Mercy (6 page)

The slashing lines of her eyebrows drew together. “That was not force.”

He gave up the argument. She was too good to concede so early in the game. Besides, his blood was up from the fight and he couldn’t seem to pull his eyes away from her mouth. There was a slight scratch at the corner and her lower lip was swollen temptingly. He touched his tongue to the tiny swell of blood and then licked over that full bottom lip, soothing it, tasting her and then teasing his way inside her mouth.

Her fingers threaded into his hair. Her tongue found his and tangled with it, sucking it deeper inside and then biting at the tip.

This was good. He’d not allowed himself to indulge in play for such a long time, all of his energies on training and learning as much as possible about the Yaguara leadership. And Iada was fair game. He didn’t have to worry about them using her against him, not in any way that he wouldn’t see coming a mile off. So why not take what she offered?

***

Gabriel pushed her back until her shoulders hit the rough stone of the tunnel, his eyes glinting yellow in the dim light. The rush of water echoed up from below. Bouncing off the walls, it was louder here than if they’d been standing on the bank. They needed to get to the river before those guards returned with help. Distantly, Iada could hear voices, raised and sharp with anger. She hoped it was a completely different set of guards coming down to the river. They’d shamed the first batch and those ones would be vicious because of it.

“We need to leave before they come back,” she told Gabriel again.

“Afraid someone will see you getting fucked by a mutant?” The words were harsh, his tone guttural, but his lips were so soft as they trailed their way along her jaw. He was waiting for her answer. Even as his mouth drifted over her skin, he held his body apart from her. The answer mattered to him but she didn’t understand why.

“They already know,” she said. “Everyone knows.”

His hands slipped beneath her skirt, thumbs leading the way, sliding along the seam at the tops of her thighs, tenderly caressing sweat-damp skin. She tipped her head back and he slid his open mouth down the long line of her throat.

“They know your uncles are punishing you,” he murmured. “But do they know how much you want this?”

Punishment. She almost laughed. The forms of discipline her uncles favored were not so subtle. “I don’t…”

Hard fingers flexed into soft skin. “I know that you’re shamed by me.” His big hands shifted around to cover her ass, lifting her, splitting her legs. He drove his hips forward into the gap. “And I know that you want me.”

She didn’t bother to correct Gabriel this time. She didn’t want a conversation. She didn’t want to know his thoughts, not really. She wanted his body. She wanted to hold on to the illusion a little bit longer—that he really was brave and noble hearted. A warrior worthy of her respect. Someone she could trust. She was afraid of what she would find when she really came to know him. She was afraid to let him know her.

Stupid really. She’d always been alone. She’d never been able to trust anyone and it had never bothered her before.

Gabriel pinned her to the wall with his weight and one of his hands left her body. She heard the metallic rip of his zipper then his hand was back to steady her. The head of his cock prodded her and she arched her back from the wall to guide him. He grunted when he found the right angle, caught her mouth with his own and heaved himself up inside her. The cut on her lip reopened and she tasted blood.

His head came up and he stared down at her, mouth slack, eyes narrowed. He drove deep and held himself there. “You can’t lie to me. I can see the desire in your eyes—your pupils long and narrow. I can smell the spice of it on your skin. I can feel it. You’re wet and hot and ready for me to pound into you.” To prove his point, he pulled out in a slow, sweet glide and then moved just as slowly back in. A soft broken moan escaped her and he grinned. “Your body wants me. You want me. A mutant. How do you feel about that, Silveira?”

Right now she felt pretty fine about it. Before she could tell him, she heard the sound of footsteps followed by a muffled curse. She knew that noises echoed strangely in these tunnels. That voice could be coming from a mile above them or a foot away from the tunnel’s mouth. She jerked her head to the side but there was no one there.

“Afraid they’ll come storming down that tunnel and find us here—me pumping between your spread thighs while you howl with pleasure. We could stop now.” He pulsed against her, teasing her, drawing out her wetness, moving so fucking gently it was driving her insane.

“Stop?” she wailed. “You haven’t begun.” She dug her nails into his shoulders to shift against him but he held her hips down.

She snarled at him but he only smiled and pressed a gentle kiss to her temple. “You’re right. There’s no time. We should leave while we still can.”

“We’d have time if you would just move.” Iada glared at him. He was enjoying this, the bastard. His eyes gleamed triumphantly and his mouth was tilted in an arrogant smirk. He knew exactly what she wanted and he was purposefully holding it just out of her reach. Did he want her to beg? She wondered what had changed his mood. After the fight, he’d thanked her and the warm look in his eyes had made her turn away, flushed with pleasure and embarrassment. Now he was angry. She thought that for a moment he’d forgotten who she was and this was his way of reminding them both.

He started to withdraw but she clung to him. Letting out a shaky laugh, he stood upright and she pitched forward. “Work for it, then,” he dared her. “If you don’t like my pace, you can set your own.”

She did. Her muscles were strong, honed by years of intense training, but she was working against gravity and he wasn’t helping her. She gripped his hips with her thighs and flexed her body, tilting her hips back and then driving down, sliding all the way to the base. She let herself rest there suspended by his cock lodged deep inside her. Then she pulled herself up again, using those broad shoulders as leverage to haul herself up and then using her clenched thighs to slow her fall down. She found her rhythm—fast and demanding, determined to have him and be gone before the guards arrived to delay them again. He’d offered his body. His perfect, willing, marvelous body, and she intended to use it while she still had the opportunity. He grunted with every bounce of her hips but he kept his legs braced and his hands resting with light support under her ass.

Those strange eyes tracked the rise and fall of her body but his face was expressionless. The clench of his jaw was the only sign that he was exerting any effort, that he was even interested in what she was doing. It goaded her, that seeming indifference, and she rode him harder, grinding her hips forward on the down stroke. It wasn’t enough. She hooked one arm around his neck and bit into the firm flesh of his shoulder, trying to rouse some response from him. He flinched but then steadied. Snaking her other arm down between their bodies, she worked at her clit. Close. She was so fucking close but she couldn’t quite get there and her muscles were beginning to fatigue. She swallowed down a whimper, tasting his blood. Gabriel’s fingers flexed briefly into her skin. He let slip a long low growl of desire and it pushed her over the edge. She cried out and choked on the sound. The muscles in her thighs finally gave out and she started to slip. Gabriel held her up, digging his fingers into her skin as he moved her body to massage his cock.

She dropped her legs from his hips and he turned her, putting a firm hand on her shoulder to force her down to her knees. She was still reeling, sweating, gasping for air and she didn’t realize his intention until he bent over her back and whispered, “My turn.” And he was inside her again. He planted one fist in the dirt beside her hand and wrapped his other arm low across her abdomen, trapping her against the shock of his heavy thrusts.

They were facing the mouth of the tunnel and the voices were definitely louder now, clearer. A shadow that seemed human in its movement crossed to one side. The guards had arrived. They would find them. They would see this. Gabriel was wrong. It didn’t worry her. It wouldn’t shame her. Her body jerked as Gabriel pounded into her and she hoped that they would come.

Gabriel righted his upper body and dropped a heavy hand over her ass. Each stroke was hard and deliberate. He was close. She felt her own body responding to his urgency. His thumb moved down between her cheeks, stroking slowly to where his cock was pounding into her and then back up. Again and again. He paused and probed inside her. “If there was time, I’d take you here.”

Iada stiffened, not at his words but at the curse that sounded sharp and clear and very, very near.

He probed deeper, slowly twisting his thumb. “Would you let me, Iada?”

She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. He thrust hard and she came sharp and suddenly. He made a startled sound and then he was there with her. Giving two quick hard plunges, he held her tight, buried so deep she could feel the jerk and spasm of his cock. He was still breathing heavily when he pulled back and climbed to his feet. Wordlessly he helped her up and pushed her into a jog.

They made it through the last tunnel without being spotted and slowed to a walk. Iada pulled her hair into a loose ponytail while Gabriel walked silently beside her, seemingly distracted. He kept walking past the small boats the children used, past the relatively still waters of the inlet. He stopped on the bank about fifty feet downriver from the tunnel and looked out over the wide river.

“I’m not ashamed to mate with you,” she said to his back.

His head came around sharply but he didn’t say anything, only watched her expectantly.

She met his questioning gaze head-on. “You expect me to think like a human. To hold grudges and lie to you with my body. You should know your own people better.”

“Your uncles told you to submit,” he said in a flat voice.

She couldn’t deny it. She nodded stiffly. “As a distraction. But you know that I want you. You said so yourself. Submission is very different from desire.”

“And my inferior blood?” There was something sharp in his tone. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought it was hurt.

She should not have to explain this. Any Yaguara would understand it. Gabriel had spent too much time in the human world. It had dulled his instincts. “You defeated me. I’d never lost, Gabriel. Not one match until you. You are strong, cunning, powerful. I am not ashamed to mate with you. I would lay down for you wherever you asked it.”

His eyes shifted away from her then quickly back. He seemed shocked. But that didn’t last for long. She could tell when that shock turned into wary speculation.

“You say that we value strength but you don’t really understand what that means, not for me, not for you or for the people you’re trying to help.”

He grunted and cocked his head. “Are you going to tell me again how impossible my plans are?”

She shook her head. “They’re not impossible.”

“So a couple of quick fucks and you’re ready to change sides?” he drawled. “I’ve been going about this campaign the wrong way.”

“Fine,” she snapped, turning away. Why was he determined to be thickheaded? She was only trying to help him. “Don’t accept my help.”

***

Gabriel watched Iada stalk away from him, her movements stiff and jerky. She turned back after two steps, skin flushed, eyes flashing. God, she was terrifying, fierce and beautiful. As much a force of nature as the river flowing behind her.

“I’m going with you to learn about your people,” she said, voice trembling. “You need to learn about mine too, king.” She spat out the last word like a curse and then turned on her heel.

Gabriel muttered a curse under his breath. He didn’t know why he’d mocked her except that he’d been certain she was lying. This fierce warrior told him that he was strong and cunning and suddenly he could feel all his defenses against her falling away. Then she tried to warn him off again and he thought he saw her angle. Flatter the mutant, distract him with a willing female body, slide a knife between his ribs when he wasn’t looking. She turned her head to look down the river and he could see her hurt in the tightness around her eyes, the compression of her lips to a thin straight line.

“Iada,” he called out, walking toward her.

She turned and planted her feet, lifting her face to watch him approach. Could it be true what she’d said about him? He could ask her to repeat it but he wouldn’t believe it any more if she told him a second time. She’d told him herself that he would be a fool to trust in a handful of pretty words. Still…

He took her hand. Her fingers were cold and kept trying to curl up into a fist. He pressed his thumb against her palm and met her glare. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I spoke harshly.”

She went very still. He wasn’t sure that she was even breathing. She was watching him with a curious mixture of wariness and wonder, like he was some exotic new species of venomous snake. He had the strong impression that no one had ever apologized to her before.

He pulled her closer, couldn’t resist brushing her cheek with the backs of his knuckles. Her skin was so smooth. He watched as the golden color darkened with a faint flush. He felt again that he was skirting a dangerous ledge. “If you’re willing to offer your help in any way, I’ll take it.”

She gave him a curt nod and turned away toward the river again.

***

Iada looked at the water so she wouldn’t have to look into Gabriel’s eyes and see the warmth there. He still didn’t trust her, not really, but she could tell distrust did not come naturally to him. He was direct, honest and compassionate and she could feel herself slipping. He was her enemy. He’d apologized to her.

“Where’s your boat?” She looked around, shielding her eyes from the bright sun with her hand, and then turned back to Gabriel.

He tossed her a crooked grin and pulled his shirt over his head. She preferred him nude. He was not built in the elegant lines that wore clothing well. His body was powerful. Thick and strong as a tree trunk. She had the fancy he’d be just as dependable as one, which was a strange thought. She’d never been fanciful. Beatriz often told her she was too practical for her own good.