Pursued Read online

  Elise bit her lip. Earlier the very idea of giving him such free access to her body had made her break out into a cold sweat. And no one had put anything inside her since…but she wouldn’t think about that. Not now.

  “Yes,” she heard herself saying, glad that he’d asked instead of just assuming it was okay. “Yes, if you go slowly.”

  “Of course.” Merrick nodded at her in the viewer, their eyes meeting briefly and she could see that his were filled with unexpressed longing. “Just watch,” he told her again. “Tell me if you want me to stop. I promise I will.”

  “O-okay,” Elise stuttered, nodding. “I…I’ll be all right.”

  “Yes I know you will, baby. Because I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” He kissed her tenderly on the cheek and then slowly, gently, began to breach her entrance with two long, thick fingers.

  Elise moaned breathlessly as she watched them slide into her. She was tight—both from fear and disuse—but so wet and slippery from his earlier stroking that he slid in with surprising ease. But to her surprise, Merrick stopped well before he reached the end of her channel.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked, looking at his face in the viewer. “Is everything all right?”

  “That’s what I wanted to ask you,” he murmured. “Wanted to make sure. You want me to go all the way? Penetrate you to the core?”

  The hot look in his eyes as he asked her and the feel of his fingers halfway buried in her tight but willing pussy made Elise want to squirm and moan shamelessly. Somehow she managed to hold still. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, Merrick—take me all the way.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that.” With no more hesitation, he slid his fingers deeply into her, finding the end of her channel and pressing gently but firmly, as though claiming her in some way.

  Elise moaned at the jolt of pleasure the tender, intimate touch gave her. God, but it felt good—surprisingly good—to open herself to him like this, to let him penetrate her.

  Merrick must have been feeling good too because he began talking in her ear. “Look at that baby, look at how deep my fingers are inside you.” He pulled out slightly and thrust in again, making her gasp. “You’re so brave, you know that?” he continued. “So brave to spread your pussy and let me in, to let me fingerfuck you like this.”

  His hot, dirty words gave Elise another jolt of pleasure and she moaned and wiggled her hips. She couldn’t stop looking at the erotic sight in the viewer—looking at the huge muscular man who was cradling a much smaller woman in his lap and stroking and penetrating her wet, open pussy with his fingers.

  “Merrick,” she begged breathlessly. “Merrick please, I need to come.”

  “Don’t worry, baby, you will,” he assured her. Slowly his fingers, now slick with her juices, slid out of the well of her pussy and slipped over her clit. This time he stroked both sides at once, framing the throbbing button between his two thick digits but still managing to never quite touch it head-on. Then he slid down and entered her to the core again, making sure to press deep and hard against the end of her channel.

  “Oh…” A long sigh of pure pleasure fell from her lips as he repeated the action again and then again and again, establishing the all-important rhythm he’d talked about as he touched her with just the right amount of gentleness and strength.

  Elise couldn’t help herself—she began to move. Reaching out, she gripped his knees and leaned back against him hard, bracing herself. Then, instinctively, she flexed her hips, thrusting her pelvis in time to his strokes as she gave herself up to the pleasure of his thick fingers stroking into her again and again.

  “That’s good, baby, real good,” he murmured and she could hear the lust in his deep voice and feel his need for her against her back. “Ride my fingers. Fuck yourself on them.”

  Elise did as he said, feeling wanton and wild and sexual in a way she never had before. She could feel the pleasure building as his fingers slipped over her clit and buried themselves to the hilt in her pussy over and over again, could feel her inner muscles clenching, her hands gripping Merrick’s knees as she worked to reach the elusive peak.

  The girl in the viewer looked like a wild thing—her long black hair strewn haphazardly over her shoulders, her cheeks flushed, her nipples two hard pink pebbles at the ends of her breasts as she pumped against the big man’s fingers, as she opened herself for the pleasure he gave her…

  “That’s right, baby,” she heard Merrick growl. “Work for it. Work hard.” As he spoke, his fingers stroked over her clit once more and thrust deep into her pussy, filling her completely, sending her over the edge at last.

  Elise threw her head back and moaned, uninhibited and unashamed as the tidal wave of pleasure washed over her. Oh God, she’d never felt anything like this. Never felt anything even close. It was so good, so incredibly good and right and wonderful and somehow familiar…

  And abruptly, it was all too much.

  A sudden memory came back to her—a flash going off with blinding intensity in her head.

  ***

  I was in my room, I thought I had the house to myself. I was on the bed, touching myself. It felt good but scary. Scary but too pleasurable to stop…

  Then suddenly, the door to her room had been flung open and he had been standing there. “Well, well, well,” he’d said, leering at her in that hungry way that always made her feel like slugs were crawling all over her body, leaving a trail of slime. “Look who’s all grown up and ready to fuck.”

  He started to come in the room…if Buck hadn’t come running up the stairs at my call…

  She remembered his angry face, his snarl of disappointment as he was denied what he wanted yet again.

  “Keep it up, sweetheart. That mangy mutt won’t always be around to get in my way…”

  And then I felt so dirty, so wrong. It was the first time I realized it was my fault he looked at me that way. My fault he wanted to…to…NO!

  Elise shoved the hateful memory away as hard as she could. She couldn’t think about this now—couldn’t face it, couldn’t bear it. She couldn’t!

  ***

  “Elise? Baby, are you all right?”

  She blinked and realized the worried voice belonged to Merrick.

  “Okay?” she repeated stupidly.

  “Yeah. One minute you were having the time of your life and the next you just kind of spaced out. Fucking scared me.” He frowned worriedly.

  Merrick cares. He really cares.

  Merrick who was still naked on the bed with her. Who had touched her so gently, so sweetly. Who had made her come and let one of the corpses escape from the vault.

  “No,” she said, pushing him away, getting off the bed as fast as she could. “No, I…I don’t feel good. I think I need to lie down—in my own room. Alone.”

  And before he could say another word, she grabbed her discarded clothing off the floor and fled.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Oh my Goddess…oh no! No!” Lissa stood in the doorway of Minverna’s quarters and stared with horror at the sight that met her eyes.

  “What is it?” Councilor Rast came in behind her, his half-spread wings barely clearing the doorway. He’d insisted on coming with Lissa this time, in case the confrontation with the ex-head priestess turned ugly, as it had last time.

  And it did, Lissa thought dismally, staring at the stiff body lying in a pool of dried blood. So much uglier than I ever imagined.

  “Shit.” The Councilor’s mouth was a hard line and his truegreen eyes were unhappy.

  “What is it?” Nadiah was right behind him, trying to see over his wings. “What’s going on?”

  “Back. Out. Both of you.” The Councilor shooed both Lissa and Nadiah back out of the room. “Don’t contaminate the scene. Let me look at it.”

  Lissa stepped back into the long hallway that ran half the length of the holy mountain feeling numb.

  “What is it?” Nadiah asked. “I couldn’t see—what happened?”