Daahn Rising (24 page)

“Yes and no,” he replied cryptically. “There will be a guard posted at the door... for now. You won’t be permitted to leave your quarters without me as an escort.”

“My...” Her breathing caught on the rest. The main room was easily twice the size of the cell. She could see the bathing area through the right-hand doorway and assumed the other led to a bed. There were padded chairs and carpets on the floor.

“Yours... until permanent quarters are arranged. Unless it is deemed a matter of security, you say who enters here.”

Miri stared at him, her mind grasping at and slipping from that idea. She’d never had a space of her own. She’d never had control over who could enter that space... or not.

He cocked his head, working at some problem. “What is it?”

She shook her head, turning toward the second door, trying to hide her confusion. That reaction seemed to frustrate Daahn.

As she suspected, the door led to a bedroom. The bed was wide, easily three times the width of the bunk in her cell and longer, too. Miri had considered the bunk an extravagance. She wondered if the Grea Elders slept in such a space, different as their dreaming mats were from beds.

Daahn’s heat at her back made her all-too-aware of how convenient that bed was.

Or the bath.
Though the shower had been invigorating, the idea of being immersed in a tub of water with Daahn was enough to dampen her tender body again.

“Is it acceptable to you?” he asked.

“More than acceptable,” she managed to say.

He turned her gently, his expression earnest. “I do have questions,” he stated.

“If any answers I possess can be of help,” she promised.

Daahn took her hand and led Miri to the long, low seat in the front room. Once they were both settled on the plush material, he raised her chin so Miri met his gaze.

“Did S’sie have sex with you before your quickening?”

Miri pulled from his hold, standing and walking to the food counter. Her heart pounded in the rush of unwelcome memories.

“Useless, unpalatable, human female.”

If I was unpalatable, why did he?

Daahn’s arms encircled her, and she startled. His hold was gentle but insistent. “Tell me.”

“Yes.” She cringed, anticipating his anger, his disgust that she’d taken another Dominant before him.

Her understanding of Xxanian mating was limited. The only knowledge she truly had was the description of the quickening Geery had given her that morning, an encounter that Daahn had been blessedly absent for. Miri did know, from that discussion, that the Dominant who sated her quickening expected to be her first. She had no clue what Daahn’s reaction to the fact that he hadn’t been would be.

He buried his face in her hair, holding Miri to his body. “Why did he beat you? Do you know?”

“I couldn’t,” she forced out miserably.

“Couldn’t what? You weren’t aroused?”

She lowered her face, afraid of his reaction to the truth. The words stuck in her dry throat.

“I see. You were.”

Miri braced for his condemnation.

“That is to be expected,” he continued. “I will assume he was aroused.”

She shook her head. That had been the problem, after all. Master S’sie hadn’t been aroused.

Daahn rotated her toward him, his lips turned down in a scowl. “Did he or did he not come erect for the act?”

“His primary,” she whispered.

His eyes narrowed, and his eye slits widened, a disconcerting combination. “And his secondary? Did it extend, at all? Did you encourage it to?”

“A bit but not fully.”

“Did you encourage it to rise?” he repeated.

“I...” How did he mean that? “How did I encourage the primary to rise?”

“Did you touch his cocks? Did you touch anywhere around their bases?”

She shook her head. “He was already erect when he...”

“When he what, Miri?” His voice was low and soothing, but his eyes held the promise of violence to come.

Miri took a calming breath, trying to decide if refusing him an answer was more or less dangerous than offering an answer he wouldn’t want to hear.

“Did he take what he wanted, without asking?”

She fought for clarity. “How does a male ask —”

“He aroused you and thrust inside.” He didn’t question it, but she sensed it was something he wanted her to confirm or modify, to make clear to him.

“Yes. He did.” Was that asking?

Daahn pulled her to his chest, stoking at her hair. “If you did nothing to entice the secondary to rise, it is a testament to your potency and S’sie’s arousal that it rose, no matter how minutely it did. If he told you it was some deficiency in you that it didn’t rise fully, he lied.”

Miri squeezed her eyes shut, trying to shut out the rest of the memory
. No. I need to hear that it was wrong. I need to know it.

“He stroked at my mating stripe. He licked at it.”

“Miri,” Daahn breathed, his chin working back and forth at her hair.

“It was so unexpected, I tried to turn to him.”

“You don’t have to —”

“I do!” She forced her voice to calm. “I... need to.”

Daahn rocked her back and forth, swaying with her in his arms. It was oddly comforting.

“He forced me over the edge of the table and used his claws to rip my pants at the seams... the inner seams.”

A growl rose from deep in Daahn’s chest.

“It felt so good. He smelled so right.”

“But you know better now,” he interrupted gruffly.

“I knew better then... well, just after. He came in me. It felt so good, I moved against him, seeking more.”

“And he battered you.” He didn’t question it. His ridge plates shifted against the top of her head.

Miri nodded. “He told me I was worthless, unappealing, unpalatable, that he couldn’t even come fully erect for me.”

“He lied,” Daahn attested.

“Yes. Then he washed me.”

His head came back, and Daahn stared at her, his fury imperfectly masked. “He tried to hide it by washing his cum out of you?”

She considered that. “No, just outside. He scrubbed at me. It was...”

“What?”

“I hurt. I hurt so that I could barely breathe and couldn’t stand, and I still wanted him. I wanted him in a way that defied reason. As time went on, I tried to understand why —”

Daahn released her, his eye slits widening and his muscles tensing. He uttered a series of curses in both languages, his Xxan long and trilling, perfect to her ear. “How long did this — attraction last?”

She fought for a clear memory, though the days after that beating flowed together, making a precise determination impossible. “Several days, as I recall it.”

He turned away, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck.

“Daahn?” she called out nervously.

“And he told you that you didn’t arouse him,” he growled. “Did he continue to beat you while the attraction lasted?”

“Yes. He did.” Daahn didn’t believe she wanted Master S’sie now, did he? She considered assuring him that it wasn’t so.

“Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable.”

“It is the truth,” she managed to say. She fought back tears at the fact that he didn’t believe her, but one escaped and spilled down her cheek.

He looked back at her, his expression unreadable.

“You don’t trust me,” Miri surmised, her heart sinking. He had no reason to. He never had. He likely never would.

And now this. The sex had been a Dominant show, no doubt, and by S’sie’s attack on her, she’d offered offense to Daahn’s Dominance.

It was a completely enjoyable show of Dominance, unlike S’sie’s.
She wanted him to repeat it, but that was unlikely, considering the turn of events.

As if drawn by that thought, Daahn was abruptly before her, his body crowding hers to the countertop, his hand tangling in her hair. “Do you want me to trust you?” he asked. “Implicitly? Completely?”

She nodded, at a loss for words. Why she’d want such a thing was beyond her. How she’d accomplish it was a mystery.

His hand released her hair and slid lower, settling on her mating stripe. His massage set off waves of heat and musk. Miri felt
Zhigaaah
bead up. Daahn licked first at the tear track on her cheek, then worked at collecting the pheromone from her throat. His cock and musk rose in response.

Miri pulled at his belt, loosening it, moving along to the buttons beneath. His cock thrust toward her, stroking over the back of her hand. She sought out the sensitive flesh at the base, encouraging him. He’d asked if she’d done that for Master S’sie; it must be the way to arouse him.

Daahn unbuttoned her shirt one-handed, his fingers brushing between her small breasts and down her stomach. His other hand worked diligently at her mating stripe, and his mouth closed around the lobe of her ear, suckling lightly at her. He paused at her belt, flattening a hand against her abdomen and stroking upward, teasing his thumb at her nipple, forcing Miri against him in pleasure.

Her fingertips found an indentation beneath his cock, and Daahn shivered in response. Did he have a full secondary, a vestigial secondary, or was it simply pleasurable to be touched there?

“Bring me up,” he ordered. “Take me fully.”

Miri hesitated to admit she didn’t know how to. She hadn’t succeeded in bringing Master S’sie up fully, after all. She hadn’t even been given the chance to try. She needed to think, but his circling thumb was driving her mad, and —

She pressed her thumb to the spot, circling as he was at her nipple. Daahn arched toward her with a moan that sounded of delight, the nub extending past the flap of skin, seeking more. Miri played at it, circling the soft tip more purposefully.

Daahn dragged her shirt off her free hand, letting it settle around the hand working him. He thrust up into her touch, now three finger widths extended, a full finger width farther than she’d risen the master.

“You’re so good,” he whispered.

Miri’s confusion was cut short by his move to disrobe. His chest, appearing from behind buttons, had nearly her complete attention. She lowered her face, kissing at the cut she vaguely remembered leaving the night before, moving on to one flat nipple, licking at his smooth skin. His still-rising secondary played at the back of her mind.

His shirt left his body and dropped to the floor. Daahn cupped her head to him, encouraging her. “You want something to lick?”

She moved to the other nipple in answer. Oh yes, she wanted to lick him. She wanted to collect his musk on her tongue, as he did hers.

“Then you’ll have it,” he promised.

Daahn backed away, his secondary cock sliding from her grip. He worked at opening the belt and the buttons down her pants. “Take them off.” When she hesitated, he removed her shirt and tossed it away.

Miri pushed the pants down her hips then thighs, her heart skipping at Daahn’s tongue darting out to scent her, his eye slits narrowing. At midthigh, she released the pants and let them fall, stepping out to stand naked before him. When he didn’t move, she started to turn, offering him her body.

Daahn took her arm, shaking his head. “Not this time.” He led her to the wide bed, pushing his pants to his lower thighs. Without a word, he folded himself onto the edge of the mattress, his cocks standing tall, jerking toward her.

Miri stared at them, hungering to feel the primary buried inside her, the secondary stroking her clit at every thrust. Master S’sie’s had only found the mark a few precious times. Daahn’s would more often.

He leaned back onto one elbow, his eyes issuing the order to his soft-spoken words. “Lick, Miri.”

She sank to her knees between his ankles, glancing up at Daahn in hopes that she’d interpreted his order correctly. At his nod, Miri stroked her tongue over the primary head, gathering his musk.

His breathing hitched and then smoothed. “Now the other,” he instructed.

The secondary was softer to the touch, pliable, bending and undulating against her passing tongue. The taste was different, more pungent, enticing her to taste more. She stroked her tongue along the length, circling the head at the apex of every trip, enjoying the way the shaft and head followed her movements, playing against her tongue much as his tongue had played against it while he fed her.

It was thinner than his primary by half, but when she’d started licking at it, it was half the length, as well. Miri hadn’t realized how long a properly stimulated secondary would grow. And it was still growing. Daahn’s secondary nearly matched his primary in length.

Drunk on his fluids, Miri risked asking an impertinent question. “How long will you get?”

He hummed a self-satisfied note. “Do you wish to find out as you are or by taking me in?”

“The secondary?” Her words slurred, and her heart thundered in her ears.

Daahn smiled, showing his hunting teeth. The sight of the predator usually frightened her, but Miri found it exciting on Daahn... in this situation.

“A few more licks, little blue,” he directed. “Then you’ll learn what I can do with two hungry cocks and a willing female.”

She complied, bathing him, base and shaft and head, first the primary and then the secondary. Daahn watched her, moaning as she sucked at the tip of the secondary, his fingers massaging at her mating stripe, drowning her body in pheromone and mating hormones.

“You feel it,” he crooned. “My
Zhigaaal
is making you mine. Do you want that?”

Miri sucked at the secondary again, taking down as much of his fluids as she could, hungering for more.

“Massage the base as you suckle.”

She did as he instructed, moaning at the wash of
Zhigaaal
in her mouth. This was why he drank her
Zhigaaah
. It was pleasant, drugging, arousing.

Daahn eased her head back, meeting her gaze. “Massage the base, but do not drink this time.”

He jerked at her touch, and Miri looked down to the secondary, aching for it. Her mouth watered, and yet she was thirsty. The
Zhigaaal
was thick and pungent, a creamy fluid that trailed down the sides of his secondary at her massage.

“A little more, Miri. When it reaches the base, your education continues.”