Tres

Tres

Maniac

               I laughed hysterically as the power coursed through me, but I felt him the entire time. He had backed warily to the door and I snapped my head towards him, my eyes locking on him. I was at his side in a second and wrapped my arms and legs around him. He opened his mouth to argue something I didn’t care to hear, and I crushed my lips to his.

               He stood ridged in my grasp for a second and the he gave a defeated groan and wrapped his arms around me and kissed me back with such force, more electricity shot through me.

               He tripped over his own feet and then my back was on the mattress and his hands were under my shirt once more and they started to run up the curve of my hips. I shot my hands under his shirt and felt my claws—claws?—dig into the muscles of his back. His hands hesitated just beneath my breasts, and I was about to remove my hands to place his own on them, when he spoke.

               “Io, you’re mine. Only mine. I don’t care who came before me, soon I’m all you will remember.”

               I smiled up at him, “I’ve never had any-“and then my words died as I arched my back up and his rough palms ran over my nipples. I groaned and he caught it with his mouth. “Perfect.” He whispered as his hands fit around my breasts, cupping them. His thumbs passed over my nipples, hard for his touch, and I gasped.

               “My woman likes this.” His masculine satisfaction washed over me and I ripped his shirt off in my haste to see his chest. He grinned and pulled my shirt over my head. I waited for the bitter kiss of cold to touch my skin and make goose bumps rise on my skin, but it never came. I realize that my body was too hot for it to affect me.

               He leaned back and stared down at me, a hunger in his expression that made me weak.

               And that simple thought, that weakness that he ignited inside me, made my head clear and the electricity left my body in a rush. I shook my head and sat up, covering my breasts with my arm.

               He growled his disapproval, but he seemed to recognize the change in me, and didn’t comment.

               I couldn’t be weak; I didn’t have that affordability in the makeup of my very soul. I had learned the hard way once what weakness brought you, and I would never again feel that pain. My instinct screamed for his hands to be back on me, but I fought it and won. I suddenly felt scared, like I didn’t know myself anymore.

               I tugged my shirt back over my head and he sighed, resigned.

               I stood and crossed to the first to put some distance between us, to gather my thoughts, and he left me to my own devices for a while.

               I was aware of him every second, like a homing beacon had been created inside me where nothing was before. I didn’t like it, resented it. I was comfortable with myself, taking care of what I needed and what my dogs needed and nothing more. I like the simplicity of it. I didn’t have to worry about being accepted, my dogs loved me regardless of what decisions I made and how I looked. But I felt a sudden vulnerability with Nox that I had never felt before. I wanted him to like me, I wanted him to want me so fiercely he couldn’t stand to be apart from me, even while another part of me screamed that I wasn’t being rational and that opening up to him would only bring me misery.

               My heart felt like it would explode. I had to stop this. But I couldn’t think with his scent on my skin. My lips were still swollen and tender from his kiss, my first kiss. And I suddenly couldn’t process anything else. My mind blanked and I ran like a scared little bird. The power that had been in me before was gone, I felt a ghost of it, tantalizing, but I knew that he was the key to it. And I couldn’t handle the emotions and pull I felt toward him, I clashed with my rational brain to the point of breaking it.

               I flew across my field, hardly paying attention to my surroundings and before I knew it I was on top of the mountain. I pressed my palms to the sides of my head because it was pounding and tried to think.

               Okay, Io. What are the facts?

               I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.

               The things I knew: I had no idea who or what he was other than his short answers that explained little. I didn’t really know what a Valkyrie was. Or why I had thought that I was one. My skin still tingled from the electricity that had flowed through me so easily. I shook my head and tried to focus. He was the only person I had interacted with in six years. He could be anyone or anything. But even in my confusion I sensed that he hadn’t lied to me. I had reacted to him exactly how I had always dreamed I would to a man, and he had touched me so perfectly that I knew I would never be the same. I craved that touch now, even though I fought it savagely.

               I was lost in thought, thinking about how perfect it had felt when we were together, when I heard a growl behind me and whirled around to me a pair of eyes in the darkness.

               I had no weapons, as confused and muddled as I had been when I all but ran from my home where he was. I was totally unprepared as I had never been before and just when the huge mountain lion lunged at me, a shadow shifted from the others and tackled it to the ground before it reached me.

               The shadow also growled and I saw a flash of white teeth that had grown into dagger points before they went over the side of the mountain.

               My heart raced, catching up. I couldn’t speak, terror flooding through me like a tidal wave, as I raced down the mountain after them.

               I heard numerous growls and a few vicious sounds of a fist hitting fur, and then I caught up to them. I stopped dead in my tracks as the shadow, so transparent that I could see through it, wrapped itself around the great cat and I heard a sickening snap. The cat went limp, dead, its head twisted at a sickening angle in the moonlight. And then the shadow rose up, but I wasn’t afraid of it.

               Nox stepped from the blackness, his shoulder bleeding and claw marks dug down deep into his chest, blood falling down his body in a current. His eyes met mine and I ran for him, uncaring of my thoughts and my reservations. He had saved me when I was defenseless. No one else had before without a set price or promise of equal sacrifice to be given back to them.

               He caught me, his wounds healing rapidly, already the blood flow stopped. He wrapped his arms around me, burying his face in my braids and I held on, with my arms wrapped around his neck.

               “Nox, you saved me.” I whispered.

               “Of course I did.” He replied, as if I was being ridiculous. “You are mine. I protect what is mine.”

               I kissed him then, my thoughts consumed with him. My hunger apparent through my kiss and he crushed me tighter against him. We floated back home, my dogs all waiting on the inside of the gate for us.

               I broke our kiss only to reassure them, and then we were back at it. Wrapped up in each other so tightly that no one else existed.

               I knew he was mine. He was the one I had always waited for, unconscious though it may have been.

               His hands were all over me, on my hips underneath the leather of my pants and then his hands were hot on my back, branding me to him. He was possessive, and I knew that I would always want him. Always crave me, no matter what separated us.

               “Make me yours, Nox. Make love to me.” I whispered at his ear.

               He stilled and pulled away enough to look down into my eyes. I felt the sharp sudden emotions I had for him reflected in them, and he must have too, because he groaned and kicked his boots off at the front door of my yurt. I tried to shimmy out of my leathers but my legs were wrapped so firmly around his waist that I didn’t succeed.

               He gave a throaty chuckle and then we were collapsing on the bed. He had my shirt off before I could think, but I didn’t try to fight it this time. I wanted him in all ways.

               He brought his mouth down to my aching nipple and I arched up into him and his hot mouth met my skin. I moaned and rolled my hips against him. He made his tongue flat and drew it up and over my sensitive bud. I went wild. Never had I imagined feeling this way. I had never thought that I could be so lost to someone.

               He moaned and it vibrated through my body. I ran my claws down his chest, across the rippling bands of muscle. He stilled for a moment and then pressed his body down into mine. For the first time I felt his thick erection and I moaned, my lower body moving against it. He groaned and his iron grip went around my hips, pressing me down, keeping me from moving.

               “Be still woman, or this will be over before it begins.”

               I didn’t care, my focus centered on his shaft. I wanted it so badly that my body rolled without me having to think about it and despite his forceful restricted hold.

               When it slid along my core I gasped and he cursed at my ear.

               “Oh baby, I’m going to cum.” He threw his head back and I kept up my grinding. Sliding my core along his shaft.

               I felt it begin to contract and expand and then a delicious wetness spread.

               He groaned low and then his hands moved up to my waist and he began to grind against me, more of that wetness spreading against me.

               “Oh Io, I didn’t know what I was missing.” He fused his lips to mine. And then, just when I began to feel like I was going to shatter into an explosive heat of ecstasy, he collapsed on top of me.

               We both breathed hard, trying to catch our breaths. But my curiosity got the best of me and I shoved my hand into his pants. He rolled off me in a flash but when I brought my hand up to my face, that strange light that had lit my skin earlier shone brighter than it had and my fingers were sticky.

               I brought it closer to my face and then my tongue flicked out and I licked my hand from my wrist to the tip of my middle finger. I turned my head as the richest, creamiest, stuff I had ever tasted slid down my throat.

               His eyes were rampant on my tongue and I smiled in delight.

               He opened his mouth to speak, but a shrill shriek echoed in the darkness above my home and then the roof collapsed on top of us. I was dazed, still lost in the echoes of his passion, and didn’t have time to react.

               Huge, cold hands clamped around my naked torso and I screamed and screamed. I had no feeling of power inside me though and I had no weapon. I heard the flap of wings and then I was being carried into the sky, away from him.

               “No! Nox! No!” I struggled with all my might, but I was up and out and flying over the darkened landscape before I could even think.

               And then something hard hit me in the temple and I went out cold to the sounds of his vicious roar of fury echoing into the night below me.