ThirteenNights (3 page)

Tai woke up early, intending to use his day to organize the
perfect evening. Most warriors took the two weeks surrounding the Thirteen
Night ritual off from regular duties to focus their energy on the task at hand.
The unspoken truth, as Tai had relayed to Annie last night, is that the fertility
of warrior races, not historically high, was deteriorating Even worse, the data
showed that mixing up the gene pool beyond the warrior races and allowing
children to be raised in family structures would not only reinvigorate their
fertility, but develop stronger, more flexible warriors.

Like me.

Rather than using knowledge to address the problems, the
warriors did what they always did and just threw more muscle into it. And they
were muscling themselves out of existence. Maybe he was wrong last night. Maybe
he could save the pantheons, show them another way. And he would start with one
beautiful, brunette Amazon.

He picked up Annie and brought her to the outdoor skating
rink at the National Gallery of Art. Her face puckered up like a fish. “A date
at a hotel, I got. But this is a real human date, isn’t it?”

“I’m half human.”

Her eyes still bulging out, she nodded and a hint of a smile
tugged at lips he couldn’t resist kissing. Since she broke the kissing taboo,
he figured he could now do it as often as he liked.

“I loved skating as a child,” she murmured as if to herself.
Skating for warriors, he knew, was a full-contact sport that made NFL hockey
look like a teddy bear tea party.

While they waited in line to rent skates, he held her close,
glad she allowed him to touch and stroke, act as if they were indeed lovers,
not temporary breed partners.

“You skate as if you were born to do it,” Annie said after
he circled around her several times and took her hand. Tai gracefully led her
through the labyrinth of human skaters without losing speed or brushing up
against any of them.

“I feel at home here. Growing up, I first discovered how to
use my size and speed as an asset on the ice. My first victories were here. Let
me show you what else I can do.” Enfolding her into a kiss to end all kisses,
he kept them spinning in the corner of the rink. When he reluctantly broke
contact, the flush on her cheeks had nothing to do with the cold air.

“Take me somewhere, Tai.” Her warm breath stroked his cheek,
the huskiness in her voice an intoxicant in his bloodstream.

But he wanted more from her. “Come.”

After they returned their skates, he took her hand and led
her along the path of the outdoor sculpture garden adjacent to the rink.

That fish face again. “You want to do it here?”

“No, baby, I want to continue our date.”

“Why?” Curiosity and more than a little frustration tinged
her voice, but not anger.

“There are things I want to share with you.”

“Art?”

“Yeah.” Heat touched his cheeks. Had he pushed her too far?

Shaking her head, she laughed. The low, mellow tones a cool,
soothing caress against the warmth of his skin. “So explain this to me.” She
pointed to a giant concrete and metal sculpture with a red circular bottom,
long blue fringe and a metal center that joined the two.

“It’s a different lens to look at the past. A typewriter
eraser holds little value now, but was once in daily use. Turning such a small
thing into art forces us to ask if an attachment to the past holds us back,
limits us.” He had to make her see, make her question. The crease along her
brow suggested she was thinking about it. “Let me show you my favorite.”

They arrived at a one-dimensional house—a yellow front, red
shutters and chimney, one white wall. “Now watch. Keep pace with me and turn
your head to one side.” Taking her hand, he walked her along the arc that ran
in front of the sculpture.

“My goodness, it’s spinning.”

“It’s playing with your perspective. It’s an optical
illusion.”

“It’s more than that. When you look at the ordinary through
a new lens, with added color and bold new lines, you realize how extraordinary
the everyday truly is.”

His heart filled with love for this astonishing Amazon who
saw the world with her eyes wide open, whose bravery shone as much in the steps
she was willing to take every day—not just her list of great feats. Hand in
hand, they wandered from one sculpture to another.

“I think this is my favorite,” she said in front of a
structure made of stacked metal chairs that formed a ladder to the sky. “Using
commonplace things to create something remarkable—new, larger than life.”

He just had to kiss her for that, drink her into him, brand
her, love her. “I need you naked,” he spoke against her lips when he broke the
kiss an eternity later.

Hustling her to his bike, he had her home and in his bedroom
in warrior time. As she started to unfasten her sweater, his hands covered
hers. “I want to do it.”

His gaze locked to hers, he gently opened the top button.
His finger traced along the silk of her skin until he hit the next one. One by
one, his fingers worked their way down, lingering longer each time against her
flesh. When the cardigan was fully open, he peeled it off her shoulders, down
her arms, over her wrists and hands until it dropped on the floor. Underneath,
a black-lace bra offered up her breasts, nipples peaked in invitation. He
unhooked the clasp and slowly pulled it down her arms to the floor. With one
finger, he stroked across her collarbone, circled one breast, then the other.
“So beautiful,” he murmured. His thumbs flicked those hardened peaks until he
heard her breath catch, felt her body shudder under his relentless touches.

Her hand covered his cock tenting his jeans, already rigid
and throbbing, the heat a brand that made him jump even under the heavy denim.
Swiping her hand away, he tugged the button on her jeans open. The slow rustle of
her zipper being opened tooth by tooth disturbed the silence of the room.
Lifting her chin with one hand, he walked kisses down her throat, to each
nipple.

She held his head to one. “More,” she demanded, her
breathlessness at odds with the command in her voice.

Her wish, his desire. His tongue swirled around and across
the peak, the laps firm and persistent until her nails dug deep into his scalp,
her back arching into him. She rewarded the scrape of his teeth with a low
moan. Craving more, he kissed his way down her abdomen, nuzzling her
bellybutton, nipping at the soft flesh of her inner thighs, the bend of her
knee. Tasting and touching every inch—the musky smell, the firm satin of her
skin a drug in his bloodstream as he stripped the jeans and panties to the
ground. At her ankles, he gently raised one leg to remove shoes and clothes,
and then the other until she was naked.

When he looked up, smelled the power of her desire, he
couldn’t resist a long, juicy taste. He suckled her nub until her groans were
loud and needy. Her thighs clenched under his hands. He lapped at her and loved
her until she came on his tongue. Both satisfied, it was his turn. “Undress
me.”

Whereas Tai had been slow, wanting to savor and tempt, Annie
ripped his sweater over his head, her nails dragging across his chest in the
most exquisite pleasure-pain. He toed off his boots, making it easy for her to
yank his pants and socks off. Her eyes lasered onto his cock, which banged hard
and proud against his abdomen. She licked her lips and he understood. “You’ve
never tasted me.” He pumped himself slowly. “I can see you want to.”

“It’ll waste your seed. We need it to conceive.” Her voice
wavered, husky with appetite.

“I won’t tell. Baby, you know I rebound quickly. You’ll
leave here full of my seed.”

A small, sexy smile. “Yes, you do.”

“Indulge, Annie.” Break another rule. He wanted this with a
hunger bordering on madness—not just for the pleasure of her mouth, but so that
she’d take him on a whole other, intimate level. Tapping into the
precision-tuned control that allowed him to survive in the Gargarean camp, he
held his raging lust in check and let her make the next move.

“Sit down. I prefer to do it that way.” The Amazon taking
control.

“Make me.” Amazons needed to be challenged.

One hand on his chest, the other gloved tight around his
length, she nipped at his lips while walking ahead, forcing him to edge
backward to the couch several steps behind him. When the back of his knees hit,
she gripped his shoulders and pressed down until he fell on the seat. Kneeling
in front of him, she pushed his thighs wide open and ran one red nail along the
prize.

“You’re going to tease, aren’t you?” he asked even though he
knew the answer.

A lick across the tip. “Yep.”

Her tongue traced the vein that throbbed just below the
crest to his balls, her hands massaged. A gentle nip of his sac with teeth
followed by the swirl of her tongue around his erection had him groaning in
anticipation. Electric pulses exploded under his flesh. “You’re just being
mean.”

Rich brown hair swept his thighs when she nodded, a silken
promise of the sensuality to come. “Now,” he growled, his patience at a breaking
point.

She bit his thigh as a reprimand and then took him fully in
her warm, tight mouth. Fire raged down his spine, the heat magnifying in his
lower back. His whole body throbbed as her mouth fucked him. Her tongue twined
around him and he detonated into a gigantic blaze. The mewls that emerged from
the back of her throat, the pure focus of her mouth and hands, all signaled her
pleasure in the act.

“So good,” he rasped. A small part of his brain not fevered
by lust smiled in pride. Amazons were not known for their expertise in this
particular act or for their interest in it. Their reputation was of demanding,
not giving to their male lovers.

His hands threaded the velvety curls caressing his thighs.
Her mouth kept to a relentless rhythm, hungry, demanding. While one hand
stroked his sac, the other gripped his thigh, the bite of her nails driving him
until he poured inside her. Love wove through the pleasure that cascaded
through him. A smile in his heart, he watched her swallow all of him, reveling
in his taste as she broke the cardinal rule of the Thirteen Nights—all
resources toward procreation. What she had done was for mutual enjoyment, to
strengthen their growing bond. And he was going to shower her in the same.
After the dizziness of the orgasm passed, he carried her to his bedroom. The
comforter had already been pulled back to reveal silk sheets covered in rose
petals. One rose had been glorious. She deserved a bed full of roses to satisfy
the sensual, gentle nature she’d had to keep hidden beneath her warrior face.
By nurturing her secret desires, he hoped to entice her to stay in his bed long
after the ritual ended.

Her mahogany hair gleamed against white pillow cases, her
strong, lush body open and waiting for him.

His hands full of petals, he glided up her calf, along the
inner thigh, her abdomen to capture her breasts in a cloud of blossoms.

“I shouldn’t like this so much,” she said. Her hands covered
his and guided his caresses.

He showered her in the petals, cloaking her in the subtle
scents and soft caress of love’s flower, keeping only one to whisper sensual
promises across her lips before he took them in a kiss. All tongue and intent,
the kiss meant to brand, to drug, to seduce her to stay with him, always.

A kiss couldn’t sate the hunger riding him. He wanted to
drown in her taste. He used petals to open her and licked around her clit in a
sensual tease that had her arching toward him in supplication. A lap straight
up the center drew a deep, ravenous groan. He settled down there for the evening.
Long, lingering licks up and down had her squirming, grabbing his head until he
suckled her, fierce and unrelenting.

“Finger me too.” Inserting two, he pumped her hard and
gorged until she released the Amazon battle cry. He smiled, knowing that to be
the ultimate compliment, an indicator of sexual satiation equal to the thrill
of battle—usually only shared when an Amazon shared pleasure with another
Amazon. It was rarely bestowed upon a male. He wanted to hear it again when he
was inside her. A few more licks, just because, and he moved over her and
entered. Her orgasm throbbed around him, demanded he plunge in deeper. Annie’s
legs encircled him, her pelvis shifted so her clit pushed against his pelvic
bone. His empath knew what he wanted, had the same need.

“Hard and deep,” she moaned. “Hold nothing back.”

He didn’t. The bed shook and smashed the wall with every
thrust. Plaster dust sprinkled their bodies and the bed. He slammed into her
with everything he had. She bucked and reared until that battle cry echoed
through his house, louder this time, drawing out the best orgasm he ever had in
his life.

Gathering her in his arms, he tucked her head under his
chin. The mix of rose petals and her sweat-slickened skin felt luxurious
against his flesh. He stroked down her back, light squeezes of her butt,
enjoying holding her close. “Has anyone ever drawn the cry from you?” he asked,
needing to be the one who pleasured her beyond all others.

She shook her head under his chin. “That was the first
time,” she said and snuggled closer. “The training never really stuck with you.
Why?”

The grin hit his cheekbones and he just had to stroke her
some more, using the rose petals along her back this time. “Because if I had
followed the rules, I wouldn’t have survived. I’m not Gargarean by blood. I’m
smaller, weaker—the camp runt, so I relied on speed, agility and just plain
brain power. I could out think and outmaneuver them, but it meant thinking
outside the rule box, and that’s where I feel most at home.”

“How did you come to be born?” It was not a cruel question,
but an honest one, asked from a woman who knew that few Amazons took human
lovers and even fewer would dare to bear a half-human child.