She trembled. The orgasm he built tightened her core and strung her limbs taut. He didn’t send her over the edge, though. His steady stroking made it grow. Her rough breaths shortened. She gasped and tried to drag in air but couldn’t. The race to experience heaven on earth became her world, along with the man whose hot and hungry eyes watched her with utter satisfaction.
“Are you close?”
Going by the smirk on his full lips, he knew the answer, but the teasing note to his voice told her more about her new lover than anything else could. He wouldn’t let her be in charge as she’d been with other men, not unless he wanted to give her the power. Calan would command her pleasure, direct her, and love every minute of it.
She nodded. More arousal flowed to coat his hand. The wet smack of his palm against her lower lips reached her ears. His pleased smile grew.
“Love that sound,” he groaned.
He pumped faster into her. Her breathy moans added to wet, sucking noises. They would’ve embarrassed her, but the carnal stamp of approval on his face stopped the awkward feeling. She lifted her bottom and moved with him.
“I can’t wait to feel your greedy muscles massaging my dick.” Calan leaned closer, pushing his fingers deeper into her. “You’re going to milk my cock dry.” He brushed his lips to her cheek. “My release is yours, and you are going to take every last drop. Understand?”
She inhaled sharply.
He growled. “Do. You. Understand?”
“Yes.”
He grunted in response and kissed her hard, still working her body with quick pumps. The curl and thrust of his fingers turned into a grinding press of his palm to her clit. Harley careened over the edge. Pleasure, pain, ecstasy—it all rolled into the intense waves whipping through her body. She opened her mouth on a soundless cry.
The motion of his hand kept the orgasm going. She thrashed against the intensity of the release, but he forced her to ride the edge for longer than she thought possible. Finally, he yanked his fingers free and jerked her limp body into his arms. He kissed her as if what they shared was their first and last kiss. She returned it, giving him everything she had, more than she’d ever given another. It lasted forever, yet not long enough. Between one stroke of his tongue and the next, his image faded.
Her arms dropped to her sides. She knelt on trembling legs and glanced around. She was alone.
Again.
Harley cradled her hand with its incomplete symbol. “I think this is my hell. Being alone when all I want to do is curl up next to the man sworn to hunt down and destroy the brothers and sisters I never knew I had.”
Chapter Nine
Calan panted through the lust and pain tightening his body. Tingles that had nothing to do with pleasure and everything to do with the out-of-body experience he’d just had burned every particle of his being. The only thing that made his suffering bearable was the memory of his soon-to-be mate lost to desire.
“Was it worth it?”
His brother Rhys’s agony-laced voiced echoed in Calan’s head. Guilt welled. In order to accomplish the feat he hadn’t been sure was possible, he’d drawn strength from his willing brother the same way Calan had over the lifetime they’d been together.
“Yes,” Calan rasped. He switched to the more intimate form of communication he shared with his siblings. “I never knew how good it’d be. I felt her pleasure, Rhys. It was different from what we feel, but no less satisfying. I can’t wait to join our bodies.”
“Don’t be a fool. The female is Dar’s child. Whether she’s fought the lure of her heritage or not matters little. The same chaotic force that twisted the king of the Seelies has worked its way through Harley from the moment she took her first breath, luring her, tempting her, corrupting her.”
“It does matter. She is strong. She—”
Rhys growled. “She is not pure. The next time she willingly acts on her hatred, she’ll be lost. One act of violence, and—”
“She will not intentionally hurt someone. I saw—”
An anguished roar resounded between Calan’s ears. He didn’t flinch but lowered his gaze at the sight of his brother’s lengthening jaw and reddened eyes as he slipped into their alternate Huntsman form, the hellish state where they were half beast and half man.
“You didn’t block me soon enough, brother. I saw the evidence stamped on her body, the same as you did, but you refuse to acknowledge it. She has caused pain at least once and enjoyed it. You know as well as I, the euphoria of hurting another is a drug to fairies. They’ll seek that high, over and over, until they can’t function without the screams of their victims.” Rhys groaned. “You’re letting your damn dick make your decisions for you. Think with your other head before it’s too late.”
Calan raised his gaze to meet Rhys’s wavering image. “Yes, she’s experienced pleasure from another’s pain, but she has not sought it out again. For me, Rhys. How can I not look upon her with respect?”
“Mating her is not a permanent fix. Now that she knows what being Unseelie can offer her, she will always be tempted.” Rhys turned pleading eyes upon him. “She might not mean to embrace her darker side, but what if people dear to her are hurt, and she strikes out at their attackers? Hurts them? Maybe kills them? Think of it, brother. The need to seek vengeance is powerful. We feel
