Janus' Conquest (9 page)

“Maybe I should simply keep the harness and send you back to your dwelling.”

Janus moved alongside her hip, with his chest against one of her shoulders. With her wrist held in one strong hand, he moved her around him again. “I like the idea of handling you better.” He stopped and turned her to face him as his arms held her against his body. The beads slid over her sensitive clit with every step. Her hands spread out over his uniform as she shivered in the grip of hard arousal. She wanted to climax but recalled in vivid detail how much more she preferred Janus’ touch to the 59

Dawn Ryder

training harness. She detested his uniform because it stood between her fingers and his chest. The fabric of her robe was uncomfortable, scratching her ultra-sensitive skin with each movement she made. Time seemed endless because all she wanted to do was return to her dwelling where the waiting would be finished and she could succumb to her cravings. Tipping her head back, she witnessed a flare of arousal in his eyes. His cock was hard against her belly and she suddenly didn’t care for the tender concern he was lavishing on her. She wanted to taste the hard, arrogant Hunter who had pushed his way right into her life. The impulse didn’t make any sense, but she was past reasoning anything out.

“Take me home, Janus. I loathe this harness and this waiting.” His face lost its controlled expression. She stroked her hand up to his neck and sighed as her fingers touched his bare skin. “I have been thinking about you for far too long.”

His hands tightened on her hips. A flexing of his fingers over each curve as he pressed his cock harder against her body. There was a hint of uncontrolled hunger in his eyes and it empowered her. Even that little hint of being in control of such a powerful male was addictive. A bolt of fear went through her as well, but it mixed with her desire creating a potent mixture that was intoxicating.

“You have masked it well enough.” Her words were too much temptation. Janus couldn’t let it flood his mind because it would wash aside every well-thought-out strategy he had. Yielding so much control wasn’t his style, but that was the dangerous part of answering his need for Fay. She was an addiction that might control him if he weakened. That was the main reason he’d resisted claiming her for an entire year.

“One does not choose a lover without consideration, Janus.” She stepped away from his body and enjoyed the slide of the pleasure beads against her clit. Her body was alive with sensation and she embraced it as she cast a hungry look back at Janus.

“Would you prefer I answered my sexual impulses lightly?”

“I offered for you in front of your father and my comrades. That is not lightly.”

60

Janus’ Conquest

His voice was rough with frustration. He reached forward across the space she’d placed between them and grasped her wrist. Such a simple gesture, but it felt intense.

His fingers closed around her limb, securing her in his grasp once more. Satisfaction flickered in his eyes now. “Was that not worthy of your expectations?”

“If kneeling in front of you with witnesses is what you crave, you need to find another, Janus.” Her voice was laced with disappointment, but she meant each word.

There was confidence in her voice, even if she heard the fear of rejection in it as well. It might have been much wiser to simply leave her feelings unspoken, but she could not use him. Her temper flared up at the sparks that rose between them. They were opposites. Two things that would never mix well, very much like oil and water. Each touch only chained her to him further, but it was a doomed attraction. He wanted a female who would bend and she was as rigid as the trunk of a tree.

“You see? I was correct to resist you. We do not suit. You must find another.”

She turned, but never made it even one full step away from him. A hard arm snaked around her body as he closed the small gap between them. She whimpered as his body heat wrapped around her and his cock pressed against her lower back, taunting her with its presence. A deep shudder shook her body as need became too much to contain. There was no more control, only enduring.

“You will belong to me.” His voice was low and laced with determination. His arms closed tighter around her, allowing her to feel his strength for a mere moment before he relaxed enough to keep from crushing her smaller body. His breath teased her ear as he leaned down to whisper. “But you are correct about one thing. There will be no more waiting.”

He grasped her wrist and let her body go as he knelt in front of her. He dragged her over his shoulder with the use of his grip on her wrist. He pushed back up to his full height and her feet left the ground as her head landed against his back. His free hand landed on top of her bottom. He cupped one side of it and grasped the flesh as he began retracing their steps towards her dwelling.

61

Dawn Ryder

She had pushed him past his limits.

Fay stared at Janus, fascination capturing her complete attention. She rested against her own bed and let her gaze rest on her companion. He was blocking the doorway of her sleeping room as he began to pull his uniform gloves off. Now that they were inside once more, he was shedding his uniform, pushing his duty aside in favor of joining her in intimacy. Gone was the Hunter who had challenged her for weeks on end. She faced the man. Beneath his uniform was a male she knew precious little about. The only thing she seemed positive of was the fact that she was not sorry she had tempted him.

Anticipation surged through her blood at a speed that threatened to make her lightheaded. Her heart was pounding beneath her breasts as she watched him work open the front fastenings of his uniform top. Her gaze followed his hands with a devotion that bordered on obsession. He pulled the edges of his uniform apart to reveal the dark hair covering his torso. The image had sprung up in her memory endlessly but it was so much better in person.

Fay pushed up off her bed and moved towards him. She was too excited to remain still any longer. Hunger flickered across his eyes as she moved smoothly across the floor until her fingers threaded through his chest hair. A shiver moved over his chest, rippling past her fingertips as they lingered over his flesh.

Janus was positive he’d never before been so aware of a single touch.

Yet it was more than that. Fay was stroking him, savoring the contact of their skin as she slowly moved her hands until her palms were also pressing flat against his abdomen just below his ribs. She fanned her fingers out over his lowest ribs and he watched as she gasped delicately in reaction to touching him. It was by far more moving than tasting her slit had been. No one might have ever made him believe that he’d come to think of such a simple caress as so important, but it hit him with the force of a tidal wave. This had been what he truly craved, her compliance, a touch that was freely given, not taken once he’d cornered her.

62

Janus’ Conquest

Fay bit into her lower lip again and pulled her gaze up his body until their eyes met. Uncertainty filled her face as she waited to see what he would make of her boldness. She hadn’t been able to resist the impulse to touch him. Fear laced her rising anticipation as she tried not to consider him leaving her because she was not timid as chaste females were expected to be. But she also felt a rising need to make sure he valued her as she was, not as he wished her to be. Living life as an ornament frightened her more than the idea of watching Janus leave her.

Sliding her hands up, she pushed his uniform open wider. “I have wanted to touch you. Like this.”

“Finish the job, Fay.” He caught her chin in a firm hand to keep their eyes locked.

Leaning down he whispered against her ear, “Push my uniform over my shoulders.”

It was a command. Yet it was one she wanted to obey. Her hands smoothed over his chest to his male nipples. She traced their flat, smooth surface and gently pinched the center of each one. A small shudder shook his chest, making her smile.

“As you like.” She pushed the black uniform over his shoulders but didn’t follow the black fabric down his arms. She left it there, binding his arms as she leaned forward and licked one taut nipple. A harsh groan escaped his lips as the hand that had been holding her chin threaded through her hair to grasp the back of her neck.

“Suck it.” This time his voice was harsh and it awakened the frantic hunger that had gripped her when she spied him fucking a trophy. Her lips closed around his nipple instantly and she drew on it hard. His hand gripped her nape as she flicked her tongue over the little point and felt fluid moving down the inside of her pussy.

“Now stroke my cock.” His voice was rough with emotion. The telltale emotional response empowered her and her hand was slipping down his chest as she moved her lips to his untasted nipple. Her fingertips glided across the ridges of hard muscle on his abdomen until they found the waistband of his pants.

“Keep going.”

63

Dawn Ryder

She released his nipple with a little pop and looked up into his eyes. His grip on her neck remained firm as his breath hit her wet lips. Hunger blazed in his eyes, mesmerizing her as she let her hand smooth over the fabric of his pants until they rested over the hard erection pushing the front of the garment forward.

“Very good.” He pressed a hard kiss onto her mouth. The uniform top didn’t bind him in the least. He shrugged it back up onto his shoulders as his mouth pressed her jaw open to allow his tongue to thrust deeply into her mouth. He cupped her bottom with his free hand and pulled her against his body, trapping her hand on top of his cock. His tongue stroked her as he walked her backwards across her living space. The beads on her training harness slipped up and down her slit.

She tore her mouth away from his as she gasped. Pleasure was tightening under the beads once more, making her desperate for release.

“Not yet.” Janus released her and stroked his hands down her arms. He grasped either side of her robe and pulled the garment up. That quickly, he bared her. A shiver went over her skin as her arms crossed over her breasts. It was a defensive reaction to being stripped so quickly. Being bold only allowed her the illusion of control. Janus might take it back whenever he chose. There was a sharp chink of metal as he removed a knife from his belt. The meager light in the room flashed off its polished surface for a moment before she felt its cold blade against the skin of her bottom. A flick of his wrist and he cut the training harness off her.

“You were right to refuse a
ritith
.” Something blazed in his eyes that made her back away from him. “I much prefer being in command of your pleasure, and not with a button. I want to feel your flesh when I hear you cry out.”

He shrugged out of his uniform top and tossed it aside with one flick of his wrist.

The knife was pushed back into its sheath before he pulled the waistband open on his pants. A wicked look crossed his face as he curled one finger at her.

“Come here, Fay, and remove my cock from my uniform.”

64

Janus’ Conquest

“And if I don’t?” Her pussy hated that idea, but the arrogant tone of his command deserved the tart reply.

“You’ll still be chaste when the sun rises.”

She frowned at him. Janus tightened his control as he forced his feet to stand in place. Keeping that promise was going to be the greatest test of his control, but he needed to know if she wanted him. Wanted him deep inside her body where no male had ever touched her, the intimate embrace that needed to be offered if a man wanted it to have any value. Any male might take a female’s body, but only a tempered warrior got to taste what the gift of a lover was like.

He refused anything less from her. “I will leave if you like but I will have your submission if I am going to claim your body. Come here and handle my flesh. Bare it.

Invite me to become your lover. No doubts between us. You may never say that I overwhelmed you.”

He needed her to issue the invitation too. Pride coated his words and it only enhanced his appeal. Maybe that was the reason she had never been able to shake her fascination with him. His demands might be arrogant, but the male beneath that commanding tone was far stronger than any other who had tried to attract her attention. It touched something deep inside her, setting off a need to allow him to be her mate.

“But are you sure you can stand still for the time it takes me to issue that invitation?” Her voice was husky and almost sounded like a stranger’s. A little bubble of laughter shook her chest as she moved towards him. She laid her hands on his chest once more, moving her fingers through his crisp chest hair. She lingered over the touch as he shook and bit into his lower lip to contain a snarl. All she heard was a smothered sound. It made her smile as she slipped her hands down his torso in a slow, lingering touch designed to test his compliance.

“As long as your hands are on me, I can stand.”

65

Dawn Ryder

He lifted his hands and he let them glide over her breasts. She sucked in her breath as he returned her teasing touches. Determination flickered in his eyes as his fingers rolled her hard nipples.

“I will be happy to match you, Fay, touch for touch.”

Her hands shook but she gained control over them as she sent them down his belly determined to keep pace with him. “Ah, but I believe we must make allowances for the differences in our bodies. I need to make sure that I am touching something just as tender on your body.”

Playing lost its luster as she sent her hands into his open pants. She clasped his erection and pulled it free as she pressed the open edges of his uniform away from his cock. She couldn’t resist looking at it. The head was crowned with a thick ridge all the way around and it was very thick. The thing thrust straight up from his belly as she closed her hands around it.

A harsh growl came from him. Moving her hand, she pressed it all the way to the base before moving it slowly up to the ridge on the head. There was a slit on its top and it glistened with a drop of fluid. The memory of spying on him offered up another thing she had witnessed. It was wicked, but keeping him poised on the edge of control as he did to her was too tempting. Lowering her body onto one knee she licked the slit before Janus realized her intention.