Savage Need (Temple of Luna, #2) (2 page)

The high priestess nodded. "All right. But you'll do it with a guard standing outside your door with a tranq gun or not at all. Your modesty is less important to me than your life, and I
will
have to answer to your cousin for the care I've taken with his blood relatives."

Zahra wasted no time in rising. "Agreed. Thank you, Celine."

"Don't thank me. I'm doing this against my better judgment, Zahra. You promise me you'll take care, and that you'll call for help if you need it."

"Of course." So many promises for one day. She only hoped she could keep them all.

The interior of her room was dim compared to the sunlit main hall, and Zahra shut the door behind her and blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. "Jarek?"

He sat perched on the edge of her bed, his shoulders tense and his gaze fixed on the wall ahead of him. "You came back."

"I told you I would." She hesitated by the door and unfastened her outer robe. It dropped away, leaving her clad in only the sheer white robe she wore next to her skin and the jeweled leather cuffs around her wrists and ankles. "I wanted to come back."

"I tried to remember you." His voice sounded rusty with disuse, but he seemed more willing to speak now that they were alone. "I tried to remember why you feel like you're mine. I can't."

Zahra knelt at his feet, her hands clenched to hide their shaking. "You kissed me once. At a party, the last time I saw you."

The memory was vivid, clearer than it should have been. A classmate of theirs had thrown a graduation party, and she'd sought refuge from the noisy festivities in a deserted room. Only instead of solitude, she'd found Jarek. A conversation and too much wine had led to a single long kiss. Zahra remembered their tongues mingling, heat and pleasure and need.

The only other thing she remembered was that it had ended too soon.

His gaze dropped from the wall to her face, then lower. A look of possessive need filled his face as he lifted both hands to cup her cheeks, heartbreakingly gentle in spite of the violence raging just beneath the surface. "Are you scared of me?"

She was scared of what had happened to age him, to harden the intense blue eyes she remembered so well. She was scared that she might not be strong enough to drag him back from the edge. "I'm scared of a lot of things, Jarek, but not of you."

"Zahra." He whispered her name as his fingers tunneled into the long strands of her hair. "I want to taste you. Your mouth."

Yes.
She rose on her knees and eased between his legs. Her hands slid up his thighs, and she marveled at the heat and hardness of his muscles through the thin ceremonial pants he wore. "Taste me."

Long fingers curved around the vulnerable back of her neck, the grip just tight enough to show strength. To show dominance. His heartbeat thundered in her ears as he licked her lower lip and growled softly. "Open."

Zahra opened her mouth on a gasp, surprised by the way the simple brush of his tongue stoked the fire inside her. His kiss was slow and demanding, claiming her mouth with every hard thrust of his tongue, every rough scrape of his teeth.

He didn't stop, not until her head was spinning and her hands were clenched on his legs. "Jarek." It was too soon for her skin to feel too tight, for her to shiver at the slightest touch.

Too soon for her to be so ready.

He bit her lip hard and growled into her mouth, his fingers fisting in her hair. "Do you want me to stop?"

The thought almost hurt. "No, don't stop. Please."

His hand urged her head back until her throat was bared to him. He nuzzled the edge of her chin and inhaled. "I'm in Luna's Temple. I remember that. But you don't feel like a priestess."

"I'm a healer as well as a priestess, Jarek." Zahra moved her hands to his chest, barely touching him. "A doctor, like you."

Jarek snarled and caught one wrist, her fingers closing over the thin leather cuff so hard the jewels surely bruised his hand. "Doctors can't heal me. Sedated the body, confused the mind. I don't need a doctor."

Her wrist ached, but she didn't move. "I'm not here to hurt you."

"I know." The fingers in her hair gentled as he licked a hot path up her throat. "You want me. I can smell it."

"Not just that." She squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on the fierce confusion inside him--desire and pain and even fear. "I need you."

"I want to taste you." His teeth closed over her pulse for one heart-stopping moment, just hard enough to draw a whimper from her throat. "Not your mouth. Your cunt."

Lust made her dizzy, and she had to remind herself not to move too suddenly as she rose. "I can lie on the bed. You can lift my robe, or I can take it off." She stood and looked down at him. "
You
can take it off."

A noise rumbled out of him, something so broken it took her a moment to recognize it as laughter. "I'm crazy, not twelve." Large, strong hands found her hips and smoothed over the flimsy fabric, rubbing it against her skin. "Some things are instinct, little healer."

"I know you're not twelve," she retorted, her cheeks heating. "You're not crazy, either. Don't say that."

"Then don't tell me how to pleasure you." His hands fisted without warning, gathering up the fabric on either side of her body in a punishing grip. One jerk and the thin robe tore, the sound eclipsed by his snarl of satisfaction as he ripped it free of her body.

Zahra's arms jerked up reflexively to cover herself, and she froze when he caught her wrists and tugged them back down.

She'd been prideful, assuming the best way to help Jarek was to be everything at once. But if she tried to play two roles with him, the healer and the seductress, neither would be enough. Right now, they were in a bedroom, not the healing rooms, and he needed one thing above all else. She could gentle his beast first. Then, with his physical hunger sated, she could help heal the man.

Zahra relaxed in his grip. "I like your tongue when you kiss my mouth." She rubbed her thighs together, trying to quell the ache between them. "Will you do the same things with it when you kiss my cunt?"

"Maybe." He released her wrists and moved his hands to her hips again. "Don't try to hide your body from me again."

"All right." She left her hands by her sides and bent her head back, baring her throat to him along with the long line of her naked torso. "Here it is. Do you like it?"

Jarek smoothed his hands over her abdomen and up until his fingers molded her breasts. "Perfect. Step closer."

Zahra took a single small step. The action pressed her breasts more fully into his hands, and his palms chafed her taut nipples. Pleasure arced through her, and she bit her lip.

His low, masculine chuckle was pure male wolf. He lowered his mouth and caught her nipple between his lips before flicking his tongue over it.

Her head swam with desperate desire, and Zahra lifted her hands to his head, holding his mouth to her skin. Another teasing swipe of his tongue drove the air from her lungs, and she gasped his name. "Jarek..."

He growled and bit her--not hard enough to hurt, but enough to make her knees go weak. Only sheer force of will had been keeping her upright anyway, and she sagged against him. "Oh--"

Strong hands closed on her waist and jerked her from her feet. The world spun and she ended up in his lap with her back tucked tight against his bare chest. He tugged on her legs until her knees rested on either side of his, spreading her open.

She felt his breath against the back of her neck as he nuzzled her hair aside. "You have a mirror on your dresser," he whispered, stroking his hands up the inside of her thighs and easing them farther apart. "We can both watch you come."

She was completely exposed to his sight and touch. His cock was hard, and Zahra arched her back, grinding her ass down against the full length of his erection through his pants. "Then will I feel you inside me?"

His fingers continued up her thigh until they brushed her cunt. He teased a finger over her and dipped it just inside. "You can have my fingers for now." His gaze locked on hers in the mirror and he jerked her legs wider with a feral smile. "Touch yourself. Make yourself come."

She moved slowly, her gaze still fixed on his. As soon as her fingertips touched her cunt, slipping a little over her wet flesh, Jarek growled and closed his teeth hard on the back of her shoulder. Zahra cried out and went rigid from the sheer sensual shock of it. Only her hips moved, bucking against her hand and then back against him.

"Too slow." The words ripped free of him as he rose with her in his arms. He whipped her body around as if she weighed nothing, dropping her in the middle of the bed on her hands and knees. His hands rubbed over her ass a second before she felt his breath against the backs of her thighs. "Spread your legs."

Her knees slid too far over the slippery satin sheets, and he had to haul her back up a little. She couldn't breathe, anticipation tightening to a hard knot in her midsection. "Your mouth?" she asked. She knew Jarek would understand.

He touched her with his fingers first, slicked them against her cunt before rubbing her clit with maddening gentleness. He bit the back of her thigh and higher, closing his teeth on the curve of her ass. Then she felt his mouth, hot and wet and determined, and he groaned as he dragged his tongue over her.

He licked her eagerly, and Zahra moaned. The tension in her belly went beyond anticipation now, all the way to something painfully like need. "Fuck." His tongue circled her clit and she cursed again. "Oh,
fuck
--"

Another growl vibrated against her as he thrust his tongue into her cunt. Rough fingers landed on her clit, rubbing in a quick, jerky circle before he caught it between his thumb and forefinger.

Pleasure rose up and crashed over her in a sudden wave, startling a scream from her. It happened again and again, each rush of sensation more intense than the last. She shook under Jarek's hands and mouth, and her hands slipped from under her. She wound up with her chest and cheek against the smooth satin, crying out through the last shocks of orgasm wracking her.

Jarek wasn't talking anymore. The feral energy inside him curled around her, overpowering and demanding submission. He stroked her until she quieted, then rose and slid his hands up her back and over her shoulders. His fingers closed around her wrists and tugged, urging her to shift toward the head of the bed, toward the delicate, bespelled chains designed to clip on to the cuffs around her wrists.

Zahra was shaking, and she could barely hold her arms steady while he fastened the chains to her wrists. The pale green jewels set into the leather glinted in the low light, and she had to lick her lips to speak. "Jarek?"

"Zahra?"

She looked up at him, aching. Empty. "I want you."

His eyes glinted icy blue. He traced the line of her spine with one hand, following it down to graze her ass. Then he reached for the drawstring on his pants.

He disrobed in silence, letting the linen fall to the floor as he wrapped a hand around his cock and stroked it, his gaze still locked on her face. "I want to take you."

Her cunt spasmed again as she looked at him standing there by the bed, tall and strong and solid. "Please," she whimpered. "I'm ready. I'm so ready."

The surge of magic was the only warning before he moved. His hands hit the bed on either side of her arms and his chest pressed down against her back, covering her. He rubbed his cock against her cunt but didn't take her. Instead he bit the back of her shoulder again and growled. "Say it again."

"I want you. I'm ready." His breath blew across her neck and back, hot and fast. "Jarek."

This time his growl made his chest rumble against her back. She felt his hand curl in her hair a second before he tugged her head back. "Again."

"I want you. I'm--" The words died in her throat, replaced by a hoarse shriek as he drove into her. It was fast and rough and too good for words. Zahra moaned and rocked as much as she could, the delicate chains clinking against her cuffs.

"Zahra." He whispered her name against the back of her shoulder, his voice shaking. His entire body shook, the muscled arm braced next to her head tensing as he withdrew inch by torturous inch.

"Jarek." She was trembling just as much as he was, and she turned her face to his. "Please."

His next thrust was even rougher. A desperate growl worked up out of him, and she felt the sting of his teeth against her jaw.

She thought she was ready, but nothing could have prepared her for the overload of sensation that flooded her, leaving her breathless and panting as he pounded into her. It was rutting, pure and simple, the feral magic inside him sparking over her skin as each driving thrust fed the hungry need inside him.

And he
was
hungry. His free hand flowed over her skin, never stopping, as if he wanted to touch all of her at once, and the only way to come close was to keep moving. He kissed and bit her neck and shoulder, every wet caress leaving her shuddering as much as the hard pressure of his cock inside her.

His fingers lingered finally on her breast, molding the flesh before his fingers caught her nipple and tugged at it while his mouth moved to her ear. "Too hard?"