Bannockburn Binding (Beloved Bloody Time) (7 page)

“Use two fingers,” Tally told him, her own voice unsteady.

His finger withdrew, then two pushed their way past the muscle. Tally fought not to bear down on him or jerk her hips in reaction. It had been too long. She had forgotten this sweet sensation and the associated pleasures. “Hurry,” she breathed. “That’s enough. Now oil yourself.”

“Ah, gods, Tally,” Rob murmured. She heard the slick sound of oil on flesh and looked over her shoulder. Rob was on his knees, still, and had his hand curled around his cock, smearing the oil along the length of it. Tally caught her breath at the sight.

Rob’s eyes narrowed. “Ye…like to see this?”

“Very much, yes,” she confessed.

He exhaled. “Another layer,” he muttered. He lay on his side behind her and she felt his cock nestled up against her cleft. It was slick and hot and her heart lurched at the touch. Excitement fizzed through her.

“This must be slow,” she warned Rob.

“I know the way of it,” he told her. His cock nudged her anus and pushed up against the ring of muscle. Tally relaxed and his cock slipped inside, the muscle allowing him in. He edged his way deeper, a fraction of an inch at a time, until he was lodged completely inside her.

Tally sighed.

“A fist indeed,” Rob muttered. He lifted her upper leg up and over his knees, spreading her open. “And now I get to play.”

He gave her no time to recoup. His fingers found her cleft and buried themselves in her folds before she had time to draw breath. Tally gasped, her hips bucking, as he invaded her pussy and simultaneously tugged and tweaked her clit.

She gave a small cry as sensations bombarded her, wriggling and bucking as the climax that had been gathering earlier now bloomed once more and swirled closer, bigger and brighter than before.

“Oh, Rob! Oh!” she managed to warn him before the climax hit, bowing her back and locking her muscles all over again.

She heard a strange guttural cry, that she thought was Rob. But then she heard Rob groan as he climaxed and realized she was making that sound. That scream.

As her body relaxed from the orgasm, Rob’s hand gripped her hips and turned her onto her knees. His hands did not release her hips. He thrust into her, his breath escaping him in hard exhalations each time he drove into her, until he gave a shuddering, gasping groan and came again.

He withdrew from her and lifted her up so that she rested against him. His chest was still rising and falling quickly and she could feel his heart racing against her back. His lips pressed against her shoulder and his arms came around her from behind, holding her.

“Ye screamed again, Tally,” he said softly.

She smiled. “You came twice, Rob. The first just as I promised you would.”

He spoke even more softly. “’tis glad I am ye went for mushrooms that day.”

So am I
, Tally thought.

But the rope was digging into her wrist where it lay between her forearm and his, a constant reminder of the truth she couldn’t speak aloud.

Chapter Five

Halfway Station was the giant’s house at the top of the beanstalk, in every sense. It was a huge, sprawling, tangled mess of external structural girders and docking ports that serviced every inter-planetary ship that came to Earth. The industrial sections were glued together with living modules, corridors, greenhouses and all the other paraphernalia human life needed to survive in space.

It looked more like a child’s attempt to build something with Meccano than a serviceable, functioning structure through which millions of people poured each year, and in which another five thousand permanently lived.

When the beanstalk shuttle slid up into the belly of it and artificial gravity kicked in, Charbonneau gratefully slid out of the harness. Weightlessness was a curious sensation he was in no hurry to repeat, although vampires couldn’t get sick like humans could.

“We have to hurry now,” Justin told him, moving up the ramp into the main customs hall. “There’s no formalities for us, as we’re going through to the agency. Here.” He indicated a side passage and they both ducked into it. “But we do have to get to the shuttle so we can rendezvous with the Agency as it swings by, which it will do in about thirty-five minutes.”

“Is its orbit very close?”

“Far enough to avoid colliding close enough to make it convenient to get there, if you have to use this way.”

“There’s another way?”

“They’ll explain that one to you, I’m sure.” Justin strode along the corridor, and turned right into another that intersected. This one lay on the outside of the station and the walls were corrugated and clear, like glass, protected by girders that curved over it.

It gave Charbonneau an unexpected view of Earth. The planet hovered overhead, completely dark except for the shimmer of sunlight on its eastern edge. “Stunning,” he murmured, wishing he could linger to admire.

“Permanent night. Now you understand why the Agency chose the satellite as headquarters.”

Ahead of them and clearly waiting for them, a young man in street clothes stood watching them come toward him. He waved them on. “Ferry is warmed up and waiting. All set to go. Our window closes in five, though.”

“Thanks, Tinker,” Justin told the boy as they drew closer.
“This is Constant Charbonneau Villeneuve.
Our newest recruit.”

Tinker nodded as he turned to stride down the corridor, leading them. “Yep, I heard all about you. All the women going ga-ga.” He turned his head to look back at them and rolled his eyes. “You’d think we were getting royalty.”

“Tinker,” Justin snapped.

“Well, y’d think, huh? Are you royalty?”

The question was sharply put and it took a second for Charbonneau to realize the lad was speaking directly to him.

“There are no royalty in France. Don’t you remember your history?”

“Remember?” the boy spluttered. He looked at Justin. “He doesn’t know.”

“Know what?” Charbonneau asked.

“I’m human, is what. You vamps, you can live forever, but you make shitty pilots. Your inner ear fluids ain’t fluid. So you don’t get space sick, but you ain’t got balance, either. So you can’t judge worth shit when you have to bring something in and line it up.”

Charbonneau blinked.

Tinker laughed. “You ain’t been around your own kind much, have you?”

Such a casual explanation of a basic function of vampire physiology that he had never even considered before was shocking. But Tinker had already moved on, both physically and verbally. As he moved ahead of them up the passage, he spoke with his chin on his shoulder. “That must be how you survived the Revelation and the Censure, huh? No brethren around you to turn you in when they put the thumbscrews on ‘em.”

Charbonneau glanced at Justin, who just laughed. “You’ll get used to him.”

“He isn’t afraid of me…us, at all.”

“Why should I be afraid?” Justin said, as if Charbonneau had spoken to him directly. “You look like you fed recently and now you’re with the Agency, you’ve got a vested interest in keeping things sweet between vamps and humans. And you’ll never again be without red juice.”

“Synthetic blood,” Justin translated, even before Charbonneau could look at him helplessly.

“And you need me to get across to the satellite,” Tinker continued, seemingly without drawing breath, “So I figure you’re not about to extend your fangs near me.” An outer door lock just ahead lay open, the interior of a small ship visible beyond it. “Here we go, it’s a bit tight, but hey, you guys used to sleep in coffins, right? This’ll feel like a dance hall to you.”

* * * * *

Rob MacKenzie freshly bathed was impossible to resist.

He had left Tally tied up and hoisted upon the tent pole, her hands so high up she didn’t have a hope of lifting herself off the peg. Then he had posted a guard outside the tent while he had taken himself off to the river to bathe.

However, he had won over her eternal soul by returning with a steaming bucket of hot water and soap. But he had not left her alone to bathe. He had washed her himself.

“Ye still intend to free ye manservant the moment I turn my back, Tally. So wash ye I will.”

“Of course, I would steal away even buck naked and soapy to free Leuwis,” she pointed out.

Rob grinned as he ran the cloth over her body in a lingering swipe. “I never can tell what yer nimble mind might come up with next, Tally. I can’t afford to take any chances with ye.”

After he had washed every inch of her, he dried her with a soft clean cloth, shucking off his hastily clad and damp kilt to do the work properly. By then, her hunger for his body that never seemed to properly sleep had risen once more and Tally reached for Rob, running her hands over his shoulders and arms and chest. Rob dropped the cloth and gathered her to him, all pretence gone. His lips seared a path from her mouth to her throat, down to her chest. She realized she had been swept up off her feet as his mouth closed around her nipple.

Furs touched her back and legs. She had been laid down. And still Rob bent over her, his hands and mouth working their swift magic.

Tally roused herself. “No,” she murmured. “My turn.” She pushed at his shoulder. Then again, harder.

Rob sat back, a small smile on his lips. “Your turn?” His blue eyes sparkled with amusement.

Tally pushed on his shoulder again. It was like trying to move a mountain. This was one of the drawbacks of travelling. As a temporary human, she lost all her strength and power. Normally, she would have been able to throw Rob across the burn with little effort. With simple human muscle power, she was pathetically weak. “Lie down,” she ordered.

He lifted a brow, but obeyed. His cock was already stirring. Lengthening.

Tally spread his thighs and knelt between them and his cock jerked and stiffened perceptively. She smiled. “Now who is anticipating?” she crooned, running her fingers down his chest.

Rob’s eyes gleamed in the low light of the tent. “A man’s mind can guess what lies ahead, given our positions.”

Tally hid her smile and bent to slide her tongue along the long length of his shaft and swirl it around the tip of his cock.

Rob sucked in his breath.

Quickly, she curled her hand around the base of his cock and plunged the head into her mouth, as deep as she could take it.

Rob’s hips lifted off the furs as he groaned in reaction. His hand buried itself in her hair in a convulsive jerk.

Tally began to slide her mouth up and down the shaft, letting her lips bump over the flaring ridge of the head, and fluttering her tongue along the underside. She kept up a gentle suction.

Rob moaned and his cock grew more swollen and rigid in her hand. His hips twitched and his breathing became more ragged.

“Tally…” he murmured, with a desperate note.

It was the sign she had been waiting for. She reached between her legs and gathered on her fingers copious amounts of her own lubricant. She was very wet.

Then she reached between Rob’s thighs with her moistened fingers. She found and circled his anus.

He cried out in surprise.

She gently thrust her fingers into him.

Rob moaned and his climax hit immediately. His anus muscle clamped down hard on her fingers and his come blasted into her mouth in salty streaks. His hand in her hair curled into a tight fist before it loosened and fell to the furs.

“Ah Christ, Tally,” he said breathlessly. “I should have known ye would find a way to surprise me.”

She sat up. “Just surprise you, Rob?”

He hoisted himself onto one elbow and looked up at her. “I’ve given up on trying to judge ye, or anything we do, sweet Tally. How can any of it be wrong or evil if it feels so good?” He gave a half smile. “I just wonder when yer going to run out of ideas.”

She leaned over and kissed him. “There’s always more where that came from.”

“Ye are such a beauty,” he murmured and his big hand reached up to brush her hair away from her face. “The kind of beauty that drives men wild and makes them fight wars for the lack of it.”

“There is no such thing. You’re teasing me,” she whispered. All the same, she felt a glow in her heart that he would think such a thing of her.

“
I
would fight for ye.”

She laughed a little and he shook her to silence her.

Then she really looked into his eyes and her amusement faded. There in his eyes, she could read his heart, his soul….

“No, you cannot. Not for me.” She gripped his shoulder. “Not for me, Rob.”

“For you and no-one else.” His voice was a low rumble that she could feel against her hand.

Abruptly, painful tears pricked at her eyes. “I would break your heart,” she whispered.

“No, you wouldn’t.” He spoke with complete assurance. “I have watched ye for a week, Natália mine. I know ye. Ye would not deliberately hurt me. Ye think I don’t understand women, that I have not seen the glances you have sent me. Ye’re wrong.”

Real fear leapt in her chest. “You can’t possibly know me.”