Warlord and the Waif by Chloe Parker

CHAPTER TWELVE

ELLA

I NEARLY JUMP back when he abruptly turns, water sloshing out of the basin and wetting my skirt. But his hands are on my hips in a heartbeat, pulling me in closer, his fingers gripping my thighs with a combination of power and tenderness that shocks me. I gasp when my bare feet hit the hot water, my eyes wide as he lowers his mouth to my inner thigh and grazes his teeth across the sensitive flesh. His canines are sharp, and I can feel the point press into my skin. The sensation sends a jolt of pleasure up from my core to the back of my throat.

Calder is between my legs, his face visible over the pleats of my skirt, his hands holding my thighs open no matter how shy I feel. His hair hangs loose around his face, those strange eyes and unnatural skin tone reminding me that I’ve left Earth far behind.

I know I’m blushing, but the anticipation of what he’s going to do keeps me bold.

“I’m going to taste you now,” he murmurs, sliding his hands up to my backside and yanking me closer with a squeak. I can’t stay upright, and I fling a hand behind me to steady myself. I expect him to move, to do something now that we’re here, but he stays completely still.

I nearly melt when he speaks again.

“Tell me you want my tongue on your cunt, Ella,” he growls from between my legs.

More than anything.

“Please,” I whisper.

Like a man starved, he lowers his head to the juncture of my thighs, keeping his eyes on me as if to gauge my reaction. There’s still a thin layer of fabric between us, but I can feel it in devastating detail when his tongue presses against that most perfect spot. He drags his tongue from my opening to my clitoris and back again, his eyes hooded but steady. It feels so good—like my whole body can sense what’s happening at my core, my fingertips tingling and my nipples pebbling under my shirt.

My arm buckles, but I catch myself on both elbows.

No one has ever done this to me before and I want to watch.

He starts to suck at my sex through the fabric as I spasm under his touch, and my muscles twitch and fire in exquisite pleasure. I want to move, to writhe in bliss, but he keeps his hands on my thighs, keeping me firmly in place against the stone. He continues to watch me, his stardust eyes hot with desire.

He’s so warm from the bath, and I feel that heat instantly, the pleasure crawling up my skin. His beard tickles my inner thighs, but I don’t care; the sensation is washing over me in waves. All I wish is that my pesky underthings would disappear.

Like he’s reading my mind, Calder pushes my legs back and ducks his head. I wonder at what he’s doing, his separation from that point of pleasure agonizing, but then I feel horns under my legs, prodding at my flesh without causing any pain. I look up in a daze to see that he’s draped my legs over his antlers, giving him better leverage. The slight pain from his sharp horns dizzies me, only adding to the pulse of euphoria across my skin.

And his hands are now free to do what they please.

I let out a gasp when he tears the thin garment away from me and presses his mouth flush against me. I want to keep watching him, but I need something to hold on to as the whole world shifts underneath me. I let my head fall to the floor as I tangle my hands in his long hair, and he groans in approval, sucking and lapping at me with even more fervor. A cry wrenches its way from my throat, and I pull myself closer to him, helpless but to let him fuck me with his mouth.

I’ve never been with a man like this, and it’s mind boggling that I’ve been missing out for all my twenty-five years.

I rock against him as he plunges his tongue inside me, gripping my hips once again. I brace myself on his horns, my hands in his hair. The only solid thing in the world is Calder’s mouth on my sex, his hands clutching my hips, and his horns pressing into my legs. His lips, teeth, and tongue work in harmony, playing me like an instrument, and my entire existence seems wrapped up in his mouth at the juncture of my thighs.

I crumble, crying out, knowing that the other staff might hear me and not giving a damn. My orgasm courses through me in waves, barely ebbing with each pass across my body, and Calder sips at my pleasure like it’s ambrosia.

My breath catches in my throat, ragged.

But he doesn’t relent. Instead, he holds me against him as I ride the wave, persisting in lapping at me even as another orgasm grips me. He’s still kissing me, still pressing his fingertips into my hips, his tongue still making love to me. I don’t come down from the crest, taking a handful of his hair and pulling hard. His tongue strokes up and down, and I wrench out a moan, wanting to tell him to pause and give me time to recover but unable to form my lips around the words.

“Come for me again, sweet beauty,” he murmurs, keeping his mouth on me. The rumble of his voice pushes me once more over the edge, and I’m trembling against him, my legs jelly, every limb feeling like I’m crumbling into him.

The world is a haze of steam and pleasure and the horned god between my legs. I can’t make sense of time or space; just the places where we touch.

The next thing I feel is his big, rough palms on my thighs, smoothing over my skin, and then his maneuvering to disentangle my legs from his antlers. I’m still in a daze when he rises from the water, dripping on the floor next to me, and I let him lift me into his arms. He cradles my cheek against his warm chest, firm and steaming from the bath.

It’s the first time he’s held me, and it’s divine.

Calder carries me to the massive bed to lay me down. The furs are soft, and I run my fingers over them with a sigh. I feel like I’m high, like when I went to that festival in Northern California last year. But as I come down from my orgasms, I remember where I am.

Oh.

That wasn’t last year. It was a century ago.

What am I doing?

I sit up slowly, shame at what I’ve just done creeping over me. I sit upright, then start to climb out of the bed when I hear Calder’s voice.

“Don’t move.”

I stop short, looking in his direction.

He’s standing in the doorway to an adjoining room, his hair freshly toweled off and brushed to one side. His rusted skin is still steaming from the bath, his eyes bright with a fire that I know burns for me.

And he’s hard as a rock, his dick sticking straight out, slightly curved and with ridges totally unlike a human. He’s uncut — as I guess he would be, since I don’t know if circumcision exists in this galaxy — but the blunt head of his shaft is prominent, and the same color and sheen as his rust-red skin. It’s big, but no bigger than I should have expected from this giant of a man, the ridges making it more imposing and the pulsing veins telling me exactly how turned on I’ve made him.

I’m repulsed by how alien he is, even as I yearn to find out what it feels like to have that inside me.

I squirm on the bed and Calder steps toward me, sinful promises in his eyes.

“Stop,” he says, his eyes falling to my bodice. “I don’t want you going anywhere until I’ve had a chance to undress you lace by lace.”

“I should go,” I blurt out.

He steps forward aggressively, but stops in his tracks when my eyes go wide. He has the look of a man who’s been robbed of something that’s his.

And my independent spirit makes me bold.

I do not belong to this man.

I slide off the bed, wondering if he’s going to stop me and planning to fight. Part of me almost wishes he would, the part of me that still aches to feel him inside. I nearly bite my lip even at the thought of it, but I don’t want him to take that as a sign.

“I’m leaving,” I declare.

He doesn’t say anything as I step tentatively forward. I have to walk right past him to get to the door, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to resist him if he makes any other advances. I stand up straight, set my shoulders, and walk confidently toward the door.

He catches my arm as I pass and I catch a breath, whipping my head up to look at him.

“You are mine, Ella,” he growls. “And you may not believe it, but I will soon have you begging me to bed you.”

God, I already want that. But at the same time, I know it’s deeply wrong. I can’t reply, instead staring straight at the floor, wrenching my arm away, and getting out of there as fast as I can.

I’ve given in once, and I know I will again. I need to escape before it’s too late.

Because if I end up in his bed, I’ll be trapped here forever.