IntimateEnemy (3 page)

Trius flashed him that forged, lopsided grin again. “I took
care of it. Concierge should have left tickets in your room. Go make sure. If
they’re not there, come find me. I’ll be here for the next half hour.”

Lone felt his eyebrows rise high on his forehead. The arts
had suffered dramatically since the war, both sides pouring all of their
resources into killing instead of living. But like Trius, all citizens craved a
break from reality.

“Damn. Thanks, Trius. Appreciate it.”

“No problem,” Trius said, taking a seat in the back row.
“Just go check to make sure the tickets are there, okay?”

“Yeah, I’m on it.” He grasped his friend’s forearm before
heading up to his room. Tickets to the concert of a lifetime. Sometimes Trius
truly lived up to his legendary status.

Lone’s excitement soon morphed into agitation.

Shit.
In his excitement, he’d forgotten to stay on
the lower floors. The higher the lifter took him, the more Lone’s senses burned
with the knowledge that he was moving closer and closer to his intimate. By the
time he reached the next floor, he was in a near frenzy to find her.

His body was hard and needy. His mind spun with questions.
His spirit reached unseen through the seen universe to find her, bond with her.
As if in a trance, he followed his overwhelmed senses to a door belonging to a
room that was not his own.

She was inside, his female. Just beyond the peach-tinted
metal door marked as room 4475. Closing his eyes, he weaved on his feet,
overcome with longing, with passion that could be fulfilled only by her.

He didn’t hit the buzzer. No need.

Their bond had already begun to form. He sensed her on the
other side of the thin door, considering if she would answer, deciding if she
would let him in.

The sound of the door whooshing wide released the succulent,
sugary scent of her and he opened his eyes. He looked into the Vitca-pale face of
his intimate. Her light-pink lips were slightly parted, flashing him her teeth
and tongue—both, he wanted to make immediate use of. Her eyes, large and fawn
yellow, were wide with fear. Her light, crystal-blue hair curled around her
face and shoulders, decadently soft, tempting him to touch.

Gods, everything about her enticed him. Only her obvious
fear and his great well of restraint kept him from reaching out and devouring
her there in front of anyone who happened to pass by.

“Invite me in, my intimate,” he demanded.

She stepped back and, in an achingly feminine voice that was
barely audible said, “Please come in, Lone.”

He stepped into her room and into her warm presence, his
arms enfolding her against his painfully hard body, his head dropping so that he
could press kisses to the sinfully soft skin on her neck, shoulder, chest.

The door hissed closed behind him as he walked his female
backward toward her bed. Four steps and they were there. Her legs hit the lumpy
hover mattress and she stiffened in his arms, her heart thumping so hard he
could feel the beat against his lips as he kissed his way back up her neck.

“What do you fear, intimate? Our trinity-of-beings fit
perfectly. We are truly a matched pair. There is no denying what belongs
between us.”

“But you tried.” Her soft voice held a sharp note of
sadness, of hurt. “Your brother told me you don’t want me.”

He winced.
Damn.
Wharm must have found her, warned
her off him just as he’d asked.

He took a step back and cradled her face in his hands so he
could lift her stubborn chin and coax her into meeting his gaze. “I was foolish
to resist you. Know that I will live my life making up for the hurt I did you…”
It suddenly occurred to him that he didn’t even know her name.

He leaned into her, pressed the lightest of kisses on her
plush mouth.

“What is your name, my female?”

She looked at him through the veil of her blue lashes,
distrust easily read in her citrine eyes.

He waited her out though, refusing to break eye contact
until she gave him what he wanted.

Chapter Three

“Azure,” she said, looking away from his intense, ebony
gaze. “My name’s Azure.” Their bonding had begun. She could feel her intimate
on every level, buckling her knees, breaking into her heart, mingling his
thoughts with hers.

And she sensed the exact moment when he found the same
rejection in her mind for him as he’d had for her. Lone stilled. His black eyes
flashed over her face as he reassessed, reevaluated her with this newfound
information he’d gained through their unseen connection.

He ducked his head and rasped, “Does my dual blood bother
you?” then licked along the outer edge of her ear.

She gasped for breath. The perfect, complementary,
contradictory scents of his mixed blood dazzled her senses.

“No,” she groaned. “No.”

“Then why?” He nipped at her neck, a punishment that brought
her pleasure such as she had never imagined. Little tingles raced over her
skin.

Instead of answering, she asked, “W-why don’t you want me?”
Her voice came out breathy, wanton and so unlike her that she felt alien in her
own body.

He took her hand in his and guided it to the hard bulge
between his legs. “Does it feel like I don’t want you?”

An excited blush burned her cheeks. More than a little
curious as to what this particular portion of his anatomy would feel like naked
and cradled in her hand, she bit her bottom lip and gave him a gentle press and
rub through the soft material of his trousers.

His lips parted on a hiss of breath. His nostrils flared.

“If you are attempting to distract me from the fact that you
rejected me as your intimate—it’s working.”

“We rejected each other.” She cupped him, reveling in the
power that pulsed against her palm.

“Stupid us,” he said.

Azure tilted her head back and laughed, joy shattering her
anxiety. Never in all her girlhood daydreams had she anticipated that bonding
with her intimate would be so soul piercing, so ecstatically intense, so
bruisingly beautiful.

And this was just the start.

Through the tears that gathered in her eyes, she watched
what she could only describe as a sappy smile transform her intimate’s face
from harshly hot to sinfully stunning. Gods, if it were possible to stop the
passage of time, she could spend the rest of her life describing the blissful
bleed of her emotions as she fell in love.

Lone kissed the corner of her mouth and nibbled at her lips,
tasting her, teasing her until she’d pressed herself so tightly against his
powerful, masculine body that they were touching from shoulder to thigh.

Any closer and he’d be inside her.

And that’s exactly what I want
,she thought as
he wrapped his arms around her.

They fit. Their minds, hearts and spirits slid into place.

Sensing him on every level, she felt his honor, his innate
goodness, the purity of his soul, which called to her, drew her to him so that
they met in the unseen universe as well as the seen.

His face, a perfectly proportioned work of masculine lines,
wore a day’s growth of blue-black beard that rasped wonderfully against her
flushed skin as he nibbled at her ear and neck.

She shivered. Her breasts grew heavy, needy.

“Kitchka
,” he breathed into her hair. “You are so
soft. So sweet.”

The rational part of her wanted to run, but she was already
connecting with him, her trinity-of-being linking with his to create an
unbreakable chain as he smoothed his hands up and down her back to soothe her
as if he sensed her fear.

She closed her eyes and allowed herself to feel what it
meant to belong, to be cared for. A rush of pure need licked up her body and
she groaned.

Gods unseen, she wanted to possess and be possessed by him,
to stay in his arms forever, to fall back onto the bed and delight in his
weight on top of her, to experience every pleasure said to be found with an
intimate.

“I want you,” she said, feeling brave.

“You have me.” He pulled her silky shirt off over her head,
lowered her breast-band and dropped his head to take first one nipple then the
other into his mouth.

Azure gasped, groaning as she clutched his shoulders. Her
legs shook, threatening to give out. In tune with her, Lone turned them and sat
on the edge of the bed. He pulled her down so that she straddled his legs.

His mouth still working her breasts, he slid a hand inside
her trousers. He cupped her bottom and slid his fingers lower until he felt her
cream moistening her inner thighs. He released her breasts to say, “You’re this
wet for me already?”

Blushing, she buried her face against his chest.

“Don’t be embarrassed, Azure.”

She peered up at his intense face in time to watch as he
brought his glossy fingers up to his mouth to taste her.

“I can’t express how happy it makes me that you want me.”

Any answer she might have found was lost when Lone stopped
tasting her on his fingers to sample her lips. He licked inside her mouth and
deepened their kiss until it was a true mating of mouths. He thrust his tongue,
driving her passion higher and higher so she barely noticed his quick, decisive
hands stripping off her remaining clothing.

He laid her down on the bed and burned her with his gaze as
he undressed. She was breathless by the time he joined her, shaking with
anticipation and need.

As if in a dream, the room, all hard metal and harsh light,
blurred into a soft symphony of colors and textures as anticipation grew.

He moved slowly, touching her gently, kissing her softly.
She whimpered, begging for more. Reaching between them, she ran her nails over
the hard, tawny skin of his stomach, down between his legs where she gently
took him in her hand and learned him by touch.

He growled and bucked against her palm. Her desire to have
him inside her turned to unbearable need. Opening her legs wide, she guided him
to her entrance. Her eyes slammed shut and she shuddered at the feel of the
large, bulbous head of his cock pressing against her pussy.

She thrust up to take him inside her but encountered his
hand, which suddenly blocked their joining. Tears of frustration, of rejection
stung her eyes.

He didn’t want her, didn’t want to join their bodies, didn’t
want to complete the first of the three links of bonding. She twisted away,
letting her hair fall over her face to mask her tears.

“
Kitchka
,look at me.” He swept her hair aside
and kissed her cheek as he fingered her between her thighs. “I only stopped you
because your body isn’t prepared to accept mine.”

She squeezed her eyes tighter, trying in vain to prevent her
tears from escaping, spilling over her nose to wet the white sheets. Of course
it was her fault. Something was wrong with her body, something that prevented
her intimate from joining with her.

Lone shifted so he could lay his head down beside hers and
kiss the tip of her tear-wet nose. “There is nothing wrong with you. As your
intimate, it is my honor and pleasure to prepare your body to receive mine.” He
pressed a soft kiss to her mouth. “Give me your trust, Azure, I’ll make things
right between us. I promise.”

She met his dark eyes and saw only honesty and devotion. At
her nod of agreement, he stretched out beside her. Lone gave her a deep,
intense kiss. His tongue probed her mouth, teased and tempted her. Her arms
went around his broad shoulders and she sank her nails into the skin at the
back of his neck. When she was breathless, he left her mouth to kiss his way
down her throat and then on to her breasts where he nipped and sucked at her
nipples.

In a gruff voice, he said, “So sweet. Your nipples feel
perfect against my tongue.”

When he kissed his way down her soft tummy and lowered his
head so that his mouth hovered mere inches over her pussy, she trembled in
expectation of his next move. Would he kiss her clit? Suck and lick at her most
intimate places like he had at her breasts?

The idea made her moan and she slapped a hand over her mouth
to stifle the wanton sound.

“Azure?” She opened her eyes and peered down at the
titillating sight of Lone braced between her legs. A slow smile made his mouth
look soft as he said, “Please don’t deny me the sound of your pleasure. I live
to make you sigh and moan.”

He parted her feminine folds and lowered his head. Just the
feel of his hot breath as it rushed over her ultrasensitive flesh made her cry
out. He lifted his head and arched an eyebrow at the sight of her hand still
stifling her mouth.

Dropping her hand away, Azure let her intimate hear just how
much he pleased her.

The sounds of pleasure Azure made were like erotic gifts to
Lone. Never had he wanted to please a female so badly. Never had a female
pleased him so easily.

Pearly pre-cum already seeped from the slit on the head of
his throbbing cock. He wanted to sink into her sweet little pussy and feel her
tighten around him as he gripped her ass and pounded into her. But she was
innocent, her body ignorant of the demands he wanted to make. Not that it was
any hardship to pleasure her body. Just the opposite.

Everything about her, from her kiss-swollen lips, to her
wide eyes, to her restless hips, had him hypnotized.

His conscience, that annoying voice bitching inside his
head, warned him away from her, told him that a Vitca innocent like Azure would
not and should not want anything to do with one of the leaders of the union
movement. Associating with him was dangerous, and the last thing he wanted to
do was to place his intimate in danger.

Yet down to his bones—hell, down to his cells—he knew they
were meant to be.

He sucked her little clit into his mouth and flicked his
tongue against the peak. She shuddered and groaned. Her hips came off the bed
as she rocked against his mouth, completely within the moment, completely
within his hold.

She was his, this wide-eyed innocent with a backbone made of
steel. Oh yes, he could feel her tenacity, her resolve. She was here on a
mission and he, her intimate, might sideline her temporarily, but in the end
she would meet her goal with or without him by her side.

Knowing this, Lone was more determined than ever to please
her completely, to make it impossible for her to dismiss this, their first
bonding. He may not earn the bonding of her heart or spirit any time soon, but
he’d be damned if he left this bed without a full bonding of body.

His intimate would not, could not have the ability to bond
with anyone else when he had finished with her…and neither would he.

With renewed resolve, he spread her legs wider and ate at
her pussy. He took her higher and higher with tormenting little flicks of his
tongue. He tasted her with long, slow licks from her sweet lower lips to her
clit.

Her head thrashed, her hair lashing her face as she arched
off the bed, crying out in delight.

Azure’s reaction enthralled him. Lone seized their body bond
as he slid his middle finger outside her tight little pussy while continuing to
torment the tight bud that was her clit and explore every inch of her soft
womanly folds.

Heat radiated from her as he brought her body to its peak of
pleasure.

She screamed, went rigid, then convulsed again and again.

Removing the tip of his finger from the grasp of her pussy,
he lapped up her sweet juices.

Nothing held more value to a male intimate than the taste of
his female’s pleasure and Azure’s virgin climax was the stuff of poetry. The
first few lines of a poem he’d learned as teenager invaded his mind.

The sorceries of the virgin bond:

Her intimate has no refuge

No escape from the shelter of her lustful body

She trembles like a tree

Whose fruit he takes into his mouth.

Finally he understood what the poem meant—he had tried to
deny his intimate but he couldn’t escape the primal need to bond with her, the
female who matched his trinity-of-being. And the taste of her “fruit” made him
aware that he would die or kill for Azure…and wasn’t that a surprise?

After his mother had abandoned the family, he had decided
that no female—especially a Vitca female—was worth the pain she’d caused them.
But now as his intimate’s sweet juices filled his mouth, as their body bond
solidified, he knew without doubt that he would die or kill for her, take upon
himself any torture, any pain as long as she remained by his side.

Azure couldn’t think past the pleasure pulsing through her
trembling body. She had come, this much she knew. And the body bond was now an
arc of electricity joining her to Lone.

Her intimate. Her lover.

In a daze, she looked down the line of her sweat-slicked
body at Lone, who remained between her legs, lapping at her cum, tweaking her
clit, sucking her lower lips into his mouth for a kiss that had her sinking her
fingers into his incredibly soft hair.

She jerked his head up, pulling him away from her pulsing
core.

He looked up and they stared into each other’s eyes, breath
heavy and hard still.

“You’ve got to stop,” she said, her voice breathy and
embarrassingly sultry. “I can’t…”

He covered her hand with his and laced their fingers before
pulling his head free from her tight grasp.

“There is no stopping what is meant to be, intimate.” He
bunched a blanket into a ball and rolled her over onto her stomach, propping
her ass up into the air.

She bit her lip.
I’m so vulnerable in this position,
she thought.
Completely at his mercy—and who knows if he has any mercy?

Smoothing his fingertips down her back and cupping her ass
cheeks, Lone apparently sensed her nervousness and was attempting to sooth away
her fears, not with words but with touch.