She leaned forward in her seat, placing her hand on his arm. “He must not! The people had naught to do with it—it was Karpon!”
He looked down at the table, a muscle ticking in his jaw. Then he looked up, meeting her eyes. “Karpon will pay for what he has done and what he intends to do to my people,” he said quietly. “If the Ganakari people stand with him, they will pay as well.”
“If this king is as clever as you say, then he will find a way to defeat Karpon without harming the Ganakari!”
A small, secret smile curved his sensuous lips. It was an expression of his she had often noted, and it never failed to captivate her. The enigmatic smile held a wealth of meanings.
“Perhaps you should come to M’yan and tell him yourself.”
“I do not think he will listen to me; he would consider me an enemy.”
“You helped me escape.”
Jenise was not sure she wanted to be pulled into this. When she had left Ganakari, she had left that life behind. “Perhaps he will not see it as you do.”
“Who?”
“The king.”
He smiled. “Perhaps not.”
Jenise decided to change the subject. “Have you found the next Tunnel?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “It is a half day’s journey from here, in the next mining camp.”
“Oh.” Jenise folded her hands on the table. “When will you be leaving?”
Gian sat back in the chair and watched her. Did she think he would leave her in a place like this, unprotected and at the mercy of cutthroats? That she would even entertain the idea maddened him.
He tamped down his anger, forcing himself to speak calmly. “What would you do here?”
“I—I do not know. I suppose I will go to the next world to see what awaits me there.”
“I thought you might like to accompany me to Aviara.”
“What?” Her mouth parted in surprise.
“Of course, it is your choice.” He viewed her through his black, spiky lashes. “Since you have no destination in mind, I thought you might consider the journey to Aviara. It will be an interesting journey and once we link to Aviara, you will be in Alliance territory, a much safer place for you to explore.”
“Hmmm, I had not thought of that.”
“Yes. We could help each other, Jenise.”
She was puzzled at that concept. From what she had seen, this Familiar was very self-reliant. “How could I help you?”
His incredible eyes flashed with sudden humor.
Her cheeks colored.
“Other than that,” she stated baldly.
Gian grinned. “It is not unusual to see a Familiar in the company of a woman. Together we would not attract as much attention.”
He had to be jesting! Alone or in a crowd, as soon as Gian walked into a room, everyone stopped to stare at him. His appearance was that extraordinary. Besides, no Familiar ever spent much time with the same woman.
“I will think on it.”
Her evasive answer infuriated him. A rumble of thunder sounded outside.
In addition to having electrical sense, Familiars were sometimes prone to hypersensitivity to atmospheric conditions. Their acute senses were heightened by intense electromagnetic waves. It was another reason the Familiar stayed close to the Mystics of the Charl. They liked the intensification of their senses that occurred around Charl power.
In this case, however, Gian’s feelings of possessiveness were combining with his protective instinct. It was a dangerous mix, heightened by the oncoming storm.
When a young miner walked into the tavern a few moments later and Jenise happened to glance his way in a more-than-leisurely manner, Gian’s emotions flared up synchronously with the loud crackle of lightning that sounded overhead.
“You would not be satisfied with him,” he bluntly stated as he deliberately sipped his keeran.
Jenise gasped. She had not been eyeing the youth with anything but idle curiosity! But since Gian had implied otherwise, who was she to disabuse him of the notion! Her own anger flared at his attitude. Who could decipher his shifting moods!
“Oh, why not?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“He would not be as gentle with you as I have.”
“You, gentle?” She scoffed at the ridiculous assertion. “The first time we truly…You enhanced!”
The next table of patrons looked over at that declaration.
“Pfft! It was a simple augmentation.” He pointed at her, using the piece of fruit in his hand. “I have not even begun to show you what levels we can attain.”
A female miner at the other table dropped her horn of keeran.
“And what makes you think I am interested in such levels!” she flung back at him.
He smiled slowly. His cat smile.
“I hate when you do that.”
His white teeth bit into the fruit in a leisurely motion. Juice sprayed out. A droplet fell on the corner of his lip. “Do what?” His tongue licked the droplet off in a slow swipe as he watched her through lowered lids. Green and gold gleamed at her.
“Stop it,” she gritted out.
He dipped another piece of fruit into the sauce. Instead of biting it, he began delicately licking the sauce off the segment. “Stop what?” He brushed the edge of the fruit along his sensual bottom lip.
The tips of Jenise’s ears turned pink with desire.
“He would not satisfy you, Creamcat.”
Jenise was tired of his games. Raising a queenly eyebrow, she responded coolly, “As if it is any concern of yours.”
At that moment a loud crash of thunder shook the geode. Inside, a few crystals splintered off and fell to the floor. Gian abruptly stood, sending his chair crashing to the floor, where it shattered into pieces. Familiar possessiveness intensified by the violent storm had transformed him into a raging force.
He pulled Jenise up out of her chair in one move.
“Gian!” she squeaked. A few heads turned in interest to view the altercation between the powerful Familiar and his beautiful companion. As casual as Familiars were in their relationships, they became fiercely possessive about those they cared for.
Gian’s fingers speared through her hair, pulling her head back so she was forced to lift her face to his. “Who has touched you but me?” he demanded in an arrogant tone. The feline in him was hissing; the cat had been unleashed.
Jenise had never seen him like this. He was wild! “N-no one, Gian.”
He knew that, of course; he would sense another touch upon her in an instant.
“Perhaps you need a reminder then of my touch.” Before she could respond, he tossed her over his shoulder and strode up the glass stairs.
“Gian!” Jenise pounded on his broad, muscular shoulders. “Gian, let me down!”
He ignored her. As far as Gian Ren was concerned, he had been as patient as he was ever going to be. She bounced on his back the entire way.
“What do you think you are doing!” She tried to pinch his buttock but she couldn’t get a hold of his firm backside.
“I am going to show you what it is to be truly made love to by a Familiar man. This Familiar man!”
It was time for him to pounce.
Chapter Ten
Gian opened the door to their room with a booted kick, slamming it behind him the same way.
His reaction was so powerful that Jenise expected the thick glass to shatter. The door shook ominously but held together.
“Gian, this is madness—put me down and stop this at once!”
If the situation had been different, he might have laughed at her imperious attitude. However, Guardian of the Mist was not in a laughing mood. He was intensely focused and predatory.
All of these feline emotions were gaining strength along with the storm outside.
He quickly brought her forward, standing her in front of him. Whereupon he immediately tossed her cloak to the floor along with her dress. In the brief time it took her to regain her balance, he had
already taken one of the krilli cloths covering the bed and ripped two long strips of the silken multi-colored fabric.
“What are you doing with—”
He did not answer her. Grabbing her wrist, he turned her from him, and before she realized his intent, tied her securely to the crystal lattice. “Gian! Untie this!”
His response was to fasten her other wrist in the exact same manner.
She tugged at the silk bonds that captured her, keeping her in place, outspread before him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a dark green cloak float to the floor. It was rapidly followed by a white silken shirt. Then came the dull thunk of boots and finally black leather breeches.
Jenise sucked in her breath. What did the Familiar plan for her? He was highly aroused, of that she was certain.
Rich krinang spice blanketed her, readying her for him. Jenise realized that the intoxicating sexual scent was not simply a Familiar’s magnet, it was also his snare. It captured the woman, teased her, made her want him even as he enticed her into the union.
The naked skin of her back felt his warmth behind her, his rapid, scorching breaths on her shoulders. The room was cool; why is his breath so hot? She swallowed.
The first heated touch of his satin lips upon her shoulder blade caused her to jump. She gasped. Gian was smoldering! His talented lips and scalding tongue began to trace a determined path from her shoulder blades to the base of her spine.
Jenise wriggled in the restraints trying to escape that devastating mouth.
It did no good.
He had completely trapped her; there was nowhere for her to go. Their situations had been completely reversed; now she was the one who was bound before him.
“Gian.” She attempted to break through his intense mood with her no-nonsense tone.
In response, his fingernails rapidly scraped up the front of her thighs. This was followed by the edge of his teeth grazing up the side of her throat. He was not listening to her.
Again he traced the path down her back, his skilled tongue flicking and laving. But not meandering. Gian was focused and all the more dangerous because of it.
He knelt upon the floor behind her. His long hair brushed along the backs of her thighs. Jenise quivered as the dark golden strands lightly passed over her skin.
Capable hands firmly clasped her hips. Suddenly, his mouth press-played with the dimples at the base of her spine, just below her waist. Another tremor ran through her and she tried to suppress the moan which sprang to her lips.
The tip of his tongue ever so lightly traced the centerline of her buttocks…
Jenise was shocked.
Again she twisted in the binding ties. She could not escape his sensual touch! When he rounded the curve of one smooth buttock, he bit her sharply.
Outraged, Jenise hissed at him.
A resonant growl was his response. Gian apparently liked her reaction! In fact he was encouraging it. Jenise groaned; how was she to deal with him?
The tips of his thick eyelashes skimmed along her leg until his mouth found the back of her knee. Jenise was very sensitive here and when he swiped the flat of his tongue across the crease she desperately tried to move her leg away from him. His capable palms captured her calf, putting an end to that hope.
Male fingers strummed up and down her inner leg as he continued to torture her with his talent.
He traveled down to her ankle, suddenly catching the tender spot above her heel with a quick grip of his teeth. Tingles flowed up her leg to…right there. A small sound escaped her parted lips. The Familiar knew every pulse point of sensitivity in the female body; each line that connected the pleasure centers and heightened arousal.
Gian’s broad shoulder wedged between her legs from behind, forcing them apart. With a hand on each of her calves, his upper body slipped through the vee of her stance. In a fluid motion, he stretched out on the floor between her legs; his long silken hair spread out under him.
Lazily, he let his burning gaze scorch the length of her inner legs up to the pale curls at her juncture. From his vantage point on the floor he had quite a view.
In the same deliberate yet leisurely manner, he gradually lifted those spiky black lashes to meet her stunned look dead-on.
His green and gold eyes were hazy with dangerous passion.
So intense was his smoky stare that Jenise could feel it igniting her, and could feel herself becoming even more damp for him. It angered her, this sexual power he had over her.
“Stop this! It is not my choice!”
He flinched for a moment as if he had been struck. Then his feline eyes narrowed to slits of burning emerald and amber flames. Adept fingers reached up to lightly stroke back and forth on her dewy curls.
“This is for me, is it not?” he drawled. Boldly, he finger-stroked her overflowing dew. “I see no one else here.”
Jenise gasped in outrage. “How dare you! You caused it!”
She had no idea what she had unwittingly said. One side of his sexy mouth lifted in dangerous amusement. “True…therefore it appears I am your choice; am I not?”
Jenise tried to kick him, failing when his quick reflexes captured her ankle. He had twisted her meaning to suit himself. Despite her obvious desire, she was furious with him.
“Perhaps I feel you, yet think of another,” she foolishly goaded him.
It was not a wise thing to do, and if she had known more about the Familiar nature, she never would have done it. Familiar males responded rather vehemently to such provoking. The expression on his face became lethal, powerful, and merciless. He resembled a fierce cat just before it pounced on its hapless prey.
Her aqua eyes widened. “Gian, do no—”
The commanding hands on the backs of her thighs pulled her forward as he sat up between her legs.
The position brought his mouth and a certain part of her anatomy into perfect alignment. Her mouth parted in disbelief. What she was thinking was…Surely he was not going to…to…
She could feel his hot breath as it ruffled the curls at her juncture. She swallowed nervously. “Release me, Gian, and I will—”
“I have told you that I do not bargain.”
The first touch of his silken tongue had her calling out in a combination of shock and ecstasy.
Swiftly, he buried himself in her, then smoothly withdrew with a long, deep lap. He was blatant, masterful; no hinting touches or hesitant movements. He stroked inside her, tasting and teasing, starting a relentless pattern that soon had her begging him to stop the torture.
Jenise began to make a considerable amount of noise.
{You taste even better than I imagined, Creamcat…} He mercilessly licked and suckled and grazed her with his teeth.
Jenise stood on tiptoe, trying to get away from the unbearable, overwhelming sensations. There was nowhere she could go. She could not even close her thighs to him, because he had positioned himself between her legs. Firmly, Gian brought her back down to his mouth. Her entire body trembled with his exotic touch.
“Ohhh…please…you must…” Stop. But she could not bring herself to say it. The pleasure he was giving her was too intense to walk away from. Too incredible not to experience.
{Trrrrrr…} he purred against her, the tips of his nails lightly scoring along her lower back.
She did not know that Gian was about to show her never to tangle with a Familiar man unless you wished to be entangled. Inserting his tongue in her, he suckled hard and growled low in his chest.
Jenise screamed. Several times.
Gian leaned back on the palms of his hands, hair trailing down his back. He looked up at her through that silky veil of lashes. It was the stare of a knowing cat.
Breathing raggedly, Jenise gazed down at him too spent to do anything else. She watched him, alert for any sign of what he intended to do next; he was very aroused.
With a fluid agility, he sprang up in front of her, literally towering over her. Insolently, he lifted her chin with a flick of his finge
r. He kissed her hard and deep. It was a kiss of possession.
Jenise tasted herself on his mouth. And him. And krinang spice.
Abruptly he broke off the exchange and strolled purposely behind her.
She turned her head, following his measured step. The light footfall sounded somehow ominous. “Gian.” She tried to speak to him. He would not answer her. It was then she knew that his feral mood had not abated.
In some strange way she wondered if he was purposely ignoring her to heighten the mood; her anticipation and wariness were combining into a heady desire. She did not fear Gian; he would never harm her, of that she was certain. The Familiar had risked his life too many times to save hers.
A strong arm encircled her waist, bringing her back against his hard length. A muscular thigh wedged between her legs.
Jenise’s breath came in rapid pants.
He hesitated.
Just enough so that she became aware of her own unsteady breathing. The tantalizing pause of a true predator.
“Gian,” she whispered again.
He hitched her into position and slid fast into her. As far as he could go.
Jenise cried out at the full, throbbing impact. He was so deep inside!
Behind her Gian snarled softly. His low, sleek voice sent hot puffs of air against her ear. “Do you think he could do this for you?”
“W-who?” She had completely forgotten the young man in the tavern who had so fueled his temper.
Gian bit her shoulder; a sexy, sharp nip designed to chastise and adore at the same time. He rubbed his face in her hair as his other hand reached around to capture a breast in his palm. Squeezing the soft mound, he caught the hardened tip between two outstretched fingers, tugging and rolling.
Jenise shifted her head back, moving with him as he caressed her hair with his face, burying himself in its pale thickness. Much like he had buried himself in her nether curls.
For a moment Gian glanced over her shoulder to watch their shadows flickering across the crystals. His shadow lay over hers, moving synchronously to her moves, entwining around her.
A predatory smile curved his well-shaped lips. It was called N’taga. Shadow dance. And it was considered highly provocative. “N’taga leetan shateer, taja.” He drawled huskily in the Familiar tongue. I have placed my shadow upon you.