The Bid (16 page)

Vejhon already knew that the statement was only a half-truth. At least from Najir’s perspective. “Have you been lovers?” Jhon queried gruffly, already knowing it was the worst thing in the world he could possibly ask.

“Yes. On and off over the years when the fancy struck us. We’re isolated by these secrets,” she pointed out quietly. “Besides a few servants and guards, it’s just Najir and the family in this House, and I’m very much a cat with all the appetites that come with it. As you are finding out, our taste for lust is powerful. But Najir has always known that once I took my true mate, our interludes would end. He knew when he bought you that you would be that mate, and that he was resigning his access to me. I belong to you and no one else.”

“No one else,” Jhon murmured, staring down hard into her eyes. “Why do I feel this way? Why do I suddenly need to own you like a prize, the scent of your body enticing me like a starving man is lured to a feast? I’m overrun with impulse after impulse.” As he spoke, he was rubbing himself against her, rocking gently above her as his hardening cock drew a path up and down between her labia. Every time he stroked over her clits she drew in soft, excited little breaths.

“Because,” she hiccupped with a little moan of pleasure. “I am in heat. I have been since the moment I saw you, Vejhon. I have craved you so much. Feeling you in my hand burned you onto my memory and my chemistry, but I couldn’t…Oh! I can’t think when you do that!” she groaned.

“And when the female bellcat is in heat, she sends the males into heat as well, is that right?” Jhon mused with a smile of understanding as he teased her vaginal portal with little prods of his fattened cock.

“Yes,” she laughed breathily.

“I noticed,” he retorted, remembering how uncannily irresistible he had found her even before this change that overwhelmed him now with nothing but pure craving. “So have I been a victim of chemical manipulation all of this time? Is any of this real?”

“The choice you made was real. I struggled to keep sex out of it. I didn’t want you to accuse me…like this.”

“I’m asking, not accusing. And you are right. I made a very clear choice. And now I’m making another one. Tell me how to love you. I need to fuck you good and proper and I mean right now.”

She giggled for a second, and then lifted her bottom to coax him a little farther into her. “It’s only a matter of control, Jhon. You invade, I resist. You wait until the muscles relax and then…you are free to fuck me as hard as you like, as long as you like, as often as you like. Better yet,” she purred, “as often as
I
like.”

“Why do you resist?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps a reflex to assure fittest survival. Only a bellcat with power and strength of control will persevere to spread his seed. Mmm.” Hanna rumbled low in her throat, a sultry and beckoning sound that sought out Jhon’s spine and shook the tree of nerves awake. “I thought you wanted to fuck me, Jhon,” she taunted softly, pulling him down to the lick of her tongue. “Or if you like, we could just take time to taste one another. I long to rub the taste of your cock all over my tongue.”

Clearly the thought appealed to him. She felt the rush of excitement that ran through him in his grip, his breathing, and the amazing hardness invading her. She also saw it in the wildfire intensity of his eyes as he raked them over her body and face.

“Later,” he rumbled roughly. “I haven’t the patience to watch you do that to me right now. Not when all I want is to make you mine the way I ought to have already.” Jhon slid farther into her on the back of the observation, his musculature tensing tighter and tighter in anticipation of that trap that sought to undermine his needs. He braced a hand by her head, the other on her hip and holding her how he wanted her. His mind was already working on ways he could potentially defeat her body’s natural defenses. He was a soldier after all. Defeating all kinds of fortifications was in his job description.

Hanna could hardly catch her breath as he moved so torturously slowly into her, as if that would prevent the inevitable. She knew it wouldn’t, but she wasn’t about to criticize. Every nerve ending lining her vaginal sheath was screaming with sensation as he teased past them. Not to mention he was purposely slipping back and forth against her nearest clit.

In surrender, Hanna let her arms fall away from his body, her hands lying in abandon above her head as if invisible restraints held her. She closed her eyes and turned all of her focus onto the flesh he touched and prodded. Right about the time he rediscovered that trap he sought, he also found the hard point of her left nipple and its dark areola. He sucked her into his mouth on a sort of sudden gasp, the shock of pleasure riding through him as her muscles fisted around him, reminding him of why it had been so hard to keep in control last time.

Hanna cried out as his teeth tugged hard on her sensitive breast. He hadn’t yet learned how many nerve endings she had in her breasts, nor that they were nerves shared on the pathways of her clits and vagina.

“Wait,” she gasped, the encouragement punctuating the way her chest rose again and again in her breathlessness. Vejhon smiled inwardly because she was rhythmically thrusting her breast up to his voracious mouth. Still, he listened to her advice, holding himself perfectly calm even though her muscles tried to con him once again.

And just as she had said, her body relaxed after a long minute or two. The release was so liberating and exciting that he drove into her fast and hard, as if he were afraid she’d resist again. But as promised he sank into her perfectly, their pubic bones connecting.

“Okay, now we’re making progress,” he muttered a bit savagely as he nipped and bit at her fat, juicy nipple. He traded sides, hearing her squeal as he withdrew in search of an energetic rhythm at the same time his tongue wrapped around the berry-dark tip of her tit.

When she screamed out so sharply, his name bolting out of her as her body stiffened, he worried at first that he’d hurt her unintentionally. However, as he raised his head and saw her face contorted in bliss and felt her shuddering around him, he realized she was coming with unexpected impact and suddenness. Jhon braced his knees and dove into her seizing body in long, tight strokes, riding her orgasm like pushing through an extreme storm. In both cases, everything was wet and wild, sending his adrenaline spiking as he strained to go as deep as he possibly could. He had been deprived of her true depth, cheated of his right to spread himself inside of her. Jhon reached out to wrap a powerful hand around her head and face on the right side, gripping her in a silent, commanding little shake. Her eyes flew open, midnight blue sparkling up at him from around black oval pools shot wide with ecstasy.

“Gods have mercy, you’re a memory I’ve needed for so long,” he rasped as he watched her shiver and cry out with every forward thrust he gave her. It was like a never-ending peak for her, not to mention sexual torment for him. He was wondering if he’d ever be able to breathe again as her legs suddenly curled around his hips. It resulted in a shift of her hips and his pitch, abruptly tautening something inside of her that teased the underside of the head of his cock every time he swept across it. The overload was electric.

Vejhon felt the end rushing up on him quickly, but he wasn’t letting her conduct this particular orgasm. This was his time, his mark, and he was leaving it his way. He jerked her up from the floor, yanking her onto his thighs as he knelt with them braced hard apart. The wet boa of her hair whipped against his back with the momentum and she coughed out a purr of pleasure as she sank down hard onto his shaft, the thickness of it stuffing her more than full. But what he was doing by shifting position was forcing the sensitive nerve center at the lip of her vagina to stroke along the length of his cock every time they mutually lifted and resettled her onto him.

“There we go,” he said to her when she dropped her head forward and jerked in a long, high-pitched gasp of response. He sought an ear to whisper into as he used all the power in his body to pump her onto him again and again. “Tighten up…yes…grab my cock like you’re never going to let me go. I’m so deep now…keep me. Keep me deep inside you.” Vejhon paused to groan with his own ecstasy as she joined his cause with the sleek power of her own body. She rode him, her pelvis canting over him with faster and faster gripping need. She was grabbing breath and holding it now, forcing vigor into her ride.

Jhon dug brutal fingers into her hips and buttocks as they mutually worked for release. The entire world faded away for them both and Hanna felt herself shimmering apart an instant before her entire awareness narrowed to a single tiny spot of light. She felt it detonate like a collapsing star, an explosion of power and light and energy, but a collapse inward into a weaker, smaller being.

Vejhon felt her ignite around him, her clutch on his cock violently perfect. Instinctively his hands grabbed her around her back as that tingle in the seat of his testicles turned into a scream of rushing sensation. Everything inside of him seized, nothing working, nothing focusing…nothing but that single point of action in his body as he sprayed his cum forcefully inside of her again and again.

For the longest time it felt as though it would never stop. It was when he reached the point of pain that she suddenly lost all strength in his hold, her entire body collapsing forward against him and her head dropping with a lolling roll. Her sudden unconsciousness also released him from her milking grip on his penis. Sliding out of her body had to be the most agonizingly poignant thing he’d ever felt. As though it could help replace his loss, he gathered her close and tight, bare skin to bare skin, resting her head on his shoulder. But though it felt good to hold her that closely, it was bereft of her energy and personality. And when she didn’t rouse for him after a minute or two, he felt an automatic panic settle over him, chilling him across his chest and down his spine.

Not knowing what else to do, he scooped her up and carried her to one of the lounges. He laid her out, her blue limbs so flawless against the white fabric. Once she was safely settled he sat beside her and tried to rouse her from the faint. She looked unbelievably peaceful and content, like she was sleeping, but she wouldn’t awaken and it was beginning to make him worry.

Rising to his feet, his hand still holding hers, he looked around the room quickly. He decided to find Najir, knowing the slave was far more familiar with her physiology. He drew on clothes quickly, not caring that he had freely bleeding wounds still. After jerking a soft, clean fur from the bed and covering Hanna with it, he rushed to the sensor across the room. He had mapped the halls in his mind and some of the open rooms, but he had no idea where Najir’s quarters might be, or where he would be right then.

But as he stood in the smooth stone hallway, the dull roar of his senses that, until then, had strictly focused on Hanna, began to rustle to attention. The house, he realized, was full of people. A great many people.

Servants. Security. Family. He knew all of this because he could smell heavy traces of them all, and each scent identified itself in a different way. Family seemed to smell faintly reminiscent of Hanna. Security smelled of the same fabric used repetitively for their uniforms, and they were armed. He could smell the ozone from weapons that had been through practice fires. Servants also wore uniforms, but of lighter materials, and they smelled of cleansing products in one fashion or another. Since Najir fell into none of these categories, Jhon figured his best shot was to seek a frequent scent that fell outside of these other regular ones.

It was confusing at first, how to separate and then follow a single trail, but after a minute or two it was almost as though he were following a light-colored string that had been left for him as a guide. He realized he could even tell in which direction things had moved strictly by the deterioration rate of a scent in one direction as opposed to another. This also told him which of many trails was most recent and wisest to follow.

Vejhon’s race had always had sharp senses, so he adjusted to the magnification very quickly. He realized he was following a male, increasing the odds of having picked up the right trail. The path took him right to the family room Jhon had been introduced to with such shocking submersion. He didn’t hesitate, swiping his hand past the sensor.

It didn’t surprise him that it wouldn’t open for him. This room held her most dearly prized secrets in the world. She wouldn’t let anyone else have access except those most trusted. It didn’t faze him in the least that he wasn’t one of those people…yet.

“Najir!”

He bellowed out the call, hoping somehow he would be heard. He doubted it, though. A roomful of jungle beasts and he couldn’t hear a single sound from them? That meant it was soundproofed.

“Can I help you?”

Vejhon turned sharply to face the person who spoke. He was presented with the only other blue-skinned person he’d seen since awakening from stasis. She was a petite and almost miniature thing. Her black hair was kept short and close to her head, sticking out in messy spikes that made her look like she’d just tumbled out of bed. Judging by the sheer sheath gown she was wearing, a white that showed him just about every detail of her body beneath, she might have just come from bed after all. Her eyes were a soft sloe shape, long black lashes blinking sleepily over amethyst irises.

As his eyes coasted over her, hers did the same to him. She seemed to smile wider the more she looked. “My, my, look what the cat dragged in,” she joked tartly as she took in his wounds.

Vejhon wasn’t amused.

“I’m going to guess either a sister or a cousin,” Jhon said dryly, that common trace of scent that hinted of Hanna making it obvious to him.

“Oh, I’m a sister. Firstborn, second litter. My brother, firstborn, third litter, has gone off in search of…who knows what. Been gone for a year. All the rest of the family is in the country…or in that room. But I suppose you know that already,” she mused, absently sucking on a fingernail. Unlike Hanna’s sexy red, she had hers painted a bold, dangerous black. “Now me…I just came back last night. And low and behold, Sissy has a new beau. How clever of her.”