EnforcersCraving (7 page)

When the sniff-and-nuzzle was concluded to the Enforcers
satisfaction, Tarkan gave her a big cheesy grin and led her back to Benmonth. “All
done. Now we can go back to the den and begin negotiations.” He nodded to Ari.
“I’ll take Chelsea on Benmonth with me but would you mind mounting up behind
her? I want her to feel safe on her first ride.”

Ride? Ride? Hell no. No way. “Now wait just a minute. If you
think I’m going to climb the dragon mountain and go for a ride, you are
completely delusional.” She backed away, ass out as Tarkan held onto her wrist
and wouldn’t budge. Then Ari scooped her up and while she was kicking and
screaming and begging to be put down, Tarkan climbed up to sit at the junction
where Benmonth’s neck and shoulders met. Ari adjusted his hold to plaster her
back to his front and gripped her like a vise, wrapping one strong leg around
hers to stop her from kicking.

Chelsea felt a surge of triumph. These two smartasses weren’t
going to get her on Benmonth if Ari had to use both arms and legs to pin her
into submission. Then a large gray claw appeared in her peripheral vision,
wrapped around them and lifted them into the air. That’s when all the fight
went out of her. Too much, too weird, way too far out of her control. She
stayed rigid in Ari’s arms while they dangled for a moment in the air before
they were placed gently on Benmonth’s back.

Ari released her and quickly raised the hem of her gown so
he could tuck his hands under her knees. He lifted her legs so she spread up
and out a little, which allowed Tarkan to drag them forward and wedge himself
firmly between her thighs. The moment she was tucked tight to Tarkan’s back,
Ari pressed against her, grabbing her hands in his and wrapping them both
around Tarkan’s waist.

The outraged protest died in her throat when she felt
Benmonth tense and heave underneath her, his huge wings snapping open as he
launched himself skyward. Protest forgotten, all she could do was open her
mouth and scream.

As soon as Chelsea’s terrified scream pierced his eardrums,
Ari knew they’d made a mistake. For any Enforcer, conquering a Gemarran’s fear
of flying was all about getting them in the air. Once the reluctant passenger
got used to the motion, once they realized they were safe, their anxiety was
easy enough to manage. When faced with Chelsea’s fear, he and Tarkan had fallen
into the pattern that had worked on Gemarra for generations.

But Chelsea was human, far from her home and in a world so
unfamiliar she didn’t even understand the most basic concepts of their society.
They should have talked to her, explained to her what was going on and what to
expect. And now it was too late.

When her second scream came hard on the heels of the first,
the desperation in her voice hurt his conscience more than his ears. Ari moved
quickly, pushing away the flapping fabric of her skirts and clamping his arm
hard around her waist. He placed his free hand squarely over her mouth.

“Screaming won’t help you.” She went rigid in his arms but
she didn’t fight, nor did she try to bite him, which he considered a plus. “We
are in the air and you are safe. Benmonth won’t fall out of the sky or try to
dislodge us and Tarkan and I will keep you safe and warm, tucked between us
where there’s nowhere to fall.”

Her breathing was fast and hard against his hand and there
wasn’t a hint of give in her body. “You have to relax, Chelsea. This will only
work if we act as a team, we have to move with Benmonth, not against him.”

Leaning forward he gripped Tarkan’s hand, placing it on
Chelsea’s leg just above where her stockings tied off and her bare, smooth skin
began. Tarks shifted a bit and slid both hands along the outside of her legs,
one on either side, clamping her tight to his thighs. Once she was secure, Ari
loosened his hold, rubbing small circles on Chelsea’s softly rounded belly,
sliding his other hand across her upper chest to ease her against his body. He
dipped his head, nuzzling the escaping strands of hair aside so he could press
his lips against her ear.

“Just relax, pretty girl. Slow your breathing, let the
tension out of your body. I’ve got you.”

She resisted for a moment and then she followed his
instructions like she was born to it. She felt good in his arms, soft and
feminine but it was her compliance that sent blood rushing to his cock. If she
followed orders when she was frightened and not thinking straight, he could
only imagine how obedient she would be when he’d taken her to the edge and she
was begging for orgasm.

He let his hand wander higher, stroking the smooth, warm
skin of her throat and he wondered what it would be like if Tarkan did manage
to claim her. What a hell that would be, living in the den with them, listening
to them fuck, watching all the intimate touches that he’d never be a party to.

As much as he loved his den-mate, as much as he wished him
happy, Ari didn’t think he could bear living with them if Tarkan and Chelsea
mated. Just the thought of it soured his stomach and made him want to grind his
teeth.

He pushed the morose thoughts aside. They served no purpose
and he was worrying about a situation that was unlikely to come to pass. Right
now he had a frightened woman in his arms and whether she was destined for his
best friend or not, Ari was the only one currently in a position to help her
out.

“There’s a trick to riding dragonback,” he said. “Are you
willing to try it?’ He felt her nod against his cheek and he gave her a squeeze
of encouragement. “Good girl. Try to imagine your torso as two halves. The top
half, from the waist up, stays stationary but the bottom half moves in motion
with the dragon. Keep your body still and centered, but roll your hips backward
and forward with Benmonth’s wing beats.” He moved his hands to cup Tarkan’s
hips, pulling him in tight to the V of Chelsea’s thighs, then Ari pressed
himself up close and personal to Chelsea’s rounded ass.

“Match our movements. Feel how we move forward and back,
nice and relaxed. It’s just like riding a horse.”

Chelsea snorted. “I’ve never ridden a horse in my life.”

Ari grimaced at her confession. These women were so ill-equipped
for life on Ivasta it was a disaster waiting to happen, but for Chelsea’s sake
he kept his tone light and reassuring. “That’s all right, pretty girl. Once you’ve
mastered dragon riding, getting up on a horse will be easy.”

He kept talking to her, his voice steady and his hold firm. Once
her fear subsided she was a quick study and it wasn’t long before she managed
to synchronize her movements with his and Tarkan’s. Then she got her confidence
up and the roll of her hips became more natural, loose and relaxed like it
should be. It was a nice, easy rhythm. The same kind of rhythm he liked to use
for the second or third fuck of the night when he visited a bower house.

He began mentally listing all the reasons why he couldn’t
have this woman. And his cock completely ignored him.

Chelsea could feel how aroused Ari was, despite the bustle
on her dress and she decided the best way to deal with his erection was to
ignore it. It probably wasn’t even personal. Any normal guy would get a hard-on
if a girl kept grinding her ass into his crotch and that was pretty much what
she was doing way up here on dragon-back. The fact that she wanted his hard-on
to be personal, to be because of her, made her feel small and slutty. Tarkan
was clearly interested in her and she was interested in him, but Ari was hard
to ignore—erection notwithstanding.

The fact that she was probably worrying for nothing was
giving her a headache, so with a choice that was becoming too much of a habit
lately, she shoved her concerns into a pit and closed the lid. Instead of
thinking about the Enforcers, she turned her attention to the view. Annlyss
flew to their right, her storm-gray body sleek and elegant. The dark-blue lake
was far behind them and below Benmonth the lush, verdant green of the forest
sped by. The sky above shone pale blue and the ion clouds had grown heavy, the
dark-purple clumps drifting together to build bigger and bigger clouds. After a
week on Gemarra she recognized the signs of a brewing storm but she wasn’t
expert enough to predict the intensity.

Tarkan tapped her leg and pointed forward, so she placed her
hands on his shoulders and levered herself up to see what was ahead. A sheer
mountainous cliff loomed in front of them, the imposing red rock striated with
bolts of blue, green, yellow and pink. Large holes appeared at regular
intervals in a grid pattern that covered the entire cliff face.

“That’s the Sapphire den,” Tarkan said over his shoulder. “This
is the back entrance, where the dragons come in to land. The front side is
where the Enforcers live, and we get the view of the lake and Sapphire township.”

“How many people live here?”

“Almost three hundred. Sapphire has the biggest den, the one
at Ruby is not quite as big and the ones at Topaz and Emerald are smaller
again.”

She knew from her lessons Sapphire was the largest township
in Ivasta, so she suspected the size of the Dens were in proportion to the
towns they protected.

The distance to the cliff-face diminished and she began to
get a very bad feeling about the nature of the holes in the rock face. “Where’s
the landing area?”

Please say it’s a nice, large, soft field. Please
.

Tarkan gestured to the cliff. “Our den’s near the top of the
cliff on the left-hand side.”

Of course it was. She glanced over her shoulder at Ari and
he must have seen the panic in her eyes.

“Perhaps this first landing will be easier if you don’t
look.” He put his hand on the back of her neck and guided her head down to rest
against Tarkan’s broad back. “Just press yourself close to Tarks, try to relax
and let the three of us take care of you.”

Good advice when she was hundreds of meters in the air,
hurtling toward a sheer rock face and a stamp-sized landing area. Her mouth was
too dry to swallow, she’d totally lost her dragon-rhythm and her courage had
done a runner. This time she was too scared to scream so she squeezed her eyes
shut, plastered herself to Tarkan’s back and whimpered in gratitude when she
felt Ari blanket her from behind.

Then Benmonth banked, dropped speed and side-slipped them
into a maneuver that was sure to splatter them all over the rock face.

Her focus narrowed to the simple imperatives of hanging on
and remembering to breathe. Those instructions became her whole world, her
mantra of survival, and she clung onto them as though her life depended on it. She
clung so hard, in fact, that it took her a moment to realize they’d stopped
moving and Ari was trying to peel her from Tarkan’s back.

“It’s all right, Chelsea, you can let go now. We’re home. Safe.
There’s no need to be afraid.”

Uh huh.
She’d call bullshit on that if there was any
chance she could get her voice to work. Her eyes were still shut but she could
feel their hands on her. Tarkan ran his calloused palms up and down the outside
of her legs and Ari stroked her back, arms and shoulders.

Ari’s voice was low and soft, like velvet. “Open your eyes. Benmonth
made a perfect landing and he and Annlyss are eager for you to see our den.”

She couldn’t quite bring herself to unclutch Tarkan but she
did crack her eyelids open.

“There you are.” She could hear the smile in Ari’s voice. “Welcome
to our home.”

The chamber she was in was hewn out of the same red rock as
the cliff face, and the space was vast and bare with two large archways leading
to what she assumed would be other parts of the den.

“Those doorways lead to Benmonth and Annlyss’ tack room,
where we store their saddles, armor and our heavy weapons.” He pointed to a
man-sized doorway. “Through there are our quarters. Would you like to see?”

She nodded and started to straighten up but Tarkan tightened
his grip on her legs. “Stay there. Annlyss will help us down.”

Oh god. “No, really, I can—” Scream. Loudly. With an edge of
hysteria that was becoming way too familiar.

Once again Annlyss’ claw swung into view, gripping Chelsea
and the two Enforcers as though they were made of eggshells before lifting them
off Benmonth and lowering them down. Once they hit the deck the men relaxed
their grips and Chelsea slithered to the floor, neither her knees nor her heart
up to the challenge of staying vertical.

Tarkan didn’t even try to hide his amusement as he scooped
her up and carried her away from the landing area. “Say thank you to Benmonth.”

“What?” Clearly her knees weren’t the only things not
working.

“It’s polite to acknowledge the dragon who carried you.”

Seriously? There was dragon etiquette? “Um, thank you,
Benmonth.”

The dragon nodded his head and let out a snort that sounded
very horselike to Chelsea. An observation she was smart enough to keep to
herself.

Tarkan carried her along a wide, high corridor paneled in
pale gray marble. The space was sleek and utilitarian and so unlike the overly
ornate architecture in the township that she asked Tarkan about it.

“The marble we use here is a lighter weight and strong
enough to be machined into thin, flat panels,” he explained. “It’s not the
right composition for carving but it’s perfect for use inside the den. We keep
this corridor clear because we sometimes have to mobilize in a hurry and we can’t
afford to get snagged if we’re dressing as we run. Our living space is paneled
in the same material but we use our furnishings to make it warm and
comfortable.”

The corridor opened up into a large chamber and she
immediately understood Tarkan’s meaning. She wriggled to get down and he
lowered her to the floor, moving back to allow her the freedom to step clear.

The room was beautiful. In fact it was the loveliest room she’d
seen since she’d come to Gemarra. Rather than the ornate, tightly upholstered
furnishings she’d become accustomed to, this room was fitted with big,
comfortable, squashy sofas and chairs. The tables were carved from wood, not
the marble that was used at Addestet House, and they added warmth to the room. Paintings
of landscapes and dragons hung on the walls and several colorful throws were
scattered on the furniture. Almost the entire floor was covered in carpets and
the room looked more like Aladdin’s cave than a dragon-rider’s den. But the coziness
of the room was completely overshadowed by the floor-to-ceiling windows and the
phenomenal view of green forest, pale sky and the sparkling shimmer of the
lake.

She turned to face the Enforcers who had their eyes fixed
firmly on her. “Your home is truly beautiful. Thank you for inviting me here.”

Ari nodded and turned away but Tarkan looked her in the eye
and gave her a smile so dazzling she felt the room tilt.

“I’m glad you like it,” he said. “You are always welcome
here, Chelsea McMullin.”

“Thank you.”

He gestured to the ochre-red couch. “Now let’s sit down and
begin those negotiations.”