She pushed back into each driving thrust, crying out for him, her pussy clenching on the thick intruder driving her insane with the need for orgasm.
“Talk to me, baby.” His hand lifted from her hip a second before he delivered a firm, sharp slap to the rounded curve of her buttock. “Tell me if we’ve been here, Roni.” Shock singed her then. Oh hell. That felt too good. She whimpered with it, bucking against him, jerking against his hold. She fought him, gasping at the pleasure of his tight grip as he restrained her, the sharp sting of his hand on her ass as he punished her.
“Done this…” She dared him, then threw her head back in an agony of pleasure as his hand landed on her ass again.
“Done this?” His hand moved again, sliding along the curves, his fingers caressing, driving her insane as they dipped between her thighs, sliding through the juices collecting on the lips of her sex.
“Keep talking, baby,” he growled as he circled her clit. “Let’s see if this old cat can’t teach you a few new tricks.” His fingers rubbed, caressed, delicately milked her clit to the powerful thrusts driving into her pussy.
She couldn’t breathe. Roni fought for oxygen as the almost violent intensity of sensations ripped through her. Too many, too fast. She could feel her pussy tightening, her womb convulsing.
When the explosion came she felt every emotion contained in her soul tearing free. Her orgasm slammed through her as she rose from the floor convulsively, her arms reaching back for him, her scream a strangled plea for mercy.
“More.” There was no mercy.
His arm locked around her waist, lifting her, his erection sinking deeper inside her, stroking her from an angle that kept the fiery intensity of her release echoing through her body. She was being driven mad.
Even her flesh became a traitor to her desperate need to fight the overwhelming orgasm.
The minute the first eased, he threw her into another. His cock was stroking inside her, fucking her with a relentless demand she couldn’t deny. She arched against him, her hands falling to the tight muscles of the arm holding her, clenching, fighting for some hold on reality as she was thrown once again into an abyss of ever deepening sensation.
She was screaming. She didn’t know what she was screaming, only knew the words were fighting to be free, to be heard. She loved. She needed… And then she felt him. From the position they were in she felt the first change. His cock tightened, jerked, then it seemed as though the flared head thickened. Another, smaller erection bloomed beneath it, locking his cock deep inside her as it caressed an ultra-sensitive bundle of nerves hidden there. Press. Stroke. In that second she was hurled into a kaleidoscope world of clashing colors, heartbeats, surging blood and an animal’s roar. And a knowledge she knew would change them both forever.
Chapter Thirty
Roni would have preferred to clear her mind, to drift within the safety of the world Taber was trying to build around her. At least, she had thought that was what she preferred, until hours later, after the demands of their bodies had been met and sanity began to return. It was then she knew it was time to face her own life.
She was only twenty-two to Taber’s thirty. But even more than the eight years difference in their ages, there was a whole world of experience as well. He had lived with fear, unspeakable cruelty and death, even before he had become a man. He had known the evil that filled the minds of the Council, the men who created him, who trained him. He had been decades older than she, even when he was a teenager.
Roni knew her own experiences in growing up didn’t even come close to the pain he had known. She was a baby in comparison. But she was also his mate. She wanted to be more. She wanted to be strong enough to stand by his side, strong enough to fight with him. She couldn’t do that if she allowed either of them to hide from the truth.
She would let him protect her to an extent, but after that, she needed to stand beside him, to ease the man who fought for supremacy over his DNA. The man who needed to love, to find at least a safe haven for his soul.
He hadn’t told her he loved her, but she would deal with that later. One step at a time, she thought. One growth at a time. She would get there eventually, but first things first.
“Cats have barbs,” Roni said lazily, her fingers playing gently through the long, silken strands of his hair.
He had been purring. It amazed her. He had tried to stop, had even laughed at himself earlier because he couldn’t, though she had seen the worry in his eyes that it would disgust her. Quite the opposite. She now knew how to tell if her lover was pleased, happy, content. Destroying that contentment for even a moment was something she hated to do. But it was something they needed to clear up.
He tensed in her arms. His head still lay against her chest, but rather than the sated relaxation that had filled him, a watchful tension now moved over his body. The soft vibration in his chest had stopped, though her fingers had never ceased the slow caress through his hair.
“Yeah, they do.” His hold tightened only marginally.
“People think because I’m young, I’m completely dumb.” She laughed softly at this. “Even before you marked me, you always handled me with kid gloves, never doing or saying anything that you thought would upset me. Letting me face life isn’t going to break me.”
“It was never because I thought you were dumb, Roni.” He sighed as he moved from her arms, sitting up so he could stare down at her thoughtfully. “I wanted to protect you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.” And she realized how true that was. She had known it when she had been only a child, and she saw it now. A part of him had to protect her, otherwise, he would never be content, never be secure.
“I don’t want to be protected from everything, Taber.” She turned on her side, moving into the embrace he created by opening his arms and pulling her close.
Her head lay against his chest now as he breathed out roughly. She could feel the protest building in him and knew he would always try to protect not just her body, but her emotions as well. She didn’t want to be protected from growth.
“I don’t want you hurt,” he whispered against her hair. “Not in any way, Roni. It makes me crazy, thinking of it. It always has. The world can be dark, baby. Scary as hell. I never wanted you to see how bad it could be.”
The dark magic of his voice couldn’t hide the bitter memories running through it.
“That won’t work, Taber. How can I be anything to you if I can’t understand the life you’ve lived? Do you think I don’t know some of the evil out there? For God’s sake, how many times did you have to come rescue me fromReginald’s enemies, from men who called and told a teenager how many different ways they were going to fuck her in exchange for her father’s betrayal?” She had never told him the full extent of the terror that had her running to him through the years. The true measure of the fears she had faced. She had known he would confrontReginald, and she had been terrified of the consequences. How could she have lived if he was harmed because of her?