~ CASIMIR ~No one had ever come so close to stealing my control.She was stunning. Skin flushed and pink, lips soft and open, she clawed one hand into my neck and I could have howled.When she came, I’d swear I heard God in her cry.And even when she was blinking and stunned, swallowing, I didn’t let up.We weren’t finished.“Hold on. We’re only just getting started.”Her eyes—glazed with pleasure, but clearing—locked on mine and her mouth opened like she’d speak, but then I rocked into her again and her jaw dropped.She was twitching, her body over-sensitized. The risk of course was that she’d grow desensitized, so I lowered myself to my elbows, cupping hands over her head and finally indulging the urge to be skin-to-skin with her. As we rocked together slowly, I groaned and dropped my chin, our cheeks brushing and even that sweet contact was heightened.When her hands came up, her fingers sliding on my scalp, I kissed her and she clung, taking my tongue as readily as she’d taken th
~ JESSE ~Laying there with Cazz’s weight pinning me to the bed, my head was reeling. My insides were at war because half of me was already halfway in love with him. I wanted to hold him to me, keep him there, lay under him and just soak him up like a good smell.I knew—I knew—that I was never going to be the same. And that was scary, because something I had never anticipated was suddenly very clear: Having sex really did affect my feelings.I’d talked to my friends over the years. I’d shaken my head over and over again, baffled about why they were so attached to some douchebag who was inconsistent and insensitive at best—sometimes downright abusive.And they’d always talk about how they wanted him. Couldn’t get enough of him. And how rare that was…I’d been skeptical—naively, as it turned out—that this kind of connection had anything to do with it. I’d never had a man make me feel anything close to what Cazz had just wrung from my body, so I assumed they were just trying to romantici
~ JESSE ~Holy shit. It was suddenly hard to breathe. The immensity of his power, of what that meant… of what kind of man it made him was stunning and utterly horrifying.As my head spun with the implications of what that meant, instinctively I pulled the blanket up and over my chest.“Don’t,” he said darkly, reaching out immediately to tug it back down to bare my breasts. I was about to slap his hand away when I remembered our agreement that I would submit, as long as he didn’t use that power on me.That power that could literally make my heart stop?What else was he capable of?I swallowed back the fear—then quickly forgot it when his eyes zeroed in on my breast and he gave a small smile, reaching out to trace the nipple closest to him with a touch so soft I wouldn’t even have felt it if my nipples hadn’t still been hard.“You’re a beautiful woman, Jesse,” he said, as if the fact surprised him, his tone quiet and suggestive, as if his prior anger had simply melted away. Then he fro
~ JESSE ~“Ah. Food,” Cazz said with a sigh, then rolled off the bed and walked towards the door, completely naked.It took a moment to realize it wasn’t a joke, or a ploy, that he was walking towards the door to open it, buck naked, while I lay there in the same state.I yanked the blankets up and over me, praying he wouldn’t see that as defiance when it was obvious he was about to invite other people into the room.“Cazz!” I hissed.“What?” His back and shoulders rippled with strength as he lifted that massive beam out of the brackets holding it across the double doors.“I’m not dressed!”“So?” He glanced at me over his shoulder as he leaned the beam up against the wall behind where the door would open. “Neither am I.”“But—”But then he opened the door and suddenly four women dressed in dark leather pants and white linen shirts walked in carrying a massive tray between them spilling with food—I saw fruit meat, breads, cheeses… like a buffet. Except for two.Ignoring Cazz’s naked bo
~ CASIMIR ~Jesse, my newly deflowered wife was begging.Had I only heard the words, so earnest and needy, I would have thought she was compelled, but my loins stirred because unlike those I had used my power to compel, she was no shrinking worshiper, slavering at my feet, grateful for any crumb I might drop.She stood with a pride that far exceeded her actual strength. And yet… her posture gave no hint of her fragility. Her chin was high. High enough to reveal the bob of her throat that underlined the stink of fear on her. Yet she didn't cower. Didn't throw herself at my feet like the others would. I would not have thought it possible, but somehow she managed to beg with dignity. And her eyes, when they met mine, walked the line between pleading and challenging.Her stubbornness and insolence might have irritated me, but I admired her courage. Of course, it also made it extremely clear that she had no concept of the true depth of my power. None whatsoever.She held the knowledge, but
~ CASIMIR ~Jesse’s frantic insistence gave me a moment’s hesitation. And then her words landed and gave me even greater pause.She'd been sold? I frowned and made a mental note to have Ghere look into her family and see how they might be tangled up with wolves in a plot. While she seemed guileless, we could never be too careful. I didn't remember being told that some of those we took were purchased. That left an itch between my shoulder blades.Then I was distracted from my thoughts because she raised her chin, so even though I was taller, she managed to look down her nose at me.“You don't have to worry about me, Cazz. I'm going to give you whatever you want.” I almost groaned as my power surged again, but she wasn't done. “I'm going to do that, choose to do it, because then you've taken nothing from me. You only get what I give. And when I get out of this hell, I'll still… I'll still be me.”There it was again… the faintest of echoes, a whisper of poisoned claws against my heart.I
~ CASIMIR ~As I walked further from Jesse’s chamber feeling smug, but still a little sweaty, something itched between my shoulder blades. I tapped into the bond, careful to hold myself apart, yet open myself enough to measure her… and to my irritation, discovered her emotional descent becoming more drastic.I’d felt the pang of her desire for me—which was a good sign—but this sudden plunge into fear, while perhaps natural, was frustrating. And as I held her heart on that glowing string between us but kept myself blocked, all too quickly her fear threaded with hints of despair.Already? Already we were back to this… this failure?I wanted to bite something. What had happened? What was she thinking to make her so scared?Far from being the strongest I had found, was she going to fail me even faster than the others?I stopped in the middle of the corridor, turning to look over my shoulder in the direction I’d come from, suddenly tempted to return to her, a combination of frustration and
~ CASIMIR ~“I need to know if you’ve discovered any more hints about the human female fertility,” I muttered a few minutes later to Ghere as I picked through the strange items spread all over his desk.He watched me cautiously. “We discussed it, Cazz. I told you that their emotional and mental state is incredibly central to their likelihood to conceive—and to sustaining the pregnancy also.”“Yes, yes,” I muttered, flapping a hand at him impatiently as I turned away from the detritus on the desk to face him.His brows were high and he eyed me warily. He’d been shocked when I walked in. I supposed it wasn’t common for me to come all the way down to his study cave under the Palace. But after that delicious taking, I’d needed to move to wake my mind back up. So, I’d come to him rather than linking to summon him.“It’s all well and good to speak of emotional and mental health. But how do we improve our chances after the last two fuck-ups?” I muttered.Ghere scratched the back of his neck.