Heat (87 page)

No sooner had Sue-Eye joined him on the tiled floor than he had shut her in and pushed her facedown against the sink. He slapped her thighs apart, his claws sinking into her shoulder, and shoved his aching cock into her ass.

She wasn’t expecting it and she came alive like a wire, kicking and hammering at him in a panic, but never making more than a single gagging cry. He fucked her ferociously, beating compliance into her constricted passage and forcing her to admit him. The pleasure was exquisite, hot and wild, and he did not give a damn if it killed her.

Ah gods, she was humping back at him, her face in the mirror set with determination. There were tears in her eyes, and her knuckles were white where they gripped the countertop, but she was showing him her best all the same. “Tell me,” he hissed, thrusting brutally hard.

“I want you,” she said, the words ripped from her in gusts. “I love your cock. Let me suck it. Let me fuck it. Give me your cock, Kane. Give it to me as hard as you can.”

He did, amused, and she keeled over with a gasping scream and bit her hand. She was a tough little bitch, he’d give her that. And if she proved resilient as well, he might just keep her.

His end was coming. Kane backed up, grabbed her by the hair and shoved her down on her knees. He aimed his cock at her eyes and came, shooting cum in a flood over her face and hair. She opened her mouth for it, humiliation and hate still shining in her eyes.

Panting, grinning, Kane hunkered down and put his gaze level with hers. “Did you cum?” he asked.

Her expression became uncertain. She nodded.

“Let me feel.” He extended his hand.

Sue-Eye tensed and slowly parted her thighs. Kane pushed two fingers roughly inside her, invading her, watching her closely as her face fought not to contort. It was a little wet. Just a little.

“You’re a liar,” he said cheerfully, withdrawing his hand. “I quit too soon. And here you are, unfulfilled.”

She waited, her eyes narrow and unsure.

“I’m in a good mood,” he said. “I’ll let you cum. Go on.”

She only sat there, her body taut with expectation of pain, with the gaze she thought was guarded showing all her hostility and doubt.

“Go on,” he said again, and then tipped his head to one side, pretending to consider her. “Or don’t I excite you anymore?”

Her hand rose and slipped between her thighs, lightly rubbing.

“Wider,” he said. “I want to see. I want to smell it.”

She tensed again but obeyed, splaying herself for him so that he could see her folds as she parted them, see the little nub at the high cleft of her as she rolled it beneath her thumb. She stroked slow, then fast, then slow again, her movements playing out without passion, but he could smell her musk growing. Kane smiled as her breath began to coarsen. Her eyes lost their fire and her face began to twist. Her hips made two brittle half-thrusts and she locked up tight, cumming in silence.

Kane pulled her hand away from her cunt and tested her for himself. She was damp, but still not much. He pushed suddenly up to the soft place just beyond her pubic bone and rubbed hard, shocking orgasm out of her in a cry and a clenching rush.

“There,” he said, pulling free of her again. “That’s better.” He held up his hand.

She stared a it for a second, and then leaned forward and licked at his fingers, cleaning him of her oils. Her face was buckled with shame.

“Do you want to come with me when I leave this world?”

She froze, his fingers sunk deep in her mouth. He saw hope in her eyes, but of a despairing kind. She knew his nature. She did not believe him.

He smiled, showing all his teeth. “Yes or no?” he asked. “I won’t even tell you whether or not I’m serious. You tell me. Do you want to come with me when I leave Earth?”

She nodded.

He pulled his fingers from her with a wet pop and wiped them dry on her arm. “Good to know,” he said, and got up and left her there on the bathroom floor with his cum drying in her hair.

R
aven was awakened by Kane’s hand on her thigh, shaking her with rough humor. She was only half-covered in a sheet, but she still managed to get bound up in it in her efforts to get out of bed. She struggled, expecting a slap at any moment for taking too long, but Kane was moving away to wake Sue-Eye.

“Are we leaving?” Sue-Eye asked sleepily.

“First, we eat. Then we drive. I want a new car and more money. And no Heat today. Today, I am for Raven.” He half-turned, grinning at her as she finally got her ankle free. “Are you excited?”

She was, actually. And more importantly, it was plain to see that he was excited. She smiled and stood up. “I could take you right now,” she said. “I’ll wait, but I’m not happy about it.”

“I’ll make you plenty happy,” Kane growled, his grin widening. The smile was not entirely pleasant, but there was nothing cruel about it, either. “And you,
ichuta’a
, ” he said, turning that cheerful eye on Raven’s rival. “Your usefulness to me is ended.”

Sue-eye’s face turned to stone, the very picture of hardened unconcern cloaking her while the slightest uprise of one eyebrow indicated a polite interest. Anyone looking at that face might think the blonde was genuinely oblivious to what could damn well be a very bad thing about to happen. But there was more than just Sue-Eye’s face on display. Raven could see the fine hairs along Sue-Eye’s arms spiking out, could see color sapping itself visibly from her skin. Her nipples stiffened and stood out in bluish peaks; Kane’s eye wandered to watch this, and the smile that Raven could glimpse from this angle broadened.

“Now tell me,” he said mildly, as he reached to brush his thumbclaw over one hard nub. “Is this because I excite you, or just because I terrify you?”

Sue-Eye did not reply. Her eyes were windows from which nothing peeked out. Her lips were almost white.

Kane glanced at Raven. “She’s ignoring me,” he remarked, and shrugged one shoulder. He turned back to Sue-Eye, his hand still massaging lightly at her breast. “And after all we’ve meant to each other, too. I’m hurt,
ichuta’a
.”

“You excite me,” Sue-Eye said. Her voice was cracked, stretched thin with chilled anticipation.

“Ah.” Kane’s head tipped slightly. “So,” he went on musingly. “If I were to reach down and feel out your pussy, you’d have musk for me. Shall I check?” His hand drifted, claws down and raising white lines, to her belly and stopped again.

Sue-Eye was silent, watchful, utterly motionless.

“If I find you wet on my fingers,
ichuta’a
, I’m going to let you walk out that door,” Kane told her, his voice soft and gentle. “And if I don’t—” His hand scratched down another few inches and stopped again. “—I’m going to open you from your pussy to your chin.”

Sue-Eye wasn’t even breathing anymore. The whites of her staring eyes had gone grey.

Kane’s hand moved, his thick fingers sliding just between her slackly standing thighs to squeeze her smooth mound. His shark’s eyes never left her face. His teeth were brilliant in the stretched slice of his smile.

Raven realized she was holding her breath only when her lungs began to burn, but she still couldn’t seem to remember how to start again. She was frozen, watching all this play out from the safety of some living room somewhere. Sue-Eye was a bitch, but no one should die like that, and no one should have to watch someone die like that. ‘It’s going to smell. I’m going to smell it,’ she thought remotely, and the edges of her vision blurred to grey.

Suddenly, Kane straightened up and gave Sue-Eye a blistering slap to her thigh that broke both his humans as effectively as cannon-fire. Raven tried to leap back from a splash of blood that never happened and dropped onto the bed, too dizzy to stand up again. Sue-Eye merely staggered, catching wildly at Kane’s coat, and then hanging from him on bent legs and staring up at him glassily.

“Just kidding,” he said, and bent to nip precisely at the tip of her nose. “You’re coming with us.”

All the air came out of Sue-Eye in a woof and she dropped the rest of the way onto the floor, her hands slackly splayed before her. She looked at him, shivered hugely, and stared down at the carpet.

“Is that any way to thank me?” Kane asked, feigning surprise. He gave her thigh a nudge with the toe of his boot. “Anyone would think you weren’t pleased.”

“I am,” Sue-Eye said at once. “Thank you, Kane.”

“Unless…” Kane slid one shark-empty eye back to Raven. “I’ll leave it up to you, shall I?”

His posture was relaxed, but the hand that she could see was curled expectantly. He meant it. She could tell him to kill her and he would.

Raven’s eyes shifted past him to Sue-Eye. The blonde looked back at her. All her reserves of manufactured indifference had been expended on Kane and Raven got to see the glossy shine of perfect horror stamped full across her. ‘Bet you’re sorry you fucked with me now,’ she thought absently, but she already knew what she was going to say. She’d started out here in a good mood, and she wanted to hold on to that good mood. She could pretend to consider, but that was the limit of Raven’s talent with torture. If she was going to have to have sex with this man later on, she couldn’t watch him disembowel someone first.

“Well?” Kane pressed. He bent and got a grip on Sue-Eye’s arm, hauling her to her feet roughly, but then almost cradling her under one arm as he waited for Raven’s answer. He could go either way, clearly. “I think I could find a use for this
ichuta’a
when I leave Earth. Unless, of course, you object?”

Raven raised her eyebrows. “Why would I object?” she asked, and Kane’s eyes narrowed. “She’s been very helpful. Besides,” she added, stepping closer to him. “There are some things I’d love to do to you that take two girls.”

Kane’s smile faded slightly and he gave Sue-Eye a push off to one side. “Somehow, I didn’t expect that,” he remarked.

“It’s like she said. She’s been a bitch longer. I’m learning a lot.” Raven pressed herself against his chest and he let her, although he didn’t make a single welcoming move, not even when she kissed him. But when she moved her mouth to his ear and breathed, “I’m learning more from you, I think. How much do you think you’ll get when you sell her?” he finally bared his teeth in a grin.

“Fifty
crona
,” he muttered back. “Easy.” He drew the word out into a purring sort of snarl and bit her gently on the neck. His arm came up, pulling her tight against him, but only for a moment. “We eat,” he said, pushing her away. “
Ichuta’a
, thank Raven for letting you stay.”

Raven met the simmering hatred and helpless confusion in Sue-Eye’s face without flinching. Clearly, Kane wasn’t the only one caught off-guard by her response. She waited.

“Thank you,” Sue-Eye said.

“You don’t sound like you mean it,” Raven said, and was emboldened by Kane’s tolerant laughter.

Sue-Eye’s mouth thinned. “Thank you,” she said again, and did a much better job of disguising the flat hostility. Her gaze flicked past to Kane. “Shall we kiss and make up?” she inquired.

Raven’s stomach clenched, but she didn’t dare look to see Kane’s answer. She was afraid of making any move that might seem to him like encouragement, but she was afraid even more, even now, that if he saw her reluctance, he’d make her do it just to show her he was still boss.

Kane was quiet for what felt like a very long time. Suddenly, a snarl. “No,” he said sourly. “No. We eat. Then we go. And keep your hungry hands off her,
ichuta’a
. Today, I am for Raven. Today, she is for me. If you want to fuck, I’ll find you someone else.”

It was gratifying to see Sue-Eye pale so fast. “No,” the blonde said. “I’ll wait. I’ll wait for you, Kane.”

“Good.” He walked between them, giving Sue-Eye a slap on the ass and letting his other hand caress Raven’s thigh as he passed. “Get dressed, both of you. Let’s move.”

*

The sounds of people moving around in the next room woke Tagen early. Grendel, shut away in the bathroom the previous night so that it could not complicate the matter of mating by leaping onto the bed at inopportune times, acknowledged the muffled commotion by sending out several minutes’ worth of yowling complaints. There was no use in trying to quiet the animal. Knocking on the wall would only encourage its vocalizations. When the cat finally quieted, Tagen pulled Daria into the curl of his body and resettled himself, filling his nostrils with the scent of her. The crowd next door finally left, and he shut his eyes and prepared to find sleep again.

Daria’s fingertips fluttered over his hand on her belly. She made a sleepy sound of pleasure and turned to him, smiling. “I could get used to waking up like this,” she said.

So could he. He had never slept with a mate before, unless one counted Heat-seasons of the past when he had collapsed of pain and exhaustion atop a heap of sweat-soaked, faceless bodies. Recreationally, however, sex ended when it ended. He found the human habit of lying together afterwards a soothing one. Hot, but soothing.

“Do you want to get up?” she asked. “Scare up a little breakfast maybe? There’s a waffle house right next door.”

“My brave human,” Tagen growled, his eyes still shut.

“I could keep from freaking out too badly,” she protested. “Long enough to order, anyway. We couldn’t eat there, of course.”

“Of course.”

“It’s your hands I’m thinking of when I say that, you know, not my nerves.”

“You think of everything.”

“Want me to go?”

“No.” His arm tightened on her waist.

Her tone turned teasing. “Want me to load up the car?”

“No.”

“Want me to—”

“I want you to lie quiet.”

“—bite you on the chin?” she finished.

He thought about it. “I’m not certain,” he said finally. “Perhaps you should, and I will thus know for myself.”