Fire Pearl (Beyond Ontariese 5) (7 page)

“You can do that?” He sounded skeptical.

“I have an even better idea.” She focused on
his erection and infused her voice with Mystic energy. “From this
moment forth, you will be unable to come without the sound of my
voice.”

He moaned and covered himself with both
hands. “What the hell did you just do? It burns!”

“You will only find release when I allow it
and I’m losing interest fast.”

His fingers fisted in her hair. “You bitch!
Undo it, now.”

She didn’t flinch from his aggression. The
slight sting heightened her excitement. “Obey me or you’ll spend
the rest of your life hard.” He sank to his knees and glared into
her eyes. Shifting out of her dress, she fought back a triumphant
smile. She didn’t want to push him too far too fast. “Clasp your
hands behind your back and arouse me as I deserve to be aroused. I
want to feel your tongue, and only your tongue, caressing my
clit.”

“I’m not a relician.” He gritted out between
clenched teeth. “That’s how women pleasure each other.”

“Lucky them. It’s also one way skilled men
pleasure their women.” She spread her legs and reached behind her,
bracing herself against the sides of the vanity. “Now get
busy.”

He locked his wrists behind his back and
leaned in slowly, having to angle his head to reach her. His
obvious reluctance amused her as she anticipated the first brush of
his tongue. Knowing he had never tasted a woman was nearly as
thrilling as seeing such a powerful man on his knees.

His tongue touched her, pulled away then
circled her with more conviction. She looked down into his glowing
eyes and a spontaneous orgasm shook her.
Damn it.
She’d
wanted this to last, to savor the gentle swirl of his tongue.

Without permission, he lifted her, draping
one leg over his shoulder and guiding her other foot to his thigh.
She gasped and arched, sandwiched between the vanity and his mouth.
He could never remain passive and she needed his aggression as much
as he craved control. His lips closed around her clit and he sucked
until a harsh cry escaped her throat. Yes! That’s what she wanted,
what she dreamed about. He traced her slit and pushed into the very
heart of her. Stars, it felt good! She grabbed his hair, holding
him in place and urging him on. He licked and sucked, licked and
sucked while she trembled and moaned.

He pushed two fingers into her core and
centered his mouth over her clit. Flick, thrust. Flick, thrust. On
and on he went. Tension built until her muscles rippled and her
body shook. She came and came again before he finally released
her.

Hooking his hands beneath her knees, he
pushed her legs up and back. “Hold yourself open like this. I want
to look at you.”

She bit her bottom lip and clasped her knees,
positioning herself as he demanded. The cool surface of the mirror
pressed against her back and his gaze scaled her sex. “Now.” She
panted. “Fill me now.”

He laughed. “It will seldom be as easy as it
was in the corridor.” He traced her creamy slit with the head of
his cock, his gaze boring into hers.

His commanding demeanor thrilled her, made
her insides quiver and burn. She pressed her lips together,
refusing to beg. He circled her opening then pushed in just far
enough so she could feel her body expanding around him.

“Better?” His tone held a hint of
mockery.

“Deeper.” She canted her hips. “More.”

Easing his hands under her bottom, he lifted
her, adjusting the angle of their joining as he thrust to the hilt.
She waited for him to pound into her as he had done before, ready
for their consuming passion to sweep her away. Instead he pulled
his hands out from under her and played with her nipples. His
fingers rolled one tender crest and heat spiraled through her
abdomen. Her core throbbed, attuned to each firm pinch.

“Which do you like better my cock or my
tongue?”

She closed her eyes, trembling helplessly.
Sensations washed over her, hot then cold then hot again.
“Cock.”

Awareness flowed through her. A distant echo.
A faded memory. Faujer pulled back and thrust deep, pressing her
against the mirror. Mystic energy surged, stealing her breath and
making her head spin. The mirror absorbed her, blending vision with
reality. She focused on the new sensations as Faujer found a slow,
steady rhythm. It was almost as if each firm stroke drove her
deeper into the vision.

Mauve-streaked silver hair spread out over a
lavish mound of furs. A woman’s long legs clasped her lover’s sides
as he thrust into her. Noll moaned, the woman’s pleasure joining
with hers. Reaching, scanning, Noll isolated the woman and melded
with her consciousness. Her lover kissed her deeply, his touch both
possessive and tender. The woman buried her fingers in his hair and
opened her eyes.

Noll gasped. “Lord Drakkin.”

Faujer clasped her throat, his gaze burning
into hers. “Say my name.”

“Vision.” She forced the word out and tugged
on his wrist. “Don’t stop.” His grip eased, though his thrusts grew
more forceful. Frantically scanning for the woman’s being, Noll
reestablished the Mystic connection. She poured energy across the
link, but the image remained distorted. She pulled back and scanned
the couple’s surroundings.

Clutching her hips, Faujer pounded into her
with unrelenting determination. Noll ignored her body’s demands and
searched the vision. Their location was clear yet somehow out of
sync. Lord Drakkin gathered the woman against him and rolled,
arranging her astride his hips. The vision receded, like water
seeping between her fingers.

“No, damn it! I’m almost there.” She wrapped
her legs around Faujer’s waist and rubbed her back against the
mirror. A temporal shift! So few were capable of manipulating time.
If she hadn’t seen Drakkin’s face, the possibility never would have
occurred to her.

“Let me come, you bitch!” Faujer draped her
knees over his arms and pulled her bottom off the vanity. “Say the
words. Let me come.”

“Not yet! I know
where
they are.” She
closed her eyes and scanned, blocking out every distraction. “I
still need to know
when
.”

“My sisters?” Aria pressed her lips together
and tried to keep the sarcasm out of her tone. When she’d openly
challenged him before, he kissed her into silence. She wasn’t about
to open that door for him again. He obviously sensed her loneliness
and had no problem using it against her.

But why did he persist in mocking her? Each
time she’d been ready to believe his fantastical story, he added a
new level of ridiculousness. She wasn’t a space pet’s bastard. She
was the love child of a powerful Mystic and a former queen. Yeah
right. And now she had siblings? Why not riches untold and her own
magic powers?

Her memory conspired with her captor, mocking
her with the recent past. What did she call visions and spontaneous
teleportation if not magic powers?

It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t.
Nothing good ever happened to a Rodyte slave.

“You have two half-sisters,” Drakkin
persisted. “E’Lanna was mother to all three of you, but they have a
different father. You also have a half-brother, but we won’t get
into that right now.”

Her head was still spinning from all he’d
told her so far. If the space pet who had raised her wasn’t her
mother, and that was one massive if. She wasn’t even Rodyte. Well,
her father had been half Rodyte, but she was mostly Ontarian.

The only hope she had of disproving this
nonsense was to… Why bother trying to convince a madman that his
fantasy world didn’t exist. It was a waste of energy. She should
just play along and look for any opportunity to escape.

Images of endless hills of sand spreading
toward the horizon filled her memory. No one could survive out
there in that vast, desolate desert. Unless she suddenly developed
the ability to teleport at will, she was stuck here with this
lunatic.

Reining in her useless thoughts, she focused
on the current tangent. “What were my half-sisters doing on Earth?”
She’d just let him spin his tales. At least it was keeping him
occupied.

“They were sent to Earth at the beginning of
the Great Conflict. According to Vee, they would have arrived on
New Year’s Day.” He retrieved the crystal disk from his pocket then
handed it to her. “This is your sister Charlotte.” He waited as she
examined the image, shifting the disk to different angles. The
woman was lovely. Her warm brown hair and the regal tilt of her
chin reminded Aria of their mother. He held out his hand and she
returned the disk. “And this is Krystabel.”

Her brows drew together as she gazed at the
second image. “They have both the same parents? They don’t look
anything alike.” Krystabel’s hair was blonde and she had a small,
heart-shaped face with pale blue eyes. She appeared delicate,
almost fragile, with none of the nobility so evident in Charlotte’s
face.

“I’ll explain what happened to Krystabel, but
let’s take this one step at a time.”

Aria closed her fingers around the disk with
a nod. It was pointless to argue with him. She’d swung from despair
to elation and back. At the moment she hovered on the fringes of
depression, wishing he’d just tell her why she was here. “Who sent
them to Earth and why was it necessary?” She didn’t really care
about the answers he concocted, but it seemed important to him that
she listen.

“Your mother hid the twins on Earth to
protect them from the House of Joon. The House of Aune and the
House of Joon were at the heart of the Great Conflict.”

“Sounds like
Star-Crossed
.”

He nodded. “The Ontarian version is far more
complicated and even more tragic. Sacrifice didn’t result in peace
as it did in the Shakespearian fable. When your mother was
murdered, the Great Conflict escalated into civil war.”

“I’m sorry.” She didn’t know what else to
say. The plot of
Star-Crossed
was more real to her than the
Great Conflict. Even if every word he said was true, these people
had lived and died without her ever knowing them.

“Your sister Charlotte is the current High
Queen.”

Half-sister to a queen is almost as good
as a princess
. She kept the sarcastic comment to herself. “Is
the House of Aune still at war with the House of Joon?”

“They have managed to secure a tenuous
peace.” He was staring at her again, as if he wanted to devour her.
“The Joint High Council rules Ontariese now. All six of the great
houses are represented on the council.”

“That’s good.” She crossed her arms over her
chest, sexual awareness making her restless. Hundreds of people
stared at her every night in a costume that clearly outlined her
body, yet she hadn’t felt naked until Drakkin looked at her. “At
least the war ended.”

He smiled and closed the small gap between
them. “I’ve overwhelmed you and that wasn’t my intention. You’ve
missed over a hundred years of your planet’s development. I
shouldn’t have tried to explain it all in a day.”

Finally, they were back to the beginning, to
the reason he’d kidnapped her. “What happens now?”

“That’s largely up to you.” He brushed her
cheek with the backs of his fingers. “You are
not
my
prisoner. I’m here to teach you, to help you control your Mystic
abilities.”

“I don’t have any abilities.” Yet she’d heard
Faujer’s dream and teleported to Earth. That amounted to Mystic
abilities whether she was ready to accept it or not. “It was a
fluke.”

If you say so.

“I say so.” He chuckled and her eyes widened.
“You didn’t say that out loud, did you?”

I sent my thoughts directly to your mind.
Now respond telepathically. Don’t think. Just send the first
thought that comes to your mind.

Will you kiss me if I get it right?
She yelped as his warm hand curved around the back of her neck. “I
didn’t mean that. I just said—”

His lips covered hers. It wasn’t really a
kiss. He just silenced her with his mouth.
Our lessons could be
very interesting if this is your chosen means of reward.
His
tongue traced her bottom lip, his breath mingling with hers.
I’ve wanted to taste you for days.

Days?
He delved into her mouth,
grazing the top of her teeth and stroking her tongue. She clutched
his upper arms and curled her tongue around his, helplessly
encouraging him to deepen the kiss.
How long were you watching
me before you appeared in my dressing room?

He broke away and stepped back, his hand
lingering on her shoulder. “I shouldn’t have kissed you. If I’m to
be your mentor, this is inappropriate.”

“Then I want another mentor.” She wasn’t sure
where the boldness came from. She should be terrified of him, but
she didn’t feel so much as a tingle of fear. There had been few
choices in her life. She’d accepted what came her way and made the
best of each situation. This was different. She’d spent the past
ten months with Drakkin, watching him, wanting him, longing for the
passion they’d shared in her vision.

She didn’t care if he was insane. If he’d
constructed this complicated explanation simply because he wanted
to be with her, she’d happily play along.

“Oh Aria.” He sighed and wrapped his arms
around her, tucking her head beneath his chin.

She savored the simple pleasure of being held
by him. His arms were strong, his body warm. And despite
everything, despite the complete irrationality of the sensation, he
made her feel safe.

“Tell me more about the day you teleported.”
Deep and coaxing, his voice caressed her as tangibly as the hand
stroking her back.

Heat suffused her face and a slow, melting
ache erupted low in her belly. Images from the vision replayed in
her mind, teasing her, arousing her. Did he know? Had he sent the
vision to her and now he wanted her to admit that she’d received
it?