Big weekend ahead. Buried in edits and working on a WIP for a new science fiction series--then surprise, my boy came home from the Marines for the weekend, possibly the last weekend before he goes to Afghanistan. So, I'll make this quick, bow out of hanging out online for a couple days and give you the next installment of When Souls Collide. I wish you as fantastic a weekend.
Best,
Dawn
All rights are the intellectual property of the author. No part may be copied or reproduced without the permission of the author.
***Warning. The following story contains erotic elements, explicit language and violence. Read at your own risk.***
The barge rocked and Tesza ran to the window. Shouts, screams and the rumbling of an approaching hover army. Bolts of blue light shot over the water. A barge to the left had flames engulfing the sails.
Tesza clamped down on the edge of the portal and watched as another bolt hit the starboard escort. The craft tipped nose into the air and began to sink into the bog. She clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming when a garver wound its body around one of the men in the water and dragged him under.
An explosion lit the swamp like day. The creature re-emerged with the man in his mouth and another garver clamped onto his legs. The one holding the legs executed a death roll and twisted the man apart in the middle, swimming away, leaving a stream of innards following.
Tesza turned and heaved all over the cabin floor. Once she stopped, she stumbled toward the door and threw it open, staring out at the massacre. Her fault. She’d led him here, given him the cure. Trusted him.
“The nets!” Jarod barked the order and strode down the side of the barge. Men shoved poles against the triggers and sprung the trap. Nets shot up everywhere. Hovers hit and capsized, a few barely squeaked past, running up alongside the barges, firing shots. Poles hit the hovers knocking them over, feeding the beasts below.
Inside the web enclosure, mania. The garvers whipped into frenzy from the smell of blood in the water. The frantic action churned the mangroves, sending waves splashing over the sides of the barge. A Kori hand with a lazr’ still clasped in its fingers washed over the edge and bumped against Tesza’s boot.
She screamed and staggered back, more blood and muddy water poured over her boots. Someone caught her from behind and scooped her into their arms, carrying her back to the cabin. She felt the mattress under her and opened her eyes. Jarod stared back.
“Stay here.”
Her heart bumped against her ribs, her eyes plead for forgiveness. He reached out and touched her face. “I will do anything to protect you.”
He ran for the door and slammed it behind him. Tesza drew her knees to her chest and shivered. Outside chaos erupted. She bit her lip and began to rock back and forth. She was such a fool. She’d thrown away the only true love she’d had for a lie. Could, would Jarod ever trust her again? Gods, if she ever saw Ursus again, she’d kill him herself.
#####
A gentle hand brushed her cheek. Tesza shifted where she’d fallen asleep. She opened her eyes and searched the cabin, barely illuminated from the morning light.
Jarod sat next to her on the bunk. Several strands of hair had come loose from his braid. His cheeks were smudged with soot and blood. Her face flushed at the sight of him and the thoughts she’d had the night before.
“They’ve retreated for now. We got half of them in the nets, but they will come back with more.” He lifted his eyes to the portal and stared out. “We go to land. They’ll have to follow on foot.”
Tesza’s heart skipped a beat and she sat up. Did he get Ursus? Could he have died in the nets? “You didn’t kill them all?”
Jarod turned back to her. “No.” The look on his face made it clear he knew she meant Ursus.
“Please. Stop this, Jarod.”
“I can’t stop. They came to kill us.” He stroked her cheek, letting his hand slide down her neck to her shoulder. Fingers softly travelled lower, grazing her breast.
Tesza felt a treacherous pucker of nipple. She bit her lip and turned from him.
Jarod hooked her chin with a finger and turned her back to his gaze. “I would do anything for you but that. Don’t ask me to continue to let our people die.”
He was right. They would continue to kill the Kalos. She’d destroyed their only chance. How could she tell Jarod?
“Tesza.” His voice sent shivers down her spine. A part of her remembered his touch for the three nights of her wedding and again in the cave, the single smile on the deck, the building need. He couldn’t be buried, ignored. He’d been a part of her life from the beginning and her body remembered. Ursus wasn’t the only one who pulled on her soul.
She forgot to breathe as he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her. Power, hunger, need… Tesza slid her hands up and pulled him closer. For now she needed his touch, later she would sort her feelings out. It was time she accepted him as her husband and finished what they’d started.
Jarod lowered them to the bunk and pressed her against the mattress. Inside her stomach fluttered and jolts of lust shot through her body.
His hand travelled under her shirt and cupped her breast. Tesza gasped and arched up against him. His hand went to her waist and unfastened her pants, tugging them down her hips. He slid off and untied her boots and dropped them to the floor. Her clothes came next, and then his, until they were both stripped bare.
He slid back onto her and pushed her knees apart. “You’re mine. You’ve always been mine.” He stroked her clit with his fingers. Tesza bucked up. She couldn’t deny the energy in his touch.
“You’re hot, wet. Don’t tell me you don’t want me.”
“Yes. I want you. I accept you as my husband.”
His hand withdrew and his cock pressed where fingers retreated. He pushed past her lips, stretching her tighter than she’d ever imagined. Slowly he began to move. Tesza threw her legs around his hips and pulled him closer, grinding into his hard cock, wanting him deeper, harder. Needing.
She fisted the blanket beside her and cried out, arching up. His mouth captured a nipple and sucked then nipped. Sharp pain, shooting pleasure. More ache, more need. Not enough.
“Jarod.”
“Yes.” He bit her shoulder.
“Harder.” She needed to forget everything but him. She wanted his force to overwhelm her, consume her, so she could forget the man who’d tricked her and the pain of his betrayal, the pain of hers. She needed this moment, and in this moment she only wanted to think about Jarod.
He froze for a second then smiled that smile that sent her heart to racing. His arms came around her and he lifted her from the bunk, brought her around and pressed her against the closed door.
Tesza cried out and raked his back. “Gods, now.”
He slammed into her so hard he knocked the air from her lungs. Tesza’s mouth dropped open and he captured it, muffling the scream that threatened to escape. He slid his hands under her ass and lifted her higher, withdrawing and plunging in. Again and again, banging her against the wood surface with brutal force, surely bruising her backside.
Tesza threw her head back and cried. Harder, faster it came, each time with more power than before. Jarod didn’t just take her. He possessed her, owned her.
Her orgasm exploded through her body. Her muscles convulsed around him, clenching him tight, increasing the friction, driving him deeper.
In one powerful thrust he impaled her, coming so hard his seed shot straight to her womb in wave after wave, filling her, soaking her. Jarod held her, not moving then lowered his mouth to hers.
Silence hung in the air. There was nothing he could say that his body hadn’t already, and Jarod knew it. He swung her around and returned her to the mattress. Pulling his clothes on, he glanced out the portal again.
“Get dressed, pack, and meet me outside. We can’t let them close enough to take you.”
“What?” Tesza sat up.
“They want the cure.”
She swallowed hard and decided she had to confess. They’d only come to kill them, Ursus had the cure. “Jarod. I gave him the cure.”
Jarod shook his head and reached out, stroking her cheek. “No, you’re both the cause and the cure. The cure is in your blood. The fruit nut is only food, nothing more. They need you to stop the plague. I like to keep my weapons close, Tess. It’s why you were picked as my bride. You’re of special lineage”
He spun on his heel and left the room.
In one action she’d officially claimed him as her husband and regretted every last second.
No comments:
Post a Comment