Just as she knew she needed to sate whatever dark craving she was developing for him. She needed to get back on task, and her head was always clearer after sex. And if there was one thing she needed to pull her plan off, it was clarity – not the chaos she was feeling then.
‘It’s just you and me now,’ she said. ‘No one need ever know.’
But as she applied a taunting amount of pressure to his erection, Jask caught hold of her ankle. He eased it aside but, to her relief, he didn’t let go. Instead he lowered to his knees. He slid his hand up the back of her calf with the motion, behind her knee, to grasp the back of her thigh as he leaned over her, his free hand pressing into the mattress beside her shoulder.
‘You’re a tease,’ he said, his tone laced with something enticingly calm despite the look in his eyes.
‘If you didn’t want this too, you would have kept walking,’ she said, trying to keep her breathing steady as his hand moved up her outer thigh up to her hip, pushing her tunic up with the motion.
‘I’m not disputing that,’ he said, before easing back on his haunches. He equally clutched her other hipbone with his now free hand in a lethally possessive move. And as he gazed down between her legs, at her exposure in the shadows, his unashamed blatancy made her stomach clench. She swallowed harder than she wanted to, the tension building in the pit of her abdomen. But she felt no temptation to recoil or cover herself despite her toes instinctively curling into the mattress.
Sliding his hand up her cleavage to clasp her throat, he leaned over her again. But there was no pressure in his hold, just a move that allowed him to glide his thumb over her lips before tucking it into the breathless parting.
‘Go on then,’ he said, looking deep into her eyes. ‘Bite now. I dare
you
.’
The challenge sent her heart racing, but as he slowly unbuttoned her tunic at her cleavage she lay mesmerised and unflinching.
He watched every button he released reveal a little more of her flesh until he finally pushed both folds of fabric aside, exposing her fully to him.
She was lost. As his hand encompassed her breast, his thumb gliding over her already hardened nipple, she clenched her hands. And as he cupped the side of her jaw with his other hand, pressed his thumb a little deeper between her lips, as he lowered his head to take her held breast hungrily in his mouth, she let out an uncontrolled groan she never thought possible.
Her raw response clearly not having gone unnoticed, he left her breast damp and cool as he rested that arm back on the mattress. He removed his thumb from between her parted lips only for his to hover less than an inch away again. But he didn’t kiss her – he kept that mouth a cruel, taunting distance away.
Instead, his azure eyes didn’t flinch from hers as his free hand disappeared below their waists.
Sophia flinched as his fingers met her sex.
And as he instantly applied painstaking pressure to her tender clitoris, she gasped, jolted, her head fuzzy.
‘Fuck,’ she hissed, almost silently.
‘That’s the idea, isn’t it?’ he whispered. And without taking the pressure off her clit, eased a finger inside her.
She flinched again. But despite her involuntarily tensing, Jask went anything but easy, pushing deep into her in one slow but unrelenting move.
She had no idea what he was doing once he was inside her, but it evoked goosebumps all over her body, made her eyes water, her body shudder. And all the time, he kept staring deep into her eyes, his thumb simultaneously working her clit to the point she could barely breathe.
For a split second she thought she was going to have to ask him to stop, to break the intensity just for a moment. But as a dark glint appeared in his eyes, accompanied by him sliding a second finger inside her, she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists for fear of coming too soon.
* * *
He
had
to stay in
control.
As much as he wanted to spread her thighs further and feel the most sensitive part of him sink into her wet heat, that was one step too far across his self-imposed line.
This was about taunting and toying with her. It was about showing her how easily he could control her climax with every subtle and manipulative movement of his fingers, knowing when to apply pressure and when to withdraw, where to touch and how. She needed to know that experience had taught him
more
than enough, despite her previous coaxing. Just as instincts told him how to read what she liked and what she didn’t – just how far to push and when to stop.
And Phia gave everything away so easily in each small, hitched little breath, the opening and closing of her eyes, how far she parted her lips, how much she arched her back, how deep she was willing and able to take him.
Because from the way she was responding, sex with him wasn’t just about power and control as was indicative of serryns. Phia was emotionally engaged with what he was doing to her.
The serryn who arrogantly thought she could handle him. The serryn who he needed to get inside the head of to be able to tame, to persuade her to do what he needed in order to save his pack, was giving him just that. The serryn he now knew
so
much more about. And he needed to keep his focus on turning that to his advantage.
But pushing two fingers deep inside her tight, restrictive warmth set his own arousal dangerously close to the edge.
He pulled back onto his haunches again to try to ease his tension, only for Phia to lethally arch her back even further, emphasising her concave stomach.
It was a reminder that a serryn body was for two purposes only – pleasure and killing. And despite the poison that coursed through her veins, it was no danger to him. Just as he could spill inside her a hundred times to no effect but to sate his own need. And right then that was
exactly
what he’d wanted.
And he wanted to look her in the eyes as he did it – something he hadn’t afforded himself in as long as he could remember.
Dare to forge that connection as he came inside her.
And it was getting harder to deny that she looked more beautiful than ever, masked partially in shadow, partially in light, arousal emanating from her glossy dark eyes, her pretty lips full and swollen. With her arched body, her arms having fallen limp beside her head, her slender, shapely thighs parted wide for him, she was more than bewitching – she was perfect.
And the sheen her arousal had created against her inner thighs, the wetness that masked his fingers, told him just how much
she
was losing herself in the moment.
He should have walked away at that point. He should have brought her to climax and left her there on the mattress – sated his own need alone somewhere else in an uncomplicated, self-satisfying act.
But he wanted
her
.
And as he firmly massaged her swollen breasts, rubbing his thumb across her hardened nipples, as she groaned in response again, it was his turn to swallow harder than he should.
This time her raw response made him teeter. Now the female who lay so openly beneath him was far more than a commodity.
He wanted to pick up the pace. Needed to pick up the pace.
In frustration, he plunged his two fingers as deep inside her as he could go.
He thought it would be the breaking point – that she’d finally fend him off. But she only arched her back more and cried out, her eyes tightly closed, her frown deep, a little flushed, lost, and never more stunning.
Her defences were truly down. In that moment, she was his. And there was no way he was walking away from that.
He looked back down between her legs, to where he fucked her exquisitely with his fingers and knew it was nowhere near enough for him anymore. He needed to be inside her. He needed to part those thighs as far as he could and compel her to take every inch of him.
He looked back at her to see she was looking at him again, gazing up at him with her molten brown eyes in a moment of complete understanding.
It was his last chance to walk away.
But he should have known he was a fool to think she was that tamed. A fool to think he’d broken her yet.
‘That the best you’ve got?’ she whispered, those full, wanton lips again curled in that defiant smirk, arousal seeping through a breathlessness that was unable to mask her intoxicating impatience.
To coax him further, she dared to further part the smooth, slender thighs either side of his hips, reminding him of the willing body that lay vulnerable beneath him.
Skilfully, slowly removing his fingers, he leaned over her again. Resting both hands either side of her head, he looked deep into the eyes that burrowed back into his, silence enclosing the room.
‘Far from it,’ he said. ‘But
I’m
in charge here –
not
you.’
* * *
It was a statement that made her stomach jolt – that and the look in his eyes.
His trail of slow, hard kisses down the length of her neck, the scuff of his stubble against her tender flesh, the coaxing rake of his slightly extended canines, had her clutching the mattress either side of her hips. And as he took her breast in his hand again only to squeeze, to suck harder than he had last time, the detectable lengthening in the talons that dug into her only reminded her of exactly
what
she was goading.
She’d almost forgotten what he was, seeing no difference in their species in the minutes that had passed.
But she knew no male of her own species matched up to him. No male ever made her spark with such a painful burning that he could have plunged those canines or purposefully extended talons into her flesh and she wouldn’t have even cared.
Because those eyes that looked back into hers again
were
feral, but intoxicatingly laced with something so much more. Something that created a sense of assurance in her even as he gripped the top of her open tunic double-handed, yanking the fabric halfway down her arms. She couldn’t take her eyes off him as he cupped her neck with both hands before sliding them firmly down over her breasts to her waist.
Just watching his admiration created a sense of liberation, a paradox to the makeshift restraint he had created with her tunic.
Because he
was
admiring her.
And it was the only thing that stopped her recoiling in on herself as he pressed his palms against the inside of her thighs, pushed her legs that inch further, gazing down at her with even more blatancy than last time – more than any of her other lovers had dared.
But Jask had no such qualms.
Her arousal escalated to lethal levels. The frustration of the throb between her legs left her not caring what she said or what she did.
She’d be right in what she’d said to him: No one would ever know. Whatever happened, this was between them. And it would stay between them. He wasn’t going to live long enough to share it.
But this time, the very thought of killing him created a pang. The very thought of being the one capable of bringing an end to Jask Tao. Because lying there, beneath him, she wondered how the hell she could do it.
One thing she knew for sure – there was no way she was going to be able to look him in those eyes when she did.
Even less so when he backed up, only to lower his head between her parted thighs, his mouth against her sex making her cry out again.
As he kept her thighs apart with his shoulders, there was nothing coaxing in the way he went down on her, nothing coaxing in the hand that slid up to gently grasp her throat again. His tasting of her was hungry, the workings of his tongue as he licked her and delved inside her ravenous like she’d never experienced.
She reached for something to grab but met nothing but the mattress before slamming her hands down onto his broad, strong shoulders. She dug her nails deep into his firm flesh before fisting his hair in her hand as his tongue found her clit, his mouth working her relentlessly.
It was finally one step too far – more than she could take.
As a warm tear trickled down her cheek, she felt herself peak, her climax flooding her.
Shuddering, she expected him to pull back from her release, but he didn’t. His hand only slid from her throat to take hold of her breast again as his mouth still worked her sex, his tongue remaining deep inside her as she came, as he forced her to orgasm again and again until she had nothing left to give.
Body aching, extremities tingling, she’d never trembled so much during climax. Had never felt so detached from her own body.
But even that didn’t seem to be enough for him.
He leaned over her again as he stayed between her thighs, slid her tunic back into place on her shoulders so he could pin both hands above her head. ‘You will look at me the whole time I’m inside you,’ he said. ‘And you will not look away until I’m done.’
Her heart pounded. Her skin prickled.
As he pushed into her, everything in that moment stopped. Everything became a haze. Nothing felt real.
His thrust was exquisite. Steady but forceful, breaking inside her in one complete move, his breath held as tightly as hers.
She tightened her fists, her nails digging painfully into her palms, but she wouldn’t look away from him even as she cried out.
Didn’t dare look away from him.
Didn’t
want
to look away from him.
Looking back into those eyes as he thrust again, filled her completely, revealed far too much to her. The stirring she felt inside was not one she could afford to feel. She couldn’t afford to feel anything – not for him. Not there, not then.
Because it was terrifying. Her own feelings were more terrifying than the authoritative lycan who held her down and pushed satisfyingly deep into her.
She reminded herself she could handle the rules – she’d lived by them long enough. She didn’t get attached. She never got attached.
More than ever she had to get used to it – now that she was a serryn, it was all her life would ever be. One encounter after another. They’d bite. They’d die. She’d move on. She had to harden herself to it.