Into His Command (16 page)

He ripped that short, too. His clutch at my face, his hand digging in until I felt
him shaking from it, arresting the words in the middle of my throat. “He…touched you,”
He growled. “Touched you as if he…knew you.” He pushed in tighter, grating his clothes
against mine, a decidedly intimate sound in the small space of the shelter. My body
sure as hell confirmed it. The growing ridge in the center of his body was another
yes.

“Knew me?”

I wasn’t just being a mindless parrot—but the query was legitimate.
What
the hell was he talking about?
Where
the hell had this strange rush of caveman come from? And
why
the hell were groping each other in starlight and shadows again?

And how did I not give an inch of damn about any of those answers?

“Like I know you. Like nobody else knows you.” He pressed again, looming until I had
to capitulate, flattening to my back to the table. Syn lowered with me, his hand burrowing
back, pushing away my wig—

As he crushed my mouth with his.

Freeing me from more than the hair.

Arousing me in more than just my sex.

Conquering me as more than just a lover.

He consumed and filled. Heated me, completed me, inspired me, instigated me…

Knew me.

He dragged away by just a few inches, looking beautiful and bold, his features outlined
in silver, his gaze glowing nearly the same shade. “Nobody knows you like I do,” he
commanded. “That means nobody touches you but me, Brooke Valen.”

As he spoke, his opposite hand somehow—miraculously—found its way beneath my skirts.
He punctuated the declaration by palming me where I was wettest and hottest…making
it clear exactly how he intended to demonstrate his point.

‡

F
or once, it
felt wonderful to be dressed like a princess—especially the one being roused from
sleep by a magical kiss.

Corny? Yeah.

Unrealistic? Hell, yeah.

But in the perfection of right now, beneath the power of his body, consumed by the
mastery of his touch?

It was complete truth.

A magic unleashed. His magic.
Our
magic.

I gave in. Let it swirl through me, overtake me, sizzle into my blood and bones and
senses, as I jabbed my hands up to touch him too. Anywhere I could. Everywhere I could.
I unfastened his doublet, frantically twisting the hooks to reveal the sculpted bronze
slabs of his chest. His dark flesh beckoned, irresistible…touch­able. I grabbed at
him, boldly closing my fingers around his nipple—just as two of his lunged up into
my core.

“Samsyn!” It was a perfect scream.

“My starlight.” It was a perfect growl. He was relentless, thrusting rougher and rougher,
abrading my pouting flesh until I bucked against his hand, fucking his fingers in
return. He pulled out long enough to push my panties aside, giving him better access
to my soaked entrance. He worked his thumb into those folds while reinserting his
longer fingers into my tunnel, working every part of my sex with long, lunging motions.
“By the
Creator
…how did I get through a fucking week without this?”

I laughed softly—until opening my eyes to find him studying me, brow deeply crunched.
I could almost hear his inner dialogue, trying to convince himself I wouldn’t disappear.
His expression stabbed tears behind my eyes. I didn’t understand it, but like the
enchantment of his touch, I had no will to fight it.

“You survived.” I lifted a hand to his face. “Somehow, we both did.”

He kissed me again. While this embrace wasn’t the full-on maul of before, it jacked
my arousal just as violently. Though he’d pulled a Neanderthal move to get me here,
now I sensed him needing to feel the same from me—that I needed this too.

If it was need the man wanted, that was what he’d damn well get.

I moaned into his mouth while jabbing my hands into his hair. Yanked the tie free.
Hurled it away. With the long, thick silk free between my fingers, I twisted in to
pull him close, sucking furiously at his tongue and lips. I didn’t stop there. I couldn’t.
My spirit’s desire for him drove my body, arching it against his huge hand, my thighs
quivering, my sex flooding.

“Yours. I’m yours, Samsyn.” I spoke it before he could demand it, already knowing
he needed it. The effect it instantly produced in him…was a look I’d never seen before.
For one moment, his face flared with joy—only the next, to be overtaken by the shadows
I often saw in him. But now, they didn’t lurk at the back of his composure. They crowded
him, possessed him, transformed him into something dark and intense—

A darkness he focused totally on me.

An intensity throbbing straight to my pussy.

“Say it again.” His dictate began in his chest and curled out his lips, twisting between
us like smoke. “Say it exactly the same.”

“I’m…yours.” A gasp broke it apart, as he rammed me deeper with his fingers.

“Nobody touches you like this, but me.
Say it
.”

“Nobody…touches me…like this.” I raked my hands to his shoulders, scoring the broad
shelves, using the grip to keep my sanity…and hold back my climax. “Not like you.
Nobody but you, Syn.”

His hand worked me deeper. Spread my walls. Teased my clit. Rubbed closer and closer,
lifting the hood until he pressed…

right…

there.

“Samsyn!” I pulsed and pounded. Writhed up as heat roared to the surface. Needing.
Wanting. Reaching…

Then screaming, as he withdrew. Moaning, so empty and bereft, but mesmerized by his
straining muscles, working to free his erection. With every move he made, my dress
rustled against the night, seeming deafening as an air horn. I struggled to keep my
whimpers quieter. Impossible. Every time Syn flipped the layers of fabric, letting
me smell him, all musky and peppery, mixed with the night flowers and my own light
perfume, my mind stole more of my composure. By the time he scooted my ass higher
on the table then positioned himself over me, I was an aroused, excited, mewling mess.

He stared hard, watching my reaction as he pressed on my thighs, opening my body for
him. I let him see it all: my parted lips, my heated gaze, my feverish breaths. All
of it sharpened as he fitted the silken head of his sex to the urgent lips of mine.
I cried out, fishing through the tulle for him, but he caught my wrists and lowered
them to the table, locking me down as he took my mouth in another wet, hungry connection.

When we finally parted for air, he seared me all over again. His gaze was pure blue-white
fire. His face was chiseled in charcoal-dark desire. “Now tell me nobody else fucks
you but me.”

As if my clit needed any more reason to burn. “N-Nobody fucks me but you.”

He edged in his shaft by another inch. “Nobody else gets inside you like this.”

I gazed fully at him now. “Nobody else gets inside me like this.” I blinked, letting
him see the tears drag down my cheeks. “Inside me…everywhere.”

Once more, I watched a burst of joy overtake his face.

Right before the shadows consumed again.

Worse than ever. Not just darkening him this time. Hardening him. Stripping a swath
of his humanity, turning him into a creature of such lethal sensuality, my lungs worked
to catch up on breath. I’d always called him my elusive dragon but now that the dragon
was really here, his violence was terrifying. His heat, nearly suffocating.

His passion…something I’d never wanted more.

He reared up a little higher. His head rose between his shoulders…the dragon preparing
to incinerate its prey. From the rich curves of his lips, another low growl emanated.
“Nobody fucks you but me.”

“Nobody fucks me…but you.”

He entered me in one ruthless drive. Impaled me to the point of delicious pain. Stretched
my pussy to its limits, blowing my mind off its damn doors. “Nobody makes your body
quiver like I do.”

“No.” I gasped it, curling my fingers around his, using him for purchase as he propelled
into me. With the leverage of the grip, I was able to give back as good as he gave,
meeting every thrust with the force of my own potent need. “Nobody…but you.”

“And nobody makes your cunt come like me.”

My mouth went dry. My body went up like kindling of the same texture. His wicked,
filthy words enflamed things inside.
Everything
.

“Oh, God.
Ohhhh, God
.”

He started twisting his hips. My dress rasped with every perfect, erotic thrust. Our
bodies smacked again and again and again, primal passion in a savage, stolen moment.
He didn’t let my stare go, binding me with his dark, determined beauty, twisting my
soul with his as he cleaved me, became part of me. Just as he threw off his barriers,
I pushed aside mine. Let him have me,
all
of me, as I stamped this moment to my memory forever. Made myself take in every detail
of this incredible sight: his stark, impassioned face, set against the endless Tahreuse
stars. Forced myself to cherish this feeling, of being connected again to the one
man on Earth who moved me like no other.

“Say it.” Syn’s clutch tightened on my wrists. His gaze zeroed in, watching every
inch of my face. “Say. It.”

I gritted my teeth. Balled up the air in my lungs. “Nobody…makes me…”

And then…I couldn’t.

Because…I was.

A scream replaced the words. The fire became explosion. My sex clenched, vibrating
around his cock, as white-hot ecstasy ripped through my body. I was mindless. Weightless.
All of me tumbled out yet sucked the world back in, knowing its light and dark, its
good and bad, its angels…and its dragons.

“Coming,” I finally gasped. “I’m coming, Samsyn! For you.”

He gazed like the words were an incantation for immortality. Never in my life had
I felt so adored, so worshipped, so desired—and even more as he suddenly stilled,
letting me feel the shudders that overtook every inch of the shaft embedded inside.

“And I,
astremé
…for you.”

His eyes closed. His lips twisted. His nostrils flared.

He poured into me.

We began to rock again, riding the tiny bursts of aftermath, but not letting each
other go. Though Samsyn slid his hold free from my wrists, I slipped them back up
to clutch him again, holding him near, head tucked against my shoulder, heavy exhalations
warming my neck. Gone was the dragon. He was back in knight mode, tracing the line
of my jaw, down my neck, out over my collarbone. I could still feel his cock inside,
semi-soft, and was happy with that circumstance. More than happy.

I know. Stupid.

On more than a few levels.

I didn’t worry about the obvious. I was still on birth control; nothing had changed
over the last week—

Except that everything else had.

Everything else. The not-so-easy to deal with stuff, now parking their asses at this
table like the giant elephants they were—getting ready to feast on the two of us.

One of us was going to have to start this conversation.

“Brooke.”

And thank God it had been him.

I almost expelled a sigh of gratitude. The gravity in his voice confirmed he saw the
elephants, too. That meant I wasn’t crazy. Now I wondered if we saw the same elephants.

“As a member of the Arcadian military, I am tested for many things every year.”

“Oh.” Wasn’t the first subject I expected him to broach—but I was glad it had been.
We were talking rationally. This boded well for addressing the rest of the elephants
at the buffet. “Okay,” I added. “Ummm…”

“I am clean. I can get you a copy of the lab results—”

“Not necessary.” I cleared my throat, ending with a laugh. “In case it’s not clear,”—I
nodded deliberately, indicating our very connected bodies—“I really do trust you,
big guy.”

My levity went over like a boulder plunking into the lake. “I know,” he replied, voice
edged in impatience, “but your respect is just as vital. I shall not have you thinking
that I—” He grimaced. “Well, I am usually in the habit of carrying, and wearing, protection.”

“The habit?” I punched my discomfort into the word. “You mean like racking your weights
every day? Business to take care of, huh?”

My tension pushed his cock a little farther out. Though looking loathe to do so, he
separated his body the rest of the way. Not that he went far. He stayed there, lodged
between my legs while bracing my face between his hands. “I will not let there be
lies between us—no matter how uncomfortable they are.”

“Well, they’re uncomfortable.” I closed my eyes, battling for perspective. “And that’s
the stupid thing about all this.”

“Stupid?” His upper lip curled with insult.

Sigh of long-suffering…if a bit exaggerated. “
Yes
, Your Highness. Stupid.”

“You are
not
—”

“The hell I’m not. Or can’t be. Especially when it comes to—”
You
. The restraint didn’t help a damn thing. He was capable of discerning the answer
for himself, and the silver glints in his eyes betrayed that he had. “Look. I meant
what I said last week, when things…hap­pened…between us at the Residence Rigale. I
was ready to accept we’d only have all that for one night. Even then, I knew you were
skittish about it—”