“How is your shoulder?” Bess asked.
“It’s fine, thank you,” he said with a dismissive shrug as he dropped her hand slowly. She noted that the shrug was with his good shoulder only.
“I can’t believe someone would come onto the property like that,” Bess said with a grave shaking of her head.
“It was very foolish,” Dendri said. “It made little sense. But people aren’t always very smart.”
“I have firsthand experience with that,” Bess said with a chuckle.
“I think we all do.”
“Some would say this attempt you are about to make at Delongo is very foolish,” Yasra said quietly.
He reached to catch up her hand again, his warm palm swallowing hers.
“But it must be done,” he said.
“Yes,” she said with a sigh. “It must be done.”
Chapter Sixteen
Dendri awoke before the sun was up the next morning. He was lying in bed with Yasra’s long, warm, slender limbs thrown across his body. For a moment last night, he had thought she would sleep with Bess. He had watched her considering it carefully. Then, apparently, she had decided that the horse had already run from the field, there was no sense pretending the gate was closed.
He trailed thoughtful fingers up the length of her smooth skin on her upper arm and considered his situation for a moment.
She was an extraordinary woman was his little majji. She had to be terrified, and yet she was allowing him to go after the bastard Delongo with a full heart. In fact, he would bet she was far more afraid of something happening to him because she cared about him than she did because his death could affect her so negatively. And she had reason to worry. Fighting Delongo would take everything he had. Mainly because Delongo had once been his apprentice.
He had not shared that bit of information with her. She was too clever by half and would have realized that it meant Delongo was very familiar to his ways and actions. Delongo also knew, Dendri was sure, that they would be sending Dendri after him. He would be on his guard.
He should get up. He should dress and get ready to meet with Ky and Jal. Together they would travel to Delongo’s camp, which was about a day’s ride on a fast horse. Then they would make their plans based on what they found there. He already had an idea of what they would have to do once they got there, but it would be a liquid situation.
Yasra stirred, her face nuzzling against his shoulder. It brought his thoughts back to her. She was magnificent. The best part was she didn’t even realize it. She thought she was weak and a hindrance when in fact he had never known anyone stronger to enter his life. To be plunged into such a situation and yet adapt to it so quickly? That took a remarkable individual. He had run roughshod over her in many ways since the very beginning and she had accepted it all. He should have given her space. Time to breathe. Instead he had pressed her and seduced her and had been determined to have her in his bed. Now she was here, so lithe and becoming…sleep warmed and tousled…bare and beautiful. There was nothing quite like being inside of her. Nothing had prepared him for the experience.
It had been reported that sex between a Gestalt couple was highly erotic and pleasurable. That it outstripped sex between two normal individuals…even two Aspano who could both use sex majic on one another. He supposed it was because both individuals had access to all of the schools of majic as long as they were touching and that allowed them access to any number of sexual stimulants that each of the schools could bring. Sex majic between Aspanos being one of them. The ability to heat up one’s hands from Torenic. The ability to chill the air from Vendii, making nipples pucker and hot bodies cool. Necromay could sense the future, anticipating the needs of their partner on a level beyond the instinctual. Padoni could tap into the most animalistic of their nature and the nature around them…not to mention the ability to change into any animal they desire…making love as a mated pair of that animal of choice.
The possibilities were endless.
Still, Yasra would have to master each of those skills…as would he. They weren’t yet able to bring them to their bed. That meant what was already incredible would only get better.
In spite of those skills lacking from their bed at the moment, the sex was still extraordinary. He had had many women over the years, and had sex both with Aspanos and without. While it had been gratifying in some ways, he had always felt he had wanted more. What that more was he did not understand entirely…but he suspected it might have to do with his inability to connect with others on an emotional level.
He was very cautious with his feelings. He did not throw them about lightly or with any great ease. In fact, it was safe to say they were as old and rusty as humanly possible. He was close to very few people. Even his friends were held at an emotional distance. All save Wil. Wil was like a brother to him. He had never had siblings growing up and, being a child of great promise and power from a very young age, he had been kept separate and apart from most other children his age. But Wil…Wil meant a great deal to him. And he allowed Wil to know it.
Outside of Wil there was no one he could claim closeness to within his protected circle, and he did not let others into that circle easily. Oh, he had his mentors. The two old Aspanos who had apprenticed him. He cared for them a great deal. Even though he had outstripped their power years ago he still held them in great esteem and respect. However, he didn’t think he held any great affection for them.
He had considered himself a very cold man. Passionate, yes. But emotionally…cold. He had to be. How else could he explain the fact that he had never fallen in love with a woman? Had never even had an infatuation. He had certainly felt physical passion, but never emotional closeness.
He was beginning to despair of ever being the sort of man to find comfort in the simplest things where his emotions were involved. Or even the more complex…like love.
But Yasra…Yasra was getting under his skin in a way he had never felt before. He wouldn’t call it love…even though he was certain he wouldn’t recognize the feeling if it came up and bit him on his emotionally rusty ass, but he was definitely coming to care for her.
When he had seen her in the arms of that bastard yesterday…gagged, and tied and perched precariously atop a wall fifteen feet from the ground, his heart had gone stone cold in his chest. His stomach had plummeted as though it had been dropped that fifteen feet and pierced by the bramble and thorns below. In his haste and desperation to get to her he had used no finesse when disabling the other men, causing debilitating strokes instead of, say, merely stimulating the pain receptors in their brains to incapacitate them. The only way they could recover would be via a great deal of rehabilitation; preferably at the hands of a high level Aspano who could slowly work to reverse the damage or create new pathways in the brain to help take over for the damaged ones. But Aspanos of that level took money and it was very unlikely that nons like that would have access to those kinds of funds.
But seeing her…seeing her at the mercy of those who would harm her because of her connection to him…it had just about killed him on the spot.
He had not had time to examine the sensations, so he was doing so now. It seemed that all of his dealings with her since had been tinged with a sense of…desperation. He had been desperate to make love to her after the incident. To be close to her any way he could. To fill her with him and claim her and know that she was safe in his arms.
He had never felt anything like it before. He wasn’t sure he liked it. It felt out of his control. Wild even. And yet as much as it intimidated him, he could not put her at arms’ length. So he had done the only thing he could. He had brought her closer. Drawing her in tight. Protecting her and holding her and determining to do whatever it took to keep her safe. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She was sleeping with her cheek pillowed on his shoulder, her face seeming to fit perfectly to the contours of his body there. In fact, she fit well all along his side. She was comfortable and soft, relaxed and easy.
And yet she could make him burn. Desperately so. Even now he couldn’t keep his hands off of her as he stroked what he could find of her breast where it was flattened against his body. His free fingers drifted into the crescent of her ribs waist and hip.
He wanted her again. Right now. Before he moved from that bed. He wanted the very last memory he had of her to be ferocious and hot and he wanted to leave his stamp on her every thought…every nerve. She would never forget him. Oh, it was selfish for him to weave even more connection with her than there was already, but whatever happened, he didn’t want her to forget him.
His hand drifted over one round cheek of her bottom beneath the covers, his fingertips flirting along the crease between. The stimulation made her twitch and she turned away from him to turn her bottom onto the bed where she shifted to remove the tickling sensation in her sleep.
Now that she was on her back, the entire landscape of her body was available to him once again. It had grown cold as the fire had died down hours ago and she was covered from the ribs down in a heavy quilt. Her breasts were now exposed, her nipples puckering in the chill room air. She shivered now that she had left his warmth. Still in her sleep, she grabbed the covers and drew them up to her shoulder, snuggling down into them and turning her back to him.
He burrowed beneath the covers with her, his hand running down the knobby length of her spine, touching and caressing each little bump and hollow. He marveled as he began to grow hard just from that simple a touch. Very hard. He pressed his hips forward, his length settling along the crease between her buttocks. His hand slid around to the nest of curls at the apex of her thighs. He dipped his fingers past them, burrowing them into the damp warmth he found there. The moment the pad of his finger stroked over the tight little bud of nerves nestled there between her nether lips, her eyes flew open. He watched her pretty face as she adjusted to wakefulness. The soft curves of her cheeks, the slope of her forehead. The dainty crest of her chin and the thick dark lashes that framed fathomless blue eyes.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice caught with sleep still.
“I should think that was obvious,” he said with a chuckle.
“Well, I mean—of course it’s obvious. But…”
“Don’t you like when I touch you?” he asked, giving her an expert stroke.
She gasped lightly, squirmed, pressing her backside back against him. He thought of how easy it would be to part her legs and thrust into her from behind like that.
“You have such a delectable body. Such mouth-watering curves and such responsive nerves…I cannot help but touch you. Even when you are asleep.
She sighed out a huff of exasperation. “How am I supposed to sleep like this?”
He grinned against her ear before whispering, “You’re not.”
His hand on her mound provided counterforce and he thrust up against her from behind. Then he reached for her thigh and pulled her open slightly, shifted his hips and allowed his jutting length to slide through her moist folds from behind.
“I have not taken you from behind yet,” he noted on a purr of intensity. “I like to look at your face too much. The way the color comes to your cheeks…the way your eyes dilate with need. God! Can you feel how hard you make me without even trying?”
She nodded silently and instinctively thrust her bottom against him. Dendri found her entrance with ease and slowly worked his way inside of her.
“The room is so cold,” he said, “but you are so hot.”
She shivered as he embraced her breast with a kneading palm, his fingers tugging and pulling at her nipple until she moaned. She burrowed back tighter against him, drawing him all the way into her devouring body. Once he was fully seated inside of her he paused to catch his breath a moment.
“Have I mentioned,” he murmured against her ear, “how beautiful you are?”
“You may have mentioned it once or twice,” she said breathily.
“Is that all?” He bent his head and kissed the side of her neck. Then he licked a line of kisses down the entire length of it as he spoke all along. “You have the most graceful neck. Like that of a sana bird. Feathers of ebony gleaming in the sunlight…much like your hair as it rests against this gorgeous neck.”
He thrust up into her in tiny, shallow thrusts and she continued to wriggle back against him. Until he chuckled. “So impatient? In a hurry to get back to sleep?”
“No,” she breathed. “You’re just driving me mad. I’m so hot,” she fretted.
“Yes. You are.” His fingertips glided back down her belly and buried themselves once again in her silky black curls. He stroked his touch until he could feel the place where their bodies were joined, could feel his hardness sliding in and out of her soft, wet core.
It excited him to no end to feel that connection. To feel the damp readiness of her body as she accepted him. He was a brute, invading her thickly, and she took every inch of it with gentle equanimity.
“Do you want me to come inside of you,” he whispered against that delicate ear. “Or shall I pull out just at the very end and spend myself all over this perfect warm skin?”
He began to thrust harder into her, the images his own words conjured up exciting him all the more. Her only response, however, was a long low moan.
“Tell me,” he whispered into her ear. “Tell me.”
“Can’t I have both?” she asked in frustration.
He laughed, his fingertips swirling and stroking against her clitoris on erotic sweeps. She was close. He could feel it.
“Not today,” he said. “We don’t have time.”
At that she stilled and looked over her shoulder at him. Damn it, he shouldn’t have reminded her. He may as well have thrown cold water on her.
“Shh,” he soothed her, taking her mouth in a deep, drugging kiss. She responded until she was soft, warm and willing once more. “There’ll be time for worry later, sweetheart. For now,…let me have you.”
He kissed her again and then again, wrapping her up in a blanket of passion. Making certain she was thinking of nothing but being there with him. Of making love with him.
But he could get no force, no true penetration out of the position they were in so he rolled her onto her belly, drew back her hips and knelt behind her. He returned to her with a bone jarring thrust, taking their coupling from a soft easy passion to something hot and hard. Demanding. As he began a slow, drilling rhythm she came up on her hands and pushed back against him so that every time they met it was deep as could possibly be.
He couldn’t see her face, and it frustrated him. He tolerated it though as she tightened her muscles around him purposely, clutching at him. He felt a familiar, burning sensation in his groin, the pulsing need to come. But he wouldn’t. Not yet. He had started this with the intention of making a lasting impression on her and damn it that was exactly what he was going to do.
He made her come. Hard. She shouted out between the pleasure of having him thrusting into her and the stroking of his wicked fingers against her. Then he turned her onto her side, hooked one of her thighs over his hip, held it with one hand while the other smoothed up along the length of her body. Now he could see her face. She was flushed and rosy, her face sated and sweet. He began to work into her mind, stroking along her thoughts, stimulating the proper nerve centers in just the right way. It was a delicate process. Pain and pleasure centers were so close to one another. One wrong thought…one wrong move and the entire situation would fall apart.
She was over sensitized by the time he took hold of her breast, making her gasp. His nails scraped at her nipple and she launched into another orgasm. She cried out his name. Just that one single word and it was so sweet on her lips. Rasping out of her throat. Again the urge to finish crept over him. Again he pushed it aside. But it was getting harder to do so, he recognized. He would finish soon. Very soon.
Her turned her one last time, moving her onto her back, lifting her legs until one knee was in the crook of one of his elbows a
nd he was pushing hard against her as he stretched her wide. His free hand swept her skin, feeling the moisture of her perspiration, reaching up to caress her lips right before he leaned in and caught her mouth in a series of blistering kisses. She gasped and moaned into his mouth as his mind and body continued to pleasure her. He could tell she was blindly following the pleasurable sensations. Straining to make it more than what it was. She reached to touch him on his chest, her other fingers threading into his damp hair.
“Come,” she demanded of him.
His lips curved into a smile.
“You still haven’t told me where.”
“It’s your pleasure. It’s your choice,” she rasped.
“Hmm. I prefer to think of it as our pleasure.”
“Whatever! Just make your choice and come!”
“So demanding. So impatient.”
“Dendri I can’t take much more of this!” she cried.
He smiled at her, leaned close to her so their mouths touched and said, “Yes you can.”
She exploded into orgasm an instant later, her body reaching…straining…her cry almost painful in sound. Despite his words he knew she was wrung out, that she had reached her tipping point. He rode the wave of her pleasure with hard, punctuating thrusts, letting the need build inside of himself as her body drew in his. The closer he got the harder he got. Until he was heavy and stretching and ready.
He came with a roar, thrusting deep into her and holding himself still and deep and deep and deep. Ejaculate burst out of him in wild measure, pulsing and draining until he felt every muscle was engaged in the effort.
Then it was over and he was dropping over her, gasping for breath with her, barely aware that he had made her come yet again.
They lay there a long while, a limp pile of sated limbs, trying to catch their breath. Then he rolled away from her, separating their bodies, momentarily frowning at the sensation of loss that came with the disconnection. He gathered her close, pressing light kisses all along her forehead, cheeks and lips. Eventually her breath regulated. Slowed.